mags

I have to admit I did wonder about that

I don't think you need to worry about the sauce "cooking" the pasta, but if you are worrying, just let the sauce cool to room temperature before you combine it with the pasta. Then stick the whole pan in the fridge. It will be fine to slice the mozz, put it on top, cover the whole thing with plastic wrap, and let it sit overnight. Take the pan out of the fridge at least an hour before you plan to stick it in the oven. This will allow it to come up to room temperature, and it will cook more evenly than if it were going straight into the oven from the fridge.

I agree with Rachel on the Polly-O mozz, but I would not put out cheese as a before-dinner nibble -- lasagne is already a cheese-fest. I'd stick to salami. And sure, put out a plate of Triscuits or Wheat Thins next to the salami. Or Carr's Water Biscuits if you wanna get fancy. You don't need plates for the salami -- people can eat it on crackers or just by the slice. If it's by the slice, it's strictly a one-bite deal, so they won't need plates. Personally, I would still opt for pie for dessert, if only because it's a bit more festive than fruit salad, plus you can just buy the sucker, rather than having something else to make.

Helen, this is just so interesting. I suspect you're a much better Japanese cook than most women who grew up there. How did you learn to....make all the pickles, make your own mixo (!), create a bento box?

I'm waiting for Tommy to post the conversation about a royale with cheese from Pulp Fiction.

Rachel, these people don't deserve to eat. They certainly don't deserve to eat your handmade lasagne! Okokok, you have to feed them. The following are just my suggestions. Drinks and snacks beforehand: I would lay in a bottle of wine -- maybe one each, red and white, just in case your mother-in-law drinks or your father-in-law has fallen off the wagon. Otherwise, lemonade is a great idea (buy it), and iced tea is also nice at this time of year (make it in the morning, make sure you have at least two trays' worth of ice and sugar in a bowl, for people who want to sweeten it). Buy some sliced salami and lay it out on a plate on the coffee table (or wherever people will hang out before they sit down to dinner), along with a small bowl of olives. It's nice to have several different kinds of olives, and it's nicer still to marinate them overnight -- PM for a simple recipe, if you want -- but even one kind straight from a jar is fine. If you can get some kind (or kinds) of olives other than the little green ones stuffed with pimento, that would be great; those don't really taste of much besides brine. Also, I would avoid the black olives in a can; they really don't have much taste at all. Along with the salami and olives, put out a second small bowl (for the olive pits) and a small pile of napkins, so people can wipe their fingers. Also, if your coffee table is wood, people can put their glasses down on the napkins, to avoid leaving water-rings on the table. You can put together the lasagne the night before and just stick it in the oven in time for it to be ready for dinner. Bechamel really isn't hard, but if you're nervous, you can practice beforehand; cut the quantities in the recipe by 75% and make a little pan of the stuff. You'll be making such a small quantity that you really won't be wasting much stuff, and if you make it once or twice you'll get a sense of how it works. You can either cut the lasagne in portions in the kitchen and bring out the plates -- people can ask you for seconds, if they want them -- or you can bring the pan out to the table. If you bring it out, you'll need some kind of trivet to protect the table from the hot pan; you should be able to buy a couple cheaply at a hardware store, maybe even at WalMart. You'll need both a knife to cut the lasagne and a big serving spoon or fork to serve the pieces. This is an informal meal, so my inclination would be to serve the salad with the lasagne, though others may disagree. To serve it at the table, you'll need a salad fork and a salad spoon. Lasagne can be runny, so it would be good to have separate salad plates (people can also use them for bread), if you have them. If not, it ain't the end of the world. A plain lettuce salad is FINE; if you want to get a bit fancier, you could buy a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drain them, cut the hearts into quarters, and toss them with the salad. To deal with the bread, the simplest thing to do would be to get a loaf of Italian or French bread, and either have the bakery slice it or slice it yourself, right before dinner, then pile the slices on a plate or in a little basket, if you've got one. Put a stick of butter on a plate (take the butter out of the fridge an hour before dinner), and put that on the table as well, with its own knife. Buying a pie is great; you might want to get a pint of vanilla ice cream to go with it (this being a celebratory dinner and all). Put the ice cream in the fridge when you serve the lasagne. You can either dish up pie and ice cream in the kitchen or bring them to the table. Me, I think I would opt for the kitchen, if only because there really isn't any easy way to disguise the ice cream's "carton" shape. If the pie looks nice, though -- if it looks homemade -- you might consider taking it out of the store's foil pie plate, plopping it in your own pie plate (if you have one -- otherwise don't sweat it), and puting it out on the sideboard so your guests will see it when they arrive. Then you can just bring it into the kitchen to cut and serve. Remember that you'll need dessert plates (if necessary, you can quickly wash and dry the salad plates) and also forks and spoons (for the ice cream). With the pie you'll want to serve coffee (you should have milk or half-and-half available, even though you don't drink it -- just buy a pint). Ice tea or hot tea are also nice alternatives; in any case, you'll need sugar in a bowl, and each person will need his/her own spoon Then shove the momsers out the door and tell'em to come back in another 10 years!

Ohhhh, Gifted Gourmet, I LOVE the Shel Silverstein! That's wonderful.

I'm going to borrow some advice from others, Laurie Colwin in particular: BUY THINGS. There is NO shame in buying a wonderful dessert -- a fruit tart, ice cream and cookies (if you insist, you can make a little fruit sauce for the ice cream), etc. -- plenty of good cooks do it all the time. The only secret is getting good stuff: By and large, you'll be better off with a bakery than with the bakery section of a supermarket, and look for a bakery in the expensive part of town. Also, premium ice cream (Ben & Jerry's, Hagen-Daz, etc.) really is better than the supermarket stuff. With some fresh fruit -- berries would be good -- or fudge sauce, people will be in heaven. Also, buy appetizers. Olives (get them from a bin at a gourmet store or ethnic market, rather than in jars) are swell, cheese (go to a cheese store or someplace where there's an actual cheese-guy who can help you), salami, smoked salmon if you can afford it, prosciutto, hummus with cut-up vegetables to dip (most markets sell those, as well). All of that stuff is delicious, everybody loves it, and nobody will think less of you for serving store-bought stuff. That just leaves you with a salad and a main course. I would recommend the CrockPot here -- what you want to do is minimize, as much as possible, the amount of last-minute fussing you need to do. A standard stew might feel too wintery, especially for July 4 weekend, but chicken or spareribs slow-cooked in a good BBQ sauce -- I can give you a recipe, if you want, or there may be one on RecipeGullet -- might feel more seasonal. Throw in some coleslaw (either made the day before or -- gasp -- BOUGHT), some fresh corn, rolls or cornbread (Jif is fine, so is bought or Pillsbury frozen), a platter of sliced tomatoes with a dribble of olive oil and salt and pepper...that would be a seriously wonderful dinner that would leave you relaxed. Get a blueberry pie and some good vanilla ice cream, and your guests will be blissed out. Or take others' suggestions.

Another semi-lazy dinner: Giant chef's salad with romaine, tomatoes, avocado, sheep's-milk cheese, grilled chicken thighs marinated with lemon juice, olive oil, and basil, and Snowangel's Divorce Salad Dressing.

"We have a lot in common. We both like soup." (Jennifer Coolidge in Best in Show)

i think people will always talk louder into a cell phone, or at least for a while after technology makes it unnecessary (although i think an argument could be made that it's not necessary even at this point). it will take years for that to change. it's new, it's human nature, it's tough to get around. the more aware of us are cognizant of our volume...most of the time. <happily peeing on Tommy's pants> <believe me, if I were able to aim that well, it would indeed be new technology>

The worst case of cell-phone abuse I encountered was a few years ago, when I was walking down the street followed by a guy who was having a loud conversation with what had to be either his mother or his gastro-enterologist, since nobody else in the world could possbly have been interested in the number of times he had vomited over the previous week, or the color, texture, and aroma of the vomit in question. I know I wasn't.

Part of my point was that cell-phone conversations should not BE conversations, unless the speaker stands no chance of inflicting that conversation on other people. As for their being hushed, when you are inconveniencing others -- when you have to squeeze sqeeze through a row of seated movie-watchers to get back to your seat after a run to the popcorn stand, for example -- do you make any effort to minimize the inconvenience you're causing? Or do you just push past, stepping on toes, hailing your friend with victorious abandon, spraying the assembled throng with chewed bits of popcorn and dribbles of Diet Coke? The point is to take care of what you need to do -- get back to your seat, tell your friend you'll be half an hour late, whatever -- while causing the least possible inconvenience to the folks around you.

you have a "right" to not be annoyed? if the person on the phone isn't in your group i suggest you exercise that right and get on with your meal. Absolutely, Tommy. And next time I see you sitting quietly, reading or chatting with a friend or simply watching the day go by, I will blast my choice of music -- I'm thinking something from an Up With People compilation, or maybe the Little Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas album -- top volume. Because, after all, what I want to do is the only think that counts, and the fact that you are sharing my space -- maybe because you're in the middle of a meal, or because you're in the same subway car, or even because you are walking down the street with the assanine assumption that nobody will be so rude and self-absorbed as to inflict their personal choices on everybody else in the vicinity -- anyway, the fact that you are sharing my space will be just tough darts. So you don't feel that anyone has any obligation of courtesy toward the people around them, at least as regards cell-phone use (and, from an earlier thread, the use of flash-cameras in restaurants). Do you feel there is any obligation of courtesy whatsoever? If I feel like merrily peeing on your trousers, can I do so, or do you have a "right" to sit in a restaurant/walk down the street without being sprinkled with others' effluvia? If, while you're sunk in conversation in a restaurant, I feel like repeatedly screaming "MUSHROOM!!!!" in your left ear, may I do so? Or do I have some kind of obligation to refrain?

I would have no problem with cell-phone users if they confined they conversations to "What kind of bread do you want?" or "I'll be an hour late, please wait for me," or "I'm slammed at work and can't make dinner" -- all spoken, of course, in hushed tones that recognize that the speaker is forcing his/her conversation on the ears of bystanders who have been given no choice in the matter. That, it seems to me, is exactly what cell phones were designed to do, and it's an excellent service. I feel very different, however, about cell-phone users who embark on long, often shrieking conversations without the slightest recognition that other people exist, and might prefer not to be privy to the hillarious details of what Phoebe said to Allison, or the fact that the speaker is "on the corner of 53rd Street, and I'm heading toward that place where we had, you know, that veal thing, and it made Damian so sick, you remember? and he was blowing chunks for, like, days, it was hysterical." This behavior strikes me as just breathtakingly rude. Beyond rude, actually. I pretty much think offenders should be shot.

From the Korean ladies who also have the great kimchi and the wonderful "spicy mix" salad? I need me some spicy mix.

Andrew, this is absolutely brilliant! I hope you don't mind if I borrow the technique.

Well, I got taken for dinner to a pricey boite that I didn't like much, EXCEPT for the smoked edemame in butter sauce, which was pretty much the side-dish of my fantasies. I keep meaning to write to the restaurant and ask for the recipe.

Rachel, GOOD FOR YOU!!! Don't get me wrong -- I love recipes. I use recipes lots. But to a large extent, cooking is chemistry, and once you get an idea of its basic laws, you can make recipes work for you, accommodate your tastes and what you've got in the fridge. (And then you can start playing with the laws and figuring out which ones you can break...but I'm not really there yet.) The reason your chili was hotter than you had expected is that when you cook stew or soup (and chili is just stew, right? ground-meat stew), you evaporate some of the water. This evaporation is what thickens the mixture, but it also concentrates the flavors. Which makes sense, from a purely logical POV: If, before cooking down, spicy stuff represents X% of the total volume of your mix, after you get rid of some of the water, the spicy stuff will represent more than X% As for it's being very tomato-y...well, you did use a lot of tomato, one way or another. Also, I suspect that the sherry helped underline the sweetness of the tomatoes; next time red wine might bring out the acidity in a way you might like better. The only reason I say this is that when I cook with sherry it's almost always in the context of Asian foods, which typically have slightly sweetened sauces. Also, you will vastly boost the yum-power of your cumin if you start with whole cumin seeds (rather than the pre-ground stuff), toast them LIGHTLY in a small, non-stick pan (without any added oil) until they smell good, and then grind them yourself in either a spice grinder or (what I use) a small mortar-and-pestle arrangement. Remember that the ground stuff will take up less space than the whole seeds, so if you're following a recipe that calls for 1/2 a teaspoon, say, you want to toast MORE than half a teaspoon of seeds.

What about something like a coffee cup filled with cold blueberry soup, garnished with a quenelle of raspberry sorbet and a dollop of whipped cream? Or just a strawberry garnish, if the sorbet is too fussy/melty. Or white chocolate mousse layered in parfait glasses with blueberries and raspberry puree, with star-shaped cookies on the side.

Pulled pork with (don't flinch) homemade low-carb BBQ sauce and homemade low-carb cole slaw.

I had a friend who used to call with the same questions. Only he was on one of those weird food-combining diets, so the questions were always along the lines of "For dinner I can have sardines, prunes, a tablespoon of spelt flour, and all the kelp I want. What should I make?" I would typically tell him to throw it all in the blender, throw the blender in a dumpster and call out for Chinese. This is much more fun. Rachel, to be honest, I have never -- for whatever reason -- had any luck making spaghetti carbonara. I don't mind the raw eggs, but they always taste horrid when I make it. If you're not into the raw eggs, you can use the exact same ingredients -- bacon, eggs, pasta, plus onion and/or peas, if you like, with some grated parm on top -- and just fry the egg lightly, keeping the yolk liquid. Dump it onto the pasta with the other stuff, and mix it all up, breaking the egg into bits with your fork. Do be aware that the turnip "chips" won't turn out crisp, they won't be like french fries. However, you can use turnips almost anyplace you'd use potatoes. In fact, they're very nice half-and-half with potatoes, in a gratin like Rees suggested, or mashed, or roasted with olive oil and some fresh herbs. Oh, and just out of curiosity: How many ingredients are in the recipe for the "faux Chicken Marbella"?

I think these ideas are terrific. I'd throw in Cottage Pie, which is a classic Brit working-person's dinner that will accommodate much. Brown the ground chuck in a bit of oil, using a wooden spoon to break up the clumps. Remove it from the pan (you may want to drain it, to get rid of some of the fat -- chuck can be fatty), and use the fat left in the pan (with or without a little extra olive oil) to brown some chopped onion and garlic -- you can throw in chopped scallion here as well, if you need to use them up. When the onions etc. are brown, deglaze the pan with some of that red wine. (Pour in a slug of the wine, turn the heat up under the pan, and as the liquid comes to a boil, use your wooden spoon to scrape up the tasty brown goo on the bottom of the pan. It will dissolve into the wine and give it great flavor, and this yummy-flavored wine will then be absorbed by the onions.) Return the meat to the pan, add some canned tomatoes if you like (after squishing them into bits with your fingers -- don't add too much of the juice), and the frozen peas. I'd add a little fresh thyme here as well (because I love it). (Strip the leaves off the stalks and add just the leaves.) Stir it all up, toss in some salt and freshly ground black pepper, cover the pan, turn the heat to medium-low, and let it all simmer together. WHile the meat is simmering, use the Yukon Golds to make mashed potatoes with butter -- don't make them TOO too rich, but try to get rid of the lumps. (You can peel the spuds or not, as you like.) Taste the meat. It might need more salt and pepper. If it's watery, take the top off and let it cook down for a few minutes, which will thicken it up -- you want it pretty much the texture of chili. Throw in some chopped parsley. Very lightly grease a casserole dish or pie pan. Once you like the consistency of the meat mixture, put it into the dish, and cover it all over with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle a good handful of the grated cheddar over the potatoes, and stick the dish into an oven, heated to 350. Check after 10 or 15 minutes -- the cheese should have melted. To brown the cheese and crip the potatoes, stick the dish in the broiler for a few minutes. This would probably also be good if you substituted fresh basil for the thyme and parsley, and grated parmesan for the cheddar. Also, if you don't want to use tomatoes, you could flavor the meat with some Worcestershire sauce instead -- go easy, that stuff is strong! These directions are totally off the top of my head, and I'm sure others here can make some helpful modifications. But they should produce something reasonably tasty and recognizable as dinner. Oh, and to use those turnips? Peel them, slice them into 1/4" slices, toss with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper, and roast them in a 400-degree oven, tossing them fairly frequently (every 10 minutes) until they start to get brown around the edges. They will taste very much like sweet potatoes, and would make a nice, semi-starchy compliment to braised pork, steak, roast chicken thighs, or burgers. You could even chop them up and add them to your fried rice.

Moved to Challenge thread

Isn't that interesting, Jason. They give you any idea as to where they buy it?