MetsFan5

I made this the other night (when we did appetizers for dinner): https://www.howsweeteats.com/2015/12/super-easy-pepperoni-pizza-puff-pastry/ it was a bit decadent with the puff pastry and I used shredded mozzarella. Tasty though. My best friend always hosts and I always bring sushi (that I don’t make). So I feel like if I do anything else, it would be a let down. I have a few ideas so sushi is still up in the air (but the easiest especially since I can have it delivered to her home).

Keens or Sparks would be my recommendations. They’re iconic Manhattan steakhouses. They’re also easy to get to from Union square area depending on when you’re going. It’s soo cold in the city to walk anywhere right now IMO. I’m going to a concert at MSG tomorrow and dining at a steakhouse there, Nick and Stef’s. I only picked it due to the location, it’s just ok. Both Keens and Sparks have decent seafood options. I don’t think Luger’s does but I haven’t been there in a while. What time of year are you going? Ocean Prime May be another option but it’s not what I would consider a classic NY Steakhouse. They do have dry aged steaks though.

NJ has relaxed the laws regarding shipping wine between states. I’ve read that wineries can charge a lot to ship. I looked into wine suitcases and they start at $300. That seems excessive, given that the wineries on my list are ones I could probably purchase at home (Peju, Silver Oak, so far).

So I made a reservation at Gary Danko for my birthday, which falls on a Sunday (and is always on St Patrick’s Day). My reasoning behind doing so is that I can’t eat a lot of food. So the concept of having 2 appetizers and a cheese course while my husband eats more traditionally is appealing. That said, we will be in SF for 5 nights so I may cancel or change the Danko reservation in favor for Zuni, who’s opentable reservation system is currently offline. Our hotel is super close to Liholiho Yatch Club but they aren’t open on Sunday, so I’m hoping we can get there super early on Tuesday. We’re going to Napa for two nights as well. First time for me and my California born husband so we are going to get a private tour guide and hit up the better known wineries for a day. Any advice on how to get wine Home?

Since it’s snowing (ok any excuse would suffice) we did cheese fondue again tonight. We used this product: http://www.mifroma.com/ourcheeses/classics/original-swiss-fondue which was very good and about $8. It has the wine and sherry in it. For dippers we had ham slices, radishes (a new one to us but it was good), califlower, bread, mushrooms, zucchini and apples. Ideal for a snowy night. Now I’m about to another the left over apple slices in peanut butter and watch a dvd!

I’m in the midst of reading this thread in its 5 sections from the beginning. I don’t like to cook on weekdays mainly because I never know when my husband will get home. The warmer setting on the IP makes me think I can eat when hungry and he can eat when he gets home. I’m also thinking this could be useful because I dislike cooking protein. I’m always worried about over or under cooking. That said is the IP “idiot proof”? My friends all have one and post delicious dinners on Instagram every night. I definitely want to cut down on the frequency of restaurant food delivery but I don’t want to buy something I won’t use/will be intimidated by/ can’t make easy and tasty recipes in.

A close to perfect dinner to me. Those clams are gorgeous.

Maybe serve it with some cheese and melon on the side and let people decide for themesleves? I’d probably eat it on its own too.

We had the basic shrimp cocktail and salami/ cheeses/ olives as pre dinner nibbles. It was my parents, my inlaws and my husband and I. So we didn’t want to overload on apps. Dinner’s main features were 4 marinated flank steaks along with sweet Italian sausage (as a large amuse Bouche?) from this tiny butcher in my area: https://greenvillagepacking.com/ This is the.. 4th year we’ve served this. My mom made creamed spinach and brought a shredded raw Brussels sprouts salad from Costco with all types of delicious things in the mix. I roasted halved baby red potatoes in olive oil, kosher salt and fresh pepper. Super easy. I also cooked about 24 ounces of baby Bella’s down until they released all their water, added about 3 tablespoons of butter and 1/3rd cup of Marsala wine until most of the liquid was evaporated. Again really easy but good. We have SO much meat left over. I need left over ideas! Happy holidays!

I actually never had fondue until I was in my late 20s. It was popular before my time.

I don’t bake (except the occasional banana bread) but I absolutely love peacans so I used the Chex mix method on just pecans. I did a half pound last night and they were all gone by mid afternoon today! My inlaws loved them. I have another half pound so I will make more.

Well my inlaws were excited to do fondue so we did! It’s such an extravagant meal— all that melted cheese (it’s a cheap thing to make but seems like such an indulgence). TJ’s fondue was very good. We used both packages so I will go back and hope I can find more. We are it with ham, slightly cooked baby carrots, cooked baby potatoes, raw califlower, zucchini, mushrooms and apples and of course bread. It’s a fun meal and everyone enjoyed it!

@Kim Shook where the the tails come from?

i Picked up two packets of Trader Joe’s cheese fondue tonight— a friend recommended it. It’s a seasonal item and the packets I got don’t expire until September next year. I’m thinking it would be a fun dinner to have while decorating the tree. Have to see what my inlaws think.

@Thanks for the Crepes this is one article about the Instacart/ Trader Joe’s disagreement: https://www.geekwire.com/2013/amazon-fresh-rival-instacart-stops-trader-joes-delivery/ google brings up lots others. I wish it wasn’t true too.

@BeeZee it did work well— it was exactly as you described maybe just with better cheese.

Sorry. I am admittedly overly sensitive about my lack of cooking skills. It’s the one thing that I know my husband would love for me to work on, given his long hours. I thought about spam for cheese fondue because it is (supposedly?) already cooked. I’m a bit scared to use it and don’t know how to use it in a simple but tasty way, but that’s a whole different topic. I did use pre-cooked thick ham slices from Wegmans which I’ve used before for dinner or in ah gratin and liked. I heated/ crisped it up in a pan prior to using it in fondue because I like it better that way.

I have friends who have 3 pots too. We have the electric Cuisinart one. It was a wedding gift so over 5 years later, after impulse buying a bag of shredded and seasoned fondue cheese at Wegmans o figured why not. All we had to add was wine. @Kim Shook next time I will definitely get cornichons! My husband requested mushrooms and baby carrots and of course tons of crusty bread!

I didn’t use Spam, I used actual ham. I bought spam as an experiment.

Thanks for not being snarky. But even mentioning you have to abstain from being so is, actually, snarky. I can’t cook and I don’t try to because I mess up 70% of the time and despite being fortunate enough to make mistakes, it really upsets me to waste food. I did make cheese fondue tonight and we had crusty Italian bread, baby potatoes, mushrooms, carrots and yes, ham— not spam. My husband and I enjoyed it and that’s all that matters to me. I wasn’t being an asshole by asking about spam. I bought it and my thought process was ham and cheese go together. This is why why I don’t post here often. Lesson learned.

Would spam be a good dipper in cheese fondue?

Unfortunately, Trader Joes shut down Instacart from being accessible. This happened a while ago. Currently in Northern NJ, I can get Wegmans’s, Acme, Kings, CVS, Aldi’s (despite never having been to one— the new store is 8 miles away and inconvenient) and Costco. I almost exclusively use Wegmans as it’s a bitch to get to. Kings is very close to me. Wegmans also is the only establishment to consistently offer both pictures of the products and their ingredients and cooking instructions. I paid the $139 ( I think that was the cost) for the “free” annual delivery. It doesn’t eliminate all the fees. That said, it’s available where we vacation for two weeks and that was definitely appreciated. I find if you have a cellphone and keep on top of the app, you can get whatever you want in terms of substitutions and/ or last minute requests. Which I find super helpful. I probably wouldn’t use the service without a cell phone or at least an iPad but to be fair, I keep my iPhone within reaching distance 24/7.

Me too. Well deserved.

Where were they from? It’s common to see orange colored oranges at least on my experience. My inlaws have them all over their yard in Northern CA. They’re treated the same as all the landscaping.

Details please!