andiesenji

Bulgarian culture buttermilk makes lovely pancakes or any other "quick" breads, such as biscuits or scones, etc. I make my own buttermilk and have kept the culture going for several years and use it for sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt and kefir as well as buttermilk. It works well with the 2% lowfat milk (I use only organic) as well as with full-fat milk but not so well with 1%. It is okay but does not develop the "tangy" flavor I like, although you may find it just fine. I started out with the purchased product and simply used it as my culture and kept it going just as one would with any yogurt culture. This became an advantage when the local stores stopped carrying the commercial Bulgarian product. I can still buy it but have to drive an hour to the San Fernando Valley so making my own saves gas as well as wear and tear on my nerves!

That is why I keep most of the bottles/jars etc., in my fridge contained in wire or mesh "organizers" which also makes it super easy to clean the fridge. Instead of moving all those small containers, I only have to pull the organizers out and set aside while I wash and dry the shelves. I have both deep and shallow ones.

Again, there is no need to pre-set the Bunn coffee maker by using a timer. Once it is set up, the water is always hot and ready to brew instantly. You must have the carafe under the outflow because as soon as fresh water is poured into the top, the brewed coffee is dispensed. These are made to work exactly the same as the commercial Bunn brewers. I have one that I use when I have several guests and don't want to use my Senseo or when I want to brew coffee to take on an outing in a Thermos. I am pretty sure that Bunn has the best guarantee in the marketplace. We had a big multi-serve unit at my office for several years for both coffee and tea and never had a problem.

I received this email notice today and thought I would pass it on as it seems like a terrific job for an eG member. King Arthur Flour job news.

Have you considered the Bunn? They don't need to be programmed to turn on because the water is always hot and pouring water into the top (after loading the grounds basket) will produce coffee immediately. Bunn-O-Matic - how it works. at Amazon They did have a recall of an earlier version in 2005 but responded quickly to customer complaints and I know several people who prefer the Bunn-O-Matic to any other conventional coffee maker.

I slice most things, especially those with a bit of "give" such as eggplant - I doubt anyone could successfully cut one into uniform slices using just the "chop" motion, unless the blade was incredibly sharp. (I sliced an eggplant earlier today, which gave me the reference.) I keep all my knives very sharp. I have some blades that are designed for the chopping motion and use them accordingly. I think it depends on the knife used and the results desired. If I am slicing or chopping something for the stewpot, I don't think that much about appearance. If slicing something where presentation is important I attend carefully to thickness and shape. (Large batches requiring even slicing brings out the mandoline so I don't have to think about precision - just lazy, I guess).

Since I have a dehydrator, I put the parts in and leave them overnight (the oven would work too, on very low if I didn't have the other) and I use mineral oil - the same stuff I use on my butcher block countertops and buy in the industrial-sized container. I am fortunate in that I live in the desert and humidity is only a problem on extremely rare occasions. I do have a friend who lives on a boat and uses a dehumidifier and the large packs of stuff that absorbs moisture to counteract the humidity.

I use white pepper in foods that have little color as it is esthetically prettier. I know many people say that pepper is pepper and there is little variation in flavor. However, I notice differences in the various types and in some cases it is very noticeable to me. The pepper does have to be fresh and ground just prior to use. I have purchased a significant amount of pepper from Pepper-Passion.com and have been very pleased with the quality of products. I gave my son in law the Omni pack for Christmas as he is an avid pepper consumer and another person who can detect the different "flavors" of the varietals.

Oat bran combines nicely with apples or applesauce and can be substituted for part of the flour in all quick breads: banana, pumpkin, date, apple/cranberry and etc. You do have to add a bit of extra liquid - I usually figure 1/4 cup of liquid per cup of oat bran but it can be an egg or equivalent. I'm not at home at present so do not have access to all of the recipes on my home computer but there are many recipes on the internet. I second the vote for Peter Reinhart's oat bran bread. I've used this basic mix many times - I store it in the fridge. Oat bran baking mix.

You can do it easily in one of the cornbread, "scone" or "mini-scone" bakers that are divided into triangle shape sections. Simply line with the plastic wrap and proceed as usual. Mini-scone pan by Nordicware

An old trick for keeping the white from feathering out is to briefly dip the unbroken egg in very hot water - not boiling - before breaking the egg into the poaching liquid. Back when I was doing some catering, I used the poachers similar to #s 5 and 6 on this page: egg poachers mine are very old and there are four fastened together with a center lifting shaft. I used one or two electric roasters to cook the eggs and held them at serving temp in a large electric chafer. poached eggs can be transfered to and held in cold water (or even in milk, which was a technique I was taught when I took a class from a French chef back in the early '70s) in the fridge for 2-3 days. There is some very good information on the following page: poached egg info A check on ebay turned up this and I have seen the full size ones for a steam table at a restaurant supply steam table poacher by Volrath: Steam table egg poacher

I50 is a lot of eggs. I have cooked 48 individual eggs in coddlers (the ring on the lids of the coddlers were "strung" on metal rods. I have tried muffin tins - nonstick - using a pat of butter and 1/4 cup of water added after the egg - to cook eggs in the oven (also a similar application with the larger muffin tins with the eggs on a layer of corned beef hash). However there are now tins that are a lovely half round that should be perfect for eggs - I have been intending to buy some but not yet gotten around to it. like these half ball pan

A collection of cheeses. A collection of teas. (Like coals to Newcastle!) A selection of Stonewall Kitchen jams and jellies. (Ditto Newcastle) gift cards for Williams-Sonoma. gift cards for Sur-La-Table. a gift card for Chef's Catalog.com. gift cards for Amazon.com. a box of Aplets and Cotlets (more coals to Newcastle!) An ultrasonic jewelry cleaner (which can be used to clean some little kitchen gadgets) A set of 2 collapsable cutting boards A set of 5 pairs of Wusthof scissors. and a pajamagram - sent by someone who is not so good at estimating size, I would have to lose about 70 to 80 pounds to fit into them - with sort of a "cooking" theme, printed all over with chile peppers! However this is also the person who gave me a bottle of Glenfiddich a few years ago and they had been told many, many times that I am allergic to alcohol. The bottle remains unopened along with many others.

The one piece lids work just fine. However, you have to be sure and carefully clean the top edge of the jar - it must be absolutely free of any of the jar contents and any oily residue (even from your hands) or the seal may fail. I have used them successfully and with stuff that contains a lot of liquid, such as pickles, after they are completely cool, I place them upside-down on a large tray or sheet pan and leave them undisturbed for several days. I have found that this insures that if there is any inherent problem in the seal, it will fail at this time and save me problems later. Easier to clean up from the tray or pan than cleaning several shelves and the floor.

I always add eggs to dressing because my great-grandmother and my grandmother did (to be totally truthful their cooks did it but it was to the specifications laid down by my g-grandmother). I have had perfectly delicious stuffing without eggs, although with some broth or similar stuff to moisten it.

I am sure that people get tired of having me constantly tout Republic of Tea but they have a foolproof solution for people who want to add a little or a lot of spicy stuff to tea. Their product Cardamon Cinnamon "Warm the Heart Herb Tea" actually contains no "tea" but is, "A blend of cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pink peppercorns, and star anise." Naturally Caffeine-free One can mix this blend of spices with black, oolong or green teas, or mix with Rooibos with or without the regular teas, depending on how much caffeine one wishes to consume. It is true that one can buy "Masala Chai" spice mixes, however these often contain ground or powdered spices which I am not convinced always retain their flavors. I have purchased some that are so bland that they are hardly worth using. One major advantage of the RoT product is that it is packaged in teabags as well as loose so it is very easy to use for people who use mostly tea bags. Unlike some tea "purists" I have no objection to tea bags, they come in handy and today there are some excellent (and high-end) teas packaged this way. Use what works for you, not what you think you should use and never be apologetic for using tea bags if that is what you like no matter what other people might say. I write this because earlier this morning I overheard (shamelessly snooping) while one woman took another to task in Trader Joe's for buying a couple of boxes of teabags, the implication being that it was not socially acceptable to serve tea made with teabags to party guests. Naturally, being the pushy type I am, I caught up with the discouraged customer and reassured her that there was nothing wrong with using teabags. (She went back and picked up the two boxes and checked out with them.) I can't stand self-appointed "experts" like that ill-mannered woman.

It's a great idea. I am doing it as we speak, so to speak. And it is going well. Andie's recipe is available on Melindalee's websiteMelindaLee's recipes (I haven't a clue if I have entered the information above correctly. It's my first attempt) ← It is much easier to candy dried fruits than it is to have a good result with fresh fruits. I recommend that you steam the dried fruits just enough to slightly "plump" them as the candying process will go much faster. With most dried fruits, if not previously partially rehydrated (plumped), they will take up moisture out of the liquid syrup first and you will find the syrup is much thicker than it should be. If partially rehydrated, the cells in the fruits are somewhat opened up (technical term absent from my memory) and more able to absorb the sugars in the syrup. Candying whole fresh fruits is extremely time consuming and very tricky and it is easy to have something go wrong and not at all easy to figure out why. My best efforts have been with the tiny Seckle or Forelle pears, starting when they are still rock hard, also with the little rose-fleshed crabapples and even these take a minimum of three weeks and a lot of sugar because one needs to change the syrups or end up with a discolored end product.

Just looked up the Rotato peeler online. - can you get one in a store or just online? We don't have enough time left here to order one. - does it really conform to the changing shape of the fruit or vegetable. DH is extremely skeptical about this. And the literature is a tad vague about this point. - does it really peel a pear? Thanks. ← Don't buy one at the regular retail price. If you can find one at a yard sale or similar venue, for cheap, then go for it. Mine was a gift to me by a friend who knows I collect odd stuff. I doubt I would have bought it myself but I have found it is fun to play with. It does NOT peel everything and one needs to be patient (and have a great sense of the ridiculous) to use it but it works after a fashion. It will peel a pear but the fruit has to be quite firm (nowhere near ripe) and it does a better job on the Comice and similar pears that actually do not have the classic pear shape. I have not really used it for actual peeling to get rid of the peel as one would peel a potato, etc. I can peel a potato, using my paring knife, faster and easier than this gadget. Ditto most other fruit. I have one of the hand-cranked "Shaker" apple peeler/slicer/corer thingys that I use when I have to process a bunch of apples and it works as advertised. These things have been around for more than a hundred years simply because they work as designed. I wish the same could be said of the Rotato but eventually someone will get it right. (And I will probably get that version too because I have a lot of friends who seem to delight in finding the oddest things to add to my "collections" and other junk. It's a good thing I have a lot of room ) (I already know that I am getting some "flameless" candles for Christmas as a friend's 10-year-old granddaughter let the cat out of the bag. _ I don't use candles in my home because I am allergic to something in the wick material but my friend apparently thinks I "need" candles.) Over the many years that I have been making the various things that most folks no longer prepare at home, such as the candied peel, ginger, glacé fruits and etc., I have tried almost every process imaginable to get peel off citrus, and so on. The method I use, and photographed, was shown to be by a lovely, elderly lady who was my neighbor some forty years ago. I ran into her at the Italian market we both frequented and complained about the amount of time it was taking me to peel oranges to make the candied peel. She insisted that I report to her home at once so she could show me the "trick." It was like magic! And I have passed the knowledge on to anyone who was interested.

Hi Ginger Lady I guess what I am saying, and not very clearly, is that IF the peel looks done, translucent and tasting the way it should, then the fact that it is very LIMP for a while is not a consideration. I get edgy that maybe it'll just stay limp and end up both dry and limp. I take it that this is an impossibility. I used tangerine peel this time...almost no pith. Thanks ps. I have a batch of apricots in the crockpot. ← If it is allowed to dry until just barely tacky on the surface (so the sugar will stick) it should be flexible but not really limp. I don't think I have ever had a problem with limp peel. Even the fine strings of stuff I candy will eventually get to point that it will hold its shape. I have experimented with orange peel cut off using a Rotato (lemon too). I had to hang it on my pasta rack to get it to dry in long "ringlets" and hold its shape. I haven't done it again because it was sort of pointless. It looked good as decoration on a cake but was not all that handy for eating as a confection. Also, once it is dipped in chocolate and the coating sets, that should take care of any excessive flexibility.

I usually go by the appearance of the peel. When the part that was initially white has become completely translucent, that is, no longer opaque, it is done. Try drying the peel in a very low oven - convection works even better, or with a fan blowing on the peel. When visiting someone who doesn't have the equipment I have in my kitchen, I went to Wal-Mart and bought an inexpensive hair dryer that has a wire stand to hold it in place and used that to speed up the drying time of the peel we made in her kitchen. It came in handy for speeding up the drying time of some cookie icing too.

I won't put my good china in the microwave even though it doesn't have gold, it is more than a century old and I am taking no chances.

Peel 1 large orange and 1 large lemon, using a vegetable peeler and taking only the colored part. To the strips of peel add 1 tablespoon of whole cloves 1 cinnamon stick a few star anise, if you have them, crush to break them up 1 tablespoon of green or white cardamom - crush them a bit 1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries Tie this mixture in a muslin square (or a piece of cotton from an old sheet or old dish towel) Simmer in about a quart of water for about 30 minutes. Brew black tea as you would normally for a fairly strong tea and mix equal parts tea and spiced brew, sweeten to taste. If you have an old coffee percolator (stovetop or electric), you can put the peel and spices in the basket, water in the bottom and let the percolator do the work - and you can even toss in a couple of tea bags and brew it all together. Sixty years ago this appeared as "Russian Holiday Tea" in the Ladies Home Journal except they did not include the cardamom or star anise. However, I should confess that I have recently received an order from Adagio that included several of their special holiday blends, including Allspice Chai overload, Yuletide and etc.

I have two dedicated plate warmers. They started out in life as king-size heating pads but have never been used for anything except warming plates, bowls and etc. They use little energy and when sort of woven back and forth between items, each will keep a stack of 12 plates nicely warm on the lowest setting.

I have combined green teas with chicken broth but my favorite is the Lapsang Souchong with beef broth and a couple of times I have made stock from oxtail and combined the strained broth with the smoky tea - it may seem a bit odd but I like it. I also use it in soups with beans and rice and I have some vegetarian friends who use it in similar dishes.

While I now have a lot of kitchen space, at one time I lived in a house with not a lot of wall space and not a high ceiling - I had two parallel pot bars, with a metal grid wired onto the top of them which held lids while the pots and pans hung from hooks. I had a little two-step folding stepstool to reach the lids. Because of the way the lights in the ceiling were placed, the pot bars ran diagonally and I think they were 6 feet long. They were mounted to the ceiling rafters with huge eyebolts that would hold a lot of weight as most of my things were copper and cast iron.