13 posts tagged “qotd”
What are your top five favorite cooking seasonings?
Submitted by skip.town.
1. Ground chipotle pepper. It's what makes my chili the Greatest Chili On Earth.
2. Cilantro. Cilantro and cucumber = yum.
3. Salt. Duh!
4. Sugar. Sure it makes things sweet, but it also tones down tart foods -- like tomato sauce
5. Nutmeg. It gives a special flavor to my French toast, and when i mix it with lime, cinnamon, salt and garlic, it makes an unexpected marinade for steak.
Who taught you how to cook?
Submitted by Donna.
I learned by watching my dad. I would sit in the kitchen and watch him cook. I also watched a lot of "The Frugal Gourmet" since we didn't have cable growing up. That taught me most of the basics. I learned a little bit more in Home Economics class (like how to make French toast). And my uncle taught me how to make a quick-and-dirty Hollandaise sauce. But most of what I know came from watching my father work the stove.
Do you buy products made locally? Is there anything made in your area that you love?
I do, but not that often. My nearby farmer's market is more like a ginormous grocery store than a standard farmer's market. I know they sell Georgia-grown corn and collard greens.
I am quite the fan, though, of Sweetwater beer. Made in Atlanta. Their ESB is quite nuanced with a very smooth finish. I also fell in love with a house-made pilsner at the Park Tavern.
I'm going to stretch the "local" definition a little bit. I'm including the entire state of Georgia. "Local" to me usually means within an hour's drive, or wherever I can still get an Atlanta radio signal. But these things are too good not to mention, IMO.
I'm a fan of Three Sisters Walasiyi White and Dahlonega Gold. Tiger Mountain has a red that's really good too, although I can't remember the name.
I must also give a shout out to the manna from heaven that is Sweetgrass Dairy Green Hill cheese. Most of their cheeses are good, but Green Hill is divine. It's a soft cow's cheese that has the texture of brie, and a flavor that's somewhere between brie and cheedar.
Have you ever met any celebrities? Any interesting stories?
Submitted by Tasha.
Yes. I've met a few celebs. Most notably Busta Rhymes around the time of his first solo album. It was after a Howard University homecoming party at the Ritz DJed by Kid Capri. Someone -- either cops or club security -- opened a container of pepper spray shortly thereafter.
I also flirted with another hot-rapper-of-the-moment that night. For the life of me, I can't remember his name, the duo's name, or the one hit they had. I just remember that he (or maybe his partner in the group, but I think it was him) had been a teacher before becoming a rapper, he had blondish-brown locks and green eyes and I thought he was gorgeous.
I also met Juwan Howard at the Ritz when he was playing for the Bullets (and yeah, they were the Bullets, not the Wizards at the time) way back when. And I met Grant Hill's parents at US Air Arena after a Pistons-Bullets game.
In 1986, I interviewed Mark Lynn Baker, Balky's cousin on "Perfect Strangers" for Kidsday, Newsday's Sunday supplement for kids. If memory serves correctly, we wanted to interview LL Cool J and Run DMC, but we got Mark Lynn Baker ... before he was even famous. I also remember having a byline on like four or five articles in that issue, including the interview.
I've also had quite a few celebrity spottings: Flavor Flav and Dinco D (at separate times) passing through my neighborhood. I saw Toni Kukoc when he was with the Hawks (he was crossing 14th Street and I probably came close to running over his toes. Dikembe Mutumbo walked right past me at the Velvet Room once upon a time (when it was in Midtown). Baby (of Cash Money) was driving a hummer through Midtown hanging his big ugly head out of the window... I think that was during NBA All-Star Weekend. And I have had the honor of spotting The Round Mound of Rebound (that'd be Charles Barkley) twice -- once at a Jezebel magazine party at the Velvet Room when it was in Midtown and again a few months ago at Pricci in Buckhead.
How do you pass the time during a flight? What do you bring in your carry-on?
I bring a book or two (or three) depending on how long the flight is. If it's a cross-country flight, I'll pack three books. I read pretty fast, so I'll bring a book to read while traveling to a location, one to read from a location, and sometimes a third to read in case I finish both books, or one of them sucks royal ass.
I also take a pillow, eye mask and earplugs. Sleep is a great way to survive a flight, especially across timezones.
I used to bring an iPod, but without noise cancelling headphones, it's a pointless exercise. You'll blow your eardrums out trying to drown out the plane's engine noise.
What word(s) do you always make a typo in?
I'm good for typing "form" as "from." I also have an issue with typing HTML entities: for example, rather than type ’ (a single closing quote mark), I usually type &#*217;.
'The' is another one, which often comes out as teh.
What's something you bought, knowing it was a total waste of money?
These little Forelle pears.
Since they're edible, I suppose they're not technically a waste. But I bought them merely because they were cute as all hell -- not because I needed to buy another four pears.
Do you have any phobias?
Submitted by Amirul B Ruslan.
Palmetto bugs. They're also known as water bugs. I think they're also known as American cockroaches. Common in the south. The further south you go, the bigger those m.f.s get.
They're friggin' huge. They have wings. They fly. And they crawl really, really fast. They scare the effin beejeesus out of me.
I lived in an apartment complex that was heavily wooded and those bastards used to get inside all of the time. One crawled into my closet to say hello. After that day, I was scared to go into my closet without a can of bug spray at the ready. I have been thoroughly scarred.
What's your favorite holiday movie?
It's a four-way toss-up between "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving," "Robbie the Reindeer: Hooves of Fire," and "Olive the Other Reindeer."
Actually, I lie. "Olive the Other Reindeer" is my favorite. I've seen it once, but it was so incredibly silly and fun and adorable. Something about a dog thinking she is a reindeer (when Olive mishears "All of the other reindeer" as "Olive, the other reindeer") that just makes for some laughs.
How did you find out the secret behind Santa Claus?
Submitted by Carinish.
I think I was about 9 years old, though I may have been 10 or 11. I just remember that I was too old to still believe in Santa, and I didn't. I just hadn't yet made the connection that Santa = My Parents.
Anyhow, one day I saw my parents carrying a huge box upstairs. The outside of the box said 'Panasonic' and it was a stereo. That was in August, maybe? October? It was several weeks before Christmas -- far enough from Christmas that I didn't think it could be a gift.
Now my mom also had a huge Panasonic stereo. And it was almost the exact same model, which is why I didn't think much about the box. I thought it was odd that both of them would need to carry an empty box upstairs. But it was an awkwardly huge box and my mom was kind of clumsy.
Fast forward to December, and there's this huge ass box under the tree with my name on it. I open it and it's the same Panasonic stereo box.
So my mom asked me if I liked what Santa brought for me. So I called her on it: "Santa my foot. That was from you and Dad."
Her: "No it wasn't. What makes you say that?"
Me: "I saw you carry the box upstairs."
Her: "It was my stereo box."
Me: "Then explain why it took the both of you to carry an empty box."
Her: "Um... "
Me: "See."
And from then on, I knew that this jolly fat white guy named Santa was really a short chubby black woman and her husband.
