BeeZee

"Best" is subjective. I live in NJ and in fact could walk to the named "best" pizza joint, DeLorenzo's. It is excellent thin crust pizza. But if you like a thicker/chewier crust, you wouldn't agree. So how can they say that a specific style/type is superior?

Huiray, those red carrots are just lovely...do they fade in color when cooked? I'd imagine them to be on the sweeter side when raw?

Have a cold, so reheated leftover turkey chili retrieved from freezer depths...didn't look like enough so also cooked some lentils to add to it, threw in a small can of fire roasted tomatoes, and made farro to serve with instead of brown rice. Couldn't taste much, but the burn at the back of the throat felt good

Well, if you set aside the usual suspects (turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy) the one non-negotiable for my husband is jellied cranberry sauce straight out of the can. He pouts if I suggest skipping it in favor of homemade. So we usually have both.

they sell precooked rice cups that you just microwave to heat up, don't remember if it was Minute brand or Uncle Ben's, I have used them at work for lunch, quite acceptable. A little pricey, of course, you pay for the convenience, I only buy them if on sale.

I had some of those Thomcords this summer, don't know if it was the bunch I had but they were kind of unpleasantly soft textured. Very sweet, though.

stuffed cabbage (or other veg if he's adverse to cabbage)...cabbage rolls in sauce freeze great, built in portioning, and easy to reheat. You mentioned freezing twice baked potatoes and they actually do reheat OK, I've done it.

Paula, are these typically eaten as a snack or breakfast item? They sound like a delicious type of coconut crepe (but thicker)!

Anna, I like how the design of the plate looks like a sunburst "featuring" the tomato toast!

I made poached pears and saffron was part of the poaching liquid, that was a pretty tasty one and gave the pears a nice golden hue. Looked good with vanilla ice cream.

Shelby, they are fridge pickles, 24 hour marinade. Other good uses for them are chopped up and mixed into tuna (or other) salad, dipper for hummous.

I made pickled celery. Farmers Market celery had thin, stringy/tough stalks and I realized I wasn't going to eat it, it was starting to go limp after a week. Makes nice pickles, good for a Bloody Mary garnish. Basic recipe found online with white vinegar/water mix simmered with salt/sugar/mustard seed/whole cloves/bay leaves/black pepper.

favorite mid-morning meal this time of year...toasted multigrain bagel (perfect for this application, it's hole had closed during baking) with a very thin layer of cream cheese and thick slices of locally grown tomato. Eaten open-faced, so as to make sure I maximized tomato consumption.

To the "hoarders"...did you do anything similar as a kid? I have some vanilla beans stashed away from a couple of years ago (double wrapped in saran, ziploc bag, in a glass jar) because they are "special". A jar with several whole nutmegs brought back by my parents from some island vacation several years ago, just cracked one to grate recently. Remembered that as a kid, I "saved" my favorite color Crayola crayon so it would last longer, wouldn't use it except sparingly...and it was my FAVORITE color!

I agree its a fun theme, I can tell you there is a sandwich shop in NJ called sub contractors, so I don't know if it is going to be a trademark issue, it may depend where you are geographically...

there's been re-posting on various sites recently (as it is in season) of a "polenta" made with fresh corn which sounds delicious http://www.bonappetempt.com/2012/06/sweet-corn-polenta.html

when I was a kid, my Mom made a macaroni salad with tuna (canned, of course, this was the 70's after all) where you put French dressing on the noodles while still warm (then after it cooled, some sour cream and other stuff was added) as the first step of dressing it. Makes perfect sense.

not growing them, but bought some ugly ones at the Farmer's market last night. Farmer at this stall usually has a few of those huge, scarred, blobby ones (heirloom varieties) in a box separate from the cartons of round slicing varieties and egg-shaped romas...he seemed pleased that I bought the misfits. Ate one last night chopped and mixed with some leftover grilled zucchini and celery. Held true to my theory that uglier tomatoes are tastier. I want to make sure he continues to bring whatever heirloom varieties he can grow, since most of the farmers give up on them due to low yield. I'm still kicking myself for not buying the Purple Cherokee that he had last week.

I can't cook with my husband. He's messy and has no attention to detail when it comes to food safety. Example: last night I was handing him plates of items to take outside to grill (I prep, he's allowed to grill). He was getting ready to put the plate that had his raw steak on it onto the platter that had veggies and it was starting to tilt, all I saw was the imminent event of raw meat juice getting all over everything and he wouldn't have cared. At least he's learned not to put the cooked items back on the plate that had held raw, without bringing it in for me to wash first. And I'm definitely a "clean as you go" kind of cook, which is a foreign concept to him as well. I guess I'll admit to being a control freak in my kitchen.

Pocketless whole wheat pita (so, more or less a flatbread) warmed in toaster oven, smooshed some mild goats cheese all over it. Topped with sliced yellow tomato and a few drips of Trader Joe's balsamic glaze. It was very Calder-esque, sorry I didn't take a photo. But very yummy.

when hubby is away, I eat...less. Seriously, I think about the (few) things he turns his nose up at, and have at 'em (Indian food comes to mind). Or, I indulge in something that's really pricey which I can savor in a small qty (ie, I'm OK with one small lobster tail, but if I were making lobster for both of us, it would get really pricey because of his appetite).

Put in a lot of cheese, fat people and kids like a lot of cheese Classic

Don't know if this would work, but riff on arancini. Since they look to be sort of golf ball size...cut in half, scoop center out with melon baller, put a cube of mozz in, stick halves back together and toothpick to hold. Egg wash, bread crumb, deep fry. Serve with marinara. Eggplant parm in a ball!

classic "ants on a log"...peanut butter (or if peanut allergic, sunbutter or creamcheese) smeared into celery sticks with raisins stuck in!

I like to make my lunch from the self-serve salad/cold prepared food bars at Whole Foods. I can control the ingredients, I know exactly what I'm eating, fresher fruits/veg are in the offering, and I'm willing to pay a premium for that. It usually costs me in the neighborhood of $9 for the container - and no way I'd pay that much for a plain garden salad, I'm making a bowl with all kinds of veggies, grains, tofu, etc. However, I will balance that expense by bringing leftovers from home on some days to have for lunch. I am fortunate in that I can afford that "luxury" because for people of limited means, it's hard to eat well, affordably.