Pierogi

Shel, I'm with those that recommend contacting Corporate, either by phone or e-mail. I've done it a few times, and have found them to be extremely responsive. That said, your store seems to me to be an aberration; I routinely shop at each of the three here in Long Beach, and while I've seen issues with each, they've been rare. Nothing of the type you've cited, and certainly not frequently. Sounds to me like the management in your store needs a refresher course in the TJ way. And I buy the majority of my meat, dairy and pantry staples and about 50% of my produce there.

Hmmmm....can't quite wrap my head around needing a plumber for this. Maybe it's my naïveté, but to my mind the problem is the stopper, not the drain opening. I mean, the openings are standard, and I can't think how they could've gotten out of round or worn down even in the 40-plus years the sink's been in use. It's not like I pound on them with a 10-pound sledge (see problems with heavy lifting..... ) But I know nothing about plumbing, so I'm probably wrong ! Shel, the disposal is an Insinkerator, installed about 5 years ago. I trashed the original stopper that came with it, and replaced it with one labeled on the packaging as made by Insinkerator. However, I bought it at Ace hardware, not through ISE. But it leaks as badly as the one I ditched. That was maybe 3 months ago, and it leaked from day one. dcarch, I think you and Digging Dog Farms are onto something. I hadn't thought about Grainger....that's a good source. And I *had* thought about silicone, since I assumed the problem was with the other "rubbery" stuff on the stoppers. Any sources for the silicone-edged guys? I haven't seen them. Off to surf Amazon and Grainger, but keep the ideas comin'.

I belong to a local CSA, and, of course get a large amount of varied greens in my shares. Even though they do a spectacular job of cleaning their produce, I still like to soak the greens for bit in the sink, to ensure I don't get any added protein from little hitchhikers... . I have yet to find a drain stopper that will hold a seal, and not let the water slowly drain out. I have an ancient, double-bowl stainless sink. One size has a disposal. NEITHER side will hold water for even 10 minutes. I would prefer to soak in the side with the disposal, but at this point, I'll take what I can get. I just bought a new stopper from the manufacturer of the disposal....leaks like a sieve. For physical reasons, I don't want to use a large tub and soak outside the sink...can't do the heavy lifting. Any suggestions for a sink stopper that actually STOPS something? I can't be the only person who has this problem. Thanks in advance!

THANK YOU for continuing this journey ! So, so happy to have these adventures to share.

I've now made, I think, 5 recipes (for sure 4) from "Essentials". All of them, save the bread I made today, have been home runs. Last night I made the Swiss chard stuffed onions. Baked onions are scooped out so that you just have a shell of flesh. Chop the insides, and saute with some garlic. Add chopped Swiss chard leaves, and let wilt. Mix in some (raw) crumbled, sweet Italian sausage, S&P and stuff the baked onions. Top with Parmesan, place in a gratin dish and bake for another half an hour. Superb. The onion gets soft and sweet and melty, and even though you think the filling will be bland (no seasonings save garlic and S&P), the sausage infuses it with a lovely, fatty goodness. I could've eaten 2. The others have been mostly veggie side dishes....the most memorable was the cucumber and tomato stew. A surprising method for this combination, and one that trumped whatever main dish I had it with (don't remember the main, DO remember the cucumber stew). The bread, gros pain, was meh, but it could've been me, or my yeast. I'll try it again. The book is a winner. If you have it, make the baked stuffed onions !

This. THIS is why I loath, absolutely LOATH commissioned salespeople. As a consumer, with a very limited budge, I KNOW, believe me I know in painful detail, to the penny, how much I can afford to spend on whatever purchase I'm considering; car, computer, cell phone, house, whatever. I've crunched the numbers, I know where I can skrimp and cut to make it work. I also know what features I absolutely must have in that commodity (heated seats, not so much, I live in SoCal, air conditioning, an absolute for the same reason). Don't pressure me into whizz-bangs I'll never use. Don't tell me that it'll only add up to pennies a day extra----I already have *PLANS* for those extra pennies. I'm sorry that people have to work on commission. It must suck, but I will go out of my way not to patronize them. It's why my last 2 cars have been Saturns. No haggling. No upselling. It was wonderful. I don't know what I'll do when my little red wagon dies..... And it's also why I avoid restaurants that agressively upsell me (would you like foie on that......maybe some truffle.....oh, THIS cabernet is much superior to the one you've chosen) like the plague. If I actually HAD the extra coin to spring for the foie, or the truffle, or the $250 bottle of cab, believe me I would. But get out of my face if I can't.

Bite your tongue ! His new series (or more accurately, *current* series) on PBS, "Essential Pepin" is still teaching me things, and I've been cooking for about 40 years. Jacques is unimpeachable. I'm thinking of buying that book. Do you have it? Any opinion you could share? YES ! I just got it the other day, and while I haven't even really done much more that glance at it yet, from what I can see, its a tour de force. Plus, it comes with a searchable DVD on kitchen techniques ! It's HUGE, like 700 pages. From flipping the pages, I can see it includes all the recipes I was intrigued by on the PBS series. It looks like a great reference work, in addition to being a book you can cook from every day. I can't wait to get into it more deeply. And I think it was a steal on Amazon.

Let me phrase it another way. Use my culinary powers as a Jedi Master for good rather than evil I must. Modernism is the Dark Side. Together the light and the dark you must have, but overall, controlled the Dark Side must be. EVIL THE DARK LORD MHYRVOLD IS. BEWARE THE PATH OF HIS EVIL BOOK, FOR IN IT THERE IS ONLY FRUSTRATION AND DESPAIR AND EMPTY WALLETS. You, sir, are my new hero.

Jealous, very jealous of the Shun knives. I just think they look so sexy, in addition to their performance. Good hubby, that one !

Merry Christmas to me, Merry Christmas to me, Merry Christmas, dear Pierogi, Merry Christmas to me !!! After having finally determined that a) I'm not getting any younger; b) I'm not getting any RICHER; and c) I *still* want 'em after hankering for 'em for over a year at Amazon.... I just pulled the trigger on 5 new cookbooks. "Hot Sour Salty Sweet", "Thailand the Beautiful", "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen", "The Chinese Kitchen" by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, and "Essential Pepin" by my boy Jacques. No. I don't need them. Yeah, I want them. Actually (caution, rationalization ahead) my Asian library was in desperate need of expansion. I don't think a mid-1980's paperback of Sunset's "Oriental Cooking" qualifies me as an Asian cuisine expert, although it really IS an excellent, if very broad, overview. And who can resist a new Pepin book? I suppose I could claim the dogs got them for me.....oh, and there may have been an Ella Fitzergald boxed CD set in there as well. What can I say, the dogs like scat singers.

Toliver, I just used Trader Joe's horseradish in the exact same application for my Christmas night prime rib, and it blew the top of my head off when I tasted the horseradish straight. It's in their refrigerator case, usually around the salami-type things. It does lose strength, as they all do, after opening, but fresh from the jar it's got the eye-watering punch you're looking for. I agree about Silver Springs....the last 6 or so bottles of that brand I've gotten have been lame. Atomic-brand isn't bad, and neither is Bubbe's, but TJ's surpasses them. Even 2 days later in the sour cream sauce it was still plenty tangy on my French dip sandwiches tonight.

While it's still the holiday season, if you see any of the Trader Joe's "Belgian Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Caramels" buy as many as you can carry. They are a seasonal product, and they are orgasmic. They are a shell of good, hard dark Belgian chocolate, filled with a semi-liquid caramel that is delicious. This lovely little bundle of ecstasy is topped with a sprinkle of very coarse sea salt. They need to be eaten carefully, since the filling is oozy. IMHO, the individual candy is a little too large and a little too rich (a LOT too rich) to try to eat in one bite. The flavors will literally explode in your mouth, and each bite is just a perfect balance. They come in a box with a red bottom & sides, and a top with a light blue background. On the lid is a lighthouse. Buy as many as you can. Unless you live in my neighborhood, in which case, they're awful and you should avoid them at all costs.

^^^What he said, although I've not experienced it personally (touching wood). And I've killed a hot baking stone by hitting it with a stream of water. I've *heard/read* that you can protect the door glass with a thick, folded towel over it when you itroduce the water, but to my mind, unless it was many layers thick, you'd still have the issue. I limit my attempts since the pizza stone incident to using a pan with either boiling water poured in from my kettle, or ice. I like my range, and don't particularly want to replace it because I exploded the window.

Kim, I always know it's the Holidays when I see your candy cane plates. Love 'em !

Surprised no one has mentioned Ruth Reichl. I loved both "Tender At The Bone" and "Comfort Me With Apples". I've always found her writing very evocative, going back to when she was editor of the LA Times food section a million years ago. I think she's a spectacular writer.

Fruit flavored yogurt really turns me off. I don't like the excessive sweetness and processed fruit in any of the brands I've tried. Much prefer plain yogurt and fresh fruit. I do like some of TJ's plain yogurts, as well as Nancy's. Safeway's Lucerne brand is awful. TJs full-fat Greek-style plain yogurt is the best I've tasted. Better than Fage or Chobani by a long shot. It's as thick as sour cream, and much tangier. Of course, it *is* full-fat, but well, that doesn't bother me much.I haven't seen Nancy's around me, but I'll keep my eyes open. Lucerne is awful across the board on anything they put their brand on. I avoid it assiduously. My local Sprouts carries labne, and I unfortunately can't remember the brand name right now. If I don't have the TJs, I have their labne. And I, too, prefer to mix in my own fruit, if I want it.

Shel, we West Coasters are out of luck on the ramps. Maybe up in the Northwest, but my understanding is they are an Atlantic coast spring crop only. Every spring, I get green with envy reading all the rhapsodizing by the Easterners about their ramps. Aside from that, as Hassouni mentioned, way out of season now.

Trader Joes does, indeed have pie crusts in the freezer section. They work fine if defrosted overnight in the fridge, I don't notice any difference between them and the Pillsbury crusts in terms of perfomance, and I'm crust-impared. The TJs crusts, to me, taste much superior to the Pillsbury crusts. All of Pillsbury products have some "taste" I find quite off-putting. I can discern it in all of their products, pizza doughs, biscuits, pie crusts. It must be some artificial flavor or preservative they use. The TJs product doesn't have that taste.

OK, I have to admit that is the "Big Kahuna MacDaddy Bad MamaJama" of tortilla presses. But the question that begs to be asked (and answered) is.....why? My cast aluminum press that weighs about 2 pounds does a fine job, *AND* I can lift it and store it easily. At least Rancho Gordo's has aesthetic appeal.

Michaela, truth be told, it really *DOESN'T* look half bad. Especially after the addition of the marzipan coat. Of course, it doesn't really look half good, either. But that may be just because I really can't tolerate marzipan in any form..... Seriously. It does look pretty. When I looked at the preview pictures, I actually thought "hmmmmmm, that turned out OK, didn't it?" But I'm taking you at your word about the taste/texture/consistency. And good on almost MIL for recognizing the folly of the effort.

Ya got me too ! I have never, ever seen cilantro like that in my normal MegaMarts. I really need to start frequenting the Asian and Mexican markets more regularly. That is simply lovely, Melissa.

I was in the same rut as you until I joined a CSA. Suddenly I was getting winter squash and sorrel and cherimoyas (ok, technically NOT a veg) and bok choi and collards OH MY ! And turnips, and beets and rutabagas and, unfortunately, eggplants. Since the thing I Hate Most In The World is wasting food, when I signed up, I vowed I would either use everything in my every 2 weeks share, or find loving homes for it. I even tried, several times, to find a way I could stomach eggplant. Couldn't, don't and I no longer take 'em. They either go into the share box, or I send them over to a friend's parents, who, aside from their appreciation of eggplants are lovely people. It's been eye-opening. I've discovered that fresh beets, roasted or raw, are much superior to the canned ones my mom used to serve with some sliced onions as a quick pickle. I've discovered that, after 40-some years of proclaiming "I don't LIKE winter squash", that, when prepared well, I actually DO like winter squash. I've come to love hearty greens, chard (which up to 2 years ago, I'd NEVER eaten), especially. Collards, kale, mustard greens, bring 'em on. If you don't want to do the whole CSA thing, then I'd say make a resolution to buy one new veg every time you do a big shopping or a farmer's market trip. There are endless recipes for all this stuff on the interwebs, obviously, and I'd bet there are plenty in your stash of cookbooks. CSA was the most mind-blowing and palate-expanding thing I've ever done.

Totally agreed. I am a strong believer that the amount a meal costs has no direct correlation to how tasty it is, and all my favorite meals are humble. BUT, there is quite a difference between a budget meal I make nowadays, vs. one of my budget meals in college. Well then it boils down to the food sensibilities of the other participants, doesn't it, and what their other qualities mean to you. If you value them as people, you put up with the Velveeta nachos. If you don't well, that's your option on what to do next. Me, if the people I cared about fed me cat food, I'd shut up and spread it on a Triscuit.

Totally depends upon what you want/expect out of the potluck, doesn't it, and the type of people invited. As you pointed out, if you invite, or are invited to, a group with a lot of people on tight budgets, with immature palates, or who are not into food (and trust me, I have plenty of friends with the philosophy that "food is just something to fill you up"), that's what you're going to get. And you shouldn't be surprised, nor disappointed. If you appreciate THE PEOPLE, and the company, you should go, take something low impact but still good (crostini/bruschetta is a good out) and enjoy the event. This crowd is not going to dig foie gras topped with summer truffles, so don't waste your time/money giving it to them. Slap on a smile and enjoy the plain wrap Ranch dip and pre-cut celery and faux baby carrots. If you like their company. If you don't, politely beg off and send regrets. The amount of money spent is irrelevant. As I said, you can make some amazing things with some over-the-hill bread, a good tomato or two, some herbs, some decent vinegar, S&P and some olive oil. But with the Velveeta nacho crowd, even that will be exotic, and the effort wasted. As with anything else, know your audience. Don't tell raunchy jokes to your 90-year old Granma's bridge club, unless Granma has a bawdy sense of humor. Don't feed micro greens to people whose idea of gour-may is Laughing Cow cheese. If the latter offends your food sensibilities, find a new group of people to hang out with. Or adjust to theirs for the time you spend with them.

Now that I've got a decent (who am I kidding.....let's say, *extensive*) cookbook library, I find I'm much more selective. I check them out from the library, and read them. If they hit me, they go on the "must buy eventually" list. If they don't, no loss, other than time. In this fashion, I determined that Dorie Greenspan's "Around My French Table" and Andrea Ngyuen's "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" are must haves, while Fuschia Dunlop's "Land of Plenty" is not. If I can find the ones I want at a local bookseller, that's the route I'll go, but if I have to, well, there's always the Evil Amazon. At least I'm still buying print books. Don't have an e-reader, don't intend to have an e-reader, and even if I succumb to an e-reader, I'll still buy cookbooks in print (as I will food magazines). Call me a Luddite, but I like print and paper. I especially like being able to make notes about what I liked/hated or what worked/didn't on the printed recipe. Since I don't have a scanner, or a copier, or an unlimited budget to make copies at the library/UPS store, this is what works for me.