pansophia

I haven't been to Nochee for dinner but I quite liked their lunch menu last spring. The create-your-own noodle dish was fun. Also in that neighborhood is the new Spoonriver from Brenda Langton of Cafe Brenda. It's small and trendy and the food is good but I've had bad luck with service. I like the food, but nothing on the menu makes me dream about going back. Cue is at the new Guthrie, pricy but yummy. The key to Cue is booking a time just as or after the plays start, the place empties out. The dessert I had there may be the first time I challenged chocolate, and the chocolate won. It was so rich and delicious that I simply could not finish it. Wasabi on Washington is a great new sushi place. We went there for a work event and had the full tapanaki (sp?) spread and a ton of sushi. I would give more detail but the boss kept buying sake so I don't remember much, just that I can't wait to go back. I work in that area and like to convince myself that eating at all the new joints is required to make myself a better sales person!

Thanks for all the great ideas! I'm loving the idea of some soup and crostini, it's cold here right now so soup always sounds good. Jamie's Italy has some other topping ideas I will check out as well. I can't believe I didn't think of a nice salad with some pears, it's one of my favorites! Tonight we will marinate the boar and make the panna cotta for our trial run tomorrow night (what a great excuse to eat well!) so I will post results.

Okay, apparently my mother's "only wish" for her sixtieth birthday is to spend it with her children. Since my brother and his very pregnant wife are out in Montana...hubby and I are "the children." Honestly I think it's all a ruse to make us clean our house. Since I'm adopted, she was unable to pass on the Martha neat-freak gene to me! She did manage to pass along her love of good food though. Anywho, she loves all things Italian so I'm using this as an excuse to try a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Italy that I've been drooling over - "sugo di cinghiale di mercatello." (Also known as wild boar sauce from mercatello.) We'll be doing a test run of the meal this week as I never serve something to guests for the first time. Since it's just four of us (and one hyper puppy) I'm not planning a huge menu, but I do need to fill in a few blanks. --- Appetizer - The easiest would be some bruschetta with a couple of nice toppings, any ideas other than the standard tomato and basil? Salad - Panzanella maybe? Too summery? Or some simple greens with a homemade vinaigrette - any ideas for a salad addition to make it pop? She loves caprese but we do it a lot. Main - Wild boar sauce over homemade pappardelle Dessert - Leaning towards a vanilla panna cotta with a strawberry/balsamic sauce. --- Does this sound like a well balanced menu? The only thing I'm really dead set on is the boar. I found a great local butcher who gets everything locally and he special ordered a boar shoulder for me. On the big day I hope to use as many local and fresh ingredients as I can find. While I love to cook, I tend to keep things pretty simple for friends. I have a desire to truly wow my parents on this very special occasion. Please give me some feedback as this is my first real "dinner party" and I'm nervous! Thank you thank you! -Kate

Thank you so much for the tips! I can't wait to try again. I'm trying so hard to move forward in the kitchen but sometimes it's the simple things that hold me back the most. (But hey, it wasn't that many years ago I had to call my mom to ask what a saucepan was!)

I love the idea of frozen roux cubes, but I don't think my roux is coming out right in the first place. Ah well, a great excuse to keep trying!

Okay you guys, I need some help. I love. LOVE. LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE mac and cheese. I grew up on my mother's velveeta recipe and while sometimes I crave that simplicity, I also dream of cheddar, gruyere, stilton, etc etc. Unfortunately, I've yet to make a single successful batch of any variety not involving a box. My cheese sauces continue to come out grainy and gross. Occasionally edible but never good. I assume I'm failing the basics....the roux. I've checked out books, websites, posts, and the eGCI cream sauces course but still I fail. My process has generally been as follows: -melt butter -stir in equal part flour -stir for a while -add milk -slowly add cheese Until I can make a successful cheese sauce, I will consider myself a domestic failure!

Hubby and I ran to Williams-Sonoma last night to pick up a new coffee maker and found the Capresso ST600 marked down from $189.99 to $149.99. Imagine our pleasure when it actually rang up at $89.99! There are three on eBay right now so I'm guessing this wasn't just at our store.

I was recently using the mandoline to slice some lemons for lemonade and it seemed safe enough to do the first few strokes without the guard. All was going well and I was finally getting comfortable with it (I had avoided using it for months!) when I realized my knuckle had just taken a trip through the slicer. First thought "Ow!" Second thought "Well, at least according to that thread on eGullet, everyone seems to sacrifice a bit of themselves to the mandoline! Maybe now the kitchen gods will be kinder to me."

I got my first batch started yesterday. My hubby and I had been talking about it for ages and then my parents brought home a small bottle from their recent trip to Positano...and wouldn't share! So we're finally making our own. I was a bit snap happy throughout the process (and then some!) so if anyone wants to see, it's at my blog We're considering other cello options as well. Blood oranges have started popping up in supermarkets and we recently found an Asian grocery with some unique offerings.

Hubby and I tried the Reeses with caramel (http://www.hersheys.com/reeses/products/detail.asp?name=caramel) and really didn't like them. The texture combo was wierd and it was too sweet, even for us. Add one to the Kit Kat list...we found a Tiramisu Kit Kat in the UK right before Easter. Sadly, I didn't get to try it as he gave it to a friend at work. We're going to get his folks to send over some more.

Here's a link to my previous post about the Mill City Market, a new all organic and local farmer's market opening June 10th and running every saturday through October. It will probably seem small but I'm looking forward to both supporting local farmers and the street food they intend to have. I love the big Minneapolis Farmer's Market but hate getting to it and finding parking. This one will be close enough to the open house I do almost every weekend that I can park there. Plus there are two parking ramps and a LOT of street parking nearby.

On the BBQ note, I recall Market Barbeque being pretty good but it was a few years ago and before I really started paying attention to my food.

Thank you for the clarification Ron. I shouldn't try to post while the barometric pressure is doing strange things to my head!

Here's a linkto an article about Cue, the new restaurant at the Guthrie. The design looks like it will fit the new Guthrie space quite well. Not much is said about the food and nothing is listed on the Bon Appetit Management website either but it looks as though it will be quite a destination so I hope the food will match. I don't see an opening date in the article but the theater opens June 24th so I assume it will coincide or come soon after. With Cafe Brenda's second location on track for May and the Mill CIty Market scheduled for June 10, it will be an exciting Spring down here on the river!

I will never again stick a marshmallow on a fork, use the fork to toast said marshmallow over a low flame on the gas range, get the marshmallow off the fork, and then stick the fork in my mouth to lick off the last of the goo. Strange how hot a fork over an open flame can get. Whoda thunk it? I just really craved toasted marshmallow!! No serious burn but my lips felt funny for days. Granted, there are probably a whole lot of "never agains" in that above statement!

The fantastic deli near my office has a sandwich that inroduced me to quince and fast became my favorite. It had quince paste, manchego cheese, and serrano ham. Great cold or even slightly better as a warm panini. I"m planning to experiment with the same combo as an appetizer of some variety. Yummmmmy!

Walleye was my first thought for Minneapolis. Lightly pan fried walleye just tastes like a Minnesota summer to me! But then hot dish popped in to my head. Church basements, jello, creamy hot dishes with potato chips crumbled on top. Some kind of wild rice casserole maybe. If it's a posh church, maybe some lefse or kringle to go with it. I love my Norwegian Lutheran church basement grandma!

My husband and I finally made it to a local Asian grocery yesterday and he was thrilled to find Durian. He had heard that if you could get past the smell, then the taste was worth it. We ran home to drop off frozen foods before running on more errands and looked forward to coming home to our goodies. Later that night I called him in to the kitchen in a slight panic...I smelled a distinct natural gas scent. All the burners were off but when we moved one of the food bags off the counter the smell seemed stronger. Finally I stuck my nose in the bag and hoooooooboy, did I regret it. Hubby smelled it and it all clicked. Guess which food we forgot to put in the fridge? Yup, the durian. I would have sworn we had a gas leak!

Here are links to two of the big MSP farmer's markets: http://www.mplsfarmersmarket.com/ http://www.stpaulfarmersmarket.com/ There's a new farmer's market opening June 10th but it will only be Saturday mornings, all local and organic foods on the riverfront in the Mill District of Minneapolis. No website yet. I'm also a big fan of Surdyk's, it's a liquor store and deli with an amazing cheese selection. http://www.surdyks.com By late-June I think you should be seeing some local stands on the way up north. Granted, I never really paid attention to things like that until recently but also watch for signs to little out of the way shops or antique places. Near my family's cottage, a lot of folks have mediocre antique stores in their garage, but sometimes also sell great produce, syrup, etc. It's a beatuful time to be up north!

Ahhh, The Great Minnesota Get Together. I'll never forget the awe and wonder on the face of my British husband when I introduced him to the world of food on sticks. A couple of new things I heard about at the last fair...pork chops on a stick and spaghetti, yes, spaghetti on a stick. I think it was deep fried and then skewered. (Apparently fried spaghetti is a street food in Italy.) This page http://gopher.mnstatefair.org/foodfinder/ has a link to a list of the foods at the 2005 fair. If you dig in a little under some of the food catagories or just search for "stick", you will likely find some unique options! Here a few I dug out... pancake wrapped around sausage on-a-stick french toast sticks cajun seasoned alligator sausage on-a-stick pistolette (french roll stuffed with spicy peppers, cheese and tomatoes) cheese on-a-stick

I made these Monday night but I made tons for an open house and turn out was mediocre so they have been dessert all week long. Not really fancy by eGullet standards but it was my first attempt at creative icing and I'm pretty proud of them! My co-worker thinks I'm in the wrong profession! The cookies are a tradition cream cookie recipe my family uses at Christmas, I'll get it on RecipeGullet shortly. The brownies were Martha Stewart's truffle brownies. Dark and divine! (P.S. My husband helped with the decorating and though I think I was careful when photographinf, any wierd or inappropriate icing that made it into the photos is his fault!)

Cream Cookies Serves 40. This is yet another recipe from my family's Norweigan church cookbook. We use it for cut-out cookies every Christmas but I've started using it for other holidays as well. It comes out pretty light and thin so it's easy to eat the cookies by the handful! 1 c butter 1 c sugar 2 eggs 3 T cream or half & half 3 c flour 1 tsp cream of tartar 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp vanilla The old cookbook doesn't have much in way of instructions. "Roll out into into thin cookies and bake in 375 F oven." I think 1/8 to 1/4 inch thich is about right, but experiment! Keywords: Dessert, Cookie ( RG1625 )

Despite my very Lutheran upbringing, I have never been subjected to a savory Jello salad (unless I've suppressed the memory). We do, however, have a Jello ring every Christmas of green Jello, pears, and pomegrante seeds. It's actually quite good. The strange part is that it is always served on a bed of lettuce. This confused my British husband to no end when he had his first encounter with it last weekend.

My husband and I had a fantastic Christmas. Now that I've actually started to cook and bake, I know better what we need and don't just run to Target everytime I think I don't have the right pan. We received: -A lovely handmade pottery casserole dish -Two new nice cookie sheets -A set of two decent knives, a chefs and a santoku -A soup cookbook from my family's church (They sponser soup dinners every year and finally assembled all the recipes. There is a long tradition of church cookbooks in my family, most of my childhood food came from a 1959 cookbook from my Great-Grandpa's "Norwegian Memorial Lutheran Church." -A set of six nice German wine glasses My husband gave me: -A pastry board with pie crust measurements (to go with last year's rolling pin? Maybe it was a hint that the rolling pin IS NOT for use as a weapon) -New ladle -Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract -Nice metal measuring cups and spoons -Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook We still have Christmas to do out in Montana with my Brother & Sister-in-Law and I think that might include another santoku as well as a cast iron skillet. Just a hunch (i.e. what I told my brother we wanted when he called!) Strange as it is, I think one of my favorite gifts is the Jamie Oliver cookbook my British in-laws sent over at my husband's request. It's "Jamie's Italy" and the recipes are mostly from his travels in Italy on the show "Jamie's Great Escape" which I'm addicted too. (A tough addiction as we have to wait for the episodes to show up online.) The cookbook isn't available in the US yet and I just love getting things from England!

I found this thread AFTER making my first batch last night. I"m using them as part of a cocoa gift for some office mates, I did the vanilla version with 1 tsp extract and seeds from 1 pod and they turned out yummy. Not as fluffy as I expected but I will play with it. Someone early on mentioned a saffron version which sounded interesting. I"m really new to this cooking/baking/kitchen malarky and not comfortable with substitutions just yet. Can anyone give me a vague idea how I might use the saffron in the marshmallow recipe? And here's my awful confession that will likely get me kicked out...I kinda like the sugar pellet marshmallows in cereals like Lucky Charms [shame]. Would I need to find a way to dehydrate marshmallows to get that consistancy or is that something best left to the cereal companies? Some photos... Slicing and Dicing Smooshy Love