KatieLoeb

Never tried it that way, but what you're saying is certainly logical about the par-baking. Not sure about how it would work. If you try this method, definitely report back. The water content of the potatoes only matters if the recipe you're using doesn't take it into account. But you could probably do what JFLinLA suggests and just use a colander or big old strainer. I just like cheesechoth because you can SQUEEZE it and really get the water out. And I have some in the house. If you don't, then that's a whole 'nother issue and I can totally understand not wanting to go on a search for some tomorrow. On a separate note, here a pic of tonight's charoset after preparation: The recipe for this is HERE in RecipeGullet. This years version is a little chunkier than the photo in RecipeGullet, that was kindly taken and provided by Jason Perlow. I was lucky to find some untainted pistachio nuts this year, or it wouldn't have tasted the same! I really love this recipe and always make extra because someone wants to take some home.

Robyn: Definitely use the shredder blade. Then squeeze everything through cheesecloth or it'll be too watery. The start up makings for either latkes OR potato kugel. Your choice...

I can't believe no one's posted in this thread yet about this year's feast preparations. I guess I'll have to be the first.... This year, by dear friend and former college roommate (with whom I've been celebrating Passover for at least 20 years!) is hosting the seder at her home. Her sweet mom isn't feeling up to playing hostess with the mostest this year as she's two weeks out from a hip replacement surgery. My friend is not one who cooks and entertains frequently, so there's been a bit of stressing out about the seder this year. Her last email missive had the subject line "Seder Masochism". The seder is going to be small, just six of us, and also vegetarian to accomodate her brother's eating habits. In addition to my usual contribution of horseradish and charoset, I'm in charge of the matzoh balls for the soup this time. I made them tonight. In a momentary lapse of reason, I decided to separate the eggs and whip the whites to make for lighter and fluffier matzoh balls. I also got lazy and decided to put a small handful of parsley in the Magic Bullet along with the egg whites to save myself chopping it up by hand. Unfortunately, the egg whites and chopped parsley turned the matzoh ball batter entirely GREEN!! The matzoh balls, however, were indeed light floaters and I had one in some vegetable broth as a little reward for finishing the cooking tonight. Here's what the final result looked like: Doesn't look quite as green in the photo, but it is indeed, a pretty shade of light and speckled green. I guess that works for vegetarian soup. And includes some of the symbolic greens in a lightly salted broth, so that works on another level as well. Not sure I'd ever repeat this mistake, but it worked, so I'm not going to complain.

Another vote for Distrito. And if he really likes sushi, take him to Fuji in Haddonfield. Better than Morimoto and will arrange a kick ass omakase for you with appropriate notice. Sit right at the bar and have Chef Matt Ito take you through your meal. That would impress anyone...

...this year's entry into the horseradish annals... It's pretty potent this time! I peeled the beets first and cubed them up small and then roasted them after reading about the technique in a New York Times article. Definitely made them cook faster and get more carmelized. Cubed up the root, shredded it and then pulsed it with the food processor blade along with water, salt vinegar and about 2/3 cup of roasted beet cubes. Great color and flavor this batch. The rest of the roasted beets made for a nice snack... I stumbled across this website from the Horseradish Information Council that has a ton of fabulous recipe suggestions on it. There are some really interesting sounding dips and sauces in there I'll likely be trying with the small batch of white unadulterated horseradish I made after the batch pictured above.

Philly's own version of the dreaded Bridge & Tunnel crowd.

Parking rates at the garage are definitely up to $4. That's what I paid earlier this afternoon while on a Passover grocery run. Iovine's and OK Lee both came through for me with $1 grab bags of apples, pears, green and yellow zucchini, peppers and lemons that saved me a bundle. The nice young man at Iovine's created a "soup starter" bag for me, when they didn't have the ones like at the supermarket. A big onion, two huge carrots, three ribs of celery, a couple of parsnips and several sprigs of dill for $1.99!! Now that's customer service! Treated myself to a small matzoh ball soup and half a pastrami sandwich at Herschel's for lunch. It was predictably delicious. Herschel's also sells the "scraps" of pastrami and corned beef for $5/lb. so I picked up a container of those for my underweight kitty cat Turbo. He loves pastrami as much as I do and he needs to put a couple of pounds back on after his thyroid procedure. The pastrami ought to do it!

I've been in charge of the Passover horseradish for nearly 20 years. My process is slightly different since I'm not making nearly as much. I use the shredder blade and then the regular blade in the food processor. I also roast the beet so as to bring out some sweetness and get the juices flowing. White vinegar, just a little water and salt as well. Same end result. Slightly different process. I wear ski goggles and open the kitchen window so as not to choke on the fumes.

No offense taken. I am, after all, a girl. But a girl that enjoys a properly balanced cocktail, not some high fructose Kool-Aid like sugar bomb with booze in it. I totally understand the implication of "girly drinks" and there's no good that comes of it, to my taste. Give me a boozy Old School drink any day... As if we needed yet another place to get oversweetened cocktails.

Al: What did the cocktail menu look like?? A pre-opening email blast I received from Philly Thrillist seemed to indicate lots of sugary sweet nasty cocktails. I'd be happy to hear that wasn't the case, but if it's true, combined with your review I can't say I'll be darkening their doorstep anytime soon. You can't eat or drink the decor, y'know.

That works! Nice to keep family references in the naming of a "child". Even the furry four footed kind. Interesting about the breed. I shall have to Google and check it out. She's a beauty! She's lucky to have you too... Why don't you see if there's a Total Wine or somesuch warehouse-o-booze along the ride somewhere and call ahead and speak to the spirits manager. They can give you a heads up on the selection and whether it's worth your time to stop. State Line Liquors in Elkton, MD seems to have all that you seek. Even if it's a slight detour, it might be worth it.

Mike: Pick yourself up several bottles. It'll always be cheaper down there anyway and it doesn't go bad - just takes up real estate on the shelves. If you've got room, stock up. That Ri stuff is whiskey-for-vodka-drinkers. Puppy is beyond adorable. What breed is it and what will its name be? I'd like to suggest Lord (or Lady) Sazerac (Saz for short) as a fine and appropriate moniker for a cute puppy in a rye loving household.

Bob: Sorry you missed it too, but I suspect the scenery in Oslo was far more exciting. And the aquavit was probably pretty good too! There still some of the Vielle Reserve, Hors d'Age and 1989 vintage left on the shelf, if you feel the need to stop by and fulfill an apple brandy jones. They aren't the bargain they were during the tasting, but just as delicious as they were last week.

Talk about food porn...

I've made "crancello" for Thanksgiving mimosas and it was pretty easy, but you need to cheat a little bit. I bruised up half a bag of cranberries with a rolling pin and let them sit in 100 proof vodka for a couple of weeks. Strained and squeezed them out and then added about 4 oz. of cranberry juice concentrate I purchased at the Whole Foods in the juice aisle. I diluted this mixture with a spiced simple syrup I'd made with cinnamon, star anise, cloves, cardamom, red pepper flakes and black peppercorns. Dilute further with a little regular 80 proof vodka if you wish to drink it straight. A little of this topped with Champagne made for very pretty and delicious pre-Thanksgiving cocktails.

Let me try and find out who the distributor in PA is, and try and get a straight answer from them. I'd be curious too, why it's such spotty distribution in so many markets, not just one...

The server should have notified you of the service charge when the check was dropped. Certainly that's how I handle it with large parties that are autogratted. That way if more is left on top of the standard automatic gratuity, I know they were really really pleased with the service and don't have to wonder if it was a mistake that will haunt both of us down the line. FoodTutor is correct. Sometimes it's better not to autograt a regular or someone that seems they'll be kinder/potentially less insulted/whatever if left to their own discretion. However, given that it doesn't seem that anything shady was going on with the autograt, and that the server didn't pick up your check before you left, I'd chalk it up to a learning experience as well. Certainly, if you're upset about it you should contact the restaurant, but if you left $50 instead of the requisite $40, it would seem you were mightily pleased with the service already. Does the $50 mean more to you or the server?? Only you can answer that question...

Hosted a Domaine Familial Dupont Calvados tasting at my bar this evening, so there was a bit of product left at the end of the night. Possibly the most righteous Calvados sidecar I've ever had the pleasure of housing was my end-of-shift reward: 3 oz. Domaine Dupont Calvados Fine Reserve 2 oz. Luxardo Triplum 1 oz. fresh lemon juice Big Fat Lemon twist This was well earned. I had to polish a boatload of little tiny tasting glasses from the folks that had tried the flights. It was exhausting. The drink was so delicious and definitely an example of the perfect "gateway" cocktail. I can't imagine anyone walking up to me and challenging me to turn them into a cocktail convert that would not have enjoyed this drink. Yummy stuff. The (click on 1989 on the following link) vintage 1989 was nectar of the gods... The whole line of products was top notch. Mssr. Jerome Dupont couldn't have been nicer. It was great to have the producer on hand to discuss his procuct and the process behind it. I want to do more "meet the distiller" events at my bar. This was loads of fun.

Those of you that are willing to cross a bridge for some good grub ought to know about this. 4 courses, $35/person. There are some very good restaurants participating, with interesting and not terribly dumbed down menus: South Jersey Restaurant Week Had a lovely wine soaked dinner and enjoyed Capaneus' company at Nunzio's in Collingswood last night. For some reason they aren't listed as participating, but they are. Unfortunately, the link I had to the menu is now not functioning. We had some bruscetta to start, a very delicious asparagus and parsnip soup with crab, pasta Amatriciana, a Pappardelle with Rabbit Ragout that we added a la carte, lamb shank, veal Milanese and way too many desserts. It was all really well prepared. Probably some of the better Italian food I've had in the area, in fact. The wine and company were aces, too. Fuji and Blackbird are on the list, as well as Tortilla Press, La Campagne and a few other old faves. Worth a look to maybe try somewhere you weren't sure about, or revisit a favorite at a bargain price.

Yes - sometimes it's hard to convince folks you aren't some sort of really bizarre fetishist with a giant <ahem> sample being kept on the counter.

That would be one standard issue 750ml bottle. At 100 proof.

Mike: The Old Overholt is in "limited distribution" in a few stores. I checked Lancaster County HERE and there's a few bottles at the New Holland, Manheim and Lititz stores. Not sure which is closest to you but I'm sure you could call whichever one is most convenient and have them hold you a bottle so you can go fetch it for yourself. If you can get them to waive the minimum, order yourself some Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond (code #062670 - listed as Rittenhouse 100 in the system). It's $11.89/bottle and amazing. You can thank me later.

Next Friday, 3/27/09, Chick's Cafe & Wine Bar will be hosting a Calvados tasting with Jerome Dupont of Domaine Familial Louis Dupont, one of the premier Calvados distilleries in France. Come meet the distiller, learn how Calvados is produced and try a $9 Calvados Sidecar or a flight of 3 tastes of Dupont Calvados - the Vielle Reserve, Hors d'Age and the vintage 1989 for $12. The tasting and cocktails will take place from 5-7 PM. I've had the pleasure of tasting all of the products and they are DELICIOUS and undoubtedly the best Calvados I've ever tried. The flight is a screaming bargain for what you're getting to try. We're flattered that Monsieur Dupont has chosen Chick's to introduce Philadelphia to his line of fine Calvados. I hope some of you will be able to join us.

For a family outing I'd suggest Standard Tap or North 3rd, both of which have extensive menus and beer/booze for the grownups.

Wow. You're even more hardcore than I gave you credit for. Dry shaking egg whites on terra firma is quite enough for me. I'll save my "mile high" experiences for something providing more immediate and deeply important gratification.