Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Right now I'm in love with making risotto but using barley or farro instead of the arborio rice. I use just a tiny bit of butter/healthy oil to start with to saute whichever of garlic/shallot/onion I'm using and finish with a tiny pat of butter for mouth feel and a sprinkling of parmesan on top (a little won't kill your diet). The rest of the dish is all your stock, veggies, and good for you grains. Feels quite luxurious but healthy at the same time~

Amen, pizzalove.

But yeah - DC laws until relatively recently were pretty restrictive and made it difficult to have a cart/truck selling much other than dirty water dogs and ice cream. Glad to see more variety on the way...

There are a few recipes out there for beet "carpaccio" (roasted beets sliced very thinly) done different ways. I made a version topped with a caper/chive/onion/egg/olive oil/S&P mixture that I really enjoyed. Link if you're curious. It was good over arugula but enjoyable on its own as well.

Count me in the camp of those who like the mouth feel of the Blue Marble spoons. I'm also not a metal spoon lover; they do conduct too much cold sometimes, and sometimes I feel like I can kind of taste the metal and/or the soap used to wash them.

And knowing the spoons are from corn (along with their velvety feel) makes me want to attempt to eat them for some reason. (Yes, I know they're not edible like that.) I'll take that as a sign that I need to up my order from two mini-marbles to three!

Cilantro pesto~

So funny to see this in my email. I was JUST (i.e., two minutes ago) fantasizing about quitting my job and opening a Potbelly near my Wall St. office. (Seriously, lunch options suck around here, I'm jealous of everyone who works in midtown.)

I, too, am a DC transplant and miss my vegetarian yum sandwiches. And the cookie on the (strawberry) milkshake straw - loved it!

Well, the responses to this thread have made obvious that there is no normal and people have different ideas of how things should be done. As someone who recently transitioned from "young and broke" to "30 and still broke" - my ideal situation is this:
- Host provides basics (meat, buns, a side, some drinks i.e., cheaper beers)
- Guests should always ask if they can bring anything, even if they think/know the host will say no.
- If the host does say no, it is still a good idea to bring a 6-pack or bottle of wine or something (for parties thrown by younger people) or a hostess gift (for parties thrown by older people)
- Hosts should be appreciative and almost deferential when accepting the offer of help. I'd have no problem bringing my own lawn chair as long as I were asked nicely (and as long as I actually had one!).
- Anyone with dietary restrictions should be willing to bring something they can eat (i.e., I'm vegetarian, and always will offer to bring the veg burgers because I don't want to pressure the host into fretting over a detail for just one person)

Here's what shouldn't happen:
-The host should never ask for food in the invite (unless you make it clear that it is a potluck)
- The host should never ask guests for money to cover expenses. (Unless you're young and you have a keg. I was always totally cool with throwing in a few dollars towards the community keg in my post-college years.)

And if you find yourself in a jam, it is of course okay to ask for help as long as you do it nicely "We're actually in a bit of a jam and would love it if you could bring a side to help round out the meal" and not "I need you to bring a side." Your guests would rather feel as though they were generous in helping as opposed to feeling as though they were required to bring something.

Just had my first attempt at grilling pizza this past weekend. I went with the cookie sheet method and it worked wonderfully. I erred on the side of caution and was generous with the olive oil on both sides of the crust but had absolutely no sticking. Another advantage of the cookie sheet method is that flipping it is super easy - just pick up the sheet and dump the crust on the grill on the other side.

For the dough I used that 101 cookbooks recipe, but used about half whole wheat bread flour.

This weekend I'm going be courageous and go for grilling directly on the grate! Thanks for this post and the other helpful comments~

Start him with something smooth and related to his precious vanilla to ease the transition. Don't throw anything insanely chunky at him early on or else he'll just feel it is like toppings mixed into the same vanilla/chocolate ice cream rather than being an actual flavor himself. I second/third the vote for the Haagen Dazs dulce de leche. Also try to find some local brands using fresh/seasonal ingredients - that will help him understand that ice cream can really support many more flavors than just vanilla and chocolate.

I'm sitting at my desk salivating over the thought of lavender mascarpone...

I love the Princeton features - give me something to do when I'm "going back"

Velveeta. Just for mac & cheese (and a few, well, many nibbles while I'm making it). Always blended with some other, more highfallutin cheeses. I hide it in the way back of my cheese drawer. I'd die if my friends saw it in there (though some of them view the individually wrapped cheese as an acceptable thing to eat, so I still feel better about my choice, but still...).

Oh yeah, and I'm having a hard time weaning myself off of bottled salad dressings, though I'm making progress. I'm off of the creamy ones totally, currently stuck on some "natural" brands' vinaigrette-ish or Asian-inspired dressings. I'll move on from the dressings eventually. But there will always be a soft, squishy-rubbery yellow place in my heart for that brick of Velveeta. *sings* "Processed cheese spreads are so much fun, so many natural cheeses all together in onnnnnne!"

Another vote for Bittman - I have the vegetarian one and love it. The aforementioned Alton Brown books are also good for younger people who are looking for serious information but a less serious presentation.

Go for Bittman/Brown now, Cookwise and Bakewise (just got this and love it) a year out, and McGee after she's said something about really loving to cook.