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Hi Emily, The gingerbread biscotti recipe is here on the FC website: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/gingerbread-biscotti.aspx It looks like it is available without a subscription, let me know if not. Cheers, Jen Edited to add: The recipe is also here: http://www.grouprecipes.com/81243/gingerbread-biscotti.html

This year my artisanal present package was gingerbread biscotti and assorted caramels (fleur de sel, tangerine-almond, and honey pecan). Last year I did crab-apple butter, but I think many of the recipients were scared of home-canned goods. This is my guess-- last year I heard a lot of comments about the caramels, but nothing about the jam. Also I'm tired of never getting my jam jars back. Jen P.S. the caramels and biscotti are both Fine Cooking recipes.

We were just out East for a couple of weeks. Having heard that Jae's was no longer "all that", we headed to a childhood favorite, Pedrin's, on Route 8 in North Adams, just south of the Toyota dealership. As the sign said, it is home of the "Fish Fry" and said fry did not disappoint: I took a bite off the left side of this one, before I remembered to take a picture! This was a good hunk of fish with thin, non-greasy breading. My husband had the chili dog: My daughter enjoyed her fish fry and ice cream for dessert. She declared it her "favorite restaurant". Pedrins has multicolored picnic tables for outdoor seating, with some tables under a roof in case it rains. Just bring your bug spray-- it is near some swamps and the mosquitoes really come out to feast after the sun sets. Cheers, Jen

I made the lemon cheesecake squares from FC 86 and they are great. Lemon Square recipe I don't usually go for cheesecake, but the lemon adds some excellent zing-- these are very lemony. The recipe has a graham cracker crust, a layer of very lemony cheesecake, and a topping of lemon curd. The bars look HUGE in this close-up, but they are only about 4 cm on an edge. Here they are in less extreme closeup: My parents have a source for free-range eggs with very orange yolks, which gave a fabulous color to the lemon curd: Another wonderful recipe from FC. Jen edited to add and fix recipe link.

Thank you for this great topic-- I am definitely planning to make some mustard. For now, I had a bee in my bonnet to make ketchup. I used the David Page and Barbara Shin recipe from "Recipes from Home"; this recipe was also published in Fine Cooking volume 16, and is available in PDF format if you subscribe to the website. This recipe is amazing-- the spice list is longer than your average curry. It starts with charred onions, which my husband did on the grill: Here is the mise en place: And a closeup on the spices, with a brown sugar castle in the middle. The ketchup thickened readily, so I only simmered it for 2 hours instead of three. Holy cats, but this stuff splatters-- I think it could be used to train volcanologists in working with magma. The ketchup is deliciously spicy, but a little harsh-- I suspect that, like pickles, the flavors will blend and mellow over time. Here is one of my little beauties: I only made a half-recipe, which yielded seven half-pints. We are making hamburgers this weekend with oven-roasted potatoes. I can't wait. Jen

Does anyone else find that the pan makes a big difference? I have a matte black enameled cast iron Le Creuset gratin pan that I use for oven fries-- it gives the best crust. I use small red potatoes, so my oven fries are usually chunks rather than planks. Toss with olive oil and kosher salt, roast at about 375. Great topic-- I have my mise en place ready for home-made ketchup for tomorrow AM, so this is great inspiration for something to eat with the ketchup. Jen

I'm sorry I didn't see this in advance either-- I do a lot of teaching and I recommend a demonstration-- a quick cupcake decorating, or better yet carmelizing some creme brulee-- nothing gets their attention like FIRE. It should be something you can do quickly and deftly. You did a great thing talking to the students-- I wish someone had given me the reality talk about science before I got into it! Jen

Fine Cooking had an excellent article in Issue #29 about make-ahead muffin batters. The article is written by someone at a bakery-- sounds like they worked through some similar issues. http://www.finecooking.com/articles/how-to...in-batters.aspx I'm not sure if this is free content, let me know if you have trouble getting it. Jen

Following up on our very successful bacon tasting (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=82167), we had a chocolate tasting last Valentine's day. We did ours double-blind, with the chocolate chopped and any identifying markings obscured. Here are the chocolates for tasting (with a plate of bacon for "clearing the palate" ): Here are the chocolates that were represented. The unlabeled block at top right is Callebaut. Almost all of the chocolates were dark, of varying percentages-- the one exception was the Vosges bacon bar, which was milk chocolate based. That threw many people-- they only figured out what it was because we had warned the vegetarian not to eat it. It was really good-- kind of like a Nestle Crunch bar, but with bacon. May of the stronger chocolates did not fare well in this tasting, especially the Lindt and Scharffen Berger. The winner-- that is the favorite of most people (as well as my personal favorite)-- was the E. Wedel Bitter Chocolate. The bar is at the bottom right of the top picture, with a blue and brown wrapper. Wedel is a Polish company and I think it is owned by Cadbury. Here in Chicago, you can find the bars at most Polish grocery stores. Cheers, Jen

Hello Maggie! Hang in there and good luck. One suggestion is that if you are buying meat, select types that pack a big punch of flavor for the lowest cost. You and I are lucky in Chicago to have access to really good Polish sausage-- a very small hunk of quality "Wedding Sausage" (Kielbasa Wedjnya, maybe misspelled) will provide a lot of flavor. My father-in-law told me to go into the sausage shop and just ask for the most smoky garlic-laden sausage they had-- that has worked well for me. On other boards, I have seen some discussion of coupon-cutting, combined with in-store sales and double coupon promotions. However, I find that most coupons I see are for heavily processed junk-- rare are the coupons for actual food, so I prefer to do the Michael Pollan thing and buy ingredients. Are you a writer? It seems you might be able to parlay this experience into something like a field guide to eating on the cheap in Chicago. Just a thought... Best wishes and thanks for starting this topic-- it is quite useful! Cheers, Jen

I really love that my digital oven controls are placed so that I have to reach over my (likely hot) burners to reach them. Also, digital controls give such a lovely illusion of precision! Dougal is also completely right about excessive features-- people seem to like to buy products with more features even if the features are useless, or worse. Jen

That is exactly what I was going to suggest-- Martha has some good directions for these: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/house...es&rsc=header_2 Too bad about no dairy, because making fast mozzarella or butter in a blender would be a great demo. Another possibility might be making a batch of bread dough and having the kids make turtle-shaped rolls. Here is a reference for the shaping, but you could use any other bread dough as their dough uses peanut butter: http://www.grouprecipes.com/76978/turtle-rolls.html Good luck and let us know how it works out! Jen

I recommend "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker" by Beth Hensperger-- excellent recipes for soups, stews, and even desserts-- the chocolate hot fudge cake is really good. Cheers, Jen

The Spaghetti alla Carbonara from From Fine Cooking 92, pp. 57 is excellent. I had never had nor made carbonara before-- it is pasta in a sauce made from egg and cheese, plus it has bacon, or similar pork product. It is very flavorful and rich, plus the directions in the recipe make it very easy-- and easy to avoid the pitfall of accidentally making scrambled eggs! I wish I had photos, but the ravenous hordes devoured the spaghetti before I could get my camera!

We had a very good meal at Jae's Inn, a Korean restaurant located in a spa on State Street in North Adams (http://www.jaesinn.com/?page=Locations) The eponymous Jae runs several restaurants in the Boston area and also has opened a restaurant in Pittsfield (Jae's Spice). Jae's Inn has a good selection of Korean dishes, with the usual pan-Asian mix added (pad thai, sushi, etc). We sampled from across the menu and found the dishes very tasty and the service quite friendly. The sushi was fresh and well-prepared. Kimchi Soup. My husband found this just spicy enough and he prefers his food HOT. Beef Bibimbap. This came in a sizzling hot stone bowl and formed a great crust on the bottom. Also, we were with two small children and the restaurant was very kid-friendly, with the best kiddie meal I have ever seen. Most kiddie meals are a pile of fried crap, but this one had a lovely mix, including fruit, veg, and noodles, with a bit of ketchup in the middle for dipping! The only thing my daughter didn't devour was the broccoli. Also, the presentation is great-- everything is separate and the box is like a little present itself. Kiddie Meal In summary, whilst it may not have the authenticity of restaurants in a big-city Koreatown (we are from Chicago), Jae's provides a very good meal with very friendly service. Cheers, Jen

Here are a two of my favorite sausage shops: Kurowski's Sausage Shop 2976 N Milwaukee Ave (between Central Park Ave & Monticello Ave) Chicago, IL 60618 Forest View Deli 6452 N Milwaukee Avenue Chicago, IL 60631 (773) 775-3088 Go to either one, and you will get a great kielbasa. If you don't speak Polish, be prepared to point and smile. Ask your friend how much garlic she wants-- we like the very garlicy Kielbasa Weselna (Wedding sausage). You might want to bring some sealable bags-- these sausages are quite fragrant. Forest View is just a little ways up Milwaukee from Superdawg, so it is a good destination. If you end up at Kurowski's, check out the selection of Polish chocolates. Also a bit north on Milwaukee Ave is the Red Apple (the name is in Polish, but look for the gigantic apple on the sign), which is a good cheap Polish buffet. Cheers, Jen

I've never seen duck fat at a Costco in Chicago, but it might be out there. Instead, just get your duck fat fries at Hot Doug's! Or you can ask him where he gets the duck fat-- he is a friendly enough guy. Cheers, Jen P.S. http://hotdougs.com/

I just made very good ice cream sandwiches using a Fine Cooking recipe. Here is the link, but you have to subscribe to the website to get access to the recipe, sorry. http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/recipes...sandwiches.aspx In this case, the cookie is more like a soft, thin brownie-- it may not be what you're looking for. However, it made a great ice cream sandwich and stayed tender and toothsome in the freezer-- my only regret is that I did not have coffee ice cream to put in the sandwich. Cheers, Jen

One thing I find disturbing about my reduction in the ability to sense smells is that it makes it harder to judge when food is 'off'. I was about to cook some salmon last week when my husband came in and said 'what stinks???'. Could be dangerous! Jen

Isn't the mechanism of popping (as opposed to puffing) dependent on having an intact seed coat? Baggy, is puffing satisfactory, or is popping what you were looking for? Cheers, Jen

Thanks! Those recommendations sound good, especially the cajun place. He may check out the bbq place too-- after all, BBQ that's not so good by Texas standards may be quite acceptable for a Chicago boy! Cheers, Jen

Hello all-- I did some searching before posting, but I didn't find anything. My husband is on a business trip to a manufacturing plant in Allen, which is near Dallas. Any recommendations you can provide for good food, especially BBQ, would be most appreciated. Please help-- the guys he was travelling with made him eat at TGIFridays tonight! Cheers, Jen

We made the Honey-Cardamom Cutouts from Fine Cooking. These were the most flavorful cutouts I've ever made-- the honey and spice made for a very tasty cookie. The black frosting was my daughter's idea-- because what says Christmas more than black cookies?

My rice cooker has both a timer and a porridge setting-- perfect for steel-cut oats ready first thing in the AM. If I forget to use the porridge setting it will boil over, though. We eat them with milk and brown sugar, although the egg and fish sauce version sounds yummy. Jen

Just FYI for those of you cooking in quantity, The Best Make-Ahead Recipe (The Best Recipe) by Cook's Illustrated Magazine has a section of stew and braise recipes with scaled-up quantities to serve 20. Cheers, Jen