Pizza last week, but more often I nuke a bowl of Chili, Thai-spiced garden stir-fry, or leftover soup-of-the-week, with pepper, winter greens, & minced Chinese Leek stirred in to freshen up flavors. If I'm shaky-tired hungry, Tuna on poppyseed bread, with dijon and cheeze is a great comfort - even better with big leaves of mustard green or other peppery greens inside. If in season, open-faced, with fresh broiled tomato oozing on top. Mmmmm! (I've got about 8 kinds of tomatoes sprouting now! YAY!) I love a good IPA or malty Craft Beer after gardening too. With friends is even more of a reward, but who really wants to leave the garden, clean up and travel to meet em?

I have the Wolf cooktop and the wall ovens. I'm very happy with both. I did find that some of the pans that I'd been happy with before did not do as well on the Wolf. Sepcifically, those with disc bottoms and/or thinner sides may have problems with hot spots and scortching around the bottom sides. You don't have to buy All-Clad, but use a tri or multi-ply cookware (Cusinart and Calphalon also make them, Sur la Table has their own and I am sure there are others). Cast iron pieces will still be fine, and yu'll just need to be careful to keep the flame low until you adjust when using non-stick for eggs and such. I was reasonably happy with my double ovens, but had several service calls. I was told by everyone that even the first one was highly unusual for a new Wolf. When I started smelling something electrrical overheating, we threw the breaker off and called Wolf on Monday. I said I didn't want another repair and they agreed -- not even a wait to have a serviceman come check the oven. The only question was to verify the serial number and they had the warehouse ship another one and arranged the installation a week later. Now that I have new double ovens, I am even happier. These seem to be better fitting, better made, quieter and just working beter all around. So this is what you should be able to expect from Wolf, and I'm very happy now. Just finding reasons to bake and test them out some more. :-)

When I still worked I used to take bentos all the time since there were no readily available food sources near my office. Leaking was not a problem with the ones I had. Www.justbento.com has lots of good ideas, not all of which are Japanese. Maki at Just Bentos also talks about storing a "stash" of bento fillers in the freezer. Other than that, dinner leftovers were my staple. I would also pack bread, filling, and lettuce separately to combine on the spot into a nice, non-soggy sandwich. Also, if you look around a little you can find small packages of real cheese (processed cheese is just industrial (i.e. "cheap") cheese melted with salt -- nothing yucky or chemical added to it despite the name) from France where cheese is more highly respected. A handful of crackers and some fruit will round out a meal. Pink Lady apples resist browning when cut and will be perfect in appearance at lunch time if tossed into a solution of a pinch of Fruit Fresh (vitamin C) and water as you cut them. If nuts were not an issue, then almond or peanut butter would be great accompaniments instead of cheese.

So ready for cooler weather so I can start using the big oven again for meatloaf, meatballs, bread, etc. Best meatloaf recipe I've ever tried came from the Cooking forum here many years ago. If you can't find tomato frito it's worth it to make your own. So much better than canned tomato soup. World's Best Meatloaf 1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs - (tear up soft sliced bread - don't use fine crumbs as for breading) 1 1/2 lb ground meat (beef or pork & beef) (about 700 grams) 1 beaten egg 1 onion chopped fine 1/2 teaspoon dry Coleman's (or similar) mustard 1/4 teaspoon ground sage 1 teaspoon ground thyme 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 1 chopped green pepper 1 tin condensed tomato soup (Campbells's) 3/4 cup grated celery 3/4 cup grated carrot 1) Mix meat with egg, add onion and seasonings and bread crumbs, greens and carrots 2) Add half the tin of soup and mix everything well. Turn into greased loaf pan or glass casserole dish 8.5 x 11 inches and pour remaining soup over the top, smoothing it evenly over all. 3) Bake 350 F (177 C) for 1 1/4 hours. Source: American Pro Football Player's Wife in 1963 SharonCB’s notes: I use 'tomate frito' instead of the condensed soup. It's a rich fried Spanish tomato purée but otherwise condensed soup is good. Never use ketchup!