lvsnyder's Profile
tipping question
Thanks, everyone, your comments are helpful.
FWIW, we'll be staying in a US city.
tipping question
(sorry if this is slightly OT, didn't know where else to post it)
My wife and I will be staying at a luxury hotel to celebrate a special occasion. In the lead-up to our stay, I've been talking to the hotel concierge by phone and e-mail and he's been extremely helpful in making dinner reservations at a place we couldn't otherwise have gotten a reservation.
Since I don't regularly stay at such hotels, I'm not sure what the etiquette is here. Is a tip for the concierge appropriate/expected? How much is appropriate? And, he will not be on duty when we're staying at the hotel -- how do I get the tip to him?
Many thanks!
favorite pulled pork recipe?
I have a couple of really nice locally raised pork roasts (1 butt, 1 picnic) in the freezer, and next week I'm planning to serve it up as pulled pork for a small dinner party. What's your favorite recipe? I don't need something slow-cooker-friendly -- I'll be home all day and can tend to it. Ideally I'd like something with tons of flavor and lots of nice bark.
(By the way, has anyone tried the recipe for tinga in the Mar/Apr 2010 CI?)
Favorite restaurants in the Lehigh Valley, PA
I second (third? fourth?) the vote for Bolete, which I believe is the best fine-dining restaurant in the valley, by a sizeable margin. As other posters have said, there are lots of posts on this topic and you will find many good suggestions. But I also wanted to mention the Emmaus farmer's market (http://www.emmausmarket.com/), which I think is the best farmer's market in the valley. The sellers are the actual farmers, not wholesalers (unlike Allentown farmer's market, which has its own appeal but is really not a "farmer's" market). It's open May-Nov and personally I can't wait until May.
Seek simple, reliable heritage turkey recipe
What do you all think about brining a heritage turkey? I brined my Butterball(-style) bird for the past few years and was glad I did. This year I'll be cooking a heritage bird for the first time. I like the "keep it simple, butter salt pepper" advice, but should I brine?
Freezing Chicken Stock
I usually find myself in the same situation. I put my stock in the fridge overnight and freeze it the next day. I usually remove most of the fat, and refrigerating makes this a lot easier. Don't see any reason why you can't leave the fat in if you want it there, though.
green side for pot roast and roast veggies?
Yeah, the broc is meant for our toddler. But maybe someone will have a fantastic idea about how to resurrect it for adult consumption, who knows. :)
green side for pot roast and roast veggies?
Tomorrow (Fri) night I'm making dinner for 4 friends, one of whom is an outstanding cook (but is not picky or judgmental about food cooked by mere mortals like me), another is a wine buff and will be bringing some good stuff. I'm making pot roast (Cooks Illustrated recipe) and roast veggies (potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions, peppers roasted in cast iron skillet). I feel like there needs to be something green on the plate too. Suggestions?
FYI I have some nice organic farmers market broccoli, but it's been blanched and frozen.
canning roasted red peppers?
Can you freeze sauteed peppers too? I have a ton of frying peppers right now. I'll saute them but I'm not sure I can eat them all before they go bad.
Dinner close to the Sofitel Hotel
Wherever you have dinner, make sure to get gelato at Capo Giro. The gelato is made fresh with amazing ingredients and flavors. There are two stores close by and almost equidistant from the Sofitel, one at 13th and Sansom, one at 20th and Sansom.
Sofitel used to have an incredible deal, $139 for a weekend night including breakfast for 2 (room service allowed) and (if you're a member of their free loyalty program) 2 free drinks at the bar. Every time I booked it, I thought it must be some kind of mistake. I guess they wised up eventually. sigh...
Your tried and true Cook's illustrated Best recipes.
I love the pot roast recipe from the New Best Recipe book.
From the magazine (and maybe the book?), the brown sugar cookies are insanely good. I don't usually waste my time eating (let alone cooking) cookies that don't have chocolate in them but these are worth it. Also a long time ago there was a recipe in the magazine for lemon cookies with lemon-cream cheese frosting that was also terrific.
New cook in the House-- need tips/books
I'd recommend getting a subscription to Cooks Illustrated magazine and/or buying their cookbook "The New Best Recipe". CI is really good at explaining what works and why. It's good for building intuition about cooking techniques, ingredients, etc. The recipes are mostly easy and pretty foolproof.
The downside of CI is that, because they are so precise about things (wrap in two layers of foil, add 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of water, place in oven preheated for 18 minutes at 340, bake for 23 minutes...I'm exaggerating but not that much), you might develop a tendency to adhere too closely to the recipes rather than trusting your own (growing) intuition in the kitchen. I definitely have this problem -- relying too much on recipes -- it's not CI's fault but I can see it as a potential downside if you learn to cook using their magazine/books.
I would also suggest not getting too hung up on all the different vinegars, spices, etc. Buy a couple of the basics, figure out what you like, buy additional things as recipes call for it. Don't overwhelm yourself all at once.
pork tenderloin -- 2 questions
FWIW, it still looks beautiful. It was vacuum packed and there's no evident freezer burn, ice buildup etc.
pork tenderloin -- 2 questions
Almost 2 years ago we bought 1/2 pastured pig from a local farm, it came butchered and frozen. Recently I discovered that I still have the tenderloin in the freezer.
1. Can I still use it?
2. If I can, what should I do with it? It's a small tenderloin, about 8 inches long. Only 2 of us will be eating it. Normally I stir-fry store-bought pork tenderloins but somehow this seems like a waste.
Bolete vs The Farmhouse
Thanks for the review folprivate. Can't wait to do it ourselves. We're planning to go for the tasting menu in mid-Nov, unless we can find an excuse to do it sooner. :)
Bolete vs The Farmhouse
I know it's too late but I'll put in my 2 cents anyway. We used to eat at the Farmhouse a lot but Bolete has definitely become our go-to restaurant for nice meals out. Farmhouse seemed to go downhill a little, IMO, in the last couple of years, though I assume you can still get a pretty good meal there, probably second best (next to Bolete) in the valley. Bolete has been right on point each time we go there.
folprivate -- can you give some more info about the tasting menu? We're hoping to have it sometime soon.
carving roast chicken
Thanks for the tips, everyone. Looks like I'll get some practice on my next few roast chickens and hopefully it will get easier after that...
carving roast chicken
On this thread -- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/650741 -- someone suggested Thomas Keller's roast chicken recipe (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Simple-Roast-Chicken-231348). I tried it tonight. The chicken came out beautifully, nice brown crackly skin, and then I totally mangled it trying to carve it the way Keller suggests. Please help me learn how to do it his way.
My normal method for carving a roast chicken is: remove legs, slice breast meat off bone, then assume the rest of the bird will go into chicken salad or something else so give up on making it look pretty.
Here's Keller's method:
1. Separate middle wing joint. [OK, I can do that]
2. Remove legs and thighs. [Legs, no problem. Thighs? I just kind of hacked at it until the thigh came off, but I probably left too much thigh meat attached to the backbone. How do you find the line to follow with your knife?]
3. Take off backbone and eat "oysters". [Didn't try to do this. How do you take this off? Where are the oysters?]
4. Cut off chicken butt. [OK, easy.]
5. Cut breast down the middle, serve on the bone, with one wing joint attached. [Here's where i really messed up the beautiful skin. I just pressed down with my knife to one side of the breastbone until I made progress, then kept going until I was through the bottom side of the bird. This really mangled the skin.]
Help please! Also, what kind of knife should I be using? I used a big Chinese-style rectangular cleaver-type thing.
Stir Fry tips and tricks?
my own 2 cents: Make sure everything is pretty dry, especially the meat, and especially if you marinated the meat. If the meat is still really moist from the marinade it will steam and get tough instead of browning. Similarly if you are using brocolli and want to steam it, brown it first, then add some water to create the steam -- I prefer that rather than steaming first.
If using garlic and/or ginger, mince them up and mix them with a little bit of oil. After the veggies are mostly done, make a little spot in the center of the wok, add the garlic/ginger, mash it up a little bit, and cook for 30 sec or so, then mix it back in with the veggies. (I learned this trick from Cooks Illustrated, but I'm guessing they didn't invent it.)
"holding" pasta?
Yesterday I was trying to get the timing just right, with the pasta finishing cooking just a couple of minutes after my wife got home from work. She was about 10 min later than I expected so the pasta was done too early. I wound up draining the pasta, returning it to the pot, and adding a little sauce, which worked out OK. But I was wondering if I could have just turned off the heat under the pasta and let the pasta sit in the hot/warm water for 10-15 min without it overcooking too much. What's the best way to "hold" pasta in this situation?
Birthday in Quakertown/Allentown area
You could try the Farmhouse in Emmaus -- not exactly Quakertown but not too much farther. I recommend it b/c you mentioned beer -- they always have around 7 beers on tap, and a lot more in bottles, and they know their beer there. It's fine dining, so might be out of the question depending on how little the little one is, but you could always call and ask how they'd feel about it. There's also seating downstairs in the bar area that's more casual. The food would probably appeal both to meat-and-potatoes types and more adventuresome eaters.
There's another recent thread about Melt, you can see my post about it there.
The Promenade Shops...How is the food?
I think White Orchid is pretty good but a little overpriced and the food is a little too sweet. I prefer Thai Thai II in Bethlehem but WO is still worth going to. I haven't been to Melt in a year or so but we used to go fairly often and liked it. The pasta dishes are good and reasonably priced; the other entrees always seemed overpriced to me. The cold antipasto is very good, and large -- share with 3 or 4 others. I haven't been to Kome, the new Japanese place, I hear it's so-so.
St. John Spice/Cruz Bay Rub substitute?
Last year on a trip to St. John, USVI, we stopped in a store called St. John spice and bought a jar of Cruz Bay Grill Rub. We've used it on veggies, steaks, potatoes, in tacos, etc. -- it's very versatile. Now our jar is about to run out and I don't want to order more from St. John Spice b/c it's a little pricey and so is the shipping. Does anyone know this spice mixture and can recommend something similar, e.g., from Penzey's?
FYI, the ingredients listed on the jar are roasted garlic, onion, bell papers, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, fennel, other spices, salt, cane sugar. (I once tried to replicate this myself using the ingredient list, with disastrous results.)
Allentown/Bethleham area suggestions. Please help>
There are other discussions on this board about Allentown/Bethlehem/Lehigh Valley restaurants, so if you'll search you'll find more suggestions, but here are mine. (I don't know who's open on Thanksgiving, you'd have to call.)
Bethlehem:
Blue Sky Cafe -- funky eclectic atmosphere and food, we've been there with our toddler with no problems
Billy's Downtown Diner -- atmosphere is a little better than typical greasy spoon, food significantly better, open breakfast and lunch only, I think
Thai Thai II -- good Thai food, might be a little iffy with a 2-year-old, but they do takeout
General Zapata's -- new Mexican/Caribbean place in southside Bethlehem, quite small, don't know whether they have a high chair, food is very good
Bethlehem Brew Works -- brewpub, good beer and above-average bar food, lots of seating, we were there with our toddler tonight and it worked out great
Olive Branch -- very good middle-eastern in southside Bethlehem, probably kid-friendly
Elsewhere:
Spice India (Whitehall) -- good Indian food, they've told me they like kids there but we've never brought ours (again, we've only gotten takeout)
Damascus (Allentown) -- more good middle-eastern, probably kid-friendly
Grumpy's BBQ -- decent BBQ and cajun/creole on Mauch Chunk Rd north of Allentown, couldn't say if it's kid friendly -- you'd probably have to decide for yourself
Finally, if your family will babysit one night and you want to go out for a splurge meal, I cannot recommend Bolete (www.boleterestaurant.com) highly enough. It's an excellent farm-to-table restaurant that buys locally and organically and serves delicious but not overly fussy food. The specialty cocktails are also amazing. Expect to pay $150-200 for 2 people with drinks, appetizers, and desserts. (I know you said ultra-fine dining is out but I can't help myself.)
Allentown/Bethleham area suggestions. Please help>
Can you narrow down your preferences a little more, especially tell us whether you're looking for cheap/casual or fine dining?
best easy roast chicken method?
I think it also lets the skin dry out some so that it gets crispier.
best easy roast chicken method?
I've been getting really good organic pasture-raised whole chickens at my farmer's market and I'm looking for your suggestions for roasting them. I've been using Jamie Oliver's recipe which involves stuffing butter, lemon zest, thyme, garlic, and prosciutto under the breast skin -- it is fantastic but a little fussy. I want to be able to come home from work and have the chicken in the oven in 5 or 10 minutes, and not have to do much else other than take it out. I'm willing to do a little prep the night before.
What are your favorite easy chicken-roasting methods?
Ground Cherry Pie is here! [moved from Pennsylvania]
I bought ground cherries on a whim at the Emmaus farmer's market last weekend. They are small fruits, about the size of a plump blueberry, and are wrapped in a papery husk like a tomatillo. It's hard to describe the taste, which is fruity but not too sweet. The raw cherries definitely brought out strong feelings both ways in different people. My wife made a compote from it that was really good (sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, ground cherries). We ate it on french toast.
good fresh local seafood in Ocean City NJ area?
Staying in Ocean City with family and in-laws. In-laws will babysit while wife and I go out for dinner. Looking for a restaurant that serves good, fresh, local seafood. Doesn't have to be fancy. I'm thinking of the kind of place where the chef builds the menu based on whatever the fishermen drop off that morning. Willing to drive a little bit if necessary.
Suggestions?
Heading to Ocean City..Anything New to check out?
Really gone. We were crushed too. I called the # on the web site and spoke to one of the owners who told me they closed due to credit-crunch issues. They hope to reopen in a future year. Meanwhile they opened a year-round place in Frazer PA which is apparently doing well.
