bloviatrix

Friday night was a chicken rubbed with a mixture of cumin, cardamon, turmeric, s & p, browned and then braised in a very garlicy tomato sauce with roasted cauliflower and steamed green beans. Whole wheat challah. Strawberry soup for dessert Chenin Blanc to drink. Our big meal on saturday is lunch. We started with sauteed mushrooms on a bed of arugala. Then we moved on to poached salmon with a cabbage slaw dressed in homemade lemon mayonaisse. Blovie had roasted asparagus as well. Mini challah rolls on the side. We finished with some more of the strawberry soup. Seltzer for drinks

Here's the place in LA The Cook's Library 8373 W. Third Street Los Angeles, California 90048 Tel: (323) 655-3141 www.cookslibrary.com

Blovie loves that stuff. He also goes through the ritual of heating up the milk and adding the syrup. And here I thought it was another one of his strange eating habits.

Oh man, I haven't had those in over a dozen years. I loved those things as a kid.

Thanks for a great week Lucy. I've enjoyed it immensely.

Chilled melon soup w/mint that I picked up at the market (it was actually pretty good -- I bet it would be very refreshing on a hot day), pan-roasted salmon smothered in some leftover charmoula and macaroni (I had some marinara on mine, blovie went with evoo). Macon-Perrone to drink.

Considering The Restaurant is a Mark Burnett show, how's this for synergy....on the second season of The Apprentice one of the tasks will be to figure out how to improve revenues at Rocco's.

Re Drew, the intern: You know when someone says "they're all about respect" it means trouble.

I gave in to temptation and watched tonight. It was actually pretty compelling stuff. Plus, no in-your-face product placements. What a pleasure.

Borscht has already been suggested, but I'm going to mention it again. I started making it last spring and it's really good. Another thought is to double roast them. This means go through the normal roasting and slip off the skins. Then dice them up and put them back in the oven. You can even throw some balsamic vinegar on the them after about 10 minutes, and roast some more.

Food Emporium has a second house brand called Master Choice which is pretty good as well. I just want to highlight a point made by Suzanne. Get yourself a shopping cart (aka "the bubbe cart). Yeah, they look dorky. But they really come in handy. They are the most practical way of schlepping home your groceries. I don't know how I would survive without mine.

Katie, thanks once again for a superb sig line! Shouldn't I begin to pay you royalties for this intellectual property you're giving away free??? Now I can see why they don't call you Levitra Loeb for nothing!! Must stop laughing.....belly hurts.

I believe my mil uses seltzer in her matzo ball recipe and hers are quite good (although they look more like croquettes).

OMG, that is where Gryphon used to be! When I lived at 90th & Columbus I used to wallow in that place at least once a week. It's not the same owners now, is it? Last I heard Gryphon had moved around the corner, and then I think eventually they folded, more's the pity. Didn't know there was a bookstore in the space again - oh dear, now it's your turn to be a bad influence, I may just have to make a pilgrimage back to that old haunt. Do they still have two levels? It's exactly as you describe it. Floor to ceiling shelves stocked with books on two levels. The cookbooks are in the back. I assume there's new ownership.

You should pick up The Tale of Murasaki by Liz Dalby. It's a novel about the woman who wrote the Tale of Genji. I read it a couple of years ago and couldn't put it down.

Cool! If you were expecting me to be bowed down with remorse, expect again. Nothing is more satisfying than wickedly influencing people into doing what they want to do anyway. Especially when it's acquiring more delicious juicy books! (And wasn't the store wonderful? Didn't you just love the smell of it? Didn't you just want to inhale the whole inventory? Oooh - you're in NY aren't you? So... which store?) I love all bookstores and libraries -- I can spend my days getting lost in them. I'm totally with you on the smell. I find it very comforting. The store I found the book in is called Westsider Rare & Used Books on Broadway btw 80th and 81st. I think it used to be called Gryphon. I walked by this store thousands of times over the years and somehow avoided it until three weeks ago.

I will admit that I've never made matzo balls in my life. We basically only eat them on Passover, and since I always go away, I've never had the opportunity to try my hand at it. But, my requirements are that the matzo ball must be well flavored. And it must be big enough to last the entire bowl of soup -- I want some on every spoonful.

Thursday night dinner was flounder double coated in a cornmeal chili powder mixture with roasted cauliflower on the side. Baguette schmeared with butter as an accompaniment. Friday night was roasted sea bass coated with charmoula, cherry tomatoes roasted with chopped garlic and thyme, and bulgur pilaf. Macon Perrone "Les Plesirs" 2000 to drink.

So you picked it up too? That aftertaste was driving Blovie and me nuts. That brand is now on the forbidden list. I'm glad its not just me, I had some flu like illness for the last 3 days that I am just recovering from today, I poured all of it down the sink this morning, thinking that it might have been some food borne illness from bad Tree Ripe. But it probably was just the flu or some other short term virus, and Tree Ripe just plain sucks. Sorry to hear you've been under the weather. Tree Ripe isn't the only brand with an odd aftertaste. A number of brands have it. I find Florida's Natural OJ to have an off flavor so I only drink their grapefruit juice. As for blends, anyone remember Tropicana's Grapefruit Pineapple? That was the best.

The fruit you ask about are husk cherries. If you go back to Marlena Speiler's blog she mentions them but calls them by a different name.

So you picked it up too? That aftertaste was driving Blovie and me nuts. That brand is now on the forbidden list.

Yet another one for me -- The Jewish Creole Cookbook. I'm blaming this one on Balmagowry because she kept talking about the wonders of used books so I wandered into a second-hand bookstore and found it.

Granted, this is lame compared to Toasted's cat (which is a totally classic story) but I'll try..... We were hosting dinner for 8 friends. The food was good, the wine was flowing, and everyone was enjoying themselves, when who should decided to join in on the fun but the little gray mouse who had been living behind our stove and making my life hell. Fortunately, his appearance was brief and only those with a view into the kitchen caught a glimpse.

You're just milking this sprain, aren't you? I bet you won't have to wash up after dinner, either.

Well, I finally figured out why it's been damned near impossible to find kosher l'pesach Coke Classic the past 2 years. Passover Produces a Real Coke Classic.