Lilija

Hmmm, some very good ideas here. The spring rolls might get ignored, for being "different" because I made fried won tons a year ago for the same crowd, and brought back most of em. I might make them for home, though...same with the baked zucchini sticks. Everything sounds very good! So far my own kid is leaning towards the sausage rolls, wings, or fajitas...

My son's police camp youth week thing ends on Friday, and they're having a party. Pizza will be donated, some of the moms are covering desserts, others are on chips, and the beverages are covered. They asked me to bring something to have along with the pizza, some kind of finger food. -No allergies to worry about (woo!) -I live two houses away from the firehouse where this party will be held, so portability is a minimal issue. -A veggie platter is out of the question (Because that was my first idea) Worst case scenario, if I can't think of anything else, I was contemplating grabbing a huge bag of mozzarella sticks at Costco, baking them here, and jogging them down the block, hot. I'd like to be more creative, though. Ideas?

Oh, you can totally find piggy (and beefy and whatever) bits here in NJ. Bodegas! Asian markets, of which we have thousands. Those are the best places to shop. That's all I got. Living in NJ, there's nothing I can't find. Last year, I would have come to complain about the lack of good fresh goat meat, but I found a guy. Now I feel like kind of a jerk on this thread...leaving now!

Now that sounds interesting. I have done it more myself before but I guess I am surprised it would work for a crowd. Is it a traditional dish in your circle? Tha macaroni was a last moment addition and when I asked my husband if we needed it he requested the tuna version. I was lucky it was early enough to creat an ice/double bowl set up for it. Everyone seemed to take some, there was enough left for a late supper on the 5th after my mom's bbq : ) It's common around our area, down in this part of NJ. Most barbecues where you'd find macaroni salad, often have tuna mac, or sometimes a tuna version and non tuna version. On the 5th, we went to a barbecue at the bar across the street, it was a basic burger/dog/corn/watermelon affair, but of course there was a huge tray of tuna mac, that disappeared.

We had a sausage fest! Here were the most important things on the menu: We got a few dozen pounds of assorted sausage from the Amish store down in Columbus, some incredible rolls, a few pounds of really good hot dogs, my mom sourced a ring of kielbasa from some Polish butcher in Brooklyn. I made a tremendous batch of macaroni and cheese, the Cooks Illustrated way (only, I add Velveeta, along with all the other ingredients in the mornay sauce. Shameless.) A huge batch of red onion sauce, broccoli slaw, chickpea salad, and two kinds of coleslaw. Everyone brought fancy beer. We had Guinness brownies, a fruit tart, more beer, and cupcakes for dessert. People are still calling and sending emails about the mac and cheese. I wish I got a picture of it, it was a small mountain of the stuff, and I think I could have just skipped all the other sides, and plunked down giant pots of that, and everyone would have been just as happy.

My Brazilian guy's favorite home-cooked breakfast, the one that really brings him back consists of leftover feijoada, or black beans (the porkier the better), and white rice, with a few fried eggs on top, scoop of potato salad off to the side. Mixed fruits, sliced up, not quite a salad, but bites of orange, banana, and mango, or something. His other favorite is mashed avocado, with cinnamon and sugar, eaten out of the bowl. Good hard crusty bread, loads of butter or olive oil, and dark sweet coffee. He moved to the US in his late teens, so his memories are pretty vivid. He used to live in Rio de Janeiro.

Asking on behalf of a friend. We had Italian hot dogs at friends' house, last night, but we supplied the bread (DeMarco's in Aberdeen!). They're looking for awesome pizza bread down closer to their house. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I was in that area, a few weeks ago, sort of stranded looking for a place to duck in and get a meal, I really could have used this list! We found a mediocre pub, that had ok sandwiches.

The tag line is "A malty robust jobless recovery ale" This is going to sound really lame, but it tasted like a perfectly balanced blend of godknowswhat. A real "WTF" kind of beer. It was hoppy, malty, sweet, and bitter, fruity, but not very. Bitter, but not very. It was one of the favorites. A little like Arrogant Bastard with the volume turned down.

So, last night, we had a gathering of beer nerds on the premises. Filled one of those huge white Coleman coolers with big beers. These bottles, both large and small were being shared usually 3 ways, sometimes 4 or 5 people had a bit. This was one of those "you bring your favorites, and something for all of us to try first, and I'll do the same." kind of deals. They were trying to get me into IPAs, and for a wonder, it worked! No rhyme or reason to the tasting, just kind of beer Russian roulette, except we were set on trying the Mikeller Black and Dark Horizon back to back. We took some tasting notes, like phone notes, and I remember my feelings about each one, although I wasn't exactly eloquent afterwhile. Loved some, hated some. Many fell in the "mm, I'd drink this again." category. Started with "lighter" stuff, during the day. Green Flash Wst Coast IPA Southern Tier Iniquity Lagunitas Maximus IPA Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shutdown Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot Smuttynose Big A IPA Flying Fish Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA Had a nice break for food, loads of red meat. Southern Tier Oak Aged Unearthly Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout Southern Tier Choklat then we went for the big stouts. These sort of blew my mind. Literally with their 17.5% ABV, and figuratively, as well. What an excellent opportunity to have them both side by side. Mikeller Black Nogene Dark Horizon On into the evening... Rogue Double Dead Guy Stone Vertical Epic Weyerbacher Twelve Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar Old Rasputin We overshopped, because the cooler is still half full, and we could probably do this all again next week, with no overlaps. Overzealous nerds! Edit to add pictures: This is the empties table, and what's left. Apparently, looking at the picture, I forgot about the banana bread beer. It was gross.

Katie, I posted without even seeing your post. Your versions look delicious, and way more polished. Mine was more the semi-drunken barbecue invention. I stand by it's yumminess, but I think I'll try your versions too. I know soda is a proper addition, (and not Sprite, that's purely my mom) and I always include when I serve it, for people to add their own. I just don't, haha.

I got one! Use your own judgement for the proportions, this is merely a guideline. The wine white or a light gold rum triple sec peach schnapps mango or peach nectar Portion wise, I take a two quart pitcher, load about 3 inches of fruit in the bottom, then a cup or so of rum, and half a cup each of the liquers, a 12 oz can of nectar, topped with wine. for fruit, I keep it simple, only strawberries, white grapes, and either peaches or mangoes. Lots of strawberries. Mainly it's a peachy/strawberry theme. I can drink this stuff by the quart. You could add a splash of seltzer in your cup, but I am not a proponent of soda in my sangria. Ever. I like it straight up. My mom likes Sprite in hers, and if you like the sweet stuff, it's not half bad.

Want to do the same thing but have to wait until hubby is away from home on garbage day else I will never hear the end of it. The use it before you lose it technique just ain't working. Hahaha! I have to sneak-clean the freezer, too, or else I hear "don't throw THAT away, someone will eat it!" regarding a chunk of something that looked like about 3 oz. of freezer burned, poorly wrapped, chili. I always feel pangs of guilt, tossing all my well intentioned bags of crumbs and ends and bits and bones. I do use some...just not all of em...

I tossed out a chicken carcass yesterday. I didn't stick it in the freezer for stock. I had the thing in my hand, and really couldn't picture myself making stock anytime soon (it's barbecue season, for the love of corn!). I chucked it. My grandmother is spinning so hard in her grave, she's gonna catch on fire.

Oh oh oh, add me to the homemade tomato sauce train. One year, we had a huge bumper crop of roma tomatoes. Glee! I thought. Twenty six pounds of peeling, chopping, and cooking...cooking....cooking....cooking.... to get about a quart of sauce. It was good. Not mindblowing. Just good. Last year, we got hit by the tomato blight, and all our crops turned black. This year? I'm not even going there, we're sticking to herbs.

Catering a a party for 75, while I was 8.5 months pregnant, in August, pops into my head, immediately. Shelling about 5 dozen chestnuts for soup was another nice, but never again, sort of deal. More will come to me, I'm sure.

Rum? I like to hack my Coke with some Appleton.

There's fries in that picture? I can't see past the awesome.

Um, I really want a pimento cheese grilled cheese sandwich. Baked beans, the really good home-made kind, sweet, smoky and spicy, with a load of black pepper, and grilled hot dog pieces floating in them. (This is usually the day-after-the-barbecue style). Espresso brownies. Jet-black bitter, kick-in-the-face dark beer, like the kind that makes Guinness look like lemonade. I've been fantasizing about these foods. Good thing I'm having a barbecue this weekend, I've got some of those bases covered. I might just make a batch of pimento cheese, just cuz.

It's not a trend as far as I know. I'm close to a dude from Brazil, and his favorite and the most common, he says, way of eating avocado down there is sweet. He'll take one, and mash it all up, then drizzle it with condensed milk, or just granulated sugar and cinnamon. It's amazing-good. He'll also toss half an avocado in with a vanilla milkshake, and that is also damn tasty. Those are good flavors to start with, condensed milk or dulce de leche, cinnamon, and vanilla. Also, avocado with cinnamon, sugar and cayenne is a winning combo.

I seem to be on a tear this weekend. Bought a bunch of new stuff, but tonight I am drinking a bomber of Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout. The label is silly, but the guts are so incredibly good.

I'm drinking my last lovely bottle of ST's Choklat. I keep telling myself it's ok, because it's getting warmer, and I'll be in the mood for lighter stuff...but I know I'll probably spend the summer drinking ST's Oat.

As I'm making dinner, I realize my other favorite unitasker (if it could even be called that?) is my rice cooker. When I bought it, I was so doubtful...ah, I'll never use this thing, maybe once a month. Seriously, I use it three times a week...for rice, steaming dumplings and tortillas. Rice puddings and pilafs, plain old white rice.

I didn't even address the whole "real chef" aspect of the OP, because I was hurrying out the door...but anyone that goes accusingly spouting Alton Brown's isms shouldn't be calling anyone out about being a "real chef", amirite? I mean, I dig AB as much as anyone, but he's a TV personality, vocally not even a chef himself. So, the comparison falls way flat. I love the "I just watched a Food Network marathon and now I'm a real foodie" type.

My beloved, my favorite piece of equipment in the whole kitchen. Mr. Coffee. It's not Mr. Hot Beverage, not Mr. Multitasking Water Heater Upper. His sole purpose in my life is to keep me awash in coffee.