Kent D

We have 2 locations in Wichita, but they're both 8-10 miles from where I live, and I've got a half-dozen local burger shops within walking distance, so I haven't been in a rush to try them. And besides, I ate floppy/undercooked fries, so that would kind of be a deal-breaker for me. I'd rather we get White Castle back to town.

I prefer savory, whether it's eggs and bacon, biscuits and gravy (with some gravy slop-over on some hash browns), a bacon quesadilla, leftover roast beef and mashed potatoes on toast...I've always been a weird eater for breakfast. Yes, I'll eat pancakes or waffles or muffins, but I prefer grease and salt and meat.

Pancakes 1st, waffles 2nd, french toast a distant 3rd. My wife's exactly the opposite, my two daughters take both sides, but don't really care so long as there's plenty of syrup.

I've always been more a Bon Appetit subscriber than a Gourmet subscriber, but in any event this is still a loss to the culinary community, in the same way the failure of a daily newspaper hits the journalism community. I really find it difficult to find the time to read any of my magazines cover to cover anymore, but when they quit publishing and it's no longer in my mailbox every month, there's certainly a momentary feeling of loss, especially when they don't refund the balance of the subscription.

I've given up. I used to organize a monthly potluck for my co-workers on 2nd shift (we were, for a time a close-knit bunch who enjoyed each other's company as well as each other's culinary talents). Then, a couple of our go-to cooks moved to 1st shift and were replaced by people with absolutely no talent nor motivation, and it became "Kent brings the main course and we all open bags of chips and jars of cheese sauce". You truly haven't lived until you've sampled 4 bags of ramen noodles with about a pound of American cheese grated into them. I really can't justify spending the morning in the kitchen making a valid effort and then coming in to an assortment of chips, candy and deli sandwiches purchased from the gift shop and the cafeteria. And then our director converted our break area into a workspace for a mid-level-almost-manager, so we have no place to eat or spread out our food. At least sometimes my family does a potluck salad or potluck Mexican dinner and my siblings, my Mom and I all try to out-do each other.

I have to have it for baked beans and molasses crinkle cookies. Sometimes I put a tiny drizzle in my habanero salsa recipe. And my 9-year-old daughter has developed a taste for molasses milk instead of chocolate milk. I tried it...I think she's onto something.

I call it "toad in the hole" (my kids ask for it for breakfast before school), I heard someone on the radio refer to it as "Eggs with hat and coat" and just saw a reference on-line to Okie French Toast. I always cut the hole out with the cap from the non-stick spray can, put the butter on the griddle (when I don't use bacon grease), and cook it on both sides, but leave the yolk runny enough to dip the circle. I generally don't go to the trouble for me, I just fry an egg and put it between two pieces of toast.

Doesn't it hurt when you have to actually type the words "when A***'s used real meat."? At what point is the business decision made to serve up a chunk of solidified meat paste and call it roast instead of serving up an actual roast? Or paint on brown "grill marks" on a hamburger patty that's coming out of a microwave? I have to look and see when that "No Reservations" re-runs, we had a power flicker and it knocked out my DVR.

I was listening to a syndicated radio host out of D.C. talking today about a suspected bout of food poisoning who admitted that he had eaten a Lean Cuisine chicken entree that was still cold in spots, but he didn't want to take the time to heat it to the proper temperature. Guess he lost a little more weight than he planned that night.

I remember reading of the McDonalds "Surf and Turf" sandwich featuring an unholy union of the filet o fish and Quarter Pounder, which I will admit I would have considered half a lifetime ago. Or the hamburger patty with bacon and cheese wedged between two prepared grilled cheese sandwiches (When I was a teenager working at McDonalds they made a grilled cheese with an inverted bun around a slice of cheese and pressed in the bun toaster, so this would have been doable 25 years ago...) Fortunately, most of the culinary sins of my youth have faded from memory. The ones that remain make me shudder.

My knives are regrettably inferior and replaceable. My pots (or rather my heirloom cast-iron skillets handed down from both sides of grandparents) NOT replaceable. After the passing of my last Grandma at the age of 97, I was given a deep h-u-g-e cast iron skillet and lid that my Grandpa used in his hometown restaurant during the 1950's. I'm still afraid to use it, but I'm going to one of these days to fry a couple chickens.

It seems like a well-researched list, and I'd never call his qualifications into question, unlike some of those men's magazine's "50 hottest women" list where the guy writing it's never met any of the women on the list and wouldn't have a shot at them if he did. I did notice that there's not a pizzeria anywhere within 800 miles of Wichita. No great surprise there. The best pizza I've had in Wichita comes out of my oven, made with my own two hands, and Mr. Richman would likely sniff and pooh-pooh at it, but it IS better than Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Little Caesars. And now, I'm hungry for pizza.

I've assumed that it's at least marginally accurate, because even "Bewitched" showed Larry and Darrin serving drinks to their advertising clients in the office and then again at their home with dinner. I can't imagine how badly they'd reek at the end of the day with the constant smoking, drinking and wenching. I was shocked when they had Draper's daughter mixing cocktails for their dinner guests.

At this point, I don't think I'll share our latest pizza creation: canned chili, sliced hot dogs, chopped onion, mozz and cheddar cheese, and then a healthy squirt of mustard when it comes out of the oven. Oops, I said too much... Actually, for me, pizza's pepperoni & mushroom or white pizza with some chopped spinach, but I've tried almost everything.

I keep saying I'm going to pick up a can of Spam for me and the girls (my wife's anti-pork), but I haven't eaten it since Boy Scouts, where we'd keep cans of it in the patrol supply box for emergency breakfast meat. Strangest way we ate it -- alternated cubes of Spam and marshmallows on a skewer and toasted over the fire. What can I say -- you get bored standing around the campfire sometimes. We also used to boil hotdogs in orange Tang. Boys will be boys...