bloviatrix

The Chestnutter is a brilliant idea! I'm thinking I need to pay a visit to Zabar's. Of course, this morning when I showed it to Blovie, my ever practical husband wanted to know how one keeps the blades sharp.

I don't allow PF cookies into the house because I have absolutely no self control when they're around. Chessmen are my favorite and the Sausalito's are the best of the chocolate chip cookie category.

You know, I always wonder where seltzer fits into this spectrum. One one hand it is a form of soda. On the other hand, all it contains is water and CO2 and nothing else.

One more for me -- Foods of India (from the Time Life series) in its original slipcover.

Last night I went through Gil Mark's World of Jewish Baking. He features all sorts of traditional deep-fried pastries for Chanukah as well as sufganiyot. I want to make one of everything.

Now it's true that many would say that Manhattan is not truly the US, but Fairway carries cooked beets imported from France.

But Jason, that would mean he would have to take time away from eG.

I can't wait to try some of these ideas. Keep 'em coming.

Cold soups: Sweet Corn and Potato Vichysoisse, Borscht - the usual w/potato and dill or my "new wave" with apple and ginger, Green Gazpacho, Chilled Curried Yellow Squash with Cilantro oil Hot soups: my freezer currently has frozen quarts of Celeriac-Pear, curried coconut squash, split pea, plus cubes of chicken stock and veal stock. I also have several bags of mushroom stems waiting to be turned into mushroom stock for mushroom-barley soup. I love soup. I make at least one pot a week from October - April. We eat some and freeze the rest so I can "go shopping" in my freezer.

So it seems. We recently received a postcard promoting the show. I read that piece too. I believe it was in the Nov. issue of Conde Nast Traveler. He went with Colin Cowie, who annoys me to no end, Ming Tsai and Geoffery Zakarian, chef at Town in NYC.

Considering that the turkey leg is quite large, should I shred some of the meat off or just throw the whole thing in?

Chabad is known for their "oversized" menorahs. They light a massive one every year in Grand Army Plaza (in front on The Plaza Hotel) in Manhattan, and they also have a huge one they light in Red Square, Moscow. They need to use a cherry picker to light them.

In Al Dente's Kosher Kollard Green thread, he asked what would be a good substitute for ham hocks and the solution was to use a smoked turkey leg. Since I keep kosher, I always skipped the recipes that called for ham hocks, so you can imagine that I'm very excited because this substitution expands my repetoire. I've got the smoked turkey leg, what else can I make?

Since I was curious about cranberry pies, I pulled out Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts. According to him, cranberries were frequently combined with sweet apples in a pie to lend color and tartness. Also provided is a recipe for Cape Cod Cranberry "Linzer" Pie Makes one 9 or 9 1/2 inch pie Basic Pie Dough recipe for 2 crust pie 1 orange 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 cups (7-8 ounces) fresh or frozen cranberries 1 1/2-2 sweet apples (golden delicious) or pears (anjou or bosc), peeled and cored into 1/2-inch dice (about 1 1/2 cups) 1 tablespoon minced crystallized ginger 1/4 c golden raisins Milk and cinnamon sugar, for glaze Preheat oven to 375F 1) Divide dough in 2, line pie plate with one piece and prepare top with other. Chill doughs while working on filling. 2) Zest orange, squeeze juice from orange. In food processor combine zest and 1/2 cup sugar until zest is finely chopped. Add 1 cup of cranberries and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer zest-cranberry-sugar mixture to bowl and combine with remaining cranberries, sugar, orange juice, apples/pears, ginger and raisins. 3) Brush edges of bottom crust lightly with cold water. Pour filling into crust. Create strips from top crust to create lattice and top pie. Brush lattice with milk and sprinke with cinnamon sugar. 4) bake until pastry is golden and filling is bubbling - about 1 hour. Serve warm or room temp. As a sidebar, Sax also mentions working in a kitchen in France where the PC made a tart with a frangipane base, then a layer of cooked cranberries which were then brushed with a red current glaze.

Jason's review of The Pasta Factory is now online. Read it here.

In my neverending quest to get through my pile of incoming periodicals, I came across an interesting article about the different companies producing wine glasses. Crystal, Made Clear Among the glasses they examine are Reidel, Spielelau, Baccarat, and William Yeoward - new American glass maker.

It sounds as if you had a fabulous meal. Despite all the turkey issues, your presentation is stunning.

Since returning to the States, I've become quite close with someone who will be observing Hanukah. I'd very much like to make her some of Michelle's (Martha's) Sufganiyot, do you think it will be an appropriate food gift to bring over? Are there any preparation restrictions that I should be aware of? ← Just find out if she allows food prepared in a non-kosher kitchen into her home. If she does, then I can't imagine there will be problems.

I absolutely adore bulgur. It's one of my all-time favorite grains (I won't admit to how many of pounds of it we have in the pantry). Coincidentally, the recipe comes from one of the books I requested for Chanukah.

Store bought ones in the States are definitely not the same as they are here. The closest ones are Krispy Kreme doughnuts, but I think they are too sweet. ← The ones I dream about were purchased from the little stands that popped up on Ben-Yehudah for the 8 days of Chanukah. They were fried in front of your eyes and filled with your choice caramel or raspberry jam then rolled in powdered sugar. Eaten warm, they were outstanding.

Do you have the Silver Palate Cookbook? Otherwise, PM me your email address and I'll scan it and send you the file.

I actually took some photos last week as I was preparing to host dinner for 8. Here they are: A blurry photo of the table (I need to work on my photo editing skills). Mmm, roasted vegetables. This was a melange of carrots, parsnips, turnip, and 2 colors of beets with a bit of fresh thyme. In the little bowl are the toasted squash seeds which were used to garnish the soup. The big bowl is the orzo with sauteed mushrooms and onions. Curried Coconut Squash Soup. I always make one experiment when I host. Chicken Marbella. This was 3 chickens totalling close to 13 pounds.

Melt: Say Cheese and Smile

Our annual family Chanukah chaggigah (party) has been cancelled so I'm trying to decide what to do this year. I'm toying with inviting my brother and his family over for latkes one evening. And maybe having friends over on another night. I'm also trying to decide whether I'll attempt to make my own sufganiyot this year. I think the sufganiyot I ate in Israel are my madeline and store bought ones just don't capture the memories. Of course, I already know that Blovie will tell me not to bother. In the meantime, the menorah needs to be polished. And I need to pick up a box of wicks. Plus, I'm waiting for Blovie's wish list because I haven't bought any gifts yet.

Like Mom's, Only Better But my initial thought was some sort of riff off of Modern English's Melt With You.