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Sugarloaf (the ski mountain, the Brazilian mountain and the Florida Key) Fruitland Park, FL Bread Loaf (a mountain outside Middlebury, VT where a writer's conference takes place-- the conference newsletter is the Crumb)

I ended up throwing out the dough because no matter how much water I kept adding to it, as soon as the mixer hit the dough it stopped. I'm going to try and make something else this week with the mixer, and if it's still not working I'll have to see about getting it fixed. Bummer! Neil

Well, I tried to make the focaccia today... had the dough in my year-and-a-half old Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and it just went on strike... it would beat when the dough hook wasn't in the dough, but every time I lowered the hook it just stopped. Haven't yet figured out if the mixer is dying or there was just something very wrong with the dough. And the mixer stood up so well to 15 minutes of beating the brioche dough 2 weeks ago. Hope everyone else enjoys the bread! Neil

OK, I'll jump in and admit to liking some of the shows that have been bashed here, like Dweezil and Lisa. I don't know that I'll watch it for much longer, but so far it has been an interesting change. I am also partial to Follow That Food with Gordon Elliott, Ciao Italia with Mario Batalli, and I really liked Into the Fire, which seems to be either finished or on hiatus at the moment. Neil

If you want to stay close to the airport, your best bet is Coral Gables or Coconut Grove; so Norman's or the Bizcaya Grill would be best. It will be about a 20-minute drive to South Beach, but traffic and parking there will be difficult. You will most likely want to valet, so add the difficulty factor to any decision on a South Beach restaurant. Joe's is relatively easy as there's a garage attached and it's in the slightly less trafficked area of South Pointe. I'd rule out the Blue Door at the Delano just for the inconvenience factor-- heavy traffic to get there and a $17 parking charge. Neil

I haven't tasted this tart yet, but it was an awful lot of work, and was a real reminder to me of how much I don't know, and of the fact that presentation is still my weakest point. I honestly could not understand the directions for making some kind of ledge out of the crust. I think this was a very tough recipe, partly because it was poorly written (I do teach technical writing, after all, and plan to use part of this recipe as an example in class of what not to do!) and partly because I just don't have the required skill level. I will be curious to hear what others have to say about this. Neil

I made my flaky pastry dough this evening, letting it chill until tomorrow. I broke it up into four parts as Julia indicated, and froze three for future pies. Boy, I don't like working with vegetable shortening. It's nasty! One great thing about this project is that I am using all kinds of stuff in my kitchen that I own but never have a reason to use. I finally used the paddle attachment on my mixer this evening, and tomorrow I will be using the apple peeler contraption that the Picky Eater bought me for my birthday a couple of years ago! Neil

Jaxson's is great for ice cream; it's on US1 in Dania, right around the corner from jai-alai. We had dinner tonight at Sage on US 1 in Ft Lauderdale (really Wilton Manors) and the French food there is dependably good. Turns out the place was packed tonight because (according to the table of elderly drunks next to us) they give out free wine from 5-7 pm on the first Tuesday of the month. The Brasserie on Las Olas is also a dependable choice, and great in bad weather because they have an attached parking garage, and since it's mostly a business lunch place you can get in easily at dinner. Then you can walk the couple of blocks to the walkable part of Las Olas. Mark's Las Olas, as I've said before, is fabulous, but pricey. One of my favorite Boca places is called Brewzzi's, a brewpub with pretty decent food and a nice atmosphere. Neil

I only had one brioche pan and one loaf pan, but two mini loaf pans, so that's how I made my brioches. (Sorry, the Picky Eater grabbed one of the tiny ones before I could get the camera out.) I put some Brazilian milk chocolate into the two tiny ones to make chocolate brioche. I'm very pleased with the way these have come out. I know that there's some interest in moving on to pies, but I'm hoping we'll stick to different breads for a few weeks. I'm really enjoying the experimentation and I know I won't follow up enough on my own! How about the fougasse next-- or some kind of focaccia? I've made it from mixes but never from scratch. Neil

I made my challah on Thursday evening, but didn't have a chance to get back here and post until now (I'm at school and have to teach a class in ten minutes, but we're just doing grammar exercises so I can dilly dally for a minute.) Am I the only one who found the bread a little too salty with sea salt sprinkled on top? It was delicious, but I had a salty taste in my mouth for hours after, and the Picky Eater said it was too salty for him. I've made chocolate chip challah before (another recipe) by dropping chips into the batter. I'll have to try that next time. Neil

I'm glad you've started this thread, and looking forward to baking the challah (hopefully tomorrow, though that bit about the first rise taking four hours may delay me...) My question concerns whole milk vs. fat free. I usually have fat-free in the house for cereal; should I go out and get a pint of the whole milk, or is there a substitution or addition I can make? I'm not so concerned about the calories or anything, just using what I have in the house. Neil

Add another vote for the Mario Batalli. I wish there was a Trader Joe's near me! I have to buy the stuff when travelling (among other TJ items) and shlep it back to Florida. Neil

I'm reading Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating, by Ari Weinzweig, though it's something I can only dip into because it provides so much to think about. Also Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan-- which makes me want to stop and bake all the time. Neil

The Miami Herald does a pretty decent job these days with food coverage. A number of Knight Ridder service articles in the Thursday food section, but a bunch of homegrown content as well. Linda Bladholm writes about ethnic food, traveling around looking for interesting and different restaurants and home cooks (this week she's writing about vanilla; my friend Ellen Kanner writes a column every other week called the Edgy Veggie about vegetarian foods; and they cover Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach county restaurants. The Miami New Times has a great columnist named Jen Karetnick (nickname kavetchnick) who writes about food trends, as well as regular restaurant reviewers.

Down here in South Florida, there was a big buzz when Starbucks came to town, wondering how all the Cuban coffee devotees would react. Every office here with a sizable Latin population has one person who brews up lethally strong and sweet cafe cubana, also known as cortadito, or cafecito (depending on how it's made). Miami is dotted with little walk-up Cuban coffee windows, and I don't see any of them going out of business even though every Starbucks I ever visit is crowded, no matter what time of day. They have knocked out a couple of local places, but I think that's the McDonald's effect: the coffee is the same at Starbucks no matter where you go. I get a tall raspberry mocha these days, and the quality is consistent. When I try to order that drink at local joints, they often have more limited variety or inconsistent quality. Neil

I agree with Sammy-- a friend helped me get my current job and so my partner and I took her and her boyfriend out to dinner at Mark's Las Olas in June and we had a great dinner. The decor is very cool, the service is excellent and the food phenomenal. The other plus is location; you can take an after-dinner stroll down Las Olas (especially now that the weather is a bit cooler) and work off all that great food! Neil

I love adding chocolate mini-chips to my batter-- I find they float in the cake much better than standard-size chips. Here's my favorite cheesecake recipe, one I've been making for years. It's a legacy from a housekeeper we had when I was a teenager: Helen's Cheesecake Neil

I first ate at CP in 1986, dragging my parents there when we were on a family trip to SF, and loved it. My father wasn't too excited until he got back home, where he was a volunteer at the local library, and everyone there was excited that he'd been and wanted to know all about it. That changed his attitude. I was fortunate in the mid 90s to travel to the bay area regularly on business, and whenever I could I went to CP (always upstairs, could never get my schedule organized enough in advance for downstairs reservations) and it never disappointed. Loved the Crafstman architecture, and I learned a lot of what I know about food from eating there and asking questions. Neil

I love the B&J concept of two flavors twisted into one. My favorite's the Everything But The... Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Creams with HEATH® Bar Chunks, White Chocolatey Chunks, Peanut Butter Cups & Chocolatey-Covered Almonds. Also visited their web site to check the name of the flavor and saw they have new Organic Strawberry ice cream. Anybody tried it yet? Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard is huge... check it out: Neil

David, Thanks for all your great advice. Knowing how you try to promote your website, I feel a little less guilty for using one of your essays in my college writing class-- Lights, Camera, Recipes -- with very clear attribution and a link to the site for further info. It's a great way for students to see that they can connect to their families through their ethnic cuisines, and I've had students come up to me afterward and say that they want to do something similar with their relatives. Along those lines, I'd like to add a possible market for food writers in college alumni magazines. If you find somebody with an interesting story, always ask about their education, and perhaps their college magazine will be interested. Neil

I'm seeing a real opportunity for NBC to do some cross promotion between The Restaurant & Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The Fab 5 could come in and do a makeover on Jeffrey Chodorow (who really seems to need it) and Ted could do some wonders in the kitchen!

Growing up in the northeast, we used to go to Friendly's all the time and now try to catch one when I go up there. I'll second Romano's Macaroni Grill and add in the Cheesecake Factory too.

I go out to dinner with my mother once a week, and she eats very sparingly, usually ordering only an appetizer as her main meal. It's always a challenge to find restaurants that offer appetizers which can be a meal (not chicken wings or similar finger foods) and sometimes, if there's a children's menu, my mother will ask if she can order from it. The answer varies; at the chain restaurants the answer's usually no, unless the server is willing to be flexible. I agree that having smaller portions at lower prices would be good for kids, and would have the side benefit of cutting down on wasted food and offering a greater variety to the eater with a small appetite. Neil

Went to the Cold Stone in Boca yesterday and got the peanut butter whatever... chocolate ice cream mixed with Reese's cups and chocolate syrup. It was pretty good. A Farrell's at the Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne, near where I grew up, opened when I was in high school. A girl I knew, Sharman, was a waitress there and she said if you said it was your birthday you got a free ice cream. So my friends Mary Lou and Karen and I went there and we all said it was our birthday, and Sharman brought us all free sundaes. But she hadn't told us that they rang bells, sounded sirens and sang for you (I think Farrell's was one of the first places that did this.) I still remember this clutch of waiters and waitresses standing around us singing, "Happy Birthday, Karen, Mary Lou and Neil." Needless to say we were mortified, feeling that the whole restaurant knew we were scamming them. Neil

My number is lucky 13. I want to add a vote for Steak N Shake, which just came to south Florida recently (a welcome addition.) We also have a local chain called Char Hut, which makes a great burger.