Marlene

The ingredients for the dressing are basically Sesame Oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar salt, canola oil and asian chili sauce. It provides a nice kick, but no fish sauce!

Good question. And questions folks, will help me remember things to look for when I do the next issue! The pork was amazing for both its simplicity and it's flavour. On a busy night when we've got music, etc, its nice to be able to put a dish on the table in under an hour with very little fuss. Most of it can be prepped ahead of time - chopping the cabbage, shredding the lettuce and making the dressing. Then it's easy to throw together. The marinade for the pork provides a nice spice that sticks with the pork even after removed from the marinade and seared. The pork literally takes minutes to sear. The one thing I recall now, is that I didn't think the recipe provided enough quantities for the dressing and since they also suggest reserving half of the marinade to pour over the finished pork, you'd need to up those quantities as well. I found I needed every bit of marinade I had for the marinade itself.

Never having made a four layer cake before, I was a touch nervous about trying this, but it turned out to be very easy. Fine Cooking suggests tracing a line around the middle of the cake first with a serrated knife. Putting the cake on a turntable and rotating it as you slice makes this really simple, and helps someone like me who can't cut a straight line to save my life keep it pretty even. What exactly do you want to know about the pork?

8 over the last few weeks including Gourmet, Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, and a few more from the William Sonoma collection.

Thanks for the tips! I really like the idea of using slices as well. It seems to me that it would also make for a prettier presentation. I must try that next!

I wish I knew for sure what went wrong! The instructions indicate to whip egg whites with a bit of sugar until medium peaks form. They describe this as the whites being "full, smooth and shiny with the peaks forming soft curls". I'm pretty sure I did that. They also use a mix of corn syrup and sugar which they say removes the need to monitor the sugar temp with a thermometer. Add that mixture, once it's melted to the egg whites and beat them until they are almost cool. Then add the butter one bit at a time until smooth and then the chocolate. It is possible, I suppose that the egg white/sugar mix hadn't stabilized properly, but I tested it and according to their instructions, the mix was "barely warm". I threw the first batch out and tried again with exactly the same results.

Fine Cooking, May 2006 - Issue 78 Before we get to the menu, other news from this issue include thoughts on various pieces of kitchen equipment, including the relatively new Box Grater from Micoplane . Now, I have one of these and I find the removable sliding food holder useless. It doesn't really hold much food, and you've got to cut your pieces to conform to it. The new Maytag Ice2O French Door refrigerator with bottom mount freezer and an ice and water dispenser in the door. Until now, if you wanted the convenience of in door ice and water, French door fridges were not an option. Fine Cooking editor Lida Bastianich takes us through the steps of making Risotto, which snowangel will demonstrate for us next month. Other recipes in this issue, but not tested here, include various sauces for vegetables, including a Lemony Tahini Sauce, Curry-Yogurt Sauce, and a Balsamic Bacon Vinaigrette Sauce. Other meat and poultry dishes include Broiled Spice Rubbed Lamb Chops, Osso Buco, and Paprika Chicken with Keilbassa. Our menu for this month: Creamy Tomato Soup with Zucchini Spicy Korean Style Pork with Asian Slaw Vanilla Butter Cake with Chocolate Buttercream frosting and Raspberry filling. Let's start with the Tomato Soup. This was very easy to make and can be easily made ahead. Excess portions can be frozen. Gather all your ingredients, whole tomatoes white wine, cream, zucchini, garlic, onions, chicken stock. Saute the zucchini and garlic till tender crisp then set aside: Saute the onions, then add the whole tomatoes and sugar. Add the broth and wine and simmer Puree with an immersion blender: Sprinkle with a little fresh or dried basil for serving. If serving as a starter, serve in soup cups, otherwise, this makes a nice light meal with some great crusty bread all on it's own. If you are making this soup ahead and not serving for a while, don't add the zucchini back in until just ready to warm again. I haven't made a lot of soups, but this one was easy with lots of flavour to it. I'll definately make this again. Our main course this month is simplicity itself, but very tasty. Start out with a pork tenderloin or single pork loin and slice it into 1/2 inch slices Make the marinade: Pour it over the pork slices and chill for a couple of hours. In the meantime, make the dressing for the coleslaw: Chop the cabbage and shred the carrots, slice the green onions and mix with the dressing: Sear the pork slices: Until nicely browned: Arrange the coleslaw on a serving plate: And arrange the pork medallions on top: Served with steamed rice, the coleslaw acts as your side dish. I really liked this dish because it was not only very flavourful, but very easy to make and a fairly quick. This would work very well as a week night meal when you need to get dinner on the table fairly quickly. Dessert this month is a Vanilla butter cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting. Fine Cooking bills their buttercream frosting as fuss and stress free. Not for this girl. My stress levels were at an all time high after I tried and failed twice at it. The cake itself is simple enough and delightfully light and airy. Basic Ingredients: This issue suggests a different way of combining your cake ingredients. Instead of creaming the butter and sugar first, they suggest starting with the dry ingredients and mixing in the wet in two stages: I use magic strips for my cake pans always: This method did indeed produce a wonderful light tasty cake: Now onto the buttercream. No matter how hard I tried, and I tried twice, I just could not make their method work for me. In the end, in sheer frustration, I add a lot of icing sugar just so I could get it to a spreadable consistency. It was still good, but no way was it their method. First time around I may not have whipped the egg whites enough: The second time, I thought I had them right though. But no matter what I did, I could not get it to a spreadable consistency. Pourable, yes. Both times the egg whites did not stand up to pouring the corn syrup in. Add more liquid in the form of chocolate, and forget it. As I noted, I finally added icing sugar just to get it to spreadable consistency and even then, it wasn't great, but I was afraid to add any more. I can't say for sure what went wrong here, but after trying it twice, I'm not optimistic about a third try. Next month, Snowangel dishes fish and risotto!

I made the tarte tatin from the Bouchon book today. As I had made his pastry on the weekend for a raspberry pie and it makes enough for two tarts, I figured it was a good time to learn how to make this: Put the sugar and butter in the tartin pan: And the apples on top. (I realized about half way through carmelizing that I'd put them in upside down so I turned them over. Except I failed to notice that the ones in the middle were already the right way around): As the apples cook down a bit, add more apples to the pan, to ensure a snug fit Pastry over the apples and bake: I let it sit for 20 minutes rather than Keller's recommended 30 minutes, and I still had trouble getting it out of the pan. The pastry sides stuck to the pan, but that was likely because I forgot the cardinal rule about running a knife around the edges first. In any event, the taste was outstanding. I'll be making this one again, correcting, hopefully my mistakes the first time around:

Oh I so totally want one of those! I wonder if they deliver to Canada.

I have the Cusinart, and I have to say, I haven't experienced any of the problems with uneven toasting etc that they cite.

I have both a Waring Pro and a Breville. Both are excellent for making smoothies, pureeing soups, etc.

For extra space, also consider a movable butcher block type cart on wheels. You could store other things under it and move it out of the way when it's not needed.

The jelly is Red Pepper Jelly. If you are going to have some nice strawberries, then either a strawberry-rhubarb pie or a strawberry shortcake maybe?

As far as I understand, the Magnum's come with a coaster, but the Magnum Plus does not. At least that's what it says on their website.

I might go for the full size Dacor. Of course, I have a Dacor range and I'm rather partial to it. If you have the option, you could put a small bar fridge in your bedroom or living room and keep pops and juices and other small things in it, freeing up storage space in your fridge.

We ate, we laughed, we reminisced: We started with a couple of nibbles, Cheddar Jelly Thumbprints and my husband's awesome brushetta: Our main course was Prime Rib, Carnival Corn and Roast Potatoes. Instead of making Yorkshire pudding, we just had warmed dinner rolls because my brother loves them: Wine with dinner was a lovely Cotes du Rhone Dessert was snowangel's Raspberry Pie. I used the pastry recipe from Bouchon and it was really easy to work with. Served with Hagen Das Vanilla Bean ice cream: I have made more spectacular dinners, but this one will always be special to me.

ok no shrimp. It sucked at the market. Now what?

Marlene, this is something I've made for classes. If he likes spicy foods, he might like these. Shrimp skewers with spicy honey glaze Juice of one large lime 2 red jalapeno peppers 1 teaspoon grated ginger root 1 clove garlic, minced 3 tablespoons honey 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional -- great if you have it; not essential) 1/4 teaspoon dried chile flakes (optional for more heat) Puree everything together in a blender or small food processor and then simmer until thick -- you want to reduce it by a third or so. It should be enough glaze for a pound of shrimp. I paint the shrimp right before cooking, reserving a little of the glaze to spread on after cooking. ← JAZ, he likes spicy foods, but has to be careful of them. This might work though.

Can blue cheese be a component of the hot nibble? mmm....hot nibble ← It sure can!

It's not in recipegullet yet, but with Dean's permission, I will put it there!

So far Prime rib Roast potatoes Yorkies Carnival Corn When I suggested the broccoli to my brother, I could hear him wrinkling his nose, I swear. Then he said, what about that great corn dish you made us this summer, you know, the one with the bacon and peppers. It could only be Varmint's Carnival Corn. Its a bit rich, but so what. Snowangel has convinced me to make her raspberry pie. At worst, my pie crust is always good for a giggle. I need nibbles though. I think one cold and one hot.

I'm not stuck on chocolate, I don't even like it that much! It just seems easier. I suppose I could use frozen raspberries to make a pie. Raspberry mousse sounds pretty good too.

My brother is rather fond of shrimp, so some of those ideas sound great, and better than a boring shrimp cocktail. I've just discovered that his favourite dessert is raspberry pie. Sigh. Not only are raspberries out of season, but I've never made a raspberry pie in my life! Chocloate is sounding better all the time

Tomorrow night I am hosting a family dinner. The dinner is in honour of my brother and this needs to be the best dinner ever. What we're trying to do here is create a special memory that will last forever. So Prime Rib for sure, because it is my brother's favourite food and the first thing my father taught us both to cook, (and also because I happen to have one in my freezer ) and roast potatoes. Possibly a broccoli gratin. What I'm looking for is hors d'ouvres and dessert suggestions. I've thought about trying the mini cheese and bacon popovers again, but I'm open for other ideas and I've thought about possibly a simple chocolate mousse for dessert. Much of our memories will of course be created by just being together, but I want the food to be outstanding and remembered. Suggestions?

Aha. And I just finished telling snowangel I couldn't get pork belly here. I really must make a trip into the market one Saturday or something!