Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

@CJ McD Sorry, just saw this now. I think I am going to go with a rabbit dish though.

@thearrogantchef Yup! Will do!

I work over here and totally agree. Though I would go further to say Rubirosa's is now one of the best slices in the city. The sauce is unbelievable.

Thank you! Someone else recommended I check in with Julia and I think that's a great suggestion. Plus it's a good excuse for me to buy a Julia book since I don't have one.

@jedd63, can I ask which recipe you made?

Thanks again everyone!

I made these last night and I'm wondering if anyone can answer some questions -- first, I had to bake them for almost an hour and they were still really underdone or mushy/wet when they came out. They were delicious, but we ate them in bowls. I generally don't bake so I'm sure it was an error on my part. Any thoughts?

Also, I actually sprinkled the top with sea salt halfway through. If you like salty/sweet I think they could be saltier. And, if I made these again, I'd double the instant coffee. No one suspected after they ate them that there was any coffee in there.

I went to Salvatores today on the Slice recommendation. I'm not disappointed I went, but I wanted to report that the pizza crust was terribly salty. I've been thirsty all afternoon. The sauce and cheese were very nice, and the browning where you can taste the coal were great. But the dough was way oversalted. We also ordered the fried calamari appetizer and that was perfection -- soft tender calamari, battered and fried only lightly.

I'm from Staten Island. I don't go very often now, but I can say with confidence Joe & Pat's, Lee's and Deninos are still the reigning champs. If you're going to make a trek to SI, go to those first.

Just thought I'd share the recipes just went up on my site if anyone is interested!

Enjoy!

Hey, thanks for the mention! We really hope to see you and all the Serious Eaters there this weekend for some very un-serious eating.

Cheers,
Heather
1 Bite 7 Days

That's good to hear. (Of course, not for Deborah Madison.) Your experience is exactly on par with mine, but, I thought there was something wrong with me....I kept flogging myself "how can you not use this book?"

If you have the opportunity, check out M.J.'s book. It's old, but not at all dated. There has yet to be a recipe I've been disappointed by and I've jumped around that book quite a bit. There's also a lot of unusual (or new to me) flavor combinations that she shares that are just wonderful.

If you have any recommendations for veggie books, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks ChristineB & Jerzee...sounds great.

By the way, take-out Chinese (if you've got a decent place in mind) sounds like a really fun, ultra easy alternative.

Hope everyone's festivities are super duper!

So far we've decided on:
Roasted garlic, goat cheese, caviar platter with little toasts
Homemade California Rolls
Mario Battali's Lemoncello Shrimp
Sausage Spinach Gratin
Crab Cakes (see below, I'm looking for a kick-butt recipe, anyone got one?) with a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Olives and other snacks pillaged from a last-minute trip to Trader Joes

And for NYD I'm making a black-eyed pea corn bread to serve with brunch.

So, can anyone recommend a really great crab cake recipe. I have a few but I was hoping to find one that was tried and true...one very crabby with little mayo and bread crumb....anyone?

Thanks!

JT - thanks for the tempting recipe!

Oops. That damn typo is gonna make me nuts! Where's the edit feature? Sigh.