Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Don't go out to dinner with anyone for whom you wouldn't want to pick up the whole tab, even if you do plan on splitting it.

If it's a bunch of people I don't know well (work happy hour), I figure out what my portion would be, generously pad it, throw the money on the table and tell the rest to figure it out.

Cherries, they're soooo good and soooo many of them in season. I can't eat them all before they go bad.

> But not too many established critics would concede,
> or even allow the possibility of, their own irrelevance.

Does this come as a surprise to anyone? "You know what, I'm being paid to do what many others do for free. Please eliminated my job."

The question should not be, "Are bloggers as good as professional journalists?" I would turn it around: How are professional journalists better than bloggers?

Reduced to sell because it's approaching its expiration date? Um, no thanks.

Gladly tell me never? So, even if you had the time and the freezer space, you would still not make your own stock?

You said: Nothing more, that is, unless you count the hidden, potentially most costly ingredient: four hours of my time and stove.

If you don't have time to make your own stock, you probably shouldn't be cooking. It is extremely simple.

1. Roast a chicken.
2. Eat the chicken (my favorite part).
3. Throw the parts you don't eat (including the juices from the pan you used to roast it) in a pot with some veggies/herbs and cover with water.
4. Put the pot in the oven, set it to 200 degrees and go to sleep.
5. Wake up the next day.
6. Filter out all the solid stuff (there should be enough edible stuff left to feed a dog for one day).

You now have 6-8 cups of high quality stock. And it's a great excuse to roast a chicken.

Barring that, stick with water.

Pumpkin Pie Brulée sounds good.

No whimsy allowed before 10am or until a sufficient quantity of caffeine has been ingested! Seriously, though, I find myself in arguments of this kind frequently (OK, OK, I find myself in arguments of all kinds frequently). Given the opportunity, I'd love to sit in a pizza joint in Naples and have a few slices. However, I must make due with what I have nearby.

Is that prosciutto in the bottom photo? I've got a serious jones for some real piadini now.

What's the temperature of the last 11 ounces of the no ice or 8 ounces of the easy on the ice? If it's room temperature by then, I don't want to drink it.

What? No one eats the tacos? Crispy tacos with carnitas, pico, hot, sour cream and extra cheese makes for an excellent lunch.

Also, if you're on a south beachy diet, the riceless burrito bowl is one of the few options you have when eating out.

I used to make pretty good cornbread, but then my wife went South Beachy on me, so it's been a while.

I'm seriously jonesing now, though.

What a great idea: using a pot! Now maybe my eyebrows will grow back.

Adam, thanks for the tip!

I'm very particular about my pepper, so I bring a small grinder with me where ever I go. Alas, the device does not look innocent. When asked what it was the last time I went through security, the agent mis-heard me and shouted out, "Pepper spray?!?!?" Thankfully, the situation was amicably resolved.

Another agent, after hearing my story about being a pepper snob, asked me where my pepper corns came from. I had to think for a second: "Sri Lanka! Phwew."