Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

A giant plate of lobster. Splash of lemon, touch of green tabasco sauce.

It's not the chicken or the wing that's the vice, it's the spiciness/sauce. And I prefer plain yogurt to blue cheese :P

Oooh! I almost forgot my favorite sauce trick for the ziti - add a tiny touch of cinnamon. And I mean tiny - open your thing of cinnamon, check to make sure the little shaker top is on (hahaha who hasn't botched that before), and give ONE downward shake into the sauce. Then put it away.

@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

@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

Yat's in Indy.

A coworker of mine made sweet potatoes for an early t-day meal that should fit the bill: boil/steam/bake sweet potatoes, add a can of coconut milk, blend, top with nuts/sugar/nothing if you want. Very, very good. Very, very vegan.

I have ordered live scallops at sushi places, and it is delicious. Maybe the difference is that it's dead by the time I put it in my mouth, or that the scallop doesn't have eyes, or that I don't order it for the pleasure of poking it and laughing as it squirms out it's last few miserable fish gasps? That said, the purpose of eating a fish while it's still alive and responds to stimuli (as in the video) seems to be the simple entertainment value of death. I find that concept disturbing.

Cranberry sauce - a little bit on each forkful just makes everything else taste that much better (also, gravy on everything as well). mmmmm

Sides, all the way. Maybe I've just never had perfectly cooked turkey, but I always throw a slice of it on my plate more out of obligation to tradition than anything. I think the *perfect* plate would be all the sides, topped with gravy, and a nice, crispy piece of turkey skin.

I've seen mandolines with various blade attachments - maybe julienned cheese would get the job done? Whatever you do, make sure any mandoline you get has a hand guard (usually just a think to pop on top of whatever you're slicing so that if you get close, the plastic thing gets knicked NOT your fingers). And be careful :)

If you have a long drive, check out the adapters that plug into your cigarette lighter and have a regular plug as well as usb inputs. You could make the mashers, transfer to a crockpot, plug it in in your car on warm and not have to worry about it :)

My mother and I always worked well together in the kitchen, and when she visited me in June (the first and only relative to ever set foot in my house, to date - it's like they dont' understand that planes fly BOTH DIRECTIONS across the country), she was happy to sit at the counter and cheerily comment how good anything I was making looked. She also tends to think of a lot of food beyond her classic meat & potatoes cuisine as "fancy", but she ate, complimented on, and seemed to actually enjoy the tortilla soup and homemade falafel I served up during her stay. What a doll!

My bf's dad and stepmom were the same way, genuinely offering to help but staying out of the way since I happened to not need any.