Porthos

Just did a walk-through. Still not impressed. Produce was a mish-mash of bruised, blemished, and first quality. They have a limited selection of apples and I would have been out of luck if I had done my shopping there earlier today. I needed Braeburns, something Aldi does not carry. Milk prices for what I drink are comparable to where I normally shop. And since they only sell gallons it wouldn't matter. With it down to me as the only milk drinker in the house I am now buying 1/2 gallon jugs. I get my eggs for a lower price. When I looked at their canned goods I felt like I was in a Big Lots, products with labels that are supposed to look like name brands. The snacks aisle didn't fare much better. I just kept noticing the lack of choices. I did not look at meat. We drink, mostly my DW, a lot of soda. Their selection was pathetic. I didn't look at meat. I live in a highly competitive grocery store market so as it stands Aldi still doesn't work for me. I am thinking that Aldis in different areas of the U.S. have significant differences such as the pricing on milk. I already knew that Aldi and TJs have the same parent corporation. I still like TJs a lot.

WinCo is my go-to store, 1 1/2 miles away. Within 3 miles or less I also have Raphls, Vons (Safeway), Stater Bros, Superior Grocers, Aldi and other markets close but WinCo beats the others on price most of the time. Their produce section is well-stocked and, except for root vegetables, are of good quality. Root veggies tend toward old so you have to check individual items to make sure your getting something that will be okay. I don't mind the self-bagging. They installed 6 self-checkout statoins and I use them 95% of the time. I probably shop there an average of 3-4 times a week, picking up 10-12 items. I buy a bit less than half of my meat there since I shop ads and Stater Bros puts various meats (which they are famous for) on good sales. Sausages and frozen chicken parts come from Costco. The one down-side I can think of is that because of their very favorable pricing they tend to be the go-to store for people that need government assistance (and I am assigning no shame there) and so the first 10 days of the month there are many families filling carts to the brim, and that does take a lot of time for checkout. I work a bit harder during those days to be able to use the self-check. I jokingly call my self-f s self-check ninja because, since I use self-check when I can at any store I am very efficient. As stated way up-thread I was very off-put by Aldi when I tried it when my local store opened a year and a half ago; that was before California enacted the "no more single-use plastic bags**" law. I suppose I should give it another try, better-armed now with knowledge of how they operate. ** A law that is not equally applied. Lowes and many others can still supply single-use bags to their customers.

Bought Tasting Rome, reading Opa! The Healthy Greek Cookbook at the moment.

They are great step-stools and we use them in other places in our home. We have a 2-step folding step-stool for the kitchen. At barely 5'7" along with with short arms I need the additional height of the 2-step. Because of my decreasing mobility I foresee not being able to use the Rubbermaid in the not-too-distant future.

I thought of a couple of things that I do. Crouching down has become difficult for me. Finding things on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator is particular challenge. I started using baker's half sheets on the bottom shelf to act ike a poor man's slide-out shelf. They have the added advantage of being easily cleaned if meat juices and the like spill on them. After a real "Duh!" moment I realized that I could use a measuring cup for the rinse aid for my dishwasher and pour it in without risking overflow. For my machine it's 3 ounces.

I would not use it with it's 77 pound load rating. I weigh a great deal more.

Yeah for us of compact stature. My FIL was at his tallest 6' (no idea of what his height is now) and my MIL was 5' 11". They had no need of a step-stool in their home. My DW is 5' 6" and I am 5' 7". We need a step-stool there.

@Toliver We need an icon with dollar sign that signifies "I just bought that." The Alice Waters book got me.

I stopped using toggle bolts many years ago. Yes, they really hold, but if you need to temporarily remove whatever has been mounted, say for painting, the toggle is lost and has to be replaced. I use drywall anchors (see picture below) but I probably wouldn't use them in your plaster walls. Instead of a toggle that flattens against the inner wall, the "tang" area spreads out to form the inner wall load bearing surface. Because it has a built-in washer on outside surface of the anchor it remains firmly in place if you have to remove whatever you have mounted.

In my northern ren faire kitchen I have two 12" mag strips attached to MDF with simple wood screws. Knives are put up and taken down all through the 6 hours it takes to prep, cook and serve the feast. Still holding solidly after many seasons of use. Just my 2 cents ...

Not really a joke, just something that made me chuckle. I somehow ended up an email list from "Kitchn." Yesterday's lead item was a recipe for "3-Ingredient Garlicky Potatoes," a recipe that had 6 ingredients. I learned the difference between the quantities of three and six 58 years ago.

Sealed Burner. No gaps that expose the area beneath the main stove top: Open Burner, gaps between the burners and the drip ring or grates. :

When my DW and I had to replace our dying builders-grade stove I had 3 specific things the new stove had to have. 1) The burner controls had to be "full rotation" as opposed to 1/4 turn from off to full on. 2) It had to have one decent power burner; 15k or higher. 3) The oven had to have convection. The replacement would be a a standard slide-in 30" model to fit in the existing space. We ended up with a 5-burner stove with the continuous grate and sealed burners. The stove we replaced had sealed burners also. I have come to actively hate sealed burners. Cleanup, which and I am already unfortunately lazy about, is much harder. We like the stove. It does have downsides. The 5th burner in the center is useless. Even with the oven's convection feature we have to rotate baking pans mid-way through baking to get a fairly even finished item. It does, however, speed up the overall baking time. Although I rarely use the broiler I like having it in the top of the oven instead of the "drawer beneath" style. There is as drawer there and I keep my cast iron pans in it. My DW doesn't care for the broiler. I like the continuous grate. My DW thought that having convection would be useless; she became the early adopter of using it. RE: Griddles. I have a Lodge cast iron reversible grill/griddle that I have used less than once a years since we bought it years ago as part of a set. The grill side is a pain in the a$$ to clean if there is a wet marinade on the meat. I don't think I have ever used the griddle side. I cook bacon in the oven and I don't do pancakes. I could try it for potato pancakes by my CI pans serve me just fine. @quiet1 This stove fits the way my DW and I cook. I am now retired so I do most of the cooking and that is fine with me. The food we prepare is western-European-centric. We cook essentially from scratch and dinner for the 2 of us still typically uses 2-3 pans. I think deciding on a stove is similar to buying a knife. You need what fits your style and preferences. Best of luck.

I thought that I had read that if you SV in bulk, and the freeze, that you were supposed to SV the item again based using the same time in the bath as when you first cooked the item. I tried SVing 4 meals's worth of pork strips and froze 3 of the 4. When I re-SV'ed a package last night (at a slightly lower temp to not increase the doneness, they were borderline dry, way different than the first package right out of the bath. What am I missing?

Either off the sale now or that is a Prime price. I followed the link and got a price of $18.99 .

RE: Right hand/left hand: My DW (we've been married for 39 years) is a lefty. There were numerous things she had to learn to do using right-handed items growing up. I still remember one of the things she acquired very early in our marriage was left-handed shears for her sewing. So much more comfortable and easy to use. Edited to fix a typo. It's too late for me to be at the keyboard.

Couldn't pass this one up. Thanks, @cdh.

After sticker shock last night at Costco I knew my fellow eGulleters would have information on the insane jump in vanilla's cost.

@Toliver The really good news is I need another pan like I need a toothache. No worries.

I'm thinking that that price is for Prime members. I see $ 54.76 when I look.

The trick is to steam them rather than boil them. Steaming is a bit more tolerant on timing - and they peel easier.

My DW and I recently stopped at an Arby's that had dreadful service, a half an hour for a 2-sandwich order. That issue aside, we were struck by the overblown, trying to be too many things for too many people menu. The only thing they sell that I stop for normally are dragon's eggs, better known as Jalepeno Bites or such.

Hanger 24 in Redlands. Their chocolate porter is incredible. For a couple of years it was a weeknight "get together" spot with some of my ren faire friends. Hanger 24

My DW got her degree in German literature (a long time ago in a university far, far way - ok, 30 miles) and thinks this looks like an interesting book. I have already one-clicked it.

@Norm Matthews Also yay for the attached bottle opener. Mine is mounted over the recycle can.