melkor

I ordered a 400E from them a few weeks ago, It should be here next friday or the following monday, I'll let you know how it works out.

a co-worker gets a box of fresh veggies delivered to his house every thursday from the box. They seem to be the next best thing to growing your own or shopping at the farmers market.

Don't be... 500lbs of zucchini per person in the house is nothing to wish for... it makes your neighbors hate you

The service at Fleur de Lys was reason enough not to return, the food was very good but not at the level I expected. incidentally our tab including wine at Fleur de Lys was somewhere around $350 for the two of us, Gary Danko was closer to $450. I've been to Farallon twice now, once for business and once for pleasure. I thought it a better place to have a meeting than a romantic meal; again their food is good but nothing extraordinary.

If your zucchini are rotting, I would try building a clear plastic cone over the plants so the rain water runs down to the ground instead of collecting on the leaves and rotting them; squash really don't like having their leaves wet. I don't think the heat is the problem for them. Just do whatever you can to keep the leaves dry and you should end up with zucchini. Last year I made the mistake of planting a six-pack of zucchini seedlings in the garden - I ended up with more than 1,000 lbs of zucchini. They started showing up in early June and didn't stop until December; sometime in late October I found a 3' long zucchini hiding under the leaves on one of the plants and ended up carving it and putting some candles inside it for Halloween. I've still got dozens of gallon ziploc bags full of shredded zucchini in the freezer and my neighbors still hide from me when I show up at their doors with produce.

We were in SF for my other half's 30th birthday - we went to Gary Danko for her actual birthday and later in the week we were in the city again and went to Fleur de Lys. -------- Danko was amazing, second only to the French Laundry (where we were for my birthday two months earlier). We brought a 1973 Tokaji Azsu to go with dessert - this seemed to cause quite a stir among the staff. I don't know if it was that, or the fact that it was her birthday, or that it was already late into the evening, but the service was impeccable: very friendly but not overly so, professional, knowledgeable, and thoughtful. On her dessert plate was a personalized birthday greeting in chocolate syrup. Oh, right, the food. The food was exquisite. Appetizers: Beet, leek, and carrot terrine Warm quail salad Riesling Spätlese, Grunlack, Schloss Johannisberger, Rheingau 1971 Fish: Seared red snapper (crisply seared with moist flesh) with fennel puree, saffron, and orange. Guinea hen breast with phyllo wrapped braised leg and pistachios. Not exactly fish, but damned good, especially the braised leg, which was essentially a confit. Chablis, Grand Cru, Les Preuses, René & Vincent Dauvissat 1997 Meat: Moroccan squab with chermoula and orange-cumin carrots, a house specialty, and for good reason. Beef medallion with wild nettle risotto. Jones Family Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 Dessert: Roasted pineapple tart Trio of creme brulees, pistachio, vanilla, and caramel. Tokaji Azsu 5 Puttonyos, 1973 -------- Fleur de Lys was less remarkable, in stark contrast to the clean bright lines at Gary Danko, FdL is overly formal and somewhat stuffy. We were seated in a small room off the main dining room with 6 or 8 other tables all occupied by others age 35 and under; the main dining room on the other hand had noone under age 35. With a visit from the condescending sommelier our FdL experience continued downhill. The food, however, was quite good, although I can't recall a single course from the meal and it was not significantly better than what is available at the countless wine country restaurants near home; I'd sooner go to Bistro Don Giovanni, La Toque, Gordon’s, or Terra than return to FdL.

I've got both a hearthware gourmet and a home built drum roaster that attaches to my grill. The heathware roaster is pretty basic but overall you can make pretty good coffee with very little effort using one.

Does anyone know anything about Imperial? They seem to make both residential and commercial ranges. The range I've been looking at is here but I haven't found anyone who has one or has at least cooked on one.

Nothing has changed about it other than the label and price, same juice, same sources, same winemaker. They are reserving the Caymus name for their two cabernets and the wines they sell out of the tasting room (sauv blanc and zinfandel). The worst thing about the label change is that they no longer sell Conundrum at the winery so I have to go back to paying retail.

Around $450 at the French Laundry, a similar amount at Gary Danko, and La Toque.

I'm in the process of trying to make vanilla extract, so far I've got a pint mason jar full of grey goose with 4 chopped up dried out vanilla beans from the back of the cabinet. I've been checking on it every day or two and it's making reasonable progress - it's currently a very strongly flavored vanilla vodka. If in another week or two it doesn't get much stronger then we'll be drinking it

Also not at Julias Kitchen at Copia... Has anyone been to Julias?

If the sauce cooks for a long time I use the whole tomato, otherwise I seed them first.

I would not buy any of these from the 2000 vintage. The Phelps is probably nice, but if the person knows wine, they will automatically be disappointed to get one from that vintage. 1999 would be appreciated. I'd choose the Phelps Insignia in 1999. I would look around some shops with good selections from older vintages. If you can find a 1989 Meyney around, that would be great! It's about $75 in some stores (not NY). If you know they like Pinot Noir, that would be much more drinkable upon release. Of the list, caymus is the only one to have released their 2000 cab, and for all the bad press the 2000 vintage is getting, the special select atleast is really quite good.

Dominus Quintessa Caymus (napa or special select) Merryvale Profile Phelps Insignia Are all in that price range and are all drinkable on release (but will still improve with age). Dominus or Insignia would be my first picks.

I'll second that recommendation. We were last at La Toque in early February they were serving a 5 course black truffle menu with wine pairings for $125 ($48 additional for the wine) their normal menu is 5 courses as well and $92 ($48 additional for wine pairings). I had the truffle menu, ms melkor had the regular menu. Both were quite excellent, the wine pairings were also very well done. Black Truffle and Wild Mushroom Soup as an amuse. Served with glasses of Roederer Estate sparkling wine. ----- (me) Lily's Trailhouse Chicken Eggs with Fresh Black Truffle 2000 El Molino Chardonnay (ms) Truffled Leek and Potato Soup 1999 Chateau La Tour Leognan ----- (me) Truffled Salmon with Leek Fondue and Fernand Point's Truffle Sauce 2000 Meursalt Vincent Girardin (ms) Black Bass with Sake Ginger Sauce and Shitake Mushrooms 2001 DeLille Cellars Chaleur Estate Blanc ----- (me) Truffled Breast of Squab with Artichoke Heart, Porcini Gnocchis and Port 1997 Talley Pinot Noir (ms) Wild Scottish Hare on Creamy Polenta with Huckleberry Sauce 2000 Siduri Pinot Noir ----- (me) "Blanquette de Veau" with Fresh Black Truffle 2000 Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon (ms) Niman Ranch Rib Roast Served Rare with Twice Fried Potatoes and Cabernet Foie Gras Sauce 1999 Del Dotto Cabernet Sauvignon ----- (me) Truffled Creme Brulee (ms) Meyer Lemon and Marscapone Cream Napolean ----- It would be silly to compare the food at La Toque to the French Laundry, but La Toque has a more comfortable atmosphere and they offer a very well done wine pairing. Some other places worth going to while your here: Lunches: Cafe Lucy, in the city of Napa, the perfect way to hide from the tourists – good food, good wine, quiet off the beaten path (not very romantic) Bistro Don Giovanni, on highway 29 north of town – I have almost all my business meetings there, great food, nice people, great views, and my favorite sit-down lunch in the valley. Tailors Refresher in St Helena – The best wine list ever seen at a roadside burger stand, amazing garlic fries, burgers, and fish tacos. Most of the hospitality staff at the wineries have lunch there. The Cantinetta Wine Bar, at Tra Vigne in St Helena – Outdoor seating, great sandwiches and panini, a huge list of wines by the glass. If you are over in Sonoma, the girl and the fig just off the square is great as well For Dinner: Tra Vigne has amazing short ribs served with polenta, its one of my favorite winter meals. La Toque (as described above) French Laundry (Needs no introduction) ZuZu in Napa is a nice little wine bar and tapas restaurant, the food as well as the wine list are very good, but they don’t accept reservations. Bistro Jeanty in Yountville, great food, great wine, the ‘tomato soup en croute’ is incredible. Gordon’s Café and Wine Bar, also in Yountville – they are a deli during the week and serve a great prix fixe menu on Friday nights. It’s a fun way to spend a Friday night, they do a very good job with their one night a week restaurant. Terra in St Helena, if neither La Toque or the French Laundry existed, Terra would be my favorite restaurant in the valley. ---- That was a whole lot more than I had planned to write

We use the Picci 25 year old balsamic, but I honestly don't think it's worth the money. You can buy a 500ml bottle of 7 or 10 year old balsamic for $15 and throw it in a pot on the stove, boil it down to 250ml and it'll taste better than the 25 year old balsamic.

I think a burr grinder is required for proper extraction, with a consistent grind you end up with very little sediment in your cup and you don't end up with big chunks of coffee bean that are under-extracted left in the filter. For home roasting, I have a hot air roaster (hearthware) that roasts 3oz (by weight, 4oz by volume) that I never use anymore, and a drum roaster that I built that roasts 4 to 12oz by weight (16oz by volume max) on the rotisserie spit for my gas grill. The gas-grill roaster takes 15-20 minutes per batch and produces a much mellower cup. It’s much cheaper to build a gas-grill roaster and I think the end result is significantly better. I think I spent all of $7 on parts for my roaster, I can probably make a quick howto if anyone is interested… My current morning cup is a blend of Sweet Maria’s Moka Kadir blend and Java from the Blawan estate. I highly recommend this blend. Last year Starbucks was selling a repackaged Bodum eSantos electric vacuum coffee pot, they since discontinued selling them and if you can find one they are being sold for 50%-75% off. The eSantos makes some damn good coffee although if you want to adjust the brew time you need to tilt the machine back using a quarter or a dime as a shim.

Tack on another 50 or so for my house.

There was alot of cabbage out there, the ones that were good include: Cardinale Caymus Chateau St Jean Chimney Rock Dominus Harrison J C Cellers Joeseph Phelps Lakoya Merryvale Opus (the monster cable of wine) Pine Ridge Quintessa Raymond Silver Oak Simi Viader It seems like the people who could afford to throw out 50% or more of the grapes that came in made good wine, the people who couldn't afford to reduce their production that much made wine with under-ripe fruit and that’s obvious in the finished product. Location also played a large roll in the success of the 98 vintage. I can’t recall anything from stags leap or from Rutherford that I’ve tried that was at all vegetal. On the other hand, I think almost all of the 98 cabs I’ve tried from the Sonoma have been mediocre at best, Simi being one of the few exceptions. There are definitely some good deals out there, but an awful lot of wineries shipped an awful lot of bad wine and I can't imagine that spending a year or two cooking in wine shops across the country has improved it any.

I'd seriously recommend against buying more than 1 of any California cab you haven't yet tasted. Over the past winter we visited about 100 Napa wineries, the bulk of them pouring their 98 cabs, some are good, some are great, and an awful lot taste like cabbage. Buy one, go home and drink it, and return the next day to acquire more if you like it.

Having not had the 85 vintage I couldn't say, although I did open a bottle of 88 Salon for newyears and it was excellent.

Of the shapes on foodsubs the only interesting one I can reliably produce is strozzapreti... You roll out fairly thin pasta into long sheets, slice the pasta the long way into strips about an inch wide. Take the end of one of the strips and place it across your left hand with the end at the thumb edge of your hand and the rest of the strip hanging down past your hand. Place your finger tips from your right hand against the pasta and slide your right hand forward against your left, the pasta will roll up and when you have your right palm against your left finger tips, tear the pasta from the rest of the strip and start on the next one. So you are rolling the pasta across its short edge, on a slight diagonal. This is nearly impossible to describe, but if you somehow manage to decipher these directions the end result will look like this

The main difference between the machines is that the Belpasta passes the pasta from the front to the back while he Imperia and Atlas machines pass the pasta from top to bottom. The belpasta also has much wider rollers. Both designs work very well, I own an Atlas machine as well as a Belpasta and most of the time I make pasta with a rolling pin .

Just to make things more complicated, half semolina and half AP works really well for thicker pastas... Really good and easy flavored pasta can be made with a few leaves of basil, a handful of semolina, a handful of ap flour, a pinch of salt, and some tomato juice. Just chop the basil really finely, toss it in with the flour and salt, and add enough tomato juice for it to come together into a ball. Let the dough rest, kneed it on the widest setting on your machine, and roll it out.