Porthos

@rotuts I would suggest Googling "Costco Business Center" to see if there are any in your area. The one I went to is about 55 miles from where I live, about 10 miles from my FILs house. I am at his house twice a week for things related to his terminal illness.

I went to see the Costco Business Center in Westminster, CA this morning for the first time. I found chuck rolls in their commercial meat area but I didn't go prepared to plunk down 50-70 dollars for the whole thing. But I now know I can get them. I think it was $2.79/lb.

I am very picky. For Chili I want a very coarse chop so that there are visible pieces in the finished dish. At the other end of the scale is risotto where I add extra vertical and horizontal starting slices and then slice the overall onion as thin as I can get it. Other things fall in between.

I couldn't find any previous threads regarding this topic. Moderators, please merge this into the existing thread if there is one. Thanks. I was reading some internet pages on basic meal planning. I have gotten back to meal planning because deciding what to have for dinner any given evening was getting to be a major chore. I am doing my planning old school, a word document. Something that was mentioned, and I have read this in the past also, is about doing prep work in advance, up several days in advance, for ingredients that need chopping, slicing, etc. I can't get my head around that. I like to freshly dice my onions and other such ingredients as part of starting a meal. Is my reluctance to prep in advance foolishness as if it were based upon an old wives tale or such or not? Who preps in advance and how do you keep things fresh enough to not notice the difference? As a reference point specifically for onions, the coarseness of fineness of the dice is dictated by each dish I am preparing.

I like it.

You all have given me reasons enough to give them a try. Thanks.

I hadn't heard of this show until seeing this thread. My DW and I have watched the first 2 episodes, and we want to keep watching. We both had the same reaction to one bit of the opening sequence, the guy with his long hair hanging down over whatever he was working on.

I didn't buy any but I would guess 4 maybe 4.5 cm.

We are having a heat wave with (for southern CA) high humidity (around 40 or more) so I decided to beat the afternoon heat with some air-conditioned thrift shopping. This was my reward. $5.00 for the both of them. The CIA's The Professional Chef was picked up to look for ideas to improve my techniques in the kitchen.

The supermarket where I buy most of my produce has shallots that seems much larger than what I have purchased in the past, and I took a pass on them. To me they are huge. Makes me wonder what is typical. Thoughts? This is a shallot next to cherry tomatoes.

I am happy with my Bosch.

You're not exactly having summer weather these days. I hope the cold and rain break up soon.

The cross-rib steaks were tasty enough but not as tender as I had hoped. I've not done much with longer times. I think I want to try 12 hours for the other package. Anything I should be aware of?

I found a mark-down choice cross-rib roast for $3.24/lb. I cut it into 2 meals-worth of steaks. One will go into a 133 F bath for 4 1/2 hours for tonight's dinner. I currently have 2 bags of chicken leg meat in veggie broth in a 147 F bath that will go into the freezer. One is earmarked for chicken stroganof.

My DW gave me an IR thermometer several years ago and I had rarely used it until I got into SV. It makes checking the temperature of the CI pan easy when searing meats that have come out of an SV bath.

I tucked my ChefAlarm away for safe-keeping. It's safe from use since I can't remember where I tucked it. I really, really like their Extra Big and Loud Timer, although it is not on sale at the moment, it does go on sale periodically. I own 3, one for my home kitchen, one for my FIL's kitchen and one for ren faire kitchens. As I remember it the ChefAlarm had an easy-to-use timer but didn't have the volume adjustment.

We have city-provided large trash barrels, colored coded for recycle, green waste and landfill, and they have attached, hinged lids and built-in wheels. Our trash trucks have grippers on a track that seize the barrel and run it up to the top of the truck and dump it. Unless you foolishly try to overfill one they do a great job of containing whatever is in them. You are allowed more than one each if you need them. We have two recycle barrels. Anna, I didn't realize that regular trash cans were still in use anywhere. I most decidedly don't miss them.

Garbage collection relates to food. You have to dispose of the packaging or you would run out of room to cook and bake.

My DW and I have always shopped together and mostly stay together. If she is needing time for something specific I will go to nearby aisles to grab other stuff on the list. For health reasons one of the worst things I can do to my back is just stand on concrete for more than a couple of minutes.

I am going to SV a couple of 12oz shoulder chops next week to cut into cubes to go into an entree salad.I am thinking 57 C for 3 1/2 hours. I will let you know how that comes out. My DW asked me to make this salad and I agreed to but she knows I am adding lamb to it. Greek Tortellini Pasta Salad (and, yes, I did word-process into my preferred format)

My DW, my daughter, and me if I'm not at home when I think of something, send emails to me, putting the item(s) to add to the list in the subject line. I use this system for a few other lists also, most notably Northern Ren Faire. I tried pad and pen up there but it didt' work well for me. @chromedome I went through the flyers on-line this morning. @JoNorvelleWalker I can't imagine life without a cell phone. For us, in a few months our landline service is being cancelled and our cell phones will be our only phones. Our daughters, therehusbands and good friends have all done it and don't regret it. I understand that it doesn't work for everyone's situation.

@Shelby The lists help but I still miss things.

I started typing when I was 12 years old, and made my living in front of a computer for many years. Since I can't read my own scrawl word-processing works much better for me. I once had a manager tell me that I didn't need to word-process my monthly reports. After I gave him a hand-written report he told me I could word-process i the future.

When my DW and I were first married we shopped at one store, Ralph's. I created a shopping list for staples that was organized by the store's layout. This list was kept on the fridge and when we got low or ran out of a staple we would just mark the checkbox. This worked very well - until - they completely re-merchandised the store. This was before the days of home computers and I didn't have the heart to type out a new list in fear of them changing things again. For WinCo, I will re-order the items to match the store layout when I am ready to print the list. One other thought. For short lists I will copy and paste into an email rather than printing it out.

Stupid question. If the bridge were to be stuck closed, why couldn't the ships go through the gap between Manitoulin Island and Cockburn Island?