I finally found the ATK recipe, and it works like a charm. However, it will not make a tough steak tender. Buy a tough piece of meat, cook it perfectly, and it's still tough -- as I found out today with a "special" petite sirloin at $2.99 per pound off regular price at Safeway! (Lord, keep me from Safeway!) The toughest meat I have ever had. But it was beautifully cooked. Here's the recipe: Ingredients: 2 New York strip steaks, at least 1-inch thick Kosher salt 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon Freshly ground black pepper 2 nice pats of butter Special equipment: 1 half-size heavy-duty sheet pan 1 wire rack to fit the half-size, heavy-duty sheet pan 1 leave-in meat thermometer How to prepare: 1. In order for this method to work, your steaks should be about room temperature before cooking. Be sure to take your steaks out of the fridge, or from wherever you are storing them, ahead of time. 2. Preheat the oven to 275�. 3. Using paper towels, thoroughly pat your room-temperature steaks dry. Season both sides liberally with kosher salt and rub the olive oil all over them. 4. Position the steaks on the wire rack that you have set in the sheet pan. Insert the meat thermometer probe into the center of one of the steaks. You will want the tip of the probe to be parallel to the steak, so the probe should go in the side of the steak instead of sticking straight up. Make sure not to position the probe tip too close to the wire rack or to the top of the steak. Set the timer to go off at 100�. 5. When the timer goes off, remove the steaks from the oven. Remove the probe. Heat the remaining olive oil over medium-high heat until the pan is nice and hot, and oil is not quite smoking. Sear the steaks on both sides. You should remove them from the pan when they reach an internal temperature of 125� for rare, or 130� for medium rare. While the steaks are resting, the internal temperature should continue to rise about 5 degrees. 6. Place a nice pat of butter and a good grind of black pepper on each steak before serving. Serve and smile. RB

Confit is a "T&T" method of food preservation, but Harold McGee talks about a "small but real risk that botulism could grow." He says the risk traditionally is reduced (not eliminated) by 1) placing the salted, slow-cooked meat in a sterile container over an additional layer of salt, 2) using nitrates in the salt 3) storing at a temperature less than 40 degrees 4) reheating "periodically to extend its useful life." I'm guessing that's critical. Of course, McGee says over time the meat will go rancid but that "a slight rancidity is part of the flavor of a traditional confit." For me personally a short preservation without nitrates (or the rancidity) is more appealing. Carol

I decided I couldn't wait any longer, so I just ordered the 18 qt Nesco with the 2 day prime shipping. My son will cook the turkey Wed. using the make ahead directions previously suggested. Then on Thursday we will bring the cooked (and at least partially sliced) turkey to my sister's house with the Nesco so it can be plugged in/warmed up there. Hopefully I get lots of other uses out of it - have no idea where I will store it - will have to be the attic or garage!

I'm a bit ginger obsessed. Use it sometimes everyday, especially in a morning juice...ginger, beet, kale/spinach, carrot... So i don't need storage. But i do keep a bit in the freezer just in case. In the fridge crisper drawer it keeps fine in a baggie for a month. (depending on how fresh it was purchased). Vodka is second best to the freezer. (And makes a darn fine martini). Dried and powdered spice is for cakes and bakery items like cookies. Not the same at all as fresh. Though from the same root, it is a different animal like many fresh-vs-dried spice items. Planting it is easy but not so easy in colder climates without a very good green thumb...bringing indoors and giving it a very sunny window and special care to keep it happy, also with lots of air flow. In another home past, i had rosemary tree, a basil tree, a bay tree, lemongrass, etc...but had a very sunny window and needed not much care. I have a sunny window here but nothing does well at all. Even with a green thumb. Seed starting and micro greens are about my limit. Around the March month we get fresh plump ginger in NY. Not sure if that is common elsewhere. The best for pickling or making candied ginger. It does not have the 'aged' hard skins and fibers so common in the grocery. I prefer just to grate it microplane the rest of the year.