Mani in Ann Arbor is having a Mother's Day brunch, offering breakfast pizzas, frittatas, Italian French toast and drink specials. Paesano's in Ann Arbor has a big Mother's Day brunch with a special menu for $27.

No, it does not matter.

Best fried rice I ever had was made by a guy from Oaxaca. He had worked in a Chinese restaurant for years.

Also, did that post get removed?

Any kind of light chicken and rice dish. It's what I want to eat after being too sick to eat.

Sounds like a fun time! I'm really into Ina Garten's entertaining menus lately, she's got some good ideas.

Heres what I'm thinking. Cheese straws and fresh fruit with a moscato for starters (i like some sweet stuff at the beginning but thats just me). A seafood salad served on lettuce leaves, served with a great, crisp white. Strip steaks with tomato, new potato and mushroom kabobs on the grill with beer or a fun red. Ina's mocha ice box cake for dessert.

Everything can be made/prepped in advance, and you'll just have to be occupied with grilling the main.

Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla marshmallow icing. Honey cupcakes with blackberry icing. Angel food with citrus glaze. Pineapple and ginger. Key lime. Carrot cake.

I'm bummed no one has replied to you. It's been two years since I've been to Amsterdam but can say that a lot of restaurants are very casual and many are child friendly. I can absolutely recommend burgermeester on albertcuypstraat. As for your kids having to sit for extended periods of time, Dutch service can be on the slow side so have some strategies in place for distracting them.

Are we including legumes and fungus under the vegetable heading? If so add Lima beans, kidney beans and mushrooms.

1. Mushy peas
2. Boiled rutabagas
3. Mesclun greens
4. Boiled Brussels sprout (roasted or pan-fried they are great)
5. Beets

Another cute tea spot in Ann Arbor is Jefferson Market. They have nice teas and their baked goods and cakes are top notch.

I can speak to some of these links
Arbor Tea I believe is not a tea shoppe, per se. More of an online retailer.

Bubble Island is a little student divey and specializes in bubble tea.

Momo Tea is a Taiwanese tea house. I haven't been in, it looks cute, but also in the student area.

Sweetwaters is a nice coffee shop, and it's in Kerrytown which is a cool collection of shops. But it's nothing terribly special.

You're already familiar with Tea Haus, which is probably your best bet. They do a quickie tea spread with a scone, a macaron, a few tea sandwiches and a pot of tea. Not sure if they were running that special when you were last there. They do a full tea service as well, but you may need to call ahead.

I personally don't like chicken salad, and if the pasta salad were mayo based, I'd be further limited. Could you do something like shaved roast beef on baguette slices, a veggie wrap sandwich or turkey and Gouda turnovers? Otherwise I think your menu sounds darling, it's just my dislike of chicken salad that makes me think another sandwich would be welcome.

I LOVE that idea! I usually make a roasting "rack" out of celery ribs, but now I'm going to try the carrot Lincoln logs.

I'm not a fan of mushrooms but I do make them for my husband. He likes them both "toasted" in the pan with no oil until their liquid cooks off, and sautéed in olive oil and butter with sherry and herbs. With nice steaks, he likes the plain method. With cheaper cuts of meat, he likes the herby-winey kind. I've been known to fry up a couple cube steaks and serve them with champignons sautes au beurre, lol. It's the kind of high-low cooking combo that never fails to amuse me.

The handle was left touching the food.

Wow quite surprised by the responses, especially the snark. I don't work there anymore but it always squicked me out that used knives were left in the pie plate or cake dish or the donut box. I guess I thought of it more as going to a buffet and having the serving utensils just left floating in the food. But looks like people are ok with that.

It was just a knife, used to cut and lift out a chunk of cake or pie. The handle would definitely be left touching the food.

If it were something like a pie server with an offset handle, I wouldn't have a problem with that being left in. Unfortunately we didn't have one of those available. Not sure why because the kitchen was relatively well stocked with other implements.

Oh and sometimes if it were things like donuts or cookies, someone would only want half, and put the knife in the box after cutting one.

Some folks would bring in bakery goods, ie that they didn't prepare themselves, so it's not like all the food was prepared by dirty folks. It's just that people would ruin food by contaminating it with dirty utensils.

I worked at a place where a lot of food was brought in and shared, especially baked goods. One person was even paid to bring in (extremely mediocre and occasionally inedible) desserts, (but that is a thread for another time).

A lot of times I'd get the ball rolling by cutting a slice of whatever was offered, then putting the serving utensil on a separate plate to the side. Without fail the serving utensil would end up in the dish. About 15 people would have touched it by that time. As far as I can tell, no one was a big hand washer either, so in my opinion that was a dirty utensil I didn't want touching the food. Am I being germ-phobic or do other people find this gross?

Ah anecdata. Fresh homemade fries that have been scrubbed, peeled and treated with care are delicious. You can rarely get the same small batch quality in a restaurant as you do at home. You can't just plop a potato into a fry cutting machine as you seem to advocate, without having a lot more labor involved. Someone has to scrub and cull bad ones from a lot of 50# sacks.

I see it at Meijer in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. One place I've seen it is in vending machines at rest stops as you make your way up north.

Goat cheese puffs, spinach dip, or smoked salmon on toast.

I know absolutely nothing about this restaurant but after reading that article and another about outing a food critic AND kicking her out, it sounds like the owner is a defensive, egomaniacal mental midget.

I too like the XXX when I'm sick. I like to think of it as a sort of pedialyte for adults. It's good for after a workout too when you want something more than water.

I followed that thread and I still can't understand that incident. I would consider it egregiously rude and not the hallmark of a good bartender. Don't they ever have patrons who switch brands or even to liquor on the next round? Or order a glass of water or soda pop every other round? Maybe I'm not going to the upscale bars, but I've always had a bartender ask if they can get me another and never just assume I will have another, regardless of how I position an empty glass on the bar, etc.

And as far as committed beer drinker, yes I've definitely been that, and in various types of bars. But I've also done all of the above I've listed, I.e. switch type/brand of beer, ordered water every other round, had a cocktail between rounds, etc. I've also had plenty of bottled beer served to me and there's never been any magical second bottle appear if I push the empty away from me.

I definitely thought about saying that, but just informed them the salad, bread and wine I was serving with the main were all vegetarian!

Tell me about it. I just hosted dinner for my book club. Four hours before the start time someone asked on the Facebook page for the event if there would be a vegetarian option. It was Maddening, considering I had polled the whole group two weeks before to find out if everyone was ok with what I was going to serve.

Not cravings or aversions, but saltines and vernors are helpful.

Avocado and chilled shrimp pair really well for a small bite type appetizer. Slice of avocado, chile-dusted shrimp and lime crema layered on a tortilla chip. Bonus points if you get fresh chips from a local tortillaria.

http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/menus/f...

Here's a link to a scan of a menu from Menagerie in LA. I got it from the LA County Library menu database. It really hits a lot of the high points of 90s food.

Second the sun dried tomatoes. Pine nuts. Anything blackened or Cajun. Squid ink pasta. California pizza kitchen style pizzas. Rotisserie chicken. Bistro food galore.

Whoa, that's pricey. I just bought an 8 oz bag of "Melissa's" shallots for $2.49 at meijer in Ann Arbor. And I thought that price was outrageous. Maybe talk to the produce manager there about the price?

Yes, the toppings and condiments need to go to the edge, or the sandwich gets too dry!

Also I think it depends on the bread whether I want to eat the crusts or not. I've had some sandwiches on artisan bread that had crusts you could chip a tooth on.

Mom always said that you had to eat your crusts to be able to whistle.