lindag

@KennethT Thanks for mentioning Wild Fork. The meats look very good and I just placed my order: smoked salmon, pork chops, empanadas, chuck roast and bacon.

Thanks! I need to try this.

I made Ina Garten's Wild Mushroom Soup on Wednesday for dinner. It was outstanding! No picture because (a) Ina's photo is perfect and (b) I'm a lousy photographer. The aroma of the simmering soup was perfume in the house.

The story around here is that there may not be any turkeys for Thanksgiving this year.

I cook beets all the time and I think for best results in keeping the color you should bake them in the oven or they will bleed. wrap in foil and bake for an hour or so depending on size and age. I think they test better that way too.

This one of the reasons I gave up my CSO and went back to my old KA toaster. The problems got worse as the oven aged. The underside of the toast was very light and striped. I like my toasted goods fairly dark and it just couldn't do it even partially even.

I hadn't been seeing posts from you in a while; I'm glad you're still in touch.

I own the induction model, I replaced the previous Zo I had with it because my hubby loved steel cut oats and the induction model could make that. both are wonderful. I gifted my first one to a dear friend. Unless you want to make porridge you can't go wrong with the one on the right, both make flawless rice every time. Idiot proof! Additionally, my induction model seems to have been discontinued now but I paid $283 severa years ago. The other one is actually less now than what I paid. Be aware though that they all have a pretty large footprint.

Our little (Hutterite) farmers' market is winding down now. Not much left. I did buy some garlic and some canned corn and a lovely buttercup squash. I'll miss all those beautiful vegetables they had.

(said by someone who despises peas)

Odd. The liquor stores hereabouts are all well-stocked.

Whoa. Had to look that one up. Love it.

@ElsieD My test is about complete although I'm still holding onto my herbs. After two weeks of storing my thyme, sage and parsley in my vacuum food containers both are looking as fresh as when they went in. I've yet to try some of the other herbs but so far I'm really impressed. These were wrapped in a damp paper towel and then placed into the container and vacuumed. I've long been a big fan of vacuum food storage and this brand has ben overall the very best. I tried growing herbs at home but generally they go bust when I need them the most, as in fall and winter. Now I buy fresh and store them this way. I will try some of the others and report back.

I've discovered Absolut Peppar; it makes the most amazing Bloody Mary, or, for me, Clam Digger.

Somehow I missed that a first reading. Utterly tasteless as well as insulting.

I watched "Roadrunner" yesterday (how could I not?) I must say I enjoyed it even though it was heart wrenching. When asked about the suicide, Eric Ripert said it was something he couldn't talk about. Newsweek photo and story(ies).

I used to enjoy the occasional glass of Cold Duck (Andre) but in the last couple of years it has disappeared from the shelves around here. I have switched to Spumante.

I've been using this recipe for the last few years. So easy to make in the bread machine. I skip the rolling out of the dough and simply put all the ingredients into the bucket and let her rip. The bread is fantastic, the best I've ever had.

I have tried various methods as well....mostly the ones you've mentioned. I've bought containers that go in the fridge with water in the bottom, nothing worked well enough to satisfy me. The current method I'm using is to put them in a Foodsaver container, I'm told they last weeks that way. Right now I'm testing that theory. I'll let you know how well it works.

Have you tried the bacon flavored vodka?

I keep my spuds in a specially made burlap sack out in the garage (bought from Amazon). Every once in a while one on the bottom goes bad - a smell to make one gag.

that's why I went for the F Blumlein https://fblumlein.com/collections/steam-oven/products/ju-3200