Kris

geoduck, curry powder and cheesecake.

I once had brunch at a restaurant where one of the featured items was a Frosted Flakes french toast. The challah bread was dipped in the batter, then coated on both sides with crushed frosted flakes cereal and cooked. It was pretty tasty.

Well unfortunately we can no longer refer to a PINT of Haagen Dazs... The pint size has been downsized to a 14 ounce. The 32 ounce carton has been downsized to a 28 ounce: http://www.haagendazs.com/company/cartons.aspx Ben & Jerry's has been attacking Haagen Dazs for this change: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/888612/B...maller-cartons/

Well unfortunately we can no longer refer to a PINT of Haagen Dazs. The company recently downsized to 14 ounces per carton. The 32 ounce size has downsized to 28 ounces: http://www.haagendazs.com/company/cartons.aspx

Daisy is going to have a new cooking show...this time it's on the Food Network and will be called Viva Daisy! It's supposed to start in January.

Nothing says soul food to me than a plate of fried chicken, potato salad and collard greens.

Yes, because some jars of spaghetti sauce are actually down to 24 ounces. They started with a full 32 oz. jar. Then they sneakily downsized to 28 oz. Then 26 oz. and now some are actually down to 24. It's going to get to the point where they won't be able to downsize anymore. It would be ridiculous to have a 10 ounce jar on the shelves. But maybe some corporate genius would actually try it.

Thanks for pointing this out since it is another annoying aspect of sneaky product downsizing. Within the last week, I noticed two more products that have been downsized: Skippy Peanut Butter 18 ounce is now 16.3 ounces. Tropicana Orange Juice 3 liter container is now 89 ounces.

Does anyone have any idea when new episodes of Daisy Cooks will be on the air?

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in life. Seriously. I've been railing against downsizing for years. And these companies have become so sneaky at doing it - most customers don't even realize when it's been done. Paper towels, tissues, tomato products (canned & jarred), breakfast cereals, yogurt, ready made pudding, orange juice (in the carafe), mayonnaise, etc. It's just ridiculous already. I've written and called many a company to complain once I see that they've downsized a product. But all you get are platitudes and corporate speak (e.g. "we've now conformed to industry standard" or "surveys have shown that consumers prefer a 6 oz. size rather than an 8 oz. size"). In some cases they'll send you a coupon for a discount off the downsized product. Whoopee. I think it's a deceptive and sneaky practice. I would prefer to pay a few cents more for the same amount of product. Especially when the size of the product affects my recipes, like so many of you have stated above.

This is what makes it special for me too - the fact that you can't get them all the time, only during the holiday season. Although I have to admit that I usually save two pasteles in my freezer for summertime eating. Then after those two are gone, I only have a few more months left until it's pasteles time again.

I love collard greens and when I make them, I simmer them with hamhocks, a little bit of diced onion, cider vinegar, red pepper flakes, a bit of sugar, salt & pepper. Delicious!

My favorite GSC is the Samoa. My husband's favorite is the Do-Si-Do.

At my sister's suggestion, I tried McD's sausage & egg biscuit with cheese. It's very good. I still like the McMuffin better, but I was surprised at how good the texture of the biscuit was.

Pasteles are a Puerto Rican version of a tamale, typically made with banana leaves, roast pork (pernil) seasoned with annatto, adobo, olives and other seasonings, and a "masa" (dough) made with green bananas and yautia (a root vegetable). Pasteles are popular during the Christmas season and are a very labor intensive item to make. In many families, they set aside a day where scores, if not a few hundred of them are made to be frozen and given away/sold - assembly line with numerous members of the family contributing to the activity. My mom and I love pasteles and I always buy a dozen or two from a Puerto Rican co-worker (whose family engages in the pasteles making marathon every year). My mom had a Puerto Rican father, but she never learned or participated in this tradition. It's something I wish we had a connection to though.