Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

My reader includes Serious Eats (of course!), The Kitchn', 101 Cookbooks, Bitten, Orangette, Ruhlman, Simply Recipes, Smitten Kitchen, and The Food Librarian. :)

I also follow a bunch of the same and more on Twitter, including the Pioneer Woman and Jaden of Steamy Kitchen. :)

And lets not even start on the massive number of food blogs I have tagged in Delicious that I search when I'm looking for a recipe. It's slightly out of control.

The best dessert...that's a difficult one. I think the best desserts are those enjoyed during the holidays with family and friends. We make a pumpkin roll for Thanksgiving instead of pumpkin pie. I've had many pumpkin rolls, but none of them compare to "our" recipe.

Also, my dad's favorite cookie, butterscotch-oatmeal, are pretty incredible.

I agree that it definitely depends on the group/person you're with. When I'm out with some friends, we definitely share (it's pretty much expected/assumed). My family definitely shares. But other friends are strictly "don't touch" diners. And that's fine.

My only exception: do NOT touch my dessert unless invited (or we agree to share ahead of time). It's rare I order dessert, so when I do, it's mine, all mine. You can blame my mother, who once nearly stabbed me with her fork once for attempting to share her dessert.

Grilled cheese must first and foremost be about the cheese. Anything you add to it should only complement or heighten the cheese flavor. For example: grilled cheese made with brie and green apple slices. The apple makes the brie taste even creamier. Or cheddar cheese with tomato. That touch of tomato-acid only makes the cheese better. But no meats...they just take over. Fruit or veg only, and only ONE kind in nice thin slices. Again, complement the cheese, don't overpower it!

It must be about the CHEESE. And I agree, it must be crispy. It's just not right without that golden brown crisp. I grew up buttering the outside of the bread. :)

And my favorite will always be grilled cheese made with American cheese slices with creamy tomato soup for dipping. :) Makes me feel 5 years old again.

Entirely possible. Those with weak stomachs or people that find raw meat offensive or nauseating (for one reason or another). On the other hand, with films like Food, Inc. lifting the curtain on the food industry secrets, more people may be interested in learning how their food was made.

I, for one, love learning that kind of stuff. But I also love to tinker in the kitchen and have no qualms about handling meat.

I do this, but I use wax paper rather than parchment (cheaper). Since it's just me, I rarely want more than a couple of slices, so this allows me to only take what I need. And having it separated before freezing makes it SO much easier to pull off only a few slices at a time. But I don't cut them in half.

And yes, it lasts longer than a month...sometimes. ;)

Helping my mom in the kitchen. As soon as I could reach the counter with a chair/stool, my mom let me help. Didn't matter what we were making (although my recipe box is full of cards my mother wrote out in her handwriting of those family recipes), just that I got to help. Even if it was 9pm at night, we'd sit down and eat dinner together.

There were those things we made as a family. Burritos (very anglicized, mind you). Breakfast for dinner. My dad and sister made the pancakes, I made the scrambled eggs with cheese, my mom made fruit salad, and mom and dad together were in charge of the sausage and/or bacon. The annual baking of the pumpkin rolls and making sugar 'n' spiced nuts (pecans). So many things come to mind when I think of family food memories. To this day, some of those "forgotten" recipes are the ones people ask me to make for pot lucks: spinach dip, pistachio fluff, 7 layer dip, and pie (with my great-grandma's crust method!).

I've never tried canning/preserving before. But now, thanks to the farmers' market and my CSA, I really want to learn! Top of my list are tomatoes and stone fruits. The tomato and peach season can be so short, and I'd love to be able to enjoy farm fresh peaches in December in my holiday recipes.

There are 5 original flavors. Three of which have different names depending on which of the two bakers they are from (as stated earlier, the baker is regional). Thin Mints and Trefoils are always the same. Samoas = Caramel Delights, Tagalongs = Peanut Butter Patties, and Do-si-dos = Peanut Butter Sandwiches.

The other 3 cookies do change. And different regions offer different varieties. Now at least one of the three is low fat or low sugar. One is usually whichever variety did the best the previous year. Again, it depends on the region. We don't have the Dulce de Leche ones here in Philly.

And it is about supporting the Girl Scouts. People complain that so much of the money goes to the Councils, but what they don't realize is that money funds scholarships and financial assistance programs, goes towards maintenance of camps and to keep the costs down on things like the patches the girls earn. As an organization there are operating costs. And cookies are supposed to be about learning to set goals and how to reach them for the girls. Not to mention troop bonding.

Can you tell I was a Girl Scout for many years as well as a leader? LOL!