I bought these today because they were beautiful, and I decided I could figure out something later. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm guessing that they should be cooked very quickly and served rare in the center?

I'm making cupcakes for my son's Valentine party at his preschool. Does anyone have any healthy-ish cupcake recipes that are still appropriately festive? I found some on the Eating Well website, but I haven't tried any of them. Any suggestions would be appreciated (there are no allergies in the class). Thanks!

Funny. I'd never tried it before yesterday when I picked some up at Country Cheese Mart on San Pablo.

That's exactly it! Thank you.

My father's garden is overflowing with all sorts of peppers. I have plans for the chilacas, poblanos, and all others except for the Thai chilis. Does anyone know of great uses for these in large quantities? We don't really know how to can things, but I'm thinking of making Hawaiian chili water to keep in the refrigerator.

I use them as wraps a lot to cut out carbs. I don't blanch them first, but I cut out the middle thick stem. I suppose if they are particularly big, I might blanch them to soften the other veins, but it has worked great for me.

The chicken is still really good. I don't know about the chicken fried steak, though.

I haven't been to HI, but I've been to Tomales twice and both times they provided a knife when asked. I think the first time we paid a deposit for it and the second time they just gave it to us to use. The oysters were great, but we enjoyed the first time so much more because it was a weekday and not crowded vs. unbelievably crowded the second.

We've found ourselves w/ way too many radishes, and for the first time I just roasted them in a roasting pan. It's really good and a completely different flavor than raw.

Stopped by around 4:30 just as they were closing, but when I asked about beef skewers a woman inside said she would make some for me. They were curious how I knew about these, so I told them about chowhound. I agree the skewers were great. Came with a salad w/ lettuce, tomato, and orange segments, rice, and 2 eggrolls. She said they were doing another festival in SF at the end of the month. I told her I lived nearby and would be back.

Last night we had a shrimp boil w/ potatoes, corn, and sausage. Super fun w/ my 3-year-old son. Corn is 1 pt. for half of an ear. Careful w/ the potatoes. The smoked sausage I used was 4 pts/sausage and shrimp is sort of nothing. Tonight it's roasted chicken marinating in a yogurt sauce w/ asparagus salad.

I don't know where to get the paste, but I just add oil to it to get the consistency I want.

I second all of this.

My son and I have been gobbling these down thanks to your heads up.

I grew up eating these occasionally as a special treat. I can't imagine it being fancy in any way, but I have memories of it being delicious! Of course, I haven't had it in 25 years. . .

I love skinnytaste, but that recipe is just okay. Admittedly, though, I left out the scotch bonnet b/c I was hoping my 2-year old would love it. So, perhaps it's not fair to say it was a little boring. If you make the fish stew, I did the points plus for it and it works out to 8 pts per one quarter of the recipe. That was a huge portion, though w/ the sweet potato included.

You can see the recipe here:

http://www.food52.com/recipes/9670_fi...

I only made half the recipe and substituted rock cod for salmon. I don't have a clay pot, but I have a small enamel pot that just held it all. I baked it in the oven at 300 degrees. With my other half-can of coconut milk I made Skinnytaste's Jamaican Red Beans and Rice (also half the recipe). They went well together, but plain rice would also work well. That fish stew is really delicious.

I made a Brazilian fish stew from Food52. Rock Cod marinated in cumin, paprika, garlic, and lime juice and then stewed with sweet potato, coconut milk, bell pepper, cilantro, and onion. This was fantastic and worked out to 5 points/generous serving. I'm going to do more fish stews now.

We were there Sunday and had the Merguez and the Wild Board & Pear. Yes, they were both messy. The Merguez had a good kick and was delicious. It had an aioli and salad greens. My SO liked the Wild Boar & Pear. Both were were split lengthwise and served on toasted hoagie rolls. The staff was very nice and the patio was good. I wish they had some options that were less than 8-9 dollars, but it's a really nice addition to the neighborhood.

Our son did best at that age with things he could pick up himself like peas, beans (like black or cannelini) as well as things he could dip into something else. I agree that at that age it sometimes changed daily and could be really frustrating. One year later and he's much less rigid and will eat almost anything except spicy food.

I really like Revival.

I bought these yesterday and they are terrible. Crumbled apart when toasted.

Your best bets are probably Mario's Place on Mission Inn Ave. http://www.mariosplace.com/
The Salted Pig mentioned below or Phood on Main which serves dinner on Friday and Saturday only.

I like The Salted Pig quite a bit, but I don't think you can compare it to Omakase at all (which I loved). And it's not necessarily better than Mario's Place or Phood on Main--just depends on what you want. There have been quite a few hitches in each of my 4 visits to The Salted Pig and while each visit has gotten better, it's not without detractors.

Phood on Main is my favorite lunch spot in town, but I haven't been for dinner in over a year. It's within easy walking distance of the Fox, though (as is Mario's) and it's gotten quite popular at dinner (you need a reservation).

Hope you enjoy the show--

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Mario's Place
3646 Mission Inn Ave, Riverside, CA 92501

The Salted Pig
4205 Main St, Riverside, CA 92501

Phood on Main
3737 Main St, Riverside, CA 92501

Cooked a perfect medium-rare. Nice juicy patty with good flavor. Homemade bun that worked really well. I very much like the fries there (similar to in-and-out) and the homemade ketchup.

There's another one on the menu that has a jalapeno cream cheese and something else, but I just had the plain one. It wasn't cheap, though. $15 for burger and fries I believe.

I had a really good one at the Salted Pig which just opened in Riverside. I haven't cared that much for the rest of the food there, but the burger was great.

I had this at Haven Gastropub in Orange. I'd be curious to know how authentic it is (it was as you described above).

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Haven Gastropub
190 S Glassell St, Orange, CA 92866

For me, today, it's Omar's or Chung King.

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Chung King Restaurant
1000 S San Gabriel Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776

We were there tonight, and the "Big plate of Chicken" definitely had hand-pulled noodles. It was a great dish--

Last night I made the sloppy joe's from Skinny Gina's website. This was good and included many vegetables, so I also felt good about giving it to my 16 month old son. I also made the 0 point vegetable soup (Mexcian-style) from the weight watchers website. It was *okay*--can't beat 0 points, I guess.

I've found Gina's recipes to be quite good, and I also use quite a few from Eating Well. Eating spicy food tends to help me to eat less, and I generally don't mind substituting ground turkey for other ground meats. I love a ma po tofu that I got from someone on Chowhound, but I substitute ground turkey for the pork and basically don't notice.

Well, they have it often at Handel's if you're willing to drive...