Toliver

Who says you have to get rid of it? If you can't use it as a stove any longer, why not turn it into a planter or a bar or something else? You'd still have it around, plus you'd recycle it into something useful instead of sending it off to rust in a landfill somewhere. "It's only a stove..." Bah!

I think I posted this suggestion in the "This really works" thread regarding how to stop Saran Wrap from sticking to itself when you go to try and use it to wrap something. The "trick" is to NOT immediately tear off the piece of wrap. Instead, pull the Saran Wrap out, as much as you think you will need. Then lay this on the counter top (still attached to the roll). Place the object to be wrapped on top of the pulled out piece of wrap. THEN tear off the wrap. It's the pulling-out-the-wrap-then-tearing-it-off that leads to the self-clinging, floating in mid-air dance that always seems to happen. This method may take a little getting used to, but it does seem to lead to a lot less frustration.

I saw this done recently on an episode of "America's Test Kitchen". It sounds like an excellent tip! My mom has those spikes, too. Usually, though, they just sit in the drawer. Do they cause the potato to dry out excessively where it makes contact with the skewer? Or is it just a matter of bringing the heat from the outside to the inside?

This thread reminds me of Anne Byrn's "The Dinner Doctor". You start out with one dish, then the next meal you add a little something else and you get a different dish...or add something else and get a third option. She does tend to use canned soups or bagged lettuce but it's more for time saving than it is out of laziness or lack of taste (see Sandra Lee).

tokaris, Did you serve soft polenta or hard polenta to your family? If you served the soft polenta, you might want to try making hard polenta. You start with soft polenta, pour it into a loaf pan or small cake pan. Refrigerate it until firm. Then take it out and slice it. For dinner, pan fry the slices and then serve them topped with a nice red sauce. Or you can top them with maple syrup for breakfast. But then I'm a big fan of polenta, masa, tamales, etc.

I found the original post (searched for "+green +disc") that was entitled "Like Bottled Water for Rabbits". Here's the product link. Note that the price on the page is for a set of two discs. With shipping added, you probably get a better deal going to Bed, Bath & Beyond yourself, provided there's one located near you. This site also has the discs at a lower price (scroll down to 5th item on the page) but I'm not familiar with the site so I can't vouch for it. Shipping will probably add to the cost, as well. Here's a FAQ page I found on the discs: clickety

In a smaller way, you can see a similarity with the latest game consoles. The three major manufacturers (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft) set similar price controls on retailers (Toys R Us, etc). When the consoles first debuted, they couldn't be sold under a certain price which had been set by the manufacturers. Makes you wonder about the concept of "Free Markets". You're on the right track. I say work the system. Even though the price is the same everywhere, you still decide who gets your money. Make sure any store you shop at sweetens any deal you may make with them.

I came across this thread and thought I would bump it back up. This sort of happened to me except that I was the person out in the lobby waiting for you to leave so I could have my table. Every year I go to Las Vegas to attend a convention with coworkers. We always try to eat at least one "chi-chi" restaurant (instead of the usual Vegas buffet) and two years ago we thought we'd give Emeril's place in the MGM a try. Our reservations were for 8pm. There was about 8 of us in the group. We arrived 15 minutes early in case they could seat us earlier. After 8pm came and went and we weren't seated, we asked the maitre'd if there was a problem. He replied that the group who had our table had just ordered dessert. At 9pm we were told by the maitre'd that the group sitting at our table weren't going to be leaving anytime soon since they just ordered another bottle of wine. We asked to be seated since we'd been standing around for an hour and 15 minutes. So they seated us in the smoking section. Now to some of you, this may not sound like a big deal. But no one in our group smoked. Plus, we're all from California where, thanks to the great smoking laws, we haven't had to inhale cigarette smoke with our food for a decade or two. Basically we were told that this table in the smoking section was all they had to offer us...take it or leave it. Since we were with some people who really had their hearts set on eating at Emeril's we stayed but I was fuming mad (no smoking section pun intended). Needless to say, we won't ever go back to Emeril's at the MGM unless he's paying. And even then, he'd have to cut my meat for me. All because the people who were at "our" table wouldn't leave. Ideally, management should have shuffled table assignments/reservations around and seated us earlier, but perhaps the staff couldn't handle the math involved in figuring out how to successfully combine tables to seat a large group.

Here is one thread I found about putting on a buffet. Not all the suggestions are cold items, but some are.

No, we call it Ring of Fire. Where I come from, we call it "fire in the hole." Funny you should mention "Fire in the Hole" and "Ring of Fire"...I believe both are the names of hot sauces on the market!

That's the one I have. Works like a charm.

Welcome, lemoncoke! Dinner sounded great.

I nominate "The Firehouse Cookbook". It's surprisingly dull and little more than a collection of "community-type" recipes. Pity the poor men & women of the fire department who have to eat this stuff.

From a search using "range" in the post title: Thread 1 Thread 2 (DCS Range) And I think there was another one, perhaps in the "General" forum but I haven't been able to find it. I know both Fat Guy & Jason have posted extensively about ranges in the past. Hope this helps.

chickenfriedsteak

My mom used to eat Miracle Whip sandwiches when she was young. Of course, it was during the Depression so that almost makes it understandable.

I also have a Mr. Dudley battery-operated that's quite dependable. Nowhere near the output of the amazing Magnum, but consistent and easy to use with just one hand while I am stirring with the other.

Didn't "Star Trek" have this in the Enterprise galley? Now we know where Gene Roddenberry got the idea!

Now that sounds like wintery comfort food! Hmmm, now why did reading "cast iron skillet" make me think you were going to add bacon to that? Mmmm...bacon.

I just received the Unicorn Magnum Plus Pepper Mill that I ordered from cooking.com and must say that it rocks! It's as ugly as sin but as Huevos as stated so succinctly, it's output is quite amazing. It's now rainin' pepper in my kitchen! I'm not too happy with cooking.com, though. When an item goes out-of-stock (as the Unicorn Magnum Plus did over the holidays) you can sign up to be emailed when that item gets restocked. Unbeknownst to me, it had been restocked and I didn't receive a notification from cooking.com letting me know so. I did, however, begin receiving their email newsletter. If I hadn't stumbled across their website and decided to take look at the peppermills, I never would have known that it had been restocked. Perhaps the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing over at cooking.com.

Yes, I would think it would be or would hope that it would be. I'll put a positive spin on it and will say that it'll give me a chance to practice my knife skills learned in the eGCI Knife Skills class.

How about posting some recipes, folks? Bleachboy? Knicke? I have never given homemade creamed corn a second thought before. Afterall, it already comes in a can. But if we can get some recipes posted I'd be willing to give it a try when corn season rolls around again. What say you?

Pish-posh! It was one of the highlights of my culinary youth, especially with oodles of metled butter added in. But then, what isn't great with oodles of butter melted in? (Memo to my Mom: "Pssst...Corn is a starch, not a veggie"). Edited to add my "But then..."

I'd love to see someone tackle "The Music Man", especially "Shipoopi". Though I suppose one could do puupuu's for that song.

Welcome, chiquitalinda!