The sounds of someone in the driveway early in the
morning. Lilli looked out and saw a van with the
Enterprise car rental logo, and we prepared for a
potential crisis as someone started yanking on the
back door. By the time I got there, the intruder
had left ... leaving behind a big Amazon Prime box.
Lilli had sort of forgotten she had ordered a bunch
of highly rated (by Cook's Illustrated or its heirs
and assigns) kitchen equipment - an ice cream scoop
that can't possibly be better than the one she has
but that has a two-sided squeezy ice cream wiper to
compensate for her declining hand strength; a waffle
iron, because she doesn't go to hotel breakfast
buffets often enough; and an oven thermometer. I
proposed to test the outdoor barbecue, empty, to see
if it got hot enough to cook meat without a fire -
we expected a new record, the previous being a paltry
101 on this date. Turns out the barbecue got only to
125 when it was 100 out, so that experiment is deemed
a failure (might be okay to make fondue or something.
Using the thermometer in the new oven, we discover
that either the oven heats or the thermometer reads
50 low. Further experimentation indicates that the
thermometer thinks that water boils at just under 200
rather than just over 200, but that doesn't account
for the whole difference. Also, the oven on high broil
for 15 minutes didn't get it to budge past 475, which
is dubious. So it's likely that the thermometer (CDN
Pro Accurate model DOT2) is a dud, likewise the GE
oven thermostat, also made in China - split the
difference, everyone's unhappy. Lilli complains, but
Cook's Illustrated said it was the best one. Hah I say,
so much for that less than useful publication.

=

It's cherry season in Washington and blueberry
season in Oregon, and so finally I'm getting my
fill of decent fruit. Both seem to have bumper crops
this year, and prices are reasonable - Stater Bros.
has cherries for 1.49/lb and blueberries at $2 or so,
so I've been indulging my fruity wishes for a change.
For lunch at this writing I'm consuming 4 1/4 dozen
cherries in one go. Edited to add: do not try this
if you're going where there aren't handy restrooms.

=

Dole pineapple juice in the carton. We got this
a couple weeks ago, because it was on sale for $2
the 59 oz "half gallon" (why has the public not
complained mightily about this weasely bizarreness?).
Expiration date August 13, so it has 3 weeks left,
but Lilli, having forgotten about it before, just
opened it and said it tasted funny. Taste, taste ...
it's started to ferment, I'd guess 1 or 2 percent by
now, and isn't too sweet; I'd call it delightful.

Full Circle organic vanilla soymilk - sort of murky
gray-brown, penetrating vanillaish aroma, not much
flavor, and if I hadn't known from the label this
is all natural, I'd have suspected some artificial
flavor or other (not really vanilla). Below average
all round - not a pleasure to drink, but I was put
in mind of all those wonderful soy isoflavones,
whatever they are, I was ingesting. This was a buck
less than Silk, so I swallowed my pride and
principles as well as the quite inferior product.

Costco's vanilla gelato with amarena cherries -
Lilli had got this because we kind of liked the
Costco chocolate gelato, and the store carries only
one flavor at a time. This is not an experience to
be repeated. It was very sweet and with a curious
unattractive aroma - turns out the first ingredient
is nonfat dry milk. The vanilla part is kind of dead;
Lilli said the cherry swirl tasted like cough medicine.
To me, more like Luden's cough drops, but same idea.
This wonderful product is manufactured or engineered
by the Atalanta Corp.

Humboldt vanilla ice cream, reported on before, tasted
heavenly by comparison, the mouthfeel thick and rich if
a tad gummy, the flavor recognizably vanilla. About the
same price as the above but with far more appeal.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:123/140)