suzilightning

great wine. friday night was meat free friday in our house again. pizza - johnnybird's had some red sauce, artichoke hearts, olives, sauteed red and yellow peppers, onions and just a bit of asiago on it. mine was a mix of mozzarella, romano and asiago, red sauce, red pepper flakes and black olives. salad of mixed greens with roma tomatoes that had been roughly chopped and marinated in a dressing of basalmic vinegar, evoo and minced shallot(no it is not the same as onion). molson light with dinner we are about ready for dessert which, since they are in season, my apricots stuffed with marscapone, nutmeg and honey. served with some of the prosecco the apricots were poached in and with a sauce of some of the extra apricots that did not pass the appearence test blended with some prosecco and honey. any one got any ideas for the leftover marscapone mixture? , , nudge, nudge

we just got back from our annual anniversary trip down the shore(new jersey for those not in this state). we had made reservations when we were down last month and were greeted with hugs and a glass of sparkling wine from the owner when we got there(only our third visit).

just back yesterday from our annual anniversary trip to the crest and cape may. we get take away from the lobster house in cape may and eat it at our place at the beach. have eaten at the restaurant twice but prefer take away. our anniversary dinner was at martini beach. it is up above cabana's on beach ave. they have done some renovation over the winter and changed the menu up some as well. we shared a house salad with a crumbled blue cheese dressing, john had the crab cakes which are served with the sweet potato fries and slaw, i had two small plates - citrus grilled shrimp and sesame chicken tenders with lemon bbq dipping sauce. we each had a glass of wine total was 86 plus tip. other times we have had the sesame crusted tuna, lobster martini, paparika and brown sugared baby back ribs, salt & pepper calamari and dark rum glazed tenders(all small plates - the way we usually like to eat) we also tried the black duck on sunset. a plus - it is byo. the food - john really loved his crab cakes that were served with an asian slaw. my ribs were served with a corn pudding and down home slaw. they were ok but seemed fattier than most baby back ribs i've seen before - more like country style ribs. john also ordered a starter of seafood ravioli i tasted - and gave back to him because a)it tasted a bit fishy to me and b) the wonton wrapper tasted like deep fried pie dough. i asked the hostess about it and she said since the wonton was made of flour of course it would taste like fried pie dough. total cost 68 plus tip without any wine since suzi left the carrier with the 2002 eroica and the 1998 lacryma christi in the room we grabbed a sample menu on our way out and actually some of the things on this menu looked better than the current one. most appetizers seem to be in the 8-9 range, entrees in the 22-23 range but they list an early bird prix-fixe three course dinner for 19.95 pp plus tax, tip and beverages.

930 am and it is hot and sticky here in northwest nj again - i feel a thunderstorm coming on about 5pm just when johnnybird should be arriving at newark liberty . for breakfast i had one of my favorite things - 1cup milk, 3 tbsp coffee syrup and 5 ice cubes in the blender. whizz it up and drink it. both lunch and dinner are at work today in air conditioning though i am taking some cottage cheese, cup up berries and soy yoghurt something also very cooling to eat. hmmmm...... i may have to break out the fixin's for white sangria if this continues

lost our power for 6 hours because of a storm last night it was ok this morning but, beginning about noon here in northwestern nj the humidity began to rise and now there is heat lightning - probably about to become real lightning- in the sky. for lunch my friend and i had lightly toasted semolina bread, tuna salad, red leaf lettuce with sliced plum tomato; the last of the stuffed apricots for dessert. give me cold meat/fish/veg salads with leaf lettuces or mache any day oh, a cold lager is good, too

That's sounds luscious. thank you bloviatrix- they were though about another 2 minutes would have made them better shared with them with my friend 'chelle today as dessert after our lunch of tuna salad with toasted semolina bread, salad and tomato before we watched Calendar Girls - "i think we need much bigger buns" "don't touch the buns!!!" we laughed(hysterically), we cried, we had a wonderful time watching a movie i would not have had as much fun watching with my husband. edited to spell bloviatrix's name correctly

just got Big Russ and Me by tim russert from work. no, the whole work isn't about food but the chapter entilted Food "you gotta eat" - actually half the quote, the other half being "so you can drink". is jam packed full of south buffalo cuisine but also the nature of the family dinner table in the late 50's-early 60's. the fact you had food on the table ( some of us grew up with depression era parents/grandparents). he mentions beef on weck, colonel sanders(not considered junk food by big russ though mcdonalds is), beer served cold, no meat on friday- i still remember the choices in the cafeteria before vatican 2 : fish sticks and fries, macaroni and cheese or cheese pizza. to this day when i visit my girlfriend who is 40+ we have salad and homemade cheese pizza for friday dinner. he talks of his dad driving the newspaper truck into the country and coming back with fresh fruits and veg - especially the tomatoes in season. fish fries and birch beer; his mother streching the food budget and being expected to finish it all (sorry i could never do the liver and onions as many times as i tried though i did love tounge). he talks about being allowed to choose your birthday dinner - a tradition where i grew up as well - as well as at other times coming home for a hot lunch, food at the ball game(a yankee fan but he may come to his senses) and the Broadway market - reallya farmers market. can't wait to see what else is in store - only about a third of the way through this

shoot! now i have to pull out my interlibrary loan papers and start writing with all the great selections.... i've got two books stashed away for next week's vacation - Dinner Roles:American Women and Culinary Culture by Sherrie A. Inness and Jessamyn Neuhaus' Manly Meals and Mom's Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America. i own the Tisdale, have read steingarten, reichel(i thought her first was better than the second), have the shapiro on order... the other day i plucked bunny day's book catch 'em, hook 'em and cook 'em from my shelves and just started reading her. i had forgotten how humourous she is.

i have had this problem only twice i can remember - once here where i am known the other time up in vt dining at aplace the fil had recommended and given us a gift certificate for. here in nj the barmaid saw i wasn't eating the food i ordered - supposed to be an upscale cheese steak but for some reason it DID NOT WORK. really fatty meat, cheeze whiz(not a bad thing) and severely underccoked onions. she offered to replace it but i couldn't handle the idea of eating anythhing coming out of that kitchen on that day. she comped me all but my beer and i tipped on the full price of beer and food. in vermont, i guess since we were not known, the outcome was less than felicitous. appetizer of peanut noodles with shrimp was ok. entrees were so over salted - HOW CAN YOU F*^K UP MASHED POTATOES AND DUCK BREAST - that i could not eat them. the house asked if anything was wrong and i said the food was overly salty. they did say they were in the middle of changing chefs so the kitchen was staffed with sous only - no supervising or head or any other type of chef. unfortunately john then said i was salt sensative - no it was freakin tooooooo salty - and it was ok. the house did not remove the charge though i did not eat the dinner and refused any alternate since i had tasted john's filet and that was oversalted to the point of inedible. they did offer to buy us an after dinner drink though all i wanted to do was get out of that hell hole. we did take john's filet home with us and the only way he could eat it was after i washed all the sauce off of it.

first fresh apricots of the season were in the greengrocers yesterday... bought a pound - ate 1/2 by myself other half : stoned them out, gently simmered in prosecco till just warmed. filled the hole with a mixture of marscapone, grated nutmeg and honey. dessert

last night was shrimp remoulade over mixed greens the first apricots are in so i poached some halves in prosecco till just soft and filled the cavity where the stone was with a mix of marscapone, nutmeg and honey. based on jinmyo's beautiful picture i think i will have to stop by the local fish store and pick up some catfish

i am reading the comics section of the paper this morning and did a spit take. stephan pastis in his strip Pearls Before Swine has explained the meaning of corndogs here: http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/pearls/ if you are viewing any day other than sunday 7 march go to the comic for that day perhaps he's a lurker?

depending on where you are there are: schwind's pork store on rt 46 w in denville/rockaway - wonderful german wursts and primarily pork products though they also have cold cuts and maltaushen sussex meat packing in wharton - standard cuts of meat a butcher section in apple tree in wharton - i buy my ground veal, pork and beef here as well as some things i might need like pigs trotters i use all of these since i am in jefferson and have found them each good in their own way. i am now investigating some of the free range and organic producers in sussex county and taking my freezer - which has free range organic meat from up in pleasant valley down as much as possible

OH MY GOD!!!! though i really like green mole best - this was almost smellavision. didn't think i would get any cooking done tonight since i was painting the house(outside) and the outside furniture today but about 4 pm i said *$#@ this and went inside. since i have to work the next two days 1-9 pm and john is working 9-9 i figured i'd do stuff so we could eat dinner together and have leftover for the next few days. i had a free range chicken so i made key west chicken - stuffed the cavity with my last 15 cloves of garlic and the rest of the key limes brought back from road trip 2004 - i'm still working on the food report from this and we are about to do our anniversary vaca next week . rubbed the outside with a mix of lemon zest, basil, thyme, kosher salt and pepper. what a glorious gravy though i hope my white lace top will recover served with yellow and green squash pan roasted with olive oil and german potato salad with green beans. for the next two days i made mac and cheese and buffalo burgers to take to work along with some mixed greens and for john salmon wraps(he is in meetings all day the next two and he needs stuff that can go with him and is hand friendly - to eat that is). dessert for john was a chocolate covered cherry from rocky mountain chocolate company and a glass of marquis de la tour sparkling wine for me.

here in the northwest part of new jersey (usa) it was warm, sunny and beautiful. after johnnybird got up from his nap we broke out the grill - australian beef filet mignon, aidell's andouille, and shrimp on skewers marinated in a soy ginger vinaigrette. german style potato salad with green beans and a mixed green salad with raspberry basil vinaigrette finished the meal. served with a 2002 cote du rhone rose wine and, as i always do, enough leftovers for our lunches tomorrow

Paul, Silver Queen is grown in MD and VA, but around here the "best" comes from the eastern shore of MD.

Silver Queen white corn ROCKS!!! fresh picked sweet tomatoes, sprinkled with salt and slurped up!!! Thats GOOD living!!!

susan - love the dancing turtle candle holder - where were you?? tonight i don't give a flying flip what i eat . my main concern right now is how to get john to eat. he has a tiny crisis at work so can't get home for our regular date night so i will eat a bit earlier. i was given some vension hotdogs and i have some leftover vidalia onion slaw and some baked beans along with some fresh greens - works for me john tells me he will be home by 730 - 800 tonight and i had picked up some clams and shrimp so will do them with some prosciutto, red and yellow peppers, garlic, white wine and serve it with some whole wheat pasta. dessert for john will probably be some truffles or chocolate coated cherries. i'll take a glass of sparkling wine

What goes wrong? I don't make jello that often - just when my husband or I have to prep for a colonoscopy - but I find that following the directions on the box usually does the trick. Robyn robyn- i follow the directions on the package to the letter but i invented jigglers before the company did. i even had johnnybird - the obsessive-compulsive past the border on neurotic teetering on psychotic engineer watch me fix it and it still came out wrong. now this is from someone who used to make lemon charlotte at work all the time so go figure.... What's a jiggler? (I thought all Jello was supposed to jiggle - at least that's what the commercials say.). Robyn couple years ago jello was advertising jigglers and at easter had jiggler molds in the shape of eggs. they seem to be about half the size of properly prepared jello, are quite hard -er-firm - kinda like rubber

i really want to go to greenbrier... or rachlin's bbq bootcamp. you might like where i grew up - the east end of long island. wineries on the north fork, cool little shops in greenport, the ferry over to shelter island, good bike riding for exercise, some interesting restaurants in the area - anything from clam shack to french to modern american. course there is darien ga - outlet central but with brunswick nearby you do have the ga pig, st. mary's and stuffed ham and jekyl island

phil is this the same thinking as letting a champagne sit on the lees? edited to say i'm more familiar with beer brewing since john has homebrewed and his one attempt at wine making was - um - interesting?

thanks doc and mark(ot- do you have a brother eric who is a vet?). does anyone have an opionion on waterfront restaurant? suzi for johnnybird who is fading fast from his arthritis meds

another former east ender here, lisa, and i have coffee syrup in my cabinet right now have you ever thrown the cold milk and coffee syrup into a blender with some ice cubes? great for hot weather

no, no, no it is a goooooood thing they will be right off rt. 80 on the pa side in marshall's creek i have tokens

first of all - thank you lou and the kitchen staff for a wonderful meal and phil for the wines to match. from the picture rosie posted - i think john and i have been married tooooooooo long - check out the identical postures. so tommy was pairing the veuve with the prawns - guess that's why there wasn't any left later for me since i am not too much of a dessert person my favorites were the amuse and the steak. while i was too full to do much more than taste the steak, i tortured my co workers eating it and the peas for my dinner at work yesterday. the torte was my lunch and it reheated really well. john's steak will be thinly sliced and served on mixed greens with a blue cheese vinaigrette. i, too noticed the prawns were a bit salty but thought it might have been from the dressing for the salad. i now think i have got it into john's head that the reason we meet on weeknights or sundays is because, unlike him, restaurants are the busiest on the weekends and need to turn the tables over a wee bit quicker than an egullet function does i'm off now to buy some romaine and do some experimenting...BWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH