jgm

Last weekend I spent three days at my parents' house, mainly in their kitchen. They have become elderly and frail, and I was there to do as much cooking as possible, and get as many meals into the freezer as possible. There were moments I thought I would have a nervous breakdown. Even though I'm pretty laid back and don't get excited easily. Like many of today's elderly, my mother was a child during the depression, and the whole deprivation thing did a number on her. To her credit, she doesn't have stacks of plastic margarine tubs, etc. (a friend's mother had 566!). But she does have a lot of stuff I'd call "useless crap" and I can't imagine she's actually had any good use out of some of those things, ever. And since all of this "useless crap" takes up so much room, the cabinets are crammed full, and the overflow sits on the counters, yielding about 2 square feet of available counter space. My friends tell stories about their parents that are as bad, if not worse. When all of these depression babies are finally gone and their boomer children clean out their houses, I fear we're going to have a landfill crisis. But that's another thread. I knew she didn't have good knives, so I took my own, and that was a big help. Have you had to do a lot of cooking in someone else's kitchen? Did you come up with any strategies for coping? There's another cooking trip coming up in the near future. I could use some ideas!

Now that you've been in the kitchen a year, is there anything you'd do differently if you were starting over? We're going to be building a house (if the economy in the US ever gets straightened out again) and I have lots of options for the kitchen. I'm always interested in hearing about things people have learned.

I would send a nice note to the owner, in a "helpful" tone. First, he may not understand he's being ripped off by the bakery. And second, he may appreciate a heads-up that could keep someone from dying, and him from being sued. In some states, criminal charges could result from such an incident.

Have you tried oiling the plastic wrap? I've done it many times and don't remember any trouble with it sticking.

Right now the main issue in my kitchen is storing onions and potatoes. I just don't have a good system, and they usually remain in their bags, being moved from one spot to another. It's getting pretty annoying. I understand that potatoes and onions shouldn't be stored together; that darkness is good; and that ventilation is necessary. In the Chef's Catalog are canisters - one set cast iron, the other is probably stoneware or something like that - with lids, and holes for ventilation. They appear to be large versions of the garlic keepers that many people have. They'd be fine, except by the time I pay for them and pay for shipping, it'll be a significant investment. I've thought about getting large terracotta pots and saucers (the kind usually used for plants) and inverting them, using the saucers as the base and the pots as the lid, thus putting a ventilation hole at the top. Much less expensive would be regular ceramic canisters, with lids somehow propped open for ventilation. All ideas and suggestions would be welcome.

Just last night I was reading an excerpt from Marcella Hazan's autobiography in the October 2008 Gourmet. In it, she describes receiving a call from James Beard, who was asking her about an ingredient in an Italian recipe he wanted to use. He was making a recipe of shrimp with a pink sauce, and the "rubra" in the recipe had to be the critical ingredient, because nothing else in the recipe would turn the sauce pink. But he didn't know what 'rubra' was, and was hoping she could help him out: “ 'Oh, sure, Jim, it’s ketchup.' 'Ketchup?' 'That’s right. It is the best-known Italian brand of ketchup.' 'Ho, ho, ho, the big laugh came rolling over the phone line, over and over, such a happy laugh, as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.'

To get into a discussion of cures and treatments for ADHD is probably outside the scope of eGullet. However, I can tell you that increasingly, there are products on the market that are gluten-free substitutes for products that ordinarily contain wheat flour and other things containing gluten. According to friends who must eat gluten-free, some of those products are not bad at all, and others are dreadful. I believe there's a thread about gluten-free cooking if you want to try a search. Additionally, if you start threads with specific questions, you'll probably find people who will be happy to try to help you.

I've had some Rubbermaid containers similar to those... one type is excellent, and the other is not watertight. At all. As in, don't fill it with salad dressing and put it in your bag. My advice is to get one and try it...and go from there.

Two suggestions. 1. Ditto on the oven thermometer. Considering your past experience, it sounds like there's a problem. This should go without saying, but since we are not acquainted, I'll say it: the thermometer is the only authority. Once the oven is on and has supposedly come up to temperature, don't worry about it if there's a significant difference between the control on the oven, and the thermometer. In fact, you might even consider using it in your own oven for awhile before you leave, so that you are confident it's right. 2. There are oven liners made of ceramic material that some people get for baking bread. They are several hundred dollars, and if their price doesn't make them out of the question for this, their bulk will. But take a cue from this idea, and when you preheat the oven, put some bricks on the bottom, or some quarry tiles, or even a baking stone. You need something that has some mass that will help keep the oven at a steady temperature in case the oven controls do not. In fact, that may be a lot of the problem here -- the oven's possible inability to maintain a steady temperature. Even a large cast-iron skillet will help if nothing else is available. Use an extra-long preheating time. You have my sympathy. Before my father-in-law died a couple of years ago, I had to take all kinds of supplies with me for cooking holiday meals. His kitchen was very hit-and-miss when it came to cooking vessels, utensils, and common supplies. I learned to take everything with me. I hated it. We miss him very much, but I certainly do not miss his kitchen!

edited to add: This topic somehow ties in, in my mind, with an article I read several years ago (was it in Mother Earth News?) about people who cook and eat human placentas after a birth. Just a little bit too "natural" for me.

While I have no problems seeing women breastfeeding their babies in public or in private... Not interested in products made this way. I don't know why. I won't go so far as to say it's creepy or anything like that, but the idea just isn't appealing. Maybe it's because of part of my background, which classifies human breast milk as "body fluids." Or maybe I just need to get used to the idea.

Left overs are great when re-invented into a new dish. We are empty nesters now but I have been very good at making new dishes from the previous nights meal for years. ← Can you elaborate with some examples? I'm always open to new ideas.

While we're on the subject, could we expand this a little to discuss the use of a tamis vs. a chinois? I suppose with something like a soup, the cone shape of a chinois would make much more sense than a tamis; but other than that. . .in which situations would one use one versus the other? One of my goals is to move items like a tamis and a chinois over to my "things I need" list, and off of my "things I wish I needed" list.

A few weeks ago I ran across a relic of this era - a set of rectangular clear glass plates, each of which has an indentation for the matching glass coffee cup. I remember my mother serving various desserts to her friends on these, and I'm sure coffee cake was one of them. She's now 81 and in poor health. I methodically went through her recipes a couple of weeks ago to try and find things I could make, and perhaps get her to eat, which is a real issue now that she's down to 94 pounds. The flood of memories in that recipe collection, which included a sour cream coffeecake, almost made me think my life was flashing before my eyes. I'm probably more of a pariah than anyone -- Sara Lee was one of my childhood coffeecake memories, and from time to time I do purchase one.

For us, a magic combination seems to be interspersing the kinds of multi-meal techniques above, with a number of one-night dinners, such as salmon, with a vegetable side, etc. We also like to have "snack nights", which can include just about anything; it just mainly means I'm not cooking that night, and we're both free to nibble and graze as we please. Especially in winter, one of those nights might find me having pasta with butter and parmesan - which would never be enough for my husband - or a soup I believe I got from the Jacques Pepin website, which consists of freshly-toasted cubes of bread topped with shredded Swiss cheese, and then hot chicken broth is poured over all, with sliced scallions floating on top. It gives each of us the opportunity to have things we like, that the other would never eat. Variety is the key, as it would be when cooking for a large family.

The cat's now out of the bag: it's a bread-baking contest sponsored by the Kansas Wheat Commission and King Arthur Flour. Check the Pastry and Baking forum for details; I decided to start a new thread there, since that would increase the chances of everyone seeing it who's interested.

It was announced in our local newspaper (The Wichita Eagle) this morning that Wichita will be the site for a new bread cook-off next June, sponsored by the Kansas Wheat Commission and King Arthur Flour. link to the story Opening night for contest festivities will be June 15, with the actual baking contest to be June 17. The article goes on to say that the recipes must use yeast, making it a "scratch" baking contest, unlike others sponsored by food companies that require the use of processed products. I'll try to watch for more details and post them here for anyone who may be interested. I live in Wichita, and would love to meet any eGulleters who come to town for this -- or for any reason, actually. If you become a finalist and come to Wichita, I'll be more than happy to help you accommodations, etc. PM me if you have questions or need assistance of any kind. Oh, the important part: there will be eight finalists. Prizes will be "thousands of dollars" and will include an all-expense-paid trip to the King Arthur Company baking school in Vermont. The KWC is looking for additional sponsors, so I wouldn't be surprised if additional prices become available. Edited to add: Rules are now available here. Supposedly, more details will be/are available on the King Arthur Flour website.

I use the recipe in "Joy of Cooking". Of course, I tweak it here and there, but it's a good basic recipe you may want to check into.

About 20 years ago, I took some cooking classes from a chef who was also teaching in a vo-tech food service program. One of the recipes he gave us was for a "fruit basket upset bread". Essentially, it involved making a yeast dough, rolling it out on a half sheet pan, and then putting a fruit cocktail mixture on it. I think the mixture might have had an egg and some oil in it. Then the dough was haphazardly folded over the fruit mixture, and chopped up with a bench scraper. After baking, I think we put a powdered sugar glaze on it. I had told a friend of mine about this several years ago, and now she's calling and asking for the recipe, which I no longer have. I'm thinking if I could find it again, I might like to tweak it a bit, using fresh or frozen fruits instead of canned fruit cocktail. I'm hoping someone here will have the recipe, or can tell me where to find it. Thanks!

For me, this is a real issue in entertaining. I'm fortunate enough not to have health problems that require a particular diet, but if I were, I would be inclined to tell my hostess, "Just do whatever you want to do and I'll eat whatever will work for me." And I'd have a snack before leaving home. In fact, I do this a lot; I try to watch calories, but still want to have lunch with friends at restaurants. The obvious solution to the problem is to eat something before leaving work, and have a salad at the restaurant, perhaps even bringing my own dressing. A couple of years ago I volunteered to do hors d'oeuvres once a month for a friend who had a gallery; in my community they have a "Final Friday" event where participating businesses would stay open late and offer beverages and snacks. I got so sick of hearing about people who couldn't eat dairy, wheat, tree nuts, etc etc etc I wanted to scream. This particular business always offered fresh vegetables, cheese and crackers, and other things in addition to what I made, and other businesses offered other things, so it's not like there would be a lack of variety. But certain individuals whined incessantly when I made something they couldn't eat. I was relieved when my friends went out of business and closed the gallery. By the way, I also have an acid reflux problem. Maybe your friend is trying to control hers with diet, but there are excellent, affordable medications on the market. Nexium allows me to eat whatever I wish.

If you use some of the above methods to figure it out, I would think you could establish some sort of "standard" - i.e. 8 fluid ounces of X% cream weighs ___ oz.

I have created space in the garage, in Rubbermaid tubs, for items not used often. They contain seasonal baking pans, serving trays, and other large items I use less than twice a year. That's helped tremendously. I will probably also make a list of the items there, since some are new and I may not remember that I bought them. I also have acquired some units with plastic drawers, that can be found in office supply and discount stores, for infrequently-used items. They are in the laundry room, which is next to the kitchen. I also have a real shortage of wall space, and the kitchen is so narrow (we call it a "one-butt" kitchen) that if I hung a pot rack from the ceiling, I couldn't open the doors to the upper cabinets. One of my strategies is to weed out, weed out, weed out. I will move some things seasonally. Our cabinets contain large glasses but few mugs in the summer, and more mugs but fewer large glasses in the winter. The out-of-season items are stored elsewhere in the house. I think there's nothing wrong with acquiring new kitchen toys, but I do think it's a good idea to decide where you're going to put them before you purchase them, and perhaps even to decide which item(s) they're going to replace. I saw an idea on the Martha Stewart website that I'm planning on using in the future, if necessary. Divided storage for cookie sheets and other large, flat items can be created by installing spring-tension curtain rods vertically between two shelves. I believe they used two, one about a foot behind the other, to create each divider. Probably the reason I remember the idea so well is that it's one of the few fairly inexpensive ideas to come out of her company. Another idea that someone might be able to use is one I use for craft supply storage. I bought an over-the-door towel rack, usually used in bathrooms, and I slip one of the rods through the "handle" of large binder clips, then clip the items up. (In some cases, the binder clips are attached to the rod with binder rings, so that they'll face the direction I want them to. I can take pictures if anyone wants to see what I'm talking about.) This could be used for small items that could be placed in ziploc bags. Or large s-hooks could be used for kitchen utensils. I also like the new Oxo containers for storage of rice, chocolate chips, crackers, etc. They probably don't save any space, but they make things look so much neater. I use a Vis-a-Vis pen to write the expiration date of the contents on the bottom of the container. Additionally, I use rectangular trays, such as the Rubbermaid trays that link together to store office supplies (but I don't link them), for things such as cupcake papers, bottles of extract, etc., and when I'm looking for something, I simply pull the tray out. It keeps little things from getting lost, and everything from looking like a tornado hit when I'm frantically looking for something. Lazy susans are also good for storing spice containers, but everybody probably knows that already.

How about pasta with a sauce, such as Alfredo, that is not tomato based? Soup: vegetable, potato, etc. with something fancy such as basil oil or pesto on top. Especially with potato soup, you could make grated cheese, bacon, sour cream, and anything else you like with potatoes, available for people to fix as they wish. Or mac & cheese? You could do pizza, actually. Find a "white pizza" recipe that doesn't have tomato sauce on it. A friend of mine has dough ready and shaped into individual pizzas, with bowls of toppings available for people to make their own. Risotto with vegetables? I like to add asparagus, yellow pepper, and diced seeded tomato. You could throw shrimp in, too, or serve a small piece of grilled salmon on top. Quiche? Edited to add: I also have an acid reflux problem. The small amount of tomato in the risotto isn't enough to bother me. It's added at the very end, so you could take out one portion and add tomato to the rest.

Fresh fruit tops my list. I keep a loaf of Pepperidge Farm Raisin Cinnamon Swirl bread in my desk; it's 80 cal. per slice and just sweet enough to make my sweet tooth chill out for awhile. I also keep a jar of peanut butter to spread on the bread if I can't get out of the office for lunch. Additionally, I have two containers of Cheerios waiting for one of those days when I need lunch fast, so all I have to do is go to the convenience store and pick up a single-serving container of milk. I also like a Planter's trail mix that has raisins, sunflower seeds, almonds, pepitas, etc. For a fresh batch of endorphins, I also try to keep a Droste Barettini Bittersweet bar. Actually, it's not a bar, but contains 18 pieces of chocolate - already portion controlled.

Since there are only two of us in the house, I have to ask whether this dessert needs to be refrigerated, or does it sit on the counter like a "regular" cake?