Marlene

I use a salt box that I bought in Barcelona. I really wish I'd bought two now. I have this one up at my cottage, but I'll take it home at end of season, because the one I use at home is wooden, with a swing lid which is much harder to manage one-handed. This one holds a lot of salt and it has a flip up lid for ease of use. I keep this filled with kosher salt for cooking. I just reach in a grab a pinch when I need it. I keep my Maldon Salt in a glass container with an air tight lid that sits on the table for usage.

I'm not Dave, but I may be able to shed a bit of light on this. I, too am allergic to penicillin. Deadly so. However, I can eat blue cheese in small amounts. Too much, and I get ill, but not the same reaction as I have to penicillin and blue cheese. However, If your son is very young, and you aren't sure of his amoxicillin allergy, then don't give him any blue cheese or other mold based cheeses for now. Young children who already have an allergy or sensitivity to something, could easily develop further senitivities. This came from my doctor when we thought my son was allergic to milk. Introduce small quantities, but wait until your toddler is at least 5 or 6 years old.

Dave, I love tart tatin, and now I need to try your recipe! I notice you are making it ahead. Do you serve it cold, or re warm it for service?

The 4 Seasons definitely does a breakfast buffet on the weekends, but I think only Brunch on certain special days. Not exactly in downtown, but JJ Muggs used to do a pretty decent Sunday brunch. There also used to be a Town and Country buffet restaurant at Queens Quay that did brunch, but it's been quite a while since I've been there.

I've never had any particular desire to grind my own meat, until I started reading the meat grinding thread here. This may have to go on my list this year. I have two of these, and they are simply marvelous.

I am indeed. Both dishes were his idea. He looked through some cookbooks and came up with them. He did everything himself, from start to finish. He also made a dessert that I didn't show, a blueberry and white chocolate mousse that came out really well. He's decided that while we're at the cottage, when he's up here, he wants to make at least one dinner and one dessert every week.

I love these! This is the perfect cottage/camping spice travel kit!

A little bit of catching up to do, since moving up to the new cottage for the summer. The first night, I made beef stroganoff One night, my son made chili cheese enchilladas: Blue cheese and bacon devilled eggs I made for a cocktail party up here: My son made potato skins for an afternoon nibble one day: And tonight it was rack of lamb, with a dijon, garlic and parsley crust, with leftover grilled potatoes that I sliced and fried in butter and freshly shelled peas with butter. We've also had occassion to do a pork roast, a prime rib on the spit and a smoked pork butt on the smoker.

I make creme brulee often, and after having tried several methods and temps, I've settled on a 325 regular oven with water bath. Using a convection oven, the fan tended to blow the custard around water bath or no.

I've shown this before, but.... There are 42 spice containers in use in this cabinet, and three emtpy ones. I do have more spices, that aren't shown here, but I'm not at home to take a picture of them. I suspect I've got around 55 or so in total. ( I should mention, my cottage spices look just the same, except in the smaller tupperware spice containers.

This should be a fun blog. We spent a very few days in Paris recently, which had me really wanting to see the rest of France. As for your mystery item, it looks like some sort of clamp, but food wise, the first two things that come to mind is either an egg ring, or an english muffin ring. I'd use it to make meat pies.

I finally got these books unpacked. The first thing that will be made, is a blueberry and white chocolate mousse, from The Instant cook. My son is in charge of this one.

We got up at 5 am this morning to put our 14 lb butt on the smoker. First smoked pork at the cottage. Looks like a beautiful day for smoking here. Sides will be baked beans and coleslaw. Nibbles will be potato skins made by my son and dessert will also be made by him, a blueberry and white chocolate mousse.

My son loves chilled soups, so thanks for this! Will try it soon. Although peas never get left in my freezer that long. We like them too much!

Melissa, I quite like it! And with just two of us here during the week, I can load it throughout the day and run it once after dinner. It will hold my sheet pans and my large le crueset braiser. I think I will keep it as a portable even though we will likely remodel the cottage kitchen next year. This kitchen is tiny and I'd rather not give up the cupboard space. The portable lives well out of the way when not in use, and my toaster oven can reside on top of it.

I have that Breville blender, and it is wonderful! I make smoothies all the time for my son and other frozen drinks and this blender is really powerful and does a great job with the ice and blending.

I've now used the new portable GE dishwasher at the cottage a few times, and I have to say, it cleans wonderfully. it is rather noisy, but that's a small price to pay for not having to wash dishes by hand!

Yes, I have them. I believe I used them during one of my blogs. I haven't used them a lot, but they do work quite well. Then again, my kitchen twine always sits on my counter, so I tend to reach for it, before I go rooting through drawers to find my loops.

Mashed potatoes always top my list. Followed by a potato galette and then a gratin. And then there's maggie's potatoes madalines, or my potato cheese puff. Or rosti, or hash browns, or nice crispy roasted potatoes. Or, or, or......

I've just put down the book. First of all, it's an easy read. There's nothing complex or complicated about it What it is, is pure enjoyment, if you're at all interested in finding out more about various chefs. There are 27 chefs in Chef's Story, and really, it could be 27 separate books, each chapter is so distinct from the previous one. The sheer brilliance and simplicity of the book is that each Chef sounds like he's talking to you in his kitchen, or front room. There is not one style throughout the book that says, "one person wrote this". Truly, each chapter, seemed to be in that Chef's own words. I will not go through each chef, because then, well, you wouldn't need to read the book would you? But a few stand out. I've met some of these chefs, and heard them speak. And those chefs come across in the book, exactly the way they do in person. Jose Andres can make you feel, see and taste Barcelona, even if you've never been there, and Dan Barber comes across just as neurotic and obsessive about local sustainability, as he does in person. There are a number of chef's I'd never heard of before, and perhaps it was their chapters that delighted me most. Dean Fearing, of the Riz Carlton in Dallas, Suzanne Goin of Lucques and The Hungry Cat in LA, and Patrick Connell of The Inn at Little Washington to name a few. A familiar refrain throughout each chapter, is each Chef's desire to cook "simple food, or peasant dishes". It makes them happy, and you can feel it when they describe those dishes that they like to make best. You can feel it when they talk about ingredients that speak to them. And you can feel it when they talk about the passion and discipline it takes to be in the professional kitchen. Many of these chefs are highly educated, some going as far as almost finishing PH d degrees. But none of them felt the passion for what they were studying, as they did for the food that spoke to them. Patrick Connell explained it perfectly in this quote: For each Chef, food and cooking is what centres them. This is no Kitchen Confidential. There are no screaming chefs, no abuse, no swearing even. Anthony Bourdain even comes across as sedate, well as sedate as he can be anyway. It is however, entertaining, and a great glimpse into the lives of 27 chefs and what makes them. It's a great summer book to read on the deck while sipping a margarita or something, in the sun. Which is exactly what I'm going to do with it again.

Of course, I just had to buy a bag of these today. Damn. But I still miss the BBQ.

Greek Ribs They really are fabulous!

I love Munchos. They are had to find here sometimes as well. I remember we used to be able to get BBQ Munchos, but that was a very long time ago.

I'd say our recent meal at Alain Ducasse in Paris. It was 750 Euros - for lunch! I think that translates into almost $1,000 CDN, but I'm not sure.

One of the first things our chef instructor taught us, was to taste, using the green you want to put the vinaigrette on. It makes a huge difference. I tend to use a 2:1 ratio for the most part.