Faithbck's Profile

I have a 40's era Tappan gas stove that came with my house. I love the look of it and I love the gas burners. I'm not a serious cook though so the fact that the oven is smaller and nowhere near accurate on temps doesn't bother me.

It is easy to clean and is in very good condition, so that makes it even simpler to take care of.

But when I say the temps are off, I mean it. Even a frozen pizza is tricky to cook, everything takes longer than expected, and nothing gets as crisp as I would like it. And its not consistently off either, like I can't just use 450 instead of 350 on everything.

I like pickled radishes in my leftover brine. Also try pickle juice (dill obviously) in place of olive juice in a gin martini. I'm normally a martini purist but its pretty good actually.

But you should really only use the brine once or twice (and always kept refrigerated) since whatever you drop in it is introducing bacteria and its not being heat treated.

My gas and electric company will do an energy audit for $15 (including things like checking out the insulation in your attic) and will give you credits on your bill for installing a programmable thermostat and agreeing to let them cycle power on it during the summer. It is worth calling your company to see what they offer.

A nice DIY heating pad is taking mens cotton athletic socks and fill one with rice; tie it off and slip it into the other sock and tie that off. Heat in the microwave. Stays warm a long time and is a great shape for wrapping around your neck or a sore leg. Using jasmine rice makes it nicely fragrant.

Insulation in the attic keeps heat from rising right out of your house and is easy and cheap to install with roll-out insulation. If you close off rooms to not heat them, make sure to close the vents well too; they make magnetic vent covers for floor registers. If you have radiators though, DON'T close off rooms with radiators since you want that to circulate well to avoid super cold rooms.

I love substituting "craisins" (dried cranberries) or going half-and-half with raisins in most of the above suggestions.

As a kid in scouts, we ate huge amounts of "GORP" trail mix AKA "good old raisins and peanuts" (usually with cheerios, m & m's, pretzels and such mixed with it).
I was one of those odd kids who never minded the little raisin boxes at Halloween.

To those with dogs-- grapes and raisins are dangerous to dogs, causing acute renal failure.

I'm a regular runner of moderate distances (4 miles daily, 8 miles weekends) on asphalt rather than concrete. My worry for barefoot running would not be the cushioning (or lack thereof) from a shoe nor the "support" since I never wear shoes inside the house, but all the dangers of the city streets and sidewalks-- broken glass (yes, I have eyes and can see it, except for those little clear pieces shaded by leaves), dog/cat/wild animal feces (sure, you see piles but not the smears tracked across the path), etc.

And having been a regular Ocean Beach SF runner till I moved, I think I'd be even less likely to run on sand barefoot than pavement since sand hides dangers better.

As a kid I loved broccoli with honey on it. Sweet yes, but honey has some good to it and a little bit got me eating a lot of broccoli.

Now I think it is great chopped into quiche or as part of a simple stir-fry of pork or beef (thin cut), onions and broccoli with a half-and-half (more or less) sauce of soy and peanut butter (chunky).

Having once had my boss bring a coffeemaker to work because it would (I quote) "make me nicer", I think coffee is non-negotiable for me.

That said, everything is a trade-off. I've been to coffee growing regions and seen the increase in living standards that fair-trade coffee brings to the people. There are ways to make it more sustainable, such as shade grown coffee that allows the natural canopy to stay standing and provide bird habitat and natural diversity. Sure, there is more degradation to the soil than a virgin forest, but without coffee it most likely be another, possibly more damaging crop AND/OR a less profitable crop for the workers.

Most peoples' kids make more mess of their furniture than their housetrained pets.

The way I see it is if you have pets then you are already planning around them to a large degree- hours at work, vacation pet-sitters, etc. So plan your furniture too. Let them lounge with you and relax, isn't that half the fun? My pets were allowed on the sofa as soon as they were litter-trained, yes it is going to need cleaning sometimes but it would need that if I spilled my drink also, and its fun to chill and watch TV with the pets.

Reminds me of Dictionopolis in The Phantom Tollbooth.

Ask a cop what else gets "cooked" in a hotel room coffee maker and you'll never use one again. Hint- starts with crystal and ends with meth.

Creative though.