hjshorter

No no no. If it is hard to quantify then isn't it merely a subjective opinion?** (My emphasis in the original.) How is it honest to point out that X is better than Y in matters of subjective opinion?**I am pretty sure Heidegger would have something to say to me about that statement, but I can't objectively say what it might be.

That grilled cheese story is very funny. The onion soup recipe is quite good, but (dare I say it?) much too greasy. I would halve the amount of butter called for in cooking the onions. I made it with a light, super-defatted veal stock instead of beef stock with good results.

And good rice, and someone who knows how to cut the excellent and fresh fish and serve it at the proper temperature.

Try one of the salads if you want to ease into it. The roasted beet and mache salad with goat cheese and toasted walnuts is fabulous, as is the frisee with bacon and poached egg. If you want to jump right in, the Pig's trotters with sauce Gribiche is delicious, as is the Boeuf Bourguignon.

Five hours, but that's good to know. OK Charles, would that be a 30 or a 40 gauge tamis? I made the green salt for the duck confit on page 135. Sure is pretty.

Alas, this was not homemade playdough and so not worthy of a Keller recipe. Can someone tell me why it's necessary to caramelize 8 lbs of onions when only 1 1/2 cups goes into the soup? The recipe says to reserve the remainder for another use - sure it's nice to have caramelized onions around, but I am not getting the reasoning. (Yea verily, not seven, not nine, but eight shall be the number of pounds...)

Sadness. Then again Play Doh (I think that's how you spell it) is edible, but I'm not sure TK would approve.It was bright blue, so even if the taste was Ok the color would have put me off. I have another 8 lbs. on the stove right now.

Of course they are. There's no messy slicing, and no whining about who got a bigger piece of cake. It does preclude the photo op with candles blazing, however, so I stick with an old-fashioned layer cake.The NYC trend trickled down to Washington DC quite some time ago, and we now have our own famous purveyor of terrible cupcakes.

Apparently NYC doesn't currently run sting operations at fine dining restaurants. Washington DC does, and if that had been a sting that waiter would have lost his job and his place of business fined heavily.And as for stiffing the waiter...he might have handled the situation more smoothly, but you can hardly fault him for not risking his job.

The pinenut crust is good, but my favourite nuts to use with the lemon tart are macadamia (probably b/c I reduce the sugar a little to make it extra-tangy, and the super buttery nuts soften the tang a bit.) I think the texture is also better with macadamia--super crumbly and more delicate. Interesting. I tend to stay away from macadamia nuts, because it's tough around here to get really fresh ones and I can taste it when they're even slightly off.I'll be trying this with Meyer lemons, once I can get my hands on some. TK's onion soup was supposed to be dinner last night, until some helpful little person in my house added play dough to the onions while they were cooking. Eight lbs. of carefully sliced onions into the trash. We'll try it again today.

BryanZ, that's a gorgeous quiche. The roquefort quiche is my favorite quiche recipe ever. How did you cook the duck for the duck with mustard sauce?

Well, sure you do not "need" to. Any good butter crust will work fine. I still think, unless someone has an aversion to pinenuts, they need to try it with the crust in the book. It's different and makes for an awsome texture and taste. FoodMan's right, the pine nut crust really stands out, and works surprisingly well with the extremely delicate custard. (The last time I made it, whisking the sabayon made my shoulder hurt for three days.)I've also substituted lime for lemon, and added a wee bit of finely chopped zest to the sabayon with good results.

Four more for me: Michel Richard's Happy In The Kitchen, something by Ina Garten, Bouchon, and I Like You by Amy Sedaris.

We did a 4 rib, 8 pounder yesterday. Salt and pepper, then chucked it in a 500F convection for 20 minutes, then turned down to 300 and roasted to 120 degrees inside. Rested for 30 minutes. Medium on the very edges, shading to medium rare with one very rare slice in the center for my brother. Something for everyone. And excellent drippings for yorkshire pudding.

Use the port to poach pears and the generic fizz to make gelée.I can't help you with the German stuff. Maybe it makes good plant fertiliser?

What do you use it on? Truffle salt on poached eggs is one of my current obsessions.

I have asked for a tamis, a new chinoise, several cookbooks, new white everyday china, and a heather-purple dual fuel Aga with six burners and four ovens. I don't think Santa will be bringing the last one this year, unless we win the lottery.

Baleine comes in two varieties, gros and fin. I use the fine stuff for baking and cooking and the larger crystals from sprinkling. I am also partial to Halen Môn, a Welsh sea salt with large pure white crystals and Esprit du Sel, a gray fleur de sel from the Ile de Ré.

Maybe a lot of tourists find themselves at museum cafes? And not to nitpick, but there is a cafe at the Phillips Collection.

I don't think OCD is encroaching, nor the dreaded sin of being "girly". You should have seen the big rare steak I tucked into last night. But I had a fork & knife so everything was OK. And all bets are off when I'm cooking - Marlene has seen me at work. I agree with the poster above that this article was most likely a little bit cheeky.

A very spicy Dark & Stormy. Mmmmmm.

OK, someone has to admit it...I am fairly fastidious and never order anything messy in a restaurant. I hate getting my hands (and yes, my nails) dirty. That's not to say I would order a "just a salad" - it's the mess factor. I can't do it. Is that girly, or just OCD?

A cotes-du-rhone I brought to a friend's house not long ago. Good God it was awful.

Maybe someday we'll get a Harris Teeter in Silver Spring. They carry stuff I can't get anywhere else, and not just Southern products. We spent last weekend in Charlotte and I couldn't resist on a trip to the grocery store with my mom - we brought home 5 lbs. of White Lily, Mister Mustard, and a large Duke's Mayo. No Cheerwine though.

Used to be called Soho...I have no idea whether it still is. Good atmosphere but the coffee wasn't all that.