HotCanary

I am an Irish-American lapsed Roman Catholic, and did not grow up with a terrific culinary heritage.As a young married girl, I had this idea that the big food holidays belonged to specific nationalities. Thanksgiving? Totally 1960's American:Turkey, sweet potatoes,bread stuffing,etc, and keep your meatballs out of this, Italian mother-in-law. Christmas? England, of course, with Rib Roast and Yorkshire Pudding and Trifle,and anything else that reminded me of Charles Dickens. Easter? Italian all the way,baby! The Passion and Resurrection belonged to them, because the best Good Friday and Easter services were always found at the Italian Churches.Mother-in-law, god rest her soul, made stuffed artichokes,manicotti (or canneloni, the crepe kind, not the pasta kind,)brasciole with pine nuts, raisins, parsley and cheese,meatballs, salad,a meat pie with salami,capacola,and cheese, and once in a while a wheat pie for dessert(kind of bland,to me), but more often pastries from a now closed Italian bakery. This was labor-intensive Italian-American emotionally satisfying food, and I sorely miss that she's not here today to cook her little heart out.Since her death, I have recreated some of the basics (artichokes, manicotti,brasciole) and since they are her recipes,they keep this tradition alive for my children. This year, we're driving to Boston to visit my daughter, who's in college, and we don't have reservations anywhere, so who knows? But Lillian's menu means Easter to me.

Thanks to this thread, I made Martha's version last night, substituting a little heavy cream for some of the milk, and using panko (the most appealing part of Alton's recipe, imo). I know that I made her version once before, during one winter when my husband and I were on a quest for the perfect macaroni and cheese, but this time it was much better. My kids really liked it, so I'll definitely make it again, but I'll probably try John Thorne's, andiesenji's or Delilah's first. I remember making Patty LaBelle's version, with all the velveeta, and I remember thinking it was kinda greasy. Anyway, this is a great thread for this time of year, if you haven't made any diet resolutions. I think I'll go check out that soup thread now....

They showed the Monster Thickburger on the Letterman show last night. At the bottom of the picture, it said, "WARNING:DO NOT EAT."

I started reading thread tonight, and as I read, the anticipation kept building.Which name will he choose? YEAH! Thank God he chose Melt! Well, that was fun...

Oh yeah, once when my daughter was three, I had to chase that mouse to shake her hand, because he/it was walking away and didn't notice her. Note: It has never been MY idea to go there.

Actually, last year my son's second grade teacher ran a trip to a college planetarium, followed by lunch at.......you guessed it. And she was probably in her right mind, because the trip was at the end of the year, as a reward for good behavior. And she asked for parent volunteers (I ate before I went). It turns out that second graders, at least ours, are already too old for the place. Except for a few decent video racing games, there just wasn't that much for them to do. I'm a hardened veteran of many loud ,obnoxious places to take kids: boardwalk arcades, rollerskating rinks(with video games, of course) county fairs, crappy concerts,circuses,etc. It toughens you up. I'm finally out of that stage with my daughter, but now she's starting to sing out in bars ! Much, much better .

Do you know what she does with pixie stix? Check out the Linen Dusting Powder in Minute 14: 17 MINUTES

Gave: truffles from Maison Du Chocolat for my MIL and my daughter's singing teacher, because they both deserve luxury chocolate for Christmas. Received: Popover Pans, from my husband. I've been experiencing popopver problems, and I was just about to post on egullet, but I don't have any questions any longer. : BUT: The biggest food gift came from "Captain Underpants": To the Grove Family, but mostly "O". (Our family gets a lot of gifts from fictional characters) This was a S'mores kit from Bed,Bath and Beyond. It's basically a little range that you toast your marshmallow on. You use little cans of sterno, and have a little cookout. My 9 yr old is in heaven. He just made three actual s'mores, and toasted many more marshmallows, as we watched "Pirates of the Caribbean".

My Italian-American mother-in-law worked in a supermarket years ago. A customer in the produce section asked an elderly woman how to prepare dandelion greens. She pretended to be hard of hearing, then turned to my mother-in-law and whispered,"They used to make fun of us for eating these! I'm not going to help them now!" My husband's family loaded me down with recipes and cooking advice when I first joined the family. I guess they wanted to make sure my husband was well taken care of.

My kids, and all their little neighborhood friends, have always loved gingerbread. This always surprised me, because I never liked it as a child. I started making it for them primarily to decorate, but the little urchins actually ate it! As a former class mom, I can tell you that your idea will be a huge hit. With the kids. The mess might drive you crazy,however. Most fun ideas ARE messy

I actually did vomit, when I was waitressing, and I came in to work hung over, and my customer put ketchup on his scrambled eggs, and kept mushing it in, and mushing it in, and.......well, maybe I would have thrown up anyway.

Oceangroveguy, do you have any specific problems with Klein's? I've been happy, but mostly with fluke, tuna, clams and grouper. I have my Fridays when a trip to Kleins is part of the start of a great (Irish/Catholic) weekend. I somehow became friendly with a very cranky fishmonger at Havens& Hamptons, who would look at me like he hated me, then tell me what was the freshest, or offer to clean my crabs. He was a pretty scary guy, but when he left, I converted to Klein's. There's nothing better, for me, than sitting on their back deck, watching the party boats go by, and eating a fried scallop sandwich. In fact, we had my daughter's 11th birthday party there two years ago, and her music teacher at St. Rose Grammar School was the entertainment. He sang "Happy Birthday" in a totally embarrassing Springsteenesque manner. But Italian ices at Strollo's seemed to help her recover. So, from your kinda lukewarm response, what should I avoid? Am I enjoying Klein's just out of sentiment?

My sister and I worked at that Howard Johnson's in 1976. I'll bet the same family owns it. Their name was Panas, and they were a Greek family with many businesses on the boardwalk, including the Berkley Sweet Shop. I grew up in Asbury Park, so all my favorite boardwalk food is long gone. Taylor Pork Roll, Mr. Peanut(complete with guy in peanut costume), Ducky's (Hot Dogs)and Tammy's Pizza are just faded memories . I worked selling salt water taffy at Jonathan's sweet shop, and made cotton candy at the Waffle House.I used to go out to the bars with my hair all stiff from cotton candy. The summer I worked at the Waffle House, the waffle irons were broken, and the owners never bothered to get them fixed. So we used frozen waffles. That was the same summer that Elvis died .