chromedome

That would be a bad, bad, day.

I got the full set of roller attachments, which IIRC retails for around $300 here in Canada, for $100. They'd been on clearance at one of my local stores for about 18 months without moving, so I made the manager an offer. I use 'em pretty regularly, as long as my GF isn't keto-ing at the time. Most recently a couple of weeks ago for ricotta-filled ravioli, at her request.

Hmmm. I've been pretty good about culling unused stuff of late, but little of that has actually been appliances. I don't use my ice cream maker but once or twice a year, though that's mostly because the GF is always dieting and it's just not right to make it harder for her. It's in my storage locker, and I know where to find it when I need it. I'll use my slow cooker a lot over the next few months, then very little during the not-cold months, but that's a normal cycle. My GF's little "mini-chopper" (petite food processor) is something I seldom use, partly because it's harder to clean than my full-sized Cuise and partly because I hate the sound it makes. She also owns a chocolate fountain that we've used exactly once in the 6 years we've been together (at her daughter's wedding). I suppose we really "don't need" that, but it's hers and she likes knowing she's got it if she feels the urge. (shrug) What's one cubic foot of our storage locker, if it makes her happy? We also have a small Keurig machine down in storage, which one of her daughters left behind when moving away. It's the emergency backup, should her main Keurig ever kick the bucket. It's also handy on moving day, so as to have coffee available at each location. Not that I plan to move again anytime soon, but my plans sometimes don't figure into it...

We were supposed to have brunch with one of my stepdaughters today, in belated celebration of her birthday (it occurred while I was in NS for my mom's birthday), but we're back into "orange" level restrictions now - in NB, that means keeping to one's own household - so instead it'll be "curbside drop-off." Made up a batch of yeasted Belgian waffles, crisped a sheet pan of bacon in the oven, caramelized some pineapple, and will send along some whipped cream and maple syrup as well. She's also getting crème brûlée, which has become our little tradition.

Hyup. I'm currently buying "C" grade Honeycrisp apples from a local grower's storefront at $1.20/lb, which is 35-50% of the regular retail at stores. What makes 'em "C" grade? Random sizes, irregular shapes, and the odd cosmetic blemish. (shrug) Works for me...

I *have* a little extra fridge, and am thinking very seriously of a little extra upright freezer to match. Again, there are just the two of us.

Costco used to sell those (at least here in Canada) but had switched over to French's last I checked. I thought they were fine.

I almost always butter and grill my burger buns, and buy the "New England-style" (split top) hot dog buns so I can do the same with those. ...And bread for sandwiches is always buttered, even if it subsequently gets another spread/condiment on it, because that's what keeps the bread from getting soggy.

LOL True...and few nightmares worse for a culinary student than having instructors with sharply opposed and vigorously held opinions, during the same semester...

They might have interpreted that as 6 lbs, maybe? Bananas go 3-4/lb depending on size.

Makes a good dip. Not that anyone's entertaining much, at the moment...

A closet floor on an outer wall on the windward side of your home is probably the best bet. I've done that.

It's not how much pressure you apply, it's which blunt object you choose with which to administer that pressure.

LOL I've worked with a female Tommy and a female Kevin, and my late wife's name was pronounced (but not spelled) "Larry," so this is one more for the list. Are you perchance a fan of "Pushing Daisies?"

My bread machine is an older Zo that I found on a local buy/sell site for $50. Works great, though the paddles are wearing out and getting a bit loose on their posts. I check the same sites every week for a Zojirushi rice cooker at a similarly low price, but haven't found one yet. (shrug) I've got time...

That's not at all the case up here. The largest cuts Canadian supermarkets get are subprimals, like whole loins or a shoulder, and even those are less common. I know a few retail meatcutters, and they tell me that they do very little actual meat cutting any more. Grinding, yes, and cutting loins into chops sometimes, but it's increasingly common for even individual cuts to come in portioned and packaged from a central processing plant. My GF's cousin married an old-school, old-country Dutch butcher who runs the meat department at my local Costco, and he's rather despondent over the decline in his trade here.

That's pretty much me as well, though I splurge on a couple of beers most weeks (which I'm pretty sure drops me from 99.9% to...98-point-something?) as well. Don't think of milk as a beverage, have no taste for fruit juice or sweet 'n' fizzy stuff.

I did this a couple of years ago, and it's actually not hard but I'll give you the benefit of my dumbass mista experience. First, *do* open up and unfold the gasket and put it in a warm place until all of the folds, wrinkles and crinkles unfold and it assumes its proper rectangular shape. If you have old-school rads, those are a good place to drape it (after taking suitable precautions to prevent melting, etc). I "didn't have time" to do this properly, but later was forced to make the time to take it off and start over after doing so. The instructions from the manufacturer said this was a necessity, but I figured it would "pull into shape" once it was stretched around the door. I'm sometimes smart like that. Second, the way to do this is emphatically not in situ, it's FAR easier to remove the door and lay it flat in a suitable space. That means making plans to protect the food inside, which I didn't do because I was winging it and hadn't realized what a pain it would be to put the seal around the door while it's on the freezer. My on-the-fly solution was to duct tape a comforter over the opening, but of course if you can organize a couple of picnic coolers and some ice that would be a superior option. Once the door is off the freezer (usually just a few screws) and laid flat, putting the actual gasket on is no more complicated than sealing a Ziploc bag (except much, much, bigger of course). Once it's on, and you've checked that it fits nice and snug all the way around, it helps to have someone to either a) hold the door in place on its pin while you replace the screws; or b) replace the screws while you hold the door in place.

So...you're an Ethernet-only kind of guy, is what you're saying?

One day a few years ago I was cooking (home-fermented) sauerkraut, and my little granddaughter - then 2 - asked what it was. She loved pickles and she loved noodles, so I thought quickly and told her it was "pickle noodles." She ate more than I did...

This is a long shot, but when mine did that (Calphalon-branded, no idea who actually makes it) the problem turned out to be...that the cord had come partway out of the power bar.

When I was a kid, our vegetable peeler had a bean "frencher" at the other end of the handle. There also used to be a bean-frenching attachment for Kenwood stand mixers, though I don't know if it's still made.

I'm in the steel-cut camp; it's my almost-invariable year-round breakfast: I make up a large batch (1 cup oats, 4 cups water) and then reheat a bowlful in the morning. I say "almost" invariable because occasionally I'll forget to make them up in advance, in which case I'll either microwave some quick-cooking oats (which otherwise I keep just for baking) or do without. I don't have the time or patience to wait for steel-cut to cook in the AM. My most common version adds a handful of raisins or other dried fruit while the oats are cooking, and then a goodly shake of cinnamon as well. I eat them with enough milk to loosen the oats, and a topping of homemade unsweetened applesauce. Quite virtuous, but very tasty.

There's no such formal process here, AFAIK...it's a perennially cash-strapped city, and rather small (there are probably blocks in NYC with more people than Saint John's 70K or thereabouts).

I've been reflecting on those very points for the last year or so...my daughter lives on a fixed income, because she and her hubby have medical issues (and because her hubby generally, well...let's not go there...) and she has thanked me, often, for giving her the cooking skills to navigate that. They were demonstrated in a concrete fashion when my kids were little, because we went through some pretty lean years. Often I supported my family of 4 for a month on what our neighbours spent in a week on groceries. I had intended this spring to reach out to a few agencies here in our area and offer basic cooking-skills lessons and demos, if the logistics could be worked out. Then COVID came along, and that was no longer an option. I'm still hoping to get that organized, if our numbers stay at a low enough level in my area (the recent outbreak is subsiding, and we're down to a couple of dozen active cases).