Smithy

Lovely, as always. Where did you get those tomatoes, and how good are they? By now, the northern Minnesota farms are shut down for the winter. Grocery store tomatoes are hit and miss on quality.

I know what you mean! It seriously looks like a fun toy to me, and at $40 I can afford that fun. It looks like a good Gizmo for traveling, too. I don't know what my next Princessmobile will be, and maybe I'll relegate the toy to that purpose... but maybe not. Right now my cooking is so minimalist that small appliances make more sense than the large oven. If I were still working I'm pretty sure it would have a home in my office.

I just got an email from A4 Box. The sale is still going!

I'm so glad to see you blogging again! I have to admit that your scenery looks strange, though. No snow? It's snowy here already. I'd happily take any one of those breakfast burritos. Or that brisket. Or those sausages. Or those potatoes. Or...or...or...well, any of it! Did you make those sausages?

Those are good prices, with quite a variety of colors and styles. I'm amused that only the largest (8 quart) size comes in camo. I suspect it's because of hunting shack parties! 🙂 The 4-quart size is about what @Sid Post is looking for. However, it still doesn't have a programmable temperature beyond the 4 settings of low, medium, high, and warm. This is why I, like @rotuts think the Instant Pot Ultra is more advantageous. I like being able to specify a temperature and have it hold there for hours. Hmm. I've been looking around, and don't actually see the Ultra for sale any more. Instant Pot has a broad variety of multicookers available, and I'm disinclined to dig through to see which ones now have programmable temperatures. This IP slow cooker caught my eye, though: built more like the classic slow cookers, with a removable crock. It won't act as a pressure cooker, but it does have programmable temperatures. IP Superior Cooker Slow Cooker. The IP Pro 10-in-1 Multicooker (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) looks like it might have programmable temperatures. I'm glad I have the Ultra and don't have to worry about it!

@Sid Post, I'll second what rotuts says. I also have an Instant Pot Ultra, as well as the original version. I like the Ultra for its settable temperatures. The one thing you have to be careful of, though, is the automatic "keep warm" setting. It's warmer than the lowest custom temperature setpoint, so you can end up accidentally overcooking something. For more information, and comparing the Ultra to the original, see this topic. Getting back to your original question: I don't think the A4 box as it's originally shipped has anything deep enough to do slow cooking. I don't know whether the "deep dish" inset is deep enough, but haven't seen it to be sure. I think I recall reading in the A4 Box Induction Cooker topic that someone put a small pot atop the cooking surface and successfully cooked with it. I think it would have to be a pretty small pot, though: maybe not big enough for what you want to do.

I have no experience with that, but I wonder whether corn starch would help it to hold together.

I appreciate the comments about freezing, both from a texture and flavor standpoint. I should have made it clear that the cabbage was partially frozen in my outside refrigerator. i'm not sure whether it had been harvested before or after the first frost. This morning, I'm impressed with the way the juices are permeating and circulating without any help. I haven't shaken the jar, though I probably will every once in a while. Look what it's done, simply sitting on the counter! I have to look carefully to see the cheese mat, because the brine topping is now so dark. For comparison's sake, and to spare y'all from scrolling back up, this is what it looked like last night: No bubbling visible yet, but I wouldn't expect that so early in the process.

Sorry. I'm snickering because I said exactly the same thing to myself, for similar reasons to yours. And yet, here I am with a new A4 box on the way! I'll find room for it. Somewhere.

Part of the 3-pack of inserts that's already sold out includes a small ball thingie, but I suspect you still have to shape the meatballs themselves. I agree that part's a PITA. I made meatballs once. For my aging and ailing father-in-law. I haven't wanted to do it again.

By golly, it's possible to mess these up. I began with slices of a "focaccia" loaf I wrote about here, loaded it with slices of cheese and meat, pressed it until it looked great, then opened it and added spinach leaves and pickles. (I'm out of sauerkraut). Unfortunately, the meat was a combination of salami and roasted turkey breast. The turkey breast came out of the freezer. The turkey breast was still frozen when I started pressing. Looks great, doesn't it? The exterior is perfect. But the meat interior is still cold, and the pickles only added to the cold and watery quality. Don't start with frozen deli meat. Even if you're feeling impatient.

I hear in some circles that induction is more energy-efficient than standard heating coils. But seriously, after reading this topic on the A4 Box Induction Cooker I simply liked the look and idea of a small, portable cooker. At its usual price I couldn't see spending the money. For 40 bucks I'm eager to try out a new toy!

It works on induction.

Sometime late in the fall, when the growing season was winding down, I bought the last few (small) heads of red cabbage from my local farmer. I put the heads in the outside refrigerator. Occasionally I remembered them...but only today got around to doing something with them. Sauerkraut was always the plan. Well, it's an experiment. I decided during an earlier test that 2% by weight salt was probably the right proportion, and that's what I did after shredding the cabbage. The salt is mostly Morton's fine sea salt, but there's a bit of coarse kosher salt there too. That isn't really the experiment, though. 1. The poor cabbage heads were already semi-frozen. (It's been well below freezing for more than a week.) I couldn't tell it while shredding them, but when I started mixing in the salt I could tell that there may have been partial freezing. At any rate, it's all cold! 2. I postulated during my last test that too much headspace in the jar allowed black mold to develop. This time, I was sure to submerge the well-packed cabbage, but there was a lot of headspace. I topped it off with a 2% mix of water and salt. You can see in the photo where the cabbage stops and the brine begins. I'm using a leaf of cabbage, topped by one of the cheese mats inspired by @FauxPas, to keep the kraut submerged. (Her recommended mesh isn't quite the same as what I bought, but I got the idea from her here.) So. Will the brine topping help or hinder? Will the partial freezing hurt? How long will it take this incipient kraut to come to room temperature and start fermenting? Time will tell. I'll report back.

I just got an email from A4Box.com celebrating their 5th anniversary. The first 500 customers can get an A4 Induction Box (color of your choice) for FREE using the coupon code ANNIVERSARY5. I just ordered mine, and only have to pay shipping ($40). Our dear departed @Anna N and our dear, still-with-us friend @Kerry Beal had a lot of fun playing with theirs, back in the day! There's apparently another sale going on right now. If I can figure out how to get to it, I'll also order the extra trays and I'll report back here. (Edited to add: they're already sold out. That's why I couldn't load them into my cart.) Go to AFourBox.com if you're interested in this. Hurry!

I'm glad to see you wandering into nuts, whether they're truly nuts or drupes. Two observations, with related questions: 1. The walnut shells you show here look much smoother than I'm used to. Do you suppose the varieties are different? Or is it a vaguary of photo processing? Or are they much more polished in the shell? 2. You don't mention anything about dyeing pistachios red. I personally think it's an abomination, although I'm a native Californian. Have you encountered that phenomenon? It was all the rage when I was growing up: pistachios had to be dyed red.

It certainly looks pretty!

I don't know when or whether I'll get around to that holiday baking, but I will give a preliminary report on petits fours. I ordered a bunch from Swiss Colony -- some to share and some to test. I'm not as disappointed as someone had suggested earlier in this topic. Maybe I'm just a cheap date. 🙂 Here's a sampler box: ...and cross-sections of five of those. I was surprised to discover that the lemon petits fours have a delightfully tart flavor that plays off well against the frosting layers. The strawberry flavor leaves me unimpressed, as I'd rather expected. Ditto the ones with coconut. Overall, I think it's about the firm frosting (fondant, I think) with tender cake in between. I bought a batch of Chocolate Lover's petits fours for a friend, and discovered yesterday that its chocolate frosting layer is rich and fudgy. These are good enough for me (as I said, maybe I'm a cheap date) and I doubt I'll go to the trouble of making them. The Bavarian tortes or other confections from Kaffeehaus, now...maybe those will be a challenge for later this month.

Earlier this week I was in our local Co-op and admiring the selection of artisan breads. We have so many more good local bakeries (where local = within 50 miles) than we did even 5 years ago! Two loaves caught my eye: and Lake Ave Restaurant is one of our better restaurants, but this loaf brought me up short. Focaccia? Really, that fat thing? That's what they call it. Here's the label on the back side of the bag: Well, I was in the mood for good bread and experimentation, and the ingredients look good for both these loaves. I bought one of each. The Coco Artisan Breads focaccia had a fairly oily surface, but an open and tender crumb: The Lake Ave "focaccia" has a fine and tight crumb. And that loaf is fatter than I associate with focaccia! Alas, I wasn't quick enough to use or freeze the Coco focaccia. It made a couple of fine sandwiches, but as of today the rest is feeding the birds due to mold growth. I've been working on the Lake Ave foccacia: sandwiches, closed or open-faced. I may use some of it for panini. I may use the rest for croutons. The flavor is...okay...a little too strong on the pepper and roasted garlic for my tastes. I won't get it again. I will get the Coco focaccia again, until and unless I get back into making my own. I'm surprised that both of these loaves are labeled as focaccia. What do you think?

This article has been occupying a tab in my browser for a day or two now, tickling my funny bone. Really, a truck fire and spill isn't funny. I know that. But this commercial driver had no business taking the road he took. (I know, I've been down that road.) Nobody was hurt. And the Park Service had an excellent response: Full story here.

It was very good, and very (to me) unusual. The Russian woman who brought it seemed to suggest it was a common dish when she lived in Russia.

These two photos don't show the splendor of the fully loaded table, but it groaned with good food. I brought potatoes dauphinois in my largest Le Creuset gratin pan. Other guests brought an excellent cranberry dish that to me had just the right balance of sweet and tart; a very interesting and tasty Russian salad of roasted beets, sauerkraut, capers, kalamata olives and some herbs all tossed with olive oil. The hosts provided 2 wonderfully roasted chickens, gravy; roasted sweet potatoes, and an excellent green bean dish made with bacon and a very nice vinaigrette dressing; bread. The whole shebang began with appetizers: chicken liver pate, cheeses, olives, dilled asparagus; crab dip, and crackers and potato chips. We finished with pecan pie, pumpkin pie; apple pie; and krumkake made by one of the guests and accompanied by whipped cream and raspberries. Plenty of wine with dinner, and choices of other drinks afterward. Somehow we were all taking photos at the same time, so the plates hadn't been loaded up yet and half the seats are empty in these photos! This is a mere taste of an excellent evening.

Georgia Dunn made me laugh in this fine Thanksgiving post today. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2024/11/28

Looks excellent, as always. Is that a new bowl? I like it. Don't remember seeing it in your photos before.

Problem is, the menu you posted is from 1899, so the 1930's origin suggested in that article can't be right. Maybe Peaches Hothouse has been around that long?