Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

definitely kalamata for me! :)

My fav family dinner is definitely my mom's lasagna. So good! :)

I like pasta with olive oil, garlic, and red pepper seeds! :)

My favorite pumpkin recipe is definitely this amazing pumpkin fondue that my friend made us last year She scraped the seeds out of a pumpkin and then filled it with layered bread and cheese. AMAZING!

Laptops are one thing, but BOOKS?! I get the point that if you ban laptops, maybe you will turn tables over faster or something. But often I'll bring a book for if I'm waiting for someone for five minutes or something, not necessarily to work for hours on end. Why not just have a rule that as long as you're at a table, you need to be eating something? We have a cafe where in off hours, you can nurse a coffee and work for a few hours, but during meal times, you must order a meal to be there and they'll ask you to move along if there's a line. They don't ban anything, just make it clear that if you're there at a busy time, you have a certain amount of time to eat your meal, which I think is fine. The minute I see a "no reading" sign somewhere, though, you can bet they won't be getting my business!! What's next, no texting? After all, you could be spending that time shoveling food in your mouth and getting out of there as fast as humanly possible!

I'm from Ohio and I love the buckeye candies we make with a sweet peanut butter filling, dipped in chocolate. YUM!

We have these here in CA too, though luckily I have NOT tried them yet and now I don't have to! I love seeing the pictures here, as the promo photos of these things they have in the store look awesome...but I was assuming reality might not be so good!

I have to say, though, their other food is really pretty good! I don't know how much of the country has their new wraps and salads, but I've been very happy with them for the price. I've tried the ceasar salad (ok but not amazing), the greens and grains wrap (excellent), and the asian chicken wrap (also very good). It's a good value, too, with a small smoothie and a wrap or salad for abut $7.50.

My first time having Indian food was actually in college, as hard as that is to believe (I'm only 25, so it is sort of crazy, but I grew up in a small town with limited culinary options). I was totally blown away...it was so amazing! :)

I had a really embarrassing "cooking" FAIL when I was in college - I tried to make instant pudding and it ended up all lumpy and gross! I didn't even know you could mess up instant pudding. :-D Luckily I have improved since then!!

My fav burger is the avocado-bacon burger at Triple Rock in Berkeley, CA. Or maybe the blue cheese burger at Flame in Berkeley. Too many good burgers!

I love sparking strawberry lemonade...basically lemon juice, sugar, strawberry puree, and sparking water. SO good!!!

I love Frog Hollow Farms at our local farmer's market...yummy fruits, awesome jams, and great fruit pastries.

My favorite would have to be my sister's famous chocolate-white chocolate chip pancakes. They may be one of those dessert-for-breakfast dishes, but they are SO SO SO good. Totally amazing. :)