NulloModo

I Am going with (in no particular order) Italian, Mexican/Central/South American (I think they generally share enough to be lumped here), British, and Asian (I am going to lump Chinese/Japanese/Thai all here, yes I know they vary significantly, but all seem to share common traits). This is just what i see as having influenced general world cuisine (at all levels, not neccessarily fine dining) the most, not what would catagorize as 'best' (if you can ever do that).

Hehe, trust me, my skill level is nothing to look up to. I cook as many pans full of compost as I do actual dinners ;). I Would give you exact times and measure, alas, I have no preassure cooker, and I don't usually measure for one-pot meals (or anything for that matter, probably why I am such a lousy baker). I would recommend just exerimenting, stew beef and root veggies are cheap, just go in there and have fun.

Hehe, buttered-rum or egg-nog flavored Jello shots, holiday spirit, and relaxing, how perfect ;).

Beef Stew for me is a dish that needs no recipe, just have fun with it. I start with some stew beef, brown it, then add onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and whatever other herbs I feel like (usually some ground chiles too). Add chopped root veggies, some beef stock, and then simmer until it looks and tastes good. I imagine a preassure cooker would simply accelrate the simmering process.

I'm reccomend investing in actual pro appliances (as opposed to pro-looking consumer appliances, which cost a bit more. Screw building codes, unless you live in an area with an anal inspector, or are expecting to sell your home soon). Also, I personally don't see the value in spending money on looks for countertops/cabinets, just buy for actual performance, and deal with the industrial look. Industrial chic can be stylish anyway.

Yum, me too! A crisp fall day, football, beer, "california dip" and Ruffles...life doesn't get any better, unless you maybe add proper Frank's Hot Sauce buffalo wings to the mix somewhere. ← Exactly! Now, just tell me you are a Raiders fan and you become the perfect football-watching buddy lol.

Hmmm, I Can't say cereal holds much notalgia for me, mostly, because even when I did eat it, it never seemed that great. Too sweet, or too fibrous, never a satisfying mouthfeel (perhaps due to the omnipresent skimmed milk, blech). As a kid I always much preferred some hot oatmeal or (even better) the full layout of my fathers southern style breakfast (biscuits, eggs, sausage gravey, fried ham, red eye gravey, hash browns, grits, maple syrups (holdover from out time spent living in New Hampshire), pancakes, and whatever else he felt like cooking up). Man, that big sunday breakfast made it almost worth having to go to church. Nowadays I do see others really seeming to get back into cereal, and in college it always seemed popular in the dining halls, although I preffered to eat my fill from the 'make your own omelet' stand instead. A guy I work with is now doing weight-watchers as a sympathetic gesture to his wife, who is doing it since she recently had a child. He has forgone his candy bars for 'All-Bran' ceral bars, which we have all begun (only semi-jokingly) reffering to as 'Shit Bricks'.

I am lucky in that both of my parents can cook very well when they want, and under the obligations of major holidays will pull out all the stops, but at the same time will never turn down help in the kitchen if it is offered. Thanksgiving with my family is always a huge affair. It involves myself, my two younger sisters, my mother and father, our neighbor (an elderly woman with no living family who literally has nowhere else to go), and our old neighbors (close friends of the family). Everyone brings something. My father is put in charge of the bird and the stuffing usually, along with whatever other time-intensive southern dishes that will be served (slow cook green beans, collard greens, corn bread, pumpin pie, fresh yeast rolls, etc). My mother takes care of the midwestern-style casserole favorites, and all of the things her mother passed down that are now thanksgiving musts (green bean casserole, squash casserole, candied yam casserole, etc). The dear-old lady nexy door (whose company I truly appreciate, she came to see every single recital/concert in which I performed during college, even those my parents could never make time to attend) will bring several home-made desserts, cakes, pies, scones, etc. If she brings her shoe-fly pie this year I Will not hesitate to blow my diet for an evening for a slice. Our old neighbors have lived all over the country, and to an extent, the world. The wife is Brazilian, the husband a geologist who has travelled and lived in all sorts of fun places, but staples for them are his killer oyster stuffing, fejuada, a fried pork rice dish, usually a wonderful ham, these pretty cool braised turnips, and for desert: bossa nova (a neato brazilian condensed milk/caramel/ice cream thing). My younger sisters have no interest in cooking, so they usually get out of the way and busy themselves with sneaking off with a bottle of wine whenever they get the chance. At least they keep the dog occupied. The older of the two is sometime enlisted into kitchen help (as my father and mother both believe it is quite important for any woman to know how to cook before leaving the house. A bit chauvenist I agree, but hey, old time Southern values die hard). She does make awesome biscuits and gravey, although those typically don't show up for Thanksgiving. I am probably the most adventurous cook in the family, and am typically given free reign (and a blank check for ingredients) to just go nuts and see what I come up with. Since I have been low-carbing I have been making lots of Atkins-friendly thanksgiving fare, including sugar-free bourgon cheesecake, hot bacon slaw, low-carb rye and sage sausage stuffing, stuffed mushrooms, baked pumpkin-pecan casserole (great sub for candied yams), more collard greens (my family can not get enough collard greens, we can easily kill off two full pots over thanksgiving weekend), sugar-free pumpkin pie with macadamia nut crust, country style ribs in saurkraut, smoked pork butt, and whatever else I feel like making. We all have lots of fun (hehe, said with a bit of sarcasm, but through all the shouting and threats, it really is fun) cooking in the same kitchen together (and since my parents have redone the kitchen, this is much more tolerable, I would kill to have their kitchen, dual convection-ovens, professional Viking gas range with griddle and grill, acres of granite countertops, etc). We end up with far more food than the total of nine or ten people can ever hope to eat, but leftovers are half the fun, and on a second-year teacher's salary, I always look forward to the coming week of no grocery shopping needed. All in all, thanksgiving is easily my second favorite holiday of the year (can't quite surpass Christmas, which isn't really food-oriented around my foilks, but the atmosphere can't be beat). A lot of that comes from just the time spent together working hard for a killer meal that looks positively Caligulan when laid out in front of everyone for the feast.

Hmmm, in third grade I won a contest at school with my 'Pistachio Zuchiwi Cake' (think Zuchini bread spiked with Pistachio pudding mix thrown into the batter, and a Pistachio/Kiwi icing with Kiwi slices placed all around). My mother helped me with the technical baking aspect, but the flavor idea combinations were all my own.

While speaking of Cracker Barrel - Is it that bad? It is one of my favorite chain restaurants. Now, I can certainly cook up anything they make far better myself, but when I am on the road, it looks a lot more appealing than Applebees or McDonalds (now Western Sizzlin or Golden Corral is another story altogether, but what can I say, I am sucker for all-you-can-eat. Iron Skillet also ranks up there ;) ).

Busboy - I think you bring up an excellent point with your artist comparison. Someone who is very technically adept as painter could make an exact duplicate of a Rembrandt or a Picasso, but that doesn't make them the artistic equal of either of those artists. As a musician I could spend weeks transcribing and orchestrating a Shostakovitch symphony by ear and re-write the manuscripts, but that doesn't make me a musical genius. Someone with enough technical skill could procur the ingredients and recreate a dish, even a full meal, as a copycat to something eaten at Per Se or El Bulli, but that home cook still lacks the vision to have come up with those dishes, the exact flavor combinations, and etc in the first place.

I don't see why not either, although to qualify as four-star one would have to have some cookery training of some kind, at least IMO. Having access to professional level equipment might be neccessary as well. If you put Thomas Keller in my apartment's kitchen with a box of ingredients he could bring himself, but told him he had to use only what I had availible to prepare it with, would the results end up being four star? I would also remove wine-list from the requirements. This is just a personal thing here, but wine has nothing to do with the food. Wine can apparently enhance food very well, and I hear lots of things about excellent pairings, but I feel the food should be able to stand on its own, apart from the wine.

Hmmm, I actually like french onion drip made from lipton soup mix... maybe it is just because it makes an appearance at every single holiday family gathering and I have just gotten used to it.

The casserole is a beautiful thing, and woefully underappreciated by folks who seem all caught up in only high end cuisine. Two of the dishes that I remember enjoying best year after year at family thanksgiving dinners were Squash Casserole (made with yellow (summer?) squash, topped with Durkee fried onions, some bit of ham in there perhaps, some creamy stuff, lots of cheese, oh so very good), and candied yam casserole (canned yams in thick sugar syrup, extra maple syrup added, candied pecans on top, and then marshmellows melted on that).

With Turkey vs. Chicken, I find that Turkey tastes much better when roasted, the meat just has more flavor than chicken meat. For smoked meat I will also give Turkey the edge, smoked turkey legs from the smoker guy at the farmers market are a great treat. When it comes to fried, chopped in a chili, curried, or almost any other culinary treatment I prefer chicken all the way however.

Am I a bad person for thinking that, given suitable amounts of mood-altering substances, this would be really good? ← That's a good question. I nominate you to test this theory ;).

I actually like Turkey, at least on thanksgiving. I don't much care for it in deli-meat form, or in 'turkey chili' or other situations where it is subbed for beef, but a whole roasted bird with good gravey and the right sides is downright tasty, I think it has more flavor than chicken at least.

I think he means Malt Vinegar, as is traditional with Fish 'n Chips. The other idea is just too digusting for words... ← ooh, duh, yeah, that makes more sense ;) Ball malt might be a little odd on fries... (still though, younever know...)

Malt? As in the stuff balls are made from?

Agh, I hit up two targets on my way to Trader Joes tonight, both had none :(. The only one I really, _really_ want, is the fruitcake soda. If anyone has a bottle they would be willing to part with I will paypal $10 for it ;).

Ooh, how could I have forgotten about poutine. Poutine has to be the most wonderful thing to have ever come out of Canada. Man, I wishI could dig into a big plate of Poutine right now...

Godiva gets given as a gift a lot I think because of excellent name recognition, people give it when they want to impress a bit more than that Whitman's or Russel Stover's sampler box.

Fark. The Jones site appeared to be down all morning, and when I was finally able to log on, the holiday pack was already sold out. Double fark. Now I need to find some other way to procur a pack.

Lol, sorry, I didn't mean the spelling thing as a snarky comment, I was just curious if that was what was meant, or if he was referring to a new sugar-alcohol I was unfamiliar with...

My dear Aunt Edith (who husband was my namesake) would always sneak back after everyone had left the booth to remove part of the tip until she felt what was left was appropriate. Once we discovered this practice we would have to make sure someone else would hide in the restaurant behind her to replace the missing portion of the tip. Of course, she and her husband were both children/adolescents of the depression. When they both passed away and the task of cleaning their home fell to my parents and family we discovered huge boxes of Postal Service issue toilet paper, mail straps, and other govt. sundries in the basement, bags of sugar and flour stashed everywhere (including in the oven, how odd), and just the general appearance that they had not seen fit to throw anything away in the past thirty years. Of course, some of this turned out to be cool, such as a collection of every single Playboy Magazine from the 60s or so until the early 90s, multiple jugs of moonshine, and a complete collection of original Elvis LPs.