emilyr

So I was just planning on grabbing some soup at Panera today, but they were packed (a new Kohl's opened near by and I was in the post shopping rush I think). Luckily, I decided to be a bit adventurous and tried out a restaurant next door that I'd never been to before. It's called Okii Mama, and it might be a chain. It's pan-asian and quick. And it was AWESOME! I had grilled chicken with a wasabi cream sauce and topped with toasted black sesame seeds, stir fried noodles, and these amazing green beans. I got the food in less than ten minutes, but I could tell that it was all pretty fresh. The chicken had some sort of teriyaki marinade, but wasn't too salty or too sweet. It was most and a little smoky from the grill. The wasabi sauce had just the right amount of kick. The noodles had big (but not overwhelming) bits of garlic and ginger, and the green beans had an obscene - but SO good - amount of garlic and butter. It's a good thing I'm not kissing anyone special tonight! Anyway. I'm definitely going to try this place again soon. ETA: Curiosity got the best of me, and so I googled Okii Mama. It's not a chain. So ifyou're in the Columbia, MO, area, check it out. Here's an online review.

I don't think I can get behind the idea that church kitchens are never checked. Our local health inspector makes churches go through an inspection process just like restaurants. I was in charge of a church breakfast a few months ago and we had to get permission to serve food that day and then a HI came by the next day to make sure the clean up was adequate. If anything, our local Health Department is harder on churches and other organizations than restaurants, checking them almost every time an event is held, plus a once or twice a year "surprise" inspection. Even if food is prepared at home, most of the chruch ladies around here are really good about putting warm foods in the warming pans and keeping salads and the like cool long enough or put away soon enough. I don't think I even know anyone who's gotten food poisoning from a potluck of any sort.

I steam all potatoes for mashes. They don't get too soggy and cook faster for boiling. Although baking might make a nice carmelized flavor for mashed sweet potatoes.

About 4 years ago, the Wisconsin State Fair had a "We'll Fry Anything" booth. Since Wisconisinites already will fry just about anything, it wasn't really a stretch. They fried a lot of the usual - cheese curds, brats, corn dogs, and so on - and various kinds of candy bars were popular, but one of my friends bought his favorite fair food, Indian Taco (taco ingredients in Native American flat bread), scraped out the lettuce and sour cream, had it dipped in the batter, then deep fried. I didn't try it, but he loved it. (Of course, that was right after our trip to the "Native Wisconsin Beer" booth ) I did try a deep fried avocado, and it was pretty yummy. It was just dipped in batter and fried really only long enough for that to cook. A good mixture of crunchy/chewy and cool/smooth.

Freeze dried spaghetti in a bag (along with camp stove and mongo bowie knife) and power bars for breakfast. "Breakfast Santa" delivered breakfast in bed.

Risotto?

My aunt wrote this column right after I read about crosnes here. I'm waiting back for an email from her to see if I can find them in my area. Looking forward to it!

My best friend's husband's and my birthday is St. Patrick's Day (Mar. 17), and we're getting together a big group to spend the weekend in St. Louis. We've got people coming from as close as St. Charles and as far away as Ithaca, NY, and none of us have really spent a lot of time in downtown STL. We're staying at the Pavilion hotel downtown, and plan on spending a lot of time in Laclede's Landing and Soulard or the Hill. We don't have any major plans other than the Arch and the Budweiser tour on Saturday. What I'm hoping for are recommendations for A) a good Irish pub or restaurant near the DT or Soulard area for a group (of about 8) for SPD night, B) fun restaurants and bars in the Laclede's Landing area that aren't too pretentious or too gimmicky, and C) a good place for brunch or lunch (maybe on the Hill) Sunday morning before we all leave. As a group, we are all 25 (or about to turn it), and recent college grads or grad school students, and so not really rolling in it. We'll have 3-4 people driving, so it' wouldn't be a problem to drive out, but we want to try to keep the driving distance within 10 mins. of the hotel. Some of us tried a pub called McGurk's in Soulard last year and we generally liked it, but we're looking for more suggestions as a backup. I hope this isn't repeating a thread. I checked out the other St. Louis boards, but didn't find newish stuff about the specific city areas I was looking floor. Thanks in advance for all your help!

I think this one might actually be appropriate. Both of my grandpas were in the Army Air Corps and talked about parachute practice as "Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane." Maybe the instructor was just trying to make an army reference/joke. Anyway - back on topic...I've ordered items from menus just because of the quotes. I know, don't encourage them, but when I go to a Mexican restaurant and see everything served with just salsa, and then see a menu item served with "salsa" I figure why not try something different. Of course, it usually comes out with regular salsa, not "salsa." (And, no. I don't know what "salsa" would be)

It's interesting that I ran across this. Recently I subbed at a preschool; it was Farm Week and the 3-5 year old class were talking about the animals they might find on the Amish farm they were going to visit later in the week. The teacher asked why farmers raise animals. We got lots of answers like "pigs are cute," and "cows make milk," but none of the kids answered about food. When this poor teacher tried to explain that cows make beef like in sandwiches and hamburgers, and pigs make pork for hotdogs and bacon, all the little eyes got big as dinner plates! I felt so bad. We explained that it was ok to eat animals and that that was their job - to grow up to be food - but some people (Vegetarians and Vegans) decided not to eat food from animals. They were very confused. It was a stressful day overall. Luckily, cheese pizza on the lunch menu that day!

I sold Pampered Chef a couple of years ago (mostly just to get the free stuff) and got their mandoline as a prize one month (but it runs at $45). I think it's pretty good. I like that it has little grippy feet as well as notches on the bottom so that it'll sit across different sized bowls. It has 4 different blades (a grater, a julienne blade, a v-shaped blade, and an adjustable width straight blade), but I mostly just use the straight blade. It's stayed pretty sharp and the holder isn't too cumbersome. My family's on a scalloped potatoes kick right now and we try a different kind about twice a week, so it's come in handy a lot lately. Oh, yeah...they don't call it a mandoline. I just checked the website, and they call it the Ultimate Slice & Grate.

Ah...Great thread. I went to a Catholic uni in Milwaukee and was probably just a few credits shy of a double major in "Drunk Food!" I have several "favorites" mostly based on who I was out with. If I was out with kids from my major (Broadcasters can drink the average buffalo under the table) we always went to a pizza place on campus called Angelo's. The freshmen could get in without problem, and were happy to buy pitchers for us older students. Funny thing about this place, I can't remember anyone EVER ordering the pizza. We always ordered chicken strips which came with ranch and marinara. In my sober times, these were greasy and unpalatable, but the first time I tried them with my alcohol-colored glasses on, I was trying to make up recipes in my head involving chicken, marinara, and ranch dressing. Actually, ranch dressing is a big drunk craving of mine, though I rarely eat it sober! When my girlfriends and I were out, we'd always bum a ride with whoever was sober and head to Denny's. Smothered HashBrowns ensued. Yum! Drinking at home always meant a call for Jimmy John's subs. One night my roomie and I ordered 2 Sorry Charlie's (awesome tunafish with lots of celery seed), 4 pickles, and 3 loaves of day-old bread which we made into french toast the next morning as hangover food! Out with the guys, We'd head to either Marquette Gyro and get limp, greasy, salty, heavenly cheese fries and gyros or down Wisconsin Ave. to Michael's and feast on giant 4-egg omelettes. We always tried to out-do each other with topping choices. The person that outdid everyone else didn't have to pay. One night I won with pineapple, ham, green olives, extra onions, and apricot jelly. I KNOW that would never have been consumed sober! Ah, for a college student's metabolism again!

I worked at a McDonald's one summer in college ( ), and this was a particularly stressed point in our training week. Our store owner was very particular about charging for more than two packets of McNugget sauce, mustard, mayo, etc. (though he didn't care much about ketchup). He fired a register worker he caught 3 times giving extra sweet and sour sauce or something. Finally, after sniping on all parts, we had a staff meeting where he explained that each box of ketchup packets costs X amount of dollars, if we give out too many packets, we go through a lot more, most of which get thrown away, we buy more boxes, store doesn't make as much money, your raise doesn't go through. I think even the coworkers who needed picture diagrams on everything even got that lecture. Another interesting point. When we added a condiment station with squirt pumps of ketchup and mustard with those little paper cups, condiment consumption cut by about a third. Though the cups and the packets hold about the same amount (near a Tbsp.), the cups look like more and are harder to hold, so people just grab one or two, and end up using all of what they've got before getting more. I tend not to steal condiments any more unless I find something that's extra special. For example, I only get to an Arby's on vacation, and always get extra Horsy and BBQ sauce for later roast beef sandwiches, but it looks like I won't have to any more! Thanks for the recipes!

I got a set of creme brulee ramekins and a kitchen torch. We used it that night to roast marshmallows, and I keep finding things to "toast" with it. Now, I just need to find time to make creme brulee!

I don't know if this is still on the box, but it's still the recipe we make for my dad EVERY YEAR!

This year at Christmas I will have the last of my favorite relish tray ingredients...pickeled beets. My grandma (Tutu Bonnie, the more Southern one) always puts on these yummy, vinegary, cinnamony, not too mushy variety that her neigbor made, but said neighbor died a few months ago (at the age of 93!) and Tutu just told me she's down to her last jar. I've never found a recipe like this one and the neighbor was super protective of hers. Thses beets REQUIRE the sectioned cut-glass container or you end up with pink celery and carrots. Grandmama (my other, Northern, grandma) always puts hot pickled cauliflower on her tray an ripe green olives instead of black ones.

Back in college, my Italian professor each had us make a recipe from her well-worn copy of Il cucchiaio d'argento (or Silver Spoon) cookbook. She said it was like the Joy of Cooking of Italy - the cookbook everyone gets when they get married or start cooking for themselves. I recently found that there's an American translation - both words and measurements - and was wondering if anyone had used it? Would it be worth shelling out $40, or should I ask for it for Christmas? Phaidon publishing - Silver Spoon

Actually, I live in Moberly, MO near Columbia where the University of Missouri and 3 other colleges are giving it the nick name "College Town USA."

I live in pretty much the middle of Middle America in a small town near the intersection of two big shipping highways. I'm pretty sure my town is an exception because, with the exception of fast food places (we have a Hardee's, McDonalds, Sonic, Taco Bell, Burger King, and two Subways), we don't have any chain restaurants except for a Country Kitchen and a Golden Corrall. There are 15+ independents now. The larger town 35 miles down the highway is at the intersection of two highly traveled interstates. They have a really good mix of chains and local restaurants. It's a major college town and very "cosmopolitan" for our region of the state. I work in town #2 and usually eat there becuase I work nights. I can't say that I have much of a problem with chain restaurants, and I don't quite understand most of the uproar. When you live in the sticks, sometimes it's all you've got. I mean - I knew people in high school who'd never eaten avocados until we went to a Chipotle or who didn't know that there were other kinds of tomatoes (other than the beefsteak variety that gets sold in the 2 grocery stores in our town) until they had cherry tomatoes on an Applebee's salad. Of course, if I had two equal choices foodwise and pricewise, I'd choose an independent restaurant, but that isn't usually the case. Applebee's while not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination, is at least affordable (if you get the right things on the menu). I'm young and poor, and sometimes I just want a cup of soup from Panera (still called St. Louis Bread Co. around here 'cuz of our proximity to said city). I know I can get dinner there for less than the $7 or so that I have in my pocket. That being said, not all chains are made the same. There's no way you could get me into either a Red Lobster or an Olive Garden any more. I lived with too many friends in college for whom these were haute cuisine, and wouldn't try any place else. I went to college in a huge metropolis compared to my hometown, so this was sacrilige for me. Damn picky eaters! For "special dinners" I can usually talk friends into nicer places and do this as often as possible. Like for prom we went to a jazz club/restaurant where one of my parents' friends was the chef. My favorite chains aren't usually monster chains. I like places like Panera/SLBC, Qdoba/Chipotle or Nothing but Noodles/Noodles and Company that are semi-regional. Fast food wise, I'll usually try just about any new sandwich Sonic or Hardee's (Carl Jr.'s elsewhere) put out. At least their burgers taste like real meat.

OK, is it just me, or is that kind of cool? I mean, nasty, but cool. Oh. My. God. ← I think it was really cool at the time, but like I said...very drunken night. Mostly the jell-o just melted then splattered across the kitchen making a weird stick/oily mess on the walls. Of course, this was where I also had deep fried macaroni and cheese. Sounds gross I know, but it's my favorite drunk/hangover food of all time.

Oh, man, how I miss Real Chilli! One was right around the corner from my apartment in Milwaukee in college and It was our favorite drunk food. Also good chilli for those cold days in WI. Yum! Those pics are awesome and really make me nostalgic. Definitely eat there and get extra onions. I've only been to Madison a couple of times, but each time I go I'm sure to get ice cream on the UW campus (in the union, I think). It's made about as fresh as you can get from the dairy school cows. Plus, this time of year they have the best pumpkin ice cream I've ever tasted.

In college I really liked crunchy things when I was working on papers or projects. My roommate claimed she could tell which kind of classes I was working on based on my snacks. Broadcasting, film and theater papers always led to chips or carrots with some sour cream based dip. Wasabi peas for poli sci. Those individually wrapped biscotti from Sam's Club for English and Italian. And for the dread Psych and Stats I usually ate chocolate covered espresso beans - my true induldgence in college. Plus I usually fortified them with Venti Cafes au Lait from the Starbucks in the lobby of my building. (I don't know if it was just my caffeine-controlled imagination or not, but sometimes it seemed like my fingers moved faster than my brain on those nights. I'd go back and read a paper after an all-nighter and not remember writing half of it ) I took a lot of philosophy and theology classes too cause I went to a Catholic school, but I can't think of anything particular for those. Probably cause I had no interest in them at all. Hm...When I was really poor I'd eat saltines with canned frosting or ramen noodles with salad shrimp (or canned chicken) and alfredo sauce from a jar. I shudder to recollect . Now, I'm not really on deadline, but it seems like I'm either working or on my way to work and I have no time to cook. I'm relying a lot on dried cranberries and double bergamot Earl Grey made with two teabags per cup so that it gets all black and thick...

There used to be one of those giant, sprawling truck stops we always drove past on vacation that put up billboards every few miles on the interstate. I think the owners really wanted bang for their advertising buck because they crammed in more words than you could read at one time on all of them. Driving down the highway you'd read the top line, drive a few miles, read the next line, drive...and so on. The thing that cracked my brothers, sister and I up was the last line. We looked forward to seeing the signs every year and were really sad when a tornado flattened the place and the signs came down. The last line read: "Sparkling Restrooms*Kids Eat Free!"

I had a roommate that worked at the Spice House in Milwaukee, and their spices were consistently good. I've never tried ordering online, but I love what I've bought. They have shops in Evanston and Chicago too.

In college I didn't have a car and often bummed rides to the grocery store so I wouldn't have to ride the bus. When I did mooch, I offered to cook my driver a thank you dinner. I also taught a few of my dormmates and classmates some basic recipes. Even though these were "thank you" dinners, my friends started to get it into their heads that they owed me dinners junior year when we all moved into our own apartments. Let me just say that this led to the worst series of dinners I've ever experienced. Overcooked macaroni by the bucketful, flavorless tacos with mounds of sour cream and velveeta, more frozen dinners than you can shake a stick at, and lots of rubbery chicken breasts baked in Italian dressing. One friend's favorite party to throw was to use her Fry Daddy to deep fry ANYTHING anyone brought to a pot luck. (One drunken night she deep fried jello. Or tried to. Honest.) One guy I was vaguely dating invited me over because, "baby, you cook me dinner all the time; let me pamper you for once." Well he was in ROTC and his physical test was coming up and he got it into his head he needed to cut weight. His "diet plan" was to make one huge pot of spaghetti on Sunday and heat it up the rest of the week with canned sauce in the microwave. For. Every. Meal...Our date was Saturday night. You can see where I'm going, can't you? That's right. He sliced the last chunk of spaghetti into two portions, spooned the sauce over the top, and because it was a "special occassion" he tossed a bit of dried Italian seasoning on the top (I think the jar was one his mom sent with him freshman year). All of this he nuked for FIVE MINUTES!!! So we spent a "romantic" evening cutting off chunks of spaghetti ball. No cheese (Too fattening), no wine (he gave it up for Lent), no side dishes. If only he didn't look so cute in those uniform pants Plus, I lived wtih a very lovely girl who had the worst taste ever. Senior year my roommate and I were on pretty opposite schedules, so we rarely ate together. When we did, I usually cooked. She was always appreciative, but I eventually got lists of things to "please not make." Anything with curry ("it makes the apartment smell like my dog puked"). Any thing with chunks of tomato ("they feel like eels in my mouth"). She also apparently didn't like fresh vegetables. "Why are these green beans so crunchy?" I suppose she had reason; her mom had MS and NEVER cooked for her family. They went out or defrosted every meal. Seriously, she said that she only remembers her mom actually "cooking" one dish her entire life - cole slaw. When dear old roomie cooked it was all convenience food. More frozen pizzas. Hambruger helper. Spaghetti with jarred sauce (with every chunk of tomato taken out one by one with a fork tap, tap, tapped on the side of the pan. A process that took longer than it took the pasta to cook. I almost committed murder during finals week thanks to this dish.) And the piece de resistance...Fettuccine Alfredo flavored Tuna Helper. *blech* Personally, I thought this dish smelled like crotch but never left her a note. I finally just found excuses to avoid almost all dinners until I knew how people could cook.