Emily_R

Just chiming in to support the Cauliflower Soup that FrogPrincess posted. That recipe is amazing -- it is hard to believe a 3-ingredient soup (one of which is water) can be so flavorful and filling. Highly recommended!

Dinner tonight really hit the spot for me... Toasted ciabatta, lettuce, avocado, and smoked herring, with lemon juice and fresh pepper. I was in bliss.

I personally wouldn't want to eat green apple sorbet with flourless chocolate cake. A blood orange sorbet, or fig sorbet yes, but apple no.

For those of you who love him, I highly recommend his autobiography -- Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen. Its a great read -- he's lived a fascinating life -- and if you listen to the book-on-tape version the reader is wonderful and has a delightful french accent!

I think my best of the year has to be this slow-roasted pork shoulder with apple gravy. Pork shoulder rubbed with fennel, thyme, garlic, and rosemary, then roasted over a bed of apples and onions. The apples and onions are then pureed into a magic elixir that you'll want to lick off of... Well... you get the idea. It was eyes-rolling-back-in-my-head good. http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/slow_roasted_pork_shoulder_with_savory_apple_gravy/

Add two more to the maybe / hopefully -- me and a fellow chocolate loving friend. When do you need a definite decision by?

Just chiming in to say that I have that very Oster, I love it (and I am a picky blender user, mostly with demands for perfectly smooth frozen drinks and soups) but there is no way it would do nut butters. Fruit puree, probably yes. But nut pralines definitely not.

Very intrigued by the pasta with lentils... Patrick or Soba, can you share a recipe? (or is there link to it somewhere?)

I personally prefer half-pureed -- so creamy base, with chunks still in there...

Just chiming in to say that I made Smittenkitchen's apple cider caramels this weekend and they are truly exceptional. Sweet and tart, buttery, and absolutely the perfect consistency. A huge huge winner!

Interesting Rover -- it looks so unassuming, I never would have thought to make it since it just doesn't look like it would amount to much. But I know that there are dishes that are more than the sum of their parts... Will have to give it a try!

Whether or not someone personally feels badly about being fat doesn't take away the fact that the term is inescapably used with the intention of insult in our culture. It is the server's implied intention of belittling someone that makes its use such a problem in this restaurant case. Just because someone isn't personally offended doesn't mean they weren't insulted. And that's the problem here -- waitstaff insulting their customers.

I'm with you Shelby -- to me this should have been a fireable offense. And to Prasantrin - I don't see how obsese woman would be any better. Sadly in our culture being overweight as a woman is inextricably tied to judgment and public shaming. This is what table numbers are for -- there is no need to refer to a customer by any kind of physical characteristic -- hispanic, asian, brunette included -- let alone one that is in essence a cultural slur.

Oh. One more along the lines of pistachios... Unshelled roasted salted sunflower seeds. I am a fidgeter, and fiddling with getting them open and into my mouth, along with the intense saltiness, is heaven for me. I especially fidget while I'm thinking, so when writing big papers I often wind up with a massive pile of sunflower shells surrounding me, and I feel sick from having eaten so many...

And now I'm coming around to the tabling idea. While my meltaways were smooth as silk the first day, the second day they were just an eensy bit grainy. Since I don't have a marble slab, I may try cmflick's stand mixer approach...

Embarassingly, cheez-its, ritz crackers, doritos, and cheetos. I won't buy myself any of them, because once I start I just can't stop...

I'm a grits hater, but will definitely be trying the jambalaya. In the meantime, I found a killer use of some... I chopped up about half a cup of tasso and browned it in bacon fat. Took that out of the pan, and added a bunch of shredded brussels sprouts, and browned / cooked those. Then added a brown rice / red rice mix (already cooked), and the tasso back to the pan, and then when they were all pan fried together, hit it with a sprinkling of white balsamic vinegar, and a big handful of coarsely shredded romano cheese. So so good, and a super quick weeknight dinner!

Has anyone tried the Salted Hot Fudge Sauce posted in the NY Times this week? http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1014380/Dorisrsquos-Salty-Hot-Fudge.html The article associated with it raves http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/dining/the-perfect-gift-from-the-kitchen-is-southern-says-kim-severson.html?ref=dining), but I'm perplexed at the lack of any corn syrup, which I thought was essential for consistency. And it seems like a lot of butter...

Our local supermarket just got in some D'artagnan tasso ham, and I couldn't resist buying some since a local restaurant makes an incredible tasso gravy to go with their fried chicken. But beyond gravy, I'm not sure what to do with it - from what I gather, it is something used in small quantities essentially as a seasoning? So, I was thinking of adding some to pan fried brussels sprouts, for example. But other ways to use it? And is it ever used in larger quantities as more of a main protein?

For those of your looking for a slightly different take on caramel corn, I can't recommend this recipe highly enough -- http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2010/12/maple-caramel-corn.html I used Grade B maple syrup and the coconut oil option rather than butter, and it was absolutely outstanding. Just a hint of coconut, perfect maple-ness, not too sweet, and dead easy to make. I probably added a little more popcorn than it called for - I actually cut the recipe by a third, but used closer to half of the popcorn called for. Very very good!

Hmmm. I'm confused about how important the tabling really is... I made a batch tonight that I poured nearly hot into silicone molds, let set on the counter for a little while, and then put in the fridge. Less than an hour later they were set and the texture was divine...

Hi everyone - thinking of making the chocolate mint meltaways as christmas gifts... I see that they can be enrobed. What about using the meltaway as a filling for a molded chocolate? Has anyone tried this / any sense of whether this would work?

I agree that there is a use for light stock -- I find that in certain soups -- often vegetable or legume based -- I want the body and some of the flavor that comes from chicken stock, but I don't want it to wind up tasting like chicken soup...

Yup -- I do, and do just as Heidih does above - save the bones / carcasses in the freezer until I have enough to do a batch in my pressure cooker. I've never had a headache / stomach ache from rotisserie chicken, but I do have some stores whose chickens I much prefer to others...

Has anyone here ever made oat and honey infused vodka? Here's an example of a recipe: http://www.chow.com/recipes/10873-oat-and-honey-vodka I've always been curious, but have been afraid that with 3/4 cup of honey, it would be sickeningly sweet...