Good access to having company pitch in too!
Good to be back. I tried full retirement while my gal is still working and it was boring. I’m going to try semi retirement. When I’m on call i use a dedicated biz device and focus my attention on that. But during downtime I do read like mad anything I can.
So, I’ll continue to contribute and continue to learn bucketloads on HO!
Too much fun not to 
Looks like cooking can’t satisfy you totally! Good you have so much energy and life.
My son printed a tshirt that reads use it or lose it on one side and you rest, you rust on the other. my crew gave me a mug that reads lazy boss.
you get the message.
This is such an interesting thread for me, because I’m usually the houseguest cooking in someone else’s kitchen 
But it’s almost always while visiting different family members.
I’ve gotten better about not stepping on toes, but sometimes when you’re related to one person, the partner’s toes inevitably get stepped on.
Culturally it’s completely normal for me to be cooking in a family member’s kitchen, though. Even expected.
My aunt, who is not Indian, didn’t know quite what to make of it early on. It’s less that she minds than that she feels they’re imposing on my “good nature” when I cook while visiting them. (My uncle not no much… it’s expected / looked forward to 
).
It got ironed out completely last year when my uncle took ill and I made a few visits in a row. He had not been eating much or at all interested in food, and the dramatic change in his response to simple and familiar home food was such a relief to my aunt, we are far past any formality now. It also helps that she loves indian food, and I tend to leave their freezer stocked with portioned meals .
With (not indian) family friends whom I consider family, it’s similar. Everyone gathers together in the kitchen for holidays; if the matriarch is cooking, the rest of us (mainly me, because I stay with her) do the prep work. Last thanksgiving I actually ended up making all the sides because she took ill the evening before…
That said, my friends and I are less imposing on each other’s kitchens, mostly because everyone is into food and has a specific sense of the meal they want to put out. So we’ll throw each other a bone (bring apps, make that vegetable side you do so well, etc). but generally stay out of the way on the big stuff and the plan.
Oh, my mom hates people in her kitchen, especially her daughters . I have been chipping away at that for years…
It is such a variable thing. You seem to be able to maintain a good awareness of each person’s boundaries!
Pilgrim & Christina,
Ha Ha Ha !!!
Yes, if you think you are intruding, there is a lovely little hotel ……………………
Listen … Just tell your guests that your parents are arriving tonite and there is a tiny hotel -----
I’m a graduate student so during the summers I spend a fair amount of time in other people’s kitchens. I always do the dishes. I make it a point to leave a kitchen cleaner than I found it. That might mean a quick sweep, wiping down the sink, counters, and\or back splash, wiping down the shelves in the fridge, or taking out the garbage. I don’t do all these things mind you - I do the things that are in need of doing.
Hell… my best friend just bought his first house and all of the cabinets had child locks on them 6 months after he and his girlfriend moved in (they don’t have children). When they were at work one day I spent about 45 minutes removing them all. They were delighted.
I also have a habit of buying (and leaving) various pieces of kitchenware. Never anything super pricey, but always something useful, and typically something that continues to get used once I’m gone. I’ve purchased more vollrath half sheets than I can count. I can usually pick up a pair at a restaurant supply store for around 15 dollars. I’ve also left a sturdy box grater, a lodge cast iron pan, a micro plane, some oxo cutting boards, a pepper grinder, and some stainless steel cooling racks (that serve most often for roasting and meat prep).
My own kitchen isn’t very spacious but it’s very well set up (if I do say so myself). I also have an open concept so most of my cookware is out on open shelving. My kitchen utensils hang from hooks on those shelves or are in crocks. I keep my nice knife in a drawer and the beater in the block. My kitchen is easy to navigate as a newcomer.
I’m always happy to have guests, particularly ones that enjoy spending time in the kitchen like I do. I’ve played sous chef in my own kitchen, but no one’s ever prepared a meal for me in it while I simply watch. Not a watcher.
Why Justin, you sound like the perfect house/kitchen guest. I would let you cook in my kitchen anyday!
In my 7th, and final, year of a phd program about 2000 miles from my home. I spend 4-6 weeks back home every summer. I bounce around a lot on these visits and don’t usually spend more than 2 or 3 nights at the same place while I’m there. I’ve had lots of practice learning to navigate others’ kitchens!
Just pour me a glass of wine . I’ll bark out orders of where stuff is and where it goes . I’m good .
Except the guest is husband. I’m working on saying something nice. Like “Good job!”
I don’t know what that is, but I want it! Come do nothing!
Half sheet pans. Vollrath is a brand commonly found in restaurant supply stores. A good aluminum half sheet pan has a thousand uses, and is usually about the same price as the nonstick pans you find at the grocery store. There are other brands that make decent half sheets. I prefer bare to nonstick.
I do love a half sheet pan!
I just finished lining two with foil and putting on the racks for my morning project of baking bacon for jam.
Even husbands are trainable. Mostly. grin
My wife sometimes moves “where things go” without letting me know. Our accommodation is I leave out anything for which I’m not sure about the correct location.
The problem is mine, in the end, ends up just leaving too many things out. 
I think training houseguests are easier… They won’t reply every request with a “but”
This is hilarious, @shrinkrap
My SIL has an occasional cleaning lady who loves putting things away where she thinks they should be, vs where they actually live. So every couple of days we’ll be hunting for some mundane object (measuring cups, for eg) that have just disappeared. Then my SIL will pause - oh wait, I think she thinks they should be with the baking stuff, not the drawer with kitchen tools. So we look in the various places baking things might be - et voila!
It’s funny except that it’s also super annoying… the lady in question is wonderful and has many other things to recommend her, thankfully
I wish I could resist, but I can’t.
What’s the sodium content of the bacon? Asking for a friend. Or two.
It’s a GREAT question.
260 mg per slice, 12 slices per pound so 780 mg for a 1/4 pound, equivalent in weight to a burger. That’s a lot. More than Impossible or Beyond, less than Morningstar. Working through the jam recipe it comes out to about 65 mg/tsp which is a serving. That isn’t so bad.
I do enjoy bacon and the smell is wonderful. I don’t eat it much because fats (even baked instead of pan fried) and salt are just not good.
This batch of jam is for a family member whose throat cancer has metastasized in his lungs. Diet issues are not his problem in the short term and he doesn’t really have a long term. I’ll cook anything for him that he wants. The mother of my previous wife decided to spend her last time drinking G&Ts looking out over a beach rather than on life support. I think she was pretty well pickled when she passed. My relative/friend is following the same course of quality of life. So if he want’s a triple Impossible Burger I’ll make him one. grin Pickled in alcohol or preserved in salt makes little difference.
I’m not angling for any sympathy. Given my posting history about salt your question is entirely reasonable. More than that your question aligns with my own warped sense of humor. Life happens. We make choices based on what we are faced with. That isn’t to say I won’t dab a teaspoon of bacon jam on a lightly toasted slice of sourdough bread (which has as much salt as the bacon jam sigh).
Good catch.
