kayb

I will eat Chick-Fil-A food only when (a) starvng, and (b) the grandchildren insist on going. Nasty stuff. Lemonade's good, though.

Indeed.

SOS!

I sold my kitchen-phobic eldest child on it. Of course, it does a phenomenal job, on convection, of cooking that frozen convenience garbage on which she lives.

Butterfly it, pound it thin, dredge in flour, then dip in a milk/egg mixture, then dredge again in panko. Fry in a medium hot skillet. Wonderful schnitzel. I also like to take those pounded thin filets, spread them with fresh ricotta mixed with a little basil pesto, roll them up and bake them in the CSO. Then I let them cool, slice them, and layer them with sliced tomatoes. Caprese-ish entree for a hot day. Or poach it and make chicken salad.

I can see that DeSpana may wind up costing me money. Wonder if their paella pans are any good? Of course, I do have one coming from Darto, eventually.

I can testify the CSO does not make toast worth a damn when you butter your bread, set it to toast, and then walk away and forget to push "start."

Ahh, Hasselback potatoes! Never thought about the bacon; nice addition. . Tip of the day; lay wooden chopsticks down on either side of the potato. They'll keep you from cutting all the way through.

Well, the offer stands. Hope you find them in Syracuse, though I'd be surprised if you do, as they're generally a Southern staple but less common "up North."

Think "rabbits."

Zucchini: @HungryChris's zucchini pickles are the bomb. I dehydrate zucchini slices, too. Cucumbers: Make you some half sours! I forgot my first batch, let them go too long, and they molded. Have to do another batch, and I'll be through with pickles for the year.

Being on vacation helped me avoid Prime Day for the most part. I did look, once, at the price on hand mixers, the only thing I was really in the market for. No big deals, so I passed.

I grew up in a county which was, for a time, the largest sorghum molasses producing county in the country. We can get it in gallon jugs, but usually it's in quart pails that look like paint buckets.

@Shelby, I don't do heat without A/C either. I don't have to have it in the 60s, but I don't want it above 75, either. Here are a few faves that mostly utilize the less heat-generating appliances and/or can be prepped and cooked early. Marinated roast beef: I do either chuck roast, and shred it, in the IP, or tri-tip or round roast, sous vide. Pull the chuck or slice the cooled tri-tip or round, put meat in a plastic dish, and cover with a good bottled Italian dressing (or make up your own). Refrigerate. Makes a good sandwich, too. Pasta salad: Use the IP to cook a pound of elbow noodles. Slice salami or Lebanon bologna in strips or small dice, or use sliced turkey or ham, shredded or small diced and grated or diced cheese. Add diced hardboiled eggs if you have a notion. Add green peas (frozen steamed in bag and then drained and let dry on paper towels are fine), and some corn kernels. Add diced, steamed carrots, cooled, if you want. Make up your favorite dressing. (I like homemade ranch, about the only application in which I care for ranch dressing). Refrigerate. Roast a chicken, early in the day. Let it cool. Put together a salad of Romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, olives, feta cheese and chicken. Dress right before eating with a viniagrette that's heavy on oregano. Summer tomato pasta: Early in the day, dice up some tomatoes and mince some garlic. Add olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar and let it sit on the counter all day, stirring when you think about it. Cook pasta, top with sauce, add grated parmesan, dig in. You can add diced salami or other sausage to this. Use the rest of that roast chicken, with cheese, peppers, and whatever else strikes your fancy, to stuff potatoes. Bake them in the microwave, broil them in the CSO. Bean salad of your choice, courtesy of the IP and Rancho Gordo!u I keep a couple of cold marinated salads in the fridge all summer. Cucumber, onion and carrots (parboil the carrots just a bit first), maybe cauliflower if I have it on hand. Jail slaw (for a quick side or on a sandwich). As somebody has mentioned, capreses.I love 'em with homemade ricotta. No need to go to the store for fresh mozz. Shoot the A/C repairman. Drink a lot. If you still have an ice house in town, go get you a 50-pound block of ice; put it in a tub. Set it in the kitchen and turn a box fan across it.

It would be much better egg, tuna, chicken or potato salad. But then, I don't put raw onion (except scallions) in any of the above, either. Celery is for stirring your bloody Mary, and then laying aside on the napkin. That'll do it. As I loathe bell peppers, I sub sweet banana peppers.

I suppose it's edible. I'm told the edible varieties are preferred.

I didn't make it to the pick-em-yourself blackberry place this year, being out of town for two of the weeks it was open, but I'm amazed every year at the difference between it and the blackberry picking of my childhood. Buckets in hand, and clad in long-sleeved shirts with rubber bands around the sleeves to keep them down, and bearing gloves with the fingers cut out, we'd traipse out through the woods in search of wild blackberry patches, which typically sprang up around ditch banks and old house places that had had a shallow well. Clad in the protective gear, we'd pick our pails as full as our fingers could stand. Coming home, we'd have a bath with a healthy portion of bleach in the bath water to kill the chiggers, and inspect thoroughly to ensure there were no ticks. (Foragers, a fine tip: dog flea collars fastened around your pants legs will keep the ticks away!) At the You-Pick-Em place, the domestic vines have no thorns. The berries are twice the size (albeit not as sweet) as the wild ones. The grass is mowed between the vines. It took me 20 minutes last summer to pick two gallons. And that didn't count the ones the grandchild filched out of the bucket.

It's my understanding the edible soybeans are a different variety. There are some Delta growers that grow them, though.

@ElsieD -- my apologies for delayed reply; I've been on vacation. These are my grits of choice. I can get them at any grocery store. The link is from the US Amazon site, so I don't know if Quaker sells in Canada or not. I am happy to buy a bag and send to you, if you wish. These are hominy grits, more common in the western portions of the South. Truthfully, I can't tell a big difference in finished taste and texture in the finished product; it's much more what you put in 'em. Milk or water? Cheese or no cheese? Cream or no cream? Seasonings? Sauces? I like to make my plain grits with half and half whole milk and water. I'll add a little cream cheese for creaminess.

No reason at all. I have put things in the SV bath still partially frozen, and just left them longer. As has been noted, it's very forgiving.

Dinner. Tenderloin soaked overnight in buttermilk, then sous vide (time/temp dependent upon age and sex of deer), then either seared or breaded and fried. Shoulder roast marinated in dry barbecue rub for 24 hours, then 72-hr SV, then pulled and crisped up, if wished. Ribs SV and then finished on the grill or smoker. The rest of it ground. Well, deer brisket might make good pastrami. Never tried it.

Glad you enjoyed, @ElsieD! The only difference in cornmeal and grits is the size of the grind. Like cornmeal, grits come in white and yellow. There are also hominy grits. Which you get tends to be a function of where you are. Should you become a true grits aficionado, I'll pick up a bag at the grocery and ship 'em to you.

What they don't know won't hurt 'em.

I could eat my weight in these things.

Wonderful trip -- thank you! What were the walkers in the religious parade carrying on their heads?