Ah ha ha! I love it!

I'm doing one of those 'buy a magazine to help my school' fundraisers and I'm having trouble choosing between some of the food magazines.

Here are my options:

Bon Appetit
Cooking Light
Everyday Food
Food & Wine

Does anyone have opinions on what they like and why, or which to avoid at all costs?

I have also had this problem.

What I've found works is to butter the insides of the springform, cut out parchment paper that is a bit longer than the actual bottom of the pan, and overlap that with parchment paper on the walls of the springform. Then coat those with butter. It is very buttery, but I've found it less likely to leak. The butter just helps remove the paper easily at the end.Another plus is that the cake doesn't tend to stick on the walls.

If you make your margaritas ahead of time and freeze them in large gallon or so zip-locs, you'll have a slushie like frozen mix. The alcohol will keep it from turning into a block of ice.

You'll be close to Central Ave and Lark St - I really have begun to like the Wine Bar & Bistro on Lark. It still has the old signage from Antica Enotica hanging in front of it. It's good for Tapas.

Otherwise... depending on when you go, lunch time usually = lunch buffet on M-F for all the state workers. You can get a steal at the Indian restos Ghandi and Shalimar, or Aashiana (great falafel). These restaurants are all on the same block on Central Ave.

On the opposite side of the street is Golden Choice. Excellent for Caribbean eats. Get the 'small' portions.

Are these close enough to where you are?

How did it last so long? I am guessing you froze it?

That sounds so good too :)

A lot of the farms near me are not certified organic, but raise their foods in the same way. I will usually opt for these foods as they’re local, fresh, and are the same thing; they just haven’t paid for certification.

I don’t typically buy organic for everything, but there are certain items I do prefer to buy organic. If one of these items were ridiculously priced like those green peppers, I would just go without. Sometimes I’ll sub in the cheaper stuff from the grocery store, but not all too often.

One of my preferred organic/all natural foods is beef – I’ve found I really prefer the taste of all natural beef. At double to triple the price of beef in the supermarkets, I usually buy beef sparingly from a local butcher and will stretch it in recipes. More often than not, though, I just don’t buy it and eat more vegetarian fare.

I found another website: http://www.eco-visionusa.com/

They're in upstate NY, so they're kind of local, too.

I also use this technique. It gets just the right amount of liquid on the rim. No drips, spills or dry patches. Then the sweetness of the sugar has some balance to it, too.

A lot of specialty rolls are gigantic. They usually have more grandiose names (ie, the Dragon-Samurai roll). Your seattle roll sounds like that, just with the amount of 'stuff' in and on it.

I'd go for something more like your alaskan rolls, or maybe ask ahead of time how big the rolls are.

Many thanks to you all! Everyone, you have helped me out so much!

After all of your replys, I will not do a beef roast. I really like the idea of curry, baked chicken as a main. I will not be in my home and transporting all food over, so the oven will only be used to re-heat things.

Buffet is also the serving method.

You've all also helped me clarify my menus. I was putting all of my eggs in one basket, so to speak, and it seems much more do-able with a simple main and perhaps fancier sides and apps.

I am going to get a club membership for some of this - some of the apps could be very useful and quick to re-heat. I would really love to do tapas/just appetizer type foods (although tons of them, so it would take the place of a main course), but am a bit daunted at making them myself.

I am having an event that I would also like to cook for.

It should be for around 70 people. I'd like to be able to make many of these dishes ahead and re-heat them on the day of.

One idea I had was prime rib/beef roast - getting a large roast or two, cooking it to rare the day or 2 days before and heating it up to about medium-rare/medium day of. Can this work?

Have any good catering tips/ideas for appetizers or mains?

I usually just include it in the bill, but sometimes will put an extra dollar or two in the jar on the sushi counter. It usually doesn't look like a tip jar, but if you ask a server they can tell you where to put it.

Le Nile Bleu in Montreal has a sister restaurant which I feel is jungle-chic. Lots of low lighting, gorgeous plants to decorate - just gorgeous atmosphere. I feel it is upscale without being something it is not.

Also their cocktails are wonderful! :)

Sfan - no problem.
It's pretty simple -
Reconstitute dry shiitakes in hot water. This may take some time. Save the water if you'd like.

Heat up water in a pot until it boil, take it off the heat, and put in the cellophane noodles (I always overcook them when they're in water on heat). If you've got extra time, they also soften up in cold water.
Once cooked, you can add some of the leftover shiitake liquid. It adds a lot of flavor, so if you like shiitakes, this will be good.

For wraps, just blanch napa cabbage (to take out the bitterness) for a few mins, let cool, and then stuff them with noodles.

I cook veggies as normal. Even canned veggies work. Mix them together with chopped shiitakes and cellophane noodles. Add soy sauce and sesame oil to taste.

I probably made this seem much harder than it is! But it's similar to stirfry.

A big hit is rice/cellophane noodles, carrot slivers, shiitake mushrooms (or any other kind), broccoli and adding some sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce to flavor.

I don't think so - I think it varies from restaurant to restaurant due to a few factors.

Some of them would be:
Supplier
Type of food
Quantity ordered
Type of preparation
Seasonal avalibility

Plus overhead and stuff. I think that it's there because the price the restaurant is paying for those items can vary more often than the rest of the food on the menus, which are more stable.

I would LOVE coffee, toffee and coconut!

The closest other I have seen are other milk candies with peanuts in them. (which end up too chewy and just an odd texture)

The white rabbit candies are milk candies. They're basically like vanilla tootsie rolls, but I think much better. :p

Yes indeed - I was not expect so many varieties of lettuce for the first month or so. You also end up using the FIFO method a lot more for veggies, but the up side is that they last much longer than veggies you would get at the grocery store (the down side to this upside is that you get more veggies to eat the next week - so start canning or you will have a LOT of veggies).

However, this was just the motivation I needed to eat more veggies and be less picky about it - I couldn't bear to waste a lot of veggies, so I just ate them. This year we will be canning and pickling some of the veggies we receive. It is a good amount for 4-5 people, but for 2 people, it is a large amount.

Love it - it's not as messy as grapefruit, but larger and sweeter - the best of both worlds!

I haven't been in yet, but you can go in for just a glass of wine. I think that they just increased the menu. I'm looking forward to more than a handful of choices to nibble on with a glass of wine.

I've noticed this happening a lot as well.
It seems like it's much more lucrative to cater to sporting event crowds, etc, but I really don't like it when a nice place does this. It really does cheapen the experience for anyone who goes not expecting a sports explosion.

Try beef rice rolls, salt and pepper squid, dan tats,

I've never heard of splitting appetizers. It doesn't really make sense, unless there's an elaborate splitting and re-plating, and even then...

I mean, isn't that what the bread plate is for? So when a tasty appetizer comes out, and your friend insists you try some, you take a forkful and eat it off of that little plate?

They'll last until they break!

2nd Emperor's - great service and good food.

Other than that - Jack's Oyster House is open 365 days a year.

On Western Ave's side of SUNY Albany there are:

Peaches (a diner in Stuyvesant Plaza)
Via Fresca( http://viafresca.net A really good italian deli with affordable prices
)Sushi Tei (Japanese, also running a $1pp sushi eat in special)
Moe's (chain burrito place, but plenty of seating, and good value)

How is fortunes? The TU rates it well, but the individual reviews say the buffet portion is awful and overpriced.

A relative who loves prime rib (and AYCE, at that), has suggested it for a pre-Christmas dinner get together. I'm a bit wary, as I've had some of the buffets over the summer and was really unimpressed at the high cost to quality ratio.

Are there any other suggestions for a place to go that serves either a large portion of prime rib, or some kind of meat buffet that isn't Golden Corral(relative loves this place too, if that helps any)?

I was a member of the Fox Creek Farms CSA in the cap district. I think we paid a little over $400 for a season from May - October. I think it was worth it, as it worked out to around $20 per week for tons of fresh, organic veggies that had amazing flavor. If we had tried to buy as many vegetables per week, it would have been easily $30 or more in store.
That said, the beginning of the season was a lot of lettuces, so we had a lot of salads. It took about a month and a half before we started getting anything really substantial, but once it did... woah baby! It definitely helped us eat tons of veggies, and I loved trying new things and being kind of forced to learn to like things I might be picky about so I didn't waste food. I picked them up once a week and picked out my own amounts while someone supervised.