kayb

Sounds an awful lot like a biscuit to me.

You could always move to Arkansas, the home of cheap liquor. Last Balvenie I bought, I paid $38.99 for a 750-ml bottle at the nearby discount liquor store. The cylinders it comes in also make excellent "banks" for spare change collection. I save it all year and take it to the CoinStar counting machine around Christmas time. It'll generally pay for the gift cards I'd buy anyway (and on which I get 4x fuel points when I buy them at Kroger, which forgoes its CoinStar fee if you take your loot in a gift card vs. cash. I got this racket figured out).

Stopped by my Aldi this morning. No dehydrators. Probably a good thing. I really don't need another kitchen appliance.

As noted, the 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 pans fit perfectly. Lovely, smooth crumb, and I am entranced by the glossy, crispy crust. We seem to have gotten over the rocky beginning to our relationship.

Peas, packaged for the freezer. I do nothing but shell, let them dry for an hour or so in the bowl, and scoop into plastic bags. My grandmother contended they froze best in a pillowcase. Three half-pints of tomato sauce (just tomatoes and sauce) from the garden.

@Lisa Shock -- A big bowl of slaw with cabbage, cucumber, sauteed leek, grapefruit sections, nectarines, with toasted peanuts and pecans and either canned (drained) garbanzos or some of your dry beans, cooked, for protein; with a dressing of honey and lime juice with a neutral oil, spiced with whatever strikes your fancy. If you have some bread, baked, toasties with that swiss cheese would be excellent; Or even a quiche, as someone suggested, with the swiss and onion.

Y'all with your water views, know that I am well and truly jealous. Beautiful!

I'm having some blossom end rot on my Romas. A friend who grows tomatoes tells me a good remedy is a mixture of 1 cup Epsom salts to a gallon of water, and dispensed among the plants. Picked up Epsom salts today and will try that tomorrow. The Romas and the cherry and grape tomatoes are bearing nicely; my hybrids have almost quit, and the Bradleys are producing small tomatoes, but they're very tasty. This is about a week's worth of tomato pickage: I made three half-pints of tomato sauce with them yesterday.

I don't care for Chick-fil-A's politics OR their food. But I will say they make the best fast-food lemonade I've ever had.

I am SO going to try this. Scotch and salmon sounds like it would be a match made in heaven. I'm not much for really smoky, peaty Scotches either, but I can see they'd be good in this. But I'll likely use Balvenie 12, which is my usual pour.

It leaks half a tank of water over the course of 15-20 minutes. No leak since I tightened it. Not sure what its purpose is, other than to cause me agita.

Yes, I used mine for two loaves of anadama bread yesterday. It took an hour, vs the 20 minutes the book said it'd take (albeit that was for a different kind of bread). I did it on steam at 100F; I think next time I may bump it up to 110, as it didn't feel very warm to the touch. I tend not to slash my loaves (heresy, I know, but I always forget! and I don't do baguettes much), so I can't testify to that. The Anadama bread was most excellent, both plain and toasted, btw. Exactly. Thankfully, the water did not get into the power strip and fry the whole house.

Found the black knob probably about the time you posted that. Thanks! We're going on an hour on steam at 100F to proof bread loaves. They ain't there yet. This is not an auspicious beginning to our relationship.

No. Mine has a plastic tank on the side where you put water when you're going to use the steam function. And it wasn't a case of not getting it seated, either. It just did the same thing. Being no fool, a folded-up bath towel jammed between it and the Keurig caught the water this time. Stopper in the tank is tightened pretty finger-tight; doesn't leak when held stopper-down, until you press on the little valve in the center.

I have had my CSO all of three hours. And it has already tried to kill me. In anticipation of its arrival today, I cleared off the top of the microwave to make a spot, into which it fit perfectly. I read through the manual. Well, I think I read through the manual, though I had to go back and look up how to set the clock. And I perused recipes. Also in anticipation of its arrival, I started a loaf of bread last night, along with the poolish for some baguettes and ciabatta tomorrow. First, I learned something. I learned when they say don't leave water in the reservoir when you're not using the steam function, they ain't kiddin'. I discovered this when I had to mop up about half a reservoir-full. Not to be deterred, I went on about shaping my loaves and putting them in the CSO on steam at 100F to proof. My 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 pans fit perfectly, side by side, btw. And I went away and left it to steam for 20 minutes. At the end of which time, I stepped away from the stove, where I'd been canning tomato sauce, into a puddle of water (another half-a-reservoir-full or so...and down I went. Fortunately, I did not damage either the healing ankle nor the previously damaged knee, though the good one now has a "tweak" in it it didn't have before. I mopped up THAT water, read the directions again, put a little more water in the reservoir, and made sure it was seated well this time. I think that may have been my problem. However, when they suggest a loaf of bread will proof in 20 minutes on steam at 100 degrees, they're talking through their collective hat. I'm now steaming again, and drinking a glass of wine. Back yard tomatoes yielded three half-pints of sauce.

Yay, Shelby! So happy for your comeback!

Peering into the fridge this morning and came out with a jar of maraschino cherries. Which I ate. The whole jar. I credit this to having purchased some vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt because Kroger had it marked down, and I had not had a chance to make any. My yogurt and granola consumption has markedly reduced, although I even have fresh peaches in the fridge. And the cherries were...there.

Shall be making my way to my neighborhood Aldi this week.

I believe the only sensible response is to have a cocktail.

Excellent dinners, everyone. @huiray, I am particularly entranced by your fried rice, as I love fried rice. May be on my agenda soon. I have had takeout for two nights (pizza last night, Chinese tonight), as I have deep-cleaned the kitchen and couldn't bear to dirty it. That will change tomorrow, as I am freezing corn. And baking bread, as the CSO arrives tomorrow, allegedly.

I periodically entertain myself by designing my "dream kitchen." Mine is moderately serviceable (I have cooked in worse). Stove, small countertop and refrigerator on one wall. Directly across from it, a divider base and hanging cabinets that separate kitchen from den (which, at some point before I moved here, was the back wall of the house). If you're standing at the stove, to your left three steps is the wall with the sink; to your right four steps, past the fridge, is the opening into the dining room. Not a lot of usable counter space, but the real killer for me is the small countertop between stove and fridge (maybe 30 inches) contains the ONLY wall outlet in the kitchen, to which I have fitted a screw-in multiplug. Lined up under the base cabinet on that wall are my KA stand mixer, my big blender, my food processor, my coffee grinder and an electric kettle. The microwave sits on the counter beside the entry to the dining room, and makes use of an outlet that is actually in the dining room, with a power strip run from it that powers the microwave and Keurig. The CSO, when it gets here, will perch on top of the microwave and use the same power strip. There is, at least, a reasonable amount of storage space, including a small pantry, and the next-door laundry room (off the den) has more storage. My Instant Pot and other small electrical appliances live in the cabinet beneath the on-counter appliances, except the Anova, which lives in the laundry room, because that's where I do all my SV cooking. If I could snap my fingers and fix things, I'd add another 8 to 10 feet of counter space in strategic locations, triple the size of the pantry, and add about a dozen outlets. Oh, and the pot filler faucet for the stove, and a MUCH better vent hood. I think, though, I'm going to adopt Porthos' suggestion for the magnetized hooks to hold small things on the side of the fridge. Right now, it holds my instant-read thermometer, several bumper stickers, and grandkids' drawings.

I picked up three dozen ears of sweet corn and half a peck of peas (purple hulls and crowders) at the farmers' market this morning; will cut off the corn and freeze it, and the peas simply get shelled, measured out in meal-sized portions in a plastic bag, and tossed in the freezer. I've done the freeze-corn-in-the-husk thing, and it's good enough, but it's a space issue for me. I use square plastic tubs which stack neatly in the freezer compartment of the extra fridge.

"my internal magpie..." I love it.

Arey, I've always found this place a good source of Cajun essentials, and people speak well of their Andouille. I tend to buy mine in bulk from a restaurant that makes their own. Ouch! Hope the damage was minimal!

I love their customer service department. I thought I'd lost my bracket that holds it on the side of a vessel, and when I called to buy a new one, they told me they didn't sell them separately, but if I wished to send them back the circulator sans bracket, they'd replace it with a new one with a bracket. Can't beat that. Fortunately, I found the bracket.