SylviaLovegren

I've never seen a fresh passionfruit in the US, sadly. I make sure to eat my fill whenever I travel outside of the US. There was a passionfruit vine outside our apartment in Los Angeles which sometimes bore fruits, but it was on a busy road so we were always afraid to eat them, assuming they were filled with chemicals from the fumes.

Love that Turkish red pepper paste. It's nice to have on hand for quick appetizers when people show up unexpectedly (it seems to keep forever in the fridge) and it's different and healthy. Good with bread, crackers or raw veggies.

If I were cooking an Easter dinner, which sadly I'm not, I would have: Small buttered rounds of pumpernickel with rounds of hard-boiled egg slices or shrimp on top, with a dab of mayo and a sprig of dill -- these with drinks Baby lettuces with a light vinaigrette dressing, topped with some warm goat cheese (our cheese people have fresh milk after a couple of months of aged cheeses only, and the new cheese tastes so good!) Roast lamb with a little garlic but not too much Roasted potatoes, Greek style with lemon, or orzo Asparagus Coconut layer cake with lemon filling and jelly beans dotted around the top for silly decoration.

You can just package up those black ones and send them to me. They are the whole point of jelly beans!

One of the best...and truest.

That brisket is spectacular. And the faux-Reuben sandwich makes me want to crawl through my screen to get at it. Wow.

Yes, but store bought Chambord tastes like cough medicine, too, so you did just fine! Seriously, sounds fabulous!

I LOVE the Astro Balkan full fat, for eating and cooking. Love love love it. Best yoghurt I've ever had. The creamy rich texture with the bright clean sour is just fabulous. Had lots of pretty good yoghurt in the NY/NJ area, including plenty of Middle Eastern ones from the Turkish and Lebanese stores, and a favorite homemade style from a biodynamic farm in upstate NY, but the Astro beats them all.

Mazel tov and break a leg and hope everything goes swimmingly!

Wow, is that true! My husband just bought a small case of guavas and the first thing the strikes one when walking into our house is "clean that catbox, now!" I had no idea. P.S. We have no pets.

Ribs are on sale at our local market all the time lately so we've been making them. I'm very slovenly when it comes to this, though. I salt and pepper the ribs, then rub them with a local "Kansas City Style" bbq sauce. Put them on a rack over a pan with some water (to keep the drippings from burning, put them in a 275 oven for an hour, then flip them, brush on more sauce and go for another hour, flip again with more sauce and go for about 45 minutes more. They're tender and juicy and the sauce gets a deep flavor from the long slow cooking. It might not be Lexington BBQ #1, but they're dang good.

My husband's Greek. One of his favorite things to make with feta is a delicious salad, perfect as a main course for an unbearably hot day. It is simplicity itself -- onions and tomatoes with oil and vinegar, bit of oregano, salt and pepper. Just before serving add a fair amount of crumbled feta. Find a shady place with a glass of wine and some good bread and feel relief from the heat. The other thing is to make a salad with all the vegetables, then make a feta omelet and serve with some Greek pita (thicker and breadier than most Arab pita) which has been rubbed with olive oil and heated on the grill on both sides for just a minute.

Now THERE's some good news!

Brazilian shrimp in coconut sauce. With lime and cilantro. Yum. Any gumbo -- you can choose the pork, chicken, seafood you want/have. Puerto Rican asopao, ditto above. Richard Olney's chicken baked with whole lemon slices and garlic, truly sublime. Chicken parts coated with poblano/jalapeno/lime/cilantro/garlic puree and broiled. Especially good with breast strips. Great leftovers. A rich beef stew with red wine, garlic, carrots, onions and celery. Then make the best beef/barley soup in the world with the leftovers. Ymmmmmm.

Here's an explanation of what happened: http://appliedrationality.blogspot.com/2012/02/tempest-in-lunch-box.html

No, that did not happen the way it was reported on Fox, etc. The child was asked if he/she (I don't remember) whether he/she wanted some fruit and salad to go with her/his lunch and thought that the teacher meant he/she had to get rid of the homemade lunch. No one took the child's lunch away.

Right across the river from you in Hoboken. The Italian bread bakeries are (mostly) all offshoots from one family, warring siblings, who each decided THEY should be the one to carry on the family business after the parents were gone.

I like the cucumber with caviar or shrimp, maybe add a little dill? I had a Russian friend, an older woman, who always served pelmeni (boiled dumplings) or piroshki (baked dough stuffed with meat and onions) as appetizers, along with pickled beets and other pickled vegetables. This recipe for piroshki is very similar to the ones my friend made My link. Of course there was usually sour cream to go with the pelmeni and piroshki!

Pictures! What are TN fries?

How long do you need to hold it?

You could make the big ones and invite folks -- like me! Sounds really delicious and unusual. Would love to see the recipe.

Yes. My MIL taught me this (and me, living all those years in So. Cal!) and it works wonderfully well. If you put them in the fridge before they're ripe they just sit like rocks, but if you wait until they're just about ripe, they hold wonderfully. And great at sale time, as you say!

If you add some sliced banana and a few marshmallows, things get real fun.

Wow does that sound and look good. Does it fit into a lo-carb diet, do you think? I can always make it to take to church coffee hour, right?