Porthos

We use Rubbermaid and Tupperware tubs, just placing the cookies into them with no stacking, then into the freezer. This has served us well for many years

Not about your reno - but about project management. My FIL is in a care facility dying of cancer. He will never return to his home. He has lately started asking about major maintenance issues with the house, replacing the windows, exterior painting, etc. The plan that my DW and her siblings have is to wait until after his passing and see if the house should be sold as-is, the most common way with estate sales, or if the realtor thinks that certain deep maintenance would increase the profit margin. As the retired one who lives nearby, it would fall on me to oversee the contractors who would be doing the work. Since I think the house has too many deep issues (plumbing, electrical is no longer sufficient, etc) I think the as-is would be the best bet. For the moment we are stalling. With my engineering background I know I can do the administration/oversite of the various contractors, but I would like to put that off until we know that we will not be selling the house as-is.

Mess is okay.

Tried an experiment today. When I print out seldom used recipes I toss them into the recycle bin when I'm done with them. Most of the recipes for Christmas cookies fit in that category. I wondered if making PDFs of the recipes and using an old monitor along with my laptop (in the family room) would work. Yes. I liked it a lot. Now to clean the counters from all the cookie baking I've in the last few days.

@DesertTinker I use brown rice. After cooling I just bag it in 2-cup portions using1 qt Ziploc bags. I schmuch each one flat and freeze. They get used up soon enough to not suffer freezer burn.

We freeze most cookies. They stand up to freezing nicely. There are a few that don't go in the freezer. Springerle need to "ripen" after baking. Bourbon balls are made the day before tins are filled. If we end up adding in some form of rice krispie treats they don't go in the freezer either. @cakewalk We are pretty disciplined to stay out of them. We do take a few cookies from each kind of cookies as they are bake - strictly for quality control.

We've worked on our list for this year. We need to add 4 or 5 more. My DW will make the springerle. She will also make the Russia Tea Cakes because I think they are an uninteresting waste of time cookie. When the cookie baking first turned into enough for 35 tins and 2 platters my DW was doing most of the baking. Now that I am retired and a house husband I do most of the cookie making. Oatmeal Raisin* Wadleigh’s Chocolate Chip* Shortbread (Fannie Farmer's recipe) Cherry icebox Brownies Soft Ginger Cookies* Chocolate Crinkle Pferrernuesse White Chocolate Chip Craisin* Russian Tea Cakes Bourbon balls Budd’s Almond Cherry Chip Springerle * Already in the freezer. The Maida Heatter Soft Ginger Cookies will not happen again. They are supposed to be a basic drop cookie. After chilling for 24 hours I was able to make one sheet of 24 using my drop-dough-in-powdered-sugar-then-make-a-ball technique but about half way through the second sheet the dough, which had been out of the refrigerator less than 15 minutes, got too sticky to work with. The cookies taste fine but are not a simple drop cookie. Sourcing question. I have only found candied cherries in one store and at a price I didn't want to pay. The produce man at Vons said that they hadn't received any and my DW and I couldn't locate any at Stater Bros. Are they harder to come by this year?

Not EVOO (which to me is supposed to add flavor, not be neutral) but for a mild oil I can recommend Kirkland Olive oil in the 5 liter jugs. It is my everyday OO.

Outside of steaming veggies we don't actually cook in our large Panasonic Inverter MW. It does, however, a superior job of defrosting meat and reheating items. I don't ever want to be without an inverter MW in the future.

Here's the link: Mastering Pasta: The Art and Practice of Handmade Pasta, Gnocchi, and Risotto Kindle Edition

I've been pondering something that occurred a couple of months ago and find that I still feel mildly irritated so I want to bounce it off of my friends here at eGullet. As most of you know, I supply the knives for my ren faire kitchens, and that includes supplying a "steel." This year I purchased a ceramic steel from EdgePro and am very happy with it; I feel it does a better job of finishing and keeping an edge. There is someone who I really appreciate who comes in after the feast is over to make soup out of the leftovers. The soup is put out after faire closes to give the reenactors something to eat to tide them over until they can get a proper dinner. I noticed a coarsely-grooved steel show up and, after commenting on it to my friend who is essentially my sous chef said that the soup maker had brought it because he wasn't keen on the ceramic steel. Since we are all volunteers and I am grateful for the soup maker coming in and preparing the soups I said nothing. However, it bothered me that he didn't even ask about using something different on my knives. I feel like I am being petty, yet this is the equipment I supply. Am I really that petty, or should he have shown me the courtesy of at least asking me about the hone or telling me he had brought another? As an aside I work diligently to provide sharp, well maintained knives. Each time someone who comes into my kitchen who had been in the kitchens prior to my taking over they comment on how nice it it to have sharp knives.

One can never be too rich, too skinny ... OR ... have too many knives.

I started working on my list yesterday and I got started baking today, but it was a rocky beginning. I am trying Maida Heatter's Giant Ginger Cookies Recipe, EXCEPT, I am trying to make small cookies. The dough is exceptionally sticky. I couldn't make my disher work, then I foolishly tried putting it into a pastry bag. That was worse. I shoved the mixing bowl into the fridge, licked my wounds for a while, and then decided to get back on the horse by making a couple of our old standards. Chocolate Chip Cookies and White Chocolate Craisin Cookies. The several hours of time helped me to come up with a plan. I am going to treat them like the Chocolate Crinkle Cookies we make. Keep the dough chilled, make small round balls the get rolled in powdered sugar for easier handling, and bake. Based on the few cookies I did bake up I would not call them giant ginger cookies, I would call them molasses spice cookies, good tasting but no high note of ginger. 16 more to go before the 21st.

Bought the sausage book. I wanted to get started on making my own sausages to come up with some that my DW would like. Most Costco/Supermarket sausages offering put for the corporate belief that people will only buy spicy or pepper-centric sausages.

Tuesday was a good day for thrift shopping. My youger daughter and her husband have moved into their own home. They arleady have most of what they need but there are still holes. My DD likes to use glass pans for baking (I mostly dislike glass in the kitchen) and she needed more real PYREX pans. I found a shallow 8 x 8, a 7 x 11, and a 9 x 13, all for around $10.00. A 10" non-stick saute' pan is my goto saute' pan and I have kept 2 hanging on my pot rack for years. I had to toss one recently. Since it is down to my DW and me, and because of her weight loss surgery fixing dinner is for 1 1/2 people, I was looking for one more small sauce pan. I really like my Vollrath PRO-HG cookware; it serves me well. I found an almost complete set of what I own in a Goodwill individually priced and was able to get the 10" saute' pan and the 2 qt sauce pan for $11.88. Not a steal, but very affordable. I had already given her a knife block but she asked if I could find a larger block which would also include slots for steak knives. I found this for $4.49: I hope to find this one for her in the future but this style only shows up around once a year.

No sure which forum this should go in. Costco has decided to break my snack-heart. Today I went to the food court to get my favorite snack, a Polish dog and a drink, and Costco has taken it off of the menu. The worker said they still had hot dogs. Um, no thanks. Sadness has crept into my life.

The electronics et al stores by that name in our area are Frye's. I wonder if corporate evolution comes into play. Apparently I can't read anymore. Sad because I have shopped there.

What information I can find says it was 8' wide.

That is a beautiful wall of storage. Will your coffee station be in the counter in the middle?

While doing a little research I found this link that appears to be the story of this particular trailer: 1953 Vagabond Trailer – Model 35.

Great link. Thanks. In the 50s that was a typical mobile home - when mobile homes weren't "manufactured housing" but meant to be moved when you wanted to pull up stakes and settle somewhere else. My dad had close friends that owned one of that size that I was in as a kid. They even had a spinet Hammond organ in it.

@Smithy When I showed Kate the picture of your prime rib she said to tell you that our invitation must have gotten lost in the snail mail. It looks like it was wonderful.

Appreciate the info. Thanks.

It was 94 F here today. Notsupposed to have to run the air conditioner the day before Thanksgiving. So happy to "ride along" with you as you enjoy your trek.

Yup, we drink it. The carbonic acid flows down into the stomach, which already has acids in it. My esophagus is none the worse for wear after 50+ years of consuming the stuff.