We use the meat grinder more than any other attachment.

That's why I bought one for my husband - he loves sparkling water but the bottles were driving me crazy. The Soda Stream solved that problem and I highly recommend it.

They're charming, they're old fashioned, and they're sitting unused in my china cupboard because I rarely coddle eggs. What else can I do with these delightful pieces of porcelain?

I'm impressed that your Blue Danube has held up so well. My older sister loved it but said hers chipped every time she touched it.

The only non-stick I will spend any money on is Swiss Diamond. Every other brand has been destroyed by my adorable husband.

Swiss Diamond is pricey but it's worth it. Unlike other nonstick, it isn't sprayed on, it's baked on. It can withstand metal tools and has a better weight than less expensive nonstick.

It's actually worth the money.

My favorite sound is that silence about three minutes into a meal when everyone is really enjoying it.

Sam, I almost fell off my chair when I read your post because jackp and I have a KitchenAid santoku we use all the time, despite owning Shuns and old excellent Henckels. That thing take a great edge and has a very comfortable handle.

Try an Epicurean board. These are composites, they're dishwasher safe and they are much kinder to your knives than bamboo.

The folks who posted about purchasing a sharpening steel are giving you great advice. No matter what cutting surface you have, using your wonderful knives will eventually dull them. If you hone them regularly it will be a long time before you have to sharpen them.

The other day, Jackp announced that our ten year old gas grill was not long for this world. We have a smoker and a traditional Weber, but need the convenience of a gas grill for many things. Which ones have made Chowhounds happy?

The recipe I had for ham loaf was from a fund-raising cookbook compiled the Congregational Church of Terre Haute, IN, circa 1970. Evelyn Paige's recipe contains both ground ham and veal, if I remember it correctly. I'm not a meat loaf fan, either, but ham loaf is indeed a different thing.

Get your hands on some piquillo peppers and stuff them with salt cod. You'll be delighted.

Nearly twenty-nine years ago I had my first date with Jackp. He cooked dinner - a wonderful spinach and mushroom dish. It never occurred to me to think this lovely man who invited me to have dinner at his house might be creepy and of course, he wasn't. I married him 18 months later and we've been together ever since.

It's truly sad that things have changed so much.

We used a dozen (there were just three of us) for Easter dinner. We made polenta and sauteed about a dozen morels and served them with asparagus and wilted leeks on top of the polenta.

And I found another dozen in our woods this afternoon.

Years ago, Jackp and I had a wonderful lunch in Paris that concluded with some financiers and an exquisite bite of rose-flavored ice cream. It's one of those happy memories I cherish.

A few minutes ago I had a sip of wine that had a delightful flavor of rose and it made me want to enjoy something with rose as a component again.

Aside from carrot salad flavored with rosewater, does anyone have a suggestion?

No television with dinner, but we usually read at the table, if it's just the two of us.

$20 a pound is cheap - right now in my part of the Midwest morels are $50 a pound.

Just give the 'shrooms a saltwater soak and cook them as you mentioned in your post. Don't worry about consuming too many; the only instances I know of where people have had bad reactions to true morels is when they've been eating them every day for weeks. Many fungi contain small amounts of toxins and it takes a while for those to build up and do any damage to your liver.

I've been enjoying Meyer lemons for years, whenever they showed up in my Midwestern grocery. Just this last week I realized that Meyer lemons and roasted fennel are one of the finest combinations of flavor in the history of food.

Recently I did a revised version of a salad from Suzanne Goins' "Sunday Suppers at Luques" that uses sliced Meyer lemons and it's just delightful.

Take a look at the Breville. It's the one I wish I'd purchased instead of the Krups that drives me crazy.

In addition to heating very quickly, the Breville has a lid that pops up for easy filling and has an automatic switch off.

I haven't used my Fagor multi-cooker for mulled wine but I have used it for several other things and there hasn't been a problem with corrosion of the non-stick interior. I think you'll be fine using one for wine or tomato-based sauces and you'll find it immensely useful for all sorts of cooking.

I'd heard this anecdotally from a coworker who shops at a farm store. I figured it had to do with the economy, not from any trend toward CSAs or locavorism.

A: Purchase plain Fage.
B: Purchase honey you like and keep it at room temperature because it does not need to be refrigerated.
C: Combine as needed.
D: Enjoy!

I am mostly a sour/savory sort of Chowhound. I still drink pickle juice on occasion, love things with lemon, sometimes put vinegar in my water first thing in the morning to wake up my tastebuds.

Sure, I like desserts, but they will always be trumped by the other flavors, which seem so much more versatile and interesting to me.

William Bounds makes a nutmeg grinder that is excellent. I have the one my husband's step-mother bought over 30 years ago; the cooking store where I work carries exactly the same item.

In addition to holding one nutmeg against the grinder, the housing can contain at least four more. Also, one is spared the occasional bits of knuckle that are often the by-product of traditional graters.

I have had a copy of Duncan Hines' Adventures in Good Eating in my food books for years, simply for the novelty of it. With a 1938 copyright, there aren't many of the places listed that are still in business.

French major here, married to an English major.

Far too much of my working life was spent as a retail manager and I found that those of my employees (and this is in a college town, mind you) who had spent time working on Liberal Arts degrees were better at thinking creatively than the employees who were in more "practical" disciplines, such as MBA students.

Of course, I was a French major, so that might have skewed my perspective.

Imagine my utter shock when I learned that Jackp enjoyed macaroni and cheese made with...Velveeta!

To put this in perspective, please understand that for most of our marriage, few if any convenience foods have made an appearance in our kitchen. We do almost all of our cooking from scratch, even when the stuff we can buy might be superior.

It turns out that his mother had done it that way as a harried working mother and he had a sentimental affection for the flavor and texture.

I let him make that gunk once, and that was it.

Here's what I'd recommend:

- 12" non-stick skillet
- 12" cast iron or enameled cast iron skillet
- 10" skillet in whichever style you prefer
- 2 @2 quart saucepans in stainless
- 2 @4 quart " "
- 1 @8 or 10 quart stockpot in stainless
- 1 @5+ quart enameled cast iron dutch oven/soup pot - Staub or Le Creuset (bigger is better for this one)
- 1 roasting pan (don't forget to register for a rack)

Go ahead and register for the slow cooker, but also think about registering for a pressure cooker or a combination of the two (Fagor makes one and I have it; it's swell).

This will cover everything you'll normally need.

And watch out for wine.

I am very pleased with the Beater Blade I bought for my tilt-head KitchenAid. It works perfectly and reduces the mixing time by at least 25%.

Ottolenghi!