designchick88

That would be great if your average person was smart enough to make the right kinds of choices, or at least not sue if they made the wrong choice and got harmed. But from what I've noticed, people are not getting smarter or less litigious as time goes on. And that means problems for all of us. Large tort settlements or judgements raise company insurance rates, which raises prices for all of us over the long term. People seeking medical treatment for self-inflicted conditions raises everyone's health insurance premiums. I don't know about other people posting on this thread, but my premiums are high and if they go much higher we will not be able to afford health coverage. I would love to live in a world where we could rely on an individual's own intelligence and common sense to keep people out of trouble, but that is not going to happen. Also - if we were talking about a drug that the FDA had approved that was causing serious illness and/or death in even 1 percent of the population that took the drug, people would be outraged and demand reform. Witness the whole Vioxx situation. I don't think it's necessarily "nanny-statism" for the government to take reasonable steps to insure the safety of the general population when it comes to a foodstuff you can choose not to ingest, and I think it's kind of narcissistic for a person to view that kind of action as "the government is trampling on MY INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS! Shame on them!" Maybe it's not just about one person and their desire to take Vioxx or eat raw-milk cheese. /not in favor of banning raw-milk cheese, just pointing out another side here.

Friday dinner: spinach and orzo salad with grilled chicken and feta cheese Saturday dinner: goat-cheese and basil stuffed chicken breasts, spring greens salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette (greens from our garden, thankyouverymuch ) Sunday dinner: DH was gone so I splurged and made Chinese potstickers. no accompaniment. just the potstickers. mmmm...unbalanced meal goodness...

I bought Bouchon and The French Laundry specifically to cook from after I read some recipe reviews on eGullet. Both books are sitting on my coffee table right now. I don't know how I'm going to use either book if I have to put the book in the kitchen to follow the recipe - I don't have a lot of counter space and my existing cookbook holder won't accommodate these books; it collapses. I think I will be photocopying the recipes also, in order to get any use out of the books. I really want to try Keller's quiche recipe, in particular, and this week is the perfect time because DH is out of town (he hates quiche). I don't know why more cookbooks aren't either ring-bound or spiral-bound, or at least bound in a way that stretching them open for placement on a cookbook holder doesn't result in a broken spine and falling-out pages. I have a great cookbook holder with a clear plastic part that prevents ingredients from splattering pages, but many times when I open the book wide enough so it will stay open on the holder, the spine cracks. I know the design of cookbooks is important and I certainly appreciate a nice-looking cookbook, but practicality is important too. Spiral binding doesn't look as cool, but it sure is a lot more useful.

My parents used to give us Cream of Wheat on very cold days, with brown sugar and cream on top. I still eat it during the winter when it's cold and I am feeling the winter blahs. I have never tried making it in our rice cooker, I will have to investigate that - it sounds like a great idea!

Are you saying that you would not eat raw milk cheese when pregnant, or that pregnant women, and, by implication, everyone, should lose the ability to eat raw milk cheese? If the latter, I might have to object to your position. As a male with a fairly slim chance of getting pregnant ( ), I'm willing to let any sprog trying to find purchase in my insides take his or her chances as I scarf down my precious, precious reblochon etc. edit: forget *getting* pregnant, I can't even fucking spell it. ← I don't believe I said or even implied either of those things. I said TO ME, the risk is not worth it. Hmmm...to...me...I think the "to" is fairly self-explanatory and as for the "me," I was referring to myself... I don't think anyone, pregnant or not, should be prevented from eating anything they want to eat, legally or otherwise. There's a lot of unnecessary hysteria (you know, that thing that rhymes with listeria) over the issue of what pregnant people should or shouldn't eat, IMO. There's ample information out there about the "risks" of pregnant women eating raw-milk cheese or sushi or peanuts or whatever, and as an independent adult the woman should be able to make her own choices, without legal interference or even consternating looks from strangers. However, I won't be eating raw-milk cheese (or unheated cold cuts either, for that matter) if I ever become pregnant. The prospect of losing a pregnancy because of something I did that I didn't have to do isn't something I could live with. But that's me, other mileage may vary.

This also bothers me to no end. First off, it bothers me that whenever I eat out with any man - client, coworker, boss, husband, friend, whatever - 9 times out of 10, when the check comes the waiter puts it next to my male dining companion instead of in the middle of the table where either of us could easily grab it. I went to lunch last week with my boss (male), our ad agency rep (female) and a graphic designer from her firm (male). The two men sat next to each other at the table, and when the check came, even though our agency rep motioned for the check to be given to her, the waiter set it down between the two men. Grrrrr. It also bothers me that whenever I attempt to pay for a meal my husband and I have shared, 9 times out of 10 even though my debit card has my picture on it, when the waiter brings the check back they set the folder next to my husband. I also deduct 5-10 percent off the tip for this. And whenever a server does it correctly (hands the folder to me), I add 5-10 percent and try to give them glowing compliments. This is one of those things that I realize is not that big of a deal in the larger scheme of things, but it really burns me up when it happens. I'm a professional, I'm an adult, I have money of my own. Servers shouldn't make assumptions about who is paying based solely on gender.

Listeria is scary stuff. One of my friends is pregnant and her doctor told her that even a tiny amount of listeria can cause miscarriage. There have been cases where women have miscarried due to listeria exposure without even feeling sick otherwise. To me, the ability to eat raw-milk cheese just isn't worth the risk.

One note on this - be careful who you label a "butthead" not worthy of dining at your establishment. It's very hard to tell sometimes from exterior appearances how well-connected a random "butthead" might be. I had lunch a few years ago with the president of a small local bank, a client I was doing some work for. Nice place, I had been there before and been impressed. The food was great, but the service was terrible and the waitress lipped off to the bank president over some trivial issue he had (he wanted more ice in his water, I think). We saw her do the same to another customer at another table. He is an easygoing guy and laughed it off, but I was appalled and never took another client to that restaurant. A few months later the bank president told me that the chef/owner of the restaurant we had visited came in asking for a loan the very next week. The financials presented were not terrible but not good enough for the loan officer to make an independent "yes" decision. Somehow the bank president heard about the application and told the loan officer "I'd be more inclined to give them the money if they would hire a different waitress." It was an offhand comment, but the loan officer interpreted as "deny them the loan." So he did. Drunken idiots causing disturbances are one thing - of course no restaurant owner/manager should allow those types of customers to come back. It's a legal liability issue, they disturb other customers, etc. But just because someone is high-maintenance doesn't mean they aren't the kind of client worth having. That "butthead" might be a well-followed restaurant reviewer from the podunk paper two towns over, the guy in charge of approving your restaurant's expansion financing, or the daughter of the city's health inspector. Or just some random nutjob who will get so upset at being summarily dismissed that they will post bad reviews of your restaurant all over the Internet, thereby guaranteeing that whenever someone Googles your restaurant name, the negative experience will come up in the search and get burned into the minds of anyone thinking about patronizing your establishment. I would never contend that any business owner doesn't have "the right to refuse service to anyone." But be careful about labeling people as "not the kind of customer we want to have." In boom times, it's easy to snub people that you might need something from when the wheel of fortune spins around the other direction. Bridges are easily burned, not-so-easily rebuilt (especially when you need a bridge to escape an oncoming hurricane) and many communities are small enough that people's memories last a long time. Just my $.02.

I macerate strawberries, drizzle with high-quality balsamic, and let the mixture sit for a couple of hours. Then I pour it over a small scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. Eaten on the patio in June - heaven. You need a very nice balsamic for this, though, to make it work.

It's not about "convincing" the customer of anything. Randi didn't need to be "convinced" the restaurant was in the right. And the restaurant shouldn't have been more concerned about whether the chef was right or wrong than whether or not Randi, as a customer, was happy and comfortable. You don't. Because that isn't the issue. It isn't about "I am right and you are wrong." It isn't about "proving" anything. It's about "this customer is unhappy - how do we make her happy, so she will come back or at least not badmouth us to other customers?" New restaurant or no, as I said in an above post, there's a right way to state an opinion, and a wrong way. The restaurant manager and chef chose the wrong way in this case, IMO. Yup. No doubt about that. But like I said - that's life. The alternative is that the chef spends precious time and energy proving to the customer that they are right, and in the process a. drives away customers and b. can't focus on the business at hand, which is cooking and getting customers served. And ultimately, whether or not the chef was "right" in regards to the customer dispute, they lose when they go out of business or have to spend time and money repairing their image. It's called winning the battle and losing the war.

Okay, I've stayed out of this for 5 pages, but seeing this question coming up AGAIN has made me leap for my keyboard. Perhaps to some people it's no big deal to be stared at, but to have the chef march into the dining room with a plate of raw food, and stand there pedantically explaining and pointing to the food while a roomful of patrons watches and wonders what the diner could possibly have done to warrant having the chef come out is indeed "creating a scene." The chef made the problem public instead of keeping it private. It's the equivalent of having the boss lecture you in the middle of the floor instead of calling you into his office. It creates whispers and gossip and questions among people who have no business being privy to your issue. That's a scene. ← Exactly. Very well said. There's a right way to make an opinion known and a wrong way. The difference between the two is called discretion. I still contend the restaurant manager is ultimately at fault here, but the chef should have known better also.

I agree, but here is the thing I dont get..I have to draw from Randi's example again..why is bringing out the raw crabcakes considered 'creating a scene'? It wasnt abusive? A complaint went to the kitchen. There was no abusiveness or harsh language from the chef. The client herself though that he was being 'defensive'. I mean..how fine is the line between not pissing off the customer and licking ass/quitely accepting blame for alleged 'bad cooking form'? edited to add: on a slightly diff note...have you ever come across a restaurant that takes responsibility for food poisoning episodes? Even if they are responsible. sometimes being silent = agreeing. doesnt customer service recommend that the kitchen/management NOT accept 'blame' even though a comp may be offered to keep the customer happy. ← If you work for or with other people, periodically you (generic "you" here) are going to have to lick ass or "eat shit" as we put it at my job. That means sometimes - not always, but sometimes - you will have to apologize for things that aren't your fault, accept blame when you aren't responsible for the infraction, and be nice to people who aren't nice to you. Is it fair? No. Does it make you feel good to have to apologize - or even keep silent - when you feel you aren't in the wrong? No. Is it somewhat humiliating to accept criticism from people who don't know what they're talking about? Yes. Is that how life is? Yes. There's nothing we can do about it. We all have to do it in order to "go along and get along" in the world. Especially if we, in our professions, rely on the goodwill, warm feelings and patronage of other people to make our livings. I have yet to meet anyone anywhere in my life who has not had to take it on the chin occasionally in order to keep a customer, an account or a job. That's life. Obviously, if someone is being abused repeatedly and unfairly they should speak up about it. But there's a difference between being a doormat and being intelligently diplomatic. And there's also a difference between constructive, well-intended criticism that's poorly delivered and mean-spirited nit-picking. Believe me, I speak from experience. It's a hard lesson I've had to learn. But if I hadn't learned it I would be on welfare right now. Is it more important to make other people see I am right and force others to admit they are wrong 100 percent of the time, or is it more important to be able to make a living and support myself and my family? That was the choice I had to make. The big thing that I eventually realized is that in my work life, 99 percent of the time things are not personal. Taking everything that happens in a job personally is a great way for someone to work themselves into a nervous breakdown, or at least become known as an overly sensitive person no one wants to work with. So, to me, it doesn't matter if someone is a chef or an accountant or a graphic designer. If someone jumps in your shit at work, to me the best thing to do is handle it with aplomb, being humble if necessary, then go out for a beer after work with some friends and make fun of that person ruthlessly. That's what friends (spouses, partners, acquaintances, etc.) are for - to listen to the things we'd like to say to that idiot boss/customer/coworker but can't. Chefs don't get a break on this because their work is hard or requires training. That can be said of anyone in any job. If someone just can't bring themselves to eat shit for the greater good occasionally, because it goes against their personality or high-minded principles or whatever, they're better off never working in any kind of situation where they have to interface with the public. Or with very many people at all, for that matter.

We were just in Tokyo in January and had a great time. My main tip for any traveler going over there is don't be afraid to jump in and try something, even if you don't know what it is. We were very intimidated when we first started walking around Tokyo, because there are a lot of places that don't have plastic food or picture menus to order from. As a result, the first few days we were there we ate more conservatively than I wanted to. Eventually we just said to heck with it and started ordering by pointing at what other people were eating. Whatever we got was always really, really good. We just needed to get over our initial fear and go for it. I think having a travel guide can be useful when it comes to picking restaurants but we had our most memorable meals in hole-in-the-wall dives. We only ate at a couple places mentioned in our guidebook and those meals were actually lackluster compared to some others. As far as eating your biggest meal at lunchtime - we tried to do that but sometimes it didn't work out. We didn't end up going anyplace really expensive, but we did have some meals that were pricey by our standards. What we really enjoyed was eating the food we saw Japanese people eating at lunchtime and dinnertime in the neighborhoods we were in. We ate at one tempura-bowl place, called TNT, several times and got addicted to the absolutely fresh, very delicious tempura from there. We ate in a yakitori-ya in the Ueno flea market and had a great meal. I think as long as any traveler to Japan likes seafood and is moderately adventurous, they can have a great time eating in the city. And I do highly recommend a shopping trip to Kappabashi.

Great tip! I actually have an old miniblind lying around so I will use that this year. I planted orange mint last year and used it as a garnish in iced tea and lemonade. The orange flavor isn't pronounced but the aroma is good and it adds a nice note to plain iced tea. We had great weather here in Albuquerque this weekend, until Sunday afternoon. So I got a lot done - dug out my new expanded garden plot and planned out the fencing we are going to put up to keep our canine darlings out of the tomato seedlings this year. Despite near-70 and sunny weather on Saturday, today highs are in the mid-40s and this morning it was snowing like crazy. I want spring to get here and stay here already :)

Randi, That would have upset me too. I've managed customer service personnel in my time and it's always a delicate balancing act between preserving the customer relationship and preserving the feelings of the customer service rep. I don't believe "the customer is always right," but I do know telling customers they're wrong is a great way to create bad feelings and kill repeat business. To me, the fault here lies with the restaurant owner/manager, who didn't handle the situation well. I think what she should have done was apologize to you, comp both your desserts, and then address the issue with the chef once you were out of the restaurant. I learned a long time ago that 9 times out of 10, when you go to a customer service rep with a customer complaint while the customer is still on the phone or on premises, the CSR will want to confront the complainer. And there are no winners in that kind of confrontation - the customer is taken aback about being confronted, the CSR's feelings are hurt and you as the manager look like a jerk for allowing it to happen. The customer doesn't see the exchange as "getting some answers" and the CSR doesn't see the criticism as constructive. The time to correct and make suggestions is later, when there's time to explore the incident more thoroughly, and people aren't in the thick of a situation, and therefore aren't as apt to get upset. To me, whether or not a chef has direct contact with the customers, he or she is still in the business of servicing customers and satisfying their needs. Everyone who works in a restaurant, as a matter of fact, is in the business of satisfying customer needs. I understand that chefs are highly trained and many consider what they do to be art, and in some cases it is art. That doesn't change the fact that when someone cooks in a restaurant, or runs a restaurant, their job is to put butts in the seats and satisfy those butts so they keep coming back and giving over their money for the restaurant's product, so the restaurant can stay in business. It's really easy to blow complaints off as "idiot customers," but the fact of the matter remains: that customer who has a bad experience will not return, and will tell other people, who will not patronize that establishment. Every unhappy customer takes hard dollars out of a restaurant's pocket. It takes much more money, time and effort to attract new customers than it does to retain existing ones - that's Customer Relationship Management 101. And the bottom line is that most customers are either not sophisticated enough to understand the art behind good cooking (or the science of restaurant management), or they don't care. Your average Joe Customer is not interested in getting answers (which they will see as excuses) for a bad meal, hearing a chef justify themselves about the food, or listening to explanations about why things are a certain way. They want good food, well prepared, and good service. If they don't get those things, there are a lot of other restaurants in the world they could go to. To me, that's the bottom line about situations like this.

What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Middle-class American with Mexican influences. Was meal time important? Yes. When we were called to the table we were expected to come and sit down immediately and either wait to be served or (when we got old enough) serve ourselves. Our dinners were held at the kitchen counter, we could not eat until everyone had food and was sitting, and we could not have the TV on or answer the phone until everyone had finished eating. Was cooking important? Yes, although at the time my mom hated cooking. My parents were both teachers when I was growing up and funds were limited. We ate out once a week, on Friday nights, and that was always a big treat. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? My parents were more lax about the elbows-on-the-table thing than they were about talking with your mouth full, interrupting someone while they were talking, and being rude at the table or insulting the meal. There were "leave the table and go to your room without finishing your meal" penalties if you disregarded the warnings you got. Who cooked in the family? My mom, 90 percent of the time. When my dad cooked we got one of three meals: grilled cheese sandwiches, french toast or hot dogs/hamburgers. That was all he knew how to cook for a long time. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occassions? As mentioned above, we had one meal out a week - Friday night dinner. That was usually at a cheaper family-type restaurant. I can count on one hand the number of times we ate out at a place that had cloth napkins when I was kid. Which is not knocking my parents - they couldn't afford it, and they were also extremely sensitive about how we behaved in public. There was none of the "don't do that honey, OK?" discipline when I was a kid. If you acted up in a restaurant, you got spanked and everyone in the family left the restaurant, even if there was still food on the table uneaten. We did, however, go to a lot of local hole-in-the-wall Mexican places when I was a kid, the kinds of places that didn't have American food on the kids' menus. I developed a taste for chile early, and to this day Mexican food is my comfort food. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? Yes. When did you get that first sip of wine? It was beer, and I was about 8. I hated it and didn't try another beer until I was well into high school. My parents (then and now) drank extremely cheap beer so that probably had a lot to do with it. Was there a pre-meal prayer? No. Our household was not religious at all. Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? We didn't have a schedule like that, but the same meals repeated themselves a lot. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? Not much at all. It's just DH and I right now, so most meals are eaten in front of the TV on the living room sofa, which gives my mom conniptions. (And that's when we're able to eat dinner together, which is seldom these days.) We have a dining room table, we just don't use it. We've already talked about how things will change when we have kids - meals will be at the table with the same rules we had growing up, i.e. talk nicely, no TV or phone calls, etc. I hope we will be able to stick to it because I have great memories of the spirited conversations we would have around the dinner table when I was a kid.

Burning things I've always wanted to know: 1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice? I always have brown rice. Love brown rice. But we always have to get an additional container of white rice because my beloved hubby won't eat the brown. Fine! More brown rice for me. 2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish? Rice goes in bowl, dish goes on top. I am one of those people who stirs the rice and the dish together because I like my rice to taste like the sauce. I do that with stir-fry at home too. 3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user? Chopsticks 4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat? I eat it all. I will even mix two completely different dishes together and then mix the rice in. I love it when what I'm eating tastes hot and sweet and sour and salty and whatever-else all at once. 5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? What restaurant offers that??? I have never had that but my answer is no, because if presented with that I would not eat it. 6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? The restaurant we order from has a couple of really excellent dishes and we tend to order those over and over. 7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them? Favorite: Chow's Chinese Bistro. Not affiliated with PF Chang's in any way, although since our PF's opened up I fear Chow's is losing business to them, which is a shame. The food at Chow's is not "authentic" Chinese but we love it because the food quality is high and the spices suit our palate. The kung pao chicken and dragon sesame chicken are our favorites but I also like their Chinese chicken salad. Least favorite: we've gone to a couple of places where no matter what you order, you get approximately the same dish. Also, we like spicy food in general, so if the "spicy" dishes don't have enough kick we won't go back to that place again. Also any place that uses a disproportionate amount of gristly and/or fatty chicken in their dishes. 8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it. Every time we order from Chow's the food is good and they never screw up our order. That's a good experience in my book. 9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well. None that were memorable enough to stick out in my head now. I'm particularly interested in hearing non-NYC-based answers.

I have some Pampered Chef stuff, not a lot. Some of the little gadgety-type things are less expensive through Pampered Chef than they would be at Williams-Sonoma. The PC chopper thing that everyone swears is a godsend is useless and ungodly expensive - I've been to a couple of PC parties and it always amazes me how many people get suckered into buying that. But I have some pastry tools that from PC that were a good value. I also like the batter bowl with the lid and use it a lot. I have one of the pizza stones but that was given to me as a gift. The recipes they make at the parties and that are in the booklets are godawful - it's all about refrigerator crescent rolls and mayonnaise, from what I've seen. But if you're choosy and shop around before buying the PC stuff, you can get some nice-quality items for a reasonable cost. Could you find the stuff cheaper elsewhere if you wanted to? Probably. A lot of home cooks don't have the motivation to do that, or they feel intimidated trying to go into a Williams-Sonoma or other cooking store because of the array of choice, because they aren't overwhelmingly informed, or because cooking snobs are in there sneering at them for not understanding the difference between a chef's knife and a santoku. For some people, I'm sure it's safer and easier to buy from someone you know at a PC party. And, as was mentioned above, not everyone lives in a big city and people who have families, jobs and obligations can't always take time out of their schedule to drive an hour or two to get to a big city and buy kitchen equipment from a cooking snob-approved vendor.

There are a lot of things I don't eat if other food is available, but they don't fall into the category of "never-ever-uh-uh" for me. For example, I don't eat beef or pork (except bacon) as a general rule, but I would if I found some that was particularly appealing or if I was really hungry and that's all that was available. My never-ever foods are: Brains. There's not enough data out there about prions and vCJD for me to ever feel comfortable about eating nerve tissue from any animal. Having seen first-hand what early-onset Alzheimer's looks like I would never, ever want to go there, especially as a result of something I ate. May seem nonsensical to some but that's how I feel. I would probably draw the line at headcheese also. Any food infested with some sort of insect. (I would, however, probably try fried or chocolate-covered insects.) Oysters, because I got sick off a bad one as a teenager. That was some bad sickness, and although I've wanted to try them again I've never been able to. Once the oyster gets within slurping distance the memory of lying on the bathroom floor puking comes back and I just can't do it. That's pretty much it. edited to add - reading back through the thread I have to add dog, and live chick embryos on the half shell. Anything that seems like it's based on a dare is probably out for me.

You should feel proud of yourself for being so frugal in regards to food costs...but I've always operated under "use it or lose it" budgets and I know how stressful it can be when you feel pressured to spend your money or face up to seeing it go bye-bye. Could you do a series of fancy dinners for the girls towards the end of the semester and go whole-hog on ingredients? Maybe serve some very fresh seafood, steaks, etc. Maybe the girls could come up with some events worthy of fancy meals, or depending on the number of graduating seniors, they could have a series of dinners honoring two or three seniors at a time. Or is your house allowed to give pledges gifts when they complete the pledge period? Maybe you could put together some nice food gift baskets for them.

Narita does have some great food. We had an awesome tempura-and-soba meal right before we got on the plane - it held us over so we could get by with snacks and didn't have to eat the vile airplane food. The Barcelona airport has some good food and I just liked that airport - all that glass and open space. I don't know why American airports can't be like overseas airports; almost every overseas airport we've been in has had great food, great shopping, etc. Whereas over here it's mostly McDonald's express and tacky souvenir shops. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (is that right?) has some good options for food, especially stuff you can carry onto the plane - I had a great chicken Caesar salad there from a cart in the international terminal. We usually fly out of Dallas, though, and I think the food options in the Dallas airport are terrible, unless you really like T.G.I.Friday's - I think there are two in every terminal.

I am also looking forward to reading your blog this week :D It does suck that the girls in the house don't have access to a kitchen...I would have hated that. In my dorm in college there was a tiny kitchen in the basement of the hi-rise building that had a small electric range, countertop, microwave and sink. Wasn't much, but I taught myself a lot about cooking in that little kitchen. People would wander in an out and take turns at the range, and I learned quite a bit about cooking from those other women - one girl, who was Puerto Rican, taught me how to make traditional beans and rice "like my mom makes at home." I still make that dish today. I also remember my first attempt at hosting a dinner party - I invited my now-husband (then he was just a friend), his roommate and one of my female friends and we had a candlelight meal in the corner of the basement kitchen - I think the menu was spaghetti, garlic bread and salad, and we managed to smuggle in some very cheap wine to have with it. I wasn't in a sorority in college (I preferred hanging out with the weird, somewhat nerdy boys I knew), so life in a sorority house is pretty unfamiliar to me - that's why your blog will be so interesting . Were you in a sorority in school? If so, did that influence your decision to take this job? If not, did that influence your decision? Is there anything that's surprised you about how the girls live or how they eat? Do they like or dislike foods you wouldn't have suspected?

I love shopping at our Big Lots for just about anything. I've bought food there many times. The last time I was in there they had boxes of Belgian chocolate mini dessert shells for $1 each - 18 shells to a box. The shells were good quality and hadn't bloomed at all. I filled them with homemade chocolate mousse for a party last weekend and they were a big hit. Our Big Lots has a special "foods of the world" section and they carry all kinds of Mexican, Spanish and other foreign foods. I got a pretty decent wine vinegar there, and I've also picked up olive oils, organic canned tomatoes, etc. I also found a box of black tea that was apparently sold at Harrod's at one point - the box was $3 and contained 32 teabags. The tea is very high quality and the original price tag on the box said 12 pounds. You do have to watch expiration dates, but I think there are great bargains to be found. I've also gotten all manner of kitchen supplies there - wooden spoons, towels, skewers, etc. However, if you're ever in Japan (or apparently in Hawaii also ) those dollar stores (or 100 yen stores) are AMAZING. I went in every one we passed because the deals were so good. I got a great set of lacquer-like rice bowls there, as well as tons of chopsticks and a two-piece ceramic ginger grater set that is awesome for 500 yen.

Thanks for reporting your experience. We remodeled our kitchen 3 years ago and I really wanted to use Ikea cabinets, but with no Ikea in our area we couldn't do it since they can't ship all the cabinet components to you. I had to settle for metal utensil rails from Ikea, which they would ship . We ended up going with Kraftmaid cabinets (maple, plain doors) and while the cabinets are lovely, getting them shipped to us and installed was a Sisyphean nightmare. We also have soffits and I also hate them. There are some cool things I could store on top of my cabinets if the stupid soffits weren't there. I didn't even consider taking them out; I wish I had.

Great thread. When I was little, my mom was of the opinion that giving your kids things like Hostess Cupcakes, McDonald's Happy Meals, or Froot Loops was akin to giving them a pipe full of crack cocaine. She was sometimes undermined by my dad or grandparents, but that didn't happen often. So needless to say, I didn't get to eat much of anything really bad until I got old enough to have money and a bike and was able to go with my friends to the local Circle K to buy junk food. My favorites were: Swiss cake rolls (why did they call them Swiss? I never have figured that out). Cake-and-icing rolls covered in plasticky chocolate. We would peel the chocolate off first, and then eat the cake part. Drumstick ice cream cones. Pretty much anything we could squish or suck the filling out of - Twinkies, Zingers, Ho-Hos, Hostess Cupcakes, etc. got rave reviews. We also used to eat those little prepackaged fried pies that ostensibly had either "fruit" or "chocolate pudding" filling in them. I have no idea why those were so appealing, but I ate a ton of them the summer I turned 12. I looked at the nutrition label on one a couple of years ago - those things have like 40 grams of fat, about 30 of which are saturated fat grams. I think any plaque on my arteries has got to be about 90 percent chocolate pudding fried pie, all left over from that one summer.