hjshorter

For me, writing styles, punctuation, and colloquialisms help to identify the user. Call it "e-personality." I overlook spelling errors, as the meaning of a post can usually be inferred even with incorrect spelling. The only affectation I can't stand is the person who cannot type a sentence but instead...has to use...a series of ellipses...with no capitalization...it makes me crazy...i belong to a mailing list with someone like this...i delete all of her posts unread...

That sounds great! I need to make me some more stock-- my eGCI stuff is long gone already. Maybe sometime next week we could.... Stop! [slaps self.] Down, boy! Bad! Bad! I sense some sleep deprivation, Seth. I would be happy to do risotto with all of you, since I am a risotto novice. Will check out Craig's recipe ASAP. I'm not making stock this weekend, though. We are getting the house ready to put on the market next week, so this weekend should be nutty enough without giant cooking projects.

Chad, I had that same line instantly pop into my head. Beautiful kitty, and beautiful risotto. Since Italian is one cuisine almost never attempted in my home I confess that I have never made risotto either. I need to remedy that.

Leopold Bloom: thick giblet soup nutty gizzards stuffed roast heart liverslices fried with crustcrumbs fried hencod's roes grilled mutton kidneys

GG Mora, I am in awe.

I've taken a pig or two home after a party. More frequent is when I took them home from a bar. You cad.

Seth, every two weeks might be a more realistic goal given the we have new babies, moving plans and the holidays going on. We have to spend the weekend cleaning and fixing up our house, so I'll do the fish dinner on Friday night.

I don't blame the kids. I used to before I had kids of my own. Now I blame the parents, because it's the parents' job to set limits and teach manners. And yes, there should be a rule book. But would anyone read it?

Interesting. Mom is from New England, and when I was a kid, she fixed our grilled cheese with a sprinkling of worcestershire sauce. I've never met anyone else that does that. Now I dip mine in Melinda's Jalapeno sauce. Never anything sweet. My bags are on the way. Now off to Target to find a toaster.

See, Michael, people are just stupid. At 7:00 that kid should have been having a bath and getting ready for bed, not in a restaurant somewhere. If we take the kids out we plan on getting to the restaurant between 5 and 5:30. It always amazes me how many people are arriving with their obvious cranky toddler children as we are leaving. I usually do any serious shopping after the kids are in bed, and I won't even go into how many kids I see being dragged around the mall or Target at 8pm.

Thanks Priscilla, I will hunt it down. I like the idea of small batches. Scored a copy of Better Than Store Bought for $9.00 through abebooks.com. I love the internet.

Awww. Maybe I'll ship you a couple of jars.

That's why mine have to stay in their seats, because it's just not safe. We bring plenty for them to do, and if they start acting up we're outta there. My kids are 4 and 18 months, too young to just go watch the fishtank, or the tortilla maker, etc.

My 18 month old son is in love with Rachael Ray. He just sits spellbound whenever 30 minutes meals is on. She's so nice and smiley.

It didn't happen. I'm saving the fish for this weekend. No one seems to be into the duck, so maybe that should wait. I like Martha, always have, and subscribe to MS Living and MS Kids. She's smart, and her recipes and crafts work. They aren't always the easiest to make, but I get tired of women's magazines that dumb down everything - the "dinner in 20 minutes!" "make your kids a halloween costume out of paper bags!" sort of thing.

We clean up the table, but not always the floor if Ian is having a freakout. We just try to get out as soon as possible. Usually I slip the person sweeping up an extra tip. Emma is a very tidy eater, and always has been, but Ian is thrower. We don't go out much these days, although we had dinner out on Monday and he was perfect - ate his food, colored, no shrieking. Maybe he's getting a little more civilized. Now, there's no excuse for that, along with letting your children out of their seats to wander around the restaurant. That is absolutely not permitted in our house - it's rude to the other diners and dangerous for the waitstaff. We went out with one neighbor family once, never again, because they let their daughter down to wander around. Of course Emma wanted to get down too, and we felt uncomfortable saying in front of this other couple that it was rude and we don't do that...

There was a very interesting article a while back in the Washington Post's business section about how they choose their locations. If I can find it I will post a link.

MatthewB mentioned that also. Time to track it down. The River Cottage Cookbook is on my list now too. And I have been following Jack's preserving and breadmaking lessons closely. This could be fun. Bread day again tomorrow. We need another loaf pan, so maybe a trip to the kitchen store too. Is it possible to find one that will make a two pound loaf? Edit: Holy Cow! www.powells.com has one of Witty's books, The Fancy Pantry used...for $45! It and Better Than Store Bought are out of print now.

Thanks Kathy, one of the reasons I've been thinking about it is because of Emma's allergies. She reacts badly to corn and corn products, and corn syrup is in everything, especially condiments. What about yogurt? That's easy to make at home, isn't it? We almost always make our own salad dressing, but not chutney or relishes. That's the sort of thing I want to tackle. Fifi, I counted. We have six different mustards. That's just nuts. Guajolote recommended The Joy Of Pickling and it's on my Christmas list. Does anyone else have a recommendation?

I tried making salmon croquettes out of the salmon, egg, dill, onion and leftover mashed potatoes. It looked exactly like barf.

Susan, I've heard a week for homemade. We don't eat that much and I hate throwing it out.

I bought a can of salmon today just out of curiousity. It's full of bones. Blech. I spent 15 minutes picking the bones and gelatinous skin out. Now I'm not sure if I even want to try what's left. What is the point of this product? What does anyone use it for, other than cat food?

I agree, homemade mayo is much better. I haven't made it much recently because we haven't been giving uncooked eggs to the kids. I've loosened up on that now that Ian is a little older. Homemade bread is good, but I wish we had a slicer for sandwich making. Not sure about the cost savings though. Busboy, in our house it's six vinegars, and four oils, and three kinds of salt. Sticking to one cuisine has its merits, but deciding which one...

I don't think I can then. Next week?

That's an excellent observation. Looking through the pantry again, most of what we have packaged is thai curry paste, coconut milk, sambal, 5 different kinds of noodles, soy sauce, fish sauce, chutneys, etc. Maybe I should pick one cuisine and stick to it.