Mayonnaise in a chocolate cake blew my mind. But beets. Really? I found out you can use them to make a very nutritious and pleasing chocolate cake.

Has anyone else made or tried a red beet chocolate cake?

I love sun tea -- my mom used to make it and nobody ever got sick from it. But a friend recently mentioned that it wasn't safe and cited this Snopes.com article as proof.

Have you ever gotten sick from sun tea or know of others who have?

Does anybody especially enjoy chocolate cake made with mayonnaise? I stumbled upon some cake recipes with it and want to try one but I wonder how cakes using mayo stand up to cakes using more traditional cake methods where the eggs and oil are added separately.

If you have one or have ever used one, what do you like to use them for?

Either way, explain your opinion. Thanks!

Has anyone else unsuccessfully attempted to access other people's SE user profiles? I noted that the site was hung-up tracking stats from Chartbeat prior to failing to load a profile.

I ask because I like to follow others' incisive and educational comments via their profiles.

If you've got one, spill it. Do you love pickling the rind? Spiking it with booze? Have you covered it with sunblock, thrown it in a pool and tried to fight for it?

Actually, a posse of surly neighborhood kids and I did just that when I was growing up. We'd split-up in to teams and see who could wrastle it up to "our side" of the deck first. Plenty of thrown elbows and underwater kicks. We'd always shake hands and eat the watermelon afterward, sunblock and all. After all these years, I can't believe any parent would let this go down in their pool! Nobody ever got (too) hurt, luckily. That's my story.

You are Roger Federer. You just won the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, France. You are, quite possibly, the best tennis player of all time.

What are you going to eat to celebrate your win?

So, July 4th is a month away. What are your plans? Do you have a typical menu? Will you be the host or were you invited to an Independence Day event already? Talk to me.

Got a story? Do you grow it? Do you enjoy it or dislike it? If you enjoy it, tell me how you enjoy it most.

I typically buy uncured bacon. Upon rendering, cooling and storing the uncured fat, one can see it has a uniform white, creamy texture. To my dismay, I recently cooked and rendered cured bacon fat and noted that was unevenly-toned and grayish, with a more dense texture.

Why the difference? Do the chemicals in cured bacon fat change its properties?

[Serious Efforts guidelines »]

Who can fault a cook who is humbly proud of their hard work and progress in the kitchen? Not me.

Though, I bet some of us have friends or acquaintances who run their mouths about their expensive appliances and "always perfect" cooking. Instead of being helpful, they're cutting up others' efforts in the kitchen -- including yours -- to bolster their ego.

Do you know a culinary braggart and if so, how to do you react to them? Tell your story.

This will be the first Easter in our house and I'd like to put in a good effort to make it special. What do you do? Recommendations for decoration ideas and menu ideas desired!

I don't have a great honey story. But the sight and smell of honey used to make me gag and run when I was a child. Isn't that odd? As an adult, I developed a love for it, especially the dark and flavorful buckwheat honey. It's so good in tea, on oatmeal or buttered bread. Also, the fact that using locally-produced honey can help your body develop a resistance to local allergens is wonderful.

So, do you like or hate honey? Tell your story.

In case you didn't catch it, NPR reported that "BaRocky Road," "Obama White House," and "BidenBerry" are the ice cream flavors that will be served.

Compliments of The Penn State University Creamery.

I wish HBO Food existed.

They could produce a show with a format like "Real Time with Bill Maher" but have Alton Brown or Anthony Bourdain (or both) moderate on various candid, food-centric topics in the world. Guests on the show could include anyone they want -- because HBO would give them creative freedom -- but most likely they'd feature chefs and others in the food service and hospitality industries.

Other ideas for shows on HBO Food?

If you were formerly or are currently a chain-smoker, to what degree does smoking diminish your ability to taste and enjoy food?

My desire to create a tiki Halloween for the neighborhood kids had to be shelved for next year. Stuff came up, e.g. I had to attend a funeral yesterday . . . on Halloween. And I didn't even carve a pumpkin.

So, what was your Halloween buzzkill?

Complaints about the candy? Did a kid trip up your front steps and break his arm? Parents want to sue you now? Talk to me.

I'd like to do something fun and different for the trick-or-treating neighborhood kids. So, inspired by a recent SE article on tiki bars, Tiki Halloween it is! Planning to decorate our front porch with tiki torches, scary pumpkins with tiki god faces and I'd like to give out tropical candy.

I need tropical candy ideas and other creative ideas for porch tiki decorations. Help me out!

Do you like to eat frozen foods that are not traditionally eaten frozen?

I adore noshing on frozen vegetables and I've learned that this strikes more than one person as really odd. Frozen peas, edamame and especially corn. I also love to dip frozen green beans in a creamy horseradish dip.

How about you? Anybody eat unusually frozen foods?!?

Does anybody do anything interesting with their leftover pie dough scraps? Sweet and savory suggestions are welcome.

I had no idea that 2008 is the International Year of the Potato.

I love potatoes.

If you were a potato, what kind would you be? And how do you want to be prepared?

I'm jonesing for some watermelon today and wish to try something new.

I just found this at Simply Recipes: Watermelon Salad with Feta or Cotija.

It could work. Has anybody tried a savory watermelon salad? If not, do you think you'd enjoy such a thing?

I'm tired of setting off the smoke alarm when I season the thing. The kitchen fan never works well enough. I have to open nearby windows and doors.

Do you think seasoning an iron skillet outside on a grill would be a reasonable?

From the New York Times today comes word that the FDA, reportedly getting a little tougher these days when it comes to food safety, has turned its eye toward bisphenol-A (BPA), the substance used in food packaging that has inspired much worry among the public — especially parents: The agency said Friday that it had "some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children," and would join other federal health agencies in studying the chemical in both animals and humans. The agency points to ways you can limit your exposure: hhs.gov/safety/bpa Of course, like anything the government does, nobody's happy. The chemical lobby says the FDA is going too... More

Hi Serious Eaters :-) This Friday, my aunt is hosting twenty of our relatives for an early Christmas celebration. She is making the dinner and I am pretty sure that a ham is her main course. She has asked me... More

I had a request for ham for Christmas Eve, and despite the fact that there are two of us, the request was for a HAM, not the little Niman Ranch thing that I usually pick up. So now I have... More