tammylc

Oh, I also wanted to say that the other place I think Ann Arbor really excels is in quality ingredients. We have not one, but two, really excellent cheese shops (Big Ten and Zingerman's). All of the Kerrytown food sellers are providing really excellent product - meat at Sparrow, fish at Monahan's, produce at Ciacco's. Zingerman's is the place for electic dry goods. Tracklements sells divine smoked salmon. It's all top notch. Now we just need a chef who's willing to put those ingredients to the test!

I ask myself the same question all the time. I think the best buys in Ann Arbor are at the low end - there's some really cheap, really good lunch food to be found - Jeruselum Garden, Earthen Jar, Le Dog, Kosmo Deli, Sabor Latino, just to name a few. I never have trouble figuring out where to take people for lunch in Ann Arbor. Dinner on the other hand is another story entirely. There's just no one in Ann Arbor that's doing much of anything interesting with food! I haven't yet been to Eve or Pacific Rim, although they are on my to-visit list. Cafe Zola is my top pick for a well executed dinner out. I haven't been to Daniel's on Liberty (formerly Moveable Feast) since they switched to only serving dinner on Saturday. But on the couple of trips there that I did take, they were doing some quite nice appetizers and decent desserts, although the entrees were still on the boring side.

Spending the money on wine is totally worth it to me. I'm a budding wine geek, and like to try a lot of different things. I'd much rather do a wine pairing and get to explore than buy a single bottle, even if it might be a little less expensive overall.

are you sure? I'd have thought exactly the opposite is true. With Gagniere or Adria as an example, the more the creative the food, the less wine suits it. I think jbraynolds point is that because the food is so creative and all-over-the-map, it's hard to pick a couple of bottles on your own that will go with the meal. Better to let the restaurant do the matching, since they know the food and their wine. At least at Trio, they do a remarkably good job of coming up with pairings for some of their whackier food items (and let you know when "no wine with this one" is the right answer).

I did the Tour de Force recently, and I think there were around 15 different pairings. I split the pairing with one of my dining companions, and that was plenty for the two of us. Enjoy your meal! Trio had a lot of unusual and interesting wines for us to try out, and as a budding wine geek, I really enjoyed talking with our server about the various pairings. He even brought us a bonus glass of sherry to try based off of something we'd been talking about.

I have carbonized vertical bamboo throughout my kitchen/dining/living room area. We've only had it for a few months (just moved into a new house) so I can't speak to its long-term durability. There are a couple of dings and dents here and there already, but I imagine any brand new wood floor gets some marks and you just notice them more because it's so new and shiny. We thought about doing cork, but it made the most sense for us to use one material for the entire living/dining/kitchen space (it's all one long space) and the cork patterns I liked were the really bold ones. I just wasn't sure I'd like the looks of it enough in the long run, although it sure would be a joy to stand on. Plus it was more expensive than the bamboo. We'll probably do cork in some of the basement when we finish it though.

We chose granite, and have been very happy with it (although I still can't convince myself that it's okay to put hot things directly on the counter...) Given that they are usually about the same price, what would be the reasons for choosing an engineered stone (Silestone, etc) over granite?

So Mark - you jumped right in, but you didn't tell us what the usual practice is at Citronelle. Care to share your protocol?

They've gone biweekly starting in the New Year. There just aren't 52 restaurants worth reviewing in their coverage area...

Ketchup Chips are just ketchup flavored potato chips. There are many more flavors of potato chips in Canada than here. Some of the wackier ones I remember from my childhood are no longer being made, but boy did I like the Butter flavored ones when they were around. And then there was Roasted Chicken. Dill Pickle is the one I miss the most. One of the things that American's find the strangest about us wacky Canadians is our preference for eating french fries covered with gravy. When I was in high school, fries and gravy made up at least 50% of what the cafeteria sold at lunch time. Poutine is a Quebecois dish of french fries with gravy and cheese curds. Yum. Chocolate bars I miss from Canada - Crunchies (sponge toffee covered in chocolate) and Crispy Crunches (kind of like a Butterfinger, but not nasty like Butterfingers are). My (American) husband adores Coffee Crisp, so we buy some for him when we're over there. Also, the chocolate used is different, so even chocolate bars that you can get here (like Kit Kat and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) taste better from Canada. (And yes, in Canada we call them chocolate bars, not candy bars.) Okay, after writing that treatise I'm all homesick... I'll have to see if I can get a side of gravy to go with my fries at the restaurant tonight...

I use both EVOO and canola for everyday cooking. EVOO mostly, unless I'm making a recipe that specifically calls for vegetable oil, or for which olive oil would just add competing flavors - I usually use canola for Indian, for example. And I need canola on hand for baking. In terms of brands, I'm just about to switch over to Colavita for everyday, after reading a recommendation of it in Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating. My good olive oil is I Lecci. I use it for salad dressings, dipping bread, and the occasional low temperature cooking application where EVOO quality is important (like gambas y ajillo). I'm lucky to live in the same town as Zingerman's. They always have at least 3 or 4 oils out for tasting, and you can ask to taste anything in the store, so it's a good way to find an oil you like. And to answer your last question - they do do mail order... www.zingermans.com

From what I've read, because of the way 2-Buck Chuck is made, there's likely a LOT of bottle variation. So it's entirely possible that the people who say "It's great wine, what a bargain, what a steal!" and the people who say "It's vile stuff only useful as paint remover" are BOTH right. My only personal experience was with a glass of the Sauvignon Blanc, which tasted like vaguely wine flavored sugar water. Not actively bad, but definitely not meeting any definition of good either.

I appear to be in the "uses recipes" minority... I probably use recipes about 75% of the time, unless I'm making old standbys that I know by heart or real meat and potatoes type things. When I'm on the ball with my menu planning I'll go through my cookbooks, pick out a bunch of things I want to make, and assemble a shopping list for that week's meals. I love menu planning, because it lets me cook from recipes without the "damn, missing that ingredient" problem. That said, I certainly take liberties with the recipes, adding or substituting ingredients depending on what I like or what's available. But I don't usually stray very far. On a really experimental day, I might look up two or three recipes for the same thing, and come up with some version that incorporates bits of each. My housemate is constantly surprised by this, and says that I'm the only person in her mental category of "excellent cooks" who follows recipes.

A Niagara wine expedition is in my future, that's for sure! And lest anyone worry about bringing all that wine back across the border... While you are limited to two 750 mL bottles *duty-free*, you can bring back as many as you like. And duty (if they even bother to make you pay it) is a mere 35 cents a bottle for wine (other alcohols will vary, and this is not the case for Canadian citizens re-entering Canada from the US). Or at least, that's what I was told on a recent trip.

I'll weigh in on the Good Grips, too. Comes razor sharp when new, and I've had mine for years and it's still sharp. When I worked at a kitchen supply store this is the only one we'd let anyone buy. (And would sometimes keep a carrot and a supply of them on the checkout counter and let them sell themselves.)

I hated green beans and snow peas and other green things. Not because of anything anyone did to them, just I think because they were unfamiliar. For a long time, they tasted too "green" to me. But I just kept eating them (because my hubby liked them and they were good for me), and now I like them myself. There are lots of things that I "didn't like" where "didn't like" was shorthand for "haven't actually tried." Now that I've gotten more adventurous about what I eat I like most of those things - like mustard (but I still can't stand nasty American yellow mustard - I went straight to strong English and grainy French mustards). Similarly, I like good Alpine cheese, but still hate nasty swiss cheese slices. So I guess I'd fill in the title "I hated lots of things until I actually tried them. Still can't stand olives, though.

I got one of those nasty multi-level steamers as well (I asked for a rice cooker, you know, the pressure kind that seals and someone thought multi-function would be better). Used it once, got rid of it. I've now received deep-fryers twice, and gotten rid of both of them while still sealed in their boxes. My husband has used his steam toy espresso maker a few times, but now that he's a coffee geek, he's ready to graduate to something better... For those of you who aren't using your breadmaker, I highly recommend you check out the cookbook "Rustic European Breads from your Bread Machine." It uses the machine for what it's good at - kneading and proofing - but has you do the shaping and finishing by hand and bake it in your regular oven. Really good results, and it allows you to work with the kind of wet doughs that produce great results but that are tricky to work entirely by hand. And just to provide a counterpoint - I use my food processor, rice cooker, and garlic press on a regular basis. I could ditch my crockpot, although I dig it out about once a year to keep mulled cider hot at our holiday party, and it came in very handy when I had to cook Christmas dinner without an oven...

I pick up a bottle or two of Canadian ice wine every time I pass through the duty free (few times a year). We generally just drink it on its own, as dessert. While Iniskillin has the best reputation, I was underwhelmed by their Vidal Ice Wine. The Vidal from Reif blew me away, though. The finish lasted for a full five minutes, and it had an excellent balance of sweetness and acidity.

Because they're a cheap way to serve a bunch of people. (Note that I'm not claiming this is a _good_ reason for their existence.)

Right now it's just me and my husband, so we usually answer the phone - our dinner time jumps all over the place, so we can't expect people to know when we might be eating. We each have our own cell phone, and no landline, so we don't have to worry about telemarketing calls. And since our cell phones have caller ID, we can screen calls before answering them. Once our little one is born and gets a little older, I'd definitely like to have an established family dinner time, at the table, with the TV off and no phones being answered.

Well, I didn't have a favorite scalloped potato recipe to start with, so I didn't have a jumping off point. I got sent one recipe via PM, which I also found online. I made a few modifications but it turned out really well. 3 leeks, halved, sliced and sauteed in butter 4 large russet potatoes, sliced 2 tbsp flour Salt Pepper Nutmeg 1/3 c butter cut into small pieces 2/3 c half and half Cook the leeks (probably can skip this step, but it makes the house smell good). Mix the flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg together. Put a layer of potatoes in the crock pot. Top with some of the leeks. Sprinkle with some seasoned flour. Add some butter pieces. Repeat until all the potatoes are gone - top layer should just be potatoes and butter. Pour over 2/3 cup half and half. Cook at high for 1 - 1 1/2 hours (until boiling), then reduce heat to low for a couple/few more hours, or until you need to serve the potatoes. I have a medium sized crockpot that is tall and skinny, so I didn't feel like the 2/3 c was enough liquid and added some extra (total of 1 c). In retrospect, I don't think that was necessary. Also, the original recipe didn't call for any flour, just relying on the potato starch for thickening, maybe? But I couldn't make the leap of faith and threw some in anyway. I also added the leeks, because I like onions of some sort in my scallops and the original didn't have any. The original recipe said to cook on high for 3-4 hours, but they would have been badly overdone if I'd left them on high any longer than I did.

Surprisingly, I didn't get much in the way of foodie stuff for Christmas this year. But the one thing I did get was awesome - an 8 inch cook's knife from Global! It cuts through whole russet potatoes like it's going through butter. Now I just have to manage to _keep_ it that sharp... (edited - it's actually an 8" knife, not 10" as I originally miswrote)

This is an interesting question for me, since in a few months I'm going to be a parent and having to make those choices. I love visiting high end restaurants. I don't live in a city that has much in the way of culinary offerings, so for me this means I'll often seek out a special occasion restaurant when I travel. Next year, I'll likely have a little one travelling with me some of the time, and I won't always be in a situation where there will be qualified child care available to me. I'd like to not have to abandon fine dining altogether in those situations, since my opportunities to indulge are so limited! Anyway, I'm interested to hear what people have to say. One thing I've seen suggested frequently is to aim for the earliest seating, so I'll be finished by the time the dining room fills up. And obviously the 4-5 hour many course tasting menus are completely out of the picture.

Go to the Spain forum, where you'll be able to read more than you could possibly want to about El Bulli.

There is a very good chance that I will not have an oven in which to cook my first Christmas dinner in my new house. A neighbor has kindly offered to let me use hers, but I'm trying to limit the number of things I have to wander back and forth to make. And as if that weren't enough, I'm 5 months pregnant and sick with a cold, and feel like death warmed over. Chances are I'll feel better by Thursday, but I'm not counting on anything! So please excuse the uninspired menu, but well, my mom isn't very adventurous, and I'm not up to cooking a gourmet meal in this state. Anyway, our main course will be ham, and nothing goes better with ham (in my book, anyway) than scalloped potatoes. As I was searching for recipes, I came across one for the crockpot, and thought that was a perfect solution for my mostly ovenless state. But I am dubious of recipes retrieved from the random realms of the Internet. Does anyone have a recipe for cooking scalloped potatoes in a crockpot? Preferably one that does not involve any cans of cream soup or packages of velveeta (ubiquitous in the realm of random internet recipes). Thank you.