If Indiana is right in the heart of the Midwest, then I must be living on the west coast. Better start learning the language. "Gag me with a spoon"? And why go crazy because someone uses more salt that you want? Don't you think you could, let's see. hmmm, maybe use less?? Recipes are guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Recipes will often vary, even when followed to the letter depending on a number of variables. I seldom follow a recipe to the letter since I might not happen to have the free range grapes, cage free milk or organic Vanilla Wafers that Marco Pierre White's recipe might call for. I often will add spice I like and tone down or eliminate what I don't like. Amish/Mennonite, etc cooking has a lot of crossover with what some people term "Midwest" cooking. If you consider Indiana "midwest" then I exempt this from consideration. However the midwest of the United States are generally or at least were, big farming areas and Amish/Mennonite, etc were also big farmers. Meat, potatoes, bread, coffee, milk, dessert was your typical farm fare. The midwest didn't use much in the way of rice however certain areas, including the upper midwest would have wild rice available and that could be included in the later menus. Native Americans of course used wild rice much more heavily than many others until others found out how great it is. Actually you'll find a lot of crossover in German, even Russian and certain other ethnic types of foods when they're living in a colder climate and doing a lot of hard work, but then again considering the number of Scandinavians. Germans, etc who populated the area, it shouldn't be a surprise. But the food changed to adapt to what's around. You won't go to Norway, Sweden, Germany, Russia, etc and find the same things. Just as "cajun" or "creole" won't be found in France, and probably not much in the French areas of Canada. As Annie said, hearty meals were needed for the heavy workload on a typical farm. You'd rise early and work late and burn a lot of calories. Actually what many people term "comfort foods" is quite common among both the A/M/etc and midwest farmers. You won't find finger sandwiches, consumme or sushi on these menus. You will find hearty soup, stew, roast, meatloaf, pasta and much much more. You'll also find a lot of pies, cakes, cookies and rolls. You'll find great breads, rolls, etc. Around here, mac & cheese is essentially baby food. A blue box and a package of Corn King hotdogs fed many a toddler by a new mother. Never could stomach mac & cheese. No meat, why bother. Watching Cookin' Cheap is different. Two gay guys doing their "cooking" and then dressing in drag to show a gadget of some sort. A pickle slicer, nut cracker or whatever. The "Cook Sisters". Initially it was to show people you could cook cheap. They'd figure out the cost of something and figure per portion. Although if they had a leftover from something before, they didn't include it in the price and would come out with 58¢ per person "meals". One thought he knew how to cook and the other admitted he knew nothing but would try anything. They both fancied themselves far better standup comedians that I would. Watch it sometime, it's, well, different. I wouldn't say it's funny very often, but entertaining usually. Actually hotdish for the food, (and go ahead and debate "food" if you're a Miracle Whip snob) and "hot dish" describes the ladies cooking or the temperature of the plate. Scalloped potatoes and ham is a type of hotdish. Marilyn's Party Potatoes, sometimes called "funeral potatoes" is a hotdish, etc. People stick out their tongues and stick their noses in the air over foods. Yes, some will be a can of cream soup with a can of something and a package of onion soup mix. But then again, people buy "blue box", TV dinners and produce from Walmart for cryin out loud! LOL Contrary to what a couple of you believe, not one of the terms hotdishes, A/M/etc or midwest cooking mean all from a can or a pouch. It can and often is made from scratch. The shortcuts are more publicized since it's a timesaver and many people who hit the net want to save time. I would defy most anyone to have tasted and claim they didn't like the scalloped potatoes and ham that was served at my aunt's funeral, or for that matter the roast beef and mashed potatoes served at my cousin's funeral or any of my mother's holiday meals, all made from scratch. I'll take that any day over foo-foo food! Or for that matter the Tex-Mex you get at Taco Bell, or the seafood from Long John Silver, or should I continue... Back to topic, a couple other shows I enjoyed watching included the Galloping drunk, er, Gourmet though never really learned much from his shows. When Andrew Zimmern was a local cook he was interesting to see on the local channels before he decided to concentrate on bugs and exotic roadkill.

I have to confess that I am a black tea addict. I drink 12+ cups every day and want it to be "real thing". I tried many online places and by far the best for me is Tea Gschwender. This is a very well known European tea shop. It has its representation in NY and some other places here in US. If you order from them once, you get on their mailing list. This way you can wait util they get free shipping promotion deal and order. This is what I usually do. Not the cheapest place, but some deals are quite good, selection is excellent and quality is very good and shipping is very fast (2-3 days). Olga Here is a link that might be useful: Tea Gschwender

I've watched both episodes, and will continue to watch the rest of the 7-episode series (Lisa Kudrow, one of the exec producers of the show, will be this week's episode), but I have mixed feelings. As an avid genealogist, I think the series is great in that it shows folks how fascinating genealogy can be -- how it can help you to learn more about yourself by learning about those who came before you. On the other hand, I think it does a bit of a disservice by making it appear that it's so easy to find information to go back so many generations. Sarah Jessica Parker and Emmitt Smith both have a lot of money, and can afford to just jump on a plane to head off to a totally different area of our country, not to mention another country altogether; when the vast majority of us simply don't have that option. Another sticking point is that Sarah Jessica Parker and Emmitt Smith (and the other five celebs to follow in the coming weeks) have the benefit of several professional genealogists and archivists searching for information long before they arrive in town. The information is simply handed to them. They aren't spending hours upon hours looking at rolls of microfilmed records, etc. I have a World Deluxe membership to Ancestry.com. I have access to every record they have. Plus, I'm an arbitrator for submissions to Ancestry.com - both from the World Archives Project as well as corrections/suggestions that folks submit regarding records that are already online. Yet I continually hit a total roadblock when it comes to ancestors/family in Pennsylvania, because Pennsylvania has close to nothing available online. I wish it were as easy as the show makes it appear...

I like "Morning Joe" too, wannaretire, except for the darned music they play in the background sometimes. I like Willie Geist who has a 1/2 hour program before MJ and then is on their show a lot. We get two newspapers so I get most of the news from them. In the evening we watch ABC for two reasons. I like Diane Sawyer and the main reason------Jeopardy comes on right after :-) We sleep to either HDTV, CNN or MSNBC. CNN because I hope AC360 will have James Carvell on. I'm totally in love with him!! Cynic, those "coming up next" teasers drive me crazy, too. If you notice, these days they call themselves journalists rather than reporters. I don't know if it's because it sounds fancier or because they're just reading a script that's put in front of them. They do get my appreciation when they're able to pronounce all those foreign names. Like Blagojevich. LOL!