V.H.

The fat content on the Logan's italian sausages seem to be about 1/2 of other brands, while still managing to taste like sausage. I'm a big fan and am disappointed that more stores don't carry it. I can usually find it at the Shoppers at Seven Corners but not consistently anywhere else.

I am an uber plant killer, but I usually manage to keep a couple of Thai basil plants alive as well as a regular basil plant. This year I will probably plant a small vegetable garden so that I can tend it with the munchkin. My mom grows a great assortment of herbs and some veggies. She usually digs the herbs up and pots them for winter so that she can keep them alive inside. She usually has lemongrass (I might try this one this year), culantro, Thai basil, several different kinds of hot peppers, shiso, mint, water spinach, and some other things that I don't know the names for.

5.25 pounds smoked pork shoulder 2 pounds sausage 3 pounds chicken 30 sandwich rolls a bundt cake a pan of brownies 8 cups Asian coleslaw 14 dinner guests turn into 0 when a water main breaks and we lose water 3 hours before dinner. Fortunately, my guests were bringing most of the side dishes so I at least could fit what I made back into my fridge.

The actual blog post gives background that makes this humorous, specifically that the Food section had asked him to track down Roberto Donna and he'd done nothing to actually accomplish that, evidently including not even looking up a picture of Roberto.

On the way home from work and daycare this evening, the +1/4 and I stopped off at Heidelberg for a couple of cookies for her. At 5pm. the staff at Heidelberg were putting out trays of things that hadn't sold during the day to sell at 50% off. I picked up a large chocolate cupcake with a smooth smear of chocolate frosting on top. When we cut it in half at home, the cake part was rich and chocolatey with a slightly smaller than a golf ball sized sphere of chocolate ganache baked into the middle. Oh my. This was good. And huge. And a bargain even at its full price of $1.85. The only downside of this delicious treat was the icing on top, which was a bit sugary for my taste but which my husband found to his liking.

You can call also ahead for deli items and pizza dough as well as subs and pizza. I've called my deli order in on several occasions and arrive to have it all waiting for me at the front. You just have to let them know by weight how much you want of each item. It turns what can ordinarily be a 20-30 minute visit into a 2-3 minute trip, depending on how long the cash register lines are. As for the pizza dough, I really like it. I've never bought a pizza there but we buy dough from there a couple times a month. They've got balls of dough in the freezer case but I find the fresh (sizes are large and extra-large) dough much more convenient to work with. Cooked on parchment paper on unglazed tiles in a 500 degree oven (thanks mktye!), the crust is nicely crisp on the bottom with a good level of chewiness. Compared with Trader Joe's dough, I find the Italian store's dough much easier to work with, it doesn't spring back quite as much when I stretch it.

The panchan at Han Sung Oak are such a treat. In the past, I've had *kim chi-this is the spicy cabbage variety *pickled diakon radish strips- shoestring cut daikon radish, lightly picked and tossed with pepper paste *pickled cubed daikon radish-I remembering this being seasoned differently than the shoestring strips *deep fried sliced of tofu drizzled with a soy sauce, green onion and hot pepper paste mixture *thin slices of fish cake marinated in a sweet/salty sauce *white slices of gelatiny stuff that was savory and very tasty *sliced, sauteed zucchini served cold and marinated in a soy and sesame oil sauce *sauteed spicy peppers, marinated in some sort of savory sauce *potato salad *cold watercress salad *marinated bean sprouts, lightly cooked *little slivers of dried fish, sauced with a sweet/salty/spicy glaze *some other type of fish, also with addictively good sweet/salty/spicy glaze *some sort of tiny little brown beans, glazed with a sweet/salty sauce Those of you who are going to this are really going to enjoy it! We've taken lots of friends here and everyone loves it.

As someone who works for a company who blocks all websites that are obviously not work related, I can say that I am very happy that we don't do this on a first come first serve basis. Luck has nothing to do with winning or losing the lottery. The laws of probability eventually win out and if you enter enough of these things, you're bound to win sometime.

Kimchi is a very good judge of character. Too often you go to a restaurant and the kimchi has not aged long enough, and is simply spicy, crunchy cabbage. I've eaten a number of times at Han Sung Oak in Annandale/Falls Church and have always found their cabbage to be perfectly fermented. Their $7 and $8 lunch specials are fantastic and come with a dizzying array of panchan.

When I was growing up, my mom used to take leftover turkey or roasted chicken and shred it very finely by hand. She'd then cook it with lots of chopped garlic, some salt and sugar, and a bit of vegetable oil in a wok over low heat. After quite a bit, maybe 20-30 minutes of constantly moving everything around, you end up with a fluffy dry hash that's delicious mixed in with white rice. It's similar to the dry fried pork hash you see in Asian grocery stores in the small rubber tubs.

There was a thing in the August 2004 Consumer Reports about IKEA cabinets. Your local library should have copies that you can read. One of the points CR makes is that Ikea outperformed more expensive cabinets because they come with high quality drawer hardware and doors. CR also liked their mounting strip. The IKEA cabinets came in 4th in their ranking with #1 and #2 costing about 4 times more, and #3 costing twice as much (priced for a single basic cabinet). I had Ikea cabinets in my last house. They were the cheapest ones Ikea makes and put in by the previous homeowner 11 years before we bought the house. When we sold our house after three years, the cabinets and drawers were still in great shape. I now have 40 year old cabinets in our current house but am looking forward to replacing them with Ikea cabinets when the time comes.

Thanks to goldenticket's two friends for deserting her for lunch today, because that meant that Porcupine and I got to enjoy the pleasure of her company and Corduroy instead. This was my first time ever at Corduroy and I'm kicking myself for not having come here before. The food was absolutely wonderful. I had the spring rolls, the lamb sirloin, and the chocolate hazelnut Kit Kat bars for dessert. All three courses were great but the lamb was incredible. This dish would be a great introduction for people who have never had lamb as well as being quite satisfying for those of us who are already lamb lovers. The meat was juicy, tender, very generously portioned at lunch. Thanks to Ferhat and Rissa for a superb experience!

My mom? Seriously the best Vietnamese cook ever. Maybe we can work out some sort of exchange on the cooking class/dinner. Thank you so much for joining us and for your wonderful responses!

I love the Lebanese Butcher around the corner from Halalco. They have fantastic kafta, pre-seasoned with minced onions and parsley for $2.50 a pound as well as some excellent spicy link sausages that I can't remember the name of. I actually just returned from there with some really beautiful boneless chunks of lamb for a curry recipe from Monica's cookbook. I arrived shortly before they closed, so all the meat was in the meat locker for the night. It didn't take them very long to perform their artistry on a leg of lamb for me and the meat I brought home looks great. These guys are so nice and friendly! I was in there earlier this year and a couple of Greeks were there buying lamb for a party. They got a whole lamb, weighed on the scale looking very much like your baby goat, as well as two whole racks and two extra legs. Must have been some party.

Gah! Too bad I'm coming for lunch in the middle of the day and a total lightweight.

In response to Nadya's question about timing the feeding with a bathroom break, it's not a quick act for all people. Some folks are able to feed a child quickly, but especially with newborns, they can be slow eaters, taking upwards of half an hour for a single feeding. This leaves the mother with the choice of feeding the child at the table or leaving her dining companion to sit alone for quite a while. Meanwhile, the kitchen staff is trying to figure out what to do with a hot dish that was ready to go out before the mom disappeared for an extended stay to the car, lounge, bathroom, whatever. Honestly, for those of you who have never seen it at all or haven't seen it done discreetly, many women just raise part of the front of their shirt as they pull their child to them. The child's head and body cover nearly everything that the shirt doesn't.

As a mom to a two year old, I can honestly say that my pre-baby self would have probably made the same faux pas as Jason. Breastfeeding etiquette just isn't something you learn about going through everyday life until you or someone close to you experiences it. Let's cut the guy some slack. Obviously he's not ever walked into a "nurse-in" at a Starbucks

Have you tried the Shrimp stuffed eggplant? So good. The peanut and I ran over to Kotobuku to pick up dinner tonight. Rainbow roll, california roll, eel roll, 2x(scallop, eel, tuna, and salmon) sushi for the adults and an order of edamame for peanut.

I did a 10 pound standing rib roast at Thanksgiving using the recipe in the December Bon Appetit. They had you let the roast stand at room temperature for 2 hours (yours would need more time), roast the beef at 450 for 20 minutes, and then roast at 350 until an internal temperature of 125-130 is reached for medium rare. The cooking time was surprisingly quick, I think only 1 1/2 hours total for my roast but it was beautifully medium rare all the way through. My husband swears it was the most meltingly tender rib roast he's ever had. Bon Appetit had an awesome porcini and bacon sauce that went with it, really tasty.

I like GAR. When the in-laws are in town, it's an easy place to take them that doesn't require reservations, a wait (as long as you call ahead) and isn't ethnic. I love love love the fact that their children's menu has real food and not processed deep fried crap served with a side of corn syrup. Not many places where you can get a cheeseburger, a side of whipped sweet potatoes, and a milk for a kid for $5. I like their spice rubbed smoked half chicken with brown butter sauce, available at Sweetwater but not at Carlyle. The short smoked salmon is usually a pleaser with me, the in-laws, and the 2 year old. I do think that there are some things that they do spectacularly badly, like their crab cakes. I'm generally also not pleased with steak their but I'll go to Ray's for meat and not order it at any of the GAR. For what it is, I think the business model works.

The grasshoppers ended up holding up quite well at room temp during the cookie exchange and were quite a hit. Go for it.

I think the fact that nearly 40% of the check goes to labor and employee benefits speaks highly of how Cathal treats his people. I'd bet good money that there are many restaurants who take their profits out of this area.

Annoyingly, it does need to be kept refrigerated. You could most definitely skip the creme de menthe and do as you suggested without adversely affecting the flavor. I made the grasshopper squares this past weekend and cut them in half in order to more easily store in the fridge. I'm planning on waiting until this weekend's cookie exchange to cut them up into little squares. The problem with taking these to a cookie exchange is that I'm not sure what will happen to them when they sit out at room temperature for an extended period of time. I'm sort of hoping people will just eat them and no one will want to try to transport any home. I thought the recipe was fairly easy and my mother-in-law said that the wow factor for taste and appearance overcomes the annoying chill factor for her.

I made the Grasshopper squares recipe in Gourmet (you can find it on Epicurious) and it was easy and quite impressive looking. Very tasty too. Hopefully you're not going to the same cookie party I'm going to this Sunday.

I think it's going to be too ambitious of me to try to host something this December. Instead, I'll share the three recipes I've tested so far, all with good results. All recipes have been adapted so no worries about copyrights. Fleur de Sel caramels 1 cup heavy cream 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1 teaspoon fleur de sel 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup water Line an 8-inch square baking pan with lightly oiled parchment paper. Heat cream, butter, and salt in a small saucepan until boiling, then turn off heat. Boil remaining ingrediants in a heavy bottomed saucepan until light golden in color. Carefully add hot cream mixture, a little at a time. Once all of the cream has been added, boil the caramel mixture until it reaches 248 degrees F. Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours. Cut into squares with a pizza cutter and wrap in squares of wax paper. Michael's sells pre-cut 4" foil squares for festive wrapping. ******************************************************************* Sweet spiced nuts 1 lb mixed nuts (lightly salted) 1 egg white, beaten with fork until lightly foamy 1/2 to 1 tsp spice mix (think pie spices, I used a Moroccan spice blend that worked great) 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp sea salt (can skip if nuts are salted, but since Trader Joe's sells 50% salted nuts, I add the extra salt) Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix nuts with beaten egg white until thoroughly coated. Sprinkle remaining ingredients in and stir until nuts are evenly coated. Pour onto baking sheet and bake about 10-15 minutes (maybe longer), stirring every now and again so that the nuts don't clump up or burn. Nuts are done when the sugar mixture is lightly caramelized. Pour out onto parchment paper to cool, separating nuts if you can with a wooden spoon. Once cool, put in airtight container. Do not leave to cool overnight like I did, because the nuts absorbed moisture from the air and got all sticky. I solved the problem by warming them in a low temp oven for 10 minutes to get rid of the moisture but it was an annoying extra step. ****************************************************************** Chocolate Fudge Buy 1 jar of marshmallow creme and follow instructions on the jar using good quality dark chocolate. I poured mine into a 9.5"x13" pan though, I thought the 9x9 pan they recommended would have been too thick. Super easy and makes a ton. If you line the pan with parchment paper, it makes removal of the cooled fudge quick and easy. *******************************************************************