dscheidt

I buy a bunch of cheap ones at the resturant supply store, and throw them out as they get dull. Except the last one, which I use way too long, because I forget to buy more.

They'll also take a wicked sharp edge if you work at it a bit. they don't hold that edge very long, but it only takes a few seconds to get it back. I toss them when I've taken a little bit off the width, right when they don't cut against a board well anymore. I don't do a whole lot of actual intricate paring, If I did they could go a lot longer.

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.

Your faith in Chinese manufacturing is perhaps less than well placed. The black plastic is hard to separate by composition, so it ends up ground into very fine powder, where it used as a filler, instead of carbon black or some other virgin material.

that's about what the place I buy most of our produce at is charging. They generally have good prices for good quality stuff, with prices that change based on what they're paying. (and for stuff like berries packaged by the grower, often two or more suppliers at different prices.) I'm pretty sure the big chains use banananananas as loss leader, because everyone buys bananas, and they remember where they were cheaper. But, outside a few things, I've never considered trader joe's prices on produce good. The one exception is citrus, which is of reliably good quality, and sometimes much cheaper. (limes are much cheaper at the mexican markets. Got to pick the good ones, though.)

My wife bought an escali from sur la table. The nutri or nutro or something like that. Works fine so far. measures to the half gram, which is nice, but not necessary. has ml and fl oz units, which is dumb without a way to specify density. presumably it's assuming water.

I bought the oxo. I'm returning it. Two problems: it's too wide to fit in the drawer I need to store it in, which is 7"; and my wife didn't approve of it. she though the cord would break, get dirty, etc. I probably could have made one of the problems work, but not both. so, any narrow scales? that's really hard to search on....

So, this scale is dead. I suppose 16.5 years is okay life span. But, I need a scale. I could just buy another, it's still sold. Or I could buy something new. Waht's out there?

I got given a bunch of 10x18 bags, which were even longer than that that, because they were zipper bags, with the zipper end being factory sealed. (they had a pre printed label stuck to them, with wrong info, which meant the converter who'd ordered them coul;dn't use them. My home kitchen not being subject to FDA inspection....) I have a vp215, which is 15" long, inside the chamber. I used a bunch of them up, and gave the rest away, but they worked okay in the machine, you have to fiddle around with where you have the excess, but it's pretty easy to figure out what works. For stuff that doesn't need a super hard vacuum, just folding the extra under works fine. Also, remember that bags get shorter when they have stuff in them,

One day in August a few (four, five?) years ago, I decided I needed a new TV. So I bought one, a not quite top-of-the-range model, of (by modern tv standards) modest size. It was selling everywhere for about the same price. In November, it was a headline sale item at several different places (best buy, walmart), for $50 to $100 more than I'd bought it, not on sale, in August. In February, (after the super bowl) I happened to mention that to someone, and looked, it was a few bucks cheaper than when I bought it.

If you have ever had ice from a bar or restaurant, you've had ice as 'wet' as the stuff that comes out of of one of these machines. It's not a big deal for anything I use ice for.