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I also use a fair amount of rice bran oil from California Rice Oil Company, which is certified GMO free, and another California product, Napa Valley Grapeseed oil also GMO free. (35.99 per gallon at Napa Valley Naturals online- plus shipping) but is supposed to be available from Amazon soon. The latter I use for frying because of the high smoke point - 485° F. For a "finishing" oil I have been using Argan culinary oil because I love the flavor, which enhances so many foods. Since this is now readily available, unlike a few years ago when it was scarce and definitely "seasonal" and difficult to find, I buy it from Amazon. So I am buying less and less olive oil during the past couple of years since I first read about adulterated olive oil. I also avoid palm oil because of the enormous effect the increase in demand during the past few years has had on the environment in areas where some of the most endangered species are located.

I had a problem with a similar organism a few years ago - not only yogurt but also my cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream. A friend who is a lab tech took some culture samples and the source was three of my rubber or silicone spatulas which had been through the dishwasher but apparently the spores were imbedded in the material itself. I switch to using only stainless steel - utensils and have never had the problem since then. I threw away the "contaminated" spatulas. I also threw out all the spatulas with wooden handles as they all cultured with organisms that were not necessarily pathogens, but better to be safe than sorry. The ones with bamboo handles were entirely free of any organisms. Any plastic material, even the hard plastics, after a few uses can develop microscopic "pores" in which these spores can hide and infect anything that is put in the container. About the only way to get rid of them safely is to steam them for at least 15 minutes. The chemical disinfectants can be effective but also difficult to remove and bleach just doesn't do an adequate job.

I don't bake as much as I used to - when I was still working I took loads of cookies to work to share with the 11 other workers and the three other doctors who share our suite of offices. I had a "production schedule" where I spent one day measuring out all the dry ingredients, nuts, dry fruits, choc or other chips, coconut, etc., for several batches, bagged in Ziplock baggies which went into a jumbo baggie along with a printout of the recipe. Then when I was ready I would spend a day measuring the wet ingredients and mixing the doughs which was quick and easy because all the time-consuming measuring had been done. Then another day to bake them off. I did that for years making at least a dozen varieties, often many more. Organization is the key. And most important, you don't find yourself in the middle of a recipe WITHOUT a critical ingredient.

I buy the Cardamom Cinnamon "herbal" tea from Republic of Tea. I add one "tea" spoon (a caddy spoon which is about 1 1/2 teaspoons) to 4 caddy spoons of black tea for a 6-cup pot. Of if stewing it in milk - I stew the Cardamom Cinnamon first - gently simmering for about 15 minutes and then I add the tea leaves AFTER turning the heat off. I also use it to make spiced syrup for dressing fruit salads, on baked squash, & etc. I posted the link to this recipe on Facebook this morning - I use the Cardamom Cinnamon to make it.

This popped up on Facebook and I saved it because I am definitely going to try it. I have LIMITED space for plant pots but plenty of hanging space at the top of some big windows that get plenty of winter sun. I think this is a BRILLIANT idea.

This recipe for my "Cocoa Cookies" which is a very old recipe that I brought up to date 20+ years ago and have made them hundreds of times. They do not expand when baked. They should be rolled fairly thin. They will puff slightly during baking but flatten as soon as they cool. I roll the dough right on a sheet of parchment, use the cutters and pull the scraps away, slide the parchment onto a sheet pan and bake. This way you don't have to handle the raw dough and possibly misshape it. I have made quite intricate cookies (snowflakes) and used kitchen tweezers to lift out the small pieces. You can rework and roll the scraps and the dough will not get tough. But it is ESSENTIAL that the dough is refrigerated for a MINIMUM of 12 hours and longer is better. I usually make up several batches of various cookie doughs a few days before I am going to bake them. I always make this dough up ONE WEEK prior to when I want to process and bake the cookies off.

One of my friends prefers the olive oil from Israel because there are strict controls on it and huge penalties for adulteration or even mislabeling the grade of oil. She taught in Israel (chemistry) for several years back in the '90s and as a chemist, (now retired) she is very conscious of the way some producers can cheat - sometimes with the collusion of the LOCAL government people. The same thing can happen with wines, and other food products, and it also happens here in America because unless an industry polices itself, there are just not enough expert inspectors to catch the perpetrators. Each of us has to be vigilant and read the "fine print" to make sure we are getting what we pay for.

What bothers me is that the cheap, adulterated stuff is sometimes being sold for premium prices because of FALSE labeling. I don't want to consume foods that contain a lot of heavy metals, arsenic, lead and so on. China does not care if manufacturers are cheating and using toxic stuff in foods - UNTIL they get caught. Candy for children that contains lead and selenium has been seized. Dried and candied fruits, honey, preserves and etc., all have been found to contain toxins. They allow or even encourage cheating on anything and everything. The bad stuff is sold so cheaply that the LOCAL LEGITIMATE producers are run out of business. I buy honey from a local producer (Blum Ranch in Acton, CA) where I can go to the ranch and pick up the product where it is produced.

Darn. I did several searches for "Olive OIl" and "Olive Oil fraud" but got no pertinent results. In any event the moderators can move it into the appropriate topic. It concerns me because I worry that oil from some other source that is really adulterated will be mixed into the huge batches before bottling. I don't want to consume oils that are not identified - especially if it is really cheap oil from China where they are trying to out produce Spain with questionable growing and production methods. And some of the areas where olive trees are grown are possibly contaminated with "migrating" dust from areas with many toxins in the soil. It was several years ago that I read the book "The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter" by Hanna Holmes and since then I have avoided any foods sourced from China. That, and the fact that a friend who spent three years teaching in China returned here suffering from lead poisoning from breathing the dust there. I was still working at the time and took x-rays of one arm where he had unexplained pain and there was clear evidence of lead in the ends of the bones (my boss had me take x-rays of several other bones) and he had a long, somewhat painful series of chelation treatments to remove the lead from his body. What my boss found odd was the fact that he had two annual physical exams, including chest x-rays but the examining doctors ignored the obvious deposits of lead in the clavicles and the shoulder blades. It's bad enough here with so many industries completely ignoring or getting around the various regulations that are supposed to protect the food supply. In other countries where there are virtually NO safeguards we have to know what is being imported. There are not enough people working at any of the agencies that are tasked with protecting our food supply and that is just plain wrong. Billions are spent on military hardware but every penny spent to PROTECT the health of our food supply is begrudged. Sad, isn't it...

From Good Morning America: This article expanding the segment on the abuses by people up and down the line in the olive oil industry. Olive Oil Fraud Rampant! So I am purchasing oil that is certified to be from local producers here in California where (I hope) the standards and the inspections are more stringent. The local middle eastern store is now carrying Salute Santé - California grapeseed oil which is also "extra virgin" (and more expensive) but it has a lot of advantages, #1 being the high smoke point. I know some people don't pay much attention to things like this but I am determined to consume products that I believe are as "pure" as possible. I don't want my money going to people who CHEAT.

I've got a vertical and a horizontal Benriner. For cukes the vertical one works best.

I like the addition of citrus zest. Another option is to grate some fresh ginger and make a small amount of syrup - stew the grated ginger in simple syrup for 30 minutes or so on low simmer, strain and drizzle the baked goods with it.

I bake salt-rising bread but I still have some of the SPECIAL YEAST from King Arthur Flour (not in stock now) or the starter from Weisenberger as I like the flour mix - I buy the 10 pound deal. Unless you have a truly controlled clean room, you can't develop a culture and keep the unwanted "mutant" yeasts from infecting the culture. I know, I have tried. Once it goes "off" dump it immediately and the spores will be throughout your kitchen and will infect any sourdough culture you open up in the room. The true aroma should smell like sweaty feet while the culture is WORKING but not after the bread is baked - it should have a cheesy aroma not as strong as limberger or even brick cheese - but similar to a Tallegio. Run your dishwasher without detergent but with a cup of ammonia poured into the bottom before starting the cycle. The stuff will penetrate plastics of all types, even Lexan, and rubber rings on jars and those have to be boiled with vinegar in the water, along with anything such as a plastic spatula or ?? that has come in contact with it.

Great find. I have lots of the Cambro containers. I buy them at Smart & Final as they often have "package deals" with the lids included for the big ones. I store everything in them, small packages of dry ingredients, beans, grains, and when I travel with full bottles, they go into the big Cambros because they will contain spills in case of an accident. (I once had to stop suddenly and a box containing several jars of pickles fell over and two jars broke. The smell was still evident when I traded that one in on a newer model a couple of years later...

I have had excellent results with the kefir cultures I purchased from New England Cheesemaking I use their yogurt cultures because they "re-culture" better than other commercial cultures and the flavors are much better. This vendor has been one of my favorites for many years - long before the internet - when I was making my own cheeses, and products they sell support our veterans with employment and other aids. Subscribe to the "Moosletter" and get monthly articles.

You and Kerry the "Bad Girls" of eGullet. I'm sure they have visions of the two of you in your kitchen, cooking up things other than food. I still have several of those. I used them for sculpting wax for little figurines for jewelry (dogs and etc.) Unlike regular wax sculpting tools, those can be gently heated (center of shaft wrapped with a small strip of duct tape) for working the harder wax types and with a little careful grinding on the diamond lathe, can be sharpened to a razor edge... It's being able to look at an item and see ALL of its possibilities that makes shopping in thrift stores so rewarding...

The Australians on ForumThermomix do a lot of canning and both Ball and Kerr Mason jars are available, if not at local stores, they are easy to find online. I have a friend in Finland (lived here for a few years) who cans a lot of fish as well as summer fruits, makes pickles and etc. She lives in a community where most of the women do as she does. They trade back and forth. I don't know about Asia but I often have conversations with the owner of the local Philippine market and he orders specialty produce for his customers who can fruits, vegetables, sauces and condiments - I got my recipe for banana ketchup from one of the ladies who does a lot of canning. The way he tells it, home canning developed after WWII when many schools began teaching home economics with teachers hired from the U.S. John says that when his mother was a girl, their family housed two American teachers for their local high school and one taught both home economics and bookkeeping - and his mother later became a bookkeeper and was the first female to manage the finances for the family business. I used to correspond with a chef in South Africa (now retired) who had come across several "pick your own" fruits and etc., where people were offered lessons in home preserving and the jars and canning equipment was sold. He said it had caught on in some of the "semi-rural" suburbs where the women did not work outside the home but apparently it had been a tradition among the farming families for generations. This included some of the wineries that besides their wine grapes, also raised table grapes and had orchards of seasonal fruits & etc. He wrote that he had met people who held "preserving parties" in December - that doubled as holiday parties - where everyone pitched in to preserve dozens of liters of fruits and then shared them out.

I'm still using all of the Trudeau Elite pepper mills pictured here and all are at least 3 years old. One is older. I do not like the ones that discharge pepper from the bottom. Some people seem to have problems filling and replacing the batteries but I have arthritis in my hands and I have not had a problem. Frankly, I think some people simply do not read the instructions or don't follow them. I originally got one as a gift, then bought more because I have several different types of peppercorns that I use all the time so I have "dedicated" mills for each type. I have one of the smaller "ceramic" grinders"- that also dispenses pepper from the top - for the more unusual types that I use only on rare occasions. It works nicely, is easy to adjust and is inexpensive.

Commercial curry "powder" often has fillers added to lessen the cost (to the manufacturer). The spice blends that specify ingredients usually do not include fillers. However to be absolutely sure, it is best to buy the individual spices (whole if possible and grind as needed) and mix your own because once ground the spices do not retain potency for more than a few months, at most. There are numerous sites with excellent advice on various blends preferred in the different regions of India. If you want something easy to use and more authentic, get the curry pastes - Patak's is an excellent brand. I use them and I am very picky. I currently have several on hand. I "balance" the spiciness of the hotter ones with the milder.

I never liked the Keurig, still don't. I've been using a Senseo since they first appeared in the U.S. and I make my own pods or use a refillable one with my own coffee (sometimes roasted and ground by me) and it (when set on the highest setting) fills a large mug which holds 14 ounces. I am very fussy about my coffee and to me regular brewed coffee tastes "stale" after it sits for more than half an hour. I used to waste a lot of coffee because the smallest brewers - 2 cup, never worked well and although I would occasionally use my favorite SILEX VACUUM brewer, I would toss the brewed coffee after an hour and make a fresh pot. Sadly, the company stopped supporting the Senseo brand in the U.S. but they are still popular in Europe. I, being somewhat of a fanatic, do have a couple of backups (Senseo Spureme digital) (purchased when they were deeply discounted just before the line was discontinued) for when the one in current use dies and I have an extra Perfect Pod Maker and two or three extra refillable pods (Coffeeduck Classic http://www.amazon.com/Coffeeduck-Classic-Permanent-Refillable-HD7810-HD7812/dp/B00295RASY/ref=pd_sim_k_4) . And, when they are on sale, I buy a box of the Melitta, Dark roast coffee pods. NONE of the other single-serve coffee machines, and I have tried them all, has produced a cup that (to me) is as good as the Senseo. I tried a Keurig and returned it after two days because it sputtered all over the counter. The replacement did no better so I returned it for a cash refund. The Hamilton Beach coffee was flavorless. The Tassimo stopped working after a dozen tries and seemed to require "cleaning" after only a few brews. It was borrowed. I did buy and return a Bunn single serve because it never got the water hot enough to fully brew what I consider a good cup of coffee. I do have a Dolce Gusto Creativa (Nescafe) which was a gift and is more a mini espresso (15 BAR pressure system) and uses the Nescafe pods, which are fairly expensive (no refillable product yet available). It does not fill a large mug but the results are very good. If I have guests, I still prepare coffee (usually home roasted and ground) in my 70-year-old 8-cup SILEX vacuum brewer, which makes excellent coffee and has it's own electric "stove" and it is a handsome item to have on the table.

I don't like grape tomatoes. They have less flavor and do not break down as easily in cooking. The sugar level is much lower.

I still have and use the very first Thermapen I bought - I thought it was rather expensive but I was fed up with inaccurate probe thermometers and ones that failed to work when needed and usually at times when it would have been impossible to run out and buy a replacement. That first one still works and so do all of the others I have purchased from Thermoworks - including the high/low ALARM probe that I use for yogurt as it it much easier to listen for the alarm instead of testing the temp of the milk every few minutes... The remote probe oven thermometers are very accurate also. I have used it on all types of meats and testing against the Thermapen after the meat is out of the oven shows almost identical results. Considering that my original Thermapen outlasted at least a dozen of the type I had used in the past, it has been a real bargain.

What I really abhor and will either leave the restaurant or ask to be seated at another table served by a different person, is when female servers have long fingernails. Having a long thumbnail inserted into my salad (on one occasion, an omelet) is absolutely disgusting to me. I complained to a manager at one restaurant, and explained that I would not pay for a dish that as far as I was concerned had been "contaminated" by the server having her extremely long thumbnail in it. He shrugged and said that he had no control over the "personal" affectations of servers who wanted to wear piercings and have long fingernails. I have not been back to that restaurant.

Check all IMPORTED hot sauces from Mexico and South America: Apparently some contain LEAD, not an ingredient that adds to the flavor or the heat. The percentage of questionable products was only 16% but for some people this could be significant. Of course one has to use good judgement. Since one uses very little hot sauce (as a general rule - I'm not talking about extreme chile-heads) a tiny amount of lead consumed occasionally - for normally healthy adults, is not really dangerous. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hot-sauce-lead-levels-20130722,0,5156596.story

OMG, I love this thread. Thanks for bumping it up. It will be time very soon to begin aging our holiday beauties, won't it? The very first harbinger in our house of the cool weather and fun festivities to come. I do have some crocks. I wouldn't use plastic. I have used large glass jars that I set into dark closets. I use a 3-gallon pickle jar - bought for .75¢ from a local deli a few years ago. I have two, one is used for homemade mincemeat. If there is a deli in your neighborhood, ask if they will save one or more of the large glass jars for you and offer to pay. In some municipalities they have to pay a recycling fee to have these large glass containers hauled away and are happy to avoid that outlay. My neighbors got some big barrel-shaped jars at a local "country" bar that sells pickled pigs feet that come in those jars.