Cleo

I had a truly excellent meal at craftsteak in Las Vegas about 1 1/2 years ago. So last week when I was perusing Opentable.com for a restaurant for my husband and I to have dinner at in a few weeks from now, craftsteak caught my eye and I made the reservation. I'm hoping to see a few reports before then, since all the choices of meat seem a little overwhelming at this point.

Even though I love the Rao's marinara sauce, I decided to try another brand to see if it was as good. I thought that maybe I was wasting my money. I tried the Classico tomato & basil. I have to say, it wasn't nearly as good as Rao's. I felt that the overall taste of the Classico tasted processed and might as well have been Ragu. I looked for the Mom's sauce, but haven't seen it thus far in NYC, so until then, I will keep spending my money on Rao's...

I really can't pinpoint why I like it so much. For a while, I didn't eat much of any tomato sauce at home because my husband doesn't like it (weird, I know). So I don't cook too much using tomato sauce. We eat a fair amount of pasta, but it's usually with garlic and oil, and whatever else. If I am cooking for guests, I will make a fresh sauce, but I always keep a jar in the pantry for when I get the urge and just want to throw something together quickly. Most recently, I've been using the Barilla sauce with green and black olives. But back to Rao's, the ingredients include: Imported Italian Tomatoes, Imported Pure Italian Olive Oil, Fresh Onions, Salt, Fresh Garlic, Fresh Basil, Black Pepper, Oregano. It just tastes better than any sauce that I've made from scratch. Just as an aside, my new love for this Rao's sauce could very well be because I am pregnant with my second child! My husband has actually caught me eating the sauce out of the jar!

I agree that Barilla is pretty good. But I will admit that lately I have been buying Rao's marinara for $7.99. Yes, it's expensive, but it is damn tasty! I just bought it out of curiosity, and now I'm hooked.

I just sat down and I am so tired! I'm having 12 people for dinner tomorrow. My menu: Chopped Liver (bought from Russ & Daughters in NYC) Baby Carrots Grape Tomatoes Passover Crackers Gefilte Fish -- store bought Chicken Soup -- my sister is making it Matzoh Balls Brisket Slow Roasted Garlic & Lemon Chicken (a Nigella recipe that I picked up somewhere in this thread!) Potato Kugelettes Braised Broccoli with Garlic & Wine Vegetable Kugel Homemade Macaroons Cheesecake with a macaroon crust -- my sister makes it Some sort of chocolate cake -- my sister makes it Fruit Salad -- MIL is bringing (I'm sure she bought it at Costco!) Today I made the matzoh balls, brisket (for the first time), and a vegetable kugel from a Joan Nathan recipe. I also organized all of my serving pieces so I hopefully won't have to scramble around tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to set the table. I took most things out today, but I can't really do set it in advance because I have an almost 18 month old daughter who is an unbelievable climber and very curious as to everything that goes on the table! She can't be trusted near a set table! I must go to sleep!

Congratulations to you! I'm 15 weeks pregnant with my second child, and luckily I haven't been sick this time. Last time, however, I couldn't find many things that appealed to me early on, but I was always able to eat macaroni and cheese. It just made me feel better. Another comment about the vitamin thing...at this time, the vitamins are almost definitely contributing to you feeling sick. The really important thing that you need right now is Folic Acid. So you might want to try just buying Folic Acid capsules and taking just them until the sickness subsides a bit.

Not exactly a cookie, but these Martha Stewart macaroons are very good and so easy. (In the picture they are on the bottom level of the tiered serving tray.) I make them every year (actually now my husband makes them) and they freeze really well. You could probably even make them and dip them in chocolate and they would be even better! Maybe next year I'll do that!

Not sure what you're basing this on, but speaking from experience, my 17 month old daughter eats more or less what my husband and I eat. Last night for dinner, she had the same tandoori chicken that we had. Today for lunch she had tomato soup, and tonight she will have turkey sausage with some pasta. And included at every single meal are either 2 vegetables or 1 vegetable and 1 potato/starch side dish. Plus, she eats fruit at all 3 meals as well. I give her mostly water or milk to drink, with the occasional cup of diluted apple juice just for a change. Does she eat the occasional chicken nuggets or hot dog? Yes, because I work full time and sometimes it just works out that way. Recently I was in a Japanese restaurant here in NY with my husband, daughter and in-laws and I requested and appetizer portion of beef negamaki for my daughter. The waiter said to me "are you sure that you just don't want to get her an order of chicken nuggets and fries?". I'm sure he was quite surprised when I declined and, believe me, my daughter ate every bite of the negamaki, mashed potatoes and broccoli.

I've had the Magnum Plus for a few years and I love it, but I wish it came with some kind of "coaster" or cover for the bottom. I keep it in my cabinet and there's always a collection of pepper underneath. Drives me crazy!

I looked at what I will have to do the day of the seder and I think I should be okay if I make the haroset early-ish in the day. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Ok, I have 2 questions for Katie or anyone else who has made her Sephardic Haroset in the past.... -- How much does this recipe make? I'm having 12 people at my seder and I'm assuming that I should just make the recipe as is and that will be enough. Is that right? -- How far in advance can I prepare it? I'm guessing that if I make it on Tuesday, it will be okay for Wednesday, right? Forgive me -- it's only my second time hosting a seder!

I'm pretty surprised that Fujiyama Mama closed. I lived on the UWS for many years and one of my friends LOVED that place. I thought it was okay. But it was always crowded.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty weird.

Actually, there are positive reviews on Egullet. Not raves, but people who enjoy the food overall. Mostly the NJ locations though.

Isn't that called keeping Kosher? ← I was just about to say the same thing! I am also guilty of keeping this teapot on my stove. It was a hand-me-down. But I NEVER make tea. I guess I just fall into the "my mother did it that way" group. Yes, it collects grease and dust just sitting there, and I'm always shuffling it around to the different burners, but I still don't think I'm ready to put it away. I'll give it some thought.

Mt. Sinai is on the upper (upper) east side, along Fifth Avenue in the upper 90's, low 100's. Across from Central Park. This map should give you an idea of where things are. Hope that helps!

These tins from The Container Store have been working well for me. Not magnetic. I stack them in one of my cabinets and I made labels for each one.

I was visiting a friend in NJ yesterday and I made it a point to go to Trader Joe's afterward. It's a rare treat! One of my favorite products is this crushed garlic. It's like a mini ice cube tray and it's so nice to just pop out a cube of garlic and not have to deal with chopping or mincing. It's just so much better than the chopped garlic that you keep in the refrigerator. A few months ago I had read somewhere that they were discontinuing the chopped garlic. I was devastated! Needless to say, I was so thrilled to see it yesterday that I bought several packages (and a few for my sister too!). The cashier told me that they are not discontinuing it -- phew! I stocked up on different stuff and spent $93.00. And I really "needed" nothing! I live near Union Square, and while I love Whole Foods (and I swear by Fresh Direct), I'm excited for Trader Joe's!

What about couscous? I think that would go well with Chicken Marbella.

What about these from Ikea? They're actually pretty big and indestructible. I don't care for them, but my husband loves them. I think they come in different sizes too because I'm almost certain that the ones that we have hold more than 12 oz.

Two buffets that I have been to recently are Minado (for dinner) and the Church Lounge (at the Tribeca Grand Hotel) for brunch. We went to Minado because I kept reading positive things about it on E-gullet and elsewhere. The Manhattan location is not too far from where we live, and I figured that it would be a good place to take my daughter. The first time we went was on a Saturday evening late last summer when my daughter was about 10 months old. As is generally our game plan when we take her out to dinner, we went early – at around 5:30 when they first opened for dinner. Some of the food was fine, but I thought most of it was mediocre at best. Yes, there was a huge selection, but obviously quantity doesn’t always mean quality. My husband enjoyed it a little bit more than I did. The good news for us is that it is very child-friendly. We went again sometime in the fall. I agreed to go back mostly because, again, it is a good place to take a small child. This time, it wasn’t even as good as the time before (and that’s not saying much!). Don’t know if we’ll go back. The Church Lounge at the Tribeca Grand, on the other hand, is a very nice place for brunch. It is not a humongous spread, but very nice and certainly more than enough choices. Very pleasant space and comfortable to sit for a while. My family has gone there several times for brunch, including Mother’s Day 2 out of the last 3 years, and it has been good all around. I think on a regular Sunday its $25 and on Mother’s Day it was only $35. We like it.

As I said earlier, this topic is great! Just wondering, is dinner served formally every night in the dining room, or is it more casual and in the kitchen? Who serves the food?

I'm loving this thread! It's fascinating. A friend of my sister's owned a small catering business here in NYC. But late last summer, she got an offer from an obviously well-to-do person to become his personal chef -- on his yacht -- for 6 months. So in November, she left on the yacht. I can't wait until she returns to hear what she has to say. Anyway, I have 2 questions... You mentioned that you were orignally going to stay at this job for a year, but it was too good to leave. How long have you been there? And this might be a weird question, but are they nice to you? I mean, are they friendly people, or do they just treat you like "the help"?

Well, it did rain here in NY, so we changed our plans and ended up in Coney Island at the New York Aquarium. And we definitely had a Jewish Christmas as far as meals were concerned...Hotdogs at the original Nathan's for lunch, and then (after lighting the menorah), Chinese food for dinner. Yum!

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas for this Jew without seeing a movie in the afternoon and having Chinese food for dinner. Even last year, when my daughter was only 9 weeks old, we kept the tradition going with tag-team movies and dinnner. My parents went to see a movie early in the day, then came to my place to babysit in the afternoon. My husband and I went to see "Million Dollar Baby" and we went out for Chinese. My parents just ordered in their Chinese to my apartment. This year, however, my parents will be out of town on Christmas day, so we will still have the Chinese food for dinner, but won't get to see the movie. If it doesn't rain, we're thinking of taking my daughter, now 1, to the Central Park Zoo. Maybe a new tradition?