Sundae in the Park

Waffles for dinner! 3 different variations on a recipe - vegan, bread flour, and all-purpose flour, for the obvious, chewy-waffle lovers, and crispy-waffle lovers. We made both sweet and savory waffles, depending on topping preference (base recipe has just a smidge of sugar) with berries, maple syrup, Log cabin (me. I love that stuff), Parmesan, chives, and prosciutto. Oh, and Kerrygold for all (except the vegan - she got coconut oil). Non-shockingly, the non-vegan waffles were much better. We'll definitely be doing this again! We only wish we got the double waffle maker for having guests over.

Shrimp, crab, lobster...pretty much all shellfish except for scallops. Grew up somewhat kosher and now most tasting menus are ruined for me. I try bits from other people's dishes, every so often, but nope. Green peppers, okra, all things licorice-flavored, gelatinous/knobby/super fatty meat, and potatoes aren't meant to be sweet. I also discovered that I liked a lot more things once I moved away from mom's home cooking ;-)

Heh, oops! And the broth was supposed to be the highlight of the dish! I now recall that all my favorite restaurant noodle soups add them in last minute in single servings and the soup/broth ration is fairly generous, and even then the noodles are very plump by the end of the meal. Lesson learned We made a turkey pot pie out of the meat and herb leftovers and more turkey stock and it was ugly but delicious.

Made a chicken noodle soup with our turkey stock and it was lovely...until the noodles sucked up most of the broth! (Yeah, I almost never make noodle soups.) Oh well, the chicken-y noodles are still pretty good and very easy for the baby to eat.

I think it depends on a lot of factors, including the traveler, the place, the locals, and the dosage of luck. Yes, one of my favorite traveling memories is wandering the Jewish quarter of Paris with my siblings, drinking quarts of freshly squeezed blood orange juice bought on the street (we all got one, then promptly went back for more. That's a loft of blood oranges!), ducking in and out of mysterious nooks and shops in the violet twilight...And then there's our experience in China. We had gone in atypically (for me) unprepared - the hotels and transportation were all pre-selected but we didn't make any food plans thinking that we could get by exploring and through local help (I speak fairly broken Mandarin, but most of it is food words). We visited quite of few of the major tourist attractions and then tried to find good food in the vicinity. Except for the street food and the lounge food at the Hilton (where we often ate in self-defense after starving all day), we couldn't really get what we wanted and people were uniformly brusque and even mean (Note that a Chinese-looking person without perfect Mandarin or some other dialect is considered defective and a great target for rudeness) when approached for help. This includes wait staff in restaurants! (There are some benefits to a tipping culture after all!) There were also a couple cases of almost literal highway robbery (the nice cab driver takes you to a great place he knows...they set a lot of perfectly good food in front of you that you didn't order but insist you eat...now you owe lots of $ and have no way out except the suddenly shark-like driver). Now, maybe this is because we were in all big cities - Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'An, but it was our experience everywhere in China and truly one of the more disappointing travel experiences we've ever had and we regret the lack of planning to this day. An N of one, but it's my N. I'd say that, for a planner like me, there is value in knowing the wonders that can be found off a schedule or itinerary. As such, excursions to particular areas suited for exploration (feasting from as many stalls as possible when dropped off near Bangkok Chinatown) can be trip highlights, but I still need to be mindful that a complete lack of preparation can result in relatively expensive cab rides to random scary neighborhoods culminating in McDonald's on our last night in Asia (my companion was on her last straw and insisted). On the other hand, a cab driver in Mexico City directed us to his family's place, which ended up being the best meal of the trip. It is important to know that I don't always need to show up clutching a cross-referenced hit list of geographically efficient critical darlings. Just most of the time ;-)

Oooh, fun! Joshua Tree is wonderful and has amazing sky-viewing on clear nights, so if possible, try to plan to spend a night in the park (no lodging facilities in the park, so camping is the best option, which I realize might not be practical for a short trip, but just wanted to get that out there!) or close to it. Santa Monica, with its sunny, beachy nature and tons of vacationer hotels, would be a good contrast to JT. However, I would warn that LA, more than other cities, is really spread out and driving across it to different destinations takes a lot of time. To make the most of your limited time, I would first figure out the activities you want to do and places you want to eat (ideally, pick things close to each other!) and then choose a central or nearby location to one of them. If you want to spend time at the Santa Monica Pier, perhaps the canals of Venice, and scoping out Muscle and Venice beaches (all worthy of notice), then SM would be a great choice. Also, the Getty Villa is super close to SM. If, however, you're more into, say, museums, shows, concerts, and TV/theme park stuff (e,g., LACMA, a studio tour, Universal, Pantages Theater), I'd perhaps stay more in the Hollywood-Burbank area. There is good food proximate to pretty much every activity, but it might not have been the food you were looking for, so if you're looking to go to specific restaurants/food types (a totally valid vacation itinerary IMO - for example, this San Gabriel Valley food tour), I'd pick somewhere central to them. So it really depends! Get thee to a general list of LA activities (like this one or this one), and once you have a few picks, it will be easier to plan the rest. --- Joshua Tree National Park (Sundae in the Park)

Do tell! Any tips? We petered out a bit from our plan - didn't make the potatoes or brussels and decided that we would use the mushroom cream sauce from the green bean casserole as the gravy instead of making a separate one. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we also had cranberry sauce, which we had made earlier in the week (with grade B maple syrup - so deeply caramel and delicious!). The corn pudding was fantastic and has earned a spot in our Tday rotation. I followed the recipe I found, except using mozzarella and parm cheeses. Next time I think I'll whiz half the corn and make the texture even more custard-y, as The Hersch suggested. Even with the omissions (and we'll at least make the sprouts this weekend) we have a ton of leftovers. Turkey carcass is in the crock pot making stock and the sweet potatoes and most of the squash will be frozen as baby food. A quart of the mushroom soup also went into the freezer. Some of the turkey meat will go into a pot pie (we made extra pie crusts) this weekend and some of the pie will be given away. The rest, honestly, won't last that long, since we're good eaters! I think the green beans will last the longest. We made the whole recipe and it's too rich to eat in large portions. While it was good, I think the work/deliciousness/richness ratios demand that we go back to having a plainly sautéed green vegetable on the table.

Tday plan: Roast turkey, dry-brined, smeared with herb butter, cooked on a v-rack over a sheet pan laid on pre-heated baking steel Twice-baked potatoes Sauteed butternut squash Mushroom soup (Bourdain's recipe) Savory corn pudding (really a custard) using this recipe Sausage stuffing Roasted brussels sprouts with thyme and dried cranberries Roasted sweet potatoes Mushroom gravy (recipe from above) Green bean casserole (Kenji's recipe, more or less) Rolls Chocolate silk pie Pumpkin pie Whipped cream All of this for...the 2 of us, plus a baby. We REALLY like Thanksgiving food (though yes, originally we were going to have guests) and love leftovers. Already made/in the oven now - soup, squash, corn pudding, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie crust, and sweet potatoes.

We got the Waring waffle iron that is on sale just this week. Goodness knows where we are going to store it and whether we will actually use it but my husband is dying of happy anticipating waffles in the morning so...yay early Xmas? Also got a box of the chicken stock because we drank up our freezer stores during The Sickening and need a lot for Tday. I plan to use Kenji's trick and doctor it with some gelatin if necessary. Oooh, plus a beautiful box of chanterelles. Yeah, they got me good today!

That looks great!!! Yes, I will try something like that. Perhaps mushrooms for the dark bits? Thanks for the suggestion!

Ummmmmmmmmm, that mushroom gravy sounds great, we might have to give it a try. I almost always make Bourdain's mushroom soup for Thanksgiving and sometimes we just use that as gravy as well. I tried the packaged corn pudding from Trader Joe's the last time I was in and now I think I want to make a savory corn pudding/casserole (not too sweet - the TJ's version had mozzarella and parm in it) for Thanksgiving. Anyone have a recipe that isn't too crazily heavy to share? Some of the recipes look like they want to kill me, or have a lot of sugar. This Parmesan corn pudding from Southern Living seems like it has potential, but I wonder whether that is too much sugar (1/3 cup per two bags of corn). I really liked the cheesy goodness of the TJ's version. Ideas? I guess I could always just buy it...

Back to real food! For the last few days we've been eating down an enchilada casserole (filling = black beans, sauteed corn, zucchini, and anaheim peppers, shredded chicken, onions, scallions, jack cheese, and red sauce). Easy and surprisingly well-received, so will probably be making it again. I also made some garlic and Parmesan spaghetti squash, but turns out none of us like spaghetti squash It makes a lot so I'll be dutifully choking it down for a while.

applesauce Japanese white noodles in pork stock more chicken broth rice chex The last few days have highlighted the importance of having a supply of homemade stocks/broths built up in the freezer!!

Chicken broth gatorade ginger ale saltines We call it the rotavirus cleanse

Hartford Pepe's in West Hartford is pretty quiet on a Monday night, though they were doing a brisk take-out business. I like New Haven style, and I can see how Pepe's is a foundation pizza of that style. The very nice waitress explained how superstitious the family has been about maintaining their original restaurant and pie specs throughout the years, even down to the sticky, tiny plastic plates and crappy thin napkins. The 18-inch is YUUUUUGE! Way too big for 2 people, and I took back as much as I thought I could cram into my hotel fridge (ate it cold for 2 breakfasts in a row; it held up well and I and enjoyed every bite). I like my crusts fluffier and less cracker-y, but the bottom crust has a nice char and chew, though it was thicker than I expected from the Neopolitan part of their heritage. I don't eat clams and do like cheese, so we got pepperoni, chicken, and mushrooms with mozz. Quite good, and I loved the way the chicken was shredded and very soft - much superior to the typical slices or chunks of grilled chicken. I can't say how the pies here compare to the original location, but they seem to care about replication at all their stores and I hate lines so this was perfect. We had lunch at Trumbull Kitchen and I got the hanger steak while my coworker got the tenderloin. We both ate every bite of the meat and most of the sides (broccolini and haricots vert were crisp and inviting, the mashed potatoes underwhelming, and my shitakes were seared and lovely while his portabellos were grilled and boring). It's a bustling place with almost too many options on the menu, plus they are open all day. It's a great place for a business lunch and would be fun for happy hour bites. I hit happy hour with a friend at Salute, also on Trumbull street. The HH deals are good but the food was just OK. Squash ravioli were too sweet and the sauce was dull and the sushi roll was fine, but with nothing particularly notable about the flavor or texture of the fish, rice, or tempura. Chicken flatbread was simple but good, generous chunks of chicken, onion, peppers, and cheese, over a tortilla-like crispy flatbread. We got another of those and were too full to eat anything off the regular menu. We also got drinks from the champagne bar menu, which were basically girly martinis and heavy on the alcohol. That would be fine for most, but I like my fruity drinks a little more balanced. FWIW, the pastas on the other tables looked good and the place was packed by normal dinnertime. We ate lunch from a couple of food trucks that camp out on Elm street during the day. Peony is typical Americanized Chinese food, but freshly cooked and the spicy items deliver some heat! We both got the black pepper chicken and it was nice slices of chicken breast sauteed with lots of vegetables in a peppery sauce redolent with red chile oil. Gave us runny noses and we couldn't quite finish our portions. The fried rice, however, wasn't anything interesting, and I'd wished I'd gotten white instead. I would absolutely grab lunch there again. They seem to take call-in orders, of which we saw many people take advantage. We also got a big bowl of tater tots from the Whey Station - ordinary but delicious, as tots tend to be, and the grilled cheess going to other customers looked nice. The Marriott downtown is absurdly unmarked, because at street level you can't see the giant MARRIOTT sign atop the building. So just know that it's part of the convention center, and the parking garage is shared with the convention center, and you have to enter behind the building (not on Columbus Blvd., and don't enter the ramp onto the highways!!!). The multiple layers of highways (84 and 91) plus the tall buildings make GPS pretty much useless in this area, so ask about/figure out how to get out of this dead zone before you take off. Otherwise you will end up going around in circles while the stupid GPS lady is redirecting...redirecting...

Ooooooh, that's great to know! The lid tops on several pieces of my older pyrex set have split and I was thinking about hunting up new ones. I'll call in and see what they can do. Thanks! Do you recall if they taste the same/equivalent? If so, uh oh..... I figured out how to multi-quote, yeah!!! (It's the little victories... )

Got the Pyrex set and love them. Thanks for the reassurances! Opinions here are worth infinitely more IMO than random online reviews. They seem very sturdy (both the glass parts and the lids, which were my concern) and bonus that I can open them with one hand (when the other is occupied holding a baby).

Look to the thread title - such an easy spot for extortion! On the other hand, they would be posting a calculable metric, not an opinion, so posting an incorrect (slow, lagging) bad metric could make a case for libel (I imagine - not a lawyer!) with potentially demonstrably negative economic effects. What do people who actually know something about this topic think?

This will be an interesting experiment: How Yelp plans to clean up one of the restaurant industry's most dangerous flaws I wonder what the time lag is in posting changed scores/rankings, as a slow update could really hurt facilities that improve themselves quickly. On the plus side, such accessibly public shaming might prove to be a bigger-than-previous incentive for low-grade restaurants to clean up their acts, which is all to the good.

Mushroom soup Green salad Crusty loaf of white bread Grilled chicken Zucchini fritters

I know this article quote is from an industry lobbyist: The WHO panel "says you can enjoy your yoga class, but don't breathe air (Class I carcinogen), sit near a sun-filled window (Class I), apply aloe vera (Class 2B) if you get a sunburn, drink wine or coffee (Class I and Class 2B), or eat grilled food (Class 2A)," said Betsy Booren, vice president of scientific affairs for the group. but she's not wrong!! It is literally impossible to avoid carcinogens if you want to stay alive. We are all going to die of something.

Toasted walnuts. I've also seen recipes that forego nuts altogether (up the oil and cheese) but they might not taste enough like pesto to suit (I haven't tried it).

Apparently Grade B might go by a new name on the store shelves as explained here on Epicurious. I got my bottle at Trader Joe's and it was labeled as grade B.

Grade B maple syrup is the BOMB! So much maple-ier than grade A.

Wow, thanks! We'll see where I can get them to go! There's another Pepe's in West Hartford, slightly closer than the Manchester location. I'll bet it is the newest location since it was last listed on the website and they don't seem to be in alphabetical order.