BekkiM

Maybe it's just griddles are like that? I'm having similar problems with my new griddle--yesterday it took 12 minutes to heat up (yes, I timed it) even though the instructions say it can take "up to 45 seconds." 45 seconds, my aunt fanny... Can't wait to read more of the blog, especially to see the new digs in action.

Stop me before I Google again... This "recipe" cracked me up. How is the wasabi powder supposed to stick to the peas? If I wanted pure wasabi powder, I'd buy it in the 4lb bags I recently spotted at HMart and eat it with a spoon.

A quick Google search for "wasabi peas recipe" came up with All Recipes (Notice that they rehydrate the peas, and then dehydrate them again) And here's one that's not crunchy: recipe And one more, for good measure... another recipe I'm definitely going to have to make a project of this, because I love wasabi peas so much...

I need details! I'm having a very hard time picturing this... Or did you mean dishwasher?

There is a beautiful appetizer course in In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs for Potato Lasagna of Chanterelle Mushrooms--it's a lovely presentation of layers of paperthin potatoes with mushrooms and a white butter sauce. It looks like there may be video of it on the PBS site (here) and I'll be happy to send you the recipe if you PM me. It makes a fabulous, impressive start to a meal. Can't wait to hear what you (and others here on eGullet) come up with.

Watching Iron Chef America (Puck vs. Morimoto, Battle Egg), which you might think has an audience of people who might be interested in actual cooking (though maybe not) and the ad for the Carton O'Pancake Mix (aka Bisquick Shake-n-Pour) comes on... [image of water pouring into yellow plastic jug. Sound of something sloppy being shaken in a plastic carton--camera shakes up and down. Enter children, stage right] Boy: Oh boy! Pancakes! Mom: I knew you'd be happy... OMG! How hard is it to use your own bowl to mix water with Bisquick?!?! And that sloppy, sloggy sound of batter being shaken in the jug! OUCH. I seriously hope that my child never associates that sound with food.

It took me a while to figure out why I couldn't upload my pictures (which, miracle of miracles, I actually remembered to take during the course of the evening), so here goes: We started with Oysters Rockefeller (for Greed) and, except for the fact that I got unshucked oysters from Whole Paycheck without taking into account the minor issue of not knowing how to shuck oysters, forcing my dear, dear husband to rush back out an hour before the guests arrived to get 16 shucked oysters (oops), went, if you'll pardon the expression, swimmingly. NOTE: The plates are my favorite... Cheap glass plates from Cost Plus onto which I etched "EAT" using glass etching cream. The next course, which I did forget to photograph, was Shrimp Diablo (Anger) served on a smoked-corn pancake with something called "diablo sauce"--basically a spicy ginger-pepper sauce (and I only used one of the three habaneros called for). The recipe came from Food Down Under (here). The pancakes were a little time-consuming since I'm not that familiar with my griddle yet and spent some time fiddling with the temperature before getting something I liked. But they were extremely tasty and were great the next day as breakfast with scrambled eggs. Third came sloth, or Pea Soup with Parmesan Custards, Pickled Beets, and Truffle Oil. I basically used a recipe from Gourmet for Asperagus Soup, but since asparagus was $6.99/lb and frozen peas were $1.49, I went with peas. And I had had the pickled beets and truffle oil as part of a tasting menu at Luca D'Italia, so I added those. It was quite lovely, but my truffle oil was a little old--oh well, the guests were well-lubricated by that time and didn't notice. Fourth course was Pork Belly Confit with French Green Lentils. The confit was from Charcuterie, although I reheated it in the oven instead of deep-frying it, which may have detracted from the final dish, but it kept me from attempting to learn to use my new deep-fryer after several glasses of wine, which I felt was a wiser choice. The lentils were bastardized from a Whole Foods recipe for a pot pie sort of thing, but I cooked them with a smoked pork hock for flavor. They were definitely yummy, but the dish wasn't very pretty. In fact, it might almost belong in the regretable foods thread, except I can't hold a candle to the most recent entry. Fifth course was individual Wellingtons for Envy. Each guest got one of the four flavors, but not the other three. I'm pretty proud of myself for that idea. I did a Cornish Game Hen from Bobby Flay (recipe, a Pork Wellington of unknown origen (it was wrapped in filo, not puff pastry), Beef Wellington from Fine Cooking (recipe), and a Salmon Wellington, also of unknown origen. Somehow I missed a picture of the beef, but I have pictures of the other three. (As an aside, you may notice that my plating gets increasingly sloppy from here on out--I can only blame the wine!) The unappetizing-looking pinkish sauce was an attempt at a Pinot Noir Butter Sauce--tasted good, didn't look quite as rich as I had been hoping. Cornish Game Hen: Pork Tenderloin: Salmon: At this point, we took a little break from eating to let everyone get up and stretch their legs. I should mention that although we sat 15 for dinner, my dining room only holds about 12 comfortably, so it was very cramped. My dear, dear husband (who is an absolute saint) actually BUILT a table out of 2x4s and plywood for the occasion, after sitting down with a calculator and figuring out the minimum shoulder-width require for each place setting. The end result was an enormous expanse of table that could double as a dance floor and about 20 inches of free space on all sides, just enough to pull out your chair, slip into your seat, and that was it. If one person needed to get up, everybody got up. Anyway, after about a 30 minute intermission, we resumed with a cheese course for Pride--my Pride Rainbow (I'm also very tickled with myself for this idea). I served a local chevre with pomegranite and a lame attempt at raspberry pate de fruits (tasted mostly like jelly), homemade ricotta (which I am in LOVE with now) with tangerine confit, a ginger-sesame cookie with lemon stilton (it was supposed to have Meyer-lemon confit, but the lemons turned brown and shriveled, so I ditched them), sage darby with candied pistachios, and a fig with blue cheese. I had intended to plate these ahead of time and bring them out ready to go, but time got away from me and I plated during the intermission. Final course was Lust, which was supposed to be Molten Chocolate Cakes, only they didn't "molten" The truffle I inserted into each one basically melted into the batter, resulting in a moist, but definitely not runny, interior. They also needed to be sauced--creme anglais and raspberry sauce are my staples--but I ran out of time to make them. Wish it had been different, because this was the only course I was really unhappy about that night. Oh well, you live you learn. The plating absolutely bites in the picture I have, but that was partly because the good-looking plates (e.g. the ones that weren't mine) were taken to the table before I remembered to take a picture. And, last but not least, I wanted you to have a picture of the aftermath of the table. Somehow we don't have a "before" picture, which is a shame, because it was pretty cool. I draped the whole dining room in black vinyl tablecloth and hung random, off-kilter mirrors around the room. With the red table, the many candles, and some cool, circular menus a friend made for the occasion, it looked like a macabre whore house--which I thought was perfect for the Seven Deadly Sins.

I'll take some the next time I'm there. Customers are mostly Asian, but not entirely so. And all of the signs are in both English and a language I can't identify (Asian, obviously, but I'm terrible at these things--doesn't bode well for my upcoming trip to Thailand and Cambodia)--at any rate, everything's labelled so that it's identifiable and I'm sure the other patrons would be happy to answer questions.

I have just discovered my new, favorite, shopping obsession... HMart, at Parker and Havana, kind of behind the McDonalds which is behind Colorado Ski & Golf. It's amazing! It's an Asian grocery store, so it's got all sorts of produce you can't find anywhere else (at least, not that I know of) in the Denver area, including several varieties of baby eggplants, fresh kafir lime leaves, huge bundles of lemongrass (for $1.29!!!!), tons of greens I can't identify... It's fricking awesome! And the fish counter is beautiful... And they sell all sorts of cuts of meats that I haven't been able to find even at Tony's or Fred's, such as fresh pork belly, pigs feet, stuff I can't even identify. Have I mentioned that it's awesome? Highly, highly recommend a trip there. The place is always packed with shoppers, which is a very good sign, since it seems to me that it means the turnover of fresh produce and fish is high and therefore stuff's better quality that your local Albertson's or Safeway (even the "good" one on 14th and Krameria). Just thought I'd share!

So did my mother, with my youngest sibling. I remember her sitting a shot glass of bourbon on her belly, cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and watching the baby kick it off. Here's an anecdote: The day before my second child was born (almost 18 years ago), we went to a celebratory dinner with some friends. The waiter poured wine into my glass and I took one sip. An argument ensued at one of the other tables between a woman and her dining partner, over whether she should confront me or just call the police. For abusing the child. Of course, I had spent seven months on a measured diet and exercise program, testing my blood six times a day, seeing a nurse practitioner and my doctor weekly, but one sip of wine in public was enough to cause quite a problem -- for others. Anyone else remember those days? ← Oh yeah--fun times... Like when a coworker, who happened to be pregnant at the same time I was, had a hissy fit and started lecturing me about the dangers of caffeine during pregnany when I ate a... wait for it... mini-Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. The dangerous drug being present in the vast quantity of chocolate I had just consumed... Just happened to notice this in the news today.

Having just read through this extremely entertaining thread, I was tickled when I found this intro to a recipe on Leite's Culinaria: The emphasis is mine. But of course, being an eGulleter, I'm already trying to figure out how I can get around the limitation. There is a big difference, however, between substituting/modifying when you have some idea of what the consequences will be (and then acting like a grownup and accepting those consequences) and making uninformed, arbitrary changes, then blaming the source for your own mistakes.

No stone throwing here... I didn't breast feed at all and my son is healthy as a horse. Genetics and environmental factors, along with just pure bad luck, play a huge roll in what we're susceptible to in our lives.

In my brief search of MedLine, nothing jumped out at me although it seemed pretty clear that the consensus is that breast-feeding, while it may or may not actively prevent food allergies, does remove one potential source of common allergens--cow's milk from formula. And to return to the topic of eating, fatty fish (swordfish, etc.) apparently should be avoided since they may concentrate heavy metals in their fatty tissues. Honestly, though, stick your tongue out at rude strangers who look aghast at what you're eating unless it's arsenic-laced, red-dye-stained, lard-fried nuclear waste... Eat healthy--I'm sure you already know how to do it and don't make yourself insane worrying about every morsel that goes into your mouth. Most things, within reason and in moderation, are going to be perfectly fine. If you read some of the pregnancy books (I was addicted to the nasty things--shame on me), they'll warn you off all white flours and refined sugars, but as long you're balancing them out, a cookie now and again isn't going to be a problem. Hash brownies, maybe not so much... Ignoring the advice of the silly books, I ate a McDonald's fish filet at least once a week--and my son, now 10, won't eat at McDonald's, he thinks it's disgusting... I think food preferences are more a matter of exposure and culture than tastes developed while in the womb (although since I've also come to realize that my son was born with a personality b/c it's certainly not one I would necessarily have fostered in him, I'm not saying there's nothing to the "well I at X while I was pregnant and now my child can't get enough of it" school of thought). Congratulations! Enjoy the experience. ETA to clarify that I didn't eat an entire McDonald's, just a fish sandwich... I had cravings, but they weren't THAT bad!

I'll add a third (fourth?) for the 365 brand items at Whole Foods. I especially like the unsalted butter and the eggs, which are significantly cheaper at Whole Foods than at my local Albertsons/SafeWay/King Soopers. Unfortunately, that savings is offset if I set foot in the cheese section... I used to like the Kirkland olive oil at Costco, but lately I've been getting the Cost Plus brand--it's inexpensive and inoffensive, particularly for sauteeing, etc. I'm sure flour is flour is flour (esp. when you're baking simple things like banana bread and pancakes), but for some reason I can't bring myself to buy the store-brand. If available, I spring for King Arthur, but I'm fairly certain that's just food-snobbery, since my palate can't taste the difference. Ditto with sugar, white, brown, or powdered... Some things just aren't the same, though... I buy the Albertson's version of GrapeNuts every now and then since my husband goes through them so quickly (big bowl every morning) and cereal is sooooo over-priced, but he's never very happy with me when I do. Safeway Lucerne is just foul. Don't know why, but it is. As is the Albertson's Good Day brand. Yuck.

I bought my husband a deep fryer (well, I put his name on the package, but we all know who it was actually for... lol) and a couple of grill presses to make sandwiches on our new griddle. And a dinner guest brought a hostess gift of a vegetable chopper--basically a cutting grid over a glass container with a levered handle that you press down to force the food through the grid into the container (It's the large of the two pictured here) Very sweet of her, but I suspect it's destined for a garage sale as I much prefer chopping my own vegetables. The best gift, however, isn't for my kitchen so much as for the cook... My husband is taking me to the French Laundry for lunch the weekend before Valentine's day! Apparently he stayed up until 1:00am our time (midnight Pacific) trying to get dinner reservations four nights in a row and finally decided that lunch would be fine, so that's what we're doing. The gift came as clues in three parts: 1) a lunch box, 2) a heart-shaped box of candy with "Happy Valentine's Day -6" painted on the top by my son who was in on the trick (we're going on Feb 8), and 3) a basket of laundry with a French flag on top. Unfortunately, since I'm geographically challenged and didn't recognize the flag, the surprise fell a little short until my son, jumping out of his skin and grinning fit to burst, told me where it was from. I can't wait!

This has been our Thanksgiving tradition for years. I made the mistake of breaking with tradition this year and cooking a turkey... Way too much work and not nearly as tasty.

Course plan for my Seven Deadly Sins Tasting Menu: Greed: Oysters Rockefeller Anger: Shrimp Diablo served on a nest of squid ink pasta Sloth: Asparagus soup with Parmesan custards, truffle oil, and diced, pickled beets Gluttony: Braised pork belly with celery root puree Envy: Individual Wellingtons (probably half a wellington, since this is a tasting menu), some beef, some salmon, some portabello Pride: Cheese "Rainbow" (five different cheeses, one red something, one orange something, one yellow something, one green something, and figs with blue cheese) Lust: Chocolate lava cakes I have a very creative friend who's offered to help with the dining room--her plan is to drape the room in black (you can buy those vinyl tablecloths in rolls at party supply stores and I did something similar for Halloween last year), then suspend cheap mirrors at odd angles since her thought is that sins are reflective/contemplative... I think it will be cool. It was suggested elsewhere on this board that I "print" the sins on chocolate shards to identify each one. I'm thinking of doing that and/or stenciling the sins onto homemade crackers with various herbs. I'm having fun with this one.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I'm planning a themed dinner for this New Year's Eve: a seven deady sins tasting menu. I've finally (mostly) settled on a menu and now I'm just trying to figure out plating. As an avid home cook, I've got to plan meals that will work with the dishes I've got (or, if I'm going to buy additional pieces, make sure they're something I'll use again)... Unfortunately, through poor planning on my part and a slip of the tongue on a guest's part, I've got more people than I'm really comfortable with (15 instead of 12), so I'm trying to get a jump on planning so that as much as possible can be prepared ahead of time, limiting the fussy last-minute plating tasks that get less and less precise as the evening wears on and the wine flows.

No big insights, but don't miss the almond croissants... MMMMMMmmmmm...

This is why I'm addicted to eGullet! This is a perfect idea... Make them ahead of time and add them as I plate. I was trying to imagine how I was going to prestencil all of the plates and stack them without smudging the stencils, but your method is the easiest of all. Thanks!!! PS: I love the idea of the transfers, but I'm not sure I want to invest in a new printer and all of the materials for this dinner party. My husband is already steamed that I'm buying more plates and flatware (I've only got service for 12 right now).

I'm planning a "Seven Deadly Sins" menu for my New Years Eve dinner party and, while I have the menu pretty much decided, I'm struggling with plating. Over much wine on Friday evening, someone suggested that I stencil the sins onto the plates. The first idea was to etch the sins onto glass plates (I've done something similar before), but as I'm serving a 7-course tasting menu for 16 people, I'm not sure I want to own 112 "sins" plates that probably won't get used again (although I suppose there's always craigslist). The second idea was to do some sort of edible stencil, but that's where I'm stuck. Do you think I could spray the stencil with something like pam so an edible powder (flour? powdered sugar? cornstarch?) would cling to the plate? Has anyone done anything like this before? Thanks in advance for your help. The menu, by the way, looks something like this: Greed: Oysters Rockefeller Anger: Shrimp Diablo (A single shrimp served on a nest of squid ink pasta) Sloth: Asparagus soup with parmesan custards (garnished with truffle oil and pickled beets) Gluttony: Braised Pork Belly with ?? puree (I'm admittedly stealing this one from Rioja here in Denver) Envy: Individual Wellingtons (The plan is to make a couple of different kinds so people are "envious" of each other's plates) Pride: Rainbow of Cheese (Probably five cheeses, haven't finalized the plan exactly yet) Lust: Chocolate lava cakes (I think--at least I know it will be some sort of chocolate)

I like Ikea too, but the white plates and bowls I have (and admittedly they're not an exhaustive sampling of what Ikea has to offer) are a) not as white as the things I have from C&B and Target, b) somewhat cruder (in that the material is heavier, not so delicate), c) not as large (my C&B plates are 12", my largest Ikea plate is 9") and d) more prone to marking. Maybe I'm handicapped since I only get to an actual Ikea when I visit the inlaws in Michigan, but I haven't been as happy with my Ikea stuff, despite the price. However, I have had good luck with the above-mentioned C&B and Target, as well as Sur La Table. Online, CB2 (Crate & Barrel's "mod" offspring) seems to have pretty good pricing (although I haven't figured out if shipping costs offset the savings). I haven't found an upscale restaurant supply place here in Denver, so substitutes have had to be enough so far...

You might have thought, from the suspicious silence, that I actually did commit a Thanksgiving Eve murder, but it's not quite true... So the [countertop idiots] did show up the Friday before Thanksgiving with some of my counters... No, that's not a typo, they only showed up with *some* of the counters. The newly selected marble perimeter counters to be specific. The island material (limestone) was still having issues with "pitting" and the owner was still working on figuring out how to fix it. We'd known on Wednesday that they were having problems, but on Thursday they had assured us it was fixed and they'd be installing on Friday. There aren't enough curse words in all of the Earth languages combined to describe my reaction when the lead installer informed me that the island wasn't ready--but I tried to keep it all an internal diatribe since I needed him to get the perimeter counters in so that the sink and dishwasher could be plumbed. To add insult to injury, Dave's response to my shock upon discovering that my island wasn't ready was the equivalent of "sucks to be you". He said if the counter wasn't ready by the end of Friday, they'd *try* for Saturday and if Saturday didn't work, they'd *try* for Wednesday (Monday and Tuesday being reserved for higher-paying clients up in Vail apparently). To make a long story short, the perimeter counters (with the exception of one piece that they scratched and had to take back to the shop for additional polishing) went in on Friday and the island went in on Saturday. Wait, did I say I was making the story short? Wrong. Dave told me the pitting had been corrected and installed the island before I had a chance to examine it (a huge mistake on my part)--glued it to the island counters and everything. When I did get to look at it, there were CHUNKS out of the surface--not minor "pitting", but divots at least 1/2" deep. And when I pointed these glaring defects out to them, Dave's said "well, we'll have to come back some time and fix those, but I don't think there's much we can do" At which point, for the first time in this entire project, I burst into tears. After all this time and money and work, to have an island that couldn't possibly be used for any cooking activities because there's no way to actually clean it (imagine how much gunk would build up in those craters)--I just couldn't cope. So Dave, the fricking peach, left, leaving the poor installer alone with a crying woman. He (the installer, not Dave) felt terrible and spent at least 3 hours painstakingly filling as many of the major pits as he could (some of them are too shallow to hold the material). So it's functional, kind of, but not perfect. We're meeting with the company on Monday to discuss what, if anything, can be done about it. I admit it's partly our fault--we should have insisted on seeing in situ installations of the material before signing the contract--but we did discuss the material in depth before selecting it, including asking them if the the pits in the sample would be smoothed out. They assured us it would all be taken care of during installation. So we'll see what happens. On the plus side, the island (at 4' x 11', we've decided it's more of a continent than an island) is fucking beautiful, there's no other way to describe it. And the perimeter counters are absolutely lovely. Without further ado, here are some pictures of the final product... The money shot: As you can see, the walnut panel hanging over the island has been installed with the lights and it's very much the focal point we were after. The pendant lights took forever to install--I must have had a bad piece of romex b/c they kept shorting out (and frankly, lights just aren't complicated enough to justify shorts--it's all color-coded and it's not rocket science) and I must have torn them out and started over at least 15 times. But they're beautiful now... Here's a closeup of the walnut panel: And here's a closeup of the curved end of the island: For the island, we had the material double-layered, so it's 6cm instead of 3cm. We had seen a picture somewhere of that look and decided we wanted it for the island. We also kept the overhang to a minimum--basically the vertical surface of the edge is nearly flush with the face of the cabinets. We had Robert install a sheet of 1/2" plywood edged in black vinyl to give a "shadow-line" between the tops of the cabinets and the counter. It looks awesome. We're still trying to figure out if the steel framing under the counter will be enough support for the cantilever or if we need to make some sort of leg. For now, it's just cantilevered and seems completely stable. Here's a closeup of the marble on the perimeter: And, since part of the drive to get the counters by Thanksgiving was to get the sink installed, here's the sink with the KWC faucet (which ROCKS, btw): In CaliPoutine's kitchen topic, there's been a bit of a discussion about TVs in the kitchen, so here's our solution. The TV is a 24" flatscreen mounted on a bracket on a small section of wall at the end of the kitchen: The TV is visible if you're sitting at the end of the island (where I just happen to be sitting right now), perfect for my son who watches a show each morning as he eats breakfast. It's a little more visible than I would have liked (given my choice alone, I wouldn't have had a TV in the kitchen at all), but it's a good compromise since my husband wanted to put it front and center on the mosaic wall--and we couldn't have that. The equipment (HD receiver and DVR, as well as the amp for the speakers in the family room and on the deck) is housed in the cabinet above the refrigerator, a relatively awkward space that probably would have been unused otherwise: Another "storage" solution that I'm pretty happy with is that we put the two most commonly used (by my son, if not by me) appliances--the toaster and the microwave--inside the pantry cabinet next to the refrigerator. They remain accessible, but I don't have to look at them: Forgive the poptarts, but I did say that the appliances in question are used primarily by my 10-year-old son... And for my final thought of the evening, I had planned a couple of specific drawers in the kitchen, next to the sink, for dish towels, clean and dirty. The top drawer holds a large stack of clean flour sack towels that I use for everything from drying dishes, to pulling hot pans out of the oven, to drying washed herbs. The bottom drawer is for dirty ones (and dirty napkins and aprons), so they can be stockpiled for laundry day. So far it's been a great solution: We're definitely nearing the end, but as Fabby has said, things really seem to slow to a crawl at this point of the project. Everything is so exacting now that you can't rush it, and everyone has to be scheduled in series. But I've been able to cook and I am so happy with the overall result. Thanksgiving day worked perfectly--guests gathered at the rounded end of the island with snacks and wine while I had the other end completely to myself for cooking and prep tasks without being isolated from the action. And when it was time for dinner, the island was a fabulous buffet staging location. No jail yet and lots of happiness. Overall, very much worth the effort.

How could you NOT post pictures???

Thanks, I'm loving it so far. I too am surprised at how fast it went. From teardown to functional kitchen was only about 3 weeks. Our KD gave us a temporary countertop( melamine) and sink until the granite was ready for installation. I couldnt imagine not being able to cook for 2 months!! ← (trying to stave off murderous jealous urges...) 3 WEEKS? Are you kidding me? Where did I go wrong? It looks beautiful and I'm so happy for you.