Toasted

I have found that it is the perfect finger food (raw) for the baby. I use the rest in mattar paneer or kadai paneer- sauteed paneer with onions, green pepper, tomatoes and spices. Sometimes I just crumble it up in a salad. Good stuff.

Where's the okra? I'm willing to reconsider my aversion to the stuff (remember the love it or hate it okra thread?) if I see some that actually looks tasty. Btw: I love this bog, the pictures, the food, the town- it's like going back in time-reminds me a lot of some of the little towns in ME.

We got this question tonight in fact and I had to laugh because I had looked at this thread earlier today. The waitress hadn't even looked at the stack of bills before she asked it, I think she was so busy and was trying to let us get out of there and save herself a second trip back to the table too. It didn't both me though.

phyllo dough- I know the rules, keep it covered with a damp cloth. Still, it falls apart and rips and looks like hell until I finally get it baked and then everybody eats it up. Some day I want to make pretty appetizers that sober people would actually enjoy.

You sound so much like us it's a little scary! Now that our 7 and 9 year old's are able to behave in any restauraunt, we now have an 8 month old who likes to scream, just for the sake of screaming! So, we'll be taking a break from the nicer restaurants for a while and maybe get that "cement pond" we've been talking about.

Have you checked out Mesa Verde -504 Congress St? They offer a nice selection of mexican specialties and the food is very fresh and reasonably priced. This is a great place to bring a vegetarian too- all of the dishes can be ordered with grilled tofu instead of steak or chicken.

Disturbing yet funny as hell. I'll have to check out the rest of the site later. Thanks.

Oh, we share the same affliction! I love those things! Did you ever try microwaving one for a couple of seconds? Yummy!

I'm with you! Eggs in things gross me out. Bagels and eggs together as one is one big no!

A little sour cream is good. Then, 2 mashed avacadoes, lemon juice, salt, 1 clove minced garlic and some fresh ground cumin ( not the crap that's been hanging out in your pantry for the last two years either). Let it sit for a while in the fridge. Throw some chopped tomatoes on top if you want to.

A rather moldy tasting Shiraz and some sunflower seeds.

This recipe has been so built up that people will be inclined to hate it. Try it, it's tasty and also, I stoled it off the fridge!

ok! Just let me get this screaming baby down to nap.

Now, I'm a good girl and certainly don't want to get on the bad side of egullet. PM me if you really want the recipe ok?

Good going. And now wouldn't you like to add it to the eGullet recipes? You know, I think I will! The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it looks nice for a long time, even with the avacadoes. People love it and you can serve it with all sorts of things.

An obnoxious little story: I went to a private art showing at someone's home. I was invited by the friend of the artist. The art was lovely but so was the wine and the amazing food being passed around. The best was an avacado mousse- I tasted it and just about died, it was so good. So, I asked around and it turned out that the artist made the mousse. So I went up and told her how much I enjoyed her work and by the way, "how did you make that avacado thing?" She replied: " My sister got it off the internet but people keep asking about it so I can't give you the recipe, I'm going to sell it and my other recipes along with my art work". What? Her sister got it off the internet and she's going to take ownership of it and sell it at her shows? No, no, no! I actually bought one of her paintings, she is very talented) and while she was wrapping it up I copied the recipe off of her fridge and have given it to everyone I know. BTW: I still can't find the original recipe online anywhere so maybe the sister tweeked it a bit. I have to admit that I feel a little bit guilty about what I did but the quest for a good recipe will do that to you, plus- I did buy one of her paintings!

french bread with butter and onion confit!

I never cut the core out of the smallish ones.

I think it would be good in some type of pasta dish- I considered gnocci- baked with some cheese. Maybe I'll try this next time.

So what did everybody do with their confit? I used mine on bread with goat cheese, over perogie's (very good) on some rustic style pizza with roasted peppers and a sprinkling of gorganzola and lastly, over some smashed red potatoes with butter. Now I'm out so I'm making some right now- same recipe I used before because it was so, so, good.

MMMmmm, I want some of that, a margarita, and a plane ticket out of this horrible land of snow!

Money is also an issue with us, now and probably always with three little ones and I love my bread machine. It was $100.00 at Target but I've used it at least three times a week to proof dough and make pizza dough and it's holding up well after two years.

I am now part of the Onion Confit club! Here's what I did- sliced the six onions and dumped them in the slow cooker, added 1/4 cup of port, 2 Tbs. butter, 1 Tbs. EVOL, two bay leaves and a couple of teaspoons of dried thyme- oh, and some condensed vegetable bouillon- maybe 2 Tsps. I set the cooker on high for about two hours and then low overnight. This morning I have the most beautiful confit! I'm making some bread to serve it with- I may run out and get some goat cheese to smear on. Good stuff and so easy! Btw: my crock pot is oblong and larger then most crock pots and heats up pretty well- It's a Rival Crock Pot slow cooker. I didn't have any of the problems that other people did re: too much liquid- probably because I took it easy on the port, butter and EVOO and because the bouillon was condensed.

IMO the ferret's are stealing this blog! I love them! Plus, the food looks good too.

Last week we had dinner at a very nice restaurant with the kids. This was our first outing with the baby (he's 7 months). Because he is teething he makes a lot of weird noises from time to time- not screaming mind you, just noise, you know. Well, I wanted to leave right away because the table next to us was full with what looked like a business meeting and I never want to annoy anyone but Mr. Toasted walked him around, gave him a chewy thing and the baby was fine. We had a great dinner, the 7 and 9 year old kids were wonderfully behaved and we even had a bottle of wine! As we were leaving the people at the next table stopped us and told us how much they enjoyed watching our family have dinner together. One of the women said that it's a shame more parents don't bring their children to nice restaurants anymore. I almost cried right there. Here I was feeling all this anxiety and people were actually enjoying us! It was a good night.