BeeZee

The one time Shoprite had fresh corn, an employee was kind to let me know (when they observed my struggle with the plastic bag) if I rubbed my fingertips on the silk of the ear I was holding, it would give the needed traction. I have adopted a strategy of grabbing multiple plastic bags first, heading to the lettuce area where there are stray water droplets on the shelves, and wetting my fingers so I open all of the bags at once and have them ready to go in the cart.

My contribution for tomorrow’s dinner with parents, noodle kugel with dried apricots and ricotta.

Count me in that group...when I was a kid and ate hot dogs, always ketchup. Now I use cocktail sauce on fish sticks, so much classier. When I ate Yodel snack cakes, I had a very specific routine: eat the chocolate off the two ends. Then nibble the piece of chocolate on the bottom edge (thicker, where it settled from enrobing). Then unroll the cake, peel the remainder of the chocolate off, and finish by eating the chocolate cake/cream.

@robirdstx, when I went to a restaurant recently it was with the plan to get french fries, no way I'd get soggy take out fries, it was worth the 6 month wait!

@pastrygirl, I had no problem removing saran wrap from the bars. I kind of wrapped them burrito style and on the one end twisted the saran around the stick. This last batch of pudding pops I put in snack size zip top bags, to compare the two. The bags are better for throwing them loose in the freezer without an additional container.

No photo, because really they aren't visually exciting (dull brown), but I made "old school" chocolate Jello pudding pops. Not quite the same texture as I remember from the 1980's, but fun for the whimsy factor and my husband was happy.

In suburban NJ, in the 1960’s-70’s, my husband’s family had a butcher, Sid Miller. His parents were so friendly with Sid that he was invited to my husband’s Bar Mitzvah. Where apparently Sid and his wife put on a show on the dance floor.

Wegmans does not season their rice properly, it is pretty tasteless compared to what you get at a Japanese restaurant. But if your family is accustomed to that flavor, you should prepare to please them. Authentic or not, if they don’t enjoy it, why waste your time and money.

Timely post yesterday on Epicurious: https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-battle-kitchen-burnout-cooking-exhaustion-article One of the times when I just couldn't face deciding what to cook, I grabbed a stack of printed out recipes and asked my husband to pick 3 things he wanted to try. Probably once a week my fallback dinner is to defrost some grilled chicken breasts, chop them up, and put them on a salad. Can use up odd bits of veg, too. The variation is in the dressing, I throw together whatever tastes good. No great creativity, just basic food and healthy. Its the forced nature of the task, rather than the task itself, that I think is driving a lot of us crazy. Not to mention the never ending cycle of dish washing that it spawns. The lack of spontaneity...meals have to be planned out because you are buying your weeks groceries and that's what you have to work with. Is it any wonder many don't feel "inspired"?

Exactly right...open faced bagel, I put a piece of lettuce on top just to have something to rest my finger on rather than squishing into the lox!

Our first taste of Fall weather today, apple cake seemed to fit the bill.

After saying a week ago that she though she'd skip it this year, Mom texted me to ask if my husband and I would want to come to their house, so it will just be 4 of us, spaced around the dining room table. My sister and BIL are not included because I won't spend time in a confined area with him, he's exposed to many people at work and I don't believe he's careful enough. To paraphrase @weinoo, an unintended benefit. As far as food, I'm tasked with noodle kugel. Mom will probably make a small brisket and some chicken breasts since I don't eat beef.

Maybe that's the problem, nobody used enough booze. I like gingerbread, rarely have had a honey cake where I wanted to eat more than one slice to be polite.

You are thinking of Russian honey cake. The Jewish honey cake resembles a brick, in more ways than one.

I guess I'll call this short term preserve. Bought a pound container of figs at TJ's and they were under-ripe and tasteless, so I chopped them up and made fig compote with a pinch of cardamom. Will likely freeze it in 2 portions. Hoping that co-worker who has a friend with a fig tree comes through this year.

Yes I have, there have been some awesome pops posted by @blue_dolphinshe inspired me to jump in!

Thanks-I was figuring on reducing the sugar a bit and maybe incorporating some fruit puree with minimal sugar to increase the possibility of having it freeze a bit more solidly. Most of the ice cream pops are enrobed in chocolate (or something resembling chocolate). The pops I made with a skyr/heavy cream base froze solidly enough, my molds are pretty small (4 oz I believe). I don't mind eating the failed experiments.

I do have The Perfect Scoop, I'll give it a shot!

Opposite question from what is normally desired...if I want an eggless, stabilizer free (I have no powders) ice cream that freezes hard, what would you suggest? My intention is not to scoop, but to freeze as pops.

I like the concept of pairing savory snacks/hot sauce by region...so you could pair Asian products, then pair Mexican products. If you don’t have easy access to ethnic markets, or a curiosity.

Chicken enchilada casserole (not pretty), included black beans and lots if veggies. Avocado that had seen better days, and a beer that was living in the back of the fridge for a long time, the “best before” date was literally today...*phew* crisis averted.😉

Good to know about the bags. I wrapped my pops in saran and put in a tupperware type of container, I loathe wrangling saran wrap.

Silicone popsicle molds, two sets of 4 with wood sticks, found on sale on Amazon for under $6.

Grilled chicken breasts, corn (literally the first weekend my neighborhood Shoprite had fresh local corn), shishitos, yams.

My first pops...had 1/2 cup blueberries so made a half batch blueberry yogurt swirl. The blueberries are cooked just a couple of minutes and mashed with a bit of sugar to make compote. I added a bit of creme de cassis. For the cream portion, it is greek yogurt or skyr (my choice), sugar, and heavy cream. Very delicious. I have to work on my stick insertion skills.