Spunkygal

YES! our lovable Byrd read that situation from the get-go and moved over behind the dentally challenged plaintiff and then moved between plaintiff and lover boy defendant to prevent an altercation. How about the no chin, slack jawed, mouth agape Mrs Minor still married to the plaintiff. The entire episode she drove me crazy as she stood there mouth agape the whole time. I was so thrilled when JJ shouted "close your mouth!"

Substitute Paris in your post for Italy and that's how I felt about the most recent episode. I stumbled upon this show by accident and when I saw that it had something to do with some guy named Phil in Paris, I recorded it. I have never heard of him before but his wide eyes and effort to be amusing grated on me. But oh my, I am right there with him on the food. As soon as the words "hot chocolate " came out of his mouth I said Angelina's! Yes, the.best.ever! I would have sat down on the curb and sobbed if it had been closed when I visited. I would have tucked in to every single dish he ate. In fact, I have put the names of the restaurants, fromagerie, patisserie, boulangerie that he went to in my travel folder for future trips. Having said that, unless he is visiting a destination I am interested in, I won't watch. And I agree with whimsey98 above ^, it made me nervous to see him "helping" the falafel guys. If I were a customer in line, I would have been pissed to see him slow things down.

Not to alarm anyone, but if you live in a home built before 1990, please check to see if your breaker box was manufactured by Federal Pacific Electric and has the stab-loc circuit breakers. I first heard about these when we were selling my mom's house in 2010 and the inspector advised the buyers to make us replace it, which we did. Then when my sister recently had her kitchen renovated (and of course new appliances and recessed lighting installed), her contractor pointed out that her breaker box was FPE and he replaced it. Then, 2 weeks ago, a house on her street suffered a great deal of fire damage which started---you guessed it---when the FPE circuit didn't trip during a surge and a fire started in the garage. Thank God a neighbor alerted the firemen that they had 2 dogs and they were saved. Apparently there was a class action lawsuit in 2005 in NJ regarding these boxes and I just read an article as recent as 2012 on an NBC site in the Bay City area about these presenting a real fire hazard and profiled related incidents. These were installed all over the country. So please, whether you own or rent a home built before 1990, look at the box door and all over the circuits and any labels to see if it is this type of device. And search the Internet for pics and more info!!

I really enjoyed today's episode...everything looked good and I will finally give spaghetti squash a try since it looks so easy. Jeff's meat loaf looked good, although it wasn't that much out of the ordinary. Ooh, GZ's mussels...OMG! Looked awesome! I wasn't that crazy about the tailgate portion. Really....a chandelier and tapered candles to decorate your tailgate with? You'd get your butt kicked and left in the car trunk if you tried that at the tailgates we've had! But whatever. During the tailgate portion I got a look at what Katie was wearing. Egads! It looked like a flannel nightshirt that was 4 sizes too big so she knotted it at the bottom and called it good. It swallowed her. Come on, Katie, you have a darling figure that I would kill for...flaunt it, baby! Maybe I am getting used to Jeff's and Sunny's loudness because I didn't notice it as much. Oh, and I love a good whiskey drink!

Oh no! No matter who the victim is, this is terrible! I know I'm jumping to conclusions, but don't you have to have some (many?) serious previous violations to have such a device installed? What is wrong with people? Sorry, that last question is too open-ended and unanswerable.Edited to add this link with a quote from Ina: http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/Bridgehampton/125225/Pedestrian-Struck-By-Vehicle-In-Bridgehampton-Monday-Night-Montauk-Highway-Closed

Yes, cinsays, it is a mess! They really screwed up with the rule changes and not scrambling dollar amounts and questions. You know that the first five questions are pretty much slam dunks. I liked it when you didn't know what amount you are jumping over. And I think the contestants try SO hard to be funny because Chris has no personality. I have been a devoted fan from day one with obnoxious Regis but would not mind if this is cancelled when Chris' contract is up.

Laredhead, I try to watch every episode in the UK and France and the homeowner was not familiar to me, but it is possible he has appeared before and I missed it. I loved this episode. I really enjoyed the friendship and casual banter between Richard and Stelios. I want to be friends with both of them! And I really want to go to that reclaimed yard. Drool! As peanutbuttercup said, what a refreshing episode without the usual demands.

I got a noon time rerun today of the father suing his deceased son's friend for personal effects. Apparently, the young man who passed away was 30 and died of brain seizures. The year or two (maybe more) before he died, he saw his family about every 6 months and his father admitted his son did not tell the family of his illness until the end was near. However, the defendant, and 2 other friends who accompanied the defendant, all lived with the young man at various times over the years as friends, traveled with him and were emotional supports to him. In fact, the young man called the defendant when he needed to go into hospice. And one of the friends stated that she had the man's banking info and wired a great deal of money ($45,000) from the man's account to the family because the friends assumed the family would pay the man's medical bills, which the family never attempted to do....that is another matter for another day. The personal effects that the family wanted were his computer, cell phone (so they could hear his voice), eyeglasses and college coffee mug. There were a lot of details in this case and I've probably not done a good job of summarizing. But all this to say that there was a lot more under the surface that wasn't discussed and probably didn't need to be discussed. I don't know why the man didn't tell his family about his illness earlier or why the father couldn't just be thankful that his son had 3 great friends who were there for him. But when I deleted the episode when it was over, my head hurt, my heart ached and my spirit was crushed at the sadness we often see and hear about on this show.

Ok, this show has gotten so milquetoast that there are no comments on particular episodes but I did want to say that I originally thought I was going to root for Elham who was first introduced yesterday. She is an accomplished lady and has a vibrant personality. Then my bubble burst when she told the outrageous story that she was grabbed around the neck (and shoulder?) by a baboon at a zoo when she ducked under the guardrail at her sister's prodding to get a better pic with the animal. You stupid, ridiculous person. As Chris wryly said "I guess guardrails are there for a reason."

I could hardly pay attention to this case because I was so captivated by napping audience member over Rycharde's shoulder. Did anyone else notice this chick? She sometimes had on brown rimmed glasses and the top part of the frame was totally level with her eyes and it looked like she was napping. A few times her head slightly bobbed as if she caught herself in time. Then sometimes she'd have the glasses off when they'd go back to Rycharde. A few times her mouth would make a movement as if she was listening and was reacting to what was being said. For me, this was as entertaining as googly eyes. But I did hear Rycharde "he of the broken heart" say in the hallterview when talking about the Plaintiff "I loved her hard!" Edited because Google eyes are not googly eyes.

The great Jacques Pepin has a new series on PBS titled Heart & Soul. He is one of my all-time favorites and it is so good to see him back. On this episode he and his wife hosted a group to play boule (akin to bocce) at their place. He didn't prepare anything too challenging and used caviar in two appetizers which is not on my grocery list, but who cares. He is a legend and I will record the entire series. His granddaughter is darling and looks like Claudine. Wife Gloria looked frail and I worry that she may have been ill recently. And of course old friend Jean Claude was there. Love me some Jacques!

And in the hallterview, the plaintiff said the dog was not put down because of this incident but because it attacked and killed a dog at the vet's office! (I guess when it was taken there after the incident with the plaintiff's dog.) Did I hear that right?

THIS re: Marcella = Giada! It would have been fine with me if she had stayed at home with new baby and Fau forever. She is my least favorite. I wish Jeff and Sunny would turn it down a notch but I would want to be friends with them and will keep watching. I often learn some neat shortcuts or recipe ideas and I just FF if a certain segment doesn't interest me. The staff does a pretty good job in coming up with ideas that haven't been milked to death in my opinion. Katie's monotone voice baffles me. I've never known anyone other than Ferris Bueller's teacher (Ben Stein??) speak in such a measured, boring way.

ALenore, where did you find these? I have had the same gripe about cheesecloth, too!

Chessiegal, if you haven't looked at it, I recommend the Eyewitness Travel guide books published by Dorling Kindersley. I happened onto this when I was planning my first trip to Paris and it was so helpful and informative. Love the history timeline of Paris and the floor plans of the Louvre, the cathedrals and other landmarks. If nothing else, it turned me on to the best hot chocolate I have ever had which was at Angelina's on Rue de Rivoli. I love this book so much that I have given it to friends and coworkers who have been in the Paris planning stage. I also recommend buying a laminated Paris street and metro map which is available online and at Barnes & Noble. What a lifesaver that is!

Did you happen to catch the first episode of Valerie's show? It was even more yawn inducing than today's episode. Her HIC co stars were there and IMO, it was awkward. The 3 costars just didn't seem interested in food and Valerie made the super challenging dishes of quiche, salad and pannacotta. I gave it one more chance today. Her husband is cute and they seemed to enjoy each other but the food was as imjagain said..nothing new or special. I could make those chicken cutlets in my sleep. In fact, since I take Ambien occasionally, I may have! She explained and demonstrated a really neat way to cut basil..chiffonade! Wow, who knew! I would have to be a Valerie stalker to keep watching.I'm so bored with the celebrities who get a show because they are unusual enough to cook at home. Good for them but what a waste of airtime. The only cooking celebrity who has been interesting to me is Debi Mazur and Gabriele. Love their food. I'll tell you who I very much miss...Laura Calder who had the French cooking at home show. Why can't TPTB find more people like her? She prepared interesting food and it wasn't terribly difficult to attempt. Maybe TPTB should ask one of our posters on the Barefoot Contessa topic or another food related topic to give it a go. I've gotten some great ideas from y'all. These days, I enjoy the cooking shows on my PBS station a million times more than Food Network or Cooking Channel.

Life-long north Texan here and I've never heard of the green bean dish referred to as funeral beans. In fact, I never had the infamous green bean casserole until I was probably in my 40s. However, in my circle, I am familiar with a dish called funeral potatoes which would probably cause your funeral if you ate enough of it. It is something ridiculous like thawed hash browns, mushroom soup, tons of cheese, crushed potato chips and I think drizzled with melted butter. How anyone ever came up with the idea of that dish is beyond me....probably a cardiologist.

Yes, I did suffer through this underwhelming season of Top Chef. Gah! I can't even remember who won now and don't care. Bastet, I agree that having Jacques join them was the delight of the season and a must in my opinion. I would have deleted the season from my DVR if he had not been included for Julia's tribute. I won't berate TC too much here since it has its own forum but I have to say that Masterchef UK The Professionals has spoiled me for any other cooking reality show. If you watch cooking reality shows because you are a food whore (like me) and not for the ridiculous drama or the obnoxious swearing "mentor" (see Gordon Ramsey), this series is a must see. Sadly, BBA America has aired only the 2011 and 2012 seasons and has repeated them several times, but I watch every time. I have emailed BBC America several times asking them to please air the more recent seasons. Michel Roux Jr. was the main judge and offered constructive, calm criticism and the show is all about preparing good, innovative food. However, Michel had a falling out with the station about his endorsement of some potato brand and has been replaced as head judge. AnnzeePark, if you are going to try to replicate your yummy mashed potato and roasted chicken meal, please find Julia's buttery roasted chicken recipe online. It looks pretty easy. And I wonder if your mashed potato was similar to Joel Robuchon's potato puree? I believe it is two parts real butter to one part potato. A business associate treated me to dinner at his restaurant at the MGM Grand in Vegas in 2011 and believe me, that potato puree is the best thing I have ever put in my mouth. For my last meal, just bring me buckets and buckets of the stuff. I've seen this recipe online, too. Did you also get hooked on the awesome baguettes while in Paris? I don't know what they do, but I have not found any baguette here that can hold a candle to those.

AnnzeePark, sounds like a wonderful time! We also discovered a wonderful Italian place on Rue de Berri on our first trip and ate there on subsequent trips. I smiled reading about the roast chicken and mashed potatoes meal. I've just finished Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, and she wrote of the sublime deliciousness of a buttery roasted chicken that only the French take time to perfect! Although you passed on the Napoleons this time, you can make up for it on your next trip! One thing we still laugh about...on one of our trips I ordered crème brulee at a bistro. It was the worst crème brulee I've ever had! The sugar top had not been scorched properly and did not pass the "crack test." And the crème consistency was grainy, not silky smooth as you'd expect. Somewhere I have a picture of the world's worst crème brulee ironically made by a chef in Paris! The rest of the meal was delicious though. One other thing we still laugh about. We had a bottle of wine at lunch one day and then found a darling shop where I purchased an outdoor thermometer mounted on handpainted tin. Just lovely. It wasn't until I got home and installed it on my back porch that I realized it was in celsius.... OF COURSE, DUH! Morale of the story is don't go shopping right after wine at lunch! Glad you had a good trip!

Or February! Regarding the crossed leg pose, I did this in front of my full length mirror. I am only 5'2" but it looked like I was trying to keep my bladder in place.

I had an English teacher who took off points if we pronounced the "t" in the word "often." I was so paranoid about it back then that now it irks me to hear it pronounced. It may be acceptable to pronounce the "t", I don't know, but she has scarred me for life. Also, I realize that my new pet peeve is starlets who pose on the red carpet and stand there with their legs crossed. It looks like they need to pee and are doing their best to hold it in until they can make to the loo. At least that's what I do when I need to pee. Why do they do that?

Not sure about this, but I think the Continental Avenue Bridge runs parallel to the newer, pricey, more photographic Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which in some circles is known as The Bridge to Nowhere.

Heck, where were those monster trucks during the last few weeks of flooding??!!

Me too, Dallas Gypsy! Check out the Reunion Tower Ball's twitters today! "It" is so excited about tonight's episode and has been tweeting with Hayley. Too bad it hasn't tweeted with Blair! Yum! Yuck! I hate that media whore Jerry Jones so hate to see AT&T Stadium get any exposure.

Anzeepark and ShoePrincess, please do report back on your Paris adventures when you return! Particularly on everything you ate and drank! In addition to homemade biscuits (the best!) and canned, I highly recommend the bag of Grands frozen biscuits. I believe there are 12 in the bag. Discovered these when my mom stayed with me while she was taking radiation treatment. Being a southern family, we love our biscuits but caring for her and working full-time did not leave me with the energy or desire to whip up homemade. These frozen biscuits are delicious and I love the convenience factor of baking just 2 or 3 and throwing the rest back in the freezer. I bake them on my silicone sheet. And another shortcut to accompany the biscuits...a packet of the Pioneer brand of cream gravy mix (I get the sausage cream gravy variety). YES! It takes 2 minutes to prepare and although not homemade, very satisfying. Once in a blue moon when we had leftovers, I just stored in a small container in the fridge and zapped the next day. Off to fix breakfast now.....