Oh! I thought you meant one of those ovens where you just give a little push and the door springs up. Either way, it sounds dangerous. Way before rolling racks, my father made me a lovely oven rack puller, which I used in college era apartments, but I avoided the oven when I could. I remember making a lot of pâte à choux puffs, many of them filled with yoghurt and strawberries and frozen until just set. :) People went wild for them, and they're nothing to make. Even in an apartment cheap, rattly oven range. :) I wonder if the soy sauce thing has to do with all the wonders of fermented foods that the hard science community has been proving recently. My first reaction was that it's what they always say not to do, but Laceyvail's experience is very interesting. . :) I like Jody's suggestions, especially putting the aloe in the fridge, though I try not to get burns to start with. :)

We received this wine aerator as a gift. https://m.wine.com/product/vinturi-wine-aerator/120451?warehouses=CA&cid=GoogleBase_CSE_120451_Beta&gclid=CjwKEAjwlq24BRDMjdK7g8mD6BASJABBl8n310IPzm54CwZGYb5jIVpe2Mj-rkHdl7ntD2MlAdvEXRoC3Pnw_wcB&mode=xfercomplete Sometimes I have guests do blind tastings - (1) a glass straight from the bottle, (2) a glass poured through the aerator. They prefer (2) about 2/3 of the time. 1/3 of the time they can't tell the difference - but those guests might not be able to tell a California wine from a French wine, so we won't give their opinions too much weight. No one, so far, has preferred (1). If you decant into a carafe then the aerator is unnecessary. I picked this laser-sighted infrared thermometer up on a whim, because I was in Home Depot and it was only $16. http://m.homedepot.com/p/PRO-SERIES-Non-Contact-Infrared-Thermometer-with-Laser-Sighting-12-1-Spot-THERMNC/204262824 Along with enabling all sorts of geeky investigations - have you ever wondered how much hotter your ceiling is than your floor? do cats have the same internal temperature as humans? when your spouse is "steaming mad", is she really? - it has certain cooking uses. Measuring the temperature of a pan. Or of spitting oil that is too scary hot to dip your probe thermometer in. This one is as cheap as they come, and no doubt there are advantages to the expensive models, but save your money and get the wine aerator too. Differences in the emissivity of surfaces limits the accuracy of infrared temperature measurement anyway.

I do agree about salmon. I make it all the time. A whole salmon whenever i can but more for a family gathering of 10-15 or close friends, 10-20. Special occasion when i get my hands on a wild caught fresh. But then again, if i did this for DH, i would do a seafood theme like a big lobster, king crab bake/boil. Lots of oyster shucking, some on the grill. All outside, newspaper covered table, Salmon and charcuterie inside with fresh veg chips and more snack things....end of June b-day appropriate. Pretty, That is in Ontario. Citarella in NYC does similar for catered parties. Love when i see it. Had it a couple times this past year. Back to veggies... Fresh veg is nice as 'chips'. Us veggie lovers love veg instead of tortilla chips. On a mandolin it is a just a few minutes to zip through a dozen veggies. Best if your market sells singles so you can just but one or two of each and select the big ones. On the left is a quick pickle. Then some i made earlier for dinner....a bed of thin veg under a cod fillet. Same idea that i serve with my hummus. (not the steamed, the fresh) But, you need mandolin skills. It is a super tool and so quick. Should be in every kitchen. It also makes very thin veggie sticks for spring rolls. The new model Benriner is my favorite. A glove is a must. The older Paderno is the best spiralizer i think. I like that it folds up but you cannot make chips on it. I can do so much more on the mandolin. Spiralizer is fun for some noodle meals.

I've had food poisoning twice, once from seafood at a restaurant and once from a meal at a co-op in college. I don't know what food was the culprit there but the kitchen was a mess so I should have turned down the invitation. My suspicion would be dairy since it was a vegetarian place. I know some of us sound like little fussy pants and we are, but once you have had food poisoning you will never again feel as blithe about food safety. I try to measure my caution with common sense and pragmatism. Having to take microbiology kind of helped me realize where the biggest issue and risks were. Knowing what's most likely helps. (I was a frequent hand washer before hand washing was cool . . . ) Salad bars were a fine idea, but the thought that they could be left unattended or attended by someone not trained in food safety was not. Salad bar serving spoons and tongs have long handles to minimize hand contact with the food, but they don't minimize your contact with something lots of other people's hands contacted. BTW, when we do microbe testing in biology labs, the highest microbe levels aren't necessarily on the high human contact surfaces. The amount and rate of cleaning of those surfaces his a huge factor . . . The toilet seat is usually one of the least problematic. Oy vey back when they had a phone booth with a phone in the hallways, that receiver grew some hideous looking germs because it was almost never cleaned. Now that doesn't mean that the germs were dangerous to humans or that folks were getting sick from using those phones, so that's a factor too, how likely are you to run into a problem microbe, most are not . . . well, off to sanitize my cell phone now . . . :)