Moopheus

I did try that once and it didn't come out right, but I didn't use a blender. Came home from Xmas with a 10-lb slab of bittersweet chocolate, so I plan to give it another try. I also wanted to add: Ice cream from Bart's (Amherst, MA) or Toscanani's (Cambridge). I know I should say homemade, but I haven't yet managed to get quite that good results yet. But I will keep working at it.

I basically can't buy any kind of cheese in a supermarket. I don't insist on the most lovingly-produced artisanal cheeses (which I can't afford), but any half-decent cheese shop is going to have something better than the bland, plastic stuff. I totally agree about the hot cocoa--you don't want to know how many cans of Ghirardelli cocoa we go through here in a year. The same goes for egg creams.

One cookbook that I've gotten a lot of use of is Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. Greens also by Deborah Madison and Fields of Greens are great when I feel like making something a little more ambitious. Lord Krishna's Cuisine by Yamuna Devi is another one I can always find something I want to eat in. I've learned a lot about cooking from The Professional Chef, but hardly ever use any of the recipes in it. One the other hand, the CIA's Book of Soups is one that I've gotten a fair bit of use out of.

A quick search reveals some online vendors selling it, such as this one. I have to admit I've never seen it in a store, anywhere. Now I have to wonder how it would be in an egg cream, compared to good old U-Bet.

This is true of Dunkin Donuts coffee too--if I make it myself from their beans, it's a lot better than what you get at the shop (I used to drink it a lot when I had an office job and no money--it's cheap and heavily caffeinated). Better than what you get from Charbucks, too. But then, if I get fresh roasted coffee from the coffee shop down the street (they have their own roaster right in the shop) it's still better if I make it myself. I think there's just a tendency for coffee shops to chintz on the amount of grind they use in the pot.

I have to agree completely with everything Malachi has said here. For me the dividing line between good coffee and bad coffee is that I can drink good coffee uncontaminated by milk or sugar and bad coffee cannot be had this way. Starbucks coffee does not pass this test. I figure if a coffeeshop can't give me a drinkable plain old cup o' joe then they aren't likely to have anything else worth paying for.

Even in my tiny apartment, I could find room for one of these: Emery Thompson Ice Cream freezer

I don't like to answer the phone during dinner, or while I'm making dinner. Though sometimes when I am making dinner the call is from my wife, to tell me she'll be late, so I have to delay making dinner.

I hd to go look up the description of this book on Amazon, and it sounds like someone's written a book about my mother. A few years back she had a trophy kitchen installed, two-oven Viking, Sub-Zero fridge, granite everywhere, etc. Can't remember the last time I saw her eat anything that wasn't grilled chicken. And she's always complaining about how much they cost to repair, especially the fridge. For my mother, the main practical difference between a $500 fridge and a $3000 fridge is that the expensive fridge breaks down more often. Before that we had some ordinary Amana that served quite well for more than 20 years. The one thing that was saved out of the old kitchen was the now 30-year-old KitchenAid dishwasher. Now, to be fair, she does actually use this stuff, and she is not a bad cook. But she could have spent a lot less money on her kitchen with no noticeable difference to her. As far as I can see she just threw money away because she could, or at least thought so at the time. So she could have what Martha has.

Too true! Most of the time when you're getting that bad coffee at the airport, the hotel, fast food joint, etc., you're getting severely overextracted coffee, which is what makes it taste bitter and weak at the same time. It doesn't help that they're probably starting with cheap crap to begin with. There is bad coffee I'll admit to kind of liking: the coffee that you get on the highway that comes out a machine with the tea and cocao (but no soup). Hit the extra, extra "creamer" and sugar buttons, and that sludge WILL keep you awake until you're home. It seems in recent years some of the older machines have been replaced with fancier machines that make "cappucino" and "espresso", and the coffee is slightly less rude, but also not so caffeinated.

Charbucks coffee is terrible. I'll drink dark roast coffee but theirs just tastes burnt and bitter to me, no coffee taste. Also, I'll never forgive them for destroying the Coffee Connection (a Boston-area coffeeshop chain that had excellent coffee. When Charbucks first moved into New England, they knew Coffee Connection would be stiff competition, so rather than compete, they just bought them out. Six months after the usual "we're not going to change anything" line, the Coffee Connections were all gone.)

I found this recipe scribbled on the inside of my mother's copy of Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook. 500 gr. Ricotta, 250 gr. extra fine sugar, orange flower water, orange zest, chopped chocolate. Mix until nice and creamy. You could add a little vanilla, or citron or lemon zest. Or bits of candied peel. There are other variations. It doesn't have to be very complex, just use good ricotta, mix well, and let it chill in the fridge before filling.