 Image via Wikipedia |
| Frankincense pellets. Can myrrh be far behind? |
My wife returned from Jamaica on Friday night, her suitcase filled with food, frankincense and myrrh. She said she told the customs officer what she had in her suitcase -- cooked king fish fillets, the fruit called ackee, sugar cane and other goodies -- and he didn't even bother opening it.
The frankincense and myrrh? According to the Web site, "How Stuff Works," they are dried tree resins. My wife bought three small envelopes in a Montego Bay store, under an ounce each, for a total of about three dollars, and she dissolves the mixed resin pellets in hot water to make a biblical tea.
 Image via Wikipedia |
| The ripe ackee fruit. Add salted cod for the Jamaican national dish. |
Pot-cleaning woes
I've been replacing most of my non-stick cookware with Calphalon triple-ply, stainless-steel pots after I became concerned about the non-stick coatings getting into my cooked food.
For the same reason, I never microwave leftovers in plastic containers; I always plate the food first and cover it with a paper towel, not plastic wrap, lest chemicals that make the wrap pliable, called plasticizers, get into my food.
Now, I've found the stainless-steel pots are difficult to clean. The interior of one of them, in particular, remains splotchy and appears unclean after I use a non-scratch scrub sponge and dish-washing liquid.
My wife used this pot to boil out the salt of dried pollack (also spelled pollock) for the breakfast dish called ackee and salt fish, and it left a ring at water level that required hours of soaking before we could get it off. Still, the interior bottom remained splotchy and required a second cleaning the next day.
I e-mailed Calphalon customer service today, hoping for a resolution and maybe replacement of the pot.
