Porthos

I would vote for stainless. Remember that SS is a class of steels, not just one formulation. The three that I am most familiar with are 304, 316 and 316L but there are m any others. As to the surface appearance that is based upon both the metallurgy of the specific alloy and how the surface was finished. Edited to add: I thrift shop on a weekly basis and find all manner of stainless steel bowls but I have never seen one like the pictured by Shel_B. If I do come across one I will snap it up.

From these 2 articles I gather that aluminum-steel alloys probably didn't exist 40 years ago.

No burnt bacon. Not so yummy.

Plus 1 for pretty.

I saw a woman doing this with oranges at Costco last year. Since in my ren faire cooking I serve orange slices with the peel still on them I found watching it disturbing. It just is wrong. I have taken a box back to Costco because of the number of rotten oranges in it. Their return policy is the best I have encountered. I bought a Seiko watch that I need to return this week. It stops keeping time when I swap it out to wear a different watch.

I vote for the traditional baked potato toppings.

Seeing the beets reminded me of a prank we pulled a couple of times in the northern Ren Faire kitchen before we started sharing it with a commercial venture in the afternoon. The prank: cutting off the bottom of the beet and pushing it under the stove so that is looks like a rat's tail sticking out.

I never begrudge someone a day of just resting.

I wonder if Hydro went out in Little Current.

Sorry the muslin isn't doing what you want.

I can clearly remember dining with friends when children at a table next to us were making the dining experience miserable for everyone in the restaurant. Finally another patron asked management to step in. When the manager came over and spoke the parents, they immediately told their children that they were at fault in a tone that put all of the blame on the children and took no personal responsibility at all. I worked at the Happiest Place on Earth for a year and a half and I remember "snapping" and making a one-sentence statement to the parent that violated my training. I was wrong but dealing with self-centered entitlement-mentality adults can get to you. 40 minutes of not dealing with a child is just wrong. Maybe she shouldn't have yelled, but it sounds like the parents needed to hear it and it's a reasonable possibility that calm speech might not have gotten through.

Are you kidding me? wow.

Thanks for posting this. I now have a second BIg&Loud timer (this one for home) and a Timestick, which I will be wearing on the lanyard.. The Timestick isn't quite as loud as they would have you believe but being able to lock the keys, sealed membrane keys , after I start it is a big plus.

There is no one-size-fits-all cookware. From my perspective Le Creuset is not a good fit for your style of cooking. I don't think that makes it mediocre, it simply makes it not the best choice for how you cook. I no longer have Le Creuset because I am an idiot and did not take reasonable care of it. I used to be exrtremely hard on my cookware. I regret that. In my younger years I had no idea that Le Creuset was anything more than another brand. I get it now.

Home: most of the time it is my 10" Mighty Oak chef's knife, a brand that was not around for very long but this knife still rocks 33 years later. I have a Henkles 4-star paring knife that use when I use a paring knife which is not often. My 8" Henkles feels like a toy in my hand but it is there when I need it when my 10" is dirty. Travelling/Faire: 10" Victornox Forschner chef's knife. I have been very happy with it. Between my home and running my volunteer ren faire kitchen I own many other knives but these are my back workhores knives.

Thank you.

Cheese or no cheese, you had me at bacon and freshly-baked bread. I am not a baker but the no-knead bread has me intrigued. However, since it's been in the 90s here for several weeks and many of those days humid (by southern California standards) firing up the oven is just not going to happen right now. Is the Forkish recipe online or do I need a particular book? edited to add: Disneyland's Village Haus restaurant has a very interesting flatbread BLT pizza.

Is that a citrus juicer next to the Cuisinart?

A few years ago my DW gave a an IR thermometer thinking I would like it for checking surfaces temps on my grill. I have played with it a bit but never really used it. We have taken it for faire and she has used it to take spot temperatures in the commercial operation refrigerator just for reference. So my vote, solely based upon how I haven't really used it, is that I would not spend the money on one. YMMV.

Fun read. My wife liked to watch DD&D for some time. No longer, thankfully. I reached the point that I would leave the room and find something else to do. It was that or smash the TV to smithereens the next time I heard "taking the bus to flavorland" or whatever that phrase was. You know who my favorite celebrity chef is. Paul Prudhomme. Go to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. Look for Guy or the others. I don't see them. I do see Paul sitting on his scooter cooking for the attendees. That is a class act.

Anna, that bread looks just amazing.

In other threads induction versus traditional electric versus gas for cooking is being discussed. I know that I would loss using the oven during a power failure but my gas stove lights just fine with a butane lighter (long neck) or matches. I agree with your concern about having your baking messed up by a power failure.

Shel_B, thank you for posting the link.

I just realized how strident my last post sounded. My apologies.

I prefer, rather strongly, bones skinless thighs. I do not like cooking bone-in chicken.