KNorthrup

(How have we gotten this far without hearing from LML?) For what it's worth (very little), I interpreted those statements to mean that people who aren't dedicated to finest dining aren't particularly qualified to write professionally about food, not on this site.

Delayed reaction. Which one?

This thread is discouraging. I had an ice cream maker back in college. The kind where you have to add ice and salt, although not hand cranked. It broke in a move ten years ago and I never bothered to fix it. When I moved into my current place in Sept, the Cuisinart type went on sale and came in a nifty pistachio version to boot so I bought it as a housewarming present to myself. Then had to wait until I'd saved up to buy a working freezer so now finally ready to use this thing and now I'm hearing that it's only worth it if I consume the whole thing in 48 hours. I just lost 12 pounds; I can't be doing that. I guess it's a way to force myself to get to know my neighbors. Is it really that bad?

Last weekend I ate at a friend's favourite restaurant because it was his birthday. The steak had a sauce I've never heard of and can no longer remember. It started with T. Asked the Carrie Ann Moss lookalike waitress and she said it was a very traditional French sauce (this is a bistro type place) with tarragon and I don't remember what else but mostly herbs and vinegar. Definitely no cream. But apparently not actually like a vinagrette because when I pointed out the possible similarity to my friend, since he was starting with their butter lettuce salad with herb vinagrette and wouldn't want to be redundant, she looked quite pained. What was it?

I've never seen egg in a bbq sauce before. What does it do?

After my brother spent a summer where every single lunch came from a drive-through, he said DQ had easily the best burgers. That's compared specifically to McD, BK, Wendy's. I've never tried them. My favourite treat as a kid was the peanut buster parfait but I tried one a few years ago and couldn't finish it. The ice cream was kind of watery with no real vanilla flavour and the fudge was like a thicker Hersey's syrup, which I've never liked. Was really disappointed because I fully expected to still enjoy it.

I have a lasagna cookbook at home. There's one version with brains. The best one I ever had was at a cooking class. It had a specialized name that I've helpfully forgotten. Something aristocratic. Veal and chicken livers and probably at least two other meats. Red sauce but unusually heavy on the cream. Bits of cinnamon sugar too. Not necessarily like a bestilla but somewhat. Very very rich. Kept the recipe. Will have to dig it up when it cools off.

Browning in small batches so they don't steam instead. Definitely worth the extra time.

Get over the fear of burning the house down and thus avoiding anything that involves deep frying, heating pans/oil until smoking, broiling, unattended crockpots, etc.

From the front page of the morning paper : The state (Oregon) received a $2.2 million grant from the feds to combat obesity via education, psa's, etc. Apparently we're the worst in the West. The legislature turned it down on the basis of it being a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Island of Lost Maps for a bookclub. Why don't we have one here? There was one, one book worth. Lively discussion for two pages and that seems to be it. Figure it died out because it was in Dec and holidays are so busy but maybe other reasons. Earlier this week, Nigel Slater's Appetite . Last night, Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers . Can't believe I bought something at Border's. Feel guilty. Like eating at a chain restaurant. Was looking for that Kerrang issue. Also picked up an HG Wells compendium - War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau - all for $9.98. How could I not? Hadn't gotten around to any of them yet. Oh wait, B&N. And after seeing LOEG on Thurs with a friend, forced Watchmen on him but of course had to reread first.

Heck yeah, she was here last week. The more you report, the more I appreciate you making the sacrifice so we don't have to. Yikes.

Horseradish cream is a great idea for the smoked salmon ravioli. I've done wasabi, not sure why I didn't think of the alterative. Sometime else I do it with is lemon-artichoke "pesto."

In the 9th grade, I worked at McDonald's. I only have two customer-related memories. Once, two very large women with identically bad perms came in. They each ordered the same thing. McDLT. It was brand new. Our only burger with mayo. They requested extra mayo. Large fries. Super-size was not invented. Hot fudge sundaes with nuts and extra fudge. And then a little conference -- oh you know we really, yes, yes, we'd better. Make that two DIET cokes. I've been seeing many carb-free, sugarless etc chocolate bars at both the regular grocery store and at Trader Joe's. Haven't tried them yet because I figure they still have calories and they probably won't be any good. I had not noticed that they're so much more expensive. Not surprised, however. Especially since sometimes keeping the prices high adds credibility to a product.

I didn't think I had a hang-up until I read this thread. I always use a cutting board. Absolutely always. And it has to be a clean one. Clean side counts. But I have no dishwasher and don't do them even every other day so I've had to accumulate many boards. Oh dear.

My table has a cloth but I never use either. My mother has an immense stack of them on the bottom shelves of the kitchen armoire, next to the serving platters. Some for the dining table and some for the smaller table in the breakfast nook. There are patterns for summer and patterns for winter and, for the dining room table only, a couple special ones for Christmas (separate meal traditions on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day call for separate cloths). Most of them are cotton and machine washable. I know she bought very fancy handmade lace ones both when we went to Italy (Burano) and when we went to Ireland (Galway) because it took at least an hour each time to pick out the exact right one and agonize over whether it was worth the cost. But frankly, what with living in a different state, I have no idea whether she's ever used them. With the amount of red wine they drink, probably not. It is otherwise a very casual household so it's actually quite odd to think about. I bet it comes from the Nova Scotia part of the family.

More feedback. (Thanks again for the help.)

The Victory Garden Fish & Vegetable Cookbook has a loyal following. It's out of print and used copies go for about $80. That's a full title, separate from the general Victory Garden Cookbook that is more widely available. I have a copy but haven't actually used it yet. Tempted to sell it instead. It's vegetarian, but I do like my Moosewood Kitchen Garden cookbook because it does have quite a bit on storing etc. And most of the recipes are sides so there's no reason not to have them with meat. I do.

I'd buy it. I don't get nearly enough light/fun reading these days and it's getting worse. Just like sometimes you just want a cheeseburger. And Maxim's a hoot. Or at least it was a few years ago when my hipster friends were passing around articles. Maybe it's degenerated. Speaking of degenerated, Bon Appetit is getting weird. The latest issue has an entertaining article from Sandra Tsing Loh about hanging out at the beach and eating hot dogs and being unrepentently fat (ish) and over 40 in LA, but on the other hand they have one recipe that says you can make a perfectly authentic tasting hollandaise by mixing mayo, dijon, and lemon juice and then another that uses sweetened cream cheese instead of custard for a trifle. Yikes.

Esp the desserts. I did like the bottles of citrus and regular ponzu on the tables since most people have never tried them. But overall they were really disappointing. Especially for the price.

They're now advertising a Build Your Own Dessert night. I really need to visit of these days. Although I do sometimes pick up items at Pastaworks.

I love Burgerville. They use real cheese. The Walla Walla onion rings are overrated though. I've been reading about the Noodle thing, but it certainly doesn't seem worth a trip to Beaverton. Maybe I'll catch the Hawthorne version some time. The menu sounds like they used the same writer as Red Robin.

I go to Juneau every Christmas, and half of one suitcase is nothing but Trader Joe's products. Requests from my parents, requests from their friends. Mostly just the things in boxes and jars of course (although there's always a cooler involved as well, mostly cheese), but they love the place.

When I was in 4th-7th grade, that's where my father would take us for dinner pretty much every time we visited. All I remember about the food is the huge hot fudge sundaes for dessert. There was an Art Nouveau stained glass ceiling of women representing the four seasons on the ceiling. Chili size Cobb salad Fortune cookies CHiPs I loved the chicken and yukon gold potato pizza at CPK but they only lasted about a year here.