Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The ultimate green bean casserole does sound rather, well, ultimate. And that's always a "gotta have" dish for me.

I love trying items made start to finish in house but I think the "house made" designation is getting more than a little tired. Isn't that what you train servers to educate people about? And I'd be dubious of any beginning distillery- that's a whole different art than brewing or cooking. That being said, I used to work at a Mix't Greens, which has a Gramercy alum, Andrew Swallow, as Executive Chef, and the recipes he developed were great. We made all the dressings and menu items from pretty carefully calibrated formulas, and I still use their fabulous blue cheese dressing recipe.
I've had the good fortune to do a fair amount of in house brewing, but never made anything tasty enough to be anything other than (end of) shift beers. However, SF abounds with awesome house charcuterie. Consistency, however, is what separates the cooks from the wannabes. If you can't serve something the way it's supposed to be every time, you probably should reconsider putting it on the menu. Just because a cook got a wild hair and salt cured 20 lbs of goat testicles or whatever 6 months ago doesn't mean I want to have some server try to offload it onto me at $10/oz. Some projects just don't turn out, and you need to be prepared to handle that.

All right, I'm not usually a big cakespy fan but dang if you didn't get me with that "Log" song. I love buche de noel and those definitely look better than bad. I may just have to make it.
Oh, and I'll just leave this here- in case the cake doesn't make you happy enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfNajFYPljQ&feature=related

Wow, I guess no one here has heard of Maverick. I think their kitchen is amazing, and if there were such a thing as a balanced chicken fried steak burger with mash, these would be the guys that pulled it off. I take no issue at all with them charging $20 with a glass of Pinot, it seems to me that their biggest mistake is doing it on Tuesday, when Rosamunde does amazing burgers, too. I may celebrate my exceptional cholesterol screening with one of these now that I am no longer a dedicated vegetarian.

I assume Shari has already left, but I thought I'd add that I think foie is creamy and delicious, and I HATE calves' livers. In fact, calves' livers are the only thing I typically refuse to eat, since I have found them universally loathsome. I can sometimes appreciate a well made chicken liver pate, particularly one made with plenty of schmaltz, but even to me a piece of seared foie on brioche toast with a tart/sweet component is a glorious thing. I hope she tries it!

I like the new diagram, I think it's much more pragmatic. I have no love for the USDA, but I think many people would have a great improvement in their wellbeing if they increased their unprocessed fruit and veg consumption- I know I have. I remember the much prettier blocked and illustrated pyramid of the '80s but though its last incarnation was useless. The guideline will always reflect the USDA's agenda, of course, but I think this new revamp refects some sensitivity- the dairy is cordoned off, and "grains" and "protein" are both informative and neutral. I also approve of the removal of the "salt, sugar, and oils" category- it seems to me that many salts, sugars, and fats are easily acquired by many well seasoned dishes, and I have little need for an additional "dessert" category, at least nutritionally speaking.

I'm all for some hot carb on carb action, but croutons on pizza just seems wrong. As far as beef on pizza goes, I like my favorite place's meatball approach- cook, then thinly slice and scatter. Works great for meatballs.

Redrum (nee Murder) Burger in Davis- I've stopped there so many times on the way to or from Sacramento, I just can't pass it by.

It's not a vein so much as an intestine, so no- unless you buy them already prepped, they will always have a "vein", otherwise they would never reach market size. I like to use a (sharp!!) paring knife and a crochet hook. A "cleanse" diet (aka starving the poor buggers) is useful to purge snails (escargot), but I think every shrimp needs to be "deveined"- unless you're working with less than about 51-60s in a casual environment. Otherwise, there will be grit, and I find that unforgivable anywhere I'm paying a premium.

I think a sugar cone is an obligatory part of almost any ice cream. Waffles are nice once in a while if you want to spend extra from a jumbo, but I agree with Keller- a crisp, brown, two scoop sugar cone is the platonic ideal, and the best thing Baskin has going for it since they stopped making daiquiri ice. Oh, wait, I just checked their site, and it's back! This may require a bus trip..

I've happily paid $3 for a MexiCoke (though I would never do so for a corn syrup Coke) here in SF, but $5 does seem gouge-y. I got used to brown bagging it at the movies and such a long time ago (when I was a kid seeing a movie with my mom meant smuggling in 2 bottles of coke, a fifth of Crown, and some candy), although now that it's $10 to see the latest piece of crap the last mainstream movie I saw in a regular theater was Batman in '08. What really blew my mind was how many $3+tax cans of soda I sold at Neiman Marcus' fast casual counter. Needless Markup indeed! Actually, scratch that, the most mind blowing was working Giants games and having a huge line for $8.25 light beer. Some people really do have more money than sense.

Here where I live, in San Francisco, I have a hard time seeing these initiatives helping to actually feed the many people who genuinely are hungry, malnourished, or food insecure. I mean, really, a CSA that will take your food stamps? Who is that really helping? I'm glad all of the farmer's markets here take my SNAP benefits, but it doesn't seem like I have a lot of company. Some people may be forgetting that food stamps cover food products only- no soap, pans, paper dishes, towels, power, gas, charcoal, nothing. Many poor don't have kitchens. It seems like the MoGro project is doing well helping a remote outpost, but I have doubts about any inner city projects that thinks the majority of hungry people can or should cook for themselves.
Secondly, I'm all for urban gardening and creating an edible landscape, but at this point, we need to be real about how many people these kinds of projects are capable of feeding. Farming is hard work, it takes strength and skill.
The third has got to be the most laughable, though. Yes, let's make doctors the gatekeepers for healthy food! All the chronically broke and hungry poor people I know see them all the time! I guess I can get behind this for country clinics seeing a lot of obese patients, but really, the whole thing irritates me. "And since you are so fat, here's a dollar to buy some celery or something with." Hmph.
OK, so what do I think does work? It's a really radical idea- just give the food away. Shockingly, it doesn't take a doctorate to do this. My friend has been doing it for about 10 years: http://freefarmstand.org/
I set up a donation so that they get all the leftover bread from the day before from a great place I used to work. The farmers market people give them the end of the day stuff, and they glean local trees and set up local gardens. I've also been impressed at how churches here in the city have put their money where their mouth is and feed free hot meals to anyone willing to wait in line for them. I think to truly feed those who can't feed themselves, we need to move beyond the systems of capitalism to some extent.

I think your brownie recipe is missing an ingredient..