GG Mora

Hot Diggity

Perfectly ripe Azeitao cheese.

Was this dinner officially sanctioned?

The kasha varnishkes recipe from December's (I think) Food & Wine. Ick. Ack. I like a good kasha varnishkes. This wasn't one. It included some sort of faux mushroom gravy – not typical of the dish (as far as I know). My husband hit the nail on the head when he said it tasted “Um...brown”.

I'm planning on starting an oxygen-based colon cleanse on Friday. I was doing some research on colorectal cancer over the weekend; my father-in-law has a form that puts my husband and his siblings at high risk. Came across a site (well, several sites) on colon health. I won't go into detail, but if you could see the pictures of the gunk that builds up in your colon, you'd be as anxious as I am to get it out of there. Word is that there can be up to 20 lbs. of build up. So. I'll report back, if anyone's interested. No photos, though.

Lil House 'o' Colonic Impaction Salmonella Hut Edit: Surströmming & Balut

Kind of a silly question, as it would depend very much on the time of year and what was available in the markets (or in my garden). For example, were you to come to my house on a summer evening, dinner would most likely be some kind of animal flesh, expertly grilled, and an overflowing salad. And dessert would be some sort of tart. In winter, it might be a braise or a roast, and had I the time, a deadly multilayered chocolate something something. There is no simple answer.

I swam competitively when I was a kid (mid 60's – early 70's) and jello from the box was considered a perfectly acceptable energy booster before races. Ate it all the time. My favorite was strawberry-banana.

When my husband and I got married, we were on a tight budget and had about 100 people we wanted to invite. We rented a big tent and tables and chairs and made three giant pans of paella, stuffed with lovely seafood. Accompanied it with a beautiful green salad and rustic country bread. Good local microbrew on tap or sangira to drink. For appetizers, we laid a spread of cold / room temp. tapas. I made my own wedding cake. We spent less than $1000.00.

As posted elsewhere:

These simple vegetable peelers from Kuhn-Rikon. Their size, weight and configuration are all perfect, and at $3.50 ea. they're practically disposable. I keep a supply on hand so that I can give one to every visitor who tries and falls in love with them. And lots of them do.

Somehow I'd like to see chefg and Adria and Blumenthal and Dufresne and Keller hook up with this guy for some seriously innovative serveware.

That would be my rec, too. Real aged gouda – not the stuff that gets cut off a tube in neat rounds – is something to behold. Golden, tart and caramelly. Mmmm. (And not at all stinky, so you can eat it unabashedly in public!)

Seafood "stew" with fennel, saffron and white wine (clams, mussels, sturdy white fish). Also, fennel pollen rubbed on roasting chicken, and a recent discovery – tossed with cauliflower for roasting.

Yeah, that Buddha whatsis-guy.

Garlic.

I make this for my holiday goodie collection each year. Recipients have told me that it's slightly less addictive than crack. Macadamia Toffee 1 1/4 c. (290 g) heavy cream 2 tbsp (41 g) light corn syrup 1 2/3 c. (334 g) sugar 2 3/4 c. (400 g) macadamia nuts, crushed METHOD (Don't try this without a candy thermometer) Line a cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan with parchment paper. Better yet, if you have a marble slab, oil it lightly with neutral vegetable oil (peanut or canola) and have it standing by. Also have a rolling pin and a sheet of parchment on call. Combine the first 3 ingredients in a heavy saucepan large enough to hold 4 times the volume of these ingredients (this should save you having the whole mess boil over). Bring to a boil over slightly hotter than medium heat while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue boiling, without stirring, until the mixture starts to turn a pale golden color, and from this point on give it your UNDIVIDED attention. Stick the candy thermometer in the pan and DO NOT be tempted to up the heat (the temperature will rise painfully slowly). Using a wooden utensil with a flat edge, stir occasionally at first and then constantly as the temperature approaches 260°F. Keep boiling and stirring until the mixture reaches 284°F. Turn off the heat and dump the nuts into the pan, stirring vigorously (the mixture will stiffen very quickly). When the nuts and toffee are well combined (gotta work FAST), dump the whole mass out onto the prepared cookie sheet or marble slab. Place the sheet of parchment over the toffee and roll it out with the rolling pin, using lots of muscle, until it's about 3/8 inch thick. Let cool completely, then break into irregular shapes and store in an airtight container. Crushing the macadamia nuts is easier if you freeze them first. Put them in a large Ziploc bag and hammer them with a mallet or some such. Try not to hit them more than twice, or you'll end up with something resembling macadamia paste instead of the desired chunks. Let the nuts come back to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.

I do neither. I simply cut a round (or square) of parchment to fit the bottom of the pan. Then when I want to release the cake, I run a thin knife down and around the edge. I haven't noticed much difference in the "rise" of the cake doing it this way. I believe it was a tip from Alice Medrich.

Great book, beautiful photographs. With the added bonus of recipes.

Just curious...does Legal Seafoods occupy the space once filled by Chuck Muir's? Or am I going back too far...I worked there back in the day. Was, in fact, part of the opening team.

Saffron Mashed Potatoes. Assuming you heat your milk before adding it to the potatoes, heat it longer over a lower temperature and infuse it with a generous pinch of saffron.

Anne, your advice sounds perfectly reasonable. I only bake cheesecake once a year – at Thanksgiving – but look forward to trying your technique. Thanks.

And so I did. Cooked down 7 lbs. of crabapples, strained the juice and reduced it by half. Substituted homemade for commercial pectin in my jelly recipe and, miracle of miracles....got a nice soft-set jelly instead of some vaguely rubberized product. Edit: I have no idea what "commerical pectin" is.

There is such a thing as a min-max thermometer. Leave it somewhere over a period of time, and it will register both the minimum and maximum temperatures over that period. So, pop one in the dishwasher and run a load. You never know. If it gets cold enough, maybe you could make gravlax, too.

Actually, Brandon is well over an hour from Burlington. It's about equidistant between Rutland and Middlebury. Interesting to hear that a potentially decent place has opened up in Brandon since, historically, the Route 7 corridor from Rutland to Burlington is a culinary wasteland. I can't think of much to recommend unless you travel well off the main drag. Mary's, mentioned by JohnnyD, shouldn't be that far out of the way...maybe 40 minutes? The foliage is looking pretty spectacular this year, and you've picked a good weekend to see it.