Kouign Aman

Much easier on the flow of the meal - put the shawl over baby's head, without fuss or comment. Continue conversation, continue eating dinner. Shawl over mom's shoulder and baby's head avoids potentially unappreciated exposure without delaying dinner.

Thee Bungalow is pleasant, and quite suitable, IMO. There's something about the wine bottle pattern on the upholstery that sends a message of good times to be had.

Oh god. I have friends who have probably thought of posting about a meal with me. I invited them to dinner, at a well-known restaurant. After we were seated, they mentioned they werent impressed by the place, but that it was "ok". OK, so dinner isnt the treat I'd hoped, but the conversation was good, we could survive. The couple was 2 generations older than me, so to avoid the literal fight for the check, I flagged the waiter as I made a putative trip to the facilities. I arranged to have the bill written up with appropriate tip, and delivered directly to me. The male friend nearly climbed over the table to get the bill. He was so uncomfortable with my insistence on paying (age, gender) that I think it probably spoiled the entire evening for both of them.

He koulda gone vegetarian and had kale. Thank goodness for quesadillas in a few weeks!

In 2009, I will eat - more vegetables I will make - a breakfast casserole; a meal of the new vegetable. I will find - a good meatloaf recipe (w the ketchup baked on top) & a better mac'n cheese recipe (currently have Alton Brown's). I will learn - how to make ravioli I will teach - the munchkin to scramble an egg I will read - nothing in particular I will grow - at least one vegetable I have never grown before

Status report 17Dec08 I will eat ..... Oh yes, I will eat! I did. I weigh now what I weighed then. I will make that persian lamb & cherries dish the tenor likes so muchI didnt. I suck. I started it. Too many steps in the process. Next year! I will find a new 'favorite' vegetable / veg preparation for the family, or at least for the munchkin[yup, Eggplant parmesan it stayed. I will learn how to plan ahead for a special recipe, since the tenor does all shopping and how to cook spicy garlic eggplant because I like it so much Not even close I will teach the munchkin more about cookingYup: measuring. and using the whisk. And much better at egg cracking than the year before I will read ... nothing in particular comes to mindvery little about cooking, unfortunately, but a few good blogs - badhomecooking and Gatherings And I will grow vegetables we like to eat and cook. And yeah verily, the munchkin shall help me. And we shall look for the unexpected, like red carrots, purple potatoes and black tomatoes loads of tomatoes. japanese eggplant, a few herbs, strawberries and a mystery fruit.

I think its called The Olde Ship and I think its in the city of Orange.

I like to pop in chili-infused oil. Gives a nice warmth to the finished product. Havent tried herb-oils. I suspect herb-butter would be better way to add that flavor. Orville, while costly, seems to give the best overall results for me. Not enough better for the $ tho, these days. If popped in plain oil, especially olive oil, salt & peper go well. Spike (a seasoning salt) is my all time favorite for popcorn. Especially if popped with the chili-oil. I have friends who mist on soy sauce. I think that would be good especially if there were sesame oil added to the popping oil. But I have no idea how they keep the popcorn from getting soggy.

Oh dear. My Panda Express addiction is the eggplant dish. It was better before they added the tofu some years back, but its still worth going out of my way for. Except... I havent been out of my way for a couple months (summer schedule), and now I'm afraid its gone forever. I think I'm gonna have to make a PE run this weekend, and find out. That damn orange chicken ... its so good. So is the stringbean chicken. That used to be my cat's favorite.

Sodding ground squirrels have eaten most of the tomatoes since early July. :cry: (Boy, those early ones were soooo good!) We've taken to picking them 3 days before they're properly ripe, and finishing them in the window. Otherwise, the little *&^s get them overnight. Looks like we have a couple more months of fruit ahead of us. Lots of lovely japanese eggplants, and no idea what to do with them. The groundsquirrels dont touch them! Two "giant" pumpkins coming along. The "Dwarf Mammoth" sunflowers topped out at 6" tall, with 3" diameter flowers. Yes, that's the "inch" sign. We'll try a different variety and different location next year. We didnt pick the corn soon enough, so it was fun, but not delicious. Next year! The quince set lots of fruit. The ants set lots of scale insects. Gonna have to fight back with a soapy cloth. I hate wiping those things off but it seems to be the only way. The baby bay tree is not getting any bigger, but nor is it dying apparently. Its getting toward fall, and time to plant 'cool season' stuff in a month or so. How do folks manage to plant, so close to all the holidays!

Bruce, that looks truely nasty. The cat hacked up a gutfull of kibble last night, and its a dead ringer (barring the sliced peppers) for the photo. Good work!

Might this be a cultural thing? In England, biscuits are what we would call cookies. I've fallen in love with Joy of Cooking's cream biscuits. They are as easy as can be, tender, tasty, FAST, and with Costco selling quarts of cream for a little of $2, they're quite reasonable. I made them a bit thick, and they took about 2x as long to cook as the recipe claimed. I've made the basic Joy recipe before and its good too. Takes a bit more patience at the mixing end, and I get more variable results.

I've got a premonition. I walked into work at 8 am and straight to the vending machine, where the only potato chips were "Earthquake" flavor. (all the tag lots of seasonings, mixed together). They werent that good. I want another bag. Or 6.

Tho I think Fresser said it best overall, I cant resist a reply to this post. Me, I eat where and when I can and I enjoy reading of other people's eats. Sometimes the shots even educate me on where to eat, or what to cook. We're different, you and me. Sue me. I take it you indulge in neither vacation photos nor family snapshots? Me, I'm visual. Such things trigger memories. And in the meantime, reading and viewing other's experiences keeps the motivation high.

Well, it took a year, and another birthday, but I made the Chocolate Bar cupcakes finally. They were a big hit, both at 'school' and at home. Nice brownie flavor. The 'chocolate bar' was 62% ghiradelli chips. We got to use the scale for the first time, and herself measured all the dry goods. The dairyfree restriction was lifted by changes in class population, and the frosting color restriction was also lifted, so I frosted them with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache. The munchkin decorated the tops with mini marshmallows. We scaled the recipe to 150%. We baked 24 cupcakes, then 12 more. The batches were indistinguishable. The batter had nice stability. The finished cupcakes were very delicate and rich. Somewhere, there's a picture. Kim Shook's Chocolate Bar Cupcakes

Adapt Ling's lime cookies. I did them as sour orange and it worked well. Kumquat - I assume you have a supply for taste comparisons during development? Sour orange is 'faked' with orange juice and lime. But much better - you can buy it in bottles (Goya), if you dont have a sour orange tree. I have no idea what kumquat zest tastes like! I used to keep a bottle of ascorbic acid in the kitchen to enhance lemon bars. Shouldnt be too hard to find food-grade vitamin c. Good luck, have fun, and please have a tasting of your first full scale batch. Might even be worth a trip out to you (if gas prices drop a bit).

I have no idea if this would help you, but I cannot see how it could hurt. In addition to all the steps previously posted, send them a note now, explaining that you're coming from ?Dublin? for your honeymoon, and would love it eat at TFL for any of these 8 meals. Worst case, it does nothing, but they know you care. Everyone likes fan mail!

I'd order the waffles. I'd adjust my meal to make sure I had enough room for that. I agree, the choc chip cookie is out of place. and it would help to know target audience etc.

Ok, its said. Any takers? Report back on: overall impression service food - preparation, creativity, presentation, __________, _____________ We're from all walks, trying to develop a standard by which to communicate. Me, I just like to eat, so please dive in and make suggestions. Thanks!

Did someone say panna cotta? Jack, those are purty chocolates. I wish you success.

Tomatoes with mayo are pretty standard british fare. The basil wont mind, tho the mozzarella might protest. We're out of Duke's, and the tomatoes are ripe. Hoping to score via the internet and mail order.

I am happy with the garden. Sungolds are getting eaten before breakfast. Munchkin picks em for lunch but they dont make it back into the house. Early Girl didnt beat the others this year - we've a golden one same size, similar taste. It was first to ripe. Funniest was a couple of dried up currant tomatoes I planted. I tore 2 of the 3 apart and spread the seeds. No germination. Munchkin dropped the third one, and I never found it. Found it this weekend, 3 weeks later. Its the base of a huge clump of alfalfa sprout sized tomato seedlings. I separated them and replanted, hoping they get bigger. There are about 40 of them! Anyone want one of the plants if they make it? I'll be ready to share at the 2" pot stage - hoping that will be in 2 weeks. BigBeef is being delicious. More 'tomatoey' than Early Girl and nearly as sweet. We've been pigging out on BT sandwiches. The black variety germinated but all the seedlings withered away. Corn! I see ears of corn! & buds on the sunflowers. And flowers on the pumpkins! Technically, pumpkins are squash. Has anyone cooked pumpkin blossoms? Any good? No basil at all. Odd. No carrots. Gonna have to try again on both, and its really quite late for that. And try some more corn. Toliver, have her water them more. Last year, I found that it helped the skin texture if I watered the heck out of the plant in the am before picking in the afternoon. Probably stretched it. Tho thick skin peels off easier, so that's an option.

The only restaurant that seems to be getting any consistent mention is 9-10. From early threads, I'm surprised no one brought up Chive. Restaurant week is over. Who is interested in picking a restaurant with the goal that we all go there sometime during the next ?two? months (and hoping that the chef remains the same) ? My thinking is that we'll all experience the same place, in 'normal' circumstances (not a huge group), and then we'll be able to place our comments into a common framework. For example, the person who's been to the top 10 in the US might find it 'enjoyable if cliched', while yours truely might be wowed by the creativity due to relative lack of exposure to what's out there. From that, we'd be able to calibrate our understanding of other posts, as we discuss the San Diego dining environment.

I think rosemary prefers to dry out a bit - its a mediterranean plant. We just returned from 10 days of trusting the garden to the kid across the street. He did stellar work keeping up with the watering. The first thing the munchkin ate on our return home was a fresh tomato picked in the morning. This morning, we were munching on Sungolds. The orange/gold colored tomatoes seem to be ripening faster. We also have two beefsteaks ready for dinner tonight, with one Early Girl. One Mr Stripey ripened, but then something weird happened to 2/3 of it, and its mummified. Two days before we left, I put 3 giant pumpkin plants into the ground. Its easy to tell where I did a better job of digging and backfilling - that plant is 10x bigger than the other two, tho all were the same at planting. The eggplant went into a larger pot and now has lovely deep purple flowers, and more of the corn is putting out tassels. The Mammoth Dwarf sunflowers are VERY dwarf - I see flower buds on 6" high stems. There are several more 6" pots of tomatoes ready to go into bigger pots or the ground (they were planted from 2" pots right before vacation). All the herbs flowered. The baby lettuces never got bigger than a child's fingernail, then died. We'll try again. Summah is heah!

I didnt have the best laid plans. We didnt get to many of the recommended locations. We did have fun. What a wonderful city! Next time, I SWEAR I'll print out a map early, and mark the recommended food options on it! One night, I had crabcakes at Legal Seafood in the Prudential Center. Too much food, so one became lunch the next day, between two pieces of foccacia. Happy me! There's an interesting pan asian place at the Quincy Market where we ate dinner one night. I'll have to dig up the name. The host seemed to think that 'attitude' was what was required from him. Fortunately, the waitress made up for it in spades. I'd have preferred less prevelance of the piquante note, but enjoyed the meal. I hadnt had fried asparagus since Jr High latin class. It was a treat, tho not my preferred preparation. We ate twice on Hanover St - once at ___________ (sigh). The munckin and spousal unit had mussels for the first time and they were a big hit. As was the rest of the meal - superb eggplant parmigiana. The second was lunch at The Daily Catch. Monkfish for him, squidink pasta putanesca for me and the munchkin to share. Absolutely wonderful. We also had mussels 'sicilian' style - very good. There's a pic somewhere I'll try to post. I got the appetizer portion of pasta and am glad I did. We didnt manage to finish, tho I tried mightily, not wanting to let a molecule of the flavor go unappreciated. The monkfish was delightful, with the texture just right. We left happy. Two times we stopped for gelato at Gigi's, trying a total of 7 flavors. Not bad (not up to the spouse's italian referents), and it was where we were, when we needed it (for munchkin behaviour mod). We also tried the gelato at Mikes pastry shop. YUCK. Bad flavor, bad texture. The lines for pastries were too long for the attention span, so we bailed. We also ate a couple times at a place near Acton called Not Your Average Joes, which we enjoyed. Kid friendly but better than usual entree choices for the adults, and well prepared. I had a succotashy thing: polenta, corn, peppers, bacon etc that was very good and interesting. The plates are huge, and the portion looked huge even on that big plate. I managed about half of it. The mustard crusted chicken and rosemary scallops were very good. We had the chicken twice and it was consistently well prepared. We also enjoyed their coconut shrimp appetizer (I prefered it without the dipping sauce), and the crab cakes. One friend didnt like the crabcakes due to the presence of celery. The day we planned to eat at the Summer Shack, things went awry, and we had to skip it.