AlliK

I think I'll just stick to my own risotto recipes - wouldn't want to risk the tribunal!

While I understand that you want people to experience what you've perfected, I don't know of a single cookbook I've ever read that forbids people from making their tweaks to their own taste. If someone wants to make a change, then do so - just acknowledge that you used a recipe "based on" Joe H's and not the actual recipe. What's the big deal in that???

I'll second this. Great croissants and other pastries; I also like getting hot chocolate, madeleines and pecan shortbread cookies for an afternoon snack. Only issue is sometimes having to jockey for a table inside - tight space.

If you have the time/freedom to go over to Boulder, this place sounds good: Frasca (I haven't been)

Enjoyed a nice dinner at Etete last night. It's cute inside, more upscale than I imagined. Being relative Ethiopian food novices, my group relied somewhat on our waitress for ordering advice. We ended up with 3 lentil sambusas to start. I'd skip these next time - the spicing of the lentils was nice, but they were pretty heavy/greasy to start with. For the main course, 3 of us "fastening foods" (a.k.a. veggie combo platter) and 3 meat dishes. We thought we only asked for 2 meats, but ended up with (and paying for 3)...oh well, that's what you get when you ask for help ordering I suppose. We had 2 beef dishes, one being the derek tibs (doesn't that sound like it should be a football player's name?), and a spicier stewed lamb dish that was a big hit. All of the veggies were very good - 2 lentil dishes, greens, cabbage, potato/carrot stew, salad, and a few others I can't remember. In all we paid a little more than I expected, but also had way more food than we needed. I'd definitely come back here when an Ethiopian craving hits.

Great RW dinner tonight (as expected given all the feedback Corduroy has received this week). Kabocha squash soup and microgreens salad to start - the soup was quite strongly flavored with what our waiter identified as pancetta (not a bad thing, or course!). Lamb sirloin with rutebaga gratin and black grouper with clam sauce as mains - clam sauce was described as sort of a clam chowder, but think less creamy. Pistachio bread pudding and alsatian apple tart for dessert - I really enjoy how the desserts here aren't overly sweet. I'll admit to being a little bummed that the chocolate tart with caramelized bananas had morphed into a white chocolate tart on the menu...I'm not a big white chocolate fan. I was curious to see several tables stay empty while we were there - granted we had an earlier reservation, but even by 8:30 when we left there were 2 or 3 4-tops that hadn't appeared to have anybody seated at them yet. People are missing out on the best value of the RW options!

I subscribed to the same CSA as you and have the same feelings. Did it last year - was fun for awhile, but didn't get as much as we expected nor as much variety as we expected. Will be happy to spend the money at a farmer's market instead this year! (Also, the pickup location was fairly inconvenient for us, so we often ended up just skipping going to pick up what we knew was going to be not a great assortment.)

Try AOC... yum! And if you head to the farmer's market, Loteria Grill is great for Mexican food. My other favorite for a cheap snack when I lived there a couple years ago was Diddy Riese in Westwood Village - for $1 you get two big, fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies sandwiched around a big scoop of ice cream. $1 also gets you 2 cookies and a carton of milk. Ah, I miss that place...

I really enjoyed the cafe when there for lunch in November. It can be a little bit of a wait if you go at primetime (like 15 or so), but time is spent in a line looking at the menu posted on the wall. We had a nice meal of fennel/white bean soup, a prosciutto panini, and beet salad with fresh ricotta. There were many other delish sounding items as well - pastas, a lamb shank special, good looking charcuterie, cheeses, etc. Good wines to go with.

Anyone have favorites for Christmas desserts? Thanksgiving has always been easy to figure out with our family (pumpkin pie, pecan pie), but Christmas has been more up in the air. My mom and I like eggnog pie but the rest of the family isn't as keen on it.

Or give The Harrison a try. I mentioned in a few posts up on this page - very good place, warm atmosphere and would fit your "good for foodies and non-foodies" requirement. The menu is online too so you can get an idea of the options.

I have an old family recipe from my mom (and probably her mom) for oatmeal sandwich cookies that you spread with a date mixture. They're really hearty and good - we always called them "camping cookies" because they seemed like the perfect food to take camping (even though our family never camped). Let me know if you're interested and I can send you the recipe when I get home from work tonight.

Ah yes, reminds me of my favorite easy pasta - tapenade (I just do olives, garlic, anchovy paste and olive oil) thinned with a little pasta cooking water, with penne, buffalo mozzarella, basil, and cherry tomatoes. It's as addictive as potato chips to me.

Do you think there might be cinnamon in there somewhere too? The flavor of the bird tends to remind me a bit of the moroccan spice blend ras-el-hanout.

I tend to think of soup for simple weeknight meals. Escarole and white bean, butternut, avogolemono etc. all take just a few minutes to throw together. My other favorite simple (and retro) dish is a family casserole called Drunken Chicken - involving, of course, Campbell's Cream of soups, rice, butter, parmesan, bone-in-chicken, and sherry doused over the whole thing. Slop it together and bake slowly. Definitely not gourmet, but easy and familiar.

Our family tweak on a sugar cookie recipe is adding a bit of orange zest - makes them taste more interesting and less straight sugar to me.

You're correct on that - sorry I can't help more!

I found this online - in Wilton which isn't too far from Fairfield. There's also somewhere called Aux Delices in Stamford popping up in searches, but I don't see a website for it. Phone: (203) 326-4540 There's the Center for Culinary Arts in Cromwell, but I think that is for more long-term/professional programs.

Sweet potato, celery root and ginger soup, inspired by "Chocolate and Zucchini" - somewhat odd sounding combination but it turned out to be very good. With a salad of sliced clementines, shaved fennel, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette. Dessert was crepes suzette!

Lefse (Norwegian potato-y crepes) spread with butter and sugar and rolled up Mom's homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning with Harry and David's pears on the side Beef tournedos with bernaise (Julia Child's Fillets Henri IV) for Christmas dinner...yum! The bernaise took a few years for the family to get right, but now it's thick and tangy and just right. We have the beef with little potato balls pan fried in butter and also creamed spinach topped with hardboiled eggs - I don't know where that combo came from, but it's been a tradition for 20+ years now. To top it off we have "eggnog pie" which is basically a custard folded with whipped cream, topped with nutmeg in a pie shell. Basically you could sum up all of our holiday favs as "butter with a side of (fill in the blank)"

Ahh...thanks for the input. Yes, I added the half and half cold, so that probably did it. Next time I'll try warming cream up beforehand (and I'll try something more interesting than the carrot/celery/potato mix for vegetables).

Had some good eating in NYC a few weekends ago - The Harrison in TriBeCa (short review in last week's NYT) was very good for upscale American food I guess you'd call it in a very un-stuffy atmosphere. Very nice waitstaff (as the NYT also mentions). We had a very difficult time choosing 2 appetizers from among 3 contenders. The waiter ended up bringing us the runner up that we had passed to share after our main appetizer course - a yummy way to sample the "biscuits and gravy" dish. The second night we ended up at Casimir, a cozy french bistro, on 103 Avenue B between 6th and 7th. Tasty steak frites, duck confit, salads, etc. Dessert was at Billy's Bakery in Chelsea for an awesome (in terms of taste and size) slice of banana cake with cream cheese frosting. We saw the little "order half pieces for half price" sign by the register too late.

It's too late for your cookie swap now, but perhaps for future cookie baking... I made these Biscotti with Cranberries and Pistachios over the weekend and they were both easy to make and delicious. My only edit was using orange zest instead of lemon - seemed like it would pair a little nicer with the cranberry/pistachio/aniseed flavors. We ended up dipping some in white chocolate, but I liked plain just as well.

I was excited reading Bittman's recipe in the NY Times food section last week for Browned and Braised Chicken with Root Vegetables. It sounded homey and just right for a Sunday dinner. So what happened? I used half and half (which recipe said is ok) and the whole thing curdled, there was a ton of scum/foam at the top, and a big layer of grease as well. I understand the scum and grease (skin was still on the chicken, so that probably had a big hand in it), but what makes the cream curdle and how do I avoid it? If any of you DR cooking experts have feedback, I'd appreciate it!

I shred it and mix with BBQ sauce and freeze that - easy to pull out for a sandwich dinner sometime, and freezes/thaws just fine.