Porthos

I'm not a fan of traditional scrambled eggs, fluffy and a bit separated, and not as dry as I like my eggs to be. I'm also a tad lazy when making something for breakfast just for me. I do like omelets but generally don't want to break out a bigger pan and a bowl to beat the eggs in. My solution is my "scromelet." I break the eggs into the pan, break them up with a spatula, maybe add some cheese, stir it around for a few seconds then bring it together in one mass. I flip it to get both sides "set" to my preference and it's done. What do my friends here do to adapt simple foods to your preferences?

We've had the 3-barrel system for many years in our part of southern California. It's all collected once a week. The newest wrinkle for us is that food waste doesn't go into the landfill barrel anymore. I gets bagged up and added to the green waste barrel. And, yes, it's a pain in the backside. We purchased a step-on trashcan that is in the garage. I add food waste to a bag for several days, each time twisting the top and holding it closed with a binder clip. When it's full enough for me, it gets tied off and put into the green barrel. ETA: I am particular about brands of plastic kitchen storage. At this point I only buy Ziploc containers because they resist the oily build-up.

I'll make the fourth. I don't know what happened to it all over the years. I don't remember any of it still being in her kitchen when we helped her clean things out prior to her moving from California to North Carolina when she turned ninety. I claimed the Revereware 3 qt sauce pan that pre-dated my birth. I used that pan growing up; I started cooking the family dinner when I was 13 and that was my "vegetables" pan.

Update. With his permission three years ago we cleared out my MIL's cookbooks, each family member getting the volumes that they were interested in, and the rest were donated. Instead of thinning our collection, we added to it. Now, three years after that, we're packing up our home to move to Arizona and all of the cookbooks are coming with us. Our new house has a walk-in pantry with a lot of shelving. I hope that my Sweetie will be okay with putting them in there.

I shared this on FB and a friend pointed out that Carlos could be Mayan and a virgin.

Reading the Forbes article Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents' Stuff gave my Sweetie, me and other family members good insight when we cleaned out his parents house. There were specific things from the kitchen that My Sweetie and I wanted; no pictures - most of our kitchen is packed up since we're moving soon. My MIL had a large cookbook collection, and family only wanted a few of them. Our daughters didn't want the Lenox that had been handed to us by a great-uncle. We found a niece that did so they will be kept in the family. We've instructed our daughters that when we die to go through the house for anything they want then have a professional estate sale company liquidate the rest. It has been very hard to resist going thrift shopping or stopping at yard sales but we've lived 38 years in the house we're packing up and don't need to add to what we will be moving. Thrift stores and yard sales will again happen once we're in our new home, which hopefully will be before Thanksgiving. I still have a few previous thrift store finds to deal with including pre-1960 CI pans to restore, and a few knives to restore.

This may be effort than some might want to do, but I can't read my own hand-printing any more:

On DVDs. Julia Child, Alton Brown, Giada Delaurentous (sp)

Yup. Shared this elsewhere.

For an authentic Santa Maria BBQ oak is the wood of choice, and tri-tip is the meat of choice. . The grilling attachment that the OP showed is the correct style. I've long since moved away from S.M. but still have clear memories of that taste. We have come close to being able to recreat it. Finding pinquito beans was near impossible so we used everyday pink beans. Should we elect to do it again Rancho Gordo now sources them.

For several years I had fun finding mostly name-brand knives in thrift stores that had been beat to hell and then discarded. I found pleasure in giving them new life by restoring their edges. I used some in my ren Faire kitchens, gave some away, and some ended up in our knife blocks. 2 or 3 years ago I found a 6" Wusthoff chef's knife for maybe $2, bought it, and put a new edge on it. I asked my wife if she thought our younger daughter would like it. Instead, my wife asked for it. Since an 8" chef's knife is her go-to knife, a 6" for small tasks made sense.

My bad. Ignore what I posted below. However, I do love my Vollrath. Vollrath. Mine:

Let's start with I have way too many knives, and I'm a die-hard Western knives man for myself. I've no quarrel with those who's preference is Eastern knives. In my block are a 10" chef's knife that I use for many tasks, an 8" Wusthoff that is better for some smaller jobs, and another 10" chef's knife that I use for produce-only prep, because that one gets hand washed and has a thinner spine.. I have a 7" Nakiri that was a gift that is rarely used as it's stamped blade is just a tad too fragile for my use. I have a 7" utility knife that is useful to me, and a 3" paring knife. There are other knives in my block but these are the ones that get used the most. I've been (slowly) transitioning from (International) Henkles to Wusthoff. I'm still a firm believer in handling the knives in the style your considering and find what feels right in your hand

@Kerry Beal I think of you and Manitoutin when watching The Incredible Dr Pol, a vet in Michigan. When new veterinarians join the practice they're always unsure of how they'll get hooks out of pets lips and such. A more seasoned vet comes into the exam room and simply either pushes it on through or gets out the wire cutters and are done in a few seconds.

My Sweetie and I bring spices, good knives, cutting boards, kitchen spoons, spatulas and my beloved Melamine serving spoons; also various kitchen gadgets like a garlic press. For eating the meal wine glasses. Pots and pans are menu dependent.

That's not messy. I can still see counter space. 😉

I started buying the pre-cut 1/2 sheets at least 10 years ago. I never want to be without it again. When we were doing our massive Christmas cookie baking before my Sweetie retired, parchment on the the half-sheet baking pans made it easy to slide the a sheet of cookies off of the pan onto the cooling rack. I also use them, cut in half, to line half-size disposable foil pans of baked goods.

My Thermapen lives in a drawer next to stove, along with some alcohol prep pads for cleaning it after each use while cooking. I do the dishes so everything gets put away where I want it. A couple of decades ago my younger daughter didn't really care where I wanted the various bowls, casserole dishes, etc. My solution was to put pictures on the inside of the 3 related cabinet drawers, It was a major fail, but because of other things going on I didn't do anything more than mention it once in a while. That was a "pick your battles" decision. I am most anal about my knife block. every knife has a position, and all the blade edges go to the right. I do this in my wife's knife block also; she doesn't care so long as she has her knives at hand. One thing that did make my wife and adult kids crazy for a while is when I switched what was in 2 drawers. The flatware drawer had been next to the dishwasher at a 90 degree angle, for at least 15 years. When emptying the dishwasher it was grab some flatware, put it in the drawer, then close the drawer to grab more flatware. Repeat until all of the flatware was put away. I moved the flatware drawer to be one position further from the dishwasher. Viole, problem fixed, but I heard about the switch for many months. While I do the majority of the cooking it is our kitchen and we share it.

Same here, other than I don't like custard - it's a texture thing.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I hope it brings you pleasure for many years.

Kerry and I must be twins.

I use a spaetzle press like heiidill pointed to. 6.5 Oz flour 1 Egg Salt 1Tbsp Oil Work the flour, egg, and some salt into a dough. Pour 1/3 cup of water into the dough and mix in. If it's too stiff to go through the press add more water. I use a 3 quart pan with about 2 quarts of boiling water. Working in batches, lay the press over the water, spoon in some dough, then work the slide back and forth to release the dough, then pull off the press. When the noodles begin to float, give them a stir with a Asian Spider Strainer allowing the rest of them to rise, pause several seconds, then scoop out into a waiting bowl. I keep my bowl in a 170 F oven. This recipe is adapted from a German-language cookbook. My Sweetie speaks German, not me. These noodles are great with gravy* or you can make kasespaetle by add emmentaler cheese to it. * I always make these to go with saurbraten.

As always, thank you for sharing your travels and your food adventures. When you were near my Sweetie and I, I was sad that the flurry of pre-surgery appointments for my Sweetie's back surgery made trying to see you undoable. Surgery went well, 7 1/2 hours worth, and she's home. Rehab/healing will be on the order of months. Again, thank you. I look forward to this every year.

My Sweetie and I have a refrigerator that is anything but counter depth, but we could never imagine having less refrigerator space. For that same reason a side-by-side wouldn't work for us. We actively use the width on a regular basis. Here's how it fits in our current kitchen, and will be in the same relative position in our new house in Arizona:

My Sweetie and I both grew up in homes where mom cooked from scratch. My Sweetie and I cooked from scratch, not quite as much these days - health issues, and our daughters learned to cook from scratch. That has stood them well in their lean times. My younger daughter needed to be on WIC for a couple of years, and knowing how to cook, worked well for her. WIC was a supplement but covered most of her needs.