browniebaker

My distaste for most alcoholic beverages is a bit embarrassing. At wineries in Burgundy, I got all sorts of questions when I declined to sample the wines. Beginning to feel like an alien from another planet, I let my husband tour the wineries while I stayed in the car and read. I know I could order a glass and sip daintily from it or just have the glass sit in front of me as a prop, but I don't like to waste good money. In short, I am fully capable of drinking alcohol to save my life, but I won't if I don't have to!

Fifi, one cup buttermilk to two cups flour is exactly what I use. That's the right proportion of fluid to flour for fluffy biscuits. Any less buttermilk, and your biscuits will be more dry and less fluffy. Essentially, you want to have as wet a dough as you can handle. The very important trick that many recipes don't bother to mention is that, after pouring in the buttermilk and quickly tossing it through the flour with a fork, let the mixture sit for TWO WHOLE MINUTES, to let the buttermilk penetrate. At this point, the mixture will not be soupy. It will be light and spongey. Then flour the countertop well, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto it, use well-floured hands to fold the dough a few times, press to a 1/2" thickness, and cut into rounds. Good luck, and don't give up, as you need to develop a feel for it. It took me much, much practice to get it right.

It's funny what people take for fame.

My cheesecake lasts about a week in just the refrigerator, no freezing needed (or advised).

Please don't use ketchup. And it's not a smoke ring. It's simply red food coloring.

Only in reading the morning paper this morning did I come to know of the whole eGullet-instigated tempest in a teacup over the name of Gillian Clark's store. Having just now read through this thread, I am flabbergasted at the nastiness, especially of the initial posts attacking the PC-ness of the name "Da Sto." As another DC eGulleteer, all I can say is, lighten up, DC eGulleteers. I love the name, "Da Sto." It's humorous, clever, and apt. My compiments to the Chef, Gillian Clark, for the civil way she has handled her detractors.

Whatever recipe you use, instead of the usual vegetable oil, use half vegetable oil and half melted butter. You get the characteristic moistness of carrot cake and the wonderful flavor of butter. Mmmm. I could use a slice of carrot cake now!

I was thinking that myself, that $50 tp $100 for a hostess gift seems excessive if just for a dinner party. The gift is supposed to be a gesture, a token. If someone came to dinner with such an expensive gift, I would wonder. Wonder what? Well, wonder whether this guest thought the expensive gift would discharge all future obligation on the guest's part to reciprocate in kind. I guess I have seen all too many guests bring a gift and then fail to reciprocate with a dinner invitation later. One can't help but wonder whether the guest thinks he "paid for" the dinner with his hostess gift.

Gosh, it's unbearably steamy-hot in Taiwan in August! I wouldn't envy you your trip if not for the wonderful foods you'll get to eat! Don't miss the restaurants or food stalls that serve deliciously refreshing shaved ices with all manner of toppings, such as sweet red beans, taro root, grass jelly, agar agar, tapioca, sweet-rice dumplings, and fresh fruits. That's something I carve but never make her in the U.S. because it's too hard to get a good variety of ingredients together to make just a bowl of shaved ice. It used to be that the best restaurants in Taiwan were the ones in the grandest hotels, but my friend who returned recently from a long visit reports that the most inventive and extravagant cooking is now found at boutique restaurants. He still raves about an incredibly favorful and tender ostrich steak that he had at a restaurant in Taipei (and, no, he couldn't recall the name of the place, darn him!). A must-try is the oyster omelette, a Taiwanese specialty. I agree that the uniquely Taiwanese dan dan noodles are not to be missed. I still dream of those inimitable dan dan noodles! Don't be afraid to eat at the food stalls after you have observed the cook a bit and satisfied yourself of basic hygiene. Some people, foreigners and locals, go as far as to bring along their own bowls and chopsticks, but I have seen locals of all socio-economic classes eat without qualms at the food stalls (and laugh at foreigners who whip out their own chopsticks). I also really loved the sweet-salty-umami-ish powder that is sprinkled over fresh fruits. I regret that I didn't think to ask what was in the powder, so that I could try to replicate it here at home. The taste is reminiscent of dried preserved plums. It's not for nothing that Taiwan is said to have the most exemplary Chinese food in Asia today. Have a feast!

Coupe de gras! Good one, DiH! Wish I'd thought of that. My favorite frosting since I was a child has always been a boiled white frosting, sometimes called White Mountain, sometimes called Italian meringue. I've had more luck with this than with the seven-minute frosting, which I can't get to firm up on humid days. The boiled white frosting, made by boiling a syrup to a soft-ball stage and pouring it in a thin stream into whipped egg whites while continuing to beat, is a lot more stable and dependable, in my experience. I also like how white the frosting is, taking food coloring beautifully.

See, the gift has to be tailored to the recipient, I really think. Not everyone can use olive oils and balsamic vinegars; I couldn't. I re-gift any gifts like that, that I cannot use. And another problem is, olive oil is rather perishable, meaning I have to re-gift it soon -- not always possible. If I don't know someone well, I bake a round of shortbread using a pretty ceramic mold that I have. Shortbread last nearly forever (indeed, tastes better aged), and it is something that the recipient can serve to others on a later occasion if he/she doesn't care for it, without having to prepare it or cook with it (as he/she would have to in the case of cooking oils or vinegars).

I'll say it again (sounding like a broken record-player): the pimiento cheese sandwich wins over any other sandwich in the universe.

Great essay. Writing as a Southerner is never easy, what with all the stereotypes. I totally empathize with the author: I, too, have at times chosen a badly made pimiento cheese sandwich over any other sandwich. How can anyone pass up ANY pimiento cheese sandwich?

How about children's food as featured in scenes from the novel? Pepperidge Farms goldfish from the first chapter: these could be homemade, of course, into something much nicer. Ditto for any of the other foods. Or how about things prepared, baked, or served in plastic supermarket bags, recalling the bag of dog poop? I know, this is really reaching for a theme...

Mine is, "food is love." Cooking and baking are how I show someone I love him or her. Even though I have dated several men and have even been divorced once, the only man for whom I have ever baked a pie is my husband; I like that. When I let myself enjoy good food, I'm loving myself.

My kids think "muenster cheese" is a riotously funny name.

Not much feels worse than getting a shard of Doritos tortilla chip stuck in the crevices between the nasal passage and the throat. It hurts! I don't know how this happened to me last week, but nothing would dislodge it. I tried snorting it back, blowing it out the nose, and nothing worked. I was afraid I would have to wait for the chip to decay and dissolve and flow down my throat slowly. Luckily, it must have softened up from the moisture in the nasal passage, because it went down after a few minutes. Whew.

They're just as good as you remember. No matter how good a chicken pot pie I make from scratch now, sometimes I like to have my Swanson's in the little tinfoil pie plate. Stir those two layers of crust into the sauce so that the pastry is moistened, maybe a little gooey in some places, but still tender and a little crisp in other places.

Unaquainted with Georgia Brown's but having heard that the brunch was popularly acclaimed in surveys by magazines such as Washingtonian, I went to their website. There was a recipe for their peach cobbler, which happens to be one of my favorite desserts. When I saw, however, that they make peach cobbler with a crumb topping instead of a proper Southern crust (either pastry crust or biscuits), I got skeptical and never did go to Georgia Brown's.

Desert mesquite honey, dark and flavorful.

Yes, the second character is "grass." The first character is composed of a person next to a mountain. Anyone know the meaning of the character, or have a dictionary on hand?

WoodleyGrrl, do I understand correctly that you did not order the eggs, onion soup, and squid, and that these three items were comped? Do you think the comps had to do with your having been recognized as someone on eGullet who would probably post a review?

Oh, wow, we had grass jelly for after-dinner dessert at home two nights ago! Nothing says summer to me like an ice-cold bowl of grass jelly thinly sliced into sugar syrup. Memories of dad mowing the lawn and we kids playing outside and all of us coming inside hot and sweaty to find that mom had a bowl of chilled grass jelly for each of us at the dining table. Mmmmm. Today, I never can have a bowl by myself -- it's got to be the whole family around the table.

I keep garlic powder and onion powder around. First, sometimes I run out of garlic or onion and the stuff hasn't gone on sale at the grocery store -- I don't like to pay full-price if i can help it -- and that's when I use powder as a substitute. Second, I have recipes for dry-rub and barbecue sauce that actually specify garlic powder and onion powder. If it tastes good, I don't care that I used a powder.

"What is patriotism but love for the good things we ate in our childhood?" -- Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living