snowangel

If you are talking about a dumpling type, make them yourself and freeze them uncooked (on a cookie sheet, then put in a ziplock). That way, when the craving hits you at midnight, you can pull a few out and steam or pot-stick them. I've found when I freeze them, it is best not to defrost them before cooking. My craving last night at about 12:30 am was typical for me. Bacon ("imported" from Lenny's meat market in New Ulm, MN).

Ah, Lucy. The prep in your first post is my favorite, my almost any way will do. I love chicken feet. Imagine how my chest puffed up when at a recent EG dim sum event, when my 9-year old son, at a recent EG dim sum event, devoured 2 or 3 feet. Further. When I was growing up, I spend summers on my grandparents farm. Several times a summer, my grandmother and I would go to a neighboring farm to get some chickens (this involved catching, killing and prepping them; I was 8 when I killed my first chicken). Nothing went to waste. Early on, my grandmother instilled a "it isn't chicken stock or broth if there are no feet" mentality in me. They add a richness that you can't get from just bones and meat. A succulent, sensuous quality to that stock.

Love to hear about folks losing their larbginity. Do try and source out galangal and lime leaves, however. Tomorrow, I will larb for a crowd. 2 lbs. of ground fairly lean pork butt (custom ground by my local butcher). One thing I find is that, although I have made a lot of larb, when I take these two pounds, I will not make two pounds of larb in one batch. Two or three batches. It's one of those things, that at least for me, does not double or triple easily. But, that's OK. I have slave labor (kids) at my beck and call.

Not sure I'm actually up to venturing the Blue and Yellow Labryrinth this last week before Christmas. I can only imagine how much more zoo-like it will be. And, I just remembered that it's across the road from the Sprawl (oh, I mean Mall) of America. I do some recipe comparing and probably fiddle with them.

Nothing wrong, Rachel, with starting them in the nuker and finishing in the oven or toaster oven. Baked potatoes are another great go-to food, and we had them like this much more often when I worked outside the house. Wash potatoes, prick, nuke. While in the microwave, scan the fridge and freezer for bits of odd leftovers, etc. with which to top them. Dinner on the table in about 20 minutes.

Every Christmas Eve, we do the same thing. It's fine with my family (the in-laws). Lutefisk, boiled potatoes, melted butter, a couple of veg sides, a salad, and Swedish meatballs. Meatballs in some gravy. And lingonberry stuff. I'm on for the meatballs this year. HELP! Or, do I just go to Ikea and buy their frozen meatballs and packet of stuff to make the sauce? How do I do the lingonberry thing?

My kids, husband and I love the snowflake shaped Ritz. They seem to have more holes, or more something. They are much better. I bought a case of them. Hope they keep well in a very cool basement or garage. We also like those triangular shaped Triscuits. Regular triscuits seem to go stale much faster and not be quite as snappy.

I needed larb this morning. SO, while Heidi and I were waiting for her bus, we made larb (actually, I made larb, she watched some squarepants show). Wednesdays are my days to volunteer from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm at Peter's school. I have lunch with his kids in the cafeteria every Wednesday. Perusing the menu for today, I realized that today's lunch (some sort of maple flavored corn dog things or school pizza) didn't turn my crank. The salad they offered didn't, either. So, it was larb at school lunch. I took plenty so kids who wanted to taste it could. I toned it down, heat wise, and took some extra crushed dried red pepper (for me). Peter is so-so on larb. Liking it more all of the time. Guess what? My favorite kids in the class thought it tasted sort of neat. They were excited to be able to go home and tell their parents that they had eaten something that their parents had probably never heard of. New mission? Convert kids to larb addicts.

I have kids. I have plain white Corelle. It works. Kids can drop plates, bowls, whatever on the granite counter and they don't break or chip. Someday when the kids have quit being pubescent or 9, and prone to the dropsies, I will go back to Nice Dishes. When I worked outside the home, the office had black plates. Rare steak looks really nasty on black plates. As does salad.

Nothing like a party when everything that leads up to it goes wrong! I probably shouldn't mention the sick kid I was holding who barfed into soup one late afternoon before a party... Marlene, I'd have loved nothing more than to come and hold your hand, eat your nutmeg-less lagasgne and clean up you damned kitchen.

We're getting together with about 30 (out of town at another's house) and I'm smoking a couple of butts and perhaps a brisket.

Actually, it was 30 minutes loosely covered, plus an additional hour not covered. Assume this would make a difference? Diana was home the day the show was aired and was intrigued, so, yes, advice would be appreciated.

Marlene, I wished I lived down the street from you. I'd invite myself to all of your parties (and help you clean afterwards).

I would use a lower heat than 325, going with 250 or so for longer. The thing is that you want it to go long and slow, and I would pay less attention to internal temp than "wiggle of the bone" and that fork-tender quality.

As I peruse this thread, I think of my role as mother. When I was working outside the home, I used after dinner and homework time for more lessons. And, a way for "quality time" with Diana (now 14). Prepping dinner for the next night. At least thinking about what we would eat. What was in season. What we could prep ahead of time. It prompted many lessons. Geography aand seasons. Math. Reading (like a recipe). Lessons such as roux, mire poix, bechamel. Proportions, what happens to what when you cook it in butter, mix it with flour, what your roux tastes like when you don't cook it long enough. Cooking with and for my kids has been a wonderful experience. It was a wonderful way to spend a late evening with wonderful children. All of us learning. About knives, what is in season, how to do the basics. Like I said before. Math, reading, etc. What amazes me is Diana's FACS class (formerly home ec, now Family And Consumer Science). The cooking focuses on things like prepped food (ala Pillsbury in a roll in the fridge case at the market). Would this class be mine, the kids would know about vinaragette, roux, braising. There is a way to work all of the academics into this. None of these things are difficult, and as Diana has said, just about anyone has the ingredents on hand to make most of these basics. A good portion of eating well, healtful and inexpensively is about education. Now that I'm a stay at home mom, budget is reduced. We've discovered that "homemade" is more economical (and it tasted better). Dumbing down? Not in this house!

There have been a few other threads on this subject: Brown Bagging It Brown Bagging it, Lunches? Brown Bagging it on a hot day Variety is the key.

OK, Marlene, since they are good friends and have been test subjects in the past, don't fret so much about the menu. Just fix what you feel like fixing! One of my mosst successful dinner parties with really good friends (tasting subjects, so to speak) was Eggs Benedict! With good friends, there is nothing wrong with something homey (sp?) or something that requires little "ala minute" attention. I think that's what made my posole luncheon for my mom so successful. Everyting was done in advance and heated. We allowed ourselves to put our feet up, and shed those social cloaks.

I'd do a test onion. If it is a go, it is a go. If not, fall back on a roasted red pepper spread, or what Jake suggested (which sounds divine). Yes to lasagne. Time to branch out, break out of the mold. Are you aiming for a great evening with good friends or to impress?

Burns. YOu are better off with cold, not ice water, intially. The ice water can be damaging to that tender tissue. Reminder to take the bandage off at night and let it be in the air. A wound bandaged constantly will not heal. For the cracked and peeling hands; do this every night: Some sort of vaseline stuff for a few minutes. Take a pumice stone or an abrasive cream to them to get rid of the dead and yucky skin. Apply bag balm or something similar. I've never found anything better than bag balm. When I was getting ready to sell our house last year, and my hands spent countless hours in hot water and all sorts of cleaning junk, my hands took a huge toll. The exfoliating process really helped. Really.

I would rethink the potatoes. Perhaps go with something more like a vinagarette potato salad with roasted pepper, garlic, capers, whatever. For veg side side dishes that keep well and hold well at room temp, I offer a version of a recipe that I have adapted from Madame Wong's Long Life Cookbook: Asparagus: Cut a bunch of aspargus diagonally into 3/4"-1" chunks. Blanch asparagus. Shock with ice water. Dress with 2 T. soy sauce, 2 T sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, 1+ cloves of garlic, very finely minced (or pressed). There was a recipe for marinated mushrooms in a recent Cook's Illustrated that was quite good. And, another standby is to sear some green beans, garlic chunks and roughly chopped shallots in EVOO over very high heat (you want them to sort of brown). Add a bit of liquid (I'm partial to chix stock), cover and cook till almost done. Uncover and a bit of balsamic and a bit more EVOO. I also have a great recipe for a black bean and rice salad that serves well, keeps well, can be made in advance, and wins rave reviews. It's on recipeGullet (now out of commission; we're working on that) or I can PM it to you. Finally, olives and pickles. They may seem too easy, but they go. People like them. I agree with a comment above. Regular salad can be tough. It does take up a lot of plate space, and can wilt and get weird if left out. The suggestions I've given above to not require ice, cooler or hot plate area. Try and make sure the rolls are crusty, or get great baguettes. Don't forget really great unsalted butter. Oh, and at a recent party, one big hit was having a little dish of coarse sea salt out for the bread and butter. 3 ovens? Lucky you...

Thanks, Ellen. My first and only trip to China was in 1980. Much has changed, much is the same. And, your pants. Probably cut off grain (seamstress in me). Makes things just flat not fit.

A couple from our "brokest" past: Carbonara and Amaatrciana. Pasta plus. I took to getting bacon ends, at that time, from our local butcher. Not panchetta, but beguiling in it's own way. Pasta, eggs, onions, canned tomatoes, and those bacon ends were all inexpensive. I did splurge on parm because a little goes a long way. It's all about figuring what is worth paying a lot for and what isn't.

Here is our family's favorite cut out recipe: Aunt Laura's Xmas Cookies: 2 cups of butter, creamed 2 cups of sugar 4 eggs beaten light 1 t. soda dissolved in a tiny amount of very hot H2O 1 cup flour 1+ t nutmeg Add sugar to creamed butter. Add eggs. Then,m add soda. Follow with flour and nutmeg. Add enough flour to make a quart. Stick outside on the back stoop until chilled and roll out with as little flour as possible. (sic) Chilling the dough is essential. As it is, this is a very soft dough, and for some reason, the first batch always spreads, so choose that first batch's cookie cutters accordingly. Chilling on the back stoop, assuming that one lives north of the Mason Dixon Line is essential. I do think that the recipe card, written in spidery fountain pen is almost 100 years old. It is yellowed. It is stained. You bake them in a moderate oven (her first was wood), which I always took to be about 350. It is a good recipe, and the nutmeg just flat makes it. We always do 1/2 with frosting (powdered sugar type) and 1/2 without. I think I like them better without frosting. And, lastly, the one thing I wanted from Laura's house was her cookie cutter collection. Thanks to her, I have about 100 of them.

Anything with chicken legs and/or thighs. They have been cheap forever. I think I am reaping the rewards of the current trend to boneless, skinless chicken breasts!

Marlene, thanks for the kind words. For an appetizer, have you thought about something more vegetable oriented? Many years ago, I had an appetizer that was cream cheese mixed with a packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing. Smeared on crackers (a combo of triscuits and carrs) and topped with a thin slice of cuke. It was wonderful, but too salty, so when I make this now, I take the cream cheese, add some minced garlic and a bunch of whatever spices seem to grab me. Or, a roasted red pepper spread with crackers? Or bruschetta (all to common, but if done well, a real treat)? Crunchy and vegetables seem to go over very well.