SylviaLovegren

I like the early 70s version. It may be dated but the basic info on everything is really useful.

Real butter, EVOO, and good eggs. The pale excuse for eggs most supermarkets sell taste bad to me.

I'd be scared to buy silicone stuff made in China -- who knows what they put in it?

We always had cold cuts, cheese and crackers and the kids would be challenged to finish off the Christmas cookies. But my mom had access to a Norsk butcher shop hence the cold cuts included rolle pulse (veal and pepper and totally delicious). As an adult, sans rolle pulse, I usually try to make split pea soup. This year, I'm happy to have some leftover beef stew and not planning on doing a thing except to heat it up. The couch and I are bonding...

But other than that, how do you like the show? I'm sick of celebrities in everything -- cooking, writing, talk shows. Who gives a rat's patoot what famous-because-they're-on-TV people think about anything? They're usually know-nothing boring people anyway. If I want to watch a show about cooking, it's because the person presenting the show has something interesting to show or say about that food, or the ingredient, or the place, not because I can't get enough of some idiot celeb. Seriously, it's enough with this crampola.

I liked his show a lot. In retrospect, knowing about his secret life, it's petty creepy. But I had no clue at the time.

Duck breast with peppercorn (green or otherwise) sauce (brandy and cream) is good and easy. Veal goes nicely with risotto if you don't want potatoes. Sounds like a lovely dinner!

This is it. Sick of complications, sick of going out, sick of rich food, sick of everything. Toasted cheese sandwich and soup. Perfect.

Donuts of any sort!

I love getting cookbooks as gifts. My friends and family have given me some excellent ones over the years, the best being books I probably would not have chosen myself. If you really like a particular cookbook and think a friend or family member would enjoy it, too, why not share? Isn't that what gift giving is about?

I don't know anything about professional baking and I live in North America, so I can't offer you any advice. But I'd love to hear stories about food in Finland.

Necco Wafers, candy corn and licorice (except salted) are some of the best candies, ever. The yummiest Neccos are the black ones. These are not "serious" candies, of course. That designation belongs to high end chocolates. There are times when you want a truly delicious high quality candy. But there are plenty of times when you want to chomp on some orange slices or candy corn.

Y'all are weird. All that stuff is good, even when bad, except for really cheap chocolates that taste like stale floor sweepings. The really bad candy is Dutch salted licorice. I shudder just thinking about it.

I don't know the effect of the different curds, but I do know the effect of just made versus hanging around for even a few hours. At the best NJ salumerias of my experience the muzz is made every few hours and not refrigerated so it's always juicy and warm when you bite into it. Really, you can't underestimate how much a difference age and temperature make. So if Fairway makes their muzz "fresh" every day but it is 12 hours old and has been refrigerated, it's going to taste very meh.

My experience is in Hoboken, NJ, across the river from NYC, which in the 90s had at least 5 salumerias making mozzarella every day, all from the Polly-O cheese curds. Each places' muzz tasted very different, but all were delicious. Vito's Deli (always my favorite) let me watch them make the muzz one day, starting with the packaged curds, and I have to tell you the taste of the new born muzz right out of the warm water was sublime. But Vito's never sold muzz that was more than a few hours old, because the whole point was the warm, juicy creaminess. Once past that tender moment, it's just string cheese, and not worth much except for pizza topping. So maybe stuff made from fresh milk right next to the farm would be more sublime than fresh Vito's polly-o muzz. But for those of us living in the city far from a dependable fresh dairy, thank you Vito's! And thank you polly-o.

It gets flabby but you can crisp it up in a pan or in the microwave.

That takes me to a 404-page not found. I'm curious!

Also, to be pedantic, gyro is pronounced hhhyee-roh (like hero, with a y thrown in). But that's really hard to do, so we'll go with yee-roh.

Here's a thread on the subject My link I'm debating whether to brine a pork loin roast....

Mac 'n' cheese with ham. Eggs Benedict. Croque monsieur. Grilled ham and cheese sammiches. Jambalaya. Or you can just ship that thing to me if you don't know what to do with it...

I make something very similar and love it. Good with almonds, too.

This stuff better be amazingly good for all that work. Either that or you need 9 Greek grandmothers and aunts hanging around the house happy to do it.

The ones used to send to school with my son a few years ago were all padded and insulated soft lunch boxes. None of the kids had hard-sided boxes anymore.

If your MIL always talked about it, it must be good:) But most of the things she talked about she made -- she was an excellent cook in her day. But the trahana was only talked about, never made, so I wondered if it were one of those childhood memories that are best left in memory. Apparently folks here really like it. Or maybe ME kishk is better than Greek-style?

How was it? We once got a Turducken from upstate NY, cost about $250 with shipping, and it was absolutely awful, greasy and tasted like canned pimiento. No one ate any of it and we ended up throwing it out, which was a shame. Since then I've been scared to try any.