Badiane

Not a clue...but I will say that the bbq looks to be takeout - there is a plastic bag, styro bowl and plastic spoon in the pic, and it's on what appears to be a sheet of butcher paper.

Fraser Valley is in full berry swing...U-Pick places opened last week, along with the road side stands. U-Pick is about $1.75 a pound, picked about $2. Professional picking crews arriving this week, should be up to our eyeballs by Saturday morning.

My very first McChicken sandwich... Been 25 years and I can still taste it. I worked at McDonalds as a kid and was there when the McChicken was introduced. We were so excited and they were SO good. Completely different than what they are now, that's for sure. Switched jobs to KFC later that year...when they brought out thier own chicken burger...also fantastic and no longer the same. Dunno if they were really that good or if it's just nostalgia

I have a hundred or so cookbooks and still have every cooking magazine I have ever purchased - including the premier issue of 'Eating Well' - stashed in a trunk. My books range from the ladies auxilliary of my church circa 1952 to Silver Spoons, which I got for my birthday. I use the same few books all the time. 1) The Joy of Cooking - I have six different editions and use it for pancakes, waffles, a certain ginger cake and one or two vintage dessert type things. That's about it. 2) Feast by Nigella Lawson - I make the Chocolate Guiness Cake and the Damp Apple Cake once in a while 3) Ethnic books - I use one thai book and one indian book. But really, I have made that stuff so often I rarely look anymore. That's all. I have never once cooked anything from a magazine, although I have gotten much inspiration from reading them. I have never used Silver Spoons, Thomas Keller, Batali, Oliver or Feenie, although I read them often and use them for ideas.

I was reading a women's magazine today at the doctor's office...there is a big MW ad, full page, with a spelling mistake in it. They have 'ailse' instead of 'aisle'. Kind of entertaining. MW is a cooked salad dressing rather than a doctored mayonnaise, for those of you experimenting with recipes...give it a google and you will find a bunch of variations including a few called "mock Miracle Whip"

Convert back & forth? Why not just keep a set of each - standard and metric - and use whichever one the recipe is written for? I'd be delighted to send you a set of metric measures if you are unable to obtain them in the US.

I made the Elvis cake yesterday. Used just churned yesterday butter, fresh organic eggs, organic flour and a fat vanilla bean. It's fantastic. It's really hard to cream 3 cups of sugar with only 1 cup of butter, so I added one egg early in the process to help it along. I used 7 whole eggs in total, and let the mixer run for at least a minute in between eggs. When I was done mixing it was about 3/4 of a my kitchenaid bowl full. Got two gorgeous cakes, perfectly domed, candy crunchy tops and a good crust on the outside. Pretty darn near perfect. I am about to embark on a lemon version to see how that measures up.

It is a good idea, and I have been doing these little cubes with garlic for a while now with tiny ice cube trays from the dollar store. They are really expensive here - $3.99 at the Superstore, more at Safeway - for 20 teaspoons of something that I can get for less than a buck and chop and freeze myself. Last week I got three bunches of parsley for 99 cents. Washed, chopped and in the freezer in less than 10 minutes. Of course I don't work full time, and I don't have kids and I'm not infirm in any way. If I was dealing with issues or had a very busy lifestyle, they would probably be worth the money. Certainly nothing wrong with trying to make life a little easier.

We never had actual mayonnaise in our house when I was growing up...until I was 15 and got a job in a restaurant, I thought that Miracle Whip and mayonnaise were the same thing. My mother still uses it for everything. Miracle Whip is the secret ingredient in my devilled eggs, and it's the best for chicken and turkey sandwiches. It's definitely got it's place my kitchen.

Yup...that's what I meant...we just call it that and I forget that it has an actual name. Lowry's is the only one for me Childhood throwback...kind of like those Kraft Pizza in a Box things

Oh the righteous indignation of youth. Clearly you are part of the new FN demographic...and I am not. I may never recover. Oh...no...wait...my husband just cracked a bottle of Dom and spooned some caviar into a dish...anddddd....I'm over it.

You don't need to declaw them or gut them prior to cooking unless you want to. I like to tho. Just makes it a little cleaner at the eating end. To gut them, flip them over and find the little flap at the ass end. Pull that up and stick your finger under the shell and rip it off. Pull off the spongy gills and whatnot, then rinse them off. Wack the body in half if you want to. There's lots of meat in the body part as well as the legs. Don't crack the legs until they are cooked tho. Steam for about 8-10 minutes or depending on size. Lingcod fishing is restricted in some areas (like Georgia Strait) from October to June...but not in the area you were. Canadian Fisheries would have stopped you had that been the case, believe me.

Megan, you don't like cheese???? Really? Any cheese or just pre-grated fake cheddar cheese? Okay...we went to Bellingham yesterday and we picked one up to poke at and it was a bit grizzly. The gravy is different in the US than it is here in Canada and it's not as good. The corn is tough...the cheese adds nothing but fat...and the chicken nuggets were not good. In spite of harbouring a secret love of instant mashed potatoes it was just not something we wanted to eat. Plus I can't eat mashed potatoes without orange salt, so that put a damper on things as my car stash of the stuff was empty.

I particularly loathe the long blond haired emo dork. And if the new FN target is young men, should it not be a group of chicks from Earls cooking trout on the engine block while they drive around town searching for some boys to buy them drinks? Kadija said "I'm in my late twenties, and I know a lot of young guys who act like that, and who do things like that." Ummm...yeah, Kadija...and they are precisely the people that grown ups want to take outside and bitchslap some sense into. Takes a certain kind of person to find them endearing indeed...someone on enough mood altering medication would probably find Emo just precious when he chortles "and I thought we were going to drink beer all day". Emo and his pals should get jobs. Then they could afford to buy actual food preparation equipment and perhaps some decent ingredients. The show is a great counterpoint to people who aren't auditioning for the next installment of Jackass.

Wow...I never suspected that at all...but it makes sense. It's a pretty small town and he would be way too easy to find. Of course my husband says they just say that so people don't come to the door and ask to meet Michael. I always found it a bit odd that there was so little counter space and that the counters weren't higher (because he is soooooo tall) and that the oven was so low and whatnot...but of course if it isn't his kitchen.... I only have one real annoyance with the show and that is his even worse than Giada theatrics of tasting his food....he always reminds me of Tom Hanks in The Green Mile when he takes a leak for the first time after Coffey cures his infection....Ahhhhhh...the orgasmic relief of yet another pot of spaghetti sauce Clearly he has been told to 'Eat Sexy'. Blech. I adore Gabe tho...he will eat anything. We should all have a kid like that. My personal favorite moment was when Michael made some kind of parmesan cream mixture that looked like ice cream when it was served in a martini glass with a balsamic reduction...he told the kid it was vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. ROFL...poor kid. Kudos to him for not spitting it out and crying tho...he swallowed it and said "Daddy...you are MEAN!!!!"

Our favorite casserole is a layer of stuffing, topped with a layer of chicken and gravy, topped with corn and mashed potatoes....we call it Christmas in a Can. There's no can, but you get the idea. I would probably go to KFC next time I am in the States if they were using torn up original recipe chicken breast instead of the deep fried nuggets...and I would have to ask them to leave off the cheese...why are they putting cheese on it? Some kind of southern ripoff of poutine? I am waiting for them to just do Sack O'Skin....chicken skin, breaded (original recipe, please) and deep fried and served in a sack, perhaps with hot sauce for dipping. THAT would be my idea of KFC heaven.

That's interesting...we were there last Saturday and they were open...too bad. There is a new Churro place next door to the Parthenon...they were featured in the Province a couple of weeks ago but I forget the name...good food but they are going to seriously need to pull their chit together service and timing wise. My friend got her tamale, then I got my food...10 minutes later my husband was served and 10 minutes after that the last guy was served. The churros had been pre-made and the buenelos (sp?) were overcooked but the entres were good except for the bad service and the couple of things we ordered that never arrived. Oh well, it was WAY better than lunch at the Naam, which is where our friends wanted to go.

Ah yes...I remember when I was first diagnosed and keeled over at yoga. Boy have I learned a lot since then. Kim...I handle my lows the same way...a fast acting sugar followed up with a slow acting sugar...so it's a Coke or some candy and then some cheese or meat or nuts - if it works for you, go with it. If you aren't getting good results, research another solution. Now if I could just get people to stop inviting me for dinner at 6 only to find out the meal will not be served until 8...

It's just like cooking meat or mushrooms or anything else you want to brown. Use some fat in the pan, put your spuds in and LEAVE THEM ALONE. Just let them sit, getting brown and crispy. When they are ready to let go, they will let go. Don't poke, don't shake, don't try and flip. Trust me. When they are brown, they will release.

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Friends from Seattle are coming next weekend and staying at the Wedgewood. Can someone please recommend a lunch spot in the vicinity? Is Diner open for lunch on Saturdays? Anything will do, just please help me because they want to go to the Naam and I will do just about anything to avoid that. Thanks

Funny...when it first came on, my husband said "is that the guy from that video show?" Nope...too bad...it's just Alan Thicke. I couldn't watch it after I saw Cindy Margolis. I don't want to watch anyone who has touched any part of Ron Jeremy touching food of any kind. Porn stars, hasbeens and those who never were. Not a recipe for entertaining TV.

Between Kelowna and Vancouver, if you are looking for cheese, you must pull off the highway and head to Agassiz/Harrison. It would only take you about 25 minutes to get to the Cheese lady Debra Amrein-Boyes is doing beautiful work, and has just come out with a beautiful new quark cheese that is too die for. Her butter is also incredible and she is well worth a visit. FarmHouse Cheeses

I was, for a brief moment in time - cooking school externship torture treatment - the crepe girl at the all chocolate buffet at what is now the Sutton Place Hotel. As I recall, I manned a giant crepe doohickey, and then there was a lot of stuff to pile on the crepe - ice cream and various sauces, etc. Also a lot of chocolate mousse in fancy glasses and a lot of chocolate cake. The only thing I really remember is that a) you couldn't eat enough to justify the price and b) the stuff wasn't that good. I like the brunch buffet at Griffen's quite a lot...you can stuff down a lot of expensive seafood if you plan it right

Never mind the physical aspect, which doubtless would be far too brutal for me personally, but what about the strain of being nice all day? Gawd...I turned 40 and suddenly I want to choke the living crap out of half the people I meet on a day to day basis just because they are rude, stupid or just plain annoying - I can only imagine what would happen if I had to serve them food. There would be bloodshed for sure. Or a fork stabbing incident at the very least. Having said that - if you are going to go for it, how about working for a nice catering company - cater waiter or whatever they call themselves. That would probably be okay...much preferable (to me, anyway) to working front of house at a restaurant. You'd probably also get to help in the kitchen if you were any good, which would be fun and something you wouldn't get to do in a restaurant.