judiu

Beautiful salad, but I have to ask, what's that purple thing at about 5 o'clock in the bowl? Most BEAUTIFUL color!

Wow, Soba, your NYC kitchen looks a lot like my Florida condo kitchen, only cleaner! Beautiful pictures, and oh, boy, do I miss New York City!

Goddess forgive me, but I make a mix my Mom called "Clutter and Stuff" her's had Cheerios and Kix; mine has Crispex, ff onion rings (canned), potato stix, mixed nuts no peanuts, bacon crumbles, bacon grease, butter, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, Chinese noodles, and other crunchies to taste. Mix it all in a huge bowl, toast at 250 degrees for an hour, tossing every 15 min. Whoa!

Ah well then. It's all good. And you can still make individual servings. ← My mom, who had to cook for a vegetarian husband and 2 carniverous kids, used to make a mac and cheese to "clean up the fridge" of the bits and pieces of the left over cheeses. She'd make a becheamel sauce, stir in the broken up chunks of cheeses, and pour the whole mess over the cooked macaroni, and then plop the whole thing into the oven. The semi melted chunks of cheeses would ooze into the sauce, and the macaroni on the top would brown and get crunchy. I "kick this up a notch" by adding finely minced onions and dry mustard to the flour in the bechamel; and Dayum, is it good!

I'm in South Florida, and I got the brilliant idea of letting a tree trimmer dump his load of chips in our yard; not only did I get ticks in the yard, the SOB wanted to charge me for the load he'd had to pay to haul to the dump! Maybe not the best idea in the world... Edited to correct rotten typing!

Please hit these sites every day; they're free and they do more than just donate food! http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 There are five sites within this page, and they all are for good causes. Please click every day!

Oooohhhhhh, Chufi!

Just curious; why the prohibition on chicken poop? As long as they are well fed, without hormones or antibiotics, what would be the problem?

I live in south Florida, and a Hess station (that's a brand of gas) has and Amazing Hot Dog stand in the station, complete with the flying guy logo. Did the Amazing Hot Dog folks lease out the name, or are they selling franchises? I have not tried the hot dogs yet, but the use of the logo made me curious.

judiu, pardon the inquisition, but I have a few questions. Since Sept. 19 is on a Friday, about what time do they want the dinner party? 5 pm? 6 pm? 7 pm? What price range per person? $25? $50? $75? $100? On the Strip, $25 is about the price of a good lunch buffet at Bellagio or Wynn, $50 is the starting price for dinner (prix fixe dinner at Daniel Boulud at the Wynn for about $48 before 7 pm). What kind of cuisine? French? Steakhouse? Italian? Mexican? American? Southern? Seafood? Asian? BTW There are a few steakhouses in Las Vegas. What kind of ambience and decor? Nice and quiet with NO rock & roll music? Or something more festive? Formal? Casual? Does the wedding party want to eat their dinner and/or drink their dinner? Beer? Wine? Hard liquor? Iced tea? Soda? On the Strip or off the Strip? Downtown Las Vegas? A good local Las Vegas restaurant as opposed to a chain? I'll try to find a list of local places, if that's what the couple wants. A couple of important questions: Are you a part of the wedding party? If so, what restaurant do you want? Again, sorry about the questions. When it comes to weddings, might as well do it right. ← Whee! Thanks for the questions; I KNEW I should have clarified this better! They are getting married at 5 P.M., and then want to hang out for a while with cocktails, and then eat dinner, maybe at the same place, maybe a different place for dinner. As far as the bride and groom are concerned, less is better. Casual works for these folks, but they'll probably be all gussied up in wedding gear, so if the place is TOO casual, they'll look lost. I think either steakhouse, Italian or American. Southern might work. The entire party are drinkers and partyers, but not really rowdy. I'm not going to be there, due a bad case of "'myfundsarelow". (Thank the Most High...) ( I'm not good with mob scenes ) If there is such thing as a small local chain, that might work. I'm fairly sure they'd like a private room, but not necessarily. They're fairly gregarious, so festive is good. Old rock and roll is a general favorite, as is SOME country, but not totally "lost my wife, lost my pick-up lost my dog", if you know what I mean.

A couple of my friends are getting married in Las Vegas on September 19, at The Little White Wedding Chapel, which is at the north end of the Strip. The wedding party will be staying at Circus Circus, and need recomendations for a reasonably nice, reasonabley priced, place for dinner for about 20 people for that night. These folks are Sonny's BBQ, Olive Garden, Red Lobster types, so accomidations don't have to be supurb, but a step up from chain dining would be good. Any suggestions?

Goodbye and the Most High bless you and your family with everything wonderful! Can't wait to see and read more about the Cabin! It's been great, and I'm hoping now it will only get better for us all!

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, Ice Cubes ! Yes, they were wonderful !! There was a little "5 and Dime/Liquor Store" on my way home from school, and I used to buy Ice Cubes there with my left-over lunch money. They were sooooo good. And to the poster who was extolling the ribbon Christmas candy, I would add, ALL the old Christmas hard candies that used to be so popular in the late 50's and 60's. The ribbon candy and the cut peppermints with the decorations on the inside (like Christmas trees, wreaths, bells, holly, they were almost like candy canes, but nuggets and multi-color) and ESPECIALLY those filled, thin-shell candies that had jams and chocolate inside with fruit flavors in the shell. Oh, they were good. I look for those Christmas hard candy assortments each year, and I'll be dipped if I can find 'em..........Sure wish I could......... ← That Christmas candy is now sold under the name "Cut Rock"; I believe it's made by (sp?) Brach's. And you KNOW if they have it commercially, you can find better stuff somewhere else! Try this place: http://www.candy4u.com/chriscutrocc.html

Wow! The puff pastry ones would probably be my favorite; I adore the texture of good puff pastry, and those look super!

To me, it's not a neurosis, it's invoking grace. I'm going to take it up. ← You should pardon the expression, Amen!

Hate to see this end, but I know there's more to come... Looking forward to it! Thank you for a great trip!

It does sorta look like a mushroom cloud...

Wow! Thanks to everyone for the great ideas. I've never thought to use jell-o or jelly in my trifles, I usually go with wine soaked fruit with some added sugar (I buy the fruit fresh, or use unsweetened frozen berries). I was thinking about a pumpkin "not pie" sort of a thing for the holidays. A layer of graham crackers, scrunched up, just touched with a little sea salt (to mimic the slight bit of salt in a pie crust), pumpkin pie filling with some grated orange peel and ginger added, and then whipped cream (or Cool Whip) on top. I don't know what kind of liquer or wine would work with this, though; port is too rich and red, sherry is not quite bold enough, maybe Frangelico? Any thought?

"These Folks" are not foodies, they're members of a fraternal organization to which I belong. They basically don't know from good food, and it's less expensive for me not to educate them. I do what I can get away with and still hear people tell me they like what I make. I know it's fake, but they don't care. I'm not at all financially secure enough to try and convert large quantities of people to "good food" Yes, what I make for them is mediocre by my standards, but they like it. I'm just looking for interesting sounding combinations, please. Mostly it's a financial thing. When I do fresh fruit, or frozen, I will, as I said, macerate it with sugar and a bit of wine, so the juices will flow on their own. Then I soak the prepared cake with the juice and layer in the fruit and pudding and top with the "much less expensive" whipped topping.

My Mom, long since passed, and I both shared what I call a "taste memory". You taste a dish in progress, particularly a long simmering thing like a stew or a braise and ask your self "what would make this taste better". Then you think of the flavor of the item that's cooking and overlay various tastes on the flavor in your head and just know that a little orange rind would perk this up, or that the sweet taste of caraway would help that, or because the Italian sausage in the sauce did not have fennel seed, you'll need to add it.

Ok, I have to admit that my trifles are "semi-homemade" and not really the real thing, but I need inventive help, here, please! When I make a "trifle" I use frozen , canned or fresh fruit, macerated with some wine or booze, instant pudding, and whipped cream (or usually Cool Whip ) and a prepared cake, like pound cake. The people I cook for don't have sophisticated tastes, they can rarely tell the difference between Cool Whip and whipped cream, and, dear heaven, Cool Whip is SO much cheaper! (Yeah, I know it's nasty, but THEY don't care!) So far, I have done a Vanilla cake with vanilla pudding, mixed (frozen) berries with Marsala wine and topping, one with blueberries and peaches the same way, and a chocolate one with chocolate "cream cake", raspberries ans strawberries, chocolate pudding and whipped topping. I need ideas for more inventive fillings, seasonings and over the whipped topping sprinkles. I sort of have a pumkin "not pie" one in mind , but these folks love this fake stuff; help with ideas, please!

Wow! I NEVER thought of that! My mom used to use damp cotton balls to gater up the glass, but whomp biscuits sound a lot easier!

Whiskey Sours were my mom's favorite; she made them by the pitcher full. I loved them as a kid (drank the dregs, OOOH, lemonade!) and still do now, but very rarely! Scotch sours are good, too. HTH!

Actually, tarragon is my "special secret" to my bolognaise sauce. I even start with a jar of sauce (usually Prego with mushrooms), a pound of hamburger, a pound of Italian sweet sausage out of the casings, a bunch of chopped onion, fresh mushrooms if I have them, and the tarragon. Brown the meats together, pour off most of the fat, add the onions and saute until softened. Dump in the jar of sauce, the sliced mushrooms, some (a small can) of tomato paste, a small can of tomato sauce, some canned diced tomatoes (no juice) and a bunch of tarragon, about a Tbsp. ( I usually use dried and scrunch it in the palm of my hand.) Let the sauce simmer for about an hour, then turn off, move to a cold burner and cover. When you come home from the bar, start the water for the pasta, put a bunch of basil in the sauce ( dried basil, or julliened fresh) and bring up to serving temp. Oh, yeah, a BUNCH of garlic, run thru a press in the first batch of stuff, too. If you don't want to press the garlic mince it, fine, fine, fine, or run it by your Microplane. You're the first person I've ever given this recipe to: feel honored! ( I never claimed this is Italian, but every one loves it, even the cats!) A Tbsp. of dried tarragon is about equal to a scant quarter cup of fresh...

Happy birthday, and thanks for a wonderful trip. Wish I were there !