Stone

Here's what I did: Large bunch of mixed greens; dried cranberries; toasted coconut (couldn't find shelled pistachios); quarters of ruby grapefruit (they were sitting around). It was supposed to have "and two types of blue chees" added because I had two hunks o' cheese sitting in the fridge for weeks, but I forgot. For the dressing -- about a tsp of red onion and 1/2 tsp of Guldens (didn't have Dijon handy) mustard in my little braun hand blender processor. Added "balsamic", s&p, worcestershestershire, dash of garlic powder (it was sitting right there), copious fresh lemon juice and evoo. Blurped it up real good. It all got ate. I remember at college some woman came back from the salad bar, I looked at the huge pile of cheese, sunflower seeds, garbanzos, russian dressing etc., and said, "with all that suff on there, you could have a cheeseburger and actually enjoy your lunch." Needless to say, no nookie for Dave that night.

I did a roux with butter and flour. Cooked it a bit. Added about a cup of turkey drippings, salt and pepper, and a few dashes of worcestershestershire shauce. A can of chicken stock. It's quite good. thanks all.

Re giblets: I'm afeared that I will find them when I look into the cavities.

I've got some flour, turkey drippings and chicken stock. That's about it. How do I turn this into gravy? Make a roux, pour in some drippings, add stock?

Boulevard is good, but not casual by SF standards. Ozumi, down the block from Blvd, is supposed to have excellent Japanese food. LuLus does a good pork loin (if I remember correctly).

My drink is empty.

I find this to be a great basic technique to experiment with different tastes and ingredients. Try deglazing with different wines -- marsala, madiera, port. Toss in different veggies -- zucchini is one of my favorites; or just sweat some spinach in it at the end. Try a pat or two of butter.

Cooks Illustrated did a piece on the perfect picatta. What I recall is that they said not to skimp on the lemon and capers. I've found that keeping a jar of capers in the fridge is very handy. When I get bored making the same oil & garlic based sauces, I toss in a teaspoon of capers. It's a great change.

This is a bit off-topic -- But isn't Carmines and Virgils owned by the same group that owns EJs and Ollies?

FG -- I know you go crazy for hand carving. But if the slicer is set for thicker slices, is there a difference? Does the pressure of the knife do anything for the texture of the meat?

I'm supposed to make a "healthy salad" for pre-yom kippur dinner tomorrow. I understand the request meant healthy in the "promoting good health" sense, as opposed to "copious and large". I assume the easiest thing to do is to get a few bags of mixed greens from the local market. Does anyone have any better ideas? Ideas for a good dressing would also be appreciated.

Do you have a meat grinder, or is a food processor sufficient?

Is there a trick to grinding beans for a French Press in a spice grinder? The machine warns not to grind too small. How much should I worry about that?

They don't seem that cheap.

Looks like a regular Internet error message to me. If you think that's cute, you should get a look at the Error 404 message.

Another coffee site.

Thats pertty interesting that you say that. I had a heated argument on Chowhound a few years ago with many San Franciscans who claim Chinese food superiority in every way to New York. Of course, I told them they were full of shit, but they didn't want to hear it. :) The shitty dearth situation may be overstated. Of course, there's always the San Gabriel Valley in SoCal for mucho Chinese. There's a lot of great Asian food to be had down south. There's also a lot of great food out in the Avenues. The Cantonese/Mandarin v. Hunan/Sichuan debate will rage long after we're gone. The CM crowd will probably never accept that they're wrong.

These Hario things are pretty cool. But I see broken glass everywhere. It seems that the biggest vacuum brewer is one quart (32 oz). Does anyone have one of these? If you're making coffee for four people, I'd think you'd have to do the process twice. Does it cool down fast enough for that?

There are a few Henry's: Downtown. Soma. Downtown (close to Transamerica Bldg.) I agree that the dearth of Szechwan/Hunan is the primary cause of the shitty Chinese food to be had in this city.

My Chinese friend (Cantonese) criticizes Schezwan and Hunan for being generally too greasy. I explain that this is where the flavor comes from. But there has to be some limits? No? I'll give Brandy Ho's another shot. Best Chinese food in the near-Bay area, however, is Shen Hua, on College Avenue in Berkeley. (Of course, there's a whole lot I haven't tried.) Erich's (and the copy-cat Alices) in Noe are very good. Eliza's is incredibly overrated.

Henry's Hunan. I only went to Brandy Ho's once and had take out once. Both were much too greasy, along with my other usual complaints about SF chinese food (gloppy, overly-soyed brown sauces, over cooked vegetables, greyish chicken with visible gristle).

I had a butcher block island that I tried to seal with a lemon oil (recommended by Restoration Hardware). The first time I sliced a bunch of lemons for margaritas I got ugly black stains.

I would avoid Brandy Ho's (Sorry Jason). I second Pane e Vino. It's a small very unassuming place in the Marina that serves great food. Here's a short list of some of my favorites: Sunflower (See my other thread on this) -- probably more casual than you want. Plouf -- In Beldon Alley (A little hard to find, between Bush and Pine/Kearny?) -- best mussels you'll find in SF. The other seafood is also great (but I recently had a slightly overcooked halibut). And the prettiest Tunisian waitress you'll every see. (sigh.) Russian Hill Area: Baldoria (Northern Italian, specializes in game); Antica Tratoria; I Frascati; Zarzuela (Spanish/Tapas); Luna Rossa (simple, excellent) Hayes Valley -- Suppenkuche (German beer hall, great food); Absinthe Hawthorne Lane is great, but I've only been there for lunch. Aqua is excellent. (But in SF, these aren't considered casual. They're pretty high end.) One more edit -- The Helmand. It's an Afghan restaurant in North Beach (on Broadway, about a block below Columbus, on the left) -- the food is absolutely amazing. Not surprisingly, the food is midway between middle east grilled meats and Moghul curries. Try anything with Kadoo (pumpkin) and the chicken curry is spectacular.

There was a coffee thread a while back in which people seemed to agree that freezing whole beans doesn't retain freshness. (There are too many coffee threads for me to search.) FG -- Do you use a French Press? I do grind my own beans (One grinder for coffee, one for spices). Do I grind extra fine for the press? By the way, Scientific American recently had a great article, "The Complexity of Coffee." It explained what was going on when making a cup of espresso, the proper desired pressure, the different chemicals are formed during the process, and crema. (I can't find a link.)

I definitely can't let my nieces and nephews see this site.