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What a beautiful post Marlene, thanks for sharing it. It reminds me to enjoy the gift of life every minute.

I think they TOTALLY taste like a McDonald's cheeseburger! My husband hates McD burgers because he's a mustard-aphobe, so I gave him the Dorito without telling him what I thought it reminded me of. He said, "gross, it tastes all mustard-y like a McDonald's burger." So I guess that's two votes for McD cheeseburger, which is not necessarily a compliment.

Certainly not fluent, but I do speak a little.

We had an intern at the office several years ago who misread the instructions on her microwaveable burrito and nuked it for 12 minutes (the time suggested for a regular oven). By the time she discovered her mistake, the burrito was flaming and smoke was filling the kitchen, soon to spread to the rest of the office. Needless to say, she never "graduated" to full-time employee.

I'm going to Italy in mid-October, one week in Tuscany (based in Montalcino) and one week in Emilia-Romagna (based in Bologna). My main interest is in tasting the authenic foods and wine of these regions, and I would love to get some info on tours of olive oil producers and wineries in Tuscany, as well as tours and tastings in Parma and Modena. I'm really looking for unique, authentic experiences, so I know I need to dig a little deeper than what is generally available to tourists searching the web. Does anyone have recommendations?

Here's the recipe link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/dining/0...r=1&oref=slogin I don't think it was necessarily billed as a low-fat attempt at ice cream, it was more about a way to supposedly achieve a custard-like ice cream without actually making custard. I've had really great results with frozen yogurt out of The Perfect Scoop, so I think I'll stick to that when I want something lighter.

Over the weekend I made the cornstarch ice cream recipe out of the New York Times food section. I've been hooked on ice cream-making since I bought The Perfect Scoop, and I was intrigued by possibly finding a recipe that wasn't quite so fattening as those I've been making. Unfortunately, the resulting product pretty much sucked. I made the mint chocolate chip version with fresh mint and good quality chocolate, but the texture of the ice cream was bad. All of the lovely mouth-feel associated with good ice cream was missing and it had an off flavor that I can only associate with the cornstarch. I can't really say that I was surprised -- in fact, it tasted exactly like I feared it would -- but I had hoped that I would be proven wrong. Oh well, back to the good stuff.

I missed this too -- thanks for posting.

I've been halving them, and they seem to work just fine (as long as the ingredients look like they can be halved - ie- it might be difficult with one that calls for 5 eggs, vs 4). So far, the malted milk is my favourite - by far (and that's really saying something, because they've all been delicious). Although the chocolate raspberry was a very close second. Next up - ginger, and chocolate mint. ← Halving should be fine. If you consider that 1 egg ~= 50g, then a recipe that calls for 5 eggs needs about 250g egg; half of that is 125g. For purposes of making these recipes for home use, I don't think that a little more or a little less egg will be a showstopper. In other words, for your 5 egg example 3 would probably be fine. ← Thanks for the responses re. halving. I'm also going to try cutting back on the sugar in future experiments. All three flavors I've tried (vanilla yogurt, gianduja and roasted banana) were delicious but a little too sweet for me.

I made the vanilla frozen yogurt yesterday, and even though I used low-fat yogurt, it turned out great. It was ridiculously simple to make: just mix yogurt, sugar and vanilla; chill; and freeze. The flavor was nice and tangy, if a little too sweet for my tastes. I'm going to cut back on the sugar next time.

Hog Island's clam chowder is the best chowder (and possibly the best food item) I've ever had. Were you pleased with your results? Would you mind sharing your preparation?

Does anyone else find it ludicrous that GR spends 10 weeks (or whatever) berating these people, telling them they can't cook for shit, making them look like the biggest losers that ever set foot in a kitchen....then bestows one with the golden apple of running his "prized" restaurant in Vegas?! This show is so stupid it makes my brain hurt.

Nearly all my pet peeves have already been mentioned (and they are NUMEROUS!), but I'd also add the server who acts pissed because you don't order as much as he/she thinks you should. I went out on Saturday with five friends. It was early (around 7 p.m.) so most of us didn't have a big appetite and just ordered soup, salads, apps, etc. But, we all had at least two drinks and didn't stay for an outlandish amount of time. The small food order clearly chapped our waiter's ass and he didn't try to hide it. Despite his pissy attitude, my overly-generous friends still tipped 20%, which was quite possibly more than he would've gotten from another table of six who ordered the works.

BTW, this is genius.

I got the book a couple weeks ago and finally made my first batch: Gianduja gelato. Holy crap, it was so delicious! This is definitely the best ice cream recipe I've ever used, and I can't wait to try more flavors. Some friends and I only ate about half the batch last night, but the texture was still good this morning. Does anyone know if halving these recipes works well? A half-batch would be more feasible for just hubby and me (and then we can try more recipes!).

Thanks everyone. I know it's ideal to eat it all soon after it's made, but sometimes that's not feasible. (not because I'm not a pig who can eat 4 cups of ice cream in one sitting, but because sometimes I restrain myself until my guests arrive). I'll try the re-mix trick if it seems crystal-y.

Does anyone know the best way to store homemade ice cream?

I'm bad at this too!! Even with the old fill the crust with beans method, my crust shrinks. I think I will just have to put in some more time practicing, as some have suggested. I guess there are worse kinds of "homework" to have! Seriously, though, baking a good pie is one of those things that is much harder than it looks.

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling better now. My sweet husband ate that damned pie with the soggy bottom and proclaimed it the best cherry pie he'd ever eaten. I'm going to put your suggestions to use next time, though.

I have SO much trouble baking pies with a crust that is cooked through. Today I made a cherry pie. The rim of the crust was golden brown, the fruit looked bubbly and well-cooked. But when I cut into the pie after it had cooled, the bottom crust was totally raw. What am I doing wrong??

I thought you were going to clarify your post to apologize to those of us who own homes in Detroit and paid more than we did for our cars. ← I doubt many people paid for for their cars than their homes, in Detroit or elsewhere - the news reports I've seen from Detroit over the past year have shown houses selling for $10k-$20k, if you're buying a $20,000 house you probably aren't driving a $25,000 car - but who knows. Either way, the Detroit economy doesn't seem to be thriving and without a steady stream of people willing to support destination restaurants they simply cant survive. ← I'm not sure what your source is, but I can assure you that the majority of Detroit homeowners paid significantly more than $20,000 for their homes. While some sectors of the Detroit economy are hurting, there are plenty of people here who continue to do very well. And keep in mind that, like in many large cities, it's not necessarily the people living in the inner city that support leisure-based industries like restaurants. We have many affluent suburbanites that have lots of cash to spend. I would argue that Detroit has never really been a restaurant town, so the current economy isn't what created the environment that san is describing. I'm really not sure exactly why this is, but that's my two cents.

I thought you were going to clarify your post to apologize to those of us who own homes in Detroit and paid more than we did for our cars.

One thing to add: many of these places require a reservation, and some are difficult to reserve (like Babbo). Just a heads up so you can plan accordingly.

Thanks for the tips. I just ordered the book, so I'll see how it goes. I'm really excited to get in on all the good ice cream-making action!

This topic is killing me. I LOVE ice cream and have been thinking about buying David's book for months, but I'm wondering if my $50 Cuisinart ice cream maker will do the trick. I've only used it a couple of times -- the sorbet I made was very good but an ice cream I tried was icy. I'm hoping that I just had a bad recipe, but I'd hate to buy the book and get disappointing results. Anyone else using the Cuisinart? (I think it's the ICE-20)