I give them out freely and believe everyone should... but that requires me to write my creations down, which I rarely do.

Yes you can freeze it, but you will lose quality. The viscosity of fat and overall flavor degrade.

That said, it takes a long time to prepare pulled pork, so it's often better to freeze extra than to cook small amounts everytime.

Pass on Allen and Delancey. My mediocre experience was consistent with the other responder.

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Allen and Delancey
115 Allen Street, New York, NY 10002

Yes to Victornox/Forschner. Partly because of the black handle that is still grippy if it is smeared with fat (think safefty). Partly because the soft stamped steel is easily sharpened or honed after you've been carving on bones.

Forget forged knives that cost 5x as much. Put those in the mix sparingly, in places where you need more precision in your cutting.

I have Forschners that are 20 years old and still going strong after all those meat cutting parties.

Do NOT let anyone tell you which series is better. It's all about how they feel in your hand...small differences matter, so go try them out yourself.

That said, I despise sets. In a set of 8, there will always be 3-4 that get no play. I have a mix and match set where each knife in my block is picked for the task. N=5 knives. Wusthof GP, Forschner (meat cutting), Cut Brooklyn.

I'd pick pinot noir from Sonoma Coast or Oregon. A to Z 2007 is widely available and is $15.

All - I gotta say it's refreshing to see that most responders are using inexpensive wine tools, where form follows function. I expected a bunch more advocates of them silly Rabbits. :-)

I suggest you don't buy another bottle in on this category, but instead try a bunch more at wine bars and pinot noir tastings at reputable shops.

I despised pinot for about 15 years, then one day, almost overnight, I loved that category. It could happen to you too :-)

That said, here are two different, but great pinots that I'm drinking now:
http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1042600 (richer, more flavorful style
)http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku... (lighter, fruity, with balanced acid)

Suggest Perry Street in the West Village. Quiet, romantic, comfy booths for all guests. Dining room is unusually large for the 60 guests it can hold. Modern takes on steaks and pork. Awesome-but-small wine list, great table service.

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Perry Street
176 Perry Street, New York, NY 10014

I suggest making a pile of ultra gourmet cupckakes - on the morning of the wedding because freshness matters alot.

I thought it was over, but the cupcake trend still rules. I am routinely seeing banquet crowds inhale cupcakes!

Do a dozen of three or four flavors.

And because this is a wedding, remember PRESENTATION is 60-70% of the total package. Don't just put them on a plate. Dress them up, realizing that they will be the centerpiece of the dessert table. Yep, think Martha Stewart and stuff.

My opinions:
-Forget in-bird stuffing. It screws up the even cooking of the bird, makes your stuffing inconsistent at best.
-Cornbread based stuffing mix rules.
-Make your mix on the stovetop and cook until done.
-Put foil over stuffing to retain moisture.
-When ready to serve, pop stuffing back in broiler to toast the top.

I feel the same way -- Mark West Pinot is just a mild, unintense wine. Will never buy it again because it has no personality.

That said, it's a perfect wine to serve at a large party for the red fans who think zin and cab are too intense.

Mayahuel on E 6th. It's gotten some press, but it is certainly still UTR in terms of Manhattan folks.

I think that's because they are making nichey tequila and mezcal drinks, and serving classic Mexican street food. This is not for everyone, but is certainly for ME. Woo hoo!

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Mayahuel
304 E 6th St, New York, NY 10003

Sheesh. Where do I start? I have at least 40 items in rotation I would never order at most restaurants. On the never-never list is gnocchi, most Mexican dishes, roasted chicken, barbeque.

So that's how we roll at dinner parties. My wife and I make all these things that aren't very good in restaurants.

Head for Hayes Valley and dine at Citizen Cake after a cocktail at Absinthe locaed one block away (best in city, IMO). My only caution: watch out for the grey hairs on opera and symphony nights. Way to avoid that is to have dinner starting at 8.

Not sure why CK doesn't get more play on Yelp, etc. I think the place is awesome. Romantic, intimate enough, not bistro loud.

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Citizen Cake
399 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Good call. I didn't see them on the list. Do you like the 96, 97 or 98 better?

thanks for the tips on the Oregon 08. I have not tried any of them but hear from the 'pinot ho's' that it is the better one.

Great stems from Reidel, Spieglau, etc matter a ton. Especially when you are serving value-priced wine, which seems to benefit more from $15-20 stems than say first growth Bordeaux.

Here's what I believe - quality crystal glasses have thinner edges which do a better job of laying the wine on your tongue. Shape of glass also matters a ton. I have done many side-by-side comparisons and I just like Reidel Vinum better than my previous $5 stems from Bed Bath Beyond.

I highly recommend that you do one yourself. You can buy Reidel Vinum in a 2-pack and do a taste test at your next dinner party.

This is the Diageo sale. And other repliers are right, most is sold out. That said, there will be another sale on 11/12.

Moon Mountain Cab Franc 2005 is beautiful (comparable to Pride) and fairly priced at 300 a case.
Hewitt 03 Rutherford is amazing wine as well, fair at the case sale price.
Provenance Sauv Blanc is always outstanding.

Skip Sterling, Canoe Ridge, Sterling, Rosenblum.

I used to be into high ceremony and flashy accessories when it came to opening wine.

When having guests over, I would proudly walk over to my laminated box full of glitzy accessories and conduct the ritual that I thought ’serious’ wine drinkers should perform — you know, the foil cutter, an antique wine funnel and my Rabbit corkscrew.

I junked all but one of these wine openers due to serious design flaws. Due to serious design flaws, I junked all but one of these wine openers.

Honestly, I chose all of my wine accessories for form over function, thinking function was pretty much the same. One night, this strategy really bit me in the ass. My suave wine opening attempts failed miserably three times in a row. And with each successive gaffe, I earned an increasing amount of laughter from my friends — the exact opposite response I was trying to elicit!

This comedy of errors ended with my Rabbit exploding into bits, ejecting a metal spring into one guest’s risotto while leaving the screw still in the cork! At that point, one of my guests started impersonating Elmer Fudd in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, singing “kill the wabbit…Kill The Wabbit….KILL THE WABBIT…”

Once all the hoots and howls subsided, I still had the issue of opening the bottle with the screw lodged in the cork. Luckily, I had a small pair of vice grips in the garage to bail me out.

Fast forward to the next morning. While trying to put my Rabbit back together, I realized that this wasn’t the first time my glitzy wine accessories had failed me.

At that point, I decided to hit the reset button on my collection and buy a whole new set of accessories. If something had failed on more than once occasion, I junked it…ergo, 2/3 of my accessories collection was gone including a Rabbit, a large mounted brass opener and a French Laguiole.

My new go-to set of tools:

* A $0.69 sieve to replace my $200 antique wine filter. I found the sieve at a dollar store. It completely outperformed the antique filter, which had large holes instead of fine mesh. I sold the antique on eBay and bought more wine.
* A Pulltap Waiter’s Corkscrew, which replaces EVERYTHING ELSE. Yes, the sturdy and perfectly functional Pulltap (image right), found in the pocket of most wine-serving waiters walking around restaurants today. This thing works like a dream, and you can buy it for a song ($4-6). I gave away the other dozen wine openers to Goodwill.

Out of curiosity, I’d love to know where you guys stand on wine accessories. How many do you have? Does function follow form? Why?

My palate says pinot noir is b a a c k in style. My pocketbook says fine, but only under $20.

I put a shout out to my pinot friends who are hooked on Russian River, Sta Lucia Highlands, Cote d Or, Cote du Bueane -- and they tell me don't bother with pinots under $35.

To this I say: B.S.

While I haven't spent a lot of time looking at pinot noir over the past few years, I am certain that there are great values to be found in the $14-20 range.

To prove the point, I recently found:
-Willowbrook (Mendo and Sonoma Coast)
-Alcina (Sonoma Coast)
-A to Z (Oregon)

So I'd like to pose the question to y'all on Chowhound to hear what you have to say...yes or no, pinot under $20 is worth exploring. And bonus points for sharing some names you really like in that price range.

If your experience of organic wine is uniformly "bad," then you haven't yet experienced some of the world's greatest wines, which just happen to be organic.

For example:
-Storybrook Mountain (zinfandel, meritage, viognier)
-Tablas Creek (Rhone white and red varietals from Central Coast)
-Many Chateauneuf du Papes including Vieux Telegraph
-Moon Mountain - Sonoma based cab, cab franc, etc.

All of these farmers that I know could care less about the Organic designation as they do about the care and feeding of the soil and all around best environment to grow great grapes. Many organic practices just simply make better wine.

The Burgundian winemakers were famous for blowing out their soil with fertilizers and pesticides in the 60s and 70s, only to realize that taking it easy on the chemicals was a great idea.

Scott - I highly recommend you stop shopping for wine at Trader Joes and head over to established, trusted SoCal wine shops instead. For the same money, you will exponentially increase your 'hit rate' on value wines.

This is a sore, old topic for me, but I'll lay it out quickly. TJ's puts a lot of wine on their shelves at attractive price points...just like Safweway. If they cared about wine quality more than profit, you wouldn't see half the bottles on their shelves.

That said, stop shopping at TJ's and other supermarkets and go to specialized wine retailers. Make friends with them...and watch your knowledge expand while you greatly increase your ability to find great values in the $7-15 range.