Rebecca263

Tad's reminds me of Sizzler. There was a boy in our high school whose dad was in the Sizzler business. In the late 70's. Back then there were a slew of chains that hawked what some people called 'fake steak'. But, I only remember visiting Sizzler, they had a salad bar. Some of us used to go with Son of Sizzler to the restaurant for lunch off campus, and we would get comped our meals. The waitresses loved us, because we tipped BIG(easy to do when your meal is free, huh?). I ate a lot of spinach salads, with the ubiquitous 'French' dressing, cherry tomatoes and sunflower seeds! Plus, big servings of fat cut French fries. The guys in back would make you a grilled cheese sandwich if you asked, too, on these really big 'ole hunky slices of bread, all greasy and garlicked. Gee, that was good junk food. What a nice father, to feed all of us kids like that. I don't remember ever ordering the steak.

And, of course you know to kkep it down on the carbohydrates if you want your Valentine to stay awake and energetic AFTER the meal!

Judith, that meal looks amazing.

I used to sell 'used' books and have had an alarming number of mostly older cookbooks come through my life. I love so many of my cookbooks, but had never felt drawn to The Joy of Cooking book. Last year, I got a copy during one of my forays, and kept it, instead of diverting it to epaY. Everyone on the how many cookbooks thread raved so about it, what was I missing? UGH. I apologize, but it just has no charm for me. I have actually used it not ONCE. AND, it is banished from the bedside, too. I DO actually use my facsimile of the Buckeye cookbook, though. I guess there's no accounting for taste, sometimes. My standbys are Deal Delights, my James Beard paperbacks, Michel Guirard books, New York Times Cookbook- and then maybe 50 others. All of the rest are used for just a few recipes apiece, or the writing style of the author. Of course, the Gourmet annuals are for holding up lamps on sidetables! Rebecca (who finds the writing style of 'receipts' in the Buckeye book to be the same as that of her relatives- full of assumptions that you already know everything! )

I have to disagree with everyone else, so far. (I hate when that happens!) I LIKE Starbucks coffee. Very much. But, then, I am 1/2 Italian, 1/2 Syrian, and grew up drinking a far stronger, longer roasted brew than most Americans have. I prefer their roasts. I really like that there is a fast food style coffee place wher I can order a French press of coffee, too! DD is not terrible, but it is uneven quality, sometimes bitter(this is not from a longer roast, as some assert, but is from old, underroasted beans), ofttimes weakly brewed. As I was forced to travel the highways quite a bit the past 5 months, I tasted McDonald's new coffee, and Burger King's, AND even had some White Castle coffee. I disliked all 3, intensely, and actually, I preferred 7-11 and WaWa to them. Of all of the cheap fast food coffee that I had this winter, WaWa was the best. Although, you know, White Castle cups are very cool looking! I kept mine, for a week! Rebecca(who has a thing for packaging)

Sambo's! I remember them. And, Ranch House. We ate Sunday lunch there once when I was about 7, and my mother was NOT happy about it, but I liked the chandeliers AND my spinach salad, no dressing. Those chandeliers were made from wagon wheels! I had my first real date (a strawberry ice cream soda with a walk-on-the-beach chaser, and he had 2 hours to get me home) at Howard Johnson's on A1A in Fort Lauderdale. That same young man worked at The Magic Pan in NYC at some point. I also remember Valle's. I clipped their ad out of the paper one year (OK, I was 12, and I paid out of my own money!) and took my father there for Father's Day. He was such a good sport, I think mainly because they served him a couple of very strong whiskey sours. What a fun thread!

What about a beef roast with a cocoa/orange/chili sauce? I've never made this myself, but I've been served it at a fundraiser, it was delicious. And,I would think that the warmth you feel from the sauce would be very nice for a sexy Valentine's meal!

I think that the bar is the problem for you, actually. I, personally, can't stand when someone is smoking cigarettes or cigars while they prepare my edibles or potables... it just disgusts me to have ashes hanging there. Those people should be forced to smoke pipes during working hours. PS: I'm not being sarcastic, I mean it. There ought'a be a LAW.

Pam, I don't know what your meat supplies are like up there, but we use ground lamb in our potstickers. It's very fatty and flavorful, so the meat stands up to the other things we tend to add to our potstickers, scallions, ginger and soy sauce.

In our home we tend to always end up with one last bowl of soup from each batch, and we freeze them in 12 ounce containers. A specialty of our house is to add these 'last bowl' containers of different soups together for a group meal. The recipe is one container per person at the table, plus one for luck. Noone ever calls it anything but soup. My sad news today is that there are only 2 quarts of soup left in our freezer from #1boy's ministrations in the kitchen. One is a tomato based mystery, and the other is the best mushroom barley soup that I ever tasted, in my entire life. I am serving it to Kiddle and myself on Thursday, which is my birthday, and also the day #1boy's trial begins. Supposedly, it is 18 degrees here in Englishtown, NJ right mow. I wouldn't know, as I haven't left my bed once today, and we have the heat set at 65 degrees. I am going to get the chills when I get my next gas bill, though! This cold stuff is why I am so homesick for Miami Beach. I don't know how all of you REAL Northerners do it for years on end! Oh, yes, I have 2 quarts of really concentrated chicken stock, just waiting to be transformed over the weekend. Guests are encouraged, please bring bread.

Tha pasta looks toothsome and delicious. We are very excited to see the final results. Kudos to you!

My sister lives closer to the Matawan location as well. It's nowhere near as good as the Englishtown location, but, yes, as you state, the service! Really nice to have that. Jesse & David has been delivering Friday night dinners to us for weeks. Antonio's in Marlboro has excellent pizza, and they deliver, but not to Englishtown.

Hi everyone. Just bumping this thread to find out if anyone knows how Julia is faring. I haven't seen her post here or on her live journal in months. I know, it's not EXACTLY food related, SO>>> um, I like beef jerky. And raisins. To give to the homelesss, that is.

First of all, I'd like to thank you ladies for the dog, kid and Slurpee photos. I happend to be enamored of all three of those subjects, myself. And, of course, there's the SOUP. I think that hippo birdies thought up this week on eGullet just for me, what with this great emotive and lively blog, and RachelD's pickle prose in the Daily Gullet. Somehow, I think that you are all angels of the ether, sending out bits of your lives and hearts to cheer us online, and that's fine with me. Pam, when you get back, was there soup? And, Susan, I'm supposing that you DO appreciate having washable shoes, considering the things that you've had, well, um, "thrown" at you lately! PS:Judith, how are you feeling? I'm thinking of you and hoping that you breathe easy tonight.

Here in Englishtown, New Jersey (OK, not so exotic to you, but very exotic to us!) we have a number of feh places for delivery of American style Italian- my Kiddle's favorite is , believe it or not, a kosher pizzeria named Levy's. We also have a great deli that delivers called Jesse & David's. However, I admit that I adore this place the most :Sultan Wok! They deliver American styled Chinese and Japanese food, even in a snowstorm! I adore that in a restaurant! Plus, they have actually got excellent fish, sushi rice that is seasoned well, ginger salad dressing that we LIKE, rainbow dumplings, real hot & sour soup, well, it's NOT high end, but it is excellent fresh quality, and, did I mention? They deliver in snowstorms! Also, you can just go online and place your order, that's another plus... no guessing if they understand what you want, and you can keep track of your favorite items easily by saving them online.

Pickles! Pickles. Aww, PICKLES! I adore a good pickle, but have never canned them myself. The simple add-more-vegetables-to-the-leftover-brine method is my go to recipe, bested only by the put-the ingredients-in-the-jar-and-set-it-in-the-refrigerator method. Ahh, but I DO adore a decently pickled item, truly, I do! And, as importantly, I enjoy the word itself, PICKLE. In a pickle...Such a pickle... Aww, PICKLES!... What the pickle!?... I have turned many a silly phrase and uttered quite a number of pickle accented phrases over the years, with a myriad of meanings! Pickle, go ahead, say it aloud! It is just such a GOOD word, descriptive of so many feelings and beings and happenings. But, Rachel, as usual, with your lilting voice shining through the letters on the screen(or page!), you have captured the happiest and most tender meaning of the word. Thank you. And I mean that, from the bottom of the barrel, to the top! edited by me for spelling, PICKLE!

Wow. Susan, your bread(and the not-so-little little long-hair) looks amazing. With all of the bread that I have made in my life, I've never attempted a sourdough. I'm impressed! The crust just looks wonderful, chewy AND crispy, so satisfying. Kudos to you! Kudos to Mr.LongHair, too. The soup seems to have been a great success! I just love having an empty pot at the end of a meal! Pam, I have NEVER made borscht that looks as meaty and rich as yours! I can just imagine sucking the marrow from those bones, YUM! And, hey, you're not too shabby in the breadmaking department, yourself! I've perused that no knead thread a few times, but I so enjoy the kneading process, it's really why I made bread. And, last, but certainly NOT least, Judith. Your soup is the winner of the night, for me. Those cranberries appear to really set off the flavor of the broth and meat. That's MY kind of flavor profile! I do hope you feel better, quickly! Thanks, you guys, for cooking my favorite things this week!

THAT'S what my sister's cakes taste like! Hand cream! O/T: Tonight we celebrated sister's birthday, she had a Carvel ice cream cake. My kiddle must be missing my cooking, at least a little, dont'cha think? Kiddle ate the crunchies out of the center of her piece, she said they tasted like Hydrox. Which we miss, dearly.

There are LOTS of recipes for pecan pie minus the corn syrup. They usually utilize cane sugars. Oh, I DO miss junky ice cream, and some candies, even! I think that hfcs and regular corn syrup are just fine ingredients, but for some reason I get a terrible stomach ache when I eat them. ESPECIALLY HFCS. I'm not allergic to corn, so I can not figure out what the problem is, but I know when I've eaten more than a smudge of the stuff. My doctors just say that I should try to avoid the corn syrups, so I do.

Perhaps something at this site will fit the bill. They have a number of wide rimmed bowls, and they are all glazed.

You DO realize that this bowl is unglazed, yes? It will need to be taken to a local china shop and glazed before use. Perhaps you can look up a shop in your area and explain your dilemma to them. A nice shopkeeper may be able to order the bowl for you, AND help you to glaze it. Here in Englishtown we have a great place called Club Mud, 732-617-2377, I know that you are in New Jersey, but I'm location challenged in this state! Best of luck, I think that your wife is probably already a happy woman, judging by your thoughtfulness.

AAh, you think that they might be sick of berries and inwant of cherries instead? Or perhaps chocolate cake this time around, with small heart shaped cookies alongside? Yipes, VDay ideas are way too abundant, aren't they? By the way, I've never had thousand island dressing, it looks rich, and good!

Angel food cake with strawberry ice cream and a bit of berry compote is pretty, easy and fairly inexpensive. You can even spring for fresh berries and just use one or two as a garnish on each plate. Or, even add a heart shaped bit of chocolate to each serving. I know, it sounds plebian, but it IS delicious and I happen to enjoy delicious, even when it comes in a humble package. Am I still allowed on eGullet?

My mother was Italian(a Serina-Romanetta), and one of our cooks was as well. Growing up we often had soup before ANYTHING else at the meal, and then pasta, then meat with vegetables. Sometimes we would have a fish course! I don't think this was considered formal at all. But, then, perhaps you are considering those immense portions one sees served in some American restaurants, and not the smaller courses that are usually served at home. I mean, I've ordered soup, a pasta, vegetables and a meat course, and had enough soup for 2 people, enough pasta for 4 people, and enough meat for 3, in some places! How do you get to the dessert if you eat it all? It's why we are having trouble staying at a healthy weight, I think! At least, that's MY excuse! We had soup more often than anything, my mother's mother had taught her that soup was an excellent digestive aid, and it always showed up at the table. To this day, I offer soups of some sort with the other items at the beginnings of meals. As I said before, we serve small amounts. It's charming to serve this way, too. So, although, really, limitations don't exist anyway, it is just fine to include soup, pasta, vegetables, meat, or anything you'd care to, in your menu. Or not, if you don't care to. It's a meal, a labor of love, not an exam in formailty. Also, many of us are used to many small courses for a meal, instead of the country tradition of just a couple of platters at the table. Serving in courses is a bit more festive, to me. Your mother is going to feel very pampered and special by your attentions, I think that you are wonderful to go to such efforts in her honor.

I've used smoked turkey MANY times in white bean and split pea soups. It's delicious! I've also had a white bean soup made with smoked fish. It was very good, but I never did find out exactly WHAT smoked fish was in the soup!