Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

As a kid, I tried mineral salt from the cows' salt lick and chicken feed, both cracked corn and mash.
And I've eaten at least a bale of alfalfa sprouts on my sandwiches over my life, which is not really different from hay except for freshness.

HOWEVER, when I was in my 40s, I did dinner theatre/murder mystery weekends and one character I did was a mad scientist who was creating a race of super intelligent dogs to replace humans. I had a handful of Milk Bones in my lab coat pocket as a prop and before the dinner I got the idea of offering guests an "hors d'oeuvre" to clean their teeth before dinner. When they demurred, I would shrug and take a bite out of the biscuit. (I prefer subtle when being over-the-top.) My fellow actors were as shocked as the guests by my inspired improv.

In my defense, I read the ingredients on the box VERY carefully beforehand, and they actually are much healthier than Oreos, if not as tasty.

Well, I guess I'm just a California hippie, because I've been paying premium prices for organic, shade-grown, fair trade coffee for many years now.
AND I buy it from a LOCAL coffee roaster (SLO Roast in San Luis Obispo).
Yes, it costs more, but I vote with my money. I buy less when my budget dictates, but I'm willing to forego a bit of self-indulgence in order to use my money to support those who support the workers and the environment that actually grow the beans.

@RossChristensen - I don't know what word should replace "rustic", but I *do* know when rustic is used to describe a campground it means "no running water, the stench in the outhouse is eye-watering." Mmmm, appetizing!

"Artisinal" is NOT A WORD!!! It is just sloppy spelling. (nod to Buffy)
"Artisanal" means 'made by an individual in limited quantities usually using traditional methods.' Sorry, SaveMart and Kroger's and MegaLoMart, you are under injunction...

I must say, I just don't understand all the hate for RR.. Sure, she's annoying at times and over-cute. Sometimes perky is just grating. But some of these posts are a little scary. She's not Julia Child, but Julia would be the first to appreciate what RR offers to her intended audience. If you don't need what she has to offer, don't watch her.

Finally, anyone who doesn't get an allowance from the 'rents is hereby banned from EVER saying "za"!
And THAT'S the truth!

(that's a joke, don't blow up on me...)

They all look/sound delicious!

But... nobody had plain ol' biscuits and redeye gravy that rose to the occasion?

Crispy and wild, please!
My Grandma (who first taught me to cook) hated the skin, so I always figured "More for ME!" when I sauteed salmon for her at home. Trout in the woods, always panfried too.

Good article and would love to be on a tasting trip to those fruit markets!
Two things;

There seem to be two entries for Cherimoyas (Custard Apples).
~Thought you might be interested in the folk belief in Mexico that if one eats a Cherimoya and becomes angry within 24 hours the fruit will kill you! Better make nice after eating Cherimoya...~

Also, I grew up with a loquat tree (Eriobotrya japonica) and enjoyed the fruit often. The picture of a nispero is not the fruit I picked many times. The loquat I had was a small yellow fruit that turned brownish-deep orange when ripe with a huge shiny brown seed taking up about half of the center of the fruit.

[The entry in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loquat) is interesting in that it mentions the 5-600+ year history of the loquat in Portuguese literature and my family is of Portuguese ancestry and I have only seen other trees at Portuguese-American homes. ]

Not very McGyver, but I like to use a grapefruit spoon for hulling strawberries, just like Grandma showed me.
When my drain stopper/strainer fell apart one day, I discovered a mayo jar lid was the exact right size for a temporary dishwashing session.
Also, a large bobby pin is handy for pitting cherries as well, if you don't have to do more than a pound or so. Any more and my hand cramps!

... when you have less than seven types of cheese in the fridge you start getting anxious.

...when your idea of a fun evening out is going to a cooking class - to help the teacher teach it!

...and you get excited from seeing someone do something for the first time and they get excited too!

... when you leave your hometown for a day trip and it involves three or more stops at specialty grocery stores and you know what day every farmers' market is for 120 miles around.

...when you get bored with your own cooking so you invent a new entree from whatever you happen to have handy using totally new combinations of ingredients and it works.

...when you know the ONLY store in your small town that has buckwheat soba and dark miso.

...when you get your asian store to special order organic tamari and sea salt from hawai'i.

I have enjoyed Andrew for quite a while and I would not watch if I felt he was disrespectful of his hosts. I think a lot of the brouhaha may be people who are alienated from the source of their food. How many commentators have slaughtered a hog or plucked a chicken, or even gotten an egg from a hen's nest? I didn't eat a chicken I hadn't known personally until I was a teenager, and I don't find eating what's available locally so strange. And I personally like 'sweetbreads' (a French delicacy of calf thymus) and tongue sandwiches. I've gigged and eaten frogs, but gag at liver -chicken or beef! The only thing I've ever seen Andrew eat that totally grossed me out was cypress root worms - 2-3' long slime tubes that he said 'tasted like rotten wood and swamp water'. (Lutkefish is up there on my list too!) For me, it's the mucus factor, not the source or taste...

My grandmother made a basic chocolate (powdered cocoa) cake from her 1920 Family Searchlight cookbook that is still the best I have ever tasted. She made a simple icing with coffee, butter, vanilla, sugar and cocoa that had just the right edge to it to highlight the simple cake.

Oh, and I ALWAYS introduce myself to my dungeness crabs beore I take them home!