i loved okra roasted! similar to the have recipe but i cut the okra into small disks, coat with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a mixture of "indian-y" spices: cumin, coriander, cayenne, garlic powder, etc. bake the mixture at around 450 until very crispy. it's delicious as a topping over any kind of rice. this converted my husband, a former okra hater!

Thanks for the rec! My husband and I tried it for lunch on the way to Costco and were very happy with the food. I haven't had such good, flavorful saag in months! We'll definitely be back.

I just received a Fissler pressure cooker, in 2 sizes, as a gift. I've made brown rice and risotto in it with decent results but would like to do use it more. Does anyone have any recipes they'd like to share that is especially good in a pressure cooker?

Thanks in advance!

kimchee fried rice! so good with some day old rice, your favorite meat, and whatever veggies you got lying around.

The part I found confusing was when the egg whites were supposed to be beaten and what temp the syrup got added to the egg whites. When the syrup reaches 235 you start beating the egg whites. The egg whites should reach peaks around the time the syrup hits 242. At this point the 2 are combined. The way that the paragraph are separated, I thought the syrup need to be 242 then cooled to 235 prior to adding to the egg whites.

Devil's Food White-Out Cake

I made this for a friend's birthday dinner. It looked quite spectacular even though I made a few mistakes. I baked the cakes in a 9 inch pan instead of 8 inch pan. So they were very flat. Thankfully my sloppy measuring also resulted in one cake being taller than the other which I could turn into 2 layers. On the smaller cakes i just sliced off enough to even out with the other layers, but still had enough "crumbs" for decoration. I found the icing directions to be very confusing and it only made sense after I read her clarification on eGullet's thread. This was my first attempt at a layer cake and was very pleased with the results.

Sables:

Really buttery and wonderful. I didn't bother with coating the edges with sugar (too lazy). Well received by friends.

World Peace Cookies:

Loved by all the chocoholics in my life. Even the husband (who doesn't like chocolate) liked it! But very rich and I couldn't eat more than one at a time.

Cream Cheese Pufflets:

Really easy to make although my cookies were much uglier because I didn't handle the dough very well. A bit like pie crust which also I'm not good at. I put a varying assortment of preserveds inside. They were really delicious!

This book is going to make me very fat. (or at least make my friends and family fat)

Pumpkin muffins

Delicious. Made a dozen and froze them. Substituted pistachios and chopped dates for the walnut and raison (missing from pantry at the time). Warmed in the microwave every morning for breakfast. Reheated extremely well and had a great texture.

you can get the twinning jasmine tea at amazon's grocery store.
http://amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1/103-6...

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/200...

is rose levy's take and the recipe is there.

I have the Braun with the stainless stick. It's great! I have used it for soup. I have even used ice crushing attachement and it handled that job well. It's great versatile tool for a smaller kitchen that can replace a lot of stuff without taking up that much space (although my littel kitchen is just totally overcrowded!(

I have the 6 qt pot that I got as a gift. I love it. It have excellent heat distribution and cleans up like magic!

Dorie Greenspan!

The new Dorie Greenspan would make a great gift. It's a beautiful book and the pictures inspire you to bake! I love just leafing through it.

Beringer is great. Super easy to clean and can make a wide range of slices. Just be careful not to slice your finger tips off.

i own a zoji fuzzy logic 10 cup rice cooker and have cooked as little as 2 to as much as 10 cup rice cooker. no quality issues either way.

Mayura at the corner of Motor and Venice has a buffet lunch for $5.99 weekdays, $8.99 weekends.

Buttercream vs. whipped cream is a pretty personal preference. I tasted both there. I hate buttercream but love whipped cream cakes so I order the Raspberry Bavarian Cake and ordered the Chocolate Ganache Cake for the chocoholics. I loved both of them.

Nook (on Santa Monica Blvd, near Barrington) is a great restaurant with good food and reasonable prices. Great service plus cozy ambiance. Opus is great also, great fun, with a bit more formal atmosphere but further from Santa Monica, actually in Koreatown.

http://www.nookbistro.com/

I used cakery bakery in la canana for my wedding last year and I'm still getting compliments on the cake.

The Al Bap is my favorite dish at Odaesan also. You can ordered it at either the bar or at the table. It is a complete meal by itself, the way bibimbop or chirashi would be.

We had a quick pre movie dinner there. The burger and the nicoise salad. Both were excellent. It was pretty empty, the service was quick and pleasant.

I love Nook! Recently my friend and I went to Opus for their tasting menu for $30 (with wine flight for $15)--it was great! It's not quite on the westside (on wilshire at western, next to the wiltern) but worth the drive.

It's fine for a couple or a larger group. There isn't any MUST order:options are fairly limited. You have your choice of squid or octopus plus/minus beef or pork. You don't much in the way of sides (banchan) as there would be in other korean resturants. The stirfry is great but even better after they add the rice and turn it into deliciously spicy fried rice. Plenty of food. If you go alone, get the hot stone pot rice with octopus for the same flavor on a smaller scale. The staff is friendly and can speak English for the most part