Rusty scissors--best way to remove rust?

Thanks for your comments. Gosh, I had Corning cookware 40 years ago....or was it 50? It was really heavy. I think my jam and jelly-making days are over. For the little we use, it's simpler to buy it. Which is not to say I won't get a wild hair from time to time... What I sort of enjoyed was making apple butter and catsup in the crock pot.

I can use any counterspace I can get! Of course, I do have a problem with horizontal surfaces -- they seem to collect things on them.

Since retiring, I have dabbled a bit more - but there are such great things now in the grocery store - I discovered Bertolli's frozen skillet dinners for two, and wow! I do one of those with a salad and some breadsticks, and it's really good. Can't do that every day, though.

I love my glass top stove, it only gets cleaned after I use it as per instructions. I stop it getting dusty by covering it with a teatowel, I have two that are only for this purpose although I considering making a quilted cover for it. Been lucky so far I've not had any boil overs and have just need the recommended cream cleaner. I have discovered that my big boiler needs replacing as the bottom isn't flat anymore...

I like the new pins better -- like the ones Stretch & Sew stores sold - really long with the glass head. I think they are so much better than the little ones we had when I was growing up. I don't know what they're made of. The old pins were steel, I think, and they would rust. But nickel plated ones could cause a problem. Nickel allergy is not rare.

Actually cooking isn't that difficult. It's a matter of interest more than anything. Before retiring I be came the Queen of 30 minutes dinners. BRR (that's before Rachael Ray.) If you get the food channel you'll find some of the chef's have simple recipes that are really yummy. Look them up on line. If you want some quick meals email me at oldcodgers at att dot net. I'll get you started. I love to cook but don't like getting bogged down in long complicated meals. Simple always tastes the best. Juno

Here's a good beginner's recipe:

Buy one baking potato. Scrub well, put in microwave, and push "one potato". (Six minutes on high if you have an older machine.)

It will take it at least five minutes to get soft after coming out of the microwave, and must be kept hot until serving time. If you happen to have an oven hot, just toss the potato in naked on the rack. If not, put a small, heavy pot or skillet on a burner set for the lowest-possible heat when you start the microwave. Pop the potato in, cover tightly, leave until serving time. (The first time you do this, check now and again to make sure the heat isn't too high. If it starts to brown, turn it over.) Oil in the skillet is optional.

If you don't have a "simmer" setting, set the small pot or skillet in a larger one to temper the heat.

I use my two smallest iron skillets, pre-heating them with one inside the other. When the microwave dings, I put the potato in the top skillet, then pull the bottom skillet out and put it upside-down over the other as a lid, so that the potato is kept warm top and bottom. When I started making bread in a bake kettle, the process seemed very familiar!

Joy Beeson

Thanks, Joyce. I have always wrapped my baked potatoes in aluminum foil (shiny side in) when they come out of the microwave, but that makes the skins soft. I like crunchy skin on my baked potatoes. I have an extensive collection of old cast-iron skillets and pots, so I think I'll try your method to see if that gives me a crunchier potato skin.

One of the great things about having a daughter living in the Chesapeake area and later, a son in the D.C. area, was seeing the fireworks over by the Washington Monument on the 4th. I told them recently, somebody needs to go back. Now a DGS will be there at GW University, so I may have another chance, since he intends to go year-round. Emily