Pebs

I totally agree. Or maybe Guy's Dumpster Dining Dives, or the Paula Deen "Survive My Cholestral Challenge". At least Emeril taught those of us who never went to culinary school some actual techniques and turned us on to new ingredients now and then. I hope, I hope, I hope it's not going to be prime time with the Latino bimbo who every once in awhile forgets to sound Latino. Her pushup bra is probably too tight.

This may sound strange, but sometime try a sandwich of turkey, cranberry sauce, a layer of cream cheese and lettuce on a kaiser roll. You'll be amazed at how good it is. When I owned a gourmet deli we used to sell a million of these sandwiches all year long.

I love making the traditional Thanksgiving meal. I'm not all that wild about some elements, like cranberry sauce and overly sweet, sweet potatoes. So over the years I've made a few traditions of my own that offer options. But I learned a very valuable lesson about Thanksgiving that makes me enjoy it all the more and never take it for granted. Fifteen years ago I got divorced. What never occured to me was that there would be holidays completely alone, without my husband to cook for or my daughter to cook for because she'd be at his house with his new found ready made family, and my other family members were with their respective spouse's families. I dreaded that first Thanksgiving with no one to cook for and I was horrified and depressed. I mentioned it at work one day and was surprised at how many people face the holidays alone. So I invited them all to my house. I told them to bring anyone else they knew was alone. They just had to bring a dish and some kick ass, preferably very alcoholic beverage. I never had so much fun at Thanksgiving in my life. There were about 15 of us. I think the reason it was so fun was that there were no preconceived expectations on anyone's part, just gratefulness that they weren't alone. And gratitude is a great seasoning added to any shared dish. Too this day I have people over that have no where to go. I've made some terrific friends that way, people I'd have never met if not for Thanksgiving. And I've tasted dishes I'd never have had and come to love. I've even had my share of moonshine. So if Thanksgiving isn't what you want it to be, make it what you want it to be. You'll be surprised. Happy Thanksgiving by the way!

Maybe not by those words, but that's part of the concept, nobody would feel cheated about that. When you go to a private dinner at a friend's place do you ask him if his kitchen is according to all the restaurant regulations? This is what it's all about : private dinning. ← Sounds pretty much like an illegal restaurant or catering operation than private dining. Otherwise keeping the location a secret until the last minute wouldn't be necessary. I can't help but wonder how the neighbors of where these dinners are taking place every Saturday feel about living next to a "Private Dining" Restaurant. I beg to differ on the "Nobody would feel cheated" part. How about all the legitamit restaurants that are paying taxes, salaries and getting inspected. Ask their opinion on that one.

Black Licorice. I can't even be in a room with someone else eating it. It's an instant gag reflex. Once when I was yound and stupid and out to dinner with my new bosses on Wall Street, they insisted upon ordering me a Sambucca to finish the meal. It was all I could do to not barf on the table. I'm with everyone who hates grape soda, grape juice or even grape popsicles. Once it's wine I am fine with it. Mighty fine indeed.

I absolutely do. I go on binges. Particularly when I come back from vacation. I recently went to Savannah, GA and in the following week went on a Southern cooking binge. I bought two cook books while I was there and had several more already. I borrowed more from my sister. Then I hit the internet for recipes to see if I was missing anything. I turned all my friends and loved ones on to She Crab Soup. Don't even ask about my trip to Mexico for the first time. My family was begging for mercy. Enough salsa already!

Those of us who travel a lot as part of our jobs spend incredible amounts of time in airports and on planes. Those places might as well be our offices on many days, unfortunately, and we all know where the accessible plugs are... If I can get work done while traveling, I can take the time saved to enjoy myself later on in places with better ambiance than say, Dulles or Heathrow. ← I apologize if I sounded judgemental. I totally understand that people need to get their work done and if you're killing a lot of hours between flights have at it. The vast majority of the people in the airport or anywhere else use their laptops or whatever with courtesytoward their fellow travelers. And I mostly blame the placement of the outlets and ports in the airport I was in. In the case I experienced recently, one woman sat on the floor right in front of the boarding door with her legs outstretched requiring everyone to go around and lift their luggage over her feet. She was one of the last to board the plane. Quite frankly, I didn't see her as hardworking as much as I saw her as rude and self entitled. Admittedly it jaded me. I guess my point is, maybe that bar owner had a similar experience with a rude laptop user that upset his regular customer base that doesn't want to party in an office atmosphere. If it's a cyber cafe or bar, great, crack open the laptop. But I think when it doesn't appear to be one of those places, a manager or owner has the right to make the call. Just the same as the owner of a fine dining establishment might have a right to refuse young children out of respect for his customers that are going out and spending big bucks to get away from domestic life for a couple of hours.

Quote .......I can see his concern. If he lets people do it on off nights they will come back during "happy Hour" and want to know why they can't use it. To be honest he was probably showing the Bar Staff how to approach a customer and enforce his rule. Show him how to kick some one out without kicking them out......End Quote I too see his concern and I echo the egulleter who wonders why people have to be doing something all the time instead of enjoying conversation, the taste of the drink, the taste of the food and people watching. We spend a lot of typing on this site talking about the joys of slow food, ambiance, sights and smells that evoke enjoyment (or disgust) of the dining or drinking experience. Personally, I am baffled at the trend of bringing the office to dining establishments, bars and even the airport. I recently travled and had to litterally step over the legs of people leaned up against the walls banging away on lap tops with no regard for whether anyone was going to trip over them or not. I spend all day at the office. I don't want to feel like I'm still in it when I stop out for a drink.

I've reduced my food magazine consumption to Cooks Illustrated. I'll ocasionally buy an interesting issue of some other food magazine from the news stand. The issues I will not part with are the Christmas Cookie issues I've bought in the past. You can get any recipe that appeared in Bon Appitite, Gourmet, and Cooking Light on line for free. You have to subscribe to the interenet page of Cooks Illustrated for an annual fee so I keep those magazines. A couple of years ago I figured out a way to sell my surplus magazines. I had a garage sale and instead of selling them by the issue, I tied 6 magazines together with a satin ribbon and sold the bundles for $2.00. I sold all 20 or so bundles in about an hour. I don't think I'd have sold any of them if they were individually priced. At least not nearly as many. Cindy

It sounds like the issue isn't what he eats, but that he's unkind. Unkindness is amusing for a millisecond and then leaves a really bad taste in your mouth.... ← I'm not sure it's unkindness exactly. Anyone who knows him would say he's one of the nicest people in town. His false snobbery is unique to food. I don't have any problem with someone critiquing a meal. That's part of the fun of enjoying food. But perhaps what bothers me here is that he is by his own admission cheap and will seldom buy expensive foods for himself. So when someone makes a great meal and invites him as a guest, I have a hard time with his critical assessment of what by all accounts is a gift. To me it shows a lack of gratitude. It's not even really a matter of him not liking the dish. It's a matter of whether or not it meets his exacting standards. Standards he would never apply to anything he makes. I almost get the impression that he feels superior if he can find a flaw in what has been served to him. And it is very specifically about food and only food. So I guess the reason we've continued to date for a long time is that the rest has outweighed this one thing. But as time goes on I am more and more tempted to tell him to make it himself if he thinks he can do a better job. And I know for a fact I wouldn't be the first of his friends to have that conversation with him.

I dated that person, too! OMG! Yes, it DID get old. Another very annoying habit he had was to take on the accent of whatever cuisine he was eating at the time, be it Italian, French or whatever. Was not long after that revelation that I finally had to say, "adios" and just walk away. ← HA HA! I swear it IS the same person. I went to Mexico with him and couldn't wait to get away from him because he kept repeating the same things over and over again with ever increasingly exaggerated accents in the wrong places in the words because he thought he sounded more Mexican. I will no longer invite him over for Mexican food. Now the only ethnic I invite him over for is Thai. I dare him to come up with an accent for that!

Speaking from experience here, I too think it will eventually come back to haunt you. I've been dating someone who is not picky about what he eats, but is extremely nit picky about what he perceives to be the quality of the dish. If I make a fine ribeye steak meal, he will examine every square inch of it to find any hint of fat or grissle and announce where it came from (the local grocery store or the great butcher I go to in Wisconsin) When dining out, he will carefully taste each item on his plate and declare which items he deems to be from Sysco and which are not, which is a high quality item and which is bargain, etc. etc. It bothers me more and more all the time primarily because he hasn't ever worked in a restaurant, and almost never cooks anything he has to purchase himself. The sum total of his culinary skills are chili made from ground venison people give him for free or bean soup from a ham bone someone will discard and he'll declare it as his legendary this or that. What I thought was amusing at first is now getting old pretty quick.

It looks like chicken a la cement. I wonder what it's like once it sets up? LOL But I must say, the veggies and the chicken look positively vibrant under the cement sauce.

Lunchables. They're stupid. It's like miniature airplane food. I realize they are appealing to kids, but how gullible can parents be. It's 9 parts packaging to 1 part food. If you really want to send your kids to school with crackers and cheese and tiny pieces of lunch meat, cut it up yourself for pity sake.

When I owned a gourmet shop one lady used to come in every month with her large glass serving bowl and she'd buy whatever salad struck her fancy and have us fill the serving bowl. Then off to the PTA pot luck she would go refusing to divulge her recipe.

Just last week Good Morning America did a piece on the increasing cost of dining out nationwide. Even in chain restaurants prices have increase between 4% - 7% largely due to the rising cost of ingredients. However, they singled out NYC. For a fine dining experience in the last four years the average cost per person has gone from around $87 to about $140. They couldn't find a real reason for the NYC increases.

I try to keep mental note of the idiosyncracies of my guest as a good hostess. I usually try to adjust my menu choices for the most part but then there are some I have learned to get around in other ways. I know one couple that has odd preferences largely to do with vegetables. They believe tomato seeds are toxic, black pepper causes cancer and there is something bad about cucumber seeds too but I forget what it is. So making a salad becomes a major production. To their credit they don't ever openly comment, they just go through great pains to deseed everything at the table and examine things for specks of pepper. If I invite them to a dinner party I have them bring the salad. That way they don't spend an hour picking things over and I don't have to worry about it. And if it's awful it isn't my fault.

I agree with Pax. I bought a crock pot about a year ago after not having had one for decades. Bolognese and other slow cooked sauces are perfect for crock pot cooking when you don't have the time to stir consistently. And my crock pot yields fantastic pulled barbequed pork as well. I don't have any of the fancy stuff. Just HI, LOW and OFF.

I'm in awe. I want to meet you. Clams in the dishwasher. Wow!

Well.....Sugar Smacks were wheat, sort of. They were actually 56% sugar, which would make the wheat coated sugar puffs. Cindy

I remember the first official meal my twin sister and I cooked. My mom let us have the boy next door over for lunch when we were about 10. We made the little bunnies that were made out of a half of a canned pear on a scoop of cottage cheese. It had carrot stick ears and maybe a marshmellow tail. It was out of some kids cookbook. And we made jello. All I can remember about the jello is that the boy next door started to choke and he squirted jello out of his nose. We were laughing so hard we couldn't stand it.

My name is Cindy and I'm a (fraud that's learning new tricks on this thread?) My fave so far is filling the empty Grey Goose bottle with a cheaper brand when entertaining. This would be particularly helpful when entertaining a particular vodka drinker that I'm not terribly fond of. I also want to know where I can score some canned croissant dough. I have a nice spot nexted to may puff pastry dough, filo dough and pie crusts.

Resto. Whatever happened to the rest-o the word. Another is "deconstructed". I envision getting a paper bag with the ingredients and a recipe in it. If it was good enough to construct in the first place, what's the point of going backwards.

Cali, I have read your thread with fascination. I am amazed at how well you handle this challenge. I can appreciate how difficult what you do actually is. By the time I was 18 I was a head chef for a not for profit Bible Camp that made everything from scratch and we too were on a strick budget. We served on average 230 people three meals a day camp sessions that went for two weeks. They were mostly kids which is remarkably similar to cooking for seniors. Just because they can tolerate spicey and interesting foods, it doesn't mean they are willing to eat any of it. We baked all our own breads, rolls, and desserts which was a real cost cutter. We didn't use mixes for anything. I still remember the most helpful cookbook we had. It was called "Food for 50". It was a very straightfoward book that covered everything from roasting meats to making sauces to baking breads, coffee cakes and desserts. It had terrific ideas and great charts that multiplied out each recipe. I don't know if it is still in print but it would be worth a google. Cindy