Misa

Or that, like at my house, you have a three year old who loves ketchup.

We always called this "egg in a hole". I had a fabulous time as a child cutting out the circles of bread with a drinking glass and then eating them while my mother cooked.

This was actually made by my roomie. Saturdays's breakfast was eggs, sausage, and toast. For the first time in two weeks the temperature outside was low enough that we could cook without dying.

Thanks for the suggestions! I've found a couple of places that will do sandwiches for me. But I think I've come to a compromise... I try to eat breakfast at work during my lunchtime (I have a light snack early in the morning) and then lunch when I get home. It isn't the best situation, but then, neither is waking up at 3:30 am!

For the most part, I don't like being touched by other people unless I know them well. In fact, when I was in culinary school, a guy touched me on his way behind me by placing his hand on the small of my back to let me know he was there. Frankly, that almost made me chop off a finger. I know what he was trying to do - and that most people wouldn't be bothered - but I don't like to be randomly touched. We later became good friends and I didn't mind him touching me THEN but when I hadn't even met him before? No way. That's how I feel about waiters doing it. Unless it's an accidental touch, DON'T do it.

My husband will not eat ribs or chicken wings because, he says, it's too much work for too little meat. I used to have an ex who put either ketchup or ranch on anything savory. My mother nearly cried when he put ketchup on the prime rib (which she, for some reason, considers to be the end-all be-all of meats). Speaking of my mother... with the exception of soup, vegetables in the main dish "don't count". Thusly, if I made a casserole with lots of veggies for dinner, she'd still wander over to the cabinet, pull out a can of green beans, and nuke it so we'd have a veggie with dinner. Also, if corn was being served with dinner, another veggie must be made.

I'm looking for a good place to have an early lunch downtown. I currently work in the Bank of America building and have lunch at 9 am. Is there anywhere that's open that time of the day? Even a good breakfast place would do. (Reasonably priced would be nice, as well!) I normally bring my lunch but have those times when I just have to get out of the office or would like something that hasn't been microwaved. I've been so frustrated. Most the time I just end up over at the Columbia tower, picking something up from Specialty's.

I think that the truth of the matter is that we're all very different, that different things work for different people, and that what we often think we know about the body is later "proven" wrong (sometimes in a cyclical fashion). For most people, eating less overall works. However, I do have a friend who can eat tons and tons of food without gaining any weight - and she spends most of her time sleeping or lying around her house. (I love her dearly, she just doesn't move very much). So, who knows? Weight management seems to be as much a voodoo as it is a science.

About ten percent of the time, I'm a "list" shopper. Generally, even that list is for one or two meals only (even if we're shopping for a week's worth of food). After that, I wing it. Half of my decisions are made at the store, the rest at home. Anna, I agree wholeheartedly with you: shopping to a list can be VERY frustrating. Even worse, if I have my groceries delivered, half the time, they're out of the one or two things I REALLY needed to make the other things work - so then I STILL have to go back out to the store.

I accomodate for food allergies and for vegetarians - although half the time, if it's a big group, there's a dish made for the vegetarian and one made for meat eaters (like stuffing - some made with meat, some made without). For my husband, obviously, since it's the two of us, I don't make things he doesn't like when he's home. Not for dinner, at least. He's actually a bit of a picky eater... What gets old is a friend who swears up one side and down the other that she's allergic to mushrooms and onions. I know she's not - I've watched her eat both in food that she herself has made. So I make the pieces small and disguise them nicely, if I want something that needs either of those. For my friend who doesn't like celery, when I make pot roast with veggies: feel free to not have any of the celery, but I really love it with my pot roast, so all the more for me. When my sisters come over, we usually have asked that they at least try something. I'm not going to make them eat anything too "weird", but just because you've never eaten it doesn't mean you won't like it. (My youngest sister found out that she LOVES daifuku that way... this, after pronouncing it "gross" without having tried it.) One of my best friends has five children and I know she sometimes makes 3 or 4 different things at some meals. Screw that. They're all old enough to make sandwiches or other non-stovetop things (some of them could, in fact, use the stove), so if they were my children: The meal, pb and j sandwiches, something you can fix yourself, or nothing. (When I was a kid, you ate what you were given. Period.)

My husband and I complain about this all the time - he works nights and is very rarely in the mood for anything "breakfasty" while I'd like to be able to order breakfast food all the time. Jack-in-the-Box has it available all the time, but otherwise... I'm SOL. Even worse, around here, a lot of places (read: several McDonald's) have switched to 10:30 as being the cut-off time for breakfast. Grr. Anyway, we've discussed it and decided that it's partially to save on training: when you have people who only work mornings, you don't have to teach them how to cook burgers and vice versa. (That and the universe hates us, we've decided. )

I love the Sausage Egg and Cheese McMuffin (does it usually come with cheese? I don't know - but I always order it with cheese). So bad, and yet, so good... I also like Jack-in-the-Box's Sourdough Breakfast Jack. My husband (who doesn't like eggs-that-you-can-taste-the-egg-in) LOVES their steak and egg breakfast burrito.

I like the cheddar ones - they're just cheesy enough, but not overtly so. The apple one is pretty good. I'd like to try the sun-dried tomato ones, but they only have them in large bags around here and my husband doesn't like sun-dried tomato, so I haven't done that yet.

I have two Slow-Food aprons and some fancy hand-painted plates with snails on them and a sticker on the back of my car but I let my membership lapse! ← LOL... just being "really slow".

It depends on how adventurous the girls are, in regards to food. Either open faced or not: Nutella sandwich on raisin or date bread, with apples, cream cheese, and walnuts. Red onion sandwiches, made on white bread with butter. Mini-caprese sandwiches. Tomato, cream cheese, and pesto sandwiches. Various different olives, esp. varieties they might not have had before. Celery cut into bite sizes, filled with cream cheese or unsalted butter with salt sprinkled on the top. Offer various different breads, with compound butters. Mini fruit skewers Apple slices topped with peanut butter Apple slices topped with cream cheese and brown sugar Truffles (of the chocolate variety) Mini-tarts Lemon bars What kind of drinks are you planning to offer? Herbal teas, too? What about hot chocolate? (When I was a kid, my family didn't drink regular tea, for religious reasons, but we did herbal tea. Some warmed juices were good, too.) What's the seating going to be like? Because it's often nice to do tiered tea trays, and share amongst 2-4 people (depending on the size of your trays), and that would allow you to offer a bigger variety, but less of each.