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I doubt that this is going to happen. The consequences of enforcing this will affect several million California citizens, in comparision to a few thousand sport fishermen. There are already wiers in place to keep anything larger than fry from being caught in the pumps, and oddly enough, fry survive their trips through the pumps and down the California aqueduct, which had numerous fishing sites along the way and some respectable-sized fish are taken from it every year. Such as this beauty! It appears the suit was brought and apparently progressed with less-than-adequate information or possibly with the deliberate witholding of information that would counter the argument. The governer has filed an appeal and hopefully more complete documentation will be presentedd, according to some people who actually live in the delta area (and operate a large houseboat rental business). The fact that the suit was filed and heard before an Oakland judge, instead of in Sacramento area, appears suspect because a judge with better personal knowledge of the area would not have been so ready to order this action. There have been far too many of these nuisance suits filed in California, with the action brought in a county or city far from the area involved. here is some more detailed information about who, when and why.

Did you know you can customize your own KA mixer? Hot Rod Flames, get 'em here!

Scallions too? I prepare a peach and mango salsa, with fairly mild roasted peppers, about 1/4 the heat of jalapeños, no tomatoes, but I do add some roasted tomatillo. The only raw onions I use are the very sweet ones or scallions. If I can't find sweet onions, I use shallots (which I always have growing in pots). No cilantro!

Terrific Blog, Mizducky. It has caused me to feel life will not be complete without another trip to San Diego and "environs" - as one used to see on maps and roadside signs.

Most of the waffle iron/sandwich grill appliances made during the '50s and 60s had reversable plates. However some did have different plates. At least one had three sets of plates, one set for pizelle wafers. The reversable plates were thicker and required higher voltage to heat to baking temp in a reasonable time. The less expensive and lower wattage appliances used separate plates which were much thinner and heated more rapidly but they do not have as accurate a temperature control as the more expensive appliances. Top of the line appliances of this type in the mid and later 1950s were Toastmaster, Sunbeam, Westinghouse and GE/Hotpoint. Arvin was a small "intermediate" company that manufactured a consumer waffle/grill that was probably the heaviest and with the best temperature control. They are scarce but I have read of a couple that have been in regular use since the '50s. They were popular with small "mom & pop" cafés and diners. Dominion, Berstead, Super-Electric, Dormeyer, plus other brands, and store brands, (often manufactured by these companies) were the lower end. The top of the line manufacturers during the 1930s and part of the '40s were Manning Bowman, Landers, Frary & Clark, plus those listed above. There were no small electric appliances (requiring metal) manufactured from 1942 to 1945 because of the War Production Board Order I.-41. Silex glass vacuum coffee makers, were the only small appliances produced because they were made mostly of glass which was not controlled. All of the companies that were producing these toasters, waffle irons, etc., re-tooled for war production and made everything from uniform buttons to canteens to tank treads and electrical controls for military use.

Jmahl, That is considered one of the classics. I have both the single slice and the two-slice and they both still work beautifully. I too have had cords replaced. The main thing is to keep them as clean as possible inside and avoid sticking anything down inside the toaster than can damage the core wires or the mica. It was sold as a "Toastmaster" which was the premium appliance line of the Water-Genters division of McGraw Electric. Look at the on pictured at Toaster Central - third pic from the top. I have several Toastmasters as well as Sunbeams and GE Hotpoints and a few others. However, my favorites are these Art Deco styled beauties.

Buy it HERE I have had no problems with it.

The Sunbeam toaster and waffle baker I have are still working just fine, as is the Mixmaster. I inherited all of them from my grandmother. The Coffeemaster vacuum pot is one I purchased in 2004 on ebay, still in its original box, unused. When one considers the hourly rate earned by the average worker in those days, these prices were significant. Inexpensive appliances, made by Bersted, Dominion and others, could be purchased for less than 10.00. Many of these inexpensive appliances were given away by banks, for opening new accounts. They were also given away at drawings in theaters, between features - usually on a weeknight. Television had yet to take a big bite out of theater business.

Give me a price, I'll calculate it in 2007 dollars. ← I don't have a 1950. Is 1947 close enough? This is a Sunbeam price list - the waffle baker and toaster and Coffeemaster are near the bottom.

Well-seasoned cast iron works nicely but it has to be hot, and the fat has to be hot before the batter goes in. (Very similar to how cornbread is baked - if the fat is sizzling when the batter is poured into the pan, one gets the perfect crusty bottom surface.) Even better for the Dutch baby is the single-handle cast iron wok made by Lodge.

I made them many, many years ago but shelved the recipe and forgot it for a couple of decades. Then I read Diane Mott Davidson's mystery, "Killer Pancake" in which she included the recipe. (Along with several others, including the famous "What to do with all the egg yolks, Bread" Since then I have made them periodically with great results. Topped with fruits, raspberries, blueberries, etc. This one made with peaches, can also be made with other fruits - very ripe Comice pears, especially good. The savory ones made to order, with asparagus and shaved ham were one of my favorite dishes at the brunch served at the Ritz-Carlton at Laguna Nigel, back in the mid 80s.

Roger every bit of that: click. Meanwhile, am I the only owner of a vintage Rival Ice-O-Matic ice crusher? This machine is so far superior to the lousy machine in my new refrigerator it's scary. ← Electric or hand-operated?

One of the members of WACEM a Yahoo group - (We Actually Collect Electric Mixers), cleans, refurbishes and repaints mixers, expecially Mixmasters. His name is Jim Dayton. WACEM There are a few other small appliance/mixer specialists around the country and all of them are swamped with work because so many people are collecting them now.

Here are some photos of some of the appliances I consider "classics" and the best of their kind. In my first post I didn't mention the best toaster oven ever - the GE Automatic - which, while smaller than most, pops open automatically when the toasting or baking is done. When GE sold its small appliance division to Black & Decker it was discontinued. Too bad! Sunbeam classics - note the Art Deco design which was on many Sunbeam appliances in addition to the Coffeemaster and the T-20 toaster. and 45 years later, the T-50. The Sunbeam Model 1 (not the first Sunbeam mixer, it is the first 10-speed "MixMaster") Silex vacuum coffee makers ranged in size from 2 cup to 12 cup. The two in this photo are 12 and 6. This one is 4-cup

Vanilla extract makes a great gift. Last fall they had little cobalt blue bottles at Cost Plus World Market that are just the right size. Vanilla paste can be blended into milk, cream, egg custard other liquids. Great for flavoring ice cream, coffee. I know someone who blends it into root beer for a little extra "flavor kick" in a root beer float. I have added very small amounts to fruit salad dressings and also to the dressing I put on Waldorf salad, especially when I add chicken to it.

I have a "few" vintage appliances. The Sunbeam T-20, toaster, with the slots crossways and that lowered the bread automatically and when done, allowed it to gently rise, was a standard from its introduction in the 1940s until the early 90s. Sunbeam, which began as the Chicago Flexible Shaft company (they made sheep-shearing equipment), produced what has been labeled as "The mixer America grew up with" And "The most famous appliance of the 20th century" Certainly Sunbeam outspent every other small appliance manufacturer from the mid-1930s through the 1960s. If you have an early one and want to know what model it is, check here at Sunbeam ID The Sunbeam Coffeemaster - an automatic vacuum coffee maker was the "gold-standard" and they still work very well. The automatic Silex vacuum coffee makers, the Farberware Coffee Robot - a classic vacuum pot were just about as popular but, more fragile. Scroll down about half-way on this page to see early Silex

Here's another project for using those vanilla beans! After sending a flurry of emails last night to one of my friends who makes his own vanilla paste, he finally phoned me this morning, explaining that he can get email on his phone but right now is unable to send. (Connects to the internet via satellite and his link is down- he lives in a remote area.) Anyway, he uses only organic products, no alcohol "spirits" and is a moderate vegetarian. He buys vanilla beans from the same source as Steven and also from other sources but said the quality of the beans from this company is quite good. For the vanilla paste he splits, chops and crushes the beans. He places them in a jar and barely covers them with Xylitol base, a liquid sugar "alcohol" which he says is very good for extracting flavor from the beans. He uses a combination of - 8 Mexican, 4 Bourbon or Madagascar and 2 Tahitian - beans. The combination is because the various types have different flavor components and a blend gives a better overall taste. Information about Xylitol and his supply source is Here! He allows the beans to soak in the liquid for 4-6 weeks. He then puts the beans and the liquid through a food grinder with a very fine die. He says he actually uses a poppy-seed grinder as most food grinders, unless you can find one of the old ones with a nut-butter disk, won't grind finely enough. (This is a hand-cranked device, not electric.) He said do not use a blender - he has tried it and the results are not good, the fibers in the bean husks do not get chopped as fine as with the "mill." He uses a tablespoon or so of hot water to rinse as much of the residue from the mill as possible, and spreads the "slurry" (his word) over the bottom of a Corning ware skillet(he said enamel is okay, do not use bare metal). He places it over very low heat - actually he uses a Salton electric warming tray - and stirs and folds it periodically with a silicone spatula until it has thickened to a paste consistency, i.e., when scraped off the bottom, it should stay in place, not collapse back into a puddle. Commercial pastes include thickeners but he doesn't like to use them, even the "organic" ones. Store tightly sealed in an opaque glass or porcelain jar with the least amount of "head space" - do not store in metal, plastic or in crockery containers. I have not tried this myself, but I intend to do so. I have been the recipient of a 2-oz jar, as a Holiday gift, and I found it excellent. Better than the commercial paste by Nielsen-Massey or Cobra. (I think TJs is made by Nielsen-Massey). I got a sample of another brand that used Tahitian beans but it was too perfumey for my taste. I want to add that made this way, this is halal and can be used by Muslims.

Too much heat causes the alcohol to vaporize, it is extremely difficult to seal a bottle tightly enough to stop all of the alcohol loss. UV light degrades the compounds in vanilla that give it flavor and aroma. Dark brown or blue bottles are best - opaque milk glass has been used also. I happen to like the cobalt blue. The desirable flavor compounds in vanilla are not soluable in water. Casein will bind the compounds, which is why simmering vanilla beans in milk or cream will produce excellent flavor - doesn't happen in water. As I mentioned in my earlier post, glycerine is used to produce flavorings that must be alcohol-free for religious or other reasons. Glycerine is hydrophyllic and mixes so completely with water that it carries the flavors along with it. (If you want to test this, simply rub some glycerine on your fingers. It is very sticky and will feel like it is producing heat with massaging. Lightly spray with water and, like magic, it disappears so completely that you can't feel any residue on your fingers.) Like alcohol and casein, sugars, particularly the more complex ones, are also efficient at extracting flavor. I use a mixture of palm sugar and palm vinegar to make a concentrated spice flavoring using cinnamon, cloves, pepper and ginger.

I upend the bottle in a cup and add a little hot water. I then pick up a crimp-type nut cracker (used for nothing else except opening narrow cap bottles) I have wrapped the jaws with plain old cloth adhesive tape so the sharp teeth will not damage the caps. This old-fashioned gadget works better than anything else I have tried. It works better than pliers for me because I have arthritis in my right hand and this is easier to hold and takes less effort. P.S. I also use this, very gently and with some prepatory work, i.e., warming/soaking the top of the bottle as above, to gently work corks out of bottle in which they have become cemented. This works particularly well with the artificial corks that seem to become glued into bottles that contain liquids with high sugar content.

Ahem! This is yet another example of: "What's Old is New Again!" The first of these appliances appeared in the late 1930s. Scroll down to the Third Item on this page I have two of these, one in copper finish, the other in chrome. One made in 1951, the other in 1954 and they both still work. Combination appliances began way back before the 1920s - popular with people who lived in rented rooms with no kitchens. Some were quite complex, incorporating a coffee perculator, fry pan/egg poacher, baking pan and toaster in a single appliance. Hotpoint sold one in 1918 that is seen in several scenes in at least three of Harold Lloyd's silent films with the cord plugged into the dangling bare-bulb light fixture. Universal Appliance (Landers, Frary and Clark of New Britain, Conn.) made several "Portable Table Ranges" a round 1920 model states it broils, frys, toasts, bakes or roasts. Later they produced a "stacked" - "Multi Breakfast Cooker. In 1938 Universal's Electric Oven Roaster, with multiple internal containers, stated it could roast, bake and stew, cooking an entire meal in one appliance. It sold for 26.70 which was a lot of money in 1938. Note the Perc-O-Toaster Toaster Gallery

You can make your own - by the hundreds if you wish - the thick padded, waffle-cut shelf "liner" which you can buy in a large roll at CostCo or Sam's Club - other places too. Makes a much better jar "grabber" and if it gets soiled you can throw it away, guilt-free. in fact the name on the roll I have is "Magic Cover Grip"

I refuse to reply on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me!

Note! (Everclear either 151 proof or the 95%=190 proof, contains no sugar. When it is actively extracting the flavor and aroma components from vanilla, spices or nuts, it is going to smell rather like paint thinner and would probably remove paint. NEVER, EVER WORK WITH THIS CLOSE TO A GAS STOVE OR ANYWHERE WITH AN OPEN FLAME OR SPARK SOURCE. IT VAPORIZES EASILY AT ROOM TEMP., AND THE VAPORS ARE EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE!) I don't know if anyone has posted this link yet: most vanilla extract contains - Age is best, sugar can help . And another site mentions what to do with those "excess" vanilla beans - besides making extract. Vanilla ideas. See Serving Suggestions! One caveat: I had problems with adding my extremely aged homemade extract to beaten egg whites unless I first added it to cooked sugar syrup. The stuff developed an oily component and dropped straight into a bowl of beaten egg whites, carved a widening tunnel right to the bottom of the bowl and within several seconds, had caused the bottom layer of bubbles to collapse into a puddle.

I have a food storage vacuum machine and I double-bag them and store them in the freezer. I always have one bean in my sugar canister and one in the Splenda canister. I also have two in a jug of simple syrup in the fridge.

It is not easy to answer your question so it will make sense to everyone because some things that are easy for me and take very little time, might be difficult for most people and very time consuming. Pita bread - extremely easy and better than anything you can buy. That recipe and the ones mentioned later in this post are in my recipes My RecipeGullet recipes I use bread machines for mixing and kneading, then shape and bake the loaves, rolls, yeast and sourdough, in the oven. One thing that is practically effortless and saves a significant amount of money is dried mushrooms. If you figure out the cost of the dried ones, even in the large "commercial" containers, they are incredibly expensive. They don't look any different, they are just much, much lighter. When mushrooms are on sale (the fancy ones, wild ones or particularly flavorful ones) I buy them in quantity and dry them. No special equipment is needed, mushrooms will dry all by themselves at room temp if you just allow air to circulate around them. I use wire colanders - I set them on top of my upright freezer because they aren't taking up counter room but at times they have dried on the dining room table (with newspaper underneath), the sideboard, a wire shelf in the laundry room and once, quite by accident, a wire fruit basket full of portobellos was placed "temporarily" on the bottom shelf of a large kitchen cart. A month later, when I moved a large container of pasta, I found them, nicely dried, however there was a layer of spores on the natural wood shelf, which still has a dark brown patch that was dyed by the spores. (note my mention of newspapers above) If you live in a humid climate, turn a fan on to improve air circulation. I make my own candied ginger and I think it is as good as any I have tried. It takes time but most of that is cooking and if one uses a slow cooker or crockpot, it doesn't require much attention. Candied citrus peel - I posted my method of peeling citrus, which makes the process much easier and quicker. It can also be cooked in the microwave. See post # 163 in this thread. Same with dried fruits of all kinds as someone else mention, fruit leathers. I have Excalibur dehydrators but other methods can be just as efficient. (I know an 81-year-old lady who has been drying fruit in her attic for 60 years) one of my neighbors makes big batches of jerky in an aluminum shed, purchased just for that purpose (roof painted matte black). In 100 degree desert heat, jerky happens in two days. Yogurt - there is even a yogurt maker that uses the milk container itself. (Salton)