Special K

That was my first thought, too.

Yes, that was interesting. Despite my misgivings, I might just have to give this a try. But I just can't see the cold water start happening.

Wait! Whoa! Hold on just a minute! Wine-runs are out, too?! Uhhhh . . . Well, goody! We get to dip into the good stuff! Whoo-hoo! So, I guess I spoke (boasted) too soon about this being easy. Last night in the middle of cooking the turkey pot pie the freakin' oven door fell off when I opened it to check on the pie!! I could just continue to use it with the oven-cleaning latch on, but that seems a bit too risky, so I think I'll just retire the range until I can replace it - a challenge in itself, cuz it might be awhile, but I think I remember a topic somewhere here about making do without an oven. Actually, it doesn't upset me too much, because there is a silver lining here as well. I've mentioned before that I hate this oven, and now I feel truly justified in replacing it. This is its third strike; the two cast iron burners which heat up slowly and cool down even more slowly, the one regular coil burner that doesn't work any more, the light that is so weak it doesn't illuminate anything (so I have to keep opening the door), the clock that stopped years ago, the fact that something blows and has to be replaced every time I try to actually use the self-cleaning feature, and now this (wait, that's six strikes!). So I have to find $2K or so for a new oven (I'm looking for an electric slide-in range (has to be electric ) with a downdraft (it's under a window), a convection oven and range components I can mix and match), but in the meantime, no oven. I can get along fine without it for most everything for a while (as long as the two remaining burners keep working!), but there will be no baking (unless I can do the no-knead bread in the Weber). Good thing I had the pitas and the extra biscuits! They'll last us easily for the rest of the week. So. Last night was the turkey pot pie, paired with a 2005 Burrell's School "Detention" Amador Ryan Oaks Vineyard zin that was absolutely the best wine I have ever tasted. Made contemplating the expense of a new range quite bearable. This morning we shared a ham & cheddar omelet for breakfast, and we brought in a selection of three or four bits of leftover cheese from last Friday's impromptu party for lunch between classes. Tonight I think I'll do shrimp and rice with cubed carrots and frozen peas. That's a favorite of ours, and I can use the shells to add to my stock of shrimp stock. I must say, this really has been a wonderful exercise and a great read. I've added a bunch of new dishes to my "must try" list, and I've noticed several new members (welcome!), and I've been thinking a lot about what really should be in my freezer, and what doesn't need to be there (at least in as much quantity). For instance, next time I get a chance I think I'm going to make and freeze several batches of mirepoix (I think it will be ok if I sweat it first). And why did I have a six-year-old store-bought fruitcake of unknown origin taking up space in there? Thanks for the link to Bittman's frozen vegetable article, Fat Guy. I somehow missed that, and now I feel much better about using frozen bell pepper strips!

I just ran into this thread yesterday, but since the last time I remember shopping is Friday (the 20th), and that was just for snacks for friends who called at the last minute and announced they were stopping by, I figured I could start today. Normally I do shop every day or every other day (good excuse to get in a walk), but I'd been trapped at my desk for a few days at least before that and I honestly can't remember when I shopped before Friday. So. Yesterday's breakfast was the second half of a can of spam, sliced and lightly fried, topped with eggs and Frank's sauce, accompanied by a couple of the buttermilk biscuits I made Sunday morning (wasn't paying attention to quantities in the recipe and turned out two dozen of 'em). Lunch was a boiled egg for each of us, and we got into the mixed nuts later. Dinner was catfish, rolled in flour, dipped in the last of the buttermilk and then rolled in heavily spiced (cumin, chili powder, cayenne, etc.) cornmeal. Let them rest for about 15 minutes and then fried them in 2 T corn oil. Delicious. Served with some peas from the freezer and the last of the cottage cheese and a couple more biscuits. Breakfast this morning was leftover steak with scrambled eggs folded into pita bread (turns out we like that a lot better than our usual tortillas, eureka!). I was going to cheat at lunch and pick up some fruit or something at the market (I had to go buy cookies for the after school study hall - we have to lure the kids in with food), but I forgot to get anything for us, so we dipped into the bag of pistachios that we keep here next to the mixed nuts (as you can tell, we're not really big lunch eaters. Nuts are nutritious and filling and easy to eat on the go). For tonight's dinner, I took out some of the turkey pot pie filling I made and froze a few weeks ago. I'll either make a pie crust topping for it or use up some more biscuits. Tomorrow for breakfast will be cheese omelets, I think, and eggs in some form for the rest of the week, with diced sliced ham and/or cheese. I'll boil some more eggs for lunches (for some reason I happen to have an excess of eggs - I think I bought 18 last time I did shop, and DH must have done the same thing.) I might get fancy and make egg salad and bring in a couple of the pitas. For the rest of the week's dinners the freezer has yielded a ton of stuff: a nice small beef roast (which will give us leftovers for lunch or maybe dinner another night), some chicken tenders (I'm thinking Morroccan chicken with preserved lemons - I just started on a kick and I have all kinds of fresh spices to use. I'd rather use bone-in chicken thighs for that, but I'll use what I've got), more catfish fillets, an unopened bag of very large shrimps, some sausages and a couple of nice thick steaks from Costo and oh, boy! some spaghetti sauce (enough to use as spaghetti one night and doctor up as chili another night). I have so much to choose from I may continue past the one-week experiment, just so I can see what the bottom of the freezer looks like. In the cupboard there are plenty of onions (always), a few potatoes (one meal's worth of fingerlings), lots of canned tomatoes (but no fresh ones, alas), a jar of minced garlic, a couple of boxes of spaghetti, tons of rice and lots of various flours (Fred's had a sale on those great two-gallon glass jars with covers recently, and I bought a half-dozen of them and filled them with staples), and all of the basic baking necessities, and in the fridge there are some dried fruits, some carrots, some celery (which I should use soon), my beloved - and extensive - mustard collection, lots of different kinds of cheese, a bit of bacon and some sliced ham, some sour cream and some plain Greek yogurt (technically that belongs to the cats but they let me raid it sometimes), and even a large container of cream for DH's morning coffee (and he lets me raid that). Really, I don't think this is going to be too hard for me, but I will enjoy the exercise and I'm certainly enjoying everyone's posts here. The only thing I will miss and might be forced to go out and buy is my seltzer - I need a little bottle of seltzer by the bedside for middle-of-the-night sips. Plain tap water just won't do (I need to look into getting one of those do-it-yourself siphon bottles). I'd normally buy some salad greens, too, but I can get by on frozen veggies for a week. This is fun! Thanks, Fat Guy.

Good to know!

I'd choose my pots. I have a very small kitchen, with very little storage space. Over the years I've whittled down my collection to just those pots I really love. (I gave some cast iron pots away and ended up scouring second-hand shops, etc., to replace them because I missed them so much.) Sure, they're replaceable, but not as easily as the knives. Old pots are old friends; new, shiny knives are new, shiny knives!

This bothered me, too. I'm glad the article and the NYT style book got corrected. (For years, Sunset Magazine kept talking about something called a "cooky." That drove me nuts as well.)

Aha! Another use for my truffle salt! Mmmmm!

Thank you for posting this - I like the idea a lot - no batteries! I've found that when the HandiVac stops pulling a vacuum it sounds exactly the same, so it takes a while for me to realize the batteries need changing. Please let us know if it holds the vacuum - I don't see why it wouldn't.

Is he related to or an admirer of Rahm Emmanuel? Emmanuel has been known to repeatedly stab a steak knife into a table and scream "Die! Die! Die!" while referring to his political opponents. ← I don't think so, but he'd either get along very well with Rahm, or they'd kill each other.

Oh! And another one I've repressed until just a few days ago: We went to visit an old friend who had invited us to "come for dinner" when we were in town. We called, he said C'mon over. We get there, meet his wife and little boy (about three or four years old), and stand around, chatting. Then she sits down, so we all do. No offer of tea, water, nuthin. OK. Finally we figure out that there's no dinner. So we say, "let's go out!" He and she dicker for a while about where, and since we're out-of-towners, we haven't a clue. Finally they decide upon a place, and we go. Not bad, not great. She breastfeeds the kid at the table (remember, now, he's three or four years old), drawing as much attention to herself as possible (there was mention about how goooooood it felt). OoooKaaaay. So the bill comes, and we say, "this is on us." She says, quite loudly, "Well, heckfire! If we'd known you were paying, we'd have recommended a NICE place!" Not OK. Our friend didn't react at all - he's either oblivious or used to it and resigned. On the way back to our hotel, my husband pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. We just looked at each other, sat silently for a moment, and then both of us simultaneously SCREAMED!! This was about twelve years ago, and he just emailed us very recently. We are afraid to answer him, for fear of letting this woman back into our lives. Old friend/hideous wife. We're still thinking.

My husband's then-boss, having had too much to drink while waiting for a table in a very nice Seattle restaurant, launched into a very colorful tale about something or other, and to make his point, HE STABBED THE TABLE - REPEATEDLY! - WITH HIS STEAK KNIFE! His own boss (the CEO) is so appallingly rude to the waitstaff, the chefs, the owners, etc., that he is blacklisted at just about every fine dining establishment in Seattle. Be glad.

Another one: the ksssh, ksssh, ksssh sound of the pressure cooker - pot roast is almost ready. Always coincided with the music from The Wonderful World of Disney.

Just boil it in a lot of water, like you would spaghetti. Then strain it when it's almost done, put it back in the pot with the lid on, and wait a few minutes. Easy!

I love musique du pain - the crackling sound of the bread "singing" just after you take it out of the oven.

My scones are just not as good as anybody else's. I keep trying, but something always goes wrong.

I have an LG with the french doors and bottow drawer freezer (just one - now I wish I had the two-drawer model). I love it except that the front (mine is black) is extremely dent-able. Watch for that.

I say you shuld just "vote with your pocketbook." 20 miles is a ways to go for groceries, but I think it'd be worth it to avoid this terrible place. If you're feeling generous, let them know you are avoiding their store, and why, but it likely won't do any good. They probably have a target audience of people who don't care that much about food or are financially strapped and *think* they're saving lots of money when they shop there. I've thought a lot about this, since I am car-less and must either walk or take the bus to shop. I have decided that it's not worth it to shop at a place that makes me miserable, no matter how much closer it is. Plus, it's good exercise to walk a little further! O/T On the subject of the carts, thanks for validating what I thought might have been my own craziness about them. I've noticed that several grocery stores in my area now have sani-wipes at the front door by the carts, and a lot of them also have special carts that look like little cars for the kids (although the regular carts still do have the baby seats - urg). But since I am usually on foot and I can't carry too much at a time, I just use a basket. And I do bring my own canvas bags - and load them myself.

So that's what it's called! You know, I think maybe I would like this feature. We have these in the chemistry lab where my husband teaches (and I volunteer). That raised edge has come in handy many times there (ninth graders!) and it would have come in handy a few times at home (clumsy me!). It does get marked up a bit, but for me that would be OK - it's so obviously lab countertop material that it doesn't need to be perfectly beautiful. I have granite at home, and I do love it for all the reasons I think I'd love lab counters, plus it is beautiful - but I have managed to chip a chunk out of the area in front of the sink (see above - clumsy me! I don't break glasses on the granite - I break the granite itself!). In my next kitchen (I think I have one more house in me) I will think long and hard about switching to lab counters.

Ditto on Pasta Moon, and especially Duarte's - you can get a half and half bowl of half Cream of Artichoke, half Cream of Green Pepper Chili soup. It's wonderful!

Well, I will be darned! I never would have thought of that. Thanks!

My favorite aunt sent money! I got myself: Everyday pan - the one eJulia recommended a couple of years ago on the "Bare Minimum" thread. I got the one with the glass dome top, on sale from Amazon. Truffle Salt - I got some for a friend for Christmas and went back and got some for myself because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I'd never spend my own $$ on it, but as it was a gift . . . (the secret to gift $$ is to spend it as soon as possible!) One of those little plastic tomato-shaped tomato savers - I've had a whole tomato in it for over a week; I need to use half of it and put the other half back in and see how long that lasts. A bottle of Pernod - Mom sent me a Barnes & Noble gift card, but I frittered it away on non-cookbooks.

Just be sure you have reservations for Joe's Stone Crab. Good food, but it's a very crowded, touristy spot. (Or it was, back in my day).

Thanks. This is why I love eGullet. I learn something every day.

... and I can't believe I left out cottage cheese, sour cream, yogurt and cream cheese! Man, that coffee ice cream was good!