andiesenji

This morning a DRTV-Email showed up in my Inbox with this. Eggies I'm beginning to wonder about the seeming fascination and plethora of gadgets that attempt to deal with the "problem" of hard-boiled eggs. Obviously someone thinks there is money in it!

I had a Hobart undercounter commercial dishwasher for 14 years and had very few problems. I did have to have a bigger water line, I think a 3/4 inch. There were the chemical containers that were in the cabinet under the sink to allow access. When it was installed in 1994, I had a water heater just for the dishwasher and kitchen sinks installed. In 2003 I switched to tankless water heaters. And it required 220 electrical supply - at one time there had been an electric range in the old kitchen so the contractor used that line and did what was necessary to comply with the local codes and the specific rules of the health dept. to get a commercial certification for my kitchen for catering. It also had a waste line direct to the sewer line with its own air vent and a clean out plug outside the kitchen so there was no possibility of back up into the sinks.

Found this old one! A bottle of Falernum I purchased when I still lived in Reseda (San Fernando Valley) and before the Vendome liquor store burned down in 1987. (Falernum was not easy to find.) I know the Sazerac Co. stopped production quite a few years ago but this is the original stuff. So this bottle is at least 24 years old and I have used it sparingly.

I buy local honey. I know folks who live in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley who drive up to Acton to buy their honey at Blum Ranch. I often drive down there but I can also buy their product at a local store. The quality is excellent. (They also grow some fantastic peaches.)

I've not had a problem with this bread being gummy in the center. However, I do bake some heavy, fruit and nut cakes that are never quite done in the center because they are supposed to be baked in a tube pan and I'm using a regular pan. So, my solution was to poke these four potato "nails" into the center of the cake when it is about 2/3 done and apparently they transfer just enough heat to that center area to fully bake the interior. I see no reason why it wouldn't work for the bread.

I have some black "forbidden" rice that was aged when I got a 25-pound container about fifteen or so years ago and the tag on the bag suggested that the rice could be aged much longer in an airtight container "for best results" so I have been using it all these years and it is still excellent.

I just had a prolonged phone chat with a friend who lives near one of the elevated train platforms and keeps all her plates, saucers, etc., in those accordian-fold file carriers, keeps her stemware in the slider hangers, upside down and keeps other glasses, cups and etc., in a drawer, covered with tea towels. She says otherwise she has to wash everything prior to use. Her building is being renovated and they are taking out the old windows and putting in the double-paned ones with new seals around the windows and she is hoping that will solve her NYC dirt problems. She's an atty so has easy access to the accordian files.

I bought several of these a couple of years ago and have all of my everyday plates, saucers, soup and pasta bowls organized in them. Here's a photo I pulled out various sizes of plates (and a soup bowl and put them in two so you can see what the large size will hold. The largest plate is an 11 1/2 inch charger. The smaller cradle (no photo) holds dessert plates, saucers, smaller soup and pasta bowls and etc. They can be washed in the dishwasher, upper rack without the drying cycle.

I bake thin "layers" of cornbread and spread my chile verde sauce generously on each layer, along with dollops of sour cream (homemade) then press the layers together, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two or three hours. Makes a nice savory "cake" and the wedges are quite attractive.

Also, a salsa made with half tomatillos (oven roasted or grilled) and half mango or papaya, is excellent. I also oven roast the smaller ones, cut in quarters and add to Walddorf salad, along with some poached chicken. Lovely combination of flavors and colors.

I've never had a problem with carbon steel blades/dies/plates because, as mentioned above, I first dry them with heat, either in the oven or my dehydrator, and then oil them with mineral oil and wrap them in a dry paper towel that absorbs the excess oil. Mine are several decades old. I sharpen the blades on a flat Arkansas combination stone that I've had for at least forty years - originally purchased to sharpen the cutting blades for my mat cutting machine and my carving and scrimshaw tools. I don't remember the grit size, one side is medium and the other is very fine for finishing, removing burrs, etc.

How about tomatillos fritos Or this - Fried green tomatillo grilled cheese And there are stuffed tomatillos In fact, you can core and stuff them with anything you would stuff in a pepper, such as a mixture of rice and meat, other grains such as quinoa and amaranth and so on. You can eve make a pie substituting tomatillos for the green tomatoes. In fact, you can use them in any recipe calling for green tomatoes.

I have an indoor "smokeless" electric grill - Mine is made by Zojirushi but one of my neighbors has this one Which costs much less and works just as well as mine and has a larger cooking surface. You put water in the bottom pan and that makes it smokeless.

My oldest (that is identified - there is a jar of fermented bean paste and a couple of sambals that are possibly older) is a jar of pickled walnuts dated 1999. Not an expiration date - just the processing date. In my experience pickled walnuts never actually deteriorate. The fresh ones have the same flavor and texture as the ones that have been hanging around for years. I have some pickled peaches in a half-gallon jar that have been in the fridge since before I got my fridge before the one I have now. I had some recently and they are still good, no loss of flavor or texture, even the cloves are still intact. I think I originally canned them in 2001 because I remember they were in the Sub-Zero before I replaced it in 2002. Then I replaced that fridge in 2008, which gives me a pretty good timeline. P.S. Y'all might find this site interesting. I have to disagree with a few items, honey for instance. Honey, as long as it is not contaminated, will keep for decades.

Get a ThermaPen or any ThermoWorks digital that has the higher temperature range. They do cost more but they also last longer and are tough. I still have the first one I purchased several years ago and it still works perfectly, still accurate calibration. I have the Combi one, and a couple of others for various tasks - not all need to be for very high temps. I have these accessory clip holder thingys To hold the ThermaPen when I am deep frying or candying or probes with wire cables with other thermometers. A vital accessory for me. There is also a cheaper alternative and it TALKS! The only cheaper one that goes high enough for candying and deep frying. The problem with many of the less expensive digitals is they are not accurate over 300° F. The ones from ThermoWorks are.

I like A & W but not as much as I once did. Something has been lost along the way and it doesn't have the "bite" that I recall so fondly from the days of the A & W Drive ins. Today my storebought favorite is I.B.C. Root Beer and it has an interesting history. One I would really prefer but sadly is not available here, is River City Root Beer from Minnesota. Some friends drove their motorhome back there for a niece's wedding and came back with a few cases which they shared with me and some others. It is very spicy and develops a full head of foam which is difficult to find on today's root beers.

I have never been able to tolerate pets on eating tables or counters. At one time back in the late 60s, early 70s I had great danes and they were fenced off from the kitchen because they could not be trusted to keep their faces off the counters. I've had basenjis for forty years and have had some that would jump up on the kitchen counters and "shop" for goodies but a mousetrap under a few sheets of newspaper soon discouraged these explorations with some recurrent teaching sessions for backsliders. Any time this happened I would clean all surfaces and disinfect them thoroughly. Basenjis are extremely clean dogs but I don't want anything that touches the floor on any area where I prepare food. During the years that my kitchen was "certified" for commercial catering use, there was an "airlock" set of double doors between the rest of the house and the kitchen just to make sure the dogs could not invade. I won't eat in a house where cats are given free roaming access. For one thing, I am allergic and for another I don't consider cat hair a condiment! Not long ago I was watching one of the food shows, possibly on PBS, and a stockpot that had been setting on the floor was placed on a counter and after the contents had been transferred out, some fruits and vegetables were spread out on the same surface and I saw no cleaning between the removal of the pot and the placement of the other foods. This made me cringe. A month or so ago I went to a barbecue at the home of friends. One of their friends was manning the grill and when one of his kids ran up to him, he bopped him on the head with the tongs and went right back to using them on the food on the grill. This guy is an MD and should know better. Things like that to me are gross.

Yes, otherwise one gets rapid fermentation if the humidity is high enough. In the old days, jams, jellies &etc were simply covered with paper, and later with melted paraffin, mainly to keep moisture and other stuff floating around in the air away from the surface. My grandmother and my great aunts used waxed muslin - I got to help with this when I was little.

I personally have never heard of a case of botulism from a tree fruit that is candied. The temp of the boiling syrup and the time it remains at that temp is far more than enough to kill any pathogen as well as destroy any mold spores, in addition to the acid content of the fruit itself. That is why jams, jellies, preserves and marmalades were not actually "canned" and vacuum sealed until recent times. The only specific food borne illnesses I have ever heard associated with a tree fruit was from apple juice or cider from windfall apples that had been raked up off the ground an insufficiently washed and/or cooked. Most of the people who were ill were the folks processing it who sampled it before it had been fully processed with sufficient heat. There was also the Odwalla incident back in the '90s but that was due to E.Coli and again was from fruit that had fallen on the ground and hadn't been properly wash and was not pasteurized. Fruit picked from trees and bushes and that does not come into contact with the ground is unlikely to harbor botulism. There can be other pathogens, from bird droppings and etc., but those are easily washed away.

If there is a large volume of food that is moderately hot, I either use a cold "paddle" as mentioned above, or transfer the stuff to a wider, shallower container that will allow more rapid cooling and with plastic containers, such as Cambro or the newer snap-lock containers, set them on a blue ice pack and put another one on top so the stuff cools more rapidly. I always have 6 or more of the large blue ice packs in my freezer ready for emergency use, and have also used them (inserted in a fresh Zip Lock bag, IN a pot, as long as the contents are not boiling. Since I got the paddle, I haven't had occasion to do this. In a pinch you can use a cooler and ice water as there is a more rapid transfer of heat with the fuller contact of the water and to speed things up more, sprinkle some salt on the ice. I do not put hot foods directly into the fridge because it does raise the temp inside the fridge. The critical temp is between 40° and 140° F., and in that zone some foods will ferment as well as incubate bacteria in as little as three hours and it can take longer than that for the cooling to penetrate to the center of a dense mass of say, beans or chili or stew. It can take up to 4 hours or longer, depending on the size of the fridge, for the interior temp to drop back to the safe level. Anyone who has had a power loss for several hours, should realize this. With larger fridges, the recovery time will be longer.

Just do a Google Search for Australian bush tucker see what I got with just this one search.

And raw mushrooms, cauliflower, summer squash... I use it to "pre-treat" cucumber slices before adding the onions and the dressing for gurkensalat.

Add more vodka or high-proof brandy. I have found that the higher the percentage of alcohol, the more flavor is extracted from the beans. This is particularly true with beans that have already been used. If you can get it, add a pint of EverClear 190 proof or if that is difficult to find, the 151 proof.

I use it because with the intensity of flavor, I use less salt - ordered by my internist. It works nicely in marinades besides just use as a seasoning. I buy it at Sam's Club in the 40-ounce container It is also available at Smart & Final, Costco and other vendors at a much better price than in supermarkets. Recently I saw it in my local Big Lots in the 40-ounce size but as I did not need any at the time, didn't buy and they sold out rapidly. If you are an Amazon Prime member, the price is right and with free shipping, a bargain when compared to the small bottles sold in grocery stores.

I'm with you on this. I've been using induction burners since they became available for home use - I had a propane portable stove explode and wanted no more of that - back when I was catering. I went to an appliance store that demonstrated it for me. They used a skillet (steel - non-stick), that had been cut in half. He turned the burner on and when the skillet was hot, broke an egg so it was half on the skillet and half on the bare burner. The half on the skillet cooked, the other half remained raw. That was a demonstration that was easily understood and which convinced me. It was a Mr. Induction, was a bit pricey and more bulky than the ones available today. Later I got a Fagor, then a Supentown and more recently a Max Burton 6500 with the interface disc that allows me to use my copper cookware. (When I bought mine the disc was included.) Frankly, I don't care why it works. It is enough for me that it actually works the way it is supposed to. The technical minutiae is not something that holds any interest for me.