chromedome

I'd recently bought one of these used from Kijiji (similar to Craigslist) for my parents. The woman selling it knew she had the tamper, but couldn't for the life of her remember when she'd seen it last. Finally she asked her kids, who didn't understand at first what she was describing. Finally her 9 year-old son piped up and said "Oh, you mean my sword!" He promptly fetched it from the basement rec room, and presented it to me with a flourish.

Okay, so it was sausage nachos? I could handle that.

And for those of us who hail from the frozen North, Tom Thumbs are....?

I think I might be today's winner... It's missing the tamper, but aside from that is immaculate down to the seal inside the dome. It looks like it was somebody's impulse purchase, and spent the last 30 years in a closet somewhere. I honestly never use a blender, but for $25 I'll keep a Vita-Mix on hand just 'cause.

The pumpkin vs squash thing has been around for a while, and resurfaces occasionally. The whole business of what's called a pumpkin and what's called a squash is pretty random and arbitrary at the best of times, so I just use what I've got at hand. Except for jack o'lantern pumpkins, which go into the compost unless I'm really desperate.

I guess everyone has their own answer to that. For me, it's mostly about pleasing textural contrasts and mopping up the sauce/gravy. Also I'm not a carbophobe, so going a little heavier on 'em at one sitting isn't that big a deal (I don't fall into the "gotta have it at every meal" camp), I'll just have less at another meal.

I expect you'll be fine with a drop cookie. If it was a crisp cookie you might have to play with a it a bit, perhaps.

Welcome, Gary. It's a great place to hang around, socialize, and learn. I'm in Saint John, so I suspect I'll probably take a drive up the old highway to see you at some point in the not-too-distant future.

So...after a bit of Googling I presume you're in Gagetown? Duh. Never mind, I looked up your introductory post in the new members' thread.

A former colleague of mine did something similar with a Dremel, tapering the bolster to just about nothing for the last 1/8" or so. He did it in stages because he wasn't sure how hot the knife could get without ruining its temper. He was also the first person I'd ever met who rounded the knife's back edge to reduce wear and tear on his index finger.

My girlfriend and I were walking out of the supermarket one day, shortly after moving in together. She had an odd smirk on her face and was shaking her head, so I asked her what was up. "This is so weird," she said. "We walked in there to buy two things, and we're walking out a minute later with two things. And they're the same two things!" (I hasten to add that I've also frequently walked into a store for two things, and walked out with $80 of unplanned purchases that were too good to pass up...)

I can't answer for JNW, but personally I avoid knives with a bolster because it's a PITA to sharpen one after the first couple of years. That being said, for $2 I'd have bought it too. Bolster or no bolster.

I've done that. You'll get a surprisingly good germination rate (probably because they're a sort of small bean) and they'll grow nicely in a pot indoors.

I've spoken to vegans who tell me that a really persuasive faux-meat product, one that genuinely could be mistaken for meat, wouldn't sit well with them...never mind a "real" meat generated in a lab. I guess part of the impetus for the question was an exchange between my girlfriend and one of her co-workers, who happened to be a vegan. My sweetie doesn't like the cold, and habitually wore a faux-fur coat to work that winter. Her co-worker, while acknowledging that it wasn't real fur, felt that she'd still be unable to wear it because it was too realistic. "Really?" my girlfriend told her. "Honey, if I was cold and you were slow, I'd wear you!" (It's even funnier when you know that my girlfriend is a cute and tiny redhead...her co-worker was aghast.)

They have a new, high-end fresh/local format they're playing with, outside Seattle. Main and Vine

I remember getting all teary-eyed when she and her brother regaled me with a spot-on rendition of "Lydia the Tattoed Lady."

I gave my daughter that movie eight years ago, when she was 15 and had a huge thing for the Beatles. She wasn't your typical Millennial teen. I remember overhearing her on the phone with a friend, venting at length over how Patty Andrews' (of the Andrews Sisters) comedic chops were under-rated by movie buffs. On another occasion, when I asked her what she was doing, she told me she was making up a playlist of "a few of my favorite Cab Calloway songs" for the same friend. Mind you, she also had a blast singing along to the Ramones and X so it's not like she had just chosen the big-band era as her "thing."

One thing I'd forgotten to mention about grapefruit spoons is that they work really well for scraping the gills out of portobello mushrooms before stuffing/cooking.

I usually look for grinders with a Peugeot mechanism as well. I went through a ton of mills when I was younger, then got one with Peugeot workings that outlived all the others put together (it died when the casing was broken accidentally by one of my kids). In the thirty or so intervening years I've had two others die on me under similar circumstances, but the mechanism always worked well. Right now I have a matched pair of them in brushed steel and polycarbonate (pretty accident-resistant) which hold the salt and pepper for my table. I know "fresh-ground" salt is a ludicrous affectation, but I like the look of the matched set.

That's pretty much the core of my listening, too. I remember such a glow of paternal pride when my kids were 10 and 6, bombing down the highway outside Halifax with them in the back seat singing along lustily to the Buzzcocks and the Ramones.

I have two different kinds. One is shaped like a regular teaspoon, with a rounded tip; the other has a slightly pointed tip. Since I don't use them for eating grapefruit I can't advise which is better for that purpose, but I see little difference between 'em for how they're used in my house. I just reach into the drawer, and use whichever comes to hand first. Mine, like gfweb's, are serrated on both sides (or more accurately, all the way around the tip for approximately 60% of the spoon's length).

Quince is wonderful stuff. Very tart, deeply flavorful and subtly floral...the latter a reminder that apples, pears and quinces are all part of the rose family.

LOL Ditto. I have (IIRC) a dozen, and I believe I've used them maybe twice for grapefruit.

An odd little thing that might work as a gift is grapefruit spoons. Remember them? Like a teaspoon with a serrated edge, for scooping out your grapefruit in the morning? I know they may seem quaint to many of you...the culinary equivalent of cufflinks or antimacassars, perhaps...but I have several, and find them surprisingly useful for any number of things, such as scraping the pulp from little Delicata or Sweet Dumpling squash (two of my favorites) or whisking the seeds and membranes out of halved peppers. Faster than a paring knife, easier to handle in a gloved hand (if the peppers are hot) and with notably less potential for cutting more deeply than intended.

Somebody has to say it, so I'll step up. "Everyone goes to Rick's." Apparently there is a replica of Rick's-from-the-movie in Casablanca. I doubt the food is worth going for, but personally (having worn out several copies of the movie) I'd take a picture there.