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@cybercita - I've made small batches and ground for immediate or nearly immediate use. And yay for the mortar/pestle - that's what I use to pound up my sichuan pepper salt.

I had a baggie of the stuff that I kept around for one month, and it was still quite good (not as pungent/ma la as when I'd toasted fresh, but it actually worked out for me as I was sprinkling it over poached eggs.)

I'd smell like pie. Pumpkin pie. Yummm.

@CJ McD, you are absolutely amazing. This is exactly what I was looking for (folks are offering to bring something, which is a relief to my budget and to my peace of mind.) I think stuffed mushrooms are a fantastic idea. The brocolli rabe also sounds delicious and pretty easy to do.

As for oxtail lasagna - it's one of those things where I wanted to clean out my fridge/freezer/pantry, and stuff just kinda came together.

1) Cooked 2 packs (total of about 8 pieces, varying sizes) of oxtail into a slow cooker, cover with water (don't overdo it. Really, just enough water to barely cover the meat), add a bit of salt. Low heat for approx 8 hrs till nearly falling apart. Refridgerate so that you can just pick out and toss the slab of fat that congeals on top.

2) In a very large, heavy duty pot: saute garlic (I used 2 heads, because I had it), onion (I had 1 large onion), chopped up carrots (I had about 8 pieces of baby carrots that I cut small) until soft. Add whatever you've got in your spice cabinet (I tossed in dried oregano, dried parsley, a pinch of marjoram, a pinch of cinnamon, an even tinier pinch of nutmeg). Sautee some more till REALLY fragrant. Also tossed in some dried up thai bird chili. Because, you know, I had it.

3) Throw in contents of slow cooker - yes, bones and jellied stock and all. Trust me! Added 2 cans of tomato paste, 2 large cans of whole tomatoes with juice, had some leftover tomato sauce (from making salsa out of canned tomatoes), 2 tins of anchovies.

4) salt, sugar, pepper, more of the dried herbs, another pinch of cinamon towards the end. Then I let that sucker cook down on med/med low heat till meat falls off the bones (which were pretty easy to pick out), and sauce reduces by quite a bit. I actually ended up adding some water because it got a bit too thick.

Total cooking time on stove: probably about 3-4 hours of slow cooking. Refridgerated because at that point, I didn't wanna eat anything. But it was amazing the following day.

To assemble lasagna - easy peasy. Lasagna, sauce, cheese, repeat. I didn't even add any ricotta: just tossed on bags of cheese that I had in the freezer (shredded mozarella, shredded cheddar, and even a bag of shredded taco cheese. Mixed it all in a bowl and used that.) For Sat, I'm going to add ricotta, parm and spinach.

I need to clean my kitchen out more often, because seriously? This was so amazing I kinda impressed myself.

I like canned corned beef - it's comfort food for me. (Why, yes, I AM filipina!)

1) Saute garlic and onions till onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are basically liquified. Add corned beef and mash around. Taste - if it needs salt, I use a couple of dashes of fish sauce. Eat over rice with a fried egg. Ok, I'm kinda hungry now.

2) We used to do this to make food stretch out: make corned beef soup! Same deal: saute garlic, onion, tomato. Add corned beef, couple of dashes of fish sauce. Add low sodium chicken or beef broth/stock/buillon (if using buillion, don't use fish sauce). When boiling, add macaroni noodles. Once noods are done, turn off heat, add a dollop of milk/cream/half and half/evap milk (whatever you've got in the fridge), add shredded cabbage and shredded carrots. Serves a LOT of people.

3) Corned beef fried rice: sautee (lots. This is key. You need lots and lots and lots of) garlic, some chopped up onions. Add corned beef and mash around to separate. Add lots of cold white rice. Stir around, salt and pepper to taste.

My aunt's grilled pork belly is ridiculous, and I have yet to finagle the recipe. All I know is it involves oil, garlic, cracked pepper, salt, a bit of lime and some secret ingredient that I have yet to figure out. All I know is that as soon as she pulls that slab of pork belly off the grill, it's gone in minutes.

oh my goodness, $1k for knives? Are you getting a full set of swords to go along with that?

Get ye to a marshalls/homegoods/tjmaxx and scour their kitchen goods section. I lucked out and got a set of Henckels - the heavy weight, professional set - for less than $60. Granted, it didn't have the kitchen shears it was supposed to come with, but who cares? I got a chef's knife, a paring knife and a utility knife. I bought the shears separately for less than $15. Now I'm on the lookout for a santoku, and am even considering getting a lighter weight chef's knife now that I've got carpal tunnel.

lemon + sugar syrup + fizzy water + ice = what I live on during the summer. Sometimes, I throw in some mint. Sometimes i use lime instead. But lemonade is what makes summer bearable.

ChelleyD01 I don't mind Monin's low shelf life - I'll end up keeping them in the fridge anyway.

Thanks for the advice to seek out a local coffee supplier. Genius. Thank you!

dbcurrie I was looking at Monin's stranger flavours: like Jasmine or Violet. I have no idea how I'd use that in a drink (or on shaved ice), but it looks fascinating. But thanks for the heads up re: Marshalls. I need to check that out and see if they have bottles I can play with. I just don't want to spend upwards of $8.00 plus shipping just to find that it sucks.

ag3208 - I think (U.S.) Coke Zero uses Splenda as a sweetener, and (U.S.) Diet Coke uses Nutrasweet (or a Nutrasweet/saccharin mix). I hate them both. Coke Zero is, oddly enough, too sweet (with a bitter finish). Diet Coke has this weird chemical/metallic taste to it no matter how cold you drink it.

Coke Light, on the other hand, tastes so much like regular coke. You only notice the fake sugar if you drink it lukewarm. But served over ice? AMAZING. I'd drink this everyday if I could.

Need.Coke.Light.in my life.

Grumpy Old Man - I just juiced some limes, and made a ginger-sugar syrup for the ginger/lime fizz. The cran-apple and the pineapple juice were store bought (the last dregs from my last grocery run). The fresh juice definitely tasted better, but the cran-apple was surprisingly refreshing too. The doohickey is ridiculously easy to clean. I make a bottle of fizzy water, then pour it into a pitcher with the juices/syrups/whatever. That way, the bottle just needs a quick rinse before i refill with filtered water for my next round of fizzies.

Chew on That, yes it came with a whole bunch of free flavour packs. I'm not a huge fan (I've tried the orange and the berry, and they were just ok.)

Adam Kuban Thank you! I just bought a copy off amazon. Woohoo!

Seina I'm gonna have to hit the grocery store to get some Pom to play with. I also just found some recipes to make blueberry and raspberry syrups. Om nom nom.

I love my Soda Stream. Forget the cokes and sprites and what nots. Hello, delicious fruity (and alcoholic) fizzies!

onedaylingers, I'm no coffee connoisseur by any means (this from the girl who drinks instant semi-regularly.) I guess barako tastes a little like really strong, deep, earthy chicory coffee. An aunt gifted me with a bag of it (ground already, unfortch) and I brewed a pot. It was all kinds of good: deep and strong, but without that overly roasted, bitter taste I hate.

Girl, if we lived close to each other, we'd each be 600 lbs, and we'd be on the 6 o'clock news as those chicks whose walls had to be taken down so they could winch us out of the kitchen and brought to the hospital on a flatbed truck. DANGER, WILL ROBINSON.