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Kim and Darienne, I'll join the maiming, if I may! Beautiful kitchen; everything that mine's NOT!

Oh, my! Close the Manhattan bar at 2 AM, head back to NJ and hit White Castle for sliders... The BEST!

Pierogi, do you have any master sauce hanging around? I'd simmer the leftover meatballs in that, and make a bastardized meatball sub, or maybe you would call it a meatball bahn mi? Also, when I was cooking regularly, I found that a small can of waterchestnuts, rinsed and chopped fine in the food processor, and mixed with the meat mixture, added lightness and moisture. Don't ask me why I know this...

For the sake of your peace of mind, DON'T FORGET THE EXTRA GASOLINE! Most gas stations, virtually ALL of them now, depend on electricity to move the fuel thru the pumps, and no electricity = no fuel. No fuel = no generator or motor vehicle. After Wilma, here in Broward County, it took a good week, at least, for any of the stations to open.

Skip, well put, and thank you!

I prefer not to drink alcohol early in the day, and my go-to stand-by is a well made Bloody Awful (sorry; that's a Virgin Mary to you non-northeasterners...)with a good belt of Worcestershire sauce and just a drop or two of hot sauce. Also a virgin Bloody Cesar, made with Clamato or clam juice and tomato juice with lots of lemon.

Yee gads! Were you playing with beets, is it a weird lighting thing, or are your hands REALLY purple?

I'm certainly NOT Simon S, but I can recommend the beef tongue. Go to a good deli and try a tongue sandwich; it's delicious! Meaty, firm textured with a great chew. I haven't made it in years, being a singleton, and only cooking for myself, but it's GOOD! (On rye, with mustard if you like it.)

I realize that California folks look down on us as "that other citrus producing state" , but here in South Florida we actually get packages of meat marked "Great for the Grill" even in January! Those short ribs sure look good! Thanks for the blog and I appreciate the vicarious visit to SoCal .

Mashed potatoes with a drop of red and a drop of blue food color to mimic the violet tinge?

That's the place! If you ever get there, PM me, and I'll tell you who to look for!

I'm a regular at a local place called Bobby Rubino's her in Pompano Beach. I always sit at the bar, and the bartender knows my drink, knows I like a water back, that I like my beef EXTREMELY rare, and my burgers and sandwiches loaded.

Another Liberte lover here! Tried the blackberry flavour first, now I'm hooked. Chobani isn't bad, but doesn't have a patch on the Liberte brand, and Liberte is far less expensive where I shop; $.80 vs about 1.33 for Chobani. (Publix markets in south Florida)

Actually, I think you'll find the Artful Dodger is from Oliver Twist. Moreover, my dictionary gives "skilful, clever" as the first definition for "artful," and "crafty, deceitful" as sense 2. <----I am totally pretending that this is the "blushing" emoticon. I mixed up the Artful Dodger and the Mad Hatter. Wasn't that artful of me?? I don't have any dictionaries here, I only have the web, and we all know you can't believe everything that's written on the web, especially apparently what I write. <----blushing again. I thought that even when artful meant skillful or clever, it meant it in the negative sense, skillful as in a skillfully executed con, clever as in deceitful. And the word has ties to the old timey definition of artist, which is closer to con-artist than the meaning of the word today. But it seems I am wrong, and that's what I get for hollering online. @Runnwestierun, I guess it's all in the personal interpretation of the word "artful". I would not hesitate to say that, eg. "dcarch's dishes are artfully prepared and presented." Craft as art, no? (By the way, the emoticon will show up when you select "show all" at the bottom of the emoticon list.)%^) (that's a grin with glasses)

Holy merde, cakemuse! Beautiful, gorgeous, splendid, (pick your favorite superlative and add here) stuff!

dcarch, In the interest of "full disclosure" I gotta tell you, those weren't my lamb shanks, but I sure did admire them! Thanks, anyhow!

"...weeded..."

Check out the stewed beef recipe in post 14 of the World's Simplest Recipes thread. Calls for "several teaspoons of pepper". Woo!

I have used the pre-peeled garlic on occasion; I don't think much of it, as the flavor is minimal and you need to use at LEAST twice as much to get up to speed. The minced garlic in jars is HORRIBLE, most of what you taste from it is the acidic preservative used to avert the risk of botulism. (I'm sure it has other preservative factors, such as color retention, but ICK!) When I microplane garlic for garlic butter, I usually will just work around the germ and discard it, but when a whole clove is just smacked and added to a marinade or something, why bother?

And this is how it ends Well, hold the gorgonzola (anyone here read Piers Anthony?), but I'd certainly LOVE all the rest; Kim, that souffle is a thing of beauty; jsmeeker, I do LOVE me some lamb shanks!

Kahn's Braunschweiger ® has a recipe for a "Bavarian Party Dip" on the back of the label; it's pretty good! Saute 1/2 c. minced onion (doesn't say what type of fat, or how much) for 10 min. or so, drain and reserve. Mix meat with 3 oz. cream cheese until smooth. Mix in reserved onion and 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper. EASY!

It's a guide for slicing onions and/or tomatoes, isn't it? I remember the era when they were used as pics, to pouf up a hairdo...

That's the technique I use for my stove top chicken and macaroni; poach the cut up chicken in water with poultry seasoning, a good lot of garlic (I blush to admit that I used granulated garlic for this, but it was invented when I lived in a van, and cooked on a 2 burner gas Coleman stove...) salt and pepper. (I MADE space for a pepper grinder )Brown the chicken a bit in a nice chunk of butter, in a deep pot big enough to simmer in, season well with the goodies and add enough water to roughly cover and then some. When chicken is done, dump in a half pound of elbow macaroni and cook until tender. There should be not much broth left in the pot, and macaroni will be coated in a buttery, sticky, chicken-fatty glaze. Serve with something green, if you must, or sliced tomatoes. NOT gourmet, but damn tasty!

Darienne, are finer motions of the fingers more easily controlled than the larger movements of the hand? Perhaps using what my mom used to call 'corn tongs', the type that have specific handles like a pair of scissors (see link below) might be easier for you? HTH! http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/matfer/652001/p373931.aspx

But Erin, how did it TASTE?