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Battery powered devices like this are taking advantage of the device not being used all that much. That means there's plenty of time to charge the battery. That probably wouldn't work for a commercial kitchen. There's a fair amount of larger scale battery buffering being deployed, in many cases where an area has a peak demand greater than what the transmission liine to it can provide, but the energy demand can be met by it (averaged over a day), and it's impracticable to increase transmission capacity. there are also deployments for renewables like wind farms, where peak production can be quite a bit higher than average, and the grid connection isn't big enough for that. I don't think anyone has deployed a system big enough for a solar or wind farm to look like base load plants, but I won't be surprised when it happens.

Hey, I also used to have a Taylor & Ng mug (or maybe two or three)! I wish I still did—even though for the life of me I can't remember which ones.

HUZZAH! I'm a lurker, not a poster, but I had to chime in to say your biannual hunting sessions are something that I look forward to. This year, what with everything going on in the world. I literally stood up and clapped! Also, I keep a fairly small fake tree with warm white lights in my main living space year round. I decorate as I have the whim to as the seasons turn. It also means that if I have little motivation or life just interferes, I have at least a token Xmas decoration in place with no additional effort. Can't wait for updates!

My mugs are mementos, and many of them are museum pieces of a sort, due to their age. For instance: this little guy was a thank-you gift for donating to MPR, donkey's years ago. Bob Edwards, one of the founders, is long gone. My first flight instructors were invited to more than one Shuttle launch, thanks to a couple of their students who became astronauts. One time they gave me this mug, purchased at the Kennedy Space Center gift shop after watching Stan Love and his fellow crewmembers launch into space. This museum piece goes back to the company where I settled into a long-term North Woods career. The company has long since been taken over by another corporation, changed names, and changed culture as well. I think of happy discoveries and growth whenever I see this one. My father was an aviation enthusiast, and bought this at an airshow near their home. When Mom and Dad downsized, I claimed this mug. The oldest mug in my collection is this beauty from Taylor & Ng. I have a bunch more of their designs tucked away in storage, but this one stays out and gets frequent use. I love the pun. Finally, this mug is my most recent acquisition. I've been to the West Denmark Fiddle School in Wisconsin 3 years running, and plan to go again next summer. The last thing I needed was another mug! But for $3 I couldn't resist. It makes me smile. The fiddle school is like a weeklong musical boot camp: some 60-odd musicians, broken into sets according to accomplishment level, learn about a dozen pieces of music by ear. We learn those pieces in segments, bit by bit, and put them all together as an orchestra for public performance, from Sunday afternoon until Thursday night! The music is beautiful, the instructors excellent and funny. Truth is, the mug I use most is larger than any of these...a Friends of the Duluth Library purchase. But the decoration is fading from frequent washing, and the mug is dirty right now. I'm not going to show that one here!

A friend came over for dinner and I cooked a couple of South Indian dishes from 'Curry Cuisine' Kerala lamb: This was interesting in two ways. First, it was prepared like a Malaysian rendang - starts like a stew but the liquid cooks down to a spicy, aromatic glaze. Second, it contains a spice paste of grated coconut, sliced ginger, minced garlic, curry leaves, bay leaves, canela, cloves, and black pepper, all dry-roasted until the coconut browns. Other ingredients included shallots, ground coriander seed, cayenne, and turmeric, and a tadka of mustard seed, more curry leaves, and sliced chiles, quickly seared in hot oil. Mixed vegetable curry (rasa kayi): Carrots, potatoes, green beans, and cauliflower with lots of minced onion and sliced serrano chiles, flavored with ground coriander seed, cayenne, and turmeric, plus a spice paste of garlic, ginger, serrano chile, crushed tomato, and fennel seed. When everything is cooked swirl in coconut milk for richness. Very popular. Microwave cilantro rice to go with.

I just reread your post and I should have read it more carefully the first time. i now understand you to mean that if you can afford to own a lot if not all of the doodads, you can afford to buy wild salmon. You are correct. In my "quick reading" of your comment I thought you were saying that one should only buy and consume wild salmon which i took exception to, hence my comment.

Yes. A frying pan and some butter.

I prefer my chicken heads with their legs wide open too.

I don't know when I'll get to it, but I've downloaded that recipe. It does look good!

Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) . . . . sounded like a good idea, but as it has been 'fleshed out' companies/organizations/governments have risen to utterly insane detail levels for 'protecting' the 'name' long time ago, the US bowed to France re: Champaign - for USA products, it's 'sparkling wine' every name/description/type has been seized and 'protected' fortunately, the US has told the EU to take a hike on all that nonsense.

Today I bought some crabcakes from the market. Is anything special required for reheating seafood in the Anova?

Oh, do try the coleslaw! And thank you.

I don’t, if it’s farmed like that. There was a place in the Hudson River Valley, called Eco Shrimp Farm, that was doing similar, and selling their product at the green market. I tried it a couple of times, and didn’t think it compared to some of the wild product I can get. And they now appear to have closed permanently. Another place, called Hudson Valley Fishery, farms steelhead trout with recirculating aquaculture, and it’s good stuff. The shrimp I avoid is farmed far away, and probably not that great when one thinks of its environmental footprint. And it tastes like crap, so there’s that. I’ll stick to my guns and only use wild seafood when at home. And I try hard to do the same when dining out. For example, I’m not buying tilapia to cook at home. and I’m not ordering it in a restaurant either.

Wonderful, as usual. I am so taken by what you are doing!! And I just happen to have a green cabbage on hand.

I tried not to even think about community fridge meals once Thanksgiving prep started, and succeeded up until Monday. I needed the break, both physically and mentally. But once Monday rolled around, I decided on the menu. Today’s CFM meal consisted of ham fried rice, coleslaw, and store bought cookies. The cookies were a last minute addition because I felt bad that there wasn’t an item for the third spot on the to go plate, and my husband chose them on a grocery store run for more soy sauce. I made ham fried rice for a previous fridge meal back in July, and remembered it as fairly easy with a really tasty final product. So of course this time it wasn’t. I mean, it was fairly easy, but mediocrity often is. Haha! I never felt like the seasoning was just right. The only ingredient difference between the two was red bell pepper. I only had half of one and didn’t feel like it was worth it to use, so I didn’t, but I don’t think that’s the difference. Also, it looks good in the skillet, but not so photogenic on the plate or in the hotel pan. Hopefully, it tasted good to those who received the food. What turned out even better than expected was the coleslaw. I got the recipe from The Kitchn, which calls it Thanksgiving Slaw, but since Thanksgiving is past, I called it Holiday Coleslaw. 🤷‍♀️ https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-thanksgiving-slaw-237475 The dressing includes apple cider vinegar, olive oil, diced red onion, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. I used less red onion than the dressing recipe called for, and less fresh parsley in the slaw when I quadrupled the recipe. And I didn’t measure the cranberries or almonds. Just mixed until it looked (and tasted) good. Even my particular husband thought it was great. I dressed and refrigerated the slaw before I started the batches of fried rice, so it would have time for the flavors to develop. Starting to dress the slaw. The cookies: The plated meal: Delivered:

Love me some indoor Christmas decorations, and I am not even a Christian! Looking forward to this, as always. PS - Fried green tomatoes are awesome!

Yay! I was hoping this would be happening soon. Your Christmas decor is beautiful … the piano, the fireplace and mantel … I love it! And you have a Rushton Coca Cola Santa! I have one, too. 😍 Ooh, and tell me more about your life sized Santa! I know I didn’t see everything, so now I’ll go back and examine all the pics and read all the words. 😉

As noted here, I started wondering about the source of the smoked salmon that I purchase here in Duluth. One of my favorite shops, Northern Waters Smokehaus, discusses the sources of their fish in their FAQs, but it was confusing: according to the FAQs, the salmon may be wild-caught or farmed. I wrote and asked them about it, and had an intereesting and nuanced discussion with their HR representative. With his permission, I'm quoting his writings: I followed up with: He responded:

I think the battery is a great idea one of the biggest problems in changing out gas equipment is having enough power for an electric alternative. To me it’s pretty clear that electric is the future and Induction is the most efficient type. Now with a battery you can have some pretty powerful sophisticated equipment any place that you have 110 V power - hopefully you can get a dedicated circuit. And there’s none of the health problems associated with gas. As this technology matures, we’re going to see lots of great restaurants in funky old buildings where it’s not economical to bring in more electrical power. Up here in Canada I’ve seen quotes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade electrical an older buildings. That simply not in the cards for a lot of restaurants. There’s lots of effects for this residentially as well for example, when I put in my Rational Oven, I really wanted to go Electric but the cost of bringing the necessary power to my home was way more expensive than the actual oven so I went gas and it’s been great no issues but how much longer are we going to be able to buy gas appliances and the exhaust calculations with a gas powered device are much more onerous than a electric one. For example the new electric Rational Oven’s can be supplied with a “Ultra Vent” well I’ve never seen one Rational sells it so I know it would work. The beauty of this is no make up air or external venting is required. This is a big thing in a Canadian winter. Game Changer.

The farmed shrimp we’ve gotten was from TransparentSea Farm, an operation that’s currently on hiatus as they purchase land and build to expand. They raise the shrimp entirely indoors in tanks and provide fresh, head-on shrimp only hours out of the water. Why do you feel such shrimp should be avoided?

searches for Anko only turns up AU stores/souces . . . the design looks very similar to others available in USA tho . . .

I shared this Claire Saffitz video for holiday 7-layer bars over in the Thanksgiving topic: Since I actually made them: And they were quite good, I figured I’d share the deets here in hopes I might find it again myself 🙃 These are the ingredients as they appear in the video description: And what I did, based on the video: Mix the Biscoff cookie crumbs (I used TJ’s Speculoos cookies), the melted, cooled butter and the egg yolk, press into a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and use the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to compact and level the layer. Bake at 350°F for 15 min While it’s baking, prepare the filling ingredients. Whisk the sweetened condensed milk with the egg white, a pinch of salt, 2 tsp vanilla & 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Layer the ingredients on the baked crust in this order: cranberries (no need to chop) nuts (I used pecans) crystalized ginger oats sweetened condensed milk coconut Cover pan with foil. Bake at 350°F for 10 min covered, then remove foil and bake 13 min more, until coconut is golden brown. My observations: My coconut wasn’t anchored in any way, making it hard to get nice squares. I used dried, flaked unsweetened coconut which the recipe calls for (to me, these are skinny shreds, like little matchsticks). She used what I would call dried, unsweetened coconut chips (very thin, but flat shreds) and said to add the milk mixture BEFORE the coconut because the coconut seals the surface and prevents the milk from seeping in. That may be so, but if using the skinny shreds like I did, I recommend adding the milk last, as is usually done in regular 7-layer bars. I’m not entirely convinced the egg does anything but the crust did hold together nicely so maybe it helps. I brought these to Thanksgiving and they were largely ignored in favor of the standard pumpkin & pecan pies but every one who tried them asked to take some home. They’re not terribly sweet and excellent with a cup of coffee.

As much as I like cats (most of them, anyway), I'm unpleasantly allergic, and Ms Alex has been very kind about not insisting we get one. (When we met, Katie the Cross-Eyed Kitty was her companion.) We also both like dogs (ditto), but neither of us is willing to dog-walk no matter what our Michigan weather throws at us. However, we've compensated by collecting, and being given, a menagerie of stuffed and otherwise inanimate animals—including some of our very favorite mugs. So, before I post the pics, I'll ask: What are your favorite mugs? (Photos, please, if you can.) Is there a story, even a short one, behind any of them? Weird Kitty and Silent Kitty Atomic Kitty and Jiji (from Kiki's Delivery Service) Wistful Kitty So they don't get bored, they can chase birds and fish. Action Kitty, Pusheen, and Hello Kitty (yes, I know she's a little girl) approve

I live in Australia, so doubt you would have access to this brand - Anko.

Of course, though I do avoid using farmed shrimp at home. And ab is not something I see really at all. Oyster farming is a net positive for the environment, and we’re in Portland, ME right now, enjoying that bounty. I believe Trader Joe’s sells some wild salmon.