beewilson

I've been cooking with a silicone madeline mould I got at the weekend ( marketed by L Creuset here in Britain). I do find its wobbliness very disturbing and unattractive compared to a proper metal tin; but on the other hand, the madeleines were just delicious, and they came out with no sticking at all, after maybe a couple of minutes longer than I would usually give them. Maybe silicone is better for smaller cakes than bigger ones?

Thanks, macrosan.

Has the date been decided yet for St John and the suckling pig?

Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking has a recipe for Creamed Spinach with Jalapeno peppers, which I have read many times, because her writing is so comforting, but never made, because I have my snobbish doubts about evaporated milk: 'Cook two packages of frozen spinach. Drain, researving one cup of liquid and chop fine. Melt 4 tbsp butter in a saucepan and add 2 tbsp flour. Blend and cook a little. Do not brown. Add 2 tbsp chopped onion and one clove of minced garlic. Add one cup of spinach liquid slowly, then add 1/2 cup evaporated milk, some fresh black pepper, 3/4 tsp celery salt, 6oz Monterey Jack cheese cut into cubes. Add one or more chopped jalapeno pepper....Cook until all is blended Turn into a buttered casserole topped with buttered bread crumbs and bake for about forty-five minutes at 300 degrees.' Has anyone ever tried this? Is it good?

I always keep several packs of unsalted butter (preferably French, but English is not bad too - at the risk of offending people, I'd say it is far better than most American kinds) in the freezer, in case I suddenly want a lot for baking or making something like hollandaise and the other day I think I inadvertantly discovered a real benefit, aside from the convenience. I'd decided to make the Zuni cafe orange-currant scones for friends who were coming for afternoon tea, then looked in the fridge and discovered I had no butter. So I got out a pack of frozen butter, hacked away at it and processed it with the flour in its frozen state. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it made the scones even lighter than they would otherwise have been.

clb, what a helpful post, and how sad; I remember going there quite often in 1995-1996 and eating delicious salads (things like skinned new broad beans with roasted red peppers, which sounds boring but wasn't) and very intense chocolate sorbet for pudding.

My sister has recently moved from a job at Yale to one at the University of Pennsylvania and is pining and yearning for the pizzas of New Haven. Any suggestions? I've seen Taconelli's mentioned on egullet, but it sounds as if it's quite hard to get to.

Claudia Roden - The Food of Italy: very good on the different regions of Italy, with fascinating little essays on each area of the country, and the recipes are simple without being bland. If you only know her from her Middle Eastern books, I highly recommend it. Oh, and there's meant to be a new book on regional Italian cooking published by the Slow Food Movement coming out later this year.

I'm not too sure about ice cream flavours for rice pudding; but vanilla rice pudding flavoured ice cream can be wonderful - see River Cafe 'Green' cookbook for a recipe. Are people in the US as obsessed with the 'skin' on baked rice pudding as we are in Britain? Some people are revolted by it, while for others it's the best bit. But if you make risotto-style rice puddings, with Arborio stirred in flavoured milk for 20 minutes, you can avoid it altogether.