SallyHardesty

Thank you for chiming in. I'm glad to know someone else saw it as well (that means I'm not entirely insane).

So I was watching the Chile episode this evening.....and I thought I saw......Mr. Bourdain & some of the NR crew in a commercial for Bing.com. Did anyone else see this? Am I hallucinating? I've had a few drinks, but not that many. I was surprised, having been under the impression Mr. Boudain was so anti-shill (so to speak).

This may be cheesy, but a sentimental favorite of mine is still "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines", by Jeff Smith. I initially read it as a teen-ager; it was the first cookbook I read simply for pleasure. It was also the first time I encountered the idea of travel in pursuit of food rather than food just being a part of travel. Regardless of what may or may not have happened in Smith's private life, I always think of this book with fondness.

Ouch, been there as well (all 4 at once). The best thing about it was the valium I.V. (ha ha ha!). Though they are disgusting, those nutritional drinks like Boost may help you maintain some energy and feel a little better. How about whipped potatoes? If you do 'em with a mixer you can get them nice and smooth. Maybe an aspic as a change of taste from jello? Hope this helps and please accept my sympathies .

Kim and ludja, thank you kindly. I'm glad my silly story amused you. No fun dessert tonight, just Reese's Cups (my personal kryptonite). Domestic Goddess, your peach cobbler looks wonderful. It looks like cobbler my Mom used to make.

I’m having some cake that I tried to destroy yesterday. This is my first post, BTW, having recently become a participating member. I think this is funny, so I decided to share. I found a lovely recipe for Orange cake with chocolate chunks by Ina Garten (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32831,00.html), and decided to make it for a small get-together. It’s not a complicated recipe, and while I am by no means any sort of professional, I’ve been baking since I was a kid. But I had a terrible dingbat day and screwed this recipe up from start to finish. I almost put twice too much butter in (misreading), my ingredients that were supposed to be room temperature weren’t (forgot), it was just a string of stupid mistakes. I also realized mid-recipe that our electric mixer was broken and that I had totally forgotten about it. I swear I’m not a moron; it’s been over a year since I’ve baked anything, and I didn’t immediately replace the old mixer because I’m trying to hold out for a good one (I was completely furious with myself by this point and ready to dump everything in the garbage, but I pressed on). This cake is flavored with orange juice and zest; half the juice goes in the batter and you save half for the syrup that goes over the cake(s). Guess what? I poured all the juice in the batter (I really have baked before, I swear). I realized what I had done right after the cakes went in the oven (I doubled the recipe and made 2, 9-in. rounds instead of individual cakes). After cursing for about 10 minutes I decide there’s nothing to be done but wait to see how they turn out (and drink a beer while I wait). And they turned out pretty well, actually. The texture is good, and since I dumped all the o.j. in the batter I decided to forego the syrup and just put the chocolate ganache on the top. People liked it. I think it’s hilarious that, despite all my efforts to just jack up this cake, it still turned out well. Now that’s a good recipe.