MatthewB

How about grilled pork tenderloins--indirect method & cover with pie pan--with a fresh fruit salsa? Apricots are plentiful right now.

I need to depart as to prepare for our adventure. See you all at Matchbox!

Grill some burgers. Add Roquefort. (Not Stilton or some other blue cheese--Roquefort.) Add onions sauteed in butter. Add a bit of good French dijon. Eat. Drink before, during, & after eating. Edit: BTW, sieve, welcome to eGullet! Also, for future reference, posts like this do best in the "Cooking" forum.

We won't ruin anything. Promise!

Well, he's got the hookup with the trio & the trio's got the hookup with the plane to Nice. We're coo.

And we'll both drink a lot. So Al will definitely have to fill us in on the last half of the evening or so. al, get the pull-out ready. no doubt i'll have to crash at your place. you got cheerios? i like cheerios in the morning. and i'll probably want some frozen pizza when we get back to your place tonite. thanks dude. tommy, have you been to Al's place before?

Not to worry. Tommy will attract more than one such trio.

I'm so in.

And we'll both drink a lot. So Al will definitely have to fill us in on the last half of the evening or so. al, get the pull-out ready. no doubt i'll have to crash at your place. you got cheerios? i like cheerios in the morning. and i'll probably want some frozen pizza when we get back to your place tonite. thanks dude. I'm pretty good at doctoring up frozen 'za. Al, how's the fridge lookin'?

"just make sure some imaginary girls hit on me. just like up here in NJ." Now that is just sad. Nah. What would be really sad is if imaginary girls *didn't* hit on tommy.

And we'll both drink a lot. So Al will definitely have to fill us in on the last half of the evening or so.

just stutter and mumble a lot, with occasional outburst of inappropriate behavior, and you'll have me down in no time. as for matthew, just be all smarmy and stuff. dude, smarmy (dictionary definition: "unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech") assumes that I'm already suave in some way. I ain't suave. I'm a Midwest rube.

I'll be sure to do this. We'll be going to Matchbox, I decided. I predict you both will have enjoyed the wood fired pizza. Stay tuned for a report tomorrow. And as for you, DLewis, I'm going to tell our boss what you said about him. Probably even embellish it with a few choice words (e.g. bastard, idiot, etc.). Cool. I plan on having a good time. If we stay out late, might we stop by 18th Street Lounge? Or has that gone lame by now?

Like tommy said. At worst, Al, just go by yourself & imagine that tommy & I are with you. Be sure to report back with at least a few snippets of conversation.

I was thinking of a wider one also. Any ideas on what I should pick up?

Riffing off this thread . . . Looks like I'll be working on charcuterie this fall & winter. As far as vessels, I have the Le Creuset terrine (cast-iron w/ 1 3/8 quart volume). Can I adjust all recipes to fit this size? Or should I have other terrine sizes? If I should have some other sizes, which sizes? Which brand, etc? (I don't want to go broke purchasing various terrines.)

Matthew, great point - this is my ultimate goal as well, but for myself i don't call it cooking without a recipe: what i'm trying to achieve is to build a memory of different ideas, coming in my case from reading a lot of, yes, recipes. I can probably cook without a recipe, and produce something quite decent, but why should i do it? Example: i'm reading through Gayler's "Passion For Vegetables". Great idea/recipes are on every page. So i'd like to try them all - maybe because i cook to eat the ecxciting food every night, not to prove to myself that i can become next Keller. You made some excellent points here, helenas. Rather than "cooking without recipes," I think you hint at a definition such as "assimulated food memories that allow one to successfully improvise whilst cooking." (Clumsy definition on my part.) I'm not aiming to cook like Keller. I'm pretty content with producing simple home food. However, where I've been caught is going to market, picking up the best & freshest stuff, & then returning home & finding recipes where I need to return to the market for additional ingredients. That's what I'm trying to avoid. Does that make more sense? Edit: And I fully intend to continue to read recipes & cook from those that look enticing. I can't imagine not reading cookbooks most winter evenings.

I think I'll take you up on Baking with Julia. I have BB Apprentice & I've done a couple of recipes from it. I want to work more with that book. FWIW, I'm pretty good at stocks & make stock on many Sunday mornings. I'm known for good soups & stews. Fresh bread is the next step, as you've noted.

As far as cooking without a recipe . . . I cook from Olney's Simple French Food & Slater's Appetite. And both have allowed me to learn to riff off a recipe. But I guess I have it my head that I should be able to go to the market, pick out the best & freshest ingredients, & add what I need during the same trip. Am I off my rocker here? (Note the *here.* ) Might Dornenburg & Page's Culinary Artistry move me in the direction that I think I need to go in? (Or should I not even concern myself with "cooking without a recipe"?)

Not to turn this into a charcuterie thread, but . . . I have the Le Creuset terrine. It's 1 3/8 quart. Can all recipes be adjusted to this size? Or should I have other terrine sizes? If so, what's good-quality without breaking the bank? I have Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery. Should I just work through that? Edit: Started a terrine thread here.

I'm a home cook. Nothing more. Last fall & winter I worked on meats & cuisine bourgeoisie. This spring & summer I continued on meats with a focus on grilling & smoking. Now what to do this fall & winter? Here's my preliminary list: -- Continue working on French cuisine bourgeoisie -- Dough & assorted baking (bread, tarts, etc.) -- Charcuterie -- Indian (I've done a little but not enough to make any claims here) I would also like to improve on cooking without recipes. (I'm not very good at this.) I also wonder if I should work through Pepin's "Complete Techniques" and/or Kamman's "New Making of a Cook." eGullet is stocked with cooks & chefs much better than I hope to become. So, tell me, what should I be doing in the kitchen? I'm open to scrapping everything that I've layed out above.

I like "I pitch 'em, he knocks 'em over."

No. You're *definitely* asking for too much.

It's "I set 'em up, he knocks 'em over." A bowling (ten-pins) metaphor.

One piece of this puzzle is found in the recipe (see link in my first post) . . . He also notes, "Slice the lamb thickly . . . " From the above, I assume that we're dealing with ~ 1/2 inch cuts of meat. (The little 2 oz loins would be too charred for the above method.) Thoughts?