Toliver

So it does turn out to be true that your favorite potato chip probably isn't the same as my favorite potato chip. It all depends on where you live: America: a patchwork of potato chip varieties I think the internet might be the great equalizer in the end. You're able to buy just about any brand, any kind of chip no matter where you live in the country (or the world for that matter) thanks to finding a good source online.

Limited Edition Nestle Crunch Girl Scout Cookie flavored candy bars, based upon Thin Mint cookies and Samoa cookies. There's a third flavor, Peanut Butter, based upon the Tagalog Girl Scout peanut butter cookies but I couldn't find it in the store . The Mint flavored candy bar was good but not great. I kept missing the shortbread that is part of the Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. I was surprised that I could miss that simple shortbread base. But it makes a difference. The Samoa flavored candy bars were very good. It had that nice caramel-ly coconut-ty flavor that make the Girl Scout Samoa cookies so good. I thought they did a great job of replicating the cookie's flavor in the candy bar. Of course, now I'm jonesing for the cookies themselves which are a half a year away.

They have a new spice called "South African Smoke". It comes with a grinder at the top. It's just paprika (smoked, I believe) flakes, sea salt, garlic and basil but I only taste the smokiness. I've been adding it to everything from omlettes to rice to chicken. Grind a little for just a little smokiness, grind a lot for a stronger flavor. I've been finding that a little goes a long way. Has anyone else tried it?

There's also the legendary Ex-Lax brownies or fudge for lunch stealers.

That is a thing of beauty, Heidi. Enjoy... My brother comes over and puts in tomatoes for my mom every year. So far she has a fruit on a yellow pear and fruit on an oxymoron-ish yellow cherry. She also disappointedly discovered another plant is growing currant-sized tomatoes with nary a rugrat around to harvest them. The weather is odd for this time of year...sunny and 72°f which is about 20 degrees cooler than a normal summer. She's not sure how it will impact the tomato plants.

I agree with the suggestions. You have a natural bowl shape on top...fill it with something...raspberries or the suggested raspberry coulis and whipped cream. Please let us know the final version.

The crop of contestants this season seem to be lacking in knowledge and talent. They all talk the big talk (with a lot of censor-bleeping) but don't have the dishes to back up their talk. The 30 minute challenge where each team member had 5 minutes to cook and then hand it off to the next team member with only 15 seconds to tell the incoming team member the status of the dishes and so on until the 30 minutes was up...was inteseresting to say the least. "Start the risotto! Start the risotto...start the [bleeping] risotto!" seemed to be the mantra for the blue team (and yet the first two blue team chefs didn't start the risotto which wasted 10 precious minutes of cooking time). I think it just reflects their lack of experience and maturity. I kept thinking about how on Top Chef, despite personal differences, team members still acted like a team in some of the challenges. Hell's Kitchen? Not so much.

We have a relatively new Bob's Big Boy here in central California. The building they're in used to be a Baker's Square until that chain fizzled out. When they first opened, the Bob's had a small statue of Bob out front which promptly got stolen. There was some local angst & drama until the teen who took it was finally caught. I believe the statue was moved into the lobby. Mustard cheeseburger? That sounds painfully dull. Having grown up on the left coast, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo (sometimes onion) were always the norm on the more elaborate burgers (Jumbo Jacks, Big Macs, et al) but the basic (cheap) burgers seemed to have only mustard and ketchuo plus some pickle chips.

It's also possible that a worker accidently connected the wrong box of soda syrup to the wrong soda machine connector/tubing causing the switch. Another explanation could be that a worker didn't know there's a real difference between the two diet versions and connected the wrong box of syrup thinking Diet Coke was the same as Coke Zero. Call it giving them the benefit of the doubt. Have you been back to any of the chains to see if the error still exists? If it still does, I would contact the manager and if they insist there's no substitution going on, contact the corporate office with your claim of false advertising.

Is it Food for Less vs. Ralphs? If so, you're paying for atmosphere too. No. Though all of the major grocery chains seem to own discount grocery chains. The store I frequent is FoodMaxx, owned by the Save Mart grocery chain. Save Mart is a central California chain, so you may not have heard of them. You're right about atmosphere. The atmosphere inside Food Maxx is depressingly "ghetto" (I actually overheard two Food Maxx customers talking about the store and one said "I admit I'm pretty ghetto, but this store makes me look like I'm Neiman-Marcus"). I will never forget my shock at seeing Ralph's delivery trucks in the Food for Less loading docks. It was eye opening, to say the least.

Care for some mashed potatoes with your Big Gulp? "7-Eleven’s ridiculous mashed potato dispenser could take the U.S. by storm" It sounds...yummy? The article says the machines are found mostly in non-U.S. 7-Elevens. Now if they only had a turkey dispenser, as well.

I do a lot of my shopping at a discount grocers (a chain ironically owned by a big name more expensive grocery chain). In the cheaper grocery store, they will sell rotisserie chickens for $5.99. But if I go to the big name more expensive grocery chain, they sell the same chicken for 2 bucks more. WTF? Or I can just go to Costco and get their freakishly large rotisserie chickens for the same price as the discount grocery chain (which offers a much smaller bird). It's as if the stores don't realize that we comparison shop these days so they think they can charge whatever they want. Well, I ain't buyin' it in more ways than one.

Well, no: bone contains a good bit of collagen, since proteins comprise the bone matrix in which the minerals are suspended. Michaela, thanks for this. It's a common misconception that bones are solid like rocks. They aren't. They are pourous and fibrous. When you insert a meat thermometer into meat that has bones, conventional wisdom always says to keep the thermometer away from bones to prevent a false reading. Many have assumed this was because it would be hotter near the bones (as if they were rocks). But it's the opposite. Due to their construction, bones actually disperse heat causing a lower temperature reading near them.

I agree. I find Coke Zero to taste almost the same as regular Coke...now I'm just waiting for a caffeine-free version. I never "got" Diet Coke. It didn't taste the same as regular Coke so I considered it a sham of a diet soda. I mean Diet Pepsi does taste like regular Pepsi, so why didn't Diet Coke taste like Coke? That being said, I have friends, bless their hearts, who swear by Diet Coke. So go figure...

Chris, it's good to hear about Taco Bell making something that is, well...good. I was befuddled by this "gourmet cantina bowl" marketing. Afterall, their target audience (males, about 13-22) wouldn't get near the new cantina bowls. It made me wonder if Taco Bell could make it work...going after two distinct target audiences. I haven't heard how successful the new Cantina Bowls have been. They're still selling them so I suppose that's one indication of success. As for rice in burritos, I think it began with the "everything wrapped up in a tortilla" mentality, like a breakfast burrito. I wouldn't consider it an "authentic" burrito if it had rice inside. If anything, it would indicate to me that it's not the place to dine if I'm looking for good mexican food.

Don't know about substitutes... Trader Joe's should carry mascarpone...hopefully there's one near you.

Today, July 11th (7/11), 7-Eleven is giving out free 7.11 oz. Slurpees from 11am to 7pm in honor of their 85th birthday.

You can now buy Olive Garden products ("signature ingredients") at Sam's Club. Square mozzarella anyone?

I, too, am an early arriver. I will be happy to sit in my car while waiting for the appointed time to approach so I can be on time. I take late arrivers personally. I think it's a sign of disrespect. They may not mean it that way but that's the message they're sending: "I don't care enough about you to show up when you asked me to." It's about good manners and being courteous. It's about being a mature, responsible adult. It's about respecting me and our friendship enough to show up on time.

Martha Stewart also recommended using newspapers to blot up oil. You're in good company.

You have stumbled upon what the Chinese have been doing for centuries: The Master Sauce (an eGullet discussion)

Lays BLT flavored potato chips and Doritos Jacked Enchilada Supreme tortilla chips I consumed the contents of these two bags and scanned them on my computer's scanner. A two-fer! Surprisingly, I liked both of these flavors. Of course, the Lays BLT potato chips don't taste like lettuce or even tomatoes. What they do taste like is bacon. Not a heavy dose of it but a light one which is why I was surprised that I liked them. I wouldn't really call them "bacon-y" but I thought they still tasted good. The Jacked Doritos Enchilada Supreme flavored tortilla chips were also good. They really seemed to have an enchilada flavor which I attributed to the use of a spice in the flavoring that is also used for enchiladas (Red pepper? Chile powder?). They tasted a little bit like the enchiladas my mom used to make. Plus, the Jacked chips meant they were larger, thicker chips, too, which is always a plus. Two Thumbs Up!

I was sorry to see this sign of the times: "Times-Picayune to cut paper to 3 days a week" They'll still exist daily on Nola.com, but it's not quite the same.

Miracle Whip is not mayo and has never pretended to be mayo. I think because it's white and spreadable, hence mayo-like, people assume it's mayo...but it's not. That being said, my family had only Miracle Whip when I was growing up and I didn't discover mayo until I was an adult. I like both, which may be heresy to some. My mom's potato salad and deviled eggs wouldn't taste the same without using Mircale Whip in them. Mayo has always been Best Foods brand for me because I'm west of the Mississippi. It's not big on flavor but I think adds a nice subtle umami note to sandwiches and such.

Anyone else experiencing a chocolate chip shortage at their TJ's? "At the Neighborhood Trader Joe's, a Run on Chocolate Chips"