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Shaya, those hearts are just too cute for words. Bruce, thanks for the compliments. GTO, I was recently on an airline flight and saw this for sale in the onboard magazine. I am almost inclined. But I was wondering if it would be a good investment...people might think that I am starting to go a little nuts, if that was set up in my kitchen. http://www.hammacher.com/publish/73033.asp...ative=658794741

Klary, Thanks for the compliment. They are getting better, but always room for improvement.

Little Ms. Foodie, you are welcome, and of course you come through with some more really really gorgeous pictures! What a lovely dinner. I took photos of our crab, but I'll have to see how they look on the computer, they were seeming a little off in composition.

Hi Everyone, Happy Valentines Day. As my dinner is cooking for tonight (we eat late) here are some pictures that I haven't had a chance to put up yet. Last night, I made a friend's recipe of Pesto lasagna with roasted red peppers, sausage and a bechemel sauce. Pretty tasty: This past Sunday, my BF made Chicken and Dumplings: As a tribute to Purple Wiz, I tried out her chili crusted pork roast. I didn't have exactly the chili's that she used, but it turned out good and I used a tenderloin. Along side of it, I made a pan fried polenta, which wasn't that bad. This is my BF's creation, he calls it Jenne Penne, named after a friend of his. It's basically a sausage and red bell pepper saute with a bunch of other good stuff. Lastly, a couple of weeks ago, while reading the Soup Foodblog of those freezing cold ladies up north, I made a potato cheese soup with pancetta. Very good and satisfying. I took someone's advice and put in some beer, but not quite enough, I was thirsty. Thanks to everyone for their inspiration and for sharing their recipes. It's fun to try stuff out.

Cool, I will check out the movie...I got the gist of the story, but it took going back and re-reading and re-reading to get it. I never was exposed to her prior to this, and I think that you and I are about the same age, I might be a little older (shhhh...almost 38, okay just saw your profile and I am a lot older!) but I was never exposed to her in High School or College. I just started reading "The Pilots Wife", which is starting out to be pretty good. I know its been out for a while. edited to correct the age difference.

Forest, welcome to picture posting...it does become an addiction, since I am still trying to find the perfect lighting, set up etc. I actually found quite a bit of hints on this site, under the digital camera thread....like using a piece of paper towel or toilet paper (not used, ) over the flash to filter the light out a bit...makes a world of difference. I would love some hints say, from the top of my head, Klary or Little Ms. Foodie on how they stage their meals, since they are always awesome looking pictures and cool looking angles. Glenn, that tempura looked awesome....I hope to have pics soon of our dinner tonight, that is if my BF ever wakes up from a nap to start helping me make it. We're having dungeness crabs with clarified butter and hasselback potatoes. Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Happy Valentines Day Megan! Your night out sounded fantastic. God Bless you for reading Jane Austen....I just read Persuasion for my book club and it was the hardest little book to get through, it took me three weeks to go through it, versus the usual 1-2 days for a book. I know she's an icon in the literary world, but I had tough time, as did most of the folks in the book club (they are bigger readers than me) since they didn't read it. I may check out the movie, since I did like the idea of the story.

That was a great blog!

wow, all that on a Monday night? Jeez, I had leftover chicken and dumplings and there were hardly any dumplings left, due to BF eating them all day long while I was at work. Thank you for sharing your truly wonderful meal with us.

I agree with a poster above that Tony going on Rachael Ray would be a sell out, but I would watch it, just to see how she would react with him, but I don't think that would ever happen in a million years. As for Oprah, we can only hope that she finally has realized her mistake with Ms. Ray and maybe would rather have Tony be her shining star? He'd be a great talk show host. I do believe that I either remember reading or hearing him somewhere saying that he is a media whore and will take the exposure where he get it, something along those lines. We could all use a little more Tony and lot less of Rachael Ray.

lucky you! All of us out here in egulletland can only dream about a dinner at Daniel's. Have a great time, and looking forward to seeing what is in store for you tonight.

Wow, those restaurants sound awesome. Especially the last one with their crab souffle, that sounds to die for. Do you typically go to those types of restaurants on a regular basis in a regular week?

Klary, thank you for telling me the original person. Megan Pm'd her version...it was good, but we needed to tweak it a little, and I didn't do the butter like foodman mentions, so I'll have to try that again with that addition.

Ann, thanks for the compliment, and your pictures are very nice too, and is hopefully going to inspire me to make something good for dinner tonight.

Megan, I am so glad to read your blog, from one diet coke sister to another...that is my morning caffeine fix, since I am not a coffee girl (I know, shame on me). I am also really happy that someone refreshed our memory of where your beautiful cake came from, I may have to try it some time. Enjoy your week, I know that we will.

Marlene, that steak is making me hungry. Here are a couple from the past couple of weeks. Felt like some good soup, so we made a sausage tortellini soup: As a tribute to Megan and someone else, who I apologize I forgot who did it, please don't hate me. I made braised garlic, balsamic with spaghetti...very good, next time I'll add tons more garlic. Lastly, an asian chicken salad, that is one of my favorites:

I believe the escargot was served that way. I didn't order it, it was just passed around and there were tomatoes in in. Very tasty, with lots of garlic too. I had the New York Steak with portabella "frites" The steak was very tasty the portabella "frites" had promise, but they were somewhat cold, and we also ordered the regular frites which were good. My friend had the Berkshire Pork Chop which I had a taste of, and it was very very good. It came with grilled brussel sprouts I believe, which she said was good. For dessert, I had the crossiant chocolate bread pudding, which was okay, my friend had the creme brulee that was very good. The cheese plate also had some very good cheeses on it as well. Overall, a great dinner, despite the "okay" review on some of the items. I was not disappointed at all.

Thanks again to those of you that recommended Pinot Provance. We ate there on Tuesday night, and was a wonderful wonderful meal. The service was fantastic, as there ended up being 9 of us, they put us in the this little back room, which was very nice. I tried their escargot for the first time in my life, and while I was expecting it to be very chewy and rubbery, it was wonderfully tender and quite tasty. My dining guests also thank you too. I knew that egullet wouldn't let me down!

yes, I believe that Megan made that cake..oh goody another Manhatton food blog.

funny you guys mention abelskeiver today, my Danish friend came over and made us a breakfast of them..My BF and I were thinking of the kinds of filling that could go inside..ham and cheese, etc. I may have to buy a special pan now.

Stephanie, basically, what I do is a cup of cream (heavy whipping kind) and two tablespoons of buttermilk. In a clean container on the counter for 24-48 hours. Longer in the winter than the summer. Hmmm. Thinking a dessert item for tomorrow now that you reminded me that I have the fraiche. ← Thanks Susan....no straining right, just sitting on ten the counter? Is it covered or not. Thanks, I am going to have to try it since I just discovered a love of it.

I apologize for not remembering which you wonderful ladies said it, but someone made a mention of homemade creme fraiche? Is that a recipe that can be shared? I am intrigued. Thanks for a wonderful blog ladies.

Judith, thank you for sharing Quinn's history with you with us. I can totally appreciate the importance of Quinn's job...I have had hearing problems most of my life, while they are very minor in comparison, I had a recent situation that made me thankful that my hearing problems aren't totally severe. I had an inner ear re construction last June, which is still healing, but in December, I got a severe head cold that really congested my hearing worse than before my surgery, especially with low sounds. I was cleaning up in the kitchen, and using the garbage disposal, and since I was taking all kinds of cold medicine, my head was a little foggy. Well, I turned off the water, and without thinking, because I couldn't hear it, I left the garbage disposal on. It probably stayed on for a good 10 minutes or so, long enough for me to go back to the living room, sit down and start watching tv. The only way I knew that it was on was because I started smelling smoke, and was perplexed since I couldn't find the source. My boyfriend who was in the other room, pointed out that the motor on the disposal was practically on the verge of burning out, and was extremely hot, since I had left it running without any water. It was pretty scary, since I am fearful of fire more than anything. So I am glad that you have Quinn to help you out in those situations..give him a doggy treat from me please!

It always amazes me what you whip up for dinner on a weeknight Daniel...just lovely!

strictly my opinion, and I will start off saying that Sam really showed to be a strong contender from the beginning and should have been Top Chef. Marcel, as much as I don't want to like him, should have won. He thought "out of the box" and did good food that the judges liked. WD was excited over a couple of his dishes, which should sort of show for something. Ilan the baby, who really needed to be slapped around a few times, didn't think out of the box, had better support from his sous chefs, and yes, I'll admit a more likable guy. I think Marcel summed it up with regard to the support that he had from his team members, when he said "I didn't come here to make friends", that is totally true, and while that was the case, and in a perfect world, everyone would have gotten along, they were all competing with each other, and personally, they were probably jealous of Marcel's talent and confidence, and just didn't want to like him. Yes, I will admit that Marcel can be a little weird at times. I think that Mikey especially, looked like a jack ass, you would go a lot further to just suck it up and do everything you can do help your teammate win, you never know who may or may not offer you a job in the future. You should have put in 110% and not 85%, that I seemed to witness. Sam started off with the right attitute, I want to learn from Marcel, etc..but then seemed to fall off towards the end, maybe attributed towards bitterness, I don't know. Overall, Ilan in NO WAY compares to the talents of Harold D. from first season, and won't go as far, if he is going to just do copy cat recipes and keep his little school boy attitude that he's got. Harold set the bar really high, and it is my feeling that it will be hard to cross it. Again, just my opinion. Thanks!