mdorothy's Profile

Branch out, fellow foodies! Barley is a tasty grain that can be used as a substitute for soft polenta or small pasta.

Serve it as a base for a tasty stew or ragu. Place a portion of cooked barley in your bowl, then add the topping -- beef stroganoff, chicken cacciatore, etc.

Add cooked barley to soups. I love, love, love making a chicken/mushroom soup with plenty of onions and celery, adding cooked barley, and finishing with a splash of seasoned rice vinegar.

Ridiculous! You'd actually go into someone else's home and sharpen their knives?? Yes, in general sharp knives are safer, but if someone is used to working with dull knives -- their OWN dull knives -- suddenly having a sharp kinfe is a recipe for disaster.

Take your own knives with you when you visit. Period.

Attention hosts/hostesses:

You are under NO obligation to serve a food or beverage gift at the event. It's a GIFT. Thank the guest and set the item aside with a cheery, "Oh, we'll enjoy this at [suitable occasion some ways off.]

Attention guests:

If you bring a dish make sure:
A) you are doing it with the host's agreement -- that he expects and welcomes it.
2) the thing is ready to go. Pick an item that doesn't need any last-minute fiddling, including heating. It should be READY TO GO.
III) you bring any serving utensils your item requires.
d) you whisk the whole enchilada -- unwashed -- away with you. Alternatively bring the thing in disposable packaging.

I am known for my cheesecakes. I cut the chilled cheesecake, then arrange it on a paper-doily covered cake cardboard. Then I put it in a pink bakery box. I buy the cardboards, doilies and boxes by the dozen and keep them on hand. The cheesecake is ready to serve, can sit out for a couple hours without refrigeration if needed, and all the packaging is disposable.

The only downside is that if someone I don't know is a fellow guest, they always insist I bought the thing since it's professionally packaged. Oh, well ...

"Pocket viewer addicts" would not be invited back to my house! How rude!

If I invite you to my home - call me self-important - but I expect you to find the food and fellow guests important enough to put aside the electronic devices for the duration.

This year I will have one physician who will be on-call as a guest; he is allowed to use his cell phone. Everyone else is expected to actually ATTEND the event!

For a trip like this a backpack is much easier to carry than a bag that hangs off your shoulder or hand.

Great post!

I'd say it's from the 70's given the color and the velour upholstery.

The National Wild Turkey Federation has a good recipe archive for a variety of game -- not just wild turkey:
http://www.nwtf.org/tips_adventures/recipes.php

Venison often yields well to marinades -- regular acid marinades containing wine and such, but also particularly beer marinades. And it's a good candidate for the crock pot. Here's a recipe easily adapted to a crock pot:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7462131_marinate-venison-beer.html

I understand bears can carry trichinosis, so please research that issue and take appropriate precautions.

The employees give people who scoop up paint chips for projects that won't result in paint sales for a very simple reason: they're thieves.

How anyone thinks this is OK is beyond me, and I wish the AT blogs would stop supporting this notion.

Good quality stainless steel cups and spoons are virtually un-damageable.

Doesn't help with the loss issue, though ...

And any spare ones you pick up can be used as scoops in cannisters of staples -- oatmeal, flour, sugar and so on.

MWesdock, some of us know how milk crates "work" -- the dairies use them to deliver milk to stores, then pick them up for re-use. Most of them are even marked with a "don't steal me" message.

When someone posts on a design blog about their clever use of items that are ordinarily not sold -- milk crates, paint chips, etc. -- the onus is on the blog owner to check into how the creator obtained the items.