birder53

That's hysterical! My brother-in-law is Croatian. His son was married at a hacienda in Mexico last year and they Croations in the group finally formed a team to get to the nearest town to find bread. They weren't the biggest fans of Mexican food and only bread would get them through their stay.

I've learned to always bring a light jacket into a restaurant to ward of the possible chill. Even if that works, some places are so cold that my food gets chilled and I have to eat really fast to enjoy(?) hot food. Just the way many office buildings have poor ventilation designs, so do many restaurants.

Thanks Christine. I see a ride to ABQ in my future.

Growing up, dinner was always at 6:00 PM. That gave my father enough time to change out of his business clothes and pour a beer. Once my siblings and I got involved in school sports, mealtimes went out the window. We ate a lot of those frozen things that were cooked by dropping the bag into boiling water and then dumping the contents onto white bread. Frozen hamburger patties were good too. Mom kept us supplied with whatever we could prepare for ourselves and get to where ever we had practice that night. College days were worse. Still living at home, Mom would throw whatever was left from dinner into the oven on the 'keep warm' setting. Some things fared better than others. Dinners were usually eaten around 8:00PM. Married life initially saw dinners on the table at 7:00 or so. Once we both joined gyms for after work exercise, dinners were whatever you wanted whenever you got in. I went through a period of cooking bags of frozen broccoli in chicken broth and having that with lots of grated cheese on top. Now that we're semi-retired, dinner is anywhere from 6:00 - 7:30. We never understood those who enjoy dining in the late evening. We're both hungry around 6:00 and will sometimes snack on carrots while dinner is cooking. We love to get those early dinner reservations that seem to be easy to come by. It's a good thing that eveyone doesn't want to eat at the same time. Can you imagine the chaos if people didn't get hungry throughout the day?

The Amazon links get me to Gristedes but the shipping is a killer for a $.99 item. I just called Cargill and they do not have a list of retailers but said their products are available country wide. I'll try asking the local stores is it is something they will make available.

We stocked up on a lot of liquor before moving from NJ to NM. Even had a friend make a run to Lenell's for us for things we couldn't find in NJ. We've been pleasantly surprised by the selection of things here, if not always the prices. We joined Sam's Club after seeing the large bottle of Makers Mark for $35+. What is surprising is Green Chartreuse goes for around $50 a bottle compared to $39 in NJ. That makes each Last Word a dear drink! We haven't seen the Yellow yet, but there are several good wine/liquor stores in town that might be able to get it for us. A big surprise is the price of vermouth. It's always been really cheap in NJ and while it certainly isn't a deal breaker, we're paying several dollars more per bottle for M&R here. Some of the items on the local shelves are Rittenhouse Rye, Laird's bonded and even Velvet Falernum. Don't know if this is due to the state liquor laws or just the local vendors. The differences from state to state are crazy, but this time it's crazy good!

White bread and butter were staples of the dinner table until Mom and Gran joined Weight Watchers. That was the end of butter on veggies and Sunday roasts with gravy and mashed potatoes. My husband's family always has Italian bread with a meal, pasta or not but - no butter.

Just moved to Santa Fe, NM from NJ. So far Morton's is the salt I've seen in Albertsons, Smiths and our local grocer. Tried contacting Cargill by email for names of retail carriers, but no response. Is this an East vs West thing? The Morton's table salt seems much saltier and I miss the way Diamond Crystal clings to foods instead of bouncing around the place. Has anyone found Diamond Crystal out here?

Campari on the rocks with a twist. Very safe and lately I've been charged only $4 for a very large pour. My guess is that no one really knows what it is and they're just happy to see it go. My other safe drink is a good bourbon on the rocks.

Lots of good ideas. Thanks for all the help!

Thanks for looking up that recipe.

Nasty!

Sounds interesting. Do you have a recipe to share? I haven't come across this combination in my search.

I want to serve meatballs in a spicy peanut sauce for a family gathering. Some folks don't care for spicy foods. Any suggestions for a second dipping sauce for this cautious group? I did find one for honey mustard and bourbon, but I'm not sure if that is a good match for the beef.

Best answer!

Why shouldn't the house chef dress like one?

The denim shirt I use has a stand-up collar which give some added protection. It gets a bit warm so I usually just wear a light camisole underneath and then switch to a nicer shirt when the dirty work is done. This shirt was in the back of the closet for a few years because it was too big and heavy to wear. It turned out to have a good purpose afterall!

After ruining too many shirts with oil stains, I now have three aprons. Two are the usual tie at the waist and neck variety which are fine for prep work. A long-sleeved denim shirt comes out for saute work. One too many oil burn on my arms in addition to more ruined shirts!

This drink was featured in the Sunday New York Times several years ago and is a favorite of ours. Bella Donna 1 oz Gosling’s Black Seal rum 1 oz Amaretto 2 tablespoons fresh sour mix (1 tablespoon each of lemon, lime juices, water, sugar) Rim martini glass w/Cinnamon Sugar My math is bad so I'm not sure if the amount of sour mix is the same as your recipe. The cinnamon sugar is addictive. This usually gets a lot of play in the cooler months for us.

Tried this one tonight. The Miller's is all gone so we went with Tanqueray. It was an okay drink but we both thought it needed a little something. Two dashes of Regan's orange bitters did the trick!

We've been looking for something to do with our bottle of Beefeater and this was just perfect! The combination of Campari and Punt e Mes would overwhelm Plymouth, our usual gin of choice. Very, very nice!

I love kitchen towels! Like JAZ, mine are in a drawer. The towels in front are good for drying hands and dishes. The ones in the back have gotten very thin over the years, but are great for mopping up spills or sitting under washed greens. Hot water and bleach for them all! They should be moved to countertop status. They probably don't get changed as often as they should right now. Even though there are plenty available, we don't always pull out a clean one when we should. Dirty towels, particularly those used for chicken, go right into a plastic garbage bag and then into the laundry room for wash day. It would be a good idea to replace them every day and make sure they don't harbor things that shouldn't be growing in the kitchen! Most are decorated in some manner and remind me of where they were bought or the thoughtful person who gave them to me. I'm a sucker for the tea towels with a calender on the front. I always know how old these towels are!

Having worked at 200 Plaza Drive in the Harmon Meadows complex for 20 years, I would just bring my own lunch. Even the cafeteria there wasn't very good, so our group mostly brought in their own food every day. There is a good pizza place in town that we used to order from, but the name escapes me now. Most of the selections for eating around there are fast food. There is a diner in town and I ate there once. It wasn't anything worth heading back to. Good luck! Congratulations on your wonderful new commute.

We're getting ready to move, which means making decisions about what to take and what to ditch. There is a box of cookbooks ready for a niece who collects any and all cookbooks. (Just wait until she has to move!) At the end of the day, we kept very few cookbooks. They've been replaced by Fine Cooking magazine since 2001. We still refer to the Joy of Cooking for information on ingredients and cooking methods, but not the recipes. We bought Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook, mostly because we enjoyed the restaurant so much, and made one dish. Most sound wonderful but involve more work and ingredients than we care to take on. Julia Child's The Way to Cook was purchased because of recommendations on this site, but a lot of the recipes seem dated and don't really appeal to me. It hasn't been used at all! Many years ago we were big fans of The 60 Minute Gourmet recipe collections from the New York Times, but we hadn't used them in quite a long time. They always took much longer than 60 minutes and now they will belong to the niece. It feels great to get rid of things we don't use. Many of the unused books were also gifts. I vow to never give the gift of a cookbook unless the recipient has specifically requested that book. On the other hand, the collection of cocktail books continues to grow and they all get used.

That certainly takes care of dessert! A bit sweet for my tastes, but if your guests enjoyed it, it was a success.