Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I used to go to the LA Reader office on Friday mornings to collect my mail, then I'd stop in the chain drugstore nearby to pick up a piece of beef jerky, and a package of vanilla creme sandwich cookies, which I'd eat while driving to my day job. Not together, just back-to-back. Can't remember if I ate the jerky or the cookies first, nor why I thought those would make a good breakfast.

Since pasta and beans are so cheap try combining them. In a tablespoon of olive oil slightly cook about 3 cloves of garlic. Add one or two cans of pinto beans and chopped up broccoli and serve over a pound of short pasta (penne or rigatoni). As always puts some parmesean cheese on top. $4 total

Cook about 4 cloves of garlic and 2 or 3 whole pepperoncini (probably about 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes) in a half cup of olive oil, serve over pasta. $3 total

1 Onion cooked in half a stick of butter, add a can or 2 of tuna and serve over pasta. $5 total

3 cans of tomatoes (15 ounces each) cooked with either garlic or onions (not both), basil, salt, pepper, a dash of red wine vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar. $4 total

Throw some Edam or Gouda cheese in with pasta and nothing else. $5 total

Frosty and Fries (not weird)

Dunking Chocolate chip cookies in Orange juice... YUMM!

Rubens are my favorite sandwich I recently made ruben strata where I work and used it as a lunch feature, it was a huge hit!!!

Reuben's have a way of hitting the spot everytime. Quick and satisfying.

Am here in the Florida Keys having a lobster Reuben. Enjoy.

I definitely agree that Reuben's are so, so delicious. I live on Long Island, and there's some mighty fine delis out here that make 'em; but, if you're like my Brooklyn-born mom, you'll only trust the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn to make this sandwich for you.

The idea of making my own really appeals to me. My girlfriend's Irish grandmother corns a great beef. I've had that on a sandwich with some mustard. Next time she makes it, I'll have to try following this Russian Dressing recipe, get me some sauerkraut & swiss, and turn it into a Reuben!

I loved Kix until they changed the formula. They are airier now and don't have nearly the taste of the old ones.

@Heart, I didn't mean to sound arrogant or patronizing. You're one of my favorite people here, and I'd hate to see you ripped off by someone telling you that you need to buy hardware when you've got a software problem. I really didn't want to offend you...I was trying to protect you if you were being taken advantage of. It happens all the time. Because people don't know how to fix things like computers, dishwashers, cars, microwave ovens...whatever...there are plenty of other people who take advantage of that. And as I tell my customers, I don't expect them to know about their computers the way I do, because it's what I do...on the other hand, when it comes to my car, I have to trust my mechanic because I can barely fathom where the windshield washer fluid goes. I'd just hate to see you trusting someone who's giving you bad advice.

And I don't mean to imply that your friend is stupid or malicious, but spyware and viruses change every day. If you're not in the business and not dealing with it on a regular basis, there's no way to keep up with all the symptoms and all the tricks to fix the problems. Computer engineers come in a wide variety and the ones that deal with hardware or programming aren't necessarily up-to-date on the latest computer bugs. I have customers who work for Seagate and IBM who bring their computers to me for repair. They might be able to write elegant code or design a servomotor, but when it comes to viruses, it's still a foreign land to them.

@all, I apologize for taking this thread so far off track. I'll shut up about it now.

@heart, I really do apologize. If you want to take any of this offline, you can email me: dbcurrie at gmail dot com.

@dbcurrie--the person who looked over my computer tried numerous things, including all of the recovery programs at our disposal. He is a computer engineer at a major firm, and a friend of the family and I have great confidence in his advice. Given you did not see the problem, I see no reason for you make patronizing and arrogant statements about my lack of computer expertise. It is possible I am not explaining the problem eloquently, but I certainly think you have no reason to pass judgment, given a few LIGHTHEARTED and HUMOROUS comments I meant to inject into a thread about chicken.

My point was that the aggregation of downloading coupons is often not worth the 'free food,' when my obviously lame attempt at a joke turned into a commentary about my computer skills.

@chiff, sorry your thread turned into this. Why does free chicken generate so much hate? A paradox.

Agreed, I'll keep this trick up my sleeve. Where price is concerned there is still a way to get that authentic flavor for short dollars. Since we are serious about food why not just make your pancetta (or guanciale if you can get jowls). Its dead simple to do and only takes a couple of weeks. I do it in the fridge, a lot of people just hang it in their kitchen.

http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/2008/08/pancetta-easiest-cured-meat-of-all.html
http://www.babbonyc.com/in-guanciale.html

I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like they are focusing more on marketing than the actual flavor of the chicken, which makes sense... If you want good quality chicken, cook it yourself!

Hillary
Chew on That

Since my experiences with KFC have generally been pretty bad, I've felt not a glimmer of curiosity about their grilled stuff. That said, many of our office young went to the KFC at 42nd and Madison in NY. The KFC stopped serving the free chicken and a sit in protest happened. The customers were livid. I don't think so much because they were denied what would have been, at best, mediocre chicken, but because the franchise had no sign posted as to the end time (it was around 1pm) and people were just plain pissed that they would pull something like this.

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