Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

ah crap! I meant ISN"T actually swirled. See, makes a mess of me just talking about it!

I'm pretty sure that I eat everything now that I did as a kid. BUT... my all time favorite that my parents hated was Goober Grape. There is something so alluring about seeing the pristine, purple grape jelly so beautifully swirled with the creamy, decadent peanut butter all in one glorious jar! Ahhh.

Clark's Fish Camp. Yummy seafood and a choice of other delicacies =] For example, gator tail, escargot, snake.....

I love all of the memories of family packed in there with me. Whether making a simple meal, game appetizers or a holiday meal, we were always together and laughing. I also enjoy being surrounded by family heirlooms. Not expensive, hard to find items, but a few bowls from my nanna and an old soup tureen that my parents gave me one birthday when finances were low. Pictures (on my fridge) colored for me by my special needs students who worked diligently for literally an hours to make them perfect... Oh the sentimental reasons, I could go on for hours.

@alosha7777- I have always enjoyed the show and even though I was shocked at the amount of food he would pack away, I never once thought about how many hungry people it would feed. You made a very good point... so good that I don't think I will ever view it the same way again! I am seriously bummed out thinking about it :( Thank you for your point of view :)

I agree that Dad should have all of his favorites. If you are on a budget but still want him to have his filet, you could have a byom bbq. This is where you provide everything except the meat...the guest all bring some uncooked meat that all of you bbq together. This way Dad wouldn't feel funny about eating the filet you provided him because there would be all sorts of different meat. While that is not the every weekend norm here, it is something that happens quite often. It is a lot less expensive on the host, makes the guests feel like they are helping out, and it is a lot of fun to see what everyone will come up with. It is also nice to be able to have samples of different things. Also, I know with my own parents, they have everything that they could ever want. So, a good idea might be to ask the guest's to simply bring a card or letter written to Dad telling him a good memory that person has had with him. Guests could also include pics of themself with Dad taken over the years. Making a great memorable party doesn't have to be expensive, and everyone will like the idea of pulling together for a wonderful man.

@timotheos- I love the Dr. Pepper ad ideas! Remember the jingle? How about changing their jingle to "I'm a pepper, he's a pepper, now she's a roasted pepper too, drink Dr. Pepper".

Thank you so much hotnpopin. I like the thought of drinking it warm/hot. That somehow seems to appeal to me. I am going to try this and see how it goes :)

Well Jimminy Shitz, that is unbelievable. On google for about 4 minutes and all you see about the subject is "cheaper to house them for life"... It seems like the majority of the cost in the execution is the legal cost. Ridiculous. I sure didn't think that I would learn something about criminology on serious eats today! Once again timotheos, you have me thinking...

The only time I ever seem to want water is when I am somewhere that charges $5 a bottle! Great well water at home, very seldom drink it. Put me in Disney World or a concert/sporting event somewhere and I'll be craving it like crazy.

I rather liked your chicken joke. It didn't ruffle my feathers a bit. I can understand the need to make jokes and try your best to keep things light as possible. I know a few cops and even being from small town USA, they still see and hear things that would haunt me.... As far as the beer, wine thing goes, I am torn. I can see that it wouldnt actually hurt anything to grant this last request of alcohol. I've had this discussion before and others have pointed out the cost involved. Pardon me for being blunt, but if the person is about to be executed, we are automatically going to save money from housing them, so really what is a few bucks for alcohol? On the flip side, I feel like they don't deserve a damn thing. Did they give their victims any consideration at all... nope. So why should these people deserve anything at all? It is a debatable question, but I would have to go with "hell no, drink water or be thirsty". But, that is just my opinion... any points to be made that might make me think otherwise?

Oooohhhh, I would feed Chris Daughtry anything he wanted! Of course, it would not be a complete dream unless I could feed him from my own lips :)