I'm so very mad. I live in a tiny little apartment that serves as a storage site for all my stuff, my cats, and an occasional resting place while I hustle through graduate school. One of my few pleasures is a tiny pot-style garden on my porch. I was super excited when my tomato plant put up it's first bloom, starting growing it's first little tomato - seriously I have pictures I was so excited.

Finally the tomato began to blush, it turned rosy pink, then yesterday when it was mere hours away from it's peak picking point I made the decision to pick it this morning for dinner. ONLY SOMEONE STOLE MY TOMATO!

Sometime in the course of me getting off from my drudgery work at Target to the time I got up this morning some villain absconded with my precious first (and only ripe!) tomato.

Surely someone here can sympathize with my plight and distress. T_T

I thought this article might strum up some conversation in here. I found the article and amusing insight into allotment owning. Though I thought it a little sad the author insists it's "hell in earth" and recommends you never, ever get one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8119428.stm

I finished working at that bakery finally (too much drama - I had to move on to find new drama.)

Anyway, in celebration I decorated one last freaking happy cake and figured if anyone you'd be the people to appreciate it.

Any pictures of cakes anyone else has decorated would be cool too :)

In a similar vein to the love/hate threads of late I thought this might be interesting. The X in question can be a recipe, cooking method, or particular product someone has raved to you about. I'll start off:

Salt-brining chicken before grilling it. I was unimpressed that the extra day's time was actually worth my effort. The homemade bbq sauce I made to go with it was stellar though...

Has anyone else noticed that the box backs are now pretty much microwave recipe only? This has proven to be more annoying to me than I think it should be. True a quick google has yielded the desired proportions and oven directions I wanted - but STILL!

I don't know if I'd go as far as to call lobsters "intriguing" creatures...but their biology is pretty darn cool.

Also - two bucks says the stress of capture, storage, and release kills the old fellow anyway...:(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7821645.stm

It doesn't matter - a slice of bread with butter counts as "cooking" for this thread. I just wanna know - what's the absolute last thing that came out of your kitchen?

My house currently smells of a batch of mint chocolate cheesecake brownies I just whipped up. Letting them cool is proving difficult...

So, I'm always on the search for tasty veg recipes but one of those things I've never found to my liking are the meatless balls. Often, the problem is that is relies on ground nuts for some bulk and strength of character I suppose for lack of a better phrase. Whereas that might be great tasting, I wouldn't know since I'm allergic.. :/

Basically, my question here is does anyone have a nutless meatless ball (hee hee) recipe? I'm hoping for a recipe that would be seasoningly versatile enough to take to being in a marinara sauce to being okay doused with cream sauce (ala Swedish-style).

Okay guys. As a surprise Christmas present my siblings and I are getting together to buy my parents a trip to San Francisco in May. (We think this is the first vacation they will take together since I was born nearly 26 years ago now...)

Anyway! I need some food recommendations. We're sending them for around 3-5 days so the gauntlet of food ranges from the cheap to probably one nice dinner is needed. My dad is renowned for his baking skills - specifically his sourdough breads so of course a trip to the city of origin of his beloved bread dough is in order. As for my mom, she has this almost irrational desire to visit "a chinatown" (she's always lived in rural areas ^^;).

They're both pretty adventuresome eaters for the area they're from - total meat and potatoes country. But they'll both probably draw the line on anything of the raw (sushi), bizarre, or "froo-froo" gastronomes.

They'll be staying down in the touristy zone near Pier 39 and all the sight seeing goodies, so I'd like to be able to generate a list of things for my presentation that could help steer them away from the mundane into the tasty zone.

So, I gotta ask who here drinks this? I'm curious how far stretched this particular concoction is as it's not uncommon here at all. I'm also curious how far stretched the coke brand version of this available bottled in the supermarket is....it's disgusting though. Gotta be a fresh lime macerated into a cup of ice with a diet coke poured atop. This beverage is the reason I've never been quite able to kick my diet soda habit. :(

I'm going to Seattle next month and a friend is planning on taking me here. The website makes it seem pretty nice. Any inside knowledge?

I have a friend who's getting married here in a month and she and her new hubby are going to be honeymooning in Colorado. They're planning on traveling around a bit from the Pike's Peak area to Denver to Colorado Springs and knowing her could definitely use some food ideas. Anything with websites/phone numbers/types of food - what's good would be appreciated. She's a Doritos with pizza sorta girl so nothing over the top, please. ;P

So, I've been watching DDD alot and most recently I saw the "Like Mama Made" episode. The one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb that needs sucking, gnawing, and drooling on was the mac 'n cheese recipe from Sweetie Pie's. Having tracked it down here. We have this cheesy behemoth in the oven. I cannot wait to both shorten my lifespan and worship the porcelain god (lactose T__T) with this one. :D

Did anyone else see the episode of DDD with the visit to Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge? I'm going to "recreate" (you can't actually recreate something you've never actually had now can you?) the mexican egg roll-type things showcased but I can't remember the whole list of ingredients. If someone has that episode Tivo'd or has a fantastic memory - what was that list again?