David Ross

We'd love to see some photos of your dishes and explanation of the recipes. Sounds very tempting to me.

Sounds delicious and east to put together. I've always liked the idea of using a cola beverage with slow-cooked pork. This one's on my 2013 list.

Welcome! That is one fantastic pig dish.

I'm sure we all had great successes in the kitchen in 2012, and choosing one, singular dish as your "best" is somewhat daunting when you're a serious cook. But when you think about it, choosing your "best" dish really isn't that hard. It's a dish that you're still remembering today, December, 29. A dish so memorable that you can still taste the flavors and textures in your culinary dreams. For me, one dish clearly stands out. It was a dish that took about 3 weeks to craft from the idea stage, through numerous practice runs to perfect the technique, to that final day when I hit the home run ball. It involved two very different ingredients, one pauper--jelly, and one prince--foie gras. The dish came together quite unexpectedly during one of our eGullet Cook-Offs, (http://forums.egulle...ll-o-and-aspic/). But it wasn't just the sweet, smooth, ice wine jelly and the unctuous, silken, foie gras or the perfumed, tart, wild huckleberry compote that made this dish memorable. It was a little metal Jell-O mold, some 90 years old, that was my Grandmother Pink's that really made this my best dish of 2012. Ice Wine Jelly with Foie Gras Mousse and Huckleberry Compote- What was your best dish of 2012?

Why did they bring her back? I can only assume for the drama factor which she is playing full force Yep, that's what I figure. Her cooking skills have been pretty woeful so far, so it's got to be the other stuff. The stuff that has nothing to do with her ability as a cook.

My confidence is somewhat restored as I watch episode 8 and the quickfire challenge with fresh oysters. Micah did something very simple yet somewhat difficult--perfectly frying an oyster. It must be crispy, but it still should be basically raw in the center, just warmed through by the hot oil bath. And as fate would have it, I myself had fried fresh Pacific oysters for dinner last night. I have a bit more experience than Micah, having fried oysters for oh, about 40 years or so.

I'm getting caught up on episodes--at number 7 right now, the "Foiled Again" show. I wanted to throw something at the television when I saw Josie pair Dungeness Crab and Sockeye Salmon with Raspberries. You don't have to be from the Pacific Northwest to realize that raspberries don't go with fresh, beautiful seafood. At least most of the time. (Years ago a famous Northwest Chef did a stunning dish of seared salmon with a raspberry sauce). Josie really mucked up stuffing the seafood into a spring roll and pairing it with a cloying mayonnaise sauce. Then raspberries. She should have gone home, but alas, survived. Why did they ever bring her back? But she's just a symptom of a disease that's raising its ugly head as the season progresses--these Chefs haven't fully learned that sometimes less, (as in a fresh gooseberry), is better, as opposed to more, (as in gooseberries with chorizo), Chef John.

So many memorable dishes from meals I had in Las Vegas in 2012, the inexpensive Lobster Roll at Lobster ME certainly won the honor for best fast-food in a mall meal. But I tend to focus on the little things that make a meal memorable, so I have to bestow the honor on the Foie Gras Stuffed Kumquats that accompanied a Roast Duck at a luncheon at Michael Mina at Bellagio.

I decided that I better shrug off some of the name-brand frozen foods and try some of the lesser-known products in the hope that it would provide more flavor. While the products from the smaller companies offered more variety--chicken masala and spinach-feta pie with phyllo--the flavors were not really marginally better than what you get with Stouffer's. In fact, Stouffer's lasagna and chicken pot pie were the leaders of the frozen foods I ate, although that's really not a singing endorsement. While I hope I won't have another knee surgery, if I do, I'll be in the kitchen prepping my foods ahead of time and I won't be taking a trip down the frozen food aisle in the supermarket. The entrees from the Ethnic Gourmet run the gamut of standard Indian Cuisine- There was this odd patch of something in the center part of the tray that apparently was intended to be the chicken masala. The only problem, there wasn't any chicken. Oh there were 4 little shards of chicken the size of your little fingernail, but really no chunks of chicken as portrayed on the front of the box. And I thought "artisanal" products would be more honest in their advertising. Grade: B-, but only for the decent flavor of the masala. Overall grade: C- due to a lack of chicken and flavorless rice. I found this Spinach-Feta Pie from Cedar Lane products in the health food frozen case- Frozen phyllo dough apparently doesn't endure the rigors of shipping as the broken top of the entree shows. I cooked the entree in the oven and it took double the amount of cooking time recommended on the box to get the phyllo golden and crispy. Sadly I didn't get a photo of the finished dish. Grade: B. Cedar Lane gets an A for effort, but the frozen phyllo shattered somewhere along the road from production to shipping and the flavor of the spinach and feta mix wasn't notable enough to raise the grade on this one.

Last-minute change of plans this morning and I'll be travelling to visit family over Christmas so my menu will have to wait. It was turning out to be a generic sort of Holiday meal so I'll save it for New Year's Eve dinner.

No British Christmas cake would be iced with buttercream - it's usually royal icing over the marzipan. My cake was baked early November- Delia's- and I've been topping up the cognac weekly. Just marzipaned it and will ice it at the weekend. The Christmas pudding was made at the same time and awaits a second lengthy steaming on Christmas Day, to be served with rum butter. I am planning to make Heston Blumenthal's slow roasted rib of beef with bone marrow sauce. Butcher is dry aging for me. Wondering if anyone's tried his recipe and has any comments/tips? Thanks for the note on the cake. I found the recipe in an old edition of BBC Food Magazine, so I assumed that buttercream over the marzipan was traditional. Do you think the buttercream would be too sweet and rich for the cake? Thanks, this helps a lot with the cake. Now I just have to get the rest of the menu together.

No British Christmas cake would be iced with buttercream - it's usually royal icing over the marzipan. My cake was baked early November- Delia's- and I've been topping up the cognac weekly. Just marzipaned it and will ice it at the weekend. The Christmas pudding was made at the same time and awaits a second lengthy steaming on Christmas Day, to be served with rum butter. I am planning to make Heston Blumenthal's slow roasted rib of beef with bone marrow sauce. Butcher is dry aging for me. Wondering if anyone's tried his recipe and has any comments/tips? Thanks for the note on the cake. I found the recipe in an old edition of BBC Food Magazine, so I assumed that buttercream over the marzipan was traditional. Do you think the buttercream would be too sweet and rich for the cake?

I think living in Seattle has helped boost my interest as well. I've lived in the Northwest for 55 years and that's also boosted my interest in the show this season. But at the same time, because I have a higher interest in the show I have greater expectations from the Chefs. I've lived with the bounty of the Pacific Northwest my entire life so I know what a gift it is to a Chef to be exposed to all these wonderful products. I hope they'll step up their game in the remaining weeks and show us more creativity. In the past I've clearly spotted a front-runner at this point in the competition, but I don't have a front-runner yet this season. I guess if I was forced to name one at this point, I'd say John Tesar, although I'd like to smack him for his rude personality. On the other hand, I can name any number of Chefs lagging behind. If you can name more weak Chefs than strong ones, that's probably not a good sign.

The third edition of "Eating Las Vegas-The 50 Essential Restaurants 2013" is now out and it's a fascinating read. This year the three amigos-John Curtas, Al Mancini and Max Jacobson-went off-script by including two local restaurants in their Top Ten List-Raku and Marche Bacchus. That's huge recognition to the local dining scene in Las Vegas and a bow to the fact that one can find great dining off the Strip. There is a movement of young Chefs fleeing the chains and restrictions placed on them by the big Strip resorts and their corporate kitchens and opening small local places. That's a good thing for the locals and people visiting Las Vegas who want creative cuisine without the heavy prices of the Strip dining rooms. I was also pleased to see that Valentino was included in the Top Ten List. Piero Selvaggio literally led the efforts to bring authentic Italian cuisine to America and Chef Luciano Pellegrini has a deft hand with white truffles and game birds like no other. It's nice to see a Las Vegas restaurant guidebook include a steady, consistent restaurant on the list. Las Vegas is about trendiness and in-the-moment pop culture. Anything traditional, especially a restaurant that's been in business over ten years, is considered passe and often over-looked. I've been recovering from knee surgery this past week and I've already read the book cover-to-cover four times. I've got my latest list of Las Vegas dining venues all ready to go for my next trip. You can check out the book here, http://www.shoplva.c...-las-vegas-2013. What do you think about the restaurants that made their list?

Today I'm starting to plan the menu for Christmas dinner. I've only gotten as far as two courses-a Leek and Stilton Soup with Port, and a British Christmas Cake wrapped in marzipan and frosted with buttercream. I'm still searching for a garnish for the soup, maybe fried leeks? Anyway, what are you planning for Christmas dinner this year? Are you planning on poultry, say goose, or a prime rib?

Sliced filet is also excellent in an authentic beef stroganoff.

Really? I thought the homecoming party was pretty good. THat seafood chowder looked amazing and I plan on making that sometime in the near future. The seafood chowder did look good, but I just wish I was seeing more creativity. The creativity on "The Next Iron Chef" is better than what I've seen on Top Chef recently.

Now I'm starting to yawn a bit. I was so glad that the Producers seemingly got rid of a lot of those stupid challenges from the past and were serving us more food-focused challenges. So the Cheftestants are given great products and they put out boring food and the show is boring. I wanted to hope the new direction would be more interesting than this......

No, not very good luck. I've got a stash of frozen stuff that I don't want to eat. But I've progressed since my knee surgery last Tuesday. God Bless my employees, but the casseroles they brought me wouldn't rate any higher than the frozen stuff I've portrayed. I'm a bit stronger on my feet now, so tonight I'm doing chicken and dumplings-made fresh with a real chicken, real chicken stock and real dumplings. Nothing frozen in tonight's dinner!

I was looking forward to this peach pie from Marie Callendar's. They make an incredibly good apple cobbler. The crust is flaky, buttery and delicious, the filling chock full of soft apples and the brown sugar and butter struesel topping is incredibly like homemade. I guess I got my hopes up with the peach pie. I'm a bit wary of putting frozen products with a dough crust in the microwave. I have better luck getting a flaky crust when I put them in the oven and bake it the old-fashioned way. The crust came out golden and looked flaky, unfortunately it didn't score as high as the crust I've tasted on other Marie Callendar desserts. The cinnamon sprinkled throughout the crust was too strong and it wasn't as buttery in flavor as I remembered from the apple cobbler. But the main problem was the filling. As my little pie went down the assembly line, apparently the stuffer must have been clogged because pretty much all I got was sticky, gooey peach filling--sans any peaches. There were a few shards of peach, but the fruit was basically missing, which one would think should be the main element of a peach pie. Grade: C for a lack of peaches and missing the mark by not using the same crust they use in their apple cobbler.

I typically blast the roast at high temperature on the front end of the cooking process, then reduce the temp and slow-roast until the meat is the desired doneness. I put a bit of water in the bottom of the roasting pan to contain the amount of smoke. Not enough water to steam the meat, just enough to create a bath for the fat to drip into without creating a flashpoint for smoke.

Delicious! I'd love your recipe for the chicken.

In general, Stouffer's products were better than some of the other stuff I bought to eat during my recovery. Once again lured by the packaging and photography, I fell for Stouffer's, this time a "Special Edition" side dish of broccoli and cheese gratin. I'm assuming these "special" dishes are put out at the Holidays. (Like the Bob Evan's Green Bean Casserole I've seen in the fresh case recently). Stouffer's prints these captions on the film cover of some of their frozen products, apparently an effort to encourage parents to have family dinners. I suppose if the best you can do is putting a frozen dinner in the microwave, that's at least a step in the right direction if the family sits down and eats together at the table- Like their macaroni and cheese, Stouffer's knows how to make a good cheese sauce. But that's what I thought was the biggest complaint with this dish--too much creamy cheese sauce. The ratio of broccoli was too skimpy, and odd thing I thought since broccoli is probably the cheapest, most plentiful vegetable on the production line. The bread crumbs were plentiful and crispy, but they were sorta dry and flavorless. When we make bread crumbs at home we toss them in butter and herbs. That's the homemade version. The cover photo was very close to the finished dish. Grade: B-. Good marks for the cheese sauce but hit low points for the lack of broccoli.

I ran out of time and didn't get to Trader Joe's. I should have planned better because I know they have some decent frozen foods.

Next up was a beef enchilada entree from El Charro. This is the cheapest, of the cheapest of frozen entree's in the case. And if low-quality is associated with low-cost, this is it. The promised rice was missing for the most part and any texture of tortilla had melted into the sauce. The sauce itself was fairly good, but there wasn't much substance to the beef. And in this type of entree, you really don't know what part of the cow they ground. Overall there was a pastey, cardboard/chemical note that lingered on the tongue. Obviously a major case of freezer burn. One wonders how many years it took for all those ice crystals to form- Plated- Grade: C-, only acceptable in the most extreme case of needing a quick snack out of the microwave.