hjshorter

Fifi, have you read Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond? It offers a much more detailed (and fascinating) discussion of the rise of agriculture and animal domestication. I also enjoyed Margaret Visser's The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners.

You just sold me on the Nalgene. One of the things I hate about bottled water is the plastic taste. I drink a lot of fluids, usually 2-3 glasses of water or whatever during my meals, and water frequently during the day. Like Malawry, it helps my asthma and allergies. Whenever I have a headache, I drink a glass of water. Usually it will go away. If it doesn't go away then I go ahead and take tylenol. One of the pluses to keeping well hydrated is that it reduces the risk of premature labor when you're pregnant. I learned that they hard way.

I never understood Whole Foods to be a "health food" store. Products containing sugar were available at our local Bread & Circus. It was labeled as "evaporated cane juice" or Florida crystals. Whole Foods has more oragnic options, and we can get crackers there that don't contain partially hydrogenated oils. Our Whole Foods carries wild salmon when available, usually more than one variety. The farm raised stuff is labled Icelandic. The wild salmon is usually priced at $14.99/lb. The farmed is $8.99 or $9.99/lb.

So what did you do with the browned beef? We made chili. So people, duck or fish next time?

No, I haven't. Let me see if my library has it. Varmint, you get to stay after school and help clean the erasers. I did not complete the assignment myself. We got as far as browning the beef and assembling the ingredients, then lost the will to go on. Next menu will be less time consuming. Sole Muniere anyone?

I love that stuff. And the sour cherry might be even better. I was eyeing the sour cherry, but the lemonade won out. The peach tasted really good - wonder if there's a source for these juices somewhere around here?

That's great, Jason. Neither local PBS station has seen fit to pick up his show. East Meets West was one of FTV's better offerings, and I'm curious to check this one out too.

Thanks for the head's up. We've already come to the conclusion that we will be eating this menu tomorrow night after starting it today.

Emma and I stopped by for lunch today, after taking in a matinee of Dragon Tales Live. Kudos to the staff for seating us like regular folks and not hiding us off in some kid purgatory. We ordered drinks, sour fizzy lemonade for me (seriously refreshing) and peach nectar for Emma. Quote from Emma: "This is beautiful. This is some restaurant!" We shared the Shish Taouk, cheese and zucchini fritters, green beans stewed with garlic and tomatoes, and hummus. Everything was delicious, although the fritters were a tad underseasoned. I believe Emma managed to eat her weight in hummus. We couldn't leave without ordering one of Steve's desserts, so I had a sweet Turkish coffee and the Turkish Coffee Chocolate, and Emma had a bowl of the yogurt sorbet, which she loved. I would love to duplicate that at home. The cardamom espuma on the TCC was unbelievable. This is very kid friendly food, and the place is large and busy enough that well-behaved children shouldn't be an issue for other diners. I wouldn't hesitate to take her back.

Grilled burgers, with a slice of Maytag Blue and dijon mustard. Butter lettuce salad with vinaigrette. Some Shiraz that tastes like diluted jam. Bleah. Never buying that again. Halloween cupcakes for dessert. Almond Joys as a bedtime snack.

Convinced by what? Is there any way to know for sure? And how do you know he would have announced it in his opening missive?

Is that weird? I always do that. I also have my master grocery list on my desktop, sorted by category/aisle. Maybe I am a nutcase.

Nice! Welcome to the dinner thread, Pleiades.

Hm, I missed that part. That does sound a little Howard Hughes-like.

Are you Howard Hughes' daughter? What is this business of being afraid of "double-dipping" and "germ infested saliva"? Do your dining companions all have exotic diseases that can be transmitted by "double-dipping"? Have you never shared a common glass or bottle with friends? Or even strangers? It did say that the double dipper had a cold. I'd be a little put out myself.

The risotto thing sounds delicious! Seth, I'm glad your book arrived. Did you get my PM? I went looking for ANWTC in paperback but was unsuccessful.

Roasted chard (from the article) sounds pretty good, and I won't be using the oven for anything else. There was gorgeous rainbow chard at the market the other day.

Malawry delivered some decorated Halloween cookies, and stayed for a chaotic lunch in the Shorter house. We had tuna salad, with chopped onions, cornichons, celery & Duke's mayo, on toast schmeared with dijon mustard. Garnished with leaves of butter lettuce. Blackcurrant nectar cut with water. I finished up with about six of the cookies that Malawry brought over.

No chard recipe in J&J, but you're right Erin, it would be good with the rest of the menu.

Green veggie of choice? I thought we were doing the glazed carrots & turnips. I thought that might be too starchy, and we did a green salad last week. The dessert and stew will be time consuming, so I was going for simplicity in the sides.

Sounds good. Can you share the recipe? Sure thing! It's got cloves too, really really delicious. I'll find it and put it in the recipe archive.

THanks for the update. We should make an effort to have significant eGullet representation there on opening day.

I usually find pumpkin cheesecake to be less than the sum of its parts. The cranberries were tart enough to cut through the richness, and as I recall there was lemon in some form in it too, juice or zest.

My husband and my brother have decided to deep fry a turkey this year. I have no idea what's got into them. The rest of the menu will probably be pretty traditional. I have no idea how many people will be here, so we haven't even started thinking about sides and desserts. Two things that will definitely be on the table are creamed caramelized onions, and cranberry/dried cherry compote.

Bummer, Chad. If I can find either used I'd pick up a copy for you too.