Did you know there are…

Did you know there are knives just for lefties? I didn't, but I spotted a Wusthof Left Handed Bread Knife the other day.

How to sharpen a serrated knife

A friend recently asked me how to sharpen a serrated knife, and I realized I had no idea. I sharpen my chef's and paring knives at home on my sharpening stone. But I've never sharpened my serrated blade. Poking around online, I found a link that says you can sharpen on a stone by each individual blade serration. That sounds insanely time-consuming. Other sites say it should only be sharpened by a professional.

Anyone have any suggestions for how best to sharpen a serrated knife?

Update: Doh! Forgot to turn comments on. Fixed now, answer away.

My post from Wednesday on…

My post from Wednesday on babies and tipping has an interesting discussion going about attitudes towards babies in restaurants, breast-feeding in public, and whether the United States hates children. Keep up the interesting comments folks, and join in if you'd like.

A creamy taste of Innsbruck

One of my favorite things to pick up when I travel are local cookbooks. In Austria I purchased a Tyrolian Cookbook filled with recipes for "Marinated Leg of Mountain Goat" (which I haven't tried) and "Innsbruck Garlic Soup" (which I made last night). We had some great knoblauchsuppe (garlic soup) in Innsbruck, and Jason was anxious for me to recreate it.

I've posted the recipe, with a small change and some metric conversions, here: Innsbruck Garlic Soup. We found last night's soup to be more garlicky than the one we had on our trip, so I've slightly reduced the quantity of garlic. Aside from that, it was delicious. I'm looking forward to making this throughout the winter.

Innsbruck Garlic Soup

For soup
1 onion, finely chopped
3-4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups whole milk
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup garlic, finely chopped
4 tablespoons heavy cream
salt
nutmeg, freshly grated

For croutons
four slices bread
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed

Continue reading “Innsbruck Garlic Soup” →

Jason's looking for cheap eating…

Jason's looking for cheap eating suggestions in NYC. Got some favorites? Go add them to the discussion.

Parents Against Junk Food is…

Parents Against Junk Food is non profit organization devoted to eliminating junk food from our public school system. It's hard for me to believe that soda and candy are even sold in schools. They certainly weren't offered in any of the public schools I attended in the 1970s and 80s.

By fingering any spinach as…

By fingering any spinach as suspicious, even bunched fresh spinach, the F.D.A. isn’t educating anyone, or solving the problem. A view on the E. coli spinach outbreak from the original owner of Riverside Farms, one of the farms at the center of the controversy.

Frank Bruni kept a running…

Frank Bruni kept a running history of his calls to procure a Per Se reservation. It is an infuriating system, but it's better than no "two month" rule. It's like no matter who you are, you have the same opportunity as anyone else of getting a reservation at the Laundry or Per Se. It's a slim chance for one and all.

If you haven't already heard,…

If you haven't already heard, the 2005 Bordeaux is being touted as an incredible vintage. In an attempt to try to put it in its historical context, some Sherry-Lehmann (an NYC wine store) folks visited Chateau Palmer in Bordeaux. Now they're offering some pristine bottles of such legendary vintages as the 1945, 1961, 1966 and 1970 for sale in their store. You know, in case you've got $7,900 to drop on a single bottle of wine.