Porthos

Guaranteed that if I ask for the check and it doesn't show up for another 15 minutes your tip has just gone down. If the place is insane busy I'll take that into consideration, but if it's a normal night you just lost some tip money.

Which is why I'm a dedicated paper towel user. There are some uses for cloth towels and I do own some but paper towels are my mainstay.

12" chef knife 3 1/2" paring knife Cutting board sized for the chef knife 12" saute pan 3 qt Revere pan with lid Wooden Spoon Plastic Slotted spoon Spatula Good tongs Can opener 8 qt stainless steel mixing bowl - I hate cleaning plastic bowls and I dislike glass bowls in the kitchen. Measuring cups and measuring spoons Sieve or collonder (sp) These are the essentials. However, my DW and I got fishing in the Sierras where we rent a house-keeping cabin. I have a tub full of equipment that also includes decent wine glass and I bring my knife roll and a few pots and pans because I don't do well mentally when I don't have the stuff I like to use. The cabin kitchens are furnished with Walmart-type bargain basement stuff and the knives there are an affront to anyone with any level of knife skiil. The essentials as listed above would see me through - I just wouldn't like it.

You can give me yours. It is a special treat to me.

We buy 3 boxes per year. We like them cold out of the freezer. They last about 3 weeks.

I use steam table pans in my home oven and have noted the following: Vollrath pans cleans up amazingly easily whereas the Update brand pans need a lot more help. Of course they are both stainless but I'm sure they are of different SS types and I know the finish looks different also. My stove-top SS pots and pans from various MFGs all seem to clean up well, even my cheap (Target) Good Cooks or whatever it's called 10" fry pan. I guess I'm just lucky. I use that 10" pan for things that start on the stove top and finish in the oven. I should add that I am a shameless Pam devotee and there is always either Pam or olive oil for whatever I start in both my SS and non-stick fry pans.

Bacon will always be welcome in my home. I did think topping a giant pastry with bacon was a bit much (read: County Fair Food).

Technically I don't cook for one. However, since my wife had weight loss surgery 4 years ago, dinner is whatever I cook plus a little extra protein for her. We buy frozen beef and turkey patties, individually frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs from Costco and I keep chicken broth and beef bouillion around at all times. Since I happen to love crackers I usually have some crackers with milk while I cook the protein and veggie. The crackers are my starch. Because the protein is already portioned coming out of the freezer it's simple to cook something up sized for just me or for both of us. For the chicken thighs I like to brown them in the pan, then add chicken broth and the seasonings de jour, then reduce the broth enough to use as a sauce (my wife does need moisture with her meat), sometimes adding sour cream, sometimes not. This of course isn't an actual recipe but is my basic jumping off point. We only eat beef once a week or so and I tend to go for the crock pot to keep things moist. Last night my wife asked to add fish back into our diet and since it's is now (just recently) just the 2 of us again, I will gladly start cooking fish again. My favorite way to fix fish is in individual portions inseparate paper pouches. For each person you put a single serving of fish in a piece of parchment paper with a bit of white wine, some seasonings (to your taste) and some veggies that can steam in about 20 minutes. Seal up each paper pouch, put them on a baking tray and cook for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. I guess my basic take is to have the portions you need already stored as those portions. That does eliminate left-overs - something that rarely gets consumed when leftovers do happen in our home. I'm ashamed to admit that the 2 left-over slices of Christmas' standing rib roast fared no better. The pooch likes it when I make those mistakes. Point of reference: I'm not a great cook but I've been putting meals on the table for better than 45 years. Started with cooking dinner for my parents, my brother and myself. Then living on my own and feeding just myself. Got married and fed my wife and daughters. My wife and I, on no particular schedule, traded off cooking for the 4 of us. Daughters are now grown and gone, so it's back to just us - and mostly for me. I now do 95% of the cooking and since I enjoy it that's fine with me. Now if you want something simple that will yield left-over there is always my tried-and-true corned beef. Corned beef on a rack in a vessel with a lid, sprinkle the seasoning packet on the meat, then pour in a bottle of Guinness Stout. Cook for 8 hours at 235 F. This technique leaches out quite a bit of the fat, which I find a plus. Slice off what you want for your dinner, cool the rest and then slice, package and freeze the rest.

Before I proffer any suggestions I would like to know if you have much freezer space. Having a freezer directly influences my choices.

That is why I stopped buying them. I have thought about this more during the year. I definitely don't think I'm a great cook who couldn't learn anything more. I used to read cookbooks the way some people read novels. When it comes to buying new cook books I think I've just realized that the subject matter of a new one will look interesting to me, I'll buy the book, then I never make any time to actually try the recipes and techniques. Also my wife and I don't have people over to dinner very often - a major change from once or twice a month twenty years ago. And for my sweet wife's part in this: except for certain tried-and-true recipes when she wants to find a new (to us) recipe she uses the internet instead of our collection of cook books. We have a lot of the standards: Fannie Farmer, The French Chef and maybe 5 other Julia Child books, several of Jeff Smiths, probably 18-24 ethnic-specific books, etc... We just don't seem to look at them for new things.

My additions are pretty humble but I'm happy with them. I bought the 600 grit stone (fine) for my Edge Pro Apex. I also am getting a Polder brand digital thermometer. It seems to be better reviewed than Taylor and I've had 2 Taylors just did not last that long. Side Note: If you've never sharpened your own knives and have been thinking about starting to do it I can't recommend the Edge Pro Apex highly enough.

A check from my F-I-L. Have just started to think about what I might do with it. After 34 years of marriage and the both of us loving to cook the kitchen (admitedly almost always a bit messy) is pretty well outfitted. Have no fear, I will surely find something new to add. Ah yes, I need a new digital thermometer with the separate probe for roasting things in the oven. That will use up part of the money.

Huh??? Who's failing at basic measurements in their marketing? It's either a 12 fl. oz serving or a 16 fl. oz serving - period. Hanger 24 in Redlands, CA still knows what a real pint is.

Truly my #1 red-light food.

I love that term.

Yams. The smell of roasted yams makes me nauseous. Without a doubt it's vile. I'm not much for liver or Brussel Sprouts either.

FrogPrincesse's post made me think of this. There is a restaurant in that famous theme park in Anaheim that needs reservations but most of the items on the limited menu are just glorified sandwiches. Really, a waitstaff-served meal and the choices are mostly sandwiches? I have told my wife that I don't really want to eat there anymore since I'm most decidedly not a sandwich-for-a-meal kind of guy.

Removing the salt and pepper shakers from the dining tables. A lot of places have reduced the amount of salt they are using, I want more. And I like a LOT of pepper on my steak. GIve me the power to make my own choices. Yes, they bring it if I ask, after getting their attention. Would rather just have them available to start with.

I'm not much for the "colorful" adjetives he used but he's 100% dead on.

Sorry I wasn't clear. The article I can no longer find said that a new coating was put on the eggs while still at the producer before being shipped to stores. When you boil the eggs you purchased this previously applied coating comes off. I did more research this afternoon and now I'm thinking that not all of the coating is removed during the wash and sanitize operation. No matter. I live where it gets really hot so my eggs are almost always in the refrigerator anyway. The exception is when I buy eggs specifically for hard-boiling - they get left out a day or two to speed up the aging process, After countless flats over the last four years I've never,repeat never, had a problem with those eggs.

I'd found a reputable source online saying eggs got a new coating while researching how long HB eggs last but I can not locate it now. Without that information I'll qualify my post up thread as as "as I recall"

Here in the US they replace the natural coating with an oil (I believe it's oil) to restore the coating after the sanitizing operation. When you hard-boil eggs this coating comes back off and that is why HB eggs are only good for a week after cooking. I'm choosing to be guided by sparrowgrass' expertise, along with other things that have helped educate me along the way.

I regularly boil 10 lbs of potatoes in a 16 qt vessel. Is 1 tsp of vinegar still enough for that volume of water and potatoes?

We converted to true half-sheet pans and buy pre-cut parchment for them. We use the parchment for other things also but we manage to go through about 200 sheets/year. Using this stuff really helps.

I think we've already gone beyond crazy. We bake enough cookies to fill 35 tins and a huge platter. We struggle to find storage space toward the end - and that's with 2 refrigerators and a freezer.Edited for readability.