How have people mispronounced your name?  How is it supposed to sound? 
Submitted by Lorie.   

This has nothing to do with food, but it addresses a little peeve of mine so I'm answering. No one really mispronounces my name. It is pretty common. Occasionally people would mispronounce my maiden name, adding an extra vowel or turning the two Ls into a Y sound or something. My maiden name is pronounced phonetically but it unusual and has a lot of letters, so I can understand how it would cause someone to fumble. I don't understand why people get so huffy when people mispronounce their name, especially if it is long, unusual, or has a combination of vowels that could be pronounced in a variety of ways. It strikes me as really egotistical for someone to expect everyone to be able to pronounce an unusual name right off the bat and to treat people like they are stupid if they can't. If you have an uncommon name, I think mispronunciation is just sort of your lot in life. If someone you deal with on a regular basis doesn't bother to learn it, well, that is inconsiderate. But don't be all bitchy to the 16-year-old cashier at the drugstore because she can't say Xzoifdaghy correctly. 

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I wish I liked football. I do! I wish I could be one of those cool girls who wears a football jersey and cheers when they all run one way and boos when they run the other way, and knows what “offsides” means. But I’m not. I’m an annoying girly girl who has had football explained to her 3,000 times and still doesn’t get it.

Therefore, to me, Superbowl Sunday is all about the snacks. This year, I made tiny football-shaped gingerbread cookies. I used my famous gingerbread recipe, which is actually Martha’s famous gingerbread recipe, but I like to take the credit. I chose that particular cookie because, doy, they are brown. I piped on royal-icing laces.

I couldn’t actually find a football-shaped cookie cutter, so I bought an oval fondant cutter instead. I wanted tiny cookies anyway, and I think it looks football-ish enough.

My royal icing used meringue powder instead of egg whites so I wouldn’t kill anyone. As you can see from the picture, my piping skills leave something to be desired, but whatever, this wasn’t Food Network Challenge.

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In other news, I went to the store today to pick up some Valentine’s candy and saw they had a full Easter display instead. WHAT. I love Easter candy, but I’m not ready! I still have jellybeans from last year!

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I love pineapple, but I’ve always been intimidated by its size and spikiness. It always seemed to me like you’d need an industrial knife and some kind of training to cut one. To get my pineapple fix I’ve resorted to purchasing the pre-cut, pre-packaged kind, or to picking all the pineapple chunks out of the fruit salad at staff meetings, but I’ve always wanted to give the real thing a go.

Imagine my delight when I opened up my Williams-Sonoma catalog and saw the Pineapple Easy Slicer. The description reads:

Transform a prickly pineapple into a stack of juicy rings in seconds with the aid of this cleverly designed stainless-steel slicer. Insert the heavy-duty cutting shaft into the top of a trimmed pineapple, apply light pressure and twist the handle. The tool swiftly cores and slices the fruit, leaving its shell intact.

I picked one up this weekend, along with a plump little pineapple. The tool looks like a fat metal rod with a handle on one end and a circular blade on the other. To use it, you lop of the top of the pineapple, insert the blade-end of the tool into the pineapple flesh, and turn.

Surprisingly, the tool works just as advertised. It requires little muscle-power—I’m a whimp and I found that it cuts very easily with very little pressure. Removing the tool does take some wrangling, but nothing the average pineapple eater shouldn’t be able to handle. The pineapple rings remain on the slicer when you remove it. The best part is, if you are careful not to cut to the very bottom, you end up with an empty pineapple bowl, which can be used for things like a yogurt and honey dressing for a fruit salad.

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Some things to know: the pineapple rings are in one continuous spiral, so if you want slices you do need to do a little bit of trimming by hand. Also, the core remains in the pineapple, so if you want to use the empty pineapple you need to cut that out as well.

Overall, I found the Easy Pineapple Slicer easy to use and will definitely be buying more whole pineapples in the future.

The Pineapple Easy Slicer cost $24.99 at Williams-Sonoma

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What was the one toy you wanted as a kid that your parents never bought you?
Submitted by Princess of Darkness.

Even though this doesn't have anything to do with food, I had to answer anyway because my husband and I were just talking about this on the train this morning. I always wanted a Lite Brite. I don't know why my parents never got me one, but I have a feeling I might be getting one for my birthday!

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I really wanted to post on Vox more, but I haven't been, for some reason. I think it is because I really want pictures with each post, but I'm really lazy about uploading them. I've been in a bit of a food rut, too. I haven't really been purchasing or making new things. Maybe tonight I'll take some time to put photos on Flickr.

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Valentine’s Day is in the middle of the Candy Season (which runs from Halloween through Easter), and I find the pickings to be somewhat lackluster, though a chocolate person might disagree. My tastes run more toward tart candy and just plain sugary (candy corn!) The one candy I look forward to every year are Brach*s Tart and Tangy Conversation Hearts, which I discovered in 2001. Unlike their strange, chalky cousins, the BT&TCH’s are flavorful, with a harder consistency, similar to that of a Smartie. The sayings are not merely stamped on, but embossed. Like a wedding invitation. Fancy!

The year I discovered them, I was working at a craft store. I bought about five bags, kept a stash hidden in my apron, and munched them while I was on the floor. Since I moved to Boston, I’ve had a hard time finding them. Last year there was a picture of them in a supermarket circular, but there were none to be found in any stores.

Well, since the V-day candy is arriving on store shelves, I sent off my annual inquiry to Brach*s, asking if they might be found in my area this year. I received the following reply:

Thank you for contacting us about our Brach*s Tart & Tangy Conversation Hearts. I regret to inform you that this item has been discontinued and there are no plans to reactivate it at the present time.

Please be advised that all inquiries concerning discontinued items are referred to our Consumer Marketing Department.  This information is compiled and may be used to evaluate the possibility of reintroduction at a future date.

Thank you for your interest.

Yours truly,

Marybeth X
Brach’s Consumer Relations

TRAGEDY

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Are you throwing or attending a holiday party this year?  Any ideas/tips to share?

I recently volunteered to host the New Year's post party. Normally I'd like a bit more lead time to plan, but I'll make do, especially since it won't be a full blown-out party. I think I'll have a make-your-own-dessert-drink table, with coffee and hot chocolate and appropriate booze to mix in, with a menu of suggested combinations. I'll probably include things like peppermint-stick swizzles and decorating sugar for the mug rims. I like to do stuff like that.

My biggest tip is to do as much ahead of time as you can so you aren't freaking out the day of (if only I could take my own advice!)

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I’m getting tired of livejournal. It seems like half my friends list is in a “My life is worse than yours” competition, so my f-list is just one long stream of negativity. If you offer suggestions, you are ignored, because they don’t want to actually fix anything, they just want to complain. It is very easy to get caught up in it all, but my New Year’s resolution is to take better care of myself and being sucked into a black hole of misery has no place in that. Vox seems so much happier, healthier, and more grown-up. Plus you get the cute layouts for free.

I do like the communities on LJ though, and the more conversational commenting set-up. Plus, I’m a little lonely over here.

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I have totally abandoned my food blog. I am resolving to post more in the new year. For now, this little nugget of food-related advice: if goat cheese looks weird, it is probably bad. No need to taste it to find out. This could probably be applied to all food products. 

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Where do you do your online shopping?

Amazon.com for just about anything and anthropologie.com for clothes (too lazy to go to the store). Every once and awhile I hit bananarepublic.com or gap.com because I'm very short and they have better petite selections online.

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