Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I like Harney & Sons "Hot Cinnamon Sunset/Spice." It's spicy and sweet, with dried orange pieces, and it somewhat reminds me of Red Hots candies.

I haven't tried them, but I was thinking...what if they made an Oreo blizzard cream cookie BLIZZARD! That's even more mind-boggling.

I've been a vegetarian for 17 years, and I haven't considered this idea before. Over the years, my reasons for being vegetarian have changed, but my general philosophy has not. I have a kind of phobia of dead things and taxidermy, and the smell of raw meat and (especially) cooked beef, along with the sight of meat, somewhat trigger my phobic symptoms.

For me, I've learned to pick my battles. I'm much more concerned (especially living in a small town in the Midwest) about my hosts' assumptions that I will be able to "pick out" the meat from the dishes they prepare, or that a dish is still vegetarian if it contains meat broth or cream of chicken soup.

My cast iron pan is completely vegetarian, since I never cook meat at home. I try to be reasonable and enforce my expectation that the dish in front of me has no meat products, including fat. Although, I do not expect a cooking vessel in a carnist home to be free of animal products.

I don't think it would be wrong to inquire whether a dish was cooked in a meat-tainted vessel. I might suggest that one could take one's own food contribution to a party if this is a concern. I regularly do this, when I'm not sure the "vegetarian-ness" of the dishes that will be served. If I don't know the host well, I explain that I'm a vegetarian and offer to bring a vegetarian dish to the party because I don't want the host to stress over figuring out what to make for me.

Hard-boiled eggs and mini-muffins with cornmeal and crushed egg shells for my cockatiels. I cut up veggies and fruits, or give them ingredients, like cheese, or oatmeal, from something I'm cooking for myself. They much prefer seeds and pellets, so I don't cook for them often.

I agree with elron. You are lucky enough to live in a place with fresh bagels that have all the right amount of chewy, bready goodness...and you want them toasted. I live in South Dakota, and the bagels here are pretty sad. Here toasting is necessary because most of the bagels come as frozen donut-shaped bread.

However, you aren't getting any more product through the toasting process, so it seems just snobby and nit-picky to charge for toasting. (Maybe they should charge less because toasting just ruins the deliciousness of fresh bagels, but that's my opinion.)

I don't think I would think less of a guy for suggesting a chain restaurant. It depends on the chain. When I first saw the title of the post, I thought the author was writing about fast food chains. I'm impressed when he explores enough to find good, little, out-of-the-way places. Chains seem like he's making little effort.