JAZ

Fine Cooking magazine had an article a few years ago on icebox cakes. They did a coffee flavored version of the chocolate wafer and whipped cream cake, a layered dessert with gingersnap crumbs and a cream cheese-mascarpone filling mixed with crystalized ginger, and a lemon curd-caramel thing. I make a no-bake "cheesecake" dessert with a shortbread base, a sweetened cream cheese-whipped cream layer and lemon curd that can be made ahead entirely. It's also good with a gingersnap crust (and less time consuming).

I've made gingerbread with either lemon curd or spiced warm applesauce (or make both so people have an option) for brunches -- it usually goes over well.

It depends on the nature of the get-together. Some occasions are primarily social in nature, and at those, I think, alcohol can be appropriate. But some dinners and lunches really are business meetings in disguise, and I'd say that at that type of affair, alcohol might be a bad idea. I think problems arise when the participants are unclear on the nature of the meeting, and, unfortunately, that's not always as easy thing to figure out. When I used to be a part of the business world, I always took my cues from my bosses. If they ordered wine, I would; if they didn't, I wouldn't. In commercial real estate, we had a lot of functions that were primarily social, so much drinking was done at those. But we never ordered drinks at purely business lunches. Sometimes we'd have combination meetings, where we'd get the business over, and then stay on for a social hour or two. No alcohol until after the business part was over. These days, one of the things I do is culinary "team building" events, where a group of business people get together to cook and eat a meal (under the guidance of several instructors). The clients are always responsible for bringing any alcohol they want to drink, and most bring wine. I think the presence of the wine signals to the participants that it's going to be a social evening; most do drink, but few do it to excess, thankfully (just what I want -- a kitchen full of drunken wannabe chefs with knives). It seems to me that as a general rule, people drink less at business-related functions than they used to, even four or five years ago. I'm not sure why that is, but I'd like to think people are getting a little smarter. One final thought: it's terrible advice to encourage someone who doesn't drink to order something alcoholic to "fit in." Whatever someone's reason for not drinking, I think it's the height of boorishness to assume it's something to hide, or to draw attention to it.

True. Otherwise, you end up with something more akin to gin and bitters, which, while interesting on its own, is not a martini. I've found that I prefer this style martini made with the less juniper-y gins. My more usual preference is for gin with more pronounced juniper, so I don't make them this way very often.

A comment about coffee scoops: it used to be that a standard scoop was one tablespoon, and the wooden scoops you get with, for example, Bee House canisters are still that size. Most new scoops are two tablespoons. I think the change came about when people in general switched from percolators to drip machines (believe me, if you make perked coffee with 2 tbsp. per cup, you'll end up with mud). I've found that for smaller amounts of water, you need the larger proportion of coffee. For a while when I was in between coffee makers, I used my old one-cup electric Melitta "travel" drip coffee maker. It brews directly into a mug that holds about 9 ounces, and to make decent coffee, I needed to use at least 3 tbsp per cup. Now that I have a large coffe maker again, I find that for anything up to about half a pot, 2 tbsp per (6-oz) cup makes the best coffee. After that, I use proportionately less coffee. Thus, for a full pot (60 ounces) I probably use about 15 or 16 tbsp of coffee.

Guess I'm too old or not cool enough to see the appeal. Probably both.

I've used orange bitters in martinis occasionally, but not with either of those gins. I find that, used with a dry vermouth like Noilly Prat, the bitters adds a flavor similar to that of blond Lillet. It's not something I want all the time, but it makes a nice change from time to time.

Here are two suggestions: the Kuhn Rikon peeler with a carbon steel blade (click here) or the Messermeister serrated peeler (click here). The Kuhn Rikon model is really sharp, pretty strong, and very inexpensive. Chefs come in all the time to buy these. In fact, over Christmas, several chefs bought them for their staffs, as "stocking stuffers." The Messermeister, being serrated, can peel things that other peelers can't touch, such as raw tomatoes or peaches, or waxed vegetables like cucumbers and bell peppers. I have both. I use the Kuhn Rikon for most jobs, but love the Messermeister for the tricky ones.

Which Springbank? I splurged once on the 21 year old, and it was probably my single favorite single malt ever. But Highland Park's awfully good too. And I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Laphroaig -- when I first started drinking single malts, a wine and liquor shop near my apartment had it ridiculously underpriced, so I bought a bottle whenever I could afford it.

While it's true you can get off-flavors from ice, I'd think there are cheaper ways to avoid it.

Actually, this is very clever of Bacardi's marketing department. I think it's a little disingenuous as well, though, since one ounce of any distilled (80 proof) liquor contains that same 65 calories and no carbohydrates. Thus, other "smart" cocktails would include anything on the rocks or straight, anything with soda, anything with diet tonic, and martinis (with a small splash only of vermouth, and without olives, of course). But that's assuming that one drink contains one ounce of liquor, which rarely happens.

I'm going to try to get back into using my cookbooks more for actual recipes. Even if I don't follow them exactly, I want to benefit from all that knowledge. Last night I picked out a recipe for garlic soup from A New Way to Cook, and followed most of it. I was quite proud of myself. Also I want to get back into baking breads. And work on pizza.

I recommend Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider.

We carried the ice glass molds for a while, too. Sounded like a good idea, until we realized that a) the glasses were uncomfortably cold to hang onto, and b) putting your lips on the edge of an ice "glass" was not the smartest thing to do.

I have mixed feelings about it. I think the authors' (Peter Kaminsky and Gray Kunz) idea is a good one, but I don't think they deliver on their promise, for a couple of reasons. First, I like precision in language (the result of a philosophy degree) and they play fast and loose with the terms they use, confusing, for example, textures and flavors. Second, although the recipes sound good, they're very complicated, so it takes a great deal of time and effort to be able to follow along with their "experiments." On the other hand, at least it's a way to start thinking about the taste and textural components of food, which is valuable.

I just heat rice vinegar with a little sugar and add the sliced ginger. It seems to keep forever in the fridge. I use the ginger in most savory recipes that call for fresh ginger, which I don't always have. I also use the vinegar for salad dressings and marinades. Edit to add something I just remembered: In Gourmet (I think) a while back, there was a sort of "deconstructed" California Roll salad made with rice, crab, avocado and sliced pickled ginger. I didn't try it when I saw it, but maybe now that crab season is here, I'll do it.

Welcome, cinnamonshops! Whenever I've done any infusions with citrus fruit, I've only used the outside layer of the peel, not the fruit itself. I peel it off in strips, leaving the pith behind. So that's what I'd recommend for the buddha's hand as well.

So, did anyone have any surprising successes or failures with their christmas cookies? Due to a lack of time, I limited myself to two cookies and two candies, but at the last minute changed from my good and extremely easy browned butter crisps to a still-easy-but-much-more-time-consuming variation on sand tarts filled with caramel and almonds. They were the new hit, so now I guess I'll have to plan on making them every year. My peanut butter truffles were disappointing this year, though. I've used Jif's Extra Crunchy in the filling for years, but I think they may have changed the formulation or something, because this year the filling was much sweeter and softer than in past years. A pain to dip and not nearly as tasty as usual.

Just when I thought I'd seen it all, the store where I work started to carry edible shot glasses made from the jelly-like substance that makes up gummy bears and the like. These are from Sweden, and come in 4 flavors: blueberry, strawberry, lemon and gooseberry. For some reason, that last flavor just cracks me up.

I think this would be the way to go -- add the vodka to the tomatoes early in the cooking. I would use beef broth rather than chicken for the liquid, flavor with celery seed, chiles (or hot sauce), worchestershire, salt and pepper, and add some kind of acid (lemon juice or even orange juice would be my best guess). Puree, then serve with a horseradish creme fraiche swirled in.

I too would recommend folks attend Gary's "Cocktails in the Country" course. *** What you "are" taught, is a better understanding of "Quality" cocktails and bartending. Essentially, all the stuff that a "bartender school" -doesn't- teach you. Even if you are already a career bartender, I would recommend this course as a fun "refresher". And yes, it is fun. I haven't been, but I know Gary from a couple of old cocktail forums, and I can only imagine it would be a great experience. I think (fingers crossed) we'll have Gary and Mardee as Q&A guests sometime in the early spring. But -- back to the topic. . .

Not that I'm a professional bartender, as beans and some of the other posters are, but I've spent my fair share of time in high end retail (currently cookware) and I also have much experience with a variety of bars (no, not what you think -- my SO is in wine and spirits sales and has also bartended at a few places). My advice would be to develop relationships at small neighborhood bars and try to parlay that into a part time job. While beans's comments are dead-on for the high-volume, high-end type places where she works, I think the smaller, less demanding places might be more welcoming to a determined, ambitious and hard-working beginner.(god knows, some of the places I've been have total dolts behind the bar -- I don't care how "green" you are, you couldn't be less experienced than some of the "bartenders" I've seen). So, maybe it's a little place, maybe you get the crappy shifts to start with. If you can do the job, you'll get recognition on way or the other -- either the owner will see you have potential, or the customers will start to spout off about how great you are. My two cents' worth? Skip bartending school (unless you live in New York and want to experiencethis great course) but work on cultivating relationships at small, lower volume places to start.

Anchor in San Francisco (think Anchor Steam beer) has a couple of distilled spirits in addition to their beers, one of which is Old Potrero Rye. Very nice. I don't know how widely distributed it is, though.

My experience parallels yours. Contact lenses in, no tears. Contact lenses out, tears. Glasses, fewer tears, but tears nonetheless. Incidentally, I'd like to get to the bottom of this, because I've been telling my students that wearing contact lenses while chopping onions stops one from crying. If it's not universally true, I don't want to mislead them. I wear the disposable kind -- is that what everyone else wears? I can't remember what used to happen when I wore the old hard gas permeable ones.

Sounds like a great time. Watch out for the Anderson Valley Winter Solstice.