emilyr

I made a bunch of different cookies for friends for Christmas last year, and my brown sugar short bread got the most compliments. I have made recipes with all kinds of add-ins and had planned on doing lemon zest or candied ginger with these, but just ran out of time to get to the store before I had to bake. I also don't really use a recipe, but a loose formula like tmriga's above. It's about the same, but I generally don't add vanilla and do add a little salt. I used about 2 parts brown sugar and one part white for this batch last year. Plus, I like shortbread because you can make it so pretty. I have a couple of shortbread round forms that are great, but have also just spread it out on a cookie sheet and decorated/scored it to suit the occasion. Once I made a baby quilt for a shower. Just scallopped the edges and used the score marks to make the patches. Decorated with different colors of sugar, it was adorable.

I am just a couple of chapters in to The Sex Life of Food by the nearly improbably named Bunny Crumpacker. I'm liking it so far, some of its topics remind me of eG threads!

Here are some links I found: AZCentral: with a non-traditional display. Olvera-Street: with a list of traditional food offerings. Another AZCentral page: article about DDLM food. About.com: Mexican and DDLM food. The candied pumpkin looks good. I may try it. This is like a really beautiful tradition. I hope it helps. I'll be thinking of you! (PS - Ray Bradbury wrote some really great short stories about his stay in Mexico and DDLM; you might look them up to get you in the mood.)

Try looking for the round replacement grills for the mini/tailgating BBQ grills.

They're still $1 here in small town mid-Missouri.

I have found that if you use higher fat milk or cream instead of water makes the eggs smoother. I seem to see more puff with water. I always assumed it was a steam thing. I think they stay moister longer in the pan, so if you're eggs are too cold or your pan is too hot, you have a bit of wiggle room. (PS - Did you go to Marquette, too? There was a guy who made the best omeletes in Cobeen Hall when I was there! It was the only reason to get up before noon on Sunday !)

The story says that the local hospital had seen similar reactions in the last few days. I wonder what it was in the drink that was so bad, allergen-wise. The chili?

A British girl traveling in Greece had a 10 Euro drink that included Baileys, chilli, tequila, absinthe, ouzo, vodka, cider and gin. And then her face swelled to the size of a soccer ball. I don't actually know what's more shocking, the swelling or paying 10 Euros for a drink with that combination of flavors! Clicky for the story.

My grocery store usually only carries Athenos hummus, which is ok, but today when I went in, they had Sabra's Seriously spicy. The girls in the deli had a container open to try and it was quite good. I'm not even a spicy fan myself, but it wasn't bad. I'll look for Sabra at other stores in the future.

I've found another reason I shouldn't go to the grocery store hungry. I work part time at a grocery store flower shop with my mom, and when I was dropping her off today and getting lunch for myself, the produce manager stopped me and said, "I have something for you!" I'm his "weird" food buyer. We're a small town grocery store, so some thing just don't fly off the shelves. Long story short - I got 4-4 oz. containers of sprouts for $.50 each. One each of radish sprouts; a "spicy mix" radish/alfalfa blend; an onion/alfalfa mix (the onion part of this mix seems to be mostly just seeds, unless I can't tell the onion and alfalfa sprouts apart); and a "crunchy mix" of pea, Chinese red bean and mung bean sprouts. I really like sprouts on sandwiches and got fixings for some of my favorite (turkey, cucumber, spicy hummus and so on), and I figure I can do a stir fry of some sort with the crunchy mix, but what am I going to do with 16 ounces of sprouts?! Please help!

It's not a recipe, per se, but I have to say egullet has re-ignited my love of eggs - especially over easy, soft cooked and otherwise runny and food-porn-photo-inducing! I kinda burnt myself out on eggs in college, but in the past few years have been dreaming of ways to add them to dishes like stir fries, curries, burgers and more!

I really love the all charcuterie landsapes. MMMMM...Proscuitto Trees!

I really wanted to help, unfortunately, Door County is the only part of Wisconsin I haven't visited. Here's the Door County Dining Guide. I have no idea if it will help, but it can't hurt.

I'd probably throw them in the marinade in the morning, but you could really get away with as little as an hour. I would save some out for a dipping sauce if you end up making basically a viniagrette. Also, I wouldn't go for too oily because you could get some flare ups on the grill. Just enough EVOO to get the marinade to coat well (I'd go with 3 or 4:1 acid to oil) and not huge chunks of garlic and oregano so that you don't get any burned bits during cooking.

My brother's birthday was Saturday. I got/made him his favorite meal. Giant deli sandwich with wasabi mayo and 2 boxes of choclate Pocky (which he was kind enough to share )!

I haven't seen the show yet, and plan on checking it out soon, but doesn't this sound like the premise one of the Next Food Network Stars guys proposed. Adam, I think. He took a question from online and then created a menu around it.

I work in radio in Missouri. We've been running some network ads for these. Maybe in conjunction with Wal-Mart. I can't remember right now.

I also read that he doesn't cook, so most of his meals are eaten out. I can't even imagine trying to pay for all that food out. Here's an article about the cafe at which he usually eats breakfast in Ann Arbor.

I like a regular, largish dinner fork rather than a carving fork, unless I'm carving at the table. I have little hands, and it's just easier. I never thought about holes before because you don't usually carve til the meat has finished its rest and that's when the juices are supposed to be redistributed down into the meat.

Yum!

Cranberries and pomegranate have similar flavors - or, at least, complimentary. Cranberry puree could add the stability you need without changing the flavor too much.

Emily, how was the Saveur/your salad dressed? ← Here's the Saveur recipe. I just did oil, cider vinegar, cayenne, S and P, and I added dried ginger. I didn't see the recipe til after I went to the store, so this weekend, I'm going to try it the "right" way, but we liked it my way too; I think the mint and basil will be a refreshing addition. I used golden grape tomatoes and a sugar baby (I think) watermelon.

Saveur had it's cover article on watermelon this month. I made a variation the watermelon-tomato salad they had featured. It was pretty tasty. I was a bit concerned that the pickier family members weren't going to like it, but they must have because the whole bowl was gone. With the abundance of both watermelons and tomatoes at farmers' markets around here this year, I think this will be making frequent appearances.

I really love Usinger's. It has the best snap. I believe you can get it in lots of grocery stores in the greater-Chicago area. It's a Milwaukee brand, but you don't have to tell your co-worker that!

I've never made veggie burgers myself, but went meatless one Lent in college and shared some with veggie friends (who had frozen patties in their freezer from their mom - she kept the recipe secret , but was more than willing to send extras for me ). That particular Lent was during my college basketball team's run to the Final Four, so I spent a lot of nights in the campus sports bar. They just had a grilled portabello cap burger as a veggie option, and it's become my go to grilling substitute. They also influenced my taste in veggie burgers, so I now I like mushroom-and-rice-based burgers. I like the idea of the beet-based recipes above. I might try those this weekend.