KNorthrup

There was an article in the paper about the Hooters airline. One passenger interviewed was on the flight because his wife booked it. He's a self-described "white knuckle flier" and she figured the distraction would help.

Monica - Do you mind posting a recipe for this one? It sounds incredibly good. I don't like cashews and it sounds good.

For the most part, I don't dare deviate from my mother's recipe (which is as unauthentic as you can get but it's what my tastebuds expect) but I do now replace some of the beef with chorizo. Quick way of getting all sorts of extra flavours. Andy -- How common is chili over there? I was really surprised to see you weigh in.

Related question. Does family, esp when you see them regularly, count as "guests" in this context?

All those laws about food manufacturers being able to sue people who insult their product -- like the whole apple thing -- are off the books, right? Oprah took care of that? Yesterday I had (gas) grilled steelhead and the dark layer against the skin tasted like corn on the cob. Which wasn't also on the grill.

Careful. I made a crack about a co-worker's rendition of Cincinnati style chile recently and he came across the thread while doing a basic Google search for recipes. My father's mother and grandmother used to always hassle my mother about not using their recipes for things, esp potato salad, but I haven't run into any issues yet. No one's picky. Reading this, I'm grateful.

Green figs are remarkably compatible with blueberries. Esp cooked up a bit and poured over blintzes or ricotta pancakes.

Soba, I think breakfast burritos are totally underrated, and I wish someone near the ol' day job here would sell them (and take on the responsibility for my waistline in the process). Just discovered this week that Whole Foods does a good basic breakfast burrito. Just your classic eggs, potatoes, cheese, salsa, whole wheat tortilla, but well-balanced and it's so large that I cut it in half and it was two perfectly satifsying breakfasts. And I like large portions. Made the cost easier to bear too.

Barbara Kafka's Party Food has quite a bit of advice, logistics, etc as well as applicable recipes, mostly of the finger food variety. Haven't entertained in years but it was useful when I did. May even be available at your local library.

Congee?

That's been my issue too. I like the writing itself but I'm not comfortable with a lot of the subject matter - changing or "retraining" loved ones.

Do you mean Otty, like by Krispy Kreme?

I just figured that Steve was boggled by the fact that this thread has a page 35 to refer to. Very few get that far.

I don't remember the brand name, but I buy a honey-jalepeno mustard specifically to go with ham steaks, with sweet potato home fries on the side.

Latest news - Starbucks has signed an agreement to open branches within Charter One banks in Chicago. Unusual plus - the banks will keep regular Starbucks hours, not vice versa.

Am I the only person who has done/gathered absolutely nothing? Which is in no way to say that preparation is a trivial and/or bad thing. If I had dependents, I would have something. Kind of like life insurance.

It's funny how many of us had similar cereal experiences. We also weren't ever allowed sugary cereals as kids, or most any other sort of junk food, so for my first semester at college, breakfast most every morning was a bowl of Froot Loops plus tater tots covered with cheese sauce. Also went on an extended kick of sandwiches of Wonder Bread, Miracle Whip, and Kraft Singles. Very rebellious. But my mother knew what she was doing -- after a couple years of getting it out of my system, I went back to healthy eating.

We've passed 1,000. But I'm still not watching.

I always figured it was a combination of to earn money and the whole in loco parentis thing. Prepaying for your meals guaranteed you wouldn't starve regardless of what other choices you made throughout the semester. Food in rooms was completely allowed. So were fridges. And coffee pots. Just not microwaves. There was a traditional mess hall (Lola Tilly Commons after a home ec prof) with set meal times. Then there were also the half dozen satellite places that the general public could eat at as well -- the cafeteria in the student union, the pizza by the slice place, etc. They were usually open until at least 10 and I'm thinking more like 1am on the weekends. At worst, inconvenient timing wise, there was a 7-11 right outside campus limits, although that did mean at the base of a cliff so more of a trek than you'd expect. Esp at 40 below.

That sounds much nicer than the baptism I'll be attending. Related news - no Bones & Brew in Portland this Sept. Very very very sad.

Nordstrom.

The joint stories remind me of the realtor convention scene in American Beauty. I pity the next blogger. Nero - what post explains your sig?

This is ten years ago. There were three meal plans -- 19 meals per week (sat/sun only had two), 14 per week, and 7 per week plus some amount of credit, I think about $250. If you lived in the dorms, a meal plan was 100% mandatory. With the credit, you could buy meals in the regular cafeteria, in the more traditional/edible pay type one in the student unions (burgers to order, etc), at the pizza by the slice place, the on-campus bar (we had one; I didn't realize until later that that's unusual), and the convenience store, which stocked all sorts of microwave-ready things and snacks. Most people got the full meal plan their first semester and quickly learned to switch to the one-a-day-plus-credit version. My brother is currently enrolled at the same place and the structure hasn't changed. Each dorm had one public microwave (none allowed in the rooms, technically) but no public fridge, sinks, stoves, etc.

Cadbury Picnic

We had typically lousy food. I think it was run by Aramark. One of those large corps that also do airports. But it was in unlimited quantities! Apparently that's not standard. The only clear horror memory is getting pancakes one morning and being unable to cut them. Even with a knife. So then I tried just tearing them into pieces with both hands. Got all sticky but still no luck. Not sure how they did that. Big vats of nacho cheese sauce at every meal that you could pour over whatever you wanted. I remember one meal with a fellow from South Africa. How he ended up in the arctic I don't recall. But he got half a dozen plates of various offerings and couldn't take more than a couple bites of each. As we're gathering everything back onto the trays, he announces "I am now making the transition from African to American : I am throwing away food." We also used to throw peeled hard boiled eggs out the (ground level, floor to ceiling) windows in the winter and watch the ravens try to pick them up.