KatieLoeb

I don't think so Chris. It was still pretty softened even after a night in the freezer. I think I'll change the instructions to just spoon into a small container and freeze and use a spoonful instead of a slice. It wouldn't hold up to slicing already... Katie, I use browned butter in many applications where I want the butter to be firm -- just refrigerate after browning. If anything the browned butter is firmer than regular butter, because you've cooked most of the water out. If your mixture is soft, it's because of the sugar, not because of the butter. Thanks Janet. That makes sense in theory. Maybe I should use half browned butter and half cold butter and mix for a shorter amount of time with the electric mixer. I buzzed this in my little hand blender, so the idea of too much air, combined with the very moist brown sugar could make for a too "wet" end result. Doesn't matter much though, since it's just getting dolloped in and melted anyhow. I won't bother trying to roll it into a log again. I'll just put it into a small container and spoon it out.

French 75 for the Champagne cocktail. Absolutely.

Bob: You've not had pho before now?? For shame! One of the best bargains in the homey ethnic foods parade. I just love the stuff. It's practically medicinal when you have a head cold. All those delicious herbs and hot steamy broth makes you feel better post haste. Good stuff, pho is. You'll have to explore some more...

I don't think so Chris. It was still pretty softened even after a night in the freezer. I think I'll change the instructions to just spoon into a small container and freeze and use a spoonful instead of a slice. It wouldn't hold up to slicing already...

I've been working on a "holiday cocktail" at the urging of the folks at Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, the masterminds behind Sailor Jerry spiced rum and Root liqueur. I decided to create a hot toddy that incorporated both of their products and that would be easy enough to reproduce in a high volume commercial environment, even under the gun on a busy weekend night. Here's the end result: Hot Buttered Sailor 1.5 oz. Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum .75 oz. Root liqueur .5 oz. Grand Marnier Dash of bitters, either Angostura or Fee Brothers Old Fashioned or Aztec Chocolate bitters 2 strips of orange peel, removed with a vegetable peeler 4 oz. boiling water 1 Tbs. Spiced Brown sugar butter* 1 cinnamon stick for garnish *Spiced Brown Sugar Butter 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature 3/4 cup brown sugar 1 level tsp. Chinese Five Spice Cream butter with sugar in food processor or with electric hand mixer and add five spice powder until well incorporated and fluffy. Turn creamed butter out onto a sheet of wax paper and roll tightly into a 1" circumference log. Freeze until ready to use. Cut into 1/2" coins for serving. Add rum, Root liqueur, Grand Marnier and bitters to a heat proof mug or Irish Coffee mug. Twist orange peel strips and add to mugs. Top with boiling water. Add butter and stir with cinnamon stick until melted and well incorporated. Sip contentedly and feel warmed.

That's very sweet. You've definitely done a good deed. That young man was deeply effected by that dinner and he will undoubtedly remember it fondly for many years to come. Sometimes a budding foodie needs someone to push them out of their nest/comfort zone and make them flap their little birdie wings and soar. I'm sure every wonderful food experience Devan has in his life will be measured against the lovely Thanksgiving meal he shared amongst you and your friends.

Bummer. Our home girl chef from Philly is out of the running. I was sad to see Jennifer go. I guess that spoiler wasn't quite right. I think she still ought to throw a party. She made it pretty far in the competition and Philly is proud of her. You go Jennifer! Hold your head high. I think any one of the other chefs could have gotten the boot tonight. I think a slightly salty goat cheese salad is a far lesser transgression than serving slimy egg whites, but maybe that's just me. Sending out anything less than a perfectly cooked egg at this stage of the competition should be axe worthy...

I made a Manhattan with a bit of the Cinnamon Chai tea-infused vermouth from Phil Ward's Mother's Ruin Punch recipe. Served with brandied cherries. A righteous libation indeed.

The sun goes down at like 5:45pm these days. Doesn't even have to be that late...

Baron: Wow. Most impressive. A meal camera ready for the centerfold of any magazine food porn spread. Really gorgeous. Well done. I learned a lesson this year. I need to label the containers of different cranberry sauces. Seems the kid's table ended up with the spicy Cranberry-Jalapeno sauce that had uncooked tequila in it. Whoops. They all loved it though, and slept quite well into the next morning too.

I agree with all that's been stated so far. My mother would roll over in her grave if I ever dared to show up anywhere empty handed, but I tend to check with my hosts first about bringing wine. If they're amenable to me helping to play sommeliere for the evening, then we'll discuss the menu in advance and I'll bring something appropriate that's expected to be opened and served with at least one of the courses of the dinner. Otherwise, I'd rather show up with flowers, a dessert, or more often than not, some sort of cocktail/punch for the evening. It's always best to play to your strengths, as well as respect your host's abilities to do exactly that - HOST. Andrew is correct. Most often the folks that are bringing super special wine are only doing it to draw attention to themselves. Whether or not it pairs with dinner has nothing to do with expecting compliments on their good taste and fabulous wine procurement skills.

I've made a whole roast goose several times and found it no more or less daunting than roasting a duck. They're both rather greasy birds, and there will be loads of fat in the bottom of the pan when you're done regardless of which bird you choose. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. :shrug: That being said, I've had good luck gently separating the skin from the meat (think Peking duck) and then pricking small holes throughout with a carving fork to allow the fat to drain out as it cooks. Definitely up on a rack above some water so no danger of an oven fire. If you want to save the fat later (yes - you do) you can strain it through a gold coffee filter and then put it in the freezer. The fat will congeal on top and the water will freeze on the bottom. There's really nothing better than a traditional Bavarian meal of roast goose with braised red cabbage, apples and caraway seeds on the side. It's not something you'll try anywhere but in someone's home, so that makes it a more interesting meal than something that would be served in a restaurant. JMO of course...

The egg whites for a Ramos are most definitely adding a meringue-like texture and lightness to the drink if they've been properly dry shaken first by themselves (preferably with the spring from a Hawthorne strainer in the shaker with them) and then had the rest of the ingredients incorporated. My guess is that there's some cooking logic mixed in here with cocktail logic, which seem to be two quite different things. I think it's best to think about the end result for a drink that will sit on a bar for as long as it takes for someone to drink it, as opposed to the conventional wisdom of "thinking like a chef" and treating the egg whites as if they were going into angel food cake or meringue cookies. Meringue is a foam. The foam is a collection of proteins trapping tiny air bubbles. Getting even so much as a speck of egg yolk in with your whites when making meringue will keep the whites from achieving maximal volume. For cocktails, fresher eggs are better because stability is more important than volume in the final product. For cooking, maximal volume is preferred over stability so the thinner whites of several day old eggs are preferable. Cocktail bars tend to keep their eggs refrigerated and can't wait half an hour for the whites to come to room temperature while a customer is waiting for their drink. Colder whites don't whip up as high as room temperature whites. I believe both the practical aspects of using fresh eggs behind a bar as well as the purely mechanical aspects of making drinks containing egg whites are at issue here, as well as some plain old confusion.

Marlene: Glad you're still enjoying that sauce. It's always a great addition to the table and everyone seems to like it, children and adults both. My batch this year came out particularly thick and delicious. I've begun adding a bit of unflavored gelatin to the pot (about half an envelope to a batch with four bags of cranberries) at the beginning of the process and am liking the results. Keeps it from being runny. I think I might try making a mold of it next year and see if that works.

Sometimes when they've really earned it, the bus backs up and goes forward over and over again... Greg I'm in complete agreement with you about the rookie level treatment/decision making/management here. Truly astonishing. How can you even open the doors if that's how you intend to treat people? Even if it's just the one table, how do you explain it away in your head? I can't imagine being that rude to paying guests even if they were unruly and high maintenance. There's just no parallel universe in which the scenario described can coexist with being in the "hospitality" business. None.

On a separate note, I made some Peach-Apricot tea infused bourbon for Thanksgiving cocktails. The bourbon is really good. I got a few tea samples from my local tea shop where I buy the Cinnamon Chai tea I'm currently infusing into sweet vermouth for the Mother's Ruin punch on the menu at the restaurant. The Peach-Apricot tea was meant for commercial use as an iced tea batch. But since we already have a tea service at work that management is happy with, I brought them home to mess around with. Each bag is good for a gallon of water. I used it to infuse a 1.75L bottle of Evan Williams by heating up a tiny bit of the bourbon in the microwave and soaking the tea bag in it for about 5 minutes. Then I added the rest of the bottle and let it sit for about 1.5 hours and removed the tea bag. I strained the bourbon back into the bottle through a gold coffee filter and added a split vanilla bean. Next day I added just 1/4 cup of spiced simple syrup to round it out and mask any hint of bitterness or tannins that might have come from the tea. I took a small sample in to work that evening and test drove it on some of my co-workers. It was a hit all around. Best iteration was most definitely in a julep. I made a batch of mint simple syrup to make insta-juleps and not tie myself to muddling all afternoon Thursday. But I think it'll be well received. I'll report back on any other cocktail creations that ensue...

I'm in charge of bringing Thanksgiving cocktails, two different cranberry sauces and a lower fat healthy dessert for those of us on prescribed diets. Cranberry Orange Sauce with Grand Marnier Cranberry Jalapeno relish with tequila Peach Blackberry Clafouti made with lowfat yogurt and served with fat free whipped topping Peach-Apricot Tea infused bourbon - to be had on the rocks, as juleps, as Manhattans or mixed with Ginger ale as anyone wishes.

Chris: Here's a recipe for a spiced simple I've used in the past. I generally let it cool overnight and then strain it, so as to allow the spices to steep for as long as possible and extract maximal flavor. Spiced Dark Simple Syrup 1.25 cups water 3 cinnamon sticks, broken up 4 star anise 10 whole cloves 1/4 teaspoon red chile flakes 1 cup demerara sugar (I use Trader Joe's organic) Bring water to a boil and add spices. Allow to boil for three minutes. Add sugar, stir to dissolve and allow to simmer for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and allow to cool. Strain before using. This recipe tends to change from time to time as well. I've added a couple of cardamom pods, black or pink peppercorns, some allspice berries, whatever. But this is the skeleton I work from most of the time. It works well with white granulated sugar too, I just like what the darker sugar brings to the party.

Recently had the pleasure of tasting the Eagle Rare 17 year old as well as some other fine examples of the genre at the 2009 Philadelphia Whiskey Festival. Here's a list of what was available for tasting that evening. Pretty heavy duty lineup. I tried to stick to the bourbons and ryes with a few exceptions made for high end tequilas and a few other outliers. Pretty ridiculous lineup of scotch as well, if that's your thing. Lots of fine bourbons to be had. Got to see Fred Noe (of Jim Beam) again, who is one of the most interesting characters in the business of making bourbon as well as a heck of a fun fellow. Fred did a bourbon tasting for the staff at Striped Bass awhile back, and I've seen him a few times since. He's always the life of the party and is always happy to remake anyone's acquaintance. Must be fun to be him.

Knock yourself out with the blood ridden soup. They do the cubes of blood at Viet Huong, and when I order it there, I just ask for no blood. Even just a few cubes make the whole bowl taste like sucking on a paper cut to me. :shudder: Makes my blood run cold. But if you like it, get down with your bad vampire self. For the record, I do eat almost everything, but the flavor of blood is one of those few things that skeeve me badly.

Wow. This just gets better and better (or worse and worse, depending on your perspective). They don't even know the preparations on their own stinking menu and then bring you two slices of cold cheese as a way of making it up to you??? Astonishing on so many levels I don't even know which one to address first... As I said, they'll be out of business in no time. Lightning should strike the place and restore the karmic balance of the universe before these buffoons can serve another patron with that level of arrogance and inhospitable attitude.

Wow. That's pretty high level rotten treatment of a paying guest. I can't even believe that they have so little sense as to make a paying guest leave to seat (likely) comped family members. I was always under the impression that employees and family should un-ass the chairs if paying guests arrive, not the other way around. I wouldn't worry. With decision making skills like that they ought to be out of business in no time.

By your own admission it's just a guess, right? Perhaps the waitress did pass along your observations and the chef chose to ignore them. Wouldn't be the first chef that couldn't handle some constructive criticism. I'm not advocating sending a registered letter with a suggestion. There's only so many hours in the day and we're all busy people. But certainly if you say NOTHING then nothing will happen to improve the situation. It's kind of like the lottery. You can't win if you never buy a ticket. I get your frustration, but avoiding confrontation at all costs just because you think no good will come of it isn't the answer either. Well directed and well mannered suggestions should be greeted with thanks from management, not disdain. Perhaps I've been fortunate enough to be employed by folks that take this sort of stuff seriously, but I can't imagine any competent restaurant manager ignoring a valid criticism or suggestion from a patron that wasn't rude about it. As for the "voluntary" nature of gratuiies, I've ranted on that topic in other threads and needn't go into it here. Those who have pointed out that most servers/bartenders make far less than minimum wage are correct. I personally make $2.83/hr. I defy anyone to try and meet their monthly mortgage payment if the vast majority of their salary were left up to the "kindness of strangers". Yet hundreds of thousands of dedicated professionals in the restaurant industry do so every day. 'Nuff said.

So she said yes?? Where'd they eventually end up? Was it all that they/you had hoped it to be? You can't pick our brains and then not share the details. Spill! We want the whole story...