So we bought some Grappa. It smells like jet fuel yet tastes a little like vodka. nice stuff. But there is no way we're going to be able to drive a fifth of it.

how long will it last once it's opened?

should it be refridgerated after opening?

besides using as a paint thinner or snow mobile fuel, what can i do with it besides drink it? can i use it in recipes that call for vodka or other liquors?

my parents are from the east coast and I grew up hearing "supper's ready!". I was raised in the midwest and invited to friends houses "for dinner". As I've moved further west in my life, I hear "supper" less and less, even though I use the words interchangeably.

Which do you use? Is it a regional thing? Can i use them interchangably, or do they actually mean different things?

btw, i also say "soda" instead of "pop".

I really enjoy my baking - pie crusts, pastries, bread, all of it. I never said i was very good at it, but i really do enjoy it.

and I go through a LOT of butter. pie crust has a whole stick of butter per pie, a dozen cookies usually has half a stick, croisants at least a half stick. i was always a proponent of "using the real stuff", but the more i bake, the more butter my family and I eat. now that i'm working part time, i'm baking more. it's relaxing, it's fun, it makes the house smell nice.

but baking with butter isn't doing anything to get us to eat healthier.

how can i bake more but only use a little more butter? use half butter and half shortening? half butter and half margarine or vegetable oil? half butter and half something else?

suggestions?

What are some good Passover recipe websites? I started my Passover menu last night, and it's still looking a little boring.

also, what's your favorite passover food?

I recently started using parchment paper, especially when cooking breads. The parchment paper makes clean up a breeze, and helps protect the bread bottoms from my beat up baking sheets, but the paper always burns to a crisp in the oven! is that normal? it smells terrible when it burns.

I like cous-cous, but am always at a loss as to what to mix into it to make it more exciting. Usually some grated cheese and olive oil go in and maybe some chopped black olives, but after that i don't know what to add.

suggestions?

how do I get my Focaccia toppings to stick to the bread? for example, today i made olive basil onion Focaccia, and it was super tasty, but the onions all dried out and were barely attached to the bread when i took it out of the oven. what's the trick to making the toppings stick?

My pumpkin pie hardly ever firms up correctly. I'm using a recipe out of Joy of Cooking. . . what are your suggestions for a firmer pie? more eggs? less eggs? more cream? less cream? evaporated milk instead of cream? better temp or cooking time in the oven? graham cracker crust instead of butter crust?

i follow the recipe exactly every time, so i think it's just a bad recipe, but i don't know what to change to make it better.

I'm in Chicago for business for 3 days next week. I'll be stuck at Navy Pier all day, does anyone have some recommendations for good breakfast and dinner places near Navy Pier? i know some neighborhoods in Chicago, but that isn't one of them.

It's too hot to cook. what are some good dinners I can make that don't require the stove or oven to be on for hours? My husband says he's sick of tuna salad, egg salad, and pasta salad. we do pretty good with pizza (oven is only on for around 20 minutes), and anything we can make in the toaster oven. what do you recommend that requires a heating element (oven, stove, wok, etc) to be on for 20 minutes or less? What do other serious eaters make at home when temps are 80+ degrees, and the AC is acting iffy? unfortunatley grilling is out for me, as i live in an aparmtent where grills are forbidden.

The good news is the little mixed herb planter i bought is doing great. so great, in fact, that i need to repot the plants into a larger planter. no problem.

but now i have more herbs that i know what to do with! no matter how much rosemary chicken and rosemary potatoes i cook, i'm still going to have rosemary coming out my ears. what's the best way to dry, or store this stuff, so i can use it later? like in the winter? i've got: sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, basil. the sage plant is gigantic! what do i do with it??

After a LONG winter, i got to spend about an hour at my local Farmer's Market this morning. they've been open for about a month, but it took me a while to get a free saturday morning. I'd forgotten how much i love going to the farmers market! i got sugar snap peas, the sweetest bibb lettuce i've ever had, cucumbers, beefsteak tomatoes (everyone had these cardboard signs that said "safe tomatoes"), potatoes, gigantic green onions, peppers, all sorts of good stuff!

do you have a farmer's market near you? do you enjoy going there? what's your favorite thing to buy there?

What tasty edibles do you grow in your garden? tomatoes? peppers? herbs? cucumbers? pumpkins? other tasty yummies?

right now i've just got basil and chives out there. the weather has finally turned, so i need to get my tomatoes, peppers, and anything else i have room for going!

i made my Mom's Meringue cookies for the first time last night, and would you believe it, they were a success!

but i think i got lucky. however, i've also been told there are certain things you should never do when making a meringue. Such as use a metal bowl, or metal utensils. I used a glass bowl, but my hand mixer has metal attachments. and then i used a plastic spoon to make the drop cookies.

Metal bowl not OK? plastic bowls not OK? metal mixer OK? plastic spatula/other utensils OK for meringues? What else should I know for next time?

original Iron Chef, or Iron Chef America, which do you like better?

and does anyone know if Food network (or any other station) is ever going to run the original Iron Chef again?

anyone have any tips / websites/ detailed instructions on steaming fish? i just had a magificent disaster involving attempting to steam fish.

my husband and I are pretty proud of the fact that we've got alot of our grocery shopping down a science. we know exactly how much ground turkey to buy to get 8 hambergers, we know how much deli lunch meat we can eat in a week. but the amounts always seem odd. for example, this was the conversation at the deli counter earlier today:

husband: I'd like nine tenths of a pound of such and such turkey please.
deli counter worker: so, like, a little more than three quarters?
husband: no, nine tenths of a pound, please.
deli counter worker: so, like, a little less than a pound?
husband: no, nine tenths of a pound. that's exactly how much my wife and I can eat before it goes bad.

the young lady behind the counter measured out slightly more than three quarters of a pound, and slightly less than one pound, and it was what it was. husband was almost afraid to ask for sliced cheese at this point.

here's my question: are we overly anal retentive about quantities (and shouldn't be), or does the average deli employee in my town not understand how to translate fractions to a digital scale? hubby and I were a little flabbergasted after this deli experience.

anyone else ask for odd amounts? do you get them? does the person behind the counter look at you like you're crazy? have you learned to stick with the basic quarter pound increments? should I learn to stick with the basic quarter pound increments, and just deal with it?

i love chickpeas. i eat those suckers right out of the can. i never met a chickpea i didn't want to eat.

my husband knows chickpeas are healthy for him, but he doesn't like hummus, doesn't like the "chickpea tabbouli" (exactly what it sounds like, swap the bulgar for chickpeas) I make, doesn't like chick-pea dishes where the chickpeas are the main attractions.

any suggestions for recipes that include chickpeas, but aren't chickpea centric?

when casually blogging about food, what are the rules for crediting where recipes come from? Do I need to provide the name of the website/cookbook/ cooking tv show? the author of the cookbook and year of publication? etc?

I usually give some information about where the recipe came from (Joy of Cooking, Mom's recipe cards, epicurious website, etc), but are there stricter rules I should be following?