Mighty Girl on her menu planning. I've been trying to get a handle on having good food ready to go around this lately, so far it involves making things to keep in the freezer.

Erica Mulherin on her current sources for recipes.

The best way to reheat a chicken, the roasted chickens from our local natural market come refrigerated. We resort to roasted chickens about once a week.

Jejune has trouble finding Dutch-process cocoa lately, and so have I. An episode of America's Test Kitchen recently rated Hershey Dutch Process cocoa high in a taste test but I cannot find it anywhere. I know I saw some around last December. update: Annie (thanks Annie!) commented to let me know Hershey's replaced their Dutched cocoa with Special Dark, which Cook's Illustrated reports does not taste as good. Droste was CI's pick for dutch cocoa available in grocery stores.

These pink shortbread cookies made by Jek In The Box are charming.

Amusing footage from a video camera going around the conveyer belt at a Tokyo sushi bar, all the way back into the kitchen too. Via Serious Eats.

A Cabbage Salad (mis)Named Cole Slaw at Seattest.

Omigosh, Dori Greenspan has a blog, and she likes the Furi knife sharpener which is good news because I'm desperately in need of something to sharpen my knives.

Must make: Chocolate and peanut granola from Nigella Feasts.

We recently borrowed two ladders (the first wasn't quite tall enough) and in doing so got a quick education in what size we might need for our house and what kind we might buy if we find we need one often enough. The one we liked best was a 21-foot aluminum Gorilla Ladder (thank you Maggi and Jeff). I'd seen a recommendation for the 13 foot Gorilla ladder on Cool Tools ages ago, so I was unreasonably excited to get to try one out.

It allowed us to comfortably wire a pendant lamp into a 13 foot ceiling over a stairwell while using the ladder in the A-frame configuration. The Gorilla Ladder felt sturdier than the ladder we had to compare it to, it was easy to change configurations and see if it was locked into position, and I'd be comfortable using it to climb up to our gutters. And, it folds up small enough to fit into our very tiny backyard shed to be stored. It's definitely the brand we would go with should we decide we need to have a ladder. (I'd say something about the amount of stuff homeowners suddenly find themselves needing to purchase, but it's just too sad to go on about here.)

[note: I usually keep a list of what I've been up to in the side bar, over there to the right, however enough people leave comments about what's there that I've decided to move them to the main posts. I have archived past weeks since I rather like having the record of things.]

loving:
Online Communities Poster from xkcd
This will hang on the wall of the room we call the office, but can more accurately be described as the Internet Room.

eating:
Sausage and Broccoli Rabe Calzones
Recipe from Baking Illustrated, and I'm attempting to figure out the best way to cook them after freezing. Yes, the same calzones that were the scene of me burning the bejeezus out of my thumb.

finding useful:
blue paint tape corners
Painting the trim around many small windows? Me too. This saved me a lot of fussiness.

reading:
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
Fascinating and funny.

sneaking spoonfuls of:
Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream
Mmmm.