David Ross

Tuesday, February 24, Day Six, Dinner- Dinner last night was an example of a dish I would call a “Cupboard Classic.” Spaghetti is a wonderful example of a satisfying, nutritious dish using ingredients that most of us always have in the cupboard-canned tomatoes, canned spaghetti sauce and dried pasta. Those few ingredients alone make for a delicious dinner plate. And I think spaghetti is a good example of a dish that precludes having to make a daily trip to the green grocer for fresh vegetables. I didn't miss having fresh basil for the sauce. I'm out of fresh bread, so I didn't have a nice toasted-buttered slice to serve with my spaghetti. I survived just fine. The tomatoes in the sauce provided the vegetable component, the ground veal served as the protein and the pasta the carbohydrate/grain. I could have added a dairy element had I remembered to sprinkle some cheese on top of the spaghetti. I added a variety of dried herbs to liven up the pasta sauce, including bay leaf, oregano, basil, parsley and fennel seeds. I also added some tomato paste to thicken the sauce and give it a deeper flavor. When I bought the veal weeks ago, my original plan was to use it to use it in a Veal Merguez sausage dish. Well I certainly wasn’t going to toast spices, make harissa and turn out sausage last night at 7:30 p.m. The veal would find its fate in a delicious spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti with Veal “Bolognese”-(a “cupboard classic” type of “Bolognese”)-

Monday, February 23, Day Five, Dinner- This evening's dinner had to be the most satisfying so far. Satisfying because I took a total creative turn from what I had planned two days ago-bottled pasta sauce, ground veal, spaghetti and a salad of canned cannelini beans. And I found even more products in the cupboards, freezer and fridge that I didn't realize existed in those dark places. The sauce that nakji recommended for last night's dinner, (soy-mirin glaze for the chicken livers), was so delicious I wanted to use it again tonight. But rather than repeat an Asian theme, I started to think about Mexican flavors. I found a frozen, pre-cooked, half duck in the freezer and some overlooked watercress in the refrigerator. I decided to re-heat the soy-mirin glaze and add in some molasses. I heated the duck in the oven for about 20 minutes, then brushed on some of the glaze and turned up the broiler to crisp the skin. I've had these pre-cooked duck products before and they are quite good. The half-duck is partially boned for easy cutting and the meat is very tender. I've not gone wanting for meats so far, but as you can see from the yellowing of the bottom leaves, my fresh green vegetable stock is showing its age-which in the case of the watercress is about 8 days. (The watercress happened to be "live," when I bought it, meaning the root structure was still intact. I think keeping the watercress in a water bath helped extend its life). I started to think about a cornbread and another vegetable. The vegetable was easy-the old standby of frozen green beans. But I wasn't sure I could pull off the cornbread. I like to put actual corn in my cornbread, and the last of the frozen corn was used weeks ago. Then I remembered an odd product I bought a month ago for a salad-pickled cactus. I decided to add some diced pickled cactus, diced roasted red peppers and half of a diced yellow onion. The cornbread batter only called for one egg so I've got about 9 left out of a dozen I bought over a week ago. The recipe also called for milk. I was worried my milk was spoiled-I don't drink milk and only use it for cooking and baking. It tends to sit in the fridge far after it's "due date." Luckily, the milk was still fresh. (As a standby, I do keep powdered milk in the cupboard that I use in a bread dough so that was my backup). The dry ingredients for the cornbread were corn meal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. I also added some chipotle chili powder, and then I added the cactus, red pepper, onion and wet ingredients. I baked the cornbread in a square glass baking dish, then cut a serving using a round cutter that I cut out of a tin can. Makes a nice presentation. When you are relying on ingredients you have on hand, your ability to add color to the plate is often a bit constrained. O.K., I'm being picky here, but I've got too much green on my plate. As far as taste-delicious. Especially that silky mirin-soy-molasses glaze. Roast Duck with Soy-Mirin-Molasses Glaze, Watercress Salad, Green Beans and Cornbread with Pickled Cactus-

Chicker liver yakitori? If you really like chicken livers, that is. Skewer and brush lightly with a 50/50 mix of mirin and soy, then grill. Enjoy with beer. Or, you could make chirashi-sushi, if you have the makings for sushi rice and some eggs around. Prepare your rice as you would normally, season it with salt, sugar, and vinegar to turn it into sushi rice. Then place it in a bowl, and top with cut-up pieces of omelette, fish roe, and sliced vegetables like cucumbers. It's very refreshing. ← Thanks, those are great ideas. And based on your idea for the chicken livers, I've got them thawing in the fridge right now. I've got both mirin and soy already in my pantry. So tonight it will be a choice between Salmon and the chicken livers. Thanks again for the suggestions. ← Sunday, February 22, Day Four, Dinner- Last night I couldn’t decide whether to use chicken livers or salmon, so I did both, and I threw in a chicken breast to boot. I don’t think the chicken breast was intended for an Asian style dish-it was in the freezer bag with a sprig of rosemary and a slice of preserved lemon! As I mentioned in a earlier post, I had the chicken livers in the freezer leftover from when I last made baked cannelloni. The chicken livers are ground into a savory beef-spinach-cheese filling for the cannelloni. I only use a couple of the livers in the recipe, then I’m stuck with this container that sits in the freezer for months. But nakji came through for me with the perfect suggestion for skewering the livers and glazing them with a sweet mirin-soy sauce glaze. Thank you again for the great suggestions. I feel like I’ve discovered one of the “Mother Sauces,” and I’ll be using it again and again and again. I reduced the mirin down with soy sauce and honey. I keep about three types of honey on the shelf and this particular jar was from Eastern Europe, (beautiful piece of honeycomb included). Once the sauce was reduced by about a third, I added some garlic, lemon juice, ginger and a dash of sesame oil. I reduced the sauce down further into a syrupy consistency. I discovered that I actually had some napa cabbage in the refrigerator. So the idea of a salad started to come together: napa cabbage, pickled shallots, green onions and a dressing of ginger, sesame oil, lemon juice, rice vinegar, chili oil and some of the pickled shallot brine. This was the last of the green onions and the cabbage is now gone. As you can see, the ginger is wrinkled and old and needs to go. Close-up of the pickled shallots-a tangy, crunchy, mildly spicy addition to the salad. I didn’t have any short-grain rice, (my preference for this dish because I would have liked a more starchy, sticky rice), so I substituted jasmine rice. I alternated the chicken and livers on one skewer and then the salmon went on a separate skewer. The meats were glazed with the sauce before going under the broiler. I intentionally put the salmon on “skin side up” so the skin would get charred under the broiler. Chicken-Liver and Salmon Yakitori, Steamed Jasmine Rice, Napa Cabbage Slaw with Pickled Shallots- The Salmon- The Chicken and Livers- Dinner tonight is going to be some sort of pasta dish and probably a salad of canned cannelini beans. My supply of fresh vegetables is now gone, but I’ve found that I’ve got more than enough food to sustain me through the final three dinners of my week. I’m now at the point where I’ve gone beyond the feeling helpless stage to having enough ideas and products to push me well beyond this week. I don’t have fresh buttermilk or good chocolate for that Devil’s Food Cake, but I do have dried buttermilk powder (that I use in my cinnamon roll dough), and chocolate malt powder (that I used for chocolated malted ice cream), that I think would be good substitutes for the cake. Now tonight when I get home, I’m going to go digging back into the depths of the freezer in search of a very elusive ingredient. Should I be successful in my hunt, I’ll do a dish inspired by Peter the eater.

That, my friend, is a thing of beauty. Delicious!

Saturday, February 21, Day Three, Dinner- Dinner was a sort of mix of Indian and British cuisine. Which of course is not unusual considering the history of the British Empire in India. But not taking the issue too seriously, I did a nice main dish of chicken thighs stewed in Rogan Josh Curry and a chilled couscous salad. ( I really wished I had a nice tomato and some fresh cilantro to liven up the salad). One of our supermarkets has a section within the middle of the store that is a branch of a local upscale market. It’s our local version of a mini-Whole Foods. There are Italian, Indian, British, Russian and European sections within the “mini” store. I shop there about once a month and always pick-up some interesting things like the bottle of Rogan Josh and the bottle of marinated, roasted red peppers. My Father is retired from the Oregon Department of Agriculture and still has friendships with some of the onion farmers in the Willamette Valley. In November he sent me a 50lb. bag of both yellow and red onions. A lucky gift indeed. I keep the onions in the back utility room next to a cool window. Given our cold, snowy weather in Spokane, the onions keep quite well back there. I bought the baby eggplant a week ago at the Asian market. I attempted to pickle the eggplant and serve it with a chicken dish last week. Well, that plan failed as the eggplant took on the texture of leather after sitting in a vinegar brine. At least I had saved two of the little beauties. They were sitting in a basket on the counter, more for looks than any plan to cook with them. Then I got the idea to put them into the chicken stew and they were delicious. You can see my last knob of ginger is looking a bit tired and wrinkled, but passable. In the back you see a jar of preserved lemons. I always keep them on hand, regularly stocking the jar with lemons that are getting into old age in the refrigerator. Searing the chicken in preserved lemon olive oil, seasoned with salt, pepper and red curry powder- Cooking the onions, garlic, ginger, eggplant and a preserved lemon before adding to the stewpot with the sauce and chicken- Chicken ready for stewing in the oven- The next photo of the green onions is a bit deceptive-I pulled off the slimy layers. If I was running a salad bar at a restaurant, these green onions definitely would not have passed the muster of the health department. Ingredients for the salad-boxed couscous, red onion, roasted red pepper, fresh lemon, the last of my one cucumber and green onions- Chicken Rogan Josh, Couscous Salad- Dessert came out of Victorian England-leftover fruitcake served with classic hard sauce. You may not be a lover of fruitcake, but one delicious bite of this dessert and I think I would convert you. In time of need for something sweet, my fruitcake came to the rescue. This particular fruitcake is three years old. It’s covered in brandy-soaked cheesecloth, then sealed in a plastic packet. I keep my fruitcakes in a back, dark, shelf in the cupboard. (This fruitcake is soaked with enough booze it would have lasted a lifetime). This fruitcake comes from a recipe that was used by the Great Northern Railroad for service in the dining cars on the "North Coast Limited" and "Empire Builder" streamliner trains. Yes, many years ago passengers actually enjoyed fruitcake for dessert on a train.

Saturday, February 21, Day Three, Lunch- Lunch was composed of bits and pieces of marinated vegetables, olives, cheeses and salami from the deli that I had stowed in the meat compartment of the fridge. Sometimes I forget the nice stuff I leave in there. Considering I don’t see myself as a bread person, or someone who actually cares much about bread, I was surprised to see how many types of bread I’ve got in the freezer- Buttermilk dinner rolls from a local bakery. Half a loaf of sliced whole wheat bread. Two mini-baguettes from La Brea bakery, (one used for the French Dip sandwich for lunch on Day Two) Three unbaked loaves of Rhodes whole wheat bread. One unbaked loaf of Rhodes white bread. One “artisanal” loaf from a local bakery. I find that the commercial breads stay fresh on the counter much longer than the handmade “artisanal” types of breads. Can anyone give me some insight as to why? Had I not frozen the buttermilk rolls and the artisanal loaf within a few days of bringing the bread home, it would have turned stale whereas the sliced wheat bread would have stayed mold-free and fresh for well over a week. Another question for everyone-do you have a special technique for cutting hearts of palm? I just cut it into pieces, but it sure looked plain on the plate. I tried cutting it in a julienne so it looked more typical of a salad, but that didn’t work when the layers started to peel off. Any tips on how you cut hearts of palm? Grilled white and green asparagus, picholine (green) olives, dry salami, Oregon bleu cheese, Irish cheddar, manchego, marinated navy beans, hearts of palm, buttered/toasted bread. (I forgot to add a nice glass of Chardonnay)-

I’m playing a bit of catch-up with my photos and reporting, so I’ll finish up with my third day on the challenge (which was yesterday). Saturday, February 21, Day Three, Breakfast- The ingredients for breakfast included instant dried oatmeal and some of the toasted almonds and litchee/cherry compote from dessert after dinner on Day Two- Breakfast also included coffee and a tangelo- The oatmeal was dry and pasty, probably from having sat on the top shelf of the back pantry cupboard for far too long. The litchee/cherry compote was passable, but certainly not bursting with the type of flavor I would have found had I used fresh fruits. The toasted almonds and the tangelo were delicious, but not satisfying to the point that it took away the feeling that I had deprived myself of something. (On my days off from work I like to cook a big, hearty breakfast. Last week that meant malted waffles from scratch, bacon and fresh orange slices). After breakfast on day three, I started to realize how naïve I was going into this challenge. Naïve in terms of thinking that I had this bounty of food available and I wouldn’t go wanting for anything. With four days to go, I having some feelings of wanting creep in. My fresh fruit is down to two red delicious apples, two lemons and two tangelos-all over a week old. My fresh vegetable supply includes some wilting watercress, a bit of limp tarragon, Napa cabbage, green onions, a chunk of English cucumber, red onions, yellow onions, four potatoes and three heads of garlic. I’ll make do of course, but I’m starting to struggle a bit with the idea of not being able to go get what I want, with the fact that I’ve made a commitment that doesn’t allow for that luxury. I’m becoming more and more aware of the emotional aspects of the challenge, and, I’m starting to realize that the challenges I’m experiencing, while frustrating, are at the same time giving me cause for thoughtful introspection. More on those thoughts later.

Chicker liver yakitori? If you really like chicken livers, that is. Skewer and brush lightly with a 50/50 mix of mirin and soy, then grill. Enjoy with beer. Or, you could make chirashi-sushi, if you have the makings for sushi rice and some eggs around. Prepare your rice as you would normally, season it with salt, sugar, and vinegar to turn it into sushi rice. Then place it in a bowl, and top with cut-up pieces of omelette, fish roe, and sliced vegetables like cucumbers. It's very refreshing. ← Thanks, those are great ideas. And based on your idea for the chicken livers, I've got them thawing in the fridge right now. I've got both mirin and soy already in my pantry. So tonight it will be a choice between Salmon and the chicken livers. Thanks again for the suggestions.

David, I'm looking and I'm not seeing any huckleberries in your freezer -- can't you stock up and freeze? ← How wonderful, you remember my love of Huckleberries! Yes, I do have a full gallon left in the freezer. Their just buried down in the bottom of the chest freezer. I do stock up on Huckleberries each fall when they are at the height of their flavor. This year that was the third week of September in our area. They sold in the $40 a gallon range this year. Since they are so precious and rare, and only come into season for a very short time each year, I usually buy two gallons. That will stretch them far into the next year for me. And I actually like frozen berries nearly as much as fresh ones. While the flavor of a huckleberry gets diluted while it is frozen, they are still incredibly good in compotes, ice creams and baked goods. Thanks for asking. Now my list is really growing for the week ahead!

I better post last night’s dinner before I post tonight's dinner! Two weeks ago, I was looking through the "What do you recommend at Costco?" topic and I was curious to see if my local store was selling prime grade steaks. Sure enough, they were selling prime grade ribeyes and New York strip steaks. The New York strips were priced at $8.99 a pound. (While I later found the steaks to be good, they certainly weren't as flavorful as other prime grade meat I've eaten so I'm a bit suspect as to the real quality of this prime grade meat, but that's another discussion). I cooked one of the steaks a week ago, (yet never got to posting a photo), and put the other two in the freezer. For dinner last night I served one of the steaks with a parsley sauce that I had made a couple of weeks ago to serve with some fried frogs legs. The sauce is a sort of marriage between a French green sauce and an Argentinian chimmichurri sauce. I use parsley, cilantro, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic, preserved lemon and olive oil. The sauce is keeping just fine in the refrigerator nearly three weeks after I made it. I always have some Russet Potatoes in a basket on a shelf next to the back door-the cool draft around the window keeps potatoes and onions incredibly fresh for weeks in the winter. Don’t ask me why, I’m not a scientist, but the potatoes stay fine for up to a month back there. I did a stuffed baked potato. (I should have used some of the fancy cheese I have on hand, but I settled for the shredded Kraft stuff in the bag). Ingredients for stuffing the potatoes-bacon bits, butter, cheese and Mexican style sour cream- Mashing the potatoes with a ricer before stirring in the other ingredients- Ready for baking- Prime New York Strip, thawed, then marinated in olive oil and black pepper. (I don’t salt the steak until seconds before it goes into the cast iron pan)- Deliciously tangy “Green Sauce”- Last night’s main dish, all from ingredients already on hand- I try to stay away from sweets during my work week, only indulging on Friday and Saturday nights. But without the ability to take a quick trip to the market for very fresh eggs, cream and fruit, I really, really was challenged last night to come up with something. I think I did pretty well. I had planned on saving the litchee for a compote I do with plums, but no plums last night! I thought someday I would use the cherries in a quick, open-face tart, but I needed them in this dessert-white ice cream and white litchee wouldn’t be very attractive on the plate. Ingredients for dessert last night-Canned litchee from the Asian market, canned cherries, Tillamook Dairy, (Oregon), ice cream and some sliced almonds left over from the holidays- A shot of orange liquer into the pot for some added flavor. (I’ve had this bottle in the liquor cabinet for years, only bringing it out on the rare occasion I make a Mai Tai)- I poached the litchee and cherries in a simple syrup that included a shot of the orange booze and a piece of vanilla bean- I needed something to add texture to the dessert like a crispy cookie. I had some dried fruit and nut biscotti in the freezer that were leftover from a cheese plate I did for a holiday dinner. The biscotti held up very well in the freezer and didn't show a sign of being limp or stale. The finished dessert-“Poached litchee fruit with cherries, vanilla ice cream, toasted almonds and a dried fruit and nut biscotti”- I’ll post one more breakfast and one more lunch, then I go into my workweek. This week I’m working Sunday-Wednesday. I’ll only post dinners for those nights-breakfast and lunch will basically be a piece of fruit, (if my fruit supply survives a few more days), some sort of bread and leftovers from dinners.

Wow. I'm finding all sorts of things in the freezers and now my mind is really wandering with ideas. This is freezer #1, the one on top of the refrigerator unit. In the back corner are some standby's for an emergency-Marie Callendar Chicken Pot Pies. They are actually pretty good, especially the buttery tasting crust. Another standby-Tillamook French Vanilla ice cream. Under the ice trays, some leftover beef short ribs that were braised in beer and coated with a red chile sauce. On the bottom shelf, the ubiquitous bags of frozen petite peas and green beans. There's a small container of sticky toffee pudding batter leftover from the holidays and about five bags of almonds leftover from my holiday batch of almond butter crunch candy. In the side door of the freezer-a tub of veal demi glace, to the left a carton of chicken livers and to the right an unopened package of potsticker wrappers. I wish I could only but three or four chicken livers at a time-I use them in a meat filling for savory canneloni. Alas, I'm stuck with buying a carton of the little livers and no place for them to go. Or is there? Hmm, "Chicken Liver Terrine" studded with almonds and served with a veal demi-glace? On the bottom shelf of the side door-sweet red bean paste that I use in a sauce for pork stir-fry served in lettuce cups, and on the right, a packet of flying fish roe. It's more red colored tiny fish eggs than anything very flavorful, but it made a nice garnish for a seafood appetizer during the holidays. Now I've just got to find some more seafood that can use a garnish of this roe. Freezer #2 is an old-fashioned chest freezer. And as you can see, everything gets lost in this darn thing. But what you do see in the basket on the left is some orange roughy filets, an elk loin a friend gave me and 3 packages of corn tortillas. I have no idea why I think I need three packages of frozen corn tortillas. On the right is a game hen, some ground veal and in the big plastic tub-egg nog ice cream I made during the holidays. That tub is taking up too much space, and I imagine the ice cream is way past its tasteful prime. My homemade ice cream is meant to be eaten within a couple of days of when it's made-not three months later.

My saga, (which started with dinner on Thursday), continues. Lunch yesterday was a French Dip Sandwich-a great sandwich for using leftover bread and roast beef. The ingredients included a good size chunk of leftover Prime Rib that had been sleeping in the freezer since the holidays, mini-baguette that had been in the freezer, onion, garlic, Campbell's Beef Stock, salt, pepper and dried thyme- I always keep Campbell's Beef Stock in the cupboard. I actually prefer it to restaurant-grade stocks I've bought online that cost quite a bit more than the retro Campbell's stuff. The mini-baguette was part of a package of 8 that I bought at Costco a couple of months ago. The bread comes from Nancy Silverton's La Brea bakery in Los Angeles and it's shipped freshly baked to our local Costco- I thawed the Prime Rib just enough so I could slice it, yet still frozen enough so I could cut very thin slices- I combine all the ingredients for the jus in a saucepan and add the beef along with crushed garlic and sliced onion. I'll let it stew for about an hour for the flavors to combine and the just to take on the flavor of the beef and beef fat. I toasted the bread in a little butter and dressed the sandwich with two more staples I always have in the refrigerator-mayonnaise and horseradish. I seasoned the beef stock with pepper, dried thyme and dried parsley, and served a nice dill pickle on the side. (I always have dill pickles on hand. Always). The finished sandwich-

I don't know what you have planned for your week ahead, but if it fits for a dish you are considering, you might want to pickle the red onions. Pickling is a great way to stretch out a red onion because it can then be used in so many ways-in salads, as a garnish for tacos or enchiladas, and a condiment for grilled chicken or pork. The basic pickling brine recipe is a mixture of water, vinegar, pickling spices, salt, sugar and garlic. You slice the red onions very thin, add them to a hot brine, then chill in the refrigerator. They will turn into a beautiful pink color and last for weeks.

Man are you right about that. Look what I just found by going into the deeper strata of the freezer: Those aren't even old. Dave (the Cook) sent them to me in December. But the convection patterns in my freezer were such that they got behind the brisket and the chicken and disappeared. Perhaps we can all start thinking about what the heck I'm going to do with two frozen, smoked trout next week. ← Steven-I think I just might be able to help! I found some smoked fish in the deep recesses of my chest freezer last night and came up with an idea for this morning's breakfast. (I have an old-style chest freezer-the kind of freezer where everything gets lost). I found a package of frozen fish in the depths of the freezer that I had bought at the local Asian market, (next to the flying fish roe-aha-another discovery!)- I let the fish thaw in the package and then transferred it to a ziploc bag with some olive oil to add moisture, then refrigerated the fish overnight- The ingredients for breakfast-smoked fish, eggs, dried dill and Mexican crema, (in the background). I had the jar of crema, (sour cream), leftover as a garnish for some enchiladas I made a couple of weeks ago. The plastic package in front holds some Swedish rye crackers I had bought during the holidays to serve with smoked salmon. I had put them in a bag and stowed it in the cupboard and forgot about it until last night. Amazingly the crackers weren't stale. I flaked the fish into beaten eggs, then stirred in a bit of the sour cream and seasoned the mixture with salt, pepper and dried dill. I have some green onions, (not yet at the slimy stage), that I used as a garnish- Breakfast this morning-

Well, I took the plunge last night and I'm already finding that this is going to be a somewhat challenging week. But if things go the way they have so far, after one dinner, one breakfast and one lunch, I think the "challenge" will be quite satisfying for me. I say "challenging" because I'm finding my culinary creativity challenged on the spot. I'm not planning anything ahead of time. I'm going to open the cupboards and create dinner based on what I see on the shelf. I'm not going to do my typically lavish weekend feasts for one. (I almost felt like I was living my own home verson of a "Top Chef" quickfire challenge last night.) I always have a lot of wonderful ingredients in the freezer, cabinets and refrigerator because I tend to pick off the shelves when I shop-more out of impulse rather than a need for a particular ingredient. As such, I end up with skads of great products that I all but forget are sitting on the shelf waiting for me to put them to good use. An example of just a few of the wonderful proteins in the freezer right now: -Sweetbreads -Ground Veal -Elk Tenderloin steaks -Duck Bones -Cornish Game Hen -Meatloaf mixture ready for the oven (Sadly, I didn't use one of the above all last week). I've quickly learned that I can do it without having to stop by the market every day after work. I don't need to buy those black peppercorns to make a "Steak Au Poivre" tonight. I have a steak, a very good Prime Rib steak from Costco in fact, and I have a chimichurri sauce in the fridge that I served with salmon last week. So I won't spend the time and money to drive 10 miles for black peppercorns. I'll make do with what I have and save the "Au Poivre" preparation for another time. As my work week goes along, I lull myself into a mode of laziness and instead of cooking with all those wonderful products I have on hand, I take the easy route-like stopping at the market for that 8 piece fried chicken meal instead of using up some of the more delicious and nutritious things I already have on hand. While my typical shopping day is Friday, that pattern has been upset the past three weeks due to pesky staff meetings at the "home" office in Portland on my regular days off. My shopping trips have been reduced to quick stops for a few items on my way home from work. Given my penchant for food shopping, you could say that I am always stocked. So what better time to start my challenge than on a Thursday night. Last night dinner was composed of a carrot salad, rotisserie chicken, pasta and a dish of vanilla ice cream with cherries and litchee. I present you with the results, (not the best in my repertoire of cookery), but satisfying nonetheless. And I didn't take that side trip for $10 bucks worth of fried chicken, biscuits and coleslaw. I had a bag of raw shredded carrots that I had used in an Asian noodle dish last week. The carrots were still incredibly fresh. The dressing was made up of preserved lemon oil, (in the jar at the right), salt, pepper, sugar, caraway seeds and apple cider vinegar- Frozen rotisserie chicken, butter, white wine and dried tarragon. I roast my chickens on the quirky "Showtime Rotisserie Grill" by Ron Popeil. I don't know about his other snake-oil products, but I can tell you that Mr. Popeil's rotisserie invention makes delicious chickens. I had the chicken leftover from a previous dinner, and I put it in the pot with a slug of the wine, a chardonnary, and the butter and tarragon to make a pan sauce for some pasta- Dried pasta I had bought at Whole Foods last fall- Turning the pasta into the sauce in the pot- The bird comes back to life- Doesn't everyone have frozen peas in the freezer?- The finished dish-

What a great challenge. It comes at a good time for me considering the disaster I wrought on my stomach last night. I didn't use my resources appropriately and I suffered for it. Last night's delicious meal was composed of canned peaches, freezer-burned tamales, (previously canned tamales at that), dill pickle spears and Hershey's kisses left-over from Valentines Day. That certainly is not the type of meal that Steven is proposing we prepare for next Wednesday nights dinner. (And it is not the type of menu that a self-proclaimed 'food sophisticate' would ever share with anyone but my friends here). But don't feel sad for poor destitute Mr. Ross. I have plenty of nice things stowed away that I could have pulled out of the freezer had I not felt pity for my tired old self. Feeling sad for yourself means you end up eating the above disgusting concoction. I didn't have to go out and spend money at the take-out, I had wonderful ingredients on hand, I just didn't use them. The following is a real-life example of what I could have prepared last night had I just done some thawing and pre-planning. (And just maybe the type of dish that we'll see come out of our cupboards and freezers in the coming days). I have some sweetbreads from D'artagnan in the freezer and a nice pot of homemade preserved lemons sitting on the counter. I've got a head of fresh Napa cabbage in the produce drawer, along with a knob of ginger and some green onions. What I could have done with just those few ingredients could have turned into "Crispy Sweetbreads" with a "Napa Cabbage Slaw with Preserved Lemon Dressing." It would have been fairly quick to saute the sweetbreads and slice the cabbage and it wouldn't have cost an extra penney. (Sans having sweetbreads on hand, I could have done the same dish using the chicken breasts I have in the freezer). So I'm onto the challenge and look forward to seeing the whimsical and delicious creations that we'll come up with.

I just finished Beard's "Delights and Prejudices." I've read it many times, and each time I always find something new and interesting. Beard had an amazing talent for writing and for making the simplest foods sound delicious. As a fellow native Oregonian, my favorite chapters are the ones where Mr. Beard shares his memories of growing up in Portland and the summers the family spent at the Oregon Coast. This morning on my commute I started reading "Hometown Appetites, The Story of Clementine Paddleford." The book is subtitled "The Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate." I plan on following the book about Ms. Paddleford with the story of Duncan Hines. Now making a total reversal from the stories of three icons of the American Culinary scene in the last century, I'm just getting started reading "On the Line" by Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin. If you're interested in what it takes to run one of the top restaurants in America, "On the Line" is fascinating-down to diagrams of how the kitchen is laid out and details on how the fish go from the sea to the table. Reading about Clementine Paddleford and Eric Ripert at the same time is quite an adventure.

They are indeed an incredibly interesting read today, over 40 years since the series was published. My Mother and Father were members of the Time-Life book club in 1968. They bought just about every series of books Time-Life sold-including "This Fabulous Century" and "The Old West." I doubt my Mother bought "Foods of the World" for anything more than the color photos. She certainly never cooked out of the books. I'm now the proud keeper of our collection, and I regularly cook from the original recipes. It's really enlightening when you consider today how innovative the recipes were back then. The book on Chinese cooking includes references and recipes using exotic (for the 60's American household) ingredients like salted black beans, lemongrass and Chinese black vinegar. You have in your hands one of the best series of books on food, cooking and dining. Enjoy.

Tonight I did a Roasted Salmon with my version of a Parsley Sauce, served with a Salt Cod Mashed Potato. I seared the salmon in my trusted cast iron skillet with a drizzle of preserved lemon olive oil. I sear the fish for about 3 minutes per side, then put it in a 400 oven and roast it for another 3 minutes per side. Total cooking time was about 12 minutes. I don't serve my salmon medium-rare in the middle, more on the medium side but still tender and juicy throughout. My parsley sauce is kind of a combination of a French parsley sauce and an Argentinian chimmichurri sauce. I use flat leaf parsley, cilantro, garlic, chili flakes, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, olive oil and some finely diced preserved lemon. My only foible tonight was the mashed potato with salt cod. The potato and cod was wonderful, but I messed up on the bread crumb topping. I had some nice, fresh bread on the counter waiting to be made into fresh bread crumbs tossed in butter. At the last minute I decided to go the easy route and I used dried bread crumbs out of a can. Awful. And why I ever bought those nasty bits I don't know. Luscious potatoes and cod-gritty breadcrumbs.

I think your list looks pretty good. One exception might be Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. I find the steaks thin and tough. The fake French accents that come out of the waiters borders on the ridiculous. The fresh oysters are good, but if you start with great oysters and simply open the shells it's hard to screw them up. I think the main attraction of Mon Ami Gabi is the outdoor seating right on the Strip. I'd keep searching a little for another restaurant with a similar menu and comparable prices to Mon Ami Gabi. You may want to take a look at the menus over at Morel's French Steakhouse at The Palazzo. They also have outdoor seating, but the food would be far better than what you might find at Mon Ami Gabi.

Celery Salt is actually a wonderful spice to rub on a beef roast. My Mother used to always keep a bottle of Spice Islands "Beau Monde" seasoning on the rack above the stove to sprinkle on beef. The Spice Islands blend includes celery salt and onion powder. I prefer the blend of spices to straight celery salt, which I find can be a bit overpowering. Apparently there are some imitations of "Beau Monde" out there that don't include the celery salt.

I agree, posting the photos on the website is a great idea. And I really like the menu postings-especially the archives where I can go back and see what was served during a specific time of year. Two minor quibbles, which are very minute in detail-I wish the photos on the website were in a logical order. In other words, instead of showing a dessert at the top of the series of photos, show me each dish in the order it was served, ending with the desserts. Secondly, I'd like to be able to enlarge each photo so I can see the dish more closely. Again, very minor details but ones that I think a detailed Chef like Colicchio would appreciate hearing.

Thanks for reading all of our posts on dining in Las Vegas. They will give you lots of information. You are actually going to Las Vegas at a time where restaurant prices are down about 20% from this time last year. A number of the fine dining rooms are offering multi-course or tasting menus right now for under $100 per person. So if you have $64 and can pad that a bit you will be able to have some choices. Just keep doing your research and look at online menus and prices. There is a free shuttle van that runs regularly from the Rio to other Harrah's properties right on the Strip. That would drop you within a short walk of some great restaurants. If you choose to take a cab, it will cost you about $15 including tip to get from the Rio to the middle of the Strip.

I couldn't have said it better. Jeff's a good example of your point. His urge to be creative and trendy, to do way too much within the confines of the challenge-the limitations of time, the ingredients and the specified theme-proved to be his undoing. In fact, that was a recurring theme on Jeff's part throughout his time on Top Chef-he continually attempted to do dishes that "sounded" good, but with little consideration for the challenge. No-he didn't have the luxury of having the time to craft an idea into a dish-like he would do at his restaurant. No-he didn't have the luxury of taking time, maybe days, to test the dish, taste it, modify it, change the garnishes or the presentation-like he would do at his restaurant. But he knew that going into the challenge. He knew it throughout the competition. Yet he couldn't help himself could he? Push, push, push. He mucked up his plates with overwrought ideas and too many ingredients. He tried to be trendy and chi-chi and in his efforts to do so, he just simply fell short. Here's a comparison that Jeff should think about. "Rockfish Ceviche with Sangria Ice." Sounds good doesn't it? Picture that menu description printed in italic script on sienna-colored parchment paper. Trendy and alluring. It must be delicious. And it set an expectation that Jeff better deliver on his promised dish. Now on the other hand, Carla served the judges a very simple "Crayfish and Andouille Gumbo." A humble, simple dish. The sort of dish that would be written in chalk on a blackboard. Not fussy, not trendy. Not overworked. Maybe the expectation was lower than Jeff's dish, but according to the judges, Carla's gumbo had flavor and worked quite well within the context of the Elimination Challenge. Jeff reminds me of a guy I cooked against once in a cooking competition on PBS, "MasterChef USA." I can't remember the guy's name so we'll call him "Jeff." When it came to the main dish for our competition, I did a Pork Tenderloin (rubbed with a spice blend heavy on Szechuan peppercorns), with a Litchee-Plum Conserve, Baby Bok Choy and a Green Onion Noodle Cake. Simple but unique dishes bursting with flavor. Dishes I knew I could complete within the time limits. My fellow competitor, "Jeff," did a Risotto with "Deveined Grapefruits." Trendy sounding isn't it? Imagine the allure if he'd called it "Risotto with Supremes of Grapefruit." Well the poor little fellow spent nearly all his time trying to separate the segments out of a disagreeable grapefruit. He ran out of time. He ended up chucking pieces of grapefruit, some with peel and seeds, into a cold, gummy risotto. Imagine the looks on the faces of the judges when they tasted what they thought would be the traditional flavor and texture of risotto-only to find it gunked-up with acrid grapefruit. "Jeff" didn't win.

Last night was very simple-my recipe for Salt and Pepper Fried Prawns and Stir-Fried Noodles with Cabbage. I always keep some dried Chinese noodles in the cupboard. I never buy a specific noodle for a specific dish, I just go to the Asian market and pick-up 3 or 4 different kinds of noodles to keep on hand. Then whatever peaks my interest on the day of cooking is what I use. I boiled these noodles in salted water for about 4 minutes, drained, tossed in sesame oil and chile oil then chilled in the refrigerator all day. I stir fry the noodles with more sesame oil, garlic, ginger and shredded Napa cabbage, then add a good slug of soy sauce and a bit of sliced green onion just before serving. I like to use head-on raw prawns for both flavor and presentation. (The best juices come from sucking on the heads when you pull them off the body of the prawn). I remove the shell off the body of the prawn, leaving the head and tail on. Usually I just marinate the prawns in a mixture of egg white, cornstarch, salt and ground Szechuan peppercorns. This time I ventured out a bit and added soy sauce and sherry to the marinade. I wouldn't add sherry again-it made the meat of the prawns too sweet for my tastes. Just before deep-frying, I dredge the prawns in a mixture of flour, cornstarch, salt and ground Szechuan peppercorns. They only need about 2 minutes in the deep-fry. I garnished the prawns with some simple shredded green onion. I prefer to serve them plain without any dipping sauce, but sometimes I'll serve a little mix of salt and ground Szechuan peppercorns in a dish on the side. Enjoy.