Anna N

Here

As someone has already said, "summer on a plate". @Shelby I was skeptical. Very, very skeptical. Had anyone else told me I could peel tomatoes easily using the back side of a knife I would not even have tried it! But you haven't led me wrong yet so I tried it. Worked like a charm. Now I have a new trick up my sleeve.

Bacon, broccoli and cheese.

And so something has changed! The top drawer as it was when I woke up this morning. Everything is Higgly Piggly here and there and I had no clue what was in there. The top drawer as it is now. I was so ruthless I was able to finally store many pounds of nuts that were gift and that I had vacuumed packed but knew would need to be frozen before I could possibly think of using them all up. I forgot to take a photograph of the bottom drawer before I began cleaning it up. But here it is now: On the right are two levels of baskets separated by an old cutting board. On the left are three baskets ( two below the red one you see). I learned a great deal about myself with this exercise. There are no meals that I have frozen that I have any interest in eating. In other words don't bother freezing meals! Frozen rice doesn't do it for me either. Don't ever believe that you will be using it within the week and therefore do not need to package it properly for long-term storage. I did find the sausages mentioned above but most of them I'm afraid went into the bin. Stored only in a Ziploc bag without any care taken they were freezer burned and most unappetizing. There is nothing wrong with having a few slices of bread in the freezer. But when a good 50% of the freezer is occupied by bread products there is a problem. It was getting rid of most of the bread that freed up so much space. LABEL LABEL LABEL. DATE DATE DATE. If you don't know when or why you are putting it in the freezer then it does not belong there. All freezer inventories need at least two more columns: A. Planned use (in other words choose a recipe/technique/occasion for the item's ultimate purpose). If possible, start plugging things into a meal plan for the next month. Ingredients such as nuts and seeds are exempt from this requirement. B. Use by or discard date! It's not helpful to know that something will survive for two years in your freezer unless you are buying a whole cow. If you haven't used it within 6 months chances are good you never will. (this would not apply of course to those of you who freeze your garden produce.) Just because you can freeze something doesn't mean you should. Why are there six lemons still in my freezer? Gaining control of one's freezer is very much like quitting smoking. You rarely succeed on the first try or the second try.... These are lessons I learned about myself and do not necessarily apply to anyone else. Now to look at my freezer inventory and start adding those other two columns. Sorry if I bored everyone. But I thought some might get a little bit of use out of my lessons.

IT is a truth universally acknowledged that when fried zucchini and Crystal hot sauce appear on the table of @HungryChris the slight wobble in the earth's rotation smooths out imperceptibly.

Sweet potato hash with some harissa ( perhaps a little too much) and a poached egg.

I am making very little progress with my freezer drawer. Somewhere in there I am fairly certain are some sausages. I have been jonesing for some sausages. But when I attempted to retrieve them I realized that a freezer drawer is only a chest freezer in miniature. Digging down into one if you are even slightly physically challenged is at least as difficult. Two or three times now I have abandoned the attempt to reach sausages should they actually be there. Something has to change.

Maybe not. But I know how to scatter kittens.

Today @Kerry Beal and I returned to Pomelo in Burlington. Ginger tea for Kerry. Won ton soup for me which came as part of my lunch. Fried calamari. Tom Yum Pho for Kerry. Stir-fried garlic beef with rice for me.

A friend brought me two field tomatoes today. I would've liked to just inhale them but that didn't seem such a good idea given my physical limitations. I opted to slice one of them, arrange it on a piece of toast, season it well with salt and pepper, garnish it with a few basil leaves and savour every mouthful. Mmmmmmmmm.

My inclination would be to roast the tomatoes to concentrate their flavor as well as to dry them. But otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't work and I'm fairly sure that I was eating it at room temperature.

It is worthy of being quoted in full: "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit-detector.” –Ernest Hemingway

@andiesenji, If it seems to meet all your requirements then I think you should go for it. There is no one answer for all of us. I am already pushed to the limit for both counter space and cupboard space. Lifting things up or lifting things down can defeat me very quickly. But I can certainly remember a time when I would've been all over this thing.

Bacon, egg (double yolker), mushrooms, tomatoes and fried bread.

Nope. Much as I am a kitchen toy freak, my immediate response to this was "too difficult to store". Perhaps if I had a huge kitchen with acres and acres of counter space I might see it differently.

We are both right according to Wikipedia: Founder and former editor Christopher Kimballlaunched Cook's magazine in 1980 with money raised from investors. Kimball eventually sold Cook's to Condé Nast Publications, which discontinued the magazine in 1989. Kimball later reacquired rights to the name, hired several former Cook's staff members, and launched a rebranded Cook's Illustrated in 1993.[3] I have copies of Cook's Magazine

Somewhere in this house I have some of the first copies of what became Cooks' Illustrated although I do not believe they began life with that particular title. They promised so much. Shame that they took a wrong turn.

Well look you here: Round tempered glass bacon press

If one can have savoury French toast then one can also have savoury oatmeal. Oatmeal cooked in the Instant Pot using the PIP method (pot in pot). Additions include cheddar cheese, butter, salt, sautéed mushrooms, bacon ends and some scallions.

Apparently this happens all too often! Haven't done it yet but that's no guarantee that I won't.

I like acronyms too but I am pedantic enough to believe that if you can't pronounce it as a new word (NATO, SNAFU) it isn't an acronym it's an initialism.

I do pretty much what @Lisa Shock does. When my bar towels (actually mine are the automotive towels from Cosco as they are cheaper) finally begin to look too ratty I collect them up and I hand them over to the Humane Society where they become useful as cleaning rags. I use dish brushes from IKEA and they go through the dishwasher. I also have a couple of scrapers including a very useful one from Lodge which I think is designed for cast iron.

The system as described by the Voltaggios is simple and fast. What do you think the advantage is when you need to take the extra step?

I think an argument can be made for "a la" (in the manner/style of) but it translates poorly when it is capitalized. I think its lifespan as an abbreviation is quite limited although I understand the desire to shorten it in some way.

I think the biggest problem with using up leftovers is not about the usual stuff that we have in the fridge but that extra special ingredient we bought for one particular recipe. I'm thinking miso, curry pastes, capers (to some they are a staple and to others an exotic ingredient), harissa, and dozens more. If only you could buy just a tablespoon of some of these ingredients. I think Fine Cooking once had a rather good section on using up such things. I think I remember some interesting uses for Thai red curry paste. Should have saved that!