FauxPas

Things like Shrimp Scampi with pasta are fast. Or Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, that sort of thing. Of course salads if you want to avoid generating any heat, but so many good things have already been suggested. I like bean salads - black beans and corn and tomato, white bean and tuna, etc. I liked the sound of this Lebanese Lemon-Parsley Bean Salad. https://cookieandkate.com/2013/lemon-parsley-bean-salad-and-hummus/

I cooked a small beef roast in the CSO a couple of days ago when it wasn't too warm, and we had beef dip sandwiches last night and again tonight. Made some potato salad yesterday morning to go with it. I just heat up some purchased Au Jus and serve with some tomatoes. It's not really that hot here, but it's warm enough for me to have some A/C on by the afternoon. Lettuce wraps? Filling can be quickly stir-fried. I've used ground pork. Small steak broiled in the CSO? I'm not thrilled with the steaks I've done, but they've been decent enough to eat. I've even done pork ribs in the Instant Pot on warm days when we really want something meaty and then broiled them quickly with BBQ sauce in the CSO while I steam some corn on the stovetop (induction range, so generates very little heat).

Deer are beautiful animals though, don't you think?. People have disrupted their natural areas and their natural predators. The deer here can drive us nuts but I can see how they follow the same routes they probably have for hundreds if not thousands of years. It's the cougars who stay away from urban areas (and woe to them if they don't) and the deer now take their chances with automobiles rather than natural predators or hunters. We had a young buck in our backyard tonight and he just looked hot and tired and was enjoying the shade and we didn't have the heart to chase him off. Even though some fecker ate our hydrangeas last week, ahem.

Have never used Smoking Gun so cannot help with that. I have tried a slower steam roast, but it's not my thing, would rather just do a proper poached salmon and add the aromatics, etc. And I like the idea of mi-cuit but usually want a quicker cook. We get a lot of salmon here, sometimes our neighbours show up with fish off the boat same-day and we just quickly marinate (or not) and cook at 400 or more at steam-broil. No matter how much I like the idea of other cooking methods, I always come back to that one for salmon. But I do use the CSO a lot for cooking it!

Halibut is still in season here in BC but now it's sockeye salmon too and I love sockeye, some nibbles from the fish before the pic, so it's not as pretty as it could be. The local nugget potatoes and some asparagus and a Caesar cocktail to start - the glass is a memento from one of my Alaska visits.

@Kerry Beal would have picked off the evil carb-filled croutons anyway though, right? Still, the lack of cheese and garlic is inexcusable. How is life at the hospital/clinic there these days? @Kerry Beal, do you take all the edibles in with you or do you have anything like the break room back at your home hospital, where you can make things on site?

I love the name and want to try one, but I always wonder just how bitter it is???

I really wish we would just stick to metric in Canada. I prefer to order most things in metric. With deli meats or some specialty cheese or something like smoked lox, I usually want fairly small amounts - 100, 150 or 200 g and when I am in the US, I have to stop and think how to ask for some of those amounts. I like the precision of metric, especially with expensive items like halibut. I know I want about 300 g for dinner for the two of us if we are hungry, maybe only 200 g if we are having several veggies and/or salad. It irks me to no end when I go to a store and the biggest price sign is for $/lb and I have to search to find the price per 100 g. It also irks me when I look at a store flyer and they are inconsistent - I was just looking at a flyer that listed all the seafood items in grams and most of the meat items in pounds. Well, they listed both but good luck finding and reading the small print for the items in the opposite measurements. We should either use metric exclusively or clearly and obviously display both measures with their respective costs. OK, take that soap box away from me, someone.... 🛒

Thanks for the photos, they are quite lovely! In AZ, we get a lot of citrus at times. Our own trees have had some issues (sniff, had to replace them) but we also get friends and neighbours giving us bags of oranges, lemons, grapefruit. I bought a very inexpensive electric B+D juicer, which has worked amazingly well for the past 8 years. I keep thinking it might break, but it keeps juicing along. it's virtue is that it is very light and compact (easy to store on the bottom shelf) and comes apart for easy cleaning. However, it is a bit noisy and is nowhere near as attractive as your pair!

I noticed it also. Would like to admire it some more, can we get a better photo, maybe in use? Does it work well?

After reading the background, it is pretty funny. Why make things easier when you can make them more complicated, right?

I thought maybe it was some odd recipe that actually required the use of both towels and tin foil. Or maybe you were heating the tortillas while cooking the filling. Or some odd modernist bread proofing/baking. Ha. I think I would just have covered the top of the pan with tin foil and tucked it in around tightly enough to keep it in place but loose enough that you can remove it for stirring but still have it keep its shape. And put the splatter screen on top of it if necessary. If the pan's too wide for a single width of tin foil, I'd just overlap them a bit. But maybe I'm missing something.

@Anna N, @Kerry Beal , how long are you on Manitoulin this time? @weinoo, thank you for the Negroni tips, will have to try your suggestions!

I tend to prefer cherries fresh also. Clafoutis, jams, pies, sauces are good but not as pleasing as the fresh fruit itself. I sometimes pit and halve them and serve them with a bit of ice cream or yogurt. But many times I just pit them in my mouth.... @Anna N, how do you two like your Negroni mixed? Do you use equal proportions of the gin, Campari, vermouth? I prefer to use a bit less Campari. I believe my first Negroni was after reading about you and @Kerry Beal enjoying them and I found a bottle of Campari languishing at the back of the 'cabinet' and made a couple. My husband didn't like it that much (he loves Manhattans), but I have one every now and then. So thanks for that!

This statement makes me very nervous. I really look forward to your Manitoulin breaks!

We had meatloaf, BC Warba (nugget) potatoes steam-baked in the CSO and some steamed corn-on-the-cob. Thought about having local sockeye salmon with a maple syrup glaze but we've had quite a bit of salmon lately. Dessert was some BC cherries with yogurt - closest I came to a red+white theme.

Wow, thanks for this one, @Toliver! I just borrowed it from the library a couple of weeks ago and though I only had time for a quick perusal before I decided I should just return it (no time to really cook from it right then), it did make me decide I would buy it if I could find it on sale. And here you are, finding exactly that! Like others, I really appreciate you taking the time to seek out the bargains and report them here. I don't always comment when I buy one of your finds, but I have purchased a few!

I think you did a terrific job and I might try to do the same process. Thanks for the link and the details! 🙂

@Shelby , I REALLY like the idea of one for meat and one for non-meat! Just not sure I have the counter space for that. My first two CSO's are pretty disgusting, I'm afraid. Steam-clean doesn't get everything and some of the grease is cooked-on at this point. Not sure there is a way to really clean them up again.

That new one is SO new and shiny-looking! 😮 Mine's still in the box, but I'm still thinking about bringing it out of the storage room. Will your baking stone be used mainly for bread, pizza?

So you just bought one? I'd be interested in knowing your experience with it. Thanks! I forgot all about this and have done nothing, but am still interested.

I checked and see the US Costco price is $249.99, shipping included.

Your kitty would like that box just as much (and maybe more!) if it were empty. 😉

I bought a backup unit when Best Buy Canada had them on sale a couple of months back. I might start using the new one and keep the old one as a backup.

That sounds like a pretty good price. What is their return policy? It's a backup so you can leave it in the box and if there's a better price in the next few weeks, you can perhaps return it and buy the lower-priced one. Or get a backup for your backup, hahahaha 😄