Shel_B

While we take refrigeration for granted, at one time the idea of refrigerated food scared people. On October 23, 1911, some 400 guests sat down to one of the most pivotal meals of the 20th century. The setting was the Louis XVI room in Chicago’s Hotel Sherman, a “luxurious meeting place for the elite” that catered to swaggering politicians and mafiosi alike. There, under the cavernous, molded ceilings resplendent with gilt details, the mayor of Chicago, the city’s health commissioner, and other bigwig bureaucrats steeled their nerves for the world’s first-ever “cold-storage banquet.” Neither the eggs in the egg salad, nor the apples in the apple pie were fresh from any farm. “Everything but the olives in the dry martinis was refrigerated,” says Nicola Twilley, who wrote of the banquet ... Click Here to Read the Full Article

I (we)will not return to HOPR. Our last experience there was unsatisfactory. The place was very crowded with noisy and boisterous customers to the extent that there was literally no place to sit while waiting for our table. My dear sweetie was pushed and jostled as she tried to find a comfortable place to wait. We were on time for our reservation yet had to wait more than 45 minutes to be seated. That would have been acceptable were there a place to sit, talk, have a drink. But that was not going to happen. As for our meal, well, it too was disappointing. The Yorkshire pudding was grossly overdone and one of the four baked potatoes we ordered was cold. The prime rib was pretty good, but not to the standard I remembered it to be. I've been a multi-time visitor to the restaurant and think I've a pretty good idea of what their quality and standards have been over the years. Overall, it was an unpleasant dining experience. @MetsFan5, if you go back to the restaurant, I hope you have a more enjoyable experience than we had.

It's been a couple of decades since I've been there. Thanks for the reminder.

@Smithy May I offer the following as a great place to start exploring pepper: https://spicetrekkers.com/shop/peppers Click on the name of the pepper to get a description of its characteristics.

How do youlike the gf Rummo. My sister likes pasta but hasn't found a gf that she likes. I've used and found Rummo's regular pasta to be fine, but didn't know they had a gf version. Maybe I'll mention it to sis ... what are your thoughts about it?

This is a joke, right?

Thanks for the info. Vic Stewart's looks interesting.

Let me preface my question by noting that I don't eat much beef, but every now and then I want some. Thr craving for a great steak is upon me ... I'd like a recommendation for a good steak restaurand in the San Francisco Bay Area. A nice setting is a plus. San Francisco, the East Bay, Napa, and Sonoma counties are areas of interest. When sweetie was here, I'd cook steak for her at home, but I generally don't ennjoy pan frying beef here at the apartment. So, a steak dinner for two at a great steakhouse is on the horizon. Looking forward to suggestions. PS: Not interested in SF's House of Prime Rib

Thanks for the bead info. My sister is exploring GF bread options and I've forwarded your comments to her. She found some here when she visied from NYC last month, but there was some sort of problem with shipping or selection so she continues to look for other options.

Bonus for the tots! Did you fry them? They look great. I bake my tots, and they don't look as luxurous as yours. What can you tell me about the GF bread? Local to your area? Do they have varieties and styles to choose from? What type do you prefer? Online availability?

What pepper flavors have you been using or experimenting with?

Lately I've been playing around with white pepper. Since rediscovering a second pepper grinder that I'd stashed away and forgot about, it's been easy to use two types of pepper. Not having used white pepper very much, I was surprised by what it brought to many dishes. I'm still experimenting and learning my preferences, but both black and white together in some dishes has been a surprisingly nice combination.

Cumin comes quickly to mind, as does a bit of fresh-ground white pepper. Nicely colored dish, though.

Nice image ... well done.

Here's the dinner with the sauce. The flavor was quite good, although a little more intensity would have been welcome. The sauce was great on its own, but the flavor got lost a bit when diluted with the rice, chicken, and veggies. Notwithstanding, it's worth playing around with some more. There was some left over, and I may try to punch up the flavor a bit before using it in another dish. Of course, just adding more sauce might have doe it as well.

Roasted Sweet Potato (garnet yams) and Carrot Sauce: I made this for dinner tonight. I'll be having it with a brown rice stir fry, veggies, and chicken. The veggies for the sauce were deeply roasted and caramelized, and there was even a bit of char on the carrot, some of which I kept. Chicken broth was infused with fresh and roasted garlic, added to the potatoes and carrot, along with salt, fresh ground Kampot pepper, a bit of fresh lemon juice, and freshly ground corriander and cumin, and given a ride in the Vitamix. It tastes pretty good as is, and the real test is how it works with the rice, chicken, and vegetable(s) tonight.

Toasted English muffins with melted pepper jack cheese, cup of medium-strength Ethiopian coffee.

Late Lunch Leftovers: Yesterday I poached some chicken thighs. A couple-three days before I made a vegetable and broken spaghetti soup. Today I put some thighs together with the soup, adjusted the seasoning, and made a light but filling chicken-veggie-noodle bowl. Five minutes to put together.

Poached Chicken Thighs: These'll be used in some subsequent meals ... added to the recently made veggie-spaghetti soup, a rice dish with veggies, might even make a chicken salad. The broth will be used as a base for various dishes. I'll cook and mash up some Yukon Golds with it, freeze some for later ...

Just a simple breakfast: thick cornmeal porridge (Bob's Medium Grind) and a cuppa black Ethiopian coffee brewed strong.

Dark chocolate Milky Way (Forever Yours, Mars Bar, Midnight), Almond Snickers, Original Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (only the original size) and a definite mention goes to York Peppermint Patty.

Vegetable and Broken Spaghetti Soup: Made enough for a few days. Did a little fridge cleaning as well. Green beans, onion, carrot, red bell pepper, sautéed in Calabrian pepper oil, plus the addition of zucchini, a small can of diced fire roasted tomatoes, and broken whole wheat spaghetti. Slightly under cooked to account for subsequent reheating. During the following days, various proteins will be added to round out the meals ... glorified leftovers!

One of the You Tube sites I frequent made a Dubai Pistachio Chocolate bar a while back. Maybe you'll enjoy the video. https://youtu.be/sZoh97hXdm8

I discovered this in the big, bottom drawer of my office desk this afternoon. Totally forgotten, but the images and ideas it contains are still as fresh in my mind as the day I acquired the book. Many of the pasta images were of thinly drawn sheets of translucent pasta with herbs pressed between them, cut into small shapes to fit comfortably on the plate. At the time, I'd never seen anything quite like those diaphanous ravioli ... I guess you'd call them ravioli. (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)