guajolote

I prefer Bennison's Bakery which I think is on Davis just west of the El line. They also have a stall at the Farmer's Market.

I think I took one.

Michelle's 1.5 acre estate in the forest is going to be great for this. I just hope we can find it .

We had a wonderful time at dinner. Next time I'm going to bring one (or all) of the traveling riot along because this dinner deserves a better write up than Matthew or I can do. During the afternoon I prepped the Coctel de Mariscos (made tomato juice for the first time, steamed the langostines and mussels, and briefly sauteed the scallops (30 sec per side) in canola oil. I also butterflied and brined the pork rack. A pork rack is about 18 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 2 inches thick and is from the same part of the piggy as baby back ribs. Matthew and Michelle arrived at about 4 carrying 3 bags of groceries. He was nice enough to do all the shopping at the GR farmer's market, and brought some fabulous produce. He also brought his creme fraiche experiment which we tasted right away. This was good, since he forgot to serve it with the dessert . We opened a bottle of Moet to drink while we prepped. Matthew and Michelle started to clean the corn, peppers, baby leeks, yellow beans, and heirloom tomatoes. Michelle grew up on a farm and it showed - she can husk corn faster than anyone I've ever seen. She also broke off the pieces of the yellow beans that had dark spots. This is something I never do because I'm lazy. Matthew blanched all the vegetables for about 30 seconds and then shocked them in ice water. I mixed the sriachi with the homemade mayo that I had made earlier. Dave the Cook's method of freezing the yolks resulted in the best mayo I've ever made. I also assembled the seafood cocktail (the seafood, tomato juice, the steaming liquid, juice of two limes, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced cumcumber, chopped garlic, chopped onions, minced garlic, diced avacodo, and a little horseradish). At about 5:15 we ate the tuna tartare (I made scallop tartare for my Dad who can't eat "fin" fish). We were going to make homemade ponzu, but the bottled version (Eden?) was very good so we bagged it. Matthew did a great job of plating the dish. We ate this outside on my parents deck. Everyone really loved this dish and gobbled it right down. My Mom, who says she doesn't like raw fish, ate her whole portion. I don't think that she knew that tartare means raw. We had a non-vintage blanc de blanc champagne which was a great pairing. After the first course Matthew made the vinegrette, with milk , for the salad. He can tell you more about it. I threw the stuffed pork rack on the grill to start cooking. Then we ate the seafood cocktail which I served in crystal goblets. This recipe is part of my standard repertoire and everyone liked it. We had a bottle of Hugel Riesling. This wasn't the best match, some more champagne would have been better. The salad was unbelievable, a true taste of summer. Wine was a bottle of Tavel rose. The final main course was the pork and some boiled purple potatoes. I had ealier made some herb butter for the potatoes. The recipe for the pork was from Soba and it was damn good (the stuffing was onions, garlic, fresh apricots, Italian Sausage, bread crumbs, and an egg). I probably should have added another egg and some more bread crumbs because the stuffing was a little runny. We had two bottles of red burgundy with the pork. Michelle then made the blueberry gratin and the hot chocolate, both of which were amazing. The gratin would have been better with some creme fraiche. Dessert wine was Moscato d' Asti. I'll add more later after I've rested awhile.

Dave's Italian Kitchen on Clark (I know it's not actually Clark but I just don't get why they change all the street names when you get into Evanston) has real good Italian-American food, plus a really good and inexpensive wine list. There are 2 Japanese resturants south of downtown, New Japan and Kuni's. Stay away from the horrible tapas place. Unfortunately, downtown Evanston is being run over by a bunch of chains including Puck's Cafe, Chilis, and Corner Bakery.

Chilequiles or Enchiladas or a big bowl of menudo .

Counting the votes is definately a job for Carville.

Florida Jim, I enjoy all of your posts, but this one really inspired me. I'm making Mac and Cheese tonight despite the 90 degree heat here. Thanks

I've never made grits but love them. Any tips I should know before I try them? What company makes the best grits?

Nope: from here Edit: I also read that canned tomatoes usually have acid added to them for this reason. The finished sauce is probably OK to can, but personally I would just freeze it.

Wow, that's a lot of eggs. Aren't you supposed to pressure can tomatoes because of the low acidity?

Tortillas Buy the best corn meal you can find. Add some to a liquid of your choice (water, milk, stock). Some people start with cold liquid, some with hot. Stir like hell for about 30 minutes. Right at the end throw in some butter (or truffle oil) and cheese. If you want the firm cakes poor it into a greased pan and refrigerate. Cut into whatever shape you want (I've made heart shaped polenta using a cookie cutter). Or you can spoon it onto a plate and eat it right away.

2 should be plenty. creme fraiche sounds great to me.

Go for the hot chocolate. Wine pairing thread

Matthew and I are having dinner together Our menu is: Asian Style Tuna Tartare (NV Champagne) Seafood Cocktail Campeche (Alsatian Riesling) Composed Summer Vegetable Salad (Tavel Rose) Pork Loin stuffed with Sausage and Apricots (Red Burgundy) Berry Gratin Please help us with wine pairings for each course. My initial thoughts are in the parentheses but I would like some guidance from experts. Thanks

Oh good, I was going to pick that one too. Soba's Roast Pork Loin with Apricot-Sausage Stuffing and Rosemary-Garlic Jus. Soba, do you have a recipe? You can paraphrase it if you want. Matthew, you can do dessert. Maybe we'll serve some steamed new potatoes with the pork? All sounds good. Except my pastry chef is out of town until late Friday night, so I'm afraid dessert will be my own. How about a sweet (w/ berries or some such) gratin? If so, I'll dig through Christophe Felder's book tonight. My parents both used to pick blueberries when they were in school. If you pick a blueberry dessert you'll get to hear my Dad's story about how many quarts per day he could pick and how he was the fastest blueberry picker in W. Michigan. Do you know of a place where you could buy some good chocolates for Flaca and Iris?

Oh good, I was going to pick that one too. Soba's Roast Pork Loin with Apricot-Sausage Stuffing and Rosemary-Garlic Jus. Soba, do you have a recipe? You can paraphrase it if you want. Matthew, you can do dessert. Maybe we'll serve some steamed new potatoes with the pork?

Tuna tartare, tommy-style. Jaymes' seafood cocktails Campechana

Matthew, We should make a decision so that we can do wine pairings. What do you think? Should we each pick two things from the suggestions? You go first.

If you really like sauerkraut you have to try this. It's very easy. Next up is fermented pickles.

The kraut is done! I tasted it and it's much more acidic than commercial sauerkraut. The acidity is close to that of lemon juice. The little bit I tated was really good. I wish I had chopped the cabbage a little finer. I put the kraut in quart canning jars (4) and am storing it in the fridge. You can can it, but I didn't. Next week I'm going to make a choucroute garni, I'll report on the taste.

I thought Maggie and you were going to "get busy" in the hay.

We should be able to get two full prime ribs on my smoker without any problem. I just thought that if we smoke the prime ribs someone would have to watch the smoker and therefore wouldn't be able to go on the hayride. Maybe we could start it on the smoker and then finish in the oven. The way I cook my prime rib (Alton's method) takes about 6-8 hours.

I wouldn't take a bunch of French people to Brasserie Jo. It's a good restaurant, but they can get the the same food at home, and it would be better in France. Chilpancingo won't dissapoint, it's 3/4 mile walk. Even closer is Naha (.4 miles). Read this review of Naha

Hey, I'm the dictator Carville. Let's let it go until tomorrow. We need to here from the Canadians still. What about Beans? What are we going to eat at the party? I was thinking of prime rib . Watching the traveling riot chew on rib bones would be fun. Maybe we could smoke it?