kuan

I'm glad that the Illinois wine industry is back on track after suffering through a period of zero funding. They lost their enologist and viticulturist, both of whom helped put Illinois wines on the right track. It was really difficult getting an enologist to come to Illinois. There were four applicants, TOTAL!

Kurt, if you're ever around Tomah, you need to eat the pie at Burnstad's.

My evil trick is to seek friends with similiar interests. Over at my Pinoy friend's house, I've had Pancit Bihong, Kari-kari, Lengua, Adobo, some kind of tapioca pudding with brown sugar dessert, Rellenong manok (a Christmas tradition) Lumpia, and a bunch of other stuff. All of it was great except for the stuff that comes out of a jar called Ba'gu'ong? (spelling) If you thought Belachan was smelly, you should try this stuff!

Here are some pictures. I like to put the sugar and peanuts on halfway through cooking so that the sugar melts. I also dot the middle with a small pat of butter about the size of a fingernail and run a stick of butter around the rim and let it melt underneath the edge. Note the position of my burner knob on my maytag stove. Just about 6:30 or slighlty higher than what I think is medium. It takes about 3 minutes to make one of these. Nice and crispy! Final product: In the pan:

Like what do you mean by a four star meal? Give me an example of what you think is a four star meal. You wanna try? It's not impossible. With some guidance, one part of the meal a week, I bet you most dedicated foodies can get pretty close. Close enough to impress many chefs I'm sure.

I've had meat walk out the back door and end up at a VWF meat raffle more than once. The cops said they could do nothing about it. There was this bartender who would bring in his own bottles of booze. This guy would do an extra $100 a night easy. Then of course there's waitstaff who use the same ticket twice at brunch. Customer paid in cash? Just reuse the ticket and pocket the money. After all, brunch for two is the same as, duh, brunch for two! Then there's those voids. At one pizza delivery place we used a triplicate system. One master on top, one label on the box, one label for the driver to turn in. On takeout orders, one of the managers used to write only on the label for the box. That was the customer's receipt. Then he'd just pocket the money. If there was a problem he would go ahead and fill in the other two copies and put the money back in the till. Voids are so much easier to do these days with POS systems. Need an extra $18? Just void a ticket. Just don't do it too often, or do it often enough and the back office will think it's normal. If people ask, blame the kitchen. I used to get furious when I saw these voids come through on the printer. I knew there was nothing wrong with those plates so why? Pissed me off so much that I would go out and call out the server on the floor. The servers never understood. $18 on a $1000 night adds almost 2% to your food cost. Dang.. and people wonder why chefs are so emotional!

I just made it. OK, my wife made it for me. Add a half cup of milk to that recipe. They rock! I ate about 8 of them. :)

THAT'S IT! OMG thank you Yetti, thank you Laksa. Thank you both for helping! :) :) Thank you thank you!

Nope, I'm looking for the other kind. They're made in single serving portions and they're extremely thin and crispy. The fillings are peanuts and sugar with fresh grated coconut optional. I guess they're more like tuiles, soft enough when they come straight out of the pan to fold in half but they crisp up almost immediately. I don't know if it's rice flour, wheat flour, combination of both, whole eggs, egg white only, or what! Don't know if it contains milk or not, or if even has sugar. If it has sugar it's not much... bleh.

I need a recipe for the batter and technique hints please. Those things are so good!

Bah four slices of fois gras. Triple that! You should interpret classics in ways that make sense to you. The instructions ask you to prepare the Madeira sauce separately. I would do it in the pan. The instructions miss out an important step, degreasing! Dumping sauce into a pan full of grease is a terrible waste. So, after sauteing the Tournedos, remove and set on a rack at room temperature. Not warm. Degrease the pan. Deglaze with Madeira and reduce a bit. Add demiglace (purchaseed and reconstituted a little) and reduce until sauce consistency. Forget cornstarch. Finish by stirring in a pat of butter.

If you don't want to spend money on a breakaway pan for "en croute" you can use a small springform pan. If you find a source of sliceable fatback let me know.

Hotdish

The best kept secret in the Schaumburg area is Jockey's Wok and Roll. WHAT? It's a Chinese restaurant which serves some of the best Dim Sum in the lower 48. Better than many Chinatown restaurants. Try it! You will not be dissapointed. 1017 N. Roselle Road, Hoffman Estates, IL 60195 It's tucked away in the crook of an L shaped strip mall. On weekends, just follow the line of cars turning into the parking lot.

Who knows. Pizza is cut in squares for the same reason Chicago people don't call the interstate highways by their numbers. Kennedy, Eisenhower, Stevenson... now once again, is that 90 or 94 ON THE MAP!?!?!?

I just normally buy my ducks with skin already crispy. $12 each. Quick and easy :) I used to use the prick/steam/dry/glaze/roast method. Very time consuming and never as good as store bought duck.

I would not stuff it, Venison being what it is.

Let them eat cake? :) Forget dinner. Make dessert.

Serve them pasta and pesto.

Some places rest their steaks in butter. Butter makes everything better :)

Dump Marinara sauce in a perforated steamer pan.

You are in your new house You have tons of tomatoes Throw a party!

Take off the legs so only the breast remains on the breastbone and ribcage. In essence, just take off the bottom half of the chicken, the part that walks on the ground. You should be left with a whole bone in breast that sits upright on a roasting pan. Cut a slit in the breast, open it up with your finger, and stuff it with your choice of farce.

Congratulations! Lucky man, you can now down that whole bottle of wine without having to share! ;) I'd say cut back on the Unagi for fear of heavy metals contamination. I think almost anything's fair game while pregnant... just limit the seafood to one or zero servings per week. For a good read, pick up "Dad's, Toddler, and the Chicken Dance" by Peter Downey.

If you can get a whole rack, cure it and smoke it. One of my favorite methods is to bread them, panfry, serve with a smoked hamhock white gravy.