KateW

Then why do it? Just say 'no' and cook something else. It's about that easy. I do it to make him happy. And then I eat something else and we're both happy.

Ok...but nowhere do I see anything about this being a fine food and dining site; i wasn't suggesting that opera was "fine" and Pearl Jam was the music equivalent of junkfood. i was, however, suggesting that discussion of one wouldn't necessarily fit in with discussion on the other...just as i wouldn't spend a large percentage of my posts telling the world how much i like Big Macs. one must recognize and understand their audience. Ok now I'm just getting a headache. People are saying they didn't say something when they clearly did. I don't want to dig around for the contradicting posts, I don't want to play with the Quote feature anymore, let's just call the whole thing off. I like tuna sandwiches; I don't know if the ones I make would be considered "good" or not, but I know when I don't like the one I'm eating, for instance if it is chunk lite tuna with miracle whip and american cheese. But I make mine the way I like them, and I think they're good, and I'm sure there are better out there, but I don't care. And yes, I am going to tell you all that I like them, even if it gets me ripped apart. There is good to be said for chain restaurant food, if you don't compare them to something totally out of their league. They are good when they stand alone, and if you spend all your time comparing it to something else, just go eat the thing you're comparing it to, for heaven's sake, if it bothers you that much.

Yep, its like hamburger helper, which we have sometimes too, but the only kind of hamburger helper I really like at all is the lasagna one. I don't really like the chicken ones either, but the SO does, and I usually end up having a snack later to make up for it. Helpers are the one thing I eat that I don't particularly like.

Last night I bought some frozen fried fish, crab cakes and tater tots and cooked those for my boyfriend. Pan fried a swordfish steak for the first time for myself. It came out alright but a little dry. Tonight I'm making Chicken Helper.

I do care about what I eat. I eat what I'm in the mood for. If I didn't care, I would eat something I don't want, or don't like. Usually, your body tells you what your body wants or needs in the form of cravings, and I listen to that. If that means having tuna sandwiches for lunch, I'm not going to deny it and say no, I have to mix up something creative instead, and in the end I'm still craving the tuna sandwich.

Ok...but nowhere do I see anything about this being a fine food and dining site; we have posts about white trash food, soda, chips, fast food, as well as posts about the French Laundry, Tru, wine, fine liquors, etc. This is a food site so I see it appropriate for people who are lovers of food to post. I love food, and I don't think that should be compared to the next guy who only likes fine food, or the other guy who will only eat at chain restaurants. I try not to post where I don't know what I'm talking about. I wouldn't dream of posting anything in the wine and liquors section, unless I had a question. But sometimes I go off on a rant about something I might not be an expert on, and you should take those posts with a grain of salt. If I only spoke on things I am an expert in, I wouldn't speak at all.

Please be so kind as to point one out. Before you go digging, I would say that it does not seem entirely appropriate for someone without a strong interest in quality food and cooking to comment on a board which is dedicated to those same subjects. It seems like it's suggested here, unless I'm misinterpreting it.

Maybe I should start considering myself superior because I can enjoy chain restaurants as well as high end restaurants I'm a very versatile date...too bad I'm not dating around at this point.

So, for instance, because I don't feel it necessary to whip up exotic things for dinner every night (see the Dinner! thread), I don't deserve to input on topics I have an opinion on? I have a "strong interest" in quality food, but quality food is such a grey area to me. Perhaps this site is too over my head.

By the end of every August, my family is sick of my corn obsession. I want just corn and tomatos every night for dinner. With the occasional BLT. For some reason, my family insists that we also have burgers, chicken, pasta, something else to accompany the corn and tomatos The local farmstand in the town I used to live in, Concord Massachusetts, has an annual corn and tomato festival. From http://www.verrillfarm.com/events.htm: "Vote for your favorite! Taste 30 or more varieties of tomatoes, both heirloom and popular hybrids - sliced and ready to eat, with a touch of oil and basil. Yum! Red, green, pink, orange, and black tomatoes. Taste 8 or more varieties of Verrill Farm's best sweet, freshly cooked corn, including bicolor, white, supersweet, and yellow varieties. $4.00 for tastings of corn and tomatoes - pick your favorites Corn and Tomato dishes prepared in the farm stand kitchen will be available a la carte. $1 per serving. Live music by Adam Dewey and Crazy Creek Hayrides Free entertainment" It is SO awesome. Mostly just corn and tomatoes, but also a couple dishes prepared with corn and/or tomatoes. This year it is on August 16 and 17.

Fish prep and cooking...I don't know why I'm so intimidated by this but it seems like cooking fish would be different from cooking other meat because of the texture difference and I know it doesn't take as long to cook fish...but I have no idea where to begin...and also deboning and skinning fish, deveining shrimp, the proper way to eat a whole lobster (I know this one, but others may not), techniques like broiling, grilling, pan frying fish steaks and filets, etc. Big topic, I know.

I rub meat (burgers, steak, chicken, etc) with oil and salt and pepper before cooking instead of putting oil in the pan and adding salt and pepper later. Not sure how beneficial that is, but I like to do it that way now. Also I toss meat and marinade together in a plastic bag and let it sit instead of putting it all in a bowl. I use less marinade that way, it doesn't mess up a bowl, and it takes up less space.

Could you please tell my mother these secrets? A party that she has to host simply isn't fun for her because of the responsibilities involved: cooking, cleaning, keeping the guests entertained, etc. As soon as the guests leave, if not sooner, she is in the kitchen, cleaning up everything. And she NEVER leaves a dirty dish on the counter before bed. Not even in the sink. She is a neat freak in general, doing a complete cleanup of the house before any company arrives, making it look like nobody lives there at all. She is the type who cleans the house before the housecleaners come. So basically, she pays them to walk around and go "Damn, she does a better job than we do." So, in an effort to be the complete opposite of her, I am a total slob. Perhaps we should start a thread called "Rants about mothers".

i bet most piles of shit taste just as they should as well. Ahahahahaha. Good point. I'm not really sure what I meant now...

I do apply taste as a primary factor. I think Olive Garden tastes good. It tastes how it should, and isn't that what tasting good is? There is good, and there is GOOD, and Olive Garden is good. Wow, the word good looks really weird now.

Speaking of sex & a can of worms . . . Remember Melville's chapter in Moby Dick where the sailors are kneading whale sperm? It was always interesting to lead a class discussion on that chapter. Oh dear...shall we start a new thread so you can explain this one? Or has this topic gone off-topic enough that we can just talk about it here?

You have no idea Hollywood

CF is more complex than Applebee's. It might not have cheese on it, but it'll have 9 other things on it. Check out the menu here. As for the sex comment, that's another can of worms you don't want to get into with me. And you can order stuff and "86 the cheese";)

I love pasta and that sounds excellent. But when I go out to eat it's because I don't feel like cooking. Tiny, hot kitchen, nothing decent in the cupboard, tired, whatever the reason. I see your point, though.

I'm looking for an explanation. I've asked a couple times what's so bad about Olive Garden, and haven't gotten an answer. So it's not serious food, but honestly, don't any of you ever eat just because you're hungry? Not because you want to tell stories about the food you ate? I've also said before that each time I go out to eat doesn't have to be an experience to remember. Sometimes I don't want anything more than for the food to fill me up and not make me sick. (no small feat, as I've mentioned. being filling and not making me sick is almost a contradiction.) It would take a major toll on my time, health, weight and wallet to eat at an exceptional place every day, especially in the area where I live. I would probably have to go to Boston (about 2 hours north) to see anything BUT chain restaurants. Or maybe the Cape. But heck, I just want lunch, not an all day excursion. Cooking in a place like Tru is more interesting to me because I hope it involves more creativity. Dumping food in a fryolater, taking it out when it floats and putting it on a plate is not creative. Making food look and taste beautiful is. Maybe I'm not as serious about food as most of you. I want the food I eat to be good, but it doesn't have to be creative or unique. And now I have to go order Chinese food for the SO and me. Anyone got a problem with that?

oh dear. ya see, this is what i'm talking about. if someone likes it, they like it. although i'm not convinced the poster actually *does* like it, but rather settles. I actually do like it. I don't just go because my SO likes it. I like simple food, not always ethnic, sometimes i just like a good chicken sandwich or burger, and a coke. Trust me, I care enough about food that I rarely eat something I truly don't like.

I fail to realize how this argument supports the ingestion of crappy food. A rephrasing might be, "Some people are lazy." How is driving to a crappy restaurant any more lazy than driving to a fancy restaurant? What's really lazy is going out to eat at all. Better to learn how to cook. Edit: to expand more: chain restaurants cater to kids more, are more open to substitutions, are *usually* cheaper than good restaurants, unless you live in a town that is crawling with those holes in the wall that turn out to be gems, and how often do you find those? and chain restaurants usually have at least one thing a picky eater will like, unlike the Vietnamese place, which doesn't.

I've been thinking for a while that people on egullet 'turn up their noses' a lot but I didn't know how to word it or where to post it. When I say I like Olive Garden and people laugh, I still wonder why. Sure, maybe it's not authentic Italian, but I don't expect authentic Italian food anywhere but Italy. And maybe 90% of it is prepared ahead of time and nuked, but would you really want to wait a couple hours while they make your chicken and white wine sauce, bread sticks, and soup to order? If it tastes good and I leave full, satisfied and not sick, I'm happy with what I ate. I don't usually care if it's authentic, made to order, or aesthetically pleasing. Once in a while if I go to a top notch restaurant I expect a "dining experience". But not when I'm hungry and just wanna eat. I work at a Ruby Tuesday but still go there sometimes on my days off with my SO because they have good, simple food. As someone said before, some of us have limited money, kids, picky dining companions, limited diet, etc. and can't always get the best meal.

That's the one I've been to. All the times I went were during peak hours, and there was no line out the door, but the entryway was packed and there was about an hour wait each time. It's worth it when your other choice is the food court

I've eaten at a CF a couple times and I really like it. My companions have been my college room mate, who also really liked it, and my SO, who doesn't like it because it's too complex. Everything there has to have 50 million things on it, like "chicken with this and this and that and topped with a this and that sauce". The appetizers, if I remember right, are simpler but huge and meant for sharing. The drinks are damn good though, like the mojito with fresh mint leaves in it, and the alcoholic coffee dessert drinks. Be prepared to wait a lot, eat a lot and spend a lot, and if you want cheesecake too, order it "to go".