I like the link to cognitive dissonance. Oh...and is it wrong that I own Upstairs at Eric's?

For my money, Upstairs at Eric's was one of the best albums of the 1980s.

That was really funny. I hate prosyletizing. The guy's rant at the beginning was funnier video than the door to door stuff though. I guess it is hard to film that sort of thing. And his 80s taste in music is at least funny. A friend loaned me a bunch of 80s tapes for their nostalgia factor about 5 years ago and my kids, who were 9 and 10 at the time, went through a stage of about 6 months where they liked Yaz. They are now deeply embarrassed about that.

They are now deeply embarrassed about that.

They're deluded. Yaz kicked ass.

Thanksgiving bleg/threadjack: So, I and a few friends are cooking dinner tomorrow. We're planning on making a green bean casserole, because traditional and because yum, but I don't really know what to do. Should I just go for the old mushroom soup and beans and crispy onions thing, or should I get more ambitious?

Why casserolize lovely lovely green beans? Green beans with carmelized onions and sauted mushrooms are delicious!

(In other words, I don't know from green bean casseroles. Good luck!)

Slivered almonds are also a nice accompaniment to the string beans.

Mm. Good call.

There's this.

You and your bacon.

He ain't heavy, he's my coronary obstruction.

5:I tried Golden Mushroom soup once, in an emergency, and it really didn't work.

I always have GM around to throw on butterfly chops.

You could always try to put some saffron in it, leblanc.

M. Leblanc, you are going to hell. Ick.

Ick

Says the woman who brushes her teeth with mouse poop.

I'm not much for casseroles, but this very simple green-bean dish is always popular at my Thanksgiving:

Not your mother's green beans

1/2 C pine nuts or almonds
1 lb. green beans, washed & trimmed
1 lg. shallot, chopped
1/4 C balsamic or raspberry vinegar
1/4 C olive oil
2 tbsp. chopped parsley or basil

Toast the nuts, steam the beans, whisk or shake the remaining ingredients together, and combine.

(It's a Moosewood recipe.)

"In or near the bathroom sink" /= "brushes her teeth with." Unlike you, apparently, I'm not in the habit of wiping the basin with my toothbrush.

You don't know what you're missing.

I am going to hell, but not for my having made a green bean casserole.

Speaking of food, I just had a lovely grilled cheese sandwich with a combination of New Zealand Cheddar, Gruyère, and Provolone cheeses. Is there anything in the world more awesome than cheese?

Bacon.

Marihuana.

Kevin Federline.

m. leblanc: if you feel that you want the casserole effect but want it to actually taste good, then you should make shiitake mushroom cream sauce (like just cook 2T flour with 3T butter till the raw flour smell goes away, put some chopped shallots and mushroom stems in there for a minute (stirring all the while), and add a little stock and then milk or cream and the mushrooms and let it simmer till it's an appropriate thickness. slivered almonds or pine nuts are nice (in both cases they will be much better if you toast them slightly first). if you're near an asian market you can buy pre-fried shallots from thailand; it looks like a little plastc cup of brown shreds. very tasty. otherwhise you can fry them yourself.
also cute and easier is just to blanch the fine green beans, shock them in cold water, and then blanch a bunch of green onion leaves in the same boiling water. get all the beans running the same way and then tie them into little bundles with the blanched green onion bits. they can just stay like that for a while, and just warm them up in the microwave right before serving and put melted butter on them. melter butter with thyme is nice. or melted butter and lemon juice, but you have to do that at the absolute last minute or the beans will discolor. the bundles can be heaped up into a big pile and they look very festive and fancy despite being really easy.

When Alameida writes about cooking I melt a little inside.

I adore those Thai fried shallots. So good.

Weirdly, I keep reading this post title as "Turnandot is fair play".

Turandot, surely.

Good thing Weiner's not around to call me on the use/mention thing.

Correct. My typing skills are no better than my reading skills, it seems.

Turandot is a fair play. It might even have been a good one, had Puccini finished it.

are thai shallots like french ones? i thought french ones burned easily; do thai stand up to heat better?

26 and following have given me a goddamn "Fernando" earworm.

And now I have a "Hernando's Hideaway" earworm.

With animated pirates.

Green beans dry sautéed with thinly sliced lop cheong [Chinese sausage] and garlic chili sauce = heaven.

I have the most recent cook's illustrated with a recipe for green bean casserole, which also happens to be the most recent cook's illustrated simpliciter.