CindyJ

I braise my boneless short ribs for 3 hours @325º. I use a recipe that I've adapted from the "Balthazar Cookbook."

Count me as another fan of Costco's boneless short ribs. In fact, that one item was my motivation for joining Costco in the first place. I was skeptical until my sister-in-law served them at a family dinner, and I was hooked. I braise them in the oven and they're WONDERFUL, even though they're boneless.

One restaurant that doesn't often get mentioned in discussions of Chester County restaurants is Byrsa Bistro in Kennett Square. I've been there several times and have always been pleased with the food and service, although seating can sometimes be cramped or even awkward (one table sits on a slanted section of floor). I recently heard (through the Kennett "grapevine") that Byrsa Bistro is for sale; has anyone else heard anything about this?

I found it!!! What a wonderful and unique welcome. Thanks, dcarch!!!

I know I posted this before, but that post seems to have vanished, so (copied/pasted from an email note from the mods)... ...My top 3 -- certainly Birchrunville Store Cafe would be one. Sovana Bistro would be another. I really do like Laguna Miramare -- I think they serve the best seafood for miles around, and Caroline is quite the hostess, but the ambience is lacking. It runs the gamut from painfully noisy to uncomfortably quiet, and the space itself needs some sprucing up. So maybe my third pick would be Portabellos in Kennett Square. The food is always fresh and well-prepared, the space is comfortable and high-energy, and Sandra and Brett, the chef/owner couple, are very welcoming and make a point of chatting with ALL of their customers, wether they're first-timers or "regulars." I'll add a 4th pick -- the 1906 restaurant at Longwood Gardens. Oh, and another -- Wyebrook Farm out in Honey Brook. That's a relatively new find for me and since they raise all of the poultry, beef and pork they serve right there on the farm, they give new meaning to "farm-to-table." Interestingly enough, I've never been to Junto. I keep thinking we ought to try it, but their online menu never grabs me.

I use Pepperplate and I like it a lot. It allows you to import recipes directly from many websites or you can enter your own recipes manually, along with a photo. Sharing your Pepperplate recipes is easy, too. You can either send a link to your recipe on the website, or, you can save your recipe into a PDF format and print or email it.

In my experience, CI recipes are, for the most part, acceptable, but they're far from the "best recipe" for anything. I think the magazine is useful for people who are new to cooking, or insecure about improvising on existing recipes, but they're often far from imaginative. One thing that annoys me about the content of the magazine is the authoritative tone. Yes, they might test several variations before they come up with one that's consistently good, but it leads some readers to believe that theirs is the only right way to prepare a particular dish.

Has this really not been updated in many years, or am I not looking in the right places?