Susie Q

I've been wanting a food mill but didn't know which brand would be best. Thanks for all the info.

Being a leftie I loved my Lamson Sharp in the southpaw style so much I also bought the right hand version. I use it mainly with the left to lift food and it's there for other cooks in the kitchen to use. Kerry Beal, what brand is the metal/silicone spatula?

I wash dishes, clean meat, rinse produce... and my hands in a double sink. I don't care which side I use . A splash of bleach after I've cleaned a chicken, a drizzle of dishsoap if it's something else., a good scrubbing at the end of the day. It seems to have worked all these years. Nobody has ever gotten sick from the food coming out of my kitchen nor the home kitchens of my relatives and friends. We pretty much all clean the same way. I guess we've all got a cast iron stomach from being allowed to let dogs and cats lick our faces and hands as we crawled around on all fours putting intresting things in our mouths when we were kids. I personally think it was the sun hot, unwashed tomatoes pulled from the back yard vines and eaten on the spot, the fruits and veggies I ate while I picked them with my grandpa, and the hole-in-the-wall restaurants my parents took us to becauuse they looked interesting.

Regular pancakes: butter and real maple syrup, or butter and sprinkled brown sugar. Thin or eggy pancakes: butter, powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice.

I use a small, oblong plate that I got at Cost Plus Imports. Long enough and wide enough to hold a spatula when needed.

Good for you! I think it's better to lose weight to a level that you can maintain than to drop so low that you are constantly yo-yoing, struggling to maintain, and feeling deprived. Losing the weight is the easy part, maintain the loss requires the greater commitment.

In the kitchen I use that same luminarc dish and cover. Found it a TJ Maxx for $5. I love it. I tried using a butter bell before but the butter kept falling down into the water. I gave it to Goodwill. On the table I use a footed cobalt lions head soup bowl with lid. It holds two sticks of butter.

Noriega's in Bakersfield has always served it up family style. Customers could have a drink at the front while waiting for the doors to open up to the dining room in back. You paid as you went in, took your seat at the long table next to someone you more than likely would never see again, and passed the dishes to each other. The Original Pantry in Los Angeles used to have a community table. I remember sitting at it one time with my dad to have breakfast. It's been awhile since I've been to both.

I have several Westcott rulers from the office supply store. The 18" and 24" gets used the most. They are metal, measuring starts at the edge, have both metric and imperial measurements, have a hole for hanging, and I find them thick enough to use as a cutting guide. They come in many lengths.

15 years ago I lost my grip and poured a stock pot full of boiling water on my foot while wearing canvas slip on sneakers. I flicked off the shoe and blister after blister formed and broke before my eyes. I ran to the bath tub to get cold water on it, wrapped a soggy wet towel aorund it, stuck it in a trash bag, threw on some ice to keep the towel cool, and made the long trip to the hospital. It was a very bad second degree over all of my foot, including the sole, that was treated with the silvadene cream for a few weeks. I was lucky... no scaring. The cream requires a perscription and I keep a jar in the icebox to use when needed.

Five Guys will be opening 200 outlets in Southern California. They have twenty something now. The biggest hurdle they say will be In-N-Out customer loyalty. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/08/business/la-fi-five-guys-20110408

I went to the one in Cerritos California. A very good burger and great fries indeed. I love In-n-Out burgers and a Five Guys burger is different but just as good. Anyone could beat In-n-Out fries.

I hate that sour deli smell. You can even smell it as you walk past. It ranks right down there with the funky over ripe fruit and vegi smell that some small markets have. I'm not a fan of subway and haven't eaten from there since the early 90's. I didn't care for their food and the sour smell that every shop had just bowled me over and always made me nauseous.

Nirvana for me is Diedrich Sumatra full roast, french pressed, served in a bowl to keep my hands warm. My first bowl is 1/2 and 1/2 with whole milk to get my daily calcium, after that it's black. I'm not a coffee snob. If it's good, it's good. Who cares where it came from. I have on occasion taken my own electric tea pot, french press, bowls, and coffee when traveling. I've been drinking coffee since I was three years old (got started with coffee milk on a camp out)and can drink it hot or cold. I'll also drink it slightly sweetened and with cream once in a great, great while. I don't mind arab coffee that is flavored with cardamon, BUT NEVER will I drink flavored coffee. YUCK! I fully understand the 180 degree sip hole/seam thing. I've had it drip on me too.

I do believe that craving is physical. Normally I'm a carb girl but once a month, every month, if you know what I mean, I crave meat... I want rare steak, thick pork chops, giant burgers, and I want ibuprofen for dessert. I think my body is telling me I need the extra iron.

In-N-Out Burger spread packets. It's thousand island dressing. The odd clear and pink Sweet-n-sour sauce at chinese take out houses mixed with the chinese hot mustard packets. The best on a greasy egg roll.

I came across so many expired can goods when cleaning my grandmother's pantry a few years back in the mid 90's. She would put the new stuff in front when stocking up the cupboards for winter. Towards the back a few of those cans were from the early 70's. After living through the Depression she wouldn't and couldn't throw anything away. She had a fortune in twist ties and butter tubs. I silently tossed can after can, and box after box while telling her I was just cleaning and dusting.... and then went to the store to buy new items so the shelf depth looked the same.

Last year I found fresh quince at Bristol Farm's. It's a market here in Los Angeles.

I use a scalpel to slash my bread loaves. A metal flower frog to dock dough, a 1" tiny frog to dock homemade crackers. I use the base of a small telephone pole insulator to create a pattern on cookies. A coke bottle to beat round steak for chicken fried steak. I've also used a 3# sledge hammer to tenderize and flatten meat. To store onions I tie them off in panty hose and hang them in a closet. I use 6 clay tiles in the oven to bake bread on. I almost forgot.... kniting needles to turn aebelskivers.

There are so many good smells. Fresh baked bread, bakery anything, BBQ, garlic and onions turning golden in a pan, stinky cheese, quince. What smell do I hate. Sour Sandwich Smell. You can smell it when someone unwraps a certain kind of sandwich and also at some shops, especially Subway Subs which always has that smell... which is why I've never been there for decades. I have to leave and get away from it or I will toss my cookies. To me it's worse than rotting meat.

I like my own when I'm at home and I like Sabra Classic for my lunch bag. For ease I get the Classic in cups at Costco and just sprinkle on some cumin and sumak to spice it up. It's also great because I work with the public and don't have to worry about garlic breath. I also like to use it instead of mayo on a sandwich.

I treid it for the first time a while back because of a thread posted here. I've been a Popeye's girl ever since. Love their mashed pitatoes and gravy, their dirty rice is good too. I always have to make a stop at KFC for the coleslaw and then head to Popeye's as I don't care for Popeye's coleslaw.

I've had an Opinel #6 in my lunch bag and kept a couple #10's in a picnic kit for years. I love them. edited to add: they are also cheap enough to replace if I lose one or left one behind.

Licorice. I still hate the sweet kind, but I've developed a fondness for the unsweetened, bitter Italian kind. Cheese. I used to hate cheese as a kid with the exception of Jack cheese and blue cheese. I can't get enough of cheese now, and the stinkier the better. Morbier comes to mind. There is always pimento cheese in the ice box! I still can't eat dried seaweed.

If my family makes it...potato salad...the mayo, sweet pickle, and egg kind. We warn others it's not been refrigerated and even after sitting out 3+ hours nobody has ever gotten sick from it.