chezcherie

just finished a jewel of a book by deborah madison (who has written many vegetarian cookbooks). what we eat when we eat alone parts of this reminded me of the current "hall of shame" thread where folks are confessing their shameful secret food loves. there are great little snippets of overhead conversations, tales of various folks' eating habits when family/spouses are away, and some recipes. i just really enjoyed this book, and appreciated that in this age of publishing cutbacks, it seemed like a lovely idea that might never have found its niche. but it did. another one i recently enjoyed was My linkin late winter we ate pears. read it on the plane enroute to italy, and just realized that i lent it to a fellow traveler on that trip, and i need to get it back. that's a good indicator, as with lots of books, after i've read them, i'll happily give them away or donate them. but this one i'll re-read.

while the bolognese simmers, you could make batches of pasta to freeze.

don't like sushi. do like jujyfruits.

i know. sadly, it's true. doubly sad for me, as i just wrote the "I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook"which uses it multiple times. Before the book went to print, I checked and double-checked, and the TJ computer (accessed by a manager at both stores) read: Seasonal. Returning in Q4". With that assurance, I left the recipes in my book (along with caveats to hoard ingredients such as this). Imagine my dismay when, once Q4 arrived, the computer "fortune cookie" changed to "Discontinued. Refer customer to pie crust." Pie crust? Well, the TJ pie crust IS good, and they have recently reformulated it to be butterier and flakier than its previous incarnation, as well as rolled it out (as the puff was) rather than folding it. But pie crust ain't puff. Sometimes a protest campaign is effective with TJ's.

even easier than the foil trick (tho that is also a good idea). since i should have an "all clad" brand on my palm from doing the same thing about once a year for years...as SOON as i take the hot pan out of the oven, using side towels or hot pads (cuz i KNOW it's hot when i take it out of the oven...doh!), i leave those side towels or hot pads on the handle, when i set the pan on the counter or stove top...serves as a visual cue to me, and anyone else who might be working around me, that the pan is HOT! (with some of the folks in my kitchen from time to time, i'm not sure even the foil method would be effective---"hmmm. what's that goofy foil thing doing on that handle? OUCH!") havent burned myself since i started doing this.

ya know, i have to agree with your point--a little too much salt on the goat cheese--especially when chiarello said "i wrestle with this too, with flaked salt. once it dissolves, it's saltier than when you first add it". i didnt hear him mention that he also sometimes serves raw-ish eggs to pregnant women...

sadly, cook's library in los angeles has closed.

another laurie colwin fan here. i have lost track of the number of copies of both books i've given as gifts, and while it always pains me a little to see them on the "bargain shelf" at a bookstore, i never fail to pick them up. there's always someone new to introduce to her. i recall reading in gourmet some time back that her daughter is a writer, too. (in fact, i believe i had a letter to the editor published in the following issue, applauding and thanking gourmet for republishing the article.) i think i'll pour a nice glass of syrah, and snuggle in with "more home cooking" tonight. cheers, laurie and laurie lovers.

spatchcocking chickens is what i use mine for most.

every year, in december, i teach a tamale class at my cooking school. i know my tamales are good, and we teach a lot of little tricks and lore--how to get the masa to float, etc. i'm always gratified to see the number of hispanic students who enroll. (i'm not a latina.) it seems as though lots of folks didnt pay attention when abeulita was making the tamales, and they dont know the steps in the process. i have a wonderful kitchen helper who is mexican, and the finest food compliment i've received was a few years back, when, after making tamales with her family since she was born, she announced that "this year, the delgado family is using the chez cherie chicken filling in our tamales." that still give me chills. she could not have given me a finer compliment.

There was a little out take of a couple of them discussing where "Florentine" might be. I was really boggled that chefs, at least, wouldn't know the names of basic Italian regions. Ok, so it's not Tuscany, but jeez louis! actually, it IS tuscany. (i agree about the geez louis(e)!)

i was horrified to see that she had such an ill-fitting chef coat....honey, if you're gonna be on tv...hell, if you are going to have a SHOW ABOUT YOU, get a coat that fits. (the shiny pink one fits a bit better than the other ones, but i assume she ain't cookin' in that one...)

ok--recap time. i hope i didn't miss any. toad in the hole pig in a blanket egg(s) in a nest egg(s)or (y) in the hole egg in a basket bunny in a hole rocky mountain toast a piece of bread with an egg in the middle hobo eggs nest eggs bird in a nest bulls eye (or bulls eye eggs) egg in toast texas toast spit in the eye huevo en pan huevos al nido gas house eggs (or gasthaus) egg in a hat one eyed sailor eggs in a (picture) frame (or frame eggs) eggy cheese egg with a hole in the middle window eggs pond eggs devil's sandwich snake eyes camp eggs firehouse egg one eyed jacks cowboy toast (or cowboy egg) popeye submarine egg frog in a log guy kibbee egg hen in a nest (hen's nest)(birdie in a nest) moon egg one eyed monster breakfast egg with hat and coat okie french toast belly button egg one eyed egyptian sandwich hollywood eggs spit in the ocean goldmine sandwich vulcanized eggs salmonella surprise sesame egg angels on horseback american fried eggs mary jane eggs ox eye eggs toad in the hole had the most references, with one eyed jacks, eggs in the hole and egg in a basket tying for second. i'm hungry now...

my brother-in-law was a bartender for years. my fav story of his involves a japanese gentleman who sat at the bar and ordered a brown liquor drink ( i don't drink brown liquor, so i can't recall what the beverage of choice was). after ordering his drink, he added "and make it right." my b-i-l thought to himself "well, alrighty then" and noticed the fellow's eyes widen a bit as he gave an extra generous pour. as the man raised the hefty drink to his lips, my b-i-l realized that what the customer had actually said was "make it LIGHT"...which that drink certainly was not!

not another person's results, but my own. i am ridiculously lax when i caramelize sugar--not to the safety aspects, but as far as sloshing sugar crystals willy-nilly up the side of the pan, not using lemon juice or corn syrup, etc. my sugar has never once crystallized (although i realize that posting this may invoke the wrath of the caramelizing gods). other people in my kitchen just shake their heads, and say i have the best caramel karma.

just finished the cheese chronicles by liz thorpe. seriously considered licking some of the pages, and immediately purchased several hundred dollars worth of cheese. as soon as i finished it, i started again with the first chapter. just LOVED it. delicious writing on a fascinating subject. i wanna meet her. hell, i wanna BE her! brava.

annecroc--CONGRATULATIONS on your first eggs. it's so ridiculously exciting (considering you did NOT, in fact, lay them yourself!). i've had chickens for about 10 yrs, and i still find it so cool to pull a warm egg out of the box. i would caution you against feeding the storebought eggs to your girls. sometimes they'll develop a taste (and habit) of eating eggs, and then you're sunk!

i've found that raising chickens and children has made me both a better cook and a better person. voracious reading (of cookbooks, but just in general) really expands my culinary horizons, as of course, does travel.

oooh. i have some gorgeous peppered bacon in my fridge, and my hens are laying. i'm so trying this tomorrow. (and to bring the "hollywood" into the mix, i'm attending a fancy-schmancy premiere for a movie my bro-in-law wrote and directed in hwd tomorrow night, so the shoe fits!) i love the baconfat idea!!!

i seriously felt this last night, especially as they kept cutting to the FN execs and flay, who all seemed to be openly laughing at the contestants' struggling to regroup after the rug had been pulled out (yet again). i get that this is a "sink or swim" sort of thing, but really? would you want to portray yourself as so overtly mean-spirited if you were on the panel? also, they hammer on "what's your culinary point of view???" and then they remove any vestige of that pov from the ingredients available to the contestants...and they want them to teach something, too? i don't get it. and why anyone would sign on for this now, after 5 seasons of this, and only mr. fieri to show for it? (oh, i guess the guy from last season has a show---never seen it.)

after action report, please.

just thinkin' here...could ya pit them the normal (easier) way, and then "re-stick" the stems in with the chocolate? i mean, the stems are just "for pretty", right? i'd think this could be accomplished in a rather convincing way...and muuuuuch more easily than pitting with a paper-clip. (tho i have also heard of this technique, and am off to view the video!) edited to add--having watched the video, it looks pretty easy, if time-consuming. i'd hire my neighbor's kid to do an hour's worth of them---wearing a raincoat, n'es pas? to preserve his clothing. he's looking for chores to do for hire, and i'm fresh out of that age kid. otherwise, i'd put my own to work on those babies!

This is what I was referring to when I asked if covering promotes sogginess. ← this was my reply. not sure if you missed seeing this, fat guy, or if i misunderstand your post.

i only cover it for about a minute, to set the egg a bit more, and the bread doesn't get soggy in that time. for some reason, i use a glass lid for this (and nothing else--it's the toad in the hole lid!) while it steams up, i can still kinda see what's goin' on in there, and a minute usually sets the yolk enough for the princess daughter's finicky preference.

ha haaaaa! and i have been known to turn a chine plate upside down, and use the raised part of the base to sharpen up an awful knife in a pinch!