My girls bought me a pink Silpin several years ago, and I love it! It's a French style pin, covered in pink silicone. I had been using a traditional maple rolling pin with handles (cylindrical), and that was fine, but once I started using my Silpin, I never went back to it.

I've sprinkled sugar on a lattice-topped pie. Works just fine. You're not adding enough sugar to change the taste of the filling, so don't worry about getting sugar on the exposed pie filling. And it's very pretty.

Yes, that's the only way to avoid it -- but when I do it, it never fails. The timer starts beeping, and I'm looking dazedly around thinking, "What in the world was THAT set for??" -- after all, no burners are on, nothing's on the stove. Y'know?

You grind the whole thing. I can't imagine sitting trying to separate the stems from the buds!

I often buy whole spices on purpose since I know I can use them either whole or ground or even "cracked" in my mortar and pestle, depending on what I'm making.

I'm always amused when I read about trips, like yours, and realize we could have been at Viviano's at the same time that day because we took a trip in to the Hill, too. Picked up Mexican Coca-Cola they had on ice and some wine.

Took a walk down to Bertarelli's cutlery shop down the street a ways, and drooled over the knives for a while. Beautiful.

We also took in Lulu's down on Olive for dim sum, and that made a very yummy day.

A clear liquid is just that. You have to be able to see through it. No potatoes, no starchy stuff, no pea soup.

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/America...

My favorite is fried, but that is such a mess. So my next favorite is Justin Wilson's "boiled" okra. You simmer it with hot sauce, drain off most of the liquid and add Worcestershire, vinegar, salt, and olive oil. Serve warm or cold. Very good.

Do you think my posting on this thread will get all resto reviewers to stop saying "shatteringly crisp"? I think Ima go for it anyway. PLEASE stop saying Shatteringly Crisp. For one, I don't believe you. For two, c'mon. Drama, anyone? ARRRGH. And I just read it AGAIN in a Sam Sifton review. Stop!

Hm. After reading all the concern about red-sauce pastas, it reminds me that years ago, my home-based babysitter used to strip the kids down to their diapers/undies to feed them spaghetti. Then, she just had to wash them down with a washcloth after lunch and re-dress them in their original outfits. At the end of the day, you never knew they had "pah-sketti" for lunch. 'Course, not sure that helps a 'hound in a restaurant much, does it?

Well, it does have a name, after all!

" KC " - it's the initials of the daughter of the owners. What an experience eating there! Serve yourself tea, rice, congee (as you please), as well as drinks and dessert. We had a steamed pomfrit with ginger, black bean, black mushroom, and cilantro; braised green vegetable with fermented soybeans; white-cooked chicken with soybeans; an oyster "pancake" that I would actually describe as an omelet; and slices of boiled duck with tofu. Like having indoor street food. Very nice!

And... it has an address! 8233 Olive Boulevard, Saint Louis, MO.

We even found several laminated menus in English & Chinese scattered around the dining room. They were amusingly footnoted as "produced by a third-party to make Meng Lei more user-friendly." Go!

What about broken up salted pretzels? Has anyone ever tried this? That seems like a possible analog to the nuts. Thoughts?

I love this!

Thank you, lemons for fixing Royal Chinese. Of course, I remember that now. I also usually buy my cha siu there.

Dad is from a Swatow family, so I figure he is a good judge of Chiu Chow food. Of course, he can even speak the dialect! I ought to drag him up there with me sometime soon.

We haven't been in so long (too long!), but LuLu is great for dim sum. I like Chinese BBQ (I think that's what it's called) for those claypot dishes you can't find really anywhere else. My mom and dad have eaten at a small hole in the wall, which I don't even think has a menu in English, for Swatow food (Chiu Chow) and gave it thumbs-up. I don't know the name, however.

I just located a Riverfront Times review of the place, but I don't see an address. Sorry!
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2007-0...

Oh, please don't resort to an allergy "excuse." This just makes is harder for everyone who has a real allergy. I think you should stick with the truth, and get assertive!

Nearly every "specialty" cookbook I've ever been gifted with or purchased. Examples: BBQ, Pizza, etc. Appreciate the thought, but so many of them are gimmicky. Like, if you're going to get a bbq book, get a Raichlen title - he teaches you something. So often, when you get the fancy book, it's full of run of the mill, "yeah, so who didn't know that?" tips. You don't learn anything. I need to learn something from the entries (not to mention the recipes).

As one of the original posters.. 3-1-9 Grille, one of my faves, is no longer. <sigh>

I totally recommend Coffee Zone, and also a new place, Downtown Diner. Both on High Street, across from one another. The Zone is basically Mediterranean bistro. The Diner.. well, duh. It's a diner with traditional American. Cafe Via Roma, yes. Still good - panini, salads, coffees.

A nice Thai place also.. called Chim's. On High... I haven't been, but people in the know, really like it.

I love Love Sushi, but it's out on Missouri Blvd, and if your business doesn't take you out there, you'll have to travel out. But a very nice spot. No, even excellent spot for sushi.

Das Stein Haus I highly recommend. It's out by the Truman Hotel on Jefferson St., basically on the access road to Hwy 54 running out of town, south and west. German food, solid, basic.

Also, Prison Brews is a new spot on Ash Street, off E High. Sandwiches, salads, wood fired pizzas. And O'Donaghues is a solid standby (I actually recommend it .. highly... over Prison Brews) just down the block from there.

Oh, also downtown... Arris Pizza. One of those solid Greek thin-crust pizza places. I absolutely adore the gyros here. They say Brad and Angelina always go to the Arris in Springfield, Mo. (same family) when they visit.

Another branch of the Arris crew has opened Arris Cafe, across the highway in a small strip mall. Basic pizza, panini, salad place, but with a little hipper vibe. (It's a little too loud and echoey for this old fogey.)

And I can't stop without recommending Zesto for ice cream and polish sausage sandwiches. But if you don't have time, not sure I'd bother. (even tho I like em!)

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Coffee Zone
130 E High St, Jefferson City, MO 65101

Prison Brews
305 Ash St, Jefferson City, MO 65101

Use Marcella Hazan's fresh tomato sauce recipe. Basic guidelines: Wash and slice 2 lb tomatoes in half. Put in a pot and heat to simmer, and then simmer, covered, for 10 mins. Run thru a food mill to remove seeds and skins. Then return to pot and add a whole onion, skinned and sliced in half.. plus a stick of butter and about a 1/2 tsp salt. Simmer that uncovered for like 25 min, remove onion and adjust for salt. OMG.

I am sorry I don't have a solution for you, but can I just compliment you for spelling "minuscule" correctly? Thank YOU!

I have a bachelor friend (about 50 y-o) who does not like to cook, but realizes he has to have some sustenance other than McDonalds or Long John Silvers. He is very picky, near as I can tell. Like, not many veggies other than maybe a tossed salad or corn. Now, he emailed me the other day and said he remembered his mom making tuna casserole, and did I know what canned soup she might have used in it.

I told him my preference for tuna noodle casserole was cream of mushroom, but second choice would be c-o-celery.

Then he emails me back and says, Well. All the recipes I am finding tell you to cook the noodles first, then stir into the rest. "And that's too much trouble for me."

So, CHs. Can you make tuna noodle casserole, in the "three or four cans and dump it all in and throw in oven" method, WITHOUT boiling the noodles first? I know there are methods for lasagna with uncooked noodles going right in with the sauce .. but I've never worked with uncooked pasta that way.

Understand, this is a guy who hates to cook, doesn't understand anything foodie (AT ALL!) and just wants to have a supper that might recreate what his late mother might have made him years ago. .. tia!

Shredding isn't a problem if you just don't stew the already-cooked chicken with your sauce/gravy and vegetables. I thicken everything the way I want it, put my veggies in and get them started, and then at the very very last, just before topping with the crust, I stir through my chunks of chicken. If it's chicken a la king, I just warm it through at that point. If it's CPP, it gets topped and into the oven. Never have a problem with stringy chicken that way.

Come on, you guys. ChrisKC is looking for macarons. And there is no frakkin way that Archway will make this product. Here's an article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaron

A pretty little whiteboard in a frame that I got at Target, I think. And I write whatever I just ran out of on it. Also a Georgia O'Keeffe calendar... but that's mainly cuz I LUV LUV LUV Georgia O'Keeffe. Otherwise, it's all cabinets and shelves.

My latest disaster was Chinese egg tarts (daan taat). I've made them before without any real problem. Pulled my homemade puff pastry dough out of the freezer, thawed it, and went to cut the tart pastries like usual. Filled with a really nice egg custard and put in the oven. All the pastry shrank and drew in on itself so quickly and dramatically that the egg custard went spilling over the edge of every single tart shell, filling the baking sheet they were on with a 1/4 inch layer of egg custard. The pastry did eventually puff, but it went all soggy from having the egg custard on all sides. How nasty. And how sad, because you know how much time it takes to make the puff pastry to begin with. I think my son ate one, and my daughter another, each commenting on the tremendous sog factor. But the rest had to be chucked. boo hoo.

Oh, no. If I didn't want to do it, I wouldn't. And had I not had the tofu, the frozen vege, etc., they would have had to make do. But y'know, I looked in that fridge and I was like, Hm. Tofu. I can make something outta that. And it probably didn't take but 2 mins of microwave time to thaw the spinach and another 12-15 on the stove to stirfry everything together. A good pantry helps, as well as a lot of experience tossing things together and knowing what tastes good. Plus, it was Christmastime. What the heck.

LOL! I guess I've got an angel food cake in my future. Or 10. (And I *hate* angel food cake!)

DC, we've been talking to her ever since she was born. And talking. And talking. If it's any consolation, she did bring me about 12 dozen eggs.

Thanks, cookies ... I think.

Today's my anniversary, so it's home-cooked lobster tonight - an old tradition. And I guess I can also serve cold roast beef with it.

I just have to get this off my chest.

Started fixing a standing rib roast, using the Alton Brown dry age method with a low-slow cook followed by high temp "crusting." All was going according to plan. Had beets roasting. Preparing some pre-blanched broccoli. And some potatoes, "roastie" style.

Oh, wait, mom ... did you remember that son's GF doesn't care for rare beef. Can you fix some chicken?

No problem. Got a couple breasts out of the freezer, started thawing and pan-roasting them. (I have three ovens, so rarely run out of oven space, thank goodness!) We're still hours ahead of eating, so I'm feeling pretty good.

All of a sudden, sister shows up. She's been visiting with friends and now has invited herself to supper. She eats beef, so no issues there. But she's brought an international friend, who they inform me is a vegetarian.

Good grief. So now, while I'm checking on the beef, the chicken, the potatoes, I pull some chopped spinach from the freezer, a box of UHT type tofu, and some leftover jasmine rice from the fridge. And make a vegetarian stirfry with dark soy as a seasoning (at least I remembered not to put oyster sauce - my go-to sauce - into a vegetarian dish).

At this point, timing is shot to heck. At least DH was on hand to slice the beef roast, which turned out a bit too rare, I thought, but tasted good.

By the time all the food was hitting the table, and people were sitting down to eat, I had no idea what was done, not done ... and not sure I cared! Had another martini. Then remembered the potatoes were still warming in an oven. Whew!

OK. Now that's off my chest! I guess the moral of the story is, DON'T PANIC. At the same time, not sure I want to be put to that kind of a test anytime soon. Thanks CHers for listening!