tanabutler

Not so fast there, little lady. CNET reviews digital cameras, and there is an 8MP Canon with a very high rating indeed.... Top digital cameras Also, Toliver mentioned panoramic stitching in Photoshop. Most all the Canons have a Panoramic Stitch mode, and the software does it for you. Here are a couple of samples. Siena Hills Life Lab Gardens at UCSC (268K photo) Canon has pretty damn good software. That's why I have bought three. (All are PowerShots.)

There is a part of Napa that is very blue collar. ← Yeah, I know, but do they offer mud baths?

How'd you know when to stage the party so he'd be whizzing by in a cab? Wow!

Apparently we have a Lee's here in Santa Cruz, right on the Pacific Garden Mall, where I strolled with the baby (see my current avatar) for an hour today. Who knew?

Napa is no snootier than Carmel, to me, and it does have pockets of amazing stuff. But I am much more comfortable in Sonoma, for whatever reason. I'm sure if I were there with someone great like Rancho Gordo, I'd enjoy myself just fine. I'm just generally aware of the classes in Napa. Jealous of all the money, too!

THAT is funny!!

I had to see that again. I love Sonoma, myself, for so many reasons. It's not nearly as self-conscious as Napa seems to be. Or status-conscious, perhaps. And the hilly roads are so beautiful. I think one of our best little getaways was one November when we headed up the coast and went to Sonoma. We drove and strolled through several little towns, and finally wound up in Jenner, after following the river there. The trees were still in autumn foliage, and we saw several deer running along the banks. We had an absolutely perfect dinner at River's End restaurant, and found lodgings via the bartender there, who gave us the phone number of a man who lived nearby. We got a queen studio overlooking the river and the ocean, for $100 (cash). Best of all, no cell phones worked out there. It was a slice of heaven. And if there is anything on earth uglier than a stretch-Humvee, I hope I never have to see it.

I think D&D is too expensive, like Williams Sonoma, if not downright sterile and snooty. I much prefer the crowded joy at Oakville Grocery. (Though D&D does sell Rancho Gordo stuff, so they can't be all bad.) I don't get it. Why recommend a place for a "must know" directory that you're already basically apologizing for? "Hardly worth the effort"? "Acceptable food"?

How about this? Bayless Payless

Maybe if I ordered a financier, I could afford to eat out more often. Thanks for whetting my appetite.

Adventures in Not Eating, maybe.

Bobby Flay's Skin & Peel "Snuff Films" Outtakes and Take-Out Testicular Ooze A Boy Named Sous Vide Jeffrey Dahmer's Steak House International House of Bran and Spotted Dick Grits, Groats & Gruel Like Cabbage for Chocolate Peanut Butter & Calf's Foot Jelly Blinding Pain Perdu Haggis & Watermelon Smoothie Shack Green Eggs & Salmonella Charlie Trotter's Pigs Feet DeLuxe Tastes Offal Ready-in-an-Instant Everything Spit & Polish Sausage Viet Nam Prik Rhymes With Kumquat Lard Shack Ling Cod, Lingonberries, & Lingam Jesus's Away in a Garde Manger Mexican-Israeli Snax Mohel's Head Cheese Deli

One of the many things I loved about Italy was being presented with unsalted butter with our breakfast items. When I was there, I started cooking with unsalted butter and usually do so, still. Everyone else here has covered the basics, so I will just leave it at that. Suffice it to say that the "typical American breakfast," (bacon and eggs, e.g.) is not usual.

Krys, though I live south of SF, I know two things in the "markets" category for the Napa/Sonoma area that need to be added. Oakville Grocery, located in all places in Oakville, is my standing recommendation to visitors to Napa. Stock up on picnic supplies and then find a winery with a picnic area. Beyond that, their condiments are dazzling, dizzying, and stupefying. More than once they have landed me in Double, Secret, Condiment Probation. My husband, the silly man, thinks there is such a thing as "too many condiments." I particularly like the Stonehouse products, like the Maple-Chipotle grill sauce, and the Fig-Vidalia Onion sauce. Also, though I haven't been there, Jimtown Store in Healdsburg comes highly recommended by board members. They have the added bonus of carrying Rancho Gordo products. And who is Rancho Gordo? Sister, Rancho Gordo is in our midst. For visitors to Santa Cruz county, the two markets of distinction that come to mind are Shopper's Corner (at Seabright and Branciforte) in Santa Cruz, and DeLuxe Foods at the Rio Del Mar exit (one block towards the beach) in Aptos. I prefer the DeLuxe because it's bigger with a much greater variety of everything, but Shopper's is like the California equivalent of a NYC market: crowded with tiny aisles, and an impressive selection of specialty foods, along with a crackerjack butcher's counter, wines from all over the world, and the kind of produce that one would expect in the California county with 80+ organic farms. (I don't believe either has a web site.) I might add more, but my standard, broken-record link for finding anything related to farmers markets, CSAs, and so on is this nationwide, searchable (by zip code or town, etc.) database: LocalHarvest.org. You can also buy specialty food items there (such as Rancho Gordo products!). It's a wonderfully done web site, and I am constantly trying to send traffic there. EDITED for secret reasons that I will take to my grave.

The sites are nicely done, but the images sure could use optimization. They appear to be over 200K or so (some of them). (Just a little bit of pro advice. I'm on DSL, and they still take a few full seconds to load.) Who's that pretty woman on the first site? Wow, she's gorgeous.

Monica, congratulations and thank you for one of the most enjoyable threads ever at eG. Your initial query asking for input on what we wanted you to photograph was time well-spent, for all who responded, I see. (Though seeing the McD's depressed me.) Beautiful work.

Howdy, Bob. Welcome. (I live very near to Gilroy, myself.) Wanna try my recipe for garlic bread? Ultimate Garlic Bread concoction Mix in a smallish bowl with a fork: 1 stick butter, softened A few cloves of crushed/minched fresh garlic Grated parmesan cheese (about 2 TBL.) Italian Seasoning (less than 1 TSP.) Slather thickly on slices of (preferably) Alfaro's 4-Seed Sour (a local bread, but do your best), and broil until the butter and cheese are molten, and barely golden brown. - - - - - - - - - - Give it a try and let me know what your wife thinks. I made more soup for dinner. Lentils, spicy and puréed, with the extra addition of the cap to the blender, which fell into the container and got a little, um, chewed up. (I strained it through a fine screen, and hope I'm not eating plastic. Glad it wasn't glass.)

A thread about restaurant web sites started in August. I reiterate: I believe Flash is nothing more pissing contest, and I think people that put music on web sites should have electrodes fastened to their....you get the picture. The worst part about the music is that so much of it sounds like a soundtrack for soft porn. Er, um, how I imagine that music would sound.

Just found this. LONGHI'S? I smell ballot-box stuffing.

That I knew, hence the use of the term 'baked goods' ... but was thinking more about Gayle's Danishes and Croissants which are delicate and buttery: dare you to look at the variety!! ← I look at it every single time I take my daughter to work or pick her up. That's how I knew there are no donuts at Gayle's. Well, that and being a loyal customer for upwards of a dozen years at least.

Roasted Cornish game hens with herb crust (fresh rosemary with dried sage and tarragon in the coffee grinder + s/p); new potatoes boiled/seared in olive oil with kosher flake salt; sweet English peas plain; sautéed mushrooms with a dash of lemon juice and white wine.

The wise man speaketh.

Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria does not make donuts. Donut shops near Santa Cruz. Dunlap's* is good, as I recall, but I haven't eaten a donut in 10 years, easily. Don't bother with New Leaf: while they are a wonderful health food store, they will not give you the satisfying trashy ingredients necessary for a decent donut. *An especially appropriate name: my Granddaddy always called someone overweight "Dunlap." Why? "His stomach done lapped over his pants."

They won't let you take pictures in there, unfortunately, Brooks.

Now, now. Bob (my husband, the general contractor) says that most good marriages can withstand a kitchen remodel. (But that means that most marriages can't.) I think if Varmint makes a bacon sachet to stick under Mrs. Varmint's pillow every night, all shall be well.