[greekchef]

First, Benzgirl. I am not real good at working with phyllo dough. The one really good thing I have made with it is a chocolate banana spring roll. You just take a section of banana, quartered, about 3 inches long and roll it with a few chocolate chips in a strip of phyllo dough, tucking in the ends as you roll, just like with a spring roll. you brush them with butter and bake. Ummmm. Delicious!

Second, to my friend at UNC: I have heard of your make your own pizza bar and I intend to shamelessly copy it at some point. I have had requests for a whole wheat pizza and have found a really good crust to make pizza on that is whole wheat. My standards in pizza making are pepperoni, fresh veggie, and plain cheese. I also do variations on pizza for a change: stromboli, french bread pizza.

I have started doing an ocassional Friday Fry Day but I call it the Bar food Buffet. In fact that;s what we are serving for lunch tomorrow.

Tonight we had our chapter Thanksgiving Dinner. We did it buffet this year so as to accomodate more folks and more variety of food. The menu included fresh cut citrus, roast turkey with gravy, red skin mashed potatoes, green beans, jellied cranberry sauce and a fresh cranberry orange relish, two dressings (one with cornbread and sausage, one with bread and apples with veggie stock), baked sweet potatoes with pecan brown sugar topping, squash casserole, cheesy broccoli, yeast rolls, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and coconut cake. While dinner was being devoured, Rick James blared on the stereo (not my idea, but fun none the less). It was a blast, but made for a long, long day.

To all: Your ideas keep inspiring me. Keep them coming.

Also, you should see my panini maker. Its 4 foil covered bricks and a half sheet pan. I can fix 3 whole italian loaves stuffed with all kinds of fillings (ham, mozz, 1000 isalnd; turkey, havarti, sliced apples: cheddar, bacon, tomato) at a time. the girls at the house will easily go through 24 to 30 full size loaves in a lunch.