Tropicalsenior

Those are exactly like mine!

My most exciting kitchen gadget in the last few years has been this handy little pair of pliers. In fact, I have a pair of them. I bought them in a little Chinese restaurant supply store and they called them microwave grabbers. The closest thing that I could find to them on the Internet were these from Walmart. They are not only great for grabbing things out of the microwave, but also for reaching down into the instant pot and for those pesky muffin pans that have no edge to grab. They have saved me from a lot of burns.

I found the article extremely interesting because Taco Bell was one of my husband's favorite fast foods and it has really caught on here in Costa Rica. They've had franchises here for more than 30 years. However, the innovative items didn't show up on the menus here. I must say that their food was at least filling. But down here, the quality and the service at different franchises varied tremendously. There were several that we dubbed the slowest fast food in Costa Rica.

Another reason for me not to buy it. I have a brown salt Pig and it just wouldn't look the same as the nice white sea salt.

I've been saying that for years. I know a couple here that were importing it and selling it. They were even promoting it for the it's health benefit.

I was going to ask you how the Chinese truffles were. After your post, I looked them up and they aren't recommended.

They ship to Costa Rica so maybe you can have some delivered to China. Please post a photo. Come to think of it, they were probably made in China.

As I said, I do use a little bit more water and the number of eggs varies from 3 to 12. Another thing that I do differently is that I put them all together in a small colander, I don't use a rack. Once in a while I quarter a couple potatoes and lay them on top to have for potato salad. They all turned out perfect in just 5 minutes. I might add that I was a line cook for years and I have cooked thousands of eggs and I never found one to be any different than the one just beside it. I should add that the freshness of the egg makes a difference when frying or scrambling them, but I haven't found any difference in the way that they cook or peel using the instant pot. They have all been cooked to the same degree and they all peel beautifully.

It's really strange that everyone has had problems with boiled eggs. I bought my imitation instant pot in August 2017. I know the exact time because this very topic is why I joined eGullet. The first thing that I made was boiled eggs and I've been making them almost every week since and have never had one problem. I do them 5 minutes on high with natural release. That's usually less than 5 minutes. One thing that I do differently is that I put about a cup and a half of water instead of one cup so that it does take a bit longer to come to pressure.

Remembering the effort that my mother used to put into growing celery, I can understand the price. At that time it was grown strictly as a crudite. She grew it in a hothouse and wrapped the stocks in paper so that no 'ray of sun shall touch that delicate heart'. Raised that way, they were delicate and very labor intensive. They didn't use them as ingredients in food as we do now.

Okay, I just looked it up and as I suspected, it has about the same ingredients as a western or Denver omelette. Scrambled eggs ham and green pepper. https://loveandgoodstuff.com/western-sandwich/#:~:text=Toasted western sandwiches traditionally only,green pepper%2C onion and ham.

I'm not sure about the Western sandwich but this article talks about the cannibal sandwich.

The family that I was visiting was Polish and that was exactly their attitude. They made theirs at Christmas time and one holiday in the summer. The world would have fallen apart if they hadn't made poteca.

I made it once when I lived in Montana. It is delicious but a lot of work. Yours is gorgeous.

I found this site, https://www.naturalspices.com/dehydrated-vegetables about natural spices. If you click on each vegetable, it gives you ideas on how to use them and on their nutrients. Maybe this will help.

Did they have pockets in them when you were finished? Or is that the revision that you made?

That's the mantra of anyone living in a Latin American country. And I might add to it, because you may never see it again.

I thought that those of you that actually like peeps might be interested in this. Just in time for Easter.

I thought I had it written down but unfortunately I can't find it. I'm definitely going to have to do it because it is so easy and so good.

I always sterilize mine in the oven. I put them in for about 15 minutes at 250°. I sterilize the lids in boiling water. I learned that trick from watching this video on making the best Orange marmalade I have ever made.

The first two articles above are both behind paywalls. But I did find this https://www.grubstreet.com/2023/04/mimi-sheraton-ate-everything-for-us.html She was an amazing woman.

I made a batch of herbed muffins using this recipe. I only made half a recipe and baked them in my mini muffin tin. Haven't tried them yet but they look okay to me. I was out of bread to have with spaghetti tonight.

After my first total failure, I always baked mine in the oven. I also never trusted the amount of moisture in the recipe. I always checked the dough as it was mixing and either added more liquid or added more flour as it was needed.

Reading over the recipe, my guess would be too much liquid. But then I'm only judging the amount of liquid that my flour would take. I know from experience that that in Canada is much better than what I can get.

It happened to me once and I had no idea what I had done differently. But after that, I just used the dough cycle and baked the bread in the oven.