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From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Cheez Wiz, just the can, no crackers to put it on. Although that might be bad in today's swine flu climate...

From Slice

Cheeseburger Pizza at Nite 'N Gale: Too Much Pickle

Seriously? You schlepped all the way up to Highwood, and you had pizza at Nite 'N Gale, when you could have eaten at Buffo's across the street? Bad call...

And if you're looking for classic Italian American food in Highwood, you could do a lot better as well. Washington Gardens comes to mind...

From Slice

Imo's Pizza: St. Louis' Inexplicably Addictive Pie

@franko - Fried ravioli, despite what many St. Louisans like to think, is not a local phenomenon, you can find it all over Illinois as well.

Also, having spent four years in college in St. Louis, and being subjected to an untold number of foul Imo's pies at extracurricular activities, I can definitively say that it's not even an acquired taste. Unless you were exposed to it during your formative childhood years, it will never be palatable.

From Serious Eats

Mixed Review: Betty Crocker Pound Cake on the Grill

My favorite combo = caramelized bananas, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce.

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From Talk

Substituting brewed coffee in a cake?

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Recent Comments | Response to Comments

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Cheez Wiz, just the can, no crackers to put it on. Although that might be bad in today's swine flu climate...

From Slice

Cheeseburger Pizza at Nite 'N Gale: Too Much Pickle

Seriously? You schlepped all the way up to Highwood, and you had pizza at Nite 'N Gale, when you could have eaten at Buffo's across the street? Bad call...

And if you're looking for classic Italian American food in Highwood, you could do a lot better as well. Washington Gardens comes to mind...

From Slice

Imo's Pizza: St. Louis' Inexplicably Addictive Pie

@franko - Fried ravioli, despite what many St. Louisans like to think, is not a local phenomenon, you can find it all over Illinois as well.

Also, having spent four years in college in St. Louis, and being subjected to an untold number of foul Imo's pies at extracurricular activities, I can definitively say that it's not even an acquired taste. Unless you were exposed to it during your formative childhood years, it will never be palatable.

From Serious Eats

Mixed Review: Betty Crocker Pound Cake on the Grill

My favorite combo = caramelized bananas, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce.

From Talk

Visiting Chicago

Near Navy Pier most of the restaurants are apt to be over-priced. For a quick bite, and some tempting food shopping there is the cafe in the Fox & Obel Market at 401 E. Illinois. Further away from the area of Navy Pier, but close to the Art Institute is Cafecito, a little Cuban sandwich shop at 26 E. Congress.

From Recipes

Dinner Tonight: Sardinian Sausage Sauce

This was great! By far the best new sauce recipe I've tried in months. The saffron is a perfect secret ingredient!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Endangered Recipes' by Lari Robling

When I was a little girl, my mom used to send me down to my paternal grandparents house for a couple weeks every summer. Near the end of every visit, my grandma would make up a huge batch of dough for anisette cookies (seriously, when I later inherited the recipe, it called for 16 cups of flour!), and my grandpa and I would form them into shapes, and then ice them together after they had baked and cooled. There would be cookies on literally every flat surface of the kitchen, and even though it took me some years to appreciate the flavor of them, now, whenever I make them, I'm transported back to my grandparents' kitchen, even though they both passed away years and years ago.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: The Essence of Chocolate

I'm going to have to go with the chocolate sorbet from The Perfect Scoop. It's smooth and creamy, but with no dairy ingredients to distract you from the pure, unadulterated chocolate flavor. It may be a sorbet, but it's so rich I can only handle a few spoonfuls at a time, and that's a good thing!

From Serious Eats

Large-Scale Enticing Food Smells

On the west side in Chicago, if the breeze is cooperative, you can smell warm chocolate from a local chocolate factory. Delicious!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Baking Unplugged'

My mom likes exactly one type of frosting, the frosting that goes on my grandma's Texas sheet cake recipe. Since my mom isn't a baker, I decided to try to make it for her for her birthday. I timed everything perfectly (the warm frosting goes on top of the cake as soon as it gets out of the oven); I thought the frosting looked a little anemic, but I poured it on anyway. Once everything was cool, a taste test revealed that I'd written the recipe down wrong. Instead of five tablespoons of cocoa powder, I'd put in five teaspoons. Mom was so disappointed, she hasn't wanted me to try making the cake again ever since.

From Slice

Gulliver's: An Antiquing Pizza Lover's Dream in Chicago

This was the only pizza my family ordered until I was five, and we moved away. We never got the deep dish though. They do a great Chicago-style thin crust.

From Serious Eats

In Videos: Barack Obama 'Check Please' Teaser

Oh my goodness. I can't say how happy this clip made me. Check Please! is my favorite show on WTTW. I can't believe Obama was on it!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Baked, New Frontiers in Baking'

My grandma's angel food cake. It's still fine, but now I appreciate more complex flavors... like grandma's red velvet cake.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Cook's Country Cookbook'

Everyone always expects me to bring baked goods, so I lean towards cookies. Snickerdoodles are my specialty.

From Talk

How do you pronounce "grocery"?

I'm from Chicago, and I've never heard anyone call it the grossery. Everyone I know calls it the groshery store. So at the very least, it's not just an East Coast thing.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Modern Baker'

I was working with the old family recipe for Texas sheet cake, making it for my mom's birthday. It's her all-time favorite cake, and the ONLY time she'll ever eat frosting. EVER. The copy I had of the recipe called for 2 t. of cocoa powder in the frosting, and although I thought it looked anemic, I put it on the cake anyway, and garnished with nuts. Fast-forward to her birthday party, when I made the big cake reveal. Everyone wouldn't stop commenting on the pale tan-colored frosting, and when it had been sliced it was quite evident that something was amiss, when it tasted like nothing other than vanilla and slightly caramelized sugar. Turns out, when I had transcribed the recipe from Grandma's stained, bent recipe card, I had accidently written 2 t. instead of 2 T. So much for the lush, fudgey frosting. Mom wouldn't even touch her birthday cake!

From Serious Eats

What's Your Favorite Food on a Stick? It's Gotta Be Served at the Minnesota State Fair

Giant pickle on a stick. Best. Ever. The pickle juice ends up all over your face and drips down your arm, and it's so refreshing on a hot summer day. Never been to the MN State Fair, but pickle on a stick is the only thing I can't leave Taste of Chicago without eating.

From Serious Eats

No More Bar Cars on Chicago's Metra Lines

I've ridden the Metra hundreds of times and never seen a refreshment car. I can only conclude I've been riding the wrong line!

From Talk

Corn chowder please!

I make Ina Garten's Cheddar Corn Chowder (recipe on the FN website) and it's incredible. Very simple too, but I warn you, unless you're feeding an army of 12 or more, don't attempt the whole recipe. I make 1/3 of the original, and it feeds a family of three comfortably, with a modest amount of leftovers. It also doesn't freeze well, so you might keep that in mind. It's a huge favorite around here!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Chocolate Epiphany'

My grandma's Texas cake (a thin, moist, sheet cake with cinnamon, and chocolate frosting, garnished with chopped pecans). With all the sophisticated chocolate desserts I've had in my life, this flavor from my childhood is my favorite chocolate memory.

From Talk

Sounds gross in theory, is actually good in practice...

My guilty pleasure sandwich has always been bologna with Doritos. Never failed to gross out the lunch table during my school days.

My friend puts ketchup on her pizza. As a result, no one will go out for pizza with her anymore.

From Talk

Online Instructional Cooking videos

Rouxbe.com is interesting, although I think you might have to pay a fee to access a lot of content.

From Talk

"wonder ingredients"

Garlic
Shallots
Carrots
Brown Rice
Chicken Breast
Ground Turkey
Cinnamon
And a holdover from learning to cook from my mom, who uses it in everything: Lawry's Seasoned Salt

From Talk

Beyond the chocolate chip cookie...

When baking to impress, I like to make the whole wheat sables from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert, with the cacao nib addition. They're tender, unexpected, and the whole wheat makes everyone feel a little less guilty about eating cookies.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Frito boats - a must
Li'l Smokies with BBQ sauce and grape jelly
Li'l Smokies wrapped in crescent roll dough for mini pigs-in-a-blanket
Ho-Hos, Ding Dongs, Twinkies
Cheese in a can with Chicken-in-a-Biscuit crackers
A Velveeta-based dip

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

@yayfood... BAHAHAHAHHA. so true :-) thanks for the laugh.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Nice stuff! How about Kraft box Mac & "Cheese" with pan-fried Spam bits?

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

oof, my post got cut off. that should read "despite how much I

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

@ChefR0bert - I just noticed that as I read through another post. My unsolicited advice is to ignore it, given how easy it is to miss things like tone and intent when reading words and not having the benefit of facial expression, tone of voice, etc. The murder mystery is more trailer park than farm (my character does psychic readings, apparently!), but ironically enough, my softball team did a white trash bash that went both raunchier and way more 'country'-specific than this one is (to the point where I was glad I couldn't make it, despite how much I

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Oh I know that joyyy.. thank you. I just thought it would be more fun to incorporate that side of things. I've been to parties like that before and they were a lot of fun. However, my quarrel is with sbelle and her attitude which is being carried over from a different post. No worries joyyy.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

@ChefR0bert - I wouldn't take it so personally. "White Trash" to me is a subculture ... but one that is pretty varied by where you are. I have seen plenty of 'white trash' that didn't involve farm-related culture of pitchforks/overalls/etc. And "these type of people" are everywhere (my personal experience living it was in PA), so I don't know if I would agree that the majority is in one part of the country or another, but I liked your other suggestions for sure. The hostess is providing booze, but I trust that she's on the right path with that :P

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

There you go trashing my posts again sbelle... nothing better to do today or just like hearing yourself talk? Last time I checked the majority of these type of people come from Southeast Central USA and the majority of that crowd fits into these schemas.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Caramelized Cheetos
Dessert Recipes From: Extremely Trashy Recipes

2-cups brown sugar
1-cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup white corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14-1/2 ounce package Cheetos™

Bring the sugar, butter or margarine and syrup to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from fire. Add baking soda. Stir. Pour over Cheetos in large bowl. Toss and spread on 10×15 buttered pan. Bake at 250 degrees F. for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Pour out on waxed paper rubbed with additional butter or cooking spray. Quickly separate the Caramelized Cheetos™ pieces and try not to give into temptation!

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

one caveat- it is a white trash party- not a hoe down... why anyone would suggest pitchforks, hoes and overalls is beyond me. Have a great time and please let us know how it goes! :-)

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Love this thread! I would definitely agree with fried bologna ... it's actually edible, but defintiely a little trashy. Velveeta cheese dip would fall into that category as well. and PORK RINDS with buckets of PBR's.

Can I come?

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

I told my bf about this dilemma this morning and without missing a beat, he suggested KFC. I was kind of impressed haha. I'm thinking little smokies, the oyster crackers with ranch seasoning, and 'dirt' are winners, as they are ringing true to childhood memories that I had previously blocked. Thanks younse!

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

White chocolate covered chex mix; we call it white trash. And you could always go with the road kill theme.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

A Jello salad mold would do the trick! Or those oyster crackers with ranch seasoning for snakin'.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Little smokies in bbq sauce and Velvetta cheese and canned chili dip.
It may be "white trash" but people still eat it up.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

I was going to say get Guy Fieri's cookbook. LOL

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

You definitely need some Pabst Blue Ribbon or Old Milwaukee beer held together by the clear plastic. Go to the dollar store and look around for some more things to make it fit the mood. I like the mint toothpicks idea. Definitely pork rinds! And everyone should dress in overalls or plaid. It would be cool if the utensils looked like mini-pitchforks or hoes. Hog should be on the menu along with some road-kill. A whole pig turning on a spicket with a beer can in its mouth would be cool. For the sides, everything should be canned. Canned creamed corn, peeled white potatoes with dried parsley, baby carrots, peas. Tell someone to bring a banjo too!

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Pork rinds and beer.
I actually love them. Don't judge me.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Dirt. Make some dirt. (not the actual dirt but the desert that looks like it).

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

Well, since you will actually be eating these snacks (I assume)... how about making a yummy version of something 'white trash'?

Mac and cheese (the real stuff- with decent cheeses) laced with truffles

Peanut butter and jelly canapes on homemade bread rounds

"Spam"- buy a can of spam, dump the product and clean the can inside and out... stuff it with pate and serve with homemade crackers (placed in a Ritz cracker box, of course)

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

My nephew's wife brought Oscar Meyer baloney sandwiches on Wonder Bread and candy corn cookies to my home last year for her kids to eat, instead of the roast brined turkey, cornbread dressing, caramelized sweet potatoes, wild rice salad, homemade cranberry compote, deep dish apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and chocolate mousse torte that I made all from scratch last year for everyone else. You know, kids are fussy eaters.

From Talk

white trash/trailer trash theme party food idea?

*Crackers with cheese in can (I had some over the weekend--still tragically delicious)
*One of my best friends often talks about her favorite "fancy" childhood snack: bologna cut into triangles with a dab of ketchup on each one
*Drained can of fruit cocktail mixed with cool whip

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From Talk

Substituting brewed coffee in a cake?

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