Have you ever spent hours and hours cooking something deliciously marvelous on the stove only to turn your back for ONE SECOND and find it’s burned? Stuck to the bottom of the pot burned? Two-day-soak burned?

Yep. That’s happened to me, too. Notice the past tense. HAPPENED. Never will again because I’ve got a Pauli Cookware stockpot.

“What,” you say. “a pot that keeps you from burning your food?” (I’m blaming the pot… did you catch that?)

Yes… that’s EXACTLY what I’m saying.

I met Paul Scioscio, the inventor of Pauli Cookware, at the Housewares Show earlier this year. I honestly didn’t believe what he told me: I could leave a pot on the stove for hours and never have to stir or worry that its contents would burn. He sent me one and I tried it out…

Now I believe.

Pauli Cookware has a patented 7-layer commercial grade stainless steel and aluminum bottom that wraps around a hermetically sealed oil chamber. The oil heats up and distributes the heat evenly, so your food cooks without burning.

Here’s a demo:

Because of the way the pot is made, you can’t cook on high heat… that means no frying or sautéing. I thought this might be an issue when searing meat for a stew, but the bottom of the pot still gets hot enough to deliver a nice brown color.

You have to wash the Pauli pot by hand, but I don’t put my cookware in the dishwasher anyway (you shouldn’t either!). Pauli Cookware comes in 3 generous sizes: 7 quarts, 11 quarts and 16 quarts. It works on all cooktops, including induction.

I’m always looking for help in the kitchen, and for ways to avoid “operator error”… like burning something. In that regard, my Pauli Pot’s got my back!

If you’d like to order your own Pauli Pot, click on the link on my sidebar! Tell them Mama sent you! I’ll have some really fabulous recipes using my Pauli Pot over the next few months.

You’ve got a VERY limited time to try this recipe… so pay attention.

Over the next few weeks as soil temperatures steadily rise, cicadas will begin emerging from their underground world… the first time since 1996.

Then, six weeks after their mating ritual, they’ll be gone, vanished… dead. Their offspring won’t return until 2030.

Mama lived in Africa and spent a little bit of time with the Bushmen in Namibia, so eating cicadas (or grub worms, or giraffe) is decidedly an acquired taste.

Look at these little guys as “land shellfish,” just like shrimp (they are in the same animal group). But, before you try this taste sensation, keep in mind a few things:

• If you’re allergic to shellfish or nuts, give cicadas a pass. As if you weren’t going to anyway.
• Don’t pickup dead cicadas off the ground. Harvest them live, in the early morning and place them in a Ziploc® Bag. Put them in the freezer until they settle down. Permanently.
• They won’t bite! Just give them a little tug to get them off a tree or bush.
• Marinate them in a little teriyaki. Male cicadas will shrivel up, and you can throw those out. Females are bigger and fatter (full of eggs, you know) and will get more tender.

Here’s a video from my pals at Tennessee Home and Farm on how to prepare cicadas. But remember, you have only a limited time to catch the main ingredient!

You go girl!

Tomorrow is the first annual National Girl Scout Cookie Day  and this year the gals in green are working social media like a boss.

✔ Twitter: @girlscouts #onemorebox

✔ App: available for iPhone or Android

✔ YouTube: How to Buy Cookies (really?)

✔ Facebook: Enter the One-Day Only Contest!

✔ Pinterest: Pin Your Cookie

✔ Blog: Updates On GS Cookie Day

See what I mean… I’m not exaggerating!

And if you happen to be in New York City, look for the Girl Scout Cookie Food Truck. Again… no joke. They’ll be tweeting exactly where they’ll be selling all your faves: Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos and Samoas.

Wonder if they’ll also have that new shitake mushroom-infused cookie, Mango Crèmes? (No, I’m not kidding…)

Not quite sure about that one yet…