It's the best thing (along with a giant beer) after skiing all day in the Dolomites! And yes to what mbfant says re: ingredients (though I knew a guy from Pesaro who put sliced olives in, as well).

2 cents from me: You can get a clay pot (Roemertopf) at just about any yard sale for a few bucks, and it's pretty easy to throw together something decent in it without a lot of muss/fuss.

The conventional wisdom used to be buy cheap, crappy Teflon pans (you can get stacks of three sizes at any grocery store), because the surface will start to peel and you'll have to throw them away anyway. However, I'm VERY happy with my Calfalon nonstick pans, bought on sale at Macy's, which have lasted over 4 years now with nary a bare spot. Having said that, before it developed a hot spot on my gas stove, my cast iron skillet was as good as a nonstick. Now I have to go through the whole seasoning process with a new pan, as my cooktop is one of those ceramic ones, and the warped old pan isn't so effective now.

I was trying to use only "politically correct" meat for awhile and I quickly learned that grass-fed beef requires different cooking techniques. I made a chili that, though the sauce was delicious, was completely dry and stringy in texture because the beef was so lean and had virtually no marbling. I'm not being such a purist now but hope to go back to it when I have more control over my budget. Not sure what the solution but am thinking a butcher at a place like Whole Foods or other natural store could give you advice.

Am I the only one who thinks the judges are getting a bit crotchety with this " they should have made the corn tortillas" position? I mean, from what I understand it takes years to learn how to do it right, and they were tight for time as it was. And for 150 people? Next they're going to demand they grind their own flour to make biscuits. It would have been enough, surely, to source some fresh, good, local ones?

IKEA sells a grill pan they claim is compatible with a glasstop: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/pro...

You might check this out: http://www.compactappliance.com/Danby...
Though I have a built-in Bosch dishwasher, my washer-dryer is all one unit, portable (hooks up to sink) and came from this same outfit. Of course it's awkward having to roll it around but it still works great and is supposed to be very energy efficient. Only downside is it takes a LONG time to dry.

Then there are operator errors when things aren't spelled out. Don't know if it's true, but Peg Bracken once wrote she ended up with a stew that should have been a clam cobbler. The recipe neglected to tell her to drain the canned clams before adding them. ;-)

So sorry about your cats, Linda. I lost my 16-year-old and within a month my 19-year-old about this time last year, and it truly hurts--though I have a third who I must say is now much happier without competition from the "alpha" Schatzi (I described her as affectionate, jealous, and demanding). It leaves a hole in your life--so tough their lifespans are so much shorter than ours. Here's to the next feline soul you will be giving a home to, though.

"I'm having a problem with herbs. They're all little and green and they all look alike to me." Or words to that effect...LOL!

Can't speak for others but I love a good beef carpaccio and it's too much trouble to make at home. Same for sushi. The one semi-raw thing I *could* make is a tuna steak, and the inside of that will definitely be raw, too. I guess it's just a matter of taste--I find these things super delicious and hard to make at home. If it were cheaper and easier to make (and easier to find "politically correct" sources for) I'd probably have fish (or shrimp or scallops) 3-4 times a week.

One of my criteria for ordering food in a restaurant is to pick something I can't easily make at home. So though I love a good steak or lamb chop, those are easy peasy to make and thus I look at the carpaccio. the grilled halibut, the scallops.

And at least my anecdotal experience after living in Europe is that the cost of food here (especially meat) is dirt cheap compared to other countries.

Just an example, one one of my Tivoed challenges (Cora v. Simon, so it can't be too old), Alton fantasizes about being a challenger himself, emerging from the tunnel, then is chagrined to see the Chairman waiting for him. He pretends to explain he was back there to check for a burned out light. The Chairman haughtily dismisses him, and Alton retreats, tail between his legs. It's all just silliness, and I give him credit for playing along, whether it's faux gravitas or faux humility. Simon trounced Cora, by the way, in what I think was a holiday chocolate challenge.

Would you expect a tea cake to taste of tea?

I think folks are forgetting that Iron Chef has always been about camp. I mean, seriously, the whooshing sound effects when the chairman turns his head or makes a gesture? Enjoy it for what it is--a campy, silly, cookfest.

Some legal reasons re: copyright, etc. I couldn't watch Project Runway episodes when traveling in Canada last year either. Nor can I watch BBC broadcasts of English sports events here in the US.

If I had to live on only one cuisine (thank the gods I don't) it might be Turkish. Leaving out all the obvious lamb-hummus-eggplant-tomato-seafood-garlicky goodness, a dish you may not have tried that is delicious is Circassian Chicken; usually served lukewarm, this is poached chicken with a walnut-onion-paprika sauce. Recipes all over the web, the one I learned first was in the Time Life cookbook series Foods of the World.

Oops, sorry, it is a red kuri squash, not a kubata.

And a fuji persimmon.

Thanks for the link!

I've had persimmons before, and they gave me a funny feeling in my mouth. Anybody know how to prepare them so as to avoid this?

Also have a lovely kubota squash--looks kind of like a pumpkin. Ideas on best way to fix it?

I am so over this show. :-(

And WTF is a "sport-injected" car?

This might help:

http://greekfood.about.com/od/glossar...

Alton Brown has a show on Tandoori cooking where he shows you how to simulate an oven using terra cotta pots and a lot of charcoal. Here's someone blogging about it: http://www.foodwardthinking.com/?p=35

You guys are assuming a lot about Simon M's comment. Maybe the best lamb he ever had in his life was in France, or Turkey, or Greece.

Shirley O. Corriher was on NPR a couple weeks ago, and she described your same problem but with chicken: you can listen to it here: http://www.vpr.net/npr/130596892/

Also, I was impressed when watching Master Chef by a trick Cat Cora demonstrated: she tested whether the pan was hot enough by holding the short side of a halibut filet to the pan surface--only after it sizzled satisfactorily did she lay the filet in the pan.

Yeah, in Vienna they use these fantastic Kaiser rolls to make them, but you could use any day-old baguette type bread. Of course you could serve the Schwammerl sauce over pork chops, or a not-too-strong flavored fish, or maybe chicken cutlets.

Yummm, When I live in Austria and it was chanterelle season, my favorite way to each them was as a sauce over Serviettenknoedel: If I recall correctly, you would saute a little onion, then add the sliced mushrooms, and finish up with sour cream and paprika, probably garnish with parsley. Don't remember whether you add chicken stock, or maybe wine; you could play around with those.

What I would add to all the other advice (a variation on the paper towel thing already mentioned) is that I had the best results when I would tie a tea towel around the pot lid (like a little turban) when I got to the "cover the pot" stage.

Under another thread I recommended a delicious butternut squash/pumpkin/sweet potato/yam soup flavored with coconut milk and Thai red curry paste found on the 101 cookbooks blog. We are having a potluck halloween party at work next week, and I was wondering if that flavor combo could translate to muffins? Has anyone made muffins with coconut milk? And would it be best to bring out the sweetness with jaggery or other brown sugar or leave it mostly savory?

The Circassian Chicken recipe discussed on the Time Life Foods of the World cookbooks thread is meant to be served at room temperature. It's basically poached chicken in a walnut sauce thickened with bread and seasoned with onions and paprika. Very good, and probably new to most of your guests.

One thing that threw me off when baking in Austria (besides the glatt versus mehlig flour thing) was that the ingredients were given by weight, not by volume as we are used to. I'm a good cook, but not much of a baker, so I haven't paid too much attention to this in the past, but a useful tool I acquired there was a measuring cup that showed the volume of various quantities of different ingredients (sugar, flour, rice, etc.) It was a Dr. Oetker brand (German, I think; don't know if it's available in NL). Since returning to the States and becoming an Alton Brown afficionado, I am more inclined to measure things by weight rather than volume as he recommends. This might help even out inconsistencies in the ingredients themselves.

A propos of absolutely nothing, I still remember fondly a youth hostel breakfast in Schevenningen consisting of white bread spread with butter and topped with chocolate sprinkles!!

Same here! Circassian chicken from the Turkish book, potato raita from India, countless go-to recipes for France, the two versions of Coulibiac from Russia...would darn near save them first in a fire!