Miriravan

I find that a good rinse and light rubbing with barely warm water does a good job of laying the fuzz.

I have the OXO and have used it without issue for many years, though I notice the blade is starting to dull. The blade is not replaceable, so it may be time to bite the bullet and get a new one. It's good for basic coins or long flat slices, but the width limits the size of vegetables you can get complete slices with. It also does this thing where unless you keep turning the vegetable around, the slices get progressively more oblique. I also have a fancy Pampered Chef one in my pantry. It was given to me and I have literally never used it. The OXO is small, easy to clean, and serves my (limited) purposes quite well.

Pierogi? I quite like the frozen ones I get at my local discount store. I can't remember the brand, but they have them with a few different fillings--potatoes, cheese, onions, garlic in various combinations. I like to bake them in some kind of tomato based sauce and then throw a handful of cheese and/or a dollop of sour cream over them at the end.

I love that canned hash, though I try to not buy it often or in quantity. I usually take it out of the can in its cylinder shape and then slice it like chilled cookie dough, about half an inch thick. Bake in the oven until crunchy on both sides, douse with ketchup and black pepper, eat with buttered toast. So good.

It was a good thought, but instead I finally caved and ended up with a gigantic tub of salty, buttery, slightly spicy goodness. I am doing my best to not eat more than a handful at a time, at which rate it will last me some while.

I have several jars of what I think of as 'stock paste' in my fridge, mostly Penzey's (vegetable, ham, seafood), and a couple Better than Boullion (chicken, vegetable), and I also have a box of Knorr's beef cubes and a couple of the double size Knorr's chicken cubes. I always mean to make stock, but then I never have any place to store it, and for my purposes, the bases/cubes work just fine if I don't happen to have canned broth on hand.

Cottage cheese and fruit are so good together. This time of year I mostly am chucking in handfuls of blueberries, but I love it with peaches, nectarines, pears, pineapple...

Oh, you are so right! I still have a very vivid memory from well over 30 years ago of trying to figure out what (and where!) that hideous vile stench in my kitchen was. I finally found the remnant of a plastic bag of potatoes that had somehow migrated underneath a vast sea of paper grocery bags. I have never smelled a worse vegetal stink (though rotten parsley is surprisingly bad).

Oh, that looks so good! I am waiting impatiently for my CSA to start having slicing tomatoes; so far it's just cherry/grape. Sliced tomatoes on toast (the local sourdough bakery does a spinach and onion that is perfect for this) with mayo is a standard summer lunch/dinner/snack for me.

No picture, but I think peanut sauce mixed with cooked instant ramen noodles (don't judge me too harshly; I love the speed of them) and a couple handsful of random vegetable (tonight it was a seeded, sliced cucumber and a bunch of grated carrots) is officially my new 'too lazy to think/cook but too lazy/cheap to order in' meal. At least it has a high proportion of vegetables. That makes it healthy, right? Of course, if I'm honest, I would probably eat the peanut sauce with pretzels. Or tortilla chips. Or a spoon.

No. It really isn't. I make mine with a lot more nuts and cheesy crackers and pretty much double up on the 'sauce'.

I am fighting the sudden very strong urge to make a batch of chex mix, for which I would have to deliberately go and buy the cereal, since I don't eat it any more.

No longer able to resist the siren call of those lovely-looking marinated mushrooms, I have succumbed. My attempt (using three pounds of criminis, just because I like them better than white ones, though they admittedly look murkier in the jar.)

Oh, I love me a meatloaf sandwich! And that one looks excellent--perfectly simple and without frippery. On the flip side, I really don't like handling ground meat, and there's also only me to feed, so I don't make meatloaf often. But I might need to suck it up.

Okay, the shrimp and broccolini looks good, but that bread looks absolutely wonderful. And no knead? Can you point me to a recipe, please?