JimS

I don't agree. Freshly toasted and ground whole cumin seeds and homemade stock are going to taste different than using the packaged alternatives. Not necessarily better. Remember, this is chili. Subtle doesn't win contests.

I'm in a rural area and don't like to drive more than I need to. Grocery shopping is an every other week event most of the year. During the winter, I try to plan things to go at least three weeks, sometimes a whole month.

I've been really disappointed in the show this year. In particular, in two separate episodes Oliver pushed a heavy girl in his class over and over again until she cried. You could see that's what he was looking for. Why does the word exploitative come to mind? He also seems completely oblivious to the fact that he's messing with the hamburger stand owner's livelihood. I'd love to see someone go into one of his mediocre Italian restaurants and offer to fix it on television for him.

Not quite. Someone is paying for them, and in this case it's the advertisers who pay to have their message on the bags. These are often small local business' with limited advertising budgets. Samples are offered in the hope that you'll enjoy the product and buy it. It's a different situation altogether.

It's the same as pocketing a few sugar or Sweet and Low packs from the diner, or asking for extra ketchup packets (notice they're not left out anymore) at a fast food place when you don't really need them for that particular meal. It's not illegal. It's also not something that someone who cares about the potential longevity of their local store does. If you need the bags, or just want them, offer to buy a whole roll and be done with it.

We quit buying Breyer's for a while years ago. Back before they started adding tara gum, the ice cream just couldn't stand up to the rigors of the rural distribution chain. It would invariably be icy, and both the texture and flavor were compromised. We had better luck with inferior brands who didn't go out of there way to be quite so wholesome. I don't know when Breyers started adding the gum, but it holds up much better these days.

If you go with pegboard, unless there's something under it to keep you from getting too close like a counter, you'll have to be very careful not to snag the pegs on your sleeves and pants pockets as you walk by. When you do snag them, best case scenario is the peg falls off and the item drops. Worse case, you tear through the peg board and leave an unsightly crack in the material. I'd consider gridwall instead. It's more durable, attractive and kitchen friendly. Plus you can get pegs that actually lock on (although most are held by gravity just like the ones for peg board). There's also a wide range of baskets and shelves that can be attached. I owned a retail store for a couple of decades, and we got all of our grid, slat, pegboard and accessories for them from these folks: http://www.specialtystoreservices.com/product.aspx?category=3242&link=

I got the impression that Oliver was trying to strong arm the LA USD with his media clout and they didn't budge. NPR did an article on the show yesterday, getting the other side of the story. NPR Article.

If it's Twinkies vs Hostess Fruit Pies, I'll take Twinkies. Otherwise, pie wins over cake every time.

Baltimore= Newspapers for tablecloths, hammers for utensils and prodigious amounts of alcohol. I know where I'd rather go.

I feel your pain. The microwave is the only thing that beeps in my kitchen...and I use it for a bread box most of the time. I've got to know though...what on earth is the hood trying to convey when it beeps? Filter cleaning time maybe? On/off state?

There was a post on Food 52 not long ago that mentioned the Opinel pocket knife as a picnic essential. It looked like it might do fine pressed into kitchen service.

Celebrity boxing: Gordon Ramsay vs Martha Stewart. I'd buy the PPV.

Unfortunately, the same also applies to the Vitamix. I seem to remember reading somewhere that 4oz was the bare minimum for it. In my experience, even a cup may cause problems.

I don't know about the state fair but at the local agricultural fair there's always a booth where they'll batter dip and fry pretty much anything you bring to them. They keep a few things on hand, frozen candy bars, twinkies and the like...the usual fair fare.

How about a good old backpacking staple, the SIGG bottle? They're aluminum and some models are gasketed...shouldn't leak.

We don't have anything at all (besides a 7-11 and a Sheetz) where I live, but there are several Sonic's in the closest city. There are also several Checkers which is more or less a Sonic clone (or maybe Sonic is a Checkers clone. I don't know). I'm not a fan of the food from either of them (and I actually like fast food). Checkers has an awful, yet somehow addicting banana milkshake and Sonic has a huge variety of crazy beverages...so if I'm thirsty I may well visit.

Tyler Florence did a beer batter onion ring recipe made from rice flour and a disturbingly large amount of both baking soda and baking powder on one of his shows last week. The rings were really pretty, but I wonder what they're going to taste like. I picked up some rice flour at the store earlier in the week, and planned to make them today but got lazy. Maybe tomorrow. A while ago, I had some stomach issues and couldn't eat fried foods. This went on for years, and I got tired of missing out on some of my favorites. I took to making baked onion rings with a cornmeal batter. It's not the same as a real onion ring...but it will do in a pinch.

Vitamix asserts that the dry container is the "opposite" of the wet. The blades in the dry are designed to push material up and over the blade for kneading bread doughs, whereas the blades in the wet container are meant to drag the contents down towards the bottom of the container.

Years ago, I worked at Michael McCarty's DC place, Adirondacks. When it first opened they tried to do things differently. They paid the wait staff well (the kitchen staff too for that matter), and had a no tipping policy. That didn't last long at all. It made the customers uncomfortable. I think the customers thought the servers were going to run them down as they left and scream at them for being cheapskates! I find it somewhat amusing, and not a little disconcerting, the rash of people arrested for refusing to pay the mandatory gratuity at various places. Every year or so there seems to be a new story. The last I caught was a couple in Philly arrested last winter.

I'm not really ashamed of anything that I eat (and I'm from the Appalachians so that can get interesting)...but what I won't eat, or drink rather. I really just don't like wine. I've tried to develop a taste for it, but it's just not there. I can stomach red wine, but white just plain disgusts me.

I replaced my old seventies era Vitamix with a newer one a year or so back. I looked at the Blendtec, but the programs turned me off. With the Vitamix, you're the master of your own destiny. Plus I had a predisposition to Vitamix after decades of good service from their machine. At least at the time, the Vitamix also had more than double the warranty of the Blendtec. If I were to do it again, I'd have to give the Blendtec with the 3 quart jug a more serious look. It would be nice to be able to fit the machine under the cabinets without separating the container and the base. The in-counter Blendtec is about as sexy as a blender can be too.

There are an awful lot of us around who were perfectly happy with our German knives for decades, and we got by just fine despite performance that just wasn't there.

Fifty cents a pop out here...tiny and blotchy.

One of my favorites...with a funny little story. Okay, maybe it's only funny to me. Way back when (that being the latish mid-eighties), I was attending culinary school in the morning while working in the Kennedy Center kitchen (five restaurants from cafeteria to fine dining...brilliant kitchen to learn in) afternoons and evenings, and filling every other hour of the day working at a kitchen retailer, Kitchen Bazaar on Connecticut Ave. One of my jobs at Kitchen Bazaar was to do prep work for visiting cookbook authors. This could be anything from making dishes to simply unfolding chairs. This was a really fun job getting to meet and occasionally work for folks I really respected like Giulliano Bugiali, Jean Louis Paladin (he was there for SOS) and many, many more. This shop had at least one signing every month. I don't think Rose Beranbaum did any demos when she came around to do a signing for The Cake Bible, but I remember I was assigned to shadow her all morning (must have been a Saturday). At the end of the day, when she signed my book, she signed it with my last name as my first name! Okay, maybe it's not that funny to me either. Must have made a great impression though.