John B's Profile

We see both DexterMorgan and "Talkin bout Shaft"

The folks who salvage old & nasty pans for a living would have a heart attack reading this thread. From my reading, they would say: never use a wire brush/grinder/sandpaper/sandblaster as you'll remove some of the iron in addition to the gunk, and never use heat, (fire, self-clean oven), as you risk warping the pan.

The method they seem to suggest most often is the one Short Pants: a lye soak. Sometimes, if the pan is rusty, they follow that up with a short vinegar soak followed by *immediate* seasoning, or using an electrolysis bath. See http://www.wag-society.org/cleaning.php for the gory details.

We went through this seven months ago. You have everything you need.

There are, however, some things that might make your life easier. If you live in an urban setting, some sort of baby carrier and/or stroller might be nice, (we have a moby wrap, and recently caved and accepted a small stroller as a gift). We also have a vibrating bouncy chair, not for him to sleep in, but somewhere where he can be at home that's not the crib or in our arms. This allows us to do things like cook.

We let people know that we didn't want a lot of stuff, (it helps that we live in a small apartment and can say "we have too much already"), and if they were going to get us stuff, it should be used, if at all possible. We still ended up with a lot of stuff given to us, (tons of clothes, and rather a lot of small toys), but less than we would have otherwise, and I think we ended up with fewer, but more interesting, new gifts.

I'm a bit late to the party, but if it's 40 degrees in your place you're very close to the temperature that a fridge is *supposed* to be at, (in fact, my fridge, which doesn't cool too evenly, seems to hang out around 40, at least where the thermometer is).

Can you simply turn off the fridge portion of the appliance somehow? If some cold is seeping down from the freezer then that should be plenty to keep the fridge compartment cold. Or you could move things to the counter and/or a cupboard with a vent to the outdoors. There isn't much in a fridge that, (IMO), needs to be kept super cold. Maybe meats and some dairy products.

We just got back from the west coast where we were experimenting with Salal. It's good in limited amounts, (think pancakes), but we found that the more you used, (cobbler!), the more it tasted like corn.

Also, the cobbler will turn your mouth very black.

First, that parsnip in the photo it'll go to waste. Don't buy them.

@sturgeongeneral I've done this, (or at least something similar), without a candy thermometer, and without the fancy KitchenAid stand with whisk attachment. If you have a strong enough hand mixer it might work, (I used a 20-year old Oster stand with the standard double beaters).

Look in the Joy of Cooking for more on the recipe.

We got married this summer and rented our dishes. It came out to around under $2 per person for everything - dinner plates, wine & water glasses, cutlery, etc. It was around $0.30 per item. I'm not sure that you could buy & resell for less than that.

Failing that, you can buy compostable plates and bamboo disposable cutlery. Costco here, (Montreal), even has compostable glasses, (or so they say), made out of corn.