hjshorter

Well said. I see nothing lamentable about choosing shredded wheat with skim milk and sliced strawberries (or a handful of blueberries) over a croissant. I gotta agree about the Froot Loops though. Well said Mr Buxbaum.

Agreed, it was my favorite of the seafood sampler we were lucky enough to get.

Yeah, of course. I hated ranch dressing until I made my own: buttermilk, mayo, a little sour cream, fresh dill, chervil, chives, S & P, maybe a little garlic. It makes a great dip, and cole slaw dressing.

A big big thank you to Charles and the lovely and gracious Stephanie for hosting yesterday. All three chickens tasted good, but the non-brined was my favorite - sorry Mal! It was, for lack of a better description, more "chickeny" tasting. The other food was very good too - especially simdelish's chocolate dessert, the corn, and the cheese plate (Livarot, Brin d'amour, Taleggio, and an unidentified goat). That said, picking the cheap ice cream as my favorite did not enhance my reputation as a gourmet.

In response to your original inquiry... Seen always but never bought: "diet" cookbooks (think Grapefruit Diet and the like), low-fat/cholesterol/taste cookbooks, celebrity cookbooks, and all the Gourmet/Bon Appetit/Southern Living, etc. etc. Best of (insert year here).

I worked at KFC and worked in a fancy French bakery, and believe it or not KFC was much cleaner. It was a good experience overall. And I was surprised how much of KFC's product was made in store - biscuits with actual buttermilk, chopping cabbage carrots and onions for the cole slaw, etc. No doubt that's changed since they merged with other stores.

My greatest find (already mentioned on another thread) at the Goodwill book sale was the complete Time-Life Foods of the World, including spiral bound recipe books, and all of the American volumes. For $25. My Mastering the Art I & II are yard sale finds. I don't get to used book stores nearly as often as I would like to these days.

I don't know that I agree. Try disciplining your child in front of a room full of people and see how many give you dirty looks. What kept most of us behaving as kids was fear, pure and simple. In my case it was fear of my mother grabbing my ear and hissing in it just exactly what she was going to to do me when we got home if I didn't "stop doing that this instant." If I did the same to my daughter there very likely would be 4 people around me on the phone calling the cops. Taking away the Gameboy just does not inspire the same kind of fear.

Wow, where I can I get one of those? Once again recently we tried dining out with friends and their children, only to be put on the spot as the other couple let their kids roam. Our kids are sometimes loud or act up, but they are absolutely not permitted to wander around.

The aforementioned Filipino restaurant is called the Pampanguena Grill.

KFC here, and they had pretty stringent cleaning regimen, plus my location was brand new when I started. I worked in the prep area mostly, making the coleslaw, greens and biscuits, so I smelled like buttermilk biscuits after a shift.

It's my experience that kids often behave better for other authority figures (teachers, babysitters, etc.) because they don't know what their boundaries are with that other person, or what the non-parent's reaction will when they teste their limits. So a friendly but stern word from a server might get the desired behaviour, whereas the parent's admonishments might be ignored if the parents have not been consistent. Most kids know that their parents will love them no matter what - and that that doesn't always extend outside the family.

i find it odd that someone in the broadcasting business for that long would characterize someone as successful as Rachael Ray as "stupid". ← My thoughts exactly.

When did the "family dinner" become a social norm? And how did children learn positive social behavior on the days when children took their meals in the nursery?

Interesting. We decided early on to have dinner with the kids every night, and we've stuck to that for 6 years now, but we're moving away from it. We get little enough time together without the kids, and might start feeding them early then having dinner together after they go to bed on weeknights. That said, I'm a stay-at-home mom, and my husband either works from home or leaves the office by 5 in order to be at home for dinner, bath and bedtime, so they aren't lacking for face time with us.

Oh, there will be biscuits. Varmint must have forgotten.

Three articles about Korean cuisine and restaurants in the Montgomery Extra section today: An Enlightening Taste of Korea's Cuisine Korean Restaurants: Barbecue and Beyond A Primer on Korean Food The second article is a comprehensive list with short reviews of Korean restos in MD, VA, and the one DC place.

For those in the Washington DC area, there is a new Filipino restaurant opening in Gaithersburg, on Rockville Pike across from King Farm (I will post the name as soon as I find where I wrote it down). And, there is a Filipino market and Bakery in the Wheaton Triangle shopping center. If anyone has been to either of these places I'd love to hear about it.

Emma and I drove to Takoma Park this morning to check out her new school, and dropped by Marchones on the way back to pick up sandwiches. My intention was to have a light lunch today since we're going to Ray's the Steaks tonight, but a small cold cut sub and half a black & white cookie have me ready to lie down with a cool cloth on my forehead and snooze for a while. I had not been in several years and thought it might have missed a step but the cold cut sub is as good as ever - a just-crusty-enough-without-lacerating-your-mouth roll, good quality meat & provolone, oil & vinegar, lettuce, tomato, onions, and a sprinkling of oregano. Hot peppers, or not as meets your fancy. Plus all the San Pellegrino sodas - limonata, aranciata, chinotto, and Sanbitter (excellent with gin).

What's not to like: Benjarong. This used to be one of the better Thai restaurants in MoCo, not as good as Ruan Thai or Dusit in Wheaton but better than Tara Thai or Tara Asia. Judging by our meal last weekend, they have slipped badly. What I prize in Thai cuisine is the exquisite balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet, and the initial palate explosion of fresh herbs and chilies, with the preserved spices and flavorings providing a bass note to round and deepen the flavors. There was none of that happening at Benjarong. Tom Yam Goong was a thin broth with a multitude of button mushrooms, cilantro, and two overcooked tasteless shrimp. There was no discernable flavor other than dried chili: no citrus, lemongrass, lime leaf, or even fish sauce. Pad Thai was overly sweet and loaded with bean curd and tasteless shreds of egg, with no discernable peanut flavor and no citrus to squeeze on top. I am hardly an expert Thai chef but my pad thai is 100 times better than that. Pad Prik King Muu is one of our benchmark dishes - a spicy dry curry of pork and green beans, aromatic with wild lime leaf, green peppercorns and holy basil. Benjarong's version disappointed in every way. Tough morsels of pork with undercooked, unpleasantly chewy green beans in a soupy sauce tasting of nothing but chili. The kid's order of chicken with vegetables in oyster sauce was a thin soupy mix of baby corn, cabbage, and tough tasteless carrot slices with a few chicken pieces mixed in. One scant cup of cooked rice was provided with each entree. We won't be back.

I was going to suggest mudwrestling for the championship in case of a tie.

Oh, that's bad news about Johnny Boys. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the decent bbq place in Waldorf. If it occurs to me I'll post - it would be on your way whether you take 301 or Rt 5 south.

I had scallops again. Someone should make me order something else next time just so folks don't think I'm obsessed or something. They were, of course, perfectly cooked, sweet and creamy inside. An excellent match with Bourgogne Blanc I was drinking. Oh, and beet salad and chocolate torte. That torte is excellent. Imagine the most intense chocolate custard ever and that's what it's like. I'm becoming a Corduroy groupie.

I volunteer for the hardship duty of tasting all the beverages. It will be tough, but I really think I've got what it takes.

I straw, when appropriate, especially in the car. I even drink beer with a straw when I'm alone and no one can make fun of me. At a nightclub I frequent, the bartender knows to serve my mixed drink with a "big girl straw" instead of a teeny little swizzle straw.