^ I'm ROTFLOL right now...literally. How can you not like it so much? It's delicious! I love sour cream too. Please tell me you like that! I eat that out of the jar too sometimes .

*gasps!* Didn't know you felt so strongly about disliking mayonnaise. *quickly hands Shadowlander a hot dog to make him feel better*

Djaq, well, I guess ketchup's all right. It does taste good when one's having a hot dog plain. (Or a thin streak of it by some mustard on a hot dog. Mmm, that's good.)
That's one beautiful cheesecake! Pleasing to the eye, and from what I take, to the taste as well. =]

I guess this depends on where one lives. Like barbecue hot dogs tend to vary from region to region. My family is originally from NY and so ketchup on a hot dog is akin to sacrilege. Down here in NC they usually put slaw on their hot dogs, which isn't bad (provided it's the red slaw with no mayo in it ). And of course there's the immortal....*drum roll* Chili Cheese Dog, which requires no condiments on it whatsoever. I personally prefer a ketchup-free hot dog, but then again I love sauerkraut and mustard on mine and most people will howl in protest at the thought of putting sauerkraut on anything.

Hot dogs are my weakness...my kryptonite.

Ah, well, that's true. LOL, is it really considered so in NY? Ketchup on a hot dog here is pretty giggled at if someone at a hot dog place askes for it, but gradually the majority of restraunts just pair ketchup and hot dogs together all the time except for some loyal ones. Slaw on a hot dog? There's something I've never heard of! That'd be interesting to try.
Ooooh! Chili Cheese Dogs. *grabs one of those drool towels* Eeeew, sauerkraut. My first experience with it was not pretty (the aroma was putrid) but if I had a better one, I might give it another chance.
Haha, my city actually quite specializes in hot dogs, in a way. One place serves them real hearty with peppers, pickles, or personal preferences. It's the best!

Mayo is really gross,

List of my favourite foods

fish
chocolate
cauliflower
cheese
black berries

My Mom got The Cake Book by Tish Boyle from the library recently and I really want to try her Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Coconut Ganache. Mummm, now I'm hungry for some chocolate...and I know right where our stash is. Must. Exercise. Restraint.

That sounds REALLY good! I'll have to look for that book. *is curious if the restraint worked or if SnowAngel had some chocolate*

It's a really neat book. I didn't eat any chocolate then, but I'm eating peanut M&M's right now. (They are the chocolate of choice for PC-users - no crumbs or incriminating fingerprints on the mouse. )

I just finished eating a fresh out of the oven whole wheat roll. Delicious! My Mom made them and she's a great cook. You can ask Scarlet, if you think I am baised.

Mmm! Fresh rolls are the best!! Would you mind sharing your recipe? My family has a good one, but I'm always interested in trying something new.

Sure, I will send it to you in a PM. Me too, I've got good recipe collection started which includes your chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Today, I made a Philadelphia Vanilla Cheesecake Mousse (that's what it's called ). I found the recipe in a Southern Living and thought it looked really neat.

Mumm, sounds really good. Looks delicious. Scarlet is the cheesecake baker in our family, she made one for Easter (hazelnut truffle). It was pretty good except for the hazelnuts, maybe I'll drag her on here to share the recipe if anyone's interested.

I made beef spread on Tuesday and blueberry-raspberry sorbet yesterday. The sorbet was really good, but it needed a little shortbread or scones on the side. *plans to steal Scarlet's scone recipe as soon as possible* Or maybe a buttermilk brownie?

SnowAngel

What has everyone been eating lately? What do y'all plan to eat? And, another random question, do you guys plan menus (weekly or otherwise)? We do occasionally but haven't been lately. I think I need to start again.

Last night we had subs. Not very exciting. Tonight we are having chicken and egg noodles. On Friday, we are having homemade pizza. Yum! We plan our meals by the month. Usually I end up doing all the planning. My mom actually did it this month. We were going to do it together but I ended up working on her day off. We try to do our grocery shopping once a month (we used to drive 30 minutes to do our regular shopping and we drive 30 minutes to go to Sam's club) so it helps to know what we need. Of course there are usually a few things we forget or need to get fresh or can't find so we have to get things other times during the month). People are supposed to write down any days they aren't going to be home for dinner on the calender but sometimes they don't do it until after I've planned the meals (sometimes things come up suddenly and I understand that but other times they just forgot ). So we ended up playing rearrange the schedule throughout the month.

Great-looking cookies, Pattertwigs Pal ( ... and I do like your signature, too).

Thanks!
By the way, when people are talking about vinegar, which kind of vinegar do you mean? The distilled white stuff used for dying Easter Eggs? Cider Vinegar? Baslimic (sp?) something else?
I've had salt and vinegar chips. They weren't bad but I wouldn't spend money on them.
re: hot dogs - the only thing I have on them is ketchup.
Here are some cupcakes I made for Easter. I usually make a bunny cake but my sister wanted something that was easier to divide evenly.

We had steak tacos tonight- yum! I love tacos, but we don't have them that often ...hispanic people don't have tacos and burritos every day like most people think .

On Sunday we went to a cool ice cream place that had rice krispy ice cream cones. I think I'm going to try and make them... .

They are awsome easter cup cakes. I might do soem cooking myself this weekend.

Mmm, those cuppycakes look yummy, Pattertwigs Pal. Cute wrappers, too.

What might you be cooking this weekend, IlF? Any specific ideas 'up your sleeve'?

When I talk about vinegar as in dipping cucumbers in it, or S&V chips or popcorn (♥), it's the plain white vinegar ... which is also great for cleaning, so I wonder what it does to our insides? A favourite salad dressing of mine is Balsamic Vinaigrette. I much prefer the vinegar-based dressings now, as opposed to the creamy ones.

We have a family gathering for Mother's Day this Sunday (which also happens to be my birthday), and I'll be making a special meal:

BBQed chicken thighs
Hash-brown potato casserole (potatoes, sour cream, mushroom soup, and lots of cheese)
A few different kinds of cooked veggies
Fresh whole grain rolls (or bread)
Cole slaw
My sister-in-law is bringing an all-time favourite salad, which we call Marinated Salad: it's chocked-full of raw vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes -YUM!) and marinated in Zesty Italian dressing
Condiments: olives, pickles (bread & butter), cherry tomatoes, mini cucs
Grape juice and ginger ale to drink
Then for dessert: raspberry pie (this will be bought) and a mandarin-orange angel food cake dessert-y thing

Hungry, anyone?

Yes, Jo! That sounds delicious! But you have to do all that cooking on/right before your birthday and Mothers Day?
Your sister-in-law's salad sounds right up my mom's alley.

Pattertwig, those cupcakes look delicious! Keep me away from them!

GtG, I love tacos too. And burritos even more. They're what I get most frequently. There's this little cafe near us that makes the best Catfish burritos. I could go on eating them for days!

*thinks* Aha! I did make chocolate pudding from scratch, just a couple weeks ago. My very first attempt, and it was amazingly simple. We don't buy the boxed mixes, so I'm glad to know that I can make it fairly quickly any time we feel like it from now on. Which may not be a good thing, because it turned out very tasty.

I will be preparing food a good bit of Saturday, but that's okay ... our moms (the grandmas to our kids) are worth it. And we'll be celebrating my birthday on Saturday evening, so as to save Sunday to focus more on honouring our mothers, especially, as well as my parents' 58th wedding anniversary (May 3rd). Anyway, all-in-all, May 9th calls for a very special dinner.

So, is anyone here preparing your mom's favourite meal for Sunday?

*would love to try some of DTR's homemade pudding*

Pattertwig, those cupcakes look delicious! Keep me away from them!

Luckily, one doesn't get calories by looking.

Hungry, anyone?

Yes, the angel food cake thingy sounds especially good.
It sounds like you have a lot of things going at the same time Jo. It's rather amazing how things tend to happen right around the same time. My sister's birthday is today and we always go out to celebrate birthdays and we also go out for Mother's day (so no cooking here). My dad is going to be out of town Friday and Saturday (as he usually is right around this time). It took quite a bit of work to find time to get everything in.
I made a lemon cake for my sister's birthday. She didn't decide until today what kind of cake she wanted. Usually, she choose lemon pound cake which doesn't require frosting. This year she decided on a regular lemon cake so I had to run out and get frosting. We had the cake in case she decided on her usual. She doesn't like a lot of frosting on her cake or those candy pieces that spell Happy Birthday. I like a lot of frosting. I used letter shaped cookie cutters as stencils and sprinkled colored sugar and sprinkles in them. It didn't work as well as I had hoped. I think more frosting would have helped. Since I was at the store anyway, I bought graham crackers and used the rest of the frosting on them. Part of the fun of making a birthday cake is to hid it, so it isn't seen until the right moment. Sometimes it doesn't work so well. My sister just went in the cupboard where it is hidden.

I just made a really good chocolate eclair cake that is super easy to make if anyone wants the recipe. Oh, this is not just my opinion my whole family agrees. I will probably make breakfast in bed for my mom, and dessert for lunch.

Shantih, a few pages ago, you had posted pictures of some strawberry muffins you made- they looked so scrumptious, would it be all right with you if you could share the recipe?

I got that recipe from Martha Stewart's cupcake book, here it is online -
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/strawberry-cupcakes?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/our-best-cupcakes#slide_2
The only thing I changed was I replaced the cake flour (we don't have it in the UK) with plain flour mixed with some corn flour.

I made some blueberry muffins yesterday, they're actually pretty healthy and taste great! And, alas, have already been eaten. I must make more.

Shantih, those muffins look heavenly!

I have recently gotten into cake decorating, and have been working a little with fondant. Last month a friend and I got together to make a cake for my little sister. The theme was The Little Mermaid. It was not without faults, as it was my first cake with fondant, but we had a blast making it, and Laila ((Pronounced Lyla)) my sister, loved it.

For the fondant cover, I just did a light blue marbled with a darker blue. For the sand on top, I used crumbled graham crackers, and cream cheese frosting as glue. Then we took blue frosting and a very light shade of gray to make waves lapping on the shore. It was SO much fun!

This weekend I will be making two more cakes... should be fun. I have to do one for my other sisters birthday, and another for a friend. I am super excited! If anyone has tips, I would love to hear them!

Thank-you for the recipe, Shantih! I can't wait to try it.
Those muffins look very good... all the muffins we've seen that you've made have a nice tea-time, natural look and taste look to them.

Awww, I do like the Little Mermaid cake, RevelinginWonder! The waves, sand, and everything looks terrific. =]

For what I've been cooking, I managed to check out Martha Stewart's Cookies and Winnie the Pooh Tea Time Cookbook from the library. So, I've been enjoying browsing through them and deciding what I want to make.
From the former, my sister and I made Snickerdoodles. (which turned out very successful, fluffy, cinnamon-y, and delicious.) I attempted Chocolate Thumbprints which I've been dying to make for over a year, but they more or less failed. They tasted... okay. I had done some rough divisions with help from the site and the butter wasn't entirely all at room temp, so that might've added to their faliure... I'll try them again when I'm out of being upset at using all those ounces of Baker's chocolate. I followed the ingredient divisions from the site and it proved to give less dough, use much much more chocolate than was needed, and they turned out pale and crumbly because of too much flour. *sighs* Next time I'll stick only to the cookbook; so far Martha Stewart's online recepies have given me sad results when I'm trying them with no surety behind.

The Winnie the Pooh Tea Time cookbook is a smart little thing, it is! Such few, simple ingredients needed, easy instructions, and tasty treats in the end. I'm wanting to try Strawberry butter and one of the scones. The non-sweet cheese scones look lovely.