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I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out a change in my tax situation, and hope that I'm just stupidly missing something. I turned 65 last year, and I only learned today that I should be eligible for an increased exemption on my federal taxes - it appears to be $1,300 for our situation. But when I look at the 1040 form, I can't see where you enter that amount, or see a line for it. There's a box to check if you turned 65, but I don't see what you do after that. Our taxes have always been...

Forgive me if this is a very ignorant question, but I don’t know very much about lamp wiring, LED bulbs, etc., and am hoping someone can give me advice. I recently purchased some of these lamps from IKEA: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00323887/They're very nice for my purpose, but I can’t stand the unshaded LED bulb. Ikea’s lamps seem to be all LED, and they sell the bulbs for them. The bulb we bought is an E12, 200 Lumen, because that’s what the display lamp had. But they have lots of different bulbs with those same specifics, just with different names. The lamp says...

I recently found a very nice cookbook of traditional and historic Maryland recipes, 'Maryland’s Way' by Mrs. Lewis R Andrews and Mrs. J Reaney Kelly, and published by the Hammond-Harwood House Association. It’s a very good overview of Maryland cookery spiced with history, and is available on Amazon. In 1851, a Hungarian revolutionary named Louis Kossuth visited Baltimore in an effort to raise support for his cause of Hungarian independence from Austria. He was hailed as a hero and freedom fighter in Baltimore, and treated to great hospitality; and though in the end he only raised $25.00 for his cause, a...

We will be away this Christmas and probably won’t be cooking a big holiday meal. But one thing I’ve always wanted to try is a crown roast of pork – just because it’s so beautiful. Especially this time of year, you can often purchase a crown roast that is already boned, trimmed, frenched and tied. Depending on where you are, you may have to order well ahead, and will certainly pay a pretty penny, but it will save you a lot of work – and this is definitely a Very Special Occasion or Holiday dish. Here from Taste of Home...

Recently, the Lee Valley gardening newsletter featured a great Turkey Pot Pie recipe, to make delicious use of your leftovers: http://www.leevalley.com/us/newsletters/Gardening/3091/Article2.htm*************************************************** Freeper 'Nopardons' shared with me her recipe for Cranberry Sauce; the additions of liqueur and walnuts make an elegant and interesting twist. (I think that NP still says ‘ice box’ when referring to ‘refrigerator’, just as I do :-) Cranberry Sauce Chez Nopardons 1 package of Ocean Spray cranberries, rinsed and picked-over 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup water 1 cup ( more or less...by taste ) of chopped ( I don’t chop them, I just break them up...

The First Thanksgiving, Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1914 When we were first married and hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner together, my husband and I salt-water brined our first Thanksgiving turkey. We were very pleased with the difference this made, and continued to do it. However, a few years ago we learned about the ‘Judy Bird’ - named after Judy Rodgers of the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, who used the technique for chicken. This involves dry-brining the turkey in salt, and does away with the need to fill your refrigerator with a giant container of water right when you need...

Someone recently posted a link to a YouTube video of film from 1940s Los Angeles - it was a night time drive through the city, in color, featuring music from the composers who did the soundtrack to LA Noire. I've tried my best to find this again - even bookmarked what I thought was the video, but it's not. Does anyone recall this and have a link?

I recently discovered Raclette – which term can refer to a type of cheese, a kind of dinner party, or a unique table-top grill. As a dish, Raclette is similar to Fondue, and evolved from the practice of Swiss cowherds taking cheese with them as they tended their herds in the mountains, and melting the cheese over campfires to eat on bread. Traditional accompaniments are potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions, and various cured meats. It looks like a fun way to entertain in that it’s a dish or dinner where everyone is involved in choosing and cooking their own portion; but...

Isidore Verheyden - 'Afternoon Tea' I’ve always been attracted to the various forms of traditional English Tea Time, and found that Chef John of ‘Food Wishes' has done a video on making clotted cream at home. His method is very easy, and just involves heating the cream in the oven at low temperature for many hours, cooling, chilling, and then skimming off the solids that rise to the top. I’m sure it’s not as good as the authentic product enjoyed in Devon or Cornwall, but it looks pretty good. This is very simple, but takes many hours over several phases, so...

Eggplant Parmigiana is one of my favorite dishes, but it’s a time-consuming dish to make and messes up a lot of dishes. And even though we’ve used for years a great, easy recipe from America’s Test Kitchen which involves baking instead of frying the eggplant, my husband’s commitment to low-carb eating makes any recipe that uses breading less than ideal. Looking for a fast, low-carb alternative, I happened to find ‘Cooking with Pina’ on YouTube, and Pina’s quick, throw-together recipe. It may not be like what you are used to, but if you like eggplant for itself and are low-carbing,...

I apologize for what may be an odd question; I hope someone remembers posting about this. At some point over the past year or so, someone posted about a 'spooky story' that was available on one of the Old Time Radio websites/radio stations. I think I may have read about it here around last Hallowe'en, or at some point in the year before. All I remember about the story is that it involved men working on a metal structure - an oil rig, or a radio tower - something like that. I saved a link to it, but never listened...

I’ve become very interested in Italy lately, and am especially drawn toward the Sorrento Peninsula/Amalfi Coast area. Searching for recipes from the region – and continuing in the interest of finding ways to use all of those squashes that are beginning to burgeon in your gardens - I found a recipe for Spaghetti alla Nerano. This is a pasta dish that comes from the fishing village of the same name, and uses fried zucchini. I found the recipe on a beautiful website dedicated to Italian cooking: ‘Memorie di Angelina’. Frank Fariello has done an amazing job with this blog, which...

Last week we tried ‘roasting’ a whole chicken in the Instant Pot, and used the Lemon and Herb Chicken recipe on the Instant Pot website. The meat itself turned out amazing, very moist and tender; but as we suspected when discussing this last month, the skin was not crispy. We got around this by giving the chicken a few minutes under the broiler after cooking, and as Liz suggested one could use a chef’s torch. We came away from the experience thinking that it’s a great way to do a chicken if you want to use the meat in a...

We’ve had a lot of posts about the Instant Pot over the past few months, and many of us have marveled at how well it cooks meats; but you can do a lot more with it than that. Cheesecake is something that does well in the Instant Pot, and there are recipes all over the Web for various versions. Here is the recipe for Raspberry Cheesecake with an Oreo crumb crust, from the Instant Pot website - https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/raspberry-cheesecake/- and one of my favorite YouTubers, Dale Calder, shows the process in ‘real’ time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw9F5d7pBzMYou will need to find a 7-inch springform...

Dear Cooking Friends; Since I changed my weekly cooking thread to a monthly one, I've received several private emails from folks who are disappointed at this change. It's very gratifying to me that the thread has been so popular and that so many have enjoyed engaging it. As I mentioned in March, my life is going to be rather consumed with a couple of unusual projects over the coming Summer. I have felt that my free time wouldn't be predictable enough to give the thread the care that I tried to give it over the past several years. However, if...

I have fond memories of dying Easter eggs when I was a kid; today, the smell of vinegar will always take me back to the dining-room table of my childhood, and the PAAS egg-dying kits. Last week, I discovered a somewhat messier alternative technique that nevertheless results in a beautiful dyed egg: Shaving Cream Easter eggs (remember to only use shaving CREAM for this, not the gel): https://www.bhg.com/holidays/easter/eggs/shaving-cream-easter-eggs/In 1937, a General Connor wrote from West Point to Colonel Simon Bolivar Buckner of Kentucky - who was then at Fort Meade - a request for the latter’s famous Mint Julep recipe....

Dear Cooking FRiends; Due to issues at home and at work, I am going to be unusually busy for the foreseeable future, and I have decided that I will have to reduce our Weekly Cooking Thread to a monthly thread. Often, the thread is still quite active when I’m ready to post the following week’s installment, so I don’t think it will make a great difference if we continue each thread over a month. I’ve greatly enjoyed the camaraderie that we’ve developed here; learning about all of your family culinary traditions and cooking secrets; and just sharing TALK, as our...

When I was young and single, I rented part of an older lady’s house for many years. She had children who had become vegetarians, and was always hunting for something meatless but special to make for holidays. One Christmas she made this Dilled Vegetable-Barley Soup, from Molly Katzen’s ‘Enchanted Broccoli Forest’; it became one of my favorite recipes, and Katzen’s book one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. If you aren’t averse to the wine, add it, as it really brightens the soup; but the recipe is still very good without it. I’ve never used the fennel in this recipe, but...

My mother-in-law used to get frozen Blue Hake from the Schwan company; they don’t seem to have the unbreaded kind anymore, but this recipe for Savory Blue Hake from Genius Kitchen, which used to be printed on the Schwan’s box, will also work with cod, haddock or whiting. My husband also used to just dredge these filets in seasoned flour, and fry them up in butter: http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/savory-blue-hake-174193The site ‘Catholic Cuisine’ has all kinds of Lenten recipes, including this one for Baja Fish Tacos: catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2008/12/fish-tacos-for-friday.html-JT

Probably the most famous of all the Pillsbury Bake Off recipes is the ‘Tunnel of Fudge Cake', which was one of the winners in the 1966 contest. This cake also led to a boom in sales for the Nordic Ware Bundt pan, which then became the most popular and most-sold baking pan in the US. (Ella Helfrich’s cake was actually the second prize winner that year; the grand prize appears to have gone to Mari Petrelli’s Golden Gate Snack Bread, a savory cheese bread.) The original recipe for Tunnel of Fudge used a packaged Double Dutch frosting mix which Pillsbury...