iguana

I need help here too-- my usual trick is to buy supermarket mint all winter, then go to the farmers market in the summer and discover that I have a choice of different mints. Then I choose wrong and my Vietnamese Chicken Salad (with cilantro and mint) ends up tasting like Doublemint Gum, complete with menthol-type mouthfeel. Blech. I need a mint descriptor wallet card.

Dahomechef, thank you for the kind words on my epis! I will get more practice, as I am making them for a dinner party in a couple of weeks. That shape really maximizes the crust. Seth, I am interested in the rhubarb cakes, as my rhubarb is coming up like crazy. I meant to make strawberry-rhubarb pie this weekend, but the iggies and I just ate the strawberries instead.

I've been enjoying this thread very much, but I'm a little behind the program! Here is my mixed starter bread, shaped into epis. Many thanks to whomever referenced the King Arthur Flour directions for shaping these-- it's much easier than it seemed.

Another possiblity that works well for incubation is to put a couple inches of water in a plastic picnic cooler and use an immersible aquarium heater to maintain temp. This gives you great temperature control-- important if you are going to get into home cheesemaking, etc. It's a bit of overkill for just a quart of yogurt, but is great for a couple gallons of developing curd. If you get sick of making yogurt, you can always get fish.

Yes, right here! Chicago is a great cycling and eating town-- check out www.chicagocyclingclub.org for a fun riding and eating group. Also, there has been some talk about a Heartland bicycle team-- PM me if you're interested.

I hope I can pitch in without getting too far into SSB mode, but another way to extract more flavor from the chiles would be to use a little alcohol (i.e. vodka), which can solubilize many things. Alcohol will lower the freezing point of the sorbet, so you don't want to add too much. Also, although the compounds that contribute the heat are very fat-soluble (so the cream was a great idea), the compounds that contribute to the other flavors may extract with alcohol. </SSB>

Christina's Ice Cream in Cambridge, MA may have been on the bleeding edge of the wierd flavor trend-- I remember hearing about their Clam Chowder ice cream back in the early 90's. They also would do a turkey and gravy ice cream at T'giving.

I got my enameled cast iron gratin pan for $3 at a thrift store here in Chicago. I adore it. For roasting vegetables or potatoes, it absolutely outperforms a Pyrex lasagne pan. Debra Madison has an amazing butternut squash and carmelized onion gratin in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. There have also been several excellent Fine Cooking articles about summer gratins-- with tomatoes and zucchini, etc.

That's merely regrettable-- true sacrilege is putting ketchup on a kosher dog. Here are two very different excellent hot dog places: Superdawg (excellent dog, check the fiberglass statues on the roof!) Hot Doug's (gourmet hot dog joint-- not to be missed. Ask for the duck fat fries on Friday or Saturday)

I very much enjoyed my trip to Morton's, but I haven't been to the other places for comparison. For the $$$$, I much prefer to get a big ol' NY strip steak from Heartland Meats at the farmers market and grill it at home. When I went to Morton's it was on a gift certificate from a friend whose dog barfed on my sofa.

Thank you for the review-- I put Smokin' Woody's in the list of BBQ joints to try. I've enjoyed the pulled-pork sandwiches from Fat Willie's Rib Shack, 2414 W Schubert, (773)-782-1800, right near the AMC cineplex on Western.

How serendipitous that this thread was revived now-- I just made a Valentine's pie for my husband from apples we had picked in the fall. I have made a few observations in my quest to produce the optimal pie, but from this thread, your mileage may vary substantially. Just like a good wine has a balance between acid and sweet, I like my pie apples to have a good balance. I always include 1 or 2 Granny Smiths for acid. These are softened by one or more other varietals which add fruity notes. In this last pie I used Jonagolds, one Rome, a Mutsu, and a few stray small Winesaps. IMO, very few apple varietals have the acid levels and the fruitiness to make a good pie by themselves-- Winesaps may be one of the few exceptions. As for the juice aspects, I use about 3 Tablespoons of flour for 6 or 7 apples in a 9-inch pie. I like a little juice exuding from the pie when you slice it-- maybe even a good amount. I usually get about 3 T. I've never had apples yield too much juice, but I do as one poster above suggested and prep the apples after rolling the crusts. I also find that a good pinch of salt perks up the filling immensely. My other revelation, which may be old news to all of you, is that the standard butter/shortening-flour-salt crust can be improved by adding about 1T sugar and 2 teaspoons lemon juice. The sugar helps the crust brown, thus improving the flavor. The lemon juice likely relaxes the gluten-- it may also help browning. I also made my most recent pie with King Arthur Mellow Pastry Blend Flour-- it made a dough that was easy to handle, and exceptionally tender. </musings of pie-obsessed home cook>

If you propose a CHIC farmers market challenge, they will come. Nichols even had some greens when I was there a couple of weeks ago. We got some outstanding cheeses and a huge amount of meat from the Heartland Beef folks. On topic, Costco rules! Just reading about it makes me want to go home and mix martinis from my two 5-gallon drums of gin.

It was probably rude to nuke this in the lunchroom, but I had leftover brussels sprouts with bacon and hazelnuts, plus a roast beef sandwich on the whole wheat bread from Baking with Julia.

The nubbly texture of coarse cornmeal works particularly well in spoon bread.

My husband and I visited the Locke Distillery on our tour of Ireland this spring. It's a little decrepit-- more of a museum than an active distillery and not corporate at all. They do age barrels of whiskey there-- the aroma of that room is heavenly. And of course, there is the all-important tasting room.

Worst dumb cookbook: "Crazy Plates" by the Looneyspoon sisters-- very annoying. Best dumb cookbook: "Are You Hungry Tonight: A Collection of Elvis' Favorite Recipes".

I second this-- with a multi-course meal, the optimal wine changes so much with each course that one bottle would never do. I took my husband to Tru for his birthday this weekend-- he got the wine pairing and enjoyed it immensely-- both in the taste of the meal, and as a contribution to his wine education. The sommelier came up with pairings we never would have tried. At the end they gave us a printed menu with each wine pairing. I was not drinking that night and I feel like I missed out . It's worth every penny, if you have the pennies-- or better yet, if they're someone else's pennies!