Kouign Aman

She eats what we eat, so these are from weekend lunches, which she eats and we dont: Toasted cheese sandwich w tomato soup (or Trader Joe's tomato/red pepper soup) some form of pasta or macaroni&cheese with cooked spinach or cooked carrots (glazed) baked potatoes (jacketed potatoes) w cheese, broccoli hamburgers w sweet potatoes (roast or fries), and some other veg. hmm, I dont think we have a top 5. There used to be quesadillas but she's off those now. Loves the garlic mushrooms sauteed. Likes brussel sprouts dipped in ponzu sauce.

Smoked baby oysters - the munchkin elbows me and her grandma out of the way to get the last ones. They're also good on tangy or herbed cheese atop a bland cracker, but we never get that far. Canned anchovies. Key ingredient. Tuna, the Mr loves tuna salad. Clams. Works for many things.

Drain them, add italian dressing, and they'll marinate quite quickly.

I often start with the crock in the microwave, nuke the liquids up to temp, and then put it all in the heating unit & add whatever. Makes it easier to predict finishing times on new recipes. Crockpots make the best beerbrats w onions.

No, this one. Thanks.

Chris, how did you prep the chicken breasts?

Cant find a better place for this - Had the best crab cakes every. As far as I can tell, pure crab. The part that makes them over-the-top good? They are served on a bed of crab macaroni salad. There's just enough creaminess, and toothiness, and tang in the salad to serve as sauce for the crab cake above it. . I didnt trust last nights result, so i had them again tonight. Oh my. Best of all is where these paragons appeared - that famous coastal location, Minneapolis (specifically the Hyatt Regency). I will assume they are the work of the Oceannaire restaurant in the hotel, and try them again, next time I'm close enough to an Oceannaire. Oh my.

Stone fruit. Of all the things to not like, he wont eat any thing with stone fruit. No peaches, plums, nectarines nor any of their hybrid offspring. I have to keep scaling down the summer recipes because I cant get thru an entire cobbler or pie while its still good.

halwah? Its not a preserve, but a dessert which goes thru incredible numbers of carrots in a hurry

I like the freeze-dried rambutans and mangosteens. They are somewhat seasonal.

ScottyBoy, that's gorgeous! Pulled most of the tomatoes last weekend, and the cornstalks/beans. The peanut and garlic and onions died back of their own accord. Time to dig them up, I suppose. The potatoes just started going mad, be interesting to see how long the weather holds. Will dig one and plant a random assortment of beans next weekend, I hope. Got lots of tiny little guavas. Never know what to do with them when they ripen. Cant bring em in the house without a plan as they are ... pungent.

Yup. Makes us feel lousy when we accidentally make you ill. We cooked bratwurst in beer last summer, told everyone that's what we did, and thusly, after consuming 4, our dear friend discovered his wheat issues extend to beer. We felt awful.

I use the same method nakji does. That's also how they get rinsed out.

Are they glass? Even though it can be quite sturdy, glass is a no-no. They are little plastic things with cone-shaped caps, about 2" tall in total, in the cake decorating section of the store (inside aisles). We use food dye to color the bathwater, so go thru it fairly quickly. The cap color is the contents color. picture

Are rubbermaid containers too hard to open? They work well for us. Empty food dye bottles can be washed and used for soysauce. While not being as cute as fish, they hold more. At my local grocery, they're about $1 each (box of 4 colors, $4.29), but the bottles are really just a side benefit - I paid for the dye. Slice up extra brisket, separate the slices w wax paper or something, and freeze. Then PJ can have brisket sandwiches whenever he wants, but not in such a continuous stream he gets sick of them forever.

Special sandwiches and salads make a nice dinner too. We spend the summer glorying in caprese salad, or bruschetta dinners, or bacon tomato sandwich dinners. Winter gets the occasional curried chicken salad dinner. We also have a 'clean out the fridge' dinner about once a week. All the various leftovers not already tagged for 'repurposing' get heated and put out, then diners pick and choose as they please.

cardamom and almonds

We use Heidi H's suggestion too. Its a terrific way to increase fruit/vegetable consumption, or whatever nutrient you are pushing that week. Whatever goes on the table in a little bowl at 5:30 gets disappeared during the 5-30 min to finish up dinner. Grape tomatoes, carrot sticks, cheese cubes (will 'spoil dinner' if too many), apple slices, olives, whatever.

Every California school campus I have ever been on has drinking fountains aka free clean water.

Artichoke dip? Works well with vegetable dippers. Its a fat & salt bomb, but we like it for dinner sometimes. 1 c chopped artichoke hearts (marinated ones work fine) 1 c grated parmesan cheese 1 c mayonnaise tabasco to taste place in baking pan, bake at 350 til bubbly. Since nothing in it is 'raw', you can underbake with no ill effect, or overbake, and it can get a bit chewy or separate a bit.

15-30 from start to table - yup. Been there, live that. capellini cook much faster than spaghetti. red sauce alfredo carbonara pesto brown butter and sage pomodoro macaroni and cheese by some stovetop recipe Any of the above w steamed veg. the microwave does a good job of steaming veg. chicken breasts sautee or stirfry very quickly, as does thinly sliced mammal of your choice asian style lemon and garlic etc serve w rice (2o min from time water starts boiling) - precooked rice freezes ok and thaws fast in the microwave. salads - on bed of lettuce, or stuffed into tomatoes chinese chicken curried whatever tuna beef lasagna compiled & cooked the night before, reheated. Enchiladas - compile in advance, cook night of eating Nachos (used canned refried beans), w tomato, avocado, salsa winter - grilled cheese and tomato soup baked potatos w toppings - 'build your own' fried rice every couple of weeks - its never the same twice anyway. scrambled eggs w bacon and corn frittata reheated potroasts, chili etc. Little things that help are grating cheese in bulk in advance, frozen veg of your choice (broccoli and spinach are especially useful), canned beans

At my kid's school, they had a shelf for their lunch bags (kindergarten). This year, they keep them in their backpacks, which are hung up outside. Keeping it upright in between is iffy, because what kid pays attention to the orientation of the backpack? We just pack the food snuggly in the containers and let it go. We pack lunches, ala FatGuy's photos, rather than those elegant bentos. Summer heat does play a role in what we choose to pack. A nicely sliced melon can get a good start on fermenting, if not chilled by the melting yogurt pop next to it.

All our chopsticks (except possibly the laquer ones) are dishwasher safe on the top shelf. There's alittle flat basket we lay in there, and all is well. The bottom shelf does seem to get too hot, or maybe its the upright washing position, but there's warping from there.

Joe's Stone Crab will FedEx a meal in a box. Its grand. Its also very pricey.

Coco's malts. Thru my 20's they were the best malts anywhere to be found. Had a several year hiatus, came back, and found them too sweet to drink.