andiesenji

Traeger BBQ pits have a good reputation on the competition circuit although they are looked down on by some traditional "stick burners". I'm guessing you would need a rather custom installation with auger feed, induction fan, and burn chamber. Even so, you may not be able to produce a high enough temperature. Shipping charges for pellets are another issue. The the more readily available ones designed for heating stoves are not rated food grade. The Energex pellets sound fine if they are locally available. Jim ← I was replying to the comment that firewood is not easy to come by in some areas, Nebraska was mentioned. Sometime last year I went with friends to a restaurant somewhere on the way to San Diego and we had to park in back of the building. I noticed three pallets of the wood pellets outside the back door of the restaurant. It may have been in Carlsbad, but I don't recall exactly. Since I wasn't driving, (was talking to others in the motorhome and not paying any attention to where we were.) It was one of those places where the cooking was done in a glassed-in area so the patrons could watch and they had several large grills going and also had pizza which cooked very rapidly. One of the party ordered one of the specialty pizza as an appetizer and it came to the table no more than 10-12 minutes after the server went off with the order.

No thanks! And I am pretty sure that my friends would never think of drinking from a bottle. They are the types that have to have a special glass for every type of wine. God forbid they should every have to drink a red wine from a glass designed for white! Bottle drinking would be totally anathema. These are some good wines too, nothing cheap. In the last box they brought was a third of a bottle of 2001 Cotes du Rhone Rubis - they bought a case at a charity auction. They killed two bottles at a dinner party and couldn't quite finish the third so it came to me. The aroma was wonderful, wish I could taste.

With cilantro, I have noticed that often it has to be in conjunction with something that it complements. I think that too many chefs went overboard in throwing cilantro into everything, often combining it with foods that fought back, so to speak. I have been eating it for so many years that i can't even recall the first time I had it and it wasn't called cilantro, but fresh coriander. Not too long ago I prepared carnitas tacos that had the salsa, a pico de gallo containing tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro, already mixed into the meat. One of my guests commented on how good it was and commented that he really liked the "parsley" - - - I told him that it was cilantro and he said, "But I don't like cilantro, this doesn't taste like cilantro!" It was cilantro and tasted like cilantro by itself, but when combined with the fatty carnitas, it is not at all the same as eating it on its own.

You can go to any health food store and find vinegar that is unfiltered and containing the mother. All you have to do is shake it up, to break up the mother somewhat and pour some of it into a larger (dark) bottle, add your wine loosely cover it, so there can be some air exchange but stuff can't fall into the bottle (I use a 6 inch square of cloth and a rubberband) and put it in a dark, cool place. Leave it alone for a couple of months, then begin tasting a bit from time to time. When it has the taste you like, carefully decant some into another bottle for use, being careful to keep the mother in the orignal bottle and add more wine to it so the process continues. I have several going at the same time. Red and rosé as well as white. I have even had fair success with sherry although it takes much, much longer and you need a high concentration of vinegar and mother to start with and add only a little sherry at a time, otherwise the mother will cease working. I happen not to drink but have a lot of friends that do and they save me their "leftovers" - wines that have been opened and left out too long, champagne that has lost its fizz and etc. Some have begun to turn on their own but are still perfectly fine to add to the vinegar pot. I mostly use magnum size bottles and have one jereboam.

Has anyone considered using pellitized wood in these ovens? This company has successfully used the wood pellets in their barbecues and smokers. The dealer who sells pellitized wood heating/cooking stoves here in Lancaster is a friend and he sells a huge number of the pellet stoves (he has about 20 styles in his store at any one time) and they develop a lot of heat with much less fuel than the traditional wood stove. He sells only the Energex wood pellets as there are no additives. It seems to me that the pellets could be used to do the primary heating of the oven, then the residue raked out and regular wood added late in the heating time, perhaps burning in a different area of the oven, left in the oven to maintain the temperature.

May I direct you to this article on yeasted waffles.

Technically, the stuff that is marketed in the US as "chai" would be called Masala Chai in India. Masala is a combination of spices that are mixed with the tea, which is stewed in milk, not brewed in water then mixed with milk. Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for massala chai is the one I have used for many, many years, long before one ever saw "chai" in a store. There are several recipes for the beverage on this page. The top 40 Indian recipes accessed on RecipeZaar include, at #11, a recipe for masala chai. Indian recipes at RecipeZar

I don't know when the idea that milk in first was lower class evolved, but it certainly wasn't during Victorian times. My great grandmother was as aristocratic as any English gentlewoman of the Victorian era and she had her heated milk in a special little pitcher and it always went into the cups first and then the tea was added, then one added their own sugar. I always thought it was to prevent heat shock from the eggshell-thin porcelain cups because sometimes the men would drink their tea without milk and they had their own cups which were larger and thicker. Of course this was at breakfast or early morning. Afternoon tea was always served in the fine china cups and with milk because my great grandmother "poured" and everyone was served the same.

I use a Pyrex container that is much larger than the volume of liquid (usually the 2 quart size but occasionally use a 6 quart "Visions" Dutch oven) - I set the power level to 40% and depending on the amount of liquid set the time from 5 to 15 minutes as a general rule. I don't open the door or move the container for several minutes after the cycle ends, in fact, I generally just leave it alone while I am doing other things. I check it and if it needs more reduction I set it again at the lower power, etc. Sometimes it takes several cycles to get the liquid where I want it. However this way I don't have to hang over the stove. You can see photos of apricot jam processed in the microwave on this thread. Post # 22 is the one.

I have a large microwave oven, a small microwave oven and a combination convection/microwave oven and I use all of them all the time. All of the things mentioned above and them some. such as - - I make preserves in the microwave - documented in photos last summer when I was up to my hips in apricots. then there is; making infused syrups with spices, herbs, etc. making the syrup for pickles heating milk and cream as you are sure it won't scorch this way. reducing liquids of all kinds. I would never be without one again.

My neighbor goes to Mexico every other month, he has a ranch in Durango. He has brought back all kinds of things for me, including one of the big copper pots, which resembles a jam pot, it is unlined copper so can't safely be used for cooking many things. However I can get one for about $75.00, sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more, depending on the bargainning. He will be going down there week after next so if you want one let me know and I will figure a way to get it to you so you won't have to pay shipping costs. I will take a picture of the one I have so you can see how big it is. Hey, I already have a picture of it in my public album, with a ruler alongside of it and even with the dog in the way you can guess the size. I have one of the huge enamel pots with a double decker rack inside for cooking large batches of tamale. also the molcajete and one of the bigger flat ones for grinding corn or cacoa beans.

I agree with jongchen. I have a large steel wok that I use occasionally, however I have a separate wok burner, not part of my cooktop. One of my neighbors uses her wok (her kitchen is rather antiquated) on one of the separate propane burners made for the turkey fryers as it was cheaper than getting a new stove or a wok burner for which she had no room in the kitchen. She cranks the burner all the way up and sometimes gets some flameover so she does all this cooking out on her (covered) patio so it is safer. (Also because her husband doesn't like the odor of very hot oil in the house.) If you absolutely must have a wok, I would go with the steel wok because the response time is much faster than cast iron and it is much easier to handle. You should get a high dome lid so you can stack bamboo steamers in it as it works beautifully for that and the heat comes up very fast compared to regular steamers. I actually took a class on wok cookery some 15 + years ago and it opened my eyes to the variety of things that can be prepared in the wok. Recently I have been watching Kylie Kwong on Discovery Home channel and have been inspired to get out the old wok and try some of the things she has done. Last Saturday she did eggs in way that really looked interesting. She also did chicken and lobster combined in a dish that looked fantastic.

When your daughter calls to say "Hi!" and you talk for 20 minutes about what new kitchen stuff you have found, foods you have eaten, where you have eaten, what you are planning on cooking/baking/preserving, etc., before either of you mentions the rest of the family and how THEY are doing.

My first KA was a tilt-head but that was a long time ago when they also had glass bowls that did not have all that much capacity. (I still have it as well as a collection of others with the "streamline" design.) I have had several of the bowl-lift KAs over the years and have one now that I use for general use and smaller batches of batter, etc. Since they are no longer made by Hobart, they do not have the staying power of the older ones. I have used the newer tilt-heads at the homes of clients many times and as others have stated, they are okay, but if someone is going to spend the bucks on a KA they might as well get one with more power if they have the room for it. It does stand taller than the tilt-head and is somewhat heavier. (For heavy duty use and larger batches, bread doughs in particular, I have an Electrolux Assistant which is, IMHO, far superior to the KA but also more expensive.)

I have done a fair amount of butchering - I used to hunt and always had to dress out my own kills, first deer, age 14, however I had been dressing small game from the time I was 10. I can't handle the big stuff any longer, because of arthritis, but up until a couple of years ago I helped several local hunters who didn't have the facilities for skinning or breaking a carcass. (Plus their wives didn't want it anywhere near their homes.) There is something satisfying about it, probably a primal memory.

My housekeeper likes to put EVERYTHING away, even the things I use constantly and prefer to leave out on the counter. I certainly have plenty of space, but she likes a pristine, empty counter and even after many months, although she is getting better, I occasionally have to ask the location of something because when she goes into cleaning mode, it is easier to stay out of her way and retrieve the errant item later.

I don't have a basement but I do have a rather large pantry. For all those odd-shaped Bundt pans in my collection, I put them into the jumbo freezer(2.5 gallon), Hefty bags (bright pink box, best price at Wal-Mart. They have a slide top and are very sturdy. I punch a hole in one corner near the top, below the seal and hang them on hooks, either at one end of one of the shelving units or on the wall. The ones I use seasonally (Christmas) I put up near the ceiling. The others are lower. All of my silicone pans are also in these bags, as well as some of the smaller sheet pans and shaped pans (popover pans, fancy muffin tins, etc.) This way they not only are easy to store, they remain dust-free, something not always easy to achieve in the desert. (I live in Lancaster). With any of the tinned steel ones (I have a lot of really old bakeware) one has to be absolutely certain they are totally dry before being put away in the bags and I have a bunch of the little bags of stuff that absorbs moisture to go in with the ones subject to rusting. The jumbo Hefty freezer bags are even strong enough to hold some of my smaller cast iron pans.

Mine is some kind of pie, tart, cake or ?? made with my homemade lemon curd which I cook up in large batches and can in quart jars. It has a very intense lemon flavor and is quite creamy, mainly because it is made with a lot of egg yolks plus some whole eggs, and I infuse the zest in some of the lemon juice and reduce it for quite a while to intensify the flavor. Usually I will fill a blind-baked pie shell with the curd, then take a cup of heavy cream, whip it until it is quite stiff, then beat in a cup of the curd and pipe that on the top instead of meringue. It holds quite well in the refrigerator. Alternatively, I bake a lemon pound cake in a very long loaf pan (16 inch) cut it into thin layers (3 or 4), use the lemon curd as a filling between the layers and with a thin layer on top, then cover the whole thing with the whipped mixture. This one serves a lot of people - it is tricky to get the slices on a plate attractively. However I have found that if I cut the slice, then use two of the angel-food cake "cutters", I can pick up the slice and transfer it to a plate perfectly. (I have several of these and use them for a lot of tasks such as this. No one seems to think of them nowadays, but at one time there was one or more in every kitchen.)

Another meal I love, fairly economical, is made with bratwurst but any fresh sausage will do. Figuring one sausage per person as a general rule. I slice the sausage into rounds or diagonals about 1/4 inch thick, then cook them in a skilled until lightly browned, I then add two or three cups of chopped apples, a little water or apple juice or even cider, cover and allow to cook for about 8-10 minutes until the apples have cooked down a bit. I then add cooked rice, figuring about 1/2 cup per person - you can also use steamed couscous. Serve with chutney or relish. It makes a few sausages go a long way and apples and sausage have a great affinity for each other - the rice fills up the far corners -

You definitely know you are when you run into one of the people who works at one of the "ethnic" markets in town and they greet you by name.

Thanks! I am familar with those. I knock those off the wall when I sneeze. ← You can fasten it to the wall with L-hooks at the bottom - you can fix them so that you just have to turn them a quarter turn to lift it off the screws at the top. Or use mirror mounts, which is what I used with my wood one. Those have little springs in them to keep even pressure on the mirror and not break it. They work fine for anything of a similar thickness - and they are flat and don't collect dirt and stuff doesn't get caught on them.

Sage is an interesting herb and many varieties can be used for culinary applications. I grow several varieties, including one with a very large leaf that can be used to wrap things which are then deep fried which lessens the sage flavor but leaves just enough to complement the filling. I add a little sage to hushpuppies, which is a non-traditional use, but certainly adds something to the flavor. It is very easy to grow in pots and tolerates a wide range of temperatures. It loves the desert here and some varieties seed themselves all over the place. Sage is one of the herbs that actually is stronger when dried than when fresh. As the leaves dry, the essential oils, in little cells on the undersides of the leaves and quite visible to the naked eye, concentrate and become much stronger. Blanching the fresh leaves arrests the development of this process if you want to keep the flavor mild by using fresh sage. Berggarten is an excellent culinary variety and almost impossible to kill and doesn't go to seed, has fairly large leaves. I have several huge patches of it and have the gardener chop it back to the gound in the late fall and by May it is already 2 feet tall and fills the planter from side to side. The tri-color and bi-color varieties can be used for culinary purposes. Pineapple sage, which is often sold as an ornamental because of its striking flowers which attract hummingbirds, butterflies, etc., also has culinary uses. The fresh leaves, when crushed, have a pronounced pineapple scent and flavor and can be used in fruit and green and even vegetable salads, cut into chiffonade. It is not as hardy as the other sages but can be potted up and moved inside during the winter. It is a great plant for xeriscaping because it needs very little water. I also have a native California sage, Cleveland sage, which, while more of a large bush than most sages, can also be substituted for common sage in cooking. It has spectacular flower spikes which are wonderful after blooming, in dried flower arrangements. It is also very hardy. I have to have the gardeners cut it back severely, otherwise it would take over the entire garden. I use sage in tea (Republic of Tea markets the very popular Blackberry Sage Tea, a mixture of black tea, sage leaves and dried blackberries.) Sage is an aid to digestion, particularly in meals that include lots of fats, hence its inclusion in sausages. Sage, various uses. different sages. Native Americans use sage as one of their cleansing herbs, forming it into a smudge bundle with other herbs and "bathing" in the smoke. It is said to impart wisdom. Some people think they do not like sage because the only experience they have is with the stuff in stores which is often old and has off flavors. The fresh herb is very different and just a hint in baked goods is very attractive. I even add a tiny bit to crepes, sweet or savory, and just that tiny hint of flavor is just wonderful. One interesting sidelight. Try crushing fresh sage, holding it in your cupped hands and inhale the scent and hold it for for a moment. You will immediately begin to salivate, I have used this "trick" with quite a few people who are always amazed that something so simple can have a physical effect that is immediate and obvious. This is possibly one of the reasons that it contributes to good digestion. One of the women in my office has had gall bladder surgery and has difficulty with fatty foods. She makes tea with ginger and sage to drink with any meal that might contain more fat than she can usually tolerate.

So far, the only instructions available are entirely in French. My source told me that he understood that they are trying to get an English translation printed. He said the thing connects to the mixer the same as all KA attachments. They do state that candymaking experience is needed. He thought they might be willing to put people looking to buy the attachment in touch with people who are using it successfully.

I watched the show last night and I thought Flay's plating was too "frou-frou" for the theme based on buffalo. There is a point where one too many sauces can needlessly complicate a presentation and that was the impression I got. If you have a good sauce that can stand on its own there is no reason to add a second or, even worse, a third to confuse the tastebuds. I thought Baylis' were simple, elegant and appropriate for the theme ingredient. However, not being able to taste does make a difference.

There have been times in my life when things were tough and I had to get by on very little. I can remember going to the Italian market and buying the broken pasta they scooped out of the bulk bins before putting in the new batches. It was all kinds of pasta mixed together and they sold it for 10 cents a pound and I would buy as much as I could easily carry. I would go to the markets early in the morning and buy the dented cans from the basket they had parked near one of the checkout stands. If I bought meat at all it was always in the "past the sell-by date" section. The same with cheese. I also used to go to the old Carnation dairy plant on Van Nuys Blvd., and buy the big plastic bags of "clean-out" cottage cheese which was the stuff between runs of different types so one might get cottage cheese with chives mixed with the pineapple stuff, the regular and large curd. (That was before the days of "low-fat" stuff. They sold it in 10 pound buckets for $1.50, for "dog food". Hey, it may have tasted a little odd at times but it was fresher than anything in the markets. I don't have to scrimp now, but I still could if I needed to.