Marlene

I think a new thread on Sri Lankan food and restaurants would be awesome.

Mashed potatoes by themselves don't seem to freeze or hold over well. I find though that if I use them as twice baked potatoes or madelaines, they work very well frozen ahead or chilled ahead.

I have to agree Monica. I had a meal at Daniel last year and it was among the best I've had. I haven't had a chance to visit ADNY, but that's on my list the next time I get to NY for comparision purposes. I couldn't have been treated better at Daniel and I had a great table and the food was just amazing. They even accomodated the pace for my need to take the occassional smoke break outside.

You don't need a crockpot, just a heavy pot or dutch oven and you can surely make it in under three hours. Is chili wonderful simmered all day? Sure. But you can have an equally wonderful chili that has only simmered for a few hours.

The westbend would probably be fine for water, but I honestly wouldn't buy it for coffee service. Not if you want good coffee! Also, it depends on how attractive you want your coffee/tea service to look. The Westbend isn't all that attractive, but it is serviceable for water.

And sometimes you get what you pay for. Both the Farberware and the Delonghi automatically switch to keep warm. The Westbend didn't have that feature, so like regular coffee makers, the coffee continued to "cook" in the Urn. Aluminum is just not as good as stainless steel for insulation. The added benefit of the Delonghi is that it has an adjustable "keep warm" thermostat so you can set what temp you want your coffee to hold at. In addition, it has a series of green lights that light up to tell you how many hours your coffee has been keeping warm.

I have two of these Delonghi and a faberware. (No, it's not necessary to ask why I have so many). Both brands perform well, although I find the Delonghi just a bit faster. I had a Westbend, and chucked it. It sucked.

Fruit compotes. Strawberry, blueberry etc. Hash browns. Yeah they're sort of breakfasty too, although I like hash browns any time of the day.

If you get them english cut, not flanken, then yes they do tend to fall apart while cooking. I didn't tie them the first time I braised english style short ribs and I had problems.

Um, thanks, but the baked bean recipe is not mine! I merely made it! The short rib recipe is from Bon Appetit but it's heavily adapted since I thought their quantities were way out of wack and I added a couple of things to it.

There are 4 people that were authorized to moderate that thread and Steven was not one of them. In one case and one case only, he did so, and that was only because none of the rest of us were around and he was monitoring that thread at my request while I picked up my son. Absolutely not. Steven does not make any of the editorial decisions for the Daily Gullet. The Daily Gullet operates independently with it's own editorial board, and those people with Dave Scantland leading them, make the decisions on what to run or not. If you were to ask for consideration, that request would go to the editorial board, not Steven. the request would be considered on it's own merits, not because of who you know or don't know. The Daily Gullet is interested in talent. .

The popovers had blue cheese and thyme in them, no bacon. Next time, I'll definately use bacon, and probably a very sharp cheddar cheese. (And there were more than you see on the plate there) The apple charlottes are wonderful. They are reasonably labour intensive, but because they can be fully made ahead of time and re warmed for service it wasn't so bad. And maggie, the sauce was absolutely divine. Your advice and instruction was bang on. The only thing I added was add some port to the wine reduction. Everyone raved about it, and two of the wives said it was better than having gravy!

I'm a cook. While friends and guest may jokingly make a toast to the "chef" at the dinner table, I wouldn't dream of calling myself one. As Katie says, I don't think I've got the chops to put out 300 dinners a night, I don't have the culinary vision to match flavours and I can't plate worth a damn. Not that any of those things make a chef by themselves, but it seems that all chefs devote a significant amount of time and skill to advance all three. I love to cook, and I think I'm reasonably good at it. I'm a home cook and proud of it. I just want to feed my family and friends.

And I make my own gooey decadent butter tarts.

We did chili this past week, and I'm sorry, but it was the boring ground beef kind. I almost had a revolt when I suggested trying the diced chuck. The thing I like about chili is that I can pretty much throw whatever I've got on hand in the pot and just let it simmer away for most of the day. I don't put a lot of different spices in my chili, and yes, I use canned tomatoes, kidney beans and sauce. I also used the ground ancho that Anna brought me back. And I usually saute some onions and garlic and throw that in: I always use some red wine in my chili and some chipotle tabasco. No, the peanut butter did not go in the chili. I just forgot to move it out of the way. Finished chili, topped with shredded cheese and sour cream: I also made some skillet cornbread to go with it:

It was a lovely dinner. We started with nibbles: Grilled beef rolls with soy scallion dipping sauce: Cheddar cheese tartlets and blue cheese popovers: The beef rolls and the tartlets were outstanding. While my guests loved the popovers, Don and I really felt they were "lacking" something. I'd like to experiment with a few different things in the batter nex time. Dinner was: Twice Baked Potatoes with a cheese and bacon filling: Yes, yes. Yet another prime rib picture from my kitchen: Roasted Aparagus with Balsamic vinegar and shaved parmesan: And thanks to some last minute coaching from maggie the cat, I made a red wine-port reduction sauce to go with the beef: Dessert was the most excellent Apple Charlottes. I found these ramekins to make them in: I skipped the cheese course at the end, because, well, we just didn't need it! We did have special coffees: With these ingredients: Next week, the big Seasonal party! I don't think I really need to eat between now and then.

I ordered a bunch of herbs on line from Richters this year and they were outstanding. And I didn't even have to drive out to get them!

I just used this for the first time yesterday to make Apple Charlottes. Now I have this big bottle that I'll have to find more uses for!

We have a very strict policy that says our staff may never log in annoymously. When you see Test Member, or Test Parcipiant or test specialist it means one of our tech members is testing the functions and accessibly of that group. No one is hiding. You'll occassionally see Daily Gullet Staff signed on. All articles are posted by the Daily Gullet staff group rather than a single person.

Now who would have thought to look in the condiments section? I'll take a look at the Superstore when I go there next week. Thanks for the tip!

thanks. It's a little late and I'm cross eyed from cooking all day!

Yeah, but Geoff, I live in Oakville, not TO. We aren't that enlightened here. Speaking of enlightened, what's SLM?

Although I was not the one who deleted Michael's post, when he PM'd me, I did offer him an explanation, which he appeared to have accepted at the time. To address the issue of being annonymous. I'm not sure if it's the issue of names or the issue of intent that we are trying to get to here. As Michael points out, it is possible that knowing who someone is may or may not change the context. However, what the real question seems to be, is what is the intent of the person posting. To defend, to criticize to agree with? And when we know the intent, we want to know why. Knowing the person's name isn't always going to give you the why. There are people on this board who currently post under their own names. I've seen them pursue what seems to be a personal agenda post after post. Knowing their name still doesnt' help me understand why.

Meow. Actually I say nibbles because I can never spell Hors D'ouvres without looking it up. I am going for the roasted asparagus. Whole Foods had some really nice ones today. I'm going to do the apple charlottes, because I went out yesterday specifically to buy ramekins, and I made my husband stop at the LCBO for apple brandy, so I don't dare not make them, but creme brulee makes a regular appearance here because my husband and son both love it. And my torching skills aren't too bad, although my husband's are much better than mine. For some reason, he doesn't trust me with an open flame in my hand. I can make a lot of this ahead which is what I'm doing today. The twice baked potatoes have been baked and filled and are ready for the oven tomorrow. I've got the dough chilling for the cheddar cheese tartlets which I'll make shortly, and the batter is chilling for the popovers. Making ahead is a good thing, since I've never made most of this stuff before, and I need all the time I can get in case I screw it up! I think I can even make the grilled tenderloin things ahead and then just reheat them in the oven, although if someone has Martha's book handy they could double check that for me and tell me if I'm out of my mind. That will be my project for tonight, along with making the charlottes tonight. That way, tomorrow I just have to clean up and set the table.

I'm going to save the risotto and the risotto cakes until I can experiment on my family and close friends. This is probably not the dinner to be experimenting. So, tomorrow's menu: Nibbles: cheddar cheese tartlets blue cheese popovers Grilled beef rolls with scallion dipping sauce or maybe bruschetta Prime rib done on the spit twice baked potatoes tossed salad or roasted asparagus? crusty baquette Apple Charlottes selection of cheeses coffee or tea. How does that sound?