I always assumed that was where the South got the frying thing -- from the Scots. Didn't a lot of Scots settle down there? From what I understand, the other method of cooking in the South is similar to that of the British Isles: Grow your vegetables big and fierce, boil the life out of them, then throw in a ham hock for flavor.

ETA: skagirl77, sounds good to me. Artery-clogging, but good. I do love a good chicken-fried steak (with cream, not mushroom, gravy) and french fries. And when I was growing up, we used to get good fried pickles from Sonic. I don't think they still offer them, though. Now, we just order fried mushroom and zucchini in a variety of restaurants here. I just have to argue with my husband about the sauce to dip them in. He wants honey mustard, but I have to have ranch.

A few of my man friends in college wanted to open a restaurant called "Everything Fried." Breakfast? Deep fried pancakes, deep fried bacon, deep fried hard boiled eggs. Lunch? Deep fried sandwiches. Re-deep fried chips. Deep fried pickles. Dinner? Deep fried steak. Deep fried mashed potatoes. Deep fried salad. They could sit for hours talking about their fry-daddy and things they should try to deep fry.
I think I just clogged an artery typing that.

But can you deep fry an orange?

Skagirl77 - that is the most nauseating concept for a restaurant I can think of. And if you opened it anywhere near a campus it would be packed 24-7.

I am not really E-Bay savvy, but is that $1200 wedding dress up to $25 000?

That ebay wedding dress guy was actually on the Today show this morning, via satellite, wearing the dress, no blurred face. I didn't see it, but a friend I sent the link to did, and she said he wasn't bad looking. I can't even imagine how many views he has now, to say nothing of proposals.

SkaBabe, that place sounds horrifying! And by "horrifying," I of course mean "yummy, but saying that would make me a big giant piggo, so I'm going to stick with a completely insincere 'EW!!'"

Where in DC is it? You know, so I can makes sure to avoid it next time I'm down that way.

*A-hem*

WhereverWhenever, the braintrust has safely moved out of our nation's capital, thus ensuring the security of DC's hearts. Leave that to Ben's Chili Bowl. Mmm...chili bowl...chili fries...chili dogs...mmm...400 lbs later...

(However, we should do an exploratory visit to A Salt to see how quickly we keel from deep fried snickers. Did your Scottish friend tell you about them? Hee hee heeeeeeee)

What Scottish friend??

*blinks innocently*

And you are ON for a little A Salt (where I LUUUURVE the fish & chips, btw) run. Bring on the artery-clogging!!!

oh no question... Ranch wins hands down. There are a few resturants in Kingston that serve deep-fried pickles, and I was blown away by how good they were. I really have to try to make them myself.

My brother's roommate has a deep fryer and fries everything. He (my brother) said that the deep fried hot dogs were gross - he called them "squishy".

In non-"fried food"-related news (is there really such a thing???), I just found out we won a case a good friend of mine at work and I have been busting our asses on for about a year and a half!

In the words of Nuke LaLoosh:

"I fuckin' LOVE winnin'! It's like, better than losin'!!!"

WOO!!!

[ETA: For once, erinj, I can unequivocally say YES, WE DID. It was an insurance case where basically the insurer was, in very VERY bad faith, trying to avoid paying the insured. We represented the insured, whom the stupid jerky insurer now has to pay $5 million. HA!!!]

Awesome. I hope you represented the good guys.

$5 million? Wow, that's a big award! Was it a jury award, though? Any chance the judge will reduce it?

The eBay wedding dress ended up selling for $3850 (more than it originally cost!) and he got something like 6 MILLION hits on the page! What a hoot!

New Orleans has a lot of fried food, too, but unlike everywhere else I've eaten it, around here it tends to be far lighter than you'd expect. I think it's because they know how to bread things really lightly -- and also because the freshness of the ingredients helps, a LOT. Shrimp that were swimming in the Gulf six hours ago just taste beyond fabulous in a great big dressed po-boy....darn, I'm making myself hungry again!

At the last Highland Games I attended here in Detroit, they had a booth selling Deep Fried Snickers. I was too busy in the Guiness/Scotch tent to want to give it a try.

In a month I leave for my big (and first) trip to Europe! My father, my sister, and I will be spending five days in the Benelux countries, visiting sites in the Ardenne where my Grandfathers fought in the Battle of the Bulge (for the Americans--and neither was in Bastogne), sites where some of my distant relatives are from in Zeeland Flanders in the Netherlands, and Brugge, because it's supposed to be the coolest. Are there any sites in Belgium and Luxembourg that you guys would suggest as must-sees while we are there?

We're also spending four days in Scotland at a big gathering at a castle outside of Glasgow. I take it I should be prepared to eat fried food early and often.

I spent five months working outside of Toronto at a plant in a temporary assignment a few years ago, and I don't remember of any food items that I really wanted that I couldn't find in Canada. Besides milk in plastic milk jugs, not plastic bags. The only thing Toronto is lacking in the food department is Mexican restaurants that aren't Taco Bell. But rotis make up for it easily.

I have heard of people from Detroit sending Better Made potato chips in care packages. Even though I didn't grow up in Detroit, and I *hate* Vernors ginger ale, I've got to agree that Better Made chips kick Mike Sells's ass.

Damn, I'm hungry now.

Bart, I think the milk-in-bags thing is an Ontario thing - other provinces have had jugs for ... 10 or 15 years, IIRC. I have no idea why the milk-bag things persisted - they're awkward and annoying.

It's odd what drives you nuts in terms of missing food. After six months in England I would have killed for sourdough bread. Now that I can get it anywhere, I think I've had sourdough bread twice in the past year. Huh.

I know, the summer I spend in London, one of my happiest moments was when I found a store that sold Dr. Pepper. I think one of my classmates was about five seconds away from grabbing the can away from me.

I almost paid the equivalent of $10 for a single sleeve box of Oreo cookies when I was in London for a semester. And I don't even eat Oreos (very often) when they're readily available.

Wow, that wedding dress auction really must have gone wild at the end. I think the last time I checked, there were 3 hours left and it was at $1500.

Big fat WORD! My friends and I complain about this ALL the time. I love Mexican food but there are only a handful of Mexican restaurants in Toronto and the few that exist are either really crappy or way overpriced.

And way to go whereverthefk! Do you get an Erin Brockovich-esque bonus for all your hard work? You must e-mail me your address and I'll send you some Ketchup chips as a reward! (Or maybe I'll just use your address to stalk you. That'll be fun too.)

They should open a Mexican restaurant in Toronto and call it NAFTA. They should employ only illegal immigrants from the US in the kitchen.

I need some help, please. Do you have these in Canada?

This is official junk food research going on here.

I'm not in Canada, so I don't know if they have them there, Suga Wuga, but I just had to say I love those things. Fortunately for my pocketbook, the candy vendor did not stock them in the machine at our office last time.

iMissEthan, that was hysterical. I've come back to re-read that at least 4 times this afternoon.

Was that a joke? Dammit, I thought she was seriously offering to bring over some illegal immigrants for us. Hey, I'm not fussy. I just want my damned enchiladas!

(Why can't I lose weight?)

Bart Ender I used to live in Belgium and indeed Brugge is awesome, but don't miss Brussells. Great city with excellent beer/french fries.

And to you and Rachel, Toronto has some good Mexican places. El Sol out on the Danforth is good. I'm not sure if Tacos El Escador is technically Mexican, but it's got great tacos! And there's always Hernandos and Rancho Relaxo, where the food is OK, but it's more about the cool factor...

Sounding like a broken record here, but I got some at Harris Teeter about a month ago. Really not that impressed with them. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was raw chocolate chip cookie dough right out of the tube.

Speaking of cookies, last year someone made route marker shaped cookies with red and yellow frosting. It was a great idea, and I would like to do that this year. Anyone know where to get a route marker shaped cookie cutter?

I'd suggest getting a tin Christmas cookie cutter that's fairly sizeable, and going to work on it with pliers. You should be able to get close enough for government work, anyway!

Aren't route markers rectangular in shape? Or am I thinking of something else?

Well, rectangular with the triangle "notch" at the bottom. Hmm. Didn't really describe that well. I'd go with a rectangle cutter, and then recut the bottoms with a triangle, star (point), or Christmas tree. Even though that's slightly wasteful.

I'd roll out a square of cookie dough, square it off and then cut a zig-zag across the middle. Cut your individual cookies from that and, voila!, route markers. Granted you're going to have at least two cookies that look like half-route markers, but I'm sure you can find some way to destroy the evidence.

For a while last season I pondered making flag cookies myself, and the scheme I came up with involved modifying a checkerboard refrigerator cookie recipe to be red and yellow instead of brown/white, stacking it in stripes, refrigerating it until hard, and then cutting the notch out before slicing the log. Of course, that doesn't involve frosting, and the fact that I never made it kind of shows my opinion of all the work involved.

Hey everyone, I'm back for a brief visit, I know you all missed me. I'll be back in full force when TAR5 comes or if I finally make it back to the US since I'm currently out of the country.

Anyway, I recently took a 14 hour hike in Israel to Jerusalem. The entire time, I could only think of TAR and how they did some really crazy stuff. Not one of the racers would want to do this (it was 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.) There were "Roadblocks" where we had to send people through to look ahead, Detours where we had to pick which path looked less rocky, and while we wanted a Fast Forward, we sadly had none (unless you include the few people with me that decided 3/4 in to take a cab the rest of the way).

So in honor of the hike, I present with apologies to Miss Alli

It's! A! Hike! 26 Mile! Hike! Keep walking! Don't! Collapse! Throw away all! Your! Maps! Don't! Fall! Down! Drink water till! You! Drown! From too much! Rocks are...painful...just one...more hill!...use some...Gold Bond! 'Cause! It hurts to walk one step! Can't move now! [BOMP]

Thank you.

YAY!! Good job bubbaboy8!
**Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap**

Hi everyone!!

Hope all is well around town and I can't wait to see you folks.

We don't have Dr. Pepper in Bogota, either. When Mr. Weds misbehaves, he brings me a dozen DP's from the commissary instead of a dozen roses. I also pine for cheddar cheese, decent brownie mix and non-apple flavored sodas.

[snob] Ewwww, apple-flavored soda? That sounds nasty! [/snob]

I've never had apple soda, but growing up my favorite was strawberry-peach. We used to buy it off of the ice cream truck...that and $1 chili-cheese dogs. Man, those were the days.

I haven't seen a strawberry-peach soda in a lonnnnnng time. Le nostalgic sigh.

Piperdown, are you out there? I'll go shopping this weekend, but I want to make sure I get stuff you like and couldn't get for yourself.

*Waving to newman44*

Several months ago at work, we were forced to take some sort of online personality test. It wasn't called that, but that's what it was. (Actually, it wasn't called anything. We were just told we had to fill out this survey.) Today we got the results.

As I'm sitting at my desk trying to make up for the time the system was down because someone in classifieds had to shut down the server (when I'm on deadline, of course, and still have eight pages to lay out), a reporter comes up and asks if I want to hear the results of my personality test. So I go into the newsroom, where the publisher is telling people their personalities. He looks inquiringly at me, and I say, "I'm anal and have no patience." He looks up my score and reads a bunch of stuff that basically says I'm anal and have no patience.

The company spent how much money on this survey to tell me what I already know? (And what anyone who knows me knows, too. First thing my husband said was, "I already knew that.") Couldn't they have just given the money directly to me?

Of course, here I am posting at TWoP when I still have 5 pages to finish.

Yeah, I love company-sponsored personality tests. Except not.

I've taken the Myers-Briggs umpteen times. I'm extreme on two of the axes, and borderline on the other two. So I am hard to categorize, since there are four profiles that could apply to me. Am I an introvert or an extrovert? Do I follow my head (thinking) or my heart (feeling)? It depends.

They hate that answer -- "it depends." It's so much easier for them to put us in little boxes. And like you, AuntLada, I didn't need to be tested to find out any of this stuff.

Hi everybody!

Taking a step back to the flag-cookie discussion of the previous page....that was KonaKini who made the flag cookies, in an attempt to bribe coworkers into watching TAR4. I honestly don't know what kind of cookie cutter she used though.

I visited her (and sister emjaytee) this past weekend and we discussed the flag cookies and the feasibility of making them for the TARcon goodie bags this year. A lot will depend on how well the cookies (and the frosting) freeze and thaw. We will have to test. I'll ask her about the cookie cutter.

When we lived in Japan a few years ago and had access to the US Navy base facilities, Americans living and working on the economy used to crave the oddest things: peanut butter, Power Bars, and hamburgers being high on the list. There was one couple we'd invite for a hamburger every month. And one Thanksgiving (before I met him), Papa Tiger invited a bunch of folks over for a turkey dinner. People still remember that to this day -- things like that mean a lot when you're far away from home!

Papa Tiger also ran what I called "Papa Tiger's Mail Drop and Money Laundering Service," wherein he'd get mail sent to him (at US postage rates) on base from their families in the US, and since some of them were paid (in Japan!) in American cash, he'd deposit the cash and give them a check to mail back to the US. He's still proud of the name I came up with for what he really was just doing to be nice to his friends. :-)

TAR cookies.....definitely something to think about! I could take TAR cookies in to the office to encourage everyone to watch the show, for starters!

The Route Markers are just long vertical banners with a forked lower edge, aren't they? That's what I think hangs near the clue boxes, anyway.

Just get a diamond-shaped cookie cutter, roll your dough out in a rectangle, cut a series of diamonds across the center, corner touching corner, and then cut the dough into strips where the diamonds touched so that the end of each diamond is centered on a strip. Cut straight across the center of the rectangle, et voila ! long skinny cookies with a notch out of one end. Recycle the diamond cutouts in your preferred manner. (I usually eat the scraps--I tell people that it's because re-rolling the dough makes the cookies tough. Hey, it sounds good.)

Thanks everyone for all of the info on route marker cookies and ways to make them! And thanks to Tribefan for giving credit to the person who originally had the idea, KonaKini.

I did find this make your own cookie cutter kit.

Next I think we need to corner the market on red and yellow frosting!

If you like beer, I would say that the inside of any bar you find is a must see. Best beer on the planet, bar none.

As to Canadian junk food, do y'all have Skor bars down in the States? 'cause if you don't, you have to try them.

I have them on the brain because summer is practically here, and my first DQ Skor Blizzard of the season is just around the corner.

Zron

I haven't looked since I moved back to the midwest for the interim, but I know Skor has been available in Atlanta for a long time.

I know they've been available in Washington at least since I was in high school; I was totally addicted to them back then.

Skors are generally available in the Midwest--it's actually Heath Bars that are hard to find now.

<----------
(That's me signalling for a left turn on subject.)

My niece is getting married. Definitely in December; definitely in Florida (Tallahasse and Tampa are the two cities under consideration); definitely afternoon, not evening; definitely not full-formal, possibly at one of the state beaches. If it matters, the colors are bright peacock blue (almost sapphire), silver and white--more blue and silver than white, though.

So what sort of a dress do I need to be looking for? What kind of temperature range am I looking at. I know that if I leave it 'til this autumn to start shopping, I'm going to be limiting myself to knits and sweaterdresses and tweeds and like that, because that's what the stores up here will have at that point. Suggestions?

I'm not in the wedding, I'm just "doting Aunt".

Oh, and I don't do sleeveless in public. Unless there's a jacket involved and I don't have to take it off. Wraps, shawls, scarves are not sufficient.

Rabrab, the National Weather Service website http://www.weather.gov/ has pages for each of the metropolitan areas, and a link for each area to climatic information for that area. I don't know what to tell you though (even though I lived in thr Tampa Bay area, went to Tallahassee a few times for work, and grew up in Miami); the weather in central and Panhandle Florida varies a lot that time of year. It could be in the 70s or 80s or in the 30s or 40s for highs, depending on what the winter weather cycle in play for a given winter happens to be. It's been known to even snow (several inches) in Tallahassee in December, and freezes are not uncommon in Tampa by December. Of course, this past December there were two or three tropical cyclones running around too one of them in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rabrab, knowing your sewing talents, I would recommend taking a medium-weight dress and two jackets -- one light and one heavy, possibly in a quilted pattern with beautiful trim. That way you can wear whichever one fits the forecast for that day.

In other news, my mom, who is allergic to everything and has terrible sinus problems, is in the hospital tonight. She over-gardened. That's the informal diagnosis. She feels fine now, the docs think she's fine, the tests all came out normal, and they're keeping her overnight anyway because she's 71 and they want to be careful. This is a woman robust enough to run the Race, I think. But she really badly over-gardened, for a whole day. In the sun, which she's also not supposed to be in. And it was hot. So she ended up feeling lousy and being short of breath long enough to make it worrisome. If it weren't my mom, I'd think it was funny. And I might think it's funny in a day or two.