kayb

Thanks for the Crepes, my sympathies on the supermarket pizza. I, too, have never had one from a supermarket deli that was fit to eat. We had the homemade variety last night, half cheese for my daughter, with the addition of dry salami and Kalamata olives for me. Crust was exceptionally good -- crispy, cracker-like, doggoned near excellent.

Thanks for the Crepes, re: garlic. I don't like the taste of fresh garlic, and I got in the habit of making garlic confit to keep in the fridge and use in any preparation that didn't involve cooking the garlic. I've gradually moved along to using it in any recipe that calls for garlic. I generally use more than called for, one because I love garlic,and two because it's less strong because of the slow poaching process. Sure is easy and a timesaver. I buy the big three-pound bags of peeled garlic cloves at Sam's, and confit the whole thing, and it'll last me 3-4 months.

It's an odd little dish, but my family loves it, so perhaps yours would as well. Not so much a recipe as a technique. Filet your breasts and cut them into 2-4 strips, depending on size -- you don't want bigger than 1 1/2 inches. Put 1/4 cup chili powder in a bag and shake them to coat lightly. Wrap each strip in a spiral with a piece of bacon -- the thin sliced is better for this, but if you have thick sliced, you can use it if you par-cook it first. Secure with a toothpick and set aside on a plate. Line a roasting pan with foil. In the bottom, put a layer of tiny new potatoes, or fingerlings, and carrot chunks cut about the same size as the potatoes. You can add other cut-up root veggies if you wish, and I think Brussels sprouts would be good, too. Put a rack on top of the potatoes. It can rest directly on them. Roll your bacon-wrapped chicken strips in brown sugar and line up on the rack. Bake the whole thing at 375 until your bacon is crispy and your chicken done. Check your veggies -- you may need to remove the rack, cover the chicken with foil to keep warm, and put the veggies back to finish. The juices from the chicken and bacon do wonderful things to the veggies. Small people tend to like it, as do picky eaters. You could vary the spice as to what's available, but I like the chile/cumin kick of the chili powder.

Kim, thanks for that. Looks like it'd be a good brunch dish if you were feeding a crowd. Re: Deviled ham/ham salad. I had a taste for some earlier this week, and used some Easter ham to make it. It was a bit different that my usual -- employed Dijon mustard, worcestershire, vinegar and hot sauce along with the mayo and pickle pieces. Pretty good stuff! I even deviled myself an egg to have with it on crackers for lunch recently. Dinner last night was chicken alfredo, of which I have no photos because it's not photogenic, particularly when you serve it on a white plate. With some buttered bread from a loaf baked the day before. Comfort food.

A shame about the botched attempts at meals; glad you redeemed them. Many years ago, en route from Philly to Gettysburg via the "scenic route" through Lancaster County, we stopped at a German restaurant on the side of the road. My companions could have left me there for the remainder of the trip. The sausages, the potato pancakes, the spaetzle, the red cabbage -- delightful. Wish I could remember the name and the location.

Thanks, Kim! There are several in Memphis, an hour away, and I'm there once a month or so. I'll check next time. Thanksforthecrepes, I for some reason just like the proportion of sausage to egg I can get just right with a quail egg. I can get the sausage a little thicker, so it doesn't split, and if I make it that thick on a regular egg, seems like the whole thing's the size of a baseball! When I used to get them at the Farmers' Market they were not that expensive, but were quite difficult to peel. I learned to peel them under cold water. liuzhou, I'd love to know more about baking the quail eggs in a shell of salt.

I've had two in my lifetime. Broke 'em both. Your Easter spread looks fabulous! Would love the recipe for that cheese souffle.

Thanks for the crepes, I don't remember where the glass plate came from, but I have three identical ones, wherever it was! I'm still eating ham sandwiches on Mrs. Mary Lloyd Young's rolls. The perks of being the cook for Easter.

I dine occasionally in restaurants with close friends and we expect to share. Generally we'll ask for extra small plates so we can put bits of our entree on them at the beginning of the meal, pass them around for others to do the same, so everyone gets a taste of everything. Given the size of most restaurant entrees, that still leaves me with more of my own entree than I can eat. With friends, if I'm drinking a different wine or beer and they ask about it, I'll offer a sip, turning the glass so they're drinking from a different spot. That's more in deference to their potential germophobia than my own. Meals at home are almost always family style.

And I have my share of embarrassing things, mostly things like noodles or crackers that i bought for a specific purpose, didn't use, and have kept on hand until they expire. I'm by no means a Nazi on sell-by dates, but in general terms, something that expired more than two years ago is going to be a bit worse for the wear and should be chunked. Like the rice paper spring roll wrappers. The dry roasted peanuts from 2010. Sunflower seeds with no expiration date, but they smelled rancid, so out they went. Lack of pantry space is all that keeps me from being a hoarder.

Why would you freeze Velveeta? Stuff lasts forever. I keep it on hand for three purposes: 1. homemade mac and cheese (half and half Velveeta and sharp cheddar) 2. Homemade pimiento cheese (ditto, with pimientos, mayo, vinegar, cayenne, sugar and salt) 3. Nacho cheese dip. I think it's the law.

Guilty confession: I love Great Value black bean and white corn salsa, particularly mixed with grated cheese. It's the only foodstuff I go to WalMart for; it is, in fact, almost the only item I go to WalMart for, period, and certainly the only food item I buy there.

First attempt at Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. Meh. Better when they were fresh than later.

I have eaten a ton of this over the years. I do love it. It's always one I go for at the church potluck back home.

Two things I frequently make are tomato and avocado salad, but that's really more of a savory salad than a "fruit" salad; it has bacon and a mayo-lime dressing with smoked paprika, and a tomato and cantaloupe salad, where I cube the canteloupe, half the cherry tomatoes, half balls of fresh mozz, and toss it all with a honey lime viniagrette. Excellent over roasted asparagus.

A not-terribly-attractive photo of most of the Easter buffet: from the bottom, corn casserole (Yes, Kim, the one with the Jiffy mix, albeit it was with corn I froze last summer); green pea salad (bacon, cheese, red onion, in a mayo-lemon-sugar dressing) surrounded by deviled eggs (I have learned to cut them in half crossways, then cut a sliver off the bottom, and they sit still on the plate since I do not own a deviled egg platter); asparagus, both wrapped in proscuitto and plain, roasted, with Hollandaise; ham and homemade rolls. I'd forgotten to put out the "other" peas, cooked simply with butter, salt and pepper for the one who likes neither mayo nor onion. We finished up with pound cake topped with strawberries and whipped cream. The night before, we had grass-fed ribeyes, sous vided for 4 hours at 125 and then seared on the grill. Magnificent. My SideKic immersion circulator played out, so this was my maiden voyage with my "Merry Birthmas" combo Christmas-birthday present, a new Anova circulator. As we were eating off our laps to watch the Kentucky-Wisconsin game (Yay, Badgers!), I went ahead and cut up my steak whie fixing my plate. Accompanied by my first try at Hasselback potatoes, which were quite excellent, although they should have cooked a bit longer -- these were the big doggoned baking potatoes.I may never make a regular baked potato again.

First grilled burger of the season, with potato skins and a salad of avocado, grape tomatoes, and bacon in a lime and mayo dressing. Pretty excellent. No pics; sorry!

Anna, your cheddar cheese muffins look like a breakfast fit for the gods. The opposite problem -- too many things handy to eat -- contributed to this carb-heavy breakfast. A hot cross bun from yesterday, as well as a caramel apple fried pie I'd brought home from my favorite dairy bar, along with a Scotch egg. I had some small eggs in my last dozen of farm eggs, so I saved them and boiled them with the ones I planned to devil later today. Used some country breakfast sausage. Not bad, but the sausage covering split in a couple of places and thus the egg white was rubbery. I really wish I could find quail eggs.

A master loaf from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, my first time to make it. Lovely loaf. The other half of the batch made fougasse a day or so later. Topped with salami and grated Parmigiano and mozzarella, served with homecanned tomato sauce. (posted on "Dinner" thread as well).

Bed, Bath and Beyond (and likely other places) carries these green plastic bags that are "breatheable" and are allegedly wonderful to store produce in the fridge. I have a friend who has a large garden and swears by them. They're reusable.

Fougasse topped with cheese and salami, and tomato sauce I canned last summer. Accompanied by a glass of MR.

Absolutely gorgeous.

I've spent most of my life in small towns, a couple with a vibrant restaurant culture, most without. I travel to larger cities, for both work and pleasure, frequently. I tend to tip 20 percent for adequate service, regardless of where I am. More, if the service is excellent, or if the tab is exceptionally small. If I have a $5 lunch (is there such a thing any more? Maybe a $7 lunch....), I'm going to tip at least two bucks.

I will eat McDonald's hash browns, and Burger King or Sonic French toast sticks. That's the extent to which I'll venture into fast food breakfastdom.

So, this happened: I had leftover corned beef. I was thinking about corned beef hash, but I was really jonesing for latkes. So I combined the two. With some homemade apple butter, these were pretty outstanding.