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?

@Kim Shook, carbs and cheese is the best combination ever, and that meal looks delicious. Back in the mad wild days of youth, I used to often (oh, yes, far too often!) make a meal of a fresh baguette and some kind of potted cheese (Kakauna, Boursin, Kraft Old English, I was--and indeed am--not fussy,) Not exactly stellar in terms of nutrition, but so delicious!

@TdeV I was pretty pleased with it! It needed a little more salt, I think, but the texture is really good, very crusty on the outside and softer (but not pillowy) inside, with a nice regular crumb.

Today on a whim (and in the interests of seeing if my yeast dated 2008 was still viable) I made no-knead broa (Portuguese corn bread) from an online recipe. It was super easy to put together, and while it's still cooling, and may not be any good in the end, it smells amazing.

The worst candy ever made are those terrible easter egg things. I don't remember what they're called, but the centers are some kind of very stiff meringue like substance, and the outside is a thick layer of smooth, shiny insipid sugar. They used to come in pastel colors, and they are just so vile.

Yeah, I have eaten yogurt many weeks past its 'best by' date, months, even, as long as it looks/smells okay, and never had any problems. Ditto cottage cheese, actually. In my experience, cultured dairy products last way longer than the dates would indicate.

@Kim Shook, I am very sorry for your loss.

Oh, wow @liamsaunt! I could eat that whole plate of bread all by myself. It looks so good!

That looks beautiful. I always buy the thickest asparagus I can find, because I find it roasts nicely (pretty much the only way I cook it) and has a much better texture than the scrawny ones.

I have so. much. ice. cream. in my freezer. So much. And more cheese in my refrigerator than is seemly for a single person. And while I don't know that it fits the 'comfort food' definition in the sense that's meant here, I have a few items that I am weirdly anxiety-stricken if I run out of: onions, canned tomatoes, butter, dill pickles, cottage cheese. It's like a switch flips if I don't have those things in my pantry/refrigerator, whether I have any actual current need or plan for them or not. In general, I make sure I don't run out, though the onion thing sometimes is complicated by the weird phenomenon of onions that seem fine on the outside, but then have one or more rotten layers when cut into. But all is well now, as one of my local bakery/cafes is delivering some grocery/pantry items as well as (delicious) prepared food, and they were happy to send me some onions.

I quite like the whole foaming dish soap thing, and find it hilarious how there is a dire warning on the dawn foamer bottle about how you really must only refill it with the special dawn foaming soap, when it's perfectly obvious that said special foaming soap is regular old soap diluted with about 3 parts water. I just use whatever dishsoap I happen to have and keep refilling the bottle and it's worked fine for many, many months.