santo_grace

My husband and I just did this trip in the spring, and went to many of the same parks and towns. I wish we had gotten to Cafe Diablo though. Sorry, to hear that you didn't get to Hell's Backbone Grill, but it sounds like it turned out to be a great meal with that burger. Since we went in the spring, we weren't able to pick anything from the orchards at Capitol Reef. That park was one of my favorites for the same reason - very few crowds. I've also wanted to go because my in-laws went many, many years ago and when I first met my husband, he had a t-shirt from there. I can't explain why a t-shirt with a stick figure animal on it would make me want to go somewhere, but it did. It was a welcome stop between the crowds in Moab and Bryce/Zion. I agree that Flocko's blog was one of the reasons why I was turned onto Moab. I sat in the Moab Diner looking at the waitresses and wanted to ask them if they knew him. They looked like they had worked there awhile. It was also nice to eat at the Desert Bistro knowing that he had enjoyed many meals there. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip since that will be areas we haven't been to yet. Thank you for sharing.

Is Cafe Beaujolais one of the usual suspects? Is it no longer any good? I will admit I was there a long time ago (almost 11 years ago to the day when we got engaged), but we really, really enjoyed it.

Could it be Kuma's??? ← Yeah, I guess it is pretty obvious what I meant.

My husband and I dined at L'atelier de Joel Robuchon at MGM when we were in Vegas this past April. I chose the restaurant based off of recommendations on this forum and wasnt' disappointed. I thought the tasting menu was worth the price, the seating at the bar was a nice opportunity to watch the kitchen, the food and the service were excellent. They don't advertise a standard wine pairing with the menu, but they do know people want this, so they have put together a series of wines to go with the courses. What I did like about it was that they noticed both my husband and I were going a little slow on the wine, so they did some splitting of the glasses/half pours for us, which was much appreciated. I've always liked bar seating at nice restaurants and this proved to be the case again. Vegas is great for people watching, so it was fun to be three stools down from a couple with giant 7-11 slurpee cups eating a $125 meal/each; and then on the other side being a few stools away from Hung, the Top Chef winner, and watching him politely respond to the woman who was sooo excited to meet him. I've dined at Alinea and L20 here in Chicago, and feel you won't be disappointed in this place. Also, I wouldn't be too hard on rural Arizona and Utah. We've had some really nice meals beyong burger and fries in these areas. (And one of our favorite places in Chicago to take people is a burger place - it's all about expectations.)

I would call Paulina Meat Market. I would recommend getting off at the Paulina brown line 'el stop, but I think it is closed. The Addison stop isn't too far away. Or the Lincoln Ave bus. 3501 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago - (773) 248-6272

Leftover roasted chicken: becomes chicken salad sandwich, a panini with mozzerella and roasted tomatoes, or chicken and dumplings. Hot Meatloaf: becomes cold meatloaf sandwich. Steak: becomes steak and fried eggs, or steak omelette.

Yum! I'm going to make mashed potatoes soon just so I can do this.

I received as a gift Rick Tramonto's Amuse Bouche cookbook last Christmas, which has a chapter on Forks and Spoons. We ended up serving one of the spoons dishes as our amuse for our New Year's Eve dinner. It's roasted garlic rubbed on the spoon, with a chickpea salad (includes celery, carrot, red onion, roasted red pepper, chickpeas, parsley and oregano). You put the salad on top of the roasted garlic, and then top that with feta (really good tangy feta). It was a big hit. I ended up with lots of leftovers and making things simple just added the rest of the garlic and feta to the salad. It was equally as good without layering it on the spoon. I also notice he has Truffled Lentil Spoon with Bacon Vinaigrette. This includes different colored lentils, a truffle vinaigrette and a bacon vinaigrette. Since the truffle vin. requires fresh truffles and you live in a culinary wasteland, and the price of truffles is ridiculous, I would think you can do without this. Lentils with bacons sounds great to me. Good luck.

How will you know if someone got sick from the pork or the alcohol - it is a stag party after all. Blame it on the booze

I've been to C-House and have always been hesitant to add my comments since I was there before they opened for a friends and family dinner. There were kinks that needed to be worked out and I haven't been back to see if things are a little different. Overall, I would say it was good and even though we didn't pay, the prices looked like what I would have expected to pay. I can't recall what everyone had to eat for their meals, but can recall a general feeling of people liking their apps and entrees. My entree was not that good - it was a squid ink pasta with seafood. The pasta was clumpy and the seafood was too much fish and not enough of the other promised types of seafood. (All of this went down on my comment card). Also, the sauce was a little too sweet, which I didn't put down on the card, b/c that could be a matter of taste. The desserts were a hit at our table, especially the option of choosing little bites/pieces of candy, chocolates, cakes, etc. The staff was friendly and the space is nice. We got a tour of the upstairs lounge - it wasn't yet open for us to have a drink at. It has a great view and from what I've read is becoming popular. We do plan on stopping in some time. Again, I would say good/very good, but not great. I have dined at L20, which we did enjoy, though I am not as smitten with the place as others are. We had a couple of missteps, which may partly be due to our expectations. For example, I guess that I shouldn't expect to be given more than one amuse and bags of bread to take home when I have read other reports where this happened. I did however only eat 2 bites of my entree (both because I was getting full and I wanted to save room for the cheese and dessert courses), so I asked for it to be wrapped. Maybe, a restaurant of this caliber isn't used to people asking for their food to be wrapped, but that doesn't mean they should decide to not give it to me. Never saw my entree again, which was a little disappointing. I didn't mention it before I left, so I'm not sure what they would have done had I said something. Schwa is by far one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. You won't go wrong there. Happy Birthday!

The people you are missing are Neil (Amy Viny's husband), Amy Viny, and then me (Santo_Grace). The person next to jesteinf is my guest Steve. Also, judging from the serious look on Marisa's face, I know what she was talking so intently with Tammy about.

Stacey was very happy to take pictures. I think the ratatouille picture is my favorite - probably because it was my favorite dish. Too good for words. I'm so glad you all did the boat cruise. It is a great way to see Chicago and very relaxing to cruise the river.

What a great (and tiring) weekend. I'm so glad I was able to meet all of you and I really enjoyed myself. I'm know all my dining partners had a great time and have many stories about the egulleters. For those that spent time cooking and bringing other foodstuffs - thank you. It is much appreciated. Looking forward to other get togethers. Also, thanks to tino (Tom) for being so good under pressure when we had a few technical difficulties. The bread was wonderful, and I look forward to trying the recipes on my own.

I have a silpat, which I can bring.

If you need ceramic pie dishes, I have at least 2 I can bring.

There is a Whole Foods at 1111 N Chicago, which is about 4 blocks south of the church (the church is at Chicago and Lake). The one near me carries gelato, so I'm assuming this one will also. I'm not from Evanston, so am not aware of all the smaller stores/markets. I'm sure there is somewhere else I'm not thinking of.

Kerry, I checked and I unfortunately do not have 6 or 7" cake pans. Sorry.

My birthday gift from a friend, Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food. It was a treat to see it was signed by Ms. Waters herself. It inspired me to make a simple salad of romaine leaves lightly coated in EVOO, a dash of salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. Just finished Heat by Bill Buford. Liked it, but didn't love it. It started to drag a little for me at the end. It is a good one to pass along to someoone else though.

Some folks might have discussed this privately, but there's been no public discussion of a post-shopping rendezvous or a lunch venue. Based on history, this probably won't be decided until we meet at the market at 9, or perhaps the night before at LSC if all of the shoppers are there. If you like, we can get your phone number and call you when we decide. However, given the variety of easily accessible restaurants in Evanston (see posts 451 and 585), my guess is that we may or may not meet up after shopping, but may well follow diverse paths for coffee/lunch. In a related issue, I certainly don't plan on schlepping a couple of watermelons and a peck or two of tomatoes around Evanston. The market closes at 1:00, so my first thought is to ask the vendors if they can hold onto my purchases until 12:30-12:45, if they're not leaving early. Any other thoughts? ← Wow, quite a flurry of emails and activities. As this is my first egullet Heartland gathering, it is all very exciting. I plan on doing the farmers market. Alex - I will have my car and can plan on put watermelons and tomatoes in it. I also plan on bringing a blender, food processor and Kitchen Aid in case anyone needs it. I will not need any of these things for my dish. I am also bringing the pots and pans, and serving dishes I will need for my dish. I do have platters and cake pans to bring if anyone needs them. Also, can bring baking powder, soda and other spices. I will be at the Friday night dinner and can discuss logistics. ← Grace, do you have a couple of 6 or 7 inch cake pans that would prevent Alex from having to bring them on the train? ← I will check tonight when I get home from work. I think mine are bigger - 8 or 9 inch. I don't do a lot of baking.

Some folks might have discussed this privately, but there's been no public discussion of a post-shopping rendezvous or a lunch venue. Based on history, this probably won't be decided until we meet at the market at 9, or perhaps the night before at LSC if all of the shoppers are there. If you like, we can get your phone number and call you when we decide. However, given the variety of easily accessible restaurants in Evanston (see posts 451 and 585), my guess is that we may or may not meet up after shopping, but may well follow diverse paths for coffee/lunch. In a related issue, I certainly don't plan on schlepping a couple of watermelons and a peck or two of tomatoes around Evanston. The market closes at 1:00, so my first thought is to ask the vendors if they can hold onto my purchases until 12:30-12:45, if they're not leaving early. Any other thoughts? ← Wow, quite a flurry of emails and activities. As this is my first egullet Heartland gathering, it is all very exciting. I plan on doing the farmers market. Alex - I will have my car and can plan on put watermelons and tomatoes in it. I also plan on bringing a blender, food processor and Kitchen Aid in case anyone needs it. I will not need any of these things for my dish. I am also bringing the pots and pans, and serving dishes I will need for my dish. I do have platters and cake pans to bring if anyone needs them. Also, can bring baking powder, soda and other spices. I will be at the Friday night dinner and can discuss logistics.

That's what I immediately thought of, too. Very old school. ← Ha! I also thought of La Scarola and Sabitino's. Also, Maggiano's is an option. Yes, it is a chain, but they can accommodate everyone's requests.

When we went to Torrey, we actually picked up food in the Capitol Reef park. There is a gift shop/cafe that sells homemade pies and other food items. We also got a pie (which was quite good), and some bread, cheese, sausage and sodas from here. (Bring a pocket knife to cut it all up). We then hiked into one of the waterfolds and found a comfy rock to have a picnic on.

We went for the first time recently and enjoyed our entrees of suckling pig and the pizza. My friend told me if I got pizza I would eat the whole thing - and I did. Salads for appetizers were also very good.

aliaseater - I have a weekly standing order for the Fresh Picks box and I haven't had any problems like what you've encountered. I did have one drop off where I've added something to my order for the week and the instruction to 'drop box off at back door' did not get transferred to the new order, so they dropped it off at the front door but didn't pick up the old box by the back door. I wasn't charged for the old box and they just picked them both up next week. It just leads me to believe their ordering system isn't very sophisticated. That doesn't mean that mistakes and rudeness should be expected. It is unfortunate that Shelly wasn't nicer and more helpful. I also don't understand why if you are getting the Fresh Picks box, you would be told to order what you want. That seems like a lot of misinformation on their part. Good luck if you continue to order from them.

That would be kinda cool. I have some neat items( culinary) I could possibly donate. ← Were books exchanged last year also? ← Last year there was a book sale( money going towards church rental and to the Society) that I organized. Months ago I had planned to organize a similar sale, but time just got away from me. Since I'm not driving this year, I couldnt have books sent to my address in MI. If members still want to bring cookbooks, its probably not too late to have an informal sale. ← I would be willing to organize this. I'm assuming the sale was on Saturday with the dinner? If people want to send their books to me to avoid having to haul them (and waste precious luggage space), I can bring them to the dinner on Saturday. Just PM me and I'll send you my address.