emilyr

I just wanted to bump this in anticipation of the roughly 1 billion tons ( ) of the berries my local (secret) patch is getting ready to produce. My first couple pints have gone onto shortcakes, macerated for ice cream (with orange and cinnamon) and tossed onto salads. I'm particularly interested in any savory recipes you might have. Someone mentioned a barbeque sauce, and I may try that this weekend. Thanks in advance!

I worked at Mickey D's the summer they introduced those salad-in-a-cup things and the fruit and yogurt parfaits. The nice retiree lady that made these on the opening shift for the whole day lost her husband the first day I was there, so it became my job along with frying hashbrowns and rotating freezer stock at 5 am. I didn't stop smelling like yogurt for four weeks. Plus, since I was "so effecient and such a great worker," I finished all my assigned tasks too early and was assigned to also work the registers and in the drive in. By the end of my second week I was training new people and when I asked my manager what a key was, she said, "I didn't even know that was there." I don't remember exactly what it was, but it ended up saving a lot of time on each order. Another job that wasn't in a restaurant, but somewhat food related was part of my summer internship. I worked as a production assistant for a travel show in WI and went out one day on a shoot at a Brewery with a freelance cameraman just to get some shots of an event in their beer garden. All started out fine, I got a couple free beers, lugged around the tripod and back-up bags and reapplied my sunscreen. Then the cameraman (also somewhat enlightened by his free beers) was talking with the brewery owner about what a great shot it would be from the roof down onto the garden. Could we get up there through an attic or access door? No? No problem. Do you have a ladder? Great! First we climbed up 7 feet to a porch overhang. Then up to the first story, about 9 feet. The finally up to the roof over the bottling plant. 12 feet. On a 10 foot ladder. I'm already not a heights fan or particularly graceful, but you try doing that carrying a huge camera, a big duffle bag of other video accoutrement, the back up battery bag, and on 2 really good dopple bocks. Then he asked me to take down some flags attached to the building on struts that stuck out from the building about 3 feet. After telling him in no uncertain terms that I was NOT going to hang off the side of a brewery for anything, he got another shot and then we had to get down. So just imagine the above scene in reverse. Not fun. But the beer was good.

I often took the train home to Missouri from Milwaukee when I was in college, and on the commuter train between Milwaukee and Chicago, the little cart would roll down the aisle offering different items depending on the time of day. The one thing they always had was white cheddar flavored popcorn. I'm not usually a flavored popcorn kinda gal, but I couldn't resist trying the one item they decided to keep all of the time. Plus they were 99 cents for a pretty big bag. By the end of my sophomore year, I had learned enough to get a seat at the back of the train (from whence the cart came), have a bunch of singles and change (there was never any change that early in her trip down the aisles, and the cart lady really liked it), and buy 4-5 bags. It probably isn't the most healthy thing to sustain you on a 6 hour train ride, but it was cheaper than anything in the dining car or club car of the long haul train I'd be in later in the day. And the one time our train broke down for 6 hours, I was able to offer to my seatmates. Plus I like how my fingers get all covered in the yummy white powder.

Thanks RyuShihan! I'd heard some good things about Morgan Street Brewery and we'll definitely check that out. We seem to be running into the "not a lot downtown" problem. We may be heading out to Clayton. Thanks for your help.

My friend did something like this a few years ago with quite embarassing effects. She was in a coffee shop in Oxford that was filling up quickly working on her laptop. She hated communal table sharing, but would put up with it if she had to. On this particular day she simply ignored the man who came up to the table after she said that is was fine that he sat there. When he left he said thank you and she just waved him away. Some people from the next table came over and started asking what he had said and so on. "What do you mean?" she replied. "I didn't pay any attention to him. I'm working." "But," they replied, "don't you know who that was?" "No, and frankly I don't really care." "Bloody Yank. That was flipping PAUL MCCARTNEY!" And here's the part that's embarassing for me. She's my friend and I love her, but the poor girl replied: "WHO?" In the email I got (apparently just after she left the coffee shop with angry villagers with torches and pitchforks in hot pursuit ) she asked me who this was. When I told her he was a Beatle, she was somewhat embarassed, but not as embarassed as I was for her. Needless to say, she got the Beatles Anthology for Christmas that year!

Just bumping. I have 6 people hungrily looking forward to your recommendations!

Ooh! I'm going to St. Louis next weekend and I can't believe I didn't remember this one. Although I wouldn't think it was weird (in my area anyway), nothing beats breaded cheesy ravioli dipped in pesto!

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."