bergerka

Now, where did I say that? I'm pretty sure a rat poison burger counts as attempted murder in the eyes of the law, and you're coming pretty close to reductio ad absurdum with that kind of an extreme example, don't you think? There can be arguments made - and in real life I frequently make them - that the education of US citizens in terms of nutrition could and should be greatly improved, but I'm afraid anyone who doesn't realize that a) fast food is bad for you; b) that new Hardee's burger has got to be so bad for you as to be ridiculous and c) Hardee's is an establishment devoted to selling food that is so bad for you it is ridiculous has been living in a cave, or on a distant planet. Whether I am "ok" with it is hardly relevant - I am not, and I demonstrate my antipathy to Hardee's by refusing to patronize them and by decrying their food (which is nasty) far and wide, but look - I wouldn't deny their RIGHT to sell disgusting food, nor would I deny anyone's right to eat it. Pity them, yes, but deny them? Naah. Yanno? And the picture of that burger still makes me want to barf. K (who is not decrying Quarter Pounders, which are too delicious to be disgusting, and yes, I know they're bad for me).

And they're apparently closed on Monday, leaving us eating pizza at Patsy's and jonesing for pulled pork, damn it. K

Excuse me, there is NOTHING disgusting about a gingerbread this. I will, however, agree with you about anything containing white chocolate. In the meantime, what does your favorite Starbucks concoction say about you? I put in "tall pumpkin spice latte, no whip" and got this: "Behold the Oracle's wisdom: Personality type: High Maintenance You pride yourself on being assertive and direct; everyone else thinks you're bossy and arrogant. You're constantly running your mouth about topics that only you would find interesting. Your capacity for wasting other people's time is limitless. Your friends find you intolerable, that's why they're plotting to kill you. Also drinks: Water. Bottled, chilled, with four ice cubes, a twist of lemon, in a crystal glass. Can also be found at: Trendy martini bars" K

Ciao bello gelato has just opened in the food court, too...be still, my expanding waistline... K

C'mon over! we'd LOVE to have you...especially if you bring that consommé... K

oh, Lucy, what a BEAUTIFUL Thanksgiving! The consommé with truffle ravioli ( ) has me drooling all over again - your whole meal looks delectable. K

At least cranberry is a pretty color? By the way, how does simmering them in ginger ale work out? Is it tasty? I will never again open the refrigerator during a busy dinner party (when I've already had four glasses of wine) without looking on top of it first. The jar of bacon fat someone had removed from the freezer and placed up there was too close to the door. CRASH! Glass and bacon fat everywhere, and if there is ONE itty bitty teeny tiny sliver of glass on my floor, anywhere, I will step on it. So far I've found five slivers since Thursday. K

BWA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ok, that was hilarious. I'm going to go to bed tonight with the image of Sam buffing my shoes with...Issachar. No, seriously - the thing about Barkeeper's friend is that it's so FAST! It takes almost no time, and then they look all shiny and new. Believe me, if it were at all a pain in the ass, I just wouldn't do it and he could polish the damn things. K

WHEW! Sam has said just about everything there is to say about dinner - I just want to add that it was spectacular. Everyone was blown away - I especially loved the brussels sprout crème brulée, the turkey, and the soup. Here's the start of the cleanup - no pictures. I do not want you to know what the kitchen looked like last night. I will say that using dish bins was a stroke of genius on Sam's part (one of many) - everything was together and organized, and the food was, for the most part, already put away by the time I got going. I put away the turkey and any ingredients that remained out - vinegar, oil, etc., and put the empty bottles into the recycling bin. Then I cleared out any dishes in the sink and stacked them on the counter pretty much in order of course and made a pile of dirty dishcloths in the corner. The order was pretty much as follows: 1. All of the dishes, washed, dried, put away. 2. All of the silverware, washed and left to dry in the silverware basket. 3. All of the serving pieces, pots and pans, washed, dried, put away. For the copper pieces, this meant washing the inside with soap, then scrubbing both inside and outside with Barkeeper's Friend (miracle invention!) to get them shiny, then drying them completely inside and out before hanging them back up. 4. Put roasting pan in sink to soak overnight. By this time it was 4 am and all that remained were the roasting pan and the glassware. Because I knew I had a job Christmas caroling today from noon to 2 pm, and it was by then 4 am, I did one last look-through to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and hit the hay. Around 7:30, the ferrets decided it was time to play with their new toy, the Wiggly Giggly (a ball with something inside that makes "meep" sounds when it's rolled around), so I woke up just long enough to laugh at them and then fell asleep again (this has nothing to do with cleaning, per se, but it was just so adorable I had to tell you about it). I got up at 10:30 to make it to my gig on time, caroled till 2pm, had lunch with the parents and then came back to the house, where I put away the silverware, washed, dried and put away the roasting pan and scrubbed out the sink in preparation for washing the glassware. I cleaned off the countertop with bleach, then spread out clean dishcloths on it and washed and dried the glassware by type of glass, so I could make sure everything was together. Then I cleaned the stovetop and we went out to dinner. Now that we're back, I'm going to put away the remaining glassware, sweep and mop the kitchen floor, sweep the dining room floor and clear the lace tablecloth and napkins to get them ready to go to the dry cleaner (unlike that one year when I forgot to take them in...until the next Thanksgiving). I bought them in Belgium. I love them. Then I'm going to go into our bedroom, fall down on the bed, and not move until tomorrow sometime. K

I hope Sam doesn't mind if I field some of this, since I'm the official clean-up person in our apartment. We slept last night for about 9 hours, thank goodness, didn't have to get up early at all (Sam was rattling around at 9:30, I lazed in bed until 10 to snuggle warm and sleepy ferrets). We had a late dinner last night, so neither of us is particularly hungry right now, but the Rancilio is on and I anticipate cappuccino in the near future, when he gets a break from tinkering. The house is VERY (rather defensively) clean - I did a major, two-day cleaning about two weeks ago and yesterday our roommate did the catch-up work - wiping down the bathroom, vacuuming the rugs, taking out the recyclables, etc., bless his heart. I had to go to the day job and afterward I stopped by Whole Foods to look for Amé, a nonalcoholic wine substitute thingy, and by Williams-Sonoma (ok, that place is totally useless, except for the free samples of food) and Gracious Home to look for candles - which I ended up buying at Duane Reade (!). Two items purchased, total time, three hours. I HATE shopping the day before Thanksgiving! So the only cleaning things to do today are throw the bathroom rug in the wash and wash a load of dish towels a little later, plus general picking up and following Sam around cleaning after him so that all he has to worry about is cooking. I suspect the ferret bath may have to wait... We have a lot of dishes, between the plates from Fish's Eddy and a stunning set of hand-painted Italian dishes that are from Sam's family, and a number of serving pieces that we have collected over the years. Next year, I'll have my china out here - my awesome mom just completed my set via Ebay (it's out of print and not easy to find). I have a beautiful set of Rose Point silver that we use, and we're borrowing twelve silver cream soups from our friend SarahD. If it's ok with Sam, I'll detail the cleanup afterward in this thread (probably tomorrow). If it's not, I'll start another one. I'm off to the kitchen to see if there are any dishes to wash! K

*snort* what Sam MEANT to say was, very important when your dishwasher's name is Kathleen and she gets very cranky when the sink is crowded. Mmm...TURKEY STOCK. K, languishing at the day job.

You can buy them individually there. I've considered it before, but never had the inspiration for anything that could be made with 'em. What a GREAT idea that is, too. K

I know, I know, you said you already had enough starch...and I admit I haven't actually TRIED this recipe...but it looks so damned good I can't resist posting it for you. I plan to try it at Christmas with my family in AZ. It's from Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life by Michael Lee West (the source of my sig quote). Cousin Lula's Sweet Potato Soufflé 2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes 1 cup granulated sugar (I will leave out this ingredient when I make it, as Dad is diabetic) 2 eggs, beaten 1 stick unsalted butter, melted 1/2 cup evaporated milk 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Whisk all the ingredients together and pour into a greased 2-quart baking dish. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the topping. Topping: 1 stick unsalted butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup crushed cornflakes (!) 1/2 cup chopped pecans 10 pecan halves Melt the butter, add the sugar and cornflakes. Stir. Spoon over the potato mixture. Sprinkle on the chopped pecans and dot with the pecan halves. Return to the oven and bake ten minutes longer. ...I would guess you could top this with pralined pecans and it would be just as good, if not better... K

one other thing that I don't know if Sam mentioned is this - we have an "open" kitchen right next to the dining room, which is right next to the living room. So in general, if Sam and/or helper are in the kitchen, they're still available for conversation and guests can get a peek at what, exactly he's doing in there that makes everything taste so good! It's also great for me between courses/after dinner, when I can just sneak into the kitchen and do a little preliminary cleaning without losing the thread of the conversation or absenting myself from the party. We lucked into an apartment that is really ideal for entertaining in NYC. We'll definitely have to figure out a special treat for the boyz...after all, they're thankful too! Although they're mostly thankful for the opportunity to chomp their mother on the toe, or the finger, or whatever else is closest, I think. K Edited to add that duh, yes, Sam did mention the open kitchen. Blame it on the cold meds I'm sucking down.

Before I say this, I would just like to state that I am not, in principle, against fast food. I have been known to enjoy a quarter pounder with cheese (MMMMM) on occasion, or those lovely bean burritos and tostadas and Nachos Bell Grande from Taco Bell that bear no resemblance whatsoever to actual Mexican food. or, really, actual FOOD, and once, in high school, I went on a kick of eating chicken mcnuggets (hey! They're juicy and good, especially with hot mustard sauce!) about once a week. That said, in this case...I'm firmly on the side of the natural selection crowd. If you're too stupid to realize this hamburger is - not just not GOOD, but truly TERRIBLE - for you, you're too stupid to be allowed out of the house unsupervised. Period. Furthermore, that Thickburger is the nastiest looking thing I have ever seen in my entire life, the picture alone made me gag (and I LOVE big thick juicy medium rare bacon cheeseburgers! With cheddar!), and anyone ordering it deserves exactly what they get. Last but not least, and this comment is NOT AIMED AT ANYONE IN THIS THREAD, it's just in general, when are people going to figure out that it's not Hardee's job to look after your health? It's Hardee's job to make as much money as they can selling whatever food sells best. In this case, that is apparently, well, the Thickburger. If it doesn't sell well, they'll pull it...but I don't have enough faith in humankind to believe that. It's going to go like gangbusters. Edited to add that my current favorite fast food commercials are the Subway ones in which Jared points out the difference between, say, an order of 5 "chicken selects" from McDonald's (33 grams of fat) and one big-ass sandwich from Subway (10 grams of fat, or something). K, unusually irritated with her fellow man, especially those fellows who would order something nasty like this instead of going to a place that serves REAL hamburgers.

I totally forgot about the only way I like smothered fries - if they're covered, just covered, with spicy chili and cheese!!! (pepper jack, melted, with velveeta - don't gag, it's good). K

1. Parsley and garlic (fresh) 2. aioli 3. Ketchup. You don't have to have it, I'm happy to eat yours 4. *cringing in shame* McDonald's hot mustard sauce. oh. my. god. 5. a vinegary, peppery bbq sauce. I only like to dip 'em, though, except in the case of #1. oh and 6. Those really cold, thick chocolate milkshakes. Try it with HOT, crispy, salty fries (McDonald's are ideal for this) before you scoff. K

With regard to this, my dad is coming this year - he is diabetic. Doesn't drink alcohol for that reason, too. K

Oh man...that sounds so good I could cry. K

Yeah, but do you drink it with that powdered non-dairy doesn't-exist-in-nature so-called "creamer?" Like they do in places like Natchez? Dude, that shit is so nasty it ought to be illegal. K

Evil, except for the pumpkin spice and gingerbread lattes. Those are good enough to make selling my soul worthwhile. K

JJ, you've made my week with this. Thank you so much for the descriptions and the beautiful pictures! I'm having a rotten day and I needed that! K

I was with Sam and ewindels for lunch on Friday - had a Shack burger (single), fries (yum) and a pumpkin pie concrete. The concrete rocked my world. The burger and fries were, as usual, stellar - but I swear I'm still bloated, two days later. Good LORD that was a lot of food K, wondering if there's time for just one...more...visit...

Wait...it is? Oh...crap...that explains the looks I got at Henry's last night... K

That was FUN, y'all! Even if ASU did get totally humiliated by USC (oh well, at least the Jets won ). My fave pizzas, in order: 1. Red pepper 2. Sausage 3. Clam 4. Pepperoni 5. Plain I refrained from the calamari pizza, as it just didn't seem appealing to me. Sometime I want to go back with brave souls and spend the $15 extra to get the lobster pizza. C'mon, it sounds great! In general, I thought this was one of the best places we've been. As others have mentioned, the crust, although a little thicker than places like Patsy's, was crispy, pretty flavorful and nicely charred. I would've preferred a little more salt, or spice, or something in the sauce - I thought it was a tad sweet and bland - but that was only really obvious in the plain pie. Once we added toppings, their saltiness made up for it. And the waitstaff ROCKED. Would definitely visit again, ideally very soon. K