Canning 

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 170

Best modern canning guide

Canning for a New Generation

New fashions in canning. Preserving is not really cheaper, nor is it a survival and disaster remedy. Canning these days makes sense as a culinary endeavor — because you can make preserves that taste better, or are far more varied than anything you can buy. This book is the best of a bunch of new guides on modern canning techniques and recipes (like Put ‘Em Up, which is decent but not as good). I prefer the recepies in Canning for standard items like james and jellies because it calls for far less sugar than other books, and it has a wide range of culinary influences. The book is also intelligently and simply designed with beautiful illustrations of the preserved treasures. — KK

• When I was growing up, canning was for old folks and cranks and separatists –oh, and for my parents, who spent every summer of my Virginia childhood scrambling to convert overflowing bushel baskets of fruits and vegetables from their garden into a pantry lined with shelf upon shelf of colorful canning jars, not to mention a stuffed-to-the-rim chest freezer or two. Not for me. I had better, far more important things to do. I can’t remember what they were.
  For me, putting up the very best produce I can find in season–especially if it’s homegrown or from a nearby farm–is quite simply a way to spend some marginally productive time in the kitchen, preferably with my family and friends. Opening the jars and enjoying them later, I’m reminded of those fun times of tasting and talking, usually about food but also about music and politics and everything else that matters. In addition, taking on a kitchen project of a certain complexity, like canning or pickling or fermenting (or smoking meat or stuffing sausage or aging cheese), helps me remember what food was like when I was a kid and my mom and dad did these things, and what it might have been like when they were kids.
  
  Low-sugar jams and preservesThe jams and fruit preserves in this book are all quite low in sugar, simply because I think looser, less-sweet spreads taste better than sticky, cloying ones. Most contain fresh lemon juice, which is added primarily for flavor but also to up the acid content a bit. The jams and preserves have a remarkably intense fruit flavor because excess water is cooked out rather than gelled with store-bought pectin.
  
  Real picklesHere you’ll find everything from refrigerator pickles in vinegar brines that will last a few weeks or months in the fridge and don’t need any processing, to canned quickly brined pickles that will last a year in the pantry, to long-fermented pickles made sour by fermentation, to Indian and Middle Eastern-style “pickles” such as citrus preserved in salt. Most pickles are low in sugar, but not low in salt (which I fervently adore) or delicious tanginess, whether it’s that sharp bite of the acetic acid in vinegar or the mellow tang of fermentation-produced lactic acid.
• So there you go. Heating to kill off existing microorganisms, processing to create a vacuum and prevent introduction and growth of microorganisms, and using high-acid foods or acidulating those that are not in order to create an acidic environment that’s inhospitable to microorganisms.
• Quick, High-Yield Strawberry Jam: Makes about 7 half-pint jarsHere’s a basic jam recipe that uses Pomona’s Universal, a commercial sugar-free low-methoxyl natural pectin derived from citrus rinds. It can be used in low- or even no-sugar recipes because it’s activated by calcium rather than sugar. You can adapt it to just about any fruit. If what you want is a lot of jam from not a lot of fruit (say, if you’re making a big batch to give as gifts), and if you want to cut back dramatically on the sugar content, this is the way to go. This jam, while not as intensely fruit-flavored as the no-commercial-pectin preserves in this book (here you’re essentially gelling the water that in other recipes is cooked off), will be thick, semi-firm, and light–a refreshing jam, if you will allow that such things exist. Pomona’s Universal can be found at health-food stores or online (see Sources, page 291).
• Strawberry Jam with Thai Herbs: Makes about 4 half-pint jarsThis is a sweet-tart preserve, but the mineral cilantro, fragrant thai basil, and fresh mint give it a complexity reminiscent of a good, well-balanced yum, or thai salad. Strawberries pair so well with herbs, and indeed all sorts of crazy savor things–balsamic vinegar with strawberries being one surprisingly long-lived trend–that it didn’t take much to come up with this extraordinary jam. Try this: Go out into the herb garden with a plate piled with halved berries and a little mound of sugar. (Or gather a bunch of leftover herbs from the refrigerator, or befriend a generous herb grower.) Dip a berry in the sugar, and pop it in your mouth with a few leaves of different herbs, tasting and tasting until you come up with a combination you like. It’ll be a little different from the actual jam, of course, but you’ll be able to tell if you’ll like the finished result.

The best pot under pressure

Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cooker

This is not your grandmother’s pressure cooker. Modern day versions are safe, easy to lock tight and are far quieter than units of yore. I can’t imagine my kitchen without one. The convenience plus time and energy savings associated with making things ranging from roasts to perfect risotto and even desserts is incredible. On top of that, everything inevitably turns out tastier and more nutritious than it would otherwise.

For the uninitiated, pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a certain pressure. Pressure is created by boiling a liquid, such as water or broth, inside the closed pressure cooker causing the trapped steam to increase the internal pressure and temperature. This causes wet steam (or “saturated steam”) to be forced through the food and results in faster cooking times compared to conventional cooking methods. Once pressure is reached, the heat source can be dialed down significantly to maintain proper pressure for cooking. Pressure is slowly released through an external venting mechanism so that the vessel can be safely opened. A pot roast can be ready in 45-minutes, potatoes are cooked through in 10, broccoli and other vegetables barely take 5-minutes (at pressure) to become tender.

I’ve owned several brands and sizes over the years, but my favorite by far is the 6 qt. stockpot model made by Kuhn-Rikon of Switzerland. This unit, while not cheap, is extremely well-built, whisper silent and has multiple safely mechanisms built-in. Unlike the classic stream-release versions with the loud jiggly knob on top, this design retains most of the moisture, thus minimizing the amount of liquid required to get up and stay pressurized.

There are many less expensive, good quality pressure cooker alternatives out there that will serve you well, but I believe my Kuhn Rikon cooker will last for years of frequent use and look good doing it. — R. S. Parikh

Countertop flour mill

The Wondermill

For 30-years we had an electric stoneground flour mill. It finally gave out and I got a steel-ground mill, and is it great. I realize that stoneground is the better way to go, but the new mill is so fast (20 times faster), and a joy to use.

We’re grinding most of our own flour for bread, etc. We grind organic California short-grain brown rice for cream-of-rice cereal. Easy to cook, delicious (a little butter, dark sugar, milk), and it’s a meal of freshly ground whole grains. I also use it to grind whole oats (called groats) into flour to make sourdough pancakes. No wheat. They’re delicious, and thanks to the sourdough, chewy. Fresh ground whole grains. Easy to do. — Lloyd Kahn

Grind your own oats

Roller Mill

This elegant little Italian grain grinder has three hardened steel rollers that flatten grain for making flakes or crack it for making hot cereal or granola. I’d never had fresh oats before until my friend showed me this device, just after he gave me a breakfast bowl of fresh oatmeal along with flax seeds, shredded coconut, a little hemp oil for flavor, and brown sugar. As you grind oats you’re taking the whole oat grain (groat), and crushing and flaking it just before you cook it. You get nutty, delicious oatmeal, the flavor of the whole grain just released. Clamps to any surface up to 2″ thick. —Lloyd Kahn

Soulmates / Exhalation / Instant dice

Recomendo - issue #494

52 Surprising Things

Every December, writer Tom Whitwell publishes an eclectic list of 52 surprising things Whitwell learned over the year. It’s one of my favorite year-end reads. A few samples:

• Marchetti’s Constant is the idea that throughout human history, from cave dwellers to ancient Greeks to 21st century Londoners, people tend to commute for about an hour a day — 30 minutes out, 30 minutes home. So faster travel leads to longer distances, not less time. [Cesare Marchetti, plus a 2025 update]
• The Casio F91W — the ubiquitous digital watch, worn by Osama Bin Laden, costing just £12 — has been faked for years, and the fakes are getting better and better. [Andy C]
• Childhood peanut allergies are falling dramatically, perhaps because advice to avoid peanuts was reversed. [Simar Bajaj]

Browse his previous lists here. — MF

Watchable American history

I believe every American should be required to watch Ken Burn’s Civil War series to understand their country today. Ken Burns has done it again with his new series on The American Revolution. Six episodes, 12 hours. LIke his other series, it unsettles the story-book history we have in our heads, and celebrates the complexity of the actual ideas, events, and complicated characters at the time. — KK

See yourself as a verb

“The existential balm of seeing yourself as a verb, not a noun” is a perspective‑shifting essay that explores a gentler way to hold the fear of death by reframing the self not as something fixed, but as a natural unfolding process. The author suggests reframing personhood as a shifting weave of body, breath, memory, mood, and perceptions, always in motion and in relationship with the world. The idea is to loosen perfectionistic pressure around having to be a fixed, definitive “someone,” and instead approach death as a quieting down of processes rather than the annihilation of a solid self. — CD

Sharpen dull Airbnb knives

I’ve stayed in Airbnbs in many different countries, and have learned one universal truth: the kitchen knives are invariably dull. As a service to myself and future guests, I’ve started bringing a small knife sharpener with me when I travel. The Smith’s 2-Step Knife Sharpener is inexpensive, small, and lightweight, so I don’t mind packing it. It takes less than a minute to restore the edge on a blade. — MF

Freak Pages

Freak Pages is a directory for the weirdest Wikipedia entries, community‑curated to help you discover strange topics you’ve probably never heard of. Lots of rabbit holes to dive into. — CD

Quotable quotes

Here are some quotes I gathered recently:

• It takes a lot of work to make something simple. — Steve Wozniak
• One of the most realistic parts of Lord of the Rings is that almost no one wanted to get involved, until it was very nearly too late. — Ricki Tarr
• Everyone searches for opportunities while running from problems, missing that they’re the same thing. Problems aren’t obstacles to opportunity, they ARE the opportunity. — Shane Parrish
• Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion. — W. Edwards Deming
• When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them “No I went to films.” — Quentin Tarantino
• Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. — Jeff Bezos
• The three lenses of opportunity cost: (1) Compared with what? (2) And then what? (3) At the expense of what? — Shane Parish
• You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from. — Cormac McCarthy
• Everyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and everyone driving faster than you is a maniac! — George Carlin

I find witty quotes sharpen my thinking and help me pay attention. — KK

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Expiring Perks/Bone-conducting Earbuds/Forge Travel Wallet

Nomadico issue #185

Check for Year-end Credit Card Perks

While some travel credit card perks renew whenever your annual fee comes due, such as United card lounge passes or the IHG card’s free night’s stay, others are on a calendar year. I just saved $150 on 2026 hotel stays by tapping a $50 credit on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and a $100 one on my Delta Amex one that would have expired 12/31. Keep this in mind when applying for a new card too: if you obtain it with enough time on the calendar, you could benefit twice in less than a year.

Earbuds That Don’t Go in Your Ear

My wife has tinnitus that probably dates back to our music biz days in New York and earbuds that go into your ears make it worse for many people with that condition. Headphones are usually better but are bulky. She recently found a solution in Shokz earbuds that sit outside the ear and conduct sound through the bones of your skull. These don’t block noise, which could be a downside on a plane, but that’s a plus for runners and bicyclists who want to stay aware of their surroundings. Here are links to the two-piece over-ear ones that go in a recharge case and the single unit that fits over the head like normal headphones.

England’s Expensive Airport Drop-offs

“Can you take me to the airport?” might be a question that requires you to pull out your wallet if you’re in England. I had no idea airport drop-off fees were even a thing until I saw this story about them increasing to £10 ($13.40) at the London Gatwick airport. Apparently you also have to pay £7 to drop someone off at Heathrow. This hikes up the price of any taxi or Uber charge as well. Apparently they really want you to #takethetrain.

A Different Kind of Travel Wallet

I usually use a bulkier wallet at home than I do when I travel and I like this new Forge Wallet I’ve been using lately. It’s about the thickness of a normal wallet but much narrower, with a compartment where you press down on a button and your credit cards pop out, staggered so you can see which one is which. It’s RFID blocking and there’s an optional little steel multi-tool card that fits inside a dedicated pocket. See my quickie Instagram reel on it here.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

The Worrier’s Guide to Life / Lost Envoy

Issue No. 97

THE WORRIER’S GUIDE TO LIFE IS A HUMOROUS ANTIDOTE FOR ALL US PANICKERS OUT THERE

The Worrier’s Guide to Life
by Gemma Correll
Andrews McMeel Publishing
2015, 112 pages, 6.5 x 8 x 0.4 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

Are you an every-second second-guesser? Do pizza, sweatpants, and pugs sound like your perfect Friday night? Do you ever want to punch your brain in the face? Are you starting to feel anxious because I’m asking you so many questions? Find comfort in Gemma Correll’s new collection of comic snapshots, The Worrier’s Guide to Life.

You can easily slip this slender book into your bag and bring it along to all those anxiety-producing other-people-filled situations that seem to dominate life. When faced with an overly crowded waiting room full of obviously contagious people whose germs will surely turn your sinus infection into a face plague, hide your nose in this book! If you’re forced to stomach a social gathering full of professional bloggers who couldn’t possibly look that good or be that happy in real life but ohmygod they do and they are and you haven’t showered in three days, steal away to a corner, flip open this book, and remember you’re not alone! Correll offers sketches of an anxious life, as lived by everyone from fetuses to fairytale princesses, interspersed with snippets from her ongoing series of punny visual lists. These delightfully silly sets include “Urban Birthstones,” featuring rings topped with a bit of styrofoam, a cigarette butt, or a balled-up passive-aggressive note, depending on your month, as well as “Pasta Shapes for the Depressed,” “Sexy Halloween Costumes for the Ladyeez,” and “Ye Olde Video Games.”

You can get a daily fix of Gemma Correll’s illustrated insights and anxieties via her various social media streams, but it’s lovely to actually flip through her work in a real-life book rather than, or in addition to, reading it on a scrolling screen. The Worrier’s Guide to Life also makes a fabulous gift for that perfect friend who never judges you for eating all the ice cream, texting her the conversations you have with your pet, or using Google like a magic eight ball. You know, the one who gets it. – Mk Smith Despres

LOST ENVOY – ARTIST AUSTIN SPARE’S LONG-LOST TAROT DECK COMES TO LIGHT IN BEAUTIFUL BOOK EDITION

Lost Envoy: The Tarot Deck of Austin Osman Spare
by Jonathan Allen (editor)
Strange Attractor Press
2016, 336 pages, 6.5 x 9.5 x 1.25 inches
$39 (plus postage)

Buy a copy at Strange Attractor

The Victorian/Edwardian-era British artist and mystic Austin Osman Spare is still an obscurity to many. Like William Blake, with whom he shares numerous similarities (living largely impoverished, ignored by contemporaries, ridiculously prolific, mixing art and occultism), appreciation for Spare’s work and its significance have only increased over time. And where poet and occultist William Butler Yeats, during the occult revival at the turn of the 20th century, helped to finally bring Blake’s work to a wider audience (at least of intellectuals and bohemians), artists and occultists, such as Genesis P’Orridge, Kenneth Grant, and Alan Moore, at the turn of the 21st, did the same for Spare. Among other things, in Spare’s work, they found a very attractive system of artistic spellcasting which has come to be known as “sigil magic.”

But in all of the recent exhumation and examination of Spare’s art and occult practices, what people didn’t know is that Spare had created his own deck of tarot cards. Those cards were lost to time until they were discovered in the collection of the Magic Circle Museum, a UK stage magic society, in 2013. Since then, Spare enthusiasts have been dying to see the complete deck and to try and understand its significance to Spare and to the development of his oeuvre.

The always-impressive booksmiths at Strange Attractor Press have delivered on all of that in spades with their publication of Lost Envoy: The Tarot Deck of Austin Osman Spare. This absolutely gorgeous hardbound tome meticulously reproduces the cards, front and reverse, along with a concordance of all of the textual data found on the cards (which is quite heavy on some). The book also includes a very satisfying collection of essays by Magic Circle Museum curator and book editor Jonathan Allen, Spare biographer Phil Baker, artist and author Alan Moore, tarot academic Helen Farley, Spare historian and publisher Gavin Semple, and others. There is also an essay by Spare himself, “Mind to Mind and How by a Sorcerer.” Through these essays, we learn about fascinating differences in Spare’s deck, like his use of images and words that bridge individual cards (not found in other deck designs), how conventional playing cards and the culture of stage magic played a bigger role in his deck, and which historical tarot decks (and other occult currents) informed his stylistic and symbolic choices.

Lost Envoy is a must-have for anyone interested in Spare and will be right at home next to Phil Baker’s definitive Spare biography, Austin Osman Spare: The Life & Legend of London’s Lost Artist (also published by Strange Attractor), and the equally impressive Spare art books being lovingly published by the UK’s Fulgur, Ltd. My only burning question after finishing Lost Envoy is when do we get to play with an actual Austin Spare tarot deck? – Gareth Branwyn

Renovation

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 169

Complete house building know-how

Renovation

This is a book I wished I’d had when I started building, but it is also one that’s extraordinarily useful to more experienced builders. Mike Litchfield was the original editor of Fine Homebuilding; in 1982 he published the first version of Renovation, and it’s been updated periodically, this being the latest and 4th edition. Popular Science called it “The most comprehensive single volume on renovation ever” — which is totally true.

What differentiates this book from others of its ilk is that the author has gathered all this information in the field, interviewing carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and contractors, finding out what’s important, what works, what’s new. These guys love to talk about what they do well, and in this sense, the book is one of collective wisdom. It’s at the same time highly useful to professionals, but also one that’s invaluable for homeowners and people of the fixer-upper persuasion.

The chapter “Planning Your Renovation” is completely new, reflecting the current interest in smaller projects, spending wisely, and energy efficiency. The chapter on wiring covers code changes, and tells you things like how to fish wire, install wireless switches, or replace old incandescent ceiling lights with energy-efficient LEDs.

There’s a section on installing IKEA cabinets, tips and instructions on energy retrofits, working with paperless drywall (in wet areas), soundproofing, cutting into a concrete floor, working with PEX plumbing tubing, and installing engineered flooring. I found myself flipping through the book at random, and learning a lot. —Lloyd Kahn

Trim on older buildings is rarely level or parallel. Thus new trim maybe look better if it’s installed slightly out of level so that it aligns with what’s already there. For example, when stretching a chalkline to indicate the bottom of the water table, start level and then raise or lower the line until it looks right in relation to nearby windowsills and the like. Once the chalkline looks more or less parallel to existing trim, snap it on the building paper, and extend it to corner boards.

Avoid the sun around the house as you paint so that you apply paint in the shade if possible. Paint applied in full sunlight is more likely to blister later.

Cracked plaster often means that it has pulled free from its lath. Use screws and plaster washers to reattach it, countersinking them so they’ll be easier to patch.

To insert a replacement board into an existing tongue-and-groove floor, use a tablesaw to remove the bottom of the groove. Slightly back-cut the ends of the new board so it will slide in easier.

PEX Advantages

It installs quickly. Because lengths of flexible tubing easily turn corners and snake through walls, PEX systems require far fewer connections and fittings than do rigid materials. For that reason, it’s particularly well suited to renovation work.

Fewer leaks. PEX tubing runs to fixtures from hot- and cold-water manifolds with multiple takeoffs. Most of the fitting is simple, consisting of crimping steel or copper rings onto tubing ends. Because most leaks occur at joints, fewer fittings also mean fewer leaks.

It’s quiet. The tubind expands slightly, minimizing air hammer–the banging that takes place in rigid piping when taps are turned off suddenly and running water stops abruptly. That ability to expand also means less-pronounced pressure drops (fewer scalding or freezing showers), and PEX tubing is less likely to rupture if water freezes in it.

The beauty of working with PEX is that is required relatively few specialized tools. Here, an inexpensive PEX-cutting tool with a replaceable blade produces a clean, squared-off end.

Making adaptable shelter

How Buildings Learn

Every building that endures will be modified. Yet few structures are built to be easily modified. The more stylized a building is now, the harder it is to change. Stewart Brand (who invented the ancestor of Cool Tools) teases out design principles for making buildings that can adapt — or “learn” — to new needs, new uses. While his examples are architectural, showing how the greatest buildings evolve, his advice is aimed at any kind of hard-to-change organization. Software programmers think this book is talking to them since they are often asked to adapt skyscrapers of code built with no concern about adapting it later. This book will be useful to anyone trying to build complicated things that will outlive them. — KK

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

52 Surprising Things / Watchable American history / See yourself as a verb

Recomendo - issue #493

52 Surprising Things

Every December, writer Tom Whitwell publishes an eclectic list of 52 surprising things Whitwell learned over the year. It’s one of my favorite year-end reads. A few samples:

• Marchetti’s Constant is the idea that throughout human history, from cave dwellers to ancient Greeks to 21st century Londoners, people tend to commute for about an hour a day — 30 minutes out, 30 minutes home. So faster travel leads to longer distances, not less time. [Cesare Marchetti, plus a 2025 update]
• The Casio F91W — the ubiquitous digital watch, worn by Osama Bin Laden, costing just £12 — has been faked for years, and the fakes are getting better and better. [Andy C]
• Childhood peanut allergies are falling dramatically, perhaps because advice to avoid peanuts was reversed. [Simar Bajaj]

Browse his previous lists here. — MF

Watchable American history

I believe every American should be required to watch Ken Burn’s Civil War series to understand their country today. Ken Burns has done it again with his new series on The American Revolution. Six episodes, 12 hours. LIke his other series, it unsettles the story-book history we have in our heads, and celebrates the complexity of the actual ideas, events, and complicated characters at the time. — KK

See yourself as a verb

“The existential balm of seeing yourself as a verb, not a noun” is a perspective‑shifting essay that explores a gentler way to hold the fear of death by reframing the self not as something fixed, but as a natural unfolding process. The author suggests reframing personhood as a shifting weave of body, breath, memory, mood, and perceptions, always in motion and in relationship with the world. The idea is to loosen perfectionistic pressure around having to be a fixed, definitive “someone,” and instead approach death as a quieting down of processes rather than the annihilation of a solid self. — CD

Sharpen dull Airbnb knives

I’ve stayed in Airbnbs in many different countries, and have learned one universal truth: the kitchen knives are invariably dull. As a service to myself and future guests, I’ve started bringing a small knife sharpener with me when I travel. The Smith’s 2-Step Knife Sharpener is inexpensive, small, and lightweight, so I don’t mind packing it. It takes less than a minute to restore the edge on a blade. — MF

Freak Pages

Freak Pages is a directory for the weirdest Wikipedia entries, community‑curated to help you discover strange topics you’ve probably never heard of. Lots of rabbit holes to dive into. — CD

Quotable quotes

Here are some quotes I gathered recently:

• It takes a lot of work to make something simple. — Steve Wozniak
• One of the most realistic parts of Lord of the Rings is that almost no one wanted to get involved, until it was very nearly too late. — Ricki Tarr
• Everyone searches for opportunities while running from problems, missing that they’re the same thing. Problems aren’t obstacles to opportunity, they ARE the opportunity. — Shane Parrish
• Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion. — W. Edwards Deming
• When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them “No I went to films.” — Quentin Tarantino
• Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. — Jeff Bezos
• The three lenses of opportunity cost: (1) Compared with what? (2) And then what? (3) At the expense of what? — Shane Parish
• You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from. — Cormac McCarthy
• Everyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and everyone driving faster than you is a maniac! — George Carlin

I find witty quotes sharpen my thinking and help me pay attention. — KK

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What’s in my NOW? — Kevin Kortum