MelissaH

I've actually had more luck flipping an egg in the protection of bread than alone. MelissaH

I have nothing to add, other than it sounds quite yummy if it's not too sweet. (Any way to get a hit of lime in there as well?) MelissaH

Egg-in-a-hole. Hole cut with a drinking glass, and fried up in butter alongside the egg. I grew up in Pittsburgh, but my mom (who made it for us) is from the NYC area. What's the proper plural? MelissaH

Julia Child's recipe. I'd definitely pit the cherries. The risk of having someone crack a tooth is too great for me to take any chances with unpitted fruit. Besides, why make anyone work for dessert? MelissaH

On the rare occasions that we have fish to scale, we do the task on our kitchen counter. But we start by taking out a clear plastic garbage bag, slide a big cutting board inside that, put the fish on the cutting board, and work inside the bag. It seems to contain the scaly mess pretty well. When we're done, we only need to take a paper towel and wipe the scales off the cutting board into the bag, drop the paper towel into the bag, and then toss the whole thing. MelissaH

Yes. Just because it's fun! MelissaH

When I make rice in my rice cooker, I rinse it first. If I don't, I wind up with nasty starchy bubbles coming up out of the vent. MelissaH

This seems to be a variation of the Fine Cooking smashed roasted potatoes, where you boil small potatoes till they're done, smash them, drizzle with oil and salt (and maybe some other flavoring) and then put in a very hot oven (convection if you've got it) to crisp the outside at the end. I know there have been discussions about modifications for stovetop crisping somewhere. MelissaH

I've never lived anywhere that sour cherries show up in a regular grocery store. Farmer's market and farmstands, yes. When we lived in NE Ohio, if I wanted sour cherries, I had to put in a request at one of the local farmstands. When they came in, I'd go pick them up. And if I'd guessed wrong about the quantity I wanted, tough luck. Here, they just show up at the farmer's market, in more than one vendor's stuff. They're generally around for a few brief weeks. I'd find a farmstand or farmer's market vendor that has sweet cherries, and ask them about the sour ones. And---I've always been asked many many many more questions about what I'm bringing into the U.S. than what I'm bringing into Canada! MelissaH

The vendors at our farmer's market tell me that they're expecting the central NY crop to come in mid-July. Is there any prohibition against importing them yourself? MelissaH

Even the one closest to me, which is still a good 50+ minute drive from my house and is by far the smallest Wegman's I've ever been to, has a sub shop. And a wokery. And pizza. Their produce is always marvelous. The cheese counter's extensive, even at the littler store. And the stuff we've gotten from the deli is good. On the shelves, I can get things there that I can't find in my local not-so-super supermarket, such as Pickapeppa sauce. The club-packed meats are sometimes a good value. But we have a local place with a great butcher counter here that's not an hour's drive from home, which is often better and cheaper. When we first moved to CNY, I commented to my husband that it's the only supermarket I've ever been to where the employees, without fail, are smiling and actually seem happy to be there. Wegman's has a reputation as being expensive, but we haven't found it to be so if we're shopping carefully, and especially if we're getting our meat elsewhere. Many things are actually less expensive than the not-so-super place, such as King Arthur flour and store-brand cereal. The only problem I have with them is that they're not closer to where I live. And these days, I'm near a Wegman's every week anyway, which means it's easy for me to indulge. MelissaH

We've started using dry malt extract from my husband's homebrew supplies. He's always the one who makes the malteds, so I don't really know about proportions, but I can tell you that the ingredients are milk, Hershey's chocolate syrup, light DME, and vanilla ice cream. We haven't yet started playing around with other colors of DME. MelissaH

When I was a kid, the only time we got sugary cereal was if we got a box to eat with milk for dessert. My favorite, now and then: corn pops. MelissaH

Similarly, skip the mint, add some chopped scallion and dress with oil and balsamic. Hubby's favourite side salad. ← Your hubby has very good taste. MelissaH

Would anyone else like to see Colicchio in the list of contestants, getting a taste of his own? MelissaH

I heartily echo the comments that a grilled pizza needs to have the toppings applied with a light hand. I've also had the best luck stretching my crusts (sized for one person; a more oblong shape is more efficient than a round on my rectangular grill) and getting the first side grilled (lid down, please). Especially when I do this for a group of people, I typically one-side-cook all the crusts. Everyone then tops their own crust, applying the toppings to the cooked side. I try to have the toppings at room temperature before they go on. Then the topped pizzas go back on the grill, to finish cooking the crust and get the cheese melted. MelissaH

But please don't take out the mass measurements! MelissaH

Coring apples and pears. For seeding cucumbers, I prefer a grapefruit spoon with the serrated edge. MelissaH

<sigh> Don't eat the pizza in Terminal 8. This particular location had among the most dismal of airport food offerings I've seen anywhere. Terminal 3 was at least slightly better, as I discovered on the way home. Another reason to hate flying through JFK, I guess. MelissaH

Any chance it was marbled like a marble cake? Put in both kinds of chocolate (either in layers or in blobs), and swirl with something like a plastic knife or a popsicle stick, but not too much? MelissaH

This slow-roasted pork has become our go-to recipe for feeding a large crowd. Two ~8.5 lb. shoulders, roasted up this way (minus the veggies) the night before, a double batch of =Mark's mustard bbq sauce, a mess of burger buns, a few crockpots, and bingo! pulled pork sandwiches for two dozen people! MelissaH

Thanks for the info. We'll see how it goes! MelissaH

In the name of research, I just ate two of my milk-chocolate shelled flowing caramels, the ones from my first batch at home on 23 April. The insides are gooey still, not really bite-off-half-and-have-the-filling-flow-out oozy, but most definitely not even close to stick-your-teeth-together chewy. No evidence of caramelization. I prefer the taste with dark chocolate. MelissaH

Unfortunately, that's not possible, as we'll be arriving on a connecting flight. MelissaH

We're going to be flying to Europe from JFK Airport on American Airlines, next week. According to the information I've been given, our flight will leave from Terminal 8. What's going to be our best bet for a decent meal? We'd like to be able to get a reasonable late lunch/early dinner, so that we can then get on the airplane and fall asleep for as long as possible, and thus hit the ground running. Leaving the secured area is out of the question. Thanks, MelissaH