Marlene

Woohoo! The island arrived today! They pulled the power for it earlier in the week. The granite should be here Monday or Tuesday, and by Wednesday the whole thing should be installed and ready to use! Meanwhile, it's a beautiful day here, and we are going to entertain for the first time in our new home. Since it's so nice, we'll be doing a bbq. The ribs are marinating, the potato salad, the coleslaw, and the marinated tomato and onion salads are made. I've made cheese straws, and tortilla crisps and I'll do a baked brie in phyllo as well. I'll even try to take pics and post them later.

having been in menopause for a few years now, I can tell you that the cravings still remain, regardless. I can't really tell you why though. It just is. I can also tell you it's way harder to lose the weight that those cravings accumulate!

I just went through this and I always made cinnamon bread in the bread maker when I knew a showing was coming up.

Oh probably next week.

From my grandmother, a roasting pan that was patched during the great depression. It's still a kick ass roasting pan. From my father, a recipe box full of recipes from his grandmother

Tonight was not a fried chicken success. Oh, it doesn't look too bad, but as my son said, this was boring. I tried Brooks' method, deep fried. To compound my error, I double dipped it. I used Dave's seasoning mix on the chicken, but nothing in the flour, then I deep fried it. First mistake was double dipping. Sure the outer crust was crispy, but underneath it was a icky mess of fat. Uncooked. Or so it seemed. The crust was crispy, but it really didn't have any flavour at all. It was - bland. And it doesn't seem to matter what I do to Brooks' chicken, I can't get it to be that nice deep golden brown colour. It remains - pale. Even after 20 minutes of deep frying. The coleslaw however, kicked ass. So that's what I ate. Ryan gamely ate both his legs, but hastily declined seconds. Afterwards he said, "Mom, you don't have to make this recipe again for your website do you?" To recap: I've done Dave's method pan fried and deep fried I've done Brooks' method pan fried and deep fried I've done Aunt Minnie/Martha's pan fried. You see what I'm missing here don't you?

Dean that range is beautiful! I wish I'd had room for a 36 inch one. The whole kitchen is amazing. I'm so thrilled for you!

The three main culinary centres of Canada, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver each have something to offer. The three cities are as diverse as Canada is large. It makes visiting each city a special pleasure knowing I can get something in Toronto that I can't get in Montreal or Vancouver or something in Montreal that I can't get in the other two etc. Rather than saying one city is better than the other, I would prefer to celebrate our differences and applaud them. How boring if the food were the same in all three cities. I'd be less likely to visit any of them. And frankly, the cities don't get all the credit. While they may be in the culinary spotlight, there are lots of places in Quebec, Ontario and BC, and the rest of Canada that offer outstanding food. It's all a matter of your tastes and what you're looking for. Vive la difference.

I tend to be on the organized side, although I've still started recipes only to discover I was out of something I thought I had..

Ahem...... Perhaps we could return to the regularly scheduled topic of the nominees? Michael, I'm sure you look outstanding in leather, but I don't think you got the nomination because you wear it... or don't. And we'll have no wrestling in chocolate either. So maybe we could just get back to talking about the nominees and why they're good, bad or indifferent? That way, we can all play nice and I can leave the thread open. thank you.

My undying admiration?! Invitations for dinner are always interesting, but we'll take that to PM You're asking me? I'm just the passenger? Seriously, we'll expect to hit Banff and Jasper by mid week first week of July. We'll spend a few days there and head towards Saskatchewan, where we'll stop and visit Don's mom in Prince Albert, although he still has a sister who lives in Hennribourg. I think three days in Saskatchewan probably, and then I'm not really sure. We'll start planning out our route in the next two weeks. Some of that will depend on where there are good, not to mention available,campsites along the way

Nor on Silver Seas, which is the cruise ship I aspire to cruise on. And, Crystal, Silver Seas and some of the other high end cruise lines also include alcohol in their prices.

Many of the cruise ship lines today are offering other alternatives to the main dining room, two sitting options. For example the ship we are going on, also has an Italian specialty restaurant and a steakhouse. I'm hoping this is a good alternative to compensate for what Steven talks about in terms of having to do 250 people at once. There is usually a small surcharge for these restaurants and you need to make reservations, but if they are any good, I may never see the inside of the main dining room.

I do recall, when we boarded the ship, they were serving a buffet lunch at the cafe before we sailed. They had a Prime Rib that day that was to die for, which horribly raised my expectations for the food the rest of the trip. Nothing matched that piece of beef for the next four days.

Oh boy. Wait till snowangel sees this thread. Snowangel, is seriously in love with fried chicken backs, as you can see here. If you don't want em, I'll guarantee Susan will take them off your hands!

We'll be cruising Royal Caribbean in three weeks. It was to have been Princess next week, but we had to cancel and rebook. The last time I cruised on Royal Caribbean, it was a four day Bahamas cruise and I remember the food was ok, but not outstanding. We'll see if one of their larger ships does any better for a seven day event.

the baking soda actually does help the flour. the flour plumps a little bit while cooking, giving that nice thicker bready crisp coating. ← Whoa, wait a minute. Everyone's talking about baking soda, but Brooks' recipe calls for baking powder. Am I using the wrong thing?

I'm ashamed to admit, I'm up for one more round this week. Since I've tried Dave's method both deep fried and pan fried, it's only fair that I give Brooks' a try deep fried. So, I'll be using Brooks's method, but since I'm deep frying I'm also going to be double dipping. Stay tuned.

Interesting article Maggie. Sorry, I don't have a Cusinart, but that's not what I'm getting from this story anyway. What I hear is that there are very few magazines out there that inspire you to cook today. Having cooking magazines changed so much over the years or is it more than as your culinary knowledge grows, and you gained more confidence in your own skills, you found you simply outgrew them? I'm truly curious as I recently asked a couple of people for their two top choices in cooking magazines today, thinking I might invest in a couple, and I got two very different answers. However, the answer I got from both of them was that generally speaking there was no one magazine that made the cut of truly great information on a regular basis. What then replaces the traditional cooking periodical? What is it today that consistently causes you to exclaim, "I'll make it tonight!" I must confess I get a great deal of my inspiration for cooking right from eGullet. Is that our destiny? To slowly watch the periodicals go the way of the dinosoaur while we submit to the instant gratification of the Internet where expertise and the exchange of knowledge is a mouse click away? Is it fair to say that a place like the eG Forums for example would be the natural successor to POC?

Excellent thread. My husband is from Henribourg. You get a prize if you know where that is We're heading out west on a three week road trip this summer. We'll go through the states to get to Alberta, but are coming back through Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Recommendations for good places to eat along the way are most welcome!

Sure I do, but asking questions, and getting good cooking advice is a big part of why we are here. Besides, I trust our members to give me the right information. I know that any recipe or technique they give me will have been tried and tested and I know it will be good.

Since I can't remember the last time I cooked a smoked ham, that doesnt' help me much. How long do I cook this baby for? Covered, uncovered?

I picked up one of these at my local supermarket some time ago, and it's been taking up space in my freezer ever since. I'm pretty sure this is different than what everyone is discussing in the Pork shoulder thread, because there everyone's talking about fresh pork shoulder I think. Anyway, now that I have it, what do I do with it? Roast it? bake it? Glaze it? Long and slow? Help!

I did one final braise from this book before I put it away for the summer and my thoughts turn to grilling and salads instead. Coq au vin was on Thursday night's menu. First, I diced up the slab bacon and fried it and got the rest of my mise en place ready: I seared the chicken in the rendered bacon fat and some butter, and got a reasonably good crust I think. Deglazed the pan with a little cognac and then added the red wine and the aromatics and reduced by half. I reserved some of the braising liquid for the pearl onions and put the lid on and braised it at 300 (the book calls for 325) for an hour and a half. Volia, coq au vin: This is an incredibly rich dish. A little goes a long way. I really liked it, but I don't think I'll do much braising of chicken. I'll stick to pork and beef. Only because I like my chicken skin crispy and even though you get a nice crust on the chicken when searing, the skin is always going to be somewhat soggy after a braise. 'till we meet again in the fall Molly.

Very nice Anna. It's hard to read the name. Is it a Rival?