Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Yes, mousse can be frozen. Google semifreddo and you'll come up with thousands of recipes.

These knobs are flying off the shelves because everyone's making the Mark Bittman/Cook's Illustrated No-Knead Bread. For a quick and easy solution, just take a trip down to your local hardward store and look for metal cabinet knobs/drawer pulls. If possible, bring your lip or the original knob so you can ensure that you get the right size.

Ziti is the same thing as mostaciolli. I think it's a regional thing. As best I can tell, it's called ziti on the east coast and mostaciolli in the midwest. (Not sure about other parts of the country.)

I've previously seen saffron for sale at Costco. Does that mean they were selling fake stuff?

If you read the TJs sales flyer, they make it clear that they work with manufacturers and food producers to buy up large quantities of stock. This is the biggest "duh" story. Did someone think it's a secret? Did you really believe that TJs had thousands of farms spread across the world, and was producing all of its own products, including the base ingredients? :yawn: Oh, BTW, I have a bridge to see you if you're interested.

For the sake of good journalism, where did Chow get the stat that 80% are probably produced by a third party, and why are you repeating it? Nothing in their article bears out that stat? Though I'd estimate the number's actually closer to 100%.

There are custom frozen dessert molds for that or anything imaginable. http://frozart.com

I keep thinking of Ina Garten's pavlova - meringue. And, keeping with the Mounds idea, ice cream on meringue, covered with ganache. I want a Mounds bar!

Do a search on Serious Eats for the recent post on Hot Dougs - sounds amazing, wish I could go! I've never been there myself.

Okay I found the link:
http://www.seriouseats.com/eating_out/2008/03/serious_sandwiches_hot_dougs_citrus_burgundy.html

also: www.hotdougs.com

It's been mentioned, but priorities are key when traveling on a budget. For me, food is part of experiencing a new place so I make sacrifices to be able to eat well. Like staying at a cheaper chain hotel instead of the fancier boutique places. And if you can, stay somewhere that offers a free breakfast and take advantage of it - grab one of their apples for a snack later in the day.

On a trip to Vienna, a friend and I managed to only buy one meal a day - dinner. Eating the hostel's free breakfast (and lots of it!) and then snacking throughout the day on Luna bars brought from home, we could splurge on dinner. For someone with more of an appetite, I'd second the suggestion for a picnic: get some cheap eats from a farmer's market or grocery store and enjoy it in a park or while site-seeing.

Lastly, plan where you want to eat to avoid wasting money on the closest thing available while you're starving. I'm an uber-planner so I'd probably have each restaurant picked before leaving home, but you can leave room to be spontaneous. Say you have three nights to eat out, come up with six restaurants that look good to you and decide from them. Again, never end up at some expensive hotel restaurant just because you're too hungry to go anywhere else!

Would wrapping it with a thick wad of foil help? I did that when I tried the Bittman bread recipe, and the knob was fine.