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That's my favorite too, although I like all the TJ's soups. I also like to combine the tomato/pepper or the red pepper soups with TJ's Black Beluga Lentils (microwavable) and crumble some feta or other crumbly cheese on top.

Mine are: Pepperpot soup Bean soup with cornbread Potato soup with dumplings Chicken & dumplings Mushroom risotto Spicy chestnut soup Scalloped potatoes with ham or smoked pork chops. Pumpkin soup Chili

I omitted dinner last evening, although I did have a small scoop of homemade yogurt an hour before bedtime so this morning I was a bit peckish on awakening rather early. I mixed up a batch of biscuits and while they were baking made sausage gravy with four ounces of sausage left over from a couple of days ago. I limited myself to two biscuits topped by a poached egg and an appropriate amount of gravy and gave the remainder to the dog, who made it disappear instantaneously. Not the best breakfast in the world but very satisfying. I too have one of those procedures scheduled in the near future and I am not looking forward to it.

You have to pre-treat the "country" or "attic" hams to lessen the salty flavor. It should be parboiled (simmered) in several changes of water, after stabbing it all over with an ice pick or chefs fork if you have one with long sharp tines. I use a hollow larding "needle" to take interior samples to taste after three sessions in the water. After that, I cook them in the oven partially immersed in maple syrup, turning the ham often. I use the same procedure on inexpensive supermarket hams that are also quite salty. My "recipe" for salty ham. P.S. I received a hame from Nueske's last spring and it was excellent. Much better, in my opinion, than Burgers.

I was considering making a run to Mickey D's for one of the McRib sandwiches but then I clicked on this link and decided I would pass. Oy, the title is so right. 25 Heart Stopping Sandwiches I apologize if someone else has already linked to this.

They develop more of a nutty flavor that I like. You can always try toasting just a small amount and taste them before cooking. They are a bit crunchy but you can get the flavor. This is the way they were prepared when I was a child, my grandma's cook would toast a big batch in a cast iron skillet, then put them on to cook in a big cast iron pot. I didn't realize until I was nearly an adult that oatmeal was prepared any other way. When I was in the Army in the '50s, I couldn't stand oatmeal and I think it was because it hadn't been toasted first. (I do the same thing with other grains - in my earlier post I forgot to mention that I usually include a good amount of cracked and toasted buckwheat groats in my cereals. The local health food store sells buckwheat that is already toasted. I haven't seen it in regular stores. I add salt at the beginning of cooking.

In another topic about fruit cakes, Jackal 10 posted that the ideal temp is 200° F in the center. Use an instant read thermometer and check in two or three places. If your probe happens to hit a chunk of fruit, it may read higher because the fruit seems to heat up more than the surrounding cake. Found the link: Christmas Cake P.S. I use the same test for steamed puddings.

The proportions of oats to water can also vary a bit, depending on how "fresh" the oats are and how they have been "treated." I like to toast them in the oven before cooking and they take up a bit less water, so I use 3 3/4 cups water. Also, when I buy them in bulk at the health food store (they have a rapid turnover) I have noticed that they take up a lot more water than the canned or boxed brands. The regular ratio, 4 cups water to 1 cup pinhead oats is what I normally use but sometimes, if the oats have been stored for a long time, they don't take up as much water and also remain a bit chewy. When I buy the bulk oats, I use 4 1/4 cups water. So you really have to do a bit of experimenting to see how your oats behave.

It should be just fine at room temp. I've reduced cider vinegars (apple, pear, pomegranate/berry) and all of them have been stored at room temp for at least a year. They to have to be strained into a sterilized container but after all that cooking the vinegar "mother" has been completely destroyed. I have half a pint jar of reduced pomegranate vinegar that I made four years ago, originally in a quart jar and when I used more than half, transferred the remainder to the pint jar.

Doesn't your Zo have a "Porridge" setting? The Fuzzy logic one I gave my daughter has and so does the IH one I use all the time. I use the porridge setting for steel cut or "pinhead" oats, mixed grains (7, 9 & 12 grain cereals) and combos I put together myself, wheat berries, millet, rye, etc. Start it at night and with the automatic keep warm function it is ready in the morning. However, I have also used Alton Brown's crock pot method when the rice cooker was in use for something else.

You can also use Adagio's Ingenuitea brewer that works the same way and you can get it in either a 16 ounce or a 32 ounce size. I use the 32 ounce all the time for tea and decant the tea into a glass teapot that can be microwaved to reheat or can be set on a warming plate. I have three so I can brew different types of tea when I have guests. I have one of the 16 ounce that I mainly use for brewing herbal infusions for cooking. I gave one to a friend who was traveling, as she can't stand the coffee brewers in hotel rooms and this brewer is microwaveable so can heat the water too. She uses regular grind coffee in it and it works just fine. The filter does get a bit discolored but a bit of bleach in water will easily remedy that.

Try using a small spray bottle for applying booze to the cake after it has been wrapped in cheesecloth.

I use 1 1/2 pounds per loaf for regular white bread, a little more for denser doughs that don't rise as much. However, every bread recipe is slightly different in the way it behaves so it is a matter of trial and error. I usually just bake two loaves at a time one in an end section and with an empty section between the two loaves.

I have one of the newish high-low Thermoworks thermometers that sounds an alarm when the higher set temp is reached and again when the low set temp is reached. I use it for making yogurt because the milk has to be heated to a specific temp and then cooled to a precise temp. It's the 810-960 EcoTemp Alarm Thermometer. Click Here It's $39.00 but I also bought the $9.00 "boot" for it as having it stand is very handy. I also bought the holder clip to keep it in place. It would work just as well for tea brewing. I also recently purchased one of the new RT600C Super-Fast Waterproof Pocket thermometer which reads accurately at 5-6 seconds. It's dishwasher safe to 190°F. It's $24.00

When you wash any tiny grain - use a piece of muslin to line the colander. I use teff and amaranth in several recipes and the seeds are so tiny it would all go down the drain. The inexpensive "flour-sack" towels are muslin but if you go to a fabric store, ask for "fine" unbleached muslin - it is cheap - get a couple of yards and cut it into the size pieces that work for you (to the size of the colander). Do wash it first to get rid of the sizing. I recently bought the end of a bolt which had 6+ yards on it and because I took the whole thing, got it at half price. You can make your own dish towels and they don't even need to be hemmed. The weave is so tight that the fabric does not easily unravel.

I keep whole wheat and other whole grain flours in the freezer. It will keep practically forever. One thing about substituting AP flour for WW - you may need a bit less water or other liquid. WW, in my experience, absorbs more moisture than plain flour. So, if your dough seems a bit soft, add just a bit less water to begin with. You can always add a bit later. I particularly notice this with pie dough - when I use the WW pastry flour I have to add half a tablespoon more than I do with regular flour and in that recipe, that is a lot of liquid.

I add coconut oil and some extra fine grated coconut (frozen). I try to consume at least two tablespoons of coconut oil every day. It may be a spurious idea but I have slowly but steadily lost weight over the past two years I have been doing this. I have Cambro containers filled with cubes of fruit juices and pulp that I freeze in regular ice trays and store in the containers until ready to use and I add one or more of these to my smoothies (or anything else that needs a jolt of fruit). I also add sesame seeds (toasted) a dash of pepper, especially to most fruit and melon drinks. To peach and apricot I add a scant dash of hot sauce. I make a mango smoothie to which I add just a scant teaspoonful of curry paste. It may sound odd, but I love the flavor. Didn't we have a similar topic going a year or so ago?

No, that fix only works on discolored non-anodized aluminum, the shiny kind but will work on the outside of the All-Clad that has a brushed aluminum exterior. You can use a solution of white vinegar in water to remove deposits from stainless. I use half a cup to a quart of water and boil it until the deposits disappear. I put smaller pieces and glass inside the larger pots to do more than one.

Ginger and lime have great affinity for each other and for coconut. I can't eat chocolate but I make a coconut sorbet with ginger and lime.

Someboddy done did it marinating tumbler Also one that uses vacuum. Sorry Charlie! This is one that some people are touting as an alternative to the Thermomix. Soup Chef Well, I just don't think so but that's just my opinion. I recently got one of these as a gift. Already had one - the same person sent me one a year ago - it ain't me suffering from "senior moments" at least not today. Cordless gravy warmer I haven't used it for gravy but it does a bang-up job of keeping syrup warm. I wouldn't buy it - I think it is overpriced as I can get a mug warmer (8.99) and put my own gravy boat on it. But that's just me. P.S. For dinner parties I usually have several things to keep warm. I use a "vintage" Salton hot tray to keep them ALL warm in the same place.

I have used both the red and black quinoa - ordered from World Pantry/Alter Eco and also ordered red quinoa from Barry farm. In my opinion, the red and black have less of the saponins as they don't foam as much when being rinsed and have none of the bitter flavor I notice in the white. Of course it may just be my imagination. I am eating them regularly as they are supposed to be very good for people with hypertension. I mix it with amaranth seed, 3/4 quinoa to 1/4 amaranth as both a cereal and a savory side dish. Since I have been consuming it on a regular basis, my blood pressure has dropped enough that my doctor has reduced the strength of my medication. I think it has also had an effect on my cholesterol but that wasn't really elevated before, never has been.

I suspect that she is more interested in impressing other people than in actually enjoying the coffee. Her husband is a local bigwig and they entertain constantly. She has a live-in cook/housekeeper but brags that she always makes the coffee herself. (We met while I was in Dillards looking at handbags.) I'm pretty sure you are much more of a connoisseur of coffees that she is. I'm sure you are more like my friends who always buy the green beans, roast them to the desired "peak" then brew, and they buy a few varietals and blend them to get just the flavor they want. I lent them my espresso machine several months ago because I rarely use it, tried to give it to them but they wouldn't accept it as a gift. They prefer one of the old vacuum brewers that I gave them several years ago as they say it makes better coffee than any of the newer types they have tried. I don't consider them obsessive as they are always experimenting and trying new things.

I had the name wrong. It is Wallingford Blue Mountain.

It's possible. It is certainly very heavy. It is heavier than my larger Le Creuset.

The OP asked for obsessions. The person you speak of certainly is. Cross contamination? I understand if she was using flavored beans in one brewer but if not it tops the list of obsessions. No, she is too much of a "purist" to allow flavored coffee in her "machines," as she called them. Her breakfast coffee is Kona and her dinner coffee is an "estate" Jamaican. Wallford or some similar name.