Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I 2nd and 3rd recommendations for Stephanie O'Dea's new book A Year of Slow Cooking. I found her blog first but plan to buy her book. I've made several of her recipes with good results. A pork roast recipe was a minor failure but I think it was my beer choice- I'll make it again but will use water or chicken broth in place of the beer.

Ah Pavlov. Always the voice of reason.

I agree with Meat Guy. People have to take some responsibility when it comes to handling food safely and preparing it correctly. Neither is a difficult task.

And for the record, my beef/hamburger comes from my father in law's farm and is processed by a local butcher shop. Occasionally I will grind up some round steak or a chuck roast if we're out of ground beef- who's to say I won't contaminate it myself with my Kitchen Aid grinding attachment if I failed to clean it properly, if I cook the meat rare, or leave meat juice on the counter where I put my salad fixings. Life is a crap shoot, people.

You lost me at Kate Gosselin. Will she be hosting a marital advice show next?

That is HILARIOUS. My guess for the dish on the left in the first picture was pineapple chunks with pesto over a tomato wedge. Maybe that was on the next flight's menu!

Thanks for providing the link. We missed the finale.

My friend and I throw around "Rusty Shackelford" frequently. I'll miss Dale's conspiracy-theory antics.

I also use the whiteboard method! I write down meals based on:
1. What is on hand -especially if I can use up leftovers/extras
2. What someone requests (usually the hubs)
3. What can be made quickly or in the slowcooker because The Niblet hampers my cooking efforts! I never knew a one year old could be so many places at one time...
4. Recipes I want to try- especially those that will use up pantry items and don't require another trip to the store.
5. Meals based on sale items

I use 2 online services to provide menu ideas and recipes because I don't have time to scour my cookbooks or online sites for recipes. I need to choose which service to stick with - either e-mealz.com or savingdinner.com because I don't want to pay for both. So far e-mealz is in the lead.

I've discovered that everything runs much smoother if I have meals planned out instead of trying to figure out what I'm cooking at 5:30 every night with frozen meat, no vegetables, a toddler clinging to my legs and a 6'2 teenager lurking over my shoulder asking "What's for dinner?" as he eats a bowl of cereal or peanut butter sandwich. Or both.

Well hell. I just spent 3 days in Minnesota and the hotel we stayed at had a crappy breakfast selection. Wish I'd known the fair was still on- we would have ran up there for breakfast before the rest of our group was even up! I could do a chocolate covered waffle for breakfast, no prob.

Worst treatment I got near closing resulted in a firing. My husband and his best friend and I went into a Bennigan's near closing time (I can't remember just how close it was) and we were the only customers. The staff was hanging out around the bar. Instead of telling us they were no longer serving, they seated us. Then they ignored us. I'm not even sure if we got drinks or menus. We stayed for maybe 10 or 15 minutes then left. As we were leaving some smart ass in the group at the bar started clapping. We were pissed, of course, and made our way to the car and another restaurant.

The friend called the manager the next day and told him/her what happened. The smart ass got fired. I'm assuming that was not his first offense and sadly that kind of poor service is prolific in the Bennigan's organization, at least in my area.

I do appreciate it when restaurants post their last service time. If I'm arriving near closing time I ALWAYS ask if I/we can still be served and then get out as quickly as possible. I related it to the assholes that email me at 3:50 asking for something to be done - I'm done at 4- and invariably the task will take longer than 10 minutes to complete. Sometimes I play nice, sometimes I pretend I didn't see it and I go home.

I'll eat real bananas but nothing with artificial banana flavoring- like candy. YUCK.

I'll eat sun dried tomatoes in a salad or dish (not alone) but will NOT eat a raw tomato if my life depended on it. I can't stand the taste, smell or texture of a raw tomato or even the smell of a tomato plant. And yet I have 5 tomato plants in my yard- husband claims he's making salsa this year. We'll see.

I don't like angel hair pasta because of the texture. I want my pasta to have some oomph and angel hair is too wimpy.

Woo hoo! I hope I can find it 'round here. Thanks for letting us know!

LOL@dbcurrie- the next time my husband salts his food I'm going to wonder if I need to bathe...

I just can't get into this series, or Top Chef or any other 'competitions'. I don't know why but they don't interest me. I watched the first season of Hell's Kitchen faithfully but haven't watched since. I guess I already know how it is going to play out- the first season was a novelty but now I know Gordon is going to yell, swear, and throw food away while calling it "garbage". The contests will have various attributes: cocky, timid, out to prove themselves, shouldn't have bothered to show up...but I digress.

What floors me about the NFNS is that the previous winners have disappeared. Who is left? Was Guy Fieri a winner? Are there others that still have a show? Maybe I should make my own post. I don't want to bogart the thread from Josdean!

I like Lunas and Laras but not all the time. I buy them when they're on sale and really like them for traveling. I like making my own 'trail mix', too, as others have commented.

The hubs likes Clif bars for breakfast and to satisfy a chocolate craving.