Marlene

I had the Cuisinart for the longest time, and I quite liked it. It makes pretty decent coffee, and it's easy to clean as well.

I guess that's why Toronto Life gives Bymark only three stars. I wasn't actually expecting Mark to be in the kitchen, but we shall go and see what it's like.

We'll be in Barcelona in June for 4 nights, staying at the Avenida Palace. What's not to miss in Barcelona for dining?

We do, for this very reason. All my floor upstairs is ceramic tile or hardwood. I have several pairs of warm fuzzy moccassins I kept for guests. Although as I said, if I know we are just going to be upstairs, I don't normally ask people to take their shoes off. My brother was notoriously late for everything. Whenever I needed him to be somewhere at a certain time (my wedding for example, to give me away :biggrin:Christmas dinner etc ) I always told him the time to be there was an hour ahead of whenever it really was. I could still count on him to be almost 15 minutes late, but it was better than having him arrive an hour late. Maybe I just entertain so much that not too much about the process stresses me out anymore.

We entertain constantly, formally and informally. Clients and friends. Shoes: Unless we're going downstairs where it's carpeted or its winter and slushy I don't worry about it much because of the tile floors. I'v never had a problem asking people to take them off if I need to, and no one has ever been offended, but then again, here, people just seem to automatically take their shoes off at the door. Must be Canadian politeness or something. Wishy washy answers, no shows and lateness. Once might buy you a second chance, if there's a real good excuse. If I see a pattern emerging from the same person, I stop inviting them. My dinners tend to be planned with a certain time in mind. I always invite people early enough for cocktails and nibbles, and when dinner is ready, it's ready. The only guest I let help clean up is my sister in law. Everyone else is a guest, and while they are welcome to sit and talk to me in the kitchen while I clean up, I tell them so. Nicely, but I do tell them. Mostly, my husband is really good about getting the first couple of loads through the dishwasher before we go to bed, and I'll finish up in the morning. Flowers and gifts. My husband handles getting flowers into vases, even if he's the one who brings them to me. I tend to kill things that grow. I have generally picked the wines to go with dinner, so I'll ask the guest if they'd like a glass now. If they say they brought it for dinner, I suck it up and open it. And I open the wine I already picked. Food gifts are never brought to my house for some reason. Any other gifts are put aside to open later, and thank you notes are sent. Our two large parties a year are the only two where people are wandering around. Both are catered which solves my clean up problem, and I have yet to have a major spill to deal with.

Keep in mind, it was not good enough for me to even remember when I was there. ← True, although in reading the latest Toronto Life, North 44 still gets 4 stars where Perigee gets 3 1/2. I think we'll try it, since no one seems to have been lately.

Broccoli and cherry tomatoes with a mustard viniagrette.

In terms of this weekend's dinner it is partly yes to scope out a place for the corporate function, but also to have a place where my husband is comfortable with the menu. He's not an adventerous eater, and the menu appeals to him. Given my choice, I would have probably picked Truffles, just to try it, but I know he won't like it. Since its his anniversary as much as it is mine, I should try to find a place that he will like. For the corporate affair, again, the menu has a wide cross section of appeal for a group who are not particularly into food. For example, we did Susur last year, and while I loved it, most of the group was underwhelmed because its not the kind of food they are used to". For those reasons, I like the menu at North 44 better than the ones at Perigee or Spendido.

Thanks, I know that Spledidio and Perigee are good restaurants, which is why I didn't need to ask about them! Price is not an issue for the private event as it is a corporate event and a fairly big deal. I'm still leaning towards trying North 44. I haven't heard anything bad yet except its pricey. Opus is pricey too!

This coming weekend is Easter, but it's also our anniversary, so we are spending the weekend in the city. We're dining at Opus friday night for our anniversary dinner, but we are thinking of North 44 on Sat. We're also looking to scope it out for a private function for about 30 people or so. I haven't seen much written about it on this forum. Anyone been lately?

We love it. We considered an egg, but we already have a smoker, and we felt firing up the egg every time we wanted to cook a steak was a bit much. Besides, this way I can grill even when the husband isn't home. And I don't think you can spit roast on an egg. That infrared burner is da bomb for spit roasting anything, beef, chicken, pork. I've done pizza on the Vermont with excellent results, but I've never done bread!

We have a Vermont Castings Gas grill. The grill has an infra red rotisserie burner at the back of the grill which is really great for spit roasting.

The rolls recipe came from Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's on page 268, Variation 2. This is the second time I've made these and they were really really good.

The crunchy bits in the dessert are italian amarettii cookies, slightly crushed.

results from our dinner party tonight. We started with garlic herb potato chips And an Alsace onion tart Spit roasted prime rib Potato souffles carnival corn roasted cippoline onions Homemade dinner rolls Plated Dessert was a white chocolate mascarpone and raspberry parfait

For me anyway, here in Southern Ontario, it's always brown gravy. Chicken, beef, pork, turkey, french fries. Gravy in this house (and when I was growing up), was always started with a roux, the roux was cooked to the desired degree of darkness, then stock added. I don't get white gravy at all. In fact, I rarely if ever, have seen white gravy here in a restaurant.

Hmm, I make my dough in the breadmaker. Then I roll it out onto pizza pans ( for the shape) and stick it in the fridge, covered till I'm ready to use it, which could be a couple of days. Then I just bring it to room temp and go from there.

I also never use the mini bowl on the KA. It's a huge pain. I have both Cuisinart and a KA mini prep, although I find myself going more and more to the KA. After having both KA and Cuisinart food processors, KA definately wins for me every time.

I think the light works very well with the paint and the counters. As Abra says, it's easy to focus on the light as it sits on the counter and sort of stands out. But I think you'll see once the backsplash is in and the light up that it works really well.

Bravo Kim! They look great! We ordered in Chinese tonight so no pics. I'm busy prepping for a dinner party tomorrow night. The menu will be: Nibbles Alsace Onion Tart Parmesan dusted potato chips Main Spit Roasted Prime Rib Individual Roasted Garlic Potato Souffles Carnival Corn Grilled cippoline onions Homemade dinner rolls Dessert White Chocolate Mousse and Strawberry Parfaits Cheese Course This could be considered my Easter dinner I guess since next weekend is our anniversary and we plan to spend it in Toronto at various restaurants.

So if the noodles were made with something other than regular flour - does whole wheat or seminola flour count?

I don't know what the limitations of passover are, but last Christmas I made a spinach/noodle torte for a vegetarian guest of mine. The original recipe called for kale I think. It was in the Dec issue of Gourmet. I'll see if I can find it.

I highly recommend ICE. I spent two weeks there recently in classes, and thought the instructors were great. There were a number of team building events going on while I was there, and it sure sounded like everyone was having fun!

No I hadn't seen this! Gotta love it. And it may be one way to get my continued Old Dutch fix.

The onion rings are great for two reasons. One I love things crusted in panko. Two, I can (I didn't this time) deep fry these ahead of time, and if I put them in a 350 oven for 10 minutes when I'm ready to serve, the crispyness comes right back.