Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Hm, if I were a sausage, I'd be an Italian sausage, because Italian sausage > breakfast sausage. Plus I'd get to hang out with pasta, and everyone knows pasta makes good company.

If I'm alone and no one can watch me, I rip the crusts off sandwiches and eat that first. If not, I just eat it like a normal person.

Put water in pot, bring water to boil, put potato in water.

The side of the yogurt container should tell you what kind of bacteria is in it.

If there's a thread I don't want to read, I ignore it. No one's forcing you to read and reply to every thread. Think of the Talk section as a buffet...eat what you want, and if you don't like it, ignore it rather than complaining about it to the chef. Unless, of course, you're the kind of person who is so insulted by presence of the macaroni and cheese at the buffet table that you have to go into the kitchen and complain to the cooking staff about it.

So posters should click some sort of "hi, I'm a moron!" button when posting (what you deem to be) moronic questions? In fact, maybe we should just require that people submit IQ scores before they get the right to post at all.

@SqueezelBottle - so sorry you didn't like my Beetle Juice thread - I however, thought it was quite interesting and at least, thought provoking, - and BTW, I never said there was "bacteria" (other than what should be there) in yogurt, I said there were ground up beetles (protein) - so, if you didn't like the thread, dismiss it and move on - don't make me feel like an idiot for posting it!

Well put, sadiepix! I thoroughly agree.

@bareneed - There's no need to be defensive. My rant was not directed at anyone in particular. I was just making a comment about the general level of discussion here.

I find that there's a sort of disconnect between the blog and the talk section. Most of the blog posts here are very interesting, but the majority of the talk posts are just chatter and almost never get serious about anything.

Now, I'm not wishing that this place become another eGullet. There's already one of those and that's plenty. I'm just saying I'd like something a bit more stimulating. Maybe I should take some people's advice and just go somewhere else, but I kinda like this place despite the issues I might have with it.

And to those who would want me to just shut up, ignore everything I don't like and play nice. I'm glad you didn't heed you're own advice.

I don't think anyone was telling you to shut up. Just some suggestions on how to deal with topics you don't like. I generally do ignore topics I don't like, but figured I would explain my theory on those topics to you, because I felt that giving you a possible plan to enjoy your experience at this site more was worth posting.

I am a strong advocate for just such threads. I love all of the threads on this site, and frankly, if I want something really intellectual, I don't have to reduce my search to this site - there are plenty of others.

I have a very stressful job/class/home situation, and honestly? I really enjoy being able to take a break from the serious side of food and life and just read through or even start and participate in threads that are totally useless at the end of the day, but completely mentally stimulating and a break from my life.

Up with *all* types of threads, I say - serious and fun both!

some of us are not "serious chefs" some of us come here to talk about a subject we love and just bs with friends about that subject. Personally, I like the "inane chatter" There are enough serious things in life that sometimes silly is exactly what you need. If the blogs give you what you need, thats wonderful. That means there is something here for you and you are a part of the community. And for the record I would be a hot italian sausage with lots of fennel! ;-)

Somebody needs a nap.

I agree that some of the threads are silly and annoying, but ya know what?
You don't have to read them. Just skip over them.

Such a filter really takes the chuckles out of life and cooking. I suggest you simply ignore those.

I'm all for disciplined cooking but it's not always necessary to be a whip-wielding dominatrix to successfully roast a chicken.

Lighten up.

@HB - I agree wholeheartedly! I am 9000 miles away from my family and friends; SE is where I come to feel "at home". And the only professional chef I know is my nephew, who is also a video game designer and winemaker, so even he isn't "on topic" and serious all the time :-)

@dhorst - I know I am going to be laughing stuffing my zuchinnis tomorrow and now I'm going to have to try and explain this to my husband...