I have a Jenn-Air gas/electric convection stove (down drafting) which is great. The other day we put it into self-cleaning mode, which requires you to lock the door after removing the oven racks, which presumably can melt during the intense heat of self-cleaning.

What can be better than summer sausage? Go out and find a farmers market, and within that group find someone who makes sausage. Buy 4 pounds. (Rationale: its probably way better than the local chain and you will like it and need extra.) Take said sausage and try some of it. Make a donation to this website. Then, cook sausage, 1/2 diced shallot, 1 golf-ball sized red onion diced, 1/4 cup ponzu sauce, 1/2 lemmon squeezed. Cook sausage first on hot to get a nice brown line on each side, but leave interior raw. Then add 1/8 cup water, add shallot and onion. Add ponzu. Cook off liquid.

While many now recognize the scientific explanation for a solar eclipse, the phenomenon is still marked with tradition and sometimes suspicion in Hindu-majority India. The "exceptionally long" eclipse that will cross half the planet Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009, will be able to be seen by virtually all of the population of China and India. According to traditional Hindu beliefs, Rahu the dragon drank some divine nectar, but before the nectar could pass his throat, Mohini (the female avatar of Vishnu) cut off his head. The head, however, remained immortal.