foodie52

Oven fried chicken. Chicken pieces dipped in buttermilk , then breadcrumbs. Bake at 350 til done. Potato chips: slice potatoes thinly (you do the slicing). Season them with salt and pepper and herbs. Lay on a sprayed cookie sheet. Bake til crisp. Big salad: show her how to deal with an avocado. Wash lettuce. Slice tomatoes. Make a vinaigrette. 9 year olds can do just about anything. I made dinner for the family all the time when I was that age.

Miguel definitely fits the bill. Some of the best food in the USA. Tony, have you eaten here yet? FONDA SAN MIGUEL

I have two questions: 1. Is that a SPOON that comes with the meal? Or is it a spork? 2. Low in fiber....wouldn't you get like, uncomfortable after a few days of just eating those things? Or is Metamucil doled out at the same time?

Am curious: what's your weather going to be like in October? Specifically Melbourne and Adelaide? Should I pack lots of layers? Rain gear? Bring an umbrella? Winter coat??

Is it like Parade magazine? That appears in my newspaper every Sunday.

Fond memories from here as well! I got my degree from Edinburgh Uni:I was there from 1971 to 1974. Lived three years in Pollock Halls and one year in a flat on Clerk Street above the pub with the bright red door!

Any word on the Tabasco company on Avery Island? And the wildlife preserve??

Horst Pfeiffer's (Bella Luna) herb garden in the Old Ursuline Convent courtyard.

Did you really subscribe, Jaymes???? Awwwww......................

It's all about being creative with what you have: cheap ingredients, leftovers, pantry staples. Except for the fruit cocktail. Never could understand that one!

I met a child the other day who wears a monitor that actually supplies the insulin directly into her body when she pushes a button. She doesn't have to take shots. It appears that a very small tube is inserted into a port near her waist. The insulin is in an attached pouch: looks like a pager. She called her mom to ask how much she had to "inject". Her mom told her, the little girl pushed a button, and it was over. I'm sorry I don't know more about this.

I visited family in Birmingham and Lathrup Village this spring. One bright spot is the presence of Whole Foods in the area. Perhaps that will inspire some local chefs to turn it up a bit. I was taken for a meal to a fairly decent Asian/fusion restaurant in the area - I can't remember where or the name. All I remember is that the table had a piece of butcher paper on it so that our server could write her name on it with a flourish. I was quite taken aback: have never seen that anywhere else. The food was pretty good. And you have that great middle eastern market downtown, right?

Panfried til crispy then into a tortilla with veggies and chipotle aioli.

Like everything else in the USA, we're supersizing them.... disgusting

I thought the Iceland piece was goofy. But Bourdain was gracious throughout and a good guest. I liked seeing that. I don't think he offended anybody. That's why I like him.

Luggage 386, who posts a lot in the Texas forum is quite familiar with that region I believe.

Sprouted grains toast with honey. Tequila shot.

Whenever my daughter makes cookies, she bakes a few just a little longer for me, so that they are burnt on the bottom. Whenever I have a bagel at a coffee shop, I request that it be put it through the toaster twice. I once had a coffee shop owner come up to my table with a look of concern on her face - she thought that her employee had screwed up . I had to explain that I liked my bagels a little "dark". I love the burnt popcorn bits, too! I wonder if all that carbon is bad for us. I think it might be. But I don't want to know...

I think he was looking for something ready made, actually. In a bottle, on a shelf.

Now working on a bottle of 1800 in the freezer. Just bought a bottle of Don Eduardo silver : tried it at a tequila tasting a few weeks ago and liked it. I don't think there is such a thing as a "good" margarita mix. If you're using good tequila, why would you want to use a premade product? Fresh limes, ice and a little triple sec works for me. Some simple syrup if it's too tart. Having said that, there IS a bottled product line called "Freshies" that has a reasonably decent lime mixer.

You have every right to be proud! BTW, my daughter is a senior at Rhodes. Maybe she'll drop by the Peabody some time and say hi!!

K8, this has nothing to do with your friend's situation, but I thought I'd throw this out there and get people's views about this: I've been told that the culinary schools have enormous rates of attrition. In Austin, something like 60% of the kids who sign up quit after the first year. The schools recruit like crazy. There can be 600 kids in an incoming class, and classes start three times a year, I think... Lots of parents, at their wits' end because their high school graduate doesn't know what to do next with her life, pay the enormous fees because their child is accepted at the Culinary much easier than at a college. Up until now, there have been few remedial resources at the culinary schools, so the kids give it a try and then drop out. Seems to me that these schools, being so attractive to high school graduates, should try to copy the community colleges and work really hard to retain their students by offering more remedial courses and a lot more encouragement. Input? Am I wrong about this?

Our community college has a really good culinary program: it's a way for the kids to get trained without costing an arm and a leg. Graduates get just as good jobs as those who have gone to more prestigious schools because ultimately, you're hired on talent and work ethic rather than where you went to school. At least, this is the impression I have from my socializing with chef instructors. We also have the Cordon Bleu school here with a dynamite pastry teaching staff. But that's almost as expensive as the CIA. Have you thought about her perhaps spending one year apprenticing in the business to make sure that she loves it ? They do that in Europe.

Maybe she is evolving along with the rest of us in the kitchen and will get better and better as the years go by. I know I'm a better cook now than I was 5 years ago.

Rouladen in a delicious gravy - very infrequent because it was a pain in the neck to make. Roast chicken Stuffed cabbage - infrequent because ditto above. My mom moved to the USA in 1950 from Poland.