MelissaH

We keep our freezer inventory in a shared Google doc. (Ours is just a word processing document, but there's no reason you couldn't use a spreadsheet instead.) Both of us can access it, and because it's cloud-based, we can even use our phones to look at it while we're shopping.

Thanks, Rona. I had planned to use it in a Filipino dish! I may still not like it but it won't likely show up in a spaghetti sauce. Anna, when you do use it, I'll be curious to hear what you think of it, and whether it's worth looking for.

Does Trader Joe's ever have pistachio butter? (I'd go and look myself, but we're now "only" 90 minutes from the nearest location, and I don't have plans to travel that way any time soon.) It seems like the sort of item they might carry.

All you curry-haters: if it's called something that doesn't include the word "curry," is it still bad?

How fine was that crystal structure of the halvah? (Did we ever get an answer to that question, which came up at the 2013 candy workshop?)

I'm envious of your ability to get butter puff pastry in the supermarket. Here, this time of the year, no such luck.

In my dishwasherless days, I avoided using the Cuisinart because I hate to wash the darn thing by hand. The only other thing I find as awful, and as dangerous, to wash by hand is my mandoline. Now that I have a dishwasher, it goes in the top rack. I think by the time I get all the pieces in, it takes up half the top rack. It's SO worth it to me!

We redid our kitchen several years ago. For me, the grill was a lifesaver, and the biggest challenge turned out to be the dishwashing, particularly of the larger pots and pans that didn't fit well into the small barsink we were using. Much as I hate to use them, paper plates and plastic utensils were a godsend. We ate a lot of sandwiches and salads. And the week I was watching a friend's cat was awesome, as I was able to cook up a bunch of stuff in her kitchen and freeze portions for later reheating. I couldn't imagine trying to be kitchenless in winter.

Does anyone by chance have an answer to these questions? I'd call the toll-free number and ask them. Mine didn't do this, either the first time or (after that fan started rattling incessantly) the second. Their customer service is excellent, and if there's a problem, they'll make it right.

To me, that dishonors the salad tremendously.

My go-to ideas for leftover steak are salad, fajitas, and stir-fry or fried rice or something of the sort, but it looks like others have pretty much covered those already. You could make sandwiches (with peppers and onions, or with ruthcooks's mustard idea). Add them to a SE Asian-ish peanut noodle dish with cucumber. Or make a quick summer vegetable saute or stew, and at the last minute, toss in the steak. Lucky you!

Anna, I'd be honored to have you come and cook for or with me sometime, but I think we each make our own breakfasts!

Nothing to add, except another voice asking for the results of the experiment!

Darn you. Now you've got me craving Nutter Butters!

Breville didn't used to be excepted from the BB&B coupon. When we got our smart oven, that's how we did it. But now, they are specifically listed as an exemption.

Looks lovely. What's inside? What's your crust recipe? We found all kinds of berries at last night's farmer's market and I now need to figure out what to do with them all!

I'm talking zero-radius vs. larger radius corners, in a stainless steel sink. We're being careful with our sink depth, because we really don't want to have to redo all the plumbing back into the wall!

The time has come to replace our laminate countertops with solid surface, which means it's time to replace our sink with an undermount version as well. My husband just asked me whether I wanted a sink with rounded corners, or one with square corners. I don't have a clue. Which do I want? Pros/cons of each? My knee-jerk response is that the rounder the corners, the easier it will be to keep clean, but I have no data points for comparison. What do we need to consider in my choice of corners on our new sink?

Do you do anything while you're there other than work and cook? (And, just maybe, sleep a little bit every now and then?)

If 80 people are coming, I'd think you'd need at least 80 of each item, even if it means making fewer different items, unless you're absolutely sure that half the people attending won't want to eat half of what you're serving. Even if other people are bringing food, I'd still say you'd be better off scaling back the variety and upping the quantity. It's a case of 40+40 not equaling 80.

I like the constant party idea. Invite the neighbors, or the co-workers, or the kids who are helping to move seven academic departments (over 100 people) into a brand-new building, or the friends, or all of the above, and feed the masses. (All kidding aside, I don't have an egg but I do have a Weber bullet, and if I want to smoke something that I know is going to take forever-and-a-day, I try to cook it the day before, so I know it will be done, and I won't keep my guests all starving. Reheating for a target time is easier for me to control.) /hyperbole

I'd be concerned about putting a baking sheet under a bundt pan. Some recipes need to be baked in a pan with a hole so that warm air flows through the hole, thus helping to cook the cake both from the outside of the pan AND from the hole. If you put a baking sheet under the bundt, you destroy that airflow and it adversely affects the baking of the cake.

Droste is available in my town on a good day, but when it's available it's outrageously expensive. I now order my dutched cocoa online, from either Amazon or KA.

Hershey's did, in fact, make a dutched cocoa at one time. I forget what they called it, but the container had a shiny silver label on it, and it was easily the least expensive dutch-process cocoa I could find in the supermarket here. But the silver label cocoa vanished about the time the Special Dark cocoa powder appeared. I don't find the two to be interchangeable.

I take it this means you've recovered from the chocolate weekend, and are ready to eat again after the meal Saturday night?