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A belated Happy Birthday Joan - glad to hear it was a nice day😁

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Will made fried buttermilk chicken tenders from scratch, our family's favorite potato salad, cornbread and sliced tomato with lettuce. Delicious and tender chicken - so glad we have leftovers.

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Italiancook- I wonder if you found one of those heatproof elastic bands that you could wrap around the middle or a large Velcro strap - just some thoughts

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Italiancook - here's what I do even if the directions say not too - I'm usually cooking boneless chicken breasts.

I put the probe in the fattest breast, after I've put however many in the slow cooker, add the rest of the ingredients. Then I put the lid on and clamp down the traveling handles that mine has - otherwise the wire from the Chef Alarm won't let the lid stay tight. I set the alarm for 163 because I figure it will get to 165 on its own, set the machine to manual and low - the chicken is usually done in 2 ½ - 3 hours.

I hate that my slow cooker cooks so high - I can only use it when I'm home for the day.

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I love my ChefAlarm (mine's green). I use it for everything - the pot clip is useful. I even use it to manage my cooking in my fast slow cooker.

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Will's making chicken fried rice - it smells so good!

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Since the windows are already in and three out of 4 appliances are already here, we're in pretty good shape. I bought the flooring at the beginning of January and it's in my contractor's warehouse. The kitchen cabinets are semi custom and the cabinet maker is confident on getting them in quickly. By Monday afternoon, we should have nailed down color etc. My plan is to get fixtures and tile that are already in stock. So fingers crossed.

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Tonight I made Sesame Ginger Orange Chicken Salad from Half Baked Harvest. The first dinner I've cooked in over a week. It's been hot and this salad is nice and bright, plus it will be good as leftovers.

The last two weeks we have been crazy busy packing up the condo - we moved everything including the appliances into a friend's storage locker on Monday and have rented a condo in the complex for four weeks while the renovations are being done. I decided to rip off the bandaid and do it all at once - popcorn ceilings, floors, kitchen and bathrooms - in the long run it will take less time and save money. We are not moving walls or plumbing or putting in fancy beams. We tore out one wall to give the kitchen a peninsula and a view of the lagoon - I am getting a baking corner. We're keeping everything as simple as possible. I bought the LVP at Home Depot back in January. Still working out other details. Fingers crossed - so far no major hiccups.

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Mike, I used to make Katherine Hepburn brownies until I discovered the KAF brownies which we like much better.

The one Alton Brown recipe we use a lot is his baked brown rice - sometimes we throw a bunch of odds and ends rice together and that works too

I agree with you about both Alton and Chris Kimball. I stopped watching ATK because of Kimball. I know he's gone but I don't get PBS on my streaming services

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It was up to 70 today after being in the 40's on Saturday night. With the heat, neither of us felt like cooking. I made another recipe out of Ina's new cookbook - a Greek Orzo Salad which was quick, easy, light and tasted great - a keeper.

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I never did report in about the Lemon Meyer Bundt Cake - Life got in the way. It is a really good cake, but I think I over mixed it. Claire used a hand mixer but I only have my stand mixer - it was denser than I'd like and a little dry - I think I would also use a skewer next time instead of a toothpick - the glaze didn't sink in very far - all very doable fixes. I did use olive oil, might try avocado as well, but I discovered yesterday that I need to toss my current avocado oil as it has gone rancid - I've had it a while so not surprised.

The day before I left for Atlanta, I woke up to a text from Will that said the washer was leaking - so I had to scramble to find neighbors who'd let me use their machines - I have wonderful neighbors! Our new one arrived on Friday - it's an LG stacked front loading washer dryer in green (my choice) - it's really nice. We've been catching up on doing the laundry we didn't want to impose on our neighbors - they let us do 4 loads over the course of 2 weeks.

Friday morning, I made jalapeño corn muffins from a mix we carry in the store. It's a pancake waffle mix and I didn't know until I saw the vendor in Atlanta that you could make muffins from it. They weren't bad, but perhaps a bit dense probably due to the mixing. I think if you're used to packaged mixes you would not notice.

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I have been reading, but not posting lately. Last Monday I made a grain bowl with roasted vegetables from Barefoot Contessa's latest book Go To Dinners - it came out well - it was pretty much a blueprint recipe where you can change up all sorts of things. It said it served 4 - Will and I ate large amounts the first night, then I had another Tuesday and Wednesday and then I turned what was left into a version of tabbouleh and had dinner and lunch on Friday.

Last night I made Cianfotta (Mixed Vegetables) a recipe I got from a cooking class with Nancy Verde Barr before Nathaniel was born! It's a stovetop braise in a way, very simple - garlic, onion, potato, peppers and tomatoes, but you can always add other things like eggplant or zucchini. Last night I added Tuscan Chicken Sausage and green olives - dinner again tonight.

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I like Ina Garten's recipe from her cookbook, Foolproof. It uses a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes. Her recipe calls for orzo and saffron, neither of which I use. It also calls for a tablespoon of kosher salt - since I use Morton's, I use 2 teaspoons. I also add 1 teaspoon sugar to cut the acidity and 2 teaspoons of Italian Herb mix (Penzey's) in place of the saffron.

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We recently went to a local seafood restaurant - we were thinking about ordering fried okra - and it dawned on me that it might be fried in the same oil as the shrimp (my newest allergy) - I asked the server and he said yes and that I would also want to avoid the fried fish (which I was thinking about) and the French fries. He recommended any of the grilled fish - I had a blackened Mahi sandwich which was delicious. Anyway, it might not have mattered but I'm glad I didn't take any chances - I'm not carrying around an epi-pen for no reason!

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Aaron, Alton Brown has a recipe for baked brown rice that has become my go to. It bakes for an hour, but prep is 5 minutes and you don't have to check it. I think I originally found it in Southern Living

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