Alex

I always oven roast at 400F, wrapped in foil (the beets, not me). Rinse, dry, rub with avocado or grapeseed oil, wrap. After they're done and have cooled a bit, they're easy to peel by rubbing with paper towels.

I'm still winnowing our collection. This includes three oversized books that are selling for $20-25 on Amazon. If you're interested in any or all of them, make me a reasonable offer; I'll then let you know the cost of media mail shipping. Culinaria Spain Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews, by Poopa Dweck Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller. There also are five books that are on Amazon for $3-6, so I'd sell them here for a couple of bucks plus shipping. I'd also be glad to include one or two of them gratis if you buy one of the three above. My New Orleans, The Cookbook, by John Besh Real Stew, by Clifford Wright Cooking with the New American Chefs, by Ellen Brown (a fun nostalgia trip to 1985) The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, by Rebecca Katz (surprisingly good recipes) The World in a Skillet, by Christopher Kimball

Vitacost has both the organic and non-organic in stock, in both brown and white. Right now, with the discount code that they give you on the website, it's 30% off, so $5.94 for 2# of white, $6.57 for brown. You get free shipping at $49 after discounts. Rakuten always has at least a 3% rebate for Vitacost, occasionally as much as 15%.

I've never cooked orecchiette, but I'm all ears about what folks have to say about this problem. I'm wondering how much and how vigorously you stirred it as it was cooking. Perhaps orecchiette needs more than the usual amount.

Buy the good electric hand mixer. You've earned the right to own technology that makes your life easier. Which one do you have in mind? For lower cost, Consumer Reports likes this Hamilton Beach. And Amazon has a great discount now on this KitchenAid model (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).

Full story

Perhaps a dilute bleach solution -- 1 T in 1 c of water? Let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse. I'm assuming it'll be OK for hard plastic, but I'm not an expert. Could the problem possibly not be the box? Something about the weather, maybe? Or there's just more of the offending mold spores in the house? Again, I'm not an expert (but I play one on TV).

According to Professor Google, this is the only time "lasagna" and "anomaly" have appeared together on a web page—and I couldn't think of a better example. The sordid story

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. Boneless is Skeletal.

Stock (unroasted), then remove the meat (it's easy to get rid of the veins, etc.) and make a big, big batch of chicken salad. My current favorite ingredients are toasted almond batons (for lack of a better word) and unsweetened dried cherries. Celery is good, too, if you can locate a non-bitter one. Dressing is mayo (Duke's nowadays), Dijon mustard (Maille), and dried dill.

How about a gift chicken? Wait, they don't have any teeth. Never mind.

Not yet. I've known about this for all of nine minutes. :-} So thank you

I found this extremely funny, although my sense of humor tilts toward the Monty Python variety, so: 1) absurdly non-matching skill sets; 2) unlikely to ever be requested together; 3) opening clams might endanger one's fingers. What also made this funny was that both jobs can exist at the same establishment. It wouldn't as funny, imo, if the posting was for, say, assembly line worker and opera singer.

Yes, that's mentioned in the linked article.

I also learned this: Full article in the Washington Post

Wow. I had no idea. Texas's AG I knew about, but this has been under the radar. I'm glad the national media finally will be covering it.

Garlic clove smasher?

The Spice House: ½ oz (~14.2 g) for $13.99

It's Zingerman's Summer Sale!

I'm pleased that I've actually been to a few of these (not Katz's; 2nd Avenue Deli was my go-to, back in the day) -- although my order was something other than what was in the article.

It looks like Thermoworks might have what you need.

Wonderful photos, as always. I especially like the one of the abandoned cottage. Oh, and the most recent one of your father. In case anyone is wondering, your son's sweatshirt says "Play Station" in Japanese katakana writing.

Speaking of Tom Sietsema, there's a good article in today's WaPo about this.

One way to tell that a restaurant is family-run:

"French post office celebrates baguette with scented stamp"