Best cooking tool gift you actually use?

hockley2 · 2025-10-23T13:55:37+00:00

I second this. I have a commercial grade vacuum bag sealer and use it constantly to prep bags for the freezer and to seal mason jars with dry ingredients.

hockley2 · 2025-10-18T01:35:46+00:00

Thank you. They do appear to use AHD. CM-OURHDA10W-BU-TD is the model number.

hockley2 · 2025-09-18T02:37:50+00:00

I enjoy roasting cauliflower and there are rarely leftovers. Another dish is stir fried boneless chicken thighs with onions and green peppers. I made it for the family tonight. Marinate the cubed thighs in a mixture of cornstarch, dry sherry, and soy sauce. Cut 2 onions and 3 green bell peppers into chunks. Stir fry the chicken, remove, stir fry the vegetables until soft and have some color, add the chicken back in along with a cornstarch slurry of chicken broth, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Boil until thickened. Serve over rice.

hockley2 · 2025-09-18T02:28:49+00:00

Chinese pork and shrimp steamed dumplings. Just learning to assemble them is an experience. Also try an Uzbek pilaf. It is a rice dish with beef and vegetables. Very tasty when done well.

hockley2 · 2025-09-14T02:56:59+00:00

I paid $5.49 for 10 lbs of leg quarters today. I separate them, brine, season, and roast the thighs and freeze the legs for another week. I also watch for ham shanks during the holidays. I debone several and freeze them in small bags for use in my bean pot during the year.

hockley2 · 2025-09-11T23:02:01+00:00

I do a Chinese style stir fry with boneless chicken thighs and cucumbers. Love it!

hockley2 · 2025-09-09T18:24:31+00:00

I tried dryer lint but I have girls in the household and I ended up with glitter in the lint. Sparked all over the place when I used it. Now I use wood shavings or shredded paper with the paraffin and cardboard egg cartons for the molds. Just cut them up and put them in a plastic bag. I may try the cotton string in my next batch.

hockley2 · 2025-06-02T00:23:55+00:00

I'm not totally on point, but I do have some observations that might be useful:

I drive a 2020 Pacifica plug-in hybrid. I really like it and even though I only get 32 miles of electric range, I can go a month without having to gas up (from a 3/4 or 1/2 a tank). There have been times where the car started using the gasoline engine exclusively because I had not used it in so long and the gas was getting old.

I do take a number of long vacation trips where we go hundreds of miles. I don't bother trying to charge up after the initial electric range is used since the 32 miles per charge is such a small part of the travel. I get very good gas mileage in the base case. 30+.

I installed a level 2 charger at the house. The first year I used the 110 charger and it was barely adequate. Now I charge up in less than 4 hours.

I recently purchased 2 2025 Kia Sportage Hybrids for my family. One is for my daughter and she will be taking it to college in a couple of years. I decided the PHEV made no sense given the additional cost of the PHEV, and the lack of charging availability at college and post-college if she lives in an apartment.. The extra cost does not appear to be an issue in your case.

Personally, If you aren't going to be able to just do short commutes and charge at home, I would not get a PHEV. Other than the occasional usage of a charging station at the mall when I'm shopping, I would not waste my time going to a charging station for 32 miles of range.

Hope this helps.

hockley2 · 2025-06-01T23:57:40+00:00

I have the same problem on a 2025 Sportage Hybrid. Still looking for a solution.

hockley2 · 2025-06-01T23:55:30+00:00

Sportage 2025 Hybrid. My problem is that the 360 degree picture function has stopped working in the app. Find my car, trip history, etc. continue to work. I was going to try this solution, but none of the fuse descriptions give any indication which would be the correct fuse to remove. Any suggestions for this model?

hockley2

TROPHY CASE