Toasted

Oh, Fiddleheads! In season it's about 6 bucks a lb. in CT. We went to a family reunion in ME last summer and ate TONS of them, for FREE! They grow in the wild there and people pick them, and then blanch and freeze them and can't understand why some girl from CT gets so excited about the whole thing. For instance: " What? Fiddleheads? Yup, s-longs the pigs don't eat em first". "Good with pork" was another reply. I love fiddleheads so much with a splash of balsamic vinegar. I would pay a lot to have some, even if it meant only as a special treat once a year.

Ok, maybe I need to try them again but: the two times I've tried them they seemed moldy and rotten. I don't know if they were old? This was last year and people in CT are slow to pick up on new things so they may have been sitting there a while. How do you know if it's good? Also- Blood Orange? Not a good name, Red Orange would be a lot better in my opinion.

I think I saw a movie like that once. Wow. Can you take some pictures or better yet, video? Just for educational purposes you know.

Marsha- good job! I felt completely stoned for the first two days after quiting "cold turkey". Confused and falling over the dog- it was kind of silly. It does go away though. I'm almost at two weeks and I'm feeling good. Last night was tough- we got some sad new about a friend and my first thought was, "Hey, I really deserve a smoke after hearing all that". But then I reminded myself that I can't mind-fuck myself anymore and I made some risotto topped with truffle butter and GOD! Good stuff! And I could even taste it! The only thing missing was a good wine to go with it. I drank a boring Banrock merlot because there was nothing else in the house. Any good suggestions for wine with risotto? Thanks.

How about deep fried cabbage? I've never tried it but I might this weekend because I got 3 heads of cabbage for about a dollar in the marked down produce section. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. Please.

Good for you Marsha! I think I've cooked more in this past week than I have in a month. I've made a lot of things that involve chopping to keep my hands busy. Salads, stews, stir-fries. I think it's helped a lot. My tastebuds have definitely returned and I'll admit that I gained 5lbs last week. I'm not really worried about it though. The snacking has helped and I'm getting a treadmill next week so I'll lose the weight. My sense of smell has come back too- I was at a restaurant the other night and I swear I could smell the glass of wine being poured across the room. I course I then had to have a couple of glasses. Yummy! Sunflower seeds, the ones in the shell that you have to crack are my new favorite treat. They keep your mouth busy because you have to use your tongue to manipulate the seed out of the shell. Salty too. Good luck everyone!

This has been such a great blog. I wish it didn't have to end. The food looked wonderful- and that's coming from a vegetarian! Reading the blog everyday was like going to a quit smoking support group. Today marks my one week smoke free. I can't even express the freedom I now feel from ending this addiction. Thanks to everyone.

Everything looks great. I've been cooking up a storm too. Everything from potato salad to channa masala and then bananna bread. Keeps my mind off of smoking. It's been four days now and I'm doing ok. I haven't given in even once. However, I have been bitchy and I did search my summer pocketbooks on Wed. night just in case an old pack might of been left in there! God, I felt like such an addict. I feel much better today though. The best I've felt since I quit Sun. night. I feel better too- more energy and my cough is gone. Good luck to all the quitters. We can do it.

Welcome to the "party," Toasted. Join us please. And, thanks for saying it isn't easy. Marlene and I are have a really rough time. The stories of "I just put them down one day and never looked" back are not helping me, at all. So, feel free to bitch and moan with me. ← Thanks for welcoming me to the party! I'm really determined to finally quit this time. I just finished with dinner and helping the kids with homework and typically I would be sneaking out and having a quick smoke behind the shed. But I'm not going to. I'm going to enjoy a glass of wine and eat some nice chocolate and re-read this thread from the start if I have to. I'm so glad we're all going through this together.

I can't believe I didn't notice this thread until today because: I quit smoking at 8pm Sunday! I'm doing ok but it's not easy. I had quit when I was pregnant again and picked back up about four months ago. In the last month I realized that I was smoking more and more and that it was only a matter of time before one of the kids caught me. I have also been very spacy and kind of cranky and craving salty things. So, it's great to read this thread, very encouraging and I'm so proud of everyone. Is anyone else having wicked headaches? I've heard that drinking tons of water really helps. Ok, off to make that tasty looking broccoli gratin thing that somebody made.

If you're having a crappy day you eat cheese grits. It's as simple as that. Make a big pot of them, stir in the cheese, and eat by the stove with a big wooden spoon. Best anti-depressent every, in my opinion. Hope things are going better now.

Cleaning the silverware drawer. I did this today and learned a little lesson: Those Chinese take-out packets of mustard and soy sauce will explode and stick to the drawer like nothing else if you leave them in there too long. It took me an hour to get the whole thing cleaned up and then I had to wash every piece of silverware by hand to get the sticky stuff off. The dishwasher tried, but failed and even made it harder to get the stuff off. Anyway, it's done but take it from me, put those take-out packets in the fridge.

Is the garage isulated and heated? If not, don't put the refrigerater in there. Our, new (this year) refrigerator, kept shutting off because of the temp. control. New refrigerators have some type of temperature control that shuts it down if the outside temp is too cold. We lost about $300.00 worth of food and ended up moving it to the downstairs guest room. I guess it's handy if the guest wants to drink lots of beer.

A man walks into the local diner and orders the daily special, which is chili. The guy behind the counter tells him that he just sold the last bowl to the man at the end of the counter. The man really wants chili so he walks over to the guy with the chili and says "if you give me your chili I'll buy you anything on the menu". The guy nods yes and pushes the bowl of chili over. The man sits down and proceeds to eat until he gets to the bottom of the bowl and finds a dead mouse. And then he vomits into the bowl. The guy who gave him the chili notices and says, "yup, same thing happened to me".

Regular rice, always.Dump the rice on the plate and top with the entree. Chopsticks, 'cause it's fun! We only order vegetarian stuff but won't eat the mushrooms (shudder)! We try anything new that's vegetarian. Favorite place is Diamond Restaurnt in Niantic CT. Friendly, with good veggie choices. Best takeout would be Diamond Restuarant because they always have great food. The worst was a restaurant in NY when a rat was stompted by our waiter. Really ruined the meal. This wasn't in NYC btw: just some place we went to eat on our way to Buffalo NY.

Anything in a cream sauce. It starts to seperate and looks disgusting and you can't even believe you paid $15.00 bucks for it.

Oh, the Doritos salad! Very evil! I've killed myself making complicated brie/pear/ leak tarts only to see them ignored, because people love the Doritos Salad! I've made so many delicious things but once the guests taste the salad it's all over. I have to admit, it's one of my favorite things too. Eating that by the pool with a nice cold beer, life is good!

Oh, and Toasted, the dip you made with cream cheese, swiss, mayo, onion and bacon? I took that to a party this weekend, it was the first thing to dissapear! Ha! We rule! So cool! I'm tellling you, if I'm going to get fat eating this stuff then everybody around me is going to eat it and get fat too. Glad they liked it.

I am addicted to what must be the most fattening dip in the world. It is sooooo good though that I'm sharing the recipe and I double dog dare you to try it! Oh, I don't really do recipes so you're just going to have to "wing" the quantities K? Ok, big package of shredded swiss cheese, a cup of diced green onions, mayo (hmm, maybe 1/2 cup?) 1 bar of cream cheese, a little minced garlic and some freshly ground black pepper. Almost forgot: Six strips of really crispy bacon crumbled up. Now I'm a veggie so I use the veggie bacon strips by Morningstar and fry them in oil but, use whatever. All good. So, dump the cream cheese and mayo in a bowl and microwave till soft. Add most of the swiss cheese and most of the scallions and the garlic and pepper. Add the crumbled up bacon or soy strips. Mix it all up and then sprinkle the rest of the shredded swiss on top and then the rest of the scallions. Stick it in the oven for about twenty minutes or so until the top gets a little brown. Serve with butter crackers or just eat with a big wooden spoon when nobody's looking. You could also serve it with veggie sticks but really, who are you kidding? Enjoy!

Last year's mishap: Don't put your cleaned salad greens in a pillow case to wave around and dry because: the second you walk away your husband might just see it as dirty laundry and throw it in the wash. So yeah, it took about two hours to get the lettuce out of the washing machine and my husband was all "why the hell would anybody put lettuce in a a pillow case?" and I'm all like: "Hey, I read it online somewhere, it's supposed to be a good way to dry the greens and why the hell would you put a full pillow case in the wash anyway?". Well, we cleaned the machine and got over it and now can kind of laugh about it and this year I got one of those salad spinner things for Christmas! I'll never use it because I think the pillow case thing works really well but I'll never leave it on the counter alone again.

You know, I really enjoyed his show. I thought he was funny and came up with some great recipes "on the cuff". I'm sorry that he's going.

What a sweet post. Your Dad was a lucky man to have a daughter who loved him so much. Thanks for sharing that.

Not of Jewish faith but vegetarian. I spend the week before Christmas making food for Christmas Eve. We spend the night with our best friends and their kids. On X-mas day we always order Chinese because I am so sick of cooking! I let the kids order anything they want and we eat it while watching a family movie. Oh, and the kids get soda which is a huge treat for them. It's really fun and takes away all the pressure of making the big "Christmas Dinner" and then cleaning it all up.

Non-breeder? Very offensive you know. Makes all the mothers who read and post on egullet sound like cows. Well, I'm a "breeder" and I say, if your kids can behave, take them anywhere you want. If you can afford to pay that much money then do what you want and enjoy! My older children (ages 9&10) have better manners then most adults I see in restaurants. I would rather sit near a happy child having a nice meal then some obnoxious jerk screaming into his cell phone and blowing his nose at the table. But, what the hell do I know? I'm just a breeder.

So sorry that you're closing. I was planning on getting up there in the Spring. Take care and please update us on any new restaurant plans. Best wishes, Melissa