Ah...this is why they seriously searched my backpack this year. Usually it’s a half-assed quick peek inside, welcome-to-the-fair-have-a-great-time kinda deal.

My late mother was brilliant. She was an avid gardener who had many, many tomato plants. At the end of the season, she would let the last bunch of tomatoes get mushy. Then she would let us and our friends collect those last bunch and have a brief tomato fight...but only if we removed the tomato plants for her (not…

My attitude towards food and Florida changed after I moved to the Upper Midwest from the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard.

I moved to a neighborhood near Duffy’s district about a decade ago. When people asked if my husband and I were going to have kids, I said we were considering just having one.

Yep, exactly. I remember teaching someone how to make Kraft Mac & Cheese, and they said, “Wait - you boil the pasta? Is that necessary?” Their parents really weren’t big cooks and there was a LOT of takeout. They’d only ever gotten Mac & Cheese from restaurants.

I start with something really simple that’s actually more about reheating cooked elements. So they get comfortable with working the stove, and aren’t fretting about whether or not the meal is actually edible.

I feel like this is relevant here, as a jumping off point to discuss how horrendous his afterlife punishment should be.

I just had to google sfingi - we call them Zeppoli in my family. Italy vs Sicily is just a never-ending thing, isn’t it?

There was some forced perspective and stuff, but these were usually for shots when she was in motion. A lot of times, she also used them in shots with Stanley Tucci, since she Julia Child was nearly a head-height taller than her husband.

Meryl Streep’s shoes for Julie & Julia were a bit more stylish.

My family is a split between Neapolitan and Sicilian heritage, and I have never seen one of these! Though now that I think about it, frying wasn’t really big in my families’ kitchens. Of course, we moved out of NYC ourselves when I was very young, and they all retired to condos in SE Florida by the time I was 6 or 7,…

This is assuming you do not live with someone who goes back for second slices on the rare occasions when I buy/make a cake.  Because my husband could not be assed to actually remember to do any of this.

Psst, Kevin - if you and the Takeout Staff are looking for a fun follow today, check out Rick Nelson, the restaurant critic for the Star Tribune. He’s doing his annual, start-at-the-crack-of-dawn review of all the new foods at the Minnesota State Fair.

I love a chilled Lambrusco. I will serve them with whatever great cut of beef I get for Easter, and people are always pleasantly surprised. At the taste (because Riunite sorta ruined the rep of Lambruscos in the 80's), at the crispness of the bubbles, at how well it works chilled.

I’m just thinking how nasty this would be to fold back up if the tent managed to find its way into a scummy section. *shudder*

Yep, this is the answer.

just know that it’s a price to pay for being hospitable

Do not get me started on the lack of snow-driving ability of people in this town. I have a friend who is a native, and he insists it’s all the people who moved to the area. I had to counter that if you moved here from the East coast, you usually know how to drive in snow.  (I’ve been here some years where the…

I came looking for a Twin Cities reference, but this is not what I was expecting: