MetsFan5

You guys are champs. I have central A/C and keep my home at 63 degrees in the summers (which are thick with humidity) and I still don't like to turn on the oven.

Making sauce for a sausage lasagna (please excuse my filthy range):

@teonzo those caper fruits are generally refered to as caper berries in the US and aren't that hard to find. My old roommate and I would eat them by the jar on a weekly basis! I love them.

My golden retriever Loves them too. But she can demolish one in about a half hour.

Sorry but anything government funded and paid by tax payers is going to have limits. We don't live in an egalitarian country. (Assuming people contributing to this conversation are from the US, as these are US programs). I've lived on ramen type of poor and now have a nice life. Soda shouldn't be covered.

An Italian POW in the US? I'm confused.

Oh @HungryChris those scalloped potatoes look perfect on a cold and snowy night!! Anticipating this storm and having been somewhat eaten out of house and home during the holidays (and accidentally leaving my second refrigerator door open for TWO DAYS) we have little to eat until our grocery delivery arrives tomorrow. So last night we ordered a pizza to eat tonight. Pizza reheated in a pan on a gas stove is better than pizza delivered. The bottom gets crispy, the cheese hot and oozy and it takes mere minutes from fridge to pan to plate. It was an easy and fast dinner while watching the adbomination that is "Neighbors Two". Maisey enjoyed the pizza crust fairy visiting her.

Oh the irony of my having not cooked in ages. I had my inlaws at my home during Christmas for 8!! days!! I made a sausage lasagna, beef stew, and Christmas dinner. (steaks, roasted red potatoes and roasted green beans and Marsala mushrooms) and my husband made breakfast EVERY DAY. We eat a proper breakfast maybe once a month. My MIL also ordered those insanely over priced WS crossaints which I admit were very good. Going to 3 stores to find the appropriate recycled parchment paper I could have passed on. As nice as it was to keep busy I crashed HARD once they left. Like didn't leave the bed for 20 hours and slept for 19 of those hours and the came down with a stomach bug then a cold. I hope all of you who had a less than ideal holiday season are feeling ok and made it through unscathed.

Thanks for the info. It is useful! I do not trust myself at all in the kitchen, having left the second fridge's freezer wide open (there way have been booze clouding my judgement) and I just lost a ton of food. Not at all happy. So I'm the type who fucks things up when I I am going by the book!

See, I'm learning here. I leave all the protein cooking to my husband because 1- the BGE is his thing and he is vastly better at grilled than I and 2- despite knowing I should use thermometers and "trust my instinct" when cooking meat, I just don't. Even if it's a chicken breast. So maybe this is something I should look into- especially if I can use it as I might a slow cooker-- put things together and walk away and do laundry and clean, etc. I am a bit OCD about food safety. I call my husband the human garbage disposal- he will eat week old left overs-- they make me gag-- having an undiagnosed gastrointestinal disease. So thanks to all for breaking this down for me because it seems like something worth looking into. And I know there are threads to help with cooking if I try this. I also trust myself not at all, so I'd probably buy a food saver, an immersion circulator, bags and a proper vessel (I haven't amassed enough pots and pans to give one up or that I think is large enough) and hold my breath and dive in. I really appreciate all your input. (However if you want to make fun of the NY Mets? You'd be hard pressed to critic my (yes MY) team in recent years!)

Does proper SVing not require and immersion circulator, bag sealer, bags and a proper vessel for the water bath? That's my assumption but it could very well be erroneous.

@HungryChris -- that dinner sounds perfect. Two of my favorites- shrimp cocktail and Caesar salad!

I love Chrissy Teigan's so I am biased. I haven't read more than a few pages but it has recipes most home cooks could come up with. All of them are simple. The pictures are gorgeous. Sometimes I like cookbooks to read them. Bourdains's "Appetites" references a food board where someone freaked about using a fork to stir scrambled eggs on a non stick pan. I am curious as to what board that was.

Lord I think most of our gifts were culinary based. A light for the big green egg,. BGE cookbook, Adam Perry Lang's "Serious Barbecue", Chrissy Teigan's "Cravings", Anthony Bourdains's "Appetites" (along with Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw as my husband hasn't read them), a Breville toaster oven, a T-fal non stick 13 piece set of pots and pans, dish towels, oven mitts, pot holders, William Sonoma croissants (more for my inlaws than us but they are good), and the Ray Kroc book. A nice haul. Oh a we bought ourselves a 5 qt Kitchen Aid mixer in Cinnamon.

Just bought a 5qt Kichten Aid mixer for $250 in Amaxon prime in the color "cinnamon". It looks very pretty on my countertop. My inlaws gave us a check to by one two xmases ago since we traveled across the country and lugging it home was completely impractical. Well, I know my MIL will look for it as it will be my inlaws first time at our home (that we own not a rental) so we finally bought it. Now we just have USE it.

Interesting article. I stalk my Amazon wish list (mainly so if I buy somethings on it for my husband's an delete them)but discovered I am getting this item: Breville BOV450XL Mini Smart Oven with Element IQ

I gutted my kitchen down to the studs as well and had a gas line put in. We didn't use a designer unless you consider having custom cabinets built around appliances and built to our specs otherwise. It's a hard life without a kitchen in the winter. I wish you a speedy and trouble free renovation. Mine took 3x longer than projected and definitely lead to a LOT of marital fights. It's awkward having contractors, electricians, plumbers, woodworkers, etc in your home when all you can offer is a bottle of water. I would even eat (aka hip check my way to the lower level of our home to reheat leftovers) in my bed! I don't envy you- I am gettin anxious just recalling the process. That said, the end result was so worth it!

Who here I recall reading taking a butcher class in San Diego? It would be a perfect gift my BIL

My inlaws do turkey for thanksgiving and Xmas. It's their tradition. Obviously with my father's poultry allergy it isn't my family's tradition. For thanksgiving when I was a kid he would eat lobster so I used to climb on his lap and make him share it with me. When I was 7 and a VERY picky eater, my mom asked for a list of what I wanted for dinner. The list was short. 1- lobster tails 2- mashed potatoes and 3- rice with soy sauce. My mom was NOT amused. Nor was she when she would change the floral center piece on our kitchen table and my vitamins would stream out- didn't want those either. As an adult with restaurant experience I think of things my father normally wouldn't. As in no beef Wellington if it has foie gras. That au jus likely has chicken stock. I feel like most waiters think I'm insane because he can eat eggs but he legitimately has had a poultry and whitefish allergy his entire life. I remember going to my parents home instead of my apartment on my mom's birthday. The got take out-- veal saltimbucco for him and chicken saltimbucco for her. My dad being my dad, aye what he THOUGHT was his veal from the take out container with a glass of scotch. By the time I arrived at my parents my father had taken 4 benedryl and was attempting to tell me how he had "a case of the the chicken disease". My poor mother was livid and didn't feel she could not not watch him. That at said I think we will do a turkey and steak for Xmas. My dad doesn't eat a lot of steak as he had a quadruple bypass but my inlaws love turkey as does my mom. Me? I just want the sides. And the wine.

Wow that is some egg porn with a side of pool envy for me!

A take out turkey club with avocado and a side of broccoli salad. @Ann_T I really want to make a ham but have only tried ham steaks and they sucked. Any tips? Left over ham has so many good uses plus, I just love it.

My husband had to travel across the country to visit his son (obviously my stepson) shortly after my brother's death. I really didn't want or even trust myself to be alone for two nights so I went to my best friend's home. She has 2 kids 3 and under and their joy over my bringing a plastic slinky and cheap mini cupcakes from the supermarket was such a relief. She made a lasagna with a blend of pesto and marinara sauces and turkey sausage and I nearly cried at having a comforting and home cooked meal. Food really is surprisingly comforting. Maybe that's why I find myself eating the crap my brother loves best like Lipton's noodle soup (with 1/4th less water than called for so it even more salty and noodle filled), ramen and even frozen pizzas. Although after one frozen pizza I was done. I do like a good pizza. It's another comfort food for me.

Does the local area have any place that gives kids cooking lessons?

@rotus this is the description of my local shoprite; " Store Features & Amenities: -Health & Wellness Center with pharmacy, registered dietitian services, fitness studio offering morning & evening classes and the Learning Center; education focused childcare. -Expanded Kosher selection -Ella Jane Beauty, cosmetics and jewelry lines including our in-store Beauty Advisor to help with all your beauty needs and product recommendations. From complimentary one-on-one consultations to beauty classes incorporating makeup application and skin care knowledge. Workshops, demos, events! -European Food Hall - inspired Village Food Garden. Featuring a traditional diner, BBQ joint, Lavazza Coffee Bar, Blueprint Subs and Salad shop, Juice Bar, traditional American, Italian, Japanese & Latin cuisines. Outdoor seating & delivery available. -Liquor department offering an expansive list of craft beer & fine wines -Top notch bakeries, produce, craft butcher & seafood departments"

Kings is the local high end grocery store in NJ. The one in my town has a RAMEN BAR. Yea. And they will make your own salad for you and chop it similar to Chop't or Hale and Hearty in NYC. During lunch hours, the town has a cop directing traffic in and out of the parking lot. I'm thinking I should swing by tonight and take pictures. My local Shoprite is a "superstore" and has an oyster bar, artisanal pizza bar, sushi bar, etc and they deliver the food from these 'mini restaurants' on Grubhub. Basically like a Wegman's on steroids since they have a huge kitchen studio for classes, a daycare and yoga studio too. I could spend about 5 hours in there and never get bored. The sheer amount of prepped food is overwhelming for someone like me who really only leans towards a prepped rotisserie chicken on week nights.