Smithy

Remind me, please: it's a Samsung. Electric or gas? Dual/convertable oven, or single chamber only?

While I was looking to see if I could google "swarvin'" and come up with something other than "swerving" I ran across this gem of a blog entry from 2014: Dawn Ponders: Newfoundland Speak 101 Nowt about "screech" though. I'm glad you explained it!

Indeed they have. Here are her two previous blogs about it: A good scoff, cod tongues, toutons and tea on The Rock aka Newfoundland (2016) Newfoundland Re-Visited (2018)

Kira's laugh is beautiful!

I've kept mine for up to a year in the freezer. I'd keep it longer, but I go through it too fast.

As times and available resources have changed, members have started their own food/travel blogs. These are not listed in the eG Foodblogs index below. You can find them, though, by searching with the tag "foodblog". The tag search box is near the upper right corner of the Forums Main Page. It looks like this:

The other greens in your bagged lettuce: Frogs, snakes and lizards Our household is evenly split on whether or not to wash pre-washed and bagged produce. I have to admit that we've never found visitors in them, but I'd take a dim view of finding bits of snake among the green beans. How about you? Do you wash produce that's already been triple-washed? Does this article change your mind?

Remind us, please: Red Boat 40 (thinly painted on the steaks) for 3 days uncovered in the refrigerator, then sous vide at what time and temp? And then did you do a quick sear? On what? Or did you simply pull it out of the water bath and bag, and eat?

My money is on @rotuts' guess. Meanwhile, I want that sunset and water, and I want that jelly!

Thanks for reminding me, Anna. That's another test on the list that I haven't tried.

Heck. That may mean I have to keep the air fryer AND get a small toaster. If the CSO doesn't come through for me as a superior bread-baking oven, it's going back. I guess that means I'd better get cracking on the bread tests.

How vigorous is the fan supposed to be in convection mode for the CSO? I was expecting a strong current as with my air fryer. This is nothing like that powerful. Am I expecting too much?

In fact, the thing that sold us on the air fryer was its ability to do tater tots. They're much better in it than in the oven, and by extension I think the same thing would be true in the CSO. I had intended to retire the air fryer, however, in the interests of not having too many spare appliances lying around. One spare bedroom is already overrun.

Once again tonight we were confronted with the need for 4 separate appliances for as many elements of the meal. We have a tried-and-true method of cooking chicken thighs in the oven: coat with our generic homemade mix, place in a baking pan for 35 minutes at 375F, eat. I have been reading wonderful things about chicken thighs - especially the skin! - in the CSO, so I chose the CSO for the chicken thighs. I used steam bake, 425 for 25 minutes based on (a) what I read in the accompanying pamphlet and (b) my bad memory. I was using the temperature and time established for pork steaks with the same breading; chicken thighs and quarters get lower and longer. I am terrible at rote. My darling's only cooking mode is rote, but he wasn't around. Meanwhile, the Wild Harvest version of "tater tots" was in the main oven, because it couldn't cohabit with the chicken. Actually, if I'd used the correct chicken temperature they could have, but I don't know where it all would have fit. It's a shame the CSO doesn't have room for 2 racks at once. The peas went into the microwave. The bread went into the toaster, which was retrieved from storage in the spare bedroom and placed inconveniently on the kitchen island. The chicken crisped up ... well, the skin was a bit tough and it cohered more to itself than to the chicken. I can see how this machine can produce good cracklings. The meat was a bit more done and the skin more tough than we would normally get - but it was cooked at a hotter temperature than normal. That particular comparison isn't a good one. Here were our dinner plates. You may correctly deduce that one of us likes peas and the other doesn't. The tater tots weren't as good as the previous batch, which were done in the (tentatively retired) air fryer. Nest time, we'll try the tots in the CSO and the chicken in the oven. When I lamented needing to pull the toaster out of its retirement spot, my darling surprised me with the suggestion that we could make room for a second CSO! Then he noted that the coffee maker would have to go to make room. Nuh-uh. Deal breaker.

I'm pretty sure that Mastery of the Sauces is by eG member @TheCulinaryLibrary.

Come to think of it, Kraft would qualify as synthetic, wouldn't it? In fact, we have Horizon up here and I agree that it's a respected brand. I haven't noticed their mac 'n' cheese, but it's probably in our stores.

I must say, @Margaret Pilgrim, that with a day like that and no appetite we'd probably have been eating tuna sandwiches, or cheese and crackers, or simply popcorn. I applaud your initiative. The "organic" mac and cheese gives me pause. Does "REAL organic cheese" suggest that it's made entirely from milk from cows that haven't been fed antibiotics or growth hormones? Does "REAL" mean as opposed to synthetic? I suspect runaway marketing. Nonetheless the real question is whether it was satisfying, and your post indicates that it was.

There is something really special about northern sunsets, especially over the northern lakes. They quality of light is different, somehow...clear, like the water, maybe.

Along those lines, I have once or twice pureed watermelon pulp and then frozen it in my ice cream maker. It probably wouldn't pass muster for you, but it was an easy and (to us) delicious version of a sorbet.

Ooh, ooh! I can't wait to see what you do with those! I had redcurrant jelly one time, when I visited a friend who lives up in that area. Wonderful stuff. She offered to send some home with me, but I was afraid it would get confiscated at the border. Now I'm sorry I didn't at least try!

Actually, I think we have plenty of amps, but the counter space is the issue. I think it would require me to permanently declutter the tops of my roller carts, and that's where the non-refrigerable produce (tomatoes, ripening peaches, avocados) go...and my favorite salad bowls...and the cat and dog treats...and the mail we didn't get to....

@rotuts I'm pretty sure you were only half joking there...but no, we have no such spare counter space. Finding a place for the toaster will be a stretch.

Tonight I steam asparagus and butter in the CSO while my darling cooked brats* on the grill. It all looked lovely, and as though it would be ready for dinner at the same time. Then I remembered the toast. ******* ******** My darling wants toast with almost any dinner. After 21 years of marriage, I still have trouble remembering that fact. In any case, our "toaster" was preoccupied with cooking our vegetables. I do not think it will get better with time; I think we'll get a better toaster before too long

This is why mine gets little use! Of course I learned the lesson the hard way. Wine may also have played a role in the lesson.

I got impatient (it's been a long day) and tried 350F for 4 minutes, no steam. I think the chips were probably already done before the CSO reached temperature. Whether that's true or not, they were charcoal somewhere at the 2 minute mark. I think the CSO had plenty of residual steam from the earlier test. I don't think it mattered. This is not diagnostic of the CSO, I hasten to add: I have never tried to improve kettle chips - which, in my opinion, need a lot of improving - by any after-the-fact means.