BeeZee

The company I work for sells/installs folding partitions - like the type you would see in a large hotel conference room, which are used to separate larger rooms into smaller rooms for a similar reason. They may have 2 groups who only need a portion of that larger space, so dividing it (with sound control) gives them double the revenue opportunity. I have installed them in restaurants who want to be able to separate a smaller area as a "private dining" area. I guess they fear liability issues from having a group in the restaurant essentially "unsupervised". Since I usually do my meetings with the owners at "off" times (mid morning or mid afternoon) so as to not bother them when they are ramping up for service...I guess it's also so the general public doesn't see the cleaning and such that happens during "non-service" times.

If it is a “local” (NYC area) restaurant, the chef is shown eating there. Usually the NYC locations, have seen Phila...otherwise a disconcerting close up of someone taking a bite.

More healthy muffins, these are made with whole wheat flour, mashed bananas, and pumpkin puree (since I had a cup leftover in the freezer), and are sweetened with a little maple syrup. Had a bit too much batter so I put the excess into a non-stick foil lined loaf pan and basically made a big muffin top. Cut piece from that on top of the pile. They are moist, but pretty flat in flavor, next time I would up the amount of spices or maybe add some minced crystallized ginger.

What if you don't give 2 s***s?

Bureau of Weights and Measures. Of course, if it is a State Agency...you won’t want to hold your breath.

@lindag, who knows, perhaps the "aged" soup was the secret to the recipe! Yesterday I threw out a large can of diced tomatoes that had a "best by" date in 2016 (which means likely it was purchased in 2014-2015). It had gotten pushed to the back of the pantry and forgotten. The can looked fine, but I have "newer vintages" and frankly for the $1. it probably cost me at the time, had only a momentary moment of guilt. If I had to cook something and that was my only can...I'm sure I would have used it no problem. I'm trying to do better at not over purchasing canned goods since I don't use them much.

My gift was not in the form of food/drink but will turn itself into such. One of the guys at my office gives everyone a scratch off lottery ticket for Christmas and I actually won $10. As I am currently out of beer...I see a good use for the ten-spot.

eating Christmas cookies from co-worker. His wife makes them every year, her shortbread made with ground nuts is really tasty. She tweaks the recipes to find ways to reduce the butter and sugar and I really like her cookies because they aren't sugar bombs.

Well, no fear, as of 11:30 a.m. this is what is left of approx. 16 brownies

Made a batch of brownies for the office (holiday lunch tomorrow) and added peanut butter chips. I used box mix due to 1) knowing my audience 2) time constraint. I can confirm that if using box mix, Ghiradelli is far better than Duncan Hines, these were pretty weak in flavor.

Banana, oat, walnut muffins

One of my employees is a cookie monster and almost every day brings back some kind of (commercially baked) cookie at lunch time. Friday it was pannatone cookies, which were plain cookies (too sweet) with raisins and dried orange peel and some other stuff. I did like the orange peel flavor, might be nice to add freshly grated to an oatmeal cookie recipe.

My sister made pumpkin soup for our "Chrismakkuh" get together last weekend, it was savory, not sweet. A bit of cumin and paprika, shallots. Pureed with coconut milk (it was originally a vegan recipe). I am going to make it and serve with plain greek yogurt swirled in.

Distraction marks a very good idea (we have a lot of glass in our office and until the film was applied, I almost walked into it several times) not just for humans, but for birds! Nothing more distressing than hearing the noise of a bird smacking into the glass. Or having them see their reflection and trying to attack it.

Boy, it would be nice to know what the various options would get you on any given flight. I prefer vegetarian, but I don't eat eggs, so that meal option is often a problem for me. Being confined to my seat and surrounded by people having eggs (if a breakfast flight) is my own personal hell. I would welcome the smell of curry.

You know what...when I was in college one of the best meals was hot ham and cheese on a toasted kaiser roll. It was (I'm sure) processed cheese, it got all kind of gooey. I can see ham working with fondue!

Bob’s Red Mill has free shipping on all orders today (US only), code is FREESHIP.

I work with a couple of hunters. One of them bow hunts pretty much exclusively and doesn’t need to buy meat most of the year since he has enough venison in the freezer. One of the other guys is Native American and always uses the word “harvest” for his hunting results. I can only bring myself to fish, but have no issue with people hunting warm blooded animals for food when you respect the process.

I bought myself some new half sheet pans, Amazon had a deal on Viking, a two pack. I think I want a quarter sheet pan now. And I need a new SS wire rack to go in the pans. Maybe a new instant read thermometer. Not very exciting.

@scubadoo97, I have a couple of recipes I found online and will probably do an amalgam of them. The one constant is it looks like a 3 day cure in the fridge. Will update when I do it.

I've decided I'm going to make some Gravlax and share with 2 people at work that I know will enjoy it. One of them is a woman whose husband has a major aversion to fish so she never gets to eat it at home. The other is the guy who has a big garden and gifts me veggies in the summer. I've also got a small jar of cajeta that I know I won't want to continue eating off a spoon, so I'm thinking a thumbprint kind of cookie.

Aha, flaw in the system. You request small package of chicken thighs (let's say 1 lbs). All they have is a 2 lb pack...so they say "out of stock" and the system isn't programmed with the logic to search different package sizes as alternates.

Sheesh, being out of stock on chicken doesn’t sound plausible, assuming garden variety chicken and not some exotic type. I go to a different WF location from the one you are ordering from (probably 1-2x a week) and they are certainly not out of stock on proteins. I was in fact admiring some of the fresh fish yesterday, both whole and fillet. Have you tried calling the Princeton store to complain?

Sheet pan (part of it) dinner. Honey mustard mixture on some chicken breasts, Baked at 400 on foil lined sheet pan, midway thru added a couple of halves of twice baked potatoes that were leftover from Thanksgiving (they defrost/reheat well). Potato shells crisped up a bit, nice. Microwaved froz peas for the veg. Sometimes I need a dinner with 10 minute prep.

We keep a box of Grape Nuts in the closet for adding to yogurt. They are good as a non-sweet alternate to granola for that purpose. Usually a box of some kind of Cheerios (multigrain most often), since DH is diabetic, he can't do too much harm if he grabs a handful. I also like Kashi honey almond clusters. We did have sugar cereals at home when I was a kid, along with "healthier" ones like Special K and Raisin Bran. I actually think those strawberry Rice Krispies would be kind of interesting to use for Krispie Treats...