andiesenji

If you have cable, don't forget to tune in to HGTV this evening. Right now on the east coast. Brand new state of the art stuff for kitchens. Special shows on kitchen stuff all this week, ending next Monday.

That big Peterson oven put out a lot of heat, even with all the insulation. Note in the upper right hand corner of the pic, the window is open also. I had sweat pants and a sweat shirt that I pulled on when I went out of the oven room into the main part of the bakery but working the oven, loading and unloading the racks of loaf pans, was very hot work, especially if I had both doors open working my way down the tray. This was the "regular" white bread, 1 1/2 pound loaves and we baked an average of 300 loaves during the winter months on weekdays, 500 and more during the tourist season in summer when we supplied all the lake resorts within a 30 mile radius. That doesn't include the French, Italian, various types of whole wheat, rye and pumpernickle. I worked from 7 pm to 7 am with a major break at midnight when the main batch was in the proofing room. We scaled every loaf by hand! However we did a a 10 ft. dough rol sheeter that really speeded up the shaping and loading the dough in the pans.

I'll second that. It makes me want to break out the ingredients and start cooking right now, even though I am full of pork, beef and chicken from the Superbowl chowdown at my neighbors.

I know the problem, it has happened to me several times and is annoying. However, I can't help much. My shortbreads always spread like crazy which is why I bake them in a pan or a shortbread baking mold. When I did find a recipe that retained its shape during baking, I didn't like the mouthfeel - it had a "floury" texture, not the melt in the mouth that I like. For shapes, I bake the shortbread in a sheet pan and use cutters to cut shapes as soon as it comes out of the oven, then let it cool a bit. When firm I transfer the cut shapes to a wire rack to cool completely. Doing it this way I have some waste scraps, but as I grind that up for pie crusts, I don't worry about it.

If you have a deep round crockpot, you can also do it overnight in it. You can fit 3 or 4 cans in the bottom of the crockpot - might as well make extras while you are at it. Put the cans in the crockpot and fill it with water. Put the lid on and turn it to high for 1 hour - by this time it should be simmering - if not give it another half hour on high. Then turn it to low and leave it for 6 - 8 hours. Check now and then to make sure the water level is still high. Turn it off and allow to cool completely. open one of the cans and if it is dark and thick enough just mark the other cans so you know they have been processed - refrigerate the stuff that has been opened. If you want it darker, process for an additional period of time and note the total time at a simmer so you can do it that way next time. My biggest crockpot, 6 quart, holds 8 cans.

Made from scratch. The batch makes 4 good-sized loaves. I usually divide it into loaf portions and freeze them after the first rise. The dough keeps well in the freezer for about a month.

I don't understand what these people are trying to be. If they are supposed to be preparing meals for patrons, why aren't they shopping for the ingredients they need for the dishes they are going to prepare. It is ridiculous to ask someone to prepare a particular dish when none of the available ingredients are correct for that dish. I happened to have it on last night because I didn't want the miss the beginning of the following show. From what I saw, none of these people really know the basics of cooking for a family, much less cooking for patrons. And no one monitored the dining room to see if the guests needed anything. A huge mistake, in my opinion. As far as I could see, a couple of the people were more concerned with how the table was set, (one polishing fingerprints off of a plate with a cloth) than with the food that went onto it. And the same one looked like she had wandered in from the gym instead of being dressed as a professional. This was supposed to be a B & B and they were serving brunch. I wouldn't stay in a place where the owner or server was dressed like that.

As a side note regarding bamboo chopsticks that "warp" ..... Bamboo can be reshaped or straightened if gentle heat is applied to the area where it is bent, over a hot plate is easiest but you can also use the steam from the spout of a teakettle, revolving the chopstick so it is evenly heated and keep trying to straighten the curve until it gives, then put it flat on a counter and put a weight on it until it cools. My gardener bends bamboo, even the big ones, by heating it and when it gets to the point where it is pliable (almost like plastic), bending it around a metal stake or post to the point he wants. This gave me the idea of reshaping my bamboo chopsticks and when I tired it, it worked!

There are several web sites that include the directions for simmering the unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk in a lot of water. That means you have to use a deep pot and put the can on a wire grid to hold it off the bottom of the pot and the can has to be covered by three times its depth by water, and it should be allowed to cool in the water, otherwise you can have an exploding can - the pressure in the can will cause it to split along a seam. I have seen this happen even in a pan of water but that contains the mess. I have many recipes for dulce de leche, including one that uses half and half cows and goats milk and is very, very good, and is cooked in a crockpot with none of the inherent problems of stovetop cooking. It is delicious and you would never guess it had goat milk in it. I posted the recipe on another thread last year, sometime before the SoCal potluck.

Having worked as a personal chef for people with some really odd taste, nothing much fazes me now. One of my Brit clients put Branston pickle on everything and would come back from the UK with a suitcase full of Daddy's sauce and other such items. I worked for a Spaniard who put olive relish (not tapenade) on things that seemed to me like very strange combinations. I will serve the food the way it is supposed to be and if they ask for a condiment I suggest that they try it first au naturale and then add their stuff afterward. I do not put salt and pepper shakers on my dining table. I have pepper and salt grinders on the sideboard in case someone insists on them. I would get testy about someone wanting what I consider to be an inferior product on one of my desserts (note the Cool-Whip, in the potluck etc. thread). However most of the time people consume my food the way it is served. I make a lot of condiments myself and set them out with foods for which they are intended. However I am not above learning something new, if someone has a suggestion for an additive and when I try it myself I find that it does indeed complement the dish.

Before I went to bed last night I took a batch of cinnamon/walnut bread out of the freezer. Early this morning I knocked it down, shaped it and popped it into a (slightly too small) pan allowed it to rise again and popped it into the Sharp convection oven (it revolves as it is also a microwave). Here it is in the oven: just out of the oven, still in the pan: Now out of the pan so it can cool: Sliced and ready to eat - we are going to toast it lightly. Doesn't that look good? You should smell the aroma!

Lovely. If I hadn't already planned something a bit different, I would be scrambling now.

Back in the 50s, when I worked in my mom's bakery, we had steel sheet pans (dark, almost black) that had corner to corner ribs welded onto the bottoms, which kept the pans absolutely flat and also held them off the oven shelves by about 1/2 inch, maybe less. (We had a Peterson revolving 16 shelf oven (like a Ferris wheel) and the shelves were solid, not grids. Those things got banged around were washed and put in the (cooling) oven to dry and were greased and stacked ready for the next round of baking. When and why did they stop making those great sheet pans? was it because aluminum is so much cheaper or lighter (those steel pans were heavy) but also deformed easily and often become unusable after only a short time of use. In the bakery, me in foreground, mom back by the oven. This was taken in midwinter, in Wisconsin, so you can guess how warm it was in that room. I was in the middle of banging out the first batch of bread and was interrupted by mom needing to take something else from the oven.

In case anybody is interested. There are several Descoware large Dutch ovens on ebay and so far they are at pretty reasonable prices. I have a bunch of nearly 40-year-old Descoware which is still in excellent condition - before Le Cruset was readily available here in the US, this Belgium product sold well. There is even a lidded braising pan in the autum leaf design available. Descoware on ebay. I posted this also on the brasin thread.

Absolutely gorgeous, Marlene. Your husband is a very wise man to give you the tools with which to prepare a superior meal. It does make life a little easier to have the right stuff. One can get by with makeshift methods but when you have the perfect cooking vessel things just fall into place beautifully. Anyway, that is my philosophy.

Most Chinese eating chopsticks are longer than the Japanese eating chopsticks. This guy has a very large collection. Eric chopsticks. I use either kind. The cooking ones often get warped from steam, etc., so I buy 6 pair at a time and toss them when they become unusable, they are so cheap, it is easier than trying to use ones that don't fit.

What she used was actually very rich milk, mixed with cream from the Jersey cows on the farm. The little pitcher with the "milk" was warmed in a water bath before being brought in on the tea tray. I don't believe she would have done anything considered rude or low class. She was presented at court when she was 17 just a few weeks prior to Prince Albert's death and was sitting for her portrait (Francis Grant) when Albert passed away and that was put on hold because of the national mourning period when such things were considered gauche with the Queen in mourning. I asked my aunt (age 99) and she says that many customs changed during and immediately after WWI. She was born in 1905 in England and certainly recalls that most of the family used cream or milk and it might have been put in the cup first or last, depending on the wishes of the person being served. She remembers it becoming a social note during the suffragette era.

I grew up on grits. My dad's family called them grits, however in my grandfather's home, where I was born and raised (mother's side) they were called hominy because the cook was from the Carolina lowcountry where the meal was called grist (never grits) and the cooked stuff was called hominy, something peculiar to Charleston and surrounds. As I visited back and forth, I was sometimes a bit confused when I was very young, but finally learned that grits and hominy were one and the same on the breakfast table. Hominy as a vegetable was something else.

I was given one for my birthday last year and have never used it, too stiff and uncomfortable for my hands (arthritis). I have been using the English made Coolskins gloves, have all three lengths, for several years. They are much better made (and longer) than the "Ove gloves" and are sold as a pair instead of individually. If I am going to handle something that is wet or steamy, I simply put on a rubber household glove first then the Coolskins and have had no problems. They are flexible and make it easy to grasp knobs, loop handles and narrow handles, something that is impossible with the Orka. They make little fingerip Orkas, but I don't trust those either, my fingers do not have a lot of gripping power.

It began last night with this: Grits, white and yellow, freshly ground, stirred into boiling water. at 20 minutes they have absorbed a lot of water: at 40 minutes they are done: Poured into a loaf pan to cool overnight: This morning, sliced, lightly dredged with flour and into browned butter on the griddle: nearly done: Finished, ready to plate and eat with eggs, bacon and/or sausage and maple syrup or ?? Very tasty! My housekeeper, originally from Hungary, had never heard of grits but has taken to them with great enthusiasm. Indeed, she has sent some home to her mother and brothers with explicit instructions on how they are to be stored (freezer) and cooked. Often I place the freshly made grits in a small gratin dish, make a hollow in the middle and add a couple of poached eggs topped with shredded ham. This is her favorite but the fried comes in a very close second.

If you do go for the Russell Hobbs, make sure you don't get this one.

I would suggest that you visit Acanthus Books and look through the reprints they have available, especially the Tudor - Elizabethan - 16th century selections which are fairly extensive. It is a great resource for anyone delving into the past of cookery.

Check out the new General Electric Cordless electric kettle. It is a beauty and at Wal-mart it is less than $30.00. I saw it a couple of days ago and need another teakettle like I need a hole in my head, since I have an automatic hot water dispenser at my sink, but I came close to buying one of these.

I found some lovely moro oranges (blood oranges) at the middle eastern market today so made this with boneless chicken breasts (skins on). I used enough oil (grapeseed in this case) to cover the bottom of the pot, sauteed some garlic in the oil then lightly browned the chicken pieces, removed them and set aside. I then added 1/2 a cup of chopped onion, seasonings, I used a pepper medley, salt, herbes de Provence and some chipotle pepper flakes. I cooked them in the oil until the onion was beginning to brown. I then added the juice of 4 (very small) moros. Then returned the chicken to the pot, covered it and put it in a low oven 275 F, for 3 hours. It is moist and tender, great flavor served with couscous.

Recipezaar has several main dish chocolate recipes. that might give you some ideas. I have often added a pinch of unsweetened cocoa to the marinade for sauerbrauten to give it a greater depth of flavor.