MelissaH

Trader Joe's is also a great place to look at cheeses, especially since they're known for their policy of sampling everything. (But it's cheese! Whatever it is, it'll likely be good for something.)

Other than to do the prep work involved in making the female almonds lactate!

I've coveted a Super Peel (one of the regular size ones) for a while. Now you've got me coveting even more.

I miss Palisade peaches. And apricots. And Olathe corn.

This story makes me think that I should really give in, subscribe to EatYourBooks, and put everything in, just so that if there's ever a house disaster, I have my library cataloged.

How does it taste?

So often, the special left-handed versions of tools are not as well made as the "standard" version. So I've learned how to use a can opener right-handed, and I cope with the rest.

When my husband makes hard candy for the holidays, he uses one of these: https://www.lorannoils.com/hard-candy-molds/hexagon-break-up-sheet-mold-5542-0000 I'm sure this is consumer quality and wouldn't hold up for everyday use in a commercial kitchen, but it works beautifully and easily.

I just found Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread by Zachary Golper, for $0.99. Also, Korean BBQ by Bill Kim, $2.99. Yada yada US Prime yada yada.

Safe travels home, and a safe return at some point.

Not for me!

You can also always use lettuce leaves as meatball wrappers...if you have lettuce leaves on hand.

Do you-all have the PODS for storage up there? It's a service where they deliver you a storage pod, and you load it up and call them. They pick it up and deliver you to wherever you want it, and then you unload it. Even if you don't have anywhere workable at home to keep the stuff, you may have better luck finding climate-controlled storage on the mainland.

Psst: marshmallows are almost always fat-free!

I'm not a huge marshmallow-in-hot-chocolate person. But I have no objection to commercially made marshmallows if I don't have my own on hand, as long as they aren't the multicolored ones in artificial fruity flavors. Would it destroy the effect if you sold the hot chocolate mix, and had packages of marshmallows ready to add for a fee? (Or two different packages, one version with the marshmallows and one without?) To more directly answer your question: the people who like marshmallows probably won't have an issue paying for them, and may well be tickled. The people who don't like marshmallows won't.

I'm relieved to hear that a mind-reading toaster does not yet exist.

They do that to my husband as well. Between that and the fact that they make me puke, bananas are most definitely not food, at least in our house. A lot of yogurts have the same result on my husband: wicked heartburn. He's OK with yogurts that don't have high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. When we did a bit more poking, we discovered that bananas are higher in fructose than many other fruits. We wondered if maybe the fructose is related to the heartburn?

I'll be at a conference in South Bend, Indiana, next week. The conference includes lunch Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, as well as "heavy hors d'oeuvres" for dinner on Monday and Wednesday. They're also arranging for a bunch of food trucks to set up on Sunday night, as there's only a short window of time between the afternoon sessions and a plenary lecture. That leaves some gaps in the food, though. Any suggestions for places to consider for dinner on Tuesday night, as well as shopping opportunities for materials with which to make a very quick breakfast each day Monday through Thursday, as well as easily transportable nonperishable snack materials? The AirBnB listing says there's a full kitchen available. The conference will be on Notre Dame's campus; the AirBnB is downtown; I'll have a car but I have a strong aversion to paying for parking at restaurants. Thanks!

Bananas most definitely don't count! (They aren't edible.) Are cherries around at all still? Ours are much less in evidence than they were last week. I'm hoping that the blueberries at the U-Pick place are still available on Monday, now that I finally have time to pick and freeze some. The hot dry conditions seem to have done a number on our local produce.

If you're going this route, I'd suggest taking the route Kenji Lopez-Alt uses in his Thanksgiving turkey post: bone out the breasts (no special knife skills required—just stick the point into the junction between meat and bone and work it free a little at a time), arrange the two nose-to-tail, and tie them into a cylinder. When you cook this, you can then just slice the cylinder into pieces of whatever thickness you like, to eat hot or cold. Leftovers can freeze when you get sick of turkey, or use them in whatever casserole you like (another thing that can reheat well, if timing is uncertain).

SV boneless skinless chicken breast is terrific when you don't know exact timing. It's not pretty, and you don't get the crunchy skin like a CSO will give you, BUT it will give you safely cooked meat when you need it. And if you don't necessarily want it hot, you have perfect meat for a chicken salad of any kind you like. Go for it!

Do you have bean lover friends who live near you, and would be willing to split a membership with you?

Right up there with "Hold my beer...."

The worst thing that can happen is they say no and chase you out!