JAZ

This Splendid Table show featured Jeni and her book; I think there are a couple of recipes included. When we were in Cleveland last month, we tried out several flavors of ice cream and sorbet at her store and were very favorably impressed.

I'd give Taqueria del Sol a pass -- the food is average at best. I've only been to Fat Matt's once, but wasn't particularly impressed with the food there, either. In Decatur you might try Farm Burger or Cakes and Ale. Finally, Zucca has pretty decent pizza and a good beer selection.

I must be the only person in America who (until this topic began) had never heard of Pioneer Woman -- I'd never seen the blog, didn't know who she was or that she has some books out, and certainly didn't know there was a TV show. When I read this topic, I looked at her blog and checked out the trailer for the TV show. Both the blog and the show are very well produced, but not to my taste. I don't care for her voice on the blog and am not interested in her life so the show doesn't appeal to me, but I can certainly understand why she's popular. That to me is the crux of the matter -- do you expect shows on The Food Network to teach you how to cook, or are they designed for entertainment? It seems clear that TFN has given up on the educational shows, so it's not surprising that shows like Pioneer Woman are on the air. Granted, I only watched a short trailer from the show, but I would not say she has anything like "good technique." Which is not a big deal if you don't expect to learn technique -- many of the people with shows on The Food Network don't have impressive cooking techniques. Right. I found the little that I watched incredibly boring, but I'm not the target market for shows like this. As popular as she is, it's natural (these days) that she'd get a TV show. If the show is billed as a cooking show, then in my opinion it's very disappointing, but it doesn't appear to be billed that way.

S'mores are a great idea, but you don't need a broiler to toast the marshmallows. We grew up toasting marshmallows on forks over the burners on the stove.

I think there's a big difference between rice and these items: none of them freeze well, whereas rice does.

Do you have a slow cooker? If so, you might want to check out this recipe for "pulled pork" from the Splendid Table. I've never tried it but know several people who rave about it.

Or there's this older article -- The taste of Coke is all in your head (which I posted about last December) -- that says essentially the same thing.

Caravelle. I used to love those.

Thanks for all the comments. I bought one and have been very pleased with the results so far. It preheats very quickly, and although I haven't been able to check the actual temperature (my oven thermometer died and haven't replaced it), it seems to be pretty accurate. I even used it for toast once just to see, and it did an adequate job.

Then why not just order a big pile of meat?

I might be alone in this, but I found the sandwiches at Katz's (I had pastrami, which looked much like Mitch's sandwich picture above) to be very disappointing. Yes, the pastrami was excellent, but a giant pile of meat on sliced bread is not my idea of a great sandwich. I prefer sandwiches with some nuance and balance.

Frank Bruni weighs in. I'm generally not a fan of Frank Bruni's writing, but he makes some interesting points here.

I just read about this new book by James Peterson, Kitchen Simple, the subtitle of which is "essential recipes for everyday cooking." He starts the introduction saying that most of the recipes can be made in a half hour, although in some cases that's for the prep, and there's additional cooking time. He also includes a list for stocking a pantry, which might not be something that most of us need, but it's great for a cook who's just starting out. In general, I've found Peterson's books to be solid, so I imagine this is no exception.

I was being facetious about its suitability for a cleaner, but the effect of the coffee on stainless steel was unmistakable. And keep in mind that it was not brewed coffee; it was coffee grounds. When I moved into this apartment, it had been a long while since I'd had a disposal, and I specifically asked about coffee. The maintenance crew said it was fine to dump the grounds in the disposal. I'm sure it's possible that they were wrong, but I'm rather surprised.

Yesterday evening, as I was cleaning up the kitchen so I could make a new mess for dinner, my disposal died and that side of the sink, filled with a few inches of water and the coffee grounds I was trying to dispose of, backed up. I couldn't get it fixed (not that I tried very hard; I rent, so I can call maintenance for that sort of thing) but I managed to get through clean-up and dinner prep and more clean-up using the other side of the sink only. When I went to bed, there was still an inch or two of coffee grounds and water in the sink. This morning, the water had drained, leaving behind coffee sludge coating the bottom of the sink. By some plumbing miracle, the disposal had healed itself so I rinsed out the sink. I expected to have to scrub it, because not only was there dried coffee sludge left, but it hadn't been clean even before the mishap. Imagine my surprise when, after a quick rinse, the bottom of the sink was sparkling clean -- the kind of clean you get after a round with Barkeeper's Friend. So, what's with coffee? Is it the acid? Has anyone else noticed this? Did I just discover the most expensive stainless steel cleaner in the world?

I think it's a great subject for a book, but I would not describe it as the Rachael Ray of the cocktail world (not that I have anything against her -- I think her early books and shows play an important role for beginning cooks.

I guess I'm unclear about what you mean by a "basic book" -- certainly David Wondrich's Killer Cocktails fills that spot. Don't get me wrong -- making your own ingredients for cocktails is an interesting subject, but I'm not sure it's what most beginners are looking for. If you're talking about a more experienced audience, then it seems like a great book.

I had a chance to visit the Velvet Tango Room while in Cleveland for the Heartland Gathering and was very favorably impressed. The room was great -- I liked the juxtaposition of the "dive" exterior and the beautiful interior. Considering the size of our group, the bartenders did an amazing job with the cocktails, which were almost without exception very good. If I had one complaint, it would be that the written drink menu was so quirky that I sometimes had a hard time even figuring out what base spirit was in a particular drink. That would have been fine had it been possible to engage the bartenders in a conversation about the menu, but of course with a large group, that can't happen. Still, the drinks I tasted were all great, with the exception of their "Hemingway Daiquiri," which was both odd and boring. Odd because it had no Maraschino and seemed to have no grapefruit juice; plus it was shaken with an egg white, which I've never encountered in any other Hemingway Daiquiri I've had. Boring because it was just sweet and frothy -- no bite of lime to temper the drink. But overall, it was a very good experience.

Thanks, everyone, for making this such a great weekend. A couple of people asked for the recipe for the red pepper soup, so here's a link: roasted red pepper and caramelized onion soup. Because we served it with the cheese croutons, I omitted the cream. And for anyone who wants the recipe for the lime cordial used in the gimlets, it's at the end of this article: Any Other Name.

Have you tried the Cheddar and Jalapeno Cheetos? I like them much better than the Flamin' Hot variety, which to me are just hot with no flavor.

Nancy, what's the final count for dinner on Saturday? I'm trying to figure out if we have enough shot glasses for the soup.

We made this recipe from Fine Cooking over the weekend with frozen cod from Trader Joe's. Fast, easy, and good.

I have two ceramic "baskets" I can bring, if that helps. Never having been to one of these gatherings, I have a couple of questions about the shopping. Do we just shop for our own course(s)? If we need pantry items like salt, vinegar, butter, eggs, flour, etc. will those be available?

Fee Brothers bitters (product list here) are made without alcohol, so they could be an option for you.

Nancy, what time is the Sunday lunch? Sorry if I missed that. Also, due to a change in plans, Dave and I will not be attending the Thursday night crawl. We'll probably be at the lunch on Friday and will definitely be there for drinks and dinner on Friday, and all of Saturday's activities. Sunday lunch will depend on the time. Thanks!