tommy

do they mix? they sure do. all of the time.

snow days are meant to be spend at the pub or strip club. you know better than that.

i'd imagine the red is pretty fruity, which is what you want for some applications. i also imagine the white is very oaky, which i find lends a horrible taste to dishes.

Ween - Bananas and blow

Spinal Tap: a backup drummer.

yes, i recall the Mississippi mud fish not going over very well at my table. the other table seemed to enjoy theirs though.

i'm with suzanne. although the scum seems to stick to itself, i have to imagine that a finer mesh is more desirable. is there an advantage to using a spoon like the one hillyvalley pictures? although, i usually use a regular spoon. edit: "finer mess". hehe.

nothing goes better with cheesecake than coffee. i'm surprised that so many restaurants in the US take their time to get the coffee out. i don't think it's because they think it's "correct", or that they're following some sort of European tradition. i think they're just lazy and can't get it straight. so yeah, i like my coffee with dessert.

hey, i was in summit as promised. let's plan again. i eat sushi at least 2 or 3 times a week. i'm always up for trying a new place.

i need to revisit arthur's. i ate at arthur's probably once a week for 3 years straight in my early 20's. the only thing that put me off about the burger was that the bun was too big, and the burger wasn't very juicy. i think i'll check them out again soon though. thanks for the reminder!

the other day i was in my local butcher when a fella came in holding a steak proclaiming "i have a problem". seems the guy bought a steak, got home, and realized it was 43 dollars. as he said to the butcher, "i just can't believe i could spend 43 dollars on a steak". the butcher explained that beef was running 28.50 a lb (this was a steak for 2). it might very well be the case that this fella wouldn't appreciate the difference btwn prime and choice, especially considering the price. and for lobel's prices, i'm pretty happy with my butcher.

deep fry for 13-17 minutes. toss with Frank's (mixed with a little butter). open a beer. done.

turned out pretty good for a first time. thanks for asking. i knew how to make it, but looked up a bunch of recipes anyway (they're all very similar), and applied them to what i was going to do. i think the only thing i did that i didn't expect was adding fennel seeds. speaking of scum, i let the broth sit in the fridge for a while, and skimmed the fat off of the top. the broth turned very gelatenous, and gave me an idea for a small bite before a meal: jellied pho (it already had the shreds of ox tail beef in the broth, without the bone obviously). it was quite interesting, and very tasty. i'm going to serve a smallish slab of this jellied pho with a bit of basil and some other yet-to-be-determined pho-type garnishes. that should be enough to confuse people. working on a wine pairing, and i'm open to suggestions.

i don't make stock very often, but i know i have to skim the "scum". just about every recipe i've read suggests this. isn't there a fancier word for "scum"? something french maybe? suzannef? i'm pretty sure that i don't get *all* of the scum, so i'd like to think that something better-sounding is ending up in my pho.

i've been cooking a lot more recently, and as i get older (as someone suggested), i'm becoming more and more aware of wasting food. so i've actually eaten leftovers once or twice recently. the most notable was new years day. we had some sausage left over from xmas. it was really freakin good, so i couldn't bring myself to chuck it, although i had no plan on having sausage and peppers as a meal again. fast forward to a hungover and lazy new years day. a few of us sort of woke up, and we were hungry. i figured i'd do my recent trick of ham in muffin tins, with chopped mushrooms and an egg on top. but i didn't have mushrooms. in went chopped up sausage instead. as i was heating it up and throwing a bit of a brown on the chopped sausage, my friend was eating it right out of the pan, proclaiming it "the best fucking sausage, dude". so it went into the ham mold, with the egg. we were all very happy, and i have leftovers to thank for it. go me.

as long as they're good reviewers.

this makes it even more bizarre. usually the local joints have really good food. even if it is hard to find green vegetable like substances on your plate. i've found that pizzeria type places tend to make pretty standard sandwiches, from pre-sliced meats. in my experience, it's just standard for them to have an "italian hero" on their menu. so to me, it's not strange at all that it would be horrible!

that was very funny.

i think you and jason should knock on their back door with some of your stash.

"hot ham" is generally a spiced ham. you're no crazier than you already think you are. it's also referred to as "cappicola" or "hot ham cappicola" in some NJ non-italian delis, right or wrong. but i've never heard of anyone dipping ham into Franks to make "hot ham." that's pretty hilarious, and pretty disgusting. fwiw, i don't think that thumann's hot ham is much more expensive than regular ham. in fact, i'm sure of it.

the Allendale Bar & Grill (AB&G - in allendale)) has a great burger. and i suppose, by extension, so does the Mawah Bar & Grill (in mahwah i'd guess), although i've never been there. perfectly cooked to m/r. great char, but still moist and rare on the inside. good burger-to-bun ratio. highly recommended. i don't think this place has a website. but it doesn't need one. it's a freakin gold mine as it is.

this menu does seem a bit "tame" compared to others. i'd agree that anyone would like most of these dishes. although if you're not into food, i have to wonder how much fun you'll have surrounded by 40 idiots like us. i'm wondering if they're still using sichuan peppercorns. on a recent visit, i detected none in the tripe and tongue. iirc, this dish usually has some.

it might be a silly question, but has anyone been to this temple of old-school italian? website my MIL has been talking for years about going. i'm considering it for the hell of it.

i do this all of the time. i just slice it, stuff it, and tie it up. i'll generally sear it in a pan and then finish in the oven, as it will often not get any real browning when put right into the oven. deglaze the pan afterwards with some red or white wine and broth/stock and throw in a little butter for a bit of sauce if desired. (or just stock or water for that matter if you don't have wine) a simple stuffing of sausage, bread, onion and sage, or anything really, might be a better alternative to a pre-packaged stuffing. edit: i see that's not an option here.

i figured i'd bump this up.