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I grew up surrounded by Fritos. In the early 50s, my dad and a couple of his friends had the Frito distributorships in the NYC area. If you bought a Frito in NYC in the early - late 50s, you bought it from us. A couple of years after my dad died, Fritos bought out all the distributorships, we cashed out, and Fritos was no longer a part of my life. My mom ran the business for a while after dad died and then sold to Fritos. When I was 8, 9 years old, I started going to work with my dad. I counted stales, organized the inventory, made sure we had enough "cardboard" (boxes and packaging material), he showed me how to do the books, I'd go out with the drivers and make deliveries, and so on. I loved making deliveries. I'd ride in the truck, usually with Howard driving, and stand in what would be considered the passenger area (there was no passenger seat), often with the door open. Howard would go into the stores to take the orders, and I'd get to deliver the order to the store, often using the hand truck that was a little too big for my small stature. After a while, I'd go into the stores, get the order, make the physical delivery, and fill out the paperwork. By the time I was 10 - 11 years old, one of my minor responsibilities was dealing with the local cops when they came by looking for chips for their summer BBQs. After a while, they wouldn't even ask for my dad. They'd see me, put in their request, I'd fill it, and log the expenditure to keep track of inventory. In return for that accomodation, my Dad's trucks were immune from hassle as they'd often have to double-park or park in red zones to make efficient deliveries. His trucks and drivers were never ticketed. I learned a valuable business lesson and about quid pro quo at an early age. We always had Fritos in our home, and they were frequently part of our meals. Instead of croutons we'd put Fritos in our tomato and split pea soups, they'd be around the house as snacks, there was usually a case or two in the basement ... my dad would give 'em away as little thank you gifts. Fritos was very good to us, but after my dad died I wanted - needed - distance from some of the things that reminded me of him, and so I put Fritos out of my life. Had he lived, he'd have been offered an executive position with the company, as were his friends, and I'd have been part of the "Frito Family."

Same. I don't think I'd ever want to leave though!

Saw this on Bluesky this morning: You know that saying about "a face only a mother could love"? Well, Moon Mist is "a taste only a kid could love." Our grandkids order it regularly, I emphatically do not. Part of the appeal of Nanaimo bars, for me, is seeing something else offered and not having to take one for politeness' sake. That, and getting to recycle the old west-coast joke: "What goes into Nanaimo bars? Strippers and Hell's Angels!" Truthfully I find them even more cloying than butter tarts, and don't care for them at all, whereas with butter tarts (like baklava) I can get past the whole sugar-bomb aspect of it. I've also learned today that Breyers' Nanaimo bar ice cream was part of a "Canadian desserts" series which included... yup, a butter tart ice cream.

That recipe is in there with padrón peppers!

Potato-Kohlrabi Casserole with Kasseler - a very old fashioned German dinner (but good comfort food) by a recipe from a ~25 year old German cooking magazine. Sliced boiled potatoes, sliced poached kohlrabi, kasseler (cured and smoked pork loin) and bechamel sauce (flour, vegetable broth, milk, cream cheese, nutmeg) are mixed, topped with grated gouda and baked in the oven

Cod with Miso-Butter and Vegetables - for the vegetables you sauté king oyster mushrooms and zucchinis and finish it by briefly cooking it with some vegetable broth, soy sauce and corn starch. The cod is just briefly seared and then basted with a white miso butter. The fish and vegetables are served over rice

I mentioned that while I was browsing around looking at stuff for @lindag I accidentally enabled myself. Not exactly a paring knife but Amazon listed it with the paring knives: a Wusthof IKON steak knife... Bottom is the new IKON steak knife. For comparison a Le Cordon Bleu paring knife. Edit: weight of the IKON is 74.8g vs 62.4g for the Le Cordon Bleu. The IKON is somewhat handle heavy, while I would call the Le Cordon Bleu more neutral in balance.

Oh, I neglected to report back! The spareribs were pretty good. Unfortunately I neglected to write down how long I smoked them for. Last night was beef ribs. Temperature 107C for four hours fifty minutes. Final meat temperature 96C. Texture was lovely. Ribs were almost inedible due to an extreme amount of salt. For the leftovers I plan to wash off the bark and soak the meat in water before reheating.

@Smithy. A recent revelation for me, so far only used with the A4 Box and a stovetop panini pan, is that you can use parchment paper to ease cleanup, there’s always something that leaks out and cooks onto the press/pan. I’m also on the fence re: mayo vs butter for grilled sandwiches.

Moving to a different venue. While they mostly all sell the same things and copy each others menus if not recipes, this one is unique. Bewilderingly so. It’s called Lays Pizzeria although they often misspell their own name as Lasy Pizzeria. Their USP is that they only provide pictures of their offerings. No hint as to what might be in them. It may be different in store, but I’ve never ventured inside. Now, this looks like perhaps a standard pepperoni number, but don’t be fooled. I have established that ‘cheese’ is, in fact, durian! The 'pepperoni' could be strawberry jam ⁈

My favourite ice cream is Maple Walnut - maple is obviously a big Canadian product - and almost all of our neighbours have a walnut tree on their property - hmmmm

O Canada you can do better than bubblegum ice cream. I have faith in you and wish everyone over the norther border a happy and well adjusted normal life.

Trader Joe’s hadn’t yet opened?

You're making Moe's breakfast.

The galangal I planted weeks ago (I forgot how many) finally sprouted...

Made me smile, too. Thanks for posting.

I've been telling you for years. CØrn is dangerous!

This may not be terribly different from my earlier Panini-Pressed sandwiches, but I continue to enjoy my $8 purchase. There are a fair number of appliances that I've bought over the years that, if/when they die, I won't bother to replace. This I'll replace, if/when it fails me. There's an adage, attributed to Dorothy Parker, that eternity = two people and a ham. Imagine the case for a single person! Nonetheless, my favorite local high-end grocery store commissions wonderful double-smoked hams as a holiday special, and I indulged during last year's holiday season. And cut it up, and vacuum-sealed the chunks. The strategy seems to be working well. Earlier this week I started jonesing for some of that ham. Ham with potatoes. Mac'n'cheese'n'ham. Grilled ham sandwiches. I pulled out a smallish chunk and roasted it with baby potatoes and a package of Lipton's Recipe Secrets (basically, their onion soup mix). Today was my chance at a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, using my beloved panini press. Sourdough bread, pepper jack cheese, mayo and mustard on the interior. @rotuts has mentioned before that putting mayonnaise on the outside of the bread, instead of butter, made for a nice coating. I decided to try it. To be fair, I'd used too much mayo inside and needed to do something with the extra. I did mayonnaise on one surface and butter on the other. After the whole shebang was grilled I put in chopped baby greens (arugula and spring greens). See the difference in doneness on the two sides? The bottom part had the mayonnaise on the outside. It's possible that the color difference is due to more heating on the bottom plate, but I think the composition of the mayonnaise was a factor also. All told, I preferred the buttered surface. It seemed a bit more flavorful. But the entire sandwich was good, and more than plenty for dinner.

After baking - they won't win any beauty contests

I tried a recipe from Half Baked Harvest; Brown Butter Raspberry White Chocolate cookies. Our son-in-law to be loves anything with white chocolate and raspberries. I've never been a hugs fan of white "chocolate" but he is such a great help to us - I like to keep him happy. The flavour profile was great - browned butter and raspberries, yum. The recipe needs tweaking; I flattened the cookie balls a bit and then slammed them on the counter after baking but they remained a bit puffy. Worth experimenting with for sure. Before baking:

One of my favourite desserts - my daughter bakes me on every year for my birthday.

Try this

Blocked unfortunately.

I think you're going to fit right in here! I remember staying up until 2, 3 or even 4 in the morning during an eG seminar on braising! Then I'd go to work after a few hours' sleep! (But I was much younger then. 😆)

Last night I smoked beef ribs. I got to bed at 4:00.