tanabutler

Tomato sauce topped with (in this order): mozzarella lightly sautéed yellow bells/garlic bacon Or leave off the bacon and do peppers/garlic with mozzarella and the fresh basil. I wouldn't put them together: the smoke could clash with the basil.

A lovely post, Gruyere, and I can't wait to hear about the Italian places.

Peach gelato, coming up! (Thanks, Russ, for the great piece and the recipes. I'm about to go spend my allowance on peaches at the farmer's market.)

They'll have to go a long way to beat the Big Chicken. Chick-Fil-A rocks. The pickles, next to the crusty skin, mmmmmmm. I hate Taco Bell more than any fast food joint out there. The difference between "what you see" (on the marquees overhead) and "what you get" is astonishing. And I'm jealous of all your BBQ experiences, Fat Guy.

I am kind of selfish about leftovers. Since I cook seven nights a week, if I am going to the trouble of making something good, I want it for lunch the next day. Hands off my salmon tortellini!

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a recipe today, Maggiecat.

Y'all are making me drool.

A photo sure would be helpful, in that article. I have the hardest time visualizing things in 3-D from written descriptions.

I have some eerie kind of beginner's luck on new recipes—or maybe I'm just good at choosing things within my limitations. At any rate, I've only rolled one gutterball in the last fifteen years, I think. So no, I don't test recipes beforehand. If something started to go wrong with one, I'd just change courses and simplify.

You are mighty right, FoodZealot.

I had housemates several times, and the two most recent experiences were great. The first, Matt, taught me how to cook with garlic. Previously I'd only lived with hippies who know how to use two things, and two things only: too much garlic and too much cumin. Matt was, and is, a great cook. We became cooking buddies, and that carries forward to this day. He also taught me the importance of good music while I cook. Cowboy Junkies, Lyle Lovett, Mary Black—something I can sing to is very important. The second domestic situation involved me in a household of four grown women, two little girls, and two female doggesses. Our strategy was that each of us would cook once a week for the household, buying all the ingredients and making something nice. A salad had to be included if it was seasonal. Two were vegetarians, but we never suffered for a lack of good food. If you cooked, you also cleaned, so that we all got three entire nights off. That worked pretty well, except I was the most enthusiastic cook of us all, and my messes were bigger. I thought it a little unfair in that regard, but oh well. Labelled shelves in pantries and refrigerators are a "good fences make good neighbors" tactic that I came to believe is necessary. And as far as living with someone who drinks your good Zin and won't reciprocate? Never. I would say something about it, and make it clear that a pattern has been detected.

I think I could eat beets every day and never get sick of them. Roasted beets, drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar and EEVO, a little goat cheese, atop their lightly sautéed greens...heaven! Pinenuts and beets. I'll stand at the counter and eat them cold from the fridge, if there are ever any leftovers. I don't use any herbs with them, ever. Their simplicity is their perfection. Mmmmm. Beeeeeeeets.

Great piece, Craig. Okay, I have a question. VGS on a label? Does it really mean "Very Good Shit"? Every single person I've asked (elsefora) has answered that way. Please enlighten me, o fonts of oenophilic knowledge.

Heh. I liked this bit: "Stir Chef stirs from the bottom up for consistency, while the specially designed paddles can reach into the corners of your pots." If you know what I mean and I think you do.

Some of the marketing copy sounds like it could be used for, er, um, marital aids.

I LOVED this bit. Where is that thread on how bad we AMERICANS eat - like everyone else is munching on glorious freshly-prepared food while we neanderthals only eat processed crap. she must of gotten this out of some magazine and it was probably touted as some great American dish. She really made a big fanfare over this one and I didn't have the heart to tell her I had never eaten a dish made with cream of anything soup before. At least to my knowledge, who knows what was in soem of those dishes at church potlucks That dish belongs in the White Trash thread. You poor thing, Torakris.

If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, their Vidalia Onion salad dressing is heavenly and addictive. Also, the Annie's Naturals—we love the Sesame-Shiitake and the Goddess dressings. Caesar's Lime Dill, in potato salad with mayonnaise, fresh (uncooked) peas, red bell peppers and new potatoes, is my favorite potato salad on earth. Other than that, I'm a big old snob.

Among how many people, Maggiecat?

Two eggs over medium, Niman Ranch dry-cured bacon, and a glass of tangerine juice. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Bacon.

Which airport are you flying from?

I'm a former Georgia girl, myself, fifi, and it's just plain ol' mint. It's the mint that isn't spearmint or peppermint or chocolate mint... I'm starting to feel like Harlan Pepper and my mama's gonna come scream at me to stop naming nuts. Or what's his name in Forest Gump.... pineapple swimp, coconut swimp, swimp stir fry, swimp gumbo.... heh

Hello again, Michael, I consumed The Soul of a Chef like a force-fed goose. Yum. I bought the French Laundry cookbook for my best friend's fortieth birthday, and then got one for myself. It's beyond food porn: it's more like the Vatican's pornography collection. Absolutely beyond the beyond in design, in its clear, almost devotional language, and in every aspect. Congratulations on both books. My question is, is there anything in TFL cookbook that you yourself have attempted at home? Were you successful? Did you install Persian rugs in your kitchen to create the necessary ambience necessary? I belong to a group of people who have monthly dinner parties at a house with beautiful gardens (we're near Santa Cruz, California). Each month is a different theme; we've had three so far (Tuscany, Spain and Southern food). They're wonderful, though four or five of us take up the slack for most of the rest in the cooking department. It's fine: we enjoy it. After the last dinner, three of us who own TFL cookbook posited the notion that we should do a very disciplined dinner, and only invite people who can actually prepare one of the dishes from TFL cookbook—with crackerjack timing and the whole thing. We have some real chefs in our number, and three of us have catered before, so it's not impossible to consider. That's why I ask my question of you. So when we invite you, we'll know what you're bringing. Seriously, though. I'm wondering what level of cook one would need to be to bring off just one recipe "perfectly." And I know "perfectly" doesn't exist, so I'd settle for making people whimper and lick their plates. Edit: P. S., I've said this many times to anyone who would listen, your website is beautiful.

I believe the mint is English mint, which is just called "mint." It's neither spearmint nor peppermint, nor any other kind of mint. Its Latin name is mentha spicata, and its leaves are wider, shorter and rougher than spearmint. That is the mint to use in mojitos, mint juleps, and for any recipe which specifies "mint" (as opposed to spearmint, peppermint, etcetera). It's what the Safeway sells as mint—they label the other varieties by name.

This is an honest-to-God family anecdote about bacon. My aunt married quite young, and returned home the next morning to visit her mama and daddy. Memaw asked, "Honey, what did you make him for breakfast?" She said, "Well, I wanted to make him bacon and eggs, but I didn't have any grease to fry the bacon in." And this from a Georgia girl!

Um, how long do you think it would take for me to read this thread from the beginning? Corollary question: would I pass out from dehydration from drooling away my entire body weight in saliva before I completed the task? (It's my first day here, wheeeee.) I have no idea what's for dinner tonight, but I think jumbo scallops sautéed with mushrooms and wine/cream, some kind of dish with the two ripe Ronde de Nice squashes that I just picked from our garden, and a salad featuring the glorious red tomatoes I just picked as well. Probably the favorite salad of late: Niman Ranch uncured bacon (from Trader Joe's—arguably the best bacon on earth, sayeth my cheffy friends) with tomatoe and lettuce. And their Vidalia Onion salad dressing (which is going to either bankrupt me or turn me into a mainliner). It's a BLT without the bread!