FoodMan

Steve- Congrats on your win!! I never tried blending the two fats, that actually sounds like a pretty good idea that I might try out. As for my All-Butter pie doughs they turn out great as long as I use very chilled butter (In hindsight they might have been a little flakier if I use your suggestion and combine Crisco and butter). I do cook for vegetarians --not vegans-- once in a while and butter is never a problem. Thanks for your input FM

I forgot about this. I use it to season my cast iron cookware as well.

I am not sure if this topic has been tackled before but I have to know if I'm alone in thinking that vegetable shortening (eg: Crisco) should be only used for frying. I tried several recipes that use veg. shortening for baking (such as pie shells and dough) or as an ingredient. However I can immediatly tell whenever something is baked with shortening not butter and it does not taste too good (it is more like tasteless). After trying the same recipes again using butter I decided to sub butter for shortening whenever I can because it tastes so much better, smells better and even looks better. The only use that I found for shortening is in deep frying (I don't even like to grease my baking pans with this stuff). So let's see what y'all think. Thanks FM

Sunday dinner: Chicken and smoked sausage Gumbo. Served with white rice and sourdough french bread for me and regular french baguete for my wife (she is not a big fan of sourdough) FM "Always add Tabasco"

FM, what sort of cucumber do you call english? Is it the fat one with lots of seeds and thin skin, or the small ones or maybe the long ones? English cucumber is the long one with almost no seeds. I never use the fat one with lots of seed and waxy skin. FM

Sunday Dinner: broiled (it was raining for the grill) Lamb/beef kofte (ground meat, mint, parsley, onions, cumin, allspice). Served with homemade "babba ghanooj" (roasted eggplant, gralic, tahina, and EVOO dip). For a salad I made an english cucumber/red onion/mint salad with a reduced balsamic vinegar and EVOO dressing. And of course toasted and soft Pita bread to go along. Monday: A simple risotto-- with caramlized red onions, parmesan and goat cheese. Topped off with some toasted almonds and breadcrumbs in olive oil and thyme. FM

Well, I am not a big fan of Food Finds, Best Of.., or any other non-cooking show on FoodTV. The only shows that I like watching are Good Eats, Mario's shows, Emeril, Jamie Oliver's, A Cook's Tour and occasionally Gail Gand's Sweet Dreams. However FoodTv is exactly that. It is a Channel dedicated to "food" shows not "cooking" or "Cook It Yourself" shows and they are in this business for one reason only-- to make money. So if you look at it this way you would understand that while they want to be attractive to cooking shows fanatics like us they also want to attract people who enjoy food shows in general such as "unwrapped"and the abominable "$40 A Day". Maybe as someone mentioned before there should be two FoodTVs one for hardcore cooking lovers and one for food shows in general. Since I do not see this happening anytime soon (unless we fund it ourselves that is ), I am willing to sit through thirty minutes of Food Finds so that I can get to Molto Mario. Just my 2 cents FM Don't give up there is still hope yet

I tried the aformentioned Molto's Bolognese (it's also in his Babbo cookbook) with some homemade papprdelle and it was fantastic. According to him the true bolognese is not a tomato beef Ragu it is more of a pink meat sauce made with white wine milk and some tomatoes. The meat is usually acombination of veal, prok and pancetta (All Ground of course) FM

Thanks Jimmyo. No I decided against any accompanying starch because the mushroom/greens mixture comprised a very generous portion. Tonight I'll probably have a very simple yogurt cheese (Labne), olive, fresh mint, and tomato "sandwich" in Pita bread- one of my all time favorite childhood foods. FM

We (my wife and I) had a very special dinner last night. I bought the best sashimi quality Tuna I could find at the market. I served a couple of slices raw marinated in some Soy, lemon zest and a touch of lemon juice. It was incredibly fresh and tasty. For the main course I coated one side of the tuna steaks with instant potatoe flakes and pan seared them on both sides until the potatoe side became crispy and the inside was still rare for me and medium for my wife's steak. This was served on a bed of Shiitake mushrooms sauteed with Cinzano sweet garlic, red onions, radischio, arugula, and blood orange segments. Needless to say it was divine, the tuna just melted in the mouth and the contrast between the crispy crust and the rare inside was really sexy. FM P.S. No this is not my recipe, it is from Mario Batali's latest cookbook "Babbo".

It might help to also pat them dry before cooking in a very hot pan. It works for me. FM

I believe this is true. I love olives, blue cheese, and any kind of pickle. My wife hates olives and anything that is pickled or has a briny "pickly" taste (even the tang of artichockes bug her)!!!

I personally love olives. This might have to do with my middle eastern heritage. As I was growing up Olives were ALWAYS on the dinner/lunch table as an accompaniment to anything. My grandma still preps her own olives. She buys them fresh, salts them, brines them and packs them in jars-- delicious. I too have never tasted an olive I did not like with the exception of those rubbery, seedless, black ones that come in a jar or on a pizza hut pizza-- very tasteless. However I have to say that Kalamata's and those smaller green mediterranean olives (sorry I do not know their name) are my favorites. Needless to say I add them on anything whenever I can especially if my wife is not going to eat it (she hates olive!!!!!). I usually buy about 2 lbs of kalamata's at a time. I put them in an air-tight Jar with some chilies, coriander seeds, oregano and cover them up with olive oil. One of my simple and delicious recipes is tagliatelle with tuna and kalamata. Please use a good quality packaged albacore tuna, the other stuff is just mush. just boil the pasta and toss it (while still hot) with the tuna, LOTS of pitted Kalamatas, extra virgin olive oil and herbs of your choice (I love dried oregano, crushed dried chillies and black pepper). Enjoy FM