abooja

From page 22: Thanks for turning me on to this thread.

True enough, and a great idea. Thanks! I might even grow to like the stuff.

To clarify, it was the OP, Lan4Dawg, who mixed breadcrumbs into his mac & cheese, not I. I would never do such a thing. I apply a light coating on top and that is all. Blending in breadcrumbs, much like blending in peas or ham or anything other than cheese and bechamel, is quite unappealing to me.

Petite brioche pans. I've only got a dozen of them, but I dread cleaning them all the same. Much worse than muffin pans -- unless, of course, you've got 30 full sheet pans full.

I had to dig this one up after reading racheld's reference to it in the great "Worst meal at someone's home" thread. While I am curious as to the authenticity or not of buttered crumbs on top of mac & cheese, I am more interested in what tastes best. After years of trying to recreate what I once thought was the gold standard in baked macaroni -- my mother's (who always winged it with a little of this and a little of that) -- and suffering through overwrought messes of too cheesy, curdled trays of the fattening substance, I settled on Martha Stewart's great recipe, tweaked a bit to include more of this cheese and less of that, a combination of six cheeses in total. Consistent with all previous attempts has been a light topping of buttered panko breadcrumbs. Martha uses fresh breadcrumbs, but panko work just fine for me. I now love my mac & cheese and so do my guests. My husband, however -- who is not Southern, but a Jewish man from the Bronx -- just tolerates it, eating around the crunchy crumb topping each time. He prefers his mac & cheese creamy throughout. In fact, he wouldn't mind if I served him the stuff in the blue box instead, were I willing. I'm toying with the idea of an alternate mac & cheese recipe for him, and for weeknights, but I usually make so much at one time, we always have some in the freezer. He might also insist that I always make this creamy alternative. I hate the idea. I love the crunchy parts as do most people who have eaten my mac & cheese. There's plenty of gooey underneath that crunchy goodness, so he can feast on that. Why should I go out of my way to make something that, IMHO, is second rate when this compromise already exists? I'm secretly hoping to convert him over the course of time, but I know this is madness. The creamy vs crunchy mac & cheese preference is an instinct, deeply ingrained in childhood. Crap.

Not sure if they're large enough, but Kitchen Krafts has large couplers. I bought both sizes around a year ago, but only use the large one (if I recall correctly) with a kaiser tip for donuts and filled cupcakes.

Since when is there a Prospect Park in Queens? Nonetheless, I will be seeing this movie when it is released.

I recently tried Salmon with Agrodolce Sauce from Epicurious and was quite pleased with the results. I browned the onions a bit more than they suggested. Might brown 'em even more next time. Pretty delicious, and I'm not the hugest salmon fan in the world, though I'm getting there.

I disagree with their time frame for frozen bacon. I always buy bulk packages of bacon (haven't yet gotten into charcuterie), vacuum seal four strips at a time and store all the sealed bags in a larger bag in my freezer, often for many months at a time. I've never noticed a difference in quality. I also freeze much of my flour. I bake constantly and have never had a problem with the flour not reacting or tasting the way it should. I just bought 35 pounds of King Arthur A/P flour for just this purpose, as with their recent free shipping offer, it was a lot cheaper than paying $4.49 for a 5-lb. bag at my local Wegman's. The 25-lb. bag would have been even cheaper than the individual 5-lb bags I purchased, but I was too lazy to break down the bags into smaller ones. I can't imagine vacuum sealing flour.

Ray, in The NY Times archives Pierre Franey’s 60-Minute Gourmet column of January 6, 1988 has a mac & cheese with the ingredients you describe. There is a similar column from May 12, 1993. He recalls his French childhood version in both recipe introductions and they were probably part of the PBS show you remember. No wonder you’ve tried to recreate the dish for years, it sounds absolutely wonderful. Here are the links NYT Jan 6 1988 and NYT May 12 1993 I have most of his books and the only one with mac & cheese is Cuisine Rapide with a simpler Parmesan cheese version. ← Bumping this topic so that Ray can see this old response, in case he checks in again. So cool that you were able to find this recipe for him. I'm making mac & cheese this Saturday for a little get-together with some friends. I'm smoking some pork ribs on my WSM (first time using it), frying some Popeye's style chicken, and making mac & cheese. They're theme foods for the day's sporting events -- the Kentucky Derby and the night race (NASCAR) in Richmond. (Because I like alliteration, I like to make ribs for the Richmond race. ) I'm also making KFC style coleslaw, cider donuts and ice cream sandwiches. Can't wait!

Excellent! Thanks for your feedback.

I guess that's a 'no'.

I didn't realize until now that The Luther Burger is actually something people tried to replicate in their own homes. A few years ago, while working for a record company, I heard the story about Luther Vandross falling off the diet wagon and craving a burger. Having nothing around for bread, he instead used two donuts to cradle the burger. The colleague who told me this story claimed to have heard Luther admit this during an interview. I'd like to believe it's true. No great shock that Paula Deen would pick up on this recipe.

Has anyone ever made hard taco shells with something other than corn tortillas? My husband is allergic to corn. Thus, we never eat tacos. I've been toying with the idea of a semolina tortilla shell.

I made this last night and it was great, even with just 4 oz. of pancetta. My Wegman's only sells the prepackaged cubed stuff, that I know of. I'm going to have to make my own one of these days. I also made Yeasted Doughnuts, Baking Illustrated, pp. 127-128, my first ever success story with doughnuts. They were soft and fluffy, not leaden and crunchy like most of my previous efforts. I stuffed a few with raspberry baker's jam, then dipped in granulated sugar, topped a few with chocolate glaze, and dipped the holes (that sounds so wrong ) in cinnamon sugar. Wow, what a nice surprise. I can make doughnuts!!

Hmm, I didn't consider the pollination factor. I was anxious to buy and went ahead and ordered the tree anyway, and a fish pan. If I only get sweet-smelling flowers, that'll be cool too. We live in the midst of lots of trees and birds, so I'm hoping that will up the ante in my favor. I'm pretty sure I saw a bee the other day... Thanks for your help. I've been wanting a gel mat for the longest time, but stupidly didn't think to buy two smaller ones rather than the one large one, which was impractical for my setup. Next time.

Bumping up this thread to ask if one should bother to purchase a small meyer lemon tree if one lives in a rental in Central New Jersey? I have $176 worth of credit at NapaStyle.com and don't see much else within my price-range worth purchasing. I've got a sunny front porch the pot can sit on, and I figured I'd bring it indoors in the off-season. Will such a plant ever bear fruit or is this a total waste of $99? If not, I'm thinking about some blue steel pans or a gel kitchen mat, but can't decide if the pans are a worthwhile purchase either. Thanks for any help!

I've made their orange chicken and really enjoy it. I also love their Stir Fried Pork with Green Beans, Red Peppers with Gingery Oyster Sauce, to name another Asian influenced dish. I love CI's methodical approach to cooking and baking, but also feel comfortable tinkering around with recipes after I've successfully made them as written. I still subscribe, but don't bother obsessively reading the magazine as I once did because I far prefer easy access to my online subscription. Their message boards have been very helpful as well.

If it's not too late, I use this matzo ball recipe all the time and really enjoy it. I'm not sure whether they're considered sinkers or floaters, but they are really good, especially made with schmaltz. I normally use plain water in the mixture, but perhaps the seltzer would make them fluffier and more to your liking. P.S. I'm not Jewish, but my husband is (Bronx, NY born) and he loves them: Good Pesach!

Strawberry Twizzlers have been my downfall the last few months. 4/$5 Twizzlers (at Wegman's) + complete box set of Man from U.N.C.L.E. = T.R.O.U.B.L.E. Before that, and for many years, it was Cheez-Its. I got burned out for a couple of years, but a 1-lb box recently made an appearance in my pantry. I no longer eat them in bed, so no more waking up with Cheez-It dust all over my sheets.

According to this site, shrimp and lobster belong to the crustacean family whereas clams and mussels belong to the mollusk family. One may or may not be allergic to both:

Ah, Mitchell's Bar-B-Que. I just ordered a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker with the faint hope that I could recreate a version of this fabulous stuff at home. These are some photos I took of the '05 Block Party, though I know there are far better photos on ImageGullet: Mitchell's at Big Apple BBQ 2005

Thanks to this thread, and a bit of additional research, I managed to serve an immensely edible duck confit-centered meal to actual (human) guests this past Saturday night. I butchered two D'Artagnan ducklings, rendered much of the fat, and confited the four legs and two of the breasts in my slow cooker. I based the dry marinade on culinary bear's citrusy recipe, and added three vats of pre-rendered D'Artagnan duck fat to the stuff I rendered. I probably cooked it way too long -- around 12 hours -- because the meat fell off the bone when simply lifting it. It did taste great, though I wouldn't be able to serve it whole, so I picked off the meat and jarred it along with some extra fat for three days before serving it. I also roasted the bones and made a bit of duck stock. The confit made its way into four dishes that night -- barley soup with duck confit and root vegetables (epicurious recipe), rillettes (an adaptation of an Emeril recipe, with caramelized shallots rather than raw, minced onion), salad with frisée, mesclun, radishes, blood oranges in a sherry-duck stock vinaigrette with duck confit and cracklings, and phatj's duck confit potstickers (which were excellent, btw). I also served duck a l'orange, pommes anna/salardaises (really, the former made with duck fat), and pain l'anciennes baguettes, one of which was sliced and toasted for the rillettes, the extra dough of which was converted into foccacia. Dessert was (homemade, of course) apple coffeecake, dulce de leche ice cream and Dorie Greenspan's World Peace cookies. I was shocked at how this all came together so well, particularly as I had never eaten duck confit before, much less prepared it myself. Rather ambitious, even for me. Fortunately, everyone left quite full and, seemingly, pleased. Thanks to everyone for your guidance and inspiration. Love eGullet!

I have really been enjoying your blog. Thank you so much for allowing us this glimpse into your life -- for the myriad photographs, insights and detailed, thoughtful answers to all questions asked. You seem like a very sweet woman with a wonderful life and family. You have shown me a side of Israel I knew absolutely nothing about, quite opposite some of the dreary news stories one sees on television. Nothing beats the Internet for bringing together people from all walks of life. Thank you!

I wish I had taken photos of my sad, little Astoria kitchenette. It had a tiny stove directly next to a tiny sink, and a refrigerator shorter than I am (I'm 5' 7") to the right of that, with cabinets above and the requisite one below the sink. That was it. It literally had zero counter space. I used the edge of the sink to dry glasses on, and the grates of the stove for dishes. If I had to guess, it was maybe 7' x 5', max. I used to say that it couldn't fit two people hip-to-hip, perpendicular to the stove. I found it a cruel irony that I was made to live with this kitchen for six whole years. If it weren't for the high ceilings, hardwood floors and proximity to the subway and NYC (15 minutes), I would have passed on the place. Still, I managed to crank out the food. A small, wooden island from Crate & Barrel in the living room opposite the kitchen helped a lot. That, and a strong desire to cook and bake. You don't really need a big, fancy kitchen to be a good cook, as many of us here already know. This is the one photo I have of that kitchen, and it's only of the window. I joked that would close off the door, stick an exhaust tube through that tiny window and turn the whole thing into a smoker.