Marlene

Lovely, Dianne! I suppose I'll have to try making grits one of these days. Tonight's dinner was prime rib, roast potatoes, yorkies and gravy. It was supposed to be last night's dinner, but my mother's funeral services ran late, then people came back to the house, and I just wasn't up to cooking. Thus, my family gets a Sunday night dinner on a Monday night instead. This btw, is an end slice. I can pretty consistently get the ends to come out med rare. Looks like it could be a snow day here tomorrow, which may mean experimenting with some beef pot pies.

I almost always use a cookbook stand so that my books stay clean, otherwise, pages are liable to get sealed together because I'd close them before the spatters dried.

I made some chicken soup using Pam's method, except I used parsley instead of dill. I had some leftover roast chicken that I cut up into pieces and threw in some fine egg noodles as well. I was pretty happy with the colour and clarity.

Particularly since your kids aren't novices, I think it would be a great book to cook from with them. Michel certainly likes to use various kitchen gadets and he likes to have fun doing it.

I made the All Crust Gratin from it last night. It was great. There are quite a few things I want to make from this book.

In search of comfort food I made Steak au Povire, green beans in lemon butter and All Crust Potato gratin from Happy in the Kitchen:

I rarely use a peeler for anything other than taking strips off citrus for recipes. Mind you, I use a paring knife rather than a chef's knife to peel potatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes, but I've been doing it for years. edited to add. I do use a peeler for carrots for some reason though.

you're going to be really happy with those LED lights. I used them for undercabinet lighting in the kitchen remodel I just did, and love them. And the best thing is that they throw off no heat at all, unlike halogen or even florescent.

As I understand it, you heat the pan first and add oil after if you are sauteeing, and heat the oil and pan together if you are frying.

I also have the KitchenAid and I love it.

I had a reservation for Per Se while I was in New York this week. I needed a dining companion, and Donbert graciously agreed to come with me I think Donbert's got better photos than I do, but I'll post mine and he can post the better ones later! We arrived about 10 minutes before our reservation and we seated in the lounge and offered champagne, which we accepted. After our first glass of champagne we were led to our table, where we had another glass of champagne! We discussed the menu with our captain who was aware of my mushroom allergy and we agreed that although I was going to try the oysters and caviar, any other fish dishes would be substituted from the vegetarian's menu for me. I asked him to pick a nice half bottle of white and one of red and to keep it at about $150.00. Donbert's got the wine info, so he'll have to post that! We began with an amuse. A salmon cone for Donbert and a tomato one for me. Service was extremely polished, very friendly and at no time were we rushed. In fact dinner took about 4 and a half hours. We spent a lot of time conversing with our captain about various dishes and how they were cooked. In fact, I think the kitchen might have started calling us the "dust" people, because every time a plate came out, we wanted to know what the "dust" was on the plate. We began our chef's tasting menu with Oysters and Pearls. Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca wiht Island Creek Oysters and Sterling White Sturgeon Caviar. I've never had oysters or caviar before, and this was truly the place to try them. While they wouldn't necessarily be first on my go to list at a restaurant, I wouldn't turn my nose up at this dish! Next up was a choice of Endive Salad or Foie Gras. Like there was a choice to be made here?! Donbert had the foie terraine, while they seared mine, as the terraine was layered with quite a bit of black truffle and we didn't want to take too many chances. This was my favourite dish of the evening. I love foie and I love it seared and this was as excellent as you would expect from a Keller establishment: The next course was a fish course, so for me, they substituted a Ravioli aux Fines Herbes. Inside was a soft boiled egg, leeks and a sauce soubise. I liked this one a lot Next we had the BLT Butter Poached Lobster. This is the one dish that we felt let us down. The menu said butter poached, but we both found it hard to cut and very chewy. Donbert felt it had been sous vide'd so we asked the captain and he agreed they had done it that way. We suggested they stick to old fashioned butter poaching! Mext was a choice of either Venison or breast of duck. I took the duck, while Donbert had the venison. The duck was wrapped in swiss chard leaves. I liked this one, but it didn't blow me away. It sort of tasted like duck sausage. Moving right along, was the famed Elysian Fields Farm's lamb. There is no doubt that Keller gets excellent lamb from his purveyor and it always shows in the lamb dishes. This was excellent. They insisted this wasn't sous vide'd but if that's the case, the fat caul around the lamb could have been crispier. Or even marginally crispy would have been nice. But the lamb itself was outstanding. A couple of the breads we had with dinner. Donbert graciously shared some of his brioche with me during his fish course, but I think he's got the picture of it. I could eat Keller's brioche forever. Finally winding down, (or so I thought), the cheese course came. Then a lovely Mandarin sorbet: And then a brownie, and then chocolates... I was getting full at this point. I loved this brownie. I'm a sucker for brownies, and this one didn't disappoint at all. Rich dense chocolately good. Obviously they thought we hadn't had enough, so that brought out this very whimsical "coffee and donuts: And finally, truffles. Oy. When we were ready, they offered us a kitchen and wine cellar tour and presented a copy of the menu on the way out. There's no doubt this is more than just "dining out". It's truly an experience and one I wouldn't have missed for the world. Other than the lobster, I thought it was fabulous. No doubt, Donbert will have some comments, and probably better descriptions of the food and better pics!

A caveat to this would be that it's Uncle Jack's I think and not Captain Jack's.

There may be an actualy Wolfgang's thread and if there is, this post could be moved there. I dined tonight at Wolfgang's Tribeca establishment. I've been to the Park Avenue location, and was very happy with it, but the Tribeca location is much closer to my hotel, and since I was dining alone, I didn't want to do a lot of travelling. It's always amusing to me to see how establishments handle women dining alone. I deliberately made a reservation through Open Table because (a) if I'm paying $200 for dinner, I want to eat at a table, not hunched over a bar, while the latest sports game blares over the tv, or talking to the lone male diner at the bar who can't get a date on Saturday night, and (b) I'm always facinated to see how the staff handles a woman dining alone. The maitre d' was clearly rattled when I arrived alone and produced my reservation number, however, he reasonably smoothly led me to a table for 4. Too bad it was tucked behind a pillar where it was difficult to see the room or anything else. The waiters took a little time to adjust, so while they were adjusting I had a martini, which was in fact, perfect. My martini of preference is normally a vodka one, but in the spirit of things (and so I wouldn't appear to be a total rube ) I ordered a gin martini with a twist. I'm not a fan of gin, but this particular martini was just perfect. So much so, that I may have to try another gin martini in the not to distant future! While the waiters clearly would have preferred to rush me, I set the pace to dinner, by refusing to order until I was about half way through the martini. (And here's a quiet beef about steakhouses, excuse the pun). Porterhouses are designed for a minimum of two. Since I was a single diner, there was no way I could do that, so I had to opt for the rib eye instead. And I don't get this Canadian bacon thing either. To me, Canadian bacon is round, or is peameal. The lovely strips of bacon I had tonight were far and away better than any Canadian strip bacon I can get at home! Also, Wolfgang's doesn't do half bottles of wine. While I enjoyed their wine list and there were several bottles I would have condsidered had I been sharing the meal, I just didn't think that I could drink a whole bottle of wine and still be able to stand up at the end of the night. ( I mean, I do have class in the morning, and it's probably better not to be handling sharp knives while you're extremely hung over). By now, my waiter had relaxed enough to joke with me about being carded. (I'd already had the martini, remember). I embarked on a conversation with him about the type of steaks they served, dry aged etc, and ended up telling him I was there to go to Culinary school for a couple of weeks. Things started looking up. All of a sudden, I had more waiters around me than I really needed, but heck, the attention was nice. I ended up ordering a shrimp cocktail to start, the rib eye, bone in, and german potatoes and a side of Canadian bacon. Wolfgang's Tribeca does not disappoint in the execution of their food. The rib eye was perfectly med rare, and juicy, and tender and tons of flavour. The potatoes were crisp outside and tender inside. The bacon is bacon, and as I've said, far better than anything I'll ever be able to buy in Canada. I didn't bother with dessert, because I prefer cheese at the end of the meal and they didn't have a cheese plate. I did have two glasses of a 30 year Fonseca port, which I think, kind of amazed the waiter that I would order. The maitre 'd stopped by several times to make sure everything was alright and that I was being taken care of. I didn't notice him doing that with any other table so I attributed it to his not being sure of how to handle a woman dining alone in his establishment. Obviously word got through to him via the waiters though, because as I was leaving, he shook my hand, said how pleasant it was to not only meet me but to have a knowledgeable diner in the restaurant, and hoped I would return soon. Wolfgang's, whether Tribeca or Park Avenue continues to delight me. Now if only they could come up with a Porterhouse for one

My husband joined me in New York for the weekend, since I've still got another week here, and we went to Porter House last night. We were both extremely disappointed to say the least. While the sides of hash browns and ginger carrots were very good, the porterhouse for two that we had was tasteless. There was nothing wrong with the way it was cooked, it was nicely medium rare, but there was no taste to this steak that we could discern. For the price, we won't be back. There's too many other good steakhouses in NY. In fact, I think I'll wander over to Wolfgang's tonight.

I know nothing about the science of welding vs riveting, but frankly, I've never had a problem cleaning the rivets on my All Clad. And I've never had to employ any of these techniques.

If you find a Canadian supplier, let me know. As much as I love my SS appliances, it is a huge pain keeping them clean!

Definately no prebaking, but my friend made and brought molten cakes for New Year's Eve which we baked onsite and they turned out wonderfully.

I happen to be in NY for two weeks and today I had a burger that rivalled the one I had at the Parker Meridian a few years ago (which was damn good btw). I am close to the WFC so I wandered over there at lunchtime to see what was available. I ended up at P.J. Clarke's and had one of the best burgers I've had in a long time. Perfectly cooked, charred on the outside. Very juicy without being messy. It was served on a regular hamburger bun which was exactly the way to show this burger off, although I prefer my hamburg buns toasted, and I got a nice side of homemade potato chips to go with it.

Bux was stubborn, knowledgeable and endearing. We had had our differences working together on eG, but they were always respectful differences with Bux being willing to listen, even when he wouldn't budge. When he was convinced of something, he was immovable. He had incredible moral standards that he lived by. To me, Bux was a mentor, peer and friend. Outside of eG, he was always generous with his time and advice and his recommendations on where to dine in New York never failed me. I also had the pleasure of his company at the same China 46 event where I shared drinks with Bux and his wife beforehand and it was a pleasure to meet him in person. Mostly I remember Bux' support during my brother's battle with cancer, even as he was beginning his own battle. We talked often about treatments, effects on family and friends and hanging tough. And he did. Right till the end, Bux was a class act. Nothing was more important to him that his Esilda and his daughter and her family and that shone through in every conversation we had. He was a family man to his core. And a gentleman to boot. I will miss him and his sense of humour. My deepest condolences to Esilda and family. Rest in peace, Bux.

Welcome Kathy! Very nice Jensen! I admit, browning ribs stovetop is a major pain, but I do it because I want both the juices and the fond to develop my sauce with. The other thing i've discovered is that I'm just generally not as fond of beer braises as I am of wine. Not only do they not smell as nice while braising, I find beer braises lack a depth of flavour that I get with wine. But that's just me!

Fried chicken, green beans sauteed in garlic mustard butter, and mashed. I'll see you back on this thread when I get back from New York in two weeks.

Crispy pork chops tonight. This used to be a Nigella recipe until I fiddled with it enough to make it unrecogizable. I made fetuccine alfredo to go with it, but that doesn't photograph so well.

A favourite dish of my father's, simple spareribs and sauerkraut. Served with fingerling potatoes roasted in duck fat.

I use tupperware all the time. (naturally, all mine matches ) But usually for things like, sugar, rolled oats, spices etc. I also use the smart spin thing and I love that for storing leftover sauces, gravies salsas, toasted nuts in etc. Edited to add pictures The container on the lower right is a smart spin container.

I boil eggs the way DebbieMoose suggests in her deviled egg cook book. Sort of similar to the method you tried with the exception that you bring the water to a full boil with the eggs in, and as soon as it comes to a boil, put the lid on, and remove from heat, and let sit for 15 minutes. Then immediately put them in cold water for a t least 5 minutes. I just put the eggs in a strainer and run cold water on them It works for me every single time. Edited to add, I always use extra large eggs and often they're right out of the fridge cause I never remember to bring them to room temp first.