cucas87

Mojito Salad (adapted from a recipe in the New York Time Magazine). salad: 1 -2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped juice of 2 limes 1 jicama, peeled and cut into matchsticks 2 English cucumbers, sliced thin and in half-moons 1/2 -1 seedless watermelon, cut into 1 inch cubes 2 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved lengthwise 1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves thinly sliced (optional: I didn't do this for the picnic" 1/2 cup thinly sliced cilantro leaves) dressing: 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1/4- 1/3 cup honey 1/2 cup lime juice zest of 2 limes 1 teaspoon sea salt 4 teaspoons light rum If I make this ahead of time, I don't add the jalapenos until a few hours before it's time to serve. Also, it's best to add the dressing at the last minute. And if you are serving this to non-vegetarians, it's wonderful with grilled shrimp.

It's like I'm on (the old) Candid Camera show over here in cucas87-world. Whoever put the huge seeds in my supposedly seedless watermelon, come clean! I'll apologize for whatever it is I must have done in a past life.

I'm in.

Ithaca Another Cornell alum here with a lot of nostalgia (and sadness over the Chariot's closing which I unhappily can confirm) -- and a few Ithaca dining ideas. Cheap and in Ithaca's Collegetown: I second the recommendation for pizza (it's deep dish) at The Nines (The Nines). Also: Aladdin's on Eddy Street for salads and middle eastern food, Souvlaki House on Eddy Street for Greek Salad, Ruloff's on College Avenue for sort of "American" food. Moosewood Cafe downtown in the DeWitt Mall is a piece of history. If you want to relive your hippie days go to ABC Cafe [Closed Spring, 2010] on Stuart Avenue. If you're in Ithaca by Cornell, and you're walking around and in need of a snack, head to the Cornell Dairy Store (on campus by the vet school) for some good, creamy and not frou frou ice cream . For a good Saturday night place, I'm a little stumped as the places I would love to recommend have closed. There used to be a wonderful French restaurant called L'Auberge du Cochon Rouge. It has become John Thomas Steakhouse which is apparently well liked. I also have heard that Just a Taste in downtown Ithaca is great. I haven't been to Willow, [Closed] although I have the sneaking suspicion I went there in its prior incarnation on the night before I graduated. I also haven't been to Madeline's (also downtown Ithaca on the Commons) but I've heard raves about its desserts -- and single malts. Now, if you're looking to hear a crazy band in a funky location, I can talk and talk and talk about the Rongovian Embassy in Trumansburg. In any event, I saw these two websites that may be of more help: Ithaca and Ithaca Dining.

The Linden Vineyards dinner was great. I hadn't tasted any Linden wines before last night, so it was nice to have such a good introduction and to hear Jim Law talk about the wines and winery. Majestic did a lovely job with the dinner. In brief: the softshell crab, which is now on the regular menu, was terrific, and the 1999 Hardscrabble Chardonnay was excellent. I've been on an anti-Chardonnay kick for a while and this was a good way to remind me that Chardonnay can be very tasty. I'm a big fan of sauvignon blanc and really enjoyed the 2005 Avenius Sauvigon Blanc and the flaky smoked trout tartlet (with goat cheese) accompanying it. Could have had more of both but there were 2 courses to go. The rabbit two ways (a grilled and then braised or "graised" rabbit leg and rabbit ravioli in a rich broth) was very good, though I much preferred the leg to the ravioli, and the 2004 Cab Franc was lovely. In my real life I rarely drink dessert wine, but I enjoyed the Late Harvest White and the vanilla bean panna cotta very much. Thanks to all for this fun and tasty night.

I'm in as well.

I'll be meeting (gasp) a non-DR.com friend for the Lickety Split lunch today so maybe we will see you, but I think we may miss you since we probably won't get there until about 12:30.

I'm always up for the Lickety Split but (sigh) I can't go today. If you end up going another day this week, let me know!

Last night was incredible. Thank you to everyone who made the extravaganza possible. I also appreciated hearing from Chef Sudhir and Monica and will definitely be returning to PTI. Hopefully I will use last night's dinner to be more adventurous in my ordering. I pdf-ed the menu but cannot seem to upload it. I suspect the error is my own.

That's a great point. Another friend of mine catered for Tom when he was in NY last year on another shoot. The confidentiality agreement she signed was so detailed that she won't say anything else, except that she didn't have to attend scientology class. But again, she wasn't on set, so who knows.

I had my first meal at Tallula tonight. I am very impressed and very happy, especially since it's so close to my home. I joined Grover and Escoffier and some of their non-Rockwellian friends. We had three courses that were very nicely paired with wines, as well as dessert and coffee. And now the scoop: First course: "Foie Gras for Breakfast." This was amazing. A piece of grilled foie gras on French toast with a fried quail egg on top and some maple syrup drizzled on the side. Served with a shot of an intense and creamy strawberry smoothie. Sweet, salty, smooth, crunchy, I can't say enough good things about this. One member of the group is vegetarian, and she had a flaky and creamy mushroom strudel. The wine was an Austrian Gruner Veltliner that was terrific. I cannot recall the name, but if you went to the Austrian wine tasting at Tallula a few months ago, you likely tried it. Second course: seared yellowfin tuna with a sauce of olives, morel mushrooms, dates and pistachios. This was phenomenal. Paired with a French blended white wine, that was very nice and so very good with the tuna. Third course: mushroom ravioli in a rich lamb sauce (and, of course, a non-lamb sauce for our vegetarian diner). Rich, a little smoky and spicy, this was paired with a French pinot noir, a 2003 Monthelie. For dessert, we had a dessert sampler plate, which included the buttermilk panna cotta with seasonal fruit (I tried to think of how I could distract everyone and sneak it off the serving plate and into my purse, but I couldn't come up with anything plausible); angel food cake, vanilla bean cheesecake,peanut butter pie, 2 sorbets:honey and ginger -- ,which were served with homemade cookies, devil's food cake with a white chocolate mousse and caramel sauce. These were all wonderful. And we had a late harvest Blossom riesling from the Okenagon valley. I could not eat or drink another thing, but some of us ordered coffee, espresso and cafe latte, and everyone seemed happy. Tallula was in great form tonight. The menu, food, wines,and service were excellent. Great thanks to Chef Anda, Josh, Elizabeth and Derek and everyone else involved in [making our evening so nice.

A big, big thanks to Joe Riley, who was very gracious and helpful and sold me, at a lovely DR.com discount, some bottles of the sauvignon blanc and shiraz that jparrot so nicely provided at the L'Academie dinner. Thanks to jparrot for bringing the wines and putting me in touch with Joe, and thanks to Joe, for being so gracious to a small purchaser like myself.

I don't know if anyone here is involved or has been involved in craft services, but I've been interested in it for a while, at least since my (very, very) short-lived stint as an extra a while ago on "The West Wing." In any event, Food Network has a show about the company that provided craft services during the filming of MI-3, it's called "Catering MI-3.' It's pretty interesting since it shows how the craft services dealt with buying food and catering in a couple cities in China. Full disclosure: one of my friends appears a few times in the show because he worked on the craft services team -- but until I saw this show I didn't really know what he did.

Add me to the picnic list. As for what I'll bring, it's a bit up in the air. Maybe some kind of pasta or chicken salad.... maybe with some or all of: anchovies, toasted pine nuts, currants/raisins, green onions, olives, mint, and lemon or orange zest. On the other hand, maybe gravlax (so refreshing). Yeah, I guess I need to think about this a bit. Stay tuned.

I have turned 21 many, many times, so I asked my 22 year old cousin for ideas. She suggested Zaytinya.

I don't think I can make it on Sunday. Sigh.

I had no idea how much food and wine was in store for us last night-- or how much work would go into the night. Thank you to everyone -- and to Jm Chen, who was selfless enough to share her newly won vinegar with the rest of us.

Just an FYI, the cookbook made the NYT's food blog today (4/17): Bruni's blog on the Andres book

I've made this easy pasta-spinach-lentil dish from "Gourmet" many times and I've also added white beans (and some red paper flakes) to it. It's nothing outrageous, but very comforting. recipe

I've used that recipe as well and it is very good. Truth be told, brisket is one of those things that has to be, well, brisket-y. It's a tradition thing. My aunt used to make brisket that had a tomato-cayene-coca cola sauce. One year I decided to cook for my parents and brother and got all creative with the menu. No gefilte fish for us, I made gravlax. And then I substitued braised lamb shanks for the brisket. It all turned out great. But my family went nuts. You'd think I served scallops or something.

Sounds good to me.

Maybe the not-kosher but kosher-for-Passover plan is is one of those things that makes sense only when you do it -- and not when you hear about it. When I was growing up, my neighbors once used a pork chop bone (instead of a lamb shank) on the seder plate. My friend Eric used to have the "car rule" during Passover -- anything could be eaten in the car, but if you were out of the car, you had to observe Passover. One year my father ate ham and cheese lettuce wraps during Passover. He said it was the easiest Passover ever. I think it's nice to make some kind of effort, no matter how small, which is why I appreciate the recipes here.

I can probably make it to Lucky Three on the 22nd or 23rd, but I won't be able to be at HEOB this weekend.

I too had a wonderful dinner at Corduroy last night, celebrating a friend's new job. We shared the carrot, goat cheese and beet salad and the foie gras torchon to start. Phenomenal. I think we snagged the last order of the foie gras last night, but if it's available when you go, listen to all of the raves here and order some. We shared the sea bass and lamb for mains and then had the pistachio bread pudding and dark chocolate tart for dessert. Everything was excellent. Along the way, I had a glass of wine and then some of the best and hottest coffee ever and a lovely plate of candied lemon peels and Ferhat's famous cookies. Service was excellent (thank you, Kat!) and on top of everything else, we managed to avoid the worst of the storm.

A very quick overnight trip to NYC this past weekend. Thought I'd let you know of a few inexpensive and fun places I visited. First, a quick burger lunch at the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridian hotel. Burger Joint This is not fancy dining. The Burger Joint is just off the hotel lobby, around the curtains, and looks like a wood paneled old fast food place. You order at the counter and then wait for your name to be called and hope that during that time, one of the tables opens up. My friend and I each had a cheeseburger and fries and soda and spent $21.00 (in total). They have beer on tap, but I knew I had a long night ahead and needed to conserve calories. The verdict: good, not excellent, but fun. I haven't had a chance yet to have a burger at Danny Meyer's Shake Shack, but that's on the agenda for the next trip. Second, some wonderful gelato at Il Laboratorio del Gelato, on the lower east side. Gelato The toasted sesame gelato is incredible. And then some green apple sorbet. Also phenomenal. Then I had just enough time to walk a few blocks to Rockwood Music Hall to hear my brother's last NYC gig before he heads off for Europe. Afterward, we walked a few blocks over to Apizz and somehow, without a reservation, managed to snag a table and share a pizza. Apizz. I love the lower east side, or as I now call it, the upper lower east side.