dscheidt

Crunchy, fatty, salty heresy. Mmmm.

I am not a huge TJ fan, but I worked around the corner from one for a decade, and got to know the products pretty well, because I'd get something for lunch or to take home as part of dinner several times a week. There are a few things I do like, such as the Frito clone (better than original), the dried fruit, some of the cheese and other dairy, and some things that they sell at good prices. But now that it requires a special trip, I only go a couple times a year.

We have one of those, along with a shorter one. It's a nice knife, sharpens pretty easily, stays sharp a decent time, okay but not great handle. It's a bit longer than what @lindag asked for (~4.75"). I think the shorter one is a 90mm (little over 3.5"). They have gotten quite a bit more expensive since I got ours, there may be better values these days, but I haven't looked at knives lately. the victorinox parers @blue_dolphin linked to are excellent values, we have a few of those. They're super thin and a little flexy. They sharpen very easily and take a great edge, and for $10 or so, they're hard to beat.

wood shrinks along the rings, so the outside will shrink more than the inside, which is why rounds like this are likely to split. commercially prepared rounds are usually cut from logs that have been dried whole, so there isn't as much stress on them, but they still often check. There are things people soak them in that are supposed to keep it from happening. polyethylene glycol is one thing, there's also a commercial product called pentacryl that is something else. No experience, but I've heard good things.

I am pretty sure having a terrible parking lot is part of TJ site selection criteria. All of the ones I've ever been to (maybe a dozen, in several states) have had horrible parking lots. Too small for the traffic, horribly laid out, or both.

Webstaurantstore lists a few, including a cadco. The bigger countertop cadco ovens are well regarded. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/14183/countertop-convection-ovens.html?filter=size:1-4-size

yes, but they're not as common, and I'm sure the selection is limited. The only one I dan think of seeing was in a coffee shop that was using it to heat up pastries.

The general term for that sort of oven is a 'half-size' oven. They're available from all sorts of suppliers, with various numbers of shelves from just two or three up to 10 or 12. The smaller 3 or 4 shelf ones are often stacked as a pair. All the ones I've seen have been convection ovens -- and a non-convection one would not work well, because there's very little room around a half sheet pan for natural circulation. They're very common in small places, either for small batch baking or reheating (or finishiing) for service. There are also combi (+steam) versions, but I have no experience.

I have a bunch of these bags, which we use all the time. At one point, we had 23 of them, but some have perished or been lost. I worked next door to a trader joes for a long time, and I'd buy any I liked. I make a modification, though. I add a shoulder strap of 1" webbing. 44" one side to a side release buckle, 6" on hte ohter side of the buckle in a fixed loop. The first couple I did I made a fixed strap out of canvas, and decided it needed to be adjustable. when we lived in the condo and were street parking, I could carry about 12 loaded bags a couple blocks.

We go through a lot of mustard, but we spread it out over several different sorts, so some of the specialty stuff hangs around for a while.

Even the Driscoll strawberries from FL tend to be okay. I had some for breakfast. (The CA ones are awful, at least by the time they get to chicago. I assume this is because Driscoll grow strawberry shaped Styrofoam blobs, instead of fruit, because they ship better. Other growers from CA are better, but tend to have more damaged fruit.) There also tends to be a very brief moment when they're shockingly cheap.

We've had one for about 3 years. It's generally been fine. The static is excessive, and it retains rather more coffee than I'd like. But it does grind well for the most part. Over the weekend, it died in mid-grind. Electronic failure, not a jam. Some troubleshooting turned up a fuse on the PCB that was open. This seems to be a pretty common problem, Fellow's response is "too bad, buy a new one.". But it's an easy fix for someone who knows which end of a soldering iron is which. It's a through-hole fuse, in a common size (3.15A 250V, 8mm DIP format). I have unnice words for people who solder on a motor protection fuse....

Appliance manufacturers say not to use extension cords because there is huge variation in extension cords. Not just wire gauge, but plug fitment and retention as well. They don't know if you're going to plug your 1500 W hot plate into a crappy 16 gauge lamp cord, or a good quality 12 gauge one. it removes the whole variable if someone complains it doesn't work right (or worse, caught on fire). But there's no reason you can't run an appliance on an extension cord, you just need to use a good one, take care of it, and destroy it if it becomes damaged.

WE have a 14 cup cuisinart food processor. the work bowl has broken again. I've been unimpressed with it for the 12 years we've had it, it's gone through a bunch of plastic pieces, and has generally not been as good as the one my mom used to have. So, I think instead of buying yet another work bowl, I think I'd like to get something else. The size is right, both the capacity and counter foot print. We do normal food processor stuff, and a moderate amount of shredding and grating. We have a good blender for blender stuff, this is just for slicing and grating and general mushing together. What do people like that doesn't require an expensive plastic piece on a regular basis?

Who said it can't be separated? Composition is not color.