mcdowell

Ah, if we're including letters & the such, I'll rank Thorne's Simple Cooking near the top of my list.

Saveur is my favorite. I'm a sucker for beautiful words. Cucina comes in second, because I'm a sucker for recipes that aren't in my collection already. I find Food & Wine and Bon App just a little too repetitive and non-creative for my tastes. I read maybe one of each per year, maybe. When someone starts a fan magazine devoted to the joys of Southern Louisianian Boudin, then that'll be my favorite. Let me know.

Beefeater Martinis, extra chilled, while we wait those 20 minutes... Cold plate of artichoke hearts, sweet peppers, asparagus, olives to start... Lobster ravioli with a light peppery creme sauce to fill... Good Bread. Peach sorbet to close ... Maybe a little swing dancing later up in the city at the Top of the Mark to make it a night. (2nd choice would be fried boudin balls, greasy jambaylia, and watermelon nawed right off the rind, followed by a little jig to a band that includes a washboard... )

Alaskan Amber when in the Northwest. Shiner Bock makes me think of home. Much more partial to bourbon.

Wrangling him into bed - nothing to do with sleeping But if he's drunk, can he, er, um . . . ??? Speaking as a man, you can always "ummm" ... it's just that sometimes when you're drunk you have to be... er... more creative.. yeah.. and shift the focus maybe away from some of those manly instincts, er... NEVERMIND!! To be On Topic: My midnight buzz food last night, just about the time I had to choose between Letterman's first guest & Leno's, was a hefty serving of Ruffles with a quickly improvised sour cream & stilton dip, washed down with some Shiner Bock. I'm sure I put out a nice scent when trekking off to bed later, causing my girlfriend who-knows-what sorts of dreams about the English country-side...

Lizard's Thicket in South Carolina. Meatloaf, fried okra, cornbread, & green beans.

Sounds awesome!! Do you make your own fry bread? Of course!!! I'll have to ship some over to you, Xanthippe. But the last fry bread I had was at the Pow-Wow in Cupertino a couple of weeks ago, greasy as hell, but it fit with the celebration.

Spicy, er SPICY, chili verde with fry bread. Man. Yes.

Brother, I would kill right now for a fried oyster po'boy...

Actually lamb has less myoglobin than beef, with 6 milligrams per gram of lamb, whereas beef has 8 mg/gram, and pork, that other white meat, 2 mg/gram.

Here's one that I've seen in a couple of church cookbooks... if you have a Bible, then look it up. Actually makes a cake. ----- A Scriptural Cake 1 cup Judges 5:25 2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 3 1/2 cups First Kings 4:22 2 cups First Samuel 30:12 1 cup Numbers 17:8 6 Isaiah 10:14 1 tablespoon Exodus 16:31 Pinch Leviticus 2:13 2 teaspoons I Corinthians 5:6 Sweets in I Kings 10:2 Mix in order given and follow Solomon's advice given in Proberbs 23:14.

Stilton cheese on a a slice of almost stale sourdough from Acme Bread Co

I can't believe that nobody's mentioned the prototype of chef's tables everywhere: The Waffle House.

Actually, the Krispy Kreme stores come close w/ the wall length glass around their kitchen and, at least in the ones I've been in, tables right across. I've even had the "chef" come out give me samples right off the conveyer belt (SOP there, I think).

I have a recurring dream of peppers when I'm deprived of spicy foods for more than a few weeks... usually involves a rotating basket of peppers over a gas flame, turning and turning.. I usually wake up from that dream only to call in late for work, buying time to make up a batch of chipolte ranchero sauce to coat my fried eggs, diced hashbrowns on the side, and a nicely warmed corn tortilla to mop up the mess. I've only been an eGullietier for a week, but already I'm having recurring dreams about MaggieTheCat and her Emma Peel alter ego... is that normal?

I'm a "foodie" in the food sense... I live for the markets and my time at the burner. I couldn't imagine being a professional chef simply for the rote of doing the same thing every day. When your passion becomes your profession, the passion fades. Or something like that. I've never understood the cult of personality around chefs. I've had meals in private homes that rival anything I've eaten out (and I've eaten out plenty, living for years on expense account). I'd be hard pressed to name most of the chefs who have fed me. That said, one of the more amazing experiences in my dining life was at a chef's table. I met up with a friend of mine in the bar at the Ritz Carlton in Boston (is any martini really worth $12??) on an icy and miserable wednesday night some years ago. We migrated to the restaurant for an early seating and were the only people in the dining room. My friend asked to speak to the chef, with whom we talked about what was on the tasting menu, what was fresh, etc. Then the chef invited us to sit at the table in the kitchen. There (and this was before the remodel, so I don't know where it is now), the table is in the wooded wine cellar just off the kitchen. Very intimate, but open to the kitchen through the door. The tasting menu, with matched wines, was phenominal. I would never have paid to sit in the kitchen, didn't desire it at all going in, and would never pay extra to do it again. But this chef (I don't even remember his name) offered it up because we showed interest and appreciation in what he was doing and, probably too, it was obvious that we weren't typical "foodies" (they had to give me a jacket to wear at the door - guess they didn't like the old leather one I was wearing). It was something cool that added to what we were doing, but the food... bubba, the food was the star. As it should be.

Don't know if biscuit dough will keep overnight, but we've taken to using frozen biscuits for during the work week. Best brand out there is something called Mary B's from a company called Hom/Ade. I find it at Albertson's. Second place is Pillsbury Homestyle biscuits. You can find them pretty much anywhere. I don't like the butter flavored ones, but rather the southern style. Avoid that canned "biscuit" stuff at all costs.

Biscuits in the morning are one of the great joys of life, and Varmint's cooking in a cast iron pan is something I've done from time to time to nice effect. Being a Texan, and not a Southerner, I like a creamy white peppery gravy with my biscuits; sometimes with a good crumbly sausage mixed in, sometimes not. I spent a few years in Columbia, South Carolina and never understood this passion for grits in the morning (and grits in the evening, and grits around supper time..), or eating at places with names like "Lizard's Thicket".

Oh, yeah, Myer's in Elgin is well worth the commute. Amazing sausage. They sell it mail-order too. And it has the proximity to Austin going for it, always a worthwhile day-trip. Two months ago I drove from South Carolina to San Francisco in a 25 year old Porsche (long story), and let myself become distracted over a number of food & art related diversions. Hunting for boudin in southern Lousiana, Myer's in Elgin, and the best chicken-fried steak I've ever eaten, at a hole-in-the-wall truck stop just outside of Van Horn (discovered on a road-trip a couple of years back, when I found that they also have the best huevos rancheros on the face of the planet). That's only about 11 hours west of you... hit Austin and just keep driving.

I learned to skin a squirrel at my daddy's knee. Mom would stew it up and serve it with fried okra (one of God's great creations), but she wouldn't eat it. I had no idea they put that sort of useful information into cookbooks until I spent a year in Boston and had to convince some co-workers that yes, Virginia, rednecks do eat squirrel! As for our newlyweds, I find that of the gross of cookbooks I have lining my shelves, I go to Kamman's wonderful 1200-page New Making of a Cook anytime I have a question about basics.

Paid $750 USD for two of us at the Ritz Paris (after a $200 bar tab in the Hemingway Bar), $450-ish each at Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, both about 2 years ago. We stayed at the Ritz London on our way to some great food at Gleneagle in Scotland, and joined the private casino club in the basement. We ate in the club restaurant, expecting to pay about $500 for the experience before gambling away the the rest of the money we didn't have at the craps table, but they comp'd it because it was our first visit. Go figure. It was an amazing meal. American restaurants could learn something about service from these places. Before the "pretentious eater" alarms start going off, note that my usual idea of fancy eats is the $10 special at the local crawfish festival...