blue_dolphin

Given your price range, I’d say it’s worth considering but depends on what you want. The steam bake setting on my Cuisinart CSO is hands down the best way to reheat almost any sort of leftovers. I think it’s a worthwhile feature to have, but you may not. My CSO and most steam toaster ovens in your price range are on the small side. The Breville ovens will accommodate a standard quarter sheet pan. The Cuisi CSO is a hair too small and has less headspace but it has that steam!

Practice makes perfect! I'm sure you'd pick it up if, say, you were to eat a week's worth of appropriate meals (from a bowl that you can hold, not a plate on the table) in a relaxed environment, perhaps dining with others who are familiar with them so you can watch their technique and maybe ask for tips.

They're a seasonal holiday item, though they can sometimes hang around a bit longer. I like them because they're so tiny, they can't possibly have too many calories 🙃 I tried this "Holiday Cheer" version of the Unexpected Cheddar spread. According to the label, it contains cranberries, Riesling and cinnamon. It's OK but I'm not in love with it yet. Might be better on celery or apple slices than on crackers. I think it will be excellent on a turkey sandwich so I'll have to make sure to nab some leftovers. Yesterday, I bought one bottle of their barrel proof bourbon @ 29.99 Also got a few bottles of the TJ's Brut Rosé North Coast Sparkling Wine that shows up every year at this time. Still $9.99 a bottle. I'll go back for a case or two to last me through 2025!

I peel the cloves from 2 heads of garlic (~20 cloves) and put in a small oven-safe dish with 1/2 cup olive oil and a sprig or two of thyme, cover with foil and bake 45 min @ 350°F. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. So good!

I like that one, too. It's been around for years but seems pretty consistent.

Maybe, but not for that!

Great deal! Though I can see its limitations compared with a battery unit in the RV. I have an older, but very similar-looking KitchenAid stick blender and get a ton of use from the whisk and the little processor bowl. The other day, I used it to chop nuts and blend them with the flour for a cookie recipe, then used the whisk to cream the butter and sugar and finally mix everything together. The actual stick blender can be a little unwieldy for me to use on the stovetop as it's kind of heave and the cord barely reaches the nearest outlet but I use it elsewhere and use the attachments all the time.

Thanks for the reminder on Georgia pecans. A few years ago, a friend gave me a few pounds that her MIL sent from Georgia and they were just stellar. Very plump, about twice the size of the skinny-ish ones I end up getting in local stores, and flavorful, too. Just tracked them down and ordered some more!

I also got mine decades ago. I had a Saab with a huge hatchback space (I miss that old thing) and I got them to corral the bags so the groceries didn't end up all over the place. Didn't take me long to skip the bags and bring the totes into the store!

My personal opinion, having tasted none of the options 🙃, would be to go with a dark rum, so that's the Lamb’s Navy Dark Rum. The Havana Club Añejo Especial Golden would be my 2nd pick. I find coconut and spiced rums can be oddly flavored and white rums lack the warm flavor you want.

Yeah, Modernist Pantry has a price of US$7299.00 for the PacoJet 4 but darn, it’s out of stock!

I keep a few Rubbermaid totes in the trunk of my car, put them in my cart and just toss the items in as I scan them.

I don’t think I’ve encountered one that speaks. That would be annoying. There have been improvements. Most, if not all the ones I’ve used have quit their anal obsession with using weight to verify that each item has been placed in the bagging area. I bought six of the same item the other day and couldn’t enter that but was able to quickly scan one of them 6 times. Quite a few stores have hand-held scanners that can easily be used to scan stuff without even taking it out of the cart. Weighing produce is still slow, though more and more items have a scannable tag. I’m guessing that was not in California, where those disposable bags are banned at grocery stores. They are not available at the self-checkouts but the stupid thing still requires me to tell it that I used zero of them before I can pay!

A local bakery offers a different "special" loaf every month and I usually get one to try. This month, it's their Rosette de Lyon loaf made with red wine and the dry French sausage that gives it its name. Here's a slice that shows the color of the bread, from the wine and the bits of sausage. I decided to try it in French toast. With persimmon and pomegranate

The other day I was in a mood for something a little sweet to go with my coffee so I decided to make a half recipe of Mexican wedding cookies, aka snowballs, Russian tea cakes and a million other names. I used the recipe in Zingerman's Bakeshop Celebrate Every Day which calls them Nutty Butterball Cookies. Nothing earth shattering here but I learned a couple of things. First, I burned overtoasted the pecans and prepared to chuck them but noticed the recipe specifically says to get some deep color on the nuts and not to undertoast or the nut flavor will be too mild. OK, I gave 'em a try and they worked fine! You can see from the photo that they're a bit darker than the usual but also very flavorful. Second, instead of finely chopping the nuts with a knife and folding them in at the end, this recipe puts them into the food processor along with the flour. Since I was only making a half batch, I was able to use the mini processor attachment for my immersion blender. Easy peasy and the nuts are evenly incorporated in the dough as soon as it's mixed. Third, I forgot how nice these are. My cousin always includes them in the plate of Christmas cookies she gives me. She makes them ahead and freezes them. They're fine but they're a lot nicer without the months in the freezer! And a little half-batch (30 cookies) is easy to whip up so I may treat myself more often 🙃

With respect to whole vegetables, they'd have to be small as the beaker only holds a pint or a pint and a half for the larger model. Modernist Pantry made a video testing the Creami on an elote soup and a Parmesan mousse. The soup had chunks of sautéed potato, onion and corn, frozen in chicken broth and was a fail in the Creami - the blade actually came off. The Creami mousse was crumbly after one spin. A second spin seemed to improve things though they said it still wasn't as smooth. I tend to think one could play around and get a decent Parm mousse from the Creami but the soup sounds like a bust. One thing about the Creami is that it tends to leave a thin layer of unprocessed material on the bottom of the beaker and sometimes on the sides. I've had good results using a firm spatula to scrape them down, mix and re-spin but it's an extra step.

Ditto the parchment suggestion. You can pull it out from under the dough after a few seconds or leave it. I find it especially handy when I want to place multiple pieces of flatbread, etc. on the steel

I think it could be done. I made a chicken liver pate in the Creami following a PacoJet recipe. The liver went in the blender before freezing with chunks of butter. Then it took a couple of spins, first from frozen to pulverize everything. The second spin was at 60°F to emulsify it. Edited to add that obviously meat is doing to have tougher connective tissue than liver but I still think it's worth a try. I'd definitely try it if I wanted to make a scallop or shellfish mousse and chicken might need one more spin. Here's a PacoJet recipe for a chicken mousse.

This morning on NPR, Susan Stamberg shared not only her MIL's iconic cranberry relish with horseradish and sour cream but also had Madhur Jaffery on to share a recipe for cranberry chutney that sounded good. Recipe here. I usually do something similar to you. Thinking I might throw the cranberries in to cook with a jar of chunky ginger marmalade instead of sugar.

Maybe @Kim Shook might want to shell out $29.99 to have Leslie Jones keep an eye on MIL? Watch this for a good chuckle: I will be joining my cousins, as I have for quite a few years. There will be changes. My cousin's younger son passed away a few months ago, leaving his wife and 11 yo daughter. I hope they come but understand they may not. Older son is in the midst of a divorce so I'll miss seeing his soon-to-be ex and am unsure whether their teen daughters will attend. Cousin's older sister passed away last month and younger sister's dementia is at the point where the lively phone calls or FaceTime sessions we used to share won't be happening. I'm bringing the cranberry curd tart that the 11 year old loves, some sort of salad - Diana Henry's blackberry and caraway slaw is most likely, pockets full of Kleenex and maybe Leslie Jones 🙃

The brioche toasts were back in stock at my TJ's this morning. $1.99/box. The packaging looks the same as always.

The shelf-stable pre-made logs of polenta would be perfect for that shakshuka and to see what you think of it. I can't remember if you have an Instant Pot or similar, but it's dead easy to make polenta in. No need to stir or clean a messy pan as you can just place the bowl you plan to serve from onto the Instant Pot rack with water below.

How nice to be able to stretch out a bit! Whereabouts is "home," these days, generally speaking?

You might check with your library to see if they have Joe Yonan's book, Cool Beans. The chapter on Casseroles, Pasta, Rice and Hearty Main Courses has some options that might work well for your needs. Others could be adapted by making and freezing parts of the dish and then combining with say, freshly cooked pasta or polenta. There's a ratatouille cassoulet, a root vegetable, white bean and mushroom cassoulet, a lentil-mushroom farmer's pie, enfrijoladas with sweet potatoes and caramelized onions. The three sisters mini tamal pies are baked in ramekins with a layer of masa on the bottom and top and could probably be adapted to a larger dish.

Sweet-and-Sour Caramelized Squash with Pistachio Za'atar from The Cook You Want To Be served on a bed of arugula. Roasted squash and shallots get a drizzle of a red wine vinegar and honey reduction with golden raisins and a sprinkle of za'atar made with fresh thyme, lemon zest, sumac and roasted pistachios. Rather Ottolenghi-esque. If Google books likes me today, this link will take you to the recipe from the book.