Dante

How long ago was this?

oh yes- I'd second that recommendation. Still got the remnants of a bottle of that in the fridge (need to get more)- my wife loves it! Nifty bottle art too... Sincerely, Dante

I've got that one- quite the coincidence- my wife got it for me for Valentine's Day some years ago. Some really good stuff in there (the french toast recipe especially). Granted, none of the recipes I've tried so far have had the advertised effect (at least nothing I could chalk up to inherent qualities of the ingredients in and of themselves), but they're still quite good as a whole. to my knowledge, my mother's never noticed my copy, but I don't think she'd care if she did- she's been (unsuccessfully) lobbying for grandkids for years now... Sincerely, Dante

Just OK? Yeah- I started going on a cuisines-of-the-world binge when I moved up here to New Hampshire from the DC area- while NH has a surprising range of options re:international cuisine, there were some styles I still missed, so I decided to try to learn them, and it's kind of mushroomed since. that's how I picked up a lot of my Spanish- having to communicate with the dishwashing staff at places I worked at. Gotcha. Won't really make my priority-list, then. (I have to be extra-extra discerning in my cookbook-purchasing- I m-i-g-h-t be able to wheedle *one* more bookshelf out of the rest of the household, but more would be pushing it) Sincerely, Dante

I'll agree that the standard Insanity is best only as an additive (I'm not keen ont he flavour in and of itself, tho I do find it more pleasant than the rather-similar Endorphin Rush), rather than as a table sauce, but some of his other variants work nicely as table sauces, and I'm rather fond of his "Jump Up and Kiss Me" line of hot sauces. Sincerely, Dante

Quite so, our household's culinary library numbers slightly over 150 books currently- covering a rather wide area of topics. i admit I haven't perused the Williams-Sonoma books What would you say to recommend them? Sincerely, Dante

Hmmm...the bottle of Annie's Naturals Worcestershire I have here has... Water Apple Cider Vinegar Molasses Soy Sauce Sugar Tamarind Sea Salt Chicory Root Extract Corn Starch Xanthan gum Garlic Shallots Cloves Chili powder all but water, sea salt, chicory and xanthan listed as organic ingredients Sincerely, Dante

perfect! I hadn't thought of Life of Brian, as I was thinking in terms of titles, rather than content, but you did point out some good lines there... that was a startler, I have to admit- it had never occurred to me, but I guess it is possible with some... I loved Brendan Fraser's comment (not to mention the bit on the back of the case about "commentary by wine experts and Brendan Fraser") on the one he didn't like "Put it back in the horse". I almost fall off of the couch at that one. But thinking about the blind tasting scene reminds me of another revelation i had not too long ago... We hosted a murder-mystery party last year where for the wines we had three Zins from Tres Sabores- all same year, but different winemakers. I really was amazed that, if I hadn't known in advance, I wouldn't have guessed that they were the same varietal or year at all. Sincerely, Dante

Oh, my- Peppers. My Sister-in-Law's husband took me to dinner at Starboard restaurant in lieu of giving me a batchelor party. We stopped there afterwards. Hmm...I can't decide which Half Moon Bay/Iguana sauce to recommend, as I love them all so much. All have an excellent blend of heat and flavour...tho I've become partial to their Bee Sting of late, but the Gold Island is nice too. Scorned Woman, the original, especially if you're serving red meat- the flavours work nicely together. Sriracha- can't do Asian without Hot Raspberry Thunder by Robert Rothchild Farm- good flavour, good tecture, nice heat level without being intrusive. and, if you must have one nuclear-intensity sauce, bypass Dave's Gourmet (not to knock them, mind you) and go for Pepper's own "You Can't Handle this Sauce"- heat, flavour, and spice. Does anyone know if Captain Sleepy's is still available? Haven't seen it in ages. Sincerely, Dante

One of my housemates, whose father is a sommelier, suggested another... "The Meaning of Life" Speaking of Python and wine- anyone here seen John Cleese's "Wine For The Confused""Wine For The Confused"? Sincerely, Dante

Well, on a non-professional level, one of my housemates is the house wine-buyer (his dad was a sommelier until he retired). He does the expensive buy but also seeks out good bargain wines too, both thoroughly researched. One of his mottoes is "Anyone can find good expensive wine, it takes talent to find good cheap wines". So he kind of combines both approaches, if i read you correctly. Sinerely, Dante

Agreed. I've got the gear (oyster, clam knives), but only minimal hands-on experience, and that about 15 years ago. But at this stage, this is early recon- I prolly won't be doing it in fact for a while. In the meantime, I'm going to be down in New Orleans for a bit this December (my S.O. finally took the raw-oyster plunge for the first time when we had our 10th anniversary dinner at Pascal Manale's last October), and I've got a few buddies down there who could re-teach me -about one-third of the Mardi Gras Marching Krewe I'm in are either current- or ex-Industry. Sincerely, Dante

Oh yeah- I understand that part, plus of course it's nice for presentation purposes too. A necessity. Sounds like a nice way to spend the day. Good point. Oh yeah. I've been through the NIFI sanitation course, I know the drill. Which sounds nice enough as is. FTR- I'm not doing this as a commercial enterprise. I'm not in the industry any more, but my household hosts events periodically, so I'm looking more at the private end of things. Sincerely, Dante

Thank you. Very nice to hear. Always good to hear other people say things like that. (hm- and we both seem to have attended our respective schools around the same time.) I was quite pleased with my education there and, in fact, when I did a brief (unofficial) stint as a teaching assistant at one of the area vo-techs I took a group of students on a series of trips to several of the cooking schools in the area and it only validated my opinion that I'd made the correct choice in choosing ACA, and all of the students agreed that, if they wanted to continue their education at an area school, that ACA was the choice that they would make. It was very interesting to see how my little community-college training stacked up against the other places. I've heard a few good things about the Atlantic Culinary Academy up here in Dover, NH. Yeah- we did visit one place like that- I was listening to high-school-age vo-tech students whispering to each other about the mistakes they'd spotted second-year professional culinary-school students making. I wholeheartedly second that. Sincerely, Dante

yeah- I'd second that- physical activity of that sort does help- when I started doing Yoga and Wushu, it really helped me build myself up. of course taking a fall and destroying my right knee (ripped under kneecap) kind of sidelined me for the long haul, so far as professional restaurant cooking goes, but continuing my physical regimen at least rehabilitated me enough that I can move around normally, even if I can't stand for long periods of time. sincerely, Dante

I'd already assumed as much. Yeah- I've got Professional Chef, plus the other books from my days at ACA in NJ, so I have familiarity with that one. (and I'll admit that I have the CIA book companion to their "Cooking Secrets of the CIA" PBS series) Yep. Familiar with that too. I was just wondering if it would prove worth it to get the LCB book if I already have Professional Chef (in terms of financial expenditure and also in terms of increasing the chances of my housemate doing bad things to me for further taxing our already-limited kitchen-bookshelf space). Sincerely, Dante

It's late here and I'm currently doing prep work for low-temp roast chicken because I started too late but I'll share one off of the top of my head. If you clean your spice-grinder by running pieces of bread through it, save the crumbs and you'll have a perpetually-renewing source of interestingly-flavoured bread crumbs. another- if you buy bunches of fresh herbs, snip the bottom stems and keep them in a glass of water- they keep longer and can make for an attractive display in your kitchen. (why do I feel like I should be in "Hints From Heloise"?) Sincerely, Dante

The Alton Brown approach, eh? "Think like MacGyver!" 'kay, that sounds strangely viable (expecially as we have most of that right here already). thanx for the concept... So, what about the food itself? What sort of things besides the obvious bivalves would work nicely? I'll make the addumption that I'd be going through the range of sashimi and ceviche, but are there other things I could take in to account and possibly incorporate? Sincerely, Dante

Certianly that would be a factor. Last Summer, slightly more than a year ago, the housemate of mine that I share cooking duties with had to undergo treatment for thyroid cancer, so I ended up taking on all of the cooking (and cleaning) in addition to working full-time for a couple of months, plus I had to hammer together a low-iodine diet plan for this period in preparation for her radioiodine treatment. It was pretty intense and I did approach burnout towards the end of it. Her son undergoing surgery for pectus excavatum and my S.O. having to go to counseling and go on psych meds for anxiety-related maladies didn't help to reduce the overall stress levels for any of us either. But everyone's doing much better now, I've gotten back in to the swing of things more than ever and it's inspired me to consider looking in to going back to school to become a dietitian. Perversely, burnout can sometimes act as a catalyst, or incubation phase, for something new- an evolution of sorts. Sincerely, Dante

Nope- I've a vague notion involving oysters but beyond that my ignorance extends even to what else to add. oh yeah- know that. I've gone through the NIFI sanitation course and such so things like that aren't alien to me. and the co-op where I do almost all of my shopping is really good about such things too, and they always keep an eye to sourceing from good, local producers (I live in New Hampshire) Gotcha. and that was the area I mainly wanted to know about, but your reply helped too, as it made me think more consciously about the purchase- storage-and-handling end of things. Thank you! Sincerely, Dante

Ironically, it would be me tuna casserole. I make it with linguine and add home-made curry powder and tarragon to the cheese sauce. It's become my most-requested dish of all time. I invented it right off the top of my head about 11 years ago. Sincerely, Dante

You will want to cook when you want to cook. that's pretty much it. Something that's that much of a part of you isn't something you can "lose", it's just that some times your psyche has to prioritize and redirect the energy that goes in to one thing in to another for a while. You obviously just need to pour a lot in to the grieving process, but you'll feel it returning (small comfort now, I know). Sincerely, Dante

[chilaquiles] Hm. there's something I haven't tried before. I think that may need to happen some time in the near future. Thank you very much for sharing this! Sincerely, Dante

So, if one were to, say, set up a small-scale raw bar for an event in one’s home, how would one go about doing it? Does anybody have any nice tips and/or tricks? I’ll admit that my knowledge on this topic is next to nil. Sincerely, Dante

Seeking opinions on “Le Cordon Bleu’s Complete Cooking Techniques” vs. CIA’s “The Professional Chef”. How do you see the two comparing against each other. If one has one, would one needs the other? If you see one as superior to the other, in what way(s) do you see that? What does one have that the other lacks? How do they compare? How do they contract? Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Dante