Toliver

I've discovered that the problem with eating at 2 or 3pm is that if you stay up until, say 11pm, you get hungry before going to bed. You want to eat something but then you don't because you're going to be going to bed soon and so there's a dilemma. I prefer a 1pm dining time or make it late like a 5pm or 6pm start time.

It's time to bump this discussion up again for the safety precautions. This year, my brother will be deep frying a turkey at his home and then bringing it over to my mom's for Thanksgiving. He injects the bird the night before and does a rub, as well. He will also be frying up multiple chickens. He figured as long as he was going through the bother of deep frying, he would take advantage of the hot oil and fry some chicken which he will give out to family members to take home. Anyone else deep frying a turkey this year?

I will heading out on the road tonight so I am planing on eating a McRib sandwich for dinner. Whoo-hoo!

The area where I live seems to have been (or still is) a test market for new candy bars or special editions. You can see some of them in this thread: Confessions of a Novelty Confection Fiend The Dark Chocolate Twix bars were quite good but I think they were just a limited edition, whic is too bad. I hope they make it a permanent addition to their line of candy bars.

I'd guess the fans of McRibs don't really give calories, fat grams and sodium much weight (no pun intended) in their decision to consume it. I could see a problem if it was a regular menu item and you ate them with regularity. But it's a once-a-year item. I see no harm no foul with eating one once in awhile.

Every Friday in the month of November, Burger King is giving away a free 12 oz. cup of Seattle's Best coffee during their breakfast menu hours. Surprisingly, no purchase is necessary. Has anyone taken advantge of this offer? And how's the coffee?

The Los Angeles Times has a story on the McRib obsession: McRib's brief return has fans buzzing Lucky Germans...

A local restaurant/buffet uses lettuce/cabbage leaves at the bottom of the steamer rack (I tend to think it's lettuce since the leaves are so thin after the steaming). I did notice the baozi still sometimes stick but if parts of the leaf come off with the baozi, it's all edible.

I find this fascinating...that you can taste something in a restaurant and then go home and try to replicate the dish even though time has passed since the original tasting. And then to have to keep experimenting and tweaking so even more time has passed until you finally, hopefully, get it right. And then how do you know that it tastes the same as the original tasting? What if the subsequent attempts at replication have skewed your taste memory? Maybe they don't. Still, it's quite a remarkable talent. I can see how repetition (repeated tastings of the same dish throughout one's childhood) would help to enforce taste memory. Perhaps the difference is terroir. You're not using the same water, the same soil, the same feed grain, etc, as what was used originally so, of course, the end result would not be the same (e.g., Vidalia onions).

I grind a couple tablespoons of flax seeds in a dedicated coffee grinder and that goes into my blender when I make smoothies. The reason I use the coffee grinder is that I tried using the blender to grind them up before adding the rest of the smoothie ingredients and the resulting flax seed dust coated the entire interior of the blender so a lot didn't end up in my smoothie. I thought that was wasteful so that's when I switched to a dedicated coffee grinder. Easy peasy. I made the mistake of buying Trader Joe's Toasted Flax Seeds. The problem I have with the toasted seeds is that the flavor is very, very nutty. So I ended up with a very nutty tasting fruit smoothie. I have purchased raw flax seeds from a health food store and will use that from now on instead. I am using the rest of the toasted flax seeds in oatmeal cookies where the nutty taste isn't so overwhelming. I was hesitant in buying pre-ground flax seed (meal, flours) as I was concerned about oxidation. As it is the woman at the health food store where I purchased the raw flax seeds suggested I immediately divide and freeze half of the bag so it won't go bad as I make my way through the rest of the bag.

Here's a similar past discussion that may have helpful info: "I wanna grow stuff! (and I live in an apartment)"

I can't believe a year has flown by already. Mickey D's has their Monopoly promotion going on now which means the McRib will soon follow.

My mother was raised by her older sister in rural Kansas. Her sister did the cooking, cleaning, etc, for the entire family. She canned chickens because nothing went to waste back in those days. Fresh chicken got you through the spring and summer while pork was king during the autumn and winter. She canned any extra chickens which were used in stews and soups when you couldn't get to the market (or afford to get to the market).

At first glance I thought they looked like they had blueberries in them. The Olive Sables sound intriguing. Of course, now I'm wondering if I could actually make blueberry sables.

You can also try using Silica Gel packs in your containers. I used some in our Christmas cookie container last year and ended up using too many. We had the crispiest cookies ever. This year we are going to use less packets to try and find a better balance of crisp versus tender.

As a kid, Sunday dinners were always "serious" food...a roast, ham, fried or roasted chicken, full blown meals...usually something that would take time to make. Our Saturday dinners were the opposite..."fun" food like tacos, pizza, hamburgers. Whatever could be handheld and (usually) carried out the door as our social lives became busier and busier. But on Sunday the sit-down dinners were always more formal and all family members attended. We also would eat in the dining room as opposed to eating at the table in the family room.

A friend had this triple crock pot buffet server. In it she had two main dishes and a hot dessert dish in the third cooker. They also make a double slow cooker server.

I have a similar recipe that uses sharp cheddar instead of the parm. I also add a small can of diced chiles (or diced jalepños, if you like it spicy). Anna, what was the flavor of the cookies? They look like a spice cookie.

I second her recommendation. A crock pot will expand your options greatly. I know you asked for tips not books but you could get inspiration from "The Dinner Doctor" by Anne Byrn. Sometimes she's a little Sandra Lee-ish in resorting to canned soups, etc, but some of her suggestions are quite good. She gets you thinking of meals over multiple nights instead of one at a time. Like starting with a rotisserie chicken one night, then making chicken burritos or enchiladas the next night with the leftovers. And maybe a pasta chicken salad the third night if you still have any chicken left, etc. Edited to add: Check it out at your local library first, instead of just buying it.

Another Culinary Sign of the Apocalypse: Ben & Jerry's to drop 'All Natural' from labels

During college I worked with a woman from Columbia who didn't understand Americans in regard to sandwiches. She said that (at the time) in Columbia, a sandwich was just a snack...something to tide you over until you could get a real meal. She said she thought it was strange that Americans would consider a sandwich a meal. As for wraps and tacos, I don't think I would consider them sandwiches because no bread is involved. If you're going to start stretching the definition, then I want to call the KFC Double Down a sandwich then. No to tacos, but yes to tortas.

I worked with a woman from Tennessee who would pine for the doughnuts from a doughnut shop back home. So she had a friend of hers from Tennessee FedEx out a dozen glazed doughnuts. We tried them and thought "big deal". Then she told us we had to heat them up first. Oy My God (typo intended). They were so good. The name of the doughnut shop was Krispy Kreme. They hadn't expanded to our city/state, yet (they did eventually but then the chain had financial reverses and the shop closed here in our town ). FedEx is certainly a way to scratch that "jonesing for..." itch, albeit an expensive one.

Not easy to cut up and serve on a platter to a group, however. So the brownies don't go to waste, you could always make a "Death by Chocolate" trifle out of them. Layers of crumbled brownies, chocolate pudding/mousse, chocolate (or regular) whipped cream and crushed toffee bits/Heath bars. Repeat. Easy to assemble and people seem to enjoy it. It's even easier if you channel Sandra Lee/Paula Deen and buy prepared ingredients...but you didn't hear that from me. As for adjusting the oven temp when baking a recipe with added nuts, I agree with the other posters in that I don't think it should make a difference. You can always PM eGullet members Kerry Beal or even Dorie Greenspan to see what they think if they don't happen to peruse this discussion.

It's an odd thing but if I don't have breakfast, I can go without eating lunch, too. But if I eat breakfast, I tend to want to eat lunch, too, as if eating breakfast has primed the pump, so to speak. Growing up, we always had breakfast. Not eating it was never an option. But as an adult, I can take it or leave it. Lately, I've been making just a breakfast smoothie and taking that to work. I'm not a fan of fruit (thanks to my mom foisting gobs of fruit on us as kids) so the smoothie is my way of getting fruits into my diet.

I stumbled upon a new flavor that was quite good: Extra Sugarless Gum Dessert Delights - Key Lime Pie At first chew, it tastes exaclty like key lime pie. It's quite sweet tasting (even though it's sugarless) and the first "WOW" taste fades quickly, but I think it's quite good. I haven't tried the other "Dessert Delight" flavors (Strawberry Shortcake & Mint Chocolate Chip). I also recommend the Extra Sugarless Fruit Sensations - Berry Smoothie, which, oddly, isn't listed on their web site...I hope it's not been discontinued!. It's the first chewing gum I've ever tried that tastes like blueberries (shades of Violet Beauregarde!). Is anyone else a fan of the brand?