JFLinLA

I know we have the palateros in Los Angeles now but I haven't seen or heard ice cream trucks since I was a kid. Do we still have them here? Do any of you other Angelenos remember the Helms Bakery Truck from our childhood? One used to sit just up the street from my elementary school one or two afternoons a week. I would get those candy dots on paper and other sweet junk.

I am the "family baker" for the big get togethers. For everyday, I would make dessert always if time allowed but, alas, work, kids, etc. You get the idea. The challenge at home is that hubby can't eat sugar though I do make a mean apple pie without sugar. Usually several of these during the fall. The kids, of course eat dessert but kid #1 is more picky. Kid #2 would eat anything. Except for the apple pie, there are generally few fruit desserts at our house. I rarely make cakes or big things anymore for the reasons stated elsewhere here. I do enjoy putting the time in to have things taste and look great but it really galls me when people barely eat it. Lots of cookies and other things people can eat with their hands -- I'm enjoying Flo Braker's Miniatures book at the moment.

Yes, I've made his amaretti recipe and I like it very much. Hmmm, I've got some almond paste sitting at home that is needing to be used. I have another recipe that I like better that starts with blanched almonds rather than paste. I do like many of the recipes from his Cookie Book.

I have a computer file that someone sent me ages ago that claims to have the recipes for well-known packaged goods or from chain restaurants. The salak recipes in the index are: Applebee's Low-Fat Blackened Chicken Salad Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad Benihana Ginger Salad Dressing Bennigan's Hot Bacon Dressing Brown Derby's Original Cobb Salad El Torito's Mexican Caesar Salad Good Season's Italian Dressing Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Kraft Thousand Island Dressing Olive Garden House Dressing Pizza Hut Creamy Italian Dressing Red Lobster Creamy Caesar Dressing I can post what they say for any of those or, send me your e-mail and I can send you the whole darn thing.

Rick: I think we're on the same wavelength. I don't have the Berenbaum Pie and Pastry book so I can only go by the Cake Bible. Nor do I have the Hensberger books. (Darn, more books I have to get.) As far as Julia Child goes, first of all, I believe in anything she does or is even affiliated with. Secondly, when I was first getting into baking, I found her discussions of technique much more accessible than some of the others -- even Fanny Farmer or Joy of Cooking. And, finally, I've never, ever had a bad result from anything of Julia's recipes. As someone who has experienced, and learned from baking disasters, I really appreciate that about Julia.

As an amateur who bakes a lot, I think that the Reinhart and Berenbaum books may be a bit intimidating for someone starting out. If you truly want to learn the hows and whys of baking (i.e., the science) and want a lot of technique, they're great. If you want some great recipes to get started there are other ways to go. Anything by Nick Malgieri, Flo Braker and Maida Heatter are great. Also, Baking with Julia -- one of the Julia Child books, though they're not her recipes. With any or all of these, you can start with the easier, fool-proof recipes and work your way up as you become more daring and skillful. Move on to Berenbaum once you start weighing, rather than measuring your ingredients, want to understand how to make your buttercream without it turning into cottage cheese, and are ready to try working with sugar syrups.

Check it out here: http://www.campanilerestaurant.com/#

Personally, I love the original chopped salad at CPK (with garbanzos thank you very much). That's one of our regular places when we go out as a family. You can't eat out fancy and expensive all the time. I think we are off to the family dinner at Campanile next week.

Thanks everyone and especially Arkestra. We had dinner at Joe's in Venice Saturday night and it was perfect. The atmosphere was ideal -- lovely and relaxing . . . just what we needed. The service was impeccable. They had 3 prix fixe tasting menus. I ordered the 4-course seafood tomato menu which was delicious. It's hard to go wrong with tomatos this time of year in So Cal. The first course was deliciously juicy shrimp with a very light tomato sauce -- a perfect accompaniment. Second course was a smoked lobster tail with a smoked tomato sauce. Third couse was poached salmon in tomato water. All three courses were great. Even so, I decided that I had had enough tomatos by that point and swapped out the tomato dessert for something creamy and fudgy. Hubby ordered a la carte. He started with a lovely tuna tartare and had the sirloin for his main course. He liked them very much. I tasted and enjoyed both though the sirloin was a little overpowering given my menu. Kid #2 came back yesterday so this was a nice, grown-up treat for us.

Come get a whole duck in Chinatown.

Had a lovely romantic brunch at the San Ysidro Ranch once. It was a long time ago. FWIW, it's where JFK and Jackie Kennedy honeymooned.

Do you agree? From the Digest of the LA Times July 23 edition here. Did Alice Waters really have anything to do with it or did Tower do it all?

Mix: I've made reservations at Joe's in Venice. Maybe we'll get to the area a little early and take a peek at Amuse. Remember, this is without the kids. You're other recommendations are great and I'll keep them in mind for something else in the future. Go to Angeli. You'll have a great time and good food. Are you going to the Dumpling Lunch? I'll miss you all.

#1 -- This got moved to the West/Southwest board. It needs to be moved again. This time to California. #2 -- Wow, Scandia! I think my parents took me there for my 18th birthday, or was it 21st.

LA Times Food Section -- July 30, 2003 Why have duck only in cold weather? Regina Schrambling thinks you can, and should eat duck year round and says so in A duck for all seasons. Recipes for Grilled duck breasts with fresh ginger-peach chutney, Duck and potato salad, Duck legs with roasted mustard, and (since this is Los Angeles) Duck tacos. More about wines down under. "New Zealand has the land and climate to make world-class Pinot Noir." Find out who's making it and why it's so good in The Kiwis' new game: Extreme Pinot by Corie Brown. To find out which wines Corie liked best, read By all means, wine and dine. How do you know what to order in a real Chinese restaurant? If you can't read Chinese, how do you know what those dishes are that aren't translated into English? Carl Chu solves the mystery with his new book, "Finding Chinese Food in Los Angeles." It's way more than just a restaurant guide according to e-Gulleteer and food section writer Russ Parsons in Breaking the Chinese menu code. You don't have to be in LA to use this book however. As I read Russ' story, I think this would be a useful resource for any Chinese restaurant. You'll probably have to click on the PDF version to see the chinese characters for some of the dishes. A window on Norway, by Valli Herman-Cohen profiles the new book "Kitchen of Light: New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad." According to Valli, it "reads like a travel journal and a cultural history," as well as a cookbook. Find recipes at the end of the article for Green beans and peas with celeraic and mango, and Summer berries with bay leaf custard. Are you having to take out a second mortage to buy vanilla these days? Read Charles Perry's Plain vanilla gets a fancier price to find out why and when it's likely to change. Cindy Dorn's Culinary SOS saves the day again with a recipe for Pumpkin pancakes. It's California casual at its best is this week's review by S. Irene Virbila. She profiles Zax in Brentwood claiming that it "has perfected the art of the neighborhood bistro." She gives it 2 and a half stars and recommends the Steamed black mussels, spicy duck broth soup, roasted fig and beet salad, farmers market salad, lemon-asparagus risotto, sweet pea ravioli, olive-oil poached salmon, grilled pork tenderloin, steamed whitefish, coffee and doughnuts, mint chip ice cream sandwich. Instead of evening, come for lunch when the restaurant has a 3-course prix fixe menu at $15. This week's Restaurant Journal: Italy by way of the back roads discusses Rocca, the new Santa Monica restaurant set to open this weekend by chef Don Dickman. It also provides an update on The French Laundry, Santo Coyote on Melrose, Union Restaurant in Santa Monica, and what's up with chef Scooter Kanfer. How fast can you guess what David Shaw's article is about? OK, here's a hint, the title of the article is I'll have three Big Macs, two large fries and a lawyer. If you want to know where David stands on the debate, "Look, I'm on record — in this very space — ripping McDonald's for the appalling taste of its burgers, for its utilitarian, food-as-fuel approach to eating and for its encouragement of both gustatory timidity and, yes, rampant gluttony. But it's one thing to criticize McDonald's — and the rest of fast-food America — for super-sizing everything and for stuffing their products with more fat and sugar than a Southern politician's speech; it's quite another to say they should be legally responsible for the bulging waistlines of people foolish enough to consume all those giant portions and empty calories."

You may want to check on the California Board. There is an ongoing thread now about places to eat in LA. I love the pastrami at Langer's but if you're looking for atmosphere go to Canter's late at night. The pastrami's not bad there either.

You can't predict what kids tastes will be. I have a brother who was very, very picky as a kid. He wouldn't eat hamburgers broiled in the oven because they had "brown speck spice on them." Now he eats almost anything. The other brother would try anything and I was somewhere in the middle. Now, I'm a pretty adventurous eater. The husband is somewhat less adventurous but pretty good, though if I want Indian I have to go without him. Kid #1 (14 year old boy) is very picky and not very willing to try new things. I'm hoping this will change as he gets older like his uncle. Kid #2 (11 y.o. girl) is an incredibly adventurous eater and will try almost anything, like the other uncle. As a toddler, she chomped on a slice of horse radish before I could stop her. Both kids have been going to restaurants since they were practically newborns. And yes they have been to "fine dining" places for special occassions, but that's not often. The upside is my kids do know how to behave at a restaurant. They look the waiter/waitress in the eye when they order (most of the time) and say please and thank you. At home and restaurants they're exposed to a variety of foods. I figure the palates will develop with time.

Once a week but . . . I make a large batch of pizza dough. After it rises in the fridge, I make 4-6 "balls" of dough. One is ready to use. The others go in plastic bags (use a bit of non-stick spray on the inside) and into the freezer. They go back into a covered bowl in the fridge the night before I want to use them or defrost on the counter very quickly.

I'm going to try Malachi's recipe. I've been using one I got off of the KAF site. As far as technique at home goes, I use the food processor with the dough blade. I put all the dry ingredients in the work bowl and pulse a few times to combine. All the wet ingredients are combined together and then poured slowly into the processor with the motor running. It works great.

When did you put the insert in the freezer? I don't have the same brand of freezer you do, but most of them say you need to freeze the insert for a full 24 hours before use. I've tried popping them in in the morning and making dessert in the evening, and that is not enough time. Better luck on your next attempt! I also found that I had to lower the temp a bit on my freezer to get the canister cold enough. I have no idea why it was set where it was.

Yes, yes, recipe please?!

Dave and Arkestra -- thanks to you both. On further thought, I'm going to stay out of downtown. I go there every weekday. Dave -- Antonio's? I'm drawing a blank. Where is it and can you describe it a bit. Arkestra -- I don't think Campinile is out of the question. I was actually thinking about that in addition to Angeli. It's another place I haven't been in years. I've been thinking of trying family-night or grilled-cheese night both of which rule out Saturday. Maybe we'll do family-night when both kids are back and before they go back to school. Joe's in Venice sounds like a possibility. Is it in the Main Street area, Abbot Kinney, somewhere else?

So this Saturday night we get to go out to dinner without the kids. I'm thinking Angeli on Melrose (where I haven't been in ages) but I've been reading the recent posts on where to eat in LA (started by JGBanker) and Beach Fan's report of his recent dinner at Melisse. So here's what I'm looking for. I want a nice meal but want something relaxed. I'm frankly too tired to get very dressed up. Yea, yea, we'll dress nice but hubby probably doesn't want to wear a jacket and I don't want to wear pantyhose. And I also don't want some place where everyone is in their 20's, anorexic and wears black -- if you know what I mean. I was thinking of Angeli since we can also walk around before or after. I'm pretty willing to go almost anywhere from downtown to the ocean.

It's been nearly 20 years and here's all that I can remember. When we were working with the caterer and discussing salads for the first course, my mother kept saying, "don't you have something more unusual than that?" Finally the caterer mentioned something with pomegranate seeds in it. My mom loved it. Quite frankly, I'm always happy with a plain salad with some vinaigrette or caesar dressing. We also had carrot cake. I do remember a wonderful dinner on our honeymoon that ended with the most marvelous port. PS: There were pigs in blankets at my neice's Bat Mitzvah earlier this month.

Los Angeles Times Food Section -- July 23, 2003 Tower's tell-all has them buzzing, by Shawn Hubler, is a preview of the soon to be released "California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution." The book is "several degrees cattier than those of his predecessors . . .," (e.g., Bourdain, Reichl, etc.). If you can't wait for the book, check it out here. Nouveau vegan, by Valli Herman-Cohen discusses how restaurants are developing their repertoire of really good vegan cuisine, even non-vegan places. Recipes for Carmelized fig cake with lemon anglaise, Sushi-rice risotto in tomato cups with black olive soy sauce, and Roasted beets napoleon with cumin, heirloom tomatoes and avocado. Wine prices are down according to James Ricci. You can easily create a nice collection or enhance the one you already have. Great bottles, great prices. Find out how 4 of LA's top sommeliers would spend $300. A week after the tragedy, Russ Parsons tells how the farmers from the Santa Monica Farmers Market are coping while they are getting back to work and planning to return today. Harvest and return: Santa Monica goes on. Find out what to do with lobster in The luxury of simplicity by Susan La Tempa. How-to photos and recipes for Valentino's lobster-farro salad, Lobster-stuffed avocado with champagne vinaigrette, and Ginger lime lobster salad. Cindy Dorn comes through in Culinary SOS with a recipe for Mother's crunch French toast. In New-world Rhone, David Shaw tells about Aussie winemaker Caroline Dunn whose Annie's Lane Winery is winning awards and available in the US now. The Wine of the Week is 1998 Veglio Barolo Vigneto Arborina. Japanese cuisine has been influenced "foreign tastes that have made their way into modern Japanese cooking." Linda Burum tells about Cafe Hiro that does just this in The uni's touching the spaghetti, and that's OK. The restaurant is in Cypress. This week S. Irene Virbila reviews The Little Door on 3rd Street. Off 3rd Street, and into another world.