MatthewB

I picked up Baking w/ Julia last week. I've browsed it & it looks great. I'll be working through it so commiseration & celebration will be on our agenda. Now I just have to get out of this cooking rut that I fell into this week.

Here are my thoughts . . . Croquettes or gourgeres? (Which one?) Fried plantains w/ creme fraiche (check) Pargo a la Parrilla con Tomate y Cebolla (Snapper grilled in foil w/ cilantro, tomato, & onion), Yuca con Mojo, & black beans & rice (broccoli, too?) Skip the salad as tomatoes & onions are in the above? Flan Feedback, your thoughts?

I found a remainder of this today.

If I did lechon, I think I'd smoke it. I don't feel like smoking this Saturday. Everything else looks great. Menu suggestions?

Lay it on me, Mr. G & Dave.

I've done less Cuban than Mexican. Let's do a Cuban meal for late summer.

Probably a good idea. I'll need help though. Those are weak areas in my cookbook collection.

Still thinking--barely--this through . . . Five courses, perhaps? C1: Pissaladiere topped w/ tomatoes C2: Pasta & pesto (I've way too much Italian basil) C3: Main course but what? C4: Simple salad C5: Dessert I'm surprisingly unmotivated about this.

Cafe Zola

How am I going to get a duck? Edit: And you're ahead of me. I checked the NWS & Saturday's looking better. Perhaps al fresco cooking is the way to go!

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Sounds like you might have a conclusion yourself. Definitely. We all have to come to conclusions now and then to make sense out of things. But please, tell us more about the "perhaps not." My conclusions aren't set in stone. I don't think that "starting with a conclusion" and "learning & growing as you go" are always mutually exclusive. We can always take this up via Slow Food, but consider (for example) . . . John Sayles' Men with Guns. I can't call it propaganda. Yet is it "art"? In other words, I'd forward that many forms of social activity start with conclusions and yet such activities cannot be neatly summarized as holding onto either the pole of propaganda nor the pole of art. To put it another way, the poles themselves aren't interesting--what's between the poles is what is of interest. To reframe: neither "pure" politics nor "pure" food are interesting. But what's between those poles of "purity"? Well, that perhaps is the staff of life.

Hmmmm, braised short ribs would throw me in a Korean direction . . .

This Saturday evening, one of my SO's best friends is coming over for dinner. She--the friend--has been over before & we've had a great time. So, no problems there. But I'm fairly blank on what to cook. I've a beef brisket in the freezer & I thought I might braise that. However, I just looked at it to check the weight (5 pounds) & I think the cryovac might have gotten a hole in it--there's some ice forming. I picked it up about a week & a half ago. Is it ok? If the brisket is effed, the puppy will get it. So no problem there. And if the brisket is truly effed, perhaps I could do the brasato from Zuni Cafe Cookbook? Otherwise, as I noted, I'm blank. (I'm hankering for the first use of my new Le Creuset 9.5 qt french oven. Thus, the braised beef ideas. It's supposed to be quite cool & rainy here over the weekend.) Help?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Sounds like you might have a conclusion yourself.

Al riding his bike

Get laid?

I'm in.

Alright my people . . . Start telling me who, what, where, & when. By PM, if necessary. Otherwise, I'm going to have to start crackin'.

tommy has no excuse now!

Firm & changeable sounds like diaper territory.

So you say.

What about Bistro Jeanty? (But I assume that you've heard of it.)

And if you know the bartender, shake their hand & ask about the family.

Immer's "Great Wine Made Simple." Especially if you do the tasting exercises.

I was wondering about these. I figure that the pan last night must have been at 600* F or higher. Can silicone gloves handle those temps?