bloviatrix

Perez-Reverte is one of my favorite writers. I always get excited when I hear of someone else reading him. What ever you do, stay away from the movie The Ninth Gate which is based on The Club Dumas. They butchered an excellent novel.

Over the weekend, I hosted a birthday meal for one of my friends, so I made some of her favorite foods. The menu: White Gazpacho Poached Salmon Tomato Tart with Basil-Garlic Crust Corn Salad New Potato Salad w/Basil Mayonnaise Ricotta Custard Blackberry Sorbet One of our guests was a 20 month old. You should have seen her devour the tart. She grabbed it with both hands, thrust it - crust first - into her mouth and inhaled it. Once she finished the first piece, she grabbed her mother's piece. The best part of the meal - the leftovers. Lunch today was salmon w/basil mayonnaise.

"All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal or fattening." -- Alexander Woollcott "When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas." -- Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

The lack of chill for my base was the first thing I considered. But I tend to chill it overnight before churning. Thanks for the thought.

I was there a couple of weeks ago. I tasted the lemon, but went for the coffee collapse and vanilla. The whole place is kind of wild. The front window of the shop is shaped to look like a grain of rice and they carry the shape throughout. I also thought the packaging was impressive. As for the product -- I liked the texture. The coffee with ok, but I couldn't discern any cardammom. I really liked the vanilla. I found the lemon was intensely flavored. I would go back and try other flavors. We were in the store for about 20 minutes and the traffic was steady. They seem to have found a market for the product.

During the summer I make herbed iced teas. I don't use specific quantities - just eyeball it based on the pot I'm using. I make a sugar syrup. In another pot I boil up water. Then add 4 or 5 tea bags and a bunch of mint/lemon basil/whatever smelled good at the greenmarket and steep for 7 or 8 minutes. Then I combine the tea and syrup in a container along with the herbs and add some additional water and chill in the fridge. I like the tea with a hint of sweetness but not overwhelmingly sweet.

I read Prague back in the fall. I found it quite good. For those of you who read Bourdain's Bobby Gold and liked it - you should try Gone Bamboo. It's pretty wacky. Right now, food-related -- I'm going through the Greens Cookbook. I finally picked it up after years of thinking about it. Non food - Sunday Jews by Hortense Callisher.

I was introduced to the wonders of Silpat at a class given by Francois Payard about 7 years ago. He made the most intricately designed cookies using tuile batter and assorted painter's tools. Ever since that, I use both Silpat and parchment paper (it depends on the width of my pan) and haven't found a difference with either. You can find real Silpat at Marshalls -- my monther-in-law bought 4 of them thinking they were interesting looking place mats (she doesn't bake). I was the beneficiary.

I've been having the fat issue as well and the recipe I use has 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1 1/2 cups milk plus 5 yolks. the suggestion I keep getting is that I'm overchurning my ice cream. I haven't tried it yet, but maybe that will get rid of your problem.

Same here. It never occurred to me that I ate "funny."

Hi! Newbie here. How about a mesclun salad with pistachios, kumquats, papaya, with a citrus vinagrette? I had this at Greens last year and have recreated it at home numerous times since. Additionally, if you have access the the Francois Payard cookbook, he has a delicious recipe for pistachio-almond biscotti.