mart242

Nah, not worth the hassle just to save a few $$$, especially since I'm deep in the west end of ottawa. I ended up buying the other bags online last night, I'll have tons of bags for a while!

Where in Canada are you? I've got a whole lot of a couple of different sizes. I'm in Burlington. Ottawa.. a bit far

Woops, my previous post was incorrect. what I was thinking of getting was the 10x13 and also the 6x10. The zipper bags are also interesting but are quite big (at webrestaurantstore), 8x12 is the smallest. No free shipping with amazon for me, I'm in canada. I'm heading across the border to pick my webrestaurant order (deep fryer, slicer, bunch of other small things) so shipping for the bags is reduced a bit with this. Sadly, selection is a bit limited.. I guess I could order the bags from another store with more selection.

Yeah, I'm thinking of getting 10x13 4mils (largest bags) and then 8x10, 3 mil. I should be good for a while with this. I'm not sure if I should "upgrade" the 3mil to 4 mil for the smaller bags.

Thanks. I'll go take a look at it tonight, hopefully it's in good shape and won't end up being a door stop 6 months from now! Took a look at it tonight, it was a bit dirty but works flawlessly. Surprisingly quiet, pulls an excellent vacuum and seals well so I left with it. Manufacturer 12/2009 so I'm guessing it's made in the US. I'm quite happy with my purchase.

Thanks. I'll go take a look at it tonight, hopefully it's in good shape and won't end up being a door stop 6 months from now!

After reading a few threads on this forum, I'm now considering getting a proper vacuum sealer and I ended up seeing a used one for sale locally. The sealer is a VP210. While I would have preferred a VP215 with the oil pump, this VP210 is $500 vs the $1000 that a VP215 would cost me (due to taxes..) so it is tempting. The guy says it was bought in 2010, used 3 months and then stored in his garage until now... I'm thinking this could mean that the pump may have rusted rusted? some bushings may have dried? Or are all those non issues? Anything to look for if I go see it besides if it reaches low vacuum and seals properly? Thanks

I did 4 cakes last night. More or less a success. The cakes are a lot more fluffy than two years ago, but I still has problems with flour lumps. I use a wire whisk fold the flour it. It was sifted cake flour that I added all at once (as I had read before). I was careful not to overmix but I still had some lumps. Should I had it a little bit at a time with the sifter, like you do for a sponge cake?

Thanks a lot for all the tips. I won't do a double batch, will try one recipe from joyofbaking and will try it again by making sure that the eggs and sugar form a ribon. That should cover it.

I need to make a few cakes for christmas, planning to go with rolled cakes with buttercream in them. I did a recipe last year that turned out ok but the texture of the cake wasn't that great. The buttercream was fantastic though. This year, it's total garbage! The recipe has basically 5 eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar, some vanilla. You mix that for a few minutes and add 1/2 cup of sifted cake flour with some baking powder. Stir that in, gently with a spatula (yeah, right, like that's easy to do) and finally fold in some melted butter. I need 4 cakes so I though that I'd make two double batch. 1st batch: flour made lumps and butter was a bit too hot so made lumps as well. In the garbage it goes (after putting them on a baking sheet, I noticed all the lumps and could not get rid of them. 2nd batch: I thought that I'd avoid the lump things by adding the flour and butter gently in the stand mixer. Batter was smooth but after cooking, it was like a thin piece of rubber. Quite pissed off, I then called it a night. What did I do wrong? I'm usually pretty good with all the recipes I do.

Most of them are ok, but not my non-stick pot, big pot, and a few other. As long as my Creuset dutch oven / mini dutch oven work work and regular pans / pots are ok, I'm happy! I'll buy what's not and it shouldn't be too expensive. I don't know what I'll use for home canning though.

What's the typical profit margin for a bakery? 20% max on these since they don't do any work? (just guessing). So retail price - 20% (or whatever) = your price, as long as you make a decent profit. Calculating the retail price is easy, just go shopping!

I did a bunch of reading on the gardenweb forum last night. I'm now tempted by an induction cooktop and inwall oven instead. The induction cooktops heat quickly and evenly. Plus, barely any energy is wasted, so you don't heat up the house while cooking during the hot summer days when the AC is running. Oh well, still a few months to do my homework!

squids, I'll definitely look at the bluestar but it doesn't seem too popular in Canada. There's only one distributor carrying them under the name "prestichef" so service might be a PITA if something happens. Based on what you're saying, they were less expensive than DCS which would be a big plus if it's as good... I'll look at the GE monogram. When will you have it delivered to your new house?

Gruyere is actually from Switzerland: http://www.gruyere.com/ As is emmenthal, jarlsberg, ... I guess that what they mean is the america's test kitchen recipe is that you can use any kind of "tasty" cheese, no cheese whiz or monterey jack...