Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

In a Manhattan Burger King - a large cockroach in my chocolate thick shake - realize I discovered this by drinking it up through the straw - ACK!!!! I was so grossed out I just brought the tray to the counter, told the manager, practically threw up on him and ran out of the restaurant.

I had never had a roach in my food before, but the very next day, I got a soda in the ferry terminal and there was a baby cockroach mixed into the ice!

I work in restaurants - I'm amazed there isn't more hair found in food - many do not make their staff wear haircovers when the restaurant isn't open. I also find it very annoying that they make so much fuss about women's long hair when, from what I have seen, there is far greater risk from men's hair - which is rarely tied back and, therefore has nothing to stop it from falling out.

btw - stopped back in that Burger King a few weeks later - saw a roach crawling on the shake machine - left and never went back again. I have also never ordered a shake from any of the chains ever again.

I grew up on Julia Child and then Jacques Pepin on public television. It's still hard to touch them. I also loved watching the late Pierre Franey (also on public tv). I learned so much from all of them. Pepin was so wonderful on technique, that it was one of the big deciding factors in my choosing the French Culinary Institute.

I do love America's Test Kitchen (guess where? - on public tv). Alton Brown is enjoyable.

I wish there was more outright cooking info on FN, but the competitions do help to inspire me as to combination of ingredients.Some of those shows make more sense if you already have some basic knowledge under your belt.

One more thing, and I'm sorry if it was already addressed and I missed it - will this dough freeze well? I've found I bake much more often if I have the dough ready to soften up in the freezer.

I loved Bar None before they changed the formula and added caramel.

These days, I'm very fond of Reese's Peanut Butter Sticks. Hard to find, but yummy. Think of KitKat with peanut butter added.

I've got to try an Annabelle's Rocky Road. I used to get their plain dark chocolate coated marshmallow bar, but it's no longer available.

My husband and I have always enjoyed our meals at Khyber Pass. It's nice to read about some of the dishes we haven't tried.

We particularly like a vegetable soup they serve - I've seriously considered going there just for it!

I subscribe to CI. I may have once subscribed to the online content, but wasn't using it. Now that I'd like to, I think the price is insane. I believe a better business model would be to have a print subscription price, an online only price and SMALL additional fee to print users for online acess, say $5 to $10 per year.

I got here from Robyn's (Roboppy) "The Girl Who Ate Everything", which I got to from 1010wins.com when it was listed as one of their favorite blogs.

Ohiogal - I use a similar method for rice. My results are almost always better than simmering until liquid is absorbed.

Thank you, everyone. I really appreciate you're taking the time to respond!

I had looked at FCI more closely and was quite drawn to it, but I was a bit concerned because I hadn't had time to fully explore ICE before making a decision. I signed up for the evening culinary program that's about to start at FCI a couple of days ago and now I feel more comfortable about it. I grew up watching Julia Child with my mother. I learned loads of technique watching Jaques Pepin, so I figured his insistence on a solid base would stand me in good stead in the future. I love baking and sweets, but it would be hard to defend spending so much more money when future compensation would be so low. I already have a BBA, so a management program might make sense, but I want to create great food for people.

I'm so psyched!!! I can hardly wait to get started. At 55, I'll probably wind up being the class "granny"...

Thanks for all the great recipes. Can't wait to try some!

The pumpkin pie I made last year using a gingersnap-pecan crust. mmmm

The pumpkin soup I made Saturday night was darned good, too.

Spicy brown - Boar's Head with Horseradish (used to love Kosiuscko, but switched). Great on hot dogs.

Dijon - Grey Poupon & Trader Joe's.

One thing I remember from either Cook's Illustrated or another review, the heat in Dijon mustard dissipates rapidly as it sits on the shelf - opened or unopened. Perhaps, because the volumes are so high, the TJ is especially fresh and thus hotter?

My mother began cooking a fairly basic curry maybe 45 years ago. We used to regularly have curried leftovers.

But for my first eating of actual Indian food, it was on the E6th St. Curry Row 20+ years back. I don't remember the place, but I know I fell in love with the food that evening - not the man I was with - introducing me to Indian food may have been the only good thing he ever did for anybody in his life. I've experimented with cooking various things and love working with the spices.