Pierogi

Oh Klary, YES. I so totally agree with Tracey. I have a fabulous recipe for a pork shoulder roast that is rubbed with chili powder (dried ancho or chipotle, or it would even work with generic "chile" powder") and salt, and then slow roasted for like 4 or 5 hours. You shred it down, heat some corn tortillas and serve it as soft tacos sprinkled with lime juice and cilantro. Scallions could sub if you can't get cilantro in The Netherlands... With some slaw, and some beans, you'd be back in the Southwest in no time. Or make it into pulled pork sandwiches with slaw (do the roast as above, then shred and mix with barbeque sauce), slaw ON the sandwiches for authenticity. Like Tracey said, we'd walk you through it, HONEST, and you'd absolutely blow your guest's minds (and palates !).

Different vibe, babe. Clubs are about the noise and the scene and the people and seeing and being seen. Restaurants, especially expensive, high-end restaurants, are about the experience of being catered to, of relaxing, of conversing and enjoying your companion (date, friend, family, whatever) and focusing on the sensual experience of the food and wine. As well as the conversation with your dining companion. Or the quitetude of your self, if you're dining alone. It's like comparing a mosh pit with the Metropolitan Opera. They both have their places, but not simultaneously.

Interesting no one's mentioned St. Germaine. I'd sure put it in the Top 10, or at least a close 10.5 or 11. I'd for SURE put it before Cherry Herring or Benadictine, although I love both of them, in their places. St. Germaine, for me, comes right after Cointreau/Grand Marnier and Maraschino. Couldn't stock my bar without it.

I have to say, I have never even given a thought to cleaning mine. I have one of those Wusthoff blocks that are horizontally mounted under a cabinet, and moves on a pivot-base, which is screwed into the bottom of the hanging cabinet. The knives are clean when I put them back in the block, and the orientation of the blades/block, at least in my mind, doesn't lend itself to catching schmutz in the grooves. I do, very periodically, VERY, dust off the flat top surface of the block when its swung "out" so I can see it, but it is way down on the priority list. That said....when I had a traditional, counter-standing block, I still didn't think to clean out the grooves. Again, the knives were clean when I stored them, the bolster/handle of the knife mostly blocked the opening of the groove, and I used to store the knives edge side up, so that the spine of the blade was the only part of the knife actually touching the block. The flat, sloping surface of the top of the block *would* get grungy periodically, and I'd wipe it down with something hot and grease-cutting, but I never, ever thought to clean the inside. Of all the things to clean in a kitchen, that just was never on my radar, and actually, probably never will be.

There is help available.... No help required, thank you. Sometimes.....I want 'kraut dogs with sauerkraut, onions and mustard. Sometimes.....I want chili dogs with chili, onions and shredded cheese. Sometimes.....I want mustard dogs with mustard, onions and relish (dill or sweet, both work). Sometimes.....I want MY dogs with ketchup and onions. And maybe, maybe, a hint of dill relish, not sweet. And when I want MY dogs with ketchup, I have them with ketchup. If you don't want YOUR dogs with ketchup, that's cool. Don't tell me what to have on MY dogs, and I won't tell you what to have on yours.

I have not. The recipe did not call out to me at all. That's not to say it might not be great but it just didn't seem to fit into any of the meals I make even for parties. Me neither, Emily. Like Anna, the concept just didn't really speak to me, and I don't usually host those kid of events where they'd be appropriate. I just went back and re-read the recipe, and it does sound interesting, but again, I don't usually do the sort of bash where they'd be in context. For a Super Bowl party though, maybe. For dinner, when I think meatballs, I also think sauce and pasta (or rice, if I'm making Mexican chipotle meatballs, but that's another topic). I'd be interested in your review of them if you decide to forge ahead.

After dinner tonight (hottie dogs w/ kraut, mustard and onions on sub rolls) and Ore-Ida frozen "fast food" (read....coated) fries, another submission popped into my head. Best Foods/Hellman's mayo is better than any other mayo I've ever tasted, and I would never consider making mayo from scratch (although I have, so I *can*...if I wanted to....but I don't) because it isn't as good as Best Foods. Into which the cooked, frozen fries were dipped to simulate Belgian frites. It was a BAD day.....SoCal doesn't do bad weather, and it took me 3 hours to get home the 18 miles from work. I needed mayo, lots of Best Foods mayo, grease and salt. And Bourbon.

OK, see......foie gras, and even chicken liver pates, aren't offal to me. Pork liver pate is too strong for my taste, as is calf liver, and "un-pate'ed" chicken liver. Maybe because the pate is so processed (fine grind is a wonderful thing....) and foie gras is just, swoony. And even though it's not processed like pate, the texture is so similar, I can get past what it is. But don't ask me to eat any other innerds ! Again, I think it's mostly a textural thing. Chris H and Chris A and Chanterelle.....'Tater Tots are one of the 5 basic food groups. Especially the onion flavored ones.

My dip of choice is Lipton's onion soup mix in sour cream. I prefer Kraft mac & cheese to any others I've tasted, including those in restaurants (including some pretty good ones) and any I've made. I have, however, upgraded to the "deluxe" style, with the squeeze packet of the cheese goo, rather than the powder. I have never, and will never, eat offal. My mind will not let my mouth go there. I have never, and will never, eat a raw oyster. SEVERE textural problems with that one. I have a pretty pronounced gag reflex..... I cannot stand eggplant. Not in parmigiana, not in moussaka, not in baba ganoush, not at all. In theory, I would love all those dishes were it not for eggplant. I *have* made moussaka with zucchini instead of the evil purple thing, and loved it, but know that any self respecting Greek would draw and quarter me for the very thought of it. I could not make a pie crust if my life depended on it, so I no longer try. Frozen shells work just fine.

That was absolutely jarring, and made me think about sharks as hurdles. That made me shiver and twitch as well, but I thought the karmic payback was perfect. The commercial break that came immediately after that abomination was for Chase credit cards !!!!!

Just as effective, but available only to those of us lucky (unlucky???) enough to have the dreaded "portable" dishwasher, is what is lovingly called "surfing the outflow" in my house. Leave your crusty pan/skillet/casserole dish in the bottom of the sink, under the discharge from the portable. For those of you unfamiliar with these beasts, the water supply hose for the unit connects to your sink faucet at the top. There are two hoses in the coupling, one which feeds the water into the dishwasher, and one for the discharge. The discharge comes out the bottom, into the sink bowl. You wheel the unit over to the sink, turn on the hot water tap, plug the unit in, push start, et voila, clean dishes. But the discharge is magic. Superheated (especially if you use the "scrub" or "heavy" cycle, filled with the Cascade and under pressure. I leave the last cycle sitting in the vessel overnight. Most stuff is practically spotless after surfing. I really probably wouldn't even have to run the formerly crusty stuff through a cycle the next day, but I usually do. Just don't block your sink drain

Really? I got it for Christmas, and while I haven't really gone through it yet, the table of contents looked very interesting from my brief scan. What disappointed you about it?

Lapin d'A.....OUTSTANDING suggestion. There's my #4. Every time I see a recipe for a souffle, I think "I should make one of these sometime..." Thank you. I'll have to look for that book. I'd love to try those preserved lemons. This past year I made brioche from both the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day and Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. The 5 Min. one was really good. It was good on its own and made fantastic french toast. I knew Dorie's more traditional recipe would be better, but it was phenomenal and because the Kitchenaid did the work, took only a bit more time and not much more work at all. The title is "The Pleasures of Cooking For One". I haven't had a chance to really peruse it thoroughly yet, since I also got John Besh's "My New Orleans" and THAT puppy is massive. Scanning Judith's table of contents, though, was very pleased. For those of you who aren't familiar with the name, Judith Jones was the editor at Knopf for BOTH Julia Child and James Beard. Now that is some serious culinary cred !

FABULOUS topic, Anna ! I want to play, I just need to put the old thinking cap on about my first 5... Off the top of my tired head, I'd say 1) make brioche from scratch 2) roast a duck (or parts thereof....) 3) make Middle Eastern preserved lemons (this has been limited by storage and amount, I usually cook for just me. But a friend gave me Judith Jones' cooking for one cookbook for Christmas, and she gives you proportions and techinque for just 4 lemons, works for me) Numbers 4 & 5 to come later. Can't wait to see what others post !

Have to say that this is a book I would be very, very reluctant to relinquish! Not sure it's the ONE but it's right up there with books I don't want to live without. Hi Pierogi and Anna -- On reading this I took the book out of the library... Just wondering what your favorites from it have been? Looking forward to trying some of them... Emily Hmmmmm, off the top of my head, without actually looking at the book in front of me (or the TofC, yes, I'm too lazy this late to get myself up to get it...) I'd say the slow-roasted pork shoulder (this actually was a revelation to me, it was the first time I'd cooked a shoulder, now it's my favorite cut), the roasted Italian sausages and grapes (with the mashed potatoes), the slow-roasted cherry tomatoes for a pasta sauce (ohhhhhhh, yum), the lemon curd cookie sandwiches, the brownies, the scones, the crab cakes, the pork and green chile stew (its a 2 Hot Tamales recipe, I think they may call it posole, although it's not really), Alice Water's coleslaw, the shrimp and grits..... The one dud I hit was the panzanella made with cornbread. It was "gluggy"...heavy and not good, but I think the fault lay with the cornbread I used. And possibly the sausage. I want to try it again with homemade cornbread and higher quality sausage, and see if it's better, because the recipe still sounds awesome. I'm sure there are others I've made and liked, but the ones above are the ones I make over and over because they are so, so good. That pork shoulder.....man, to die for. I really need to make that again soon. It's awesome the day of, in the tacos as the book suggests. Then I've taken some of the leftovers and reheated them in BBQ sauce for some mighty fine pulled pork sandwiches.

Hi Darienne, Let me add another voice to the chorus praising the use of lox in a creamy pasta sauce. You might want to throw in a few capers as well, and saute up some onions/shallots to start out with. The capers especially, if you like them, play very well with the smoked salmon. Another thing I've used lox for is a pizza topping. Our boy Wolfgang Puck made this famous as his "Oscar Dinner" pizza back in the day. I actually made it out of one of my Jacques Pepin "Fast Food" cookbooks, but his is essentially the same recipe as Wolfie's. Just Google "Wolfgang Puck Salmon Pizza" and you should find the recipe. Of course, it goes on *after* the 'za comes out of the oven, so don't know how you could convince Hubby-Bubby it was cooked.....maybe from the residual heat...yeah, THAT's the ticket. If you don't do your own crusts, a Boboli-type base works just spiffy.

Although no longer fully playing along, I must report how pleased I am to see that the spirit and essence of this challenge has become more ingrained as part of my normal behavior. As part of the prep for my holiday dinners, I made homemade pierogies over the weekend. My dough recipe makes enough for about 3 dozen pierogies, and since the homemade ones are a once-a-year delicacy, I usually make 3 different fillings, since I can't choose which one I love the most. I make one of mashed potatoes flavored with bacon and onions sauteed in the drippings (well ok, and some cream cheese and a hit of horseradish....), one of finely minced and sauteed onions, mushrooms and sauerkraut, bound with some sour cream, and one of browned ground beef, mixed with sauteed finely minced onions and mushrooms, again, bound with a touch of sour cream. Even cutting the filling recipes in half, I always had a substantial amount of each left over after stuffing the beautiful little dumplings. Normally, the beef filling went to the doggies, and the potato and 'kraut fillings went, well, away. To the big land fill in the sky. I'm very ashamed of that, but well, it is what it is. Or was. This year, I was faced with the normal leftovers, and VIOLA, the light came on. Hmmmmm....I have cooked ground beef and veg in sort of a sauce, and I have mashed potatoes. Sounds like a bastardized Shepherd's Pie to me (or whatever "shepherd" is in Polish). Mixed the beef and 'kraut fillings together, and dumped it into a casserole dish, spread the potatoes over the top, and tossed it into the fridge for later use. Which was tonight. Cooked it for about 1/2 an hour, covered with foil, at 350°, the pulled the foil off and gave it another 10 minutes. It was damn good. Surprisingly damn good. And no waste. I would never have thought about that before. I am very proud of myself.

I actually didn't think I had one, but over the weekend, as I was doing early prep-work for Christmas and Christmas Eve, I realized that since I bought it about 2 years ago or so, I have come to completely rely on the last edition of "The 150 Best American Recipes". This is the edition published in 2006, with a forward by Rick Bayless. I would say I've made a higher percentage of recipes from this book than any other that I own, and I own A LOT. Maybe, maybe Paul Prudhomme's "Louisianna Kitchen" wins, but just slightly, and only when I want to make that style of food. "150 Best" has a great variety of techniques and cuisines, and just seems to be the one I reach for more often than not. Only one recipe I've made from it was a dud, and I think that was operator error, not a poor recipe. And most of the ones I've made, I've made over and over. I seriously can't recommend this book enough. It's a true gem.

I'd say I'm a curious cook. I've never had a problem plunging into new cuisines or methods, so long as the basic tennets and principles interest me, and seem reproducible in my small, home kitchen, with limited resources and (not to mention) stamina. For example, I rarely deep fry, because the mess and the waste just aren't worth it for me. I'll go to the pros for my french fry/onion ring/fried chicken/fish & chips fix. But, I will, when something catches my fancy, plunge full into it. I once, a million years ago, worked for a small company owned by a man from India and his Swedish wife. One of the other key employees was also Indian, and his wife eventually joined us as an employee. The smells of their food....and the samples they shared, launched my decades-long love of Indian food. And, I must say, for a Polish/Norwegian/Southern California-by-way-of-Chicago's-South Side girl....I'm a damn fine Indian cook. Pretty much self-taught, but still, I'm really good. Same for Cajun/Creole food. But the roots are feeding the soul. Whether it's a beautiful butter chicken with a pilaf, dal and raita, or gumbo, or my cabbage rolls, its about feeding the soul. Curious, yes. But my aim is always, ALWAYS, to comfort and soothe and nuture. That's the reason I cook.

I have no idea how this would work in a professional setting, but I just recently de-gunked my home machine. I was getting a lot of spotting on the glassware, and it just looked like it wasn't rinsing well. I ran 1 cup of baking soda and 1&1/2 cups of vinegar through a light wash cycle, followed by a regular rinse. The results have been amazing. I just dumped the soda into the bottom of the machine, and then got it ready to roll. Right before closing the door and hitting "start", I poured in the vinegar. It seemed to remove the mineral build-up and the residues as well. Hope this helps......prolly couldn't hurt.

I guess I'm sort of out after about 2&1/2 weeks. I did some shopping over the w/end, but not certainly on a normal level. I did make the pasta with a cream sauce supplimented by the leftover pancetta and coppa on Thursday. The recipe I was using called for sun-dried tomatoes, and come to find out when I went to make it, I had none. Normally I'd have ditched the recipe and done something else, but I *did* have some fresh tomatoes, and used them. The final result was OK, and certainly satisfying, but I can see how it would be better with the sun-drieds. Yesterday I was invited out to friends' for dinner, and tonight I made Ma-Po Tofu from Ah Leung's pictorial of a few years ago. I'd been wanting to try it. I'd say it was a mix of 90% stock items and 10% purchased for the dish (notably the tofu and the hoisin sauce, which I was out of). Tomorrow I'm making a chile verde/posole stew from mostly purchased ingredients, but it's going to be miserable and rainy all day, and I had nothing in the larder condusive to a stew. Tuesday I'm planning on kielbasa (purchased) with pierogies (from the freezer) and Wednesday fish tacos (purchased tortillas for the chile verde and purchased cabbage) with fish from the freezer. I'm right now aiming for about 50% new/50% from stock. I'll drop out of the narrative at this point, but keep watching for as long as it goes. It was a HUGE learning experience. Huge. I was amazed at how little I had in my curbside garbage can each week. And yeah, I would absolutely be up for doing this again in the spring. Now I feel the need to lay in a few stocks to make up for what I used. But I know I will be MUCH more respectful of the fresh items I purchase and hopefully will do much more directed shopping on a routine basis. To the others....CARRY ON !

Butterscotch pretzels !!! These are one of the favorite things I make for Christmas cookie plates, it's that marvelous mix of sweet and salty. Take a bag (or 2) of butterscotch morsels, and add in about 1T of neutral cooking oil (corn is what I usually use) per bag. Melt in the top of a double boiler. Take the mini-pretzel twists, and dip them into the melted butterscotch. I usually use a roasting fork to flip them over and fish them out. Plop them down on wax paper, and if you're feeling really frisky, sprinkle them with red & green Christmas sprinkly things for a seasonal twist. PURELY decorative, the pretzels taste just swell without them. But they do look nice, you can even find the sprinkly things that look like holly leaves and berries. Let them dry on the wax paper, then peel them off, put them in tins, cartons or baggies and watch your guests turn into drooling fools over them.

I am plugging along, but I think I'm beginning to see the end of the road pretty soon. MAYBE one more week, but I fear that would deplete the freezer/pantry stores too significantly for me to be comfortable. For a variety of reasons (living in earthquake country, having a chronic health issue that often leaves me unable/unwilling to cook from scratch), I like to have a fairly good-sized stash available to me in case I can't get to the store or don't feel like doing anything more than throwing something into the nuker. I *can* happily say, however, that all of the really old stocks are gone, used in what turned out to be surprisingly satisfying and tasty dishes. We last chatted, I believe on Sunday, with my best-ever pizza out of leftover dough and salumi products in the freezer, plus decomposing grape tomatoes and other stuff from the fridge. Brunchie on Monday was a slice of the leftover 'za, which was every bit as good cold as it had been fresh out of the oven on Sunday. I made some "jelly buns" from a recipe out of an old Gourmet I'd just found, all from stock ingredients (flour, eggs, sugar, milk, baking powder and obviously jam). Froze 4 of them for future use, and baked off another 4 for breakies this week. Dinner was a recreation of a childhood favorite, with hopefully some improvements. I can remember my Mom making "Spam kabobs" with chunks of Spam, onion, green bell pepper and canned pineapple on skewers, broiled, and served with box mac & cheese doctored with chopped tomatoes, garlic powder and plain yogurt. No Spam (shudder) but I did have a couple of smoked sausages in the freezer that I used instead. Had the other kabob ingredients in the fridge/pantry, as well as the mac & cheese makings. Although I must admit, it was the "deluxe" boxed mac & cheese rather than the one with the powder.....and although I had plain yogurt, I used creme fraiche instead, since that was open and the yogurt was not. I figured the yogurt would last longer with the original seal. It was surprisingly not bad. Roasted the week-old broccolini to go with it, and had hoped to have some leftover for a small salad later in the week, but it was very meh-ish. My fault, not the broccolini's. I over-cooked it *and* horrendously over-salted it. It was, unfortunately, not salvegable after I'd worked it over. Yesterday's breakie was obviously, a jelly bun. Late lunch was the last slice of Sunday's pizza, which was showing its age at that point, but still edible. No longer stellar, but edible. Since I'd had a little "issue" on Monday while putting up Christmas decorations, I didn't go to work, and took an afternoon nap. Late dinner was another breakfast for dinner iteration, all with stocks...pancakes from a Trader Joe's Bisquik knock-off and pork sausage. Today was work day, and yes, a jelly bun for breakfast. Lunch was leftover caldillo from Saturday, and it was, as "stew-y" things often are, better leftover. Dinner was salmon patties (from the pantry/fridge, don't know HOW long I'd had that can of salmon, but it was a loooooong time) and a baked potato (from the pantry) which also killed the last of the creme fraiche instead of sour cream. I have one potato left out of a 5 pound bag I'd bought almost 3 weeks ago. That for me, is excellent. Potatoes are one of my most frequently discarded produce items. To get some fruit/veg into the picture, I had a D'Anjou pear that had been hanging out in the fridge for over 2 weeks, and it was in surprisingly good shape. That is one of my big take-home messages from this project. I have wrongly assumed in the past that if produce has been in the fridge for a week or so, it's bad, and I should just toss it rather than try to use it. I am learning, slowly, that if I was on the ball enough to get it into cold storage when it's still good, its likely still good in a week or so. Tomorrow will be a jelly bun, and lunch will be leftover mac & cheese and kabobs from Monday. I'm planning on making a pasta with the last of the pancetta from Sunday's pizza, in a cream sauce, but we'll see what develops. Friday or Saturday will be my decision day as to whether I keep going, or pull out to keep some reserves in, well, reserve. Overall, I can say I've learned a whole bunch, and hopefully have broken some bad habits in the process.

Avocado and bacon sandwiches (optional, but absolutely recommended are lettuce, thinly sliced sweet onion and tomatoes) on good, lightly toasted bread are as near as I've ever come to culinary Nirvana. A smear of Best Foods mayo and S&P are also required, IMO. Avocado and bacon anything is pretty darn good, too. Wrapped in a heated flour tortilla with some good Jack cheese, its a great quick snack. Slice up the avocado, and thinly slice a sweet, or red, onion. Scatter tat on top of the avocado. If you want, slice a tomato (or chunk up some cherry or grape ones, they're the only ones with flavor right now. Drizzle with good EVOO and red wine vinegar. Sprinkle with S&P. That's a really good fall-back side dish I do quite a lot. I second JAZ's suggestion of the avocado/grapefruit salad. That's a natural pairing.

Celeriac (aka celery root) remoulade, baby. Plenty of recipes on-line, or just shred it up and use your favorite remoulade sauce recipe. Also gratins, creamed...etc. Google "celery root recipes" and you should get a bundle of ideas. Remoulade being the best