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Funny story: for years and years I was told that my grandma is allergic to nutmeg, so we can't put nutmeg in ANYTHING lest she have an anaphylactic fit. Same when my mom was growing up with her.

The real story (learned just last year) is that she's not allergic to nutmeg at all. She just doesn't like it. So she told everyone she was allergic so no one would ever make her eat anything with nutmeg in it. (After I found out I baked some heavily nutmegged pumpkin bread and she didn't notice it at all.)

::eyeroll::

I'm going to share my personal concoction for awesome-tastic (spicy! but a good spicy!) pumpkin seeds. It's for the greater good.

I soak my clean, drained (I don't bother to dry them first) seeds in a mixture of the following ingredients:

-tabasco sauce
-salt
-chili pepper
-paprika
-red pepper flakes
-garlic powder
-cumin
-a little liquid smoke
-olive oil (usually just a drop to two to lubricate)

(Ingredients are listed in order of relative proportion, but I never measure--just do it to taste.)

I let them soak for at least an hour, more if I can, stirring occasionally. Then I spread them on a sheet and bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

SO ADDICTING.

Man, I hate Spike.

I got a(n automated) phone call last week from Costco alerting me to the recall because I had purchased eggs from them sometime in the last 6 months, and to throw out any remaining eggs.

My first thought: "that's nice of Costco to actually call their membership holders instead of issuing a letter or a store notice."

My second thought: "WHO KEEPS EGGS IN THEIR FRIDGE FOR 6 MONTHS?"

I keep waiting for Pea-Gate to blow up in Alex's face! They keep foreshadowing it the episode openers--WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN!?!? Will there be an epic end-of-season pea battle?!

I am on the edge of my friggen seat, yo.

You know, I used to hate corn, but as it turns out my mom was just never very good at making it. And now I live in the midwest (as opposed to the crappy corn capital of the world, the southeastern US) and am having the best freaking corn in the world delivered to my door every week by my wonderful CSA.

GO CORN!

(And I'll add a plug for Big Head Farm! It's their first year with CSA shares, and they're rockin' it.)

I see that I may be a detractor here, but I always get my hamburger meat as lean as possible. My hamburgers are always juicy, delicious, and raved about. I tend to by the 93/7...I mix in an egg, worcestershire sauce, a (small) grated onion, stone ground mustard, and (and whatever else I'm feeling). Never any breadcrumbs, though; I don't think they add much. Why eat all the cow fat when you can have a perfectly awesome burger without it?

I hear that on next week's episode Angelo's going to hump a leg of lamb while talking about Tamesha's sexy peach cobbler.

I'm with studyzone on this one. Of the ones listed, I've used Hershey chips, Trader Joe's chips, and Ghirardelli chips in my cookie adventures before, but I grew up on Nestle's, and it's the only one that tastes "right" to me. I also like eating them plain as a snack or on ice cream. Good stuff.

p.s. I love these taste test posts! Very informative. They're one of my favorite features of Serious Eats. More, please!

I live in Chicago. I've taken more out-of-town guests to Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown than anywhere else in the city. I wouldn't call it a must-see for tourists, but if someone's in Chicago for several days, we'll hit up Lao Sze Chuan.