Posts from Maker

As the founder of a sous-vide business, I spend a lot of time thinking about sous-vide cooking — mostly about how amazing it is and how I can share this magic with everyone else. But I'll admit that, to the uninitiated, the immersion circulator, like the one I developed with my husband, can seem like just another kitchen gadget that will end up gathering dust in your already-crowded cabinets or cluttering your precious counter space. In this era of Marie Kondo, it's natural to wonder: Do I really need a sous-vide machine? Will it spark joy?

When I first came to the United States in 1994, I was 7. Having spent my childhood in Shangdong Province, in eastern China, I didn't know you were supposed to change your clothes every day. Consequently everybody thought I smelled and very few people were brave enough be my friend, let alone sit next to me. You can imagine how thrilled I was when a nice girl from my class took pity on me and came over for dinner.

Who: Tucker Pecan Company
What: Southern Pecans
Where: Montgomery, Alabama

Tucker Pecan Company scouts out the best Southeastern pecans to buy, and then shells them and sells them plain. But it also roasts and salts them, smothers them in chocolate, glazes them with honey, uses them to make crunchy coatings for candies, bakes them up in pies, and more.

While the downtown area of the Camellia State’s capital has undergone revitalization in recent years, drawing new business and new people to the heart of this historic city, Tucker Pecan Company has been in its spot on one edge of downtown for decades.

Who: Tucker Pecan Company
What: Southern Pecans
Where: Montgomery, Alabama

Got a pecan tree in your yard? Well, today you're in luck: David Little, president of Tucker Pecan Company, is sharing a few gathering and shelling tips.

Who: Tucker Pecan Company
What: Southern Pecans
Where: Montgomery, Alabama

For more than 60 years, Montgomery's Tucker Pecan Company has been providing people all over the South and the country with premium pecans and pecan products. It all begins with a bright-green orb hanging from a tree branch.

Who: Tucker Pecan Company
What: Southern Pecans
Where: Montgomery, Alabama

In 1952 Monroe Tucker started selling in-shell pecans alongside fresh produce at a curb stand in Montgomery, Alabama, writing the first lines of Tucker Pecan Company's "nutty" story.

Who: Pyrex
What: Iconic glass kitchenware
Where: Charleroi, PA

Pyrex has a special place in the hearts of cooks, bakers, and vintage collectors across the country, but perhaps unsurprisingly for a company that's been around for 100 years, it's particularly special for those who have a personal stake in the production of each piece. During my tour of the Pyrex factory in Charleroi, PA, I spent time chatting with a number of employees from almost every department.

As we talked, two things kept coming up over and over.

Who: Pyrex
What: Iconic glass kitchenware
Where: Charleroi, PA

From the moment you step through the gates of the sprawling Pyrex factory complex, on the banks of the Monongahela River, glass surrounds you. You feel it crunching under your feet and see mountains of sparkling glass shards in the distance — building-high piles that seem as if they're guarding the old lines where Pyrex's distinctively colored Opalware was produced from 1936 to 1986.

Who: Pyrex
What: Iconic glass kitchenware
Where: Corning, NY, and Charleroi, PA

If you've ever measured out milk for pancakes, melted butter in the microwave, scooped out a slice of lasagna at a potluck buffet, or even just dug into a bowl of popcorn while speeding through the entire season of "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," you've likely had your hands on a piece of Pyrex in your lifetime. The sturdy, sometimes-colorful glass kitchenware has been around for an entire century!

That's amazing enough, but did you know it's always been manufactured right here in the United States? Here's the lowdown on how Pyrex was born in Corning, NY, and is still made today in Charleroi, PA.

Who: Hanson Watkins, Confectioner
What: Indie Candy, Big-Eight Allergen-Free Confectionary
Where: Birmingham, Alabama

Hanson Watkins, proprietress of Indie Candy, knows her way around a confectionary shop. And unlike a large commercial operation — with super-speed computerized equipment that turns out 25,000 pounds of chocolate per run — she makes highly specialized, limited-quantity candy, and prefers to work with equipment that has stood the test of time.

Here is a look at how Watkins (and a small candy company) works their magic through their tools.