sparrowgrass

kraft dinner with no butter--just extra (real) cheese grated in.

Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with whatever kinda herbs ya got, and grill. I use an Italian blend, and add a little parm when I take them off the grill.

Mulatto was the first thing I thought of when I saw that commercial. Isn't it weird that using the word niggardly correctly in a speech gets someone in a pile of trouble, but this hasn't caused any fuss at all? (Except here, of course.) Seems like an indictment of the intelligence of the American public.

Old maids--the popcorn kernels that don't pop, or, even better, the ones that partially pop. I once found a can of "Half-pops"--commercially packaged half popped popcorn. Wonderfully crunchy, but I have never seen it again.

FWIW, I heard on NPR that some of the Asian shrimp farmers ( most of the imported shrimp are farm raised) use an antibiotic in their ponds that is not approved for human consumption.

Turtle is tasty, but there are bits of the turtle (called "white meat" in the local vernacular) that are indeed too tough to chew, no matter how long you cook them. Your cleaned and prepared turtle should have those bits removed, and be relatively tender--think chicken thighs--and should NOT need extended cooking. You are right about cleaning the buggers--WAY too much trouble.

I think the bleach is sealed to keep the bleach from getting out, not to keep folks from putting things in. I would hate to be loading those jugs of bleach onto the shelves and have them dripping in my store or on my customers clothes.

I once saw an immense man sitting at the "self serve" blood pressure machine in the Walmart pharmacy. His cart held a giant sack of pork skins. Atkins, I guess, but it made my blood pressure go up just to look at that.

I use pie crust. Roll out a big batch, cut a 4 inch circle for each serving, then cut the rest into stars or moons. Sprinkle them all with some sugar--that turbinado with the big crystals works well. Bake til barely browned on the edges. Put the berries, sliced and sweetened on the the circle, decorate with the stars and moons and some nice whipped cream. MMMMM. WANT SOME NOW!!

I heard or read someplace about a cellphone user in a restaurant who was describing (in quite audible tones) the most intimate details of her date the night before. A fellow diner immediately picked up his phone, and said, "You should hear what this chickie in the restaurant is talking about!" and began to repeat, word for word and just loud, her conversation. Probably shut her up quickly. I was once in a bathroom stall, when the woman next to me said hello. I responded, a bit quizically. When she said, "Whatcha doing?" I was taken aback and began to stutter something. She then said--to me--"I am on the phone, do you mind?"

This is a fun thread--I hope you are enjoying the cooking as much as I am the account of it. RSincere--I noticed something in one of your threads that worried me--something about draining ground beef and losing meat down the drain. Please tell me you don't drain meat grease down the sink. If you do, I hope your SO is a plumber, because you are looking for one big clog.

I bought one a year or so ago, and generally, it is fine. One of the wires on the whisk comes off when I wash it, but not in use, and the chrome ring on the mixer (just above where the beaters are inserted) fell off, but a little whack or two with a knife handle fixed that. That said, I don't use it very often, so I am not sure I have really put it to the test. Got it from Amazon on the Friday sale thing, and I think it was about $170.

Lucky for me, and probably luckier for my mom and dad, we moved far away when I was 3 or 4. Another superstition, not food exactly, but if you get the front of your dress wet while you are washing dishes, you will marry a drunkard.

My grandma told me I would learn to whistle if I ate the crusts off my bread. After diligently eating every crust for a year, I did learn to whistle. Then she told me that angels cry when little girls whistle. Mean old biddie, she was. Katie, the cork itself has tannin in it. Oaks are full of tannin.

Wash it. Put it in a big bowl and swoosh it around, and pour the water off. Do it again, and maybe once more. Hand parched rice is supposed to be the best, but I like paddy grown just fine. Broken rice is cheaper and good for casseroles and pancakes. Amazon's new gourmet food line has several varieties of wild rice, at reasonable prices.

I useta be a state park naturalist, and I did lots of wild food forays. The recipe probably is calling for the seed heads--the thingies that turn brown when they are ripe. Ripe is inedible--you need to get them when they are just tiny and green. To substitute, I would use baby corn--similar taste and texture.

I am emailing this to my mom--she thought she was the only one to do that!!

Us country folks call them "electric pigs". I don't have one--I have dogs and chickens.

Come on over, chezlamere. The green beans are ready to pick, and the taters are ready to dig--I had some for dinner on Sunday. (Might have to wait the til the garden dries out a bit--lots of rain today.) The chickens ate every leaf off my peas and broccoli/cabbage plants.

We were never allowed to have Hamburger Helper. My dad sold conveyer belts to the factory, and he said HH ate up belts faster than any other product. He said if he wanted to eat rubber, he would just cut up some belts and boil them without the HH.

Come an hour or so south, and I will meet you in Farmington, at the BBQ Warehouse. Best BBQ ribs I have ever tasted. (And good coleslaw, too.)

Cheeseandchocolate, I could invite you for dinner--love lima beans, brussel sprouts and cabbage. Mayhaw, I want the cheap sardines in tomato sauce--just had a can last night, with saltines.

Take your pomegranate apart under water--fill a bowl, get your knife, slice just thru the peel as if you were going to quarter the thing, put it under water, peel, and rub the seeds off the membrane. The membrane bits will float, and can be skimmed off. The seeds sink. No juice stains on your clothes or fingers, and it is quick as a wink.

Milk. When I was pregnant and had to drink it, it had to be chocolate and really, really (I mean, like almost frozen) cold. Most cheese. Coffee. Smells good, sometimes, but can't get it past my tongue. Pickles, sauerkraut, green olives. Chicken livers make me gag. (I didn't like the roasted cauliflower either. And I made it twice, just to see if I did it wrong the first time.)

My favorite jelly bean story: It was just after Easter, in Kentucky, and my son was about 2. He was finishing off his Easter basket as I was working in the garden. I stood up at the end of the row, and asked him what had happened to all his candy. He said, "I pwanted my beans, too, Mom." They didn't come up. I think the frost got them.