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YES!! I love the oatmeal shake! I thought I was the only one drinking those. I've been to Irazu a couple of times and not had anything bad. Also, on topic-- doing two high-end places in such a short span might be just too much food, yanno? I know Tru has a la carte options, but I don't remember that Trotter's does. I say go to Tru, get a glass of champagne, the caviar staircase, then skip to dessert. Of course, Hot Doug's is a Chicago original. http://www.hotdougs.com/specials.htm Have fun!

So much good advice! We used the food mill and ice cube method. La Martha does have good recipes; Super Baby Food was a bit too much for me. Pureed favorites: applesauce, butternut squash, carrots, beets, green beans, mango, split pea soup. Bananas and avocado just needed to be mashed. I still have cubes of applesauce and some of black bean soup for 'emergency' use. We tried some jarred baby food someone had given us (peas and carrots) and it was yucky. Kitchen shears make quick work of cutting toddler food into tiny pieces.

My favorite dark chocolate for eating straight is Czekolada Gorzka (Bitter Chocolate/Chocolate Amer) by the venerable Polish chocolate company E. Wedel. Wedel is now owned by Cadbury, but the chocolate is still outstanding. If you are lucky enough to live in an area with a large Polish community, give it a try-- a 3.5 oz bar is only 99 cents at my local grocery here in Chicago. There is another Polish manufacturer named Wavel-- they are acceptable, but Wedel is better.

I have an enameled cast iron Descoware gratin dish that I use for roasted veggies, especially potatoes and cauliflower. I also 'cast' my vote for cast iron, enameled or not. It makes an incomparable crust on potatoes and the like.

It looks like powdery mildew to me. Here's an informative article from Taunton's Fine Gardening about rosemary-- it says lack of air circulation on indoor plants can promote powdery mildew. http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00060.asp The article says to run a fan to discourage mildew. If you do that, trim off all the affected foliage as it's covered in spore packets and fanning will just encourage spread.

Um, funny you should mention that because my Aunt and I stopped there for lunch today and the cafe portion was closed for "renovations". The bakery portion was open, so we consoled ourselves with cakes and chatted up the lady behind the counter. She mentioned that the cafe would not be open for several months and would likely reopen with significant menu changes. Any of you connected Heartland folks know what's up with that?

I get your point that there is variablity among bacons, even within the same brand. Do you get my point that some sources of variability will produce greater effects than others? For example, there is plenty of variability in winemaking and you can easily get two bottles from the same 'brand' that taste quite different. But you can still tell a shiraz from a merlot. There are statistical tools to address this type of question and we will consider it specifically in the experimental design of our next bacon tasting. Can we declare this horse dead?

Thanks for all the comments! The tasting was single-blind; only the cook knew what each bacon was. I'm not sure about the provenance of the Tocino's Mexican bacon, but the labeling said "Mexicano de Corazon" over a Mexican flag. M. noticed the slice thickness varied significantly in this sample. Even though there was garlic on the label, we didn't notice any taste of garlic and I forgot to check the ingredients. As for reproducibilty, there are definitely sources of variability, but I would argue that the variation between bacon brands is greater than the variability introduced by cooking, except for the store brands. With more carefully controlled cooking, we might be able to separate the store brands. We used thick-cut bacon for all the samples, although some came as slabs and had to be hand-sliced. Here is the Hungarian again: I think the two biggest sources of variability were the marked preference three of the tasters already had for Nueske's and the amount of alcohol guzzled by the tasters. There was also order bias-- some of the later bacons may have been victims of tasters' bacon overload (or drunkness). That said, this ain't rocket science and I'm not planning to submit it to Science or Nature! Is there a journal of Bacon Studies?

Last Saturday, a group of intrepid friends gathered at our place to taste the following varieties of bacon: 1. Boczek Domowy (Polish Home-style Bacon); Andy's Deli, Chicago IL 2. Boczek Pieczony(Polish Smoked & Cooked Style); Andy's Deli, Chicago IL 3. Tocino Original Mexicano de Corazón; FUD 4. Kolozvári (Hungarian Smoked Bacon); Bende & Son Salami Co. Inc. Vernon Hills, Il 5. Boczek Wedzony Mysliski (Double Smoked Hunter Style Bacon)" Bobak Sausage Company Chicago, Il 6. Classic Dry Rubbed Organic Bacon; Wellshire Farms Swedesboro, NJ 7. Kirkland Signature Naturally Hickory Smoked Bacon; Costco Wholesale Corp. 8. Tyson Thick Cut; Tyson Foods, Springdale, Ar 9. Farmland Thick Sliced Bacon; Farmland Foods Inc. 10. Niman Ranch Dry Cured Center Cut Bacon; Niman Ranch,Oakland, CA 11. Nueske's Applewood Smoked Thick Cut Bacon; Nueskes Hillcrest Farms,Wittenberg, WI 12. Scott Petersen Premium Hardwood Smoked Bacon; Scott Petersen & Company 13. Smart "Bacon" Meatless Low Fat Strips; Lightlife FoodsTurners Falls, MA 14. Oscar Mayer Hearty Thick Bacon You’ll note that the selection is heavy on supermarket bacon. Were I to do this again, I would eliminate all the supermarket bacon except Farmland and maybe one other. Then I would concentrate on the interesting locally produced ethnic bacons and cool mail-order bacons. Samples 3,6,7,8,9,12, and 14 all were almost indistinguishable. You’ll also note that sample #13 is false bacon. It was awful and will not be mentioned again. Here is a picture of M. cooking one of many pounds of bacon. He was stuck in the kitchen cooking most of the party—if we did this again, we would do more pre-cooking. Here is the table of bacon: Here is our vegetarian friend: What is a vegetarian doing at a bacon tasting? Drinking mimosas! Also, we needed someone there to call 911 in case of bacon overdose. We presented the samples with numerical labels and gave out a tasting sheet to allow people to score each sample on saltiness, meatiness, smokiness, fattiness, mouthfeel, and overall ranking. At the end we asked each person to rank their three favorites. And the winners are: Nueske’s Our favorite even before the tasting garnered the most favorite votes and comments such as "YUM-O". It's been reported to be too smoky for small children, but all our adults liked it. Home-made style Polish bacon from Andy’s Deli: This local bacon was succulent and meaty, but less smoky than the Nueske's. If you live in Chicago, it's worth seeking out. Note that the label on the deli wrapper is not the same as the label on the meat in the deli case; it's actually the Boczek Domowy. Regardless of the label, you will know it by its ominous black color. Hungarian bacon: This salty bacon had its proponents. It was the only bacon cured with garlic and would be a wonderful ingredient in bean or egg dishes. On its own it was too strong for some! Thanks to all our hearty tasters for helping with this event! And a bit hurrah for M, who cooked all that bacon!

Abby Dodge's new book "The Weekend Baker" has a recipe for 10-minute pots de creme that (I think) doesn't include eggs. I don't have the book in front of me, but I think it's just melted chocolate and cream. Purists will not consider this authentic-- call them "nots de creme"-- but they sounded very very good. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the suggestions! The Grateful Palate is a great idea-- I can sample a bunch of different kinds and save on shipping.

Recently I seem to have gotten on a mailing list for catalogs from smoked meat purveyors. I'm a fan of Nueske's-- are any of these other places in their league? I'm planning a bacon tasting-- which other sources should I include? I'd like to at least do a blind tasting of hickory vs applewood.

Lard fans, check out the Polish "Fit through Fat" diet that got some press this spring: http://www.kbtx.com/news/features/4/1413072.html I love lard in my tamales, but go for butter in piecrust. For cooking fat I just save my bacon grease-- pork fat, salt, and smoke all together! (And if we're cooking the Nueske's pepper bacon, pepper too.)

Are you in Northern Indiana or Southern? You might have to make a pilgrimage to Michigan cherry country. I've found sour cherries at the farmers markets here in Chicago, but the season is already over for this year. We scored 20# of very good cherries, but had to pit them ourselves-- my husband is a pie addict, so he gladly helped. The cherries were very good this year-- the juices seemed concentrated, possibly because of the drought. We've also gotten buckets of frozen, pitted cherries in Door County, but that would be a long trip for you. Good luck and do post if you find an online source.

I'm glad to see the meatloaf reappearing in this thread! An alternative to oven-roasted meatloaf, whilst not as good as grilled, is meatloaf cooked in the slow-cooker (Crockpot). Beth Hensperger's Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker cookbook has several recipes. I tried the traditional version with all ground beef and it was delicious.

We hit Hot Dougs yesterday-- the line was very short for a Saturday. One interesting development-- Doug has started to get exclusive sausages custom-made to his recipes. Several weeks ago my husband, who has developed a major Hot Dougs obsession, had an encased Ruben that was quite delicious. It had corned beef sausage (another exclusive) and was topped with sauerkraut and Russian dressing. Yesterday we had the exclusive rib-eye sausages with chimichurri-- delicious, but a bit rich. I can't wait to see what Doug dreams up next.

Hooray for cheesemaking! I think most rennet-based cheeses work okay with regular pasteurized, homogenized milk-- the exception to that seems to be feta. It's the ultrapasteurized milk that you must avoid for cheese-- the extra heat messes up the protein structure enough that it doesn't give a good set. Your Milk May Vary! P.S. Great Blog-- I'm enjoying the vicarious travel!

I visited the new Hot Doug's yesterday and it's just as good as the old place, but with better parking and more seating. Business was brisk at 2:30, with high school students and assorted lovers of encased meats. I had the Calvados-smoked duck sausage with dijon and blue cheese. Oh yeah-- Doug, it's great to have you back!

The latest!!!! > Subject: Hot Doug's Two: Hot Dougser > > Just don't all come at once, okay? > > I've finally gotten through the entire DVD set of "Elimidate" > episodes, so > I guess it's time to cook some sausage (that's not prison lingo). Hot > Doug's opens for business on Tuesday, January 4, at 10:30 am. We'll > still > be closing at 4:00 pm, so you can stop the > how-come-you-don't-stay-open-later whining now. > > Our new locale: 3324 N. CALIFORNIA AVENUE, right at the corner of > California and Roscoe. We're a half mile west of the old location, just > across the river in the vibrant Avondale neighborhood. There's plenty > of > street parking and more seating. > > On a sincere note, I can't tell you how touched and flattered I am with > all of your support and encouragement over these past eight months. You > made the motivation to re-open the restaurant easy to come by. I > genuinely > thank you for your reassurance and look forward to serving you some > tasty > encased meats this year and for a long time to come. > > See you soon. > > Doug

Thank you very much, that would be wonderful! This blog is quite an inspiration-- I'll have to put in an order for some fresh cultures and rennet! I second the request for an EGCI course, although teaching home cheesemaking might be a bit of a busman's holiday for you!

Cheesemaking out of the blue, huh? I'm very much enjoying your blog. My home cheesemaking has been quite successful, except I'm having difficulty transitioning to hard cheeses. I've had great luck with the chevre kit from New England cheesemaking-- the hardest part is finding goat milk that is not ultrapasteurized. I'm taking a break from cheesemaking while I'm pregnant, for fear of giving myself Listeria, but planning to get back into it after the end of the year. One of the best things was making bread and pizza dough with the whey. Does Beecher use the whey?

I had dinner at Ix a couple of weeks ago-- I always go for the mole of the day and have never been disappointed. We were there on a Saturday, so it was red mole which had great complexity and just the right heat. The duck paired well with it and I enjoyed the bed of mashed potatoes. I've had the quail with other moles there, but prefer the duck. Chicken is another choice, but is too ordinary. The pineapple upside down cake was delicious for dessert, but then I have been craving pineapple. Ix has declined somewhat in popularity from when it opened, but still shows a brisk business-- now it's possible to get a seat! I prefer it to Chilpancingo, possibly because of the moles, possibly because Ix is walkind distance from my house! It certainly is a welcome respite from the Polish restaurants and lower-end Mexican in the neighborhood. Spice, the Thai place across the street, used to be quite good but has declined to merely passable under new ownership.

I was there for a wedding about a year and a half ago and found the dining quite acceptable. I third (or whatever we're up to now) the recommendations for El Siboney. Also, our favorite meal of the weekend was at 7fish (http://www.7fish.com/home.html), a funky little seafood place. (To clarify, it's funky in an upscale sort of way-- interesting fish dishes, cool atmosphere, nice but not too formal.) As of this week, our fond memories of the destination have outlasted the marriage we witnessed. Sigh.

Dang, every time I see a reply on this topic I get all excited and it's another false alarm. My husband drives by the old location once in a while to check on progress but there's been paper in the windows for some time now. Maybe next year.

Thanks for the fact-check! I was going from memory, so I suspect jsolomon is correct here! One good thing about the pressure cooker is that if you bring the pressure down after 15 minutes and it's not done to your satisfaction, you can easily bring the pressure right back up and cook for longer.