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Imagine a flying pig crash landing! Back OnT: To me, almost any word used in wine tasting is cliched.

RE: "Back to the 70's" Sometimes I feel like I'm tryimg to drag the local populace kicking and screaming into the 70's! And not just food-wise either!

You must have been hanging around with the "Wrong Crowd", ie: Scandinavians? Here on Northern Minnesota's Iron Range immigrants from Italy and the Eastern European countries brought some pretty interesting cusine with them. Chiles, however, are still pretty rare. You certainly don't want to order anything called "Chili" in a local restaurant.

Maybe you've been gone too long? Temps are still in the low 20's overnight! Better wait at least a few more weeks. No garden planting until after Memorial Day around here.

You have somehow neglected to mention the one item that literally defines Midwestern cusine; hotdish, (or casserole to the rest of you)! The eternal staple of every church basement dinner ever held, hotdish consists of a combination of nearly any two or more items baked in Campbells Cream of "X" soup, or as it's sometimes known, Cream of Luthern.

For Easter dinner my Sister experimeted with Nutella as filling for an Eastern European dessert known in Serbian as Palacinka. "Grand Mother's Palacinkas Recipe", Courtesy of Sister - Verbatim: Batter: 1 c flour 3 eggs 1 1/2 c milk (real milk) 1 T melted butter let stand 15 minutes use 2 T batter freeze well can't remember how many it makes... 12 oz cottage cheese 1 egg 1/4 c powder sugar 2 T lemon juice 2 T cornstarch spread filling evenly over crepe roll up loosely 12 - 16 fit in 9 x 12 pan best if glass pan so you can see how brown on bottom (IE my jelly ones got overdone) pour cream over edges & seams (just so you can see it) 1 jar of nutella or same size of jelly makes 10 bake at 325 for 20 to 30 min nutella ones get that "crunchiness" which I personally like jelly ones should be more crowded in pan whereas cottage cheese ones kinda puff up a little She liked them but I preferred the traditional cheese and jelly version.

Milk prices are controlled by the Federal Government through legislation that date back to 1937. The Milk Marketing Orders, Dairy Price Support Program and Milk Income Loss Contracts work about as good as you would expect by ultimately benefitting niether dairy farmers nor consumers. However, both politicians and beauracrats are very fond of the current sytem. Some estimates place the cost of these programs to the consumer at up to $1.5 billion. Get on Google, check it out, and decide for yourself.

If the criteria is an ingredient, (not a dish), for which the region is "famous", (or what is quintessential, not emblematic), then how about: Countries: Ireland - Potato France - Snails Holland - Chocolate India - Curry Mexico - Chiles Japan - Raw Fish China - Rice USA - Beef (a tough choice) States: Hawii - Pineapple Maine - Lobster Texas - Beef Louisiana - Shrimp Alaska - Crab Georgia - Peach

My Mother is a Home Ec grad from the 40's (BS U of MN) and she always made sure meals she served were color coordinated. She would even bring it to our attention. I often find myself remembering this when I go to choose a vegetable to serve with dinner.

Parallel Universe Film Noir: "Duck Soup" > Duck Soup (soup nazi recipe)

Being a big fan of the original IC, I wasn't planning to watch, but the Twins were getting beaten by KC so I kept switching back and forth. I guess it was as entertaining as anything else on tv at the time. SB (damning with faint praise)

Flay gets the same flack on another food discussion board too. Maybe he's not Mr Congeniality, but he must have some kind of following if the Food Network keeps him on? And did you see how neatly he split the coconuts?

If you're anythin like me it happened sometime after 13-January 03 per your profile. I eat a lot better since joining eGullet, but my ability to enjoy many less than stellar meals has gone down quite a bit. Picky or discerning - its a fine line. While I hate to run the risk of incurring the wrath of eG's Board Administration two days in a row, I must point out that the line between discerning and snobbish is also a fine one, and one that I feel occationally gets crossed over around here. Throughout history, and in a large part of the World today, the biggest problem people have had with food involves procuring enough of it to stay alive. My Mother's admonistions from my youth about "the starving Armenians" must be firmly implanted in my subconscious. Of course, that's no reason not to seek out, prepare or enjoy a great meal. SB (enjoy)

"But still. IT SUCKED. When did I get so damned picky?" It's always a tough call. If I can offer what might be received as constructive crtitism I'll say something, otherwise it's grin and bear it. If I'm in the postion of a guest, either in a private home or a restaurant, I would only complain in an extreme circumstance. It's only a meal, and even if the digestion process turns out to be somewhat disagreeable, it all comes out in the end.

Anything with fewer calories, but without that horrific artificial aftertaste, would indeed have my blessing!! Although I still love the taste of Coke Classic .. and in Atlanta we fully genuflect at the high altar of this beverage ... and truly venerate the logo .... I am fully aware of the "toll" it takes on the human body over years of consuming it ... You know, somebody should sue Coke and Pepsi for not having brought these products out earlier and making everybody fat!

This is because they aren't drinking much tap water, which is flouridated.

Okay. it's a cheap shot, but if nobody else wants to use it: This could give a new meaning to "can I supersize that for you?"

This looks more like the work of the Marketing Department than the Brew Master. There's one born every minute, and there have been a lot of minutes. But, enjoy!

All those lucky people in third world countries get to eat nothing but free range chickens! I hear they taste like mopani worm?

An un-PC cartoon Rabbi in pot to cannibal, "I hope that's Kosher salt".

I once knew a nurse in a proctologists office. She said you'd never believe how many nude gardening accidents there are!

I hadn't thought of the crepe/blintze question until you mentioned it. My Cousin Steph is coming over for lunch today and I'll ask her and my Mother about it. I agree with you about the Nutella. "Cloying" pretty much describes my impression of their flavor, but my Sister likes them. In doing some research on the subject I found that a restaurant called "Palacinka" in New York City offers a Nutella variety, and maybe that's where she got the idea? Apricot has always been my favorite too. The tart/sweet goes perfectly with the sweet/tart of the cheese palacinkas. You must eat a bit of one, and then the other. Gooseberry would probably be good, as were the blackberry. I'm anxious to experiment with a fig filling, especially since I've learned that my Cousin Greg has fig trees in California. THANX SB

I hope this means to let the batter stand 15 minutes, make crepes using 2 T batter, finished crepes freeze well. At first I thought, why would you freeze 2 T of batter. Then I reread it. OH! Hope Paula will be able to make it this summer! I considered editing the recipe but thought part of it's charm was the quaint way it was written. English was always a second language for my Grandmother and that's probably the way she would have given the recipe to my Mother over the phone. My Sister's version faithfully adheres to this style of transcription since she has an intuitive understanding of it. When she, my Mom, and my cousins Steph and Paula get together they can carry on sixteen simultaneous conversations, interrupting and finishing each other's sentences, and somehow keep track of what's being said. Nobody else can can make any sense of it, or even dare try. THANX SB

Like I said, it's verbatim, but from having eaten palacinkas for years I can interpret it to mean you pour a small amount of cream carefully around the edges and seams, not just all over the top. Let me know how they turn out. I'm thinking of trying a fig filling myself. PS: Although I run the risk incurring the wrath of the Ghosts of Serbian Grandmothers, I'll mention that if you're crepe challanged my Sister reports that Freida's or Melissa's frozen crepes, both available at Wal-Mart, will work pretty well in a pinch.

SERBIAN EASTER STORY (with Grandmother's Palacinka Recipe) Since the Orthodox Churches still use the old calendar they observe most religious holidays ten days late. Easter, however, is calculated from the moon rather than based on a calendar so the Serbian and other Orthodox churches celebrate on the same day as other religions. Although I'm not usually a willing participant in holiday family gatherings, I made an exception for Easter this year since my cousins on my Mother's side of the family, who I hadn't seen together in over twenty years until this past summer at my Uncle's funeral, were getting together. My cousin Greg flew in from Berkley, and Steph came over from Holland, where she's lived for the past twenty-five years. Her husband Pietr was already in this country on business, and the cousins had aready planned on meeting to finalize some matters concerning my Uncle's estate and the family foundation he had established to fund medical school scholarships and assist local communities with public health related projects. My cousin, Dr. Mike, who took over my Uncle's medical practice and maintains the family home. The house is situated on a spectacular lakefront site and is right out of the pages of an early 1950's Better Homes and Gardens. It was cutting edge architecture and technology for its day, especially in the kitchen, which includes what must be one of the first home versions of the center work island. It also contains a great collection of vintage cookbooks, including an original edition "The Art of French Cooking", which I hope to examine more thoroughly at a later date. Since these are my Serbian relatives, all of whom love to cook and eat, gathering for an Easter Dinner seemed destined. Since the only other guests would be my parents, my Brother, and my Sister w/ SO, I figured it was a crowd I could handle. The dinner, served as a rather informal sit or walk around brunch, featured both a traditional ham and the obligatory for Serbians leg of lamb. (Dr. Mike, being a surgeon, carved them expertly.) There were lots of sides and breads, and a nice salad of mixed baby greens with citrus, strawberries and goat cheese which I personally enjoyed very much. Dessert, prepared by my Sister Marcy, was the highlight of the meal. Palacinkas were one of my late Grandmother's specialties brought over from the Old Country. They are like a very thin crepe with either a fruit or cheese filling, tightly wrapped and then baked until, (if executed properly), the wrap and filling meld. My Mother's are pretty good, but my own attempts have resulted in nothing more special than filled crepes, which are fine, but they're not palacinkas. Marcy's were as good as I've seen since my Grandmother died some twenty-five years ago. The fruit-filled ones featured a homemade blackberry jam, and those with the cottage cheese filling were just sweet enough to compliment the slightly tart fruit versions In her Iron Chef guise she also experimented with a Nutella filled palacinka, which turned out to need a little further development work texturewise. Many bottles of champagne were consumed, and conversations ranged from old family stories to word processing technology, European politics, American cars, and of course food and cooking. I also introduced the concept of Jousting Peeps, which Dr. Mike enjoyed immensely! All in all, a pretty good time. We hope to get together again this Summer when perhaps our only other surviving relative, our cousin Paula, will be able to join us. Grandmother's Palacinka Recipe, Courtesy of Sister via Mother - {verbatim}: Batter: 1 c flour 3 eggs 1 1/2 c milk (real milk) 1 T melted butter let stand 15 minutes use 2 T batter freeze well can't remember how many it makes... 12 oz cottage cheese 1 egg 1/4 c powder sugar 2 T lemon juice 2 T cornstarch spread filling evenly over crepe roll up loosely 12 - 16 fit in 9 x 12 pan best if glass pan so you can see how brown on bottom (IE my jelly ones got overdone) pour cream over edges & seams (just so you can see it) 1 jar of nutella or same size of jelly makes 10 bake at 325 for 20 to 30 min nutella ones get that "crunchiness" which I personally like jelly one should be more crowded in pan whereas cottage cheese ones kinda puff up a little they