SLB

I guess I do ok with the heat, I haven't had A/C in my adult life. This includes my years in Mississippi and Alabama. I'm considering getting a window unit for my bedroom, my tolerance at night is . . . changing. So what that means, I do have general rules for summer cooking versus winter. The main thing is, I hoard steaks and sausages for the summer, and don't really cook big roast-type meats after May or so. I do cook full meals through the summer, and even fry; but as a rule if it has to go in the oven, or cook for a very long time, it has to be done very early in the morning. Then I'll just reheat it for dinner. Also, I use the pressure cooker a lot more in the summer. I gather that the IP works along the same lines, and I would guess since you aren't running the stove it would keep the house cooler? It's weird though; I crave fried food in hot weather. Which is the hottest thing on earth to have to stand there and do, and also you don't get its glory in the reheated version. I should mention, the summer dinner cooking usually starts with a stiff gin and tonic and some cold watermelon. Possibly this is the main *tip*. But then, I just stand there and fry.

I started baking bread in August one year, in a fifth-floor NYC apartment with no air conditioning. For some reason, it seemed easier than getting on the subway to the good bakeries. So yeah, I know the call of bread.

Seconding the eggs. Someone once explained frittata to me as "Italian picnic food". Assuming your mornings are cool enough to run the oven for a bit, make it in the morning, eat it room temp for dinner.

I agree totally. I decided not to order bacon because I just couldn't see how that was gonna work. And yes, their sealing could use some higher-tech.

My Father's hocks are on the stove. I got a late start today -- World Cup/boozy brunch, and then a, uh, recovery nap -- but we're going with the pressure cooker. Can't wait. I ordered the hocks, the "prosciutto", and a pile of snacks: the ham and bacon jerkies, and a very large quantity of the cracklins. I favor high fat snacks. Of the snack products, the cracklins are fine if oily, but I'm not sure they are worth the shipping. Both jerkies are tasty, and not super dry. The bacon jerky is, in particular, to die for. But I hear it's all about the ham, so I'm very excited about these hocks.

FYI, Rancho Gordo opened their Bean Club recently to new members (it had been sold out for quite some time). And apparently they're approaching their limit for new subscriptions. So if you meant to join the RG Bean Club, I gather now is the time.

I'm prepared to make ALL THE ROUNDS. I'll bring my tent, y'all don't have to put me up. And -- I take direction, do dishes AND mop. But back on topic: I'm picking up this book this weekend.

I really think I'm gonna have to get this cookbook. Also, if I haven't mentioned it already, Shelby I really need to come over to your house soon.

@kayb, you're the bomb! I'll get in touch if it comes to that! @chileheadmike, I don't live in KC, I'm just there once every other year or so. @pastrygirl, thanks. I know of 4505, but was thinking surely they were high. I appreciate the review from someone who's actually tasted them. All that said, I do live in NYC, and need to just take my behind over to Queens and see what's happening in some of the meat shops.

Yes, I live in a Dominican neighborhood, and am familiar with the mass-produced products. There is a thread in the Cooking forum on pork farmers who produce fine house-cured and -finished pork products (including service meats and cracklings, etc). Between that and the mind-bogglingly-delicious house-made pork rinds that I had recently at a resto called "Bluestem" in Kansas City, I thought someone may have a line on something unique.

I'm interested in a source of tasty pork rinds (not the hard cracklins, the soft puffy ones). I'd be happy to mail-order, I'd like to get a lot of them.

He lives where we're from, in Denver. Somewhere there! On the unpacking: that's the beauty of the TaskRabbit hire: you design the specific scope of the task.

Wow on the no-collar. I like . My brother had a similar surgery last autumn at c4-7, but the issue was severe stenosis. He was sullen about the no bending/lifting/twisting thing. The physical therapists were, in my view, geniuses. But anyway. Yes to food delivery, it'll be an adventure. And yes to the World Cup.

I think the FD meat is good, and the fish is excellent -- better than at my Fairway (the Harlem location). The produce has not been a hit for me, and I can't really recommend it. The notable exception is tomatoes, which have been uniformly fine. But I've gotten soft potatoes from them before! And almost every green or herb I've ever purchased has been wilted. I am not bothered all that much in concept by wilted herbs, or even wilted greens that are going to be cooked. But wilted lettuce drives me crazy, even though sometimes it can be revived a little bit. And nothing wilted is supposed to cost what it costs at Fresh Direct. Wilted edibles are supposed to come at a discount. I really enjoy grocery shopping, though, and I live in NYC where it can be really very interesting. So I only use FD for specific purposes -- once when I was sick, otherwise when I just can't make the time to haul to the store(s), etc. And once I've committed to ordering, then I go to town and get cases of beer and some table wine and a boatload of q-tonic and enough LaCroix to last for the whole summer . . . . I live up five flights of stairs, so anything that is a pain for me, once I've signed on for a delivery with them, they bring it. And yes, there are cases of LaCroix in my living room. Behind the couch. ETA: Sorry for your woes, Weinoo, wishing you a speedy recovery. That thing they say about not lifting . . . well, I don't know what happened with you, but I do know that this proscription is usually meant to be taken seriously. Take good care, have fun in the world of delivery. And don't sleep on Instacart, or hiring a Taskrabbit to go pick up your stuff at your appointed vendors.

I have a Bluestar RCS (I think this was replaced by the RNB, and I suspect that this is why I got a decent deal on the range). I love the simplicity of its function, I strongly prefer the open burners, and I love the power; but in seven years I have had to replace like three of the igniters and something major busted in the oven (not the convection fan -- the oven stopped working actually). Also, the upper rack is really just too close to the broiler -- I always need to use the next rack level, which is honestly just a bit too far away for true surface-cooking. I can deal with all of this, but it seems like more hassle than one should be dealing with at that price point.

Man, that soup book. It was beautiful!

I would like to see this -- anybody have a link? If not -- what was Bourdain's handle here? I can search for it. Awful.

Noted. On the hunt.

I really appreciated all the suggestions, and I'm working my way through them liter by liter. My current one is the house oil from Agata & Valentina, which is a grocery store near my office which I only really knew for its fish counter and exceptional prepared-hot-food lunch smorgasbord. I appreciate the wisdom here that what is sold in bulk is unlikely to be actual EVOO, and I'm not overly committed to the concept of olive oil; but whatever this is, it's nice and mild. I did try for awhile to switch out to a neutral oil for the places where I had been using the mild olive oil in cooking (i.e., I use grapeseed oil in dressings where I don't want any taste of olive oil); but it turns out that sometimes I do miss the taste of [what's passing for] olive oil in my sauteed vegetables and whatnot. I'll continue to experiment, will report back.

I didn't even know rinds could turn moldy. I better check, the ones in my fridge have been there for years. When I remember, I throw them in with the polenta. I'm going to try broth though, then I can boil it down and freeze it.

Oh, god.

The other thing that is bewildering to me, on top of the ravaging of the word "clean", is the perversion of the word "carbohydrate". It took me years of confusion to figure out that what a lot of faddists mean by "carb" is actually "starch".

I recycle happily in accord with the NYC law, although this podcast made me ashamed of my un-diligent rinsing: http://outsideinradio.org/shows/onebintorulethemall With respect to the arguments above, I do use cloth napkins. I genuinely prefer them on function, but the actual reason I use them is because I am cheap. I use about one a week. I still do use more paper towels than I totally understand, though. I need to figure that one out. I do not have a toaster or a microwave; I use the oven or a double boiler for those functions, so I think this means that my energy use is incredibly inefficient. I use a no-rinse dishwasher. My understanding is that not only do most of the new dishwashers not require rinsing, but the theory of the current dishwasher detergent is that there is food-residue on the plates to prompt an enzymatic reaction; the detergent needs something to work against. My dishes are definitely clean, unless I have failed to properly scrape. I recently began segregating food waste for composting, which involves me deploying part of my freezer for collection and part of my time for hauling it to a collection site. It's been startling to see how many vegetable trimmings I toss; my ancestors near and far have all got to be howling in their graves. Honestly it's motivated me to begin to rethink a lot of things -- I don't think I can commit any more time to food prep, which is the commodity that seems required to make use of trimmings other than compost (I don't have animals to feed) -- but it seems to be kind of nuts. I certainly wish I'd committed to composting years ago. And the other thing that has become unavoidably troubling is the fact that my non-recyclable (landfill) garbage is entirely soft-plastic packaging. I don't even buy prepared food and I seem to have all of this packaging all the time! It's stunning.

Very useful feedback. I can't wait for my hocks to get here.

How does the bacon seasoning compare to the hock-jus for seasoning? Has anyone here had both? My tentative operating assumption is that the bacon seasoning is stronger. I use pork stock a lot, smoked-hock-based for mild and smoked-neckbone-based for strong. On that -- I would LOVE a tip for where to find some neckbones of the quality of the hams in these threads. I'm going to call the purveyors on the list to see, but any leads would be appreciated.