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I made this recipe for Thanksgiving and it kind of sucked. Not nearly enough liquid. You'll have to at least double the fats.

These are great suggestions. I think I do need to be a little bit frivolous and try things that might not work (ie savory dishes) as well as gifting.

By the way, when my friend gave them to me and my jaw dropped through the floor, she said "What? The whole kilo cost me $20. I kept a quarter, gave one to my mom, one to you, and one to my brother's girlfriend." Anyone want to run the math on how much money is to be made flying to Madagascar and spending $100 on vanilla? :)

@stonechiper I would never demand it, or bring it up when the check came, but I would expect it. I would also expect to be paying for the birthday person when I was invited out to a birthday dinner. If I didn't feel comfortable chipping in, I wouldn't go. I think its presumptive to order the expensive food, but not to expect the birthday person to not pay for stuff.

I don't think your shopping example holds. Birthday dinners are situations where people know what they're getting into--more like including a reference to a gift registry in a wedding invitation. It's one thing to only put large appliances and designer sheets on a wedding registry--a classy bride and groom will provide a wide price range so that all of their guests can afford something off of it. Likewise, a classy birthday person will allow the other guests--ie, those paying--to suggest bottles of wine etc. that they are comfortable with instead of demanding expensive items. He or she should also try to pick a restaurant that fits within all of the guests' budgets. When these things don't happen, I think that's tacky. But I also think its tacky to expect someone to pay for dinner on their birthday. I just do.

Nevermind, I found it. It's Dote, if anyone is curious.

I just (like three minutes ago) finished my first McDonalds southern-style chicken biscuit breakfast sandwich. It was ok, but I would like to throw Wendy's breakfast chicken biscuit sandwich into the mix, which is much, MUCH better than McDonalds'. Chick-Fil-A reigns supreme, however.

So I ended up serving it with Negronis Sbagliatos, which are Negronis with Spumante instead of gin (and actually Prosecco instead of Spumante). I wasn't feeding a terribly adventurous crowd; my roommate's nose crinkled at the very thought of Campari (*eye-roll*), but I did my best. Thanks for all your suggestions!

Gastronobooks

I'm keeping a running list on my blog:

http://gastronobooks.blogspot.com/search/label/Wish%20List

Man oh man do I love me some Claiborne. Also Mimi Sheraton. And Pei Mei! I love Pei Mei.

No worries, Ed. I don't know squat about Manhattan.

I'm confused. And from Madison, Wisconsin. Which is neither North nor South but West of Milwaukee? And Culver's is from Wisconsin too, but Sauk City? And Kopp's does have the best frozen custard. But where is mention of frozen custard's best friend the butter burger, featured prominently at both Kopp's and Culver's and Michael's, although they don't call it a butter burger at Michael's?

This might be too picky. It's early and I'm sleepy. I'm also homesick, though, and it's not terribly often that Wisconsin treats like frozen custard are discussed in a national venue.

Ruth Reichl's recipe in I think Comfort Me With Apples for onion soup is the best I've ever tasted. It involves a lot of garlic and eggs and baking. FYI.

When I worked in catering, we always served romesco sauce with crudites. Our version was pretty bread-heavy, so flat bread or tortillas would have been too heavy. I liked it best with bell peppers (duh) and broccoli. There's something about the consistency of the sauce that clings to broccoli florets in such a mouth-watering way... Mmm. Now I want to go make some myself!