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Grilled cheese made with Gorgonzola, pear and a schmear of fig jam. As to possums, @Neely, your possums are much cuter than ours. I inadvertently startled one while watering a potted camellia bush on my second floor balcony and it looked more this: Since I was leaning down to check the soil, and he was curled up under the bush, we were pretty much nose to nose. I needed a very large glass of wine to calm down!

Duke's is much thicker than Hellman's. I can taste the difference if I taste them directly, but I can't on a sandwich or in egg salad. I've not tried potato salad, but I suspect it would also be indistinguishable to me. It might matter for a dip or something like that, where the mayo is a much bigger part o the flabor. Kewpie, on the other hand, I can taste in anything. I don't like it, but lots of people do.

Some months ago I bought a jar of Duke's from Amazon, since stores here don't carry it. I had a recipe that called for Duke's. To make what, I don't remember. I have yet to open it. I'd love to hear what you think of the brand. I regard dates on jars as "guidlines".

OK, I understand this. So what are the well designed hoods, using lower CFM I should be looking at? This is good information but really doesn't help without a brand to consider.

yes, but because it's easy, not because it's useful. the purpose of the hood is to exhaust smoke, grease, etc, and the design of the hood - shape, location, baffles, and so on - is very important to that. But putting that data on spec sheet is a lot harder than just putting the notional fan capacity. A well designed hood can capture the smoke and get rid of it, using a lot less CFM than one that just does it by brute force. (As an example, I knew some people who opened a restaurant. They took over an existing space, and made changes to the kitchen so they could be a scratch kitchen, and not the 'microwave everything' the previous tenant had been. Because they were on the ground floor of a multi use building, they couldn't easily expand their venting, so they had to find a hood company that could provide an engineered solution that would work. They ended up roughly doubling the number of burners covered by the hoods, but needed less air movement than the old system, and something like 20% of what the prescriptive code requirement was.)

@Smithy so am I ! Im very happy w Aldi's Hellman's clone. cans say what they ask for it these days , as I have 1/2 jar in the refrig and one in the pantry . Ill check the date of the one in the pantry . might be getting close to ' use it up day '

I like it. I've been able to find it in Duluth from time to time at a reduced price also, but I notice that all the mayonnaise brands seem to be going up. I think Duke's and Hellman's are comparable flavors. i'll be interested to see what you think!

Huh, I didn't realise you could grow mayonnaise. The more you know!

S&S started carrying Dukes . $ 5.99 Ooooops but it went on sale this week @ $ 3.99 'thought Id finally give it a try. its not Mayo season , but Ill get to it eventually. but before 5/2026 said to have twang , on the lid.

I can share my hood research if anyone's interested. It's a few years out of date now; I don't know how much the landscape has changed. I identified a half dozen hoods that are likely to work to an acceptable standard (be able to keep up with most bursts of smoke and atomized grease from hot food hitting a pan, but not likely completely reliable). Another option is to buy an "insert" vent, which is the hood mechanism with louvers but no hood. This gets installed into a hood that's built as custom cabinetry. If you go this route, you can build the hood to dimensions that make engineering sense, and you can have a hood that works as well as a restaurant installation. Some advantages of this approach, if you do the design properly: It can be situated much higher than a standard hood, so no risk of knocking off your chef hat or sombrero (if you've got high enough ceilings). It can be designed to actually work. Meaning, nothing escapes. No matter how much smoke or how big the plumes of atomized grease you send into the air, they get captured. Your house will not smell like Cajun blackened fish. You won't need very high CFM, so it can be much quieter than a regular domestic hood, and you won't need as powerful a makeup air system. So it won't tank your heating / AC bills as badly. It can be made to match the style of your kitchen. Equipment costs can be lower, because of lower power demands. Installation price will probably be much higher.

There is a delicious chicken liver recipe in the Dishoom cookbook that I think would be great with other livers, too. The livers are marinated in a spice paste made with ginger, garlic, salt, cumin, turmeric, deggi mirch chili powder, garam masala, yogurt and a little vegetable oil. In the book, they’re sautéed and served on toast for breakfast with a squeeze of lime juice and sprinkle of cilantro. Also very good served over rice. The recipe is available online here. If you make it, do NOT skip the lime, it’s a must!

Seasonally macabre...

@zend, I wouldn't have thought to use cumin powder on liver. Is that the only spice you use on it? I'm one of those rare people who love liver!!

Tomato omelette for breakfast

Chicken Breast with Carrots and Mushrooms - you sauté chicken breast, carrots, mushrooms and onions, then build the sauce with vegetable broth, sour cream and flour and finished with mustard. Served over rice

Yes but Al Bronzo often takes only a very small part of the shelf and there is linguine https://www.barilla.com/en-au/products/pasta/albronzo/al-bronzo-linguine

You can tell when my husband has been cooking as he doesn’t cut the chicken small, anyway Thai green chicken curry with rice and poppadums (Sp?) … there is also some lime pickle in my bowl. It doesn’t really go with a Thai curry being Indian nor do the poppadums for that matter, but I don’t care, I like them.

Well, I was just thinking more limited to home-preserved food in jars. But that was an enjoyable re-visit. And I caught my breath sharply to see @heidih. Thank you.

No, i followed your directions. The carcasses for 1 hour, large bones taken out, meat cooked another 30, next batch into the same water. Repeat. Oh, the meat was pressed through a food mill and the liquid added back to the pot after each batch. I strained the works through cheesecloth into a large bowl and filled those cups up from left to right. I had 6 batches all told as we had a capon for Thanksgiving and the carcass from that was added as well. I did start last night which turned out to be a good thing or I might still be at it.

@ElsieD very nice. is each unit from a separate iPot-ing ?

@rotuts This is my yield. the first cup has a lot of fat, once the fat has solidified I'll remove it and test the end product. I'm hoping for good things.

When we had a Cuban recipe for lobster, it made me want to do lobster again as I usually have it (not that I usually have it). So when Charlie asked for a crab boil dinner a few days ago, I thought it would be a good time to use lobster instead of shrimp with the crab legs. Only I broiled the lobster separately.

Apple galette, a favorite at this time of year. Apples from the FM, fresh, juicy and delicious. This was made from “Ludicrisp “ apples.

I think you might want this topic?

Testify. I'm heading down there this evening for respect. And vinegars.