claire797

Great! I may pick up a bottle for Valentine's Day. I wish I was more of a Port drinker so that I'd be better able to gauge exactly how good it is. I've only tried a few different Ports and they've all reminded me of cough syrup. The Messina Hoff did not.

Oraklet, a lot of pizza recipes say to let the pizza stand for a few minutes before cutting. Apparently, letting the pizza stand makes it easier to slice. That is, it slices "neater". Elyes, Alton Brown did recommend quarry tile. Unfortunately, my Home Depot stopped selling the unglazed kind. I got my pizza stone at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $7.99. It came with a rack and a cutter.

Vengroff, I bought the Llano Estacado at World Market. They have a pretty decent selection of Texas wines. I think I've seen it at H.E.B. as well. Jaymes, I'm not sure where to find the Port. Since it's 19% alcohol, it probably would not be at H.E.B. or World Market. I think you can order it off their website: http://www.messinahof.com/

Glad you're having fun with your pizza stone, Rick. Until I bought a stone,I thought making homemade pizza was a big waste of time. My pizza crust was always soggy and I certainly didn't feel motivated to try new toppings knowing that the crust was going to be so disappointing. The pizza stone changed that. BTW. My new favorite is Cooking Light's Malaysian Chicken Pizza. This pizza is amazing. Malaysian Chicken Pizza Ingredients 3/4 cup rice vinegar 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce 3 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger 2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper 4 garlic cloves, minced Cooking spray 1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces 2 ounces of swiss cheese 1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese 1 (12-inch) Basic Pizza Crust 1/4 cup chopped green onions Directions Preheat oven to 500°. Combine first 8 ingredients in a bowl; stir well with a whisk. Heat a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Add chicken, and sauté 2 minutes. Remove chicken from pan. Pour rice vinegar mixture into pan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook mixture 6 minutes or until slightly thickened. Return chicken to pan; cook 1 minute or until chicken is done. (Mixture will be consistency of thick syrup.) Sprinkle cheeses over prepared crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border, and top with chicken mixture. Bake at 500° for 12 minutes on bottom rack in oven. Sprinkle with green onions. Place pizza on a cutting board; let stand 5 minutes.

Am I crazy or has Texas wine suddenly become Good? Case in point. Messina Hoff. Last night, a friend let me try some Barrel Reserve Papa Paulo Port. Wow! This was amazing. I'm not much of a Port drinker, but after tasting a this one, I want to taste a few more. I've also enjoyed the Llano Estacado Merlot and the Texas Hills Cab so much so that my faith in Texas wines has been renewed. In fact, I am now on the look out for Becker's Viognier, which was written up in this month's Saveur. What are your thoughts on Texas wines? Any recommendations? Has anyone else tried the Messina Hoff Port?

I don't like drinking water.

Oraklet, Thanks for the tips. I'm actually pretty happy with the recipe as is but I will try it with less yeast. Would it still be somewhat bubbly and bready? I am not too fond of cracker-type crusts. Also, 500 degrees F works perfectly. I would not change the temperature. As for pulling out the parchment, I've never tried it and am wondering if it would make much of a difference.

Rick, I haven't read the other thread, but I'll tell you that before I bought a pizza stone, homemade pizza wasn't even worth making. The pizza stone changed everything. Hopefully, you'll break yours in soon. There are about a million good crust recipes out there, so have fun trying them out. I particularly like this one because it is both tasty and easy to work with. Another tip. Transferring your assembled pizza to the blazing hot stone can be tricky. I assemble my pizza on parchment paper and then slide the whole thing -- parchment and all -- onto the stone. Wolfgang Pizza Crust Makes 4 eight inch individual crusts 1 pkg yeast ( or 1 T bulk) 1 t honey 1 cup warm water (105-115 F) 3 cups all pourpose flour 1 t kosher salt 1T extra virgin olive oil 1. Dissolve yeast and honey in 1/4 c water. 2. In mixer bowl, combine flour and salt. Add the oil, yeast mixture and remaining water and mix on low speed until dough comes away cleanly from sides of bowl and clusters around dough hook, about 5 minutes. 3. Turn out onto work surface and knead by hand 2-3 minutes, until smooth and firm. Cover with a clean, damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about 30 minutes 4. Divide the dough int 4 balls. Pull sides under and roll into smooth balls. Cover with damp towel and let rise 15-20 minutes. At this point the balls acan be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen. 5. Place a pizza stone on middle rack of oven and preheat the oven at 500 F. 6. Flour each ball and press or roll into 8 inch circles. Spread with desired toppings. 7. Using a peel or baking sheet, slide onto pizza stone. 7. Bake until 8-10 mintutes until dough is nicely browned

Thanks for mentioning Gavi. Every time I open a bottle I ask myself "Why don't I buy this more often?". Hollywood, thanks for the link.

I tend towards desserts, coffee, and the check at the end of a meal.

Great! Now they're saying that I can't control myself with the bread basket? Okay. So maybe I don't get it the minute I sit down. That's fine with me. However, it should come before the meal. Preferably, with the salad course.

Thanks Amanda, I guess it was Craig Kanarick. That was driving me crazy

AMEN! This is what I'm always telling people who can't understand why I'm not a big Emeril fan. Thanks for summing it up so nicely. Now I have a question which I'm going to bury in this thread since 1) it is kind of dopey and 2) you mentioned you attended the Mario tapings. Who were the the others dining with you on that episode? I like to amuse myself by trying to figure out who Mario is feeding. I recognized you immediately and I *think* Dana Colwin from Food and Wine was the other woman. Who was the guy?

Menton, I don't think they were punishing you. They probably had to throw the bread back in the oven to warm it properly and then got busy with other things. Bad excuse, but I think the bread "course" would be way too early in the meal for the waiter to start punishing you. They usually don't start punishment until they've figured out that 1) the customer is a jerk whose patronage they could do without and 2) they're not going to get a good tip anyway. So I doubt you were punished. As for bread, what I REALLY like is when they bring a basket of assorted rolls -- a little focaccia, a slice of French.....maybe something with rye.

I've always considered myself somewhat of a bread snob, but I'm not going to take off points for bread served room temperature so long as it's good. Sure. A warm loaf gets extra points, but a basket of very delicious bread served at room temperature is fine with me. My biggest pet peeve is when I have to ask the waiter to please bring the bread or worse, when the bread shows up with the entree.

Hmmmmm. I always serve BAKED potatoes in foil. I bake them without the foil (so that they're baked) and then wrap them up in foil before serving just so they'll stay warm on the plate. I wonder if restaurants do this too. There's a restaurant called Houston's here in Austin that serves outstanding BAKED potatoes. They taste baked rather than steamed and they come served in foil. Frankly, I would be annoyed if a restaurant brought me a baked potato that was not wrapped in foil. But that's just me ;). My pet peeve is when the waiter brings the bread WITH The meal rather than before. I hate having to ask for the bread.

Thanks. A friend of mine read this and asked "so what about the food?" since I included only about 2 lines. Granted, I'm not much of a food writer (yet) and tend to focus on the whole. We are "save room for dessert" people and don't usually order appetizers. Next time, I probably will. I've heard the spinach, chevre and fennel ravioli is amazing.

I'm not much of a restaurant reviewer, but a lot of people have expressed interest in Lambert's so here's the scoop. Had my birthday dinner there last night and am looking forward to going back. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was relaxing and the prices were quite reasonable. Lambert's is located along the South Congress strip not too far from Guerro's -- blink and you might miss it. Parking was relatively easy for Saturday night at 8:00 -- not that I've had problems parking in SoCo before, but that was a plus. Walking in the door, I had a quick flashback to my days in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Lambert's is small, dimly lit, and teeming with hipster/artist types. The decor is "snazzed-up-loftish" with pipes showing here and there and a few paintings on what little wall there is. There's a tiny bar with a few seats up front and behind that is the dining room which sits alongside an open-line into the kitchen. If you have the inclination, you can peer in and watch the action. Acoustics were perfect. I could hear snippets of other people's conversations but still hear my husband directly in front of me. Nice touches -- our table had a tiny, retro looking red-glass vase with a rose in it and instead of wine glasses, we were given what looked like juice glasses. Bread was served prompty (I'm kind of a bread freak) and while not warm, it was the crusty sort which is good at just about any temp. The service was fine. Unobtrusive yet attentive, and the attitude seemed to be one of "Welcome to our restaurant where we do things our way and hope you like it." That is, I felt like I was being waited on by friends rather than obsequious droids. And when I say friends, I don't mean in a TGI Fridays "sits down at the table with you" kind of way either. The hostess was wearing jeans and what appeared to be a peasant blouse. I didn't realize she worked there until she started breaking down tables and helping the manager/owner (Lou maybe? Whomever it was) turn people away at the door. I probably would have felt a lot better if I hadn't dressed up (i.e. put on make-up and worn a dress) for my birthday. Next time, I'll wear jeans. Aside from feeling squarish in our "special occasion" clothes, we had a nice meal. I had just about the best, juiciest roast chicken I've ever eaten and my husband had a beef tenderloin in a shallot demiglace with grilled asparagus on the side. We also tried a new wine -- Avalon Cabernet. Very good -- from a list that was succinct, reasonably priced and gave me the impression that Lou had chosen each wine himself. The dessert menu was okay, but I wanted cheesecake so we ended up going somewhere else. Maybe next time I'll stay and try the chocolate buttermilk cake. Here's a link to the menu (with apologies to my Rob-Balon-loathing-friend David ;). Since I can only attest to the chicken and beef, this may help. I'm sure each of these other dishes are cooked perfectly as well since the restaurant is so small. http://www.diningoutwithrobbalon.com/revie...erts/menu1.html Last note. MAKE A RESERVATION!! My husband was amused at the number of drop-ins being turned away simply because there were not enough tables to accommodate people who hadn't booked ahead. If you call a day ahead, you should be fine. If it's your birthday, don't bother to tell them because I was afforded no special treatment. Oh well. You can't have it all...

Rachel Ray is awfully chipper. I like Rachel and I like Tony -- worlds apart though they may be. And I'm still dying to see a show with Rachel and Tony cooking together in Rachel's kitchen.

Has anyone seen Bob Blumer's show, "The Surreal Gourmet"? Cheffie, I've been meaning to catch Ina Garten's show but my husband keeps coming in and changing the channel. I like her recipes. Paula Dean's okay too if thick Southern accents don't annoy you.

Marlene, I am so glad you tried the pudding cookies. I'll admit -- when I first saw the recipe I was skeptical. To me, the best recipe has always been the recipe on the back of the Tollhouse bag. However, after trying the pudding cookie version, I was a convert. If you're feeling adventurous, you should try a batch with butterscotch pudding and butterscotch chips.

I used mine today! Break out the champagne!!! Seriously. I like my Cuisinart, but I only pull it out if I have a couple of heavy-duty crumb-making jobs to do. For instance, I needed to make graham cracker crumbs, chocolate graham crumbs and pecan meal for one rum ball recipe. To me, that justified messing up the big old processor bowl and having to clog up my dishwasher with more stuff. It is fun when I use it. Gee, I really need to integrate the little devil into my life but I've been focusing more on my Kitchenaid who also needs more love.

now, i know it's all about perception, but how is she obnoxious? is it her youthful exurberance? it seems she looks people in the eye when she speaks to them and she smiles a lot. i can think of a few people not fitting that bill who i'd considered to be "obnoxious." She doesn't bother me either. Gordon E.'s okay too. I've only seen him on Follow That Food though -- had never even heard of Door Knock Dinners until today.

Yup. Bloodshed and mayhem on the Food Network. That's what I was going for. Mario and Alton would be the exception. I need a better"unlikely pairing" for these two since they seem like they could get along with anyone. I just can't visualize either one of these guys beating someone over the head with a meat tenderizer.

I saw that one and started thinking how fun it would be if Food Network paired up a bunch of chefs and put them in the kitchen together. Here are my unlikely pairings. I've refrained from putting my own comments in parenthesis... Rachel Ray and Anthony Bourdain doing 30 minute meals in Rachel's Kitchen. Martha Stewart and Bobby Flay in Martha's kitchen Alton Brown and Mario Battali in Mario's kitchen Nigella Lawson and Tyler Florence in the Iron Chef stadium