DHeineck

Thanks for the heads up Kalypso! Much appreciated and the service sounds just perfect. We'll try mixing and matching the tapas. Hopefully I'll remember to bring the camera for some foodie shots and a report.

To dredge this from the depths--does anyone have a fair evaluation of Bite? I owe a friend a thank-you dinner (she's an amateur foodie like myself) for taking me to/from the airport. Was planning on doing the fixed menu. Thanks!

Sorry for disappearing--thanks for the recommendations! Pasta pots I've seen are typically a LOT bigger, but I'll see if I have any luck on anything smaller. Much obliged, D

I was hoping someone might have some recommendations for a smallish (4-5 qt) induction-friendly stainless w/ aluminum disk stockpot that's designed around fitting on a small coil burner. So taller and narrower. Considering I only cook for myself and rent an apartment with 3 small burners and one big burner, such a piece would be a boon for my cooking productivity. My mom has a random cuisinart 5qt tall/narrow stockpod she found at tuesday morning, but neither of us have had any luck since then. I'd love to find something similar, if not a bit higher quality construction. I have a big, 10 quart guy already, which is 99% of the time too big for what I need and really uneven on a small burner. Thanks! Daniel

Okay--so I'm actually going to be with family for Thanksgiving, but the grocery deals as of now are pretty tempting for this graduate student. Even a 12-15 lb turkey is going to be a lot for my roommate and I to eat--so I'm hoping for some clever ideas on how to broaden the use of said turkey. There's only so many cranberry/turkey sandwiches one can eat before bursting. So I guess I'm looking for about 2-3 different recipe angles to use a single bird so I don't get bored of it... any recommendations? I've got two down: squash/turkey soup and simply roasted using an herb under the skin and sliced up. What are your family favorites to do with a leftover turkey? Cheers! Daniel

A simple cobbler with vanilla ice cream is quite delicious, and you can use harder nectarines without much consequence. Toss some slivered almonds into the crust for a nice crunch as well. D

Thanks for this rec! I appreciate all the commentary. I'm still reading it! Daniel

I'm no chef either, but I've found this to be true in more than sauces. A friend's recipe for sauteed mushrooms - as you'd serve alongside a steak, for instance - is to saute the mushrooms in butter, then when they start to soften, add any wine and a pinch of hot pepper flakes, along with salt and black pepper, and let most of the wine simmer away. OK, so the first time I did it, I did it her way. The second time, I simply forgot to add the pepper flakes, and noticed a huge difference in flavor. The dish was extremely bland. I've remembered the pepper flakes ever since, and I've never detected that flavor, or any heat, in the finished dish. ← That's hilarius--I do the same thing with my morning oatmeal to get the flavors to come out a little clearer. Came upon the idea purely from a SWAG. It does taste better that way.

Judith, That's why I suggested going in tight on the food over a backed up shot so the food isn't lost on the plate. Leave just enough room around the food to use the plate as a mat and be done with it. I don't know the controls on the D90 (being a Canon user) but a 17-35 should behave more or less like a 28-55 lens. Stick more to the long end, bump the iso up to get shorter shutter times, and use aperture priority. Use raw so you can fix your white balance in post and don't worry about the noise--honestly. If you're primarily posting these to the web, the downsize will knock most of it out. Think about using your pop-up flash, but turn it down 1.5 to 2 stops just so it brings out a little character and provides specularity. Just don't blast the image with the flash, delicate use required ;-) In this shot, I'd get close enough (at 35mm end of the zoom) and at a low enough angle to put the garlic/nuts/whatever they are at the intersection of the left hand 1/3 and bottom 1/3 of the photo. Leave like an inch of white plate showing around the edge. Much lower and flatter (at the food level, more or less) rather than from above. I'd probably shoot it at F2.8, F4, F5.6 and something like F8 if I can get enough light. Also, I'd try turning the plate about 10-15 degrees clockwise from your angle to give a better look at the meat. Focus would be on the aforementioned garlic/nuts/whatever. Hope this helps. Daniel

Holly, For a "safe" shot, go from a higher perspective and crop tighter. I generally will aim to clip off a little bit of the edges of the plate to maximize the food and remove the clutter from the image. In this case, crop the plate aggressively and go for a symmetric cut, so that the left and right sides of the plate are equally cropped. I'll try and start putting up some of the food photos I've taken over the while, and I have a hopeful goal of doing my own photo/food blog for broke college students (which have too nice of cameras ) Cheers, Daniel

Since both Beard's book and "Think like a Chef" are pretty cheap, I'll pick them up and see how they go. Word on the street is my mom is going to be buying all 3 of us boys a few basic cookbooks, of which I'd be shocked Mastering Art of French Cooking wasn't entailed. Thanks all! D

djyee100, I'm just down the peninsula from you in San Jose! Thank you for the suggestions. Sounds like another book worth looking into. D

Thanks once again to all of you--plenty to dig around at the library/bookstore and see what plays nicely with how I think/cook. Very much appreciated. I mostly cook anything "fancy" on the weekends and do soups/salads/leftovers over the weekdays. The reason I mention Bouchon was based on peoples notes that it had a lot of side commentary and insight into why certain things were done certain ways. Flipping through some more threads, it looks like "Think like a chef" is up my alley, as is the aforementioned James Beard book and Les Halles. Bistro might not be the best word to describe--I'm more looking for a book that would be the equivalent of going to a culinary school over the course of several years (minus, of course all the restaurant managment parts). For example, I learned to grill intuitively during my adolescence (us kids did the grilling) quite well based off screwing up enough times, and trying different techniques. I got a feel for it, although my family had to suffer through the failures . Something that accelerates my learning curve inside the kitchen is what I'm looking for. Recipes, by and large, would be a starting point to expand however I want--mostly I try and look at them and go, "oh, I see what they're doing" or are very basic. Having read some examples off amazon--I think I'll start with "think like a chef" Cheers, D

Thanks all, I'll peruse around and see what works for me. I've tried working out of the Joy of Cooking (stole my mom's for a while), but it doesn't seem to jive for me on day-to-day stuffs. Great for baking, though.

I'm a moderately decent cook who's cookbook so far is picking my mother's brain about different meals she made as we grew up, and then running variations off of them. I think I can count by hand the number of times I have followed a non-baking recipe out of a book from top to bottom, it's just not my nature. I'd like to branch out in all honesty, as I tend to cook the same things again and again with small changes here and there, which is easy to do since I only cook for myself. Being cheap, I usually build my recipes at the grocery store/farmer's market/etc based on what is available, cheap, and thus, in season. I'd love to grow a wider repetoir of sauces, dressings, seasonings, outright cooking techniques, flavor combinations. Thus, I'm looking for a book that is heavy on very basic preparations done excellently which leaves room for seasonal variations and that goes through the logic of why things are done the way they are. Something that I can perhaps do a recipe once in a while to get a feel for what the author presents, and then steal ideas from it to move forward. I tend to stay with western European mostly, as my style tends towards simple Mediterranean meals where the ingredients show for themselves, but a book with a bit of diversity would suit me just as well. From my basic perusal, something like Bouchon from TK seems good, but I can't seem to find it in my local library. I'm actively seeking a book that pushes my boundaries and comfort level in the kitchen. Thanks! Daniel