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To give as part of my infused liquor gift packs that I gave out at Christmas, I infused some bacardi gold (I think) with orange zest, vanilla beans and chai tea bags.

I hated it at first because it was all cloves but I tried it again last night and it had mellowed nicely from its few weeks in the freezer. In retrospect I realize that I let the tea bags steep too long. I should have taken them out after just one day instead of three.

She did not start out deep-frying butter. She started out cooking normal southern-style food. It took a few years for her to turn into a parody of herself.

@Karl S - Popeye's boxes have lots of holes so there is lots of circulation in there. I know. I've checked more times than I want to admit.

@princexy - The problem with reheating in the oven is that the meat ends up getting dried out because it takes considerably more time to crisp up in the oven than in oil.

Anyway, the next time I have Popeye's, I'm totally trying this.

It could be worse. We have a family of large and frisky clog-dancing squirrels living our attic. There isn't much we can do about it until summer, when we get a new roof.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't want to have dinner at the house of someone who is egotistical enough to hide the salt & pepper. People have different palates and like different things. Is the point of feeding people to show off how awesome and perfect your food is? Or is the point to make them happy with your food?

Regarding finely ground black pepper: I like freshly ground pepper but, like someone already said, it's hard to avoid chunkies with a regular pepper mill. Because I'm generally lazy, I grind up two or three tablespoons of peppercorns in a spice grinder every couple of months. No, it's not freshly ground but it's far superior to buying it ground already.

That said, I use a lot less than I used to. At home, I use cayenne pepper like most folks use black pepper.

I've been an avid Kindle user for the last year but I always said that cookbooks are one of the things I'll never bother with for it. I can't help it, I want the pictures. In fact, anything that you just sort of browse through isn't ideal for the Kindle.

That said, a couple of weeks ago I broke down and purchased a big ass Cooks Illustrated cookbook in Kindle format. I rationalized that 1) there probably aren't that many photos in a CI book and 2) it will be a handy reference when I'm standing in the grocery store. Also, the actual book is freaking huge and my house isn't.

But most cookbooks I buy wouldn't work on in an e-ink format, until they figure out how to do e-ink in color.

Liquor infusions.

Vodka with cucumber, dill & a teensy bit of garlic
Vodka with serrano and jalapeno peppers
Vodka with lemon and thyme
Rum with chai tea bags, orange zest and vanilla beans

I have been known to order vodka on the rocks, with lime. I've been on a bourbon kick lately, though.

When I'm at home, I like vodka straight out of the freezer. I probably like that more than I ought to..

I'll probably get some abuse for this but lately at home I've been making a drink that's a shot of absolut mandrin, a shot of makers and a splash of maraschino cherry syrup over ice. Delish.

To me having crappy kitchen equipment isn't the same as having a crappy kitchen, especially if the appliances are decent.

The house we just bought has a stove with a glass cooktop and I expected to hate it but I actually really don't mind because it looks better than coils and it's so freaking easy to clean that I can't believe it. Also, I shouldn't admit this but it doubles as a work surface sometimes. Regardless, as soon as we have the money, we're getting a gas line in the kitchen and a gas stove. This electric crap is for the birds.

Now that I think about it, when I was growing up in NOLA, anything that we ate on po boy bread was, by definition, a po boy. Ham & cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, whatever. So yeah, it's definitely the bread.

One of my favorite poboy memories is actually the hamburger poboy that the old Ye Olde College Inn used to serve. Holy crap, that was good. One of those and some of their shrimp remoulade was a perfect meal. I'm sad to say that it's gone forever. Yes, there is a new restaurant in the space that College Inn used to occupy (and it even has the great old bar) and yes, it is an outstanding restaurant, it's just not the same.

But there I go, wishing that I could preserve the past in amber.

Anyway, in the rest of the country, it's impossible to get a proper po boy because the bread isn't the same. That said, I'll tolerate places serving what they call po boys, provided that it's served on something resembling a baguette. It's when they're served on hoagie rolls or some other soft roll that I get annoyed. Look, just because it's got fried shrimp and some sort of sauce you call "remoulade" doesn't mean it's actually a po boy. (I'm looking at you, Bubba's food cart at SE 12th & Hawthorne in PDX.)

I can't abide any milk that isn't chocolate so I have to put Hershey's syrup in my cereal or buy chocolate milk in the first place.

I have very few happy memories of my grandmother, who died in 1969 when I was seven. But, I do remember her giving me Tab when I would visit her house - I'm pretty sure it came in a bottle in those days.

I can still taste it. I never see Tab without thinking of her.