teagal

I am not a vegetarian, but agree with offering a vegetarian choice. People wanting a more healthful choice will gravitate to this, not just the vegetarians. A nearby restaurant offers a smoked tofu sandwich- at least they are trying to offer something a little different. Emphasizing any local aspects of your menu could be a valuable marketing tool. That seems to be a hot trend now. Are there any farms nearby you could buy from and advertise that fact. Maybe get them to grow specific items just for you. What about your meat-is it local? The 100 mile diet is something you could think about too.

Not so much: I think if Sandra Lee spent less time on her 'tablescapes', (I can NOT stand that word) she would have more time for her food / cooking.

Sounds delicious and very Southern!! Can you share your recipe for pimento cheese?

Many years ago, I found probably the same recipe for the stuffing on the bag that the White Castles came in. As usual, I can't follow a recipe, but I did chop up a few of them and added them to a box of Stove Top. And guess what--it was really good, which surprised me since I'm really not a fan.

For me, it never fails --if I'm making egg salad, the eggs will peel perfectly. However, when I'm making deviled eggs I have a much harder time and end up with the ugliest looking eggs! Go figure!

I always buy good bread and freeze it in slices. I'll take out a slice at a time in the morning, put it in a ziploc and have it with my lunch. Never had a quality issue.

At a herb class this summer I had and then started making at home a mix of lemon balm, mint, lemon basil and stevia. Very nice.

Cumin?

Enjoying every last tomato and cucumber -- Frying up apples and making lots of apple cakes Put up tons of peppers in the freezer today-including a super hot one we weren't sure of heat wise, so naturally what do we do- why taste it of course! Our mouths were on fire for a while! Waiting to make hot pepper jelly with some of them mmmm...

Many years ago I would make a yellow cake mix with a can of coconut pecan frosting and it was really good--don't know how I would like it now, don't really eat a lot of boxed cake mixes. It wasn't real oily either, just super moist.

I think its ilegal here in Missouri. I've been drinking it for about a month now and LOVE it.

For the farmer's market that I'm selling stuff at I've done shortbread and butter cookies with lavendar or rosemary. They both sold well, the rosemary I had to offer samples of, people couldn't fathom that combo. I added a handful of each chopped lemon balm and lemon basil leaves to a very tender crumbed white cake recipe I made into cupcakes -that was very nice. Am gonna take some chopped mint and put in a brownie recipe next time.

I've done our little local farmers market three times now and really enjoy it. The comaraderie is great and its fun talking to like minded people. I sell some bagged herbs and baked goods with herbs--partly because I feel at a farmers market my baked goods need to have some kind of a 'from the garden' feel. Things like rosemary cookies, lavender shortbread, chipolte brownies, etc. I've done OK money wise, but not enuf to keep it up unless I find something that'll go over GREAT. I am wanting to know what baked goods sell the best--when you shop a farmers market what makes you stop and buy some type of baked good instead of just the good for you fruits and veg? Any ideas?

I had planned to make a chocolate meringue cake from Gourmet mag for my bday cake and was looking forward to it till I saw this- how beautiful! I'm switching!!

I made brownies yesterday with about a half cup of mint leaves chopped up in them. MMMMMMM

Two more products recently having size reductions are Edy's ice cream, it went from a 56 oz to a 48 oz container, and Lay's potato chips from 12 oz to 11.25. Sneaky,sneaky. I really don't like it- and I do agree that with some poducts it will mess up a lot of recipes , not every one has a scale or the time (not to mention patience) to recalculate the rest of the ingredients.

My mom's culinary gift to me was being able to go in the kitchen at any time growing up, and just 'creating'. Never was I banished from the kitchen or not allowed to use any ingredients in any amounts that I wanted. Oh, just remembered, one thing was off limits- her midnight snack Hershey Milk Chocolate bars, other than that it was whatever I wanted. Although she had a lack of interest in the kitchen, she never dampered mine. Now she says I'm obsessed, and its true! But that's not a bad thing!

Thank you for once again giving my husband reason to think I am a total dork-I read the 'pop tart' essay and kept laughing out loud- what a perfect parity of CI. As I try to explain why I'm laughing, the looks I get proves he just doesn't get it. That's why I love egullet---you get it!!!

I just got back from a vacation to Kentucky Lake and was excited to see what differences their food/restaurant choices would have compared to here in Missouri. Had a lot of 'homestyle' cooking, not too surprised there, but found brains on a few breakfast menus, also sliced tomatoes as a side dish on breakfast menus too. Great country ham and real smoky bacon were offered a lot. Dissapointed that some of the little mom and pop restaurants would serve frozen biscuits. Dessert menus featured pie,pie and more pie!! Walked thru a small grocery store and the only real difference to home was finding a can of boiled peanuts. Being so close to a lake, I would hope that the seafood choices would be locally caught, but saw a sign at a restaurant that offered pond raised catfish as their Friday night special. Maybe because we were in mostly small fishing towns the food choices weren't the greatest. Not exactly dissapointed with the food, just not overjoyed either!! A meal at Patti's Settlement was our best the whole trip. Good luck!

Lofthouse sugar cookies are fantastic!! Its the combo of the frosting and cookie--seperatly they aren't great but together YUM! And yes, they are addicting.

Pork definitely pork! Also mixed with softened vanilla ice cream and put in a graham cracker crust, freeze. Before serving top with caramel sauce. Easy dessert and really good.

Where I live I would jump for joy at getting Tazo teas offered--we always go out for breakfast on weekends and one restaurant chain offers only decaf tea--hello, its breakfast, a caffeine fix please! I've talked to the manager and he said that's the way they do it. Other places offer to heat up iced tea for me, I've also been given a family size tea bag for a cup of tea-uh size does matter, could hardly fit it in the cup! Another pet peeve is when the teabag is already in the cup of hot water, I have no idea of how long its been steeping. To me, IMHO if I'm paying for a couple meals a cup of hot water shouldn't be an issue, naturally done discreetly.

I think it was two seasons ago on Top Chef they had to make a meal out of things they purchased at a convenience store. Can't remember what they made but I think it was along the same line-if you went to the shows web site or the egullet food and tv thread about the show you may be able to find something. Really good idea--I bet it'll be lots of fun!!

I thought the same thing seeing the commercial over and over this weekend!! Especially since they show it grating an orange too. Let us know if you do try it.

Born and raised in Hawaii, I had NEVER heard of crab rangoon till I moved to Missouri--definitely not an "authentic" Chinese food. Pupu, I think they are now referred to this way, as one cannot just tack on an s to make a foreign word plural; however growing up they were commonly referred to as pupus. This is due to the increased interest/revival of the Hawaiian language. Cocktail party invitations I remember my parents getting would specify heavy pupus for a lot of appetizers being served or lite pupus--eat before coming! So it was the local way and still is of being another word for appetizer/hor d'eurve (I know that's not the correct spelling).