Shel_B

Hmmm ... I was always of the opinion that cooking SV would be more expensive than that. What do you consider a "standard light bulb" to be?

We have Smart Meters here, too. When our utility first installed them, a lot of people were upset. I didn't care one way or another, but now I find the meter is helpful in my keeping track of electricity costs. I go online and see what my usage is shaping up to be, and can even check the cost for cooking a meal (we get our usage broken down into 15-minute segments). We also have a similar tiered system for energy costs, although it's of little concern for me as my usage is really bare minimum. In the almost two years I've lived here, the most I've payed for electricity in a month was $6.19, which was in February of this year when I did a lot of cooking and made a big Valentine's Day dinner for Toots.

What do you do to save energy when cooking? Any special cooking gear that you use, or ways that you use the oven or burners? I use my Mini Breville Smart Oven as often as possible, although I've not actually tested it against my regular oven. Also, when making soup, I'll often turn off the heat before cooking is finished and let the soup cook on the residual heat from the electric burners. A side benefit to that is that my soup veggies are no longer overcooked. I never boil more water than I need, and always do so with the lid on the pot. I don't always preheat my oven, and often let certain items finish cooking on residual heat. It's not always appropriate to use these techniques, but there are times they are just fine.

Actually, I've discovered that they are no trouble to find. Without even making an effort, I found two local stores that carry them, Safeway being one and the local natural grocery being the other. At Safeway, they were on the same shelf, and right next to, other 3M sponges, and are made by 3M as well. The natural grocery had three varieties on their shelf, two of which I purchased to determine which would be most satisfactory for me. They are quite a bit less expensive at my local store than at Amazon - $1.29 Jute Sponge Walnut Sponge Thus far I have been quite pleased with the walnut sponges. As for expense, the "green" 3M sponges were the same price as their chemical and dye laden sponges (3 for $3.99), and, as you can see, the ones at the natural grocery were actually a few cents less expensive. The ones at the natural grocery are made with a higher percentage of recycled materials than the 3M sponges, but otherwise the stated contents were similar. Since I complained to 3M, they were kind enough to offer replacement sponges, and I requested their green sponges. I'm waiting for them to arrive and look forward to doing a comparison between the two brands and three versions.'

Heston Blumenthal's chocolate cake recipe looks to be a fun and easy recipe to make. However, he uses a paint spray gun to flock the cake, something that I'd like to avoid. Is there an alternative to his technique? I suppose I could just spread the mixture on with a spatula, or could I? In any case, I like the flocking idea. Click Here to view the video. The cake demo starts at 7:00 minutes in.

Coincidentally, last week I watched this Frontline episode titled The Trouble With Chickens. Just click and watch if you're so inclined. Step by step I am moving further from commercially raised meat and poultry ...

The article says: Miss Milburn was forced to discard the meat and just serve vegetables to her starving relatives. Miss Milburn immediately contacted Morrisons customer services and kept the chicken in her fridge in case they wanted it for testing. How does one discard the chicken while keeping the chicken in the fridge for possible testing? Just curious ...

I had two OrangeX juicers of the type you described, used them each for about six years, and was VERY happy with them. They were strong, easy to clean, stable, pressed citrus better than anything else I tried at the time, and I received good service from the manufacturer. I'm quite fussy, and these juicers passed my tests quite satisfactorily.

You want New England Style Hot Dog Buns - been there, done that, here's what I found last year: Pepperidge Farm Recipe to Make Your Own Chowhound Discussion New England Hot Dog Rolls Famous Foods Hearth Artisan Bread Friehofer's Since you've not told us where you're located, and many breads and rolls are made in and for local markets, it might be difficult to give you the best advice. Good luck!

I am in the same situation, having purchased one plant before learning that I needed two <sigh> I found that they could be planted very close together, in fact mine are just inches apart. I'm looking forward to seeing how well they'll do. If mine get too large, I'll try pruning them, just as I do many of my other vegetables. Pruning has worked well for me in the past.

The frozen rice of which you speak is not basmati. It's a blend of brown rice, red rice and black barley ... reminiscent of a dish I have at a local Korean restaurant. I may look into the cold brewed coffee. I bet it's better than yesterday's leftover coffee that I had this morning - might be an (acceptable?) option for those times I run out of java.

With all this talk and the videos about Franklin Barbecue, I thought I'd upload some pics from a couple of little grilling and BBQ parties in Argentina. Perhaps you'll enjoy seeing how things are done down there. If anyone would like to see more pics, including some really interesting makeshift grills and smokers, let me know, and I'll see that you get them.

Good to know. I'll look for my jar after the weekend ... right now I'm heading into the kitchen to make potato salad (Mmmmm!)

Not my style of using garlic. I like to be able to choose how I use it - minced, grated, pulverized into a paste, chopped, chunks, crushed ... etc. I also like to choose the type of garlic I'm using ...

Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders - I read this book in the early sixties, perhaps before many here were even born, and it opened my eyes to the possibilities of how people (consumers) are manipulated. Highly recommended ...

The pantry idea won't work at her place, but I'll see if I can dig up my jar. If not, maybe I'll press something similar into service or just buy a little one for her place. Don't know why I didn't think of that ... well, maybe because the way I buy and use garlic there's not been a need to use the storage jar at my place. Thanks!

She keeps the garlic heads/cloves in a bowl on the counter in the kitchen. Often there are other items in the bowl, such as bananas, pears, citrus, and so forth. Sometimes (usually) the garlic finds its way to the bottom of the pile. I have one of these garlic jars that I never use. Do you think that storing the garlic in such a jar will extend it's usefulness?

I often grate whole cloves on the Microplane grater, and it works great. I've never tried doing it with frozen cloves, although I frequently grate frozen ginger that way (a trick I learned here on EG). So, yeah, I'll try freezing and grating. That won't work if I want larger pieces, so there I'd have to try mincing or chopping and then freezing.

Hmm, I'll have to play around with that idea, see how it'll work for me. Might I just freeze whole cloves and then just grate them as needed? Might that work as well?

I use a fair amount of garlic, but Toots doesn't, and she doesn't cook much these days. When she does cook, rarely does she add garlic. When I stay at her place, usually three nights a week, I generally do all the cooking. Often whatever garlic she has (which I usually have brought) has gotten old. If I forget to bring garlic with me, what there is to cook with is pretty sad. So, is there any way to extend the useful life of a head, or cloves, of garlic?

I'll look for them the next time I'm at TJ's. Thanks for the tip.

He's not trying to feed a big hungry city. What he's doing, IMO, is to open people's minds to different and environmentally sensitive ways of raising food, cooking, and eating, and, hopefully, this will trickle down and spread. Have you seen his talk about foie gras on TED Talks? You can see it here.

I'm just the messenger .... Click here for the story ...

The problem has been going on for at least a couple of years. And, FWIW, this morning I discovered the same problem with similar sponges sold by Safeway. What's a BOLO?

Maybe I'm missing something, but what has this to do with dyes and/or chemicals leaching out of the sponge?