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Barbecue Lamb Shanks
these were amazing! although it's tricky finding shanks in BBQ season (who woulda thought that they only butcher part of the lamb in the spring...), this was the perfect way to render them tender and flavorful without a braising pan. went splendidly with a full-throttle cabernet.
Watch It with Us: 'The Next Food Network Star' Season 5 Finale
Both seemed personable, both seemed knowledgable. In the end, Melissa seems more comfortable in front of the camera, while Jeffrey's bobbing and repetitive gestures felt awkward. As the more camera-friendly person, Melissa will be more pliable in terms of molding her towards opportunites beyond this season.
I really don't believe gender or race had anything to do with the winning OR losing.
In Season: Cucumbers
My family also made vats of the sour cream cucumbers-and-onions every summer; they usually added fresh dill.
When I discovered just today that my dill tastes remarkably like diesel fuel, I opted to try a little toasted & ground cardamom seed. Nice, and they went very nicely with the Indian food we had for dinner. I'll do them that way again, definitely.
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
How do you eat 10 courses?
tasting menus are usually proportionate--care has been taken to (hopefully) take you comfortably from course to course, both in timing and in flavor/portion development. as avaryne said, don't starve yourself all day; i find it wise to have a decent breakfast early in the day and keep filled up with liquids throughout till dinnertime. a ten course meal should take you at least 2 hours and maybe more. if there are no wine pairings offered (and i can't imagine such), it's always good to ask for recommendations. and when no one has a clue, you can't go wrong with a dryish sparkler.
while the portions won't be huge, wear comfortable clothes. and about halfway through, take a walk to the ladies/gents room. not to puke, just to stir the blood around a little. by the way, you can always do that to slow things down if a restaurant appears to rushing you through a little faster than you'd wish. not that they ever do that...
Barbecue Lamb Shanks
these were amazing! although it's tricky finding shanks in BBQ season (who woulda thought that they only butcher part of the lamb in the spring...), this was the perfect way to render them tender and flavorful without a braising pan. went splendidly with a full-throttle cabernet.
Watch It with Us: 'The Next Food Network Star' Season 5 Finale
Both seemed personable, both seemed knowledgable. In the end, Melissa seems more comfortable in front of the camera, while Jeffrey's bobbing and repetitive gestures felt awkward. As the more camera-friendly person, Melissa will be more pliable in terms of molding her towards opportunites beyond this season.
I really don't believe gender or race had anything to do with the winning OR losing.
In Season: Cucumbers
My family also made vats of the sour cream cucumbers-and-onions every summer; they usually added fresh dill.
When I discovered just today that my dill tastes remarkably like diesel fuel, I opted to try a little toasted & ground cardamom seed. Nice, and they went very nicely with the Indian food we had for dinner. I'll do them that way again, definitely.
What one food mag should I get?
Food & Wine usually has just the right combination of recipes, articles, and product info. Gourmet takes itself a little too seriously for me. Bon Appetit can be great, but has a problem with advertisements--count the full pages devoted to such and then look at the total page count. And publishers wonder why we've turned to the web.
I also like Cooking Light, as much for the lifestyle content as recipes, which I confess I have a tendency to "fatten up". I used to adore La Cucina Italia or whatever the title was, but the new publication just isn't it.
Food Arts is great fun, if you can nab a free sub; otherwise, it's pricey. Fine Cooking is also a little spendy for what you get. Cook's Illustrated lost me entirely when the first line of their "Red Wines for the Holidays" article began: "Now, none of us drinks red wine..." Ahem. If that's the case, I can ask the guy next door who sits outside with his Mountain Creeks and a flyswatter.
What foods do you use as health remedies?
i use to teach cooking classes with the food-as-remedy tie in. the most popular was one i did in the throes of winter called "Cooking to Beat the Cold(s)". it featured soups with ingredients that are rumored to have qualities that stave off cold and flu viri and/or build immunity such as Ginger-Shiitake Hot and Sour Soup, Kale and Potato Stew with Astragulus, Lentil Chile with Red Wine.
whether there's anything to it or not, ingredients go way farther than simple nutrition. your ability to fine-tune your health with a well-stocked medicine pantry is a godsend.
Eat For Eight Bucks: Paprika-Braised Chicken with Chickpea Puree and Crispy Shallots
Made this tonight and we absolutely loved it! Wouldn't change a single thing about it.
Help me pack my lunch, please - a Super Challenge.
i lived for 3 months on popcorn and apples and the occasional chocolate cake. well, also some southern comfort, but i don't recommend that in a work lunch...
New Baby food gifts
as a shower/new baby gift for friends, i often give a Month of Monday Meals. it begins on month two (after the initial thrill--and gifts--are long gone). sunday night i deliver a breakfast foccacia, fruit and coffee ready to be brewed; sub sandwiches, pickles, and chips, and for dinner charlie trotter's lobster mashed potatoes and a salad with dressing on the side. if mom is not nursing, a bottle of chard. the menu changes throughout the month, and if it's a real good friend, i might continue it longer than one month.
Weekend Book Giveaway: 'The Saucier's Apprentice'
when i was but a budding foodie, a girlfriend and i invited our boyfriends to dinner. we thought we were all that and a sack of lightly roasted hickory nuts dusted with sea salt, but the truth was, we knew nothing.
she prepared her pasta side dish just as the recipe described: with 6 cloves of garlic. problems begin when one doesn't know a clove from a bulb...
i was in charge of the main dish: a nice chateaubriand. didn't know a loin from hamburger, sadly, and didn't know that frozen meat took so long to defrost! for future reference, the rinse cycle on your dishwasher is not a good method for speeding up that process.
luckily these boys had a sense of humor. we all ended up in the backyard eating watermelon and doing shots of unicum.
ps. about 8 weeks later, we had watermelon wines sprouting from the side of the garage and the scent of garlic remained well into autumn.
Who Should Pay at a Birthday Dinner?
in our crowd, birthday dinners are usually held at someone's home. pot lucks or BYOs are almost never part of the plan.
if someone issues an invitation to meet at Restaurant XYZ for any celebration, i assume i'm paying my own tab. i would never presume to be paying for anyone else.
friends that get all het up about you "ruining" their birthday had unreasonable expectations. handling disappointment with grace is a worthwhile skill to cultivate.
How do you eat 10 courses?
One of the most fun and memorable meals I ever had was the dinner at a traditional Chinese wedding. I forget how many courses are served - well over 20, but all the portions were small, and some presented on the same plate - most were just a few bites. The constantly changing plates helped pace the meal appropriately. Particularly memorable was a dragon & phoenix crafted from multiple ingredients and dishes, but everything was delicious, and everyone had such a good time tasting and enjoying the constantly changing plates. At the end, I was certainly stuffed, but not at all unpleasantly so.
So enjoy the dinner! There's probably no need to starve yourself,
How do you eat 10 courses?
If 10 makes you nervous, come on up to DC for Minibar's 29 course tasting menu! Most of the courses are just a bite or two, but that's still a lot of courses. Damn good though.
How do you eat 10 courses?
Usually 10 courses means the portions are on the smaller side so I wouldn't necessarily starve yourself in preparation. Just eat as you normally would. You're also not required to finish every last bite of each course either!
How do you eat 10 courses?
You'll most likely feel as if you've had a really nice sized meal, but done at leisurely pace (usually 2 hours or more).
We have a roasted garlic and spinach grilled polenta on our menu that is about 2.5 inches square, topped with carmelized onion, asparagus, arrabiata and fesh mozz. That along with maybe a salad, an entree and dessert will fill you right up during the 1-2 hours you're visiting.
In the case of your 10-course tasting menu an item like that would be reduced down to a small cube, maybe a little larger than an amuse bouche in total on the plate.
If they're doing a tasting menu then someone there had better be prepared to have a recommended glass of wine for each course. Or just get one or two bottles of your favorite wine and enjoy that instead.
How do you eat 10 courses?
Puke and Rally, tonight at the Astrodome!
How do you eat 10 courses?
I'm going to start a band for the sole purpose of naming it Puke and Rally.
How do you eat 10 courses?
This is the awesomest thread ever...
@kristen314 - I just laughed so hard, I almost puked!
Anyway, I did the pasta tasting menu at Babbo, the portion sizes were perfect, but I definitely ate an early lunch, and didn't munch on bread before the meal came. It was perfectly portioned, and, although I was really full, I wasn't any more full than any other big meal. Now, I'm kind of obsessed with tasting menus.
Don't worry...it will be fun!
How do you eat 10 courses?
I have had 6, 8, 10-course "tasting menus" where several of the courses were truly tiny--like a single shrimp or matchbox-sized cube of fish on a plate. I have never left one of these dinners hungry, but that's probably more due to these things indeed taking 2 or 3 hours, which allowed me to gradually feel full, than the total amount of food being large. I recommend not being concerned that the total amount of food will be too great for you. You will probably not feel stuffed at the end of your 2 or 3 hour adventure. Enjoy!
How do you eat 10 courses?
oo sounds like fun!
I've attended several 6-8 course dinner events over the years.
My hometown has an annual "chefs' dinner" of local ingredients, and the resturaunt I used to work at would have a wine dinner bi-monthly where they would select a country, create 7 courses and pair wines from the region with each course. best times ever!
Oh you should definitly eat your first two meals.
Skipping meals is never encouraged in life; plus you're a foodie right?
The courses themselves tend to be smaller "tasting" portions anyway. (my favourite course is DEFNITELY the cheese course!) it might include sorbets or shaved ices as a course too to cleanse palettes between two courses that can have contradictory flavours.
From my experience I never finish eating each dish...oh my I miss them.
In regards to wine: have staff/management/servers suggest something if you're not comfortable selecting on your own :)
Have a fab time :D
Help me pack my lunch, please - a Super Challenge.
THIS IS COMPLETELY VEGETARIAN. (Fish, though...)
Main Lunch:
How about a tuna sandwich?
Buy a thermos and have soup in winter.
Take a large piece of cold pizza.
Salad with veggies and low fat dressing.
Peanut butter and banana.
Tupperware, tupperware, tupperware!
One tupperware container, have some tuna salad or cheese. A ziplock, have some crackers.
I hope this helps your situation!
What one food mag should I get?
If you live in an area that has an "edible" magazine that's the one to subscribe to. They all focus on locally grown and produced foods. Great recipes and photo's.You can also pick up copies for free at advertisers locations but subscriptions help to support the magazines and the local foods movement. FYI: I am the publisher of edible South Shore, we cover southeastern Massachusetts.
What one food mag should I get?
I love Fine Cooking. I used to get Cook's Illustrated, but found the "one and only" attitude more annoying than endearing.
What one food mag should I get?
American, Saveur. UK, Olive. Australia, Donna Hay.
What one food mag should I get?
No mention of La Cucina Italiana? Gorgeous pictures, great articles, and wonderful recipes.
What one food mag should I get?
Cooks Illustrated gets my vote too. But, after reading this I might switch to Cooking Light for a year or so.
What one food mag should I get?
Cook's Illustrated online - ALL the recipes and issues.
I subscribe to Saveur, Bon Appetit, and Cuisine At Home.
What one food mag should I get?
I sub to Everyday with Rachael Ray and Saveur. I have always loved Saveur. I used to sub to Bon Appetit (for many years) and to Gourmet (still love it but don't sub). My mom subbed to Food & Wine for many years. I don't like Bon Appetit as much as I used to. I would go with Saveur if you want an interesting magazine aside from good recipes. If you want a magazine of just good recipes to cook from then I would go with Food & Wine. I also like the new Food Network magazine. It is a difficult question to answer. So many good ones.
Watch It with Us: 'The Next Food Network Star' Season 5 Finale
I was thrilled that Melissa won. I think that if it had been Debbie vs Melissa that Debbie would've won. Jeffrey was always bad to me. I wanted them to kick him off a lot of the time. He was too frenetic. I think that Melissa will do well. I don't understand why they changed the concept of her show though.
Did you notice that one of last year's losers also was part of Chef vs City? Kelsey? She's a "NY Foodie" along with Claire Robinson? Geez, I can think of real foodies that would've been better competition for Aaron Sanchez and the other guy (who I can't pronounce his name). So it seems they do bring back some of the losers. I couldn't believe that they gave Adam his own show. Did you notice though that it was a travel show, not a cooking show. They didn't like him enough to give him a real cooking show.
What one food mag should I get?
How come nobody mentioned "Taste of Home" ? I think it's great.
What one food mag should I get?
Gotta be Saveur, it's just too much fun!
What one food mag should I get?
Saveur is great for its approach to the culture of food.
Eating Well is excellent for information and preparation of healthy food.
Also subscribe to Bon Apetit.
If all you want is recipes, look online: epicurious, food network, serious eats, chow, not to mention all the print magazine sites.
What one food mag should I get?
Why choose? Chances are your local library stocks most of the favorites, and at our library I can check out back issues. So I can peruse Bon Appetit, Cook's Illustrated, Southern Living, and Cooking Light and even take home a few for seasonal stuff.
What one food mag should I get?
I really like Cooks Illustrated and their companion mag Cooks Country. Great recipes and the articles are fascinating.
Now, I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for this, but I just picked up the latest issue of Taste of Home and really enjoyed the new format. Yes, they have recipes with canned soup and biscuits in a tube, but I thought it was a vast improvement over their prior look.
My suggestion, go to your local library and check out some of the above mentioned magazines and find out what YOU like best.
What one food mag should I get?
Right now I subscribe to Saveur and EatingWell. I used to subscribe to Cook's Illustrated as well.
CI lapsed at one point and I picked up an issue about 6 months later and realized about 50% of the content was familiar and sure enough I pulled out an issue from 2 years prior and there were about 5 recipes in the old one that were "revisited" in the new one. So I didn't resubscribe.
Saveur I probably won't renew b/c the past several issues have had way too much advertorial in it. I used to really love the magazine but now I find it take about 15 minutes to get through and I don't have that happiness I used to have.
EatingWell has been a great source for health recipes. I find it less laden with "low fat" fake things than Cooking Light plus it just concentrates on food.
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tasting menus are usually proportionate--care has been taken to (hopefully) take you comfortably from course to course, both in timing and in flavor/portion development. as avaryne said, don't starve yourself all day; i find it wise to have a decent breakfast early in the day and keep filled up with liquids throughout till dinnertime. a ten course meal should take you at least 2 hours and maybe more. if there are no wine pairings offered (and i can't imagine such), it's always good to ask for recommendations. and when no one has a clue, you can't go wrong with a dryish sparkler.
while the portions won't be huge, wear comfortable clothes. and about halfway through, take a walk to the ladies/gents room. not to puke, just to stir the blood around a little. by the way, you can always do that to slow things down if a restaurant appears to rushing you through a little faster than you'd wish. not that they ever do that...