chile_peppa

Sorry if I misunderstood the comment, but please be careful about judging people's appearances. Unless you actually know this person and his family, you don't really know why they are eating their Thanksgiving dinner at such a place. In this age of downsizing, rightsizing, outsourcing, whatever euphemism you want to use, plenty of middle-class people are struggling to make ends meet. And many homeless and other poor folks do make an effort to keep themselves neat as they go to their day jobs that don't pay them enough to keep a roof over their heads or their families fed.

Ditto. There's a Panera within walking distance of my house. I tried it when they first opened, but I will never be back again. My niece wanted a plain buttered bagel, not cream cheese, not sandwich. Unfortunately, it wasn't on the menu, and though they had all the ingredients, the "special order" apparently upset the staff so much that it took 10 minutes of explaining and half an hour of preparation before the bloody thing arrived at the pickup window. I felt like Jack Nicholson in "Five Easy Pieces," trying to order toast.

I'm not making this up... At dinner last night, my son told me about his cousin's new girlfriend. She was going to make French toast. After dipping the bread in egg, she boiled (NOT broiled -- I asked!) it. When making macaroni and cheese from a box, she put the cheese powder in the boiling water with the noodles - no milk, no butter. She couldn't figure out how to turn on the oven and was astonished when my son showed her how to turn the knob (she was looking for a push button). Lord help us if this turns out to be a serious relationship and she becomes a member of the family!

One year, during our annual Thanksgiving trip to Iowa, my former MIL roasted a wild turkey that my BIL brought. Unfortunately, he left the buckshot in the bird...

I like them with soy sauce I like them with mayonnaise I like them with ketchup I like them with chili 'n' cheese I like them with ranch dressing .... I just like fries. There's a fast food restaurant near where I work that slathers them with garlic butter -- messy but delicious!

This reminds me of a story... When my sons were small, we vacationed in Chincoteague, Virginia. One sunny, hot afternoon, during lunch at a restaurant, my younger son decided he wanted to save his bread and butter for later. Unknown to me, he wrapped it up in a napkin and slipped it into my purse. Later, after a day at the beach, I reached into my purse to find melted butter all over everything -- wallet, money, tissues, hairbrush -- everything! Yuck.

I once invited a friend and her family to dinner at my house. She showed up with a complete meal that she had made from cans and boxes, as if what I had prepared was not good enough. This was a woman who put flour and sugar into her spaghetti sauce to thicken it. Needless to say, that was the end of that. I am floored by what some people consider cooking. For example, I saw a published recipe for spaghetti that consisted of cooking the pasta according to package directions and pouring a jar of prepared sauce on top. How is that cooking? I am floored by people who have diet-related health conditions but do not change their ways. My mother's husband is a diabetic who takes daily insulin injections and has been hospitalized in a diabetic coma at least twice, yet he has stashes of sweets all over their apartment... digging his grave with his teeth.

Funny you should bring up sandwich making... I was making lunch for the Biker Dude yesterday when he said "One of the things that I love about you is your attention to detail. You line up the bread so the slices match, you stack the meat on carefully, the mayonnaise is spread to the edges, and you cut the sandwich so precisely." How sweet can he get? The ex would have just called me anal! For hamburgers, I always squeeze the ketchup and mustard into smiley faces on the buns... But for hot dogs -- NO KETCHUP (I'm from Chicago!).

I like chickpeas, garbanzo beans, ceci, whatever -- quite a lot. Here is a recipe for Thunder and Lightning, adapted from the Chicago Tribune: 1/4 c olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 c cooked chickpeas 1 tb fresh sage, minced fine 1 c chicken broth 1 1/2 t finely cracked peppercorns 3/4 lb orecchiette ("ear"-shaped pasta), cooked 2 tb butter 1/2 c grated Parmesan Cook garlic and chickpeas in olive oil over high heat until the chickpeas begin to pop. Add sage, broth, and pepper. Lower heat and reduce broth by one-fourth. Place the pasta and butter in a large bowl. Add chickpea mixture and toss well. Add Parmesan. If the dish is too dry, add more broth. Serve with additional cheese.

I think that people who eat like this may account for the popularity of all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants that serve large quantities of "college dorm" food on steam tables. My dad and stepmom like to go to one near their home in rural Indiana, and it's always packed, whether we go for dinner or breakfast. The offerings tend to be sweet, heavy, starchy, and covered in sauces, but people seem to enjoy them a lot. edited for typo

I like very crispy Tater Tots with soy sauce -- channeling both my Southern (deep fried) and Japanese roots with that combination.

I enjoy the "technical" aspects. It's one thing to read a description of a technique in a cookbook, but it's another to see it demonstrated on a screen with a close-up of the cook's hands performing the task. Such a close-up is even better than attending a cooking class where you can't see the details because you're too far away.

How about these tasty treats: chocolate-covered pork rinds? I like the contrast between sweet chocolate and salty pretzels or potato chips, but this is carrying low-carb madness to ridiculous depths. (p.s. I know eGullet has an agreement with Amazon, but I'm not sure how to set up the link -- perhaps one of the admins can fix this?)

My cousin-in-law used to eat salt sandwiches -- just a heavy sprinkle of salt on a slice of white bread topped with another slice.

How about the ubiquitous Caesar and Cobb salads, named respectively for the originating chef and for the owner of the Brown Derby restaurant? Veal Oscar, for the King of Sweden Graham crackers, for Sylvester Graham, who ranted against the horrible eating habits of Americans in the early 19th Century (sound like any modern reformers you might know?) -- what would he have thought of the sugary snacks that carry his name today? edited: sorry, can't spell today

Aburaage ("fried tofu," but more like a thin skin than the chunky tofu you might know) is supposed to the favorite food of foxes. And in Japanese stories, the fox is the trickster! It's very simple as most Japanese home cooking is -- just udon noodles, dashi-based broth (katsuobushi fish flakes and soy sauce -- can be bought premade as mentioned in Torakris' link above), aburaage, maybe some kamaboko (fish "sausage"), and some green onions on top -- at least that's how my mom makes it and how I make it, too! Eat with chopsticks and slurp away!

Mmmmm... soup... I made beef barley soup on Sunday, which I've been eating with Asiago cheese bread for dinner since. You just can't make just a little soup. For today's lunch, I emerged from my cave and drove to the cafeteria (about a mile away and too cold to walk) just for the split pea and potato soup. It was worth the trip. No. 1 Son just called to say he got out of work early today and is stopping at the Mitsuwa store on the way home. He will be bringing home some fixings for kitsune udon -- hooray! The Biker Dude likes Campbell's tomato soup made with milk, topped with oyster crackers, with a grilled cheese on squishy white bread on the side. I just don't see how he can eat that stuff. Can this relationship survive such differing tastes in food?

Hi, Anna, I'm enjoying your blog! The Biker Dude also needs a manly lunch to take to his construction jobs, and I'm alway looking for something different. The frikadeller sandwich would be a good alternative to the liverwurst he's been getting lately. I never would have thought of adding cucumber salad to a sandwich, but it looks mighty tasty!

I haven't seen the CIA bookbook yet, so I don't know how they're quantifying the time, but I have found that many recipes don't include prep time. I've gotten suckered by recipes that claim to take 30 minutes but don't tell you that you have to start the day before with chopping, marinating, killing the chicken... I guess it helps to read the fine print in the recipe first and then gauge the real time according to how you would work in your own kitchen.

I've been enjoying your posts! Your spirit and enthusiasm are inspiring! I learned the same thing about mangoes. A friend for some reason had too many and gave me some this summer. I tried to dice them nicely, following the diagram in some book or another, but they all turned into a big mush. So instead of the mango cobbler I was going to attempt, I made sorbet! Keep up the good work!

I went to the Dominick's supermarket the other day, searching for candy corn for my sweetie, but to no avail. All they had was Hershey's and Nestle's chocolate thingies... My sisters and I did the same thing. We also had "trading parties" after each Halloween, where we would sort out all the candy we didn't like and trade with each other.

Seems like a strange assortment -- Blue Ginger and Panda Express competing head to head? I'd put them in completely different categories.

I didn't have anything at all this morning, but yesterday, I had reheated Japanese karee raisu, made oatmeal with dried cranberries for the BF, and gave his son a lesson on making French toast. Weekends are about the only time I cook anything for breakfast as we need to be out the door by 7:30 a.m. and I am not a morning person.

And here I was, thinking you were referring to the Chicago Cubs... Just wait until next year!

Au contraire... I hold an MBA and manage project budgets, but I am sick and tired of people trying to apply CBA to all aspects of life. There is much more to real life than numbers crunching -- real or virtual.