Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I, too like Svedka as a reasonably-priced but respectable vodka. The big one goes for $18 at the local Costco. (Or you can pay Jewel $25, if that makes you feel good.)

In this vein, did others see the article in the "Weekend" section of the WSJ that described how many of the makers of premium-priced, designer vodkas produced their pricey masterpieces? They start with a RR tank car or tank-truck load of industrial-grade beverage alcohol (97 proof) from Archer-Daniels-Midland and cut that with some kind of fancy water (melted iceberg ice, anyone?) an arty-farty label, a tricky name, and a price to impress the fashion-conscious.

You know who you are.

I'm gonna try some of the suggestions here, including the horseradish, the Sriracha, the aquavit, the cilantro, the celery salt, and the Clamato.

Maybe not all at once, though.

Sort of sneaking in reverse...

When in college, my son and a half-dozen fraternity brothers spent - lost -a weekend in a fancy Chicago hotel on Michigan Avenue. (Could only afford it because they all stayed in one room.) When they regained consciousness (late) on Sunday morning, they noticed the self-serve refrigerator-bar was completely empty. They pulled out the inventory/price list and realized they owed the hotel just a little over $400.

My son remembered there was a Walgreen store with a liquor department a few doors up the street. He took the list there and found miniatures to match virtually everything in the inventory. He sneaked them into the hotel, restocked the bar, and it came to a couple bucks over $50.

When they lived in Chicago, my son and his wife each took a bottle of wine and a straw in the inside pocket of their parkas - this was only feasible in the winter - and a few snacks in the pockets.

This would be more difficult in Southern California, I suppose.

In the fall of 1954, I was a junior officer on a destroyer returning from NATO exercises in the Med. We ran into a hurricane just off the Azores, and everybody on board ate peanut butter sandwiches for five full days, because it was too rough to do anything like cooking in either the crews' mess or the wardroom kitchen. (Destroyers are like that in rough weather.)

There are a lot of people from long ago on the USS Stribling who are still not fond of peanut butter sandwiches, no matter how innovative.

Mice thread.
Born St. Louis, MO, grew up in Bethesda, MD when it was out on the edge of the WashDC metro area. Went to boarding school in Concord, MA - so I know how to pronounce it - college in Cambridge MA then three years Navy (destroyer officer) based in Norfolk, then 4 years grad school back in Cambridge, then to Chicago three years. Transferred to Santa Barbara three years, then four years Seattle (Bainbridge Island, actually) then back to Santa Barbara again for three years and then back to Chicago for the last thirty. Lousy choice; too cold, too crowded.

More than any of you wanted to know!

Michael Chiarello solves the tomato paste problem neatly by cutting both ends of the little can, using one end to push the tomato paste out the other, open end. You cut off what you need and freeze the rest, still in the can. Next time, warm the can slightly, push and cut.

A wonderful ham sandwich has to be done with great care.

From the bottom good rye bread slice upwards: mayo, just a little spicy mustard, lettuce, thin ham slices, thin slices of a mild cheese - provolone or swiss - VERY thin slices of Spanish onion, more ham slices, lettuce, mayo, and top bread slice. It's important not to crowd out the ham flavor with the mustard, cheese, or onion.

Extensive discussion of SPF, many by professionals

http://www.cheftalk.com/forums/food-cooking-questions-discussion/31088-sweet-potato-fries.html

Great site, too if you don't know it already

In Pike Place Market, if the Clamdigger Restaurant is still in business, go in for lunch and have their Devil on Horseback sandwich.
In Portland, go to Jake's and get the barbecue crab legs. Awesome.

When we visit our daughter & family in Pittsburgh, The Strip is our first stop. We eat and eat, then buy food and go home to cook (after suitable recovery time.) One trip will set us up with supplies for a week, with a few supplements from the luxurious Giant Eagle supermarket in Mount Lebanon.

I think Pbgh is a great town for eating and visiting. Despite the labrynthian street system, amd the fact that NOTHING is flat, getting around is easier and less stressful than Chicago.