Porthos

Happy Birthday! My computer is arguing with eG. The photo doesn't want to show the correct orientation.

Thank you, @Toliver, for continuing this posts. Had to buy the AB book. Adds to my pile of digital books for vacations and such. It will probably get read while in the eastern Sierras later this month.

That's never been a problem for me.

@orbisvicis Never been a problem for me.

I've used these 12 qt pots from Bed, Bath & Beyond in my ren faire kitchens for years, same pot but they used a different "brand" name for them when I bought them. They hold up well. I've made countless soups in them. I've used them on regular stoves and 30k BTU camp stoves, they can take it. I have both the pot above and the ones with the pasta insert. The pasta insert works very well for steaming large amounts of veggies, hard cooking 5 dozen eggs, etc.

@liuzhou They don't say how the customers are prepared.

Regarding the question of Hot German Potato Salad being an actual German dish, yes it is. I checked in a cookbook written in Germany and it lists 4 regional variations. I mentioned this to my wife and she reminded me of when we served my MIL's recipe for HGPS to our friend Geli years ago, and Geli said it was was an authentic dish. Our friendship with her and her husband was such that she would not have said so just out of politeness.

Agreed. Several years ago an acquaintance offered me some potato salad, and I declined. I found out a little while later that it was SWEET potato salad. I'm glad I declined. I would have gagged on it. My potato salad is steamed red or gold potatoes (skin on) cut smallish bite size, salt, Best Foods or homemade mayo, green onion or onion powder, finely chopped celery and chopped hard-cooked eggs. Raw red onion was part of it in the past, but my Sweetie no longer does the raw onion thing; they don't agree with her any more. Sometimes paprika in a nod to my mom's PS, which was always liked by me.

It's being replaced by the Thermapen One, one second temperature readings.

I thought this was a very good read.

I would have preferred Lowes. Unfortunately they don't do cabinet refacing.

The big box store we used was Home Depot. I strongly recommend you avoid them. In the department of surprises: Before the renovation we had a room AC unit in the kitchen window so we never "opened" it. When I went to open it a couple of weeks ago I discovered that the tile guy had randomly smeared grout between the window and window frame. I have taken care of it. The laminate flooring contractor was awesome. The crew of 4 did the complete job in 2 hours.

I prefer the squeeze bottle with the cap at the bottom. In our home catsup has 2 uses, dipping sauce for our grandchildren, and topping (before baking) meatloaf. The 3 y/o grandchild would prefer to just eat the catsup, but we do require her to eat some actual food. RE ... we do require ... My mother was the wrong kind of indulgent, not expecting the kids to behave. My wonderful in-laws showed lots of love and kindness, but expected the kids to behave.

A Girl and Her Pig called out to me.

Regular Chili White Chili and Beans Ground Beef and Onions in White Sauce over a Baked Potato or Noodles

I replaced my Thermapen with the MK4 Thermapen and gave my daughter my original Thermapen.

Yup.

We chose a Moen no-touch faucet for the sink. I discovered that if you pour out boiling water on the side where the faucet is, the steam turns on the faucet.

The completed (except for the window blinds and valance) kitchen. Between preparing for vacation, getting ready for the flooring, and life, the peninsula became a catch-all. Looking past the peninsula and pantry to the family room. I buggered up my upper right arm/shoulder but good last month and it has only pretty much healed up this week. I couldn't support weight with it so I had to put off installing the blinds.

This is a butcher knife to me. The main section of knife has a large curve and then there is tapering towards the handle. YMMV.

A small bit of humor. We picked out the flooring last fall. As it was being installed this morning I started wondering what they were doing to already damaging the surface. Um, we had picked out a distressed surface. All is well.

At last the flooring was installed today. Pictures tomorrow.

Maybe 3 years ago I realized just what a cooking rut I was in. I did start to try to cook something new from our cookbooks, at first once a week, then it dwindled back down. Enter getting a Samsung Tablet with a Kindle reader on it. I started buying and using them again. Some cookbooks are e-versions of stuff on my shelves, but mostly they're new-to-me cookbooks. Early in my marriage I tended toward more involved preparation, but now quicker, fresh-ingredients cooking is my main interest. Michael Symon's Five in Five is a favorite of mine. While our kitchen was down for renovation, just getting food prepared was enough. The continuing home renovation often leaves me spent and not interested in cooking that night. I recently read Jacques Pepin's autobiography and when his Fast Food My Way and More Fast Fast Food My Way showed up in the Crazy Good e-Book Bargains I grabbed them. I'm reading through More right now and will make something from it very soon.