MelissaH

My grandmother appreciates her electric jar opener. No clue what kind of can opener she has, though. MelissaH

I'm of the opinion that gifts (of all kinds) are given without attached strings. Once I give the tomatoes to you, I no longer have any claim to them, so you may do with them as you please. I may give you a suggestion for how to best use the gift, but you are under no obligation to use it. MelissaH

Does the stuffed cabbage not get thoroughly cooked after the leaves are prepped? MelissaH

Don't forget about The Border Cookbook by Bill Jamison and Cheryl Jamison. As long as you don't require color photos of recipes in your cookbooks, it's great for the Texas/Mexico border area. For the northern USA, you might consider Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland by Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson. Second the recommendation for Everybody Eats Well in Belgium. As far as Dutch cooking, I can't think of anything better than Chufi's Dutch cooking thread. MelissaH

We used to leave the stick in its wrapper out on the counter. We saw kitty tongue marks on the top of the stick once too many times. Now, we have a glass cheapo covered butter dish for the one stick that stays out of the fridge and spreadable. MelissaH

When I was in grad school, the local ice creamery always had one weirdo flavor, to go with the more traditional vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, oreo, etc. type offerings. One day, the maverick flavor was Squid. I tried it. It was mostly sweet, with bits of squid added. I think I prefer my squid hot. MelissaH

It looks like you all had a terrific weekend. I wish I could have been there too, but I had two other places I needed to be. So I'll just look at the pictures, and live it through those. MelissaH

I usually start by copying the recipe, or printing a copy from the computer. I don't bring my cookbooks into the kitchen, and the act of writing down the recipe helps me remember what I need to do when. If it's something I find myself making again and again, I type it into the computer, and by that point I don't need a procedural reminder so much as a quantitative reminder. And then, I start my prep. I do tend to streamline somewhat: if the mushrooms and peppers get added at the same time, they go into the same bowl. If the onion gets chopped and the garlic only smashed, even if they get added to the pan at different times, I can put the garlic on top of the onions in the bowl. I make a point of dealing with raw meat and other potentially toxic substances last in the prep process, to minimize work surface contamination risks if someone else wanders by and snatches a piece of chopped raw pepper to snack on. I don't necessarily take the tops off cans, if I'm going to be adding the entire contents of the can, but if it's something that will need to be drained, rinsed, or otherwise processed, I make sure that also gets done ahead of time. At the very least, I put the can opener next to the can. As far as baking: I first get everything out of the cabinets or the fridge. This is especially true if something (butter, eggs, dairy) needs to be brought to room temperature. I certainly don't put each dry ingredient into its own separate bowl if they'll all get combined anyway; they just get measured into the same place. (The exception: if I'm working with a recipe that uses mass measurements for even things like baking powder, salt, and yeast, where I prefer to use a pocket scale rather than the larger model I use for "bigger" ingredients. For those, I'll use a very small bowl on the scale and then dump the measured ingredient into my big dry ingredient bowl. But I'll use the same small bowl for all those measurements.) Eggs get individually cracked into a small bowl and then added wherever they need to get; I have no problems using a small bowl that was used for something else (like maybe weighing small-scale ingredients). As soon as I'm done with an ingredient, it gets put back where it came. When I'm done, I shouldn't have anything left on the counter in front of me. I find that having things completely prepped and ready to go helps my sanity level tremendously. As other people have mentioned, it also eliminates the risk of discovering mid-dish that you're out of some critical ingredient (always a hazard when there are multiple cooks in the house). And in most cases, getting the prep (or mise, if you prefer) done before I start cooking) doesn't take significantly longer than doing it along the way. Because I get things done ahead of time, it frees me to concentrate more on the stove, which means I can cook more than one thing at a time if I need to, or read a few pages of a book, or unload and reload the dishwasher while the onion softens, or even just sit down for a moment. MelissaH

On the iPod dock, on the microwave, and an analog battery-powered clock on the wall. And also one that's part of a hang-around-your-neck timer, but that's less useful as a clock because it's more useful as a timer, and thus the readout is usually set to timer rather than clock. But probably my most-used kitchen clock is the one on my cell phone. MelissaH

This, to me, is exactly it. If one primary role of a parent is to model appropriate behavior, this is a perfect circumstance under which to do so. MelissaH

Most of my experience with coffeeshops is in Europe: France, Belgium, and (ahem) Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands. I tend to think of outdoor tables, for some reason. And tables where you can sit forever, and nobody will hassle you to hurry up and clear out. I certainly don't tend to think of cash registers. MelissaH

We've had good luck with this approach. MelissaH

I keep Goo-Gone in my kitchen for exactly this purpose. MelissaH

Both emannths and jackal10 describe what I do. But I'll add that after we cut off the cheeks and then take off the prime meridian/international date line, what's left on the pit is the cook's treat, to lean over the sink and slurp. MelissaH

You guys are really making me wish this were going to happen on a weekend when I could come over. I guess I'll have to console myself with the thought that on Wednesday morning after the conference, I'll be arriving in Belgium, where even inexpensive supermarket chocolate is wonderful. MelissaH

I have a copy. Or rather, half of our copy is mine; the other half is my husband's. But keep in mind that one line in our wedding vows was that we promised to share the kitchen. Since the books arrived, our bedtime conversation has been rather interesting, each of us reading nuggets from a volume to the other. I <3 my husband. And I'm very very lucky that he was just as interested as I in dropping a substantial chunk of $ on yet another "cookbook." MelissaH

My parents installed a faucet in their kitchen that infuriates me every time I go to visit. The problem is that I keep on thinking it's the handle end pointing to the right (for cold) or left (for hot), but the way the faucet's designed, it's actually the other end of the thingamajig, where it's pointing. So when I think it's set for full-blast cold, it's actually set for full-blast hot. I suppose I'd get used to it if I lived there, but I wouldn't have bought the darned thing. MelissaH

Could you make pasties filled with a lamb stew? MelissaH

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to back out. Something else has come up, and I need to be in Ithaca on Friday afternoon/evening. While I could still come to Buffalo for the morning events, by the time I drove to Buffalo, then to Ithaca, and then home again, I'd be putting nearly 400 miles on the car, which is more than I can manage alone (and still be able to do what I need to in those places). Unless someone wants to hire me a limo and driver for a very long day? MelissaH

I wish that would work—but unfortunately, I'm not even going to be able to make it over to Buffalo on Friday. Unless someone wants to hire me a limo with driver? MelissaH

I take it you now have a milligram scale? Where did you find one, and did it cost you an arm and a leg? The only ones I've found are more expensive than I'm willing to spend at the moment. MelissaH

The "accessories" I use most are not dedicated grilling accessories: my leather welding gloves, my Thermapen, and the long-handled tongs. But I very much like Paul Bacino's grilltop griddle with handles! MelissaH

I'm with many of you: if they're for something I'd need anyway, I'll use them. But I don't go out of my way to find coupons. As far as the time factor, I figure that everyone has something to delay the checkout process. For some people, it's check-writing (even though the cash registers can print those up for you so all you have to do is sign away) or haggling. Some people clip coupons. I'm in the Produce Identification Derby group, although when I shop at Wegmans it's not a problem because there, you sticker your own. MelissaH

We have a Fagor Duo and have been happy with it. Based on what I've seen, it doesn't seem to release steam at pressure, but it does release steam on its way up to pressure. When it gets up to pressure, a little button-indicator pops up and that seems to block the hole the steam was escaping from. MelissaH

Yes, they wanted a signature. FedEx is generally more hardcore about signatures than UPS. I'd actually had plans to go out this morning, but decided to only dash out and get home before the FedEx guy usually gets here. It's a wet day here, and the last thing I wanted was the box sitting outside in slop. The box is still sitting down by the door, so I don't have to look at it and think about it and wish I weren't exercising such restraint. Nothing like work to keep your mind off something fun.... MelissaH