MelissaH

I have a 36" (six-burner) GE Monogram dual-fuel range. (My parents have the 30" version with four burners, although theirs is set up for propane rather than natural gas.) I love that the grates make the top more or less one continuous surface, so that it's easy to slide a pot off a hot burner, and that if you're just looking for a landing zone for something hot, it's easy. I also love that the burners are ALL equally able to be on to a high heat to quickly boil a large pot of water OR be so low that I can melt chocolate without burning it. I love that my oven heats evenly, especially with the convection fan on, so I can bake three sheets of cookies at once. In a perfect world, the oven would be just a smidge larger so I could fit a full sheet pan inside. (With the 30" version, that's obviously not going to happen.) We've had a couple of little maintenance issues. In the first, you'd turn off a burner but it wouldn't register as being off so the auto-igniter would keep popping. While we had the issue, either that burner needed to stay on (with a pot of water to help humidify, if nothing actually needed to be cooked) or the circuit breaker for the stove needed to be off. The repair was relatively easy, with a cheap part, and could be handled by our local appliance repairperson. After the second burner with the same problem, we asked the repairperson to please order us the four more so that when the other burners went bad, we wouldn't have to wait for the part to come in. Of course since then, all the burners have been just fine. The other problem we had was with the oven: after a self-clean cycle, it refused to unlock the oven. Turns out that after 8 years or so, the servo that moves the little hook that actually clamps the oven shut had been fried. That repair was harder to figure out and a little more expensive to fix, but could also be taken care of by our wonderful repairperson. After 10 years, I still love the range.

You and me both, @kayb. I have a Breville XL, which is also terrific for the hot days when I don't want to turn on the big oven, or the not-hot days when the big oven is already in use for something else. After seeing everything here, I think I'd like a CSO also. The catch: where to put it? The Breville is on the counter, beneath a row of wall cabinets. Thus, taking a page out of @Shelby's book and stacking the two would be impractical, both because I'm concerned about steam venting and because I'm not convinced there would be enough height. And I can't put anything much on top of my microwave; it fits into a small cubby in a cabinet close to the cat food and also near the dining room table—which is a great place for the microwave, as the #1 use for the microwave in our house is to slightly reheat a portion of refrigerator-cold canned food for His Highness, and the #2 use is to reheat leftovers destined for the staff of His Highness. So, help me out: where else might be an appropriate place to put a CSO? (How much steam actually vents out during a cooking session?) Or better yet, convince me I really DON'T need one! (Yeah, right!!)

My MIL gave me a pitter that I love many years ago. It's a scissors style pitter, made of white plastic. It's relatively foolproof and quick for me, although not as good for large quantities as one of the kind with a hopper that you fill with fruit and a handle you crank. But then again I'm also absolutely anal about pitting cherries before I cook them into anything. I'll almost go so far as to count the number of pitted cherries and then count the number of pits, to be sure the two match and I'm not putting anyone's teeth in imminent danger. I don't completely trust the hopper style of pitter, because I want to know 100% that every cherry has been pitted, and I have yet to see a hopper pitter that lets me do that.

I was rather amused to get an email from Anova last night with the subject line "Celebrate The 4th Like A True American BBQ Hero." The timestamp was 7:07 PM yesterday (that was 3 July). Why is this relevant? The recipe in the email was for "the ultimate BBQ pulled pork shoulder," which cooks SV for 18 to 24 hours and then gets finished on a grill for another 1.5 hours. Assuming I actually had a boneless pork shoulder in my fridge and a sealable bag large enough to hold it, as well as all the other ingredients for the rub in my pantry, and if I'd gotten started at 7:07 PM when the email arrived, using the minimum 18 hours of SV, the soonest I'd be eating would be nearly 4 PM today (the holiday). And if my pork shoulder were large enough and shaped such that it actually needed a full 24 hours to precook, dinner wouldn't be served until well after any fireworks display. I'm sure the recipe is wonderful—I believe the rub is Kenji's rib rub previously published in The Food Lab. I just find the timing of the email from Anova a little off, to say the least! MelissaH

Alas, I'll be in Colorado that weekend, just at the tail end of a conference.

We visited my MIL last week, and in her local TJ's they were sampling the Mango Joe-Joe cookies. I'm not a huge fan of most of the Joe-Joes, but oh my! The mango version was so good that a box of them came home with me, where I'm trying to forget about their existence.

That recipe is SO high on my list, too!

Would using a slow cooker with the lid off work? I know a lot of people successfully make apple butter that way without worries.

They already exist, but they aren't common.

@Kerry Beal is my go-to for questions about water activity, and I don't know enough to make an educated guess. But that 0.93 reading does sound high to me. I'd be interested to know what you get if you test just the raspberry puree for Aw, because that *should* be higher than puree that's been sugared and boiled!

How is this raspberry layer made?

Could someone make one with Pomona's and then run a water activity test?

I'd think it would be easier just to spray the whole mold, and then use a toothpick or other pointy but not super-sharp object to make the line.

The lemon ones didn't do it for me the way the key lime pie ones did.

I'm reeeeeeally hoping the Key Lime Pie Oreos make a return this summer. Of all the limited editions, those were the only ones that I didn't find icky.

We were just visiting a friend in Queens, NYC, and walking through the streets of Jackson Heights looking for a dinner restaurant. We liked the menu at one Tibetan restaurant, but the smell of incense was so strong even through the closed door that I couldn't imagine trying to eat in that room. We chose to dine elsewhere.

Is anyone using their Instant Pot at high altitude? We'll be visiting my parents in Colorado this summer, and their house is at 8600 feet. Do you need to increase the cooking times a little? Any other recipe adjustments? @Shelby, I'm particularly interested in what you would do for a cheesecake at altitude. I've been a flatlander for so long now that I've forgotten most of what I used to do as a matter of course.

The last couple of years, I've been using Pomona's Pectin to make my jams and jellies. It requires less sugar to set, but you have to add a bit of calcium (which is included when you buy the pectin). I've been pleased with my results, which taste deliciously fruity.

I wonder if others have had issues with the Purple Carrot, and someone is seeing writing on the wall? http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2016/05/mark-bittman-departs-vegan-meal-kit-startup-purple-carrot @JoNorvelleWalker, if you haven't, you really need to tell them the tale of the mushy apple!

My friends call me the queen of public transit. And IMHO this is all doable by public transit, especially if you don't mind a bit of walking. (I don't mind walking, especially given the amount of eating I expect to do throughout the weekend!) The only potential downside is that transit can take a little longer than driving in a private car sometimes. These directions are what Google Maps told me, and what I have printed. There may be other options available, as well. I have a paper map of Toronto that I can bring along, since my USA-ian cell phone will be expensive to use for navigation purposes. From the hotel to Soma: the subway stop by the hotel is near the Yorkdale stop of the Yonge-University line (#1). We'd take that south 6 stops to Spadina, transfer there to the Bloor-Danforth line (#2, the main east-west line), and ride 6 stops west to Dundas West. From there, it's a 750 m/0.5 mile walk to 35 Golden Ave. Total travel time including the walk on both ends is about 50 minutes (plus however long you have to wait for that first subway). For a comparison, the car travel time is supposed to be 20 to 40 minutes...plus however long it takes you to park, if you've driven your own car. From Soma to the Distillery District (this is what I put into Google Maps, and it seems to have taken that to mean the intersection of Mill St and Trinity St, more or less): this is basically a straight shot east on King St. on the 504 streetcar, with about 500 m/0.3 mile walk on either end. To get to the streetcar stop we'd walk to Roncesvalles Ave. The catch is that streetcars can be reeeeeallllly slow, and Google estimates that this trip will take nearly an hour. If time is an issue, this is one leg where we might do better using cabs or another car service, which could cut the travel time down to something on the order of 20 minutes (that's what Google said, using the highway instead of surface streets to get across town). To get from the Distillery District back to 3507 Bathurst: take the streetcar (#504) from west to Yonge St (or to walk the 1.8 km/1.1 miles there), and transfer to the subway. The Yonge-University line stops there at the King station, and it's 14 stops to Yorkdale (via Union Station; the overall shape of the line is like a U, with Union Station at the bottom. Our hotel is most of the way up the western leg of the U; the Distillery District is near the bottom of the eastern leg of the U). From there, it's a 1.6 km/1 mile walk, or if you have your car at the hotel you can drive from there. If you want to get closer than that, get off the subway at St. Clair West (10 stops) and walk around the corner to the bus stop on Bathurst St at Tichester Road for a #7 Bathurst bus north toward Steeles, which will basically take you within a block of 3507 Bathurst. Any way you do it, even if you choose to walk rather than take the streetcar to the subway or walk the last little bit instead of using the bus to get closer, travel time is a little more than an hour. There doesn't seem to be a fast way to do this leg; when I told the map to travel by car, it still came out to be a 40 to 50 minute trip. Is it worth noting that St. Lawrence Market is between the Distillery District and the subway station? FWIW, the Morato demonstration at 300 Adelaide Street E is not too far from the Distillery District. It's about an 800 m/0.5 mile walk from the subway's King station, which might be a valid option for those who arrive early enough on Thursday and don't want to deal with parking. We could do each of these trips with one token (and a free paper transfer) per person. Even if I don't plan to transfer, I like to take one anyway, because it serves as a proof of payment in case there are ever questions. Tokens cost $2.90 each, as long as you're buying three or more at a time. If you're a senior (65+), you can buy fare tickets for $1.95 each. All of the above will be available at the subway station.

Another possibility: it looks like Soma at 35 Golden Ave. might also be accessible from the hotel by a subway ride, which would eliminate the need for parking. (If I'm wrong, someone please correct me!)

Kerry, I somehow fell off your pizza list. I guess I'm just slick?

Did you report this to the Purple Carrot people? I would hope that they would want to know why you won't be a return customer.

Kerry, my name should also be on the SOMA list, please.

As am I.