Richard Kilgore

Foodie - We may have more, and more suitable, ideas with a little more information. Any food preferences? What price range? Also Dallas is a fairly big place. Are you already booked into a hotel? Its location may have something to do with where you will want to eat, especially if your time is tight coming from WF. There are a number of potential "romantic" places in Big D, depending on what you consider romantic and what kind of food you are interested in and what you want to spend. The Mansion and The French Room are excellent, but from your initial post, they are more than you want to do.

The edit button has disappeared, so here's an addition to the last post. The ingredients for Mom's Puttanesca: "Tomatoes, olives, fresh carrots, fresh garlic, olive oil, real butter, real cream, fresh basil, capers, sea salt, pepper, anchovies, Vitamin E (soy)." Three bucks a jar. As is it was okay, and with added sauted minced garlic, onion, yellow pepper, and mushrooms in EVOO plus micro-wave steamed zucini, plus sea salt, pepper, and basalmic, and simmered for a mere ten minutes, it was a great deal better than okay. Cost me no extra time (overall) over using it straight from the jar. Saved me about 20 minutes over making it from scratch, and many nights 20 minutes counts.

Priscilla --- In "Simple French Food", Olney talks about boiling them briefly and serving with salt, pepper, olive oil and vinegar. As an aside he mentions using leftovers cold, tossed in butter, in a salad or omlette, gratineed, and in a souffle. He also includes asparagus tips in a discussion of Vegetable Fritters.

I took the tip from you "Mom's" posters and tried the Mom's Putanesca Sauce. Not bad. Not bad at all. I was surprised. No sugar, but several whole cloves of garlic.

I think Bux may be on to something. I recall a public radio station in NYC many years ago that played a recording of Bessie Smith singing America the Beautiful for three days straight until they got what they needed. Then they celebrated by breaking the record (back in vinyl days) over the air. So maybe PBS will end with a smashing of the crockpot.

Thanks, Phil. I am aware of the Olney series, but it appears to be very hard to find.

Stone - I usually scrape the grease out with a wooden spatula and a paper towel. If something has stuck a little bit, first try hot water. (I think a plastic scrubbing pad is okay used gently, but nothing metal.) If there is still something stuck, put it on the stove with hot water covering the bottom and heat it for a few minutes. That should do it. (I rarely have to go that far. It's mostly a matter of wipe it out with a towel.) At any rate, at the end heat it on the stove and do a light coating of oil. It might be better to fry some chicken or fish in deep oil before trying to do any more steaks in it. See my note above.

I have been converting from old Calphalon annodized to All-Clad Stainless recently. But I have been curious about the Chefmate, so I went to the nearby Target to get the 3 qt to try it out. They had the 3 qt copper encapsulated and a 2 qt three ply. My guess is that the three ply is a safer bet, so I got the 2 qt. The copper pieces are all priced under the three ply, so that likley tells us something. The only thing I don't like initially about the Chefmate pan in comparison to the All-Clad is the handle. The CM is curved and lacks the thumb groove of the All-Clad. I think this is okay up to about 2 qt pans, but I think you could lose it with a full three qt. I'll report back after I have had a chance to test it out. And I'll probably pick up at least one of the "professional" CM stockpots later.

Thanks, everyone. I will check out each of these. Any other ideas on game...either wild or farm raised?

Just curious as to how the Target Chefmate pans and stockpots are working out, and how they compare to All-Clad after using them a little.

I am interested in your comments on cookbooks and books of food essays on fish & game that you have found helpful, interesting...or on the other hand, a waste of time. I like the work of Jim Harrison, A.D. Livingston, and Rebecca Gray, among others.

The Spyderco is simple enough to use. The Spyderco sits on the table in front of you with two sharpening rods inserted into the base at a fixed angle (15 or 20 degree depending on what you are doing), I.E. they are in a V-shape. Two metal rods are inserted to the left of the ceramic rods - these keep your fingers intact, unless you are trying really, really, really hard to cut yourself. You run your knife blade from butt to tip across the ceramic rod on your left, and then the one on the right, holding the blade vertically. (That's the brief version - you do this many times with each set of rods - medium and fine.) And that is the genius of the system --- it is much easier to maintain a consistent angle by holding a knife vertically, than it is horizontally on a stone. All the details are in the manual and the video...and you can sharpen everything imaginable...serrated knives, tools, scissors, etc. I have a sharp vegetable peeler and finger nail clippers for the first time ever. Hope that helps.

And I forgot to add that the Spyderco sharpener does a fine job on serrated knives, too.

I used a stone up until last year, when I switched to the Spyderco Sharpener. This consists of medium and fine ceramic rods that can be mounted in the base for 15 or 20 degree angles. They say 15 degree to re-profile an edge and 20 degree for most blades routinely. That seems to work well on my Henkels (3" pairing, 6" unility, and 8" Chef) knives that I have had for almost 20 years. It is a breeze to hold a consistent angle on both sides of the blade with this set up --- much easier than with a stone. The Spyderco sharpener comes with a helpful video, as well as a clear printed manual. About $45. (For knives that need more serious re-profiling, diamond rods are available as an add-on for an additional $40 or so, but I have not needed them.) For home use, I hone with a steel each time I use a knife, and use the Spyderco about once every month or two. I also have a Wusthof pairing knife that I like better than the Henkels. If I were buying new knives today, the Wusthofs would win out.

I was warned away from the electric sharpeners by one of the cook shops here. They said the machines are rather aggressive and it's easy to grind away too much metal. I used to use a stone, but switched last year to the Spyderco sytem. It is simple to maintain a proper angle, because the ceramic sharpening rods are held at an angle by the base and all you have to do is hold the knife vertically...much easier for the eyes and brain to do. Two metal rods out to the side are good for protecting you from yourself. The Spyderco comes with a good manual and a useful video. I use it about once a month, and touch up with a steel after each cutting use.

Another egg science question: Grade A vs Grade AA eggs - can you tell a difference?

I have found the advice of A.D. Livingston helpful in his little book Cast Iron Cooking. A.D. says to rub the skillet or Dutch oven with a strip or half strip of bacon, inside and out, including the lid of the Dutch oven. Bake it upside down in a 300 degree oven for several hours. Do this two or three times before trying to cook anything in it. Then deep fry chicken or fish in at least 3/4 inch of oil a couple of times to "sweeten" the cast iron before trying to fry an egg or steak or make a stew. (The oven treatment should work better than stove top for those 12 inch skillets.) To clean up after frying, just wipe the pan out with a paper towel. After a stew, scrape it out with a wooden spoon (I will also use a plastic scrub pad, but not metal) and rinse it out with water; then dry it thoroughly and rub on a light coat of oil. Never use soap and never put it in a dish washer. And don't marinade in it. If you are going to blacken a steak or whatever, use a separate skillet reserved for blackening only. Once I have done the laborious initial seasoning, I cook bacon or sausage in my cast iron from time to time to further the treatment.