Pat

After all my fussing about the chard, I was running so late yesterday that I jettisoned it (in both forms) from last night's menu. I'll attack the chard tonight. I also dropped the molasses bread. Results of the meal were mixed, though overall it went well. I really have to get myself together to put meals out on time. I was aiming for dinner at 6 and we didn't eat until 7:30 . Fortunately, there was plenty of food out to keep people from starving in the meantime. We started with tortilla chips, salsa, and sour cream; a cheese plate; and crusty bread and butter. For the cheeses, I put out a morbiere, roccolo, edam, and an Irish cheddar. The roccolo was deemed too stinky a cheese and was compared unfavorably with old socks. More for me! I reverted to using all white flour with the no-knead bread (I also used bread flour for the first time), and I had the problem with it being too wet again. It made a nice crusty loaf with a little char on the bottom, but it didn't hold its shape real well and was flatter than other efforts. That bread recipe just can't be ruined. I'd like to be able to predict more consistent results, but no matter what I do to it, the resulting loaf is wonderful. We ate all but a sliver of the bread. I like the results with 1 part whole wheat to 2 parts AP flour the best, I think. The braised short ribs with horseradish gremolata from The Babbo Cookbook were spectacular. I was able to get the full-sized 1 lb. ribs the recipe calls for (as opposed to the precut packaged ones at the supermarket) at Union Meat at Eastern Market. Making 6 of them in the Le Creuset dutch oven was pushing the limits on proper cooking space but didn't seem to affect the results. (I browned them in two separate pans before combining them.) I made the orzo using butternut squash. The kids didn't want any orzo. They didn't believe it was really pasta (and the fact that I used whole wheat orzo was probably an additional turnoff). I thought it was pretty good. I wouldn't think of putting honey and balsamic vinegar into the squash puree, but that gave a really nice flavor, subtle enough that it would be hard to identify the components if you didn't know what they were. The brown chicken stock for the short ribs got a good workout, turning up in three dishes (also the orzo and the mushrooms). That is some good stuff. The pasta for the mushroom handkerchiefs did not come out right. It was way too thick. It may have needed to be rolled at a thinner setting than the recipe called for (or maybe I misinterpreted the recipe). I'd try that again because I really want it to work. The mushroom filling (which ended up being a topping) was excellent. The cookies were a big hit, both before and after dinner . The lemon shortbread cookies were excellent. I forgot the egg wash, but I liked them fine without it. I only baked about half the dough and am looking forward to pulling the rest out of the refrigerator to make some more. Most of the batch I produced yesterday are gone. The bittersweet chocolate cookies were also good, even though I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but there seemed to be something off in the timing and/or temperature for the recipe. The short ribs and lemon cookies were the real highlight foodwise. It was great to see these friends again, but I've really got to get things better prepared in advance so I have more time to socialize, not to mention delivering the meal in a more timely fashion

The green chard seemed to have somewhat longer stalks than the others, but not by much. I could check Eastern Market tomorrow. I don't have much time to go any further. There's one vendor who has a lot of vegetables from the Amish country who might have some, and there are a couple of other vendors I check in with too. At this point, though, I'm up to my ears in chard, and really shouldn't be buying more just to get the stalks. I think I'll just see what i can do with what I've got. Sigh. I was feeling so efficient about using the stalks in one part of the meal and the leaves in another .I'm way behind schedule. I wanted to have the cookies and one of the breads made by now but haven't gotten any baking done at all. I did have tonight's dinner precooked by 11 am, though . If I'd at least gotten the house cleaned, it wouldn't be so bad. Right now, I'm in the midst of making the chicken stock for braising the short ribs tomorrow. It smells heavenly.

Thanks. And to think I drove right past a Shoppers Food on the way home and decided not to stop .

Years ago, I came up with a butterscotch brownie recipe that was quite good. I haven't made them in a long time and have no idea where my recipe is. If I locate it, I will post it. (I dislike the little candy morsels as well. Chocolate chips is as far as I go with those things.)

I looked through piles of bunches of the various chards at Whole Foods yesterday, and much of the ends of the stalks had been helpfully cut off (because who would want the stalks? ). I ended up buying many more bunches than I needed leaves for soup to try to get enough stalks, but I don't think it's going to work. The recipe calls for the stalks to be cut in 4-inch pieces, and I don't think there's a 4-inch piece of stalk in any that I bought . I really didn't feel like running around store to store to see if I could find swiss chard with more intact stalks. We like chard, so having the extra leaves isn't a problem, but I'm a little grumbly about not being able to find the stalks.As I was trying to puzzle this out, I saw that they did have butternut squash, which can be used in the pumpkin orzo. I'm now thinking I'll make the Babbo short ribs recipe as is, accompanied by the orzo. Once I see if I can salvage enough decent lengths of stalk to make a small side dish, I may make that as well...just because I'm stubborn .

I've seen one of the episodes where he won and it was against a bartender, not really the kind of situation where the results would cause someone not to patronize the bar. All of the episodes I've seen where he's gone up against an individual entrepreneur, he's lost.

We're having people over for dinner Saturday. We used to entertain a fair amount, but we've really been slouching on this lately. I'm hoping I'm not too rusty. I tend to be overly ambitious, and the house also needs to be cleaned. Briefly I contemplated the fact that it's St. Patrick's Day but decided I'd rather do a largely Italian-focused meal instead. (The reason for the date is scheduling issues, not to have a St. Patrick's Day party.) I had thought of Meyer Lemon Eclairs (Chez Panisse recipe) for dessert but wasn't sure if Meyer lemons were available right now, and I think I may be at my limit for the amount of food I can produce by Saturday. With all of the rest of the food, I think I'll just go with cookies. This is for 4 adults and 2 teenagers. The short ribs recipe calls for a side of pumpkin orzo, but since pumpkin is out of season and I already have a pasta course, I'm going with chard stalks for the side; the leaves go in the soup. This is where the menu stands, pasted in from my notes: Bittman’s whole wheat molasses bread [this gets dropped if I don't have time] Bittman’s no—knead bread assorted cheeses and olives Swiss chard, parsley, and garlic soup [James Peterson, Splendid Soups, p. 221] Wild mushroom pasta handkerchiefs [Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Café Cookbook, pp. 28-30] Braised short ribs with horseradish gremolata [Mario Battali, The Babbo Cookbook, p. 230] Swiss chard stalks with Parmesan cheese [Marcella Hazan, The Classic Italian Cookbook, p. 357] Bittersweet chocolate cookies [babbo, p. 323] Lemon shortbread cookies [The Chicago Tribune Good Eating Cookbook, pp. 481-2] 1999 Barbaresco [We won't be consuming a lot of wine, so I wanted something to go with the short ribs. I'll probably open a white wine to start.]

All Schneider's had was Malidain Muscadet (2005, I think) and Quilla 2004. I didn't recall either from your list. I tend to like Loire wines and figured I couldn't really go wrong, so I picked up a bottle of the Quilla. Instead of eenie meenie miney mo , I went for the Kacher import (Quilla), as I generally find that to be a pretty good indicator of quality.

I don't know Cafe Soleil. All I can think of offhand is Kinkead's, which is at 20th and Pennsylvania.

Last night's menu was from Staffmeals from Chanterelle. I don't know how many years ago I bought the book, but I liked the premise (the in-house meals for restaurant staff adapted for the home kitchen). It's a very attractive well laid-out book as well. The recipes have a simple elegance to them that's inviting. I'll definitely be delving farther into the book. The menu: Mushroom-Barley Soup Smothered Pork Chops Sabrina’s Baked Beans Cream Cheese Pound Cake The baked beans were fantastic. Pairing them with the braised pork chops worked out well. I wasn't that hungry by the time we ate and didn't have any soup last night, but my husband enjoyed it. I tried a little for breakfast this morning, and the soup is rich and earthy. The mushrooms add a nice meatiness to it, and the barley adds a contrasting bite. I thought the recipe called for a lot of mushrooms (4 oz. dried), but it gives the soup a lot of flavor and texture. It took longer for the barley to cook than the recipe indicated, but otherwise it was a fairly straightforward recipe. I didn't have enough porcinis and rounded the recipe out with shiitakes. In the "I can't believe I'm actually out of this" category, I was already started on the cake (mise en place? ) when I realized that I didn't have enough all purpose flour. I always have excess bags of AP flour. I don't know what happened . I substituted pastry flour for the remainder. We were too full to eat the cake last night, but I had thin slice this morning and it seems to have come out just fine, though I'm sure the pastry flour changed the texture of the cake from what it would have been. I'm going to pull some blackberries out of the freezer and make a compote to go with it tonight. Mmmm. Mushroom soup and pound cake for breakfast . ETA: Just had the pound cake with blackberry compote. Wowza! That was good.

I thought 4 oz. seemed like a lot when I double-checked the recipe today. It hadn't even occurred to me that I wouldn't have enough. I'll go with shiitakes to round it out. Thanks.

I'm making a mushroom-barley soup tomorrow that calls for 4 oz. of dried porcinis. I knew I had some so I didn't put them on my shopping list, but now I see that I have less than half the amount called for . Since I have other dried mushrooms on hand, I'd rather substitute than go off on a last-minute search for dried porcinis. I love mushrooms but don't know as much as I should about them. I was thinking shiitake or oyster mushrooms were the best match. (I also have dried white and lobster mushrooms.) Suggestions? Thanks.

I think desensitizing oneself is the best way to get over phobias. When I decided it was ridiculous not to eat any tempura foods because of one bad experience years before, I started with tempura vegetables, then moved on to shrimp. As far as whole fruits, maybe cooking them would be a good start? (pears poached in wine, baked apples, etc.)

I generally have an aversion to organ meats as such, but chicken/duck/goose liver I can deal with, depending on how it's prepared. The various giblets from a turkey put into a stuffing or gravy are okay too. The only food I ate in childhood that still grosses me out is yellow wax beans. My mother generally stuck with fresh or frozen vegetables, but for some reason, she served canned wax beans. I found them really disgusting, and I still have never tried fresh ones. Sometimes when I see them in the market, I think I should get over this, and maybe someday I'll buy some. I also have a bit of a squeamishness about Greek restaurant food from a persistent negative association. When I was in Greece for several weeks during college, I got really sick (respiratory type illness, very high fever) and truly thought I was going to die. I had a really hard time eating, and all of the food seemed to contain a large amount of olive oil, which really turned my stomach. I couldn't even look at it. I lived on coca-cola and nescafe, as they seemed to be the only things without olive oil in them. I love olive oil and mediterranean food, but there's something about going into a Greek restaurant that triggers the reaction. I can manage it, but it's not what I seek out. In contrast, I once got very sick after eating shrimp tempura but have eventually been able to get back to eating tempura battered foods.

creamy seafood fettucine with bacon bits, peas, toasted almond slices, and Parmesan.

I'd also say Corduroy, and Restaurant Kolumbia is at 18th and K, if that's not too far.

Tonight was quesadillas filled with refried black beans, smoked salmon, pickled jalapeno slices and jack cheese, topped with chopped tomatoes, cilantro, and sour cream. Very satisfying.

Leftover wheatberry pudding from the other night. I love this stuff.

It definitely seems to be about the conspicuous consumption primarily, but I can't get past my own focus on the quality of the food .

The thing that seems so nutty about this to me is not just the cost for what would be a relatively inexpensive meal but that, no matter how carefully the food is transported, it just seems like there's no way it will be as good when it arrives as if they got Indian food from a NY restaurant or ate the meal on site in London. Somehow this seems different than needing barbecue (or any particular specialty) from a certain place and having it flown in. Maybe it's the same thing, but it doesn't seem that way to me. They're importing an entire prepared meal and a chef. Flying in the chef and housing him will multiply the cost many times over. If you really want a meal at this restaurant, then have your meeting in London at the restaurant. If you're in New York, get your food from a place there. It's not like they're in the middle of nowhere and have very limited food options. The logical followup to the story will be next month if he's in London and having a meal imported from New York . Do they know the chef will be able to clear customs with the food? Take a lot of dry ice through airport security?

At one point, I thought of doing recipes from the paperback BH&G Cookbook I've got. It's a relic, one of two cookbooks (along with JOC) my husband had when we met. A friend and I were talking about the cream puff recipe in there, which got me to looking through the book. I found it really amusing that there was a chicken puff recipe (same choux pastry but split and filled with a chicken salad mixture) in the book, mixed in there with the wieners and beans recipes. The from scratch recipes mixed in with the convenience food recipes really strikes me as being an interesting moment in time. I guess all cookbooks represent the time in which they're produced, but it's fascinating to see what of the old stays when the new comes in. Given that I keep cookbooks with recipes that flat out don't work, I'll probably hang on to this one . It's really more a contextual book--it's recipes from the lands of the Bible--than a straightforward recipe collection. Since it's dealing with similar recipes from different cultures, that may be one reason it seems vague in places. I'm interested to try this vis-a-vis Wolfert's Mediterranean Grains and Greens, also on my kitchen shelves. Since it's a somewhat similar concept, comparison should be helpful.

I don't always keep such good notes. I'm not sure if I can tell you which recipes specifically came from there. Digging back through old stuff, I did find this, which was an adaptation of several recipes I came up with for moussaka. I named it my favorite, but I haven't made it in a long time, so take it with a grain of salt . (I stopped eating lamb for a few years when I was on a really lowfat diet. I should try this again.) Pat's Favorite Moussaka Source: adapted from Shortcut Moussaka, Bon Appetit, Mar. 1992, & other sources, ca. 1998 (12 Servings) 1/4 cup olive oil 2 pounds ground lamb 1 small onion, chopped 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce 3/4 cup dry red wine 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 cups milk 3 eggs 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 large eggplant, about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled, sliced into thin rounds 1 pound russet potatoes, (about 2), peeled Heat olive oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add ground lamb and chopped onion and cook until lamb is brown, breaking up meat with fork, about 15 minutes. Mix in tomato sauce, red wine, parsley, crumbled oregano and ground cinnamon. Simmer until mixture thickens and is almost dry, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. (Can be prepared ahead. Cover tightly and refrigerate.) Preheat oven to 350F. Boil potatoes in large pot of salted water 5 minutes. Drain. Cool. Cut potatoes into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add flour and stir 1 minute. Gradually add milk, whisking until smooth. Boil until thick, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Beat eggs in small bowl to blend. Whisk small amount of milk mixture into eggs. Return mixture to saucepan. Bring to boil, whisking constantly. Remove custard from heat. Stir in 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Season custard to taste with salt and pepper. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange potato slices in bottom of dish. Arrange half of eggplant slices over top of potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Spread meat mixture over. Top with remaining eggplant. Pour hot custard cheese sauce over eggplant. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan. Cover loosely with foil and bake 1 hour. Uncover and continue baking until golden and bubbling on edges, about 10 minutes longer. Cool 10 more minutes and serve.

I have that Madison book but haven't checked it for bread recipes. I'll have to pull that book out and look.Revised, with my notes. I cooled this and served it at close to room temperature on toasted pita bread halves. It was really nice topped with a dollop of thick Greek yogurt. Cilantro-Garlic Eggplant on Pita Crisps with Roasted Peppers from Faye Levy, Feast from the Mideast about 2 1/2 lbs. eggplant (2 medium) 3 to 5 Tbsp. olive oil 6 large garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander 1/2 to 1 tsp. ground cumin 1/2 tsp. Aleppo pepper, or cayenne pepper to taste salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 Tbsp. chopped cilantro 1/2 cup plain yogurt 2 red bell peppers, grilled or roasted and peeled 4 to 8 pita breads, made into crisps or split and lightly toasted Grill, broil, or roast eggplant. Peel and chop. Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Add garlic and sauté over low heat, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in coriander and cumin. Add eggplant, Aleppo pepper, salt, and pepper, and mix well. Add 2 Tbsp. of the cilantro. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until eggplant becomes a thick chunky puree. Cool to room temperature. Cut pepper into thin strips. To serve, spread eggplant on pita crisps and garnish with pepper strips, top with yogurt and remaining cilantro.

I generally find that when it looks like the other ones don't have mold, closer inspection makes me not so sure. I throw them all out.

I made my planned menu from Faye Levy's Feast from the Mideast last night, with one exception. Since I had fresh green beans and didn't have fresh peas, I made Armenian green beans instead of Yemenite peas. I actually ended up making 5 recipes from the book, since I baked the pita as well. I've had the book several years and don't think I'd made any of the recipes before. These were the dishes: Cilantro-Garlic Eggplant on Pita Crisps with Roasted Peppers Turkey Thighs with Cumin and Tomatoes Armenian Green Beans Wheat Berry Pudding with Walnuts, Dried Fruit, Milk and Honey Overall I was pleased with the results (but I'd have been happier if I hadn't sliced my finger while chopping onions ). I think if I made the turkey/green beans combo again, I'd just add the beans and bell pepper called for in that recipe into the turkey mixture. Making both full recipes was somewhat redundant, but I wanted to make the recipes as they were written, this time around at least. The pita appetizer was excellent, served with a little Greek yogurt on top. The pitas were good, with nigella seeds in the dough, but didn't make pockets. I split them and toasted them lightly. Instead of breaking them into smaller pieces, I left the halves intact, and the bread halves made a substantial vehicle for the toppings. This recipe would be fairly quickly made using storebought pitas. I roasted the eggplants and peppers at the same time, and it would not have been a production to make this had I not been baking the bread. (Smokey asked for the recipe, so I'll post a summary of ingredients/technique it a little later.) I think I'll try a different recipe next time I made pitas, though. I had been looking at the pita directions in Bread Baker's Apprentice, which uses a lavash dough. I think those might have produced results closer to what I was expecting, but I decided to go with only recipes from the one book. Another factor may have been that my oven seems to take forever to get to temperature. Even though I started preheating quite a bit ahead of time, the dough was ready before the oven was, so the dough was starting to rise slightly again before it went into the oven. The dessert was creamy and wonderful--sweet but not too sweet. I think it will make a nice breakfast this morning as well. My husband said that the pudding was the best wheatberry dish he'd ever had. They're not a food he's incredibly fond of, but I love them. He endured my wheatberry kick a couple of years ago quite patiently . I found the directions in the book lacking in some places. It was nothing I couldn't work around or figure out, but I had to keep looking back at the recipes to see whether I was misreading or the recipe was unclear. The turkey had a nice flavor, but I ended up with rather irregular sized pieces, as I tried to remove the bones once it was cooked. The directions didn't indicate whether the pieces should be left fairly intact or cut smaller. I also think I should have thickened the sauce before serving, but I was losing steam by that time and nursing my bandaged finger. The recipe included a comment about thinning the sauce if it got too thick, but since it was simmered covered, it would seem thickening it at the end would be a more likely scenario than thinning it. Again, maybe my reading comprehension was off, but I was having trouble figuring out just how stewlike the dish was supposed to be.