Giving up on F&W

Not sure why we are still getting this magazine. I think it comes free with our American Express account. Anyway, every time the magazine comes in the mail, I think..."This will be the month I find something I want to make." Well, I finally found that recipe. FEB 09 Page 106: Chicken, Wild Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Saute'. I made the recipe as written and tasted the sauce. Completely bland. It really needed complexity. So, I added more wine, including a little white to go with the red; several drops of white truffle oil; still no good. A TBSP of brown sugar. Ehhh, we're getting somewhere, but mainly we're getting HUNGRY. So I tossed it with some penne' sprinkled with flat leaf parsley and served. Still pretty bland. Len said he liked it but wasn't "wowed" but the truth came out when I asked what I should do with the leftovers. He said he didn't care, but he didn't want it again any time soon! I agreed!
Anyone else have trouble finding interesting recipes in this magazine?

Food and Wine is one that I've had a hard time with ever since Dana Whatshername took over. It's not the recipes, though - they're what keep me reading (along with Lettie Teague). I often find things I want to make in it. I made a celeriac soup with toasts and clementine relish for New Year's Eve from the magazine. What I don't like about it is the "self-appointed tastemaker" attitude you get along with the recipes. F&W is certainly not alone in the foodie world with that attitude (see the Food Network for the concept gone completely overboard) but the fact that I have to put up with that attitude to get the recipes bugs me. I often end up tweaking their recipes, but I can't help doing that with almost anything I make from a recipe.

Gee, I hate to hear this, Mike. I just order F&W again, after over a decade hiaitus! Rats!

Carrie and Mike,

Remember that freak on the old FLDG that watched the Joanne Weir cooking episode on PBS that was about pork with apples and hunted the two of you down and pestered you through e-mail because he knew the recipe was in F&W but he was too cheap to subscribe? What was his name again? Rave Dish or something like that?

I hope that guy is still not out on the streets and menacing other nice F&W subscribers!

[Jenise]

Not sure why we are still getting this magazine. I think it comes free with our American Express account. Anyway, every time the magazine comes in the mail, I think..."This will be the month I find something I want to make." Well, I finally found that recipe. FEB 09 Page 106: Chicken, Wild Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Saute'. I made the recipe as written and tasted the sauce. Completely bland. It really needed complexity. So, I added more wine, including a little white to go with the red; several drops of white truffle oil; still no good. A TBSP of brown sugar. Ehhh, we're getting somewhere, but mainly we're getting HUNGRY. So I tossed it with some penne' sprinkled with flat leaf parsley and served. Still pretty bland. Len said he liked it but wasn't "wowed" but the truth came out when I asked what I should do with the leftovers. He said he didn't care, but he didn't want it again any time soon! I agreed!
Anyone else have trouble finding interesting recipes in this magazine?

Don't know that I've ever tried any recipe from the magazine, but I read through a stack in a hospital waiting room one long day and was pretty put off by an article about Bobby Flay and his actress wife on a weekender to Savannah (forgive me if I've told this story before) wherein there was almost more detail about their designer clothing ("Bobby, in a white Hugo Boss shirt with Armani safari pants", etc) than there was about the food they ate. That's just not what I want to read.

Carrie and Mike,

Remember that freak on the old FLDG that watched the Joanne Weir cooking episode on PBS that was about pork with apples and hunted the two of you down and pestered you through e-mail because he knew the recipe was in F&W but he was too cheap to subscribe? What was his name again? Rave Dish or something like that?

I hope that guy is still not out on the streets and menacing other nice F&W subscribers!

Joanne -

See what you think of it. We haven't quit on the magazine yet. I just have to make sure I don't read several articles each month.

Mike, I agree with you about Lettie Teague. She is definitely worth reading.

We subscribed for years, but dopped it a long time ago. Did look at one in a dentist office recently, and my impression was that are trying to top Gourmet (also dropped) in things and places that cost too much.

The articles that really make me gag are the ones where "a world-class chef and a hot new Napa winemaker invite a few close friends to their chateau in Provence for a posh Sunday brunch" or something similar. Once in a while there are actually decent recipes associated with these articles, but for the most part they are focused on how absolutely mah-velous these people are and how we plebes simply must aspire to be like them. Blech.