Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

This is nothing new. It's been a joke in my family for ages... only we always called it hotdog soup. And whenever anyone new would come over when we were having hotdogs, we would always offer up the hotdog soup. Any newcomers would be interested until they got in on the joke too and found out that hotdog soup was just the water used to boil the hotdogs.

The first time I roasted a chicken, it was nearly done, and my dad walked in and looked at it and informed me my chicken was upside down. I had no idea. I simply flipped over the chicken, crisped up the skin, and it was done. The roast chicken and its accompaniments were actually a gift for my neighbor, who had just had a baby. I brought it over to her, and later she called to thank me and tell me it was the moistest, most delicious roast chicken she had ever had. She wanted to know my secret. I now roast all my chickens upside down until they are nearly done. I always get compliments, and my chicken is never too dry.

I made that 4th of July Shortcake that was on the cover of July 2007 issue of Martha Stewart Living. It's a giant shortcake with a filling of strawberries, blueberries, and cream... that poke through stars cut out of the shortcake top. It was delicious.

I also made some hazelnut blondies. Also delicious.

I know I've made some other stuff as well... and I've flagged her beef stew for a cold winter night.

Family tradition... we listen to Alice's Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie) every year. It's usually on the radio once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening.

Because I've talked to my professor about what I'm doing, it's fine for me to use comments from here. I also have to do some "real" interviews. At this point with things found on the Internet, it's very dependent on what the professor will and won't accept. I'm writing a thesis next semester, which will also have something to do with food editing, and quite possibly how food blogs are affecting the industry, and I may have stricter sourcing guidelines to follow then.

I'm also not using comments from here and indicating that they are facts. I'm using them to add opinion, thoughts, etc., to the paper. After all, these are all of your thoughts and opinions and not authoritative. (I don't mean that in a bad way. I just wanted to hear from people who are interested in this topic and not necessarily experts on it.)

Thank you for participating, and congratulations to our winners:

garrettsambo
bria
akeeran21
tactful_cactus
negociants

Winners have been notified by email.

Chocolate covered strawberries for me.

ice cream!

strawberries :)

Really good chocolate