lindag

Still pretty cold here...5F this morning and about the same tonight. Dinner will be some of my leftover Polish Cabbage Soup with a toasted ciabatta roll. (the soup is wonderful, I'm happy to have quite a bit left.)

Is there an echo in here?

Lazy butt? In my book you're a marathoner!

I though I was the only one who piled excess stuff on the dining room table. We always ate in the kitchen unless there were too many guests for that. Now my table is piled with my ipot(s) with extra lids, slow cooker, granite samples for the future kitchen replacement, incoming/outgoing packages, electric tea kettle, etc.

I often make cranberry nut bars, the recipe on the Ocean Spray cranberry package. Really good and easy to do.

Another oddity is what some cafes/restaurants choose to select for their big wall-mount TVs. My favorite nearby café has golf on all day long. Golf? Kinda like watching paint dry. Even my late husband, who loved golf, couldn't watch it on TV. B-o-r-I-n-g. At least the sound is off...that's the best part. I guess if you're going to choose something innocuous, it's a good option.

My disposer came with a rubber or silicone gasket that is well designed to allow water to flow yet holds back even the smallest items. These gaskets are available online and can be fitted into the opening of most disposers. Baffle.

A few years ago I fell over the open washing machine door (front loader). I leave the door open so it can dry inside and not get stinky. The laundry room was dark and I hit the door and pitched over it and onto the tile floor. Hit my elbow and could feel a piece of bone there for many months. Eventually it went away. There may have been a glass or two or wine involved.

Ditto...my smallest is 3-1/2 qts and that's pretty small.

I actually have an LC Dutch Oven from the 80s as well as quite a few newer LC cast iron pieces. IMO the newer pieces are actually better than the older ones as far as scratch resistance and scuffing.

Just brilliant! You're really on your game this morning!!!

I love sweet potatoes (yams) but not the sweet, marshmallowy kind. Cooks Country provided me with a super simple way to achieve wonderful mashed Sweet Potatoes. Just simmer the sliced up yams in a saucepan with butter and a small amount of cream until soft. Mash and add a pinch of salt....just perfect. A sum much greater that those parts.

For my Irish Coffee I used some Reddi Whip which was almost gone. But then I remembered I had an Isi Whip in the pantry that I got quite a few years ago and had never used! (I'm not a big dessert person.) I added my whipping cream and charged it up and now it's ready for the mince that's in the fridge. The plain cream from the ISI is a bit bland but I have some Torani Vanilla Syrup in the pantry that I usually use for Iced Coffee, I'm thinking it's just the right add-in to sweeten the cream a bit. I served mine up in one of these.

I used to make steel cut oatmeal for my DH who said it was the best he'd ever had. Me? I can't stand it...I think it's the texture that I find nasty. I made it in my Japanese rice maker that had a porridge setting...it cooked a long time, I think at least 40 minutes. I wish I liked oatmeal; I've tried over and over, cooking it with different add-ins but it still doesn't ring my bell.

Today I stopped at the liquor store expressly for Irish Whiskey. I opted for the Tulla more brand. Then I hotfooted it home to make my first Irish Whiskey! (Somehow I've never had one before.) 1 teadpoon brown sugar, some hot coffee, the whiskey (large shot) and the cream. Oh my, I may have to have another!

When I lived in Portland there was a Le Creuset outlet store in nearby Woodburn. If was fun to go there and find lovely pieces at discounted prices. As a result, I have quite a collection now...almost all are shiny black or white. I absolutely love cooking in them. One of my oldest, scuffed up pieces is strictly relegated to making No Knead Bread.

I watched this piece on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday. Put Irish Whiskey on my shopping list.

I've been having that same problem for the last months with Walmart.com. No less than 90 percent of the items in my cart are still out of stock. That is just ridiculous! How can they sell items if they're not available!? Makes no sense. And these are not luxury items, they're basic, day to day products that ought to be readily available everywhere.

Green onions...why don’t I just cut out the middleman and throw them out as I leave the store?!

Glad to know it’s not just me.

I keep cans and bottles of pop in the garage fridge. Since I very rarely drink the stuff it can stay out there for quite a long time. When I do need some I often find that it's flat (and one time a can broke open and leaked inside the fridge). Just yesterday I found some Coke and some Fresca that I knew were pretty old and took them out and tossed them before there's another accident.

I don't much care for flat water. I keep small (glass) bottles of S. Pellagrino around in case I want some (sparkling) water of if I need it for a cocktail. There's been so much talk about how people need to drink 8 glasses a day. Then I saw results from tests done on twins. One would drink water only when thirsty; the other drank 8 glasses a day. At the end of the test there was no difference.

Doesn't it have to be winterized?

How many months a year can you actually use an outdoor kitchen where you are?

A couple months ago while unpacking my groceries I discovered a big can of salmon that had not been in my cart. I did remember seeing it on the belt in front of me in the next shopper's goods. Somehow the checker assigned it to me instead. I had been planning to use it for add-ons to my dogs' food but so far it's still on the shelf. Now maybe from reading through this thread here I can find a better way to use it up.