Stephanie

I do. On weekdays I eat breakfast around 6:30 AM, and since it's usually cereal or toast I'm very hungry by noon. My last two years of high school, I had the last lunch period, which was 1 PM. I had to get up at 5:30 AM and didn't have much opportunity for snacking mid-morning, so the late lunch was really cruel. And, we had gym right before lunch--it was loads of fun when the gym teachers kept us late!

I once spent a few days in NO on business. The first day, my (female) boss and I walked around the Quarter & down Bourbon Street at around 5:30 in the afternoon. Between the smell, the hoards of drunks even at that hour, and the sleazy establishments lining the street, we both felt like we wanted to run back to the hotel and shower off. I never had the pleasure of walking down 42nd Street in its heyday, but this was as close as I've come. Further east, the Quarter gets more residential & quiet and it's actually pleasant to walk around--I liked the architecture.

When I was growing up, my mother either stayed at home taking care of us or worked as a teacher, meaning she would get home around 4:00-4:15. My father worked from 8 AM to 4 PM, so he would get home at 5:00 if there was no traffic and pretty much expect dinner to be close to ready. (He also had a 2nd job twice a week that started at 6:00.) Consequently, even when I went off to college, I'd still eat dinner at the absurdly early hour of 5:00 or 5:15. Now that I've been in NYC for 10 years, my eating times are definitely later. Heck, I don't even get home until 5:45 on a good night. Unless I have chorus rehearsal or something else that compels me to eat early, I usually have dinner around 6:15, later if I'm cooking something more complex than pasta. I too can't really sleep on a full stomach so I generally don't like to have dinner later than 7:30 if I have a choice. (I also heard that the closer to bedtime you eat, the likelier you are to gain weight, or at least not to lose it.) Weekends are different--I will have a late breakfast and early supper, with a very light snack in between. While I loved my trip to Spain, it was hell on my internal clock. I'm so not a night owl, and I found it difficult adjusting to dinner at 9:30, and consequently staying up much later than I usually would. When my parents come visit me, they won't let me make dinner reservations later than 6:00, and the earlier the better. They're going to make great retirees.

I had a butternut squash half left over from Sunday's dinner, so I made a vegetable stew (recipe courtesy of Epicurious). I'd pre-roasted the squash a few days prior, and I sauteed it in olive oil with onion and a little salt. Then, I added mushrooms and a combination of vegetable broth mixed with a little flour. Finally, I put in chopped red chard and let it cook just long enough for the chard to wilt. The stew was served with tri-color couscous that had fresh parsley added to it. It was nice and hearty for a cold winter's night, but a little bland--I had to perk it up with Tabasco.

I can't say that I know anything about why unpastuerized cheeses are prohibited here, but I assume its out of health concerns and, more specificially, health concerns for the elderly, young or infirm. I'm assuming then that they're OK for the elderly, young, and infirm in Europe? Or do they just have steelier immune systems over there? I do have a subscription to TONY, but I didn't get an issue yesterday. Hmm...hope it isn't one of those that "disappears" in the mail.

Don't do that! She'll bring a Trifle and want to build it in your kitchen Well, her dessert cooking is so far limited to baked apples, but I will have to watch out if she ventures into cakes....

Monks' Brew Showers Blessings on Belgian Town

I'm normally not a patient person at all; one must make adjustments in order to keep one's friends. Bear in mind that I didn't expect her to be cutting vegetables and washing lettuce in my kitchen, and she was doing it while I was still cooking. If I was bringing something for dinner, I would make sure to do all the prep work at home. Next time I will have her bring dessert.

This occurred to me as I was reading the "Division of Labor" thread. I live alone, so of course I have to do everything myself. That means that I've created a kitchen environment that works for me. I had a friend over for dinner on Sunday night, and she decided to bring a salad. Not an already-made salad, mind you, but the raw ingredients. I'm a bit of a neat freak and I know from her dinner parties that chaos reigns in her kitchen. So it was no surprise that she proceeded to take over a good chunk of my counterspace, flinging arugula and lettuce everywhere (and drying them in my dishrack). Cucumber peels littered the sink. I had to place the garbage can right by her and make sure she had proper bowls, utensils, etc., or who knows what my kitchen would have looked like. So I'm wondering: anyone else protective of their kitchen space when it's invaded by those either outside one's immediate family or someone who plays Oscar to your Felix (or vice versa)?

I went to Pearl last month on a lousy, rainy day for a late lunch, and I had my lobster roll personally served by Rebecca. I haven't had Mary's version, but this was so decadently rich and wonderful. Unfortunately, about an hour or so earlier I'd had one of Jacques Torres' hot chocolates (the regular kind), and the combination of so much rich food did not make my stomach very happy. I guess I'll have to have my next lobster roll under different circumstances.

Unless you had mine, which is a whole 'nother story. Neither of them were/are particularly good cooks either.

I went to a fancy-pants private school in NJ, and the cafeteria food was terrible. I distinctly remember Taylor Pork rolls and some of the greasiest-looking burgers imaginable. The Tater Tots and the pizza (Elio's) was edible, but since they didn't print menus like public schools you could never figure out which days had the good stuff. Most of us brought our lunch. If you were a senior with privileges and a car (or knew someone with a car), you were allowed to go off-campus for lunch.

They have that too. They're also serving deep-fried Twinkies.

A friend of mine does all her shopping at Costco. I don't know how much her roommate eats, but there's a heck of a lot of food in that house for two people.

Occhi di lupo pasta (from the late, great Morisi Pasta in Brooklyn) with butternut squash, spinach, olive oil, lemon juice, toasted pine nuts, and lots of fresh grated Pecorino Toscano. Yum. I was entertaining a friend and she brought an arugula, romaine, and tomato salad with oil & lemon juice dressing. Now I have a butternut squash half I will need to cook soon. I suppose I could roast it, but don't know whether to make it sweet or savory. I have a block of tofu in my fridge--anyone have a tofu & squash recipe?

All these posts made me so eager that I HAD to go for lunch this afternoon. I took a late lunch, around 2:00, and the back room was half empty, making it a pleasant, relaxing time to go. The service was very solicitous and made this singleton diner feel very much at home. Now for the food: I had the cauliflower alla Siciliana antipasto. It was room temperature (as I think all the vegetables are), and the cauliflower had been cooked with olive oil, sauteed onions, capers, and I believe red pepper flakes. It could have used a touch more salt, but overall it was flavorful and the cauliflower was nice and tender. I tried to order the funghi & Taleggio pizza but was told that they were out of Taleggio. The staff was accomodating in putting together a Margherita pizza with mushrooms on top, but the mushroom addition was a $5 surcharge, which seems a bit much considering that the base pizza itself is only $10. I've never had authentic Neapolitan pizza, so I wasn't quite used to the texture of the pliable, chewy, almost elastic crust, but I overall I enjoyed it very much. I was tempted to get the hot chocolate, but went for the gelato instead. I had the hazelnut with chocolate chips and the orange-cinnamon. As Suvir related, the orange-cinnamon did have sherry-soaked golden raisins, and the cinnamon was like a ribbon on top of the ice cream (it looked like caramel sauce). The wine list is quite long, though there was not much available by the glass. I didn't partake in any wine this time though. Suvir & FG did such a good job describing the decor that anything I could add would be superfluous. Interesting that this week started with a trip to DiFara's and ended up here. DiFara's to me is the ultimate Italian-American pizza experience (the kind of neighborhood place everyone should have), and Otto is a like a little slice of Italy.

My parents, who I have never seen drink hard liquor and who barely drink wine, have a liquor cabinet stocked full of liqueurs & spirits. Some of them have to be at least 25 years old. (In all fairness though, many of the spirits my father uses regularly when baking.) This is typical of them: ten years ago, they went on a Caribbean cruise and got a bottle of rum punch. I asked them for it, knowing that it would go undrunk, and they wouldn't give it to me. They finally relented about a year ago and of course it had gone completely bad due to the cream & eggs turning rancid.

It's also on WNET 13 here in New York.

Sounds like my parents. Someday, when I visit, I'm going to blitz through their pantry and their cabinets. I've always wondered why my mother still has a jar of someone's homemade jam dated 1995 (and never opened BTW).

I should add that I never bother to get "real food" at the ballpark. Dinner's usually at the deli 2 blocks up from Yankee Stadium. When my father & I would come in from Jersey, we'd buy a bucket from our local Chicken Holiday and drive up with it. Needless to say, the chicken was usually gone before we even hit the Turnpike!

I always used to get Cracker Jacks at Yankee games, before they switched to the behemoth boxes that cost $5 each. Now I get those Dippin' Dots if it's not too cold out. The food choices at both Yankee & Shea are abysmal compared to other ballparks.

I once read this as one possible reason for the pork ban. I have no idea if there's any validity at all to it, but here goes.... Pigs serve no other purpose to humans other than to provide meat. They're not work animals like cows or oxen, do not lay eggs like chickens, and don't provide wool for clothing like sheep. Therefore, in a harsh desert climate with little water and grasslands, it would not make sense for farmers to keep what is essentially a "luxury" animal. Perhaps this may have motivated whoever was making the laws for both Judaism and Islam, two religions that were born in desert peoples.

Though I grew up in a kosher home, I have chosen in my adult life to not keep kosher as I would rather open myself up to all the good food there is in this world rather than limit myself based on 3000-year old laws that I do not feel apply to 21st century life. I do not have a problem with those do follow the dietary laws. However, what does bother me is people who are overly concerned with the minutiae of religious laws (dogma, if you will) and ignoring the big picture. Which is the greater affront to G-d, mixing wool & cotton in the same garment or being a slumlord? Drinking alcohol or blowing up women and children? Eating fish on Friday or forcing people into poverty by outlawing contraception?

Another vote cast for Rolling Rock. Barely tastes like anything resembling beer. How it got to be so popular is a testament to the power of advertising. At the risk of being cursed at by Texans, I wasn't too fond of Lone Star the one time I tried it. I would lump it with Miller, Bud, etc. as a completely boring beer with no character whatsoever. Shiner Bock's pretty decent though. There've been some microbrews I haven't liked, but thank goodness I've blocked them from my memory.

My father the baker loves Maida Heatter's recipes, not only because she explains everything so well, but because she'll tell you if something is supposed to happen that may appear to be wrong (e.g., if a cake is only meant to be 2 inches high or have a crack in the top). That's the kind of detail I want to see in a recipe.