ElainaA

Last night: Brown rice and black beans (coco noir from last summer's garden) with chili-ginger salsa, avocado, feta and cilantro and roasted butternut squash.

I think opera flash mobs are the greatest invention since non-sliced artisanal bread. Although when I saw Trovatore at the MET the male chorus all took off their shirts. Either they got some ringers or that chorus is in great shape. (Notice that I did work in a food reference.)

That looks really good. However, here, when it's in the 50's we're grilling and thinking it's almost summer! Chili is for when it drops to below 20. Maybe below 10.

I 'd choose your approach here. This sounds delicious. Last night's dinner was a casserole from the NY Times site - eggplant with lamb, tomato and pine nuts. The eggplant was broiled, the ground lamb sauteed with salt, pepper and cinnamon, the tomato was in the form of sauce, the pine nuts toasted. All layered together, baked, topped with fresh mozzarella and baked some more. Served over rice per the recipe's recommendation. Very, very good but definitely not photogenic. In fact, visually, it reminded me of a dish from my just-out-of-college cooking-with-no-money years that we called "Train Wreck" - basically some ground meat (cheap then!) fried (sauteing was way too sophisticated a term for our cooking) and mixed with what ever else was hanging around the kitchen. Served over lots of brown rice - brown rice because we were in Vermont, this was 1970 and we read Mother Earth News religiously. You never knew quite what any given iteration was going to taste like - some were surprisingly good.

Yes. I can not listen to opera and cook at the same time. In fact, what can one really do while REALLY listening to opera. (Exception: my husband feels that Wagner, particularly the Ring, is the perfect accompaniment to sheet metal fabrication.) Music for cooking, for me, needs to be relatively undemanding - relatively 'easy' instrumental classical, fiddles and banjos, or vocals from my era - Joni Mitchell or Simon and Garfunkel. The other difference between our approaches is the primacy of word or music. R. Strauss dealt with this beautifully, albeit inconclusively, in Capriccio.

Does anyone else find music a necessity for some kinds of cooking? And different types of tasks call for different music. For anything requiring precision and careful attention I need basic background - classical works best for me because I get distracted easily by lyrics. But for stirring risotto, I want something i can sing along with. And kneading bread goes much better with something energetic. My favorite just now is the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Rhiannon Giddens. Quite a few of their songs are about food - maybe that's why. "Country Girl" always make me imagine some of the posters on this forum (Shelby, I'm thinking about you - but many others as well.)

I am so sorry to hear this. This is one of my mandatory stops when I am NYC. It is one of my husband's favorite stores anywhere.

I was away from this thread for a few days - I am overwhelmed by the great meals - and the excellent photography. My photography definitely needs work. A few recent meals: One of my favorite easy, one pot winter meals: kielbasa, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and asparagus all simmered together. I often use green beans rather than asparagus but the beans in my supermarket looked inedible to me. Cider brined pork chop over creamed leeks with sautéed apples and roasted potatoes and garlic. One of my favorite uses for left over roast chicken: chicken, peppers, mushrooms sautéed in olive oil with lots of garlic over pasta.

I got a notice this morning that my items have shipped. I, too, am surprised.

Good luck to all of you in the storm path. Living just south of Syracuse, NY, which has won the Golden Snowball (the award for the city in NY with the highest snowfall) 47 of the past 52 years, this is something we prepare for regularly. This one, it seems will miss us. A gas stove is almost a necessity as the power goes out regularly. Since we heat with wood we do have the wood stove as backup but have never needed it for cooking. Just outside the door can function as a fall back refrigerator if the power failure goes on too long (right now it is 8 F here). I stock up sometime in early December figuring that there will be at least a few times I can't get out of the driveway. Is MelissaH here? Oswego has the worst winter weather of any place I know of.

I placed an order with Chef's on 1/2/16. So far every time i check the order status I see "item on reserve". Nothing about shipping. Is this just me or is any one else having shipping issues?

The first time I cooked a duck I used Julia Child's recipe from Julia Child & Company. You roast the whole duck for 30 minutes, then skin and carve it and cook the breast meat, the legs and thighs and the cracklings all separately. It was delicious but a LOT of work. I have only done it again once ( and it took about 3 years before I had the energy to do it again.) Duck is our tradition for Thanksgiving dinner (none of my immediate family is fond of turkey and there are only 3 of us). I usually buy breast fillets.

On the advice of @liamsaunt, last night I made the roasted chicken balsemico with potatoes from The Italian Country Table (Lynne Rossetto Kasper). I used bone in breast pieces instead of a whole chicken (why did I have them in the freezer? I rarely buy breast pieces. But there they were.) Very good - i am glad for the recommendation. I also learned that this recipe holds well - it was cold last night, my husband owns a plumbing and heating company, a local library's heat went out and they had a children's program scheduled for that night - he got home by 8:00 and the library had heat. Dinner had been planned for 7:00 but, kept in a low heat oven with a little extra wine for moisture, everything was fine. When you are married to a plumber, you never know when he'll be home. (As he was leaving one of the kids asked the librarian "Who's that guy?" She answered "He's our superhero." I agree.) Tonight: pork tenderloin, marinated in cider, bourbon, ginger and brown sugar, browned and then roasted, with mashed kabocha squash and broiled pineapple. And a salad because we always have a salad. The sauce on the pork is the marinade cooked down. A lot.

Dinner tonight - a friend gave us several pieces of venison so tonight I thawed and cooked the piece of backstrap. Panfried really fast, served with a red wine, shallot and juniper berry sauce. Venison was a major part of my growing up diet but it always seemed that chewing it should have given me physical education credit. This was much better. With a potato rosti with yogurt/scallion sauce and some chopped tomato.

When we visited my nephew in San Diego we ate wild boar sausage and wild boar roast - both delicious. He said he got 2 boars at 350 yards with 2 shots (and I do believe him - he had been an army sniper a few years earlier - putting his training to good use).

I don't mean to disparage the wine - but white zinfandel just isn't to my taste. If my daughter had been home I probably wouldn't have had enough to make my jelly.

I had already flagged the chicken balsamico with potatoes - now I will certainly try it. I have made one more recipe from this book - braised pork with 3 peppers. Served with rice and a (very badly photographed) salad with apples and pecans. It was recommended that you accompany the pork with polenta, grilled or soft but i ran out of time.

You know that bottle of wine that a friend brought to your party? The one that got opened and one, maybe two, glasses were poured? And it is not a wine you like? Wine jelly! (I am pretty sure I posted a very similar picture last year, also after our New Year's Day brunch. And I am also sure it was the same friend that brought the same variety of wine. A very good friend. We just disagree on wine.)

huiray - That plate is beautiful. Liver (including calve's liver) is one of the very few foods that my husband won't eat so I haven't cooked it in years (probably 30years+!!) I really like it and miss it.

Rotuts - Would your sister adopt me?

This is the first of her recipes that I have tried. However, after tasting, I did increase the salt and, especially, the pepper (I like pepper - I am moderate when cooking for people other than my husband and I, but this was just for us) and the herbs (fresh sage and basil). I am trying another of her recipes tonight so I will see if I need to do the same again.

The candies pictured are are so beautiful! I make candy once a year - for Christmas presents - so every year it is a re-learning curve. But here are a few of this year's: Mostly truffles - some with whole hazelnuts inside, some (with gold) caramel, and some with espresso and amaretto. On the left you can just see some of Greweling's "peanut butter bombs" - these were very popular - and on the right apple cider salted caramels. Above: Left to right: 'Black pearls' ( Greweling) , truffle sandwiches and apple cider salted caramels. Below: Raspberry trifectas, white chocolate with candied apricots and pistachios, chocolate nougat and almond brittle.

Orange pecan scones for our New Year's brunch

The holidays were really busy crazy (in a good way) so I haven't posted in awhile. Here is tonight's dinner: pasta with bacon, ricotta and peas. And a salad,of course. Last night: chicken with peppers, olives and tomatoes, with potatoes simmered in olive oil and white wine. Both recipes are from a cookbook my daughter gave me for Christmas - The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (the Splendid Table commentator). I think it was remaindered ( she's on a badly paid post-doc) and it has good recipes.

I freeze basil leaves. Just rinse, pat a bit dry and seal in a freezer bag. Not quite like fresh but in the middle of winter they seem really good. Or chop, mix with a small amount of water and freeze in ice cube trays.