JAZ

I'm glad you like them, Marlene. I probably should have warned you -- once you start, it's hard to stop eating them. I used to kid myself that I could make batches and keep them in the freezer to avoid temptation. I just ended up eating them frozen. I didn't mention this, but they make a great topping for hot fudge sundaes. Something about the salt and the cayenne really sets off the chocolate. I've never greased the baking sheet or used a silpat with them. Although they do stick a little, if you stir them a couple of times while they're cooking, they come off the pan fine. And even though the pan will look like it will never come clean, hot water melts all the stuck-on sugar, and it will clean up great. But, hey, silpats never hurt. Finally, I thought I entered the recipe in RG after the Pig Pickin, but I see now that never did. I'll do it tonight.

Spicy Sweet Walnuts 1 lb walnut halves and pieces 1/2 c granulated sugar 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 3 T vegetable oil salt Place the nuts in a large heat-proof bowl. Cover them with boiling water and let sit for a minute or so. (Alternately, you can bring a pot of water to a boil and add the nuts.) Drain and pour back into the bowl. Mix the sugar and cayenne and pour over the nuts. Add the oil and mix well. The sugar will dissolve and form a syrup. Spread the nuts out onto a rimmed baking sheet (you can line with a silicone baking mat if you like), spreading them out into a single layer as much as possible. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so. You want them to get deep golden brown, and I've found that the time can vary. Start checking them at 25 minutes, but they can sometimes take much longer. Remove from the oven and sprinkle heavily with salt. Let cool and remove from pan. These can be stored for a week or so in an airtight container, or they freeze for months. Keywords: Amuse, Easy, Snack ( RG1620 )

The brownies look wonderful, Susan. (Actually, everything everyone has been making looks wonderful.) Is there a link to Chufi's butter braised beef? I tried searching for it, but the search function and I don't get along very well. (Also, I think it's great that you're doing so well, and that you're sharing your less than successful moments. That shows a lot of character.)

You say that the inside is black but not coated with anything? I haven't seen that version here in the US at all. A friend has a frying pan that has the black coating like my grill pan. ← Here's my experience with LC skillets/frying pans (this is in the US; other countries might be different): They used to offer skillets with either the hard enamel or the matte black enamel on the inside. (To my knowledge, LC has never made anything with uncoated cast iron). Then they slowly discontinued using the hard enamel on the inside of skillets, and then they came out with nonstick coatings on some of their frying pans (they called them omelette pans). For a while, that was what I saw in most stores. Now, they seem to have gone back to the matte black enamel for most of their pans, although I think they still make the nonstick omelette pans. The matte black enamel is harder to clean than the hard shiny enamel, that's for sure. But the advantage is that you can heat it to a higher temperature with less chance of damaging the enamel. It's much more porous than the hard enamel, and if you want, you can treat it like uncoated cast iron, seasoning it until it gets a patina, and then it's virtually indistinguishable from plain cast iron in terms of ease of cleaning. I have a couple of these pans, as well as the grill pan that fifi mentions, and yes, stuff sticks to them (especially the grill pan) but I find it cleans up pretty well with a scrubber pad -- and the nice thing is because of the enamel coating, you can always soak it, unlike untreated cast iron.

Not only no gopher, but no car. If I forget something, it means a trek down the hill and back, so it's generally not an option for me. Now, you might think this would mean I'd be better at not forgetting, but what it really means is that I've just gotten better at improvising. It's funny -- I'm on very good terms with my upstairs neighbors, as well as the neighbors on both sides, but it never occurs to me to ask them for, say, an egg, or a half cup of milk if I'm in need (I wouldn't ask for hummingbird tongues). When I was growing up, my Mom had that sort of relationship with all our neighbors. It seemed like our mothers were always sending us over to the neighbor's for a missing ingredient. That was cool.

I knew they were close, but didn't realize it was that close. No wonder the liquor companies decided to go with 750's and liters.

It's very similar to a popover -- eggy and moist in the middle, and crisp on the outside. Very light if you make them right, which Marlene obviously did. They look perfect.

Thin sliced cucumber, radish and shallot with julienned carrot and yellow pepper, tossed in a mustard-dill vinaigrette. With fried shrimp.

Yes, at the end of this, the smokers will have quit smoking, and all the rest of us will be addicted to bacon.

On a whim, I topped off an Aviation with sparkling wine last night; it makes a great drink. The champagne lightens the maraschino without obliterating it, and you end up with something like a French 75.

I got mine in a "drinks-to-go" kit too -- after-Christmas special. And there I was thinking I was unique. By the way: Congratulations, all, for doing so well, and for doing this in public. How brave of you. If you're looking for a salty, spicy, crunchy snack (sweet too, so it covers all the bases), you could try these Spicy Walnuts (Marlene and Dave, they're the ones I brought to the Pig Pickin). Blanch 1 lb. walnut halves or pieces for a minute or so. (Marlene, a second opportunity to blanch!) Drain. Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 to 1-1/2 tsp. cayenne. (I use 1 tsp, but if you want them milder or hotter, use however much you like) Pour the sugar mixture over the walnuts, along with 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil. Mix well. Pour out onto a sheet pan, attempting to get them into a single layer. Bake at 350 for a half hour or so, stirring every 10-15 minutes. You want them pretty dark brown -- sometimes this seems to happen in about 25 minutes, and sometimes it takes a lot longer. Remove from the oven and salt heavily. I think because of the sugar, they take more salt than other nuts. Let cool. (They're okay when warm, but not great. They need to cool to crisp up.) They keep well -- you can freeze them for months -- and they're great in salads, too.

For more discussion of Punt e Mes, check out this topic: Punt e Mes Manhattan.

Sorry. Interesting story, but not correct. You're right that a fifth is different from what you see on the shelves -- it's not the same as a 750 ml. But a fifth is not a fifth of a liter, it's a fifth of a gallon -- the old measurement for liquor (don't ask me why they decided on dividing a gallon into five parts; I don't know that). It used to be that you'd find fifths and quart bottles of liquor on the shelves; then about 10 (or even 15) years ago, liquor companies switched to 750 ml-bottles and liters. I believe it was so they could package for both US and non-US distribution with one set of sizes. The reason, I think, that people of a certain age still refer to "fifths" is just that that's the term they grew up with, and it's not that far off from a 750 ml., so they see that general size and think "fifth." (The "bum" bottles used to be pints; now they're 375 ml. Again, many people, myself included, still call them "pints.")

I'm interested to know more about why you weren't favorably impressed. I've eaten there a dozen times or so, and although every dish hasn't been top-notch, overall most of the dishes have been very good -- some have been outstanding. I've always gotten great wine suggestions with my dishes when I've asked. The service I've had is good (I usually sit at the bar, so I don't have a lot of experience with the table wait staff). Is it the food, the service, the wine, or something else about your experiences that you haven't liked?

In the book Cookwise, Shirley Corriher has a great discussion of cookies, with a chart outlining what to do for more or less spread. Of her suggestions, it seems that chilling the dough before baking is the easiest solution. If that doesn't work, you might try using part cake flour in addition to all-purpose, or cut the sugar by a tablespoon or two.

What's surprising to me is not that there aren't more "savory" cocktails, but that there are any at all. If you think about it, humans don't drink very many things that aren't sweet -- some are more obviously sweet than others, and some are sweet and sour (wine, many cocktails, lemonade), or sweet and bitter (beer, tonic, cola), but water's about the only non-sweet thing we drink. (Coffee and tea are exceptions, but of course a lot of people sweeten them. Plus, we drink them hot usually, which makes a difference, I think). Still, I think there's a trend in cocktails to experiment with savory elements -- herbs, peppers, etc. -- which can result in some very interesting, not particularly sweet drinks. For example, I've tried a tall drink with gin and Lillet muddled with basil, with a splash of orange juice and soda. Not very sweet, intriguing because of the basil, really refreshing. But I wouldn't call it savory by any means. But completely "savory" drinks? I don't think there are many possibilities that would be palatable.

I've been carded at several airport bars, and although I find it silly, it's not annoying to me. Same with nightclub type bars. At a nice restaurant, though, I think it would be a different story. I completely understand that the waiters have a job to do and have to comply with ABC laws, though, so I'd let it pass. The only time I can remember getting upset about getting carded (or not, in this case) was at a neighborhood bar, years ago. I was there with a date, who was a few years younger than I (he was 24; I was 28). The bartender, a woman in her mid-forties, asked him for ID, but not me. That didn't really bother me, but my date said, "Aren't you going to ask for hers?" The bartender said, "No, I'm a good judge of women's ages," or something like that. Even then, I still wasn't upset, although I was beginning to get annoyed. But then, she leaned over to me and said, "It's okay, honey, I date younger men too." We finished our drinks, left a nickel on the bar, and never went back.

I've never been a fan of jello shots (mostly because I'm not a fan of jello, period), but those of you who are might want to check this out: Jiggelo Who'd have thought there'd be a book on jello shots?

Kitchen Confidential and other kitchen memoirs I've read are written from a very definitely male point of view, and while interesting, I imagine they're only half of the kitchen story. What's your experience working with men and women in professional kitchens? What are the differences, the similarities? How about some insight into the female professional chef's point of view?

No, the glaze is hard and looks to be pretty durable. It's dishwasher safe as well.

Does anyone have any of this cookware? It's Emile Henry's new line of ceramic stovetop-safe cookware. I got a piece but haven't used it yet. The instructions say that boiling a small amount of milk in the pan for three minutes is "suggested" but doesn't really give a reason for that. I'm wondering if there are any other "tricks" I should know about. I'm looking forward to using it but I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive, too. By the way, here's the piece I got -- a 5.5-qt. round stewpot. It's really beautiful; I hope I like cooking with it as much as I like looking at it.

Another variation is to use roasted red peppers instead of tomatoes. With pesto mayonnaise, it's great.

My guess is that you overreduced the beer (the reason that overreducing beer results in a bitter sauce is that the bitterness of the hops increases as the beer reduces). The extra water from your usual process probably mitigates the bitterness of the beer. When I do short ribs in porter, I use only 1-2 bottles with no initial reduction at all (no marinating, either). I often cook the ribs uncovered for the last 45 minutes or hour, which reduces the beer a lot. Then, after removing the fat, if it's still too thin, I reduce it further. Once or twice, when I used a particularly bitter beer, I needed to add a little brown sugar at the end, but usually it's fine as it is.

First, I apologize for taking so long to post this. Thanks to Pam for taking photos and getting them posted before we all forgot what we ate. Second, I'd like to thank everyone who attended for making the dinner a success. Now, on to the dinner: At each place setting was a detailed description of the menu items, plus the wines we drank with them. It was great to have the information about the food and wine without having to take notes. We started with vegetable and salumi antipasto platters. Incanto makes its own salumi, and the quality is excellent. Although I've been to the restaurant often, I'd never tried it, simply because I've never gone with a large enough group to do justice to the platter. Antipasto platter of salumi misti From the top left, we had mortadella, coppa di testa (head cheese), capocollo (pork shoulder in a spicy dry rub, traditionally cured in a bladder), pork rillete, lardo, and pate di campagna. (In case you're wondering, the platters were full when they were brought to the table. I just forgot to take photos until after they had been ravaged.) It was a treat to be able to try lardo and the coppa di testa, and it was a revelation to try authentic mortadella, but my favorites on the platter were the rillette and the capocollo. Antipasto vegetable platter The vegetable platter was very good too. Once again, I didn't get the photo until after we'd eaten quite a bit. You can see the braised cippoline onions at the base of the platter, and some of the other offerings were roasted garlic, grilled scallions (right above the roasted garlic) and marinated carrots. Much as I liked the both the onions and the scallions, the carrots were my favorite from this platter. The olives were also really good, but here's the thing with Incanto: With every meal, they start you out with their own breadsticks and foccacia, served with a tapenade so good that it spoils you for any other olives. (At least that's my opinion. I love that stuff.) The platters were accompanied by a rose: Serra Lori Rosato 2003, Argiolas. The notes described it as "simple, lively and fresh" and that's apt. It went well with both the pork and the vegetables -- it was acidic enough to balance the fat in the salumi, but not so much that it did battle with the marinated vegetables. After the antipasto, we got an unexpected appetizer of a sardine filet over shaved radishes and some kind of green that I failed to write down. (Anyone remember what the greens were?) Sardine over shaved radish and greens Then we had the octopus. My photo didn't turn out, but fortunately Pam's did. It was a nice dish -- very pretty. I expected something entirely different -- this octopus was "quick blanched, chilled, then packed into a casing and frozen." The paper thin slices were dressed with lime, smoked salt and fresh marjoram. The texture of the dish was really great and the flavors worked well together. My (minor) complaint would be that the octopus was sort of lost among the stronger flavors of the salt and herbs. We drank Soave Classico 2003, Inama, with these two courses. Next was the chicken liver ravioli, which as Pam, Erik and I mentioned, was one of the standouts of the dinner. (Pam's photo once again is much better than mine.) The wine pairing, Passito di Pantelleria 2001, Ferrandes, was a spectacular match. I never would have thought to pair a sweet wine with this course; it was a very pleasant surprise. The main course was rabbit braised in white wine with garlic and rosemary, served on a slice of grilled bread (nice addition -- it soaked up the sauce). It was served with a Pinot Noir -- Pinot Nero Riserva Sandlahner 2001, Santa Maddalena. Ingrid and I wondered about pairing a white-wine braised dish with a red, but I thought it worked very well. Braised rabbit You can see the crouton on which the rabbit sits, plus the huge cloves of garlic that were braised along with the meat. The dessert was pluots from Hamada Farms, which the restaurant preserves. They were served with a zabaglione flavored with the wine we drank with the dessert -- Brachetto Birbet 2004, Ca Rossa. Preserved pluot with vanilla-citron zabaglione Italian wines, for me, are something of a mystery. What I liked about this dinner (and dinner at Incanto in general) is the care with which the wines were chosen to complement the food. Incanto is one of the few restaurants I go where I completely trust the staff to pick a wine for any course I order. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the room where we ate, but I did remember to get a shot of what you see when you enter the restaurant: A close-up of the meats curing: I think that's a good image to finish with.

Thanks to everyone who attended. I got caught up with work stuff, so I haven't had time to download the photos and compose a post about the details of the dinner. I'll do it in the next day or so, I promise. To start out, though, I'll say that for me, the ravioli dish was the biggest surprise: I'm not a huge fan of chicken liver, so I was a little apprehensive. But the dish was great, and the wine pairing was perfect -- a semi-sweet dessert wine.