gknl

I use Bradley Ogden's cranberry relish recipe: cranberries, orange juice and zest, sugar, vanilla, and mace. Other vegetable dishes: Green beans and carrots sauteed in butter with some hot sauce and dry sherry. Something about the butter, hot sauce (I use Crystal) and sherry that's really tasty. Sometimes I add some thyme too. Cauliflower blanched and then baked with a white sauce made with roux, milk, dijon mustard, and nutmeg and covered with bread crumbs. The sauce melts into the cauliflower making it really creamy. We usually do a corn pudding too, kinda like a savory custard. I used to use the Frugal Gourmet recipe, but found one I like much better in James Villa's My Mother's Southern Cooking. At a party once, I had pureed acorn squash flavored similarly to pumpkin pie but without the sugar, served in hollowed out squash halves. I'm too lazy to do that myself, though I've made the puree part. It was a pretty presentation though. PM me for any recipes.

I think the only reason what I smoked on the Weber the other day worked was that I used pork tenderloins (wrong cut of meat, I know, but it was in the freezer and this was total spur of the moment inspiration) which were small enough to fit on the far side of the grill and cook relatively quickly, close to two hours, I think. But it's made me want more! I've been thinking about upgrading for a while, but this may be the incentive I needed. I figure the Chargrill can handle the main meat load, while the Webers get relegated to supporting roles. Can't wait for that first three grill party. What do you mean by last longer though? That's a little disconcerting.

Do you miss not having the firebox? It seems like it makes life easier, not just in the cooking, but the clean up too, which is what I really dislike about the Webers.

http://www.chargriller.com/smokinpro.html (sorry, couldn't get the image to post for some reason, but there's a photo on that webpage). Is the small thing on the side the firebox? Is the main advantage that you can continually add coals and stuff without disturbing the main area and also getting more grill space? And if you're not smoking, can you use it as a straight grill too? Right now, I just use an ancient Weber kettle which I'm sure this would be a huge upgrade from. Thanks for writing up your experience! I'm glad it went well. I learned a lot and did something I probably wouldn't otherwise have done. And am eager to do it again soon too!

Has anyone been to La Barca on Lombard? Friends of mine swear it's the best in the Bay Area, though I've never been.

Wouldn't the flour take care of that? There's a recipe in the first Frugal Gourmet book for something called "Old French Style Potatoes" that's pretty similar. Par boil potatoes, dust with flour, add oil, onions and garlic and roast away in a 450 oven until brown.

I second CathyL! How was it? And was it worth it? I owe all of you thanks for inspiration and advice too. I tried smoking meat for the first time yesterday, pork tenderloins, after reading about your efforts. Despite winging it and not having a clue about what I was doing except for what I read here, and making a lot of bonehead mistakes, it was one of the best things ever to come out of the grill. Something I'll definitely do again.

Thank you so much for your generosity in answering the questions! In your response to another question, you describe a method for cooking chicken at a lower than usual temperature. Also, in last year's Gourmet article about molecular gastronomy, they described your method for cooking lamb tenderloins at "a shockingly low temperature." The article also says: "To do it safely, [you] employ an arsenal of technical precautions. In other words, don't try this at home." I'm wondering what those precautions are and if they are something the home cook can do too? Is the primary danger one of bacterial growth? I imagine the risk is greater with meats served rare rather than with those typically cooked to a higher temperature beyond the upper limit of the danger zone for bacterial growth. Would there be the same dangers in cooking pork as there would be for lamb?

I've had avocado ice cream that was pretty good. Subtle. It was at Polly Ann's in the Sunset District of San Francisco. Does Mitchell's make one too? I do really enjoy them similarly to what's been posted already, on toast or bread, in sandwiches, straight out of the shell. . . . I would only add avocado bacon cheeseburgers to the list. I can't think of any avocado dishes I've had where there were cooked though. Interesting thought. Aren't there souffles that are served with a scoop (oops quenelle) of ice cream in the middle? Maybe that would work with avocado too. Avocado souffle with avocado ice cream or ice, wouldn't necessarily have to be sweet.

Anyone know what Andrea Strong looks like? Foodie Babes (and hunks, don't want to be overly sexist), the new sex symbols. Of course, the title of HRW's article is "The Truth About MY Dinner Party" (emphasis added). Yeah yeah, I know editors make up the headlines, it's not her fault, it's what her readers want. . . . Would this fall under the broad definition of sloppy joe or is a tomato sauce a generic convention? Ground meat, either beef or turkey, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine or dry sherry, chili sauce or sambal olek, green onions, onions, garlic, and ginger. If I want more sauce, then I add chicken stock and thicken it with a bit of corn starch.

States are: California Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana (all one trip) Alabama Tennesee NYC

What do (the collective) you think about his old school taste? Is it simply him being caught in a time warp and unable to appreciate new cooking? Some of the stuff he described as being awful sounded pretty good. I enjoy his writing, American Taste, the oddly titled Villas at Table, and the My Mother's Southern trilogy are all good. I do envy many of his food experiences, that's for sure.

France England Scotland Germany Netherlands Italy Belgium Denmark Sweden Norway Switzerland Austria Czechoslovakia (before the split) Hong Kong Alabama

Well, crustaceans, shrimp, crab, crayfish, and lobster are in the same class as insects, arthropoda, so you're not too far off. And aren't crayfish called mudbugs and some lobsters called bugs? BLEAGH!!! GAGE ME!! An ex-boyfriend once made me a lovely dinner of lobster tails, baked potatoes and corn on the cob. But I coouldn't eat it! I kept picking at the lobster tail thinking how much it looked like a segmented insect. I saw this Discovery channel-type show about a particular group of people who lived in the remote Amazon rainforest. One of their delicacies were these HUGE tarantulas they threw on a fire and sucked the meat out of the legs. I seem to remember the narrator saying something about it tasting similar to some shellfish. Yeah, yeah, spiders aren't insects, but close enough. When I was in grad school, I did some work at the SF Insect Zoo. One night they had a special program about edible insects and had mostly baked goods with meal worms and crickets in them. Sad to say but I passed on them. They told me they were "not that bad."

They were around before then too. I think my mother thought they were a great time saver or something. But my sister and I could have wanted it too, I don't remember. Can't blame everything on poor old mom.

I think it's more than just sweet. There's something distinctive about it, perhaps the type of oil? I tried a jar of Trader Joe's safflower oil mayo once and it was suspiciously close to MW. So much so that I threw it away. But it still wasn't MW.

What is the ingredient that accounts for Miracle Whip's distinctive taste? I can't stand it. I remember going to someone's house once and being asked if I wanted mayo on my sandwich. I said yes, only to find it slathered with Miracle Whip. It was painful.

I have had to resort to Hellman's once when catering for a group of 225. Embarassed as I was to do that, I felt it was the best I could do. So, here... I have come clean. Here's an anecdote that might make you feel better (it made me smile when I heard it): There was a recent lecture and tasting event given by two local celebrities, one an older and revered food/cookbook writer, the other a restaurant chef. The people who were making the food for the tasting made a big batch of mayonaisse for one the dishes. The older person came by, tasted the mayo and told them it was horrible, it wasn't real mayo. Of course, the cooks were mortified. They tasted it among themselves trying to figure out what they had done wrong. Service was approaching and worse, they had screwed up in front of someone they all love and respect. The chef came by and saw them huddled around the mayo and laughed "oh, just go get some Best Foods, that's what she likes." The writer was completely unapologetic too, "I like what I like."

You're not going to get me to say it. I'd say it, but I'm only half which makes it, uh, inappropriate.

So when can we expect the definitive taxonomy of brownies and bar cookies? Alice Medrich puts them in the same chapter. What does one call these things made with white chocolate? Brownies hardly seems appropriate after all. Why can't "blondie" simply refer to brownies without the chocolate? And whatever you want to call these things, they're good. 7 oz of melted white chocolate and 5 oz of coarsely chopped along with macadamia nuts. If you like white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies, then you'll like these things too.

Oh, please do share! I want to hear the horror stories.

Well, crustaceans, shrimp, crab, crayfish, and lobster are in the same class as insects, arthropoda, so you're not too far off. And aren't crayfish called mudbugs and some lobsters called bugs?

I have a recipe for one with white chocolate and macadamia nuts. It's pretty rich, calling for 12 oz of white chocolate total. It's in a Bon Appetit Favorite Restaurant Recipes special edition (1992) but it's not on the website for some reason. PM me if you want it. It's not a toll house cookie or a brownie, but it's still pretty good. Actually, the recipe is from Stephen Pyles of Goodfellow's in Minneapolis who says it's "the brownie of childhood, only made with white chocolate instead of dark."

Are there any foods out there you have trouble eating because of some bad childhood experience? My big one is nori, dried seaweed. When I was growing up, my mother would buy rice crackers instead of potato chips because we'd eat the chips too fast. We'd also have sheets of the stuff lying around (she still does). I never really liked it but could sort of tolerate it in small doses until one Thanksgiving dinner. We always had traditional Thanksgiving dinners with the extended family; turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc. My maternal grandmother would always bring huge platters of sushi, a mix of plain nigiri sushi, rice wrapped in seaweed, and some stuffed with pickled vegetables. She also made inari sushi, which is still my favorite, but we called it age sushi. She always made sure everyone got sushi and because she was bachan, you had to eat it otherwise her feelings would be hurt. It became somewhat of a joke to say "Bachan, so and so doesn't have any sushi" which would immediately result in the platter being passed your way and you had to take at least one piece. When I was 9, I got the "Grant doesn't have any sushi" and for some reason, instead of passing the plate, she grabbed a handful, probably 4-5 pieces of the dreaded nigiri and shoved them on my plate, right on top of my mashed potatoes and gravy. I remember staring in disbelief and horror while she urged me to "eat sushi" in her broken English. In case you're wondering, that combination does not work. It was a total East meets West Fusion disaster! The seaweed totally permeated the gravy and the gravy did not improve the sushi at all. But I choked it down, being the dutiful grandson. Over 30 years later, I can eat nori, but it's my least favorite part of sushi. And I still don't really like it on rice crackers either, I peel it off a lot of the time.

Is it a brand of chocolate? Or is that a chefs name? Useless trivia: I just found out the other day that Duncan Hines was a professional writer back in the day. I had no idea he was a real person: "The highest compliment a restaurant or motel could receive would be "Recommended by Duncan Hines." In the 1940's and 50's, Hines was the most trusted name in the hospitality industry, if not America. He was featured on Mutual Radio Network on a daily basis, and weekly, his newspaper column appeared in a hundred newspapers with a combined circulation of 20 million. Hines' life took a dramatic turn in 1949 when he met Roy Park who worked as a public relations representative for a midwestern food co-op. They became friends and soon after formed an association that led to Hines-Park Foods. Before long some 200 food products and 50 kitchen items were being marketed nationwide with the Duncan Hines brand name." http://www.duncanhinesfestival.com/ That site also has a description of the world's largest brownie: On June 11 and 12, 1999, the community of Bowling Green, KY., created the "Duncan Hines World's Biggest Brownie" in honor of its native son, Mr. Duncan Hines. The finished brownie measures approximately 29' - 8" X 12' -- that's more than 355 square feet!! Iced and assembled it weights-in at approximately 950 pounds. Ingredients: 615 packages of Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge brownie mix 9.5 gallons of water 1,845 eggs (or 153.75 dozen) 19 gallons of oil 615 pounds of Duncan Hines Creamy Homestyle Frosting