JAZ

Just to put that article in perspective, it's almost ten years old, and to my knowledge, no one else has ever duplicated their results.

Interesting. I don't hold a knife like a tennis racquet. Neither do I hold it tight with my knuckle pressed against the blade (not exactly sure what "snug your fingers around the handle" means, but I'm pretty sure I don't do that, either). I use a pinch grip, and the Ken Onion handle works well for me with that grip. To each his own, I guess.

In most cases I agree. This isn't one of them. There are several efficient ways to hold a knife. And there are many more inefficient ways. The Ken Onion knife is designed to encourage (enforce!) one very inefficient way. Better knife designs allow you to choose from among any of the efficient ways (standard western or wa handles, gyuto shaped blades, etc.). Additionally, it costs close to twice as much as many knives that will outperform it in almost every way. This is more than stupid enough for me! ← I don't understand. Which grip does it encourage, and why is that grip inefficient? I own a smaller Ken Onion, and for my hand, it's one of the most comfortable knives I have.

Sorry if I seem to be bragging, but I love mine, Moore Farms, which serves Metro Atlanta. That being said, I suppose they're not a typical CSA. Moore Farms contracts with other farms in the Southeast to provide a wider selection of produce, as well as meat, dairy products and a few other items as well. Although they do have a "Farmer's Choice" selection, you can pay a small fee to pick your own selection. You order every week, so if you don't want anything in a given week, you don't have to worry about using it up or canceling your order. (It doesn't hurt that the store where I work and teach is one of the drop-off locations, either.) I wonder if there are other farms in the country following this model -- anyone know of similar operations elsewhere?

A caring family cook, with experience perhaps handed down over generations, will produce a meal equal to, or exceed, that of any fancy chef any day. It may not be as interesting to the palate, but it will be blissfull. Part of the reason for that is that it was cooked with love for those who would eat the meal. One reason my Danish grandmother was the best cook I've ever known. Her cooking was done with love for those who would eat it, whether family or others - and she knew her ingredients and how to prepare them. It was simple cooking at it's best, and I've rarely tasted (in my limited experience) anything from a so-called chef that provided not just a blissful moment at one part of the meal, but was blissful throughout the entire meal. There is more to eating (and health) than sampling the latest razmataz from Adria and Keller and others. ← It strikes me that Hazan is being disingenuous in this article. While she pays lip service to the notion that the term "chef" should be reserved for, well, professional chefs (and that's what almost everyone here has focused on), her real point starts with this comment: The upshot of the rest of the article is that we should aspire to cook like she does, and not like Keller or Adria or, in fact, anyone professional; that her cooking is more "real" than theirs, and we shouldn't be fooled by the "chefs." We should, in fact, like her food better than Keller's, and if we don't, well, there's something lacking in our souls. I take exception to that. My mom was a good cook, and in that I was lucky. My best friend in college had a Mom who was a terrible cook -- she hated it and did as little as possible. Did that mean my mom loved me but her mom didn't love her? Or does it mean that her mother's cooking really was good? (Really? Chef Boy-R-Dee spaghetti in a box?) This topic, The Worst Cook in Your Family, is filled with example of loving but bad cooks. On the opposite side of the coin, I resent her assumption that no professional chefs cook with passion and love. I think of chefs like Chris Cosentino at Incanto in San Francisco, or Joe Truex of Repast in Atlanta (to name only two) and passion is the only word to describe how they cook. Maybe Marcella sees the world of cooks and chefs in black and white, but I disagree.

I'm not the original poster, but here is a great chard gratin recipe from Fine Cooking magazine: chard gratin with cream. You can make it with any greens -- spinach, chard, kale, collard (kale and collard greens ake a longer pre-cooking though; I blanch them first). It can be made a couple of hours ahead and then baked later, which makes it good for Thanksgiving.

Somewhere I have a recipe for a warm potato salad with smoked sausage; depending on what's in your stew, that might work.

Strictly speaking, the recipe is for walnuts, although pecans also work well. One of the best bar snacks I've ever had is a Thai appetizer called "cashew salad" that I learned about years ago in a cooking class. You start with fairly darkly roasted, salted cashews. (The instructor fried raw cashews, but I find that tossing them with a little oil and roasting is easier and less messy. If you're in a hurry, you can buy already roasted cashews and just toast them a little more in the oven. The main thing is that they need to be warm.) For each pound of cashews, thinly slice a shallot, a couple of green onions, and a few hot peppers (a combination of red and green is pretty, and a combination of something hot, like a Thai bird, and something not quite so hot, like a jalapeno works well). When the cashews are roasted and salted (and warm), toss them with the onions and peppers. Squeeze a lime over the whole thing, toss again and serve right away. Another snack that's easy and surprising is to slice corn tortillas into thin strips -- think quarter-inch -- instead of triangles and fry them. Somehow the shape makes a big difference; they're great just sprinkled with salt and a medium hot chile powder, or you can serve a red table salsa for dipping. Finally, there was a place in San Francisco that served deep fried anchovy-stuffed olives. They were breaded but the coating was thin, so the olive was prominent. I don't have a recipe, though.

Although I personally am not a fan of Waldorf salad, I do use thinly sliced or shaved celery in a couple of salads. One is celery, cucumber, radishes and shallots, all done on a mandoline, tossed with a mustard and dill vinaigrette. Another is sliced celery and tart apple on a bed of some kind of bitter green, topped with slivers of aged cheddar and toasted walnuts. I use a pretty basic vinaigrette for this (apple cider and sherry vinaigrette, walnut oil, a pinch of sugar and salt is about it).

I can see your point, Katie, and I'm all for adapting to circumstances. But I've been in Chris's shoes -- you're at a conference, you've been with people (not necessarily people you like) all day long, you don't want even the attenuated socialization required in a bar. You want a drink, and you want to drink it in your own room. Yes, you can order a scotch on the rocks or a local beer or glass of wine from room service, but if you want a good cocktail, you probably have to make it yourself. And I don't know about you, but sometimes (often) after a long day, I don't want a glass of wine or a beer. And that's when a couple of packets of sugar and lemon wedges swiped from the afternoon beverage break can save your life.

A friend of mine recently made a salad that consisted of poached pears, sliced, topped with shaved aged gouda cheese and candied walnuts. It was really good, if a little monochromatic. But if you sprinkled on a few pomegranate seeds you'd have a pretty and different kind of fruit salad.

I've been cooking from One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless, and now I'm ready to buy one or two more Mexican cookbooks. So, if I'm going to get one of Diane Kennedy's, which one should I get? Essential Cuisines? My Mexican Kitchen? Something else? And I see that there's a 20th Anniversary edition of Bayless's Authentic Mexican -- is that something I should consider? I've enjoyed cooking from Bayless, and I like his approach, but I'm thinking that from what people have said here, Kennedy could provide some good background, whether or not I actually cook from her books.

This is the recipe I use; it calls for 1/2 cup of sugar per pound of walnuts. I add cayenne to the sugar to spice them up, but it's the same ratio without it. Don't omit the oil -- it give the nuts a gloss they don't get otherwise.

I have the opportunity to get the Chef's Choice "VariTilt" model #632 (here) for less than half the list price. Seems like a pretty decent machine, for what I need. Does anyone have any experience with these? Also, if I get it, should I spring for the non-serrated blade?

Chris, I've served jerk chicken skewers with a mango salsa, which goes well with the flavor. If you wanted more of a sauce consistency, you could puree some mango, onion, and lime juice. For seasoning, maybe allspice?

It packages great. You can use plastic or cellophane bags, or tins. For shipping, I'd definitely use tins -- I line them with plastic wrap, or put the caramel corn into bags and then into tins.

I've been using basically the same recipe that Jaymes uses for 25 years, and mine says exactly the same thing: "boil for 5 minutes." Works fine. The (minor) differences between mine and Jaymes' are: Mine doesn't call for salt (on the other hand, my mother, from whom I got this recipe, always used salted butter). It calls for a teaspoon of cream of tartar. It's my understanding that this helps ensure a crisp product. My recipe doesn't call for an addition of vanilla -- that sounds great; I'll have to try it. I use dark corn syrup and no molasses, but I imagine that's a wash. The recipe I use calls for adding nuts (roasted & salted) when you're tossing the popcorn with the caramel. I never used to make this with nuts, but recently I've tried it that way. It seems that no matter what I do, the nuts seem to sink to the bottom of the roasting pan. I'd like for them to become one with the popcorn. Any tricks to help that? The spiced versions sound wonderful too. I'll have to try them. (Oh, and now that silpats have been invented, I'm all over using them instead of waxed paper.)

Some of the pasteurized, not-from-concentrate juices are decent in cocktails. One thing about citrus juice and club soda, though -- make sure you strain the pulp out of the juice (or buy the kind without pulp, if you're buying it), because when you pour in the club soda, the bubbles will attract all the pulp and bring it to the surface in a nasty looking raft.

I'm a fan of crispy bits of meat, which were mentioned early on, but I guess I don't see how that relates to crusts and outside cuts of baked goods. I don't really care that much about bread crust -- I can take it or leave it. But I've never cared for the outside pieces of anything baked. Too dry and overcooked for my tastes.

I make a lamb curry in which the meat is marinated with yogurt, lemon juice and spices overnight then cooked in the marinade the next day. While browning the meat might add to the flavor profile, I can't see any practical way to do that. And it has plenty of flavor, so I've never seen a need to change it.

I'm not saying that pans stick to my knives, or that the knives stick to each other. But two years after I stopped using a block, if I have my two chef's knives (a Messermeister and a Wusthof) on the counter next to each other, the blades swing together. So they're definitely, if lightly, magnetized.

Define "long" -- I haven't had my knifes on a magnet for almost two years, and they're still magnetized. Doesn't seem to affect them, though.

As I said here, I wasn't satisfied with it. My comments: It seemed like a great idea but didn't work at all for me.

Am I the only one who thinks orange flower water tastes like soap?

Maggie has been, for me, a scrupulous editor, a generous tour guide, a delightful dining companion and a tireless coworker. Also a great friend. I'll miss having her as a fellow volunteer, but I look forward to her smart and thought-provoking topics and posts.