tanabutler

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!

I'll agree with the one about not using table salt for cooking any more. And not using table salt at the table. Kosher flake is my sodium of choice: the crystals are as distinct as good cocaine (she seemed to remember someone saying), though not as expensive. Also, cooking with unsalted butter most of the time, especially when cooking vegetables. That makes the application of the good salt all the more distinct. Finally (for now): good knives.

I'm on the bunny hill, I guess. After recent weeding, I have fifty cookbooks...and into that number I count Comfort Me with Apples and The Soul of a Chef. It's only my first day here and I already think I shouldn't be eatin' at the big folks' table.

Two recipes instantly sprang to mind. The first is one Russ Parsons told Terry Gross about in an interview on Fresh Air. He told her to cook salmon at 300 degrees, with a pan of boiling water in the oven, for twenty to thirty minutes. It comes out so voluptuous that I call it "voluptuous salmon" when I make it. The second is in Patricia Wells' Trattoria cookbook (an absolute favorite of mine), and it's for a lemon risotto. Loosely worded, it's made like this: • 2 shallots sautéed until translucent in 2 T. butter with 1 T. olive oil (I used lemon olive oil) • add 1-1/2 cups risotto and stir over moderate heat until the risotto is slightly translucent and shiny (glistening) • Add 1 c. white wine and stir until absorbed. • Then, stirring, add one ladleful at a time of 4 cups simmering chicken or vegetable stock. When that is all absorbed, remove from heat and add the grated zest of 3 lemons, their juice, and minced herbs (about 2 T. each: mint, sage and rosemary). • Serve immediately with grated parmesan. I think the mint and sage were a surprising combination. It's so-o-o-o-o-o good.

The absolute worst-smelling thing on earth is asafoetida (part of its etymology is Latin for "stinking," and it is related to the word "fetid"), a giant fennel that has an odor so repulsive and vomitous that I had to put the baggie containing it inside two glass jars (one inside the other), and put it in my garage fifteen feet outside the kitchen. Even then, I could smell it every time I walked into the garage. I am not making that up. I bought it for an Indian recipe, and I should have just buried it with a stake through its heart. Tied for "second worst-smelling thing," to my nostrils, are liver and lamb. They smell not only dead, but rotting. Gorgeous aromas? Vanilla beans in crème brûlée Meyer lemon zest Pork tenderloin with a rosemary/cherry (or plum, or cranberry) reduction Peach cobbler

Dark wheat toasted sandwich slathered with Cowgirl Creamery's "Red Hawk" (soft, nice, ripe) cheese, thick slices of brandywine tomatoes, basil aiöli, and Romaine lettuce was late lunch...and then I found this thread.

Mmmmmm. It's a good thing pixels don't have calories or I'd be sitting here like Mike Meyers' Fat Bastard, ballooning up from all the reading I've done today. (First day posting at eGullet.) Last Wednesday at the farmer's market in downtown Santa Cruz, with a friend: Several varieties of heirloom tomatoes from Happy Boy Farm(Green Zebra, Brandywine, Purple Cherokee—though I suspect they're Black Krims, which are smaller, and yellow Brandywines, along with Sun Gold cherries) Fingerling potatoes from Route One Farms Peaches from...I forget. My friend bought them and they weren't organic (gasp!) Two dozen of the big oysters ($20 for two dozen)—the ones that are as big as a dog's tongue—from Bill, the Oyster Man A bag of sourdough dinner rolls Two bunches of baby golden beets I usually prefer the market Saturday mornings at Cabrillo College, as it is patchouli-free and not peopled with so many aggressive petioners. "Are you a registered voter? Are you a registered voter?" One guy answered, "I don't vote, I pray." My friend answered, "See where you got us last election?!" heh

Bourdain lovers might enjoy another online appearance of his back in 2002 at another forum. Read closely...some of his recipes are jaw-dropping. I thought A Cook's Tour was amazing—I like his work so much I'd let him smoke at dinner.

Just a teeny note here (with gratitude for your synopsis: what a great idea and service). "Wiley" is actually Julia Wiley, the wife of Andrew Griffin, who is the farmer at Mariquita Farm.

My local independent grocery store (The Village Market in Oakland) sells fruit from XXX farm in Brentwood. Can't remember the name, but I've seen delivery trucks with their names dropping off fruit at the market. Could it be either Tairwa' (Knoll) Farm or Eatwell? Both are in Brentwood. I know the Knolls have fantastic figs, and I think they have peaches, too. Eatwell definitely has peaches. Farmer Al from Frog Hollow comes to the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market on Wednesday. I've bought his peach conserves on the passionate recommendation of a foodie friend in SF and they are outstanding. About the peaches themselves: I am a Georgia girl. I haven't had a fabulous peach since I left in 1976, and I'm not making that up. However (about to eat my words here), I tasted one of the Frog Hollow peaches and it was the best peach I've had since I left home. I wish I were exaggerating, and I wish he didn't charge so much. Yes, peaches only last a day or two. They pick them and lay them in the carton as gently as possible, and you need to appreciate them and eat them as soon as you can. My mama always said that you have to eat a good peach standing over the kitchen sink. A little footnote to peach things: Frog Hollow Farm is going to be the site for an Outstanding in the Field farm dinner in a couple of weeks, and the special guest is Alice Waters. (I'm the web designer for Outstanding in the Field, a complete newbie to the fabulousness that is eGullet, and am drooling my way through thread after thread today—my first day of posting, though I joined up in June.) This is a wonderful forum. I'm so glad I found you.

I ain't stupid. Just call me Tana Magnani. Ciao!

I ain't stupid. Just call me Tana Magnani. Ciao!

Thank you for the welcome, Varmint. I am the photographer, and if you like food porn, you might get very, um, excited—if you know what I mean and I think you do. Happy Boy Farm Dinner & Tour, Hollister, California The calamari with grilled corn salad was one of the best things I have eaten in my life. I'm drooling just looking at it. (The images are too big to post, dimension wide. I don't want to break the page.) Edit: I just remembered something hilarious from the dinner. I was ogling the tomatoes (the heirlooms, not da women, jeez, youse guys) and called it all "food porn" as I snapped pictures. The young man chopping the little cherry tomatoes said, "If that's food porn, this is kiddie porn." I love my job.

I know it's too late, but my favorite website on earth for finding hotels is this: ItalyGo.com They also have pages devoted to Florence, Rome, Paris, the Riviera, Tuscany, Amsterdam and Venice. Exhaustive photography and details, and the site design itself is so beautiful and navigable. For next time! Ciao for now.