Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

filet first, new york strip next

As a kid we used to munch on deep fried smelt like they were potato chips ... but the heads had been removed. And they had been dredged in corn meal. Bitto with the little lake trouts that we caught camping. I've never cooked them as a adult though and wouldn't even know where to get them. Good memory though.

I have the palate of a 5-year-old and I wouldn't eat this.

I cut on the diagonal because it's easier to get into the baggie to take to work. If you cut the sandwich vertically the sandwich gets smashed at the cut in the baggie. It's all about geometry.

I'm going to try this:

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Marshmallow-Sour Cream Topping and Gingersnap Crust

I had already decided on pumpkin cheesecake and this recipe looks very good. But I have never made a cheesecake from scratch so I told everybody coming that they should definitely bring their own favorite dessert as a welcome Plan B.

Dark, definitely, dark.

grilled on lightly buttered dense white bread with havarti and a dab of spicy mustard

My favorite growing up was sugar babies.

My favorite at 51 is the little special dark in the miniatures collection. I really luck out because I'm the only one who likes dark chocolate ... they are ALL mine.

Candy is miss ... ice cubes ... little chocolate cubes of very, very sweet chocolate.

I can't deep fry anything. I guess it's fear of high temps or something ... everything I try is greasy and heavy ... blech.

When my sister got married in Hawaii her reception was a big outdoor party and after about the 20th hour I desperately wanted to crawl away and get some sleep but my sister's new father-in-law wouldn't let us leave until we had some jook ... I can't remember if it was for good luck or what ... but it's hard to take after a night of hard partying. And I don't think I could ever face it again.

I'm another planner. I plan dinners for Sunday-Thursday and lunches for at least three days. I have a large dinner repertoire and mix it up depending on what's in season, how much money I have, and if I've seen anything interesting online or on the Food Network. I place my food order on Saturday and it's delivered on Sunday at noon. I usually have fish on Sunday since it's delivered that day and because that's a quick dinner to prepare I do any other time-consuming prep for later in the week (e.g., poaching chicken and cooking tomatillos for chicken enchiladas). I wish I was as organized in other areas of my life as I am with the food part but the food part is a budget breaker if it's not planned.

People who have to justify eating, e.g., ordinarily I wouldn't eat this much for lunch so I'll just skip dinner. Get real.