JAZ

While I'm waiting for the marrow bones to roast, I'll try to answer a few questions. Thanks for your patience the last couple of days. Tonight's cocktail is a Saicar, which is a drink I found in Killer Cocktails by Dave Wondrich (member Splificator). It's a sort of hybrid of a Margarita and a Sidecar, with both tequila and brandy, and lemon and lime juice, along with triple sec. Since I'm going to a tequila seminar tomorrow evening, I thought I'd get in practice with a tequila drink.

I buy most of my meat at Drewes Bros. (see my earlier post with photos), and that's where I got the lamb. I can pretty much always count on their having lamb shoulder chops, or a hunk of bone-in shoulder. The quality's good, and if they're a little pricey (which they are), for me, the convenience (they're about 4 blocks away) and quality make up for the higher prices. And I like the fact that they buy meat from naturally raised animals. I also picked up marrow bones for tonight, so there's more meat in my future.

A few photos of the final cooking. First, last night's cocktail. This was a variation of a Sidecar, which is brandy, triple sec and lemon juice. My version substituted a spiced demerara sugar syrup for the triple sec. The glass was rimmed with more Demerara. 2 oz. brandy 1/4 oz. syrup (this is a 2-1 syrup, infused with cinammon, cardamom, ginger and cloves) 1/2 oz. lemon juice I started heating the oven to 400 and put the Emile Henry pot of cassoulet in. By the time the oven was at 400, the cassoulet was warmed through and just beginning to bubble. To top it, I mixed about three tablespoons of finely minced fresh rosemary into a cup and a half of "fresh" bread crumbs (these were fresh crumbs that I'd frozen and thawed). Those went over the top and got drizzled with olive oil. To drizzle oil, I use an old Fee Bros. bitters bottle -- the shaker top is perfect for dispensing a few drops at a time. After about 20 minutes at 400 degrees: It was, as I mentioned, really good. I'm not sure it could ever be as good as that bean dish from Bay Wolf, but it's good enough to make me rethink beans.

. . . And the answer is . . . They were about the same. At least at first. Maybe because I was so tired by the time I finished cooking both of the cassoulets on Monday, when I tasted them, I couldn't really tell much difference. They were both good, both pretty moist (although, again, the EH kept the edge that way, but it almost seemed to have too much liquid). The fennel and garlic were cooked almost to the point of melting into the beans, and the lamb was fork tender with a crust on the parts that were exposed. I personally like that, but if you don't, you could just submerge the meat all the way into the cooking liquid. However, after sitting for a day, the EH version took the lead. The Le Creuset version was still great, and I would have been very happy with it if I didn't have the other pot. But I think the extra liquid in the EH absorbed into the beans over the day and the texture was better. The final deciding factor will be how easy the pots are to clean. One thing I love about Le Creuset is that it's always easy to clean. My one experience with cleaning the Emile Henry was terrible. Maybe that was a fluke, but if it's always that hard to clean, I'm going to think twice about using it very often. More in a few minutes, with photos.

Yes, on Friday it hailed, and on Saturday we had lunch outside. Sunday, it poured. Springtime in the Bay Area. I'll check out Julia's version of caesar salad -- the croutons sound great.

There are two reasons why I decided to make Russ Parsons' "Cowboy Cassoulet" for one of my blog dinners. One is that I have wanted to try to make a great dish with beans ever since I had a transcendental bean dish a couple of years ago at Bay Wolf, a local restaurant. Before that, I'd always thought that beans were okay, but pretty low on the culinary excitement scale. At Bay Wolf, I had a mixed grill dish that was served over beans, and I practically finished the beans before the lamb, quail and sausage served on top of them. The second reason is that I recently got a new Emile Henry clay "stovetop" cooker. I've used it once, and it worked fine, but turned out to be extremely difficult to clean. But I didn't want to give up on it, and since everyone seems to think that beans do better in clay than anything else, I figured beans would be a good test of the new pot. If they weren't any better in the clay than in my trusty Le Creuset, then I'd have learned something about that claim. If they were, then the Emile Henry would earn a place in my kitchen. It would be a good match; the pots are virtually the same size -- about 5.5 quarts each, with about the same diameter. Actually, there's a third reason I decided to make Russ's recipe -- it sounded really tasty. I love lamb and garlic; I like fennel too. Here's the recipe, reprinted with Russ's gracious permission. (I've merged the instructions with photos and my comments. The entire recipe can be found by following the link included in my earlier post.) Cowboy Cassoulet (from the L.A. Times, courtesy of Russ Parsons) Total time: 4 1/2 hours Servings: 6 to 8 3 pounds lamb shoulder blade chops Salt 1 head garlic, separated into cloves but not peeled 2 pounds fennel (3 small or 2 medium) 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling 1 carrot, peeled and diced 1 onion, diced 1 cup white wine 1 cup crushed tomatoes 1 pound Great Northern white beans or navy beans Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 baguette (to get 1 3/4 cup bread crumbs) 8 fresh sage leaves Okay, so when I got back from the store I realized that a) I'd forgotten the sage leaves and b) I didn't have the half bottle of white wine in the fridge that I thought was there. Oops. But, I always have dry vermouth, and if it was good enough for Julia, it's good enough for me. And I have a giant rosemary bush in the backyard, and I like rosemary with lamb, so that would do as a substitute for the forgotten sage. With the tons of rain and intermittent sunshine, the growth in the yard is amazing. Time to weed. Lest you get the wrong idea and think that I'm a garderner, let me dispel that notion. This huge thing was here when I moved in. It's next to a Meyer lemon tree that I did sort of rescue, though, so I'm proud of that. Meyers usually have two (sometimes more) crops a year -- so I have immature lemons and buds at the same time. It's really pretty. Back to the subject at hand. First, I opened the beer in the teaser photo. It seemed like the thing to drink while making cowboy cassoulet -- a cocktail just wasn't right. Next, the competing pots: The red one is the Emile Henry; the blue contender is the Le Creuset. The cassoulet: I had some lamb bones leftover in the freezer from a curry a while ago, so I figured I'd make lamb stock to use for the cooking liquid. With a pressure cooker, I can make a decent stock pretty quickly. I had roasted the leftover bones, but then when I bought the lamb for this dish and started trimming it, I figured I may as well add those bones as well. So it was a combination of roasted and raw. Pressure cooker lid on and ready to go. For the prep, since I was making this in two batches, I wanted to make sure everything was evenly divided between the two. I measured all the ingredients. The first step is to blanch and peel the garlic, leaving the cloves whole. I got a head of garlic with huge cloves, so I split some in two. You start the actual cassoulet by browning the meat in some olive oil. My photos of this step didn't turn out. But here are the bottoms of the pots after the browning stage. Seems to me that the Emile doesn't heat quite as evenly as the Le Crueset. Emile Henry Le Creuset Then you add the carrots and cook without stirring for a few minutes, to get some carameliztion started. This worked better in the LC than in the EH. Add the onions, and cook for a few minutes until they soften up. Then add the wine to deglaze and cook it until it's mostly evaporated. This step was really interesting. After about 7 minutes, the liquid in the LC was pretty much gone, but amost all of it was still there in the EH. Le Creuset Emile Henry It took another 5 minutes or so, with the heat turned up, to get the liquid to thicken in the EH. But when they had about the same moisture level, I continued. The next step is to add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Then add the beans, along with 5 cups of water (stock for me, and the 5 cups was total; I used 2 1/2 cups in each batch). Then slip the quartered fennel and the garlic cloves into the beans, and lay the meat on top, pressing into the beans so that it's mostly submerged, but not all the way. (That's the Emile Heny; the LC photo didn't turn out very well) Then you cover the pot and bake it for one hour at 325 degrees. I had a little trouble fitting both pots in the oven, but I made it work. I switched their positions halfway through just to be fair. After the hour, you add 1-1/2 tsp. salt and a "generous grinding" of black pepper. Stir it gently, trying to avoid breaking up the fennel. I added about a tsp. to each half, and it still could have stood a little more, to my taste at least. At this point, the liquid issue arose again. The LC batch was pretty dry, but the EH batch had plenty of liquid. I added about 3/4 of a cup more broth to the LC, and none to the EH. Back into the oven for another couple of hours. I checked them after another hour, and at that point the EH looked as if it needed a little more liquid, so I added about 1/4 cup of broth. The LC was okay. Back into the oven for another hour or so, and they seemed done. At this point, I was done too, so I let them cool, took some photos and called it a day. Emile Henry Le Creuset After some serious rearranging, I got them into the fridge. We're almost done, folks. I did have cassoulet for dinner tonight, and it was really great. Don't give up. Tomorrow morning I'll finish the instructions (bread crumbs and a final browning) and give you my verdict on the clay vs. enamel question. And my verdict on the dish. Thanks for putting up with my limited availability. See you tomorrow.

The company sent all the employees at SLT one as a gift/incentive -- that was a while before we got them in the store, so maybe the black was a trial run that they decided they didn't want to use? I've never seen them since -- we only sell the yellow and green. Although I think (I'm not swearing to it) that the adjustable ones are black.

Aren't big sisters just great? Actually, E and I get along really well. What she's talking about with the peanut butter balls is this: every Christmas I make a few cookies and candies for friends and family. Her husband (Tom) is addicted to the peanut butter truffle balls I make -- he saves up his carb allowance for the whole month of December, I think, so he can eat them. This year I made fillings for three different truffles, but got a cold and ran out of time to make them (in my defense, I made three types of cookies and three other candies). Then I promised I'd make them for Valentines and again, just didn't get around to it. Now, they're promised for Easter, and I think he'll disown me if I let him down again. And I have no idea what the shelf life of frozen truffle filling is, but my guess is I'll be starting from scratch.

Now I shift into a different mode from the last four days -- today through Thursday are work days, when I have no computer access for 8 hours at a stretch. I'd hoped to post about my "cowboy cassoulet" adventure this morning, but I ran out of time. For the recipe (which I will also post, with Russ's kind permission), check out this topic. And to keep you interested, a few teaser photos. See everyone tonight!

Actually, these are the ones my parents had: I picked these next ones up at an antique store (actually a warehouse/barn) in Montana a couple of years ago. They're German, from the 30s (I think). (Sorry about the photo -- it's hard to get the detail to show up without a dark background, and the trivet was all I had.) They're really liqueur glasses -- they only hold about two ounces to the rim. This is from a set my grandmother had -- six etched glasses and an ice bucket. I had a small drink pitcher that matched, but unfortunately, it broke a few years ago. This set is one I bought about 10 years ago -- my first "antique" purchase. It's from the art deco period. Check out how small the glasses are.

Grits tighten as they cool, like pretty much any other starch, so you really do have to risk a run if you don't want to be eating wallboard compound towards the end of your dinner. Use the tricks you already know: make them a little loose to start with (knowing how loose comes with practice); serve on a warmed plate; use lots of fat and make sure it's fully warmed and incorporated before serving; eat fast. Finally, don't despair. If they get too cool and thick to eat, mash the remains into a cake (about 1/2-inch thick) and grill or fry in a flavorful fat for a later dinner. In fact, you can treat them like leftover mashed potatoes: add a beaten egg, a little onion and some flour, and make a savory pancake. Thanks. I think the answer is "more butter" -- it might not solve the problem, but how bad could it be? Very cool, Janet. Who makes that guy? ← This is by Kyocera, the Japanese ceramic cutlery company. They also make an adjustable version, but this one is fixed. So it's great for very thin slices, but doesn't do thicker slices. But that's okay, because for thicker slices, I'm okay with my knife -- it's the really thin ones that are difficult. This is wonderful for making potato chips, and I use it all the time for cucumbers.

I take it your cats are past the stage of "let's see if I can fit in here"? Mine know how to open cabinets, even. The glassware sits in a tall closed hutch, out of feline reach. ← For some odd reason, they've never been interested in that shelf, for which I'm eternally grateful. Two of them love the cabinet where I store my Le Creuset and some other cookware, though. They've figured out how to open it, and go in it frequently. But there are worse things, I guess. ← Do you ever have problems with your boys getting interested in what you're making in the kitchen? My husband claims that he could probably set our cat Lyon up on the counter right next to the cutting board, just so he could see what was happening, and he'd be very happy to just sit there and watch everything without getting into trouble. I dared my husband to try it. He didn't. At the time, he was prepping a tuna steak! (I should add that our boys are both very good about not getting in our way as we work in the kitchen. The single thing that our boys are most interested in is glasses of milk, especially chocolate milk.) MelissaH ← Not really -- they're not much interested in "people food" with one exception. Max started hanging out while I would get the milk out for my coffee and beg for some, so I started giving him a little (a teaspoon or two -- not enough to make him sick) when I got my coffee ready. Pretty soon, he'd be there when the coffee was brewing, and then Damien (not pictured yet) caught on, and then Felix, so now I have a crowd around the fridge as soon as I start grinding coffee. They're really happy if I have half-and-half or cream because they get the good stuff when I do.

Sorry I haven't posted much today. My plan was to make Russ Parsons's "Cowboy Cassoulet" as a test of my new Emile Henry stovetop casserole, and then post about it and then have the cassoulet for dinner. I did make it, but by the time it finished cooking, it was way too late for dinner, much less posting about. So I'll do that tomorrow, I promise. Instead, I had some leftover chicken, but I tried a different side -- grits with some fontina cheese melted in. It worked better with the vinegar sauce, as I'd thought it might. I had grits for the first time last summer, when I was in Raleigh for the Pig Pickin, and I've only made them a few times. I'm wondering if there's any way to keep them from congealing when they start to cool. I prefer them softer, but I'm afraid if I add too much liquid, they'll be runny, which doesn't sound appealing either. Am I missing something? Any grits specialists out there? To start with, another cocktail of my own design. I call this one the After School Special. 2 oz. gin 1 oz. Lillet Blond 1/4 oz. Meyer lemon juice Dash Green Chartreuse This is a drink that won't work with regular lemon juice -- it has to be Meyer. There's a Meyer lemon tree in my backyard (which I'll show you tomorrow) but it's not producing any lemons right now. I found a few Meyers in with the plain lemons at the corner store last week, though, so I scooped them up and am hoarding them. While I was looking in the produce drawer of my fridge, I found half a cucumber that really needed to be used up, so I made a cucumber and shallot salad with a mustard dill dressing (trying to use the rest of the dill, too!) Slicing cucumbers and other vegetables is really easy with this ceramic blade slicer. The blade is double sided, so it slices on each pass of the vegetable. It's really great. Here's the salad: And the chicken and grits: More tomorrow morning -- I promise. Until then, here are the rest of my cookbooks, as Safran requested.

I take it your cats are past the stage of "let's see if I can fit in here"? Mine know how to open cabinets, even. The glassware sits in a tall closed hutch, out of feline reach. ← For some odd reason, they've never been interested in that shelf, for which I'm eternally grateful. Two of them love the cabinet where I store my Le Creuset and some other cookware, though. They've figured out how to open it, and go in it frequently. But there are worse things, I guess. And Max loves the bar. Mookie and Felix prefer the cat tree.

It depends on the leftovers. If I roast or grill a chicken, I'll use the meat during the week for fajitas or sandwiches or salad. The same goes for steak -- if I want one, I get a big enough one for two, or sometimes three meals. If I make soup or stew, I freeze half so I don't get sick of it before I finish it. Braises -- like the chicken -- I usually just reheat, either for dinner or lunches. Maybe because I've always cooked for one or two people only, and yet I like making stews, soups and brasied dishes, I have never minded leftovers, although I'm not one of those people who can eat the same exact thing day in and day out for a week. As for the cookbooks, I go in cycles, but use most of them for reference more than actually cooking from. I love the Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini book because I know I can find something to do with any vegetable I'm likely to come home with, and all the ideas seem to be good. Lately I've been using my pressure cooker more, so I use the two pressure cooking books I have, at least to give me an idea of liquid amounts and timing. Overall, I'm trying to use my cookbooks more and follow recipes more closely, so the chicken dish and tonight's dinner (which I'll get to soon) have been a good experience for me.

I think I got mine at Cost Plus, but I'm sure they're the same -- and yes, they're very handy, especially since they fold up if you need to store them.

The round white dishes are Revol, from SLT. The wavy rectangular one from the other night, and the triangular one from last night's dinner are from Villeroy & Boch, which has some very cool, expensive stuff. I'd been eyeing the wavy dishes or a while, and then they went on sale just at the same time that the V&B store near where I work closed, and most stuff was discounted a little more, so I splurged. I barely found room for the V&B dishes, so I think I can't buy any more. I have a pretty decent amount of cabinet space, and use the upper shelves above my "pantry" for dishes I don't use often. I also stack pretty much everything. (I'll try to take some pictures later.) I do have my nicer glassware (which I don't use too often) on a shelf in my living room, so that frees up some space and lets me display some of my things.

Thanks! Thighs would work just fine -- for some reason, the store where I bought the chicken didn't have just thighs from naturally raised chicken, which I try to buy. I actually prefer thighs too, but I learned a helpful trick from snowangel to make the legs easier to eat -- cut through the tendons that hold the meat to the ankles (do chickens have ankles?) before you cook it -- then you end up with a relatively tendon-free piece of meat.

Is there a way to fix the purple color? Admittedly, the ones I usually get are not quite as completely purple as the photo above; but, when I cook them the purple usually turns kind of grey/blue. I used some in dumplings this last weekend and it wasn't all that appealing. If my camera was working, it might have gone in the gallery of tasty yet regrettable foods. -Erik ← Usually with purple and reddish pigments, acid helps set the color -- works with purple cabbage, for instance. Maybe a little lemon or wine in the blanching water?

I'm not usually much of a breakfast person, and when I do have something, it's usually toast, with eggs or bacon if I wait and eat later on. But this morning, the leftover gingerbread was calling my name. I'll get back to some of your comments, but first, dinner last night. Following CaliPoutine's suggestion, I made the Chicken in Sherry Vinegar Sauce from Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook. For those not familiar with the book, the author wanted to present good recipes modified to take out some of the fat and calories to make them more healthy but still have them taste good. She has done a pretty good job of this, although it means some of her techniques are a little long and involved. So with this recipe, I was supposed to start with skinless chicken pieces, flour them and brown. But it's something I just couldn't bring myself to do -- I've tried it in other recipes and find that it leaves a really unpleasant hard layer of meat on the pieces that doesn't go away even with the braising that happens later. Of course, since the meat was braising, I could have just skipped the whole browning step and still gotten good results. But, ever since I tried a new technique with braised chicken, I've gone back to it with a number of recipes and it's become my standard. The problem with braising chicken, as has been mentioned on the braising topic, is that the skin, even if it's browned to begin with, gets soft and flabby and unappealing during the braising process. The trick I learned is to get the level of liquid so that it leaves the top of the chicken uncovered. Start the braise (in the oven) covered as usual; then, when the dish is about 3/4 done, uncover the dish, turn the heat up and let the skin get crisp while the sauce starts to reduce. Works like a charm. So that's how I made the chicken. But first, the evening's cocktail. I realized that all I've made so far is drinks with gin, so to introduce a little variety, I made one of my own creations, a Velvet Daiquiri. Ordinarily I make daiquiris with white rum, but this seems to work better with an aged rum. 2 oz. rum 1/2 oz. Velvet Falernum (a lime and spice rum-based liqueur) 1/2 oz lime juice Dash of peach bitters On to dinner. The chicken, browned. Then you saute some shallots and deglaze the pan with sherry. Add the rest of the ingredients, which are sherry vinegar, a little sugar, some diced drained tomatoes, chicken broth and Dijon mustard. Season with salt and pepper, and add the chicken back in. Cover and stick in the oven (The recipe from the book calls for stovetop braising, but that won't work with my technique) at about 325 degrees. Here's the chicken about 25 minutes later. You can see it's still pale and not very appetizing, but another 25 minutes (with the oven turned up to about 375) uncovered results in this: The sauce has started to reduce and the chicken skin is nicely browned. At that point, I just removed the chicken, degreased the sauce and reduced it a little more while I finished making my first course. I think I said yesterday that I'd picked up some broccoli raab (rabe, whatever) but it turned out I'd gotten broccolini. Thank god for Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, which set me straight. I blanched and cooled the broccolini, and still went ahead with my plan for a lemon-anchovy dressing. I tried Erik's suggestion of mashing garlic with salt, and then I mashed in a small anchovy filet, added some lemon juice and olive oil. It occurred to me that I was getting pretty close to caesar salad dressing, albeit without eggs. So it was a good test, in a way. It turned out well for this dish -- very lemony, which I don't know that I'd want in a caesar, but it was good with the broccolini. The garlic was present, but not harsh at all, so whether it was the mashing with salt, or the amount I used, something worked. I served the chicken with buttered rice. Next time I make this (I've been lucky this week -- this is another definite keeper) I think I'll serve it with polenta or grits -- not usually my choice for starch, but in this case I think the tangy sauce needs a base that's sweet and rich. Now I have to finish last night's dishes and I'll be back with the plans for tonight's dinner.

Too bad about that, but that's a nice picture, with the lovely city hall in the background, a building which to my eyes is clearly inspired by the Dome des Invalides, one of my favorite buildings in Paris. Pretty spot for a farmer's market -- weather allowing, of course. ← It really is, and it's a great market -- much less well known but therefore less hectic and not as crowded than the bigger one at the Ferry Building (which is nice, too; don't get me wrong). It's a little bit more -- rustic, maybe? I used to stop at it on the way to work when I worked on Sundays, but now that I don't, I don't get to the market as often as I'd like.

I used Sara Moulton's Smoky salmon chowder recipe -- with a few variations. Click here for a description and some step-by-step photos, but here's the result:

When I left this morning and actually caught the bus down the hill, I should have known that'd I'd use up all my good public transportation luck for the day in that one ride. But I made it to the BART station with time to buy a couple of boxes of Girl Scout cookies (I'm not crazy about them, but I used to be a Girl Scout, so I feel compelled to buy some at least once a year). Today's plan was to stop by the Sur La Table store where I work to pick up a few things -- every so often we get an extra discount on most merchandise and this was one of those weekends. Then I'd stop by the farmer's market at the Civic Center and see what looked good, then take the streetcar to 24th Street to go to my favorite liquor store. After that I'd continue on to the butcher for chicken quarters and the produce market for a few other things I need for dinner. Then I only had to hope that I could carry everything up the hill and that it wouldn't be raining. Everything was fine until I got to the farmer's market. Either because of the weather or because it was the day for the St. Patrick's Day parade, only a small fraction of the usual booths were set up. Usually there are booths filling up both sides of the walkway instead of the handful of brave souls there today. The fish guy was there, but I was already planning on chicken, so I didn't stop, except to take a picture. And I thought as long as I was there, in the rain, I might as well pick up something I can't get at my local produce store, so I got a bunch of broccoli rabe from this booth. And as I mentioned, my transportation luck was over for the day. I waited nearly 25 minutes for the streetcar I needed (at least I was underground and out of the rain, though). While I waited, I thought about what to do with the broccoli rabe, and remembered a great dish I had at Incanto, an Italian restaurant in my neighborhood. Broccoli rabe with a lemon-anchovy dressing. When the streetcar finally came and I got to 24th Street, I stopped in the other cheese store to pick up some anchovies. Even though this cheese shop has a wider selection of cheeses and pates, and even though it also sells wine and carries Amarena cherries in heavy syrup, I don't like it as well as my cheese shop. It's not rational, but that's life. [A funny store about this cheese shop: years ago, when I used to live in the neighborhood with my then-boyfriend, we'd walked up to 24th St. with a friend to have brunch. It was a warm, sunny day, and the door to the shop was open. We were standing at the corner by the cheese shop trying to decide where to eat, when Scott picked up his feet (one at a time, obviously) and peered at the soles of his shoes. It took me a minute to catch on, but with the rather pungent smells emanating from the shop, he thought he'd stepped in something, well, unpleasant. When I told him it was just the cheese shop, he said, "Man, that's some stinky cheese." And ever since then, I've referred to this place as the stinky cheese shop. Maybe that's why I'm not very fond of it.] Next was a stop at the liquor store. It's really more of a wine store, but since I rarely buy wine there, I think of it as a liquor store. It doesn't have the biggest overall selection, but it has hard to find necessities like Maraschino, Velvet Falernum and Pisco, and a good selection of eaux de vie. It also has a great beer selection. At that point, I started to think about just getting my chicken at the market on 24th (it started out as Bell Market, then was bought by Cala which has now been bought by Ralphs). I don't shop there much, but it would enable me to skip a stop and possibly get home before it started pouring again. Of if not, I could catch a cab home from there for not much money. So I got my stuff, remembered everything and got in the 10-items-or-less line with only one person in front of me. Now's probably a good time to mention that I must have done something really terrible, grocery-store-cashier-line-wise, in a previous life. I have the worst luck in the world in grocery store lines. And today was no exception. The young woman in front of me waited until her all her stuff was rung up to pull out her checkbook (oh, did I mention this was a cash/credit/ATM line only?). The clerk gestured at the sign, but said it was okay this time. So, then she writes the check out to Safeway. Remember, we're not in a Safeway -- and I don't know about you, but I generally know which store I'm in when I shop. So, she writes out another check, and then has no driver's license, and apparently the store's check system can't operate without one, unless a manager comes out. At this point, the line was getting longer, and two clerks had come over to try to get the check to process, and then, she actually had the nerve to ask if it was going to take much longer. The clerk said, "probably," and the woman took her check back and left, very upset and acting very put-upon. Jeez. Of course it was pouring when I got out. I was cold and my feet were soaking wet. I finally managed to hail a cab, whose driver had no idea where my street was, so I had to direct him. But at least I didn't have to walk up the hill in the rain, and I had a brand new bottle of brandy from the liquor store, so I made a hot lemon brandy. It helped.

Sorry for the lack of clarity -- the chowder called for both fresh and smoked. You poach the fresh filet in the soup and add the flaked smoked salmon at the end.

Here's the misunderstanding. I wasn't flouring multiple pans, I was flouring one pan with 12 molds. Like 12 really intricate cupcake molds. Trying to get the flour up the sides and inside tube of each little mold was virtually impossible, and that's why I'm willing to risk the spray.