Lilija

How could I forget drink powders? Quik, iced tea mix, sweetened koolaid (when I was a kid...not nowadays...what, I mean it) I've even been known to consume a small box of dry black cherry jello.

This is one forum that really loves old topics.

It's my go-to flour for making Buffalo wings, for sure. I use it in a lot of dredging applications, but for the wings, it's amazing. Even after being tossed with the sauce, and sitting around on the table, they're still very light and crisp. I agree with whoever said it's like coating without a heavy coating, or something along those lines.

Peanut butter and... ...mayo and sliced bananas ...thinly shaved red onion, and a bit of Sriracha ...chunky apple sauce (homemade, preferably, the stuff in jars is too smooth). Even better sprinkled with chopped salted nuts. ... sliced banana sprinkled with wheat germ, crushed cereal, or granola, great textural appeal, drizzled with honey, for awesomeness. ...bacon, honey. or Bacon and tomato slices. Or spread one side of a BLT with PB instead of mayo, but mayo the other side. If you're tired of wheat bread, peanut butter on a hot, toasted onion bagel is one of my favorite weekday breakfasts. If you want to die a little sooner, butter the bagel lightly first, then layer on the PB. Or, one I haven't tried, never will, but would be curious to see someone besides my stepmom eat: Peanut butter and spicy brown mustard on toast. Stoner food: Peanut butter, Cocoa puffs, and marshmallow fluff. If you put it on wheat bread, you can call it healthy! I love crunchy things with peanut butter, and crunchy peanut butter.

Going with the honey and syrup junkies, I've been known to have a spoonful of dark molasses. A goob of caramel sauce, or hot fudge sauce from the half empty jars in the fridge works nice too.

A local place had a plate of really delicious looking butter cookies at the door, take one as you leave. Very prettily presented, tender, buttery (looking), crumbly, gorgeous. Once. ONCE I made the mistake of grabbing one and stuffing it in my mouth, on the way out the door. Stuffing. Yes, like the inside of a stuffed toy. It immediately filled my mouth with sandy, fluffy, absolutely flavorless, dry crumbs. Robbed every bit of moisture from my face. There was no butter flavor, there was no vanilla, or a hint of lemon. Not even sweet, really. There was just nothing. Come to think of it, most counter pastries at local diners always look good. The cakes and pies, bear claws, danishes, strudels. They all LOOK fantastic. They're all dissapointing, at best, with a few exceptions.

I like em mixed with rice in various incarnations. They're the perfect dicey size. I use them in fried rice, rice pilafs, or I like to throw a few handfuls in with my rice, in the rice cooker with some butter, and steam them together. I also like them quicky in weeknight soups, like vegetable beef, or beer and cheese soup.

Teeny little cheesecakes on a stick? Cubes or mini-tartlets of cheesecake dipped in chocolate (and nuts?) and frozen.

I'm anti-gadget, as a rule, so most of the ones that are gifted to me go right to my mom who LOVES gadgets... But, the most useless thing in my kitchen is a scissors shaped meatball shaper scooper thing. When the scissor hinge is closed, the ends form a sphere with holes in it. Nigh impossible to use for a dozen reasons. Lame lame lame.

I think it's great, too. Something we do in our family without thinking about it much. Right up there with holding the bowl, so your neighbor can dish from it, before passing it, at the table. That's the kind of thing that family meals are all about.

Two words: Toast. Dope.

As a riff on the ever-popular Ro-tel dip, a jar or salsa or a can (yes, a CAN) of chili makes a great dip when melted and swirled with Velveeta. Cheezy, melty goodness. Eat those with a bag of grocery store brand potato chips, or generic "fritos" and you have yourself what we call "whaaat trash naychoes" Serve with cheap beer.

Thank you for your kind words. I'm really touched, and I must thank everyone else for the support on this matter, too. What started out as a cathartic bitchfest turned into a very helpful reference, on dealing with my friend. I've since steered away from the idea of The Talk, instead choosing to pepper our usual conversations and interactions with mini-lessons on basic etiquette. I caught him sticking his hand in the bowl of rice, that I was cooling for sushi last night. I casually (but clearly) let him know that I would prefer he used a spoon and bowl. I said "Phil, instead of doing that, here take this clean spoon and help yourself to a sample". Baby steps. It seemed to work, though, he wasn't insulted, yet he stopped picking at it with his fingers. I've also started getting him to call sporadically before he shows up, too. He doesn't do it every time, but sometimes is great. That was a big one. I still tell him the door's always open, but I shower him with gratitude and praise when he calls. "Oh! It's so great that you called! I was just setting the table for four, should I put another plate on for you?" His reply was, "Naw, I just ate dinner, I'll be over a little later, though" and wonder of wonders, he showed up AFTER dinner. Baby steps. It helps to come here and talk to understanding people I'm sorry for semi-jacking this thread, but I think it's all germaine to the topic, in some way. I've learned a lot from how you guys handle your nightmare guests, maybe my experiences can help someone.

I would have to say about 2-3 ish, too. My husband and I don't eat at McDonald's very often, maybe twice a year, but my mom took our son to the Playplace as a treat when he was wee. Often, they would get an ice cream cone, and hang out at the Playplace all afternoon. I liked it, it was something they had 'together' that we, his parents, didn't do. Now, at the ripe old age of 9, he has dinner and a movie dates with his grandma, and often the dinner of choice for them is McDonalds. Quite the treat for both of them! Same with other places. Wendy's is our very late night option, maybe once every 3 months. Taco Bell is my son's and my guilty pleasure. Once every few weeks, I'm like "screw Daddy, we're getting dinner at the Bell *gigglegiggle*" and we go, gleefully ignoring Daddy's disdain. He HATES Taco Bell. It's been our little lighthearted rebellion for a few years, now. When it's a treat, and not a normal 5 meals a week kind of plan, fast food is a-ok, in my book. I like that places now offer different choices with the meals, both kids and adults. I think that's one thing that's gotten us back to these places. I like that he gets apple slices and chicken nuggets. I like that I can go to Wendy's and get a burger, lemonade and a salad. I recognize that it's still not the greatest most nutritionally sound haute cuisine, but every meal doesn't have to be perfect.

Last time I had rabbit, and it was exceptionally good, was done Brazilian barbecue style. Basted with some kind of fat, seasoned with coarse salt and pepper, and rotisseried, till it was crisp. AWESOME. It was served with black beans, rice, potato salad, and green salad. I have no clue how one would pull that off, though, but just the memory of it makes me swoon.

I like mine on a toasted english muffin, nice and grippy! Lots of mayo and pepper, and a touch of salt.

Everyone has a different method, but my tried and true has a few steps. This produces a basic, great crumb coating. It crisps up nicely when shallow fried. Good for pork chops, boneless chicken, and pressed eggplant. As I'm frying, I keep the finished ones in a low oven till serving time, the breading holds up very well, or even improves. The stages are: First a dredging in seasoned flour, then a dunking in an egg-water or egg-milk mixture, then a ride through the breadcrumbs, pressing them on. This is usually good, but somtimes it goes back into the egg, then pressed into the breadcrumbs once more. Then let it dry for about a half hour. This is important, because everything knits together, and the breading stays put, while it's cooking. I can't give amounts, because I just shake the stuff on the trays as I need it, starting with about a half a cup each, and adding handfuls as I go. I start with two eggs, and about half a cup of liquid, beaten together. Most of the time, I season the flour with salt, pepper, paprika or a bit of cayenne, and onion powder. That's just my standard everyday cutlet flavors, I vary it up based on what the cutlet thing is going with. Another tip is to only use one hand for the procedure. One hand to grab the end of the meat, roll, dunk, dredge, press. All the breading stays on the tip of your fingers, and you're not up to your elbows in breading and goop. Doing stuff in just flour is good, too, or a combo of flour and cornstarch, it makes a very light, slightly crisp coating. I like it a lot, but I wouldn't call it 'breading'. It adds some texture and interest to whatever food, and holds in the moisture nicely.

You went through major stresses, these past few months, and a lot of cooking, both. Stressful cooking during a difficult, trying time. No wonder you don't want to. Maybe just don't for awhile. Let yourself come back to it. It's high summer, even the most enthusiastic cook would be hesitant to get in the kitchen and whip up a 9 course meal. When the weather cools down, and life continues to normalize, see if you don't get the itch to get back in there, and create.

Asperger's is a possibility, I have to look that up... Insomniac, his sister is about as socially graceful as he is. She's almost a shut in, who never wears shoes, doesn't have teeth, and has a very bizarre view on the world. So, the family is no help, in fact, I think they're part of the problem. He comes from a strange background. SundaySous, I think he comes over here to get away from them, honestly.

Yeah, I totally hear that. Totally. With your patience and generosity, I'm sure you'll be able to, eventually. All you can do is hope for the best, and hope he comes away from everything having absorbed some kind of subconsious knowledge on how to be.

Ugh, sounds like you have it worse than me, that sounds so frustrating, and a breeding ground for bad feelings...I would hate not knowing his true motivatons like that. I'd be tempted to start shutting him out of meal privileges. "What's for dinner? Oh, we were just heading out, sorry, seeya later!" I totally know what you mean about putting off dinner, though. I've done that quite often, when I just didn't have the extra, or just didn't want to cope with feeding the guy. It still manages to skew the whole evening, though. With Phil, I know he was raised in a house full of people, and without any attention to social graces. He has a hard time coping in social situations (as in, we took him to a place with a salad bar not too long ago, and he was freaking out, not knowing what to do. One trip? More? Clean plate each time? Ahhghgh!). I gently try to "polish him up". Everything has to be super bright, positive, constructive criticism, though, because he's so totally overreactive about everything, so easily embarassed, and so easily hurt. The other day, he was walking across my (pale cream color) rug, in his dirty work boots, just fresh from work. I asked him to back off the rug, and he bugged out. He was SO sorry, and he pretty much left, upset. He later sent me an email, apologizing AGAIN for the rug. He looks up to me, like a sister, so I try to take care of him. I complain here, where it feels so good to vent, but by and large, I take the good with the bad. He's a friend that's worth all the wackiness.

I thought I was the only nut that put sriracha on dogs! For me, my standard pure home dog is a light painting of dijon, and a thin line of sriracha. The other day, I tried just sriracha and relish and found it to be fantastic, sweet, tart, and hot. From Heidelberg, this great hot dog and beer place on the local boardwalk, I like it plain with their hot pepper relish, or with chili, onions and the pepper relish. The relish fights with the fake cheese, so when dining there, I leave it off. Another favorite is a bit of sauerkraut, and the pepper relish. At home chili dogs are another story...these are an event unto themselves. Chili, processed cheese, pickled japepeno slices, diced onion, hot sauce, and sour cream. My bun of preferance, when making dogs at home is a sweet, soft yellow potato roll.

I do have a soft spot in my heart, for the guy. He's absolutely batshit clinically insane. Like, real-on-meds-crazy. I suppose even crazy people can be taught to use serving spoons, though.

Oh, that might be it. That's sheer genius. There's just such a kid that lives two houses down. 6 years old, bright red hair, and a fauxhawk, and the most politely outspoken little bugger, ever. Sometimes my son will pipe up and say something, we all kinda drop hints, but Phil writes off my kid and our polite hints with a "yeah yeah". The neighbor kid won't go so quietly. I've been steeling myself up, for "the Talk" I have it all prepared, but I can't work up the nerve. He's SO super sensitive. I'm afraid to, because he'll take it right to heart, and we'll probably never see him again. I really have to say something, though, because the guy acts like he was raised by wolves, and it's becoming sort of an embarassing problem for ME since he's here so much.

My worst dinner guest is recurring. He's a single dude, living with his sister, and her family. I've been friends with the guy for about 20 years, lives in the neighborhood, walks over to our place a few times a week, right around the dinner hour. He's really a great friend, we love him to pieces, but he's EXTREMELY quirky. He comes over after he eats at his place. He eats at 6 every night, and he turns up here, around 6:30. We eat dinner around 7 or 8, so he's got it timed just right. Because I plan for it, I offer him dinner and a place at the table, every single time he comes over (which is 3-4 times a week) 90% of the time, he's like "NO NO no noooo I just ate, I'm just here to hang out!" and declines any food. Roughly 70% of the time he declines food, he stands around in the kitchen, eating with his hands out of my pots and pans...like I can't see him. The guy is a sneak-eater. I set the table, plate dinner, and we all sit down as a family. He wanders around the house, and winds up in my kitchen. I can see him. He shovels food into his mouth, with his dirty-ass hands, from my pots. I'm on to him, so I bring bowls of food to the table, now, the stuff I don't want demolished and picked through, and I leave a dinner-ish portion in the kitchen, like a trap. When he's not sneaking around helping himself, he stands over us at the corner of the dinner table, and dominates our conversation. I wish he would sit, I leave a chair for him, with a place setting, every time. When he DOES accept food, and a place at the table, he eats like a very picky 4 year old. He picks through everything on the plate, pushing his food around. He comments on how spicy everything is, and how great a cook his mother used to be. The other day, I had family over, 11 guests total. We made a huge buffet style spagetti and meatballs type of meal, salad, antipasti, grilled garlic bread, sausage, the works. He helped himself to about a pound of pasta, 3/4ths of the available meatballs (I totally anticipated this, and had more waiting for backup!) then sat down and first mashed up the meatballs, picking anything weird out of them, like the fresh parsely, and parmesan cheese slivers. Then, he groomed all the chunks out of the sauce, anything bigger than a pea-sized bit, he took out. My husband commented "Hey, Phil, you left behind a lot of sauce, there, want some more pasta for it?" He took another half pound of noodles, a gob of sauce, meatballs, for seconds, and repeated the same process. Oh, and his he dished his second helping of noodles by shoving his hand in the bowl grabbing up a fistful of them, becuase the tongs weren't immediately visible. Dinner was over, for us, at that point. He's kind of a burden, really, since he's here so much, and we have to kind of juggle his quirks. He's lonely though, and as his friend, I do what I can to offer food, love, and a nice place to hang out.