I_call_the_duck

The party's over folks. He's history on WOR DiSpirito Goes Off the Air As long as he's reinventing himself, is he going to convert to Kabbalahism and change his name to Esther?

Make it three for the Braun. I've had it for many years and love it. It has four speeds (though I generally use only two), comes apart, and came with a small chopping bowl. I tried to make pesto in it (since I didn't have a food processor at the time), and it worked, but was a major pain. But it works beautifully for soups, sauces, and purees and probably other things that I have yet to discover.

Let's open up another can of worms. It could be the inner Chinese in you. Speaking in a completely general and tongue-in-cheek manner, dark meat is the choice of my people. (My sister, who likes to lecture us all on healthy eating, has given in to her genetic calling and has been seen reaching for the dark meat when the poultry is passed around.) And if fried rice was a choice of sides, would you order that too?

Yes, it is Mama's Fish House. We were there at night, so we didn't see any parasailers or surfers. Wonderful restaurant.

So where do you find the recipe for Chinese blueberry or apple pie? Or Chinese Pannetone? ← Made it up. Mixed the usual stuff with a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil and topped with tofu!

Instead of the usual potluck this year, our holiday party was catered, which everyone loved. Except me. Strangely enough, I look forward to potluck, because the people that bring in dishes make pretty good stuff. The people that don't cook have enough sense not to bring anything. Anyway, on the menu was devilled eggs, overcooked buffalo wings, dry meatballs, a huge cold cut platter, a pasta-seafood salad that was drowning in mayonnaise, and a green salad made with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes (that I’m sure came in a cellophane wrapper), and cucumbers. The dressing was a choice of cheap bottled Thousand Island, Italian, or French. For dessert, we had some scary peach cobbler and an assortment of cakes. OK, the rum cake was pretty good. And really poor selection of beverages. No alcohol, save two bottles of cheap wine, and nobody remembered to bring a corkscrew. (It was actually funny seeing people hovering over those two sad bottles.) And the next day, one of the people on the party committee said that we were offered some leftover beer from another company’s party, but he declined. Doh. Would have taken the edge off the food.

We're not. Growing up it was strawberry shortcake for birthdays and apple pie for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Also, the spouses are not Chinese, so they and the kids are the big dessert eaters.

Foodiegirl, Happy anniversary! When we were in Maui in September, we went all around the island, and our favorite place was in Paia, which is on the northen side of the island, about a 45 minute drive from Wailea. Our second favorite place in Maui was Spago. The Spicy Ahi Tuna “Poke” in Sesame-Miso Cones were incredible. I'll second the vote for Sansei, which has excellent sushi. There's also a wine shop in Kihei called "Who Cut the Cheese", which sells some wonderful Hawaiian goat cheese. I'd say Kihei is about a 10 minute drive from Wailea. You'll find a nice variety of places to eat in Kihei. I haven't eaten at the other places that miulang mentioned, but have heard good things about them. Have fun.

I like the Doll brand and another brand which I can't remember its name. I usually have ramen for breakfast, but since I'm not that coherent that early in the morning to be creative, though sometimes I drain the broth and mix in a bit of brown bean sauce and curry powder. (It's the base for the sauce I use when I make long beans.) Or just a bit of oyster sauce and sesame oil, also sans broth. Years ago, my brother tried to make hot dog chow mein using ramen noodles, but it turned out to be a disgusting mess.

Wow! Those dinners looked so great. I'm going to try to wrangle an invite to one of your Christmas dinners next year! Bryan, so sorry to hear about your Grandmother. My thoughts are with you.

Thanks andiesenji! I'll give it a try.

This is just too funny! Gotta send one to my sister, because that would explain her mood on Sunday. Then again, she may kill me.

I got 8 out of 11, but I got the first one wrong too, despite being Chinese! There's another story about that, about it giving you pockmarks. ← Miladyinsanity, I don't feel that bad now. Now that I think about it, I got the pockmarks reason too. (Must have blocked that one out of my mind.) But this weekend, we got a lecture from mom about leaving food on the plates. Little too late for the quiz though. It was a fun quiz. Thanks, Melissa. You always find the most interesting stuff.

Mentioned before that we're Chinese, so food is what we ate for Christmas this year. This year, mom went all out, and made stuff that we don't normally see when she cooks for the entire family. My brother and I helped with some of the final steps, but the majority of the credit goes to mom. The menu was as follows: soup steamed flounder in ginger-scallion sauce curry chicken shrimp with walnuts squid with pickled greens sticky rice bamboo-wrapped chives and shrimp Dessert apple pie blueberry pie pannetone peppermint bark assorted tarts chocolate cake Now the funny thing about this was the mention that Chinese restaurants are open on Christmas. Mom, having made sticky rice, didn't think that we needed white rice. But psycho sister's spoiled brats will only eat white rice, so we sent my brother out to buy a couple of quarts, thinking it will be faster than to just make some. It turned out that he had a hard time finding a place that was open!

We had Chinese food for Christmas. We're Chinese, and had an "American" Thanksgiving, so my psycho sis's spoiled kids demanded that we have Chinese food for Christmas. This year, mom went all out, and made stuff that we don't normally see when she cooks for the entire family. Mom did a lot of the work, but my brother and I helped with the final stages. No pictures, because mom was stressing. The menu was as follows: soup steamed flounder in ginger-scallion sauce curry chicken shrimp with walnuts squid with pickled greens sticky rice bamboo-wrapped chives and shrimp Dessert: apple pie blueberry pie pannetone peppermint bark assorted tarts chocolate cake

Actually we had blueberry pie for Christmas, in addition to a lot of other desserts, including Pannetone, apple pie, chocolate pie, cookies, tarts, oh my. My mom's the only one who's really religious, so Christmas is now more of a time for us to eat ourselves silly (again) and to let the little offspring get presents. The blueberry pie (which my brother made) was my favorite. I managed to abscond with it afterwards, and later got a lecture from my mom for not sharing it with my other siblings. Well, normal sis told me to take it and psycho sis was being a (words that rhymes with) witch that night, so I didn't feel guilty taking it. Her spoiled brats preferred the store-bought stuff anyway.

I got my Butter Bell at Ross (which is similar to TJ Maxx and Marshalls) for about $5, but am having trouble with it. I change the water every third day, but after two weeks, have seen some black mold-like stuff on the bell part. Wiped it off, but a couple of days later, it returned, and it also appeared in the butter itself. The butter also had a little off smell. I've had better luck just putting my butter in a small covered container. Any advice?

5 out of 11. Must have been raised by wolves. Actually, being Chinese, I'm embarassed to admit that I got the first one wrong. At home, we always cleaned our plates because, well, food wasn't cheap.

It works for other things too. Booze, drugs and chocolate. Not just for PMS anymore!

I sent the recipe for Velveeta Fudge to my friend. I neglected to tell im that it was a joke. The subject line of the email that Kraft sent read: RE: Kraftfoods.com Recipe from a Friend: VELVEETA® Fudge My friend wrote me back saying: "You send me recipies like this, sometimes I wonder."

Too busy eating to take pictures. Actually, I have a habit of NOT having my camera at those Kodak moments. And we wouldn't joke about chicharrones. That'd just be cruel.

What a lovely review. Congrats, Katie!

Susan, that sushi looks so good, and so beautifully presented. Between the poached eggs, the sushi, and beef, it looks like you're on an egg kick (not that it's a bad thing)!

Susan, congrats on the poached egg. What type of bread was that?

Most non-restaurant meals were those that were shared with family and friends. In April, friends from Italy were visiting, so I cooked up a Chinese meal for them. They reciprocated the next evening by making us the most amazing pizza. It was accompanied by wine (2003 Sangiovese) from their vineyard. In August, I married Mr. Duck, bringing in my SIL and her family from Italy. I made a Chinese meal for them their first night here. The day before our wedding, on the next-to hottest day of the year (the hottest day being our wedding day, where it was 80 degrees at 8am), our families got together for a meal at my mom’s house. She cooked up a feast—about eight dishes. Her house does not have A/C, but despite the oppressive heat, we all had a great time. One more memorable meal was in July(?), where Mr. Duck and I had a picnic in Central Park before we went to see Shakespeare in the Park. We got bagels from H&H, and bought lox, cream cheese, and cucumber salad from Zabar’s.