tammylc

Red, and very sweet.

My reaction to the duck fat fries was about the same - really good fries, but not good enough to live up to all the hype. They are cut thinner than the regular fries, so they can be cooked all in one go instead of being double cooked.

My favorite is a little Alsation sparkler - Simonet Blanc de Blanc Brut. Floral, yeasty nose, good balanced acidity. It's a joy. First got it through my wine club, and at $5.49 a bottle I'm kicking myself that I didn't buy a case (maybe two!). Regular price is only around $7.00, so it's still a bargain. Available from Village Corner in Ann Arbor, I don't know who else around the country might carry it.

My husband and I had heated debates about our sink. I wanted double bowl, but with one large and one small. He couldn't see the point of a small bowl, so we got two equal size bowls. Both are about 14" across (the largest that would fit in the space we had). They are both 7 1/2" deep, but since they are undermount, feel about 9 inches deeper. I'm glad I didn't get anything deeper, because it would feel really awkward for me (especially now that I'm pregnant and can't stand as close to the sink as I used to!). We got a high-arc faucet, so getting large pots underneath is a breeze even with the shallower sinks. Contrary to others opinions, we've been very happy with our double bowls. Here's why - we almost always only use one side. We got a dish drying rack that fits into the other side, so we have a place for non-dishwasher things to dry that doesn't take up counterspace. I think it's great! We also hotly debated our faucet choice. I wanted a mixer faucet with a pull-out sprayer. Eric wanted a high arc faucet. We couldn't find a high arc pull-out that we liked, so we ended up going with a non-pull out faucet. And no mixer either, because that was the faucet that we liked. After we made the decision, I started hearing lots of horror stories about people's pull outs breaking and reliability being poor, so I think we made the right decision. And much to my surprise, I don't miss the mixer in the slightest. Just call me a kitchen rebel, I guess!

When I make mine, I freeze them before cooking, then take them right out of the freezer and into a hot oven when I want them. About 13 minutes at 350 seems to do the trick. That way I can cook a few at a time and keep some hot hors d'ouevres coming all day.

Fascinating. Thanks for the review. Sounds like an absolutely unique experience.

Having just recently eaten at Trio, I can say that it is possible to do good pairings with radical kitchen experiments. I was very pleased with the combinations. They used to serve a parmesan cheese and olive oil ice cream sandwich. The pairing was a dry amontilado sherry, which I got to sample and believe would have been a lovely pairing...

After my husband managed to break 4 out of the 6 Spieglau glasses I bought last year, I knew a replacement was in order. In response to my query about good glasses from a couple weeks ago, I went to Cost Plus World Market and picked up a dozen of their "Conniseur" glasses. The shape of the white wine glass is almost identical to the 2 Spieglau Chianti glasses that I have left. The bowl is slightly different and they are a few milimeters smaller. But they're definitely sturdier, while still having a nice thin rim. They're not going to show off an aged Bordeaux to best advantage, but I think they're fine for most red and white wines. At $4.99 a stem, they're not the cheapest glasses, and with the Amazon deal, Spieglau might even be a tad cheaper. But I'm much less worried about breaking these ones!

Thanks, Larry - that sounds awesome! I think I'll give it a go, too, if you don't mind... What kind/brand of chocolate do y'all like using?

Sounds good! Would you mix the candy canes into white chocolate, or just sprinkle them on top? How about some sort of mint oil for the chocolate? Would that work?

I'm looking for some quick and simple chocolate bark recipes to round out my holiday baked goods tray. I've done white chocolate-candy cane bark before, and may do that again (melt white chocolate, crush candy canes, mix, spread and chill - very festive). I have a friend who does "Tiger Bark" - white chocolate mixed with peanut butter, and combined with dark or milk chocolate. It's really good, but I need to track down a recipe. Any other suggestions, recipes?

I had the best whipped cream of my life last night at a restaurant. It must have been at least 40% butterfat - I've never tasted anything creamier, but they brought out the carton and there was no butterfat percentage listed. I abandoned my brownie sundae and just ate the whipped cream plain with a spoon. At home, I'll usually whip my own from heavy cream (not ultra-pasteurized, unless that's all I can get). But I'm not above grabbing a can of Reddi-Whip on occasion. Never any Cool Whip for me though - one must draw the line somewhere.

My list is like a little subset of yours... meatballs (although I haven't decided on a recipe yet) mini spanikopitas (plus some phyllo trianges with a mushroom filling) cold boiled shrimp (good idea - I should pick up a shrimp ring - my husband will be happy) baked brie in puff pastry lox and mini bagels (we're doing something similar, but with baguette instead of mini-bagels) veggie krudite sugared pecans (mine are actually spiced pecans, with lots of good black pepper) assorted cookies (ginger, chocolate snowflakes, brown sugar drop, maybe some candy cane and tiger bark) Assorted wine and soft drinks (we're skipping beer this year because no one really seems to drink it - but we'll have Izze, and awesome fizzy fruit juice) Also - lots of good cheese, some unusual cured meats, a bunch of devilled eggs, and probably some assorted dips and things from Whole Foods.

We sent our invitation out to a whole lot of people, but didn't require RSVPs back. My guess is that we'll end up with about 50-70 individual people, but never more than 20-30 at one time. I'm making up a bunch of finger foods, and will be putting out lots of cheese and veggies and dip, etc. And cookies and other assorted sweets. What's on your menu?

Well, as I predicted above, the hub-bub has definitely died down. I'd been noticing plenty of spots in the parking lot the last few times I've driven by, so when we were looking for a place for dinner last night, we decided to give the roadhouse another try. It was moderately busy, but there was no wait and we got seated right away. First thing we noticed is that prices on a couple of things have come down - most noticeably the hamburger, which has dropped from $12 to $11.50 - significant only psychologically, but I expect people feel better about paying $11 for a burger than $12... Our waiter was way over friendly and over helpful, bordering on pushy. He annoyed us both. Eric ordered the raw clams as an appetizer. He chose 3 varieties from the 5 that were available, and really liked two of them. The third was only so-so. We both had soup - I got the cream of wild mushroom and he got the chili. The mushroom soup was quite good - nice flavors. plenty of mushrooms, and not so creamy that it was overly thick and filling. For dinner I wavered between the pot roast and the buttermilk fried chicken. Annoying waiter was no help in making a decision, but I ended up going with the pot roast. It was a _big_ portion of slow cooked Niman Ranch beef chuck, carrots, onion, and sadly, only _one_ yukon gold potato. The sauce was rich and flavorful - clearly had tomato in there somewhere, but it didn't taste tomatoey. But the portion was absolutely huge. I ate what I wanted, Eric tasted some, and I still had enough left for an ample lunch today. Eric got the burger, and for the second time in a row, it was undercooked. He likes medium rare burgers, but after our last experience with their burger he ordered it medium, just in case. It was _still_ underdone! So we sent it back. The replacement burger was medium well, but that's generally what happens when you send something back, and it was fine. The hand cut french fries are really tasty, though. Dessert was a brownie sundae. The sauce wasn't hot fudge, as I expected, but a thick milk chocolate sauce from Sharffenberger. The brownie was Zingerman's black magic brownie (no nuts), topped with a scoop of Zingerman's Creamery vanilla gelato, with a mound of whipped cream and some pecans on the side. The whip cream was the creamiest I have ever tasted and was so fabulous I was still eating it with a spoon long after I'd had enough chocolate and ice cream. They brought out the carton of heavy whipping cream for me to check out, but no butterfat content was noted on it. It must have been incredibly high though, to give such a creamy texture. Bottom line... still too expensive. I think I'm portraying a culinary bias here, but it seems I just don't like to pay that much for big oversized dishes of American food, even if that American food is made with the best quality ingredients. It was still just pot roast, y'know? I just don't think that Zingerman's opening a roadhouse in Ann Arbor really fulfilled any unmet need. A place for good Spanish food - now that would have been neat. Or any of a myriad of other cuisines that Zing is knowledgeable about. But the American food thing just really doesn't work for me. But I'll probably still go back to try the fried chicken.

Just the other day on NPR I heard an interview with a guy from a company that makes pork rinds. Apparently sales are up dramatically across the country, thanks to Atkins dieters who are looking for a crunchy snack to replace potato chips! I too am prepping for a holiday open house this weekend (for a few less people, though), so I'll look forward to reading about yours!

My husband was picking up some tiny bits of assorted seafood from Whole Foods (1 jumbo shrimp, couple of scallops, etc) to use to make food for our saltwater fish. Once I'd clued the seafood guy in to what we were doing, he stopped bothering to put prices on the little packages.

Thought I should report back in on how it went. When our server asked if we were interested in the wine pairing menu, I indicated that one of my companions and I were interested in splitting a pairing. He said "Very good" and brought two glasses for the rest of the night. No questions, no problems. My pregnancy wasn't obvious (I was wearing a big shirt overtop of stretchy black velour pants - my attempt at pregnancy chic) so any issues of liability were avoided. The wine pairings were great, as usual, and featured lots of unusual wines that you just don't get elsewhere - red wine from Austria, white wine from Sicily, Port from one of the few remaining Portuguese (ie. not British) houses, a late-harvest Chenin Blanc with the foie gras course, etc. I got in lots of happy wine-geeking time with the server, which resulted in him bringing me a little taste of a dry Amontillado (sp?) sherry to try, which was really neat. It was a really, really wonderful dinner and I had a fabulous time.

Had dinner at the kitchen table last night. It was fabulous, astounding, wonderful, and most of all fun! Chefg's sense of whimsy shines strongly through his food, and I went with a group of people who were really able to embrace that whimsy. At times I worried that we were disrupting the kitchen with our laughter! Our menu was nearly identical to the one Jefff had, as I expected. There were a few differences in both the content and the order of execution. I'm not going to aim for a course by course run down necessarily, I'll just comment on our observations and the few new dishes. Our menu: Pear-Eucalyptus-Olive Oil Pacific Sea Urchin; puree of orange rind, peppers, licorice Puree of Chestnuts; quince, bacon, potato ice cream - We were all utterly amazed by the potato ice cream - utter confusion between what your brain was expecting and what your mouth got! Tempura of Rock Shrimp; vanilla, cranberry, Meyer lemon - Absolute favorite dish of 2 of our table of 4, and in the top 3 for the rest of us. An amazing combination of flavors and textures - the crisp of the tempura shell and fabulous fruity hit. Wow. So, so good. And smells great too, thanks to the vanilla bean. Spice Water Black Truffle Explosion - I think I'd heard about this one a little too much. I was really looking forward to it, and while it was great, I wasn't as awed as I expected to be. The concept and technique is astounding of course, but I think that I just prefer my truffles as a part of other dishes rather than all on their own. Extra course - Smoked sturgeon with pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, matsutake mushroom (same one Jeffj had, and like for him, not printed on the menu) - The dried mushrooms had such a wonderful intensity, and the sturgeon was remarkable. Elysian Fields Farm Lamb; chanterelle mushrooms, coffee, catmint - I don't like coffee, but this still worked for me! "Pizza" - What more is there to say? Truly astounding, even more so given that we'd all eaten pizza for lunch. This was better. Ribeye of Prime Beef; banana, celeriac, malted barley (ours was beef, where Jeffj's was venison) - The combinations here worked better than I could possibly have expected. M couldn't stop raving about the beef/chocolate reduction sauce that was also a component. "Cheese and Cracker" "Salad" - "This is a prank of the first order" declared one of my companions. We were all very impressed and delighted by this one. Pushed Foie Gras; Dolga crabapples, honey gelee - My favorite of the evening. I'd had something similar on my trip to Trio last year, but this was even better. The apple cider sorbet was great. Mountain Huckleberry Soda; five flavors gelled - We were all utterly awed by the smoked cream. So much so that we asked how it was done, and got our answer towards the end of the meal (it's just cold smoked, no tricks, although I can't remember what kind of wood she said they used). The sage gell amazed me by being so totally transparent, and while I found it didn't have much flavor on its own, I found that it had the most impact on the flavor of the soda. Neat alchemy! Pineapple-Mustard **extra course: Kumumoto oyster with sesame foam - Unfortunately, none of us really like this one. I generally really like oysters, but I think this variety just didn't work for me. The oyster was already loaded on a spoon, with a sesame foam over the top. A one bit dish. Michigan Brook Trout Roe; ginger, soy, papaya - Every flavor in this dish is really, really intense - the roe is of course remarkable, but the ginger and soy also really express themselves. I didn't _dislike_ it (a couple people at the table did, though) but it was just too much intensity for me to finish it. I also found that as we entered the second progression I was feeling overfull and suffering from some palate fatigue. Puffed Lobster; grapefruit, lemongrass **Salsify Wrapped in Bread; shellfish, Buddha's hand, dried parsley - Two pieces of salsify breaded in brioche crumbs and fried crispy, with some fish and shellfish. I can't remember the main sauce, but the secondary sauce was a bright green parsley sauce. The "dried parsley" in the name refers to a translucent sheet of dehydrated parsley oil - I don't know how they make it, but it was really neat! It also included some bright Buddha's hand gellee, and a fresh Buddha's hand was zested over top of the dish. For those unfamiliar with the fruit, it's a type of citrus that looks like a whole bunch of bright yellow fingers - it had a great aroma and flavor. Iowa Pork; figs, truffles, fennel - Delightful, but I was really starting to feel full. So I tasted all of the components, but only ate about half. **Frozen Yuzu-Tosaka Seaweed - Just when I really needed a palate cleanser, along came an astounding one. A frozen wafer of Yuzu juice, with a beautiful frond of red seaweed pressed into one side. Breast and Leg of Wisconsin Pheasant; late autumnal fragrances - This is the current vapor dish, and the three city dwellers in the group loved it. One of our party, however, had grown up on a farm, and the late autumnal fragrances smelled just a like a barn to her! And since one just doesn't eat in a barn, she had a really hard time with this dish! Hereford Hop; Guiness, onions, fresh yeast Mango-Olive-Pistachio - I liked the pixie stick concept, but the filling just didn't work for me. Tapioca of Roses; raspberries, clove, cream - Wow, wow, wow. We all adored it, and loved the fun of slurping it out of a tube. Liquid Mijao; parmesan, quinoa, hazelnuts - "Watch it jiggle, see it wiggle..." Loved the look, but the flavor and the combinations didn't really do it for me. Interestingly, we had a lot more garnishes than in Jeffj's picture. Tripod Hibiscus - Another wonderfully whimsical dish that also tasted great! And the chocolates of course! It was really neat to be in the kitchen and see all the dishes coming together. It was a quiet Sunday night and the kitchen team was working away on some dishes for the upcoming switch to the winter menu, including something to do with a cured goose breast. Sadly, we didn't get to sample anything! After seeing the "Into the Fire" episode, it was cool to see some of that playful creativity in person. The wine service was great, and the pairings were inspired, as usual. Lots of unusual wines, like a white wine from Sicily and a red wine from Austria! Never any typical pairings - everything was really creative. I'd been wine geeking with our server all evening, and as we got talking about ports, he got inspired and brought me out an Amontillado (sp?) dry sherry to taste. It had a very nutty finish that you wouldn't really expect. Very interesting, and a nice treat. Service overall was great. Many of the dishes were explained by members of the kitchen staff, with the sous chef coming up for a few, and the pastry chef for another. Being in the kitchen definitely takes the pressure off of providing picture perfect service - the atmosphere doesn't necessarily demand it, and you get so distracted by what's going on that you wouldn't notice service gaffes that would be apparent in the dining room. But that said, I didn't have a single complaint about the service. We were the last table in the place (dinner took about 5 hours total) and Chefg came over to talk to us at the end of the night. We sort of talked his ear off, we were so excited about the experience, and eager to share our favorites! Hope he didn't mind too much! Despite my palate fatigue at the beginning of the second progression, by the end of the meal I wasn't at all overly full and felt really rejuvenated. The whole team at Trio is doing just utterly remarkable work. Only a couple of course out of the 27 didn't work for us, but not through any flaw in execution, just a reflection of our tastes. Chefg is doing a lot of really exciting things with combining sweet and savory tastes in dishes - as somone else mentioned, almost all the desserts had a little bit of sea salt to them, which added a whole new layer. But I was most impressed with the combinations of hot and cold, both in individual dishes and throughout the meal as a whole. No simple sorbet intermezzos for Trio - all of the cold/frozen dishes were just as thought out as the warm and were among my favorites time and time again. Thanks Chefg and team for a wonderful night! Truly an experience to remember! I can't wait until next time.

I'm doing two kinds of phyllo trianges - spinach and feta and mushroom. I make them up in advance and freeze them, then bake them off a few at a time for serving. I'll also be doing some little tarts that are filled with a leek and cheese filling - kind of like little mini quiches, and they can be made a couple days in advance and reheated. Recipes Spinach and Feta filling 1 pkg frozen spinach, thawed and as much liquid as possible squeezed out 2 scallions chopped 1 1/4 c feta, crumbled 1/4 c freshly grated parmesan Mushroom filling -this is a filling that I'd usually put in stuffed mushrooms, but I wanted to be able to do it in advance 6 shallots ~10 oz mushrooms 2 tbsp butter a bunch of freshly grated parmesan salt and pepper Chop and saute the shallots and mushrooms in butter until the mushrooms start to brown. Puree in a food processor. Add the parm, and puree again. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Making the Triangles Take two sheets of phyllo pastry and place them on your counter. Brush liberally with melted butter. Use a sharp knife to cut the phyllo into thirds (so they are long rectangles). Place a tbsp (or so, depends on your phyllo) of the filling at the base of a phyllo third. Fold a corner diagonally over the filling to start the triangle. Continue folding up in a triangle shape until you run out of phyllo. When all three have been folded, brush the outsides with melted butter and put on a cookie sheet. Repeat. When the cookie sheet is full, put it in the freezer briefly to harden up the butter and then transfer the triangles to a large freezer bag for storage until use. Makes about 3 dozen spinach and 2 dozen mushroom. If you want large triangles (less work) cut the phyllo in half. For smaller triangles, try quarters - although that's way more folding than I'd want to do! If you want the recipe for the tarts, let me know - I'll have to dig it out - I haven't made them yet this year, so I don't have the recipe in short term memory.

We have (and love) the Earl series from Henckel. We bought it at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $108 for a 45 piece set. But Amazon has it for $89.99 - here's a link. Edited for typo and to add - good, heavy weight, simple lines. Longer than standard Amerian flatware, a quality I really appreciate. I'm ultra picky about how flatware feels in my hands so mostly shop by touch, and these meet all my criteria. Now if I could only find a place selling them by the piece - I've lost a couple tea spoons over the years.

I'm going to Trio in Chicago on Sunday night for their Tour de Force menu at the kitchen table. I'm very excited... I've been to Trio before and they do a nice job on wine pairings, so I don't want to miss the opportunity to see what the sommelier is up to. But... I'm pregnant, and while I've not sworn off all alcohol, I am trying to keep consumption to moderate levels. Which means I'm likely to have a sip or two of each pairing and be happy with that. One of my dinner companions has agreed to order the wine pairing with dinner and share with me. What's the proper etiquette for that situation? Should I just take my couple sips from her glass? Ask the sommelier to split the pours? Thoughts?

Chanelling my husband... Review of I-Roast Edited to say that my husband sent me the link, not that he wrote the review or anything...

Generally, I'd agree about the safety concern, except that in this case, all the hacking really entails is plugging the variac into the wall, and then plugging the roaster into the variac and playing with the dial. Especially if you do as my husband did, and actually buy the more expensive 20 amp variac instead of putting a larger fuse in the 5 amp, which just seems like an inherently bad idea... The people who've done it have been really happy with the results, apparently. Eric hasn't had a chance to try it out yet, so I don't yet have any personal experience to report on. We'll see how it goes... I think he sees it as a fun opportunity for experimenting and tweakin, rather than too much trouble - but he definitely has that hacker mentality...

Hubbie reports that the feeling among people who've tried it is that the results are as good or better with the variac/fresh roast combination than with those from a more expensive roaster. Might just be the hacker boy mentality, though... His variac cost $110 including shipping, and came with a free "multi-meter." I got him the Fresh Roast as a Christmas gift, and it cost $69.