Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The only thing cuter are the mini Tobasco bottles. Love them!

This is so perfect - I'm leaving today to visit Italy for the first time and loved reading this little preview of what my next week and a half will be like. :)

Homemade vanilla extract! Super easy, more fun to use, and a GREAT gift item. All of my clients are getting their own little bottles this year. :)

Marshmellows, and anything marshmellow-ish, like meringue.

Cole slaw makes me want to puke, but I think it's just because my dad once forced me to eat a bite of Long John Silver's slaw when I was little "just to give it a try".

Also, for some reason I can't get into pickles, which is weird because I love both cucumbers and vinegar.

I finally picked up "My Life in France" by Julia Child and Alex prud'Homme. It is delicious, rich, and fulfilling. I can't put it down, and am now totally in love with both her and her husband. Highly recommended.

Cans are recyclable where I am too. They, along with newspapers were the first and that's been over twenty years. In fact, along with aluminum they are very recyclable and save tons of energy as written at "Thrifty Fun" website:

Reclaiming one ton of steel or tin saves 1.5 tons of ore. Tin recycling saves an estimated 2,600 kilowatt hours per ton. Steel recycling saves and average of 4,300 kilowatt hours per ton or 47% of the energy required to process steel from raw materials.

That said, I had to read through the thread to even think of canned products I wouldn't have besides peas since they are soooo not a part of my world.

Canned potatoes. I still wouldn't have a clue about these except for a British BF who ate them for breakfast. I did try a bite and am still getting over the trauma.

Canned Asparagus. Same in that who would of thought... but this was a Kiwi BF who made me an omelette of which he was quite proud. Wasn't helped by being told GF prior introduced him to the whole concept.

Canned Mushrooms. I don't eat any kind but canned seems a special abomination. My brother has been known to take a can of shrooms and a can of tomato sauce on noodles and call it spaghetti. I call it making BK on the way home seem gourmet.

Canned Spinach. I wouldn't eat spinach until deep in adulthood because of the bad memories from school lunches. Empty milk cartons were filled, and even ceilings were not safe to be under...

Canned Beets. See spinach above.

Canned Carrots. Eeeek!

I do like several canned beans but probably not like others here. I especially like black beans or black eyed peas heated up in their broth (organic) and then adding a dollop of butter. That's it. YUM! However, I can't seem to stomach canned chickpeas and so those get cooked up from dried and divided into servings in stackable containers and frozen. Very handy. Plus the bean stock is a rich add to soups. My goal is to do that with all beans.

I also like canned black olives and those are the only olives I seem to like. An indulgence once or twice a year.

Canned tomatoes actually are often more nutritious than fresh because they are at their peak when processed. They work better in some things but are too much in others. So they are seasonal for me.

Canned coconut milk and canned pumpkin (both organic) make a fabulous quick soup especially with a bit of curry. I'm told that some black beans are a great add too but I like the black beans so much the way I do that I haven't been able to part with them for soup. :)

I also have a can each of mango slices and lychees. My emergency food I guess. Sometimes they just hit the spot especially if I've been ill for few days and there's little else quick in the place.

Nothing in the fruit department is like the wonderful pears and peaches my best friend's grandma made and stored in her basement.

Probably the worst thing I've ever seen canned is a whole chicken. :(

when we lived where the fresh foods came in about every eight weeks, I made the Spam spread Cassandra mentioned - it's pretty good. I buy the Italian tuna in oil from Italy - more expensive - and it's good. I also like the Del Monte peaches in a jar in the winter in fruit salad and most of the beans mentioned above - rinsed! - coconut milk and tomatoes in all forms. Green Giant corn will do, but frozen is better. I like the brown bread, but it's difficult to find. Cooking for one, tinned baked beans are the answer - add sliced onion and a little brown sugar and bake them for 20 minutes. Almost awesome.

I cannot eat canned corn. Or frozen corn, for that matter. On the cob only for me!

Oh, and canned asparagus = yuck. And being the HUGE mushroom fan I am, I do not like canned mushrooms. Canned mushrooms are the reason I though I hated mushrooms for the first 25 years of my life.

i keep a can of pumpkin and a can of sweetened condensed milk around for baking, but that's about it for me.

Asparagus was the very first item to jump into my head. That's truly vile stuff.

Shrooms would be second. They bear no resemblance to the real thing and are rubbery. No matter which brand I tried, they taste "off."

And WTF is Deviled Ham anyway???

Living in Florida, SPAM is a necessary evil product that needs to be in the Hurricane Kit. I have to force feed the stuff to myself if I expect to get through a hurricane - or a year like 2004. I don't, however, have to like it. And never, ever store brand SPAM (shudder).

I'd have to say canned beans are the #1 convenience product in terms of the time it would take to make their fresh counterpart and they suffer the least in the canning process. Other than a few Goya disappointments, canned beans are a Godsend and should be in a rainbow of colors in the pantry for so many quick meals.

Nipping at the heels of those beans - Tomato products. I need at least five different varieties of canned tomatoes at the ready.