Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Icing with way too much sugar. I'm usually the one scraping icing off of cake at parties.
Banana bread or cooked bananas (plantains don't count). I love bananas though.
Most corporate baked goods; you can taste the lack of love and care in them, and I can't remember ever reaching for carrageenan or sodium benzoate when baking.
Sugar-free anything. Sugar substitutes taste nasty.
Most fruitcakes. I'm bored with them.
Adult-sized slices of chocolate cake. I usually find it too rich to eat in large quantities. I love chocolate, I just prefer it in small doses.
Most donuts, except for cake donuts.
Crunchy cookies. Just not a fan of the texture.

Desserts that make me go meh:
Red velvet cake? I mean, it usually tastes OK (vaguely reminiscent of malted milk, like Wendy's frosties), but I always feel odd eating so much food coloring.
Sock-it-to-me/7-up/insert soda here cake. Common in Southern cooking, and almost always too sweet.

Re: buttercream icing: unless you had it on a homemade cake or cake from a wedding party, it probably wasn't made with real butter. 'Buttercream' icing made from vegetable shortening is pretty disgusting.

I'm surprised so many people here don't like tiramisu, but I've had my share of bad tiramisu. I'll second the cannoli though. Highly overrated and just not that tasty.

It used to drive me insane to see "x" at the end of the word until I started to work at a hospital 10 years ago. Everything ends in x to abbreviate -- history = hx, diagnosis = dx, etc. I still hate seeing "u" for "you" and "ur" for "your/you're," which propagates the erroneous use of your and you're. ARGH! I've gotten better about "tho" and "thru."

Back to food.

- "special blend" -- yay for vagueness
- use of the word "sushi" for anything raw. FFS, sushi doesn't even mean raw!
- innards

"Gets" for "understands," especially with the adverb "really." For instance, "so and so really gets the New York restaurant scene," or "really gets food," or "really gets service." It's a lazy, imprecise and charmlessly colloquial locution, and I hope it heads to the blogosphere tar pit as quickly as possible. Even worse when reduced "so and so gets it."

I agree with the people who said "toothsome" - ewwwwww!

Spaghetti and homemade foccacia. What is Jagerschnitzel? Weinerschnitzel, I've heard of. Jagermeister as well. Is it a combination of the two?

Meatloaf!

Hillary
Chew on That

It's the year of the Rat
The salad is pretty basic. Here's one recipe:

1/2 cantelope or 1/4 honeydew melon
1 pomelo
1/4 cup thinly sliced sweet pickled ginger
1 medium carrot shredded
1/4 lb jicama shredded

Dressing
3 to 4 tablespons oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tablespoon plum sauce

1 tablespoon sesame seeds
12 oz smoked salmon
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 cupp chopped roasted peanuts
1 green onion slivers

peel the melon and cut into crescents. Segment the pomelo cutting away the peel and white pith.

Arrange the melon, pomelo, carrot., ginger, jicama on a large platter

Combine dressing ingredients in small bowl

Toast the sesame seeds

Place smoked salmon over the salad on the platter, pour over lime juice, oil and white papper. Garnish with peanuts, sesame seeds and green onions

Using chopsticks everyone there should "toss" the salad while making wishes for the New Year.

(And no I didn't cook all week--it's a sort of potluck with each family bringing something. Most of which gets cooked right before eating!)

Happy New Year smallblondemom! It's the year of the ____?

It's Chinese New Year's Eve here in Singappore--25 people will be joining my family for a traditional meal. We will start with tossing a Yu Sheng Salad (for prosperity and luck) then sit down to a meal that will include roast suckling pig, chili prawns, pomelo salad, stir-fried broccoli,
pot-stickers, fried rice, rice noodle salad, sweet and sour chicken, imperial chicken with awesome dipping sauce, fruit and lots of special treats and cookies! You asked!

Vegetable fried rice topped with shrimp

Can't get enough of your topics.

It's funny, recently my 26 year old brother and I rehashed his hatred for asparagus...he still won't touch it but I love the stuff.

I'm not sure if onions are vegetables...but I just hate onions (though I admit I'll eat them sometimes...my brother on the other hand will not go near asparagus).

Hillary
Chew on That

I'll be making...

mexican wedding cakes
ginger-molasses cookies
world peace cookies
rugelach pinwheels
and maybe some lemon sables (although, the pistachio & cranberry biscotti above sound good too!)