Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

guacamole!

A friend took us to the famous place near Austin (that I can't remember the name of) that serves a selection of smoked meats by the quarter pound on paper with sides al a carte and slices of white bread. Sooooooo goood.

According to a skin-prick test, I am allergic to mustard although I've never noticed any issues with eating it. I am also allergic to about a million other things though.

Black bean and sweet potato burritos. Yum!

It's hard to pick just one, but I love black bean and sweet potato burritos. I have no idea where I got the recipe (I just wing it now) but it involves soy sauce, onion and nutritional yeast. So good!

Unfortunately, all I have is a tumbler and depression. ;)

Awesome article.

I follow recipes closely when baking, but definitely do the "read a bunch of recipes and then improvise" when cooking. Usually because I can't find a recipe that is exactly what I want. :)

I didn't realize just how much I had started straying from recipes until a friend the other day said, "I've never seen you measure anything." Of course, I do measure things--quite often--but I've become much more confident throwing things together and having it taste good.

Where is step one?

Homemade Chex mix is surprisingly good. And although Watergate Salad is not from the 50's, it has that old-school, jello-tastic feel and is quite tasty. Sweet, but tasty.

Corniest Corn Muffins -- they look delish. I am one of the sacrilegious folks that like my corn muffins/bread sweet.

I am a 32 year old woman and I love whiskey. Scotch especially. Rye is good, Irish, Canadian...bourbon is a little too sweet generally, but I won't turn down a glass of something good.

I threw a large-ish party a few years ago for family and friends. I made a ham, and carefully (painstakingly) sliced it up and put it in a very large Tupperware container, intending to serve it cold. Unfortunately, I hadn't sealed the container completely. As I took the first step down the stairs to put it in the basement fridge, the container slipped from my hands and went bouncing down the stairs, ham EVERYWHERE. It was an avalanche of ham. It is now referred to in my family as the hamalanche. I cried and laughed in turns--and then went and bought a deli platter.

For the person who was having bean cooking problems, I have the same problem and the issue for me is hard water. I have to use a pinch of baking soda to offset it.

My grandma used to make blood sausage. Butcher a cow (or pig), save the blood, make sausage. Use everything. Makes sense, and I feel much better about eating blood sausage than foie gras or veal. Plus, it's yummy.