malarkey

YEA!! I wholeheartedly agree. The Salsa Casera. Glad to see some converts here. I love it, its the only jarred/canned salsa I'll buy. I've tried the darker stuff (is it ranchera?) and I didn't like it as much as the casera. YUM.

are you from the midwest by any chance?! ;-)

BTW, I'm glad to see someone doing real beer reviews here. Cheers Brent! I look forward to more!

I think beer should be consumed on an empty stomach. While it does go nice with certain foods, I love to have beer in the afternoon *before* dinner. I usually will have 2 of the micro-variety, so, higher alcohol. This imparts a pleasant buzz. 3 is usually too many. the buzz goes downhill and the headache starts :-/ I'm a cheap date

ditto. of all the Chimays, the Grand Reserve is my fave.

is this a true story?! its hilarious!

parisian herbes? is this by any chance the same thing as fines herbes? my mother keeps EVERYTHING. She's got stuff that I'm sure is approaching 20 yrs old. Her fridge is packed full, and she lives alone. I'm pretty sure she has liquor that's over 20 yrs old. open bottles.

absolutely. we want to hear all about it Anna!

ditto on Le Pichet. its a great place. Also, try doing saturday or sunday brunch at Cafe Campagne in the market. Last time I had breakfast at Sazerac it was really good too.

Without checking out the link, I just assumed the French Laundromat was a reference to a do it your self take off on dinner at the French Laundry. *ding* we have a winner. you are right Bux. We called it Laundromat as a satirical take-off. And yes, I was one of the 4 chefs. It was a blast. and yes, Fish isn't lying, it was an 11 hour marathon. After the lobster dish, 2 of us HAD to go for a long walk, or I was gonna burst.

um, no, that honor would have to go to Kansas, state of my birth. You have to be a "member" of a club to go drink there. once upon a time, you had to buy memberships to all these clubs if you wanted to go out for a drink. Now, they have what they call "reciprocal" memberships, so then you can have one membership card and go to several "clubs" or bars/restaurants that serve liquor. And the liquor stores are a joke. You think ours are bad. lordy. although I've heard that Utah has some rather odd liquor laws...

I need to do this. ;-) In fact, I need to do my cupboards too. I also do the dumb thing of storing my spices above the stove where they are subject to fluctuating temps.

yes and vengroff you nailed it ;-) I grew up eating this in the midwest, and I ate it at least twice when back there in August. Gravy on french fries does it for me. oh-ohh-oh.

what's lebne?

ergh! for me its roasted chicken with rosemary & garlic! maybe its just the combo of rosemary & garlic?! in fact, now that I think about it, it might be rosemary itself.

hmm I wonder if we are getting Total here yet... hmm. This just might inspire me to make a greek dinner.

yeah, and while I'll admit to reading Cook's Ill a few times, the glossy food-porn stuff always wins me over.

I had a BF for a few years who wouldn't eat seafood (see why the relationship was doomed?) and after we split, I didn't eat chicken for at least a year, I swear. I got so totally sick of it, its all he would eat. I'll eat it now, but not as much as I eat seafood. ;-) He also ate copious amounts of pasta (this was back in the high carb/low fat diet days) and I got sick of that too. I have to say I do kinda agree with Plotnicki in that thread about pasta being... uh, boring. I don't think it has to be, but if its the staple of your diet, then, yuck. For the past year I've been eating a LOT of asian food. I've been worried about burning out on it, but I tend to eat enough variety on other days that I'm hoping it won't happen. I adore sushi, but don't eat it that often so haven't gotten tired of it.

I've been making my own creme fraiche. 2 tbsps of buttermilk in a cup of heavy cream, let it sit for ~24 hours at room temperture. The longer you let it sit the more tang it develops. stir it up and put it in the fridge. yum! unfortunately, we don't get the d'Isigny. We do get their butter though which is outrageously good.

wow blackduff! This is exactly what I've been doing over the past year. 32 lbs peeled off, I'm convinced it works ;-) a great way to make great tasting food for not a lot of calories. I bought a couple of chinese cookbooks and went for it. made a few recipes, experimented/changed a few. Recently I've been cooking out of "Hot Sour Salty Sweet" which a friend gave me for my birthday. I try to make recipes as they are written before improvising on them. I've always been fascinated with asian cooking, reproducing those restaurant flavors is difficult. I'm getting closer though, and a few dishes I've nailed ;-)

let us know if you get in, tarka...

YES. like just last night on the iron chef marathon.. the italian chef brought in by the famous actor. They interviewed the guy and he said of the chef "he cooks with olive oil but none of his food is greasy" oy.

Well if you're REALLY stuck.............. no! me!! pick me!!!

I've never been to Philadelphia Fevre so can't answer that. They have odd hours :-/ I think the general consensus is that P.F. is better, but I'm not sure now since the original owner is gone.

heh- Philly's Best is a guilty pleasure of mine. they have seasoned krinkle cut fries and yes, they are the frozen variety, but for some reason I have a weakness for them. I like their sammys too, usually a half is more than enough for me. the pepper cheese steak, mmmm.