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Although the burner itself doesn't get hot, the heat from a pan that's on it can cause the surface of the burner to heat up. So you still need to be careful when you remove a hot pan from the burner. Mine is cool within seconds. The surface does not heat up more than a few degrees. That being said, if you have a pan that is not absolutely flat on the bottom you can get a little heating at the threshold rim, the division between where the flat part of the pan is in contact and the area where it is not.

I have been using a countertop Iwatani induction cooker for over a year. this is the one for several reasons. Sometimes I want to cook something low and slow (as in doing a long reduction) and do not want to have to constantly monitor it - my kitchen is closed off from the main part of the house - as I would on the gas cooker. And it turns itself off automatically......... a very big plus. Occasionally I need to take it with me when I am going to cook at the home of a friend who has only marginal cooking equipment, i.e. a very small range or cooktop on which stockpots or large sauteuse will not fit without interfering with a second burner. I like that it stays cool while heating whatever is in the pan. It heats a pan instantly and is ready to cook as soon as the pan comes in contact with the top, however you can remove the pan and put your hand directly on the element and won't get burned. (This from someone who happened to lean on a glass stovepot which was still hot but noting to indicate it. OUCH!) I can take it out on the deck and cook with it when the wind is blowing (this is a very windy area) and not have to worry about it blowing out (happens to the gas burner on my gas grill all the time) and also it won't start a fire. The one I have is not as powerful as some but it is more than adequate for my needs and very affordable. It is less expensive now than when I bought mine (at a discount) and I am considering buying a second one.

Chocolate. But not cocoa, even the very strong or "black" cocoas do not produce the same effect. I have a very low threshold. I can take a tiny nibble of choclate (I use bittersweet and need to guage how much sweetener to add to the recipe to even it out) with no problem but half an ounce seems to be my limit.

I don't think we'll have to worry about this. We're not much in way of cooks and I've never even heard of an immersion blender. If you ever want to puree something in the cook pot while it is still on the burner, this is the way to go. They are relatively inexpensive and do a great job and can also mix malts, or milk shakes, puree cold stuff too. When I want to make just half a cup of garlic mayo this is what I use. Saves a lot of time both in prep and in clean up and the thing is very compact. I have three, a Braun Turbo 400 watt, which I use mostly for small jobs that one would use one of the mini food processors for. This is easier to clean as all you have to do is stick it in a container with soapy water, run it then put it into clear water and ditto. Clean! I just hang it up and put a paper towel under it to catch any drips. I also have a Cuisinart that was a gift and I have to use it once in a while because the person who gave it to me comes around fairly often. It lives in a drawer most of the time. I also have one of the big commercial ones (Dynamic) 24 inches long for working in deep stockpots but you wouldn't need anything that powerful or expensive. I had a welder make a steel "handle" for it that lets me hook it onto the top edge of a stockpot and holds it at a slight angle so I can stick it in the pot, hook it on the edge, turn it on and not have to keep holding it. The action is pretty good at circulating most of the stuff and I just finish by using it hand held to make sure I have gotten all of the lumps pureed. Recently one of the online vendors was selling the "Thunderstick" brand stick blender for a very low price and several people on one of my small private lists bought them. They can usually be found for around $35.00 but this vendor was selling them for $19.99. If you put the bracket in a place where it will be handy you will find yourself using it often. This vendor here has it for 32.99.

Two slices of a hearty bread, probably homemade as I do a lot of baking, lightly toasted. Each slice spread with home made peanut butter (or half cashew butter) Add to and press into the PB on one or both slices the following: crumbled very crisp bacon toasted onion bits or carmelized onion toasted seeds, either sesame, sunflower or pumpkin To one slice add a layer of bread and butter pickles (also homemade) well drained. Place the other slice on the one with the pickles, press down and cut diagonally into quarters. Excellent with a cup of strong, black tea...

If anyone is interested, Sam's Club has the Deluxe model with the extra large water tank for $66.63. They also have the coffees, 2 bags to a box, each box 6.68.

I would slice it very thin, spread with duxelles, roll it up, heat it briefly and eat it with fresh French bread.

Really, then I must be remembering something totally different. I do recall an episode with a potato pancake or maybe it was a rostii, but wasn't the show in color by then? The episode I recall was right at the beginning of the second season, they now had an overhead mirror to show what was happening in the pots and pans and it made her look left-handed and it looked like her pinned on insignia was on the wrong size. An uncooked chicken slid off a platter. The next show was the one where she had the three big fish, actually medium, large and huge, lined up on the counter and used her knife to point out the various parts of the fish. I thought the camerman was a little twitchy during that episode. On another episode she held a large fish up in the air with both hands and mimed it swimming. She didn't drop it.

Also, one of the best things I did was have overhead receptacles put in over the stove, at either end of the exhaust hood. This makes it so much easier to use an immersion blender in a pot on the stovetop without dragging the cord through something or catching it on a pot handle. I have one of those retractable key ring things screwed into the hood next to each elec. receptacle and have an alligator clip on the key hook. I clamp this onto the cord so it gives enough for me to pull it down to the stovetop but keeps the slack taught and the cord from dipping into whatever I am cooking. I also had all the receptacles were the GFCI type, which means they have a built-in breaker. These are much, much safer, particularly in a kitchen. See it here In my old kitchen I had a fire when a coffeemaker shorted out and it could have been serious but the alarm went off. (I have the combination, smoke, heat and fumes type) and I was able to put it out myself. Even then I had fire extinguishers in the kitchen. Now I am required to by law. Better to be safe than sorry......... They are very cheap when you consider the expense of a fire.

I went out early this morning to get some shopping finished before the heat became too much and on my way home, I had just pulled off the freeway and was driving down my road and the news came on with that as the lead story. I got a big lump in my throat and had to pull off the road because I couldn't see for the tears. She did have a very long and extremely productive life and I think that she did exactly what she wanted to do. She had no regrets but was never tooting her own horn about how much she had done. She didn't need to, others did it, and rightly so. Back in the days when The French Chef first was shown, most people were content with cooking as their mother's had before them, rarely going out on a limb and trying something new. Garlic was anathema and the only people who cooked with olive oil were "those foreigners" (as I heard someone say about a third-generation Italian family). It was before the days of the cholesterol scare but many people used margarine as it was touted as being good and also cheaper. Those old shows, in black and white, inspired me to learn more about cooking in general. I had been a baker for some time but there is a world of difference between baking and cooking. Baking must be precise but cooking allows for intuition and innovation. She taught this and so much more, particularly about being relaxed when something unforseen happens - as when a chicken fell on the floor and she grabbed it up and said it can happen to anyone, washed and wiped it and went on with the demonstration. I was in San Antonio, perhaps ten years ago, for a string of dog shows with a couple of free days between. A friend mentioned that he had a couple of passes to a taping of a show with Julia Child and Graham Kerr and would I like to go? Silly question. Of course I went and afterward ordered a print of the tape and the slip jacket was signed by Julia and Graham. It was simple serendipity, me being in the right place at the right time. It is one of my treasured moments. She touched uncountable lives and I know that there are many, many chefs and others in the world of food, that are what they are because of Julia. She had a rare talent for inspiring people to do better than they ever thought they could. She will be missed, on an astronomical scale.

Check out this Thermador cooktop which is what I would get today instead of the cooktop I do have. I like the star burners much better than the ring shape. This has enough output to cook with a wok. I have a separate wok burner which I rarely use because it throws out too much heat for me.

Regarding reusing jars. The Atlas jars, in which some commercial spagetti sauces, salsas, marinades and some fruits, are regular canning jars with the double-threads which fit regular Ball or Kerr canning lids. One or two companies use the wide-mouth jars and again, these fit the wide-mouth lids. all of these companies have labels that are plastic film and not fired on so they can be removed - I use acetone but try the regular nail polish remover which melts the plastic. I have friends who are more than happy to save these jars for me in return for some of my canning product. In fact, when I got home from work yesterday there was a cardboard box full of canning jars next to my back door with a little note that said, "I can see your tomatoes are coming along well so you can probably use these when you make your marinara sauce, hint, hint, hint!" Maggie. Thrift shops are a good place to look and you can always ask the volunteer ladies to save you a certain type of item. I have an arrangement with a couple of charity thrift shops that I will take all the cookbooks they get as well as all the canning equipment and odd old kitchen gadgets and utensils. They know I am good for it and one will even deliver. I give them a regular donation every 6 months even if I don't have anything for me to buy. The things I don't want and which are in good condition and useful, basic utensils, I donate to the women's and children's shelter which they pass on to women who are trying to start a new life and have nothing.

Recipe Source, once known as SOAR, has 39 recipes for summer squash listed. Squash recipes These should take you through the rest of the summer! A note about the site: I began looking for recipes at the old SOAR site soon after it came online in 1993. My daughter, a Berkeley graduate, told me about it and at that time I had Compuserv which charged by the hour. I spent a lot of money looking for recipes and consider it well spent. When you want a large selection of recipes for a particular food item this is the place to look. I am sure that some day in the not too distant future RecipeGullet will be as vast and as varied. However for now, it is nice to have this vast resource at our fingertips.

The absolute best way to clean a blade type grinder is this way, and it works better than Martha Stewart's - I have been doing this since before Martha was ever heard of. I used the same routine to clean my blender between grinding dry stuff (washing was not an option because it would take too long to dry and I needed it to grind something else.) Place two heaping tablespoons of dry baking soda in the grinder. Add 3 broken saltine crackers. Apply the top and run the grinder, shaking it up and down and turning it upside down and back a couple of times (holding the top on, of course). Dump the powder out and wipe with a dry paper towel. This will remove oils from grinding coffee beans and spices, will polish the interior and will also kill any lingering odor from spices or coffee, etc. This works and is simple. Grinding raw rice is really tough on the blades and will dull them ater a time. I collect antique electric appliances and I use a barely damp cloth and dry baking soda to remove the burnt on grease that in some cases is nearly 80 years old. This is the only thing I use because it will not scratch or dull the chrome on these early beauties.

See this measuring liquid/dry And this conversion table\ And this one more conversion tables and note the lone Australian tablespoon which is 20 ml instead of the 16 ml in the U.S. and the 15 ml in the U.K. a pint in the U.K. is 20 U.K. oz, while in the U.S. it is 16 "fluid" U.S. oz. So much for the old saying, "A pint's a pound, the world around." Because the volume of liquid changes slightly at differing altitudes a more accurate measurement is obtained by weighing liquids. In a laboratory, liquids as well as solids are usually weighed when precise measurements are required.

I haven't tried any except the dark roast but one of the girls in the office is using the medium. She likes it and has gone through a lot of the pods. Target had a good supply of the dark roast but most places tell me they can't keep it on the shelf, it is gone almost as soon as they put it out. We only use two pods at a time. My boss used two pods for a single shot. They like it because it is fresh every time, the coffee drinkers among us think that brewed coffee goes stale within a few minutes. Do post what your experiences are with the other pods.

crookneck, straightneck, etc., are similar in flavor to all other summer squash. They may begin to shrivel a bit but they should be picked before they get too big and the seeds develop a hard skin. I try and catch them when the bulb part is about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch in diameter and the neck is about half that size. Slice thin and saute in garlic butter with celery and corn. Slice very thin and pickle as you would for bread and butter pickles, i.e., sweet and sour flavor. They take on the flavor of whatever they are with I also like summer squash and green beans in combination. They are related to but unlike gourds (the decorative things) they are edible. In fact they are considered an edible gourd. You can test the squash with a fingernail. A nail should penetrate easily this will not happen with a gourd.

I have been worm composting for many years. Very little goes down the garbage disposal. It is amazing how quickly the worms can break down stuff as tough as watermelon rind, corn cobs, etc. I have 6 huge tubs which have a screen that sets on legs in the bottom. The worm castings work their way down through the coarse screen and can be raked out because I have cut a hatch in one side of the tub at the bottom. I have a barrel on a low platform, put the castings in that with water and some blood meal or bone meal or other additive that might be needed then turn the tap and drain the "tea" into a bucket for application to plants that need a bit of extra nutrition.

I have made pesto with the Siam Queen spicy basil, with lemon basil, cinnamon basil and also with cilantro, with parsley, also have included lovage leaves, summer savory along with the basil as well as salad burnet which has the flavor of cucumbers (and which reseeds itself with abandon all over the yard). Also shiso, both green and red. I use the classic parmesan cheese - reggiano, of course, but also romano, asiago, occasionally adding a bit of sap sago and some other hard grating cheeses. Since I can get pine nuts locally (from people who go up into the Sierras to gather them and shell them, I use a lot more of them than other nuts. I have made a wonderful pesto with cinnamon basil and macadamia nuts, slow roasted garlic (carmelized) and Sbrinz, a Swiss grating cheese - someone gave me a big chunk and I had to use it up...... It was a glorious combination. I have a friend on the Big Island who sends me broken mac nuts from a local grower. By the way, regarding freezing stuff in ice cube trays - - - if you take a sheet of plastic wrap, lay it over the ice cube tray then push it down into the cube sections, leaving a little slack between them, you can fill them and when frozen cut the plastic wrap to separate the cubes and keep the little cubes, with the plastic wrap intact around each one, in a large ziploc bag. This way they will not stick together and the plastic ice cube trays do not get permanently "flavored".... This is a very good thing when you want to avoid a garlic flavor to your fruit purees.

Where do you live? I am surprised that your local supermarkets do not carry them. Every super market in which I shop carries at least the basic selection of canning jars, sometimes on sale at a pretty good price, usually at the end of the season which is when I stock up. Last fall Albertsons had a great (unadvertised) sale and I bought every case on the shelf and asked for more from the stockroom. I had three baskets full wheeled out to my van.

I would like to add something about thyme. A wonderful cultivar with great culinary applications is lemon thyme. It is an excellent culinary plant, has lovely foliage, slightly larger leaves than French or English thyme. It is not as hardy, will not survive at temperatures much below freezing so needs to be potted and brought inside during hard freezes. The flavor is exceptional, the lemon flavor is subtle but obvious and it is a wonderful seasoning for almost any meat, but particularly good with lamb as well as with chicken and duck or goose. I have stuffed it and a small boiling onion inside squab and game hens and the flavor has added a great deal to the (in my opinion) rather insipid flavor of these small fowl. I also grow lime thyme which has the fragrance of lime but not much lime flavor.

That is a lovely gift. I wouldn't turn them down. It really helps when you know the habits of the recipient. The following isn't exactly a hostess gift but was fun. One of my friends had to put her life on hold and turn her bakery over to her employees for several months while she relocated to her daughter's place and helped her through the aftermath of a tornado in which her husband was killed when their home was destroyed. She called me and a couple of other friends to let us know the day she was due back asked if one of us would pick her up at the airport and suggested we get together at her place for dinner. My other friends and I got together and bought a couple of crates full of the perishable staples one needs to stock up on after a long time away from home. Butter, eggs, bacon, milk, cheeses, fresh vegetables, salad fixings. I had a key to her place and we went there early that morning and did a little cleaning and freshening, stocked the fridge and made sure everything was shipshape. We then went to LAX to pick her up and drove her home. We hung around the van waiting for her to get into the house and find our surprise. She was speechless. Instead of going out to dinner, we ordered pizza so she could relax and rest that evening.

Here is the best explanation of arrowrood I have ever come across. I have been using it for 50 years and it is excellent for many applications. It has the advantage of not breaking as cornstarch will do if heated beyond a certain point. It also thickens at a lower temperature so is perfect for delicate things that need only the briefest of heating.

I wouldn't exactly call it hot, but rather spicy and not as cloyingly sweet as the commerical varieties. If you ever have tried Fentimen's, it is very similar, with a lot of ginger flavor but without the back of the tongue sear that you get with some of the new crop of ginger beers/ales. I like it far better than Vernor's.

When my kids were home we had two refrigerators, one was the kids, free for all, the other had a lock (as did the big freezer). We kept theirs stocked with all kinds of things that kids like but anything that I was saving for a job or anything that was very expensive, was in the locked fridge or freezer, otherwise they would eat frozen cookie dough and various other things that were not good for them. Now I live alone and my housekeeper knows that certain things are off limits. At the office I have a locked, fireproof file cabinet that holds things that are MINE alone. Anything in the kitchen cabinets are fair game. I have one section in the fridge that is off limits and people are good about putting their names on their own stuff. Some stuff is communal property and we all add to it as the supply dwindles. There is a jar of peppadews in the office fridge that has the lid taped down because those are mine, mine, mine....