Baking Bread, Devils on Horseback, Fearing’s, Stephan Pyles…

Updates from over the break:

-Baked bread using mom’s hippie bread book. Hippie’s know their bread.

-Made Devils on Horseback, which despite initial weird looks from a mostly Catholic family, got rave reviews. (If you’re ever in NYC, and want to eat at a restaurant in an alley, try the Devils at Freemans.)

-Attempted Mark Bittman’s “Easiest and Best French Bread” recipe using a food processor. The result was not easy or best. At the end of the day, all I had was a busted Cuisinart (with smoke pouring forth), and crappy dough that wouldn’t rise. So maybe I should have read the previous page that calls for a large enough machine…. I’ll still take a copy of his new Vegetarian book.

-Had drinks with a friend who ate at Fearing’s and Stephan Pyles within a week of each other (he says work was buying). In short, this is how it went:

Went to Fearing’s on a not-so-busy night. I’ve had better service at Black Eyed Pea. Food wasn’t nearly as impressive as the price. Pyles was the opposite. It was packed, the Cowboy Ribeye was fantastic, and the service was the best I’ve ever had.

You can guess where he’ll be going next time. I’ve seen mixed reviews of Fearing’s elsewhere, too. I haven’t been to either…yet.