Marlene

Anybody noticed that Don's a little um weird?

Ladies, someday you'll all be free. I promise. Although I still get cravings for fried chicken.

Um I do that. Or at least shortly thereafter. Why? Because I have a mold/fungi allergy and I'm not fond of not being able to breathe. So I don't take chances.

I've lived with three men in my life. The first was blind, but that didn't stop him from cooking, although it was pretty scary sometimes. My ex husband does not cook. At least I can't remember him ever cooking. My (now) husband does cook, but really prefers it when I do the cooking. I spend a lot of time cleaning up after him when he cooks. He's incredibly messy.

Waking up is a pretty good reason for me too . It is off topic so I will not post what it was about, but suffice it to say we won a 4 year court battle today. The Pol it is!

Thanks ms foodie. I actually did not know that. I don't mind Veuve, but since this is a fairly special occassion, I think the Pol Rogers would be fitting. It's not quite special enough for the Cristal that's down there.

It's an orangey label on the Veuve but it dosn't say anything else.

I used the one from the William Sonoma "American" book last week. Even my husband liked it and he hates mac and cheese.

I know nothing about champagne. The Pol Roger is a Reserve, - no date that I can see, and the Veuve is a Ponsardin whatever that means.

why not both ← Because I'd fall over?

I have two bottles of champagne to decide upon for a particularly sweet victory for us. Which should I choose? Pol Rogers or Veuve?

Richard I have a set of these and I love them. I use them for individual molten chocolate cakes, although you are correct, for the smaller appetite it would be a cake for two. I also use them for something called Garlic Peppercorn Cheesecake which is actually not a dessert. I'll likely make these for my dinner party this week, and will post pics when I do. I've never had any problem with them leaking either.

Duck breast is starting to sound like a possibility. Of course, I haven't done them before, but why let that stop me? That bread pudding sounds wonderful as well. Hmmm....

No, they are franchises. Both are owned by Lana Duke, a lifelong friend of Ruth Fertel. Lana's bio can be found here

Ronnie, I have a bucketful of Halloween candy. I'd be happy to share it with you. Very nicely done this week Ron

In addition, I'm pretty sure the Toronto chef went to the Mississauga location. That location has now been open for a year. It was right around this time last year that we went to their opening. Hanne is less involved in the daily operations these days. Both locations have their own General Managers, but yes, you can be sure I'll be mentioning the Mississauga location's problems to her next time I talk to her. It isn't just the second location here. If I recall, the New Orleans location (the first one), was great, Dallas was so so, and NY was lousy the first time and better the second time we went. There have been a few others that I've tried, but they aren't coming to mind at the moment.

Google is our friend! ← Tana, google is your friend. I'm technically challenged. Thank you

We'll be in Vegas in about three weeks for 7 nights. I'm thinking I need to put Bradley Ogden's on my list. Is it hard to get into? Should I make reservations now? Do they have a website?

Rack of lamb would be good if I could get my husband to eat lamb. In addition, I'm not a huge fish eater, so salmon or some such thing is out as well. But those potatoes sound good! Explain?

The problem with Ruths' is that they are not consistent from place to place. While I've rarely had a bad meal at the restaurant downtown, the one in Mississagua is a different story, as have been others I've dined in around the US. I don't think Ruth's makes the best steak in Toronto, but for us, the downtown location is consistently good.

Thatnk to Costco for allowing us to reproduce the article here for our members to read. Costco Article

So this weekend, we'll have a small dinner party for 4 on Friday, and on Saturday we'll be attending a formal function. The crown roast pork will be kept for the following Saturday's dinner party of 8. So I did a Prime Rib last week, and I'll do a crown roast pork next week, what on earth shall I serve for this dinner party? Help me with a menu. This meal is intended to impress, but be simple in it's elegance.

To the best of my knowlege, no, not at this time. However I will ask Hanne the next time I see her.

Hmmm. where to start. I still prefer USDA prime to Canadian Prime for the simple reason, Canadian Prime is too rich to eat too much of, unlike USDA prime. The two are not comparable for those purposes. I couldn't tell you what my favourite steak is in a non steakhouse in Toronto, because if I go to a non steakhouse, I'm not going there to eat steak. We continue to visit both Ruth's locations. We were at Ruth's in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, and we will be dining at the Mississagua location this evening. For your information, Hanne is now the Vice President of Operations for Ruth's Chris Canada. Just as we visit her husband's restaurant whenever we are on our way to Niagara Falls. It's been some time since I visited Montreal and thus Que de Cheval, but i's probably comparable to Ruth's steaks in taste and in size if nothing else.

For things in which the top crust can crack easily, such as Brownies and butter tart squares, the square springform pans can't be beat. And with the La Forme pans I can cut them right on the pan botoom I will never use a regular pan for those items ever again.