daniellewiley

A friend of mine has a HUGE gum collection (like, filling an entire room in the basement of his Victorian mansion - I should take pics sometime and share with eGullet). I asked him about these, and he said that he thinks they are a chewy candy, not a chewing gum - is this true? I had forgotten that "gum" can refer to candy.

I LOVE my reamer, and I also bought it because of Jeff Smith. He was big on gadgets, wasn't he?? He also crowed about the Susi garlic press (not as impressive as the reamer, IMO).

We always had tossed salad, served, for some reason, in a white casserole that was way too small for the salad - it would always fall out when we did the requisite tossing. Lettuce was iceberg until I was in high school, at which point my mom discovered red leaf. I always had to wash the lettuce, which was a miserable job, as we had no salad spinner, and it took forever. Tomatoes were of the pink, mealy variety. I actually thought I hated raw tomatoes for a long time. What a revelation to taste a properly ripened tomato that wasn't stored in the fridge! (and to eat steak that wasn't well done, but that's another topic...) We used only Italian dressing, and until I was in high school, it was homemade in a carafe that had lines directing my mother how to make it - oil to here, vinegar to here, water to here. Once the lovely Paul Newman launched his famous dressing, we had that, but my mom thought it was too bland (and it was the eighties) so she added balsamic vinegar (so eighties!!). The salad also contained cucumbers, peeled and cut in half circles, and scallions, the white part only. When did you all eat your salad? Ours was served with the meal, which is what I do now. My cousins always ate their salad after the main course, which seemed so strange to me. We also started most meals with a half of a grapefruit - did anyone else do that?? These days, we do salad maybe 2 times a week. I serve it in a giant wooden bowl in which I make the dressing first before adding ingredients.

oh that looks fabulous! I love Dutch Babies. Where did you get the recipe??

Yesterday, leftover ribs and bbq chicken wings Today, leftover pizza - 2 pieces Greek (feta, spinach, basil, pine nuts, garlic) and 1 piece Italian sausage, followed by a bottle of Newcastle.

Yum, that sounds good. We do "cheesy potatoes" for every holiday. Five pounds of potatoes, mashed with one stick of butter, one package of Philly cream cheese. Put in a pyrex, top with dots of butter (yes, more butter), and cover with sliced or shredded cheddar. Heat to melt cheese.

This is one of the best things about the foodblogs, IMHO. I love seeing how life gets in the way of our plans (as it does for ALL of us) and how we all respond/react in our different ways. Your response, btw, gets an A+ from me! Smoked brisket, yum! I do have a crazy question for you. Larb sounds so good to me, and per Kristin's link, I did a bit of browsing through the famous 20 page thread. However, horror of horrors, I am allergic to fish sauce! Actually I'm allergic to all fish, except shellfish. I love the flavor combinations of both Thai and Vietnamese food, but there's almost nothing I can eat in its pure form. In fact, I worry that I'll never be able to travel to Thailand or Vietnam for fear of going into anaphylactic shock. Any suggestions on a substitution? Everything I've read says that there is no way to substitute for fish sauce, but since you are an expert, I thought I'd ask! (If this is too off topic, feel free to respond via PM, but only when you have time!)

My daughter is home sick today, and I have a cold as well, so we headed to the bagel place for some matzoh ball soup. We also got some corn chowder and split a corned beef on a toasted bagel with spicy mustard. She drank chocolate milk. I drank a Nantucket Nectar half and half. Then, to soothe our poor, sore throats, we of course hit our favorite ice cream place - Handel's. Dylan had a chocolate Handel pop (ice cream scoop on a stick dipped in dark chocolate). I had a small cup of chocolate raspberry truffle. yum...

Keep your eye out for one at antique stores or garage sales. I got mine at a garage sale in Vermont for $5 - works like a charm!

My vegetarian sister-in-law frequently makes a very non-traditional bibimbap with brown rice instead of white, and tofu instead of beef. She also uses Sriracha instead of kochujang (sp?). Most of the Ann Arbor Korean restaurants offer both tofu and beef varieties.

I went to a small local Polish diner with my father-in-law. Had the Polish Dinner Combo - one potato pierogi, a stuffed cabbage, a link of kielbasa and two sides (I chose sweet and sour cabbage and sauerkraut). I'm very full!!!

Good flavor, but I still remember spending nearly an hour with my mom each year plucking out little feathers with tweezers whenever we got a kosher turkey. Is that still necessary? This was 20 years ago.

Make them do it!! Can they food style tonight's dinner for you?? I'm enjoying this blog tremendously - I love the time difference factor. We have nonstop blogging! And Kris, those tempura zucchini flowers were truly outstanding - I can still taste them. If I didn't have an old, all wood kitchen with no ventilation, I would certainly have recreated them here!

Lucy, will you be my Aunt??

My Grandma Ana and my dad. My grandmother taught me to love food and cooking, and my dad helped me to become a good writer. He still helps review my articles! Most of my published articles have been restaurant reviews, but I love writing personal memoir-style articles. When we moved to Ann Arbor in 1997, there was a blurb in the paper about their search for a new food critic. I thought to myself, "I love food. I can write. Hmmm, I should do this." I'd love anything with a broader reader base than the local publications I've been in to date. I've had one article in the IACP magazine, which was wonderful, but I want more!! I do a lot of things to make money. My food writing is the thing that makes me most proud. The more I can do, the better I feel about myself. I'd love to teach people about the wonderful food that is out there. I love when my writings inspire people to try something new, even if it's just a local under-rated restaurant. ................................................................................. Thanks for the fun question Karen!! Are you going to answer it??

Thank you for the lovely blog! We booked a vacation to Florida this weekend, and I think your gorgeous photos had a big part in our decision!! Good job!

The whole family (myself, the husband, our four year old and our infant) will be going to Disney in mid-November for a week. We will be celebrating our anniversary while there, and will be getting an in-room babysitter for that night. It will be our only night out without the kids. While at Disney, we are doing the Dining Plan which covers one counter service meal, one table service meal and one snack for all of us (well, except the little guy, who's still on breastmilk only). For our special night out, we can eat at one of the Dining Plan included Signature restaurants by trading in two of our table service meals. The question is, which one?? Our choices are: California Grill Artist Point Citricos Coral Reef Flying Fish Brown Derby Jiko Les Chefs de France Yachtsman Steakhouse My husband ate at Flying Fish last year for work and really enjoyed it, but the California Grill sounds wonderful from what I'm reading above. That said, the mentions above are all a bit dated, so I'm wondering if anyone has any more recent experience?? Do any of the others listed deserve our reservation? Thanks!

That's MY kind of agenda!!

Hey Randi! I'm not Susan, but I never use sauce on my homemade pizza. I think it's delicious without it!! I do put olive oil on the crust, though.

I'm still debating. Pasta is not in the cards this week because a heavy week of kid activities. I'm leaning towards either of Chris's suggestions, but no juniper here, either! And, I've only made pasta once, and with minimal success, so I'm wondering if a stuffed one is overly ambitious? ← I have a mess of ground venison as well. Let us know what you do! (I'm thinking stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers or chili - I want something I can make in bulk and freeze) Back on topic, I have my new pasta roller, but just haven't had the time! I am sooo looking forward to a weekend with nothing to do. Maybe in 18 years or so? I wonder if this thread will still be here...

In the many many books I've been looking through, trying to get ideas, all generally agree to ditch the skin before cooking. ← I sometimes cook chicken in the crockpot WITH the skin. I cover the bottom of the crockpot with loosely packed balls of foil. Then, I season the chicken and place it on top. The fat drains down to the bottom, underneath the foil balls. It's a neat trick. I especially like using chicken made this way for chicken salad, but it's good hot too.

We season with salt and pepper and grill to our liking. Then, we top them with a simple thyme vinaigrette. Delicious!

Apparently, it takes a bazillion times more energy for my husband or children to open the dishwasher and insert the dishes than it does for me. They also feel it is important to leave the sink full of stuff so that one cannot use the sink. ← I hear ya! He will also take dirty dishes out of the left side of the sink, and place them in the right side so that he can use it. I don't think it occurs to him that washing the dishes is an option.

OK, last night was my first attempt. I wanted to do ricotta gnocchi, but I decided to vary it a bit. I was looking through the NYT cookbook, and just above the traditional gnocchi recipes was a recipe for spinach ricotta dumplings. So, that's what I tried. The NYT cookbook suggested serving them with just melted butter and grated Parmigiano on top, but since I'm doing Weight Watchers to get rid of this baby weight, I instead sauteed some fresh, chopped tomato with a bit of garlic in some EVOO. The recipe is basically the same as Sam's ricotta gnocchi recipe except chopped spinach is added, and the flour is not mixed into the dough. Instead, the ricotta mixture is dropped by spoon into the flour and then shaped into a ball. This resulted in a dumpling that had a sort of shell around it. Next time, I want to try it with the flour mixed in - I think they would be more substantial. These were delicious, but a little too delicate for my taste. They also needed more salt. I will also omit the spinach next time. Though I thought it was delicious, almost four-year-old Dylan wouldn't eat them (she loves spinach, but only when it's hidden because she thinks she doesn't like it), and that annoyed me. I served these with a yummy acorn squash puree to which I added freshly ground nutmeg, a touch of butter and S&P. As you can see, the plate looks a bit spare. Please excuse the interesting napkin formation. That's what you get when you tell a preschooler to fold the napkins and place the silverware on top.

1. He is furious when I "mess with a good thing." In his mind, once you have something good, you don't mess with it. So, since he likes my traditional meatloaf, I can't serve him ANY VARIATION on meatloaf. 2. He won't eat any leftovers. At all. Grosses him out. 3. He puts our Sabatier paring knives in the dishwasher!!! 4. And, as I read above, he also leaves every cabinet door open. He's actually injured himself quite badly on an open cabinet. No matter - he still leaves them all open. 5. He eats cereal in the morning, rinses the bowl and spoon, and then places the bowl and spoon on the counter to the left of the sink. The dishwasher is just to the right of the sink. I do not understand this one.