tammy

YAY, you made it...i am so happy. whole foods, asian, mexican markets usually have oxtails.

it is pretty easy to make and is great for these cold days.

I forgot about the Pho the other night....so good after a long day of work!!

hey loch,

here is the recipe...super easy. Vietnamese Beef Pho

i made pho the other night. super comforting on cold days.

am going to make a lasagna and pumpkin bar cake tomorrow to keep the boys fed while i am away.

pumpkin bar recipe

source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/17/BU2O1CH68C.DTL

Yelp Inc.'s legal challenges continue to pile up, with a San Francisco business filing the third class-action complaint in recent weeks and nine additional firms joining an earlier lawsuit.

The cases all allege that the popular San Francisco review site extorts companies by manipulating ratings or visibility on the site based on whether or not the businesses pay to advertise. Yelp vehemently denies these charges.

On March 12, the owner of Renaissance Furniture Restoration, a 17-year-old business on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco, filed a complaint against Yelp in San Francisco Superior Court. Boris Levitt says the company removed his business' positive ratings after he refused to buy advertising.

In July, when he was contacted by a Yelp sales representative, he had 261 Yelp page views and an overall rating of 4.5 stars (out of 5 possible), according to the filing. Two days after declining the offer to pay "at least $300 a month" for advertising, six of seven 5-star reviews disappeared from the site and his overall rating dropped to 3.5 stars, the suit alleges.

By August, the page views had dropped to 158 and his revenue soon fell by around 25 percent, Levitt said in an interview.

"People wouldn't click on a business, which only had a 3-star average rating, and I started to lose business," he said.

As of Wednesday, Renaissance Furniture had 4.5 stars again, but only three reviews.

The case seeks restitution, punitive damages and a prohibition against Yelp engaging in such practices in the future.

In a corporate blog post on March 4, after similar lawsuits were filed, Yelp Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman called the cases "frivolous" and pledged to fight them aggressively. He said the reviews in question are deleted by an automated filter designed to weed out "shill" ratings, those encouraged or actually written by the businesses in question, to ensure that only independent and relevant comments remain.

"If a business could garner a top rating on Yelp simply by soliciting 5-star reviews from friends, family and favored customers, how useful would such a site be?" Stoppelman said.

Businesses' comments

Indeed, several of the businesses now suing had comments deleted that were written by the owners themselves, Yelp spokesman Vince Sollitto said. Levitt himself acknowledges asking customers to post reviews.

Two similar class-action complaints were filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in late February and early March. On Tuesday, nine additional businesses joined the first suit, including Mermaid Cruise of San Francisco and Sofa Outlet of San Mateo. In all, at least a dozen firms are suing Yelp over this issue.

Levitt said the sales representative never promised to alter ratings, but did say that paying for advertising would provide more page views and consequently more customers. Several plaintiffs in the other lawsuits say Yelp representatives presented explicit quid pro quos, offering to bury negative reviews or highlight positive ones in exchange for paying to advertise on the site.

Mary Seaton, president of Sofa Outlet, said a Yelp employee called her several weeks after a negative review popped up on the site. In exchange for $350 a month in advertising, the sales rep offered to move positive comments to the top of the business' review page and negative ones to the bottom, she said in an interview.

Review labeled as ad

Sollitto said this isn't technically possible, as Yelp sales personnel don't have control over review placement and additional safeguards are in place to prevent false promises by "rogue" salespeople. He said he believes some confusion may arise from the fact that paid advertisers can select one review to place at the top of the page as an ad, but it's clearly labeled as such.

Yelp, founded in 2004, features more than 9 million reviews for restaurants, bars, barbers and other businesses across more than 30 markets in North America and Europe. It boasts about 30 million monthly visitors.

"The reason 30 million consumers used Yelp last month is because of the trust they have in the reviews on the site," Sollitto said. "The whole value of Yelp to both consumers and businesses hinges on that trust, so obviously we wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."

This article appeared on page DC - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

I had the above meal Jake posted and cooked. The Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits I am looking forward to eating when I get back from working out today with eggs over the top.

But two nights ago, Wednesday, I worked for Tammy and Steve all day digging ditches and they had a huge yes HUGE crab feed that was a hurricane of gnarliness!!! ITS CRAB SEASON!!!!!!! They made a super simple one with just butter and lemon then garlic bread and it hit the spot. I love when the simple things (burgers, steaks, grilled cheese, macNcheese, bbq, scallops, crab, lobster, etc) are kept simple but executed so good the organic flavors come through.

For the vegetarians......if you are in Manhattan or near goto Red Bamboo which being a meat lover and it a vegetarian restaurant is still in my top twenty favorite eats! Damn New York region I miss you....hopefully sooner than later.

Loch took to dipping the already buttery garlic bread into the clarified butter...such a loch maneuver.

more crab feasts to come!

brined turkey

mash potatoes with cream cheese in them (makes them even creamier)

chorizo cornbread stuffing

buttered sugar snap peas

sweet potatoes

egg rolls as appetizers (we make eggrolls for all occassions)

apple cranberry pie

pecan pie

ice cream

whipped cream

fruit platter

super stuffed...i think i need to puke now.

hey nathan, welcome to the forum.

nothing better happen to gemma...she is the heart of the show.

yeah, i was confused about Jax stabbing salazar as well, but then remember the leader of the mayans (forgot his name) said that if salazar is caught by the feds/police he would narc on the heroine business, killings, etc. so maybe that is why they had to kill him, so he didnt go with the police.

Gia, i have been following your progress and what you have collected is AMAZING!

i just donated a vacation to be auctioned to the Special Olympics. I wish I had more to give but hopefully it will bring in $1500-2000 at auction.

Jack and I also took a bunch of food to the food bank and he was really pround to take out each can and box or food and put it on the display.

hey ahhzz, welcome to the forum.

can you tell us the back story behind your piece? any special menaing...i love hearing about stuff like that.

Jon, Sorry about your loss. RIP Billy Eason.

Ill have to try that. I was at Everett & Jones yesterday and had BBQ beef. It confirmed my feeling that I could never be a vegitarian.

that is totally the look!

Um, an earthquake of bitching? That's not a nice thing to say, Loch.

Tammy, when will you be putting up your vegan, wheat free, toddler friendly, 30 minutes or less blog? I just got home and ate an avocado and I'm still hungry, looks like it's Mary's Gone Crackers and homemade hummus for me again. Fridge is full of produce possibilities, but I'm not feeling inspired to cook, too cold and rainy.

i actually have a tn of recipes and pics i have to post but haven't had time...we moved the blog to wordpress with the garden blog so we are working out the kinks and in our list of priorities, those sites are on the bottom.

but here is a great cauliflower crust pizza that i think you will like...gluten free...you can use the "dough" to make breadsticks as well...very yummy

Ingredients

1 cup cauliflower, grated

1/2 cup shredded light mozarella cheese

1 egg

1 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil

2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp fennel

1 green pepper

1 onion

1 tomato

Garlic powder, to taste

Directions

Chop pepper, onion and tomato. Set aside. Steam the cauliflower, let it cool and then grate it.

Combine grated cauliflower with the mozzarella and egg in a large bowl. Spray a circular or rectangular metal pan with cooking spray before spreading the dough evenly. Sprinkle the dough with fennel, oregano, parsley and basil. Add garlic powder.

Bake at 450° F for 12-15 minutes. Remove the dough from the oven and sprinkle chopped green pepper, onion and tomato, as well as the remaining mozzarella cheese on top. Return the pizza to the oven. Turn the heat up to broil and leave in until the cheese has melted and the crust is crispy.

alot more simple than I thought. Thanks again. Ill let you know how it goes over on monday.

i like to get the thin chicken breasts just so i can get a better crunchy coating to chicken ratio.

also, the jalapeno in the coleslaw REALLY makes it.

That's a big yes. If I made bakesale betty's sandwiches at my station, everyone would go insane.

Thank you!

here you go:

Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwich

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 6 ounces each

Kosher salt to taste

1 quart buttermilk

The vinaigrette

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

The coleslaw

1 small red onion, very thinly sliced

1 cup red wine vinegar

2 jalapenos, seeded, cut in half and sliced crosswise

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/2 green cabbage, core and outer leaves removed, and very thinly sliced

Kosher salt

The breading

1 pound all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon kosher salt + more to taste

11/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying

4 Acme Bakery torpedo rolls, sliced lengthwise

Instructions: Season chicken breasts with kosher salt. Let sit at least 5 minutes. Fill a wide, shallow nonreactive bowl or casserole dish with buttermilk. Add the chicken and soak in the refrigerator for 1 hour up to overnight.

For the vinaigrette: Combine mustard, vinegar and salt in a bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil until well blended.

For the coleslaw: Macerate onions in red wine vinegar, and let sit at least 20 minutes. Remove onions and discard vinegar. Toss onions with jalapeno, parsley, cabbage and salt. Toss with vinaigrette until evenly coated.

To fry chicken: Pour vegetable oil into a large stockpot. Do not fill up more than halfway, or the oil could splatter. Bring oil up to 365°, using a digital thermometer/candy thermometer to monitor the heat. Prepare the the breading while waiting for oil to heat up.

In a wide shallow bowl, mix flour, cayenne, salt and pepper. Pull a chicken breast out of the buttermilk one by one, letting excess drip off, and dredge completely in flour. To create a thick crust, place in buttermilk and dredge in flour a second time. Do not drain or shake off excess buttermilk or flour during the breading process.

When the oil is at 365°, carefully place chicken pieces into oil one by one. Let it cook for a minute before disturbing chicken, then help it "swim" in the oil with tongs, until it is evenly cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Remove chicken from oil and drain on paper towels. Season immediately with salt.

For the sandwich: Place fried chicken breast on bottom of torpedo roll and top generously with coleslaw.

Bakesale Betty's (Fresh chicken sandwiches, pies, and cookies)

i have the recipe for the fried chicken sandwich if you want it...it is really easy to make

I don't like tara's face... Just bugs me.

its because she makes the joey tribiani (from Friends) face....you know how he would say when he needed to make a serious face when he was acting he would act like he smelled something bad...tara always has the "who-just-farted" face.

roasted cauliflower is so easy and delicious....cauliflower is a very underrated vegetable.

here is a cauliflower gratin i make...yes it is my food blog but under construction: Cauliflower Gratin

also: love Pork Belly...here is a braised pork belly sandwich with a basil spread.

aaannnd fox is a wiiieeennnner....!!!!

woohooo....hogg is a winner!!!!

bunny, could you post more details?

welcome geo...lots of norcal folk on here. congrats on the family. we have 2 boys (3 and 1)

welcome dustin!

oh and i kind of feel bummed about Tammy not being able to make it (and i don't even know her!) since she seems to be one of the original crew around here...