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alicehat

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Everything posted by alicehat

  1. Having spent a few years in the Twin Cities, I have to agree that Haralsons are one of the best fresh eating apples, hands down, if you love tartness. The problem is they don't travel well, so it's been a while since I had the pleasure. Honeycrisps are a favorite in my house; you can usually count on them to be sweetly juicy and well, crisp.
  2. Without a doubt, Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma is at the top of my must-read list. Yes, you can argue that he's preaching to the choir, but he does so with such eloquence and intelligence that I was forced to renew my vows to eat more consciously and to vote with my dollars. If everyone who's read the book convinces five other people to read it, there just might be a food revolution in this country. I hope so. For pure cooking inspiration, I'm digging The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider. I love her soulful, rustic food, and Maria Robledo's photos are gorgeous.
  3. I don't know...I've never tried Kijafa (yet). Might be worth a little experimentation. What better way to take advantage of the short lived cherry season? Kijafa Martinis?
  4. I just came across a recipe in Georgeanne Brennan's book Aperitif for something called Guignolet - it involves not only sour cherries, but the leaves from a sour cherry tree. Lacking the latter, at the very least, I would modify the recipe by steeping 1/2 pound unpitted sour cherries with 1/3 cup sugar, 3/4 cup vodka, and a bottle of full-bodied, fruity wine like California zinfandel, for 2 weeks. Strain and serve chilled. Haven't made it yet, but doesn't it sound good?
  5. I guess I'm one of those people who has nothing better to do than study food magazine covers and form strong opinions about them. A few months ago, I was browsing through my monthly stack of food porn, and there was no doubt that Gourmet's cover and feature layouts seemed to be filtered through a cool, blue lens. "Barren" and "chilly" seem perfectly good words to describe the look. In contrast to the warm, bright and downright juicy photos in Bon Appetit, Gourmet's seems too sophisticated - almost standoffish, despite the very obvious attempt to style the shots to look casually rustic and natural. I do enjoy Gourmet very much all the same. I'm finding the recipes themselves really doable and appealing. The April issue, in particular, offered up some recipes that turned out to be my favorites of the year: White Bean and Asparagus Salad, Shrimp Scampi Pasta, Lemon Olive Oil Cake. As for the lack of verbiage on subscriber's copies, I love that. I can't stand looking at newsstand covers that scream out "574 Ways to Toss Salads!". What annoys me to no end is how my copy of Gourmet arrives in my mailbox weeks after appearing on the newstand.
  6. Wow- I just made a Juniperotivo and it's blowing me away, it's so good. My hubby has the Junipero bottle at work (it's been a hard week), so I used Plymouth gin. I have to state that I am not a gin drinker, but this little cocktail might change that. Thanks. My pomegranate molasses is on the brownish side, so the drink looks a little muddy-colored. But the tart-sweet taste makes up for that in spades. YUM!
  7. Fried crickets in Oaxaca. They were hard to identify as insects, and tasted as good as a spicy french fry (without the little legs, of course). Just goes to show, you can deep fry anything and it becomes manna from heaven.
  8. I admit to Campbell's Tomato Soup. I make it with milk and about 2 cups of cooked pastina (tiny pasta stars). My mother made it for me, and now I make it for my kids. They love it. The few times I made cream of tomato soup from scratch, my little monkeys wouldn't touch it. Sigh.
  9. alicehat

    Outdoor Fridge

    We lived in St. Paul until last year, and we used our enclosed sun porch as a winter pantry. It was so nice (and decadent) to put a whole case of champagne out there during the holidays where it would chill down perfectly. Also, we made confit one year and when we ran out of fridge space, out on to the porch it went. I miss that.
  10. I just bought a great little book called Fagioli; The Bean Cuisine of Italy, by Judith Barrett. It's making me very hungry...
  11. "Bouchon" by Thomas Keller and a 7 quart Le Creuset Dutch oven.
  12. It's all about the pizza pie...but there aren't any color photos, alas. It's a bit studious, as well, but I like that about Peter Reinhart. He has a lot of passion for the subject. Great book...
  13. The first meal we cooked together was on the falling-down porch of the third-floor apartment I lived in at the time. It some piece of fish, halibut, I think, on a teeeny hibachi. We grilled some green onions and drank a bottle of Trefethen Chardonnay (it was the eighties). I do remember the first meal I cooked for him (and I was a novice for sure) straight out of the NYT Cookbook: cream of mushroom soup and chicken with tomato-tarragon sauce. What I remember most is that he called at the last minute, after I'd spent the whole day cooking, to say that he wasn't coming over; he'd decided he wasn't hungry. I told him he'd better bring his little tookus over asap, or he'd never have the pleasure of my tookus ever again. That was nearly 18 years ago, so I guess he liked my cooking (or maybe it's just my tookus)
  14. Seems like you're well on the way to finding good pancetta, but, just as back up, try to find Molinari brand pancetta. I've been able to find it here in the Midwest. It's been very reliable and tasty for Carbonara in our house. And, if it looks like it's been sitting around a while (i.e. gray), I always ask for a chunk from fresh, unopened package. It freezes well.
  15. This year I'm trying very hard not to be compulsive about cookbook buying, due to some, shall we say, household constraints. It's pretty darn difficult, as I usually acquire cookbooks like cat hair on a black velvet sofa. Here's the list I sent out to my loved ones: The Gourmet Cookbook The Breath of a Wok Bouchon On Food and Cooking, revised 2004 The Arrows Cookbook Bruce Aidell's Complete Book of Pork Feast All About Braising
  16. alicehat

    Stove

    Well, in the meantime I've been doing more research and found a GE Monogram 36" cooktop, which is made by DCS. It has a different layout and the middle burner is just 15,000 BTU, but seems to be a bit roomier: http://products.geappliances.com/ProdConte...SKU=ZGU375NSDSS Due to certain restraints, (namely, Budget) I need to replace an existing battered Thermador cooktop with one that can drop right in. Otherwise, I'd be all over the 6 burner 17,500 pro-style model.
  17. alicehat

    Stove

    Alberts, your post prompts me to ask a question - When you're using that 17.5 burner to boil water, can you also have a few 12''and 10'' saute pans going at the same time on the other burners without crowding? I'm shopping for a cooktop, and after examining the DCS, I had doubts about its configuration...
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