Marlene

Spareribs baked in saurkraut. Nobody in my family will eat it except me. I always make it when no one is home. For my husband it's creamed corn. He always waits till I'm out of town on business to have his "creamed corn and movie night" fest.

WE have one restaurant here that has started doing the "I need the table back" routine. We've been frequent customers of this upscale (read not cheap) place for several years, but we've stopped going there because of this.

I ate lots of leftovers when I was younger. My mother managed to do great things with them. Now I feel guilty if I don't try to use my own leftovers even though I can afford not to. Of course, often they just live in the fridge for a week and then get thrown away but it's a token gesture at not subscribing to the "consume, consume and dispose" mentality. So did I and they don't bother me. Now, I just try to cook so that there aren't too many leftovers unless they are something I'll eat myself for lunches.

I thought that would work the other way round... I think it's because they ate leftovers all the time. Now that he doesn't have to, he's not going to!

Right now, we have a water cooler at home and we use the bottled water for everything more or less. In our new kitchen design, we are going to install the Moen Pure touch faucet with a button for filtered water, and we'll give up the water cooler. I got the water cooler when I joined weight watchers and had to drink all that water every day. I quickly grew to love drinking water. Filtered or bottled water to me anyway, tastes much better, and makes coffee taste better too.

The only problem with this unit would be the ability to clean it since it all seems to be one piece so so the coffee filter holder etc can get pretty dirty.

What Phillips is this? I gotta see it!

My husband absolutely refuses to eat leftovers of any kind. I think it has something to do with growing up poor. So I throw most leftovers out. There are some exceptions which I will eat, like leftover roast pork, beef, and chicken, or a beef stroganoff, but mostly they go into the garbage.

In our house it depends. I have joint custody of my son, and I have him every other week for a week. During the weeks I have my son, we tend to use Corelle for every day, and we almost never eat at the same time since my husband's hours can be unpredictable. I'll feed Ry first usually and if Don's not going to be too late, I'll wait for him, otherwise I'll eat with Ry. On the weekends, particularly on Sunday's I generally try to make a nice meal, using the dining room and setting the table with a nice tablecloth and the good china and silver. Linen napkins. For just us, I don't worry too much about garnishes, but certainly when having company, I always do and the china, silver and linen as well as a nice centrepiece of some sort is standard. I have two sets of china, one of them 100 year old Limoges I inherited from my great grandmother. The other is china that we received for our wedding. I almost never use the Limoges anymore, because they don't go in the dishwasher, and the plates are much smaller than the plates today so they don't plate well. My ex used to say there wasn't even room for food on them. When Don and I are alone on the weeks I don't have Ryan, we usually eat out two or three times a weekand on the weekend when we entertain a lot. Occasionally, I will go all out and set the table in the dining room with the good stuff for just the two of us with some candles.

I know, and I LOVE roquefort.

Actually, I take 3 tylonal just before going to bed after too much indulging, and it usually either cures the hangover effect in the morning, or certainly makes it a lot less. I swear by this.

I'm not sure.. Too be honest I stay away from fungi just in case. I have the same reaction to penicillian, but that is mold based, so my doctor can't really give me a reason other than don't eat them!

Mushrooms can make me dead actually. It can make for interesting ordering in a restaurant. And buffets are generally avoided.

Thanks. because if it's infused with mushrooms, I can't eat it. And Delmonico's in Las Vegas has these truffle oil chips with parmesan on their menu that look like they might be great, but I thought I should check first.

I always thought truffles were mushrooms.

Well the one I use has a rice and cheese topping instead of potato, so I'm assuming you want the old fashioned kind?

I used to have the Black and Decker KitchenTools Thermal carafe coffee maker, and I loved the coffee. There's nothing I hate more than coffee that has been sitting on a burner too long. Naturally, Black and Decker discontinued it, at least up here. Perked coffee is really the best, rather than a drip machine, and percolators are making comeback. Farberware actually makes a really nice cordless programmable percolator now. Even though most machines will make coffee overnight, I find the water gets stale sitting in the coffee maker that long and affects the flavor.

I'm still trying to duplicate the flowering onion served at the Outback for example. I don't think my current deep fryer gets hot enough.

I like the atmosphere of this kind of dining if we are in the mood to socialize. We dined at Benihana's in London England, and while the food sucked, more or less, our dining companions were great.

The grinder I have allows for different grades of grinding. For a french press I would recommend a medium grind, not too fine. If your grinder doesn't allow for that, just grind a bit extra.

I buy my beans and keep them in the freezer until i use them. I usually blend a combo of vanilla hazelnut and regular (tim hortons here) to get a good blended taste. I bring the beans to room tempurature first. When having company, I use a French Press, but for us I don't usually bother. Even though I have an auto set on my machine I don't use it. I've found if the water sits in the coffee machine overnight, it affects the flavour. I also use filtered water which makes a big difference in taste.

Mine is the kitchenaid Pro 12 cup. It is auto off, has a clock and a reminder for descaling. and a feature that allows you to make a small pot of coffee without losing the flavour. I use the permanent gold filter, although there is debate about which is better, I never run out of filters this way and it goes in the dishwashwer. It also comes in a 10 cup version and has some funky colours, black, white, red and blue at least.

For coffee makers I'd go with KitchenAid or Braun. Braun makes a terrific cup of coffee actually. I currently have the kitcheaid, and I like it, but you have to be careful with the lid, or it drips down the side of the coffee cup. I'm a coffee addict and drink several cups a day while I'm working at my desk here, both machines hold up well under heavy usage. And the best part is, they both have baskets that come out to clean. Most of the others don't which makes clean up a bit of an issue.

Thank you Rachel. I will check them out. I appreciate the effort!

No I don't have a strong opinion on natural stone, but I do want something durable and heat resistant etc. Upon doing a google search, it appears the product is available in BC, but I haven't found anything in Ontario yet. We haven't chosen a granite supplier yet, so I will start some calling around to see if anyone has heard of this product. Thanks!