What I learned today (Take Two)

The hardest one is basil. I don't use a brush, of course, but rinse the leaves in a bowl with a couple changes of water. But I'm never quite satisfied....

Yes, basil can be particularly tough because the dirt is often very fine and not easy to see. Plus, you don't want to wash the heck out of it. Leeks and celery have never been a problem, easy to wash and very sturdy.

[Jenise]

Today I learned that even raw unseasoned green bell pepper stings my internal lacerations, but Cherry Garcia doesn't.

Also, I got the urge to cook lentils. Remembering some divine green lentils that we had with duck confit in a French restaurant I decided to try to replicate their preparation. They were cooked, but whole and not at all broken down. I imagine they were pressure cooked, and I don't have a pressure cooker right now so I decided to try only lightly cooking some. First batch: nada. Went from not quite cooked enough to overcooked/pasty in a flash. So I threw those out and made a second batch, tossing the dry lentils in some olive oil and letting them sit first. When I cooked them, they stayed whole. The cooking water wasn't nearly as stained and didn't turn at all cloudy as the first batch had fairly early in the cook. Excellent! They're now cooling (I can't eat hot food yet--but room temp is fine.

[Jenise]

Today I learned that there's a gizmo for breaking up browning ground meat. I use a spatula, which of course is one blade and not all that effective. Made of durable polypropylene, this device essentially has five or six blades. $5.99 from Amazon; I bought one!

I thought you were one of the people around here who makes fun of single-purpose gizmos?

[Jenise]

Yes and no. Appliances and things that take up significant space--yes. But small specialty tools are okay. There's still room in the drawer for something that will come in handy only five or six times a year.

I lay awake all last night wondering why there's no 3% milk.

I have a 14-year-old Havanese dog who has been my best friend, love bug, super watchdog, and fun to be around. Last Monday after messing up my house full of white carpet with diarrhea, plus losing the loss of her legs, I was able to get here in for an emergency visit at 4 pm. This resulted in an overnight stay, with IV, CT full body scan, meds, and overnight care. $1,888.78 later I was able to bring her home on Tuesday. 4 medications, twice a day are required. She is a smartie and would have nothing to do with taking pills. I smell that in the cheese chunk Mom, so NO I am not eating it... So, I learned that leftover flank steak, cut very thin and rolled up around the pills, powder and a paste from a syringe was the miracle I needed. I prepare each slice with one of the meds, let it sit for 15 minutes, and present her with the TREAT. The flank steak has been cut up, some frozen in hopes it lasts for another 10 days.

Today I learned that there's a gizmo for breaking up browning ground meat. I use a spatula, which of course is one blade and not all that effective. Made of durable polypropylene, this device essentially has five or six blades. $5.99 from Amazon; I bought one!

I discovered that gadget 2 years ago Jenise and love it. It is used often as I feed my dog ground turkey and chicken mixed in with her kibble. I have a small pull-out drawer just below the cooktop which holds the tools I use the most, very handy.

[Jenise]

My husband increasingly can't handle a knife to cut a steak. More ground meat is in my future, so I know this will come in extremely handy. I don't have a dog, but your description makes me think I maybe should get one of these for my brother who makes all his own dog food.

I lay awake all last night wondering why there's no 3% milk.

Get them to change the definition of whole milk (3.25%) and you could have it

I thought you were one of the people around here who makes fun of single-purpose gizmos?

You didn't have a potato masher?

I thought you were one of the people around here who makes fun of single-purpose gizmos?

You didn't have a potato masher?

For reasons I thought best not to inquire into, my wife bought a potato ricer a decade ago. It has been taking up continuous space in our cupboard ever since, having ever been used. Jenise, do you own one of these? Maybe if I gave her a recipe that required one......

My mother used a potato masher for mashed potatoes. My dad later got a potato ricer and loved it. He recommended it to me as being both far less work and doing a better job at mashed potatoes. So I got one and use it for the (few) occasions where I make mashed potatoes. It also turns out useful for some other pureeing applications.

-Paul W.

Today I learned that there's a gizmo for breaking up browning ground meat. I use a spatula, which of course is one blade and not all that effective. Made of durable polypropylene, this device essentially has five or six blades. $5.99 from Amazon; I bought one!

Jenise, that burger break-up gizmo that we both bought is Ok. I use a non-stick pan to cook my dog's burger and mine and that gizmo slips on the non-stick surface. Later, I bought these two wooden paddles. https://www.amazon.com/Spurtle-Utensils ... rce=1&th=1
Since I usually buy Jennie-O natural ground turkey, and it comes shredded into long strands, I find these paddles to be perfect for breaking apart the meat from the edge as it cooks Works perfectly for me. I'm a cooking tool nerd, so I have many tools that help my aging hands. I saw Rachael Ray using them several times, and I like the ease with which she managed some jobs. I like the long one for certain things and the shorter one for others.

[Jenise]

I thought you were one of the people around here who makes fun of single-purpose gizmos?

You didn't have a potato masher?

If that question was actually for me, no I don't, not the one I presume you mean that's one long series of S curves. I agree that might break up meat pretty well.

Karen, I do have spurtles. Which is essentially one blade edge, like a spatula. How's your puppy doing? I just now saw the post about her emergency room visit--don't know how I missed it before.

The potato masher with a series of S curves is supposedly less efficient for mashed potatoes than the ones with a flat disk with holes (like a ricer).

That is certainly my experience.

-Paul W.

It's why I'm glad I have the ricer type.

Jenise, she is better, and after 6 rooms of loose stools damage on white carpet, I am so thankful. She is walking, eating, and drinking, but still has a limp. No matter what I do to get meds into her, she figures out there is something wrong and will not eat it. I guess enough has gotten into her because of her improvement, still what a waste of meds. Overnight stay, IV, meds, and medical assistant, dr. visit, etc. It costs almost 2,000 bucks, and then emergency carpet cleaning, on top of that.

[Jenise]

The potato masher with a series of S curves is supposedly less efficient for mashed potatoes than the ones with a flat disk with holes (like a ricer).

And that's why I have the latter kind. Was my mom's, first and only one I've ever had. Probably 80 or 90 years old.

So last night I used my ground meat breaker-upper for the first time. It's WONDERFUL!!! Extremely effective, takes 30-45 seconds to do a better job than what 2-3 minutes with a flat spatula achieves.

Karen, sorry about your expenses, but so glad your Havanese is doing better.
I looked up the chopper, but Betsy would kill me if I got a single use tool, And we don't do ground meat that often
Last night Betsy made an Eric Kim/Julius Roberts recipe for tomato curry
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/102 ... mato-curry
Slow roasted tomatoes, in a curry sauce (coconut milk, pepper, curry leaves, etc) Then topped with fried curry leaves
https://share.icloud.com/photos/07aLLkZ ... mTm6qA4bRA
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b5OweK ... 4tNCK5neZA
Fun and different. Good enough to serve company, we weren't having wine last night but thinking about in case served at a dinner. Riesling is obvious easy choice, but I'd love to experiment.

[Jenise]

That dish sounds excellent, Dale. I'll put it on my To Do list.

Re the chopper, it's pretty small. At most three inches across at the blade end and 10-12 inches long. I am sure it's one of those things that once you have it, you find many uses for it. In addition to ground meat, I've already used it to break up canned whole tomatoes and hard boiled eggs.

I got this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D163P36G/re ... F0aWM&th=1

Same one I got Jenise but I did learn something today. I had slipping issues with it on my non-stick pan. Well, it pays to pay attention to the info and I did not. I was not putting my thumb on the top indent made for just that purpose. I just now tried it and it is much more stable. Good grief! I keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge as I love them for lunch salads and the gadget makes short work of breaking up the egg.

Well, it pays to pay attention to the info and I did not. I was not putting my thumb on the top indent made for just that purpose.

That brings to mind a couple of sayings from the field of Software Engineering.

The first is RTFM, an acronym for "Read The F2king Manual". A large number of software problem reports come about because the user made no effort to read the documentation or online help before using the software.

The second is the saying, "When all else fails, read the documentation." Software engineers are famously as guilty as anyone else of committing RTFM. Perhaps more so, because we often believe that as software professionals we know what we're doing.

-Paul W.