windydaze

I brought back several packets of vegetable and flower seeds from France a couple of years back. I had no idea that they were illegal until I was telling a friend about it and she told me. Nobody ever checked my bag. Although, thinking back, it's quite possible I forgot to put it on my declaration card.

I am a classic "can I have the salad dressing on the side, please?" person. I don't like a whole lot of dressing on my salads and I find most places just drench them with dressing.

It's not in Austin but I think the burgers at Bam's in Lago Vista are fantastic. They are stuffed burgers and there are four different ones, each of them delicious. It isn't listed on the menu but you can also have the burger blackened. Yum! Bam's Roadhouse Grill

Has anybody been to Bank recently? What was the menu like? Anything in particular stand out? We are going to Houston in a few weeks and want to try it out.

I thought Austin didn't have a Sur la Table. Where is it located?

I can't help but wonder if a lot of this is just a shift in perception about eating out in restaurants. When I was growing up, eating out was a special event where I had to get dressed up and use my best manners. We didn't have a lot of money so we weren't going to high end places but they were nice enough so that my sister and I had to use cloth napkins, sit up straight, and keep our elbows off the table. If we misbehaved, it was a trip to the bathroom and a swat on the rear. Nowadays, eating out seems to be more of an everyday occurance. Mom or Dad doesn't feel like cooking so the whole family goes out to eat. And they seem more likely to go to places that they (not their kids) enjoy eating at, especially if they are going out two or three times a week to eat. I find that my husband and I go out to eat a lot more than we used to, simply because we are too tired to cook. Sometimes we wind up at KFC or Pok-e-Joe's. Other times, we (usually me) are in the mood for a little bit better food and will go to a nicer restaurant. I have noticed that since we have started doing a little better financially, the "special" restaurants don't seem as special anymore because we can go to them at any time now, not just for special events. I guess what I am trying to get at is that eating out at nice restaurants does not seem like an Event anymore. It has become more of a commodity. A way to get fed, not an event to savor and share.

I love to make scrambled eggs on the weekend with a little bit of cream added to the beaten eggs and then scrambled in the pan with at least two tablespoons of President butter. The butter makes the eggs taste so creamy and rich. Yum!

Thanks, everyone! I was really surprised too how easy the trotters were once I got going. Since it is just two of us, it was extra nice to be able to eat it over two days. I'll definitely add it to my list of dinners to make for guests. Mallet - I actually had them bone it for me at the market. I have no clue on how to bone a fish so I'm glad they did it for me. The fish was very tender and delicious. The recipe in the book was great in that it let me know the fish was going to look like it wasn't done but that the beans placed on top would finish the cooking process. I'm not very confident about cooking fish, so I don't do it too often, but I'll definitely try this one again. FoodMan - The sorbet turned out well. It was very strawberry-y. I think the only thing I might do is reduce the sugar just a little bit. It was almost too sweet for me but I may be just trying to eat too much of it at once. I purchased a Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment a while back and used it for the first time with the sorbet. It worked pretty well.

Okay, you guys have inspired me! I received the Bouchon cookbook for Christmas, at my request, and for six months I have been looking at the pictures and feeling intimidated by the recipes. No longer! This weekend I made the Pork Trotters with Mache and Sauce Gribiche, the Trout with Haricort Verts and Almonds, and the Strawberry Sorbet. Whew!

I was just going to mention Southern corn bread crumbled in a glass but when I was growing up my Grandmother would use buttermilk instead of sweet milk. For sweet milk, it was crumbled up graham crackers. Both of them were extremely rich tasting and I usually could never finish a glass.

I love Krystals burgers! I can only get them when I go home to visit so I tend to over indulge a bit. I also use to crave Krispy Kremes when I could only get them at home on visits. Now that we have about three of them in town, I don't crave them at all. I guess you always want what you can't have. I also occasionally crave a Sourdough Jack from Jack In The Box. Strangely enough, it never tastes quite as good as I remember it from the previous time. I only get it about once a year so I suppose I forget how it tastes. Oh, and if you are looking for a very tasty fast food fried pie, Whataburger has a great one.

I was born in Tennessee and have had my fair share of grits, cheese and otherwise. But the best cheese grits I have ever had was at Bubby's in New York City last year. Perfect combination of cheese and grits that was so smooth and creamy it could have been a pudding. Yum!

Thanks so much for the kind welcome. I've copied down a lot of everyone's suggestions from this forum about where to eat in Paris and I'm looking forward to trying as many of them as I can, although paring down the list is going to be hard! I'll do my best to return the favor and report on my dining experiences there.

My husband and I are going to Paris at the end of this month (May 22) and I can honestly say that I really hadn't given much thought to the exchange rate. Our biggest factor in flying to Europe is how cheap the flight is (we live in Austin, TX). We got an outstanding fare to Paris (cheaper than flying to New York, our backup travel plan) and just decided to go. I gave a cursory glance to the exchange rates when I booked our hotel in March but the rates listed then really don't affect the price of our hotel since we don't pay till after our stay. I love to travel and I try to save and plan for at least two trips overseas a year, regardless of the exchange rate. The exchange rate may stop me from buying a lot of things I really don't need (clothes, perfume, etc.) but it will never stop me from eating whatever I want when I travel. Food is the one thing I never like to skimp on when I travel overseas.