KatieLoeb

I'm looking for the Heimlich emoticon right now...

The leftover banana pudding that I'm having as my bedtime snack has been a huge hit with two of the kitties. They just won't leave me alone and are actually pulling the spoon to their own little mouths before I get any. We've found the thing that sets them off...

I somehow seriously doubt that you'd become belligerent and rude if the restaurant informed you that you'd brought an "offending" item into their space. Yes, she didn't wake up that morning setting out to purposefully piss off the vegetarians, but having been told that she'd brought something offensive (to them - and it's their space so they set the rules) into their dining area, she had the option of politely leaving the premises or politely asking their assistance in feeding her hungry child. Pretty straightforward from my perspective. Baby food might be the exception, but you just don't walk into a restaurant with your own food and drink. Period. It's unthinkable under any other circumstance. Why is this any different? And Suvir - it's so nice to read your incredibly erudite and universally gracious posts. You are a man who expresses himself with all that has gone into his perspective, and does so very eloquently. Thank you for your serene demeanor and global outlook. It's always an education for me.

Rachel: Although the meat was sauteed in two separate skillets, everything was mixed together in a gigantic bowl before getting spread into its respective trays. Perhaps you got a bite with a little blob of cinnamon that didn't break apart in the mixing? Or perhaps it was merely palate fatigue, as you suggested earlier. Could go either way, I guess. And where's a geek scientist when you need one? Calling Alton Brown!

Oh yeah!

Lauren: You beat me to the phone call girlie! Herb and I were just saying I should call and tell you about it! Please come with us! It'll be fun!

Jason: There are lots of varieties of Moussaka. Some are made with eggplant, some with potato, some with zucchini or any combinations thereof. We had discussed making pastitzio initially, before Gary started doing Atkins, but I figured if Gary did alot of the work, it would suck to not even try some, so we did pasta-free moussaka instead. Gary should get equal billing for helping shop and helping me cook. He also stored and transported the enormous trays. I had my leftovers for dinner tonight too. Like chili and stew, it's definitely better the second day. I'll try to downsize the recipe and I'll see if I can make it one more time at home, in "normal" proportions, and then I'll post the recipe with exact measurements. Basically there's no secret. Peel eggplants with "racing stripes", cut longways and salt and weigh down with a plate to extract the bitter juices. Rinse and pat dry. Brush with olive oil and broil the eggplant slices for about 4 minutes per side until lightly browned. Spray dish with olive oil cooking spray and dust with breadcrumbs. Add first layer of eggplant over crumbs. Saute chopped onions and ground lamb and ground turkey in a little butter until brown. Add tomato sauce, red wine and tomato paste. Season with a little salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. (Careful with the salt as the cheese tends to be quite salty) Simmer until liquid absorbs. Season with fresh chopped parsley and dried oregano. Let cool. Mix in grated cheese (I used a combo of ricotta salata and Pecorino Romano), breadcrumbs, and cinnamon (I use Penzey's Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon because it's really fragrant) Make a basic Bechamel sauce with flour, butter and hot milk. Cook until thickened and season with salt, white pepper and lots of fresh grated nutmeg. Temper beaten egg yolks with a little of the hot Bechamel sauce and then add back to remaining Bechamel. Layer meat sauce over eggplant, top with other half of broiled eggplant slices and then top with bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with more cheese. Bake at 350 until browned on top. That's it. It's really time consuming, but not terribly difficult if you know what I mean. Glad you liked it!

Around 70. we did get 70? cool. looked like less when i remember looking around. That's because at any given moment half the folks were down buying bread and cheese or looking at the chickens or the cows or playing with the kittens

Thanks to everyone for a glorious day! Our gracious hosts, our organized organizers, and everyone else for just being themselves and bringing some of the best potluck food I've ever had the pleasure of encountering. Great to see some of the folks I already knew, and a real treat to meet a lot of fun new people as well. EDICT: There will be no more mockery of jello molds. At least if Rachel is making them. I remain speechless with awe on that one. A jiggly work of art, that one.

Reading this thread caused me to go off on a book buying binge on Amazon.com. I purchased a copy of Making Sense of Wine for 64 cents! I also purchased both Andrea Immer books, Great Wine.. and Great Tastes Made Simple. I spent about $35.00 for all three and shipping costs. I need to start building up my personal wine library, if for no other reason than for creating staff training materials. Half.com also had some of the books mentioned at good prices if anyone is interested.

I hope everyone likes the Moussaka. There's enough for a small Third World nation cooling in Gary's fridge as I type. We made two full large disposable pans. It's a little lacking in height because the pans are so large (only ones they had with LIDS) but I did sneak a corner out of one to try it and it's quite tasty, if I do say so myself. Hey - I couldn't bring it if it wasn't good enough! This is a crowd with high standards! Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

The Windows on the World course is great. Andrea Immer is my hero. I want to be like Andrea. Her book is excellent. She's also a incredibly interesting drinking companion. I had the rare pleasure to be invited to meet her with a group of other women in the wine industry. A very interesting evening I will not soon forget. Matt Kramer's Making Sense of Wine. A classic.

You've utterly misunderstood me. I'm on your side. As a Food & Beverage Professional myself, I completely agree that Chefs like Mr. Bayless and yourself and many other hard working souls are absolutely Professionals. However, the fact remains that there exists a double standard both in the public and even amongst Food Professionals themselves that "creative types", be they artists, chefs, musicians or whatever, are somehow less "deserving" of the term "professional" than someone with a graduate degree in a "white collar" job. Everyone is so ready to jump on the artist as a "sell-out" or a "pimp" for trying to maximize their income, public notariety, family security, etc. Why? My previous example holds. Why is a chef that endorses a product (as long as they aren't TOTALLY lying about it) more of a sellout than the diet doctor or the high profile Court TV attorney? Chefs and other upper level managers in the food & beverage industry work incredibly long hours, often six or seven days a week, under incredibly stressful conditions. No nice offices, no fancy desks, no long payroll of administrative assistance under them, often no big fat benefits packages and few "perks". I would undoubtedly make more money as a cost accountant for a corporation of equivalent size and sales revenue in another industry, yet I continue to work in the restaurant industry. Why? Because I love it, it brings me great joy, and I wouldn't get to work with wine and food or see my ideas impact revenue in quite such a causal and quantifiable manner if I were counting widgets, that's why. So the green eyed monster rears it's head, or the resentment that might be barely contained comes out and people are quick to call the "Artist Professional" a sell-out because they have some ridiculous notion that creative people somehow have different needs than professionals with higher education that have to pass some sort of difficult exam to practice their profession. I can't think of anyone that would be upset at having some huge deep-pocketed corporation come knocking on their door with a fat check with lots of zeros at the end of it and ask them to endorse some product that they would seem to have some level of expertise about. Anyone that says otherwise is simply lying to themselves (and everyone else) and has a very over-onflated sense of self-righteousness. "No thanks. I'd rather wear a crown of thorns and keep my 'integrity', but I won't be able to send my children to college or retire eventually. I'll have to work until my dying day, but I'll die proud." Spare me. Make more sense now?

I'd certainly eat one if someone else was paying... And if they were paying me in addtion to buying the sandwich, that's just a bonus. Was Dr. Atkins "pimping" his medical research and knowledge when he wrote "The Atkins Diet"? Is Johnny Cochran or Mark Geragos a "sellout" to the entire legal profession? Why must creative people be punished or ridiculed for trying to make a living and provide for their families in the same type of income bracket as "professionals"??? Is it because CIA isn't Harvard Law or Wharton? This is just a bullshit double standard IMO, that's probably tainted with a little envy to boot.

David: The deal at Striped Bass turned into more of a tug-of-war between Dining Room Management and Kitchen Management. We cancelled it for tonight (Friday) because the only people signing up for it were the employees . That's pretty sad. Actually the idea that the employees can only afford to eat here if it's such a deal is even scarier. Next year I'm going to make certain we're either IN or OUT of Restaurant Week and stick with the original decision. Trying to please everyone makes for bad relations between the various factions in the restaurant. Glad you had a nice experience at Alma de Cuba. I have always enjoyed myself there. On a separate note, as soon as I get more of my own selections on the wine list here, I'll let you know so you can come in and check out the "Katie Selections by-the-glass". Found a ton of terrific products at the Winebow tasting in NYC yesterday. Lots of off-the-wall blends (a 50/50 Gavi-Fiano de Avellino that I know you'd love) and interesting, little known Italian varietals in particular. Looking forward to having a unique and interesting wine list here for a change. Too much predictability leads to bored guests and bored staff, I think.

Greg: I dont' think I know your family, but I know a lot of people like them I hope I didn't offend, but as I said, it just seems silly to me to do things that way. The idea of keeping kosher or adhering to vegetarianism is a religious/moral choice. It requires the ability to deny oneself of many of life's culinary pleasures based on something imbedded in your personal belief system. I know I don't check my beliefs at the door when I go out, so I just can't fathom how anyone could rationalize this and still be comfortable with it.

Rachel: We're baking Saturday for Sunday. Gary has a spare refrigerator in his garage to keep the pans until Sunday. He'll be bringing them with him I've seen versions of Moussaka with and without potatoes. Potatoes are a better carb than pasta, unless you're doing whole wheat pasta. I'll check into that.

Hi Ed: I'm wearing burgundy tweed trousers and a long wine-colored (duh - in case of spills!) sweater. Shoulder length auburn hair, about 5'7". I'll be with a stunning redhead and a petite brunette. It's the Chicks of Striped Bass Wine Tour - woo-hoo! Hope to see you (and anyone else that might be attending) there! Cheers, Katie

My bet is that you are not in the minority. I'm with you. Not too many wine professionals I know think it's the bomb either. Then again, we've been known to usually have a bottle or three in the cellar because someone wants to order it with their fish.

Actually, I think Gary and I are making Moussaka instead of pastitzio. He's doing Atkins and I just can't fathom doing all that work and not even being able to taste the end result. So no pasta in the eggplant dish. We'll be baking a couple of foil pans on Saturday afternoon. Will only need to be reheated slightly since by the time it arrives it will probably have warmed to ambient temperature.

Somewhere there existed pictures of me at about 3 years old, having plowed both hands totally into the birthday cake my mother had baked for my father. (Note: My mother was not a baker, nor did she like to follow recipes so this was a pretty big deal) There was frosting oozing up between my clenched little fingers, and frosting and cake all over the wall next to the kitchen table, all over my face, in my hair, etc. I never did take direction well...

Thanks Mark!! Excellent tip! It's always the "under-the-table" stash that's worth hunting down. I'm in the fortunate position of buying for three rather different properties, so the salespeople go out of their way to be nice and be my new best friend since it's a big account. Makes it easier for me to try the high end stuff without having to grovel for it.

Yeah - I've only heard and read great things about Darioush. I'm hoping they have a table at the Winebow tasting tomorrow. Really jazzed to try some of their products - particularly the Cab and the Viognier. Read great stuff about both of those...

Thanks Tommy! We have a new G.M. who real gung-ho and wants never to disappoint customers. A wonderful quality in my book. I realize the early hours of availability are sort of "geriatric" in nature, but this was the best compromise to both fill the seats and keep the other already-reserved clientele happy. No calls yet to my knowledge, but the phones get programmed to downstairs instead of my office after 9PM, so maybe I just didn't hear them.

I completely agree. Montelena is damned good. Always. I always like the Justin Vineyards (from Paso Robles) wines. Their "Isoceles" in the currently released 2000 vintage is 78% Cab Sauv; 19% Cab Franc; 3% Merlot. Pretty close to what can be labelled as Cab. Their "Justification" is Mostly Cab Franc with a little Merlot tossed into the mix. Both of these are HUGE wines, so I'd imagine their regular Cabernet offerings would be of similar weight and power. Arrowood is always pretty tasty to me too. Also quite consistent like the Montelena.