Where do you get your confit duck legs Alice?

Every time I go to the Farmers Market I try to buy something that I've never cooked with before and experiment. This week, I purchased those tiny artichokes from Half Pint Farm. I'd only ever had them steamed so that you could dip the leaves in butter. Instead, I peeled the outer leaves off, peeled the stem with a peeler, cut off the top rough ends of the leaves, cut them in half, and boiled them for four minute. Afterward, I simply sauteed them in butter with salt and pepper. They were so good! However, I'm sure there must be more things you can do with them. Does anyone have a favorite artichoke recipe they recommend?

I actually just had a ground cherry for the first time this weekend at the Vermont Fresh Network Forum. Suzanne P. and Sean Buchanan gave a cooking demo Sunday afternoon where they took classic dishes and added an interesting twist (while cooking over a campfire might I add). They made a caprese salad that had heirloom tomatoes with a parsley/sage pesto (delicious!!), but they also added ground cherries to the salad.

Apparently ground cherries are related to both the nightshade and the tomatillo (as you can see by the papery husk). I thought their flavor was interesting as well. They had a subtle cantaloupe flavor that sounds a little strange but is actually quite tasty. I know that they are on my shopping list for the Farmers Market this weekend.

I have to agree with your fears completely Alice. This does sound like it will become a cake show. I personally don't really understand the appeal of cake competitions. I've always enjoyed seeing the techniques of other cooking competitions because the dishes are so creative and the techniques are ones rarely used in a home kitchen (however, the cooking shows that actually take you through a recipe step by step are my favorite).

What I don't really understand is why I find cake shows SO unappealing. I really enjoy baking at home, and I like trying out new recipes. At the same time, cake shows bore me out of my mind. I guess it is a combination of the fact that baking isn't as flashy as cooking and that there is no way I'd ever be able to do half of the things they do in cake competitions at home.

Does anyone else hate cake shows? Why? I still don't completely understand my own detest.

I think I'll have to have that dinner tonight, tonyo. I'll have to break out the goat cheese I've been saving. This past weekend at the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, I got to try Vermont Butter and Cheese Company's goat cheese for the first time. I loved it! My favorite was the slightly aged goat cheese called Coupole. I even bought some I enjoyed it so much.

Hey Molly - you are so right - cold oatmeal would be pretty perfect. I'll have to mention that to him. 

yup - then I'm definitely an incompetent PC user   

Oh my gosh Molly! That website really made me start to get a little sick as I was going through the pictures. I'm not a fast food eater - I kind of forgot how gross it looks. Then when its put next to the advertising photos . . .

What I think is most interesting about fast food is that when you eat it or smell it it both tastes and smells good. However, when you think about what is in it, it can make you shiver. At least, that is my reaction — and Suzanne's too I assume. I've heard that people are predisposed to like foods that are full of salt, fat, and sugar because those things were very hard to come by in prehistoric times. Also, they have a lot of calories which the human body craves out of innate survival instincts.

Fast food is so counter intuitive.

Alright, I know this is pretty random, but two of my close friends love to throw stuff — specifically food stuffs — at each other whenever they have to cook in the same space. Generally, I make sure we go to one of their houses whenever we decide to cook. This also means that they like talking about food fights as well.

One night we started to try to figure out the best food to fight with. I voted oatmeal, but my friend Paul vetoed it because it is too soft to really get good distance or force in your throw. Spaghetti and whipped cream were other options, but nothing we came up with truly satisfied the question. You want something with weight to it so that you can throw it, but you also want it to be messy and harmless (no broken bones or anything). Anyone have any answers?

Or have you ever been in a food fight? I (unfortunately) never have other than being caught in the middle of my friend's miniature ones.

Hey Molly, The link you put down under "these guys" is broken for some reason. Could you try it again?

Maybe I was just an incompetent PC user, but I find on my Mac that I can look at more things on my screen at once. The windows move off to the side easier, etc.

Now I really want to try one of those Cabernet brownies. I am so curious as to what it tastes like. I'm looking at the checkout page, weighing my options as I type. The beauty of an apple computer.

I actually had some really delicious cheesecake from Dobra Tea of all places. My friends and I were out late one night, and they started talking about the amazing green tea cheesecake (green tea!?!) which didn't sound particularly appetizing. I'm not a big fan of green tea anything. When we went to Dobra, I tried it, and it was really good! They don't make it themselves. They get it from some other bakery — the name is escaping me at the moment, sorry. I'll let you know when I find out/remember the bakery's name.

I definitely try to make meals like that, but not necessarily themes like your "pie" example. Usually my friends and I pick a movie, then we try to plan an entire meal around it. I've made Ratatouille and then watched Ratatouille. Or we'll try our hand at some sort of Middle Eastern dish and watch Aladdin. It is really fun actually. It is the ultimate dinner and a movie - you basically get to have your movie and eat it too.

The I Hate Cilantro blog is fabulous! I went to check out the link you posted, Molly, and the top post was all about the word cilantro in different foreign languages — to ensure that you can always ask to have cilantro removed from your meal anywhere in the world! Amazing. I never really realized people's hatred ran that deep. While I know that many of my friends have always hated it, I (a cilantro lover) always thought people were just being picky or pretending or something.