gini

That I fear will be the biggest problem I tend to chain smoke when drinking WILLPOWER ← Me too! That was the hardest part of quitting for me. It was actually my friends who finally did it for me since I was one of the few smokers in the group. They would just refuse to let me step out of the bar. Try to get the support of your non-smoker friends and maybe you can get a free drink out of it? Or a chocolate cake shot?

In 2006, I will eat anything new and different including food of which I can't pronounce the name. Working on it. But I have yet to trying anything really outrageous. I will make a real effort to stop eating cowtails at work. Check! Now I just eat chocolate. I will find new recipes to make and consume. Check! I will learn how to make cheese cake that isn't ricotta based even though that's the only kind I like. Not so much. I need to get on that. I will teach my honey to be somewhat efficient in the kitchen. Check! Last night he made me sauteed scallops with shallots and walnuts over watercress. It was outrageous! He used a stick of butter . I will read a cookbook that I don't already know how to make the recipes in. Not so much. I guess I'm not a cookbook person. But I shall try! This is the year I will try to actually bake something sweet, including carrot cake. Does creme brulee count? I will taste wine and understand its complexities before downing it. Not so much. I did do a tasting of 4 different sakes recently though. I will use an apron. To the chagrin of mr. gini - again a no - although I'm pretty sure he's not thinking of the splatter-proofing capabilities. I will give D less of a hard time in the kitchen and remember that I'm not a caterer anymore, I'm just a home cook. Check! Now I just go away and let him cook. He hasn't slit his hands open or set the house on fire yet. puh, puh puh (that means, I hope that doesn't really happen!). I will cook as much as possible and stop ordering takeout from the same places. Check! Except we have gone to a few totally outrageous restaurants nevertheless. We will run to offset all the food we will eat - perhaps even that marathon we've been training for forever. Sort of check. We ran just over 30 miles in January. That's about a mile a day which isn't great - it needs to stop sleeting to help us effectively do this. My kidsconsist of one 31 adult man who cannot cook. He will learn or die trying in the next year. He's doing great!

Brilliant!!! I had always wondered what utensil I should be using to avoid this conundrum and now I know. Thanks

Dave - This actually reminds me of when I first quit - I started documenting in heavy detail my running workouts - temperature, pace, weather, pre-run and post-run weight. But hey - whatever works, right? If you need a detailed photo account of everything you eat, then do it! We'll just sit back and enjoy.

Right now: cheddar cheese prezel bits with a glass of sake. Last night: spicy sauteed sausage and brocolli rabe in garlic and red pepper flakes served over polenta vanilla icecream with homemade limoncello Today at work: yogurt with honey and granola 1 bag of peanut M+Ms 4 short bread cookies 1 small plate of greens with basil dressing 2 strawberries, 1 handful of grapes 2 chocolate chip cookies I believe that means I'm on both a salt & sweet kick right now. YAY!

Can someone fill Marlene in on blanching while Susan brushes and I drive home? Thanks a bunch. ← Way to brush your teeth!! I sound like a cheerleader; I must cut down on the cheddar cheese pretzel bits. For blanching, I refer you here: Blanching on Wikipedia. To sum up, you take the intended blanchee, stick in in boiling water for a minute or two, then take said blanched veggie and stick it in an ice bath to prevent further cooking.

Congratulation to all three of you! As an ex-smoker, I thought I'd give you a few of the things that helped me get through the first month or so of quitting..... 1) Brush your teeth after every meal or snack (I always felt weird smoking after I had JUST been mint-i-fied) 2) Take lots of showers when the urges hit (who can smoke in the shower?) 3) Run! Your lungs will hurt and you will be mad at me, but trust me, it works in the long run (no pun intended). 4) Buy a carton of cigs and dump them into a big old plastic container with a screw top. Fill the container with water and close tightly. Everytime you have an urge, open up the container. DISGUSTING. I only ended up opening it twice (I'm slow, what can I say? ) And I have to emphasize SB's quote: Good luck!

But to eat dessert they would have to stop drinking beer.. that was my thinking anyway. ← now that's just not true... ← Blueberry beer? Anyone, anyone?

My boy actually had his bi-annual rendition of man weekend this past weekend, and I have to say, your menu looks much, much better than what they ate (which was essentially tons of beer and bbq). And fried pickles. And for some reason, fried calamari. Anyway, I think the bacon blue burgers are too much of a repeat of the stuffed hot quail. Following up on jackal's response, why not make a pizza? As well, fried, greasy, cheesy food certainly does soak up the beer well - fried pickles? I'm on a fried pickle kick, I guess.

Will you have a car? If not, I recommend Sea to You on Northern Ave. If you do, there's a fish market in Alewife - Cambridge area.

I had a Johnny Rockets' Smokehouse Burger Tillamook® Cheddar cheese, thick bacon, crisp onion rings & our "Smoke House" barbecue-ranch sauce.

I used the qualifier if money is no object in order to encourage people to recommend neighborhoods that might, for some, be considered expensive to live in. I think that saying that you can take your private car anywhere is not an answer to the original question asking

I'm sure I don't speak for any line cooks out there, but I'm not sure who has time to post on this stuff. Working a double, or working from 2pm - 1am leaves little time for online posting. Anyway, I worked in a seafood joint in Maine, an upscale restaurant in NH, and a pub on a golf course. I worked both front and back of the house, and have to say I preferred waitressing. Less stress, higher payout. That was more than 5 years ago though.... 1) what is life like: Lining at a seafood shack is by far the worst job ever. Imagine smelling like a fryolater for your entire summer. No wonder waitresses always end up dating line cooks - we all smell the same! We started out as dishwashers- also in charge of steaming clams and lobsters. Then moved to fry cook - french fries and onion rings first, then the more complicated seafood items. If you were good and wanted to make above minimum wage you finally graduated to broiler - first during lunches then finally at night (only Matt made it that far - he was a lifer and had - the keys). 2) the tensions between the back of the house and the front/ how they are treated: Annecros's comments hold true. I think any waitress worth her salt tries her best to treat the line well. The front of the house manager is usually the bone of contention with the line (or the owner). The major issues were indecipherable orders and slow pick up time. If your fried lobster role is sitting on the counter for more than 30 seconds, all my perfect frying skills are lost, sweetheart. In hindsight - changing menu items and how things are cooked was also annoying - not because it ruined the chef's vision (it was a seafood shack, come on), but because it ruined the system and the timing. 3) how they are paid: Not well. In fact, waitressing/waitering yeilds about 10X more per hour than a line cook (bottom on the totem pole does). A few of my excutive chef buddies seem to have the right idea - take the kids under your wing, mentor them, teach them.

We moved our second fridge from Northern NJ to Western Maine and it's doing fine. We've had it for 30 years now and it's actually doing better than the "new" model we bought in 1996. We keep it in the garage (in Maine, our garage is heated), and it doesn't turn into a freezer ever. In NJ, the garage was not heated. Hope that helps!

Hey all - I'm overwhelmed by your responses. Thanks for being so thoughful!

Corn and Barely Salad! Corn, shucked, barley, sweet red peppers, sweet tomatoes, cilantro, green onions - in a rice wine vinegar, lemon olive oil dressing.

DaFonz- You make me sad....Toast topped with fried/sauteed, spinach, eggs and melted cheese is one of my all time favorite late night snacks. But tuna - imagine what it WOULD have tasted like!

So now all I really need to do is rob a bank, buy (that's right, I said BUY) a penthouse, hire a fulltime assistant and a limo driver. Shuck, you guys are so helpful!!

Sorry! Yorkville!

Have you ever rented an apt in Chinatown? The floors actually slope - sometimes downwards, sometimes in parabolas. Keeping furniture steady is a challenge.

Ditto! ← Foodwise, that would be my first choice too! And JohnL, the last time I checked, there are also at least four Starbucks in the Union Square area too. So no matter which exit you use on the subway, you don't have to worry about walking that extra 1/2 block to get your morning cup of joe. ← Sigh - I miss hippy coffee places where the foam is like meringue. It's so sad when the two of us go for take-away coffee - we have to stop two different places! Anyway, I think right now we're looking at the Union Square area and the Hell's Kitchen/Clinton/Midtwon area. No love for Yorktown? Ok, ok, so it's insanely far away from the trains, the east river blows you off the sidewalk, and it's not particularly galmourous, but I've had some pretty good thai and japanese eats. Just wondering....

Jason, you are HYSTERICAL. Indeed you did. It said something to the effect of, "Even Bitali doesn't wretch when he comes over to eat my food." - RayRay Anyone know how to say YUM-OH! in Italian? No? No one? Me neither. I hope he stomps on her with his silly orange clogs!

Thank you for everyone's responses!!! Mr. gini says I am driven by my stomach and you all have certainly given me some food for thought. ( corny!) nypork - IF money were no object. that's a big IF . I don't think I could handle Per Se everynight. The Burrito Box would certainly have to come into play at some point. JohnL 4 starbucks? I think Mr. gini might die of white chocolate mocha latte overdoes (EW!).

Hell's Kitchen does have some awesome restaurants now. What about grocers, specialty food shops etc? (Oh and we like movies and like having money left over to go to them. I am purely living fancifully right now...)

Interesting....does this include the Inwood park area or is that further north? Years (YEARS) ago, Inwood had some interesting German/Italian/Eastern European eateries.