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Apple cider with either rum or bourbon... Thanksgiving all around! Well, except for the rum part - but it goes so well...

And next day we mull the leftover cider and have spiced cider with rum or bourbon, warm. Delish...

Wylie D. and Danny B.!

my fave is to pan fry slices or cubes until really, really crisp on the outside, then serve over silky mashed potatoes or parsnips or cauliflower. That or crisp and use in a hash.

oh no no no! Good Food, with Evan Kleinmann, from KCRW. Also on iTunes

I made something that looks really similar from Mark Bittman's blog, came out amazing! I formed the terrine in a small loaf pan and sliced it, instead of forming individual rings, but either way, delicious, filling, rich, and I still have half of it in my freezer for future yumminess. Goes very well with a rice pilaf and slightly bitter salad, like a brussel sprout slaw. And why didn't I think of making stock out of leftovers?? Next time....

oh....my.... god! I am SO making this next year, it's stunning!

Wait, when is Flag Day?? Another reason!!

I was there that night (I'm the one who asked if the question wouldn't be better answered by sampling home cooks' meals) and I have to say the whole experience was so frustrating. And not only because we couldn't taste the food ;) Really, so much of what Gwen said was so contradictory, like that women have a lighter touch, but then she'd turn around and say how woman just make masses of food in the stereotypical jewish or italian mother way; eat! eat!

It sounded like a topic that had been brewed up late at night over a few too many cocktails. Add in the awkward pauses, and not too deft monitoring by the hosts, and what could have been a lively argument went flat.

Rethinking the home cook angle, there's no real answer there either. My mom is an excellent cook, but she was building a business while I was growing up, and we went out to diners almost every night. I never became a cook (a home cook, not a professional) until after I moved out and on my own. Now I take food and cooking very seriously, perhaps a bit too seriously, and have become an extremely enthusiastic amateur. I have definitely evolved something of a style, in which I mean there are flavor profiles and techniques I tend to return to again and again. If we had maybe been given which two chefs were cooking that course it would've been easier to discern which dish was whose. Like the squab course. Knowing that it had been between Alex Guarnaschelli and Aktar Nawab I could have easily said who had made which dish. Their styles of cooking and the flavors they use are so different, but equally delicious.
Eat Me Daily had a good write up of the night, too. Worth checking out.

I have a lap-band, and I honestly think it's what caused me to be so interested in food. Before I ate, swallowed quickly, and was done. Now, I liken having a lap-band to eating through a straw. Things that break down quickly are what's easiest to eat. That sometimes rules out bread, pasta, whole cuts of meat (tho I do love and crave sausage, bacon, pates, you get the idea), oysters, mussels and clams, and fibrous vegetables. Yep, leafy greens are difficult to eat. Any fruit that has a skin. Citrus. Also eating and drinking at the same time, which includes soups that have chunky ingredients.
What this means is that you taste everything to the nth degree. Now I feel like whatever I eat should be the best that I can find. It's made me a bit of a food snob, to tell the truth; I just don't want mediocre anymore. And when I'm surrounded by bland, it's depressing. Which may be what your friend is going through.
I say take her out to a great restaurant. Fish places are best, or tapas, that way she can try lots of little things, wake up the taste buds. I know how easy it is to fall back on crunchy things and chocolate, just because they 'go through'. That may also spark some inspiration on what she can make for herself. As for healthy flavor, I think you can google a carrot ginger red lentil soup that I found somewhere that is amazing.

If you have any further questions, feel free to email me through blog. I haven't updated in over a year, but it's a way of getting to me without me posting my email address here. The blog is cityminx.blogspot.com. I've had a lap-band for 4 years now, and I've accomplished EXACTLY what has been predicted - I've lost 70% of my excess weight. That last 30% is up to me, and me alone. That can be frustrating, but that's how the lap-band works. Still, it's been an amazing tool, and I have absolutely no regrets.

I still miss oysters, tho ;)

Want.

Wow. I feel so proud that my little tip-off got published (tho true thanks be to Nico, who told me about it). And yet so so sad that I'm allll the way across the country and can't go. Sniff.

Has anyone here ever made any of the recipes from the book?

Okay, here's my musings on $200 tasting dinners and the like. These are not places where you go because you're feeling peckish. These, like vacations, Broadway tickets, sports events, and concerts, are experiences. You go to experience this one thing, at this one time; it's entertainment.
Places like Per Se and Masa are expensive experiences, it's true. But what about people paying $500 and up for front row concert seats? Corker mentioned it's a fund raiser. There are plenty of medical and political fundraisers out there for $5000 a seat. And the food, trust me, is much much worse.
If I had the financial wherewithal, or a sponsor (ahem, taking inquiries) I would definitely attend more tasting dinners and the like. Because for me, that is something I would much rather experience.

I think if we'd try to have here in New York we'd never make it happen. How would we all agree where to meet?

That being said, I'm totally down for a New York Meetup! How about neutral ground - like a bar - instead of a restaurant?