Lilija

We plan trips to PA around Cracker Barrel stops (like, "if we leave at 7 am, we can get to CB, just the right time for breakfast, and if we start home around 6, that would be a good time for dinner...") I am quite hooked on maybe half their menu. Where else in NJ (besides my house) can you get beans, greens, and cawnbread? But, Maggie, tell me about their employment policies, please, I'm curious, in case I shouldn't eat there anymore?

For us, it's omelette fillings, or spread on bread, or in fried rice.

So, we got in the mood for Jamaican patties, but there were none in the house. This is after, er, a lot of Applejack (me), Sailor Jerry (him), and Jack Daniels (them). There were, however hamburger patties made in the freezer! So, hamburgers smeared thickly with the last of the jerk paste in the fridge, fried with onions, longhorn peppers, and the only cheese in the house was feta, so why not...on halves of salt and or cinnamon raisin bagels (we only had like 2 bagels laying around). The construct was this: A burnt to shit jerk pasted burger, with a cascade of mostly raw onions and hot peppers, under a towering crumble of cold feta, on half of a cinnamon bagel. Of course, it was delicious, need you even ask? Also, yes, we ate it with our hands. You can see how that totally resembles a Jamaican patty, right? It seemed so logical at the time. It nearly killed us. Try frying jerk paste at very high temperatures. Ever see those tear gas training videos, where they make future cops run through the little trailer of tear gas? Yeah, very much like that. We were all hacking and dying out on the porch, while my husband merrily flipped scorched jerkburgers, calling us all wusses. Then, to eat them...they were. so. friggin. spicy. No one cored the peppers, the jerk paste has about 7 scotch bonnets in it. It was like EATING tear gas. I see a trend here. Stuff laying around, that under normal circumstances, we'd never think to combine. I understand it though. Desperation - inhabition + semi stocked kitchen = melted cheese on weird things. Or in my case, not melted...

I would never judge you, chere, but that is outrageous! And just possibly brilliant. ← Also, it sounds like something my husband would come up with. He's famous for his cheddar cheese on a pretzel chip, graced with a gob of chooclate ganache. You would think HE gets PMS. Shoot, I'm not entirely convinced that he doesn't.

How about we all live together, and share our "one bread for life" selection? I want a dense, moist, heavy, soft, crispy, crusty, seeded, Jewish rye.

I just had an awesome dish with fennel the other night. I thinly sliced equal amounts of fennel and thes big soft spring onions that we found at the market (they're like leeks with huge onion bulbs!). Browned them lightly, and used them as a base for braising a veal breast. They all but melted in the oven, and the sauce was so sweet and flavorful.

They're called RealLemon and there's nothing real about em. I ran into one just the other day, at the local convenience store, to add to your tea. It was kind of a flash back, because my mother has one too, and I think she has had the same one for...yeah, 25 years, about since she moved into that house.

That's a great link, wow. Who knew? So far, I found myself snacking on them raw, because I love the bitter astringency of greens, but this one has carrotyness in it! I love making discoveries like this. (Personal discoveries, as it were...because I know that many of you are going "But we've been eating carrot greens since we were kids.") So far, v. gautam has sent me a recipe that has my head positively spinning, for Gumbo Des Herbes, which I've printed out, and am now using as a shopping list for next time I go to the farm market.

I decided the same thing. I never add greens to stock itself, but I am going to mince a few up and throw it in the finished product, along with a handful of parsley. The rest, I was going to give the "broccoli rabbe" treatment. Sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and tossed with tortellini and maybe some cheese, as a light lunch tomorrow. Till now, I never really thought about eating them, but then, I've never gotten carrots with such a lovely bunch. Normally, the greens are wilted, damaged, or just green straggly stumps.

I'm making a big heavy chicken noodle soup, today, for a sick friend. The stock is loaded with tons of sweet root vegetables. I got some excellent carrots, with a bounty of good looking greens still attached... Can I toss the greens into my chicken stock, without it becoming bitter, or grey? Talk to me about carrot greens. I was even pondering mincing them, and garnishing the finished bowl (which will be this awesome stock, strained, with slippery dumplings, carrots, celery, chicken, and parsley).. They look so feathery and fresh, and smell so sweet, I hate to waste them. Whaddya think?

I love seeing this thread pop up, it's always interesting to see what you come up with (and inspiring, because I find myself having to cook for cranky old family members, quite often...). Sounds like things are picking up around there, and you're getting more jobs. I think it was only a matter of time, in a small town. You're good at what you do, and word-of-mouth does great things. Good luck with everything, and if you get more regular deals, keep us updated (if you have time, haha).

Drat. Thanks, though. At least I know it's a little more regional.

Where are you folks finding raw peanuts? I have been looking around forever, because I want to make boiled peanuts, and roast my own, etc, and every time I think I've found them, they're always ALWAYS roasted. Is it a regional thing, or am I looking for nuts in all the wrong places?

I don't know if I count Spam as "lazy". It's kind of a unique entity. It would be painstaking, if not downright impossible to replicate the texture and particular flavor profile in the home kitchen. Spam is Spam, and it's not like yer gonna go making it from scratch at all, let alone make it with the ease of whipping up a few pancakes, or boiling some eggs. Plus, how you gonna make Spam musubi without it?

I made a lemony pepper cream chese, with paper thin sliced cucumbers and radishes, and fresh dill not too long ago. I kind of winged it, and it was really really good (and I had to make about a hundred...). So good, that with leftovers, I made myself a full sized sandwich for lunch a few days later. It was basically a few bricks of cream cheese softened and thinned with a few tablespoons of lemon juice, a splash of half and half, the rind of that lemon, plus coarse black pepper, and a tiny bit of garlic. Each sandwich got a sprig of fresh dill, paper thin layer of English cucumbers, and paper thin layer of radish slices. The bread was a very moist, kind of dense thin sliced bakery rye. ETA: I just noticed that HungryC posted a similar idea. It might work for your early morning prep, too, because you can do everything the night before, and slap them together in the am.

I saw that finger image floating in my eyelids, as I drifted off to sleep last night. Better than Stephen King, man.

Hmmm... $4 for a jar of crushed garlic or < $0.50 [if that] for a head of garlic. And the fresh clove tastes better. Mincing takes about as much effort as opening a jar. I guess I'll never get the point of these so-called "convenience" goods. ← Only, I get crushed garlic at Costco and it's 3.19 for a 48 oz tub. The way we go through it, I use about a head of garlic for one meal.

I gotta ask: What's a builder's breakfast? Also, squirrel? Really? Or is that some kind of euphamism? How would one synchronize the flavor of squirrel, on a chip?

How did I miss White Cheddar Cheezits as a panade? Color me impressed. If I wasn't still in a food coma, from yesterday, I might go ahead and cop your bacon cheeseburger idea.

We went to Harold's, yesterday...we split a 26 oz pastrami sandwich, a potato pancake literally the size of my kitchen table (we have a pub table, I am only barely exaggerating) and a giant egg cream. I WANTED a slab of the Napoleon, but we forgot to bring the ropes to tie it to the roof of the Jeep. I still have enough pastrami for 3 more normal sized sandwiches. For real, check out the menu http://www.haroldsfamousdeli.com/ So, those cravings are covered... except for the napoleon... Now on to our regularly scheduled chocolate and bourbon.

I never pronounce it with the extra "r", it's just...too much work. It's Siracha, in our house, phonetically, or "cock sauce".

Easy Mac! It's not even food. It's slime, with slime sauce, and a side of slime. Someone offered a tub of it to my kid once, and he said "I don't eat this." Good boy.

Those frozen premade peanut butter sandwiches...because a pb sammie is so complicated to throw together... Edit: I see those have been called out too: Tragic, they are. I was gonna call out peanut butter slices, and preocoked bacon, but I see we've already covered them. Also, the stuff that's crowding out the meat section at our local Stop & Shop those "like home" pot roasts, and stews, already soaking in their own modified food starch gravy, to go with those lovely refrigerator section buckets of cold mashed potatoes (that cost like $5 for a few servings)...LAZY. Now, on to my lazy admission. I buy huge jars of minced garlic. I use fresh garlic a lot, too, but when I'm not in the mood to lovingly peel and mash 20 cloves of the fresh stuff, I dig a scoop out of the pre minced. A few years ago, I bought some, because my friend insisted that it was the secret to making her arroz con pollo (and, for real, it was...fresh garlic just doesn't taste the same). Now, I find myself using it kinda frequently.

This is also true, when I go out to eat with a friend of mine. She can't even have a quick lunch without getting an appetizer, dessert, coffee, and random extra stuff. When I go out with her, my $9 salad generally runs me...yeah 35 bucks.

Just off the top of my head, Vietnamese places are a great place for parties of 8+. Every time we go there, the floor is dominated by huge Vietnamese families pushing the tables together, and the restaurant has good prices on special huge family dishes, where like...kettles of pho, enormous platters of salads and various rolls, and tremendous whole fish are shared. Excellent communal eating. Much the same way a good Chinese place is. That said, I don't often dine out with MY side of the extended family, because they're picky, and embarassing. Generally, we go to the diner (where I don't care if they're picky or embarassing), or I just cook for them. Also, any place that serves pitchers of alcohol is a plus. When we go out with the non picky/embarassing side of the family, we head to an amazing Portuguese place, which specializes in communal vats of paella, and stews, draped dramatically with lobsters, and flaming hunks of beef. Added bonus: pitches of red and white sangrias. A gathering like that, you don't even NEED Xanax, because everyone's in a food/wine coma.