APPS411

Make a cobbler. Throw them in a baking pan w/ a bit or sugar and lemon juice tossed in. Find an easy biscuit recipe, add a little extra sugara to the mix and a little less flour to get a more runny moist biscuit. Then just very roughly dump the biscuit mix onto the blueberry mixture in the baking pan and bake. Don't cover the blueberries 100%, leave some room for them to bubble up. Dehydration will help to keep from becoming too watery. If your blueberries are real large and plump then they are going to release alot of water. Another tip is to add a tablespoon or two of fine tapioca mix to the blueberries. Acts similar to cornstarch to make a thicker sauce. Enjoy. Man, now I wish I had an extra lb. of blueberries lying around!

I haven't tried either of those. I'm working in Baton Rouge and only get to stop in houston on business trips. If you get a reservation at Mark's ask for a upstairs table. They have a great little mezzanine section overlooking the rest of the restaurant.

MARKS AMERICAN CUISINE on 1658 Westheimer. It's located just a few minutes southwest of downtown houston. I would rate this as one of the best 3 dinners I have ever had. The chef Mark Cox is very inovative without too many odd pariings. Absolutely fabulous salads and desserts. They have a web page but I can't seem to locate it right now. It's fairly expensive but well worth it. Portions are large, but then again, it is Texas were talking about. Always crowded, call way in advance. Also, TASCA is a great little wine bar/Tappa joint in downtown. Moderately priced wine glasses and dishes.

I just tried a great vodka called VAN HOO. It's from Belgium, comes in a rectangular blue bottle. Very smooth. About $23 a bottle. I use this in alot of my sauces. Best quality for the price. VOX is also super clean and crisp.

yeah, come to think of it. I don't recall ever being in there at primetime during the weekend. I always gone fairly early on fridays, and they were always pretty empty, but began filling up as the night went on.

Suggestions: If your willing to take a little drive, head out to Madison, NJ (about 25 miles west of hackensack). Main streets runs right through downtown. As your going south on main, there is an Italian restaurant called "IL MONDO VECCHIO" (72 Main st.) on the left. Look carefully or else you'll miss it. It looks like a store front filled w/ a bunch of white tablecloth. The food there is brilliant. Absolutely fabulous fresh pasta dishes. Very quaint, never noisy or very crowded. They sometimes serve a special of porchini stuffed raviolis w/ a porchini cream which is very good. But I haven't had a dish I didn't rave about. Don't have dessert there. Instead walk up the street to "CAFE AMALFI" (20 Waverly st.). Walk out of IL MONDO, take a right (main st.), your first left onto Waverly st. It's in the old bank on the left hand side near the big clock. They make great Gelato in a huge variety of flavors (pistacio and choc. hazenut are two of my favorites) They also have a good selection of coffees, espressos and capp's which I don't drink. Good lunches there also. Enjoy Madison is a fun little town away from the city, sometimes theres also a good band playing at the main street bistro too.

Oops, NY only. My bad. No dish from NY or surrounding has had that type of repeated effect on me. Sorry. This would be a good national topic too.

A soft shell crab Po-boy, fully dressed, from Parasols in New Orleans. I'm working in Baton Rouge, but whenever I have to fly out of New Orleans airport I always call parasols to see if they have soft shells in and leave a little bit earlier than I have to. The're so good!

Also, make sure you dry off those strawberries. If you don't you'll get a moisture barrier that make the chocolate crack and fall off when someone takes a bite into one. Extra Info: I like to marinate my strawberries in a good ruby port wine in the frig for a day. Then dry them off and reserve the port marinating liquid. Melt and temper (to the best of your ability) some dark bitter sweet French Vahlrona Chocolate. Dip them and put them on wax paper in the frig. Take the reserved port and reduce it on the stove w/ a bit of sugar until you get a syrup, then chill it. Serve the chocolate covered strawberries w/ a dollup of homade fresh mint infused whip cream and drizzle the whip cream with a bit of the port syrup. To die for!! (mint whip cream: pour heavy whipping cream in a bowl and add some fresh mint leaves that have been roughly chopped and bashed w/ the back of a knife, let it sit covered in the frig for a few hours, strain, whip and add the smallest bit of conf. sugar)