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Pork chops, salt, pepper, bacon drippings, water. Requires cast iron skillet with tight cover.

I like the Pomi Tomatoes also, however, I always inspect the container carefully before I put it in my shopping basket because I once put one in my basket and when I got to checkout I noticed it was oozing from one corner. I pointed it out to the checker and she suggested that I had "dropped" it into the basket. As it was in the upper section, along with eggs, I protested this and refused to pay. The manager appeared, sent someone for another box and had a few private words with the checker. I hate to make trouble but I wasn't going to buy a questionable product.

I don't eat many sweetened cereals because of diabetes. However, I have some and instead of milk, I stir them into yogurt. They don't become soggy as rapidly, I like the contrast of the sweet with the yogurt and it is healthy. At present I have some of the Kellog's Frosted Mini-Wheats and one of the Honey Bunches of Oats cereals. I don't recall which one, it is in my cereal dispenser.

I use the pre-peeled garlic. However, I always check the sell-by date and only buy the containers that have at least six weeks to go. There are smaller jars available and I occasionally buy those but I usually buy from Smart & Final because they have a rapid turnover and the product there is very fresh. I also look at the garlic to be sure it is plump and that there is absolutely NO free moisture in the container. I also look at the garlic to be sure the cloves are evenly sized (medium to medium-large) which is what I use in my recipes. When I break down a garlic head, I toss the little ones anyway. It has as much flavor as garlic from a bulb that has been hanging in my pantry for a few months and I have tasted them side-by-side. At this time of year, most of the bulb garlic I have has begun sprouting and it is a chore to cut the "germ" out of every clove - and this bit is bitter and the bitterness does show up in dishes where there isn't another strong flavor. (Tomatoes, for instance). I'm not going to change my habits because of an article. I'm somewhat set in my ways.

They remain between the jar and the lid until opened - they are what makes the jar seal. Once opened they can be washed and reused for dry storage and etc., unless they get brittle and crack. As long as the rubber is supple, they are good, however I use new rings for canning. This is a safety factor. With the metal flats and rings, there are specific instructions to NOT reuse the flats. These zinc lids with an integral glass top liner to be used with wide rubber rings were still in common use when I was a child and my folks used them, always buying new rings for the jars because they knew from experience that it was safer to use new ones.

I live in the high desert and I grow this and other tender herbs (chervil) in full shade and I double pot them - that is, the pot that holds the plant is inside a larger terracotta pot surrounded by sand that gets soaked with water. This allows evaporation of the moisture and keeps the roots of the plants cool during our very hot summers. I also protect them from the hot summer winds but perhaps you won't have that problem. I use "portable" shade cloth screens, aligned to block the winds, which usually come out of the west.

Breakfast this morning: Eggs with bacon and chile verde sauce (homemade) To me, the sauce makes the eggs taste "eggier" although it may only be my imagination. Attractive, tasty and healthy - lots of potassium, vitamins and flavonoids in the chile verde sauce.

Also consider container gardening. You can get a lot of plants into a fairly restricted area and it is easier to control feeding and watering - and much easier to control weeds and invasion by the more vigorous plants. Absolutely plant any mints in containers, otherwise they will migrate everywhere. Dill and fennel have to be kept well separated or they will cross pollinate and new seedlings will not be "pure" and fennel seems to take over. Ever here where winter temps can get down into the teens (Fahrenheit), fennel plants can be cut back in the fall and they come back in the very early spring without need to replant. This is the plant in which the fronds, seeds and pollen is used. Of course Florence fennel where the entire bulb is used, needs to be planted annually.

Black pepper potato chips or crisps or fries. Works great on fried sweet potatoes also. My neighbor makes fried yuca "chips" with black pepper and ground dried lemon with sea salt.

Potato masher, basher and etc. Herb chopper, mincer. Honey dripper. Salad spinner.

I add black pepper to shortbread and make other cookies with it. Look at these recipes It's not an uncommon flavoring - it was very popular in medieval times and during the Elizabethan era in all kinds of sweets. Boiled honey confections flavored with black pepper were common.

It serves no purpose. It began appearing on dinner forks and also salad forks in the 1950s in some patterns. Conversely some patterns had a center that was shorter than the two outside. My mother got a set of Reed & Barton's Autumn Leaves in 1957 and they had that shorter center space. It just depended on the designer. Some were touted as "European" designs or "continental" designs which became confusing because continental also referred to the size of the flatware. These were simply marketing ploys to get people who had been using the same flatware, sometimes for generations, to buy new. This was still the post-war era when new families, who produced the "baby boomers" were moving into their own homes instead of living with parents, as had been common prior to the war.

Over the decades that I have been cooking, I have had experience with a few electric ranges and cooktops and have nothing good to say about any of them. In fact, they were yanked out and replaced with gas as soon as possible, and one was at considerable expense because there was no gas line to the house and that and the meter had to be installed at my expense. Electric ovens are a different matter entirely. I like electric ovens. My complain with those old electric burners was uneven heating, remaining hot for long after the power was turned off, slow to heat to maximum and difficulty cleaning burnt-on stuff. That being said, I do like the induction burners - I have three for "emergency" use. In particular in case of earthquake when gas lines may be affected, I have generators that will power these and other necessary appliances easily. The newer electric burners may be superior to those I have used but as I have no experience with them, I can't comment. My gas stove top is easy to clean, the burners are sealed to the stainless "well" in which they sit and it is level throughout with no nooks and crannies to gather debris. I just lift off the grates and wipe up anything that has spilled.

Those are so lame! How easy is Jello - no cooking required. Perhaps these are aimed at people who truly can't "boil water." My kids used to make Jello, usually daily and sometimes on weekends, twice a day. This was just about the time small plastic "disposable" tumblers appeared on the market and after the Jello had been cooled with cold water, these were filled and refrigerated, sometimes with inclusions of fruits &etc., and usually topped with heavy cream (unwhipped) or cottage cheese. I thought these were better for them than candy or commercial sweets and certainly less expensive.

I would suggest that you contact the CIA in California They have extensive herb gardens laid out in very attractive patches that are decorative as well as practical. They should be able to give you excellent advice about how many plants you will need to support your kitchen. I would say you are in a perfect location for almost every culinary herb. In fact, I have long desired a Canary Island Bay tree but they are much too tender for my climate, although the Laurel Nobilis does just fine after acclimation. I use rosemary woody stems for skewers, as well as using the leaves for flavoring and some of mine are planted in a hedge and a few of the more upright varieties are in their own planters. They are all blooming now and the blooms are also lovely for flavoring. Each mature bush (3-4 years old) will produce nearly a half bushel of "trimmings" every 3-4 months. It seems to grow more rapidly after "pruning" and does grow more rapidly during the spring and late fall. I have 6 sage plants (Salvia Officinalis) because I use it for tea blends as well as for cooking. When I was catering, I had twenty plants. Thyme grows slowly and you will need more of these plants - I would suggest that you plant them in tiered pots because it is easier to keep the trailing stems clean this way. I have extra large strawberry pots that have a dozen "pockets" each and I grow thyme in these and have new plants coming along in little pots so when I am ready to use a significant amount, I simply pullout the whole plant and replant one of the "babies" in that pocket. I'm assuming that you will need larger amounts than just a sprig or two.

I use roasting pans with racks and none of mine are less than 3 inches deep. Some are deeper for larger roasts or birds. The thing is to not have the item crowded into the pan. Free space on all sides will allow better circulation of heat. A couple of the largest are much deeper and are used for specific things - however, I find that these are more versatile for my purposes than just the standard "roasting" pan. I use this one for most open roasting tasks. It fits perfectly in my Cadco oven and is easy to handle. The way the handles are fixed make it easy to grasp and move in and out of the oven. There are other brands with similar shape and handles that are less expensive.

We aim to please. I can't say how weird they are but more gadgets are being exhumed from the places they have been stored for some time. I advise against buying any "antiques" there is a huge business of manufacturing antiques and aging them so it takes an expert to determine the true age. A friend's mother visited China last year and was sold some "jade" carved items that turned out to be alabaster that had been dyed. Carved yes, antique? NO. She paid 600.00 for things that are worth, at most, 50.00.

You are correct! When I got this one it was on a card, with another gadget - a honey dipper, and was touted as being a biscuit and muffin "splitter" in addition to onion slicing guide. I didn't need a guide for slicing onions but splitting biscuits, English muffins and crumpets with a fork can get downright tiresome, going round and round the things. This requires just two thrusts, at 90 degree angles and the biscuit or muffin pops apart. I've even used it on bagels with success when I didn't feel like slicing them or my bagel cutter was hiding. As I bake biscuits at least once a week, and usually more often, ditto muffins and etc., I use this a lot. I checked on Amazon and they have some that are all stainless steel, however this one has been performing well for almost twenty years and should continue to do so.

I don't lift anything from hot oil with tongs. I use a frying basket - like this one that has a hook on the side to secure it to the top edge of the pan while the fat drips out. The arthritis in my right hand is most severe at the base of my thumb where it meets the wrist and my grip strength is seriously affected. In my left hand I have an intention tremor which has been present since I had a head injury in 1960. When I try to hold something steady the tremor gets worse. Do NOT get the Lodge basket with the folding handle. It does not stay locked and can fold when turning hot foods out of the basket. I bought one, had this happen and it immediately was returned.

My egg man buys a premium food from Modesto Milling as he shows his poultry and their foods have been developed to help counteract stress. He also feeds some sprouted grain food in the winter and the hottest part of the summer when there is less plant growth because the protein in the grains increases with sprouting and he feels this gives good color and flavor to the eggs. He says the sprouting technique is very low tech - in a shed, screen doors nailed to saw horses, spread with a mixture of whole grains, wheat, oats, triticale, millet &etc., then sprayed with warm water a couple of times a day. The grains sprout within 24 to 36 hours and are fed immediately. The screen doors that hold the grain are covered with loose screen cloth, clamped on, to keep rodents and wild birds away (helped by his barn cats that are very good hunters.) He tells me that he bakes his own bread with sprouted grains and what is good enough for him is good enough for his birds!

I'm posting photos of a set of measuring spoons that are not accurate. In particular the tablespoon. Because the sides are not even along the length of the spoon bowl, the contents can't be leveled accurately. The tablespoon measures less than a tablespoon when "level" or as level as one can get in that bowl. I use these for things that do not require exact or very accurate measurements. Mostly the tablespoons are used for ready-made cocoa mixes and chai mixes. One advantage is that they do set flat on the counter, too bad they aren't accurate. The "adjustable" measure is way off true and I don't use it at all. It just occupies space in one of the utensil holders and I should toss it into the recyclable bin but so far it is just there.....

Earlier this morning here I was, using this little gadget and thought why not post a pic in this topic and see if anyone else uses something similar. It is shown with a teaspoon so you can get an idea of the size: 2" x 5" not including the hook. I use it at least once or twice a week, sometimes more often. I purchased it many years ago at a little gourmet shop here in Lancaster that went out of business more than ten years ago. Sad that, it was one of my favorite places to hang out and look for odd stuff. This was on a hang card that listed an alternate use and they are still made (different materials) for that same use but I never used it as such.

please do this. i have long held you in high esteem, fat guy. knowing that you traveled across the atlantic with raw eggs has lifted it to exalted heights. thinking that you might adopt an "eggs always" travel policy delights me beyond all reason. do it. I'd like to chime in and add that I have had the same thought, just couldn't express it as well as Cherie.

These lids are made in the USA under rather strict guidelines. I would not hesitate to use them for canning. I have quite a few of the "vintage" glass flats with the zinc bands but they are all for small mouth jars and for canning I use large mouth. I can tell you that the glass "flats" are subject to chipping around the edges if one does not unseal them with care. I have a number of the old "green" Ball jars but use them only for display and for dry storage.

I buy from Anson Mills and from Falls Mill, Southern Connoisseur and Lee Brothers. I have also purchased grits from Purcell Mountain Farms. My method is an old one I learned 60 years ago. The night prior to cooking I pour cold water over the grits to cover with 1 inch water above the level of the grits. I use an All-Clad sauce pan, SS for soaking and cooking. They will soak up most of the water - there is no need to drain them, just add more water, about 1/3 to 1/2 you would usually add, add the desired amount of salt, and put onto the burner, medium high heat. Mine take about 30 to 45 minutes to cook to the point I like them, although if I am going to put them into a mold to slice and fry later, I cook them a bit longer.