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Roast Turkey with Giblet Gravy and Dressing Green Beans with Almonds Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes Bourbon Whipped Sweet Potatoes Angel Biscuits Gladys' Cranberry Surprise above accompanied by Firesteed Pinot Noir Pumpkin Pie Pecan Pie Brown Sugar Pound Cake above accompanied by a Moscato d'Asti It was all very nice if I do say so myself. First postprandial dishwasher load already humming away.

Happy Thanksgiving, Lucy. I'm looking forward to your meal almost as much as I'm looking forward ours. And I won't have to clean up after yours.

Yeah, I don't think I would ever do that. ← On the one hand I can't recall having specifically asked for a taste of something in a restaurant. On the other hand I've been offered tastes of various things, generally in restaurants where I know the staff and have asked a question about the item or items. Given that the taste in this instance wasn't something that would require much (any, frankly) prep and would have been difficult to replace (unless, perhaps, this fondant is made in extremely small batches) I don't think it's an extraordinary request. And given that the party was spending a pretty large chunk of change on dinner in any case I don't think that the request was out of line. But maybe the kitchen really was running very short on the fondant. Or maybe the server had already pissed off the kitchen and wasn't going to risk asking for any more favors.

Wrangling an invite for T-day the easiest thing in the world, at least if you know me. I routinely gather up every last straggler I can find---dilutes out the weirdness of my parents, and since many of the guests are from outside the U.S. it's a chance to spread the fun around. Seriously, though, just about anybody is happy to have another guest at Thanksgiving: the meal's cooked, and there's pretty much zero chance of anybody running out.

The gelato would be a mix of one nutty or chocolate flavor and one fruit flavor, probably mango. She eats fruit for snack, which I didn't include in my list. This time of year her pick is pomegranate, with an apple as backup. Gifted Gourmet showed you a Dutch Baby. Not only are they delicious, but my daughter can make one by herself. She made me one yesterday, in fact.

As per my 12 year old daughter... Breakfast: Dutch Babies Lunch: Tuna Fish Sandwiches Carrot Sticks Dinner: Country Ham Mashed Potatoes Asparagus (though she'd be okay with green beans) Gelato (Ciao Bella, her current favorite)

My mom describes tea rooms in the south as basically being lunch restaurants for women, run by women. She associates them with the Depression, and points out that they were a way for women to supplement the household income without it being too very obvious that they were doing so, particularly to men. There is a restaurant here in Atlanta called Mary Mac's Tea Room, but it's not got the sort of menu one usually associates with a tea room. It serves dinner, and its serves both genders. It was started by a woman, Mary MacKenzie, and later owned by another woman, Margaret Lupo, who ran it until recently. For the real tea room experience, you can go to the Swan Coach House. The menu has been updated a bit (particularly with sandwiches apart from traditional tea sandwiches), but otherwise features classics like "Swan’s Favorite: Chicken salad served in delicate timbales with a creamy frozen fruit salad and cheese straws". For dessert you really should try "French Silk Swan: A meringue base filled with chocolate mousse topped with chantilly cream and almonds in the shape of a swan." Clientele almost entirely female, dining room almost entirely upholstered in chintz.

Tuna, packed in oil. Nutritious, calorie dense, and absolutely no prep needed (though of course it can be stretched in all sorts of ways). The fact that pretty much everybody likes canned tuna is a bonus.

My mother's always made whipped sweet potatoes with bourbon. Use butter, brown sugar, and bourbon in whatever relative amounts you'd like. Very popular, especially among her Southern Baptist extended family.

Yes, exactly like that. I never even considered an alternate pronunciation.

One of the French ones features a family preparing and eating (I believe) pot au feu. The little girl in the picture is Alexandra Boulat, daughter of Pierre and Annie Boulat. At least I think it's the same people.

We use them as topping for vanilla ice cream. Kids love it. I don't make shave ice at home, as I also like all the weird little globby bits and fruit that they add when I get it out, and I can't be bothered to keep those around the house.

Doesn't everybody have mixes for dhokla and ras malai in the pantry? And the sweetened red beans are a staple for us.

It really is food porn. I need to go rest now.

Despite my example upthread of a kid-inclusive wedding I'm actually very cool with specifically excluding children from events. We have a big holiday party every year, and as part of the FAQ that I send out soon after the original invite (I do it by eVite---it may be geeky, but it's incredibly convenient for my guests and me) I point out that "babes in arms are welcome but others will be more comfortable at home tucked in bed". Absolutely no question about whether or not a sitter's in order. That I have children (and am clearly very into them) makes me immune to any suggestion that excluding children is motivated by anything other than my concern for their happiness. And for the most part it is.

I think there's something to be said for this theory. And I think it might also somehow be connected to parents' unwillingness to get babysitters when they want to go out. They are, in fact, older and wiser, and so reluctant to leave the kids in the care of strangers.

Interesting example of a wedding as a kid-free zone. Kids were welcome at our wedding, in part because my step son (who was 7 at the time) was there and in part because I specifically wanted children there. I was, after all, getting married to start a family. We had a great time: a short ceremony (punctuated by one small voice asking his mommy why he had to sit down when I got to stand up in the front), great dinner (caterer did not include kids under 12 in the head count, so no financial hit), and dance party with a band outside. Young adults (who were then small children) still describe seeing me as "the bride" and their parents recall ruining clothes from too much dancing. Kids made it more fun, not less.

Too cool. Thanks for blogging again!

My situation's a bit different. Googling my real name brings up lots of hits, and even a few photographs because of the sort of work I do. So I can't actually argue that I'm afraid of stalkers based solely on whether or not I've got any web presence, as it would be pretty easy for some random yahoo to decide that he suddenly needed to know me really really well and eventually track me down (though I do take pains to make sure that my home address and phone number are protected). But in fact it's unlikely that some random yahoo would develop an interest based on what's presently out there under my name, as it is, in a word, boring. The sorts of information that many posters here share is of much broader interest, and include so much personal detail that it would be easy for said yahoo to not only decide that we should meet, but actually feel entitled to do so, given that he already "knows" me.

Posting anonymously in no way precludes your establishing friendships, either on or off-line, with other eGullet participants: if you're comfortable with an individual you can drop your pseudonym via PM. [edit for typo]

I agree with munchymom's points re privacy. I won't even post pictures of my children or family members here, though I have posted pictures of my kitchen on the assumption that anybody who recognizes it already knows me. My full name happens to be very distinctive, so even more of a problem from a privacy point of view.

Here's a vote in favor of anonymity, albeit a selfish one. I'm not professionally associated with food in any way---my interest is personal and essentially recreational. Colleagues and friends who do not share this interest are unaware of it, and I'd like to keep it that way.

We (two adults, two kids) eat at a large butcher block style table in our breakfast room, the same table where newspaper reading, chess lessons, and homework occur. Setting the table requires that the table be entirely cleaned (not strictly necessary, as it's so large, but it makes me crazy to eat with stuff shoved down to the other end) and set according to that night's meal: usually plates/cutlery, sometimes small dishes/chopsticks or bowls/spoons. The napkin question is problematic, as I don't like paper napkins but I'm unwilling to wash that many cloth ones routinely and it's unusual in the U.S. to re-use them (in my experience). So we use paper ones, the sturdier large ones rather than the little square ones. Food served family style, not infrequently directly from the cooking vessel (placed on a hot pad) if it's a hot dish. Generally a main and two sides. We never eat meals outside of the kitchen, and only adults are permitted to consume food or drink of any sort outside the kitchen.

It may well be more than one sort of basil, actually, as the sorts of basil seed (also called drink seed or tukmaria or takmaria or any number of things) I've seen vary a bit in size. I've never tried planting the sort that I buy for drinks, but if you actually go out and buy regular basil seeds destined for gardening and wet them you will find that they develop the same gelatinous-looking polysaccharide capsule. There are some reports of health benefits associated with ingestion of the polysaccharide capsule material.

I love all sorts of drinks with "stuff" in them. A friend coined the name "crap in a glass" for them. An Indian version is falooda: sort of a milk-based ice cream float that includes a type of short skinny pasta (falooda) and basil seeds (actual seeds from a basil plant, which when wet gain a sort of gelatinous capsule that make them look a bit like fish eggs---slightely crunchy, refreshing faint fruity flavor). Basil seed alone also common in southeast Asian drinks. Last night my daughter had a strawberry-kiwi smoothie bubble "tea" from a local Korean bakery. Very good.