Marmish

Here's a previous thread on yogurt-making. I haven't made any in a long time because I can get the Mediterranean homestyle easily now. The longer homemade sits, the tangier it gets. The starter makes a difference, and for the thick Greek style, I always drain it.

Darcie, I bake two birthday cakes a month for work. I was promoted within my building and I didn't want to have to send everyone birthday cards because I am horrible with keeping up with that. I have sweet teeth, too, and this also allows me to selfishly indulge in baking. I even took a cake decorating class this year. This month I made a pear spice cake with lemon honey cream cheese frosting, and a banana cake with a chocolate sour cream frosting. The Peninsula Grill cake is on my to do list.

I read this thread the other day and thought I didn't really have any opinions on packaging. Silly me, of course I do. I really like the Stagg Chili SmartPak package. It's rectangular, comes in a variety pack at Costco or individually at the local market, and you flip up the tabs, squeeze in the top, and tear off the top to open the package. And it WORKS. The tear strip comes off every time. Cleanly, without the use of teeth or gnashing of teeth, or other utensils. And it leaves a neat edge. And the chili is good.

What's the difference between roast beef and pea soup? Anyone can pee soup.

Ok. I thought surely you must be exaggerating. I'm not Paula's biggest fan, but I don't think I have seen her cook anything like that. But, no, you were exactly right Here is the ingredient list from Foodtv.com: Vegetable oil cooking spray 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cheddar cheese soup 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup 1 (10-ounce) can tomatoes 1 whole chicken, cooked, boned, and chopped or 4 cups leftover cooked chicken Unsalted butter, for greasing pan 1 (11 1/2-ounce) package flour tortillas 2 cups shredded Cheddar Wow.

I HATE that so-called-unit-pricing! I'm pretty good at mental math but our backwards measurement system makes it a total PITA. To go back to the origin of the thread, my old store was a two-door model that I always entered on the right near the produce. My new store is a two door model with the produce on the left. I don't like it. It also seems so big, and not in a good way. That may be more a function of my personal physical circumstances than the store, but I'm sticking to my story. I hate forgetting something because it takes forever to backtrack, especially to the produce section. Milk is still in the back corner, but I think it is also near the checkouts. I like having bananas near the cereal, which seems pretty common here.

Onion confit The cakes in the best recipe threads Snowangel's potstickers

American schools have been offering less and less physical education/training in the last few years because of budget cuts, and an increased thrust to teach kids information. "No Child Left Behind" is one of the most current acts which requires schools to teach up to certain testable standards (and IMHO is a horrible implementation)--and is a laughably funded mandate. How does this affect schools budgets? Well, money to fund those mandates comes out of PE and food budgets, either directly or indirectly. So, we end up teaching kids about the 50 states' capitals and not about how to cook. Nor do we provide good food examples in the lunch rooms. ← NCLB has definitely impacted all kinds of programs. Don't get me started. Illinois is the only state with mandatory PE. In my school, students have PE daily, except for the quarter they take health during that class period. The focus has shifted from team sports to lifelong fitness. They still do sports, but they also do a 10 mile walk/run, rollerblading, yoga, aerobics and a unit on weightlifting/cardio circuits. Today as I walked the building, the 7th grade health class had nutritional data from a variety of fast food places. They had "ordered" their favorite meal, then calculated the nutritional data for that meal. They then had to revise their "order" to fall within healthy guidelines based on fat content, total calories, etc. Some ways they chose to do this included choosing smaller serving sizes, choosing a drink other than soda, or choosing different items altogether. Our school lunch program is totally outsourced. It comes prepacked in a cellophane wrapped hot pack and cold pack. Students who pay full price pay $2.10 per day. Reduced is, I think, 40 cents. It is totally Frankenfood. I ate the taco one once. I wouldn't touch the others with a 10 foot pole. We also have an a la carte program. Our parents group was concerned about the offerings. Students would make a "meal" out of hot fries or chips and gatorade. We removed all chips and cookie type products. They didn't object to ice cream, so we still have that, as well as a variety of pretzels, granola bars, and Ritz bits. Twice a week, they can buy nachos with cheese dip. It's frustrating when students walk into school in the morning with a full size bag of hot fries or chips and tell me that is their breakfast. I was so happy the day I saw a girl standing outside waiting for the bell to ring with a big piece of fried chicken on a paper plate. At least she was getting some protein.

I had almost zero chance of getting there from Illinois, but have followed Melt since, well, we named it Melt. I'm certainly sad to hear that news.

Wow! What a variety of cookies! My thanks as well for that link.

Here's the complete rulemaking proposal, courtesy of the Illinois Associaton of School Boards: http://www.iasb.com/files/foodrules.pdf

My mom makes a mix of meatballs, pineapple chunks, smokies and wieners. She browns all the meats, then tosses it all with the pineapple and a bottle of Catalina French salad dressing and bakes it or crockpots it.

I make these too. They are very good. I use the mixed nuts from Costco, but the pecans taste the best.

Marmish, those are excellent suggestions! I think the "dinner jar" would be a big hit. I'd thought about rotating weeks and/or days, or alternating who gets to choose the entree or sides, but I also like the theme idea. (Interestingly, given your suggestions, we do what my husband now calls "the traditional orange meal" every year for Christmas! There's a long family story behind this, which perhaps I'll share on a more appropriate thread.) Tonight's dinner: miniature pizzas, sliced pears and corn. My son's a cheese purist; we used lowfat mozzarella on the pizza and he was none the wiser. Again, not a combination I would have chosen--but better than last night's scrambled eggs and carrots. ← Thanks! I work with middle school kids, so figuring out lots of ways to group them and give them choices is key to cooperation and getting them invested in what you want them to do. I'd like to hear about your "orange meal." When I suggested it, I was thinking about carrots and moving out to squash and other orange/yellow foods, increasing variety by decreasing choices.

You could - let each pick 3 meals a week, Chef's Choice one night, and you choose the order since you cook - let them rotate weeks - let them alternate days - make a "dinner jar" where they put in meal ideas on slips of paper, then you draw before going grocery shopping - everyone in the house can add ideas - let them pick two nights each, the adults pick the remaining 3 - you choose main dish, they choose sides - you, son and daughter each choose one part of the meal: main, veg, starch - give them a theme to broaden their choices ethnic food - Chinese, Italian, Mexican, etc. recipes from a particular cook book foods that are orange food associated with a memory/trip/grandparent/friend/holiday

I'm making a cranberry chess pie.

omg, i want this bad. is it still availble? ← It's yours.

Having received from this thread, I'm now offering... A New Way to Cook, Sally Scheider brand new, ordered by mistake

I love love love your pic of Walla Walla. The dog, the dresses in the background, the colors of the leaves and the poles. And I vote for French.

I want to get an electric kettle when we re-furnish the breakfast nook with a sideboard. It will keep the coffee making out of the main kitchen and out of my way. We currently use a stovetop kettle and the coffee supplies are in the cabinet next to the stove. Convenient if all you are doing is making coffee, but annoyingly in the way if I'm trying to finish breakfast/dessert/clean up and he is trying to make coffee. Yes, I'm slightly territorial.

I live in Chicago, too, right on the edge of Elmwood Park and Oak Park. There are lots of Polish things in my groceries, and lots of little Polish delis and shops I haven't ventured into yet, so I'm looking forward to some tips as well!

Ditto the Container Store and the Dollar stores. I also use a brown paper lunch bag. Line it with some tissue paper, fold over the top once about 1 inch, punch two holes and thread some ribbon through them. Tie a pretty bow. Add a tag on the ribbon if you want. Decorate the bags if necessary, or use white ones. Michaels also has all kinds of shopping bag-style bags in all sizes and colors.

Looks good!

I make cabbage rolls in the style of my Serbian mother in law. She uses pickled cabbage as well. They sometimes pickle their own in the garage, but I buy big jars of it at the Greek store. The filling is beef and rice, or bread crumbs, salt and pepper. She uses one can of Tomato Soup for a big roaster full. I use about 1/2 a can for a large casserole dish. The soup disappears into a broth that doesn't look or really taste of tomato, but it's not the same with anything else. They are definitely better after a day or two. Oh, and in Serbian they are called sarma.

My mom still uses her cast iron on her solid surface range. She's just careful about setting it down carefully and not sliding it to prevent scratches.