Kim Shook

YMMV, but I find the flavor of Heinz Salad cream very, very similar to bottled Coleslaw dressing. It might be easier for you to find than salad cream. But if you are ever near a Kroger or a Fresh Market, I ususally find the Salad Cream there.

Thanks, everyone! Unfortunately I cannot wear the crocs - I checked with my boss today and shoes have to be closed in all the way around. The shoes for crews sound good and are closed in, too. Thanks also for the blood sugar concerns - I am a diabetic, but since losing weight I have normal sugar levels - I get checked regularly and do my own stick tests also. I think that my socks are all cotton, so I think that I will try the hiking socks, too. I really appreciate all the good information, folks!

Not sure that this is the right place for this, but here goes: I work on my feet all day and my feet are sore . Also, my socks are adding to the problem. I thought that some of the folks here who also stand for a long time could offer some advice! I wear a thick soled New Balance cross trainer shoe and thick athletic crew socks (Nike). The socks seem to get little 'folds' in them or I start to feel like they are, anyway. I also start to get the feeling that there is grit inside my socks, but when I shake them out, there is nothing there ? Can anyone help me with this? Thanks!

Chris, this is fantastic news for you and for 'us' (serious food people who feel like Food Network has forgotten us). Good luck and I hope that everything lives up to your (and our ) hopes! Keep us updated!

DIVA!! I, too, am a born in Washington, double Southerner (Daddy VA, Momma TN) . I never ate anything at home but MW growing up.

Hi, CKat! Welcome to egullet! Enjoy the craziness here! Everyone is very welcoming and helpful!

I loves me some Miracle Whip. I used to use it interchangably with mayo, but use it mostly for sandwiches now.

I'm with those who say as long as it is well behaved I am in favor of dogs, cats, adults, children, horses, antelopes....whatever. Badly behaved? Toss 'em all!

Anna - those are adorable. I think they look great and I'd be glad to serve them to my herd of chicklets (nieces, daughter and her buds) anytime! Bravo! I think my favorite cupcakes are the ones that I make using this recipe: Coconut Cake. I am a coconut fiend and this is the first cake that really fills my 'need'!

I use a Brillo pad to lightly clean and 'sand' then rinse. If it is particularly stinky (or if someone else in the house used it hours ago and didn't clean it ), I make a paste out of water and baking soda and let it sit for an hour or so. I recently became converted to one of those lightweight, inexpensive plastic cutting boards for onions and garlic. I still use my wooden one for most things, though - I just like how it 'feels', but I love being able to wash that plastic one really fast!

Fress, you can put anything SAVORY on your grits and be ok (we are, after all Southerners, not barbarians). It's when you start adding sugar or fruit that we get out the shotguns!

This is where I am. I buy the cookbooks fully intending to cook extensively from them, perhaps even cook through them ala "Julie and Julia". I read each one and make a list that I put in the inside cover of each cookbook before it goes on the shelf. On the shelf is where they tend to stay. Good intentions...you know the rest.

Anna, thanks for bringing that recipe to our attention. I copied and will be making that one!

I am making cupcakes right this minute! I have Ina Garten's Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes cooling now and Key Lime Cupcakes with Coconut Meringue in the oven. Those last are one of those 'Cake Mix Doctor' concoctions, but they sounded so good that I figured if they are worth it, I can always adapt a good yellow cake recipe for it. I am off work Tues, Wed and Friday this week and expecting company this weekend, so I am cooking my head off (Mr. Kim is going to clean ) and having a ball. I made the Cook's Illustrated white sandwich bread this morning - really beautiful looking - I am waiting to taste until Mr. Kim gets home! Anna, is that recipe for a yellow or a chocolate cupcake?

It's even better than that...an Irishman complaining about Lithuanian potato cuisine !

Wait a minute. First Kim (and Susan), please mention edition and size of AHD you have. That's important, more below. I've got a shelf of anglophone dictionaries handy (not counting the foreigners). For years, many US word fans have prized the full-size 3rd ed. of the AHD. (1992, not quite 12 inches [30 cm] high, often black paper cover). Just months ago I was told (by a literary scholar) that lexicographers and linguists dislike the AHD for being too prescriptive, exactly opposite of complaints above. To name just one example (probably distracting, because it's outside many people's universe), for 25 years I've seen complaints in print about a US pronunciation shift in a word I don't use much but some people do, especially if they are being "fancy." As one essayist put it in the 1980s, the "correct" or traditional way to say this word, patina, stresses the first syllable (like STAMina), but that newbies, so to speak, shifted it to paTEENa and don't realize this. My point: AHD fullsize 3rd supports that essayist (PAT-uh-na as the leading pronunciation example) and gives the story behind the word. (It comes from paten, if you're curious.) The AHD originally stood out via pictures (now more common) and advice from a diverse Usage Panel. (Which split evenly, in 3rd ed., on US syllable stress for harrass, in which "Curiously, ... each side regards itself as an embattled minority.") Between the 3rd and the 4th editions though, the photos went to color, unfortunately in some cases (to see why, compare beret, derby, and fedora in fullsize 3rd vs. 4th). It also simplified or omitted many diverting, even brilliant little articles about strange word histories and dilemmas. For instance, at aggravate, Comstockery, dinner (apropos this forum!), Frankenstein, kludge ("not `etymologist-friendly' " -- AHD), and Melba toast. May have made other changes too, and it is in process of revision, current 4th to be replaced by "new" 4th this summer. My defense of AHD therefore reflects only 3rd and earlier. ← um. It's whatever turned up on yahoo when I search for 'dictionary'

Europe's Worst Cuisines My take: intentional sweeping generalizations, but lol funny! Discuss?

I can heartily recommend the Bavarian Chef in Madison - just north of Hooville on 29. Phone #:540 948 6505. Just to let you know: you do not want to eat here and then have a road trip ahead of you. This is solid, filling, delicious food. Make sure that you don't have anything more strenuous than a slow short stroll ahead of you that evening !

What always bugs me about this whole shtick (the faux chef home thing) is that the producers think that that is important to me . Why am I any more likely to cook someone's recipe if they are filming in their home than on a set??? This is what drove me to scream at the tv during that Next FN Star show. I was constantly disagreeing with what the execs were telling the contestants. "The audience wants to think that this is your home, not a set". NOOOOOO! I don't care where they are, I care what they are cooking!!!

What Howard said. For all the (many) faults of the Next Food Network Star, they were at least upfront about their goal. They were making their judgements largely on what, according to their market research, would appeal to the food network viewer. With TC, you had to pay really close attention to discover that the judges' "decisions" were made in concert with the producers'. Many times the judges had to tap dance all over the place trying to 'justify' a decision that was so obviously not theirs, but Bravo's. I really hate "Reality TV" and this is one of the reasons why.

If said crime involves crispy bread, dripping with butter and sweet berry juices sign me up. ← Yup, me too! If you go to the recipe, you'll see that it's just good bread (I used a thin ciabatta), toasted crisp, buttered, with sliced strawberries on top. Sprinkle with sugar and caramelize. Thats it. What could be wrong with that ?? I think that 'bruschetta' is just a sort of short cut word so to explain how it is put together. Anyway. How is this much different from strawberry jam with toast?

OMG, Badiane!!! I have said this very thing for years. I love fried chicken, but the very best part of any fried chicken is the skin. I have always wished that you could order a plate of fried or roasted chicken skin (of course, I couldn't eat it anymore - gastric bypass - but it is my favorite!).

At Southside 815 in Alexandria VA, I had what they called a Low Country Shortcake - Chicken, Oysters, Succotash, mashed potatoes on Cornbread covered with gravy. It was excellent . But it wasn't KFC .

I am tossing the American Heritage Dictionary. It lists 'ex-presso' as an alternative pronunciation of es-presso, 'kul-linary' as an alternative to 'kyoo-linary' and (my own personal biggest pet peeve) 'kar-mel' as an alternative to 'ka-ra-mel'. ! OK. So maybe it's only me that gets all flipped out over this stuff . Does anyone else out there get steamed over what you consider (because, of course, I could be totally wrong ) to be mispronunciation of words? It doesn't bother me at all when it is my mom or someone I am serving at work, but when it is a so-called professional on TV, I get sooooo pissed. I may need help here .

I tried making Giada De Laurentiis' Strawberry Bruschetta today. I watched her do this on tv the other day and, as far as I can tell, I duplicated it exactly today. I am having no luck caramelizing the sugar . It's as if the juice from the strawberries is making the sugar wet and therefore it won't caramelize. I tried to 'pile up' the sugar a bit and use the torch really quickly after putting on the sugar, but can't get a caramelization. Is there something that I could do to avoid this, because it looks so good and we are just starting to get strawberries here! Thanks!