BeeZee

I'm hosting since my house is midway between my parents and my sister. We don't go wild with a million dishes since it's usually a small group, this year we have 8 total. My sister's new mother-in-law, who is Sicilian, is very excited to be invited and every other day I get an email from sis with some other delicacy that her MIL wants to bring...Italian chestnuts, chocolates, and now she wants to bring her special fried artichoke dish. It should be an interesting melange! All I know for sure is that I'm making turkey, gravy, mushroom herb stuffing, and cranberry relish (plus the canned stuff for the "purists"). Mom is bringing twice-baked potatoes, and a butternut squash/baby spinach/cranberry side dish (inspired by Wegmans market). Sis is bringing dessert, she claims she found a recipe for some kind of pumpkin mousse pie simple enough to not screw up. Her husband will make some kind of fresh fruit thing. And I have a funny feeling her MIL won't be able to resist a stop at the bakery, too.

Went out to an upscale Italian restaurant the other night and gazed longingly at the wine the table was enjoying, but I did enjoy a Negroni. The bitterness worked nicely against the other flavors in my meal. That's kind of what I need to figure out, how to find complementary flavors when I don't have the breadth of knowledge of spirit-based drinks vs. wine with meals.

ditto I last cut into my palm in college, I won't do it again.

Ivan's spiced wafers

That was a thought that came to mind, as well. You made the assumption that he didn't like your cooking, he may have felt he was being "fussed over" too much and McD's was his escape. You may be taking offense where none was intended, he may have thought he was being a courteous guest by taking the burden of food prep away from you. Unless, of course, he didn't eat any of the food you previously served. In which case, he's a guy with fast food tastes.

I don't want to veer into the medical, since that will get the thread tossed, but suffice to say it's not the imaginary "sulfite headache" some people think of. It's because of an interaction with the preservatives in medicine I take, which are sulfite-based, and when it hits, it's 30 minutes of bad stuff. Interesting that &roid notes sparkling wine lower on the scale, I have had no problem with drinking Prosecco. Thanks for your thoughts!

Wine contains sulfites...how much is never spelled out on the label, just that they exist. I have a problem with sulfites in large quantities, and it's been russian roulette with drinking wine. I thought it was just bad (for me) with red wine, so I switched to white...then had a major problem after drinking one glass of white recently. I'm really reluctant to just give up all wine, forever. Are there any thoughts about what types of wines might be lower in sulfites?

As a teen, had a lovely dinner out with my parents for my birthday. Entree was 2 crabcakes and I could only eat one, so they offered to wrap it up. Unfortunately, I left the box on the table. Realizing my error as we got to the car, I went back to retrieve it and was dismayed to see the table had been cleared. The waiter told me to hang on for a moment, and he went back to the kitchen. It was more than a moment, and I was kind of feeling silly. Then he appeared bearing a container with a (piping hot) freshly prepared crabcake for me to take home!

One time after I ate a large amt of beets...pee was magenta!

our family calls it "break the fast"...as used in a sentence: "are you coming to our house for break the fast?"

As a Jersey Girl, I'd be remiss in not nominating July in NJ for outstanding tomatoes...

Panzarotti...a fried calzone. I think calzone is the closest to "pizza", it's pizza dough turned over the filling and sealed into a crescent shape. Usually no sauce inside, you are given sauce on the side to add as desired. I guess that helps the dough cook better, without the extra moisture inside.

Bought 2 of the single cups of Edy's ice cream last night, they were on sale $1.00 each. I consider it portion control, since the pints of various brands were on sale for $3.00, a better value. One cup had 190 calories, I had Apple Pie flavor which was pretty sweet and I was glad I didn't have a larger amount of it, since I didn't love it.

We were just talking about this at work today. It doesn't have to be over the top/fawning/etc...just give me a pleasant experience, make me feel that I'm a valued customer (rather than an interruption). If I'm a regular, just a nod/wink acknowledgement is nice. Heck, my husband and I go to a Rita's water ice stand once a week and the girl who works there remembers that we share and gives us two spoons, how hard can it be for a "professional" server to do something nice for you just to make the experience enjoyable. It creates an "afterglow" that usually reflects favorably on the tip at the end of the meal.

I live in NJ (call it mid-atlantic/northeast US)...recently changed jobs, going from one that was totally working from home/on the road to back into an office almost every day (45 min commute each way). When I was driving around for work, I used to pick things up in my travels (I knew where all the Trader Joe's or Whole Foods or Wegmans were on my usual route). I absolutely spent more buying that way vs. the once a week torture of a regular food shopping with the pre-shopping inventory and list-making.

Black out shades, eye shades, ear plugs. I worked one summer in a hotel/casino in A.C. during college. It's obviously easier to adapt when you're 19-20 years old, but if you don't have a dark room to sleep in, your body will fight it. You have to re-set your circadian rhythms, you might have to turn your routine around a little. I found that I did better eating my "dinner" (heavier meal) before I started my shift. It never stopped feeling strange to be going to work in the dark and getting out in bright daylight, though...

Green peppercorns in brine. At least 5 years old. Only used for one recipe, which was tasty and I keep thinking I'll make it again...

This recipe from Martha Stewart is easy and my note on the recipe is "surprisingly tasty" since it seemed so simple...works well with cod, which I know they sell frozen at TJ's. http://www.marthastewart.com/342403/braised-fish-with-fennel-and-tomato

I'm not a "full time" vegetarian, but I probably only eat animal protein once or twice a week. For me, it didn't start as an ethical decision, I just realized that I didn't enjoy meat all that much (except for seafood). I have often ordered an entree based more on the veg/carb sides than the featured protein. Today for lunch I had moroccan lentil/chickpea soup and some asiago bread and it made me happy. Rich flavor, substantial texture... I also know vegetarians who are very unhealthy, they don't eat meat but they also don't eat a well balanced diet (too much cheese, potatoes, etc isn't offset by not eating meat). Fat Guy, enjoy your week in the land of the Jolly Green Giant. It's the best time of the year to be veggie-centric!

Every consumer/retail business has a product that they sell as a "loss leader"...the thing that they know brings customers in but they don't make any profit on. They count on the customer seeing all of the other, more profitable items on the way to check out and impulse buying. Same reason that the combination gas station/convenience stores exist. They charge a penny or two less per gallon for gas because they count on you going in to buy a Slurpee while you fill up. Group coupons are a calculated risk for a restaurant owner, they hope that the deal entices someone to try their restaurant who might not have otherwise, and then they will enjoy it and return (and hopefully tell their friends). During slow periods like the summer, I have to believe they would rather have a couple of less profitable checks than an empty dining room. My husband and I use these types of coupons, finances are tight and they enable us to eat out in some nice local places. In the end, it's about local businesses trying to get people in the door.

Agree with gfweb, Amada is a tapas place where you are going to hang out for a while, by the end of my last meal I was squirming from muscular discomfort. Dim lighting recently was an issue at another Philly resto, Alma de Cuba. I had to make use of the flashlight function on my 'droid phone to be able to read the menu. I also add to comfort the concept of decent spacing between tables. I don't want to bump into people getting into my seat, and once seated I don't want to feel like I'm sharing my conversation with the adjacent tables. Where the tables are put into the room can also contribute to comfort, there was a place that tried to add some more seating by putting 2 tops essentially in an aisle when all of the other tables were backed by walls and it felt very "exposed".

I had marron (chestnut) ice cream when I was in Montreal last week, cup shared by chocolate noir (dark chocolate) and it was great. But I think it is more of a "fall" flavor. Think about it for Thanksgiving.

I'm around 42" in the waist. I'm pretty sure I'm less than 84" tall. Then again I'm not arguing that I'm thin. I'm still Fat Guy, just somewhat less so. Similar situation to my 6' tall husband (weight around 220), whose eyes were rudely opened by a doctor recently. As a former athlete, he has put all his weight on around his stomach. In his opinion, he was "fit". The doctor pointed out that although he wore 40" waist on his pants, they were pushed well below his actual waistline.

Not sure I agree (although kids are taller now, so their weights have gone up proportionally)...I belong to a YMCA in a very middle class area. There are a lot of kids in the facility and I see plenty of overweight kids (usually with overweight parents). It makes me want to scream, I've seen 6 year old kids holding onto giant bottles of Gatorade almost as big as they are, their parents have no clue. You can't blame McD's for providing a product that the marketplace clearly demands, but maybe if the kids get some nutritional education they will bring it home to the rest of the family. It's so much easier to keep your weight normal and avoid health issues if you can at least start from a good place.

Raw beets are terrific as a salad, grated, with a ginger/orange vinagrette.