I gotta call this one a good idea. It will come in handy when there are just too many things going on all at once. 

Nice car, way too much money. Pass.

Another serious question, because I don’t want to go buy another thing that I might rarely use: Is it better than grating Parmigiano Reggiano, or Pecorino, or Grana Padano, on vegetables? I always have one of those, and a little goes a long way.

All us boomers miss pivoting vent windows. For those of you who never had them; if you had, you’d miss them, too. 

Well, like you said, it is your list. I guess I agree with most of it, disagree strongly with some of it, and shrug and chalk the rest up to personal differences in taste. But I do have a couple comments not related to your actual rankings.

Sincere question: what do you do with the rest of the can of pumpkin purée and sweetened condensed milk? My thought would be that if I’m opening both of those, screw it. I’m making a pie.

This looks like a good used car that will last a few more years. NP.

I don’t doubt they said that, about the credit cards n’ ‘at.

Also, quality stainless cookware is the sweet spot of garage and estate sales. Everyone overvalues cast iron, and non-stick stuff is usually beat to hell. But you can go to almost any yard sale or garage sale and find copper bottom Revereware pots and pans for a couple-few bucks each.

Don’t add salt to water in a stainless steel pot until it is boiling; you’ll get pitting on the bottom. I didn’t find this out until all mine were pitted. 

I have a couple rough finished Lodge cast iron pieces (Dutch oven and skillet), a couple smooth 100+ year old Griswold (Dutch oven and skillet), a couple expensive smooth modern cast iron skillets (10” & 12” Stargazers) and a cast iron Japanese omelet pan with a rough finish.

I put a row of hooks on the backsplash, and there I hang the tongs, my #1 and #2 spatulas, the slotted spoon and the serving spoon, and the soup ladle. That way there’s room in the tool drawer for the peeler, the masher, the microplane, the shears, etc.  

These are all good suggestions. The best one, though, has to do with cooking for others. If you are cooking for a crowd, avoid adding heat altogether, and serve hot sauce, hot flakes, hot peppers etc. on the side. It’s easy to make things hotter, but you won’t be able to cool them down. Capsaicin on the side makes…

A long, long time ago (40 years? 50? I’m old) I was taught to hone my knife as if I were trying to slice a piece out of the steel with it. That made me find the correct angle, by it having the least resistance, and use the entire blade as I moved the knife down the rod, because that’s how you slice.

I most regularly use a chef’s knife, a santoku, or a nakiri (I was stricken with More Knives Syndrome for a while there). Honestly they are all delightful in their own way. I choose which one to use randomly, leaning more toward the chef’s or the santoku for the pointy tip. But the nakiri is deadly on soup vegetables.

Carbon steel flat bottom woks!

I know what I got.

I do like the taste of A-1! But not on steak. If you do use steak add-ons, the proper ones have developed naturally over the years, and should be used judiciously and respectfully: bleu cheese crumbles, a little wasabi, compound butter, etc.. A little bit goes a long way, y’know?

I’ve thought about that: that there’s no economic downside to having both sets of tires. But I do 95% or more of my winter driving on dry and wet roads. There’s a trade off in tread pattern and temperature, yes, but I just don’t think I drive enough in those conditions for that incremental difference to matter.

I agree completely. When it’s icy, I stay home.