wawairis

I usually flour my meat before braising. I just make sure that it's not a thick coating or it will get glooby. Shake off most of the excess and you should be good to go!

I have a hard time with desert myself. Cobbler is a "delicious" concoction of stewed fruit with some sort of dough that gets deliberately soggy in the fruit and sugar juices.

I like that and I will be using it in the future. I'll give you full credit!

I've heard of it but never done it. After de-glazing shouldn't the sauce just thicken by itself according to the amount of time it simmers? I've never had a problem with this...

Chicken salad on rye with chilled pasta salad. Orange and carrot Snapple.

No elf cursing here!

Here! (hand raised) I'll eat anyting for breakfast on the weekend. During the week, I grab a bagel, coffee, and juice in the office; but the weekend is for Cold Pizza, Cold Chicken, I'm not a dunker. Why ruin the beverage? I love cold pizza and chicken for breakfast. Especially cold fried chicken or ham. Yummy! That hot orange juice sounds pretty nasty tho...

What do you mean? What are they? Uncooked broccoli florets. Look like little trees (And have similar consistancy...) And cause such intestinal ditress!

What enthusiast said. I simply cannot digest raw broccoli or cauliflower (I've been asked not to eat them). It's so nice to go to a restaurant where they're not afraid to apply a little heat to the veggies. I'm not at all fond of the local Asian style broccoli "trees".

EWWWW! That's just plain ol' nasty!

I'd gone to a Japanese restaurant with a group of friends, two of which were going to try to teach me to use chopsticks. I wound up lobbing a piece of California roll at =Mark's head, while another piece bounced off the my boobies and back onto the plate. Everyone laughed at my obvious lack of hand-eye coordination.

How about grilled eggplant, zucchini, portobello mushrooms with a little garlic and balsamic vinegar? I've done this and made a nice sandwich on a portugese roll.

Favorites: Julia Jacques Pepin Tony Bourdain (of course! Read all of his books, even Bobby Gold!) David Rosengarten Jacques Torres Can tolerate: Sara Moultin Martha Stewart Mario Batali (kinda dry) Disklike: Wolfgang Puck (probably a nice guy, but his freaking voice drives me crazy! ) Martin Yan (stop all that damn counting and chop!) Bobby Flay (howdie doodie does the kitchen - I watch his show just because it makes time go by slowly, kind of a catch 22 thingy) Rocco DiSpirito (Bobby Flay Jr.)

Uh Oh! You took him down the vegetarian road...

I thought it had to be vegetarian toppings? Well yeah, you're right. But bacon is a food category all by itself, necessary to long life, wisdom, and incredible physical beauty. Sometimes I plumb forget it's merely meat. I understand and share your enthusiasm

I thought it had to be vegetarian toppings?

Artichoke hearts, grilled eggplant

Yummmmmmm! I want that too! I love day old buttermilk biscuits!

We were recently at a restaurant here in town where a couple solved that problem pretty effectively. They both had phones with games on them, and they played them throughout the meal. Barely even looked up at each other. Gee, is it me or is that extremely sad? Why bother going out to eat in the first place?

Um, you put your cell phone on the table so that it is handy to grab if it rings. I don't think anyone in this day and age thinks of having a cell phone as a status symbol. Think of it this way, if they're not going to turn it off when they're in the restaurant (which I think they should), then at least they won't let it ring and ring and ring before answering it. As far as I'm concerned it shouldn't be on at all. It's so rude to be on the phone while your meal companion gazes into space. I know there's a lot of circumstances where people need to have their phones on but I still think it's incredibly rude. I recognize your point about leaving the phone on the table. I've been at dinner where a fellow diner not only left his phone on the table, but refused to answer it. It rang and rang and rang.

Just as it should be. They're so damned annoying! I just hate to see a bunch of yuppie wankers come into a restaurant, sit down, and whip out their cell phones to place on the table. BFD! Like a cell phone is going to make them Mr. Irresistable!

Didn't anyone notice that the poor kid was hurling?

Rachel, Great! I think I've just signed up to do a salad. Maybe some lemonade too! Thanks

Hello! what's left for me to bring?

Cheech and Chong's "Nice Dreams". The ice cream truck from hell!