tammylc

So last Friday night, I found myself sitting at a table at WD-50 with my travelling companion, each of us thinking it was the other's idea that we should eat dinner there. We knew we had two dinners in NYC, and I was sure he'd suggested WD-50 as one of them. He, on the other hand, thought it was totally my idea. Given the mixed quality of reviews of WD-50, I think we were both worried about who should take the blame. Turns out we were actually fighting over the credit. We're no strangers to molecular gastronomy, avant garde cuisine, whatever you choose to call it. I was a Trio twice while Grant Achatz was there and have also been to Jose's Minibar in DC. He's been to Trio, Alinea, Jose's Minibar, Fat Duck, WD-50 once before, and has an El Bulli reservation lined up for next season. So it made sense that we would go to WD-50. And we weren't disappointed. My friend found the menu to be much more even than on his previous trip. While not every dish sent us to heights of culinary ecstasy, neither were there any real clunkers. On to the menu descriptions... But first I should note that I just love the way WD presents food - sharp lines, lots of white space on the plate, almost a kind of Frank Lloyd Wright vibe from time to time. They were the kind of plates that make me wish I took pictures of my food in restaurants. Salmon, cream cheese, capers, red onion Warm cream cheese was topped with powdered salmon, and garnished with crispy caper, pickled red onion, cumin microgreens and a little pumpernickel chip. A classic combination of flavors, just with a twist, and utterly delectable. Foie gras, candied olives, green peas, beet juice Other people have written about this one. A disc of foie gras is presented on top of a mound of pea soil (note to self: soil is the new foam). You're instructed to cut the disc in half in one stroke, causing the beet juice within to gush - looking like nothing so much as blood - onto your plate. Visceral, certainly. Dramatic, undoubtedly. But I didn't find that the flavors really hung together, making this was one of my least favorite dishes of the meal. I usually love foie gras, but I prefer warm preparations - this was just too cold for my liking. Carrot-coconut "sunny-side up" A coconut white with a carrot yolk, this dish was more about texture for me than flavor. The flavors were there, but extremely subtle - the sprinkle of pepper on top was the boldest thing on the plate. But the egg mimicry, both in appearance and texture, made this a fun course. Shrimp cannelloni, chorizo, thai basil Wylie's famous shrimp noodles, filled with more shrimp, garnished with a chorizo emulsion and preserved basil. Excellent combination of flavors. The interesting thing is that if someone had given me this as an app some place else, it wouldn't have noticed there was anything odd about it. Does that make shrimp noodles a success or a failure? Pickled beef tongue, fried mayo, tomato molasses With a pile of perfectly brunoised romaine lettuce rib, and onion soil too. Loved the fried mayo, and the whole thing just came together so nicely. Cocoa-dashi, lemon yogurt noodles Someone earlier in the thread described the broth as tasting like fishy coffee, and that's about right. We found it almost unbearably strong and peculiar on its own, but after squirting the little bottle of lemon yogurt in (which immediately turns to noodles) we found the combination to be surprisingly palatable. Langoustine, celery root, banana mustard The langoustine was perched on top of a pile of mustard greens and cooked celery. A line of grainy banana mustard stretched over to a finger-thickness stick of celery root that had been poached in rice milk and then caramelized. A surprisingly pleasant combination of flavors. Banana and mustard - who knew? Venison loin, pickled cherry puree, brussel sprouts, oatmeal panna cotta If it wasn't for the oatmeal panna cotta and it's accompanying oatmeal and black pepper crumble, I would have wondered if I was still in the right restaurant. This dish seemed so "ordinary." Sadly, I didn't like the oatmeal panna cotta at all, although the rest was certainly tasty. Cider sorbet, pine needle gelee I was looking forward to this one from the moment I first read it on the menu. Cider sorbet and cider foam, a scattering of cinnamon infused cryo-vaced apple brunoise, and just the right amount of pine needle gelee. I thought it was great. My friend thought it tasted too much like Christmas. Lemon curd, basil meringue, huckleberry puree This was apparently an eggless lemon curd, which probably means it pushed the limits of molecular gastronomy, but I just thought it was tasty. An interesting and intriguing combination of flavors, my favorite bit was the dehydrated lemon slice that garnished it. My notes say "Woo-hoo! Intense!" Butternut squash sorbet, pumpkin seed cake, chocolate soil, mole This was a great not-too-sweet dessert. The mole was in the form of a surprisingly spicy toffee crisp. There was a subtle, vegetable sweetness from the butternut squash sorbet, some rich nuttiness from the cake soaked in pumpkin oil, and a dark and maybe just a touch salty chocolate soil. Excellent. Cocoa cotton balls Look like truffles, but put one in your mouth and bite into it, and it crumbles away into sweet dark nothingness. An perfect closing bite. My friend and I split a wine pairing. These kinds of meals are notoriously difficult to pair with wine, and this was no exception. Nothing stands out in my mind as an exemplary match, but they were all nicely drinkable wines. The wine served with the Eggless Lemon Curd was perhaps the most interesting, being a wine from the Cognac region in France, which is aged in old Cognac barrels (Pineau des Charentes, Ferrand NV). Tables at WD-50 are very close together, which meant we got to know some of our neighbors over the course of the meal, which is always fun. We got to applaud the engagement of our neighbors two tables down (earlier in the meal, these same neighbors had even shared a taste of the short ribs we were coveting). A reporter from New York magazine was taking bright flash pictures in the restaurant until Wylie came out and gave him a stiff talking to. Things looked tense for a while, but they worked out their differences in the end and the photographer was still there when we left. I could peek from my table into the wide kitchen doorway and watch the chefs work, and at the end of our meal our waiter took us back to the kitchen so we could watch the action and give Wylie our compliments personally. That was really fun. Good food and a fun meal. After reading some of the reviews here, I was prepared to be disappointed, so I was pleasantly surprised instead. Food to me is all about fun, so I'm always thrilled to find chefs who can translate a sense of whimsy to their food. I'm sure that's why I'm drawn to avant garde chefs like Achatz, Andres, Wylie, et al.

I've never picked a restaurant based on seeing the chef on Iron Chef before, but if all my meals turn out as well as this one did, I might have to make it a habit... After seeing Anita Lo kick Mario Batali's butt on Iron Chef earlier this year, I was intrigued. I liked the crisp, clean, minimalist approach to cuisine that I saw on the show. I came to eGullet and read reviews and looked at the restaurant's website, and decided to make this one of my two dinners in NYC this past weekend. We got the seven course chef's tasting menu. It seemed to be mostly smaller portions of things from the regular menu, which was fine with us. We asked to have the special appetizer of poached egg with white truffle included in our menu. But first we had an amuse of pureed white beans with chorizo and chive in a thin crispy pastry shell. Simple, clean tastes - yep, exactly what I was envisioning from my meal. The rest of the meal lived up to that first bite. First up was the special appetizer - a poached egg with shaved white truffle, served atop cooked juliened celery root with a pecorino creme sauce. Rich, and heady and aromatic from the truffles, this was a bit rich for a first course. But in retrospect, we couldn't actually figure out where in the menu it would have fit better (and we'd asked for it, so we had only ourselves to blame). And in any case, it was absolutely delicious. As soon as our waiter began describing course number two, my friend and I started smiling. A single soup dumpling, filled with broth and foie gras mousse and jicama, with a bit of seared fois gras on top and a black vinegar reduction beneath. Why the smiles? We'd gone to Grand Sichuan for lunch and had the soup dumplings there. We figure we were probably the only people in all of New York to have soup dumplings twice in one day (especially without trying). The Grand Sichuan soup dumplings were good, but Annisa's were another thing entirely. Utterly luxurious. (I should admit a profound weakness for foie gras here - it's hard to make a foie dish I don't like.) Next up, two takes on a single dish. On one side of the plate a piece af sauteed fluke served over a slice of cooked fennel, with orange and bottarga vinaigrettes. On the other side, the same ingredients in raw form as a salad of sliced fennel with pieces of fluke sashimi. An excellent play in contrasts of texture, temperature and flavor. Our fourth course was another fish. This time, sea bass served with pieces of poached jerusalem artichoke and regular artichoke, on top of a puree of the two artichokes, with a sprinkle of sumac on top. I liked the pungent citrusy sumac bite and the textures of the artichokes, but don't really remember much else about this dish. There was no wine pairing offered with the tasting menu, but we had asked our waiter for suggestions and each had a glass of a white Cote du Rhone (Chateau Noel St. Laurent 2003) for the first few courses. Assuming we'd have a meat course coming up, we asked our waiter to suggest a red. When he brought us a Bordeaux (the Chateau Pichon-Lussac Saint Emillion) my friend was skeptical. "What are we eating," he asked "short ribs?" Close... The fifth course was a trinity of beef. First, beef carpaccio. Next, three slices of beautifully seared and beautifully rare hanger steak. Then, a mound of braised oxtail and bone marrow. Our waiter poured a cinnamon infused oxtail broth over the carpacio, lightly poaching it in a shabu shabu kind of style. The aroma of the oxtail broth was absolutely intoxicating. In a further nod the East, a small dish of condiments accompanied the course - wasabi for the broth, spicy chinese mustard for the hanger steak and oxtail, and pink salt for the carpacio and hanger steak. Cheese course up next. Seven selections, thoughtfully arranged on the plate in order of assertiveness. Ossau-Iraty, something from Cobb Hill in Vermont, a slightly aged Pecorino, a delightfully runny Selles sur Cher, a Tomme du Chevre, "Grayson" from Meadow Creek, and finally, a Bleu d'Avergne. We received two different desserts. Both were well executed versions of fairly classic desserts. A flaky apple tart was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and surrounded by a luscious caramel sauce. The warm molten chocolate cake came with a banana mousse and a crispy fried banana slice. I know molten chocolate cakes are overdone, but that's just because they're so yummy, and this one was no exception. We received some lovely parting gifts, of course. The little popsicles someone else mentioned. Small pieces of candied ginger. And a little chocolate something. The restaurant is small, and the tables are close together. By their third bottle of wine we'd learned a little bit more about our neighbors than we really needed to know... Service was good, although when we arrived we were surprised to have to wait while they set our table. Perhaps a last minute switch to accomodate another reservation, but I really don't know. The restaurant filled up over the course of our meal and they were turning tables as we left. All in all, a really fabulous meal. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this restaurant to anyone who appreciates understatement and tightly focused simplicity.

As you may recall from my previous posts looking for help with food and wine pairing, I host a monthly wine club at the community where I live. This time I figured out the food pairings on my own, but I thought I'd share the results anyway. Last night we tasted sparkling wines. We tasted one genuine Champagne, a Loire Valley sparkler, a Cava, and a wine from New Mexico. Each person scores the wines on a scale of 5 that just reflects how much they like them, no real formal evaluation. The scores below are the averages, and the range is the high and low score for each wine. We taste all the wines blind, first alone, then again with food. Then we do a big reveal at the end. After the gathering, I thought it would be fun to compare what "real" reviewers said about the wines to what we said, so I looked some reviews up on the web. #1 Segura Viudas Aria Estate Brut $8.99 Review from the web: This classy yet inexpensive bubbly is a great buy and provides a floral nose with hints of yeast that leads to a crisp balanced mouthful of bubbles. What we said: Light but smooth and creamy, with good balance and a touch of lemon. Yeasty nose.Score: 3.4 Range: 4/3 # 2 Marquis de la Tour Brut, Loire Valley, France $10.99 Review from the web: Remarkably clean and balanced for the money, this is flawlessly made, with soft pear fruit, a light touch of sweetness and pleasantly soft mousse. What we said: Very, very light bodied. Almost clear with irregularly sized bubbles. Flowers, peaches, "Cap 10," with a nice bite at the end. Score: 2.8 Range: 2/4 #3 Duval-Leroy Brut Champagne France $29.99 Review from the web: Complex and beguiling, with floral, rosemary, candied citrus and mineral aromas and flavors. This is both elegant and intense, with a vibrant structure and long finish. Ideal as an aperitif or with light foods. What we said: Darker color. Much fuller nose and flavors. Lots of complexity - straw, earth, wet wood. Orange on the palate, good balance, full and rich with some viscousity. The biggest of the wines we tasted. Score: 4.1 Range: 3/5 #4 Gruet Brut "Method Champenoise" New Mexico $14.99 Review from the web: The Brut offers a crisp, and full-bodied sparkling wine, which has developed rich complexity and fine mousse. The allure of toasty finish from twenty-four months on tirage, is a complement to the sophisticated apple and citrus flavor. Winemaker's Note: Brilliant with ultra fine bubbles. A wonderful fine bouquet dominated by green apple and grapefruit flavors. A truly classic house style! What we said: Assertive, fruity nose. Refreshing apple flavors. Score: 4.0 Range: 3/5 In terms of overall evaluation, the real Champagne just narrowly edged out the Gruet from New Mexico, but since the Gruet is half the price ($15 vs $30), I'd say it was our find for the evening. And the Cava had great QPR. $30 Champagne aside, this crowd tends not to like French wines, as the Loire Valley sparkler scored lowest - one other person and I really liked it, but most people didn't. Most people didn't find that the foods we had enhanced the taste of the wines any, but instead, that the wines made the food taste even better. We had a two year old aged gouda (Remeker), some Marcona almonds from Spain, and potato chips (which actually go *great* with champagne - who knew?). They weren't just any potato chips, but my favorite brand of thick cut kettle chips with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Zingerman's makes some peppered pecans that are sensational. I'm ever so pleased that Ari published the recipe in the Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating 12 tbsp butter, room temp 2 1/4 c sugar 3 tbsp freshly ground black pepper 1 1/4 tsp fine sea salt 2 tbsp cinnamon 1 1/4 tsp ground allspice 1 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp ground ginger pinch ground cardamom 2 large egg whites 2 lbs raw pecan halves Heat oven to 325. In a large bowl, stir together butter, sugar, pepper, salt and spices. Add egg whites, mix well. Add pecans, mix thoroughly to coat. Spread in a large roasting pan. Roast for 18 to 25 minutes or until toasted through, turning every 5 minutes or so with a spatula. Remove from oven and continue turning every 5 minutes until they reach room temp. Will keep in airtight containers for 4-6 weeks.

I think most people don't think there are *enough* high end restaurants, not that there are too many. At least, not enough really interesting high end restaurants. General perception is that Tribute is (was?) the only really word class restaurant in Detroit - compare that to Chicago, where there are at least a dozen (probably more).

I'm not sure about the beef burgundy in Week 3 - my recipe calls for simmering for 2 1/2 hours, plus other cooking and prep time. You must have a different recipe to be putting it on the program, but it just stood out to me because it seems like a long stewed recipe. I like the outline though - looks great. It's a little more advanced than the "absolute beginner" course I was talking about over in my LJ, but sounds like it's right for the target audience you were describing.

Since the chef change, or just in general?

You could do breadbaking by doing some advance prep, so you have dough at the various stages when you need to demonstrate techniques. So you mix up some dough to the right consistency, demonstrate kneading, set it aside to proof... and *POOF* some already proofed dough magically appears. Etc.

I think only experience can help you with that. Only after you've cooked enough do you get that instinctive feel for recipes. But it might be worth trying, as a final class exercise, or something - hand out a few recipes, and see if they can figure out which ones would be good and which aren't...

Just throwing some quick ideas out to get things started - I'm sure I'll come back with more. My first thought was stir frys, pastas and other one-dish meals. Easy and quick for timestrapped cooks. Technique rather than recipe focused - take some meat or tofu, some veggies, some sauces, and you have endless combinations. And while preparing them you can get in the skills stuff like how to chop vegetables. Not to mention things like proper doneness levels for vegetables. I bet people who grew up with their mom boiling vegetables to death would find tender-crisp veggies in a stirfry an absolute revelation! Another theme would be a simple dinner party kind of meal. Roast meat or chicken, and a variety of side dishes. Good opportunity to teach skills like testing for doneness, and the right temperatures to cook meats to so their not overdone. You need one just for baking. How simple it is to make your own cake, instead of using a mix. Or pancakes - they're so easy! Great opportunity to demonstrate the difference between dry and liquid measurement, and the right way to do both. As you know, I'm thinking I'd like to do something like this too, so I'm sure I'll be back and that I'll be paying attention to this thread!

Wow. That's impressive. Was there at least some variety in the style of potato salads? I have at least 2 or 3 quite different recipes...

Let's see... after a great meal at Emily's earlier this year, I had a really disappointing one recently. Well, actually, my food was great, but my husband was disappointed. And I guess I agree with him that the value just wasn't there - not enough wow for the buck. Hearing bad things about the change of chefs at Tribute, but I haven't been there, so I can't report firsthand. There's a new restaurant in Detroit called Slows Bar BQ, that I've been hearing some good press about. Here's a link: http://www.metrotimes.com/guide/restaurant...iew.asp?id=9524 In Ann Arbor, the guy who opened up Mediterrano is opening up a new place on the west side - Carlyle's Bar and Grill. Classic American with an upscale twist, according to a recent article in the Observer. Since I live on the west end, I'm always happy when new restaurants open up, but Zingerman's is already doing upscale American food on this side of town - I'd have loved it to be something more interesting. Also in Ann Arbor, I haven't been to the Quarter Bistro and Tavern yet, but the press is good. It's were Mountain Jack's and then Rio Bravo was, in Westgate Mall. Cajun/Creole/New Orleans food. Initial reports were that the food was great but the service slow, but its been a few months, so hopefully they've ironed out the bugs.

Pre-breakfast: woke up with insomnia at 4:30, and by 5:30 couldn't resist the siren song of a piece of pumpkin pie Breakast: cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese Second breakfast: toasted chocolate cherry bread with cream cheese Elevenses: many samples at the cheese shop while picking out some cheeses for later Lunch: a pot roast and horseradish cream sandwich at my favorite restaurant in town, with sweet potato fries on the side. Pre-dinner noshing: 4 cheeses - Garroxta, aged Manchego, Brie de Fougerons, and some goat blue cheese that I don't remember the name of but was absolutely wonderful. With bread. Dinner: Turkey and Wild Rice Soup. I started the stock before I went to bed on Thanksgiving and simmered it over night. It was the best turkey stock I've ever made. The soup had lots of dark meat turkey, chunks of sweet potato, and real (non-cultivated) wild rice. Plus we had leftovers from the day before - mashed potatoes, gravy, two kinds of brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, matzo dressing. To drink - three half bottles of wine leftover from the day before. Dessert: A little baby sweet potato pecan pie I picked up for half price at Zingerman's, cut into six tiny pieces. And larger pieces of a quite nice cranberry pie.

Bumping this up to the top in the hopes of getting some input. Nougatine for a Saturday lunch, or go some place else? It's my last day in NYC, and I was hoping to be able to sneak in another WOW meal.

I posted this in it's own thread, but thought I'd cross post it here for the Jean-Georges/Nougatine experts... I'm visiting NYC with a friend for a few days in the beginning of December. I'm only there for two dinners (WD-50, Anissa), so in order to maximize my eating experiences, I suggested we schedule lunch at Jean-Georges the day that I leave. However, I'm leaving on Saturday afternoon, and when my friend called to make a reservation yesterday, we found out that only the informal dining room (Nougatine?) at Jean-Georges is open on Saturdays. So... should we go anyway? Do something else instead? If so, please visit my other thread to keep this one on topic! (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=77637) Thanks!

Thanks again for the recommendations! I ended up getting two hard nutty cheeses, as Brad suggested. Piave, which is one of my all time favorite cheeses, and Fiori Sardo, an Italian sheep's milk cheese. They were both very good on their own, and also good with the wines. It was especially cool that each had a wine that demonstrated just how profound a difference wine and food pairing can make. The Fiori Sardo turned our 2002 Lussac-Saint-Emilion (can't remember the Chateau right now) into an entirely different (and delightful) wine. And the 2002 J. Lohr Paso Robles Merlot was otherwise unremarkable, but absolutely SUNG with the Piave. I also got a little bit of Duck and Armagnac pate, but it didn't seem to have much synergy with the wines. The other two wines we had were a 2003 McManis California Merlot and a 2003 Trumpeter Merlot from Argentina. The McManis was the cheapest of the bunch, but most everyone quite liked it - it's simple and a little sweet, but extremely quaffable. The Bordeaux and Argentinian wines were much more controversial, with some people who loved them, and others who couldn't find much to like. The Bordeaux lived up to our previous experience of old world wines, in that it scored very low on its own, but much higher with food (and time in the glass).

When trying to decide where to eat for my upcoming trip to NYC in December, I used the restaurants' websites as one source of information for my decision making. One of them was Annisa. I'd been intrigued by Anita Lo's cooking on Iron Chef America, and there was a limited, but positive, amount of discussion here on eGullet. But if I hadn't been able to go to the website and look at a sample menu, I probably wouldn't have chosen it. (In a little over a month, I'll be able to report how satisfied I was by my decision...)

Right now I've got two from California and one for Argentina. I need to pick up one more bottle this afternoon, and I'll see what my wineseller has, but I'll be aiming for something non-California.

Here I am again, asking for suggestions. The advice I got for my riesling and Shiraz tastings was great, and I'd love your help again! So... what would you serve? People will have had dinner before coming to the tasting, so I'm looking for finger foods and the like, not main dishes. Thanks!

Aww, thanks, you're very sweet. While I'm the crazy mastermind, I do have assistants to help me get it together, thank goodness! Next up - Beef Burgundy, a rerun from last winter. And after that we're into a whole new work season, so I don't have any of my meals scheduled yet. Anyone have any ideas, recommendations or requests?

Well, that's done. It was quite the production. As the numbers kept rising higher, I started to get worried, and ended up recruiting a bunch of people to help out. After the adding and the dropping were all said and done, we ended up with 77 people! 41 adult meat eaters, 8 adult vegetarians, 5 teen meat eaters, 8 big kids (over age seven) and 15 little kids (aged six and under). Total food cost was $268.18, which works out to $5.29 per adult, $3.97 per teen, and $2.65 per big kid. A little more expensive than my usual meal, but it was quite a feast. Everything got done, mostly in time. We were still mashing potatoes and 20 or 25 after, and the last batches definitely had more lumps than the first. But 30 lbs of potatoes is a lot of potatoes! People absolutely raved about the stuffing, but even with people liking it that much we had waaay too much. We also had too much squash - I got all caught up in having all the different kinds and bought more than I should have. There was a little bit of the other things leftover - mashed potatoes, turkey, peas, even gravy (although several tables ran out and just didn't bother trolling for more). 5 pies were enough, especially since we cut them into 12 pieces each. The menu: Turkey Mashed potatoes Turkey gravy Mushroom gravy (for the veggies) Stuffing Roasted squash Peas Stuffed portabellos mushrooms (for the veggies) The shopping list: 2 Amish "natural" turkeys - one 18.5 lbs and one 19.5 lbs (cooked according to http://www.turkeyhelp.com/turkey_for_a_crowd.htm) 30 lbs of potatoes 15 squash (3 butternut, 3 buttercup, 3 delicata, 3 melon cup and 3 carnival) 4 lbs peas 2 heads celery 12 onions 9 loaves bread (assorted day old Zingerman's bread) 3 lbs walnuts 1.5 lbs pecans 4 pkgs Craisins 1 jar Better than Bouillon Vegetarian 1 lb butter (needed to use extra from the kitchen) 1 quart milk 5 assorted cheap pies 2 cans whipped cream Last night some neighbors cubed the bread, chopped the onions and peeled the potatoes. This morning I prepped the turkeys and got them into the oven before my husband left for work (so he could watch our 17-month old son while I had my hands full). I put the giblets and veggies and fresh herbs from the garden on to make stock for gravy. Once Liam *finally* took his nap, I cut the squash in half and scooped out the seeds. After he woke up and my babysitter took over, we got the squash brushed with butter and into the oven to roast. At 4 I got my assistants and we started cooking in earnest, I made the gravy, then carved up the turkeys. Meanwhile, one of my assistants took charge of the stuffing, getting sage and thyme and savory from the garden, adding sauteed celery and onions, mixing in the walnuts, pecans and Craisins and adding stock to moisten. We'd been working on and off slicing up the potatoes and eventually got those on to boil. We waited a little too long, unfortunately, since we ended up mashing potatoes up until the last minute. We cut up the squash and put a few different kinds on each platter - it was very pretty! In the end a million people jumped in to help get food out onto tables. I got a huge round of "thanks to the cook" applause, and made sure to get up and thank the cast of thousands that made it possible. I think I'll aim for some simpler meals for the next little while...

Hey all - long time no see! I've been cooking, just not posting - my 17 month old son is keeping me busy, busy, busy! My meals just keep getting larger and larger. I tend to cook on Thursdays, when our neighboring community joins us for dinner, and the crowd from there has grown. My last meal was Tortilla Soup again, and after I kept saying yes to late signups, I ended up with 72 people signed up! And this Thursday I'm having to do another 72 person meal! Unlike the Tortilla Soup, which is pretty quick and easy to prepare, this one is bit more ambitious. When I was planning my menus for the fall, I noticed that I was cooking in the same week as Canadian Thanksgiving. And being that I'm a Canadian, I thought it would be fun to prepare a traditional turkey dinner to celebrate. The signups got totally out of control, though, thus the 72 people! (I should note that about 30 of those are children of varying ages, so it's not quite as dire as it seems.) Since American turkeys aren't raised to full size for October, I'm making do with the largest I can get, two 18-20 lb turkeys. Or at least, I hope they'll be at least 18 lbs each - I'll find out tomorrow when I pick them up from the butcher. And yes, I know the suggestion is for a lb of turkey per person - but that assumes that you want to have leftovers, so I think we'll have enough. In addition to the turkey I'm making mashed potatoes - I actually checked into this thread so I could go back and figure out from other entries how many pounds I'll need. Those 30 kids won't eat a lot of turkey, but they WILL eat a lot of mashed potatoes. My other side dishes are baked squash, stuffing, and peas. And gravy, of course - including a mushroom gravy for the small number of vegetarians who are signed up. Dessert will just be a bunch of cheap supermarket pies. It's going to be a hectic couple of days. I've gotten a couple of offers of help for Wednesday night. Can I peel and chop potatoes the night before? Another mashed potato question - how small is too small to cut pieces for mashers? One of my assistant cooks is suggesting we use the thick slicing disk on our food processor to make short work of what will probably be 30 lbs of potatoes - is that going to affect my quality?

I got heritage birds from John Harnois last year. They're located just outside Ann Arbor. SlowFood USA shows deadend@umich.edu as his contact email, which worked for me last year, but I sent him email a couple weeks ago looking for turkeys for my Thanksgiving feast, and I never heard back from him. But you could try calling information for a phone number. He has heritage birds as well as organically raised standard broad breasts. Last year was his first year raising some of the breeds of heritage birds, and he didnt realize they were so much slower growing. So he ended up starting them too late, and we were only able to get very small birds. But I'd expect he's learned from his experience last year. Here's links to some things I wrote about them last year: Three Tiny Turkeys: http://www.livejournal.com/users/tammylc/334087.html The Totally True Trials and Tribulations of Tammy's Two Tiny Thanksgiving Turkeys: http://www.livejournal.com/users/tammylc/335359.html

Thanks everyone - we had another fun tasting tonight. I didn't have time to make carswell's excellent sounding pesto rosso, so I just went with a simple black olive tapenade that I could buy already prepared. In addition, we had hunks of parmesan cheese, and thin slices of grill-roasted smoked pork loin with a chili-mustard rub. All the foods were good pairings, and able to stand up to these big wines. 2003 Hope Hunter Valley Shiraz, $10.99 (Everyday Wines) Lots of fruit - raspberry, cherry, cranberry - with some sweetness but high acidity. Short finish. Really sung when tasted with the parmesan - beautiful pairing. Alone: 3.1, Food: 3.5, Range with food: 2/5, Range alone: 2/5 2003 Bulletin Place South Eastern Australia,$8.00 (Big Ten) Not a very fruity nose - a little musky and woody. Very smooth, with some spice in the long finish. Everything worked well together. Good on its own, but didn't go well with anything we were tasting. Alone: 3.3, Food: 2.8, Range with food: 2/4, Range alone: 2/4 2002 Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz 2002, $18.00 (Everyday Wines) Leather and wood on the nose. Delicately fruity, but quite tannic too. Lighter in body than you'd expect. Good alone, good with food - really nice wine. Alone: 3.5, Food: 3.6, Range with food: 3/4, Range alone: 2/5 2004 Little Penguin South Eastern Australia Shiraz, $8.00 (Meijer) Cherry and strawberry nose, little or no oak detectable. Licorice and tar on the palate - "cherry flavored Nyquil." Strong tannins. (These are my notes - as you can see from the range, some people really liked it and probably have quite different notes!) Alone: 2.5, Food: 2.5, Range with food: 1/4, Range alone: 1/4 A note on our scoring system - it's a totally subjective five point system that I modifed from the eGullet Culinary Institute wine class. 1 is Blech, 3 is "Happy to drink it, but wouldn't buy it" and 5 is "I'd take out a second mortage to buy more."

Best tasting note ever!