Jump to content

Kayakado

participating member
  • Posts

    238
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Kayakado

  1. Most of the cookbooks I prune are the ones people have given to me. They just have no clue what makes a good cookbook or one suited to my interests. If I buy a cookbook, it is in the collection to stay. I sometimes borrow cookbooks from the library, but the core of my collection are either well used or obscure titles. The obscure titles are generally more in the vein of historical or cultural references. It is certainly a collection that keeps growing. I have filled 2 48" wide 7" tall bookcases. I prune my other books to make way for the cookbooks.

  2. I think you are asking the wrong people for why nots, we already need major interventions. I saw one of these at the local thrift store and had to drag myself away before I bought it. I hope it is gone before my next visit.

    I'd say buy it!!!!!

  3. I came across this recipe in an old cookbook from SE PA. but the recipe may be from somewhere else, as this is one of those community cookbooks. The recipe below is exactly as written.

    Kajunettes

    Dough:

    2 c flour

    1 stick of butter or margarine

    1 tsp of baking powder

    ½ tsp salt

    ½ tsp vanilla

    1 egg

    ¼ c warm water

    Mix together and refrigerate overnight. Roll dough very thin like ravioli, fill and seal the edge with a fork, so the cookies don't come apart when deep fried. After filling is in and dough is sealed deep fry in fat and place in paper towels and sprinkle with 4X sugar.

    Filling:

    1 lb of chestnuts cooked and mashed

    ½ lb of english walnuts toasted

    ½ lb of almonds toasted and ground

    ½ lb of chocolate bits ground

    2 ozs ground citron

    2 ozs whiskey

    16ozs of honey

  4. This is kind of off topic but.... it is a food movie of sorts. Does it annoy anyone else that the US film market feels they need to remake good foreign films so the american public will go to see them. Geesh....I am sure they will again take a good movie and totally screw it up. That list alone could be endless!

  5. Add PA, NJ, DEL, MD, VA to the list. We used to pick asparagus by the roadside there but in the old days we had to be carful tyo stay away from busy roads or the car exhaust would leave lead on the staulks.

    Euell Gibbons book Stalking the Wild Asparagus is a great guide to wild foods.

    We also used to eat poke, cattails shoots, other roadside stuff.

  6. I'd go to the lcoal hobby store and buy what's called a flower nail and put it in the bottom of the pan so it can conduct heat into the center of the cake for more even baking. Like with potato spikes. With this size cake I might even consider using three flower nails. I would use these instead of a heating core, it leaves a big hole. You put the flower nails into the pan flat side down and let the sharp pointy end stick up through the parchment. The holes will be hidden by the icing. I'd use parchment to line the bottom of the pans to be sure it would unmold. Make sure you have a large enough cooling rack. If the cake does hump, make sure to cool it bottom side down so it doesn't crack. Soak some rags or papertowels in water and wrap the outside of the pans with them, secure them with pins before putting them i n the oven. This will help even the baking out. If you think this is the beginning of a baking career, buy a set of Bake Even strips to use to wrap your pans. Baking the cake evenly helps keep it level and prevents a moist center with overcooked edges. Bake a few practice layers and if they turn out, freeze them in case you have a problem along the line.

  7. I think I mentioned this on another thread on this topic, there were a bunch of episodes of this show on youtube. It seemed like he was always killing stuff, pigs, lobsters, turkeys, etc.

  8. I bought 2 commercial Vita-mix 4000s on ebay and love them. Both were purchased for under $200 each. My mother has temporary custody of one, with the condition it gets returned to me upon her death. The 4000 has a stainless steel container with a spout at the bottom, hi and low speeds AND forward and reverse. I understand the newer ones only go in one direction. At about 3HP, they will grind anything you put in the container, especially when you have the imapct of being able to reverse those blades at high speed. It is quite a show! I saw my first vita-mix on a group trip where it tirelessly provided mudslides for everyone over a weekend. Its owner swore she never traveled without it, now I understand why.

    My mother's only complaint is because she is short she can't see into the top of the SS container.

    Oh yeah, when they are making those chicken tortilla soups in the demos -- they are putting in a piece of chicken which includes the bone. It reduces it to a liquid.

  9. At least you have some decent food available, even if you have to take out a loan to buy it. Our park has the worst food ever. The hot dogs wouldn't be too bad if they didn't wrap them as tightly as possible to fit them into the holding oven. The bread is reduced to a gelatinous mass by the pressure. Funnel cakes (sounds good in theory) they are also pre-made and microwaved as they are ordered. A microwaved funnel cake is an abomination. I quit buying food and eat before hand and bring in snacks.

  10. When I lived in PA, we used to collect the sumac berries and make lemonade. It was tasty, very similar to lemon or limeaid and pink. A moderately deep pink, if I remember correctly. Now a days I add cranberry juice or strawberry puree to make pink lemonade. Raspberries, wineberries or mulberries would work too.

    My mother had a lot of local food knowledge and we ate some strange and not so strange stuff, we picked along the road side. We lived in the same area as Euell Gibbons, where there are lots of things to eat like:

    Sumac berries

    Asparagus (grows along the roads)

    Ground Cherries, now known as tomatillos

    Poke shoots

    Cattail shoots, known as Cossack Asparagus

    Jewel weed seeds

    there was more but it was so long ago, I can't remember. Considering the growth that area has experienced, quiet roadsides for this stuff to grow are disappearing.

  11. Flavored diet cokes have been missing from my stores shelves for over a month - is it a plot?? Anyway I was reduced to buying some pepsi jazz--do NOT like it so far. I tried the cherry vanilla last night, the flavor is too weird and the smell is not enticing! I still have a strawberry cream to try and I am not looking forward to it based on the cherry. I never was a pepsi drinker of any flavor with or without sugar and based on these, not destined to be one.

  12. I hate cleaning pastry bags. I roll what ever I am going to pipe in wax paper or saran and twist one end closed and leave the other open. Slip it into the bag and the open end sits in the tip - less mess to clean up and easy to change piping materials if needed. I also can pull the wax papered icing out and save it for the next job without a lot of mess.

  13. Bottled water is having a terrible impact on the Florida aquafers and everybody and their brother is trying to bottle Florida spring water and ship it somewhere. They voted down a pipeline that would take water from the spring water rich north central area to south Florida but at the same time they are bottling and shipping water to everywhere. The state is supposed to be protecting the natural springs for the use of its residents, that's a joke. On a recent visit to a once bustling Victorian Spa in Orange Springs, we found the spring's bathing pool empty and growing grass while the water was completely diverted into the Accappella (my spelling is questionable) Spring water factory that had tapped into the spring at an angle and completely absorbed the flow. Other springs like Silver Springs, Rainbow, Ichetucknee, etc. are the lowest they have been in decades. Besides that all the chemicals like DDT and such are finally after 20 years showing up in these springs. It took them 20 years from the time the chemicals were put into the soil for them to resurface into the spring waters.

    On a second note, I've done taste tests with my house guests, Zephyrhills spring water vs my home tap water (city water) and they chose the tap water every time. I admit I am lucky I have good tap water. Just 30 miles north of me the wells are sulphur or tannic, and few people find these very palatable and don't like the color.

    I'd love it, if people would go back to drinking their own local water.

    (climbs slowly down from soapbox and slinks away...)

  14. Appliances - I assume this means devices requiring electricity, so I won't count the human powered ones.

    Countertop Residents

    Microwave

    Mini processor

    Coffee pot (4cup)

    Food Processor

    Ice Tea Machine

    Stand Mixer

    Electric grill

    Blender

    vacuum sealer

    toaster

    toaster oven

    brisker

    canopener

    yogurt maker

    Electric Wok (it is supposed to be in the cupboard but I haven't gotten around to it)

    Electric Tea Kettle

    Cupboard and drawer residents

    immersion blenders (2, 1 has mixer and chopper attachments)

    hand held mixer

    Antique stand mixer

    pizelle iron

    flat bread maker

    pasta extruder

    waffle irons (regular and belgian)

    deep fryer

    food dehydrator

    slow cookers (2 1qt and 2 5qt, 1 5qt converts to a griddle/warming tray)

    citrus juicer

    bread machine

    frothers(2)

    Coffee Pot (12 cup)

    Ice Cream Maker

    Coffee grinder

    Juice extractor

    electronic scales

    I am sure I've forgotten something, stuff gets lost in my cupboards. Is it time for an intervention?

  15. I have two, I have an Aerolatte and a Bialetti frother. I think we bought them about 2 or 3 years ago. We microwave the milk/cream/½&½ and then froth it for lattes or use cold cream to make whipped cream for hot chocolate. They are a favorite evening treat when my mother comes to visit. The frothers are small and don't take up a lot of storage space. They are easy to clean. I am not a big coffee drinker so an espresso maker with a frother uses too much counter space for me and these do a passable job for a non-expert. They are also easy for my non-techno wizard mother to operate.

  16. Have you tried Amarula, it is the African version of Baileys Irish cream. It is great in coffee and makes a nice flavoring for just about anything, whip cream is to die for. They were also gving away large shot glasses with the stuff recently. Someone gave me a set and they have a full face African Bull elephant etched into the side. Also one of my favorite winter dishes is African Peanut/Groundnut Stew.

  17. I got tired of looking at my big bins of plasticware and decided I could get better use of the space. I got a generic spin and store or whatever you call it at Big Lots for $7. It differs from the pricier tv version in that it has circular lids. I decided this wasn't a bad thing (circular vs square) based on comments posted before. I can say I am happy about the space it frees up. I couldn't get rid of my old stuff, so I put it in a plastic garbage bag in nthe garage and if I find something I can't live without I can retireve it. Anything in the garage in 6 months is going to the thrift store. I think the things that are being retireved are the larger flater pieces. I have one large container that holds a whole 9" pie plate. I guess it is staying. I do take lunch to work evry day and so far none of the new containers has leaked.

    The big bin undercounter storage - now they hold cooling racks, and smaller bakeware like tart pans, muffin pans, etc.

×
×
  • Create New...