Porthos

Pyrex: 1 cup, 2 cups, 1 quart, 2 quarts.

I forget to take my reusable bags into the market about 50% of the time. Since the 2 places I shop at most frequently are bag-your-own I just put everything back into the cart and put the stuff into my bags at the car. If I forget at other places I just tell them "I don't need bags, thank you." When circumstances dictate that I do need a bag both of my primary places offer paper bags. My DW and I not perfectly green on the bag issue but we have made major strides in the last couple of years. The county and city we are in allow plastic bags still. There is a tiny economic incentive to bring your re-usable bags into the store - something like a $0.06 per bag credit.

Shel_B, what is the (rough estimate fine) volume that you want to be steaming - 1 qt, 2 qt, etc?

In the spring and in the fall in my ren faire kitchen I regularly steam (in separate batches) 10 lb of potatoes, 5 pounds of carrots, 3-4 pounds of broccoli,3-4 pounds of beets, 3 lbs of green beans, and other veggies as I am inspired. I use 8 qt and 12 qt 3-piece steamers and have never seen marks on the food from the steamer basket. I start each pot with a high flame and when it begins to steam I lower the flame to keep the steam going without over-vigorously boiling the water. It seems to work for me. Kim, do the steamers you have had the bad experiences touch the bottom of the vessel or are the baskets suspended from the top of the pot?

I don't seem to have had that experience with my 3-piece steamers.

Sorry, can't help. I had poor luck with them. I like the 3-piece because you can EASILY remove the steaming basket when the food (for me it's veggies) is done and thus immediately halt the steaming. edited to add: When not in use for steaming the pan makes a handy smaller-sized stock pot.

Are you asking about an insert or a 3-piece steamer (pan, steamer basket, lid)? Outside of a 3-piece steamer that is a leftover from an old cookware set the smallest I have is an 8 quart. I don't know if that large a steamer is what you are looking for.

JoAnns Fabrics stocks unbleached muslin, which by definition is cotton. I have only ever seen one weight. I am in JoAnns with my Sweetie often and I did double-check with her before answering.

I'm seeing a hybrid of what has been posted. Soup made at with half the water needed. When done, add an equal amount of ice. This should get the soup down to 50 C then using the wands to get to the 4 C level. Just thinking out loud ...

At a temporary set-up for a short-term gig we had a building inspector who after 5 visits on the sixth visit decided he didn't like how the vent pipe for the plumbing going into a sump tank was done. This inspector had a reputation for doing such things.

You might take a look at this link for ideas: http://adventuresinspice.com/flavormap/flavormap.html I mostly use dried but for a few very specific dishes I only use fresh.

Poly boards, mostly solid wood or melamine utensils (except for metal tongs) and (almost always) NSF-rated pots and pans from well-known companies. My new saucier is a Vollrath, my basic pots and pans are mostly Vollrath. I have S/S mixing bowls from Tramontina. These various things just seem to hold up for me. And if you have read other equipment-related posts from me you know I am not gentle with my gear. Edited to add: My decades-old Revere Ware pans are still going strong. My FIL asked about getting a new one and since they went off-shore the reviews talk a lot about warping. I lent him one of my extra pans instead. I hate plastic utentils and bowls because they are so hard to get oily residue off of. I particularly dislike plastic measuring cups - even the "heavy-duty" ones break on me. Except for wire whisks I try to avoid metal utensils because I do have a lot of non-stick pots and pans and I don't want to worry about grabbing the wrong spoon or whatever. I don't care for glass because I worry about dropping and breakage. My wife's knife block and our utensil crocks. For most people they will probably think there are too many but I don't like to worry about trying to clean and re-use them when I am doing a major amount of cooking at once - and there are 4 adults living here who all cook.

I buy bagged salad. If I didn't we would very rarely have salad. Tearing and cleaning lettuce is so not worth the effort when I can buy lettuce blends we all like for about $1.60/10 oz bag. I typically buy 2 different blends and then mix those before serving since ti provides more color and variety. I have been buying canned beans for several years. I have just started cooking up larger batches of beans than I need for a meal and freezing the rest. The jury is still out on that one. The home-made vs. boxed/canned stock debate has almost lived a life of its own on this forum. Bouillon and canned/boxed in my kitchen. I have no interest in making my own tomato sauce. I don't use that much anyway. I do keep a jar or so of pre-made pasta sauce for when I am in a time crunch. Canned/boxed soups for lunch because seriously am I going to make soup from scratch for one? Since today is "Clam Chowder Day" according to a friend who posts what each day of the year is I will be having Campbell's Chunky Clam Chowder.

From the product label: SANITIZATION OF FOOD CONTACT SURFACES: Do not use this product on utensils, dishes or glassware. I think I'll stick with my bleach solution on my plastic cutting boards. Still the first method (of 5) listed in California's CURFFL for manual sanitizing. YMMV.

... 'erbal' ...

For those of us who use Edge Pro knife sharpeners they had put up an improved website. Much easier to use. http://www.edgeproinc.com/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=596c628f99-Welcome_to_the_Website2_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_eafc48d496-596c628f99-131683485 I can't imagine being without this tool. A couple of weeks from now I will sharpen between 12 and 15 knives in preparation of my participation in the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure. We will have SHARP knives.

Merriam-Webster lists both pronunciations as acceptable. CAR-mel or CARE eh mel. It's soft of like waft. It can be the "ah" sounding a or the a sound as in "at"

I know it's off topic but -- "I can heat that glue in 3 notes."

It's the use of RF energy fields (think microwave but at a much lower frequency) to heat up the glue that is bonding the strips of wood together.

I'm very happy with my roasted asparagus and roasted Brussels sprouts. My two attempts at zucchini have left me wondering what else to try. I LOVE zucchini but both times the roasted zucchini has picked up a distinct bitter note, more so the second time. The second time was quartered lengthwise, most of the seed section trimmed off, drained on paper towels to draw out excess moisture, then olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano then into a 450 degree convection oven until they showed some color. Fresh Brussels sprouts are easy. Frozen are more work - a 1 lb bag's worth into the microwave for 2 minutes to get the thawing started and then spread out on a baking sheet in a 170 degree oven until they have dried sufficiently. If I don't do this they kind of steam in the oven instead of a doing good dry roast that brings out the color.

Scratch that. My daughter did baking this afternoon and BOTH KitchenAid bowls are dirty and I don't have the time to clean them.

My DW of almost 36 years and I date all year long. So dinner is at home, just something extra yummy. We will share our dinner with our daughter and SIL who live with us. BBQed bacon-wrapped filets, twice-baked potatoes, asparagus (boiled - MY DW did not care for the roasted asparagus we recently had) with home-made mayo on the side, and a green salad. Chocolate Silk pie for dessert. Wine is still up in the air: a 2011 Gnarly Head Zin, a 2012 Cline Contra Costa County Zin (least likely) or a Leonesse 2007 Meritage.

I found this Oxo 2.25 Qt tea kettle for $4.49. I like it for the fact that the spout lid auto-opens when you tip it to pour. I have had one before for my ren faire kitchen but, and I can't figure out how, one of the volunteers managed to break it while I was out of the kitchen and someone else tossed it before I even saw it.

Yup. Observations from my life: (while a student at a small Christian college) You can't legislate morality - it has to come from within. (from my years as an engineer) your patent is only as good as your patent attorney in court. (from my 60 years watching California pass law after difficult-to-enforce law) For those who don't care about the law, and there are plenty of them, they only care about getting caught, not about being on the correct side of the law. My POV: the law is well-intentioned but won't have a serious impact on low-ball food establishments. I don't work in the industry so that is an outsider's viewpoint. In my ren faire kitchen (we do not sell to the public - we feed our own group) I am ok with properly groomed well-washed hands touching the final product. If you don't want to have clean hands you will quickly tire of my asking you to wash your hands and probably quit showing up. I wear gloves when handling the final product because it is much easier to toss the gloves than keep washing my hands over and over.

I have a guy on my ren faire cooking team that has never grilled and wants nothing to do with it. Certainly a rarity but they do exist.