emilyr

I found the same thing. I really like the almost crispy glaze that store-bought ginger cookies have. I make lots of them, but have never gotten the glaze right. My solution is to roll in demerrara sugar before baking. It gives the outside a nice crunch.

I was glad, of the final two, that Melissa won. I don't know what it is about Jeffery, but he just irked me all. season. long. I also think Melissa improved SO much throughout the whole season. I would've preferred Jamika, personally, but they did the typical FN thing where they keep people with more "personality" but several missteps on and toss someone who has a single bad week. My mom and I also have a problem with the challenges. There's no way that any of these situations would come up unless they did totally live shows. The one where they were on the morning show was probably the closest to reality. But I guess that there wouldn't be much of a competition if every week were just scripted, strictly controlled shoots.

Friday I went to a birthday dinner at Murray's in Columbia, MO and we had their house specialty appetizer, batter dipped and deep fried green pepper rings topped with powdered sugar. Sounds awful, tastes wonderful.

I've always thought of these, with a small alteration, as camp eggs. We made them on trips in girl scouts on a small camp stove made of a coffee can, tuna can, candle wax, and tuna cans. wee took a slice of bacon, cut in half and placed the halves on top of the stove, placed the bread (with hole) on top of that, eggs in the middle and topped with more bacon. I seem to remember that we had some trouble with the bacon sticking, so we par cooked it on the camp fire grill and then went on.

My best friend wanted some DEs for her graduation party a couple of years ago, and the keg of beer she got had a list of foods that were good with it. One was curry, and since we were bbq'ing, I made curried deviled eggs. I mixed the yolks with a little mayo and curry powder plus a bit of cayenne (just a little, enough for a kick). I put a little mango chutney in each white half and then topped off with the yolks. Sprinkled a bit of coconut and chopped peanuts on top to serve. They were just the right blend of sweet and spicy and went great with the beer.

Amen!

I stopped at Blanc today with two of the harshest critics, a 14-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy with pretty good palates. The first thing I noticed was the great deal on lunch: $8 for a burger and side dish, either fries, onion rings, etc. or one of the salads. Considering that alacarte, some of these burgers alone were in the $6-10 range, quite a good deal. I had the au poivre with sweet potato fries, boy cousin had the classic with a Caesar salad, and girl cousin decided to be quite teenagery and have just the Caesar, despite the fact that we chose the place because burgers sounded the best. The burgers were great, and big, but not too huge. I hate "gourmet" burgers that are too big and/messy to fit into your mouth. Sweet potato fries were outstanding. They're my fave burger side dish, and these had the perfect amount of crispness. I didn't try the ketchup that came with the triple condiment tray, but the mustard and other sauce (horseradishy maybe?) were pretty good. Boy cousin gobbled his burger. And girl cousin said it was one of the best Caesars she's ever had; she really liked the capers and said they were a nice twist. We'll definitely be trying this place again when we're in KC, and we have some relatives that are going to be in and out of St. Luke's, so it's good to know this is within walking distance. I'll be trying the butter lettuce salad and either the classic or pork "burger" next time we're in. Or the onion rings and bison. Or the calamari fries and meatloaf "burger." http://www.blancburgers.com/

The Missouri Department of Conservation has a great monthly magazine and this month they had this article, "Dutch Oven Cooking 101" which has recipes for zucchini bake, pineapple upsidedown cake, and roast chicken and veggies. It seems to be a great resource for the basics on how to set up a DO.

I make one where I puree Texas sweet onions (or Vidalia's) with a bit of orange juice, and then cook it with spices (paprika, ginger, garam masala, dried mustard, chile powder and others), a can of tomato paste, molasses &/or brown sugar, and cider vinegar. It's kind of thin, so I usually set it in an aluminum pan next to the meat so that it can thicken and pick up the smoke.

Um, I'm drooling over here, and it's pretty embarassing because I am at work.

I'm not agreeing with her in any sort of way, but I think she meant that the rapIST enjoys it. ← the quote is that there "is pleasure on the part of the victim". Her analogy is that the eaters are (it would seem) taking pleasure in something that hurts them. and so we shouldn;t be fooled by this enjiyment of food- t's just as masochistic urge- the body playing tricks on us. it's pretty screwed up . but she's right in that rape victims sometime report physical signs of arousal - i have seen this documented- and that it is used against them by the perp. i glanced at the linked article and she states the rapist here in terms of the food analogy would be the business of food. and we are the ones saying "c'mon baby you know you like it" , aren't we? ← Yeah. I just re-read that. Ew. This woman creeps me out.

I'm not agreeing with her in any sort of way, but I think she meant that the rapIST enjoys it. Unfortunately, in her analogy "eaters" are both the rapist and the victim.

My mom and dad always argue about fried chicken, his favorite meal. She always claims she "just" made it and it's a big pain to messy up the kitchen that much. He, on the other hand, could probably tell you the date and time she last made it, probably his birthday.

When I was little, my mom and dad used to take the leftover buns and spread them with butter, cinnamon and sugar, and then stick them under the broiler, making cinnamon toast. They did it with other bread, too, but the hamburger and hotdog buns were best. They got crunchy on the outside and were still soft on the inside. If the sugar got all gooey, the bread would get almost cinnamon roll-y. Yum. Pure comfort food! I still make it when I'm getting a cold.

In my family (in farm-country Missouri) we eat it as a main dish only for lunch and on Fridays in Lent. My brothers will eat it any time they get a chance, but as a family for meals, it's generally a side dish and mixed with some vegetable (broccoli, red peppers, etc).

Alton Brown did an episode about "pocket pies" that could be baked, fried or par-baked and then toasted. I don't think he touched on icings, though. That may be best left up to NASA. I keep meaning to try the curried mango filling, but Rob's pastry looks better.

I went to Festa about 7 years ago when I was in college. It was fun, but not super authentic, I think. But there was good food and it's always fun walking around the Summerfest grounds. I miss Sciortino's so much! My friend Kristina and I would head over to the Eastside on the weekends for our biscotti for the week! Yum!

My friend and I have been going to a new restaurant in our area, a chain called Ingredient. Every time they bring you your food, they ask, "Is everything looking perfect?" It irks me to no end. I've talked her out of going the last couple times because, even though the food is good, the waitresses bug me.

Here are a few of my favorite in Mid-Missouri: In my hometown, Moberly, MO, (and actually just down the road from my childhood home) is DanJo Farms. In and around Columbia, are Patchwork Family Farms and Sho-Me Farms, both of which have really great meat! And the Columbia Farmer's Market is pretty great and trying to expand. They're working on a stimulus project for a permanent pavilion (I see you're on Facebook, too. They have a great group on there). I don't know if any of these are actually part of the Slow Food Movement, but they do basically follow the guidelines as far as I can tell. If you're going for more of a gourmet tourism thing, Burger's Smokehouse in California, MO, is a pretty good tour from all I hear.

I just walked by our free book bin at work, which is usually filled with boring books on economics or how to raise your kid type literature (I work at a news/talk radio station) and saw this peeking out! I'm so excited to read it. It really seems like a very real description of a great restaurant. I'm kinda tired of "Kitchen:Confidential"-type descriptions of the hell of working in a kitchen, but I don't want it glossed over, either. I like that this looks precise and candid.

I'd think water balloons would be your best bet for that size and shape.

"That Day" came on Easter! The ham, roast pork, cheesy potatoes, gravy and chocolate almost made the cramps worth it. Now I'm munching on THESE alternated with Hershey's chocolate eggs.

Well, I hope my comments don't get smothered by the all the other posts! I really hated the twist of having the other decorators vote the first one off, especially since next week's preview makes it look like they won't continue to do that. Michelle's cake wasn't to my personal taste, but it was very beautiful. I think she's who I would've had to pick to go out because the cake didn't have a real "story" to it. But that's it. I'm glad I didn't actually have to pick. My mom and I watch "Challenge" every week, and I think this is a good twist. Nice to see our favorites all in one show. ETA: Bronwen's my fave to win. I cringed when she did the board backwards. I always love her cakes.

My Grandmama usually cooks Easter dinner, but she had her shoulder replaced a few months ago and isn't up to it yet, so I'm taking over. She'd first wanted to do a big curry, but several of the cousins don't really like it, so we're having roast pork instead. Also, asparagus, rolls and potato casserole (with cream of celery soup, cheddar cheese and frozen hash browns! Ugh I know, but the fam really loves it!), and cheese cake for dessert. I'm also going to make a big green salad and maybe some fruity relish type thing for the pork, which will be roasted simply with lots of garlic and sage.

I scrolled past without reading and thought to myself, "why would someone post pictures of marbles?" !!! Really great!