andiesenji

I love collecting "unusual" toasters, Special K. However, this one goes a bit beyond what I consider collectible. Also, I am not now the least bit religious. (At least not since I gave up showing dogs.) I've been off and on thinking about acquiring this visible toaster. But as yet, I am not convinced that this, newly introduced to the U.S., toaster is totally reliable in providing an evenly-toasted product. (I'm also waiting for the price to drop. In the past I have been a bit miffed when I purchased something new, "exclusive" at W-S, only to see it offered at a substantial discount a few months later. I do love toast in all its myriad forms and in whatever way it achieves that perfect degree of golden brown toastiness. I have enjoyed toast that was toasted in a fireplace, on a toasting fork, and toast in every kind of electric toaster, oven toast and stovetop (gas) toast which utilized one of these. Many years ago, prior to home computers and the internet, I wrote an essay about toast and toasters for a writing class. Since Steven began this topic, I have been digging through my file cabinets, looking for it but with no luck, so far. I can happily eat toast for every meal and for between meal snacks. I like it thick, regular and thin and I like Melba toast (homemade) and have a long list of desirable things with which toast may be anointed. I can't really identify a "favorite" because that can change with the seasons or with my mood or what type of tea I choose to drink. I do get through a lot of butter and a fair amount of Rose's Lime Marmalade but there is also the lure of homemade apple butter, pumpkin and pecan butter, peach butter and etc., with the occasional side trip into the curds: Lemon, lime, strawberry and etc. There are times when nothing is as satisfying as a wall of toast soldiers, surrounding a soft-boiled or poached egg, ready to dip into a runny yolk. At those times I feel that toast has achieved its zenith.

I have a couple of sets of these that I use when I take prepared meals to invalid friends and/or neighbors. They are inexpensive enough that I don't mind if they get lost. I also have some divided Nordicware covered dishes that are deeper, for stews and etc., I got them at a deep discount at Tuesday Morning. They are more expensive from this online vendor. I'm sure there must be something similar available in Japan. It's just knowing how it is named by the manufacturers.

A real old-fashioned egg custard pie - it's supposed to taste eggy. 1 cup heavy cream 1 1/2 cups milk 4 eggs large 2 egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Preheat oven to 400° F. Line a 9-inch pie plate with your favorite pie pastry line with foil and add pie weights or dry beans Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Reserve foil. Mix the cream and milk together and scald in a small saucepan or heat in microwave. set aside to cool till just barely warm. Skim off the "skin" that forms on top. Beat the eggs and egg yolks in a large bowl. Add the sugar, salt, nutmeg and vanilla and mix well. Pour into the cooled pie shell. Tear foil into strips and cover the exposed edges of the pie shell. Place on baking sheet on center shelf of oven. Bake for 20 minutes Reduce heat to 350°F Set timer for 20 minutes and check with a thin bladed knife, inserted near the center. If it comes out clean, pie is done. If not bake an additional 5 to 8 minutes. The center should still be wobbly. Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour then refrigerate for a minimum of 2-3 hours. You can top with whipped cream but it isn't necessary, this stands on its own. You can make this a day ahead and refrigerate overnight, the flavor improves.

You can get a similar result on a sandwich grill, with the heat control turned up all the way. You need a "sturdy" bread that won't collapse under the weight of the top. I like to toast crusty French bread and crumpets using this method.

Items similar to this Pfaltzgraff piece were pretty common back in the mid-90s. Crate & Barrel sold some that were leaf and flower shaped. Someone gave me one that was three sunflowers and I managed to break it when I picked up a candy spoon, the spoon rest stuck and then dropped off onto the cast iron stove grate. That's one of the reasons I don't like the flat ones, spoons do stick to them too easily. (I didn't care much for the sunflowers anyway but I felt bad about breaking it.)

Nice collecting Kerry. I have a few favorites, some I use every day, some for specific purposes when appropriate. As I bake almost every day, the Danish dough whisks get a lot of action. They blend quick bread doughs rapidly without working the dough too much - my scones and biscuits are very light and tender. Some pictured here.. I've added a few since then. A few years ago I posted about a unique use for an extremely large whisk - I posted the following way back on 20-April-04, soon after I joined eG. I no longer have that huge whisk. One of my neighbors started a home business that involved mixing dyes in large vessels and asked to buy it as she had not been able to find anything comparable. I should haul out my whisk trove and take a current photo but I am just a bit too lazy at the moment. I had a busy weekend and I managed to tweak my right knee, not easy to get up from a chair or sit with my knee bent for long periods.

There is only very slight flexibility in the handle. For all practical purposes, it is stiff and stable when working fairly heavy dough.

I know someone who has one and, like you, wants to recycle. He uses a chestnut knife. He found an inexpensive standing wire rack at a hobby shop that revolves and the sections are just the right size to hold the pods. He said it was made to hold hobby paints that come in little jars that are about the same size as the pods.

I prefer the Rubbermaid, High-Heat spatulas and in the Vitamix I use the spoon scraper. Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen) uses these too. They are good to 500° F. For cake batters %etc., this big one works better than others. I used to have a long one made by Pyrex that was almost identical (17 inches long) but the handle broke, after several years heavy use and I replaced it with this one and a shorter one but I usually use the big one. This is the "spoonula" I use for the Vitamix I should add that I have a bunch of rubber and silicone spatulas, Trudeau, Orka, OSO, KitchenAid, HIC and some others with no names. I had some with wood handles that I tossed out because they couldn't go into the dishwasher - well, they did but the handles separated from the blade. I had a Le Creuset and the handle broke when I was scraping a bowl of cookie dough.

I put it in a syrup dispenser and warm it so it pours easily. As I store it in the fridge, it is always pretty thick.

Having been raised on a farm, I really didn't have much contact with Jell-O until well after the war. I remember that calves foot jelly was cooked out in the summer kitchen, even in cold and rainy weather because my elderly relatives did not like the aroma permeating the house. The Jewel Tea man supplied powdered gelatin in a tin that had a picture on it that looked like candy - I know because I opened the tin and spilled some, which precipitated a paddling that I did not forget in a hurry. Miz Jennings, my grandparent's cook, had a very broad hand and was allowed, if not encouraged, to provide discipline to me and my cousins, when we were naughty. Tomato aspic, made with fully ripe tomatoes, remains a favorite of mine today. There were aspics of sliced beef and vegetable, chicken salad in aspic, various types of wild game in aspic with or without vegetables and a favorite of my grandpa's, that wasn't popular with most in the family, oysters in aspic.

The cans were in the "hot well" at the back of the stove (Garland).

After reading rave reviews about Rani Estate's Organic Assam, I ordered some from Mighty Leaf and it (and a couple of others) arrived today. I brewed a pot - 205° F., 4 minutes - and it is just as good as others have said. Malty, without being overpowering, a hint of chestnut and a long, smooth finish with not even a smidgen of bitterness in the aftertaste. As satisfying a cup as I have had for some time. I tried it plain and then added a half-teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of milk. Perfect afternoon tea.

When I lived in the Valley, and would occasionally go with friends to the Original Pantry, some of the waiters would not write orders and I don't recall ever having any problems with orders. Most the waiters, all men back then, looked like senior citizens but were pretty fast on their feet.

You can find some amazing jello items here Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Next page" to keep going. a search for "Freedom jello" will take you to the page with the red, white and blue construction. Do look at all the pages, there are some great ideas, lots of fun stuff.

I used to use that method when I was catering, xxchef. However I used two "cans" but still there were screwups. One of my helpers grabbed a spoon from the "savory" can and stirred a custard - garlic-flavored custard was not a good thing. Had to start a new custard (18 eggs) and use the other for something else.

There have been several topics posted about this subject. I posted this recipe a few years ago. It works.

I have made a layered ice cream "cake" with peach, butter pecan and coffee ice creams, I topped it with a scored round of shortbread just before serving. Then removed the shortbread, broke it into wedges and placed a wedge of the "cake" on each plate and leaned the shortbread against it.

After frying doughnuts for a couple of years in my mom's bakery back in the mid-'50s, I didn't look at a doughnut for about fifty years. I like plain cake doughnuts if they are not too greasy and I like churros. Otherwise nada.

Tomorrow is National Doughnut Day. Is anyone going to have a special celebration?

As I mentioned above, using mature ginger will give you more flavor than the milder stem ginger, in addition to having many larger pieces. Steaming it, instead of simmering in water, retains more flavor. I pulled out some of the large pieces from a recent batch. About half the pieces are this size. Some are larger. This size makes it easy to cut the ginger into "matchsticks" and if desired, into small dice.

I'm not going to start a spoon rest collection. I have enough junk - I'd have to have add another room onto the house! I used to just plop them down on the counter since it is butcher block and very forgiving (stains can be removed) and easily fixable but a few years ago I got the one I am now using and it was so handy I have just kept using it. Saves time as I don't have to spend so much time cleaning the counter.

A further search brought me to this site that has a total of 19 pages of spoon rests. Many of the pages show duplicates but I found some unique ones on just about every page. On one of the higher numbered pages I found spoon rests with dogs, a Westie and a Golden, so there is something for everyone. Some of the artisan pottery pieces are downright attractive. I may have to order a couple. And of course, there are people who collect them: Largest collection I bet you didn't know what you were starting with this topic, Steven!

I've also got a double one like this but it will not support tall spoons with heavy handles The weight of the hard plastic bowls is not enough counterweight for some utensils and the bowls are too small to hold most ladles. I actually use it outside by the grill to hold basting brushes. Somewhere in my old junk I have a little skillet shaped one made by Griswold back in the '30s. Now Lodge makes one that is almost identical so for folks who have a "country" style kitchen, it is just dandy. Here's one for the "modern" kitchen or futuristic kitchen. The subject piqued my curiosity so I did a search and found some oddities. Thanks for starting this, Steven I found something to send to my daughter for her quirky kitchen.

I don't know about "love" per se, but I do like mine a great deal. I have this one which takes up less room than the horizontal variety (I have lots of room but want something immediately at hand and things tend to accumulate around my stovetop.) The pan pops out of the ring to go into the dishwasher. It has enough bottom weight to hold large spoons and ladles securely. Even my 5-inch diameter jumbo stock ladle. It is currently in use as between posts, I am watching some simmering "giblets" for gravy later today.