Back in college there was this guy (call him "French Toast King" - FTK) who had a bit of a crush on one of my roommates. One night we were all hanging out and someone made a comment on how much they love french toast. The next morning at 7am (we were a house of early risers) the FTK was back at our apartment with all the fixins to make french toast, including a griddle! This continued weekly for the next few months, until FTK's new girlfriend forbid him from coming over to cook for us.
The best part is FTK was just recently a contestant on "Worst Cooks In America". But honestly, at the time the french toast tasted pretty awesome!

A BWW openned recently near me and I too was excited about trying a new wing place. BUT I was very disappointed when we finally tried it. All the food is served on/with disposable plates, cups, forks/knives and I am pretty sure nothing was actually cooked in the facility. We had wings, a wrap, and a salad and everything seemed like it was pre-packaged and just reheated on site. I couldnt help but think about the crazy amounts of waste they must produce.

I bought this pesto the other day and it was super tasty. But the downside is that we left it open in the fridge for a week and when i went back to use it on some pizza there was a thick layer of mold over the top. So its a blessing and curse that the stuff is pretty fresh, but make sure you freeze it shortly after openning or the "great deal" gets thrown in the trash.

I just made the deep dish recipe in this month's Cooks Illustrated and it was fantastic! A bit time consuming since the dough goes through two rise cycles, but overall a simple recipe with great results. I strongly recommend it.

Crockpot meals overnight - that's one of my best time saving tips. Even though I'm a morning person I always I find that things are always a bit too crazy in the AM to think about dinner. Meanwhile, after dinner at nighttime is a great time to put things together in the crockpot. Then I set it on low with a timer and voila "dinner" or lunch is ready when you wake up. I do this alot and bring that food with me for lunch that same day, assuming you don't mind repeating meals in a row :)
(I don't think this was mentionned yet, but sorry if it was and I missed it.)

I made lentil burgers and blackbean burgers last night for a BBQ this weekend. Both were very simple and quick to make and high in protein, low in fat. I put the patties onto a cookie sheet and then froze each patty individually so that i can just throw them on the grill one-by-one as needed.

I walked by Gargoyles in Davis Sq last night and saw a sign in the window stating that they are now offering a weeknight 3 course pre-fixe for $30.

My vote is for the "chocolate brunch" at the langham hotel. They make a chocolate croissant pudding that tops all desserts i've ever had. It's heavenly.

I went to Icarus with my four of my girlfriends on Friday night for RW. I've been to Icarus a few times in the past and have always enjoyed the food and the service has been good too. However, my RW experience this past weekend did not align with my past experiences.

We arrived on time for our 8pm reservation and were told that it would be a few minutes until we were seated. Not a big deal. After about 15 minutes we were brought to a nice booth for 4 in the back of the restaurant. The table was a great place for us since we were looking forward to having a nice cozy meal and catching up with each other. Our waitress came right over with the drink menu which featured 5 or 6 yummy cocktails and the wine lists. We ordered a mixture of cocktails including the cosmo, lemon-tini, and sidecar. All were very tasty.

For dinner I ordered the bluefish cake appetizer, crispy duck entrée, and profiterole dessert. The bluefish cake was very tasty, not too fishy. It was served with a nice green salad with vingearette on the side and then a Dijon mustard “dipping sauce” for the fish cake. The mustard was good, but a bit overpowering if more than a light smear was applied to the cake.

The entrée (crispy duck) had a nice flavor and was served with a red cabbage sauerkraut and a few pieces of potato. My first impression with the duck was that it was approximately 1/3-1/4 of the size of the standard Icarus duck entrée. There was a single duck leg, approximately 1-2 ounces of meat. TINY. I’m not a big person, I don’t require very much food, but this entrée was even too small for me. The plate even look scarce, like a major part of the dish was missing. I was disappointed and still hungry upon finishing it.

After our entrees were cleared then waitress came over within seconds to ask if we would like any coffee/cocktail with our dessert. We requested a menu with the after dinner drinks and instead she said should could make anything we wanted. We again asked if we could see a menu. Note – it is now about 9:30, we’ve been sitting for about 70min. This is our Friday night out, we want enjoy our meal. She finally agrees to bring a coffee menu, but then returns moments after dropping it off to ask if we’ve decided. We settle on coffees/espressos. Immediately after ordering our drinks, our dessert shows up. Then 5 minutes later our coffee. Then 5 more minutes, our check. At this point we are getting the impression they want us out of there. But we look around there are empty tables so we decide we shouldn’t be rushed and continue with our coffee and dessert and throw a credit card into the check. The waitress immediately comes over and runs our card.

Here’s the kicker. Then the manager comes over and says “I’m sorry ladies, but we need your table. I’ve set up chairs in the “lounge” for you to hang out for a bit if you would like.” They kicked us off our table! We’d been there for 1 hr 30 min! on a Friday night! And there were empty tables! WTF. We were angry.

Once we were “re-located” I asked to speak with the manager again. I commented on how I’ve been to Icarus before and really enjoyed my experiences, but tonight was seriously disappointed. She said she was sorry, but its RW and they need to keep tables moving and then she bought us a round of drinks. I guess that could make up for the fact we got bumped – but not completely in my book.

Thanks Icarus. You will not be seeing me again or getting a recommendation from me. And this is just another example why RW could be a great thing, but in practice it can often fail.’

(sorry that took so long)

Wait?!?!?! There is a SECOND magnificient muffin?! No way!

This is something that has crossed my mind a few times, so I figured I would bring it up with a group of people who (potentially) enjoy eating out. Do you mind/like/dislike eating at an empty restaurant?

Personally, I feel really uncomfortable eating anywhere your party makes up the entire dining population and I would even say I feel strange when only 10-15% of the tables are full. I'm not sure what it is, but I think I feel like I'm being watched. Also, there is a big of catholic guilt ingrained into me that makes me feel really bad for the owners and waitstaff when the place is so empty. I tend to sit there a worry about the waitstaff, chef, owner, etc. I'm definately not saying that I only like eating at crowded places, more that I just don't like being the only one dining at there.

Does anyone else feel this way and purposly avoid empty restaurants?

Cambridge Common on Mass Ave btw Harvard and Porter has great sweet potato fries..

I am a HUGE fan of Magnificient Muffin in Teele Sq (Somerville). They make a great egg sandwhich that is fresh and tasty and not dripping in butter or bacon fat like some other boston delis. And they open at 6 on weekdays which is a nice bonus.

I enjoy soft and chewy chocolate chips cookies, which are always on the thicker than thinner side. I tend to use ~30% less sugar (white+brown) than the recipe calls. Otheriwse i follow the toll house recipe exactly and it consistently comes out with soft and chewey and delicious cookies. So my input - use less sugar.

I use cloth napkins everynight except for large gatherings and BBQs. I've found that using them saves $$ on buying paper, saves trees from being chopped down, cuts down on trash, and (honestly) you can always fit 4 more 12"x12" pieces of cloth into the washing machine each week.

It also think that using cloth napkins make the meal fell more like you're eating at home then grabbing food to-go. That could just be b/c I was raised on cloth napkins every night growing up.

I roasted some veggies last night (carrots, sweet potatoe, butternut squash) with some olive oil, pepper, and sea salt. I must not have been paying enough attention to what I was doing and I serioulsy oversalted.

I was hoping to make something with the leftover veggies (soup, ravoli stuffing, etc) but I think it might be ruined. Any ideas on how to save my veggies from over salting?

I I truly love cooking- I do. But (regrettably) I also have a job and don't have time or money to cook everything from scratch. I agree with the notes on cheese and oil. I also agree that fresh herbs are far superior to dried herbs but fronting the cost of buying fresh herbs, or for that matter throwing out and replacing the dried herbs annually, is impossible for anyone on a budget. I have tried making my own vanilla extract and it was easy and cost effective so perhaps I can half agree on that point. Just a few thoughts.

It is that time of year again when you go apple picking and come home with pounds of pounds of apples and try and figure out what to do with them. I tend to stick towards the same few things each year, which is typically applesauce, apple crisp, and perhaps an acorn squash filled with apples + raisins. What are some of your favorite apple recipes?

Poverty Lane Orchard in Lebanon, New Hampshire wins in my book for the best apple picking in New England. It is a bit of a hike from boston (~2hrs), but it is worth the trip! Make a full fall-day outing and make the trip, it will be worth it.

The orchard is beautiful, not crowded, and has the authentic feel of what apple picking should be. Unlike boston-local orchards that warn you not to eat any apples until you've paid for them, poverty lane realizes that in order to understand their heirloom apple varieties you need to try them. Not to mention that the apples are like 1/2 the price of those at Nashoba Valley and way tastier.

http://www.povertylaneorchards.com/

So I love fish but I have not put any effort into finding a good fish market near my home. So I tend to order fish whenever I'm out and occasionally buy it from whole foods. But I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations of good fish markets in the metro boston area, particularily the north-metro area (ie Somerville, Medford, Arlington, Winchester, Wakefield, etc)? Thanks!

I graduated from Tufts in 2005 and my roommates and I planned a similar event for our families. There were ~30 of us total so it was closer to a restraunt room rental than just a dinner.

The criteria we also followed included: price (Tried to keep the bill ~$30/pp, looked for a place that would make a limited menu or pre-fixe menu for us to simply the billing procedure), parking (since grandparents etc are not T-able), privacy (we were looking for something more than a long table with 30 people around it), location (close to Tufts, same side of the river).

We looked at: The Red House in Harvard Square, Christophers in Porter Square, Redline in Harvard Square, Gargoyles, Grafton Street, Sidney's Bar and Grille (Hotel at MIT), and a few other places that i can't thinkof right now.

We ended up at Redline because they were able to essentially give us the whole dining room, a 3-course menu for $20/pp, and seperate drink tabs per family. The food was decent, nothing too fancy, but more than burgers or fries. The service was quite good considering the size of our group. The budget was met. Overall I still wish we went to a "nicer" place, but it ended up working out really well. I'd say the most important thing to make sure you book it early, like right now. We waited until mid-April and it was way too late. Also, have a pre-set menu also simplified things alot.

Oleana. Hands down.

Thanks for the input so far! Yea when I asked what people what they would like to do when they come up and visit I was a little thrown off by the request to go somewhere trendy. I tried to explain that though only 200 miles from NYC, Boston never really secured a place in the trendy scene (ie- I wear chacos to almost every bar i've ever been to in boston). Nonetheless, I am trying to find something nice and fun for dinner before we revert to our 25 year old selves and run wild across the city.

Help!

My close group of girlfriends (who all live in NYC, mid-twenties) are coming up to Boston in two weeks and we are looking for a place to go for dinner on a saturday night. We are looking for somewhere trendy and "glam" but not crazy expensive (entrees should be ~$20-25 on average). I tend to either go to small bistro places (like oleana) or big entree places (like border cafe) with my friends up here, so i'm not up-to-date on more hip places to go. I would prefer a place downtown so it will be easy to hit some bars after dinner.
Thanks for any advice you have!