lia

Can you have ground almonds? My favorite is Elizabeth David's Flourless Chocolate Torte, from Laurie Colwin's More Home Cooking. She doesn't mention if her recipe varies from David's original, which I've never tried. In Colwin's words, "a flourless cake that tastes like a transcendent form of fudge.....people simply moan at the taste: it is perhaps the king and queen of all chocolate cakes." I agree completely and I've never had better.

I've never lived in a home with a dishwasher and I can't imagine it. I find washing dishes relaxing, especially after a holiday dinner at my mother's...when she knows that after it's all over and all the guests are gone, that she can count on me to make the kitchen right. a nice bit of quiet (and digestion) time doing something soothing and helping out my mom who probably prepared a huge feast. I remember recently reading an item in a NYC newspaper real estate section. It was about an apartment for sale, but the problem was, you had to choose between a W/D and a dishwasher. Now, to me a W/D in my home is a luxury I truly miss from my suburban upbringing. I can't imagine anyone really needing to make the choice.

Eliot salts EVERYTHING before he tastes it. Yet, late last night when I made some oatmeal (gussied up with cream, dates, maple syrup and cinnamon) he identified the salt I added in the cooking water and complained. I finally trained him to fill the blender with water after making a smoothie. I have not yet succeeded in training him to re-fill the Brita. He usually works late. If i haven't cooked for 'real' or ordered in that night, I like to make him a nice creative sandwich. Two recent ones: Scrambled eggs, good ham, jalapenos, and mozzarella on toasted ciabatta; the other was melted cheddar, tomatoes, avocado and jalapenos on the same toasted ciabatta. I love both of these sandwiches, I serve them to him proudly. Can I get you anything else honey? "Mayonnaise." argh. That being said, he's also a dynamite cleaner, much better than I am in getting the sink super sparkly.

I regularly use the powdered buttermilk "blend(?)" in the cardboard tub. Great product, have used it only for cakes, corn bread and pancakes most frequently; never biscuits or something where I think the buttermilk REALLY matters. I would love to always have real buttermilk around, but I'm an impulse baker and I never ever finish the quart before it's bad.

Cheez Wiz nachos. Third day in a row. lots of jalapenos.

food allergies are very serious business, and I can't stand when people either: 1. lie about them or 2. don't inform us! At an old job we served a chicken salad with apples and walnuts. Customer freaked when he saw nuts in his salad. fuh-reaked. I was incredulous, why on earth didn't he TELL us nuts would kill him?? and he thought I had an attitude because I was was rather freaked myself. Nuts or nut oil could be in so very many things that don't list "Nuts" on the menu. And at current job we have a delicious chopped chicken vegetable salad. A customer calls, said she's just been in for lunch and was throwing up because she was allergic to the mushrooms in the salad and didn't think she should have had to pay for it. She wondered why the waiter didn't TELL her that there were mushrooms in the salad. I wondered silently why she didn't ASK if she was allergic as we don't list all the ingredients in the salad, but shit, if I was allergic to anything, i'd ASK...does this salad have mushrooms or walnuts in it?? So...I don't argue at all with the customer, find her cc receipt and refund back the amount of the salad, no big deal. But oddly enough, this exchange puts me in the mood for one of those salads so I order one. I sit down to eat it and i look at it and it's just so obviously filled with mushrooms, I can't imagine how that woman didn't have a clue before she took her first bite (she was also sitting outside in the bright sunshine, not like it was a dimly lit dining room.) Then I realize the wording of her call, that she was allergic to the mushrooms in the salad. so she knew the mushrooms were there and ate it anyway? Or realized after she ate them and didn't say anything at the time? It just disturbs me that someone might go that far for a free lunch.

The vast majority of my problems come from callers who left their tip in CASH, so the discrepancy is far more than the $2 in your example.

It's a ridiculous practice and as a restaurant manager I get calls from customers several times a week whose receipts don't match their statements. Plus it's mostly customers who used their debit cards, as people tend not to check their credit balances as often and as carefully. Apparently we DO have the option to 'turn it off' but the powers that be choose not to because there's the possibility that a waiter might get screwed out of a tip. I would much rather run that risk than deal with as many questioning/suspicious customers. To be fair, most customers understand when I explain the reason for the hold. But...some don't. or some won't. They think we're adding tips on for our jollies and I know they're complaining to others. Some get downright vicious and I really can't blame them if they're down to the last hundred in their checking account and some stupid restaurant is holding a good portion of that for several days because we're worried they won't have enough for tip. It just doesn't help anyone.

I just did a search on the Foodtv site to see what a Beer Margarita was, and so I have to ask, what's the point? You have tequila and lime there already, why exactly is beer added? and BREAKFAST SAUSAGE in a dumpling/wonton type dish? Can you imagine seeing these at a party, ooh, those look good...then biting into it and tasting BREAKFAST SAUSAGE? the horror.

From the Star of David cake webpage: "Remove pearls before cutting and serving." Thanks. I saw the jalapeno popper/marinated steak show last night and I was surprised. Is this a new direction for her or was the show an anomaly? And yeah, she talks too much...I want to count how many times she says, "now what you want to do is..."

I'd meaning to ask you all about this. I'm intrigued....but I still can't justify paying that much for a pint of ice cream when there's a pint of nocciole Ciao Bella right next to it for half the price. That's my SECOND favorite ice cream after the Cones zabayon. so is the Capogiro REALLY worth it??

what was cut? I was also amused at TB going on about pinky rings and such while the camera was focused on his driving hand. With a THUMB ring. hee. you trendoid you.

This Italian - American found that last scene FUCKING hilarious. I tuned in halfway through however. Was that Japanese supermarket in NJ? Where?

I love it, yeah, I sold my company to huge conglomerate, but don't worry, my product won't taste crappy like theirs.

Chelsea here: Grand Sichuan and Atomic Wings make near weekly visits. We've recently discovered that Atomic Wings makes a great burger. Lately i've also been ordering from Charlie Mom's because I love their Peking Duck. Best neighborhood Chinese version I've tried. Pita Pan falafel is my favorite. I get in fresco tortilla a lot but Mexican husband turns his nose up. (But we both work at Carmine's so we have lots of authentic options up on Amsterdam in the 100's as Bergerka pointed out.) Spice (Thai) is regular, as is Wogies, and Pizza 33. Most frequent takeout is Havana Chelsea, just had a cubano and rice and beans...

Blondie's are still the best, and someone asked upthread (years ago ) about Mudville, and YES, they're very very very good. My beef is Blondie's blue cheese sauce. They're the best wings, with probably the cheapest bottled dressing they could find. Carmine's makes these great wings, not Buffalo, but a variation of their Scarpariello sauce made spicier. Served with fennel sticks and a fresh homemade gorgonzola sauce that I could drink.

oh dear, that's not what we used to call it... and I think lesfen and i were separated at birth. Yeah, i'm a slob and I use a straw whenever possible.

I just bought several bunches of carrots for juicing at a market that had them "natural" as opposed to trimmed and bagged. The tops got snipped off and tossed, but I'm wondering if I should have saved them and used them for anything else.

I buy bottled water primarily to take to the gym, and at home we refill the bottles with our Brita-fied tap water. And we ONLY drink out of the bottles because we have one of those cats who likes to knock things over. I usually buy poland spring, husband likes Fiji and we both think Evian is nasty, and I think that's really the only water that has a different taste and texture (slimy.)

I've never had a Slurpee. Are they the same consistency as Slush Puppies (which I grew up on and which is responsible for my fondness for the flavor "blue.") I had an Icee once at a movie theater and it was the nastiest thing I've ever ingested.

Milk! I like evaporated milk in my coffee and spouse likes it with condensed (which I eat....)

Oh goodness, I had a wonderful first date there on July 4th in 1987. Drank too many margaritas then headed over to see the fireworks. And you food snobs will shoot me, but Bayamo reminds me of another neighborhood restaurant that I used to frequent when I was underage. I KNOW the food was crap but the drinks were killer and as I said, I was underage and they'd serve us. Any love for Caramba!, !!, !!! and !!!! ?? I miss the 80's.

My two picks would be Saveur for beauty and reading (which would have gone to Gourmet a couple of years ago but...) and Bon Appetit for actual recipes and 'new stuff' news, and fun articles.

how noisy is the mill? The reason I get my coffee ground in-store (besides laziness) is that I'm usually awake first and grinders make so much noise I have to muffle it in a pillow. But this coffee maker definitely speaks to my lazy side.

This is one I made over 20 years ago when I was in high school and I recently made it for my husband and he loved it: milk (skim or soy is fine), orange juice, frozen banana, cornflakes and maple syrup. years ago I'd add a raw egg to follow the recipe but the thought of that nauseates me now. But i do love the typical fruit, juice, yogurt, soymilk blends. We just got a juicer too so that adds a new dimension. Naked used to sell a delicious OrangeCarrotBanana combo but I haven't seen it in ages. Now with the juicer we can juice up some carrots then blend that with some OJ and the frozen banana. Perfect. I just had a nice fresh Papaya batido with Verrry ripe papaya, ice, skim milk, a little bit of sugar and a drop or two of vanilla extract.