Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I like the brown bag method too - the popcorn is wonderfully crispy - and then I can add real butter. Interesting to hear that stapling the bag doesn't cause arc-ing. We just recently replaced the magnetron in our microwave, and since it took us 2 years to work up the energy to do it and it was a huge pain in the neck, I don't want to take any chances! I just roll the top of the bag, but a plastic paper clip would probably work too.

I was reading ingredients at the store the other day and some of the kettle corn microwave popcorn has aspartame. I didn't realise that it was allowable to put aspartame in a product without putting a prominent "Artificially sweetened" label on the package. You really have to be vigilant about reading labels these days.

Robin, thanks so much for this. The 1956 Betty Crocker is actually my very favorite cookbook (and yeah, it is definitely funny in 2010. One of my favorite dessert headings from this book is "simple sweets for the very young"). I'm looking forward to trying your version of this recipe.

BC's Black Midnight Cake remains my favorite chocolate cake of all time, and the chiffon cakes are incredible.

British Airways had decent food last time I flew.

That's not a hot cross bun btw, it's a dinner roll.

The biker comment really got my attention! What about cyclists who expect you to treat them like pedestrians whenever it suits them? As someone who's hyper-vigilant when I approach a crosswalk in a car, it drives me crazy to see a cyclist come screaming out into a crosswalk and expect all the cars to see them and stop. Decide if you're a pedestrian and then be that. You're giving cyclists a bad name.

Now, ice cream, back to you...

Sprinkles. I'll have to pay more attention if I visit any ice cream shops around here (western MA). I like the chocolate ones on cupcakes if they're made from good chocolate, but the rainbow ones - meh. Funny thing though - if I make cupcakes and put rainbow sprinkles on them for a bake sale, they always sell out fast - even kids as old as high school age are still attracted to them.

Not that you asked.

I think pretty much anything that is not spherical is easier to half-dip than to whole-dip.

I like cashews plain or in various chicken dishes. Not willing to go to lengths with them though.

Zucchini with fusilli, which I make with chicken instead of zucchini (I have no idea how that happened - it just did). Lots of basil in a creamy sauce made of egg and parmesan. Nom.

Woodstar Cafe on Masonic Street in Northampton, MA for a sandwich made on their artisan bread. I recommend The Quabbin. Finish it off with a lovely latte or espresso with a Guinness chocolate cupcake and you'll be set for the last leg of the trip. Three hours from NY, 1 1/2 from Boston. Exit 18 off I-91.

Ed, my hat is off to you!

I wonder if you could get restaurant servers to help you by bringing you small portions. Then if you start writing up the ones that were cooperative, and restaurants start enjoying the favorable publicity, it will get easier and easier! I'm sure that wasted food haunts your dreams...

Keep up the great work!

Did anybody notice the reverse at Target? They used to have check-outs with Ten Items or Fewer posted above. A few years ago the signs were replaced with Ten Items or Less ones. Meh.

When I was in grad school, one of my fellow students was a pig farmer on the side. I raised money to buy a pig to give to a soup kitchen, and also bought my own half pig (with my own money of course). I told the butcher to give me all the smoked bacon possible, and the rest was ground up to make many many many many yummy dishes including some of the best chili ever. As I recall, my pig's name was Fred. None of this would have been possible if I had actually met these pigs. Oh the hypocrisy of carnivory...

Comebacks are just marketing tricks. What I'd like to see make an actual comeback is the glass jars Hellman's used to use.

with the ham - butter on artisan bread, thin slices of Gruyere, Bibb lettuce and a bit of brown mustard. Nom.