Lilija

This version is great, and then sometimes instead of bread, I'll dump in a can or two of rinsed white beans, or a big wad of chopped greens, like chard or escarole (or both, if I'm feeling saucy.).

We had a rather positive Tim Horton's experience. There was one in Mystic, CT, right down the road from our hotel, when we visited there on a trip earlier this month. There was nowhere really good to get coffee late nights, or very early mornings (I swear, Mystic rolls up their sidewalks at 5 p.m. Even the bars close at 11) It was open at weird times, tasty and hit the spot. The donuts were far and away better than our local DD, and the coffee was passable to decent. The next day, we drove around for an hour trying to find a late lunch of soup-or-something-warm, around 3 pm, during a snowstorm...and, apparently, the town of Mystic has very strict lunch hours, because no one was open! So, Tim's again! Same old people crowd as the day before, all bitching about rich yuppies and boat owners. We had good soup and sandwiches. I liked the coffee well enough to buy an enormous travel mug as a keepsake. We stopped in to warm up with coffee and some kind of snackie or soup every day on our trip, and to hang out with the same old people every day. It was a great change from the Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks one finds on every single corner here in central Jersey. Here's hoping one pops up in our area, and it's as good as the one in Mystic.

There's one chain we eat at enthusiastically, and that's Chipotle, I just like how they do things, and the food is decent. It's about 40 minutes away, so it's not like we're eating there every week, it's a destination. Cracker Barrel is a road trip treat, since there's also none in this area, I like some of their offerings, plus I love that little store. It's less about the food and more about the event of it. Otherwise, on a day-to-day basis, I avoid them. There's just too many non chain places to enjoy. I figure, why? Anything I can get at one of those place, besides the gimmicky overpriced wacky "signature" stuff, I can find better at a local joint. I can see ordering from a chain pizza place if you're in a rural area, or going to Fridays if it's the only game in town, but here in my area? There's a pizza place on every block, a diner on every corner, and a multitude of good ethnic places in between, and if I want something bizarre like a "Deep Fried Mexi-Thai Boneless Chicken Wing Dragon Fire Ice Surprise Salad!!" I can attempt it at home. I'm not even going into the drinks, but these drink-centric places and their wacky gimmicky signature drinks make my skin crawl.

That zombie Jello hand is badass, I must say. I give you mad credit, though, because I would rather jump in a volcano than eat that much Jello. In fact, the very idea of tuna suspended in the stuff makes my tummy fold up into a little unhappy wad. I wonder what was going on in our great nation during that time, that someone actually thought wiggly stewed tomatoes and fake strawberry would taste good together. Mass. Hysteria. Makes for entertaining reading though! Thanks for the link to the blog

Can I have a lake of jus? I'm not one for gravy, I'd rather dabs of it for moisture, in dire situation, or situational like on biscuits with sausage. I prefer clearer, thinner, more intense sauces, but not a little dab or spoonful, bring out the bowl, baby. I wanna swim. I like intense and salty and plentiful, I just don't like thick. I've been known to dip roasted chicken directly into salt.

I learned to clean as I go the hard way. For seven years, I lived in a house, where the 18" of counter space was taken up by the dish drying rack. Most of the prep work happened on top of the washing machine, and small appliances were stored away, and used on the table. What others have already said is really sound stuff, start clean and uncluttered, use good space saving techniques. I like using small square takeout boxes and reusing the styrofoam trays for my prep stuff. Bonus, I can stack them. I often have a column of ingredients stacked on trays in the corner of my workspace. I bring everything out ahead of time, but I'm bad about putting things away, so I pile all the stuff that goes back into the pantry on one chair, and all the stuff that goes into the fridge on another chair, and so on, just to make putting them away easier. (Or to help whoever I suckered into putting stuff away for me) Like I mentioned in that other thread, my worst habit is not cleaning off my cutting board, or being tidy about vegetable prep. Well, when the counter is clean to begin with, all those veggie leavings get swept into the trash in one fell swoop. I also designate zones. This is where I put my stuff, this is where I prep, this is where my finished stuff goes. That way, when it comes to cleaning, I'm not sitting there sorting things out, and cleaning around other things. Even if you have very little counter space (and I'd gotten used to having none at all) you can do that, if you get creative with surfaces. Chairs and tables were always good, and if I got desperate, TV trays. One particularly memorable barbecue, which included making and decorating 3 cakes, with a guest list of 75, I wound up dumping all the dirty dishes in the bath tub and washing them with the shower head. I also like working with as few dishes as humanly possible. I will wash one bowl out in between prep, and reuse it a dozen times. Same with utensils, pots and pans. I try to get away with washing and reusing the same one over and over. Of course, that's not always possible, but when things start really going crazy at least I don't have a day's worth of dishes to contend with, along with all the finishing stuff.

Oh man, fried spaghetti sandwich, too much. I have to show him this post, he's gonna be so smug. I made fun of his fried spaghetti sandwiches once.

You sauteed the lightly sauced pasta like that? I thought we were the only ones. You've nailed my husband's all time favorite use for pasta, fried spaghetti. He sautees leftover sauced pasta (any sauce, any pasta)in with oil, red pepper flakes, and garlic till it's dry and the pasta has soaked up all the sauce, then covers it in handfuls of parmigiano reggiano, and stirs that in till it just begins to brown. He never thought about pancetta...that's genius. I'll have to pass that along. I do unsauced pasta like that too, I'll just saute it in a pan with other leftover bits and eggs, sometimes making it into something like lo-mein, or maybe a weird Italian stir fry. If it doesn't get heated that way, someone usually warms it up and eats it with butter, garlic, and cheese.

It's been weird for me, I've been getting intense cravings in two week blocks, but it's tough to say if they're PMS oriented. The candy apple obsession was probably PMS, because I was downright irrational about them, afterwhile. To the point where the mister was innocently holding a clamshell pack of "jelly" apples with coconut, in the grocery store, and I growled"those are not the right fucking ones". He placed them back on the shelf, and said nothing more. The next day, he came home from work with two fresh dipped, parchment wrapped, honest-to-God hard crunchy red candy apples from an old fashioned candy shop near his workplace. I wept one or two tears of joy. Reminded me all over again why I married him

They make for good tea, too, when dried. Red and tart, like hibiscus, only richer in flavor. My Polish grandmother would make jam out of them, also, I don't know specifics, but it's much like David describes above. She also used to make jam out of the petals. I have one unopened jar of that left, she's been gone for 16 years. It's probably way far gone, but it comforts me to see it on the shelf. Is this off topic? Does anyone know of a rose petal jam recipe, since we're here talking about roses?

One or two huge flat wooden spatulas, depending on the size and composition of the salad. They're like rice paddles, only with longer handles. I serve with tongs, though.

I like all sorts of textures. I like chow mein noodles, too, with cabbage and pineapple, and a gingery dressing. Bacon, yes, especially with apples, raisins and cheddar floating around in the salad. Pecans, candied, uncandied, toasted, untoasted, are my favorite, though. I only like good homemade croutons in Caesar salad, or panzanella. Mostly I prefer them in soup.

Would it be too much trouble to dig up your recipe? It certainly seems like what I'm looking for. They're beautiful, all those snackies look great. I like the idea of parchment wrapping, too. I live near a candy-making supply store, so I can get all this stuff in one trip. RWood, I hadn't considered the sweating and condensation part of cooling the apples, thanks for mentioning it. It makes total sense. I have a few dozen apples that I just picked from an orchard, they're a little large, but I think the unwaxed kind of rough skin might be just the thing for candy coating. I'll just have to use a very deep narrow pot, maybe.

Oh, see, when I bite into a candy apple, I go full bore, and just take a chomp out of the side of the thing, hence the bleeding gums. I've been reading. Some say boil the apples for 10 seconds to melt the wax off the skin. Some say freeze for a half hour to get the coating to stick. I wonder if all this heat/cold would affect the texture or lasting power of the apples. Well, they only have to live overnight, I plan on making them Friday night for an early Sat get together.

Coated wedges, you say? That's very interesting, I didn't think that would work, because of the exposed moisture. Do you know how she does that, generally? I'd like that even better, since the party I'm attending is at a bowling alley. Wedges would be way easier to deal with.

I have a craving, and I need a candy apple. I decided to minimize the damage and bring a batch of them to a party on Saturday, so I can have one, and share the rest. I found some decent recipes, I think. Basic stuff, sugar, corn syrup, red food coloring. Can anyone share success stories and tips? Also, best ways to transport them? I don't want caramel or chocolate, or anything like that. No cinnamon flavors, or embellishments, just a very substantial coating of crunchy red candy on a tart apple. Steer me in the right direction, please?

See - I got thinking about this and it made sense (mostly!) so I put two layers of newspaper on the counter with cutting board on top and shoved everything unwanted off the edge. At the end just rolled up the newspaper and it all went into the compostable garbage container! Now it seems like a GOOD habit! Oooh! Way to turn it around...I'll try that tomorrow.

This seems like the right time and place to bring this up. I'm staying well away from any debates or speculation, as there's room in my life for all gravies of every persuasion and color scale. (except brown gravies with blobs or chunks of solid matter floating within, like giblet or mushroom) What I am curious about is a certain type of Georgia gravy. My step-grandparents always had a little glass pitcher of this gravy in the fridge. Gramma told me it was made with ketchup, and they called it "red-eye" gravy. It was a reddish dark brown, and very peppery, a little tangy and bitter, and extremely savory and meaty. She'd make it up by the pitcher, and keep it in the fridge, warming it in the microwave for every (and I mean EVERY) meal. I'm confused, though, because no recipe for red eye gravy that I've seen contained ketchup, and they made a big deal of that ingredient, because they loved the idea that I hated ketchup, and ate that stuff. So, is there some regional ketchupy red eye gravy from southern Georgia, or is this just a "weird grandparents" thing? Because I've been craving the stuff like crazy, and I'd like to recreate it, but it's difficult to do considering I haven't had it since I was 13.

I do the huge pot full of water, and swooshing them around, then strain it. Most of the huge gobs separate out, but I do leave a lot in there on purpose, I like the taste of crispy salted pumpkin guts

I do that too, sometimes, and I don't think it's wrong. It's sort of a non-issue, for me. Now, my bad habit is a little strange. First, I have to say, I clean as I go along usually. I wash dishes at stopping points, and during big cooking, I keep a pan of soapy water to wash certain things that I use a lot. Like, I've cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner with one bowl. I'm very tidy and efficient, in that regard... But my horrible habit comes in when I'm prepping vegetables or fruit. I just shove the trimmings, cores, and peels off the back or sides of the cutting board. I'll peel carrots or potatoes right on the counter. During a big cooking session, or making a salad, it looks like I'm working in the center of a compost heap. I clean it all up very well, after, but when I'm on a tear, I just shove stuff around.

In our house, universal joy comes from roasted and grilled vegetables, hot pepper flakes, and rare red meat. The real hits are when I somehow blend those elements together, like with fajitas, or steak and roasted vegetables. I make a chicken and hot pepper stir fry, with black beans and a lot of garlic that gets requested by everyone at least twice a month, and no matter if I make it once a week, someone inevitably says "man, this is the best, why don't we eat this more often". Rice is another one. These people can eat rice 3 meals a day for a month, and not get tired of it. Chicken Caesar salad (as boring as it is) is another one, happiness and clean salad bowls all around. I love 'em though, because they'll eat anything I cook for them, but the stuff I mentioned seems to be the ones that stay in our permanent rotation.

I'm a difficult breakfast person. After mulling it over and over, I pick savory, for special weekend breakfasts. Buckwheat pancakes, butter but no syrup, bacon, black coffee, tomato juice. Awesome. Maybe, sometimes a gob of strawberry jam or honey on the pancake. Once every few months I get a craving for sweet, and that's when I go for French toast, honey, and sausage. I'm not a fan of maple syrup, so honey is what I generally pick, or jam. I don't like eggs, so it way cuts down on my breakfast choices. Weekdays are a real pain. First of all, I used to not eat breakfast. I'd have coffee or tea, and then lunch way later. The idea of food early in the morning is highly unappealing, so I would just skip it on weekdays (weekends are excused, because I get up later, and eat later). Since I've made a ton of nutritional changes in my life, I HAVE to eat breakfast every morning. I stick to bland. Multigrain toast with cream cheese or peanut butter. Turkey, some cheese, and a piece of fruit. Occasionally cereal, for a change of pace, but usually plain Cheerios or cornflakes. Sometimes I'll just stand in front of the fridge, coffee in hand, and eat turkey slices straight out of the meat drawer. Often, leftovers are too rich, strongly seasoned and intimidating. I'm lame, I know.

Agreed. I'm sort of sad to admit that no "from scratch" brownie I've ever put out has tasted better than these badboys. Try subbing in Kahlua or dark rum for the water, and see where that takes you. Oh sugar, I realllllllllllly wish you hadnt said that. Oh dearie me. It s a long time til I get off work today. [/quote) Uh Oh - It turns out i just bought a box of 6 Ghiradelli brownie mixes from Costco last weekend to tryout and my Dad just bought me two bottles of Kahlua! If you're seriously into the whole mocha flavor, dissolve a spoonful of instant coffee in the Kahlua, or rum. If you sprinkle the top with white chocolate chips, before baking, or drizzle it with condensed milk after baking, then you've recreated my very own Midnight Special brownies, inspired by a mixed drink of the same name. (The drink contains equal parts of dark rum, Kahlua, and Coke, with a spoonful of condensed milk stirred in. Sounds gross, but it tastes like a coffee-ice cream float.)

Traditionally, when we go camping, I make chili on the last night. In the pot goes all the thawed ground beef, broken burgers, bacon, leftover sausage, and whatever's laying around that would be good in chili. I always bring a huge mixed bag of peppers, like poblano, frying, banana, whatever's cheap and available, all different heat levels, thrown on the fire and charred, peeled, and cooked with the various meats and other seasonings till they're pulp. Onions, maybe, garlic, beer. A bag of dried beans sometimes shows up, or some cans of beans, or nothing. The operative word here is "whatever". Maybe 8 years ago, I made The Perfect Chili. Perfect. Perfect texture, balance of flavors, meat to beans to everything else ratio. Spicy, complex, smoky, meaty, thick, amazing. Angels sang, the Dutch oven fairly glowed with Divine Light. It was so good, we were sharing it with our neighbors, I was the talk of the state park. Of course, I can't remember what-all went in it. I mean, who could? I was literally cleaning out the cooler. Ever since that day, all my chili attempts have been to try to even come close to that one. All in vain. Compared to that particular batch, they've all been decent. Pretty good. Tasty. My husband reminds me, every time, "it's good, but I wish you could make it like that one time, remember? When we were camping?" Oh. I remember. Pfeh.

Agreed. I'm sort of sad to admit that no "from scratch" brownie I've ever put out has tasted better than these badboys. Try subbing in Kahlua or dark rum for the water, and see where that takes you.