bloviatrix

There are times when I come across a recipe and feel a need to replicate it. But, ultimately, if you rely on recipes constantly, you begin to feel hamstrung -- if you can't find a specific ingredient, you're stuck. That's why technique is so important. You know what cooking methods best suit your ingredients and you can create something based on what's on hand. It frees you.

Last night/shabbat dinner was: Mushroom-Barley Soup Chicken slathered in dijon mustard, dredged in seasoned bread crumbs and baked Kasha Varniskes Sauted Green Beans with garlic and toasted sesame oil Red Grapes Cotes du Rhone to drink Today, shabbat lunch for 3 was a hearty meal for freezing weather: Spinach salad with a tomato vinagrette Short-Ribs braised in an ancho chili coffee sauce Kasha Varniskes Savory Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Mousse Alfasi Valle de Maule Merlot '01 (Chile)

I just made some chocolate mousse for tonight. Mmmm. Chocolate.

Cucumbers

I've been using an OXO for years. Never had a problem with it.

Growing up I hated borscht. I loved the pretty magenta color and the pink it turned once the sour cream was added. But I thought it tasted nasty. Fast forward to the year 2000, I'm in London and the restaurant we were eating in served a beet salad. I tasted the beets and lo and behold - I liked them. So, I decided to add beets to my diet. And that led to my deciding to try assorted beet based recipes. This meant borscht. And I liked it.

I think you would regret not having a self cleaning oven - unless you LOVE cleaning I wouldn't even consider it an option. We currently have a non-self cleaning oven. It's a living hell. It takes the better part of a day to clean. And Blovie has burned himself using the chemicals. Oh, and the chemicals stained some tiles by the stove. I can't emphasize this enough....Get thee a self-cleaning oven!

You truly are a brave man. I did that on NYE 2000. I still haven't recovered.

Where? Price? I live in NYC, but I will travel to pick it up, Lagavullin is my favourite. Please help me out on this one, never even heard of it before. Try Park Ave. Liquors on Madison between 40th and 41st. They have an unbelievable single malt selection.

Blovie and I went out to dinner tonight. I had orange infused beignets (3), banana and pineapple fritters (2 of each) with pineapple sorbet. The plate was dressed with raspberry, strawberry and kiwi sauce. It was yummy. Blovie had a molten chocolate cake. He ate it too quickly for me to sample.

I'm not sure if my schedule next week allows me time to bake. Would it acceptable if I made sorbet?

In the '70s my mom decided to eliminate salt from cooking as well. Even though no one had high pressure, she figured she was taking "preventative" measures. Sometime in the '80s she decided to minimize the number of egg yolks to reduce cholesterol - despite no one having a cholesterol problem. Her noodle kugels stopped binding. And the textures of cakes were off.

Oh man, Holly. You've just reminded me of a place I had completely forgotten about. Those guys were masters of the deep fryer.

My mother makes a fricasse once a year for the pre-Yom Kippur meal. I hate it. Everything has an unappealing gray color. She doesn't use any seasoning. Yuck. I stopped eating it well over 20 years ago, and I still cringe.

It was so cold yesterday that I made a big pot of soup in order to warm the apartment up. For dinner we had Black bean soup with pieces of lamb sausage Baked lemon sole I sliced the tip of thumb chopping the onion so I had Blovie finish the mis -- what a sweetie.

Since you stay away from caffeine, try the Celestial Seasoning Bengal Spice. It has black pepper in it which will make you warm, plus cinnamon, cardamon, and vanilla. It's a very good winter tea.

Oops. Double-posted.

Actually, poultry was originally in the same category as fish. However, at some point, the Rabbis decided to move it over to the same category as meat in order to minimize confusion. In Judaism, there is a tradition of precendence, hence once something is decided, you can't go back.

Mark, this is conundrum that my dear husband reminds of on those now rare occasions when I now dine out. And it's a problem many orthodox jews deal with if they need to entertain for business (Kosher restaurants are not always an option, even in a city like NY). And this is where the years of going to yeshiva and learning the laws of kashrut come into play. It is called manipulating the laws to your benefit.

Iggy Pop...dog food

So, you think a picture of Elyse will be going up in every venue that serves a burger in NY? Maybe she needs to start wearing a disguise?

Guys, if you change your posts per page to 80 it becomes a "managable" 19 pages.

Stay away from the Coffee Rich. That stuff is evil!! Plus, it's full of chemicals. Use soy milk - it much more neutral tasting. Or, make it with a vegetable stock and use cream.

We call it flexi-dox. Seriously, I am what would be called modern orthodox. I don't cover my hair, I wear pants. And I will eat out. I am extremely machmir, strict, at home. But I've made certain choices regarding food based on up-bringing (the community standard has gotten stricter over the years) and because of professional need. I have many friends who won't eat out. Blovie will only do so if we're travelling and there are no kosher restaurants to dine in. You don't know the people I do. There are a lot of people like me. We spend hours on end talking about food,dining, and wine/scotch. I am not unique in my interests -- and if I'm an iconoclast, it's not because of my interest in food.