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From looking at the downloadable instructions on Harbor Freight's website, it doesn't appear as though the emissivity is adjustable on their product. Also, the temperature range on the ThermoWorks product is a bit larger than that on the Harbor Freight model. If it were me, I'd go with the ThermoWorks one. Tracy

I've gotten them at Cabela's and Bass Pro. They work fairly well, and I got them because they were stainless and would not rust as easily.

Pastameshugana, you can also "recycle" the used beans into some white sugar, to flavor the sugar. You can either leave them whole or cut them up.

Along these lines, has anyone ever tried a homemade nutrigrain-type bar? I tried a recipe I found online, but I've found that it's very difficult to spread out the layers evenly. I ended up whirring the dry ingredients in my food processor, which made for a finer-textured end result than the recipe calls for. Also, I have a problem with the bars falling apart, especially if the top layer is not evenly spread. Tracy

Your most likely situation is going to be reduced textural quality, especially with the fruit. I think it's a good idea to use the fruit up in a pie, or something. I'm not sure that it would be necessary to toss the steaks, as long as they are still below 40 F, but use your own judgement on that. If it were me, I'd probably cook the steaks up and refreeze, or cut them into strips or chunks and cook and refreeze for ingredients, or something like that. Another thing you might want to do, which I have found helpful after experiencing this myself a few times, is to get both a freezer thermometer with an alarm, such as this one, which I LOVE. I also got a child-safety strap for the door of the freezer at Target. Edited to add: If you have pressure canning equipment, or can borrow some, it might be a good time to can those stocks. Once I started canning stocks, I had a bunch of room left in the freezer that I could put to use for more expensive items. You could also pressure can the meats, if you choose to use them as ingredients, rather than keeping them for their original purpose.

I've got a smallish standing freezer and two over-the-fridge freezers. I want to buy a side of beef and a half a hog, and I don't have the room to do it. So, for the next few months, I will be buying NO meat, and trying to use up what's in the freezers. Wish me luck! Tracy

Having grown up in St. Louis, Ted Drewes is my favorite frozen custard, but I can't get it in KC, where I live, now. Sheridan's just doesn't cut it. I like soft serve. I STILL stir up my ice cream until it's like that. One thing I can't understand about my partner is that he LOVES soft serve, but doesn't get the stir-it-up thing with harder ice cream. Oh, well. Who said I needed to understand? Tracy

I had this problem just yesterday. Plopped the oily concrete into my KitchenAid, put the flat beater on, and let 'er rip on the slowest speed for a few minutes. Worked great. Very little "waste," which I dealt with by licking the beater. The bowl scraped pretty well clean, and everything went back into the original jar, with the exception of the stuff that got licked off the beater. Yum!

I'd join in, but my partner insists on meat for the two meals he consumes every day (he doesn't do breakfast). He also refuses to eat eggs or legumes, so I'm kind of restricted. Tracy

'Nother atheist here, so no, no prayers. But if someone other than myself has provided the provender, I'll thank that person directly. My partner and his sisters are religious, so when we go to his sister's house, they say grace of the holding-hands-and-bowing-heads freeform, saying-it-for-everyone variety. I hold hands, but I do not bow my head, neither do I say, "Amen." But I don't make a big deal out of it, either. At least one of his sisters knows I'm atheist, which probably means the other one does, too. But they've never given me any trouble for it. Probably because (as they've told me repeatedly), I'm the best one he's brought home, yet. A friend of mine, who is religious, and who is part of my "adopted" family (she being the mother thereof) always prays at family get-togethers. No holding hands, but much bowing of heads, and again, I do not partake. She knows I'm atheist, and while she hasn't given up on me, she doesn't bother me about it. I figure it's their own business, and since I don't believe that the beings to whom they are trying to talk really exist, it's not going to hurt me in the least if they choose to include me in their prayer. Nor will it hurt me if they exclude me.

Just so that those of you who keep this on hand are warned. Only one lot number is affected. FDA link

It's dishes, IMNSHO.

We grew up calling grilled cheese toasted cheese, but I haven't thought of that for so long... I don't care, either way, personally, as long as it's cheesy. I loves me some melty cheese.

Not thrift store or yard sale, but we have a salvage store here called Cargo Largo. I went on Friday, and passed up full sheet pans for $8. My oven isn't big enough for them, and try as I did, I couldn't think of where I could use them, even though I wanted them. I picked up 4 1000 ml Pyrex beakers for $5 each, though, and a bunch of Starbucks vanilla syrup, $2/qt. (SO loves this stuff). But my best "buy," recently, was 114 half-pint canning jars for zero dollars, a little poison ivy, and some elbow grease liberating them from their rusted-on rings. Still not finished with the latter task, but I'll be splitting these with my neighbor, as it was she who located them.

I use little squares of it under the feet of my serger, too. Helps a lot.

My partner's ex-wife lined everything with kitchen-floor-vinyl remnants. I hate(d) it. I tear it out as soon as possible (most is gone, now). It curled up at the edges and corners where it wasn't stapled (!) down. I prefer nekkid shelves and drawers. I use a bit of the non-skid stuff under the flatware trays to keep them from sliding around in the drawers, but don't have anything anywhere else, where I've removed the flooring material.

I've got one by Thermos Nissan (from safety points earned from a previous job). The inner pot has a disk bottom, similar to my 8-qt stockpot, but I've never put the vacuum part of it to the test. I'll have to check out your links.

Yes, and frequently, those per-unit costs are wrong, or they are not in the unit that I would prefer to have them in. So, having a price book is very handy. One can also go low-tech and use a notebook and a calculator.

Andie has a mixer that she loves, and after which I lust (grammar?). Link I'm gonna get one, myself, one of these years.

Whoops, I had loaded this page, but didn't refresh before posting, so Weinoo beat me to it. I would, however, add that this ongoing downsizing has prompted me to add package quantities to recipes that call for "one can" of this or "one package" of that, so that on down the road, I will know that I need to open two packages, rather than one, when it finally shrinks.

This has been going on for years. It may have picked up pace because of the recession, but fully 5 years ago, the half-gallon of ice cream switched to a quart and a half, just as an example. Lesson? ALWAYS check package quantities. I have a Palm Tungsten T3, and have a nifty program on it called Price Book. It allows me to enter the quantity and total price, and calculates the per-unit cost. It's invaluable to me, and I've been using it for years. I'm sure there must be a similar app for smart phones. I would highly recommend such an app, if you can find one.

In the last couple of weeks, I've gotten several cool things at my local thrift stores, including two coffee presses, one Bodum and one no-name, for $2 each, a neat glass measuring cup with embossed measurements and three spouts, a crock with lid that I can use for kosher salt, a stack of 9 large linen napkins (all white) for a total of $2 for the stack, and today, a BRAND NEW set of Tramontina tri-ply (2- and 4-quart sauce pans with lids, 5 qt Dutch oven with lid, 12-qt stock pot with lid, and two skillets) for $130. Now I don't know whether to get rid of my Revereware, or keep it. I can see myself using the Tramontina most often, but I'm torn between selling the Revereware on Craigslist to recoup the $$$ for the Tramontina, and hanging on to it. I might get rid of the Revereware Dutch oven, as it has plastic handles, and I don't really use it that much, and the skillets, but the sauce pans might come in too handy. And I don't want to get rid of the really little ones unless and until I find replacements. Thoughts?

I have gotten the Tramontina brand ones at Costco and/or Target, and I've been happy with them. A while back, Costco had an 8-qt. combo with a steamer and a strainer for not much money, but I don't think they have it any longer. Tramontina 8-qt. multicooker This is a bit more than I paid, I believe, but I've been really happy with it. If all you want for size is an 8-qt., then this will work well. My sympathies on the recently deceased pot.

I'm sorry, I think I was unclear in my question. The rings to which I was referring are the screw bands, not the rubber rings. Must the screw bands remain in place? At the top are the screw bands in question. Thanks! ETA link

Cilantro/coriander is particularly heat-sensitive, so will bolt quickly when it thinks it's too hot. A lot of people let it reseed itself for that reason, so that they can have smaller plants which are shaded by the adult plants.