:(

The World Peace cookies are awesome. But I think that recipe is all over the interwebs anyway.

The editions of JoC have changed the book considerably, and I have no experience with any edition after when I acquired mine in... 1978. That edition was frustrating, and I’m not sure I would recommend it to a new cook. The way that ingredients are laid out isn’t intuitive and, as I noted, it often required you to…

Not everyone aspires to being a minimalist.

I’m a mid-Atlantic type. Not sure why, but I associate combinatorial cooking with the midwest—you know, recipes that use canned soups for sauces and pre-packaged mixes in strange ways. Although, as I think about Mississippi roast, maybe it’s a southern thing.

I, like many others, started with the Joy of Cooking, but it was the earlier version where, halfway through a recipe, it would tell you to combine with some other recipe you hadn’t realized you needed to cook. Or you needed a stale beer or something. I think the first one that kind of got me excited was the Silver…

Plan should include periodic mental health checks/self-checks for Mom. Post partum depression is real and can be pretty dark.

“I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar...”

In the “flipper” spatula category, I have to have both metal and nonstick, given that I use both metal and nonstick for different things. I have fish spatulas, but honestly prefer a wider, solid metal number for a lot of the tasks associated with my griddle (pancakes or smashing burgers), like this (although mine is…

For those who appreciate Szechuan pepper, I highly recommend the Kenji’s Bang Bang Ji Si recipe from Serious Eats...

+1 for Grains of Paradise. I have a grinder with black pepper and one with GoP right next to my stove.

You should check your facts. First, there are plenty of small WISPs operating out there, so the idea that you can’t have an ISP without scale is bullshit. Second, if the existing companies are monopolies that deliver shitty service, they ought to be easy to compete against, even without scope or scale. Third, you…

Er, why not? I routinely bake pizzas in my oven on parchment at 550F, which is a temperature typical ovens won’t even hit. Granted, they are only in there for less than 10 min., and the parchment gets some browning, but I’m not sure I see a problem. I also routinely roast vegetables on parchment for up to 45 min.…

I love the pre-cut half sheet parchment paper packs from King Arthur. Among other things, I find ‘em useful for pizza—I can build a bunch of pizzas on parchment sheets, then bake them off one after the other. As opposed to constructing on my peel, and then being unable to do another until the first is removed from…

If you don’t want gifts and want to accommodate people who feel like they want to be demonstrative, you can do what my wife & I did—register at a site for charitable contributions. Those who felt like it could donate to one of our causes or one of their own.

I can’t take credit. Think it came from Serious Eats.

There’s enough room for the water when things are spun dry. And if you can’t adapt enough to put a basket in a bowl it was designed for, I think you’re just being silly. Hell, just drop it in the sink. They tend to be sloped to the drain, so it isn’t an issue.

Really? You find it hard to put a basket in a bowl specifically shaped to hold that basket? I do this every time I use the damn thing—put lettuce in basket, rinse, shake, put in spinner. We’re not talking about putting square pegs in round holes here.

You can hold it... Then put it back into the bowl for the spinner-thing, which should have room below the basket for water to drain. That all said, I do have a fine mesh colander I keep in my kitchen and would not do without. But even if there was something like that in my salad spinner, I think I’d still have a…

Try the fine microplanes—better for ginger/garlic and not particularly deadly. I’d be lying if I said I never lost flesh to a box grater or the large microplanes (thankfully never misused a mandoline). There are gloves out there that are cut-safe.