Yay kimchee! As Michael said, Firefly Kimchee is rad. But I also buy all the fresh stuff at Uwajimaya.

Here's stuff I like to do:
1) grab an egg or three and mix it with a little water and then do a slow soft scramble (preferably with a little Cholula in there). Top with kimchee (either cold or warmed). Eat constantly.

2) mix ground beef or a beef-lamb mix with chopped kimchee and red onion. Roll out between Saran wrap with a rolling pin. Cut into tiny squares and grill them up. Cut some taro bread or King's Hawaiian or pan de leche into slider size and toast in same pan. Throw the grilled meat on the bread with some coldish kimchee. Mix some mayo with a little sriracha and throw that on there too, if you want.

3) throw it in a bloody mary. Yay alcohol and spice!

If you buy one with an English label it will tell you NOT to put it in the fridge. Keep in the cupboard and you won't have that problem.

Hominy is corn that has been nixtamalized, or soaked in a solution of calcium hydroxide, which is what your lime powder will be when you mix it with water. It makes the corn more digestible and renders the nutrients available to the body, by busting up the proteins and making vitamins available (corn without nixtamalization has very little nutritive value). All corn products made with masa (corn dough), like tortillas, tamales, etc. have been nixtamalized.

I'm not sure why you need to nixtamalize your dried hominy further; it's already been done. But maybe soaking it in more lime furthers the process even more. Or maybe what you have is just dried corn, not yet turned into hominy. But the whole point of buying hominy is to skip the nixtamalization step.

You should just be able to soak the dried hominy in water overnight, like you would with beans, but if you're unsure about the nixtamalization, I would put your packet of lime in a big pot with several gallons of water, add the corn, bring to a boil, simmer for a while, then let it soak for a few hours, or overnight. Drain the corn and rinse really well (many washes). You want the grains to be kind of gelatinous.

DO NOT PUT THE LIME IN YOUR SOUP! It's not food. It won't kill you, but no one will be able to eat your soup.

I just read on a different site that someone suggest (for black bean burgers) rinsing and drying black beans before mashing, making sure there is little liquid in the mix (squeezing out moisture from any sauteed onions, etc...) using breadcrumbs (more than most recipes) and freezing the burgers and grilling them frozen to help them keep their shape. Worth a try.

There are so many great ways to use turnips!

--Toss them with olive oil, salt, and a little balsamic vinegar, and roast in the oven. They're good mixed with rutabagas or other root vegetables.

--Make mashed turnips just like you would mashed potatoes, or do 1/2 and 1/2 turnips and potatoes.

--Mix them with other root veggies or tubers (potatoes, yams, carrots, beets, rutabagas...winter squash is good, too), cook them in a tasty broth until they're tender, maybe with some onions or garlic, and whir everything up in a food processor for a delicious creamy soup--with no cream.

--Turnips are excellent raw. If they're small and white, there's no need to peel them. If they're big and/or mostly purple, you might want to peel them because it can get tough. Slice them up and dip them in hummus or just eat them by themselves. They're a great sweet, spicy, crunchy snack.

--Don't forget the greens. If they're young/small, the greens are good raw in a salad or on a sandwich. If they're bigger you might want to lightly saute or steam them.

One tablespoon is 1/2 fluid oz always. When any label is quoting you on a "tablespoon" they are talking about 1/2 fluid ounce, or a tablespoon leveled off. Yes, that's not much whipped cream, and yes it's caloric, but it's whipped cream!

I've very occasionally had dried beans around that maybe were very old (like multiple years), and had this kind of behavior where they just wouldn't soften. You aren't adding salt during the cooking process, right? That is thought to toughen beans. Other than that, you may just need to compost these beans and buy some fresher ones.

Smack the fat end of the egg against a flat surface, and then rotate the egg on the surface to fracture the entire shell. Then peel off the now-fragmentary shell like you would remove an orange peel. There's a membrane between shell and egg white that should hold most of the shell together.

Old eggs peel better because there is more air and less water inside the egg, meaning it fits inside the egg with extra space. Fresh new eggs poach better.

Cool rapidly after cooking--yes, use an ice bath.

If none of this helps, immerse your cooked eggs in white vinegar and use chemistry to dissolve the shell away. This is also the first step towards delicious pickled eggs...

World's easiest, and best, salad dressing: finely mince a shallot, put it in a jar with about 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar, add enough oil (olive, walnut, hazelnut or some combination thereof) to give it the consistency you want (I usually end up with a 1:1 ratio of oil to vinegar), a little grainy mustard to emulsify, and a pinch of salt. Shake like mad and enjoy over greens, either on their own, or with nuts, avocado, fennel, citrus slices, etc.

A great salad I made recently was composed of greens, herbs (dill and cilantro), grapefruit, toasted walnuts, roasted beets, a sprinkle of goat cheese, and a soft-poached egg on top.

I also love to make a big batch of shaved fennel and marinate it in orange or lemon juice with some of its fronds for color. I snack on this solo or add it to greens as a flavorful and toothsome salad component.

Also: in the summer (but only in the summer, don't eat tomatoes in winter!), good quality, ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, mint, dill and a splash of olive oil and lemon can't be beat.

Finally: salade nicoise! Steamed or boiled potatoes, greens, green beans, tomatoes (when in season), boiled egg, olives (tuna optional). An amazingly hearty and satisfying salad, perfect for lunch or dinner with a glass of wine.

God, I love salad.

I could make do nicely with one 12" cast iron skillet, a nice sized enameled Dutch oven and a small saucepan. In fact I'd say 90% of my cooking happens in those 3 pots, and no reason it couldn't be 100%.

The cast iron skillet is fantastic for general purpose frying and sauteeing. It holds heat well and puts a nice crust on your food. It works decent for stir-frying as long as you don't crowd it. I know you said you've had trouble finding one with a good surface - you can always buy one at a yardsale and follow these excellent instructions for resurfacing it: http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/.

The Dutch oven can make soups, sauces and braises, as well as poach or boil eggs, and boil pasta and vegetables.

The small saucepan is for situations where the two larger pans are just too big, as when you want to make a little bit of a sauce and it would be too shallow in the Dutch oven.

Chosen well, all 3 of these can go in the oven which gives you even more flexibility.

The one thing you really have missing in that set is a good pan for scrambled eggs and omelets. Non-stick is by far the easiest to work with for that, but since it is not an option for you, you may want a smaller cast iron or carbon-steel pan that you keep only for eggs (http://amzn.to/ijA3uR).

A tortilla press works great. You can search online for recipes or ideas for variations, but basically all of these types of things (dumplings, pot stickers, siu mai, ravioli, etc etc) are going to be the same thing:

2 cups of some kind of flour, usually all-purpose wheat flour or a mix of rice flour and wheat flour (50/50) or semolina in the case of pasta.
1 cup of some kind of liquid, usually water, but maybe with the addition of some egg or oil.
A little salt, for the above proportions about a half teaspoon.

Some people like to boil the water before adding it to the flour. This is a good idea as it will slightly cook the flour and mitigate the flavor of raw flour. Also it will swell the starches faster and so help with the development of the dough.

This should be a very stiff dough and you knead it for about 12 minutes by hand, don't use a mixer.

Then you divide the dough mass into suitable sized balls (experiment) and let them rest for ten minutes.

Then press each little dough ball in the tortilla press (you can line the press with plastic to make it easier. Voila.

Sounds like a lot but it's really really easy.

Athenos does expire. The date is usually on the bottom of the tub in black ink, usually as part of a string of longer numbers. If you can't find it, don't eat it.

Get some nice pork chops, cut two slits into the fat to prevent cupping, pat dry, rub with a spice rub (garlic powder, paprika, cyanine, salt, you look creative) dredge in flour and, this is just me, let them sit on a cooling rack, so they don’t get gunky on a plate. Let the chops hang out for 10-15 minutes, the flour will get doughy from the pork juices. Whilst this is transpiring, cook some bacon (4 or 5 strips) in a pan (this will become hors devours bacon). Share this bacon with your date. Erotically.
Keep the bacon grease in the pan and let it cool a little before adding a quarter cup of oil, heat till shimmery, and redredge your chops, fry them about under six minutes a side, you can wiggle them with tongs to see if they feel loose, that means they’re crusty on the bottom. That crust is what’s gonna seal the deal. It’s fantastic.
You can also get some yams, peel and chop, throw the slices in a pot with two tablespoons of half and half, quarter stick of butter, and like a tablespoon of brown sugar. Cover and leave it over medium low heat for like twenty minutes. Moisture in the yams will steam everything. Uncover and mash with an appropriate utensil, adding a tablespoon of half and half.
I got this from PBS a few months ago and have cooked it enough that I can do the whole thing drunk now. Hope your date goes well.

Achiote (anatto) seeds (ground up). It'll add some tasty too.

If I have a cold or flu or just generally under-the-weather-ness, I like spicy soups, from any kind of cuisine. Spicy Soups of the World. Besides the sinus-clearing, the endorphin rush seems to help me feel more energetic.

When I am feeling blue, I tend to reach for the kinds of processed foods I'd usually make more of any effort to talk myself out of. I skip the peas, but otherwise Fnarf's mac-n-cheese is right up my alley. I also have a shameful love for those bright orange cheddar cheese and sour cream Baked Lays. I don't know what they put in that powder coating but when I'm down I would like to huff it.

Tupperware is fine, but remember to leave enough head-space to allow for expansion. Alternatively, freezer bags work great, and have the added advantage of allowing you to get all the air out, forestalling the dreaded freezer-burn.

It depends on the bread. You don't need butter in bread, "lean" breads are just as wonderful. Fats are used in bread to tenderize the crumb (interior) and to add flavor. So some formulations are counting on the particular flavor of the fat you are adding for the character of the bread. For example if you're adding olive oil to focaccia you are counting on the flavor of the OO to add to the character of the bread. Often sandwich loaves, or "pan breads", add fat to tenderize the crumb. You want a soft and supple slice of bread. In this case fat is the issue, not butter necessarily. So canola or safflower will have essentially the same effect, although impart a different flavor. You should try about 10% (in weight) of the total flour weight. Then, maybe, you are talking about brioche, in which case butter is absolutely essential for flavor and texture.

Cheese is definitely a first responder for hot pepper jelly, but you can branch out farther than cream cheese. I think it works well with anything in the triple-creme or blue families. Could also be good on grilled cheese.

Another interesting idea would be to serve small amounts of it as a condiment with vanilla ice cream, along with a dark chocolate sauce.

It would also be a good condiment for deep-fried fritters of most any kind.

For any of these ideas, the key is proportion. A small amount of hot pepper jam as an accent, not a big pile that overwhelms the main ingredient.

One key is, of course, don't be stingy. I butter the bread inside and out. Use sharp or extra sharp cheddar (Beecher's is delish). Use a hot cast iron pan, don't butter the pan, just the bread. Start with cool, excellent quality, fresh butter. I love a solid white bread, or Essential Rosemary Diamante (I don't really love any of their other breads, but this one is salty and rosemary-y, and gets crispy! Cheese should be sliced medium thick, not too thin or thick.

The next key for me is - start the pan on medium hot to brown the sandwich, then turn it down to medium low, and put a lid on it - but not for long! You don't want any steam to soften the bread at all, just keep the heat in for a moment to melt the cheese faster. Let it sit for a moment to resolidify on a wooden board (so it doesn't get soggy on a plate) when done, then cut in half diagonally.

Serve with Guiness or hard French cider and a good apple or pear. It should be a sunny fall day, and the leaves are turning. You just finished a hard Saturday afternoon's work in the garden. OMG.

I'd be skeptical of using that. Presumably it has garlic in it, which is notorious for supporting botulism. Quoting from UC Davis.

BOTULISM WARNING
Regardless of its flavor potency, garlic is a low-acid vegetable. The pH of a clove of garlic typically ranges from 5.3 to 6.3. As with all low-acid vegetables, garlic will support the growth and subsequent toxin production of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum when given the right conditions. These conditions include improper home canning and improper preparation and storage of fresh herb and garlic-in-oil mixtures. Moisture, room temperature, lack of oxygen, and low-acid conditions all favor the growth of Clostridium botulinum. When growing, this bacterium produces an extremely potent toxin that causes the illness botulism. If untreated, death can result within a few days of consuming the toxic food.

Cut the chestnuts into quarters. Freeze them for an hour and then boil for exactly 7 minutes. Use gloves - most of them will pop right out of their skins. If they start to cool, they will cling to the membranes again, so just put them back in the boiling water for 30 seconds and try again. Now the chestnuts are ready to use in soups, sauces, etc...

Duck eggs and quail eggs can be found at the Pike Place Market Creamery behind Jack's Fish Spot. It's one of those Pike Place Market hidden treasures. ;)

Potato is my go-to soak-it-up item, but I'm not sure it would play well in chili. Add some Great Northern & perhaps black beans to bulk it up / dilute it in a relative sense. Then cheddar cheese it like crazy (bonus: many kids love cheddar!): (Geni's got the shroomworthy science of WHY that works perfectly well)

Well, sometime you just have to say goodbye. I would normally suggest bread pudding- chocolate bread pudding with whiskey and sour artisan bread is awesome. But it sounds like you're past the point with this stuff. If the bread is not moldy you can grind it up in a blender for bread crumbs and mix it with salt and herbs.

Tamale pie! God, where was that recipe - total old-fashioned low-rent comfort food...you make the crust out of the corn muffin mix, then put your basic meat/tomatoey sauce/cheese mixture on top, and serve with sour cream and sliced jalapenos.

Now I'm hungry.