JAZ

For dinner last night, I made a caesar salad with seared scallops. The scallops were great; the salad was good, but not great. I think I need help with my caesar dressing.

I guess I don't see an overwhelming reason to discount these boards based on those threads. There are basically three comments there from people who don't like them, without much to back them up. Most of the comments are actually on bamboo boards. My personal experience with the Epicureans has been that they don't dull my knives. My feeling is that if your knives scratch or cut your boards, then the board is softer than the knife and, thus, it's not hard on your knives. My Epicurean has as many scores as my wood boards -- more, probably -- although not as many as my poly board.

I just made the "Winter Greens Gratin" from Fine Cooking magazine. It's a little time consuming, compared with my usual methods for greens, but it's worth it for something a little more special. I used rainbow chard (the article suggests several varieties, with cooking instructions for them). Here's the blanched chard, along with the buttered bread crumbs, grated Parmesan and a mixture of bacon and pancetta (which you can barely see, because I can't frame a photo to save my life). The recipe calls for only the leaves, but I used the stems too, because I like them. I just cooked them for 10 minutes or so before adding the leaves to blanch. Here are the gratins assembled and ready to go into the oven: I made two -- one for tonight and one to reheat tomorrow or the next day. Here's the one for later -- I took out it out early, so I could reheat it without drying it out:

I've had one for quite a while and haven't noticed it being at all hard on my knives. It seems about the same density as a wood board. My only complaint about it is that because it's so light, it slides around a lot unless you put down a damp towel first.

What material is your grill pan? From the picture, it looks like cast iron, which in my experience heats pretty evenly -- although it can take a long time to heat up the section not over the burners. I have the two-burner reversible Le Creuset grill pan, which heats up well if I'm patient enough to wait for it. One trick I've read about but not tried is to preheat the pan in the oven and then move it to the stove when you're ready to cook. Way more planning than I'm capable of, though.

Several years ago I assisted at a cooking class taught by Anne Willan, who made a similar cheese and herb "twice-baked" souffle. The texture is not as light as a regular souffle, but they're still very good.

I do use pennies. They work beautifully and they are cheaper than pie weights. (It's surprising how quickly you can collect enough for several pie shells. But if you don't want to wait, go to the bank and buy three or four rolls.)

A friend of mine and I decided to check out Swig a couple of months ago. We got there around 10:30 on a Thursday. We were carded at the door (not awful at our ages, actually), and walked into a crowded, throbbingly loud room. Under the right circumstances, it might have been okay, but we wanted a place where we could talk and not have to wait in line for drinks, so we left and went across the street to Cortez.

You might also try Cortez in the Adagio Hotel on Geary. I've heard good things about Bix but haven't been there in years.

Echoing what others have said, as advice for a beginner, I'd avoid trying something new -- when you're an experienced cook and thrower of dinner parties, you'll be able to gauge pretty well how something will work, what kind of time is involved, etc. But when you're new at it, and nervous, it just adds to the stress. Marlene's advice to start out with small groups is great -- maybe even just two or three friends, or one other couple (if you're half of a couple). Then you can move on to bigger groups with more confidence. Cocktails and appetizers are a lot of work, and I'd never suggest them for someone who's new to entertaining, and who's going to prepare dinner on top of that. It's different if you just want to have a cocktail party (I have lots of advice on that, but that's another topic), but if dinner is the focus, a few snacks and a glass of champagne is a great way to start. And I'd never be embarrassed to buy premade items for snacks, as long as the quality is good. Some hummus and olives, or spiced nuts, or a good pate or terrine, is a nice and easy way to start. I'd stick with no more than four courses, including dessert, and only that if most of them are all done ahead. I've found that soup is a great first course -- it's all ready to go, requires no last minute work except for putting it in bowls (and maybe a simple garnish), and can go with all kinds of menus and all seasons. And people don't expect soup -- it's really very impressive that way. Then, depending on the type of meal, you could follow up with the main course and finish with a salad, or follow with a composed salad and finish with the main course. Then dessert, and you're done. A few other things that bear mentioning. Depending on your guests, make sure you have something non-alcoholic to serve, even if it's just sparkling water. If it's a long party and guests are drinking a lot, make sure there's lots of water available before and during dinner. For some menu-planning advice, here is an eGCI class on the subject. It's not specifically for party menus, but might contain some information you can use.

I never meant that keeping a kettle on the stove is illogical for everyone -- if I made tea every day, or even a few times a week, it would make some sense. It's just that I've been doing it all this time only because it's what I grew up seeing. So, Brooks, you can keep your kettle on the stove.

Isn't there a Hirsch rye out there, too? I would swear I've had Manhattans with it.

A friend of mine was visiting recently and we spent quite a bit of time cooking. Several times, we needed all the burner space, so I moved my tea kettle off the burner where it normally resides to make room; then, when we cleaned up, I moved it back. After a couple of times watching me do this, he asked why I keep it on the stove, since I rarely seemed to use it. The only answer I could think of was that it's what my Mom did. I grew up with a tea kettle on a back burner of the stove pretty much all the time. It was natural; it was the way things were. But here's the thing -- my Mom makes tea every day; I make tea about once a month, tops. The kettle has no other routine uses for me, so it occurred to me that for the past 20 years, I've essentially taken up a burner with an item that I use a lot less than any of my pots and pans. All it does is collect grease and dust from sitting out. It's an especially stupid habit given that I don't like unnecessary clutter in my kitchen. So, after all this time, I've moved it to a cupboard. But since then, I've tried to identify other habits I have that make no sense and have found a couple more, mostly storage related. Anyone else have any habits like this?

I've been thinking about this for a few days, and the best I can do in one sentence is that the best bartenders will make you feel like a regular, even if you aren't and even if you never can or will be.

Brooks is right -- it's because the colder the water is, the more carbon dioxide will stay dissolved in the water. For the same reason, you should always chill soda bottles before opening -- you lose much less CO2 so you get less spurting upon opening and end up with soda that stays fizzy longer.

I had a nice drink with this rum a couple of weeks ago. Muddled slices of yellow bell and jalapeno peppers, rum, simple syrup and lemon juice, topped with soda. Really refreshing. The heat and flavor of the peppers matched well with the rum. I also tasted it neat and was impressed -- very smooth but interesting.

I found Carpano Antica at my favorite liquor shop and bought a bottle. Tonight, I tried a version of the 2-2-2 Manhattan from Pegu Club. The drink calls for 2 different ryes, two vermouths and two types of bitters (hence the name), but I only had Wild Turkey rye, so I went with: 2 oz. Wild Turkey rye 1/4 oz. Noilly Prat dry vermouth 1/4 (+) oz. Carpano Antica Dash Peychauds bitters Dash bitters Not quite as good as the Pegu Club's (which, as I recall, is made with Rittenhouse bonded and Mitcher's), but good enough to make me a believer in Manhattans.

Lots of advice in this topic in the Cocktails Forum.

I always blind bake the crust for quiche.

I like the Moros as well -- although to be honest I have to admit I've never eaten the fruit, just juiced them for cocktails and sorbets. I can imagine that they're not the greatest for eating plain, but I like the tartness -- it's much better in cocktails than sweeter orange juice. I recently made a sorbet from Pamela Sheldon Johns's Gelato book using blood orange juice and Campari. It was great, but now I'm thinking about blood orange juice and bourbon or rye.

You've probably figured it out by now, but you put the straight blade in, and then dial the wheel to choose the large or small julienne size. Then you can slice the whole potato and end up with julienne.

One big difference I see between "Newman's Own" and the Emeril tomatoes and RR olive oil is that presumably, the recipes for Newman's products (or at least the first few -- not sure about the later ones) are actually his own. That is, the products sold under his name have something to do with him. As I said, I doubt Emeril is growing or selecting the tomatoes sold under his name. And although I suppose it's possble Rachael actually selected the olive oil that bears her name, I doubt she had a hand in its manufacture.

I was at a Safeway store a few weeks ago, and saw "Emeril's Tomatoes" in the produce section -- romas and cherry tomatoes packed in bags, with his name and picture. This was new for me -- of course I've seen all kinds of sauces and the like from chefs (or their restaurants) -- Rick Bayliss and his Frontera salsas come to mind, as well as Emeril's sauces and spice mixtures. But I'd never seen produce with a chef's name attached. Then, more recently, the store where I work started carrying Rachael Ray's new olive oil, called (big surprise here) "EVOO." (In her words on the back label, it's "extra yummy.") Is this a new trend, or have I just missed it? Do the marketing types think that having the name of a chef or a food celebrity like RR attached to a tomato or a bottle of olive will make it more attractive? Do consumers really think that Emeril is hand selecting these tomatoes, or that Rachael is tasting olive oils to find the best blend?

An update on this. I found out that the reason for boiling milk in the cookware before using has to do with the bonding of the casein in the milk with the ceramic, making it more resilient (at least that's the way the EH rep described it). So, I boiled the milk, and used the pot for a lamb curry. In the recipe I used, you don't brown the meat first, so I didn't get to try that out, but you do saute onions, so I started with it at a pretty high heat. Then I added the meat plus marinade, which was cooler than room temp, but not quite refrigerator temp. No problem adding it to the hot pan. I did the entire braise on the stovetop, with the burner on low. The dish turned out great (It's pretty foolproof), but I started to notice some sticking on the bottom about halfway through. My stove is a fairly cheap gas model, so the "low" setting is a small circle of flame in the middle. If I'm cooking anything for a long time on low, I usually use a diffuser, but I wanted to see how this did without it. So, as I said, the curry was great, despite the sticking. I've had the same sort of thing happen with my Le Creuset, so it wasn't the fault of the cookware. However, whereas cleaning up a LC pan is a breeze, even with stuck or burned on food, this was horrible. I soaked it overnight, used my plastic pot scraper and virtually nothing happened. I made a paste of dishwasher powder and water and left that on overnight. A little progress, but I still had a big black spot on the bottom. I used Barkeeper's Friend; I used more dishwasher detergent; I even resorted to steel wool. I did finally get it off, but it took five days of soaking and scraping. I've read, in various topics here, that cooking in clay imparts a better flavor to braised dishes, and I suppose that a side-by-side comparison is in my future. But unless there's a big difference in the taste, I'll stick with LC for stovetop cooking.

I don't know about the liquor stores where you are, but I can often find Pernod in mini (aka airline) bottles. Per ounce, of course, it's expensive, but if all you want to do is try a Sazerac, it's a good way to go.