Thumper

This is not a food item per se but in the same spirit: stock. I can't cook with any kind of dried cube, over-salted paste, or canned broth anymore. I can cut corners on a lot of ingredients but stock is not one of them.

...think, "Hey I just chopped these Habaneros sans gloves and now my eyes are itchy..." Only did it once though. I feel a lot better reading this thread. But I will NEVER... ...ever think I can use a hand mixer instead of a ricer/masher to prepare potatoes for gnocchi again. Everything seemed fine at first until I cranked up the speed... The potatoes were thick enough to put up wallpaper, lay bricks, concrete my driveway... Despite that I mixed the egg yolk and flour into that sticky mess anyway and rolled some heavy-duty gnocchi that my SO was brave enough to try despite it all and say(lie?) that they weren't too bad. I think the tasty mushroom butter sauce that topped that gnocchi had more to do with that. ...and back to garden-variety brain cramps, I turned my head when julienning carrots with my grandfather's freshly sharpened knife and uncurled my pinky JUST enough mid-chop. It was thankfully a small cut but who knew so much blood could flow from such a small wound? (edited for clarity)

And Screech to a halt. ← No, you halt when the Screech runs out - so you can run to get more. In my hometown of Labrador City (for those not familiar, Labrador City is on the western-most part of Labrador, the mainland portion of Newfoundland) it was actually a big family community event. When I was in Cub Scouts, we'd go tobogganing down a large hill by the beach where the bonfire was lit, and play other games - pick-up hockey on the frozen lake, etc. I remember the adults piling the bonfire so high they needed old tires for kindling The smoke was incredibly thick when it was first lit and they'd squirt bbq-lighting fluid to make the flames catch. The only God-forsaken reason I can fathom this ripe-for-disaster lighting method was because it wasn't odd to have three feet of snow down and -20 C weather in Labrador City in early November (our town is very close to Northern Quebec) so they needed as much combustion as possible without killing anyone...though I'm sure there were lots of close calls for those who stood too close. We'd pig out on hotdogs, marshmellows and hot chocolate - perfect gourmet food for any eight-year old. There was no alcohol in sight save for some of the adults passing around a well-hidden hip flask. Once the kids went off to bed I'm sure the "festivities" picked up alcohol wise.

A common way to use pork fat in my home province of Newfoundland is to use cubes of cured (re: salted - yeah, yeah, we Newfies love our salt ) pork fat back in place of butter or oil for frying up a quick meal of fresh fish or game meat (moose/caribou). You render the fat first, add some onion, then add the meat with a splash of water to keep it from drying out. It removes the need for salt in the dish and the pork flavor adds another dimension of flavor. I have no doubt this is a common practice in other parts of the world too. Does anyone have information to share on this? Can't wait for Christmas - I know for a fact I'm getting Les Halles as a present. Considering my dad thought he did me a favor by buying me Bobby Flay's Boy Gets Grill (Flay's horrible writing distracts from what might be some decent recipes ), I really need to sink my teeth into good food writing to compliment the recipes. Oh well at least I have a hardcover copy of A Cook's Tour I found in a used book shop to tide me over until then. (who gave THAT UP? My gain... ) (edited to fix rouge HTML tags)

But the US is still a free country (in most states) ← Toronto is not Canada. The liquor laws are different in each Province. I have had free drinks, and free pour drinks in every province, with the exception of Ontario. ← First post, had to chime in here. Comps and free pours are known to occur in Ontario, but are as rare as sightings of Tony Bourdain driving his SUV into a McDonald's drive thru . I've seen it happen (the comps, not the Bourdain sighting) but I have not been lucky enough to receive a comp at any Ontario bar since I moved here. It always helps to know the bartender - back in my hometown (I'm originally from Newfoundland), a bartender friend of mine would occasionally sneak me a double scotch for a single. But it was easier for her to sneak that one by her manager. The majority of her customers who sniffed around for comps were after regular well drinks or beer. I was probably the only person to order a scotch all month so it barely impatcted her bar costs. I ALWAYS tipped her well for doing this too. Of course this proves that politics and personal relationships do play a part in who gets extra and who gets none. I'm with the majority here. The comment shouldn't be taken as an insult of their abilities, though you should have specifically asked for a double if that's what you were truly after. Still a good bartender shouldn't act like an ass, or else s/he will lose well-tipping clientele in the process. Me, I'd order a pint of Smithwicks and take the guesswork out of it NOTE: edited for clarity