Susan G

Cereal boxes, food processor, cat hairs. (Never actually *seen* the boy up there, but the preponderance of evidence suggests......)

Tapioca pudding remnants from the cooking pot.

Steak sandwich with sliced avocado and freshly ground pepper.

Drizzled on freshly-baked bread.

Well, this sentance started my day with a laugh!

Buckwheat honey. It looks more like molasses than honey, but the flavor is so earthy and complex!

Baltimore has a terminal ("C"?) with a restaurant that does *heavenly* crab cakes. The airport at Charlotte, NC has BBQ I remember happily.

So sorry, CT, I was casting no stones in anyone's direction!

I'm going to be spending it alone, and I'm going to some thoughtful lengths to not be pitiful about it............ Divorce papers came through this week (note to self: Need to change list name), and best friend will be meeting SO's adult daughter for the first time. I've decided to support my local restaurant - run by two lovely men who are neighbors *and* friends - and indulge in their lovely Thanksgiving buffet........and then be available for community service with the local volunteer ambulance service. Post-supper will be spent baking gingerbread men - something that always makes me cheerful, and gets me ahead of the holiday preparation curve! What are other people doing?

Funny to have found this thread..........three days ago I was having lunch with fifteen or so flight nurses and medics in Las Cruces, New Mexico when the conversation turned to homebrewing........without exception, every former military person (and those were the majority of the companions) expressed minute preferences for yeasts, waters and bottles. I was so impressed! ....too bad the food palates were not as well developed - we were lunching at Gardunos, when the Mexican border was only 40 miles away!

Lemon meringue pie.........something went wrong though - three hours later it was weeping like it had lost a loved one!

Julie Powell. Very engaging.

I'm curious why Gordon believes women *ought* to be able to cook well.......and that the same standard doesn't apply to young men?? The harder we work to earn a wage outside the home, the less time there is to cook. It's simple economics. When I was in high school, I refused to learn typing because of the "traditional working female" connotations - and the lower social status it implied. I think cooking might be the new typing............

Maple!

Make pots of tripled-quanitity teas, then let the pot steep for an entire day. Repeat as needed. I think you'll be surprised how little time it takes to re-season the pot!

Pot au feu springs to mind! Whether or not you're going to hell, in my mind, depends entirely upon whether or not you're planning to sell said stock as a pure form of one or the other ingredient. No? Then enjoy yourself! Soup is leftovers, odds and ends, and budget-stretchers in heated and liquified form!

The multi-sensory appeal of a ripe peach: The perfume, the blush-to-golden color, the yield of the skin and flesh beneath the teeth, the tang and sweetness, the juice running down one's chin.

Last night's Autumn Festival/ moon viewing got in me in the mood for Chinese comfort food: Spinach and tofu in ginger pork broth (qing tang); sliced tomatoes under sugar; mu shu pork over white rice. Lychees for dessert

Is this what you do? How do people serving you at home respond to you eating 1/3 the "normal" portion size? Heck, if you tried that at my Mom's, you keel over from lack of calories!

Here in New Mexico, as the new pinon crop comes in, toasted pinon-topped cheesecakes with caramel sauce are a staple of restaurant dessert menus!

In no way is this about germs: It's about an inappropriate approach. I am seated, looking up at my server.........it feels like he or she is treating me as a social inferior by asserting the right to touch me without my permission. And doing it as a manipulation for a larger tip? I'm so outta there!

Don't touch me. Ever. It's a perceived-status thing. My server is standing over me, I am sitting and smaller. The server feels free to intrude upon my space and touch my body without my permission, without even asking my permission. No, no, no. I will flee from the insult.

Gruyere. I like my cheese with fruity undertones!

I've purchased canned mangosteens, and I thought they were inferior to lychees. Maybe it was the brand? Anybody eat these frequently?

Thank you! I see it's a Sunday night..........so in theory, I could spend the day making pastrieis!