laurenmilan

If you're stoned enough from the "brownies" you sure do!

I'm running a Star Trek-themed food festival - we do it every year and it gets in the South Jersey papers for the "wierd factor". You're in south Joisey?

They could have hurriedly slapped up a "Mrs. Wilkes Boardinghouse Appreciation Day" sign (seeing as how those are as much the foods of white Southerners as they are of blacks'...) Last I heard, you could stereotype white Southerners with no complaints... Mmmm... Mrs. Wilkes...

I read through - but did not buy - that one at a Borders once! I think I ODed on preservatives just reading it...

Bwaahhahaaaa... oh god I'm such a geek for getting 1/2 those jokes...

I think you just found your new signature, lauren. LOL, too true. I'm making Algae Puffs as an hors d'ouevre. Don't ask.

Illy Espresso. At first I thought I was just preparing it improperly, but after having it made professionally in various venues, I'm more and more convinced that it's just not worth paying the extra $10/lb.

I've been following the "how many cookbooks do you own?" thread for some time now, and of my collection of 140 or so, it's kinda shameful how many have never been used... Then again, considering about 20 or so of these are absolute garbage, that's probably for the best... I keep these for comedy value/novelty, or perhaps because selling/giving them away would mean admitting I owned them (hey some of them I even paid for!) So... what's the worst ones you've ever owned. Did you get them as presents/hand-me-downs or do you admit to spending your own money? To get us started, here's my top 5 list of the the biggest loser cookbooks: 5) Cooking from the Cupboard: Okay, there are legitimate resources on pantry cooking. This ain't one of them. A terrifying overreliance on canned fish. And hey, author, you DO realize that spices and seasonings are shelf-stable, right? So why not USE them once in a while? 4) Secrets of Fat-Free Chinese Cooking: A throwback to the height of "fat hysteria" most of these recipes don't even sound appetizing enough to try. There's such a thing as "neccessary fats". Never buy a Chinese cookbook from anyone named Compenstine. 3) Wizard of Oz Cookbook: Okay this was a gift from someone who knew I was a huge Wizard of Oz fan. Basically a tossing together of stereotypical midwestern foods. No keepers. 2) Susan Powter's "Food": Another "Fat is evil, but 8,000 calories a day is fine!" book. Punctuated with lots and lots of idiotic rants. You'd better agree with everything Susan says about the diet industry, or you're a sexist pig trying to keep a hardworking woman down. and the #1 one: 1) The Star Trek Cookbook: Hey, I'm a Trekkie, so you'd think this would be my favorite. Well, as amusing as the text can be, the recipes fall far short of tasting as alien as they look or sound. I'm guessing it's targeted towards Middle America, but I'm thinking the addition of exotic ingredients (or at least less recognizable ones) would improve the taste and perhaps the appearance of the dishes. The book could have benefitted from the addition of more hints on how to reproduce the look of dishes on the show, as well as some primers on unusual techniques and ingredients. Really expand the mind a bit. But nope, this was just a fluff piece marketed towards gullible Trekkies... like me. (Note: there IS one very good recipe from the dozen or so I've tried, from the actors' contributions: Robert Beltran's Turkey Mole. Very traditional (turkey instead of chicken, chocolate in the mole) and one of the best moles I've ever had. (Hmm, it's almost as yummy as Beltran himself....) An entry in the "Should suck, but doesn't" category is one I got as a present from my parents: The IKEA Real Swedish Cookbook. Several wonderful recipes that I've tried so far, and a lot of surprisingly authentic stuff for such a stereotypical store!

A cookbook recipe I've done twice (and was so popular I went out and bought the book) is the Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts.

I'm running a Star Trek-themed food festival - we do it every year and it gets in the South Jersey papers for the "wierd factor". I'm learning culinary foams and rolled fondant work in prep for this, to ramp up the visual appeal and recreate dishes from Star Trek. I'm also doing very bizarre things with nori. I'll do a "My Big Fat Geek Food Festival" post afterwards...

I've been to that one too! Man, with that trip home the last thing I needed was such an undrinkable caffeine supply...

Dang, I can't make that Burger Joint trip - I'm running a Food Festival the next day, and I'll be spending all day Friday & Saturday cooking... but have fun guys!

LOL, I've had that experience as well! Maybe it's an "emperor's new coffee" kinda thing - everyone thinks it tastes terrible, but almost no one admits it for fear of looking "unsophisticated."

Burger Gothic That'd be one hell of an avatar, Elyse...

Man am I sorry I couldn't make it (I got the Martian Death Flu or something, and who wants Flu Pie?) It looked fantastic, especially "Burger Gothic."

Finally tried my hand at making Cheesecake the other day. The night I made it, it was a cottage-cheese disaster. I let it chill 24 hours, and it was still a little "cheesy" but very good (I put Bananas Foster on top). I took a taste this AM before leaving, and man! It tasted rich and wonderful! I had good luck my first time out... well after giving it a few days...

LOL, this Xmas, I gave 2 of my tea-drinking buddies a tea set. The Bodum Tea Pot with the filter in the center, and a pack of Yamamotoyamo green tea and a tin of Twinings Earl Grey. One has used it a few times, and enjoys it. The other is full-on converted and uses it daily now... so I'd say that was a relatively good tea gift. You wouldn't believe how many crappy "gourmet" coffee related gifts I get year in year out, from flavored concoctions to instant capp. to flavored spoons.

Think "potluck", even though there's a good chance some of the items will be bad, at least you're less likely to be wiped out by the end of it.

Among my friends and family, cooks and otherwise, I'm getting a lot of "sightings" of her, and general expressions of disbelief. Along the lines of "did you happen to see some crazy show with some woman cooking with canned soup and cool-whip?" This is becomes a culinary answer to "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge", people are flipping channels and watching in disbelief, then tuning in for shock value!

Okay, so when IS the next meetup, now? (the one at Burger Joint)

We need an emoticon for "hesser-fit"!

Pennsylvania these days.

You must be Polish. BTW, Martha Stewart's mom does a great version of this...

Don't make me go Amanda Hesser on ya....