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I make my limoncello using 95% grain alcohol (Graves or Everclear depeneding on what's available) and let it steep for a good month. Then strain it through multiple coffee filters and dilute down to an appropriate strength using a combination of lemon-mint simple syrup (add lemon peel and some fresh mint while boiling the syrup) and distilled water. Keep in the fridge for a month to let the flavors meld, then filter again to remove chill haze.

And for those that live close enough, liquor stores in DE can sell 1.75L bottles of grain alcohol. ~$25 and makes limoncello production very economical.

This is an entirely one sided view of the situation. You have no basis to assume that the man was trying to freeload because he was only drinking water, and requesting that he move puts you in the wrong. If you had no issue with him sitting there earlier in the night, then you can't force him to move later on just because it doesn't suit your desire to make money. Further, would you have done the same thing if it was a young attractive woman instead of a man? All this post does is make you sound arrogant while trying to defend high priced cocktails.

Joe, I'm surprised that you don't say that a beginner looking to start brewing their own beer should stick with an ale as their first batch. Ales, of course, are usually fermented at right around room temperature (62-72° F) and are usually ready to drink within a month to 6 weeks after you begin (for a beginner or common ale that is). Lagers on the other hand require a fermentation temperature much lower than room temperature (40-55° F) and take longer. Doing your first batch as an ale not only allows you to ferment in a normal area of your house, but you also get to taste the fruits of your labor much sooner.

Another very important note: when choosing a fermentation bucket, you must make sure that the plastic is food grade and that if you're reusing a bucket that it didn't contain anything potentially toxic. So no paint buckets and preferably no trash cans either!

@ Lorenzo, I'm actually an environmental microbiologist, but I work in the same building as our meat science group and am close friends with most of the people (which is how/why I've been able to help during harvests). I didn't ask the USDA inspector for the lab, but the two advisors who run it couldn't think of a law banning the sale of lung, although I did only ask about swine. It's possible that lamb may have a different regulation b/c of scrapie and other wasting diseases, although that's mostly concerning the CNS and not the lung. Most offal goes straight to pet food because it's very perishable and consumers just don't buy it these days, so normal distribution channels wouldn't handle it. We've had kids in some of the product development classes make traditional haggis (as extra credit, kids can make a "meal" using any piece of offal they like) although I don't know of anyone who's ever wanted to eat it. As I said before, you'd have to be close with someone who does slaughtering if you really wanted to get ahold of that stuff. Butchers usually only get minimally processed sides or quarters of an animal; occaisionally they'll get whole ones (pigs or lamb, rarely beef) but even those would still have had their organs removed immediately after the slaughter.

I use a fourth method. I use my paring knife perpendicular to the vertical axis of the pepper and make a shallow cut along the top so I don't cut the core but do cut the ribs. After circling around the top, you just pull the stem and the core comes right out with minimal seeds left over. Then I can proceed with it however I need (halve and then slice, use paring knife to further remove ribs for stuffed pepers, cut rings, etc.)

This isn't really objective criticism. While I'm not really a fan of Pop-Tarts, all you do is bemoan how overly sweet they are and thus whatever "creations" they serve at Pop-Tart World also are. You also come off incredibly snobby when you state that the cinnamon Pop-Tart is the ONLY one you'll bother eating. While I wouldn't want to try any of the items from Pop-Tart World myself, I certainly wouldn't review them with the holier-than-thou tone that you espouse through the entire article. Pretty much, you seem to be force mentioning the sweetness so you can show off how much better a person you are than most of the population that actually enjoys Pop-Tarts. Next time you want to write a review, try objectivity and not lacing the entire article with your own opinions and attitude.

For the record, xantham gum is a completely natural product. It's produced naturally by the bacterium Xanthamonas (hence xantham) and then slightly modified for use as a food additive. While you can say that that makes it "not real food", it's as real as soy lecithin or even rennet (which is not made by bacteria and not harvested from veal calves).

Roasted whole hog

It's debatable whether you could really call him a chef (or really not that debatable since he doesn't have a restaurant), but Alton Brown gets my knod, simply because he's the one that probably inspired me the most to get in the kitchen and I'm sure that applies to others as well.

You already gave them your vote of confidence Ed, City Barbeque.

I started at nearly the same weight as you did Ed, and I've been platued at 220ish for a while now as well. My only consolation is that while my weight hasn't dropped for the past four months, my workout routine has made me increasingly stronger and my clothes are still getting looser. I'm making a year end push to get below 210, but I'll take being able to fit into a size 36 again as a consolation prize if I can't make it.

They also found acrylamide is a natural by-product from frying french fries (and presumably other fried starches). Levels appear to be significantly lower than what I would casually inhale at work in my lab, but its still not comforting to know that its in your food.

And there is no established link between acrylamide and cancer. It is however a very potent neurotoxin.. so pick your poison on that concern.

Seeing as I generally eat alone, normal food just like everybody else. Although there are A LOT of leftovers.. really need to find more single serving recipes.