chefmd

We also ate in a Russian chain restaurant elki palki. You can order from the menu or can eat variety of traditional dishes from the cart. Daily special three course meal is 259 rubles. Beets are rather popular as you will see from other posts.

Snack at the Domodedovo Airport. Chebureki which is deep fried pastry traditionally filled with spiced meat and onions. It is a common street food in former Soviet republics.

I let my husband out of sight for a few hours while dealing with Russian bureaucracy and he promptly ate at McDonalds. Sign on the door says that it is open 7 AM to midnight and MacExpress is open around the clock. Cost of fries, drink, and Royal Cheeseburger is about 6 dollars.

There is no shortage of fast food places, mostly American but local as well. These joints are very busy.

I went on a quick trip to Moscow to visit my father who is now getting older and needs help (but still very healthy thank God). Here is a few pictures from my trip. Here is a grocery store which is very different from the empty shelves that I remember when I left Soviet Union 20 plus years ago. For the reference, Dollar to Ruble ratio is about 38.

What a great topic! Just tonight I am going back and forth to the kitchen trying to make some hard choices. The coveted item? Hominy from Rancho Gordo that I brought back from Napa trip. Half is not really enough to make posole but if I use all of it there will be none left. May be I can stretch it by using what exactly? Or may be we can eat smaller portions. Or may be we can go back to Napa to buy more. That is a great idea. But I will not have any until we go if I use it all. So I ended up soaking half of it. The real question is: can the remainder portion be divided further? My later grandmother would be very proud of my frugality.

Bake steam whole cauliflower 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Prior to baking I rubbed it with mixture of yogurt and several different spices. It came out super tender but was still holding together nicely when cut into quarters. Left overs were reheated at 300 degrees steam for about 11 minutes couple days later.

We have soda stream and use it daily. No flavors. It tastes fine (H20 plus CO2) and it matters a lot to me that we do not throw away (ok, recycling) bottles or cans. Plastic bottles that come with soda stream last several years. The cheapest place to get CO2 canisters is Bed Bath and Beyond if you use your coupons. 5 dollars off 15 dollars purchase gives you better value than 20% off one item.

Ditto fig envy. And your friendship envy. And bread envy. And simply excited to follow this thread.

I looked at Sweet Greens menu and earth bowl salad is 730 calories. Now, to be fair, seasonal salad is 395 calories. For comparison, big mac is 550 calories. I am not a big fan of fast food in general and "virtuous" (read expensive) fast food does not do anything for me as well. I would much rather go to an ethnic restaurant and get fast service with much nicer food option.

And as was recommended in this thread I stopped at Rancho Gordo store in Napa. I wanted to buy everything. Twice. Had to limit myself to a few nice packages. Especially excited about casoulet beans.

And dinner at Farmhouse Inn. Food was very well cooked but somehow had old fashioned feel to it. We were also eating next to a very prominent politician who ran for Presidential nomination twice some years back. Melon soup with dried prosciutto on the rim of the cup for amuse bouche. Salmon for DH, octopus for me for the first course. Pork chop for DH for main course, probably the best pork I ever tasted. Rabbit rabbit rabbit for me. It is their signature dish and includes loin, rack, and leg confit. For dessert we shared Market tart (insert a joke) and cheese course. I had wine pairing with my meal and they served three different wines with savory courses and not one but two wines with cheese.

Finally we are in Napa! I cook excessively so on trips like this we splurge on eating out. DH agrees that it is better than buying shoes. Lunch in St. Francis winery. Five courses with wine pairing for 50 dollars which I find extremely reasonable. Burrata with Mizuna salad (I swear it was arugula) and pickled peaches. Zuccini wrapped halibut. They proudly announced that it was cooked sous vide at 142 degrees and as I thought it was overcooked (at least for my liking). Chicken roulade with panchetta and grains. Strip steak with smoked baked potato. Steak was medium rare. Broiled figs with blue cheese.

Roasted potatoes 300 degrees bake steam for 40 minutes, added green beans for the last 12 minutes. Veggies were used as garnish for chicken and to make salad the next day.

Roasted beets again with bake steam setting 300 degrees for 45 minutes. No oil. Beets were somewhat different in size so I cut larger ones in half and roasted them cut side down. Skins slipped off easily. No drying out of the cut beets. I think I prefer Cuisi to sous vide method for beets. Texture is somewhat better, flavor is more concentrated. Also, not using plastic bags is a plus. And it takes less time to throw things into Cuisi compared to setting up sous vide and vacuum packing beets. Beets were used to make traditional Russian beet salad called for some reason Vinaigrette.

Something more modernist? http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/shrimp-sheets

I just recently had very pretty looking caesar salad at Trio Grill in Falls Church, VA. Should have taken a picture! It had egg yolk on top that was clearly cooked sous vide, raw looking but not very runny. Also, there was no sign of egg white suggesting that eggs were separated before cooking. There is chefsteps recipe for yolks cooked in oil. http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/perfect-yolks I can see serving yolks on salads, pastas, steak tartar, etc.

Autocorrected again. I meant filfel chuma.

I had to google filfel chums (lots of fun with autocorrect). It appears to be delicious. Soba, did you like it? What would you use it on other than carrot salad?

Was buying replacement lid for VP112 vacuum sealer (sadly it broke after about 4 years of light use) and found a sale on Vacmaster website. They have a bunch of deals going on but one that worked for me was 20 dollars off 100 (codes are on their home page). I got the lid and vacuum pouches. Just to give you an idea, 1000 8X10 inch 3 mil pouches are 45.99 before discount. http://myvacmaster.com/cgi/ary.wsc/vacmaster_index

This is a picture of my kitchen just after renovation was completed. Just before it got messed up. Surgical cabinets found on craig's list used to hold cookbook. Splurged on very modern looking Kohler faucet.

Perhaps you can rotate Cuisinart and Breville? Just a thought...

My husband and I are planning a weekend trip to Napa Valley in July. Would like to get recommendations for new/exciting places to eat. We go there relatively regularly and I always want to visit same places. Mustards grill for lunch, Auberge du Soleil for early dinner (mostly for the view), Terra, Redd, you get the idea. Had an amazing dinner in French Laundry, only mildly spoiled by my dining companions reciting their food preferences/dislikes (this was corporate event, I did not know these people prior to dinner). This time I decided to go to completely different set of places for two lunches and two dinners. What is everyone's favorite restaurant in Wine country? Winery recommendations would be great too. Thanks. P.S. I realize that not wanting to eat in outstanding restaurants just for the sake of variety is silly but new discoveries are awaiting...

I am so excited about this book. Just starting to venture into baking, so far mastered Ken Forkish bread recipe with amazing results (Ken's achievement, not mine). I am sure there is so much I can learn and try from MC team. I would totally pre order if that was an option. Still remember painful wait for original MC volumes.

Baking steel company is going to start making version 2.0 in June: griddle. I was going to buy a current version but would probably wait till the next one comes out. It has raised border and that will come very handy when used as griddle on my induction burner. http://bakingsteel.com/baking-steel-griddle-version-2-0-coming-june/