jackal10

You can make a Macdonalds "milkshake" palatable by starting with the chocolate flavour, and pour in a cup of the liquid they call black coffee. Stir well. (If you have to be in that establishment with young relatives and their parents, for example)

On a related topic, do you lay the table with the fork tines/spoon bowl up or down? If you lay with the tines or bowl up, do you have cutlery with the hallmark ( I assume it is, of course, solid silver) on the top surface? Personally I think it vulgar to show the hallmark, but some advocate it.

I bought my woodburning oven fromFour grandmere and it is wonderful

You can pre-order the English version from Amazon.

Midsummer House tomight for a dinner hosted by Library House and Apax Venture Partners. Lime Sour Green tea and lime foam. They should serve this with a toothbrush, not a teaspoon. Derivative maybe? Cucumber jelly, smoked salmon, cauliflower foam Foam could have been anything, a bit wasted and repetitious after the lime. How to make a little smoked salmon go a long way...Dill would have been nice. Moasaic of Provencal Vegetables and Poached Fennel, Home made Sun dried Tomatos Goats Cheese Mousseline Fresh Tapenade (and deep fried basil leaves) Greatly enjoyed, and very pretty, although I thought that vegetable terrines with two colour sauces were rather old fashioned. More gelatine, and the mousseline was nearly another foam... Steamed Sea Bass with Crab Mousse, Creamed Haricot Blanc with Chilli Chilli Syrup, Vanilla Froth Nice fish. Good presentation. Big square plate, outline of chilli syrup, then innner piping of what looked and tasted like red coloured mashed potato, but I guess was chilli mousse acting as a dam holding back the vanilla froth (more foam!). In the centre a heap of the haricot topped with the sea bass, and waht seemed to be two rounds of thinly sliced caramelised scallop. Great vanilla aroma as the plates presented. Haricot oversalted to my taste. Rhubarb and custard Tall shot glass with rhubarb cream at the bottom and a vanilla froth on top thicker than the vanilla foam in the last course. sprinkled with crumble topping. We were instructed to drink, but I'd have liked a spoon. More foam... For some reason the petit four (madeline, miniature merangue, jelly (Agar?) square, raspberry tartlet)were served at this point. Fondant of Valrhona Chocolate and Freeze dried Raspberries, Tarragon and Yoghurt Sorbet, Raspberry syrup (chocolate and caramel (isomalt?) thin) The raspberries were almost undetectable in the chocolate fondant Could have been any raspberry flavouring. - Good liquid centre, but I think you get a more intense chocolate taste if you leave out the egg yolks. Also the centre seperated out some butter on the plate. Tattinger reserve (they were city financial folk) Poully Fume CH. Favray Quentin David 2002 CH Laroque St Emilion Grand Cru 1993 - excellent Interesting and competant rather than exceptional. Profi whippers are wonderful, but it really isn't required to have foam and/or gelatine in every course. I guess it illustrates the point that one of the functions of a restaurant meal is to impress with stuff it is hard to do at home - hence foams etc. A heavy hand on the salt. I wonder if the fact that the chef smokes has anything to do with it. I notice when I smoke I salt more heavily.

I've just got some Silpat ("Silform" ) baguette moulds. Magic. No more stuck baguettes Much easier to handle and store as well

Vieux Telegraph, both red and white. However, how can you serve Asparagus and Pheasant at the same dinner? One must be frozen or otherwise preserved. Pheasant is from October to Jan; Asparagus is April-June. Serving both together is a gastronomic nonsense, or a lack or resepct for the ingredients.

Spaghetti Squash stores well: cool and dry

Yes, except that they tend to be bigger and a bit coarser. As ever they need to be cleaned well, since earwigs and others find them a handy home. They are also a feast for pollen beatles.

Lunch; because of the dietary requirements of the various guest, no meat, no fish, no onions, no mushrooms, no carbohydrates Marbled quail eggs in a seaweed nest Fried flowers (egg white tempura of nasturtiums, rose petals sage leaves, parsley leaves, red kale etc from the garden) Dipping sauce Iced Arugula soup and its foam (in shot glasses) Samphire Clear iced Borscht, sour cream, Spinach roulade, pimento cheese filling (thanks eg), yellow pimento foam Fava beans and peas, white and blue new potatos for those who could eat them Elderflower sorbet, elderflower fritters Courgete (zucchini) souffle, parmesan tuile Summer pudding, strawberries (pepper, balsamic, Grand Marnier) Chocolate fondant Cheeses (Blue Vinny, Munster, Aged Emmental), (not touched) Coffee Indian sweets (brought by one of the guests) Champagne Ch Vieux Telegraph blanc 1998 Rolly Gasman Edelzwicker 2000 Rolly Gasman Gewurtztraminer Vendage Tardive 95

Stuffed cabbage leaves, hot or cold Sourkraut Keeps frozen, shredded Soups, like gabure

Granted, but what happens when it does begin to screw up you, and your collegues work: violent mood swings, absenteeism etc, and this continues besides some friendly and not so friendly warnings. Alternative one: Your fire the employee, bad references, downhill spiral. Their family starve. Employer has to find a new person and start from scratch to train them up. Next you will say you should fire someone because they (or their wife) are pregnant. Alternative two: Offer help and support. Overcome problem, Grateful employee. Experience retained. Productivity increases. You choose.

Ahh...dripping on bread or toast, salted, another treat the food police deny us. Needlessly, according to Dr Atkins Rich, savoury, and with the jelly bits and the crispy scratchings (or grattons). EVOO is no substitute.

Marbled quails eggs A cold soup (take in a thermos) Strawberries for desert?

Well said Jaz. And remember, that after three day guests and fish stink. But do you offer to help with the clearing up (assuming there are no staff available)?

I thought Bulwer-Lytton was chiefly remembered for the famous court case, and locking his wife up unfairly in a lunatic asylum.

It was a dark and stormy night. They last man left sat all alone. Suddenly, the maitre'd appeared at last,.

To begin at the beginning: It is spring, a perpetual moonless night in the smart room, designer starless and bible-black, the empty tables now silent and the hunched, waiters and '-and- bussers limping down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, sauceboat-bobbing pass. The windows are blind as moles (though moles see fine tonight in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as the plongeur there in the muffled middle by the Profi foam pump and the staff time clock, the stoves in mourning, the prep stations in widows' weeds. And all the critics of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.

Florence Lin's Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings and Breads Now sadly out of print, and amazingly expensive on the secondhand market.

Now the weather has turned hot, what are your favourites to start a summer supper? Any exciting ways to serve, such as with a contrasting sorbet or savoury icecream? My all time favourite is clear iced borscht, frozen sour cream. Others are Vichysoisse Gazpacho (and variants) Cucumber Schav (sorrel) Lettuce Tomato Jellied consomme Fruit soups: cherry, strawberry, berry

Its not so much about the law as good humanitarian common sense. If you can help someone get their life sorted, you end up with a much better and loyal employee. This is not just substance abuse (think alcoholic) but goes to things like support during family or health crises, bereavement, paternity leave etc. Of course its still up to the person to accept that help. If you are the sort of employer who will fire a someone during a family crisis (for example a single parent with a sick kid), then I don't want to work for you, or in the extreme case you make it not possible to employ a whole range of talented people. Of course with the economic decline in the US its easier to get staff, so you might not care, but it is still hard to recruit the best. Its also wasteful and disruptive to lose staff once you have trained them, got them settled in and part of the team, and got them up to speed. I guess a good example is Jamie Oliver's 15, which takes kids off the the dole queue, sorts their problems and trains them up.

The white spots are not normal, and could be due to several causes: a) Mildew. Sort of powdery, Not good, but won't hurt you, and the plant will probably recover Caused by hot, humid conditions, without much air movement. You can spray with a fungicide, but then i wouldn't eat the leaves. Most likely. b) Mealy bug - like very small bits of cotton wool. Wash off with soapy water. c) Bleaching from chemical or other sprays. Sage come in all sorts of flavours and colours, including yellow, purple and white varigation, but not white spotted, so far as I know. Jekka's herb farm lists 20 varieties.

Deep fried sage leaves for garnish Flavouring for liver or as a bouquet garni component or in a bean stew

Signature flavours from different cuisines: ginger and spring onion The creole "trinity" Pepper and salt Dill and garlic Parsley and fried onion Tomato, garlic, basil, EVOO Five-spice Quatre epice etc etc

I'm trying a modified Atkins style high protein, low carb diet. I've fairly painlessly lost about 10lbs over a couple of weeks. Modified since I refuse to give up coffee, or wine... I like it since one can eat as much as one likes, dine out without too much trouble. No problem with butter, or bacon, or cream. (3.3g carb per cup, whipped- I could eat 5 pints a day if I wanted, but not much else. But then if I'd just eaten 5 pints of whipped cream I wouldn't want much else...) The only difficulty so far was airline food on a 4 hour flight where the on-board meal was Pasta or risotto, with no alternatives I was reduced to picking the cheese out of a cheese sandwich. Serves me right for not taking my own. So today Breakfast was bacon and eggs, coffee Lunch was cheeses, cold meats, salad (Baron Phillip de Rothschild 2000 Vigonier) Supper will be Asparagus (butter or hollandaise), long-cooked brisket, coleslaw, strawberries and cream ( Manzanilla, Mas La Plana 95, Coonewara botrytis affected late harvest Gewurtz, 98). I'll cook some new potatos for the others.