LisaMcManus

Believe me, nothing goes to waste! After everybody tastes and comments on a recipe in development, or finishes filling out their tasting sheet during a blind tasting, we pack it up and it goes into the Take-Home Fridge. People stroll down and check out the fridge all day long...sometimes it's just leftover celery, other times, you can score something really fabulous. Like five kinds of shortbread. If we have unopened boxes of ingredients we don't need, we do donate that to charity.

You don't need any of those dumb things that chop up food (like the Slap-Chop). Get a knife you love and use that, and you don't need about half the gadgets out there that seem to specialize in helping you avoid the knife you already own.

If you have a skillet that can go in the oven, the Weeknight Roast Chicken is really really good. It can stand in as your "turkey." Weeknight Roast Chicken On the pizza pan, you can cook roasted sweet potatoes (we do them on a baking sheet). Roasted Sweet Potatoes Make a green salad. Earlier in the day you can bake Rustic Italian Loaf on that pizza pan for your bread. This is so good. Rustic Italian Bread Not sure what your final pan is, but if it's a pie plate, you can make pumpkin pie. Our Pumpkin Praline Pie is pretty awesome. Pumpkin-Praline Pie Have fun!!

I fell in love with pressure cookers during testing. (I tested 12 models for our story.) They are amazing, not only for things like stews, but also for beans. Easy, easy, easy and fast. Why you need a Pressure Cooker

Hm, I think I've had frustrating moments in every kitchen equipment testing, but overall, I just keep working on it (and complaining to everybody and asking everybody what they think ... till I get un-stuck.) A bad moment was when I'd ordered something like 8 different half-size sheet pans (rimmed baking sheets) and they all arrived, and looked ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL. I thought, what am I going to say about these? THEN I started cooking with them, and the problem solved itself. Some really sucked. Best, most fun testing was probably setting fires when I tested fire extinguishers. My inner pyromaniac came right out. I could not believe I was getting paid to set stuff on fire. Of course, I had to first arrange the supervision of the Worcester Fire Department...Didn't want to burn down my own workplace!