aliénor

we are considering the purchase of a new automatic espresso machine. i was wondering if anyone had any opinions on the saeco talea giro. it aint cheap and it seems to do everything. we have used our son's saeco magic comfort many times and found it to give a good cup of espresso,but now it seems to be supplanted by a newer model. would like to hear from anyone about their experiences with saeco and in particular the new talea model. btw, we are coming off a $150 krups model and looking forward to the upgrade.

my husband i are going to be in sebastapol for a wedding at the beginning of june. we have one night-thursday-free and would love to have the name of a good place to enjoy a dinner after a long day flying from boston. thanks for the help .

as a working potter i would agree with what was said previously. try and find a potter to make some of these shapes and styles. if the local potter doesn't do that style of japanese pottery, he or she will surely know of others who are practiced in that style. and for those of you in japan check out mashiko for their overwhelming handsome handmade pottery fairs/exhibits/markets. i have been there and was blown away by the diverse styles from some very good potters and at very good prices. one doesn't have to go to department store in either usa or japn to find individually made, well crafted pieces in either stoneware or porcelain. support your local craftsmen and get unique handmade crafts! alienor the potter

i have a wonderful pesach cake recipe which was given out by our local food coop. i was in charge of the passover tasting table and i had this cake assigned to me. so i have tried it and it was a real success with all the people and also great for the family table. it is called a chocolate nut cake and uses eggs, walnuts, grated chocolate, apples and matzo meal. if anyone is interested i will post the recipe. alienor

just so happens i live in hanover. forget about bon gustaio-they are closed and the same for home hill they, too, are out of business. the hanover inn is more formal while zins is more casual -quite okay-ate there last nite. but i would recommend the canoe club- it is fairly new and it's on main street just across from the inn. the 20 minute trip to simon pearce is well worth the drive if you can make it. and then there is across the river in norwich, carpenter street. forget the norwich inn dining room it is just okay for a more innformal taste try the pizza at ramunto's much better than eba's and it is in a new building. you could also try mai thai for thai food, the orient for chinese and the india queen for indian. the last mentioned ethnic restaurants are all in easy walking distance. if you are coming up soon, bring warm clothes and boots. we are just recovering from a 14 inch snowfall and the evening the temp has been down to the teens or single numbers. have fun in hanover

i am glad you did it and it came out clean. speaking as a potter, the clay used for stones is probably fired at around 1600-1800 degrees F. i can't think of any reason why the self cleaning oven which reaches around 800 degrees should harm the stone. for anyone out there who is interested in doing this, my feeling is go for it...... alienor the potter

i have been making the sourdough bread since my starter arrived from jackal10. i have also sent it out to my son in california and he just loves working with the sourdough. bur recently my husband has noticed and i agree with him that the bread seems to have lost its sourness. is there anything i can do to perk it up a bit. the starter seems to be still growing well and the bread is rising well enough but it is the old flavor that we are missing. does anyone have any suggestions?? thanks for the help.

i would like to add a restaurant to the list of nice places. we recently returned to the usa affterr visiting with family in Nice. our son and his wife took us to a restaurant in the hills above cimiezin Nice-probably about 10 miles north of downtown. the name of the restaurant is Le Parcours,and as it is in the hills it had a lovely view of the city below. to start we had an amuse of cauliflower mousse with foie gras and burnt milk foam. we had a choice of a three course menu for 37E or a 5 course for 52E. i had the jarret d'agneau with bulgur and which was just wonderful and my husband had their filet de rouget with sweet potatoes. the service was very good, attentive but not pushy and the the wine they suggested was divine.-but i can't remember tits name. my son and his wife have eaten there before and say that it is always a delight to go there i believe the chef's name is jean-marie delacourt. oh yes, there is also a flat screen showing what is going on in the kitchen. i was suprised to see that the activity in there was so calm and well choreographed. i would have expected more hustle and bustle in the kitchen as the dining room was full. btw, we were the only americans there that night. another restaurant in Nice which we love and is always busy is Zucca Magica. we have only been there for lunch. it has a fixed menu no choice and all vegetarian: lots of cheese, veg, pasta and full plates. i can't remember the price but it is not out of sight. it is located in the old harbor across from L'Ane rouge. the latter we really don't care for-too pretentious and not worth its price. zucca comes off better value for its price now i am home in the land of BIG plates and Big people.......usa

i am a potter living in new hampshire and i am sure there are many pottersin the vicinity of underhill who would gladly make a cassole for you. just don't experct it ready for xmas. i know there is a group of potters in montpelier and in burlington and i think you should get in contact with them. if they can't do one they can probably recommend someone who could and who is willing to make it.. btw, my husband wants cassoulet badly but i have been too lazy to cook it for him. in two days we are off to nice, france to spend the holidays with our son and his family. they knew of their father's wishes and told me they are preparing an authentic toulouse cassolet for him. maybe that will get me off the hook good luck, alienor

about twenty or so years ago we owned a farm with two other couples. we were in our back to the earth mode. we raised pigs and chickens and grew almost all of our own vegetables. our piglets were bought in june, fed all summer and ready for slaughter in november. an itinerant butcher came by to slaughter and we all did the cutting and packaging. i wanted to use all of the pig so we took the spleen and also the lung for a meal. i cooked the spleen en brochette. it was rich and not at all like s\a steak or chop-not muscular at all, but definitely an acquired taste. as for the lungs..... i had had them as a child as my grandmotherr coooked veal lungs every so often. i did not like them then and culdn't make myself like them this time around. but i would do the spleen again-it was interesting. we also made leaf lard, scrapple and our own soap. those were the days. now i go to the local farmerr and let them do all that work and it is worth paying for it.

my son, who lives in nice, just told me that he bought a 6 kilo turkey and it cost 67 euros. it was definitely free range and the largest his local butcher could get. my son is cooking the turkey tomorrow as he doesn't get t-day off. he is having about 15 people and will serve french fried sweet potatos, squash, dressing, two soups (i forgot which kind) and apple pie plus one other dessert. this is his time to cook . when we get there for noel his wife and mother-in-law will prepare the trtaditional french feast=from foie gras, quail, etc etc. the meal will last about four hours. and at the end we will all be stuffed full of food and wine and marc. happy t-day to all of you americains in france!

i believe it is called coca and i used to have them with a pine nut topping. i have also seen them with olives or made with candied fruit for sant joan's day. ← i forgot to mention that it is a catalan specialty and will not be found outswide of catalonia

i believe it is called coca and i used to have them with a pine nut topping. i have also seen them with olives or made with candied fruit for sant joan's day.

buttter bells are also called french butter dishes. i am a potter and make them for sale. i also have a married son living in france. the french relatives have never seen or heard of the french butterr dish. i also know it exists in germany - i saw it there in the last 8 years. now for its efficiency--it works. i advise my customers to change the water every few days. and yes the butter holds in the cup even while it is inverted into the water. it keeps the butter fairly soft and spreadable. lots of people who own cats find it is a wonderful way to keep the butter out but not available to their kitties. the ones i make are fully glazed except arround the rim. mine are individually thrown and glazed with a food safe glaze and sell for $28, but i have seen other handmade ones going for $20-$30. .as i am in vacation now i can't post a picture of my dish but maybe someday i will. in the meantime, try one you will like it

tim--your essay on tea brought back some wonderful memories. in 1967 we were living in oxford and i went to the nuffield maternity home to deliver our third son. as an american i was unused to the english ways, but things went well. after the delivery the "sister" came over to me and asked me if i wanted a cuppa. i am not a coffee drinker so the offer of tea sounded wonderful. she handed me a cup of the darkest reddish brown tea i have ever seen and then poured in lots of milk and adderd several spoonfuls of sugar. it was the very BEST cuppa i have ever had. i tried for some time to duplicate,but to no avail. i now drink various black teas which i order, but sadly never have i duplicated that tea. so i will always cherish my special cuppa in memory only.

thanks for all the helpful suggestions. it looks as tho i really have some work to do, but at least i have some ideas. thanks again.

i live in a small town in new hampshire and have to drive a bit to get to a large chain supermarket-like price chopper. they don't seem to wash and/or polish their honey dew melons and they have a very large selection which means i can usually get a ripe one . even if i have to pull one out from the bottom of the heap. in my town we do have a large coop grocery but they only display 5 or 6 melons at a time, not enough of a selection. just got another one-yummy, slurp, sooo good

a while ago i listened and saw a program on the telly re:picking honeydew melons. since then i have been batting near 100%. my husband will not go near me when i am selecting melons-he gets too embarassed. the trick to this is to use a dry hand and slowly caress the melon. a ripe melon is slitely sticky on the surface. almost like feeling the nap on velvet. notice that an unripe melon is silky smooth. remember you must use a dry hand and the melon skin must be dry. just today i went to the local supermarket and handled about 20 melons, but i found one delicious melon. we had it tonite and it was oh so good. oh yes, the skin is yellower than the unripe ones. try this tick

i am looking for a wine book to give to my husband. i would like it to have the following features. 1). some info on grapes and wine making, 2) a minimum of wine jargon, 3). up to date recommendation of wine to buy including description and prices, 4) not overly long, that is not a huge tome. i hope that this is not an impossible task. thanks for all the help

yes, the "leeks" were raw. both our friends insisted we shouldn't eat them if we were going out to meet people as they left an unpleasant breath. my thought was that there were so mild that there would be not trace on our breath. well, if i can't find natto i will have to be satisfied with miso soup and some pieces of fish and cold asparagus. but where, o where, is my natto?

i just returned from three weeks in japan. most of the time we stayed with friends and keiko made us a japanese beakfast every day. besides several other dishes we always had rice with natto. sometimes the natto had sliced leeks , and sometimes a raw egg yolk beaten into it. besides the other dishes i found that natto over rice was my favorite. i live in a small town in new hampshire, usa. where can i buy natto? is there a place on the east coast that will ship. i have been back two days and miss my daily natto fix. please help me

come and live in new hampshire. no fruit fly problems even with the compost jar open all nite. my kitchen temperature is sometimes down to 50 or so. i envy those of you who have fruit fly problems in january.

our local store in hanover, n.h. has them, but what am i supposed to do with them. they sure taste bitter

i have some websites for french cooking magazines. they are probably not of the gourmet type but rather for every day use. sorry i don't know how to do a link but here they are in no particular order http://www.isaveurs.com/ http://www.cuisineaz.com/ http://www.meilleurduchef.com/cgi/mdc/l http://www.marmiton.org/general/home.cfm glad to see this thread as i check these sites out for interesting ideas