Porthos

When we were still active with our Ren Faires, my Sweetie was known for her bread puddings. They always contained eggs, half and half and, generally, cubed and dried Sourdough bread. She alternated sweet and savory, sweet one weekend and savory the next. She was given a recipe for Amaretto Bread Pudding with the strict agreement to never share it. It was always received very well. Recently she made two for a family wake that many of our Faire "family" attended.

@Smithy I suspect that the grocery store in Lone Pine also serves the needs of the agriculture population for a good distance around. It's the best store in the area until you get to Bishop. As an aside, my Sweetie can bo longer make the car trip from SoCal to Bridgeport in one day so Lone Pine is our overnight rest point. Although we live in AZ now, we start our early summer fishing trip in SoCal, picking up our grandkids to take with us. They love their time at the lake.

At (only) 29 pots and pans it makes my batterie de cuisine seem like a pauper's. 😉

@Smithy We went to Manzanar when our girls were school-age. Twirly Girl had watched the Original Karate Kid countless times, so being able to show her Manzanar was, at least for Sweetie and me, meaningful.

What is a rain shadow? I'm 6 weeks out from driving up that same highway.

I've shopped that TJs many, many times. No longer an option since I moved to AZ.

I fully understand you meant potato salads that are sweet. However your post reminded me of something that happened several years ago. I was visiting a Renaissance festival where I knew a lot of people. One of them offered me some potato salad but since I wasn't a participant, I declined. Afterwards I discovered that it made from sweet potatoes, which I really dislike. I'm glad I declined.

I'm intrigued by this recipe. I'll run it by my Sweetie, and is she gives me the go-ahead I'll give it a try.

I bought an All-Clad Copper Core 3 qt sauce pan. It arrived on Sunday but I haven't used it yet. I only truly started cooking again this month, having been dealing with an intensely sad loss in the family that occurred in December. Please know that I am doing well now.

I have 2 of them (they were packaged as 2) in my kitchen and I like them. I used Tramontina pans for over 2 decades when I ran my Ren Faire participants kitchen and they did yeoman service. As much as I hate hand-washing, the "discoloration" they mention rubs off and makes a mess, so I do hand-wash them.

My Sweetie and I just raised a glass to the memory of your Darling.

I installed several Rev-a-Shelves in the kitchen in our old kitchen after renovation. We loved them. When we moved into our new home I installed 9 of them. As an older retired person they make storing cooking-baking-serving pieces easy. We find them worth the cost. I purchased ours from Lowe's.

Yes, this is the one.

Thermoworks Smoke. Hopefully the 2-probe model would meet your goals.

👍

Yay for the Timer Stack.

I am very happy with this opener. No regrets for buying it.

We have an OTR microwave that came with our new home. Great for defrosting and reheating. We have an Oster "convection toaster oven" that comes with a screen rack making it an "air fryer." I don't give a rip about air frying but YMMV. It's the French double door version. The Oster is on a rolling table. This combination is serving us well. Initially we bought the Oster because we planned on getting a Blue Star range. The model I want doesn't have a broiler so the Oster would be used for that. Our current range doesn't have convection. I don't know if this helps but I'm putting it out there as my experience.

@Shel_B You brought back a memory. Thank you. In 1964 my mother got a Kenmore gas range with slide-out burners. It had a large oven below the burners section and another oven over the burners. It was great for preparing holiday meals. She used that stove until 2010 when she moved to an assisted living facility. I cooked countless family dinners on that stove in my high school years.