Let me tell you about this thing I ate.

[nonotyet]

1. I ate mussels for I think the first time ever last night.
2. They were mussels from the Olive Garden.
3. I feel unwell this morning.

Bad choice 

Yeah, where were you last night?

Also, I think that may have been the first time in my life that I ate at the Olive Garden, full stop. (It was a family gathering thing.) For someplace that has UNLIMITED BREADSTICKS OR WHATEVER, they certainly have awful, awful breadsticks.

[heather marie]

I tend to think the breadsticks and the soup are the best things they've got going for them.

[das kranke Tier]

I tend to think the breadsticks and the soup are the best things they've got going for them.

[dumbfish]

A friend called last night to tell me about his failures in frying things, so I sent him this today. Thought y'all might appreciate it as well.

Ten steps to perfectly good fried foods.
1. Defrost meat all the way.
2. Enough half-dirty oil (veg + a bit of bacon grease works) to make a quarter-inch layer.
3. Hot but not smoking oil. Wait longer for it to heat up than you think you should.
4. Batter flexible-- Flour + salt + pepper is all Mom uses. Jay Ray likes corn meal. I'm fond of some chili and garlic powder.
5. Smallish meat hunks. You want crunchy pieces. Otherwise you'd be baking them.
6. Smoosh batter onto moist meat You want it to stick. Dunk in egg and re-batter for KFC effect.
7. Cook first side of meat longer than you think you should-- until brownish. Do not flip or move meat around in pan. That knocks batter off, poaches rather than fries, and lets oil soak in-- yuck, yuck, and yuck.
8. Cook second side less than you think. It'll go fast, and dry meat isn't so good.
9. Place on newspaper or paper towels with the recently-done side down. Flipping again would let oil soak in. Don't put paper over the top, or the meat'll steam itself and get soggy.
10. Scrape burnt batter off pan and reload oil between batches as needed.

Batter fails to brown if oil too cool, meat too mobile, or cook too impatient.

[Greg Nog]

Rad rad!

4. Batter flexible-- Flour + salt + pepper is all Mom uses. Jay Ray likes corn meal. I'm fond of some chili and garlic powder.
...
Dunk in egg and re-batter for KFC effect.

I usually use an egg/milk mixture, and often throw some curry powder in there, too.  At the end of the fry session, I've got curry-flavored raw scrambled eggs, which means that I can save 'em in the fridge and scramble them the next morning for breakfast (or right then, if I'm hungry for an additional side-dish).

[Andrew_TSKS]

seriously when there's cheese there's not cheese for long. BECAUSE I EAT IT. ALL OF IT.

oh, uh, yeah, i should really have already qft-ed this.

also, dumbfish, i think i'm going to print that out and save it.

[milesofsparks]

seriously when there's cheese there's not cheese for long. BECAUSE I EAT IT. ALL OF IT.

not if I get to it first.  I am the dairy QUEEN!

[Aglaya]

seriously when there's cheese there's not cheese for long. BECAUSE I EAT IT. ALL OF IT.

not if I get to it first.  I am the dairy QUEEN!

Well, I am the Dairy Empress.  Born of Wisconsonites, cheese runs in my veins.  I keep it that way by eating it constantly.

[jebreject]

Dudes, need I remind you that I grew up in THE MOTHERFUCKING CHEESE CURD CAPITAL?

[morgan]

Oh, Wisconsin.  So much love, seriously.  I miss the cheese.

A tiny block of sub-par cheddar is like $9 here, what the fuck.

[Aglaya]

Dudes, need I remind you that I grew up in THE MOTHERFUCKING CHEESE CURD CAPITAL?

I have been to your town, and I have eaten your cheese curds, and they were delicious.

[das kranke Tier]

I have been to your town, and I have eaten your cheese

It's like the LPTJ version of Veni Vidi Vici

[milesofsparks]

oh man, there's a cafe near my work that makes sandwiches with the mozzerella (reall buffalo mozzarella) made two doors down and it is SO DELICIOUS.  with fresh basil.  and tomatoes.  and oil and vinegar.  on bread made in the bakery around the corner.  oh god.  I'm having a foodgasm just thinking about it.

[Aglaya]

Oh my god, last night when we were getting our food together, we got carried away and we had SO MUCH food and it was SO GOOD!  We had vegetable lasagna and orange cranberry cake-style cookies and banana bread and corn muffins and grapes and apple cranberry muffins and whole grain bread with herbed olive oil for dipping and really really good wine and pomegranates and apples and really good salad (the Amy's Goddess Dressing is really really good if you mix it with the Newman's Sesame Ginger) and it was just awesome eating with 4 of my closest friends at 1 am.  I think things taste even better than usual in those situations.

[Andrew_TSKS]

A tiny block of sub-par cheddar is like $9 here, what the fuck.

that would kill me. 7-11's where i live sell 1 oz. sticks of extra sharp cheddar for 59 cents, and i purchase one at least every three days or so.

also, i wish i could afford to bake a lasagna on any kind of regular basis. the one time i did it, it was so nice to have it there in the fridge for the next week.

[Aglaya]

Oh, ours is basically gone already.  There were 5 of us, and we're healthy eaters.  I'm hoping we can maybe make some things from scratch next year though.  I mean, the store bought stuff we usually have is good, but it would be awesome to actually cook and bake things.  Though it would be really hard to do that while fasting, so maybe that's a bad idea.

[nonotyet]

POLL:

Does the idea of a macaroni and cheese omelet make you, LPTJ,  want to
a) barf
b) praise the heavens?

[DCDave]

BARF

[lastclearchance]

POLL:

Does the idea of a macaroni and cheese omelet make you, LPTJ,  want to
a) barf
b) praise the heavens?

b) then possibly a)

[nonotyet]

I ask because a place in my neighborhood had it on the brunch menu last weekend, and under normal circumstances I trust this place implicitly as their food is delicious, but this, I was like "..."
Also no, I didn't eat it. 

[DCDave]

Y'all know what the Midwest eats/Fats for breakfast!

[jess]

I think I'd want to try that out of curiosity (or better yet, make someone else order it and then steal some), but yeah, seems like overkill. For some reason it brought to mind though this really tasty brie and green apple omelet I had a while back, and now I want one of those.

[Greg Nog]

I have no idea what could possibly be unappealing about a mac-and-cheese omelet.  I like macaroni and cheese.  I often put cheese in omelets.  This seems like a natural match!

[nonotyet]

I think, for me, it is how I am picturing what the texture must be like. It is not going well, this texture-picturing.

[Greg Nog]

I dunno, I guess textures generally don't bug me too much.  I mean, I'll eat yogurt, and that's basically like a big ol' cup of mucous, right there.