Alex

Thank you so much! Unfortunately, I developed a gluten sensitivity, so no more pastina for me. Ms. Alex, who grew up in Detroit, had never heard of pastina until I mentioned it to her five minutes ago. (She did eat pasta stars.) Fortunately for her, I'll be in NYC toward the end of this month and can pick up a box, if she likes.

That was my favorite pasta dish when I was a young'un in NYC! And now I can't even find it in the supermarkets here.

TSA = Toffee Search Administration

Yes, very much so.

Ouch. That's just the pits. I assume this involved a knife, not sprinkling lime and salt on your hand, then taking a bite.

One more vote for hate

The bacon looks incredibly delicious. It also looks like you could scare a few kids on Halloween if you waved a slab or two at them.

My Cuisinart's low is indeed low. Also, iirc, both the new KA and the new Cuisinart have a "soft start."

I've been using a Cuisinart since forever. I don't know how much of a difference it'd make in real life, but the one you're looking at (and mine) is 220 Watts, vs 60 or 100 for the KA, so perhaps there's more cranking power for tough tasks. It also has a 3-year warranty vs 1 year for the KA. Your use might differ, of course, but 99% of the time I use the regular beaters, which were the only ones that came with the mixer when I bought it. At some point I bought an aftermarket balloon whisk for making whipped cream, but I don't know if it's that much of an improvement.

It's available here in Grand Rapids at Total Wine. I don't know if our TJ carries it. Have you checked by you?

The OXO does, too, per Wirecutter. And I think the Bonavita might. The Technivorm is our everyday machine; we keep an OXO in storage as a backup or if we have a crowd and want to have caff and decaf ready at the same time.

Technivorm Moccamaster KBT coffee brewer in matte white, w/thermal carafe, $199.99 w/free shipping (to the US, I assume), from Nordstrom

Wow. California prices, I guess. Similar ones I get here just went up to $10 from $8, and that's only to cover the increased cost of feed, etc. Others are less expensive. Supermarket eggs, even "organic," are still $4-5. OTOH, I'm getting some "backyard" eggs today: two dozen for $5.

Kenji breaking down a chicken If you want to go directly to where he does the airline breasts

And this one: