GG Mora

I believe the correct garnish for a chocolate martini is a Milk Dud.

Black beans, ground pork, chopped peeled tomatoes. Green peppers, but only if they're Poblano and Jalapeño. Lots of garlic. Guajillo pepper powder. Beer. Leftover coffee. Cocoa powder. Whatever it takes to balance the flavors. It should be a little sweet, fairly acid, quite hot, a little sour, a tad bitter, mildly smoky, plenty salty. If I serve it with enough grated cheddar and sour cream, even the younger, spice-averse Moras will eat it. Heresy, for sure. Perhaps I should call it something besides chili, but no matter. It's still f****** awesome. Edited to add some puréed chipotles in adobo. And to say "Hey, Busboy...Quite the prayer!"

Thanks, Jack. I haven't done any uploads to the New ImageGullet, but I suspect I'll curse having to do them one-at-a-time. I must have missed your query re: page layout. I do like the photos 2 up; the pages get pretty "leggy" otherwise.

This has been in heavy rotation here at the Mora's (went over big at a few potlucks, too): Pattypan Squash Gratin (for about 3 lbs. squash) Cut squash into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss with a few tablespoons of salt; let drain for a few hours. Rinse off salt. Dice two medium onions and mince two jalapeño peppers and six cloves of garlic. Sautée the aromatics until golden in about 3 tbsp butter. Add squash, season well with S&P and ground cumin. Stir/sauté over high heat* until the mixture starts to dry out (even after draining, the squash will still give up a lot of liquid). Once the mixture is dryish (no longer seeping fluids) add about half a cup of heavy cream and stir/sauté until the cream is bubbling. Turn the whole mix into an oval gratin dish, sprinkle 1/4 cup of grated Grana Padano mixed 1/4 cup of plain bread crumbs over the top. Bake at 375° until nicely browned on top and quite bubbly at the edges. *Note: my stove is a real pussy, so if you're doing this on a professional / high-BTU model, high heat will likely be excessive.

Thanks, Jack, for another brilliant blog. I have a question about your photos. I generally don't keep up on photo-heavy blogs since, being on a dial-up connection still, it just takes too damn long for all the pics to load. You've obviously whittled down the resolution – to no visual detriment, but they load very quickly. What res are you using? Perhaps future bloggers could take a cue...

I, too, swear by the JoC recipes. But sometimes, if I'm feeling lazy, I'll use Bisquick. The Bisquick "recipe" has a tip for extra fluffy pancakes: add a few tablespoons of fresh-squeezed lemon juice. And it really works. Them's the fluffiest flapjacks ever. I'm guessing one could do the same with a scratch recipe, though I've never tried it (at the moment, I can't imagine why not). Note to self: make scratch pancakes this weekend...try lemon juice trick. Scientifically, I'm guessing that the acid lemon juice gets an extra kick out of the baking powder; I'm assuming Bisquick uses the double-acting kind. Second note to self: check Bisquick ingredients.

Chestnut Jam with Vanilla and Rum ± 2 3/4 LBS unpeeled chestnuts 1 vanilla bean 3 C light brown sugar 2 TBSP dark rum Peel the chestnuts however you see fit. Put peeled chestnuts and vanilla bean in large sauce pan and just cover with water. Cover pan and bring to a boil; simmer until chestnuts are tender (about 30 min.). Remove and set aside vanilla bean. Drain chestnuts, reserving cooking liquid. Purée chestnuts. Put purée, sugar, and 7 tablespoons reserved cooking liquid in heavy pan. Split vanilla bean and scrape out seeds; add seeds and bean to pan. Heat mixture gently, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, then raise heat and boil until mixture is thick. Remove and discard vanilla bean; stir in rum. Ladle hot jam into sterilized jars, seal, and process in water bath.

Heavens, Bux, I was just poking a little fun.

We've never been above neologizing in the past...why chicken out now? If a spatchcocked chicken is poulet en crapaudine then the verb that gets you there should be crapauder, non? Je crapaude Tu crapaudes Il crapaude Nous crapaudons Vous crapaudez Ils crapaudent Edited to fix rusty French verb conjugations; with thanks to Busboy and follonica2 and apologies to all. But you knew what I meant.

You know, following your blog this time around is eliciting the same sort of response in me as your first did, which goes sort of like "Hm, goodness, beautiful, lovely lovely, holy MOG, where does he find the time and energy...." and ending with "Bother. I should just give up this cooking and gardening business". My only consolation is in knowing (suspecting?) that had I not young children and a husband and a time-and-a-half job to look after, I might just measure up. All of which is to say, simply: smashing.

I just came across a recipe for something like this in a book by Hillaire Walden, and determined to put some up for future holiday gift-giving. I can dig out and paraphrase the recipe for you if you're interested. And I'm in the cut-an-X-in-the-skin-before-roasting/steaming/boiling camp. They'll peel like a dream. Edit for to better make sensing.

The inside of my cheek.

Lovely jelly, Jack. Just curious...the jar in the middle, sort of behindish...is it just a trick of the light that it looks not full to the top? Or do you get away with not filling the jars all the way?

I can't believe there are people out there who can actually afford to drink in airports.

Apples, apples and more apples. Wierd thing is, a standard two-crust apple pie leaves me cold. But this time of year, I find myself cooking up tarte Tatin, simple one-crust apple tarts, free-form apple tarts with apple butter, golden cream apple tart (with the apple slices baked in a rich custard). Oh, and I think apple crisp is gross, but that's likely attributable to being traumatized by apple crisp that sat forever in a steam table...Apple Slop.

What exactly is the point of this thing? Wow, that's some revolutionary marketing for ya.

More "useful" word awards from ADS: Words of The Year. Seems to me they mixed up the winners of the Most Useful and Most Creative categories... Winner – Most Creative – freegan: noun, person who eats only what they can get for free.

The Pontiac Aztec is ugly. Gee, Tommy, I'm sorry I'm not in town this week...you could squire me around Ridgewood or something...

Here's the only news item I cold find on the issue: Total Tale in Boston Globe. Perhaps the ban hasn't quite gotten around, and those fully stocked shelves will wiped clean any day now...

...Talking to Ralph on the Big White Phone.

Okay, so I finally got around to counting...86. That includes the recent addition (Friday) of Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking (not to be confused with Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking). The count also includes all of my Food Lit – Tony Bourdain, Robert Wolke, Russ Parsons, Harold McGee, and 4 years' Best Food Writing. Doesn't include all issues of Saveur from #10 on – must count for something, yah? And if anyone has any bright ideas as to how I might lay hands on those first 9 issues....

Hmmm....the Evil Mirror version of this story: When I was in art school, I worked weekends at the only real upscale restaurant in town, one heavily patronized by the nouveau riche Ignoramuscenti. The waitresses were all required to dress up for Halloween, and the twee little cutie-pies came clad as A Kitty-Kat! A Lobster! A Lady-Bug! Me, I went for the diner waitress look, crafted with enormous care: the slovenly button-down uniform, the hairnet, the rhinestone-studded bug-eye making cat's eye spectacles, SuppHose, orthopedic shoes, and cardigan with requisite used Kleenex tucked in the sleeve. Not one, not two, but three parties that night asked me straight-faced why I hadn't dressed in costume.

It didn't suck at all. For this Vermont girl, it was great to try something we don't get at home. If I'd had to pay a whole lotta money for the experience, I'm sure I could find more to gripe about, but for the price... (Three of us shared the following) Seems they've upped the spice quotient on the acili ezme; I thought it was just right, and I like my "spiced" dishes hot. The ezme had a nice kick without a wollop. Also had the aforementioned salad with cucumbers, tomato, feta, etc. (good) and the kebab combo. All the kebabs were treated to well-balanced seasoning, none were tough or overcooked. A stuffed cabbage dish was pasty and enemic and not anything I'd bother to order again. As for Ridgewood, well...it gave this kid some serious restaurant envy.

I went to high school with Bret; guess he hasn't changed much. Throwing in my vote for Melt. (Can I vote twice?)

Both kids carry a (filled) 1-litre Nalgene in their backpacks, and drink at least that much each day. Lots more when they play soccer or ride their bikes.