FrogPrincesse

At my local Bristol Farms I recently got charged twice for the same item. It was a fairly pricey smoked paprika ($10/unit). I did not realize until I got home. And then I saw that it was going to expire in two months... Now I verify everything much more carefully when I check out. Edited for typo

Nice to see that egullet is mentioned in the opening sentence of the article!

My local Bristol Farms now carries a pretty extensive selection of Fee's bitters, including rhubarb, cherry, plum, chocolate, grapefruit, peach, and a few others. I already have the old fashioned bitters. Are there any others that are highly recommended? Edited to correct typo

After > 9 months of hesitation, I finally took the plunge and moved the book from my "Wish List" to my shopping cart, and placed my order. Estimated delivery April 22, 2011 - May 13, 2011 I hope it was not too late to get the first printing. I am excited!!

Neighbors, what neighbors?? Seriously, it's been quite a feast at our house and we are indeed very popular with our friends and neighbors. We all love chocolate so this book has been great so far. I've actually tried my first non-chocolate recipe from the book last week. It was the Orange Pound Cake. Pound cake can sound boring to some, but it's a great classic that is just perfect with coffee. This particular recipe had a great flavor thanks to the orange zest. I liked the fact that the glaze gave it an extra zing and kept it moist. Also the cake actually got better over time as the glaze permeated it. Here is a picture.

There have been a lot of great suggestions already. That sounds like a great party! The menu from this upcoming Vintage Vic's Dinner event at Trader Vic's has a few classic tiki dishes that you may want to consider as well.

Chris - my mom always serves sauce veloute with white asparagus. It's a perfect pairing. I believe she uses the cooking liquid from the asparagus for the sauce.

So far Racines is my favorite of the flourless chocolate cakes in the book. Here is the Gâteau Victoire

I've continued my exploration of the flourless chocolate cakes in Ready for Dessert with the Gâteau Victoire. Five ingredients for this one - chocolate of course, heavy cream, rum, eggs, and sugar (no butter except what is needed to butter the pan). I decided to skip the bain-marie again and cooked at low temperature (212F) until the batter set, which took about 2 hours. The texture of the cake was similar to a light ganache, very rich and creamy. Another great recipe! Because of its soft texture it's a little hard to cut with a knife. The books recommended to slice the cake with dental floss which was a great tip.

For ski trips we always have duck confit (prepared in advance and just reheated & crisped in the oven) with potatoes sauteed in duck fat. Another favorite meal is raclette or fondue. The raclette can be simply made by slicing cheese into a pyrex dish and melting it in the oven if you don't have the specialized equipment. Serve with potatoes and dried meat.

I finally tried the broccoli soup. I used 1/2 regular broccoli + 1/2 romanesco broccoli (both from my CSA bag), and feta, walnuts & good fruity olive oil as the garnish. At first it tasted a little bland but I found that with a little extra salt & pepper, the flavors really popped. It's great and so simple. I can't believe how Gordon Ramsey is using Sainte Maure goat cheese as a ganish in his . How decadent!!

In California, Bristol Farms sells Scharffenberger cocoa nibs in 6 oz packages. That's where I got mine. I've been on a buckwheat kick lately. It was chandeleur last week (aka crepe day!) and I made galettes bretonnes (savory crepes with buckwheat). I had some buckwheat flour leftover, so I made the Buckwheat Cake from Ready for Dessert last night and am enjoying a slice this morning with my cappuccino. What a delightful cake. It is very unassuming but the mix of buckwheat and almonds is fantastic. The almonds really enhance the buckwheat flavor. Even though the batter seemed a little dense, and I managed to forget the baking powder and added it at the very last minute, the cake turned out very light and delicious. I imagine that it's a good recipe if you are gluten-intolerant as it does not contain any flour. I took one shortcut and used almond meal since I had some already, instead of grinding sliced almonds. We had it last night with Cara Cara orange supremes. It's great. I want to try it next with the Tangerine Butterscotch sauce that is recommended in the book.

I also use Alton Brown's pancake mix recipe. Only need to add eggs, buttermilk, and butter. I'm not a morning person so it helps having everything pre-measured. It's a good recipe too. I have a post-it note with the mix recipe on the container's lid so I can refill without having to look for the recipe.

I concur completely. The cocoa nibs really make this cake special. Without their crunch it would not be as interesting.

Boeuf bourguignon would have to be my favorite. With carrots, lardons, and pearl onions. My mom used to make it often when I was little, so it's comfort food for me. My favorite version is Anne Willan's from The Country Cooking of France. For a quicker version I use the one from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles, but make sure to add diced bacon. A close second is pot au feu, with slow-cooked beef tongue, carrots, potatoes, turnips, and leeks, served with the broth on the side and coarse salt, whole-grain mustard and cornichons as accompaniments to the meat.

Kneading and rolling pasta dough, stirring risotto, cutting vegetables, baking brioche (and baking in general) – all these tasks are relaxing as long as I can focus and have few interruptions which, as Kouign Aman just pointed out, is rarely possible with a young child around…

I'm intrigued. What is farmer's cheese? (and I'd be really curious to know what the French equivalent is). I've made flammenkueche/tarte flambee and used creme fraiche, or a mixture of ricotta (I used homemade which is delicious and easy to make) mixed with creme fraiche (Lucques' version). I've seen it made with fromage blanc as well. Is farmer's cheese similar to ricotta?

Moro blood oranges. Excellent in cocktails (blood orange cosmos for example). It looks like the Cara Cara are popular! I just got some in my farmer's market bag, but have not had a chance to try them yet. I plan to use them in cocktails as well.

Wow. The selection of vintage cocktail gear at Cocktail Kingdom looks fantastic!! I am so jealous. I've never seen anything like it. My vote goes to duck, just because it's my favorite protein.

I am happy to report that my second attempt at the Idiot/Orbit cake was a great success. Since I did not have time to look for a new springform pan, I decided to use a low temperature for baking and ended up skipping the water bath altogether. I have a pretty good oven and this technique has worked well for me in the past when baking custards. I ended up baking the cake at 212F for about 1.5 hours, and then another 30 min at 230F. The cake was wonderful. My husband said it was "a sort of lava cake on steroids". Here is link to a picture.

Metric weight measurements are also important for me because 1) that's how I learned to bake, 2) weights are much more accurate than volume and accuracy is important in baking, 3) scaling down/up recipes is much easier with the metric system, and 4) less stuff to clean when you weigh directly into mixing bowls.

Major disaster! Catastrophic failure! And huge embarrassment. Yes, I managed to mess up the Idiot Cake. Hard to find an easier recipe though with only 4 ingredients and 3 steps. But apparently my springform pan needs to be immediately replaced. Despite using aluminum foil to prevent potential leaks during cooking (bain marie-style), when I uncovered the cake at the end of the cooking time, its top was partially hydrolyzed. Unfortunately there was no way to salvage it so it ended in the trash. It did smell absolutely amazing though, and the texture seemed perfect inside, so I guess I need to find a better pan and try again soon. It's great to see David on this thread by the way. I love the sense of humor in his books.

Thanks for posting this. Although I am really not a picky eater (I pretty much eat everything), I had almost given up on broccoli due to lack of inspiration. This makes me want to give it another try.

I've been making a lot of pickled fennel recently. I use the recipe from Babbo - fennel cut into thin slices and boiled in white vinegar (diluted with water), salt, sugar, peppercorns, and fennel seeds for 5 minutes. It's wonderful on its own or as an accompaniment to charcuterie.

So far I've only made the Racines cakes. It's a flourless chocolate cake (with espresso and vanilla bean extract) that is sprinkled with cocoa nibs. It was a great ending to our Christmas meal this year and enjoyed by all. I served it with his Armagnac and prune ice cream (from The Perfect Scoop). I like the fact that the cake was intensely flavored while extremely light. I highly recommend it if you like chocolate.