sus

Also, I bought it at a local store in Denver called Marczyck which i LOVE. I know people here have mentioned before ordering from Dietrich's but I did not have time to do that though the Marczyck pound was more expensive than what I hear Dietric's is.

Thanks guys! We won't use the leaf lard for the Empanada Extravaganza but we will render some today for Thanksgiving Fest. Regards! Su

Hi kids. I am in the process of making some empanadas and we bought some Niman Leaf Lard which I was really excited to use but this lard looks nothing like the lard I generally buy in a bucket, or crisco or so. This lard is thick and has connective tissue. Sorry if i sound like an ignoramus but how DO I use this lard? Do I need to render it? What is the easiest way to do so? Thanks in advance for your responses! Su

Hey guys. This is all great information. Will be useful when I am permanently in the area, too! I am just baking these two pies so it is good to know that it will be Ok. I even found a place that has leaf lard and am excited about trying my crust with that. Su

Thanks guys! I went ahead and purchased what the SO wanted. Let's see how it all goes.

Hello Hello! It is that time of the year where I start making pies and stuff. I have my great recipes that I generally use but this year I am spending Thanks Giving with the SO and his family in Denver. I had not been planning on doing anything because I generally feel uncomfortable cooking at other people's kitchen but I guess my SO offered me and my baking skills for Thanks Giving. Apparently, I will be baking an apple pie and perhaps a pumpkin pie, with my very own crust. I have never baked at high altitudes and am a bit nervous about the process. I would love to hear your feedback and possibly recipes for a delicious pumpkin pie and/or apple pie baked at high altitudes that would be great. Looking forward to your feedback, suggestions and recipes! Sue

Thanks! I was thinking about Saz18 and some others but wanted to find out if this obscure one is a Templeton and whether one should mess with a man's choice of libation? :-) Thanks! Sus

The holidays are coming and I have been trying to track down an Iowa Whiskey my SO tried once in Chicago and really liked. He said you could only get it in Iowa and Chicago. I did some research and found Templeton Rye but I am trying to rule out other possibilities. Any other suggestions as to good similar whiskeys (if it is indeed Templeton's Rye) would be greatly appreciated....though I am inclined to gift him the one he tried and loved.

Greetings, I have been asked to make a gazpacho meal for my in laws. I have decided on white gazpacho as they love gazpacho and we already had some this week. I figured white gazpacho would b the way to go for some variety. The question now, is, then, do you have a favorite recipe that will dazzle the in laws? Is there a traditional way to serve white gazpacho? I know that the tomato gazpacho is often paired with tortilla espanola or tortilla de patatas. Is there something comparable for white gazpacho? Thanks in advance and regards!

So on a recent trip, I learned about this delicious dying breed of honey: questa honey. I would like to give it as a gift but have no idea of where to find it and order it. Suggestions? Thanks in advance!

I am so sorry if this has been asked before but I have been reading through some cookie threads that have some wonderful cookie recipes I would like to try (Korovas, CIA Mudslides anyone?). However, I am having a really hard time finding simply delicious chocolate chip cookies recipes. I don't like them crisp, though I like them thin, and soft, though not too soft. Oh oh. Any help, even if to point me to the right thread, would be appreciated! Thanks!!! Sus

Just so everyone knows, as i was headed to do the surf and turf my mother had already purchased some pretty hefty and tasty rib eyes. I improvised by cooking them in the cast iron, then turned it down and placed a flat pan (that I later found out buried somewhere in the apartment's owner pantry) pan side down over the steaks to create sort of an oven. The steaks were delish. I ended up making Ed's potato salad and everything was just delicious.

I like it. Maybe do a surf and turf---scallops and 1inch or less thick london broil? Off to the supermarket to look around and experiment. Thanks so much for the inputs!! -Sus

It's the day before mother's day and I am visiting my family in Puerto Rico. I am renting an apartment that has no oven. Now, I had planned a nice meal for my family in my apt which included a lovely arugula salad, potato salad (could not escape this one as my father explicitly requested it as he only likes my recipe and he gets to eat it only when I visit). Now, I wanted to accompany the potatoes w. a simple steak, cooked in cast iron and then finished in oven. Today I woke up and realized that the kitchen has no oven! Now, to be honest, I think I already knew this but kept blocking it. Now, w/o an oven what kinds of simple good meats would you suggest I could possibly make? How? Chicken is out of the question (sick and tired of it), but I could replace the meat for some sort of seafood. Thanks in advance for the suggestions! -Sus

I never gave a report back on the turkey. It was absolutely delicious. The turkey was both crispy and soft. It was such a degree of melt in your mouth that the other students at first thought it was raw....until a more educated palate informed them it was simply cooked to perfection and not they dry kind they are probably used to at home. I was thankful for the girl who said that. The turkey was also super flavorful. The stuffing turned out exactly as I had planned. Im not sure how to upload pictures but when I have some more time I will. Thanks so much for the feedback and encouragement! Sus

I am glad I found this thread. Im a student at Pitt. Procrastinating a bit and thinking about how dismayed I am about food in the Pitt. So far, if it's not greasy and a million calories it's not worth it for me in the city. I am sad to report that my favorite places are all along the lines of greasy spoon---The Sandwich Shop in Bloomfield (simply because of the family feel), The O and Fuel and Fuddle in Oakland. I visited Tessaros recently but it did not blow my mind in any way. The burgers at Yankee Doodle in New Haven, Louis in New Haven, Dotty Dumpling in Madison, WI and El Hamburger in Puerto Rico will always be winners over Tessaros. A shame too because I live a block away from it. I do like Lot 17 quite a bit and often find it in par w. Tessaro's. They also have sweet potato fries that are delicious. Alas, perhaps I just tried Tessaro's on a bad day. Believe it or not, the best Italian I have tried thus far (and I must confess I have not put a huge effort into this endeavor) has been Del's. Nothing to write home about amazing but very good for what I had had before. I went to Lulu's with great expectations as per my boyfriend's recommendation and was very dissapointed in their version of Korean's Bim bop (Im typing fast so not sure this is the right name or spelling) Pamelas in Oakland was passable at best, and the one in the Strip was simply disgusting. DeLucas in the strip is very good.(See my comment about grease and grisy joints being superb in the area.) I have yet to find an Indian restaurant I like or a sushi place I enjoy. Now for the goods (and there are few in my list so Im excited about trying the ones I have not in this thread): I love Abay for ethiopian food, Richards Cafe on the Strip for breakfast---great service, omelletes, paistries, croissants, everything this place serves is good--a little gem. I also like The Quiet Storm. This is more like a coffee shop but has the best vegetarian menu I have encountered in the city (of which I have not encountered many). Sadly, and this is my biggest gripe about food in Pittsburgh: Mexican. I have to disagree with everyone on the thread about Mad Max being good. I had it this past weekend. It was decent but not amazing Mexican by any means. I tried La Fiesta and Veracruz in the past and they were even more dissapointing. Again, these restaurants do not compare to what you would find in NYC (in fact my last trip I had a stop over in NY and decided to get Mexican precisely because it will be eons before I can get good Mexican again), Madison (which has an extraordinarily high ratio of good Mexican restaurants) or even in Puerto Rico. I have to admit that when I lived in CT, I did not really enjoy good Mexican there either. This is a shame and if any egullets are interested, I think there would be a great market for good, authentic Mexican in the area. I have yet to find it. Ill keep searching. Thanks for the leads!

Thanks to all of you guys. I am not as nervous anymore. In fact, a bit excited over this whole endeavor. Zoe, yes lard, pork, yada yada are of vast importance in the island culinary tradition. In fact some of the spices I am using are meant to give the turkey a "pork" flavor. It is called "pavochon" Maning a Pavo (turkey) that tastes like lechon (pork). I am thinking I might have to dissapoint my friend and add pork rind to the mofongo....I just cannot bring myself to such sacriledge. I can just cook the stuffing in a cheese cloth bag so it does not touch the turkey. If she were Kosher I would be more willing to not do this but she simply thinks pigs are cute. Hardly enough reason to forgo one of the basic ingredients in Mofongo.

Zoe, Thanks for the reply. I have never stuffed the turkey with plantains (in Puerto Rico where I am from we actually stuff it either w. plantains or ground beef stuffing. My family used to do the latter) but my sister has started doing it since she moved to NY and I have a chef friend from NY who has done it a couple of yrs as well. They gave me their recipes and I am going to try and make my own from it. Depending on how it goes I will definitely post it on this thread. The general idea however is to make a Mofongo that is a bit drier than traditional mofongo (usually when you make mofongo you process it so you can form little balls with the plantains) with bacon or crushed pork rinds. You cook the plantains and process them w. the rinds, olive oil, lots of garlic and you will have a consistency similar to the bread crumbs that are traditionallly used in the US as stuffing. I assume from there you can use a recipe similar to a classic stuffing recipe. I personally like it as it is. You add chicken stock to moisten the mix you have processed and stuff the turkey. Before serving I would take the stuffing out and place it in the oven for a bit to make a bit crispy. It is very simple and delicious. Nothing fancy here ) I am using turkey bacon because one of the people coming does not eat pork (nothing Kosher. She just thinks pigs are cute) I might just have her not eat the dang thing because pork is key in this dish. I am a little confused as to weather honeysuckle is frozen or not. The website says its fresh. Nothing on the packaging does and it seems rock solid to me.... -S

Im a grad student and wanted so badly to purchase one of the Kosher Turkey's from Trader Joes but sadly they seemed a bit over my budget and too small for the amount of people I think will attend this party (grad students Thanks Giving Pot luck). Soooo I purchased a Honeysuckle White 15 pounder. It is still frozen and thawing in the fridge right now. I hope that by Tomorrow eve or Wed. am it is ready for seasoning and such. My concern is that I have committed a cook's crime by purchasing Honeysuckle and not a fresh turkey, yada yada. The reason I selected Honeysuckle was because it was cheap but also because I remember someone on egullet said they had used this turkey once with very good results. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions on how to turn this turkey into a masterpiece despite its humble beginnings? Do I need to brine or salt? The ingredients in the turkey say they include salt and sugar and water so im thinking the turkey is basted already but I am not 100% sure. I truly appreciate your helps as this is the second time I make a turkey (the first time I was working for corporate America and purchased a Empire that to be honest truly did not impress me.) Thanks so much! So far here is what I have planned to do: Use one of Cook's Illustrated roasting method but from what I gleaned here cover the turkey in a cheesecloth with oil and butter. I also read elsewhere that keeping placing a oven safe bowl full w. water helps retain the moisture. I AM stuffing the turkey w. a plantain stuffing (to give it my Puerto Rican touch) Thanks in advance for the suggestions.

I know this is an old post but there are two dishes made with plantains that come to mind. The first is Mangu. Mangu in its purest form is very similar to the American version of mashed potatoes, except that instead of butter is uses olive oil. However the plantains in this recipe are boiled and not fried. people do put cheese and ham on it. It can be eate w. pretty much anything. The other which comes to mind is a Puerto Rican plantain dish that maybe they have a form of in the DR. Piononos (not sure what they would be calle in the DR) This is somewhat like a lasagna except the pasta is replaced by friend plantains. This dish does involve cheese. In all honesty, there are about a gazillion dishes that are made in the Spanish Caribbean with plantains. A lot are fried, a lot involve ham and few others involve cheese. Let us know if you ever found out what it was. -Sus

I have been searching the archives for such a thread and have not found it. Could someone point me to it? Better yet, how about we start our very own? I recently tried a dreadful cupcake where I just moved in Pittsburgh which made me really want to seek a good recipe. My old stand in are the Magnolia Cupcakes. I find them addictive (all that sugar?) for some old reason....BUT would like a recipe that is truly good. The Magnolia cupcakes are good enough but not perfect. I am thinking of having a cupcake making session sometime this week and before I settle on Magnolia's again, wanted to pick your brains ) Sus

Catherine, Let us know how it all went!

First, Let me start by saying that all the recommendations given already are great...so I will not repeat them. Also, I come from a family of eaters, foodies so we have tried way too many restaurants in our little island. Casita Blanca is and has always been known as THE place to eat traditional Puerto Rican fare. Make sure you have a Mayorca at La Mallorquina. In San Juan, I am also a big advocate of Dragon Fly. i love their sushi with tostones, platains...the concept of fusion Puerto Rican/Asian just really appeals to me. There are plenty of good argentinian places around. Chimichurri comes to mind and on my last trip my mother took me to TIERRA DEL FUEGO RESTAURANTE ARGENTINO Plaza Las Américas Hato ReyTeléfono: 787-294-7018. This place was surprisingly good, given that it is located in the mall, and had this specific dish where you order a number of fine meat cuts that come on the grill for you to try out. The cuts were, as I said, surpisingly tasty and well seasoned. If, however, you are looking for off the beaten path in other parts of the island, here are some places that come to mind: La Casa del Guanime, I believe in Arecibo....delicious native indigenous food. The guanimes con bacalao will take you back to colonial times...not that I ever lived in them but the kind of food is very combination of african and indigenous traditions. In Yauco, you should try the Chuletas Cancan...Guardaraya is a particularly good restaurant for this. In Fajardo, by the Conquistador, El Ancla has very good seafood...at least it did years ago. I also know that one of the better Mexican places in the island is here...Lolita's but I have never been to it. My brother makes the treck over there whenever he can (I love Auroritas in San Juan for Mexican though) On my last visit to PR I also went to Jajome Terrace in Cayey...gorgeous view and very very good food. I can't remember what I had for the life of me but it was delicious and different. I remember, however, that they had a sophisticated twist on traditional puerto rican fare. They had amazing chuletas can can.... http://www.jajometerrace.com/ The route in Cayey, La Ruta tends to have really goos lechoneras, specialized in "lechon a la vara" pork cooked at an open fire before your eyes. Oh yum yum. My family and I went to the very first one, El Mojito...a bit weary because well...we just dont like jumping to conclusions and the first one seemed a bit rush but boy were we happy when we tried their food and their mojito (not the alcoholic drink). When I go back to visit my family again I will definitely lad at el Mojito again. Carr 184 Km 32.9 Bo Beatriz Cayey, PR 00736 (787) 738-8888 I know I have been to some fabolous places in Ponce and Mayaguez, two other major cities that might be easy to get to...but I cannot remember off the top of my head many. I know there is anothe El Ancla in Ponce that i really really enjoyed. The seafood there is well worth it. My family is from Ponce and they would have a heart attack if they read this. This is long enough...I hope this gives you some off the beaten path options to try out on your trip!

I'll check all these out. Little Italy sounds awesome. Yum Yum good mozarella buffala and such sorts of places? I am all about living in little italy, polish or jewish corners for some reason they appeal to me. Sus

Now I really want to go and visit....and eat. The last time I went I visited two restaurants near UPitt, a mexican one in a slightly shady neighborhood...good but not wonderful and sushi at a sushi place near the school too. The sushi was awful, awful. So I guess I don't have good impressions of eating at Pitt. Will try places when I go visit to get an apt. Mel, I have heard of the other neighborhoods but never Greenfield...what's the scoop on that one? Thanks! Sus