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I thought about this thread as I was eating a pretty average buffet lunch with my mom and wishing there was some place a little nicer we could have gone. When you're 100 miles from anywhere, Applebees sounds pretty fancy. The cafe was where Mom wanted to go and that's what counts. I drove up (about 80 miles) to go to church with her and spend the day. As I said, lunch was so-so, but the day was beautiful and it was nice to have time for just the 2 of us. Mom's 87 and pretty amazing. She just bought her first pair of blue jeans as well as a 42" flat screen HDTV. One of the best things for me was channel surfing and coming across a replay of the KU-Memphis game. Watching the end of that game on the big screen was great!

We have a Traeger grill which is electric and uses pellets (hickory, cherry, etc.) It's great for things you want to cook slowly like ribs or brisket. It makes a wonderful beer can chicken. Things stay very moist. You just have to remember to check the pellet chamber and makes sure it stays filled. It doesn't work well for steaks and burgers because it doesn't sear the meat so I'm looking for a griddle or something to preheat that might to do job. Our local butcher had 6 oz. fillets on special last week for $2.49 each and I ended up cooking them inside using a cast iron skillet. Soooo goood!

It's great to meet all of you! I'm Dutchgal (a salute to my grandparents) and I live in the middle of a wheat field right in the middle of Kansas. I'm in my mid-50's and work at a public library.
Marrying into a farm family, I learned quickly to cook on a large scale. Wheat harvest meant packing lunches for a dozen and taking supper to the field for 15-20. Consequently, picnics have never been to high on my list of fun things! We also had a hunting lodge for several years and I did a lot of cooking and freezing in bulk. It was fun meeting people from all over the country who came to hunt pheasant and quail. Now it's just my husband and I and it's a challenge to cook just for 2.
SE is a great site and gives me lots of ideas and the chance to travel through your experiences. I didn't have too much sympathy for the writer who complained about not finding any good restaurants in Barcelona - I was munching on something from Sonic as I read it and would have been thrilled to trade places!

With $10 wheat, there is about 12 cents worth of wheat in the average loaf of bread. Having been involved in agricultural all my married life (34 years) I know first hand how hard it is to make a profit in farming. Although the prices are high right now, the crop is still in the field and I'm certain the price will drop when harvest gets underway. Most farmers HAVE to sell when they deliver the grain to the elevator and won't get that top price. The bank, fuel and fertilizer people all need paid, so the majority don't have the option of holding their crop. We are no longer actively farming, but still have ties to the land - our son has cattle and puts up hay; our daughter is involved with a student farm at Kansas State, is an Ag-Historian and on the state Democratic food and farm counsel. They are 6th generation farmers. As for my husband and me, we are trying to become more self-sufficent. We're planning a big garden, thinking about getting a few chickens (our Vizslas will love that!) and might have my nephew (manager of a grain mill) bring us some flour the next time he comes this way.

I like "Smoke & Spice" by Cheryl Jamison. It has lots of rubs, mops and spices. Drop by your local library and look through the cookbook section.(641.5+ on the dewey scale!) It's a great place for cookbook junkies.

My wife and I went out Mother's Day evening with another childless midde-aged couple (we would never go out for brunch on such a day, unless we were getting tacos or Chinese food). We went to Goldberg's Deli at Factoria mall on the Eastside of Lake Washington from Seattle, since our friends had given us a gift card. I'd been reading David Sax Savethedeli.com blog and just jonesing for some good Jewish soul food.

Nice space, little delicatessen shop in the front. My wife got a brunch special: bagels, omelet, hashbrowns, and an enormous piece of very nice smoked whitefish. She was very happy. My friend Suzanne had the stuffed cabbage, which looked very nice and she enjoyed it. My friend Jerry had the beef brisket dinner, which was a generous portion but the only DRY Jewish-style brisket that I have ever seen. I went very traditional -- potato knish, pastrami on rye with coleslaw on the side, and a generous piece of noodle kugel to follow. The knish was nice (the accompaniment of gravy was unfamiliar) but I think that it may have been zapped rather than oven reheated. The pastrami sandwich was very good, not oversized, tasty but a little dry but the Gulden's helped that (just French's yellow mustard and Gulden's -- no regular deli mustard). Heck, I like Gulden's. The noodle kugel was great, although obviously not as good as my mothers and mine.

So, a mostly positive experience. We got rugalach and Joyva halvah for the counter on the way out.

As a former server/cook/bartender/manager of restaurants let me say there is some truth to the difference in service/menu/etc on MD, VD, NYE, etc...we don't call it "Amateur Hour" for nothing! But a well-managed restaurant that typically has great service and standards will be able to adjust enough for the volume without sacrificing quality and service. As a server, if I "sucked it up" and had a positive attitude about providing a special once-a-year treat to otherwise infrequent diner-outers, I invariably had an acceptable day money-wise and a great day karma-wise.
That being said, you wouldn't catch me in a restaurant on these days....no matter what!

Although this memorable story isn't all about food, I feel like I just HAVE to share:

Last summer I attended the wedding of my little sister's high school friend, who had just graduated college and was marrying the "man of her dreams."
*To start things out, the rehearsal dinner was held at the local BOWLING ALLEY and hot dogs were the day's special.
*The groom spent the ENTIRE time during the ceremony "stretching it out." He was literally up there cracking his neck, shaking out his arms and looking like he was preparing for a 100 yd dash.
*We got to the reception, and it was pretty normal, aside from the absence of anything edible and nothing to drink if you're not a keg-stand fan.
*The bride went to cut her cake and, alas, her husband was nowhere to be found. That is, until an announcement over the PA system called attention to the fact he was out behind a decorative bush "relieving" himself.
*Finally, it was time for this wedding from hell to end----the bride and groom left the reception, were about to jump in the Extended 4x4 Truck limo when all of a sudden the groom ran back inside. He reappeared moments later ROLLING THE KEG behind him and stuffed it in his wife's lap before he jumped in the limo.
I still shake my head and can't believe it happened.

oh boy. just starting to plan a wedding for next summer. we are going to check out our first venue next week. we have heard amazing things about the place and the food, but i am dreading it being a disaster. i know how judgmental people can be about weddings... all the personal expectations... all the gossip. yikes!

My beautiful niece had a gorgeous chuch wedding with lots of family participation. Well-to-do families and couple. My SIL is cheap, cheap, cheap and she obviously planned the reception at a room in a Mexican restaurant. I won't even try to describe the tacky table decorations she and her sister made, but if you saw them, you honestly wouldn't believe it. Another one of those times when I wished my mother were alive so we could gasp and choke and gossip afterward. The food choices were fish or chicken and they pretty much tasted the same. Every person at every table took one bite of the rice and meat/fish.. The canned fruit salad was all that was edible. I wonder what the families and the restaurant staff thought when every full dish went back to the kitchen. It honestly was that terrible. I had out of town family staying with me, and cooked when we got home, even though it was very late - we were starving! That was last summer and to this day, nobody has said anything for fear of hard feelings, but Mom and I would have dished and got it out! I needed to laugh. At least the bride and groom were too happy in love to even notice that nobody ate the food.