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maered's Profile

Website: http://www.maryrduan.typepad.com

Location: Central Coast of California

About: I edit a quarterly magazine on business issues in the agriculture industry and write for a weekly business paper and a monthly real estate magazine based in Manhattan.

Favorite foods: Cheese, specifically St. Andre; good bread; more cheese; salami; a good green salad with ultra lemony dressing; crisp fries; sweet green grapes. I've rarely met a potato chip I didn't like.

Last bite on earth: A good cheeseburger with caramelized onions.

The Ten Most Recent Comments By maered

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

A chef friend and his wife had us and another couple over for dinner on Saturday--eight courses. We provided wine.

Hors d' oeuvres: BLT-stuffed cherry tomatoes; aged cheddar with pistachio; salmon and cucumber on crostini.

First: Steamed asparagus tips with hollandaise;
Second: Roast chicken salad on red pepper coulis, topped with Asian slaw (the dressing on which may have been the best thing I've ever tasted);
Third: Carrot ginger soup poured from individual boats at the table into bowls of shredded baby rainbow carrots, topped with parsley gremolata;
Fourth: Seared diver scallop topped with shrimp and pancetta in a vanilla beurre blanc;
Fifth: Meyer lemon granita;
Sixth: Filet with wild mushrooms, served on a potato cake (at this point, I was too drunk to remember exactly what else was in the potato cake) with sauteed swiss chard and raisins;
Seventh: Butter lettuce, simply dressed, served with goat cheese and orange marmalade crostini;
Eighth: Chocolate-mint mousse in tuile cups.

We went through five bottles: Lockwood Reserve Merlot; J. Lohr Wildflower; Rombauer Chardonnay; Paraiso Late Harvest Pinot and something else that I was too drunk to remember. The company was excellent, the food was even better. They must have spent a small fortune, and our friends made it look effortless.

I'd do a cheese course, a salad, maybe a seafood appetizer (mussels?), a red meat main and an excellent dessert. And booze. Lots of booze.

maered at 12:19AM on 04/30/08

From Talk

What would your restaurant be?

Mine would be closed too. With a side order of my ex-partner ripping me off to the tune of multiple thousands of dollars.

Not that I'm bitter.

maered at 4:48PM on 03/09/08

From Required Eating

Obsolete Cooking Skills: 'That's the Way It Was, and We Liked It! ... We Loved It!'

Add me to the popcorn purists. I hate microwave popcorn. I hate everything about it. I keep my container of Orville close at hand.

maered at 1:38AM on 03/02/08

From Talk

Who partakes in a little fast food action?

Yeah Currie, and then there's the whole hot dog thing too. I completely understand the Vienna hot dog and poppy seed bun issue. You can't get good junk food in No Cal. I just found out there's a Portillo's in Orange County, which makes me think I need to get in the car and drive seven hours for a beef sandwich while my kids are on spring break.

maered at 3:50PM on 02/27/08

From Talk

Who partakes in a little fast food action?

Currie, I'm with you on the Italian beef. You can't get decent Italian beef where I live, so I have to wait until I visit family back in Chicago to hit Al's or Portillo's.

For fast food where I live, it's mostly common chain stuff. Every once in awhile (ahem, and my fellow women will know when I'm talking about) I have to have the greasy goodness of a McDonald's cheeseburger. If I'm blowing off work and hitting a movie in the middle of the afternoon, I will sometimes sneak a chicken burrito in my bag.

maered at 1:15AM on 02/27/08

From Talk

Yucky foods of the past

Butter and mayo were guaranteed to make me gag, as were green peppers and green onion. The only salad dressing I would eat was Catalina, and the smell of cabbage cooking still can instantly bring me back to that bad childhood food space, although now I love the taste of it.

maered at 9:51PM on 02/02/08

From Slice

A List of Regional Pizza Styles

Chicago thin crust is the only pizza that I acknowledge. All others wish they were Chicago thin crust pizza.

(Ducking to avoid the New York slices that might be thrown at my head.)

maered at 7:28PM on 01/24/08

From Talk

Cupcake conundrum

Filling them is a really good idea--maybe some marshmallow fluff?

maered at 12:43AM on 01/17/08

From Required Eating

Fortune Cookies: Made in Japan? Like Pizza? Your Weirdest Fortune?

We had our wedding dinner at a Chinese restaurant (we were broke) and my fortune cookie read: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

17 years later ... I still have the husband and the fortune too.

maered at 12:41AM on 01/17/08

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'The Food You Crave'

Salad. I'm with Feep on that. If I'm craving something healthy, it's a big bowl of lettuces -- of course when you slather it in dressing, it cuts the health factor way down.

maered at 3:46PM on 12/31/07

Responses to Comments by maered

From Slice

A List of Regional Pizza Styles

I moved away from Pittsburgh the Bay Area (where there is plenty of good pizza) and i STILL crave Aiello's!!!! Pittsburgh pies do have a unique taste- its the sweeter sauce.

Ohio Valley pizza certainly deserves its own category- its pretty unique.

If you want true Ohio Valley Pizza, you have to go to the Firehouse in Ambridge, PA on Merchant street. Only open on the weekends, the business is run by firemen to support the firehouse (we're talking real social capital here). Its not my favorite (really dougy crust) but its certainly an experience.

Another experience would be Tony R's pizza in Sewickley on Nevin Ave. A tiny pizzaria run by Tony (who does all the deliveries himself) and his two sons.

katie123 at 2:03PM on 05/07/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

5 bottles of wine and 1 jamesons for 3 people: i'll be shocked to hear from you tomorrow (unless it's under the hangover cure thread.).

sounds like an awesome dinner ahead.

renzata at 1:14PM on 05/01/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

Thanks for everyone!! So I went shopping yesterday at Guido's, an amazing marketplace. Here's the tentative menu:

Spinach salad with Roquefort, glazed walnuts, cranberries
Asparagus Gruyere Tart
Roasted new potatoes with rosemary
Filet mignon with truffled mushroom ragout
Giant apple pie with ice cream
5 bottles of wine
1 bottle of Jameson

We bought the best ingredients we could get and it all added up to a whopping....

$290!!

Lots of cooking to do tonight and I'll report on it tomorrow! Thanks again for everyone's suggestions, I knew I could count on SE posters!

Jenn Sit at 1:03PM on 05/01/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

Good luck today, Jenn. We're expecting a full report tomorrow!

Kerosena at 11:10AM on 05/01/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

@Jenn Sit......it's Thursday - the big dinner day! You HAVE to let us know your entire menu, Campbell's Soup to Planter's Nuts, so to speak. ;-)

PerkyMac at 10:24AM on 05/01/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

It's sooo easy to spend $300 on a great dinner. Of course, if you have limited access to ingredients then it'll be a little more difficult. A great whiskey will eat up a big chunk of money. If I were you, I'd get to the store early the day before your dinner and see what was available. Pick the best protiens, veggies, etc. and then go home and find your recipes. Then I'd go back to the store for whatever you need to complete the meal. Coook ahead where you can and finish the rest that night.

MargieinDallas at 1:29PM on 04/30/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

Even with high-end foods and multiple courses, you've got a very generous budget. So I'd want to be extra sure to serve several really good wines, and a bottle of top-notch whisky for the prof. Be sure to find out what he likes. If this is his liquor of choice, and if he drinks it regularly, he probably has very definite tastes. If he's not particular about specific brand, he'll almost certainly prefer a specific variety (e.g., Scotch, Irish, Tennessee, malt, bourbon, etc.).

Also, if you decide to server beef, I'd definitely spring for dry-aged prime grade with a budget like that. Very expensive (double or triple the usual price), but also very special.

LoCo at 12:38PM on 04/30/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

If he likes whiskey, you could pair each course with a different whiskey. That'd easily take up a huge chunk of the budget and provide a "take away" for each guest (what's left in the bottles). Maybe, appetizer, first + whiskey, main + whiskey, and dessert + whiskey. Would be memorable.

pookywookyster at 12:24PM on 04/30/08

From Talk

$300 budget for dinner for 3! What should I make??

I would do small plates
scallops, filet mignons, small pasta course, small salad, aspaagus is good, maybe a clams dish, somthing very small and rich for dessert,
serve with 3 good wines and espresso could probably do it for about 225.00

JerzeeTomato at 5:34AM on 04/30/08

From Slice

A List of Regional Pizza Styles

When I read "Ohio Valley Pizza" above, I knew immediately what you were talking about but there is only one chain who prepares it in that way these days, DiCarlo's. About 20 years ago there were several copy cats but they have long since closed down.

Honestly I'm not sure that the Ohio Valley deserves it's own pizza style category, but if it's all we've got we'd better hold on to it I suppose.

Ellavemia at 10:57AM on 04/12/08