David Ross

Thanks, it's my standard recipe for red meat braises- Dust a chuck roast with flour and then brown in olive oil in a heavy pot, (Le Creuset) until brown on all sides. Takes about 10 min. per side. Remove the roast and add more olive oil then carrot, celery, onion, garlic, black peppercorns and bay leaf. Saute until tender, then slug in a bottle of red wine and 2 cups beef stock, 1 can tomato paste, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary. Add the roast back to the pot, cover and braise in a 285 oven about 8-10 hours. Drain vegetables out of sauce and then you have it-the most wonderfully tender beef pot roast. It's very good as a ravioli filling or a filling for a pot pie under a puff pastry dome.

One of my favorite Fall braised dishes, slow (10 hours) braised pot roast served with pappardelle. You can't see it, but there's a bed of blanched spinach under the beef.

I'm mainly talking about gifts from fellow employees, but all of these stories are fun--sort of a gifts in the workplace if you will. In a former career many years ago I was a Production Manager at an Advertising Agency. That was in the days of bourbon lunches. Our Agency got all sorts of food gifts from our vendors-printers, shippers, television and radio production companies, etal. I remember lots of Omaha Steak packs.

Yes, I've had that experience with my employees giving me chocolates. Bless their hearts, but a Whitman sampler or the box of Walmart procured chocolates doesn't cut it for me. I've been spoiled over the years by having had chocolates from Master French Pastry Chefs. I don't let on, just say thank you so much and offer the chocolates to everyone in the office. One piece of a Whitman caramel won't kill me. On the other hand, I had an employee who used to bring us boxes of very expensive Belgian chocolates. It was almost embarassing getting a gift that we knew cost a lot of money. I do still love the chocolate-covered macadamia nuts that employees bring back after a visit to Hawaii.

I supervise 530 employees. A work group that large can be challenging, but it also has its rewards--in food. I'm fortunate because most of my employees live in the Pacific Northwest where there is a bounty of game, fruits, nuts, and seafood, all of which have landed under my Christmas tree. I also have employees who live throughout the country, (and many who travel around the world). As a result, I've been the lucky recipient of elk loin, canned dill pickles, squash blossoms, tomatoes, halibut cheeks and smoked salmon, crispy peanut brittle, and all manner of Holiday sweets, (some good, some tragically bad), and even a bag of cinnamon sticks from Southeast Asia. Fall usually brings me wonderful seasonal goods. I recently got a few quarts of wild, fresh Huckleberries picked off the high mountain ridges bordering an employees cattle ranch outside of Missoula, Montana. This morning, an employee who lives in Illinois brought me ground venison off a white tail harvested by her husband. I'm looking forward to the annual elk tenderloin an employee brings me after his family hunt in the Blue Mountains of Eastern, Oregon. Are you the lucky one who receives wonderful foods from fellow employees?

Do you dust the Scallops with flour before searing them?

This is going to be a fabulous journey this week. I think many of us will be living our food dreams through your story. I've been working something like about 9 days in a row and to come home and read about our mutual love of food and cooking puts all the office stress on the back burner.

I had never made Panna Cotta before yesterday, and now I'm glad I did. I've been looking for some new ideas of how to use the season's first crop of fresh Huckleberries. This year, with the supply of Huckleberries so low-and the price so high-I wasn't sure if I should risk using the berries in a new recipe or go with one of my old standby's. I came to a compromise and paired my Huckleberry Compote with a Sour Cream Panna Cotta. It was delicious. I used a recipe from Chef Laurent Tourondol as the basis of the Panna Cotta. But instead of cream fraiche I used sour cream, and instead of gelatin sheets, I used 1 1/2 tsp. of powdered gelatin. The result was a smooth, silky, creamy Panna Cotta with just a hint of sour tang. It paired beautifully with the Huckleberry Compote, which is a simple mixture of berries, sugar, wine, vinegar, cinnamon and nutmeg. I typically use red wine and balsamic vinegar, but this time I used champagne vinegar and late harvest riesling. The champagne vinegar was lighter than the balsamic and the late harvest riesling accented the sweetness of the Huckleberries. Enjoy.

In the early years of my airline career I worked as a Flight Attendant. This was in the pre-9/11 days and we could basically bring anything through in our suitcase. I always carted my college days hot pot with me, a can opener, and cans of meat chili or even better-a can of Mary Kitchen Corned Beef Hash. Heated up in the hot pot it was cheaper than eating hotel food or ordering room service, albeit a fatty, salty option. And I still eat it today. When you open the can be prepared for what looks like a compressed log of Alpo Dog Food-chunks of potato pressed together with pinkish globs of meat product. But put it in a frying pan and the magic begins. It fries up to a crispy, golden crust and juicy, hashy insides. Cover that with a sunnyside up egg and you have a pretty decent breakfast.

Tasteless? It seems to me that canned tuna is anything but tasteless. I can easily understand those who don't like the taste, I think it's quite strong. And if the canned tuna you are buying is dry, stringy, and/or tasteless, I'd suggest finding a better brand! I have to agree with Chris. Canned Tuna has a particularly "fishy" aroma and taste--and that's what I like about it.

I highly doubt a reputable fine dining restaurant would use canned meat or fish, but I'm often wrong. Now personally, in the confines of your own home, I think that if Underwood Deviled Ham or Fried Spam suits your taste buds, (as it does mine), we shouldn't feel guilty at all about using a canned meat product. (Albeit canned meat that is the butt of jokes). It's really no different than Julia Child having a penchant for Cheetos. I've been thinking some more today about how I really do like Canned Meats: -There is a Hawaiian restaurant in the SEA-TAC terminal just above my office. Their Spam, white rice, fried egg and biscuit breakfast is delicious. -Canned anchovies qualify as a canned meat (protein) product, and what kitchen would be without them? -While technically not in a "can," Hormel dried beef is packaged in glass jars using a "canning process." If you are a Traditionalist like I am, it's still a good product to use in that old-fashioned dish "Creamed, Chipped Beef on Toast." -Our local fair is going on right now and every year there is a category for "Canned Meats." The stuff they put in the canning jars alwasy looks like High School lab experiments to me, but given the fact we live in the upper reaches of Eastern, Washington in the Pacific Northwest, canned wild game is plentiful. There are jars of canned salmon, canned venison, elk, and the odd sampling of canned bear and moose meat. I'll venture into the canned salmon, but I've had roasted bear and it was awful. I can't imagine how horrible canned bear meat would taste given my naive palate.

Canned Meat is often derided as the food of the poor. Yet the derision by some falls on deaf ears when it comes to SPAM-the oft-maligned canned meat product that statistically is selling better than ever, especially in Hawaii. So it raises the question of how good canned meat can be. Tonight I prepared some toasted garlic baguette slices spread with a fancy pork pate covered in black peppercorn aspic. As I tasted the trendy toast, I immediately thought of my favorite canned meat product-Underwood Deviled Ham-that salty, spicy spread that my Mother used to slather on Wonder Bread for my school lunch. In fact, Underwood Deviled Ham is every bit as good, even better in fact, than the expensive, hand-made pork pate I bought at a local delicatessen. So can it be true? Is canned meat really all that bad?

Great cooks think alike. I just made a salad for work tommorrow including tuna, small white beans, diced tomato, capers, rosemary, thyme and basil, dressed simply with olive oil and lemon juice. It's quick and easy and far better than eating at the fast food shops in the building where I work.

I'm incurable. I have an addiction to Fair Food. Our Fair starts tommorrow and I'm so excited, I've printed off the PDF file of all the food vendors, highlighting the places I plan on visiting and the foods I plan on eating. The list reads: -Greek Food -Crab Cakes -Deep-fried Cheesecake -Prime Beef Burgers, Cougar Gold (from Pullman, WA) Cheese Fries, Cougar Gold Mac'n Cheese -Huckleberry Cheesecake -Huckleberry Ice Cream -Ecuadorian Pork, Red Beans, Rice -Fresh Local Cream Butter Fudge Should my list be bigger?

How does the fish-tamarind combination actually play out in a recipe? Is it a fish stew? Fish glazed with tamarind paste?

I do a salad of shaved pear, candied hazelnuts, bleu cheese, red onions and greens. Usually I do a simple vinaigrette. I'm thinking smoked trout may work well, but I'd probably just toast the hazelnuts and maybe change up the cheese so it's not too strong.

Oysters and Grits with Fresh Corn, (and a little Spanish Chorizo and Chorizo Oil)-

The offensive pairing of Grilled Sardines and Melon...

Tonight I did a dish of Grilled Sardines paired with Watermelon, Tuscan Cantaloupe, Olives and Feta. The garnishes were Mint, Basil, Lemon and Olive Oil. All nice ingredients on their own, but.....the end result wasn't very palatable. Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Mint, Basil and Lemon are beautiful in a late summer salad. The Feta adds a nice salty tang. Maybe a touch of Melon Liqueur? But throw oily Sardines into the mix with sweet melon and it equals=YUCK. Grilled Sardines and a hint of Lemon are all I needed. Just not fruit. So in the right combination, maybe a pineapple salsa with Hawaiian Ono, it could work. But I can't imagine a filet of Salmon with Sauteed Apples. What do you think?

What a terrible waste. The outer edges of the crust, if it was cooked properly, are the best part. All crackly, creakly and burnt, bubbly edges. Ummm.

The local fish market has expanded into a new store and they've got about three times the space. As a result, they are offering a much larger variety of seafood, including this wonderful monkfish. I roasted the monkfish and served it with a Provencal-style relish of black olives, tomatoes, red onion, orange segments, basil, rosemary and lavendar. Served with mashed potatoes.

Rumors have been swirling for months and now it's confirmed, Bradley Ogden restaurant in Caesar's Palace is closing. And one of the worst-kept secrets in the Las Vegas culinary world is finally, painfully, revealed-where will Gordon Ramsay land in Vegas? In the former Ogden space in a concept unsurprisingly called a "Gastropub."

Up until last year Nero's was a forgotten place that actually did a good job. Unfortunately, a few months back they announced it would close and would reopen as a "steakhouse," which it already is. I suppose it will have some celebrity Chef name over the door. My guess is that they've pretty much given up, as your experiences tells us, until they shutter the place, redecorate and then reopen. Very sad.

I think you've made good choices. Chef Richard Chen left Wing Lei a few years back, but I hear it is still good, especially the Peking Duck Tasting Menu if it's on offer. Robuchon should not disappoint from the service to the food to the wine. A memorable place indeed.

Our local Safeway currently has Hatch Chilies on special. I was surprised that a chain grocery store would have them because we can usually only get them at a local Mexican specialty market. They roast hundreds of pounds of them in a huge roaster out in the parking lot, (the specialty market, not Safeway). The aroma is wonderful. When I got to the checkout stand at Safeway the checker didn't know what they were. I told her, but she couldn't find the bar code numbers in her computer. When the Manager came over he said "green chilies." The checker said, "I know, I know, but he (meaning me), said they were 'special." I got them for a ridiculously low price since Safeway thought I was buying regular green chilies. I made a fresh salsa with the chilies I roasted, local tomatoes, red onion, lots of cilantro, cumin, olive oil and lime juice. Served on top of a wonderful beef tenderloin with sage-roasted potatoes.