marigoldsandy

Sthitch and MK Tye, Thanks so much for both of your dinner roll recipe recommendations. I'm tempted to try them both. I'll report back. I really appreciate your help.

Can anyone direct me to a winning dinner roll recipe. I offered to bring rolls to my in-laws for Thanksgiving. If the angel biscuits are great - that recipe will work too. My preference is for pull apart rolls rather than anything that might be baked in a muffin pan. I have a KitchenAid, bread flour, whole-wheat flour, pizza stone, etc.. Just not sure of which recipe to use and it doesn't look like I'll have time to try one out before Thursday. Thanks.

I live in Philly and attended a pizza making class several months back at a local housewares store, Foster's, taught by one of the chefs at Osteria, Marc Vetri's transcendent pizza restaurant up here. I was quite intimidated by the intricacies of pizza making but after seeing a simple recipe in Kingsolver's Animal Plant Miracle I decided to belly up. Here's the link to Kingsolver's recipe and also to Osteria's recipe. http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/pizza.pdf http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/...za_maestro.html I am a bit puzzled by the Kingsolver recipe. It doesn't say anything about kneading the dough. We made two pizzas, one a simple pizza margherita, the second a margherita plus carmelized onions and peppers. The margherita plus was cooked on a pizza stone the simple margherita was cooked on a cookie sheet. The margherita plus turned out much better than the other, I suppose mostly because of the pizza stone. The crust was crisp and not soft and doughy like the one I cooked on the cookie sheet. I welcome people's thoughts on both recipes. I'm sorry not to have pictures to post. Thanks.

Enjoyed a pulled pork sandwich with a side of potato salad and baked beans at Ned's Barbecue for lunch and had roasted char at Milllie's for dinner tonight. I will find myself in Richmond quite often in the near future on business and am so grateful for the tipoff from folks on this messageboard about good places to grab a bite. Indeed after a long and thankless day of work nothing is nicer than seeing Verdicchio on the menu and some beautiful fish to go with it. Cheers.

Recently moved from DC to Philadelphia and struggling to find a quality fish market. Recently I've been quite disappointed with the quality of fish at WFM, lots of dry, limp, gray bits of fish in their cases. And they're still charging $20 a pound. In the DC area I adored the seafood at River Falls Market and BlackSalt. Does anyone know of a good spot in Philly to get fresh seafood: whole fish, fillets, shellfish, etc.. I did a bit of searching on Chowhound but most posts were to the Reading Terminal Market vendors whose stands were rather smelly and not much to look at. I want fish that sings! Thanks very much.

Thanks to everyone for their helpful responses. I'm feeling much better about my purchase and now feel confident in including the best accompaniments. Thank you all very much.

I am searching for quality smoked salmon as a Christmas gift this year. I bought some at the Native American Smithsonian Museum Store -- Quinault Nation. It was really expensive, I think I got six ounces for $65. It comes in a nice decorative wooden box. After calls to Whole Foods, Blacksalt and River Falls Seafood I'm second guessing myself. I tried to get more information about how the fish is preserved in a box kept at room temperature and got rather ambiguous answers from the SI staff. In retrospect I think museums are probably not a great place to make food purchases. I called the company who made the salmon, Quinault Pride Seafood Products. Both their website and phone are down. Whole Foods sells a 16 oz. Smoked Salmon Trio Gift Box for $28.99. Similarly this box is at room temperature. Blacksalt said they didn't carry any smoked salmon other than cold-smoked variety which remains chilled until served. The wonderfully helpful folks at River Falls shed a bit more light on the matter for me. They sell only cold-smoked salmon. I was told that there are two methods of smoking salmon, cold smoked and hot smoked. He said that salmon that is hot-smoked can be kept at room temperature while cold smoked salmon must be kept cool. He explained more about the process, something involved a salt brine. He said that the texture and taste is quite different between the two methods. I asked him if hot-smoked salmon is nice on crackers with a bit of spread and I think he said that it is more commonly served as an entree and that the pieces come off as hunks rather than the delicate slivers of cold-smoked salmon. River Falls said if I wanted hot-smoked salmon to check at outdoor stores and Williams-Sonoma type places. I've never had hot-smoked salmon and I'm wondering if it is something that I want to give as a gift, also if I got taken for a ride by paying $65 for a six ounce portion. If cold-smoked salmon is the way to go I can make arrangements to pick some up just before the gift giving begins. I very much appreciate any help you all are able to offer.

More of a cookie question -- growing up I regularly prepared and consumed no-bake cookies: an oatmeal, peanut butter, cocoa delight. About 50% of the time though the cookies had a grainy texture, like something funny happened to the sugar. Any ideas?

A related turkey stock question -- I used seven pounds of turkey wings to make my stock and wasn't sure if the remaining turkey meat can be used for other things. I tossed it in a ziploc but wasn't sure if it would be any good for sandwiches or turkey hash?

Brine or don't brine? I'm a semi-novice cook preparing T-day meal for me and five members of my boyfriend's family. Most nervious about a moist bird. Ordered an organic turkey from Whole Foods. Can someone please steer me to a fool-proof roasting method - I thought brining would help in that regard. Thanks.

Txaggie, Wow, that looks amazing. Would you be willing to share your recipe or method. Yum!

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I will certainly buy some Greek wine and make a nice Greek salad as suggested. I'll mull over the other bits a little more. Thanks so much.

Looking for a bit of advice/assistance. Having a small dinner party on Sunday, six people total. I'm planning to make a yummy Two-Cheese Moussaka with Sautéed Mushrooms and Zucchini (from Food and Wine) and was wondering what type of salad would be nice, what other accompanients woud pair well, wine, etc. Thanks so much.

Yeah I was quite put off to read this too. I've steady been calling Eamonn's -- keeping myself to a call there once every two weeks or so since early July trying to find out if they are open. If they aren't open to the public then don't open to the public. I've usually found restaurant industry folks to be friendly and welcoming -- and I think you're absolutely correct that the folks that lurk around on this forum are probably the kind of patrons a restaurant would want. Ugh. So will I be welcomed tonight without knowledge of the secret handshake?

I'm steady scrounging the city for a quality tamale. I've heard good things about El Rinconcito. True? Any other recommendations?

Anybody get a look at their hours? Is Eamonn's open for lunch today?

I tried the Indian / Pakistani place, Mayur Kebab House, on K Street, off of 11th last night. It was great. I got the veggie platter to go and ate nearly all of it in the car on the drive home. It wasn't much to look at but a great value and great food. Thanks for the tip!

Two friends and I went to Quarterdeck last night in Arlington. A 30 minute wait around 5:30 pm and lots of reservation flags on several tables. The Quarterdeck is nowhere near water and when all the SUVS and other cars pull up you can't see the Washington Monument or Iwo Jima either. The restaurant itself is warm and cozy and a feels like a throw-back to days long gone. The jukebox in the bar was stacked with 50's and 60's hit and had about 100 credits on it so I loaded it up with Jackie Wilson, Gene Chandler and the like. We down a pitcher or two of the $10 Miller Lite pitcher waiting for the table. No fancy brews here but some foo-foo frozen daquiris on the menu. A few forewarnings about Quarterdeck. First, if anyone at the table has all you can eat -- then everyone at your table has all you can eat. My friend asked if two more friends could join us later and sit just for drinks. The server explained that the friends would be charged for AYCE if they sat at our table otherwise they would have to sit in a different section with a different server. A bit off putting indeed. In fairness when we called ahead we were told about this policy. The AYCE crabs come only with baskets of fries, no hushpuppies, no corn, no potatoes. No corn or hushpuppies available, period. Also, Old Bay is not used to season the crabs, a salty, chip-like knock-off version is used instead and IMHO was not as tasty. The crabs however are wonderful. Several tables around us ordered Jimmies and they were huge. So big I did a double-take several times questioning whether or not these were Maryland crabs. They were and they were beautiful. Our AYCE crabs were small but delectable. The meat was warm, juicy, flavorful, fantastic. We ordered a dozen at a time and stopped at three rounds. It was fun to watch the families, couples, military folks, etc. around us. A little girl got scared when a bee swarmed around the table and jumped back. Her father smashed the bee with the mallet and then all surrounding tables laughed when he commented about whether or not he would use it to finish his platter. The AYCE price was $30/person. I regretfully did not get the price for crabs by the dozen. All in all wonderful crab, quite lacking on ambience, service and frills. A decent place for those without a car looking for somewhere local in the city. We were torn between here and Dancing Crab and decided to give a new place a try.