Smithy

That's a nice trick, Ashen. Thanks.

I think for the most part they've stopped providing cookbooks with microwave ovens in the USA, on the assumption that everyone knows how to use one by now, and in the interest of cutting the cost of publications. (User's manuals in this country continue to decline in the way of useful content, while gaining lawyer-friendly entries along the lines of 'do not try to dry your pet in this machine'.) (n.b. I made that example up, but have seen equally outrageous and useless admonitions occupying otherwise-valuable print space.) The microwave cookbooks I inherited from my mother generally have well-meaning but tasteless recipes.

That's a great post, Heidi, and I'm eager to try the recipe. Thanks for the link!

Crashed potatoes? Is that the same as mashed potatoes, or is there a special technique that I need to learn? :-)

Beautiful tutorial, Soba! Thanks for taking one for the team and showing how a small distraction, like taking time to take a photo, can throw your timing off. ;-) Tex, I'm with the others: those veggies probably were given a head start. Blanching as discussed above is one option. A short burst in the microwave, in a covered dish with a touch of water to steam, is another method worth considering. It probably won't be as beautiful as that blanch-and-shock method, but it'll be quicker. (Edited to add: I see rotuts, who posted while I was typing, had the same idea.)

I had to read that several times to see that you'd written not non-stick. ;-) I think that most soup and stew pots do not have non-stick interiors, but I know of some exceptions; my camping soup pot is nonstick because it's lightweight and I picked it up for a song at a garage sale. I still use a metal ladle, because the ladle doesn't scrape the bottom of the pot. At home I use stainless steel pots. I can see the value of a plastic / melamine ladle to protect the surface of, say, a nonstick shallow pan or wok containing a thick sauce. Maybe others will chime in here to explain their use of plastic ladles.You also asked about my design criteria on turners. I'm waiting until I can post a few pictures or sketches, to make everything clear; it'll be a day or three. :-)

Allow me to add my welcome to the others'. You should fit right in here!

Host's note: a series of discussions about how to get molds for chocolate clean that began here has been moved to Lior's new topic, "Cleaning Molds for Chocolate", which can be found here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148665-cleaning-molds-for-chocolate/. This was done to allow the problem and solution to be discussed in one location after this excellent report has faded into the background.

I still have mine: double boiler insert, lid and all. I *think* it was a wedding present to my parents in the 1940's. I *know* I was given the set when my mother replaced her cookware with a 'waterless' (ha) cookware set that, to be fair, was rather well constructed even if it didn't live up to its hype. The pan in my Revere set has a slightly warped bottom, such that it rotates comically on the flat stovetop unless I drape a towel over the handle to anchor it. It isn't ideal, given our current cooktop, but it's been a faithful friend and I don't intend to replace it, ever.

I have a lot of metal pans that can be scraped, but I also have a lot of pans with nonstick coating that need more general treatment. Consequently I have just about everything in double sets (at least) to accommodate either type of cookware. Spoons and ladles I have in stainless, nylon, wood and melamine. Which one I use depends partly on the pan surface but mostly on the curvature that I need: sometimes a broad, shallow spoon is best for getting all the corners, and other times I need a deeper bowl. I think my favorite spoon is a melamine slotted spoon I picked up years ago: it's as rigid as any metal spoon, can't scratch any surface of mine, is just the exact right shape - a very subjective issue - and is a cheerful yellow. I wish I'd picked up an extra, and its solid-spoon mate, when I bought this. I've been on a search for years to find something I liked as well. Turners I have in stainless, nylon and melamine. I hate the nylon because it's either too thin to be rigid or so thick that it's rigid but difficult to get under the food in question. The melamine is much better than the nylon, but it doesn't have a truly straight edge for good pan scraping. Here are two design choices I'd recommend: provide a blunt (squared) edge opposite the handle so the turner can also scrape a pan bottom, and provide a choice in both slotted and solid turner. Sometimes the solid is needed because slots or holes will get gunked up - say, when cooking eggs. You didn't ask about spatulas, as in soft scrapers, but I'll comment anyway: mine are made of wood, silicone or older-style rubber. I love, love, love my silicone spatulas because they're gentle on any surface and will stand up to heat. I'll never forget the first (and only) time I tried to make caramel with a standard rubber spatula, only to find white streaks appearing in the mixture. My tongs are all metal, but I have some with a silicone coating on the gripper so that they can't damage the pan. My pasta server, if I still have it, is melamine. I don't use it often, preferring tongs or a slotted spoon. My skimmer is metal, but I rarely use it. I prefer metal to plastic for removing greases because the greases release more readily from metal than from plastics.

That's good news, Lior. It's gratifying to see that you found an inexpensive and easy solution. Thanks for posting it!

rotuts, you may have sold me. The only question is where the heck I would put it, but now I want one.

I learned it this way: Great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts, chopped up monkey meat, hairy little piggy feet, all ground up with homogenized camel snot - and me without my spoon! On a more civilized note there are: "Tea for Two" 'I like coffee, I like tea; I like the java jive and it loves me. Coffee and tea, the java and me, a cuppa cuppa cuppa cuppa cup - boy!' (I don't remember the title, but I think the Ink Spots sang it) "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" Some percolator song with this refrain, sung very fast (you try it): "All I want is a proper cup of coffee Made in a proper copper coffee pot I may be off my dot but I want my coffee brewed in a copper coffee pot Iron coffee pots and tin coffee pots, oh they're no use to me If I can't have a proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot I'll have a cup of tea" Greg Brown's "Taste a Little Bit of Summer (Grandma's put it all in a jar)"

Nice work, Chimo! Thanks for the report and the photos.

That's a great series questions, thodesmet. I can't answer any of them with authority, but somebody here probably can. I *can* say 'Welcome', and I shall: Welcome to eGullet, thodesmet!

This may not be the kind of photo documentation you had in mind, but you may enjoy this video and small discussion about the process: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148103-the-science-of-injera-the-east-african-flat-bread/

liuzhou, that looks really good, as do most of your posts and most of the posts on this topic. With regard to the peppers: is snipping them in half and removing the seeds the fastest and most efficient way? I suspect the answer is 'no' and that the use of scissors is necessary for the best presentation.

So far I've only picked up their books on "Meat" and "Poultry". Not sure whether they're from the same series, but they're definitely Time-Life and definitely worth adding to my overswollen collection. Welcome to eGullet, robie!

rotuts, do you have those in water only, or did you add soil?

That's a shame about the Barefoot Malbec; you'll all have to take my word for it that it's a good value, I suppose. Jo, I hope you had a good drink to warm you up when I got home! rotuts, the alcohol content of the Barefoot Malbec is 13% ABV. I didn't write down the information from the Alamos. As I recall it was slightly higher, but under 14%. (I'll post back again with the number, next time I see a bottle.) The alcohol content might be a factor, but I think blue_dolphin is right that the tannins were too strong and astringent in the Alamos to allow a good balance. Now that I've tried the Barefoot I won't bother with the Alamos again. blue_dolphin, thanks for those notes and suggested pairings. I'll be on the lookout for some other malbecs also, based on your comments. I won't be able to play for the next couple of weeks, but I'd love to check back in and see that someone else has kicked off a new wine.

This is a great topic. Thank you all for showing! I posted extensive photos last winter during my last food blog, so I won't take the time to do it again. Kerry, that granite countertop resembles one we considered before going for the more swirly effect. Very cool. I love the flowers, too! gfweb, I'd love to have that big stone kitchen and fireplace and range. What do you use the perforated long-handled tool for that's hanging to the left of the fireplace? Anna, good for you for your foster care. I like the way you have a screen (iPad?) set up right next to a work space. Do you use that regularly for showing recipes or methods while you're cooking? The place looks very usable.

Now you're being cruel, gfweb. :-D

dcarch: how I laughed with that 'egghead' joke! I'm easily amused, I suppose, but thanks for the laugh! :-D Further to your question: so far, when I have a problem with peeling an egg shell, it seems to be the membrane sticking to both the white and the shell; if I can get the membrane to release from the white then everything peels easily. I've never seen an egg membrane that stuck to the white and not to the shell, so to me 'easy peeling' means the membrane releases readily from the white. Is that what you meant? Porthos: I suspect that I'm in your general vicinity during some faire or other. Would you please either post or PM me some links for next year? Norm Matthews and patrickamory, I'm not deliberately excluding you...thanks for your additions! I first heard about the steamer method from some random guy in a Tuesday Mornings store. My mother and I were browsing, during one of our last ambulatory visits together. We were pondering some kiitchen gear and talking about how irritating it is to try to peel hard-boiled eggs when the shells won't release. "Psst!" said the stranger, "here's the secret!" He told me about steaming eggs. I thanked him politely, and Mom and I went about our business. "What was that about?" asked my mother. I told her, rolling my eyes, "Never mind, it was a crank." I'm sorry to say it took me nearly 2 years afterward to try the method. Apologies to the 'crank', whoever he was.

Your points are valid, dcarch, and it's one of my justifications for not getting too heavily into the data collection. I can control for breed of chicken and age of eggs, since they come from the neighbor down the road when I'm home, but then those results might not apply to your standard supermarket eggs from some factory farm. What about the statistical approach, however? If one compares the results of two different cooking methods for long enough and for many eggs from different sources, I think that would be a pretty strong indicator that the cooking method is more important than the source, feed, time of year and so on. Note that I said "would be". I haven't done that level of effort, and I don't know whether anyone else here has. Maybe we need to do a collaborative effort?

Savory cornbread: that might be the ticket. I usually think it's too sweet, too. Is it a recipe you can share?