DCP

Have you considered not refrigerating it? I've been led to believe that clarified butter is shelf-stable as long as you get all the milk solids out of it. And speaking of milk solids, what do you do with them? It seems such a waste to discard them.

What?! No, I refuse to believe that anyone could consider deviled eggs or scalloped potatoes 'retro'. They shall never go out of style! Perhaps it's just that I love making both of these, and everyone seems to love eating them.

*Sigh*. Another kitchen gadget to buy. There's only so much room in my cupboards!

As others up-thread have said, these are good for cleanliness purposes. I use mine to keep things non-stick and clean, usually instead of a sheet of foil over the top of the cookie sheet. They do heat very evenly but tend to prevent crisping - or require longer cooking times. Still quite worth it.

Sticky Toffee Pudding is probably my favorite - mostly because it's new and I'm a bit of a neophile when it comes to food. I'm more of a Ben & Jerry's person, but based on mentions up-thread, I'm highly inclined to run out to the store to try Mayan Chocolate and English Toffee. Yum.

Trader Joe's carries whole flaxseeds - at least as of the last time I was there a few days ago. They have several stores in New Jersey - check the full list of stores here.

You're killing me. Now I'm seriously craving pulled pork on cornbread, and I just ate half an hour ago! I've been meaning to try this well-rated pulled pork recipe - not to hijack the thread, but any other good ones you know?

Not quite the same, but similar - the Greek disk Taramasalata/Taramosalata/Taramousalata. Although said to be relatively flexible, the time I had it was mashed potato-based with the roe blended in. Probably more of a salty ocean flavor than eel (assuming freshwater eel cooked somewhat like the Japanese do). Whatever it is, it sounds good, and I'm tempted to try it with the unagi in my freezer.

Likewise. The foul-looking, thick yellow goo in a bottle that barely pours and has a slightly 'off' odor. Sold as health food - not very palatable straight!

Not to be unhelpful, but I've had no trouble with dish soap and warm-to-hot water. A little scrubbing with the brush, and things are good as new. I use it primarily to emulsify sauces and dressings without egg - not for baking, if it makes any difference.

Another vote for Trader Joe's frozen pizzas. They have one that is essentially a clone of California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken pizza (BBQ sauce, gouda, chicken, red onion, etc.) that's fantastic - and less than half the price of CPK's.

Yeah, they're interchangeable. Using the canned dulce de leche is a lot faster than waiting 4 hours to caramelize sweetened condensed milk on the stove - and less risky, too. (I've never had a can explode, but it could happen!) You're just exchanging cost for time savings. OTOH, some prefer the texture of a more traditional caramel with cream and butter. You can do this in the microwave in under 10 minutes (stirring frequently). A good middle ground, in my opinion.

My family has taken to calling that state 'some-timers'.

This reminds me of one I conveniently forgot: I will never again... Use my mother's tiny (~2") porcelain mortar and pestle (normally for pill crushing, I suppose) to attempt grinding whole cloves when out of the pre-ground variety. Worked on it for a solid half-hour, before calling what I had 'good enough'. People liked the pumpkin spice cheesecake, but everyone got (and pointed out) at least one larger chunk of clove in their crust!

I use both Recipezaar (w/ paid subscription, optional) and ExtraTasty! as drink databases. Neither fully meets the requested criteria, and I also find them lacking - but 'good enough.' A custom Access (or dare I say, FileMaker Pro?) solution is probably a better bet. Heck, even one of the free web database tools like Zoho Creator might help.

My 'secret' ingredients aren't so secret, since I believe most of them have been mentioned up-thread. In no particular order: Curry powder, hot paprika (not smoked - clearly I need to go shopping), sriracha, fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, unusual vinegars (like muscat, champagne, or rice), mirin, shichimi togarashi, miso paste, Thai red/yellow/green curry pastes, garam masala, five-spice powder, star anise, onion powder, vanilla paste, etc. Seems like anything off the beaten culinary path of most palates makes it easy to impress - those flavors standard to non-American cuisines taste exotic. Thanks to other posters for some ideas about other ingredients to try!

I used to only take probiotics when also on strong antibiotics, to avoid the aforementioned GI issues. However, Trader Joe's now sells chewable flavored acidophilus supplements, and I'm giving those a shot. Thanks to the other posters for mentioning probiotics when traveling - hadn't thought of this, and it seems to be a great way to potentially avoid Montezuma's Revenge.

Clearly there is some interface and user-friendliness work to be done before the concept is truly accessible to everyone. Personally, a networked kitchen (and home) is one of my dreams that's been slow in coming. Many vendors are trying, but there are a lot of proprietary solutions out there. For example, Salton's Beyond Connected Home is a series of wireless network-enabled products (kitchen computer, coffee machine, microwave, bread machine) that communicate and interoperate - but not cheaply. Then there's the LG Internet Fridge which stands alone - basically, a Windows CE computer integrated into the fridge with some handy software for monitoring. What I'm really lusting after is the Intelliscanner Kitchen Companion, which is a hardware/software solution for managing your food supplies (you need to scan the product - exactly your objection). Sadly, I doubt any of this will really take off unless it starts being more automatic - perhaps with heavy use of RFID tags in packaging.

I've used homemade mayonnaise - it really makes an enormous difference and has a shockingly different (better) flavor than anything off-the-shelf. On a more humorous note (but it would work!), what about transglutaminase? (See the article about 'meat glue' for more.

I will never again skip getting out the cutting board in laziness to halve a chunk of soft sourdough... against my hand. The bleeding didn't stop for half an hour. Such an idiot.

They're actually different. Breadfruit is starchy and potato-like; jackfruit is more reminiscent of durian - sweet, complex, and high in sulfur. I'm curious about what the pudding actually used - having had raw potato in Chinese, I can see how either could make for a unique dish.

However could I forget hoisin sauce!? Another big winner.

The first thing that came to mind is a satay-style peanut sauce, but that's not exactly in-line with 'diet food' - likewise for spices blended with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil, bread dipper style. How about sriracha, tapenade, or even salsa? I also like Trader Joe's 'sweet chili dipping sauce' and shittake mushroom sauces - both high in flavor and next to no fat.

This one's pretty basic, but was a huge hit last night: For lack of a better word, "Pear Lemonade": 1.5 oz. pear liqueur (didn't catch the name; came in clear 375 ml. bottle for about $16) 1.5 oz. pear nectar Juice of 1 fresh lemon 1.5 oz vodka (omit for the light version)

Cinnamon graham crackers for me (around junior high), then a candy bar and a soda (usually Skor + 7-Up) in high school.