That looks incredibly delicious!

Are there any allergies in your group? That would be something to investigate before setting a "menu".

Sweet could be white chocolate (or milk chocolate), ripe peaches, pineapple.

Sour could be lemon, plain yogurt

Bitter could be (very) dark chocolate. Black brewed (decaf for kids) espresso.

Salt could be salted pretzels, or a few flakes of sea salt.

Unami ...I'd say asiago cheese. Or parmesan. Or slices of smoked sausage.

Unreal. He's also implied that N. and kids are out of the house on his suggestion....to protect them from "the press".

+1 for La Boheme.
For lodging in H S-P, try the Hotel/Motel Du Havre. It's entirely nonsmoking, if that's a plus for you.

You know what, I don't, and shame on me. My nana and mom did, but I buy it from a market in Methuen, Massachusetts called Thwaites. They have mostly British specialties (ironically :-) like pot pies and bangers) but also boudin, cretons, tourtiere, etc.

I should really try making it from scratch.

And yes, pea soup!! Sadly, I am the only one in my entire family that will eat it now. Such unadventurous eaters, my in-laws.

For me, it's cretons, that pork laden spread that my nana and mom would serve to me on good crackers or bread. Because of their Canadian origins (QC and Tignish, PEI), a lot of French Canadian foods are "it" for me. So cretons would be followed by tourtiere, and boudin (their term for "black pudding" or blood sausage).

Very simple, rich, homey and lovely fare.

I agree; I like her too, and feel sad that all of this has to go down in the public eye.

I say "tonic".

Phil, about 3.5 to 4 hours for the one over the spit for a stuffed cavity lamb of that weight. Start it near the charcoal and after about 40 minutes, raise it. Keep the fire hot. There should be plenty of guides online to help you through this re. seasoning, testing for doneness, etc. The wood burning oven....I have no idea.

Hmm. Interesting. I've seen only one Mexican AYCE and one Italian AYCE in my experience. I'm guessing that's because the "Americanized" versions of these cuisines are pretty filling/heavy. I can eat a lot of the peel and eat shrimp or sauteed baby octopi at my local Chinese American AYCE, but I can't eat a ton of lasagna or tamales.

The other thing might be that the Indian/Chinese cuisines have more veggie options in the AYCE. The only veggies I saw on the Mex AYCE table were chile rellenos...and I don't think there were any on the Italian. I think the pasta/rice/beans content of the Mex and Ital would fill people up too quickly.

Hmm. This is news to me too, like HillJ. I am a HUGE fan of liver and onions (and bacon) first, because I LOVE it, and secondly because I tend to be iron deficient and can eat it self-righteously. :-)

I don't bread it. I saute the onions (liberally S&P'd) in butter until they're carmelized, then the bacon, then fry the liver in the bacon drippings. I like the liver to be just a bit pink in the middle. Yummy with a glass of good light red wine.

Sounds delish!

Agree with the fries. I rarely get McD's fries (since I would eat twelve tons), but whenever I'm in Quebec I get a small order. Better than the US and they have vinegar packets in the condiment section for seasoning. Hooray!

Would the recipe work without the erythritol, do you think, biondanonima or kathryn?

I don't buy Smithfield. I don't like the idea of gestation crates.
Yes, you're right...an excellent reason to continue to buy local.

The only stuff I really store would be spices and leftovers. The rest stays in the original packaging.

My spices are in the cool and dark of my pantry, in little glass jars. I tend to store leftovers in my late mom's huuuggeee collection of lidded Corningware (all sizes and shapes). I do this because I'm cheap.

Do whatever you feel safe with.

I am doing tomatoes (not from the garden...enough with the rain, already) stuffed with canned salmon, mayo, chives, onions, and celery. On the side we are going to have some wilted spinach with garlic/oil/pancetta. The spinach has to go today.

Thanks for the tip. I just looked on Amazon and the reviews are fantastic.

Well said. Also was gonna suggest try cooking at home. Best place to experiment is in the kitchen.

Radishes always sprout very quickly in my neck of the woods.

If you've got some kind of milk and eggs, you've got custard.

Interesting. Morton's Kosher is harder to find in my area than the Diamond, and the Diamond doesn't have the YPS. Interestingly, in terms of plain ole table salt, the Morton is everryyyywhere.

Never ordered from LaTienda but I mean to...it's like a wonderland, that website. Let us know how the baby eels are.

Yes...I like the Perdue Short Cuts original roasted chicken strips in a pinch. Find them on sale sometimes 2 packs for $3.00....not quite a steal, but for quick protein over a salad when I don't want to heat the house by cooking, a good deal.

That's too bad. In the chain restaurant hell that is Methuen, NYAJ is one of the better options.

The Goya canned octopus (Pulpo) is quite good (actually, all sauce varieties are good). I like it in a quick saute with summer squash, or right out of the can.

Okay, this is cool...I need to weigh in on a couple of zee myths.

First, I was brought up in the "steaks with bones have more flavor" camp, I confess.

Secondly, I've seen the "poke your hand" test myth perpetuated by more than one chef on the Food Network/Cooking Channel. Before Roger Mooking did his hot foods thing with Aaron Sanchez and the latest cooking w/ fire thing, he had his own cooking show and would constantly refer to the poke test.

It's my understanding that Kosher salt is the "purest" salt....NaCl, nothing added. The Morton's table salt may have added iodine, and the sea salt should have other salts other than sodium chloride.

The "complexity" of flavor of sea salt depends on the brand, and how your tastebuds react.

I suppose you could use pepper jack, if it's the mildness of the cream cheese that is offputting to you? Or feta?

Is it the flavor of the cream cheese that you don't like or the texture?

Nice. I use ground pork, but I have always "cut" it with ground beef since in its natural form, it seems too rich and too flat all at once to me.

I'll try spicing it up and serving over lettuce with sour cream. Thanks for the idea!