The Threat To America That Is Barack Hussein Obama

found this in an australian newspaper - (what the hell, it was listed first in google)
"The weekend after winning the election, the couple visited Spiaggia, a classy Italian eatery on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, where they enjoy the hand-crafted pastas and other dishes, said Chef Tony Mantuano.

"They love things out of the wood-burning oven," he said.

The Obamas are loyal customers, visiting there during the busy presidential campaign to celebrate both Michelle's birthday and the couple's anniversary."

ms. dtom declared the ham & bean soup "good". i've never made it before. she's an amazing cook, so i consider it very high praise.

i've also become a big fan of garlic and fresh ground pepper since i started getting into this.

have any of you guys heard the phrase "secreto" in cooking? i know what it is, but i haven't been able to learn the correct spelling.

i have a bunch of baked ham left over here. some of it is going to get deviled, but there will still be quite a chunk left.

any reciepe ideas ??

No, I haven't. The name reminds me of 'battuto', for the 'to' part.. but that's quite a stretch.

Can't find it or anything like it in any of the italian or spanish food glossaries..
maybe it just means "secret ingredient".
So.. what is it?

it's the (quote) "base for nearly all italian sauces, soups, etc". consisting of the usual prep of carrot, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, celery (which i only use in some cases) and virgin olive oil. chop, mince and toss in the pot and let marry. then carry on with what ever your making.

i used to watch giada delaurentis' show quite a bit when i was first learning to cook, and still do if i come across it. and that's where i heard it. i could swear she called the combination a "secreto", but haven't been able to find out for certain.

i was looking for an email address for her show, but the food network site drives me nuts and i ran away.

hey! ya know, i just did a english to italian translator, there's the italian spelling, "Segreto".

maybe that's it?

OK, I know it now - that's "battuto" for sure.

On ham recipes - quiche lorraine?
easier is baked eggs, which is basically quiche without crust, a bunch of eggs (six), six half egg shells of water, and whatever you feel like putting in them (I first saw this as an asian recipe), poured into a buttered pie plate or, if you have some similar sized non-stick pan. Depending on what you add in the way of meat or veggies (e.g., ham, sliced already cooked potatoes), you can add olive oil, or different oil. Bake at, say, 360 for, um, 35 minutes, check to see if done with fork. Might take a bit longer. Slice into wedges.

I don't get that joke osso. Will you explain it for me?

I always do baked eggs in ramekins. Start them cooking on the bottom in a pan of heated water, pour on a bit of whipping cream or creme fresh, then into the oven. I often put a slice of Canadian bacon on the bottom. A convection oven works best.

It's part of the riff that this thread is, about all the antagonism to Obama and his food choices.. Hummus sounds like Hamas..

Now you're cookin'...
it's basically a custard type thing, and ramekins are a treat. I remember the first time I had that, at a japanese place in santa monica that did Omakasi (sp?) - a meal that was to the "pleasure of the chef". Very memorable meal for me at the time, as an introduction to new foods.

Still the pie plate and ordinary oven work ok for me.

Well, to make it elitist Obama friendly, shred some arugula for a layer between the Canadian bacon and the egg. Actually, arugula would be a perfect choice for those antagonists when Obama won -- it's bitter.

When The Pottery Shack in Laguna was really starting to sell off to finally go out of business (they always did more in mail order and eventually online), I picked up a bunch of different sizes of ramekins. I mostly use them for individual casserole dishes with pastas, so not everything I cook in them is particularly expensive. Mac and cheese with small pieces of lobster, for instance (one medium lobster tail is good enough for four people). Actually, any kind of fish or crustacean, even Tilapia which is reasonably priced, will do.

mmmm. lobster. i don't eat it often because it's so rich. but crab? oh yeah, baby. crab cakes, crab puffs, crab legs.

now that i think of it, some of the best sea food i've ever had was at a place called The Sea Captain's House at merle's inlet in south carolina. but then there's a place called Clancy's not far from our house that's pretty good.

am i the only person that seems to taste a difference between pacific and atlantic fish and other sea critters?

I'm not too sure about differences between East and West Coast fish unless I were to read about it. Sometimes it's a variation of species. The California "lobster" definitely tastes different and it's actually a sea crayfish (no large claws).

I sometimes wish I had a time machine to go back to the 70's and 80's when a restaurant in Sunset Beach (part of Huntington Beach), CA called "The Sandcastle" had Alaskan King Crab leg dinners for $ 5.95, some special nights at $ 4.95.

The lobster doesn't come off as pungently rich when diced and with the mac and cheese (three different kinds). It's rather like a thermidor.

Of course, we have as much choice of seafood restaurants along the South Orange Coast, the Bluewater Grill is quite good, probably because they are owned by a large fish purveyor in San Diego. Great oyster bar there where you can dine without getting a table. The view of Newport Harbor is nice, too, and they have a small patio. Across the channel is an old favorite, The Cannery (which is an old building which was a fish cannery many moons ago) and their patio is right over the water. Their happy hour is two huge cauldrons of white and read clam chowder for help yourself (as much as you can down).

And one thing I miss, miss, miss about living by the bay in Humboldt County is the available fish, especially the crab shacks in season.. but also the occasional wild salmon at the local co-op.
I don't know much about Atlantic fish - except that as a kid I was crazy about my one experience having fresh fried clams in Essex, Massachusetts from another shack type place, served piping hot in a carton, like you get with Chinese food to go.

Speaking of lobster and italian food, the woman who uses the name Lorenza de Medici for her cookbooks has a simple recipe for lobster/garlic/butter sauce - which I got to eat the day italian class was held at a student's home. Besides all the grammar lessons, we learned to make homemade fettucine..
I have the book with the recipe in it, will post it later today. (Time to go out and do some gardening).

Uh, oh, I might have lied - the recipe I have, in her The Renaissance of Italian Cooking - has olive oil, dry white wine, fresh whole lobster, basil, lemon, garlic, walnuts, pine nuts, and anchovy filets. Which I'll type if anyone is interested, as it sounds good. Maybe the cook adapted that with butter, and my memory is off. I don't remember any nuts either, and am blank about the anchovies with a maybe to that. So, off to google - but sometime later.

at Amazon -
http://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-Italian-Cooking-Lorenza-DeMedici/dp/0449903648/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242504123&sr=1-1

It's amazing.

yeah, there are some really good seafood places down there. but by the time we make our way from the foothills through west hell-a down to the beach areas, i'm usually ready for a tranquilizer more than orange roughy.

there's a place a around here called Fish King. their main business is seafood wholesale suppliers, but you can go in and pick up a little seafood platter to go. they have 3 or 4 little tables, but it's better to p/u and go home.

not cheap, but mighty tasty.

just the fish ?