andiesenji

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.

Regarding the evaporation of water from a container with an immersion heat source, you can simply take the cover to a metal shop and have a section cut out of the edge of the cover to accomodate the immersion unit and then get a silicone edge seal (made in various sizes for applications in both extreme heat and cold) which are good up to 600 degrees and slide that onto the cutaway edge which will effectively cut down the opening to a very small area. The seal will conform to any shape and can be cemented in place with a high temperature sealant. We used to have a physical therapy department as part of our office and had several tanks for west hot packs and for the oversized ones we used a deep steam table pan with an immersion heater and had the cover cut the way I described. The pre-made silicone seals were not available at that time so we simply used the high temperature silicone "putty" that was available at the hardware store. It worked just fine to keep the water from evaporating.

I spent many days hanging out at Sano and Trestles, when I usd to work at the Chart House in Redondo Beach we would get up and surf our heads off get really sunburned and then go work making great food, still covered in sea salt from the ocean. There was actually a room at the restaurant where employees kept the surfboards. Surfer food is stuff that does not need to be eaten with knife and fork and can be consumed while doing a "surf check" of the local breaks. Pedro's Taco's in San Clemente was a must after any long session at Sano. They have fish taco's, tasty beef burrito's with tons of awesome hot sauce....man I could tear those up. Teriyaki is a must as well, after an early morning session in manhattan beach you could head down to the Beach Hut and get a chicken teri plate witth eggs, rice and some grilled Kings hawaiian bread....on man....that was the life..... Its been years since I have had the pure joy of times like that....on my days off, my wife works and I am on kid patrol....getting older, balder, fatter...it sucks! I have made a vow that I will start surfing again this summer when it gets warmer....we will see! ← We used to go to the Redondo Beach Pier back in the 60s and 70s. For us it was always Tony's on the Pier - the old one before the storm removed the rickety outside stairs and long before the fire that wiped out most of the pier. They had the best lobster and fantastic abalone steaks, probably the best I have ever eaten at a restaurant.

I don't live that far north, but am at a higher altitude (nearly 3000 ft) than L.A. or the San Fernando Valley and it gets cold up here. It also stays cold because the prevailing winds are out of the west or northwest and come right down from the snow-covered mountains. Last night's low was 36, right now the temperature on the south side of my house is 62 but on the deck on the north side (in deep shade because of the deck roof) it is only 48 degrees. I have a bunch of vegetables and fruit that ordinarily would be in my fridge. In particular I have 20 bags of cranberries that were on sale a few days ago. Later this afternoon I am going to start a big batch of cranberry sauce. Right now my housekeeper is doing her weekly cleaning and I have found that it is better to stay out from under foot when she is in cleaning mode, otherwise I might get washed and waxed also. Just so you know I am not a slave-driver, she decides on her own that something needs cleaning and goes at it. She does far more than I would ever require of a housekeeper (or myself, when I was doing it all alone). I keep telling her that things are just fine as they are, I don't mind a little dust, but she just snorts and charges into the fray. Her room is at the northeast corner of the house and she keeps her water bottles lined up in the window box outside her north-facing window. Sometimes they freeze overnight and she has learned to put them inside another container before leaving for school in the morning. I have an acquaintenance who moved from Nebraska to June Lake. The first winter they were there they also put food out on their deck to chill. Once only. They were visited by one of the local bears who not only stole the food but ripped the railing off the deck when he was startled by someone turning on a light. They thought bears hibernated all winter, however sometimes they wake up and go looking for a snack.

The roots of the ubiquitous, bland and unimaginative foods of the late 40s and 50 can be traced back to the Great Depression and dust bowl of the early 30s. Millions of farmers could not survive on the traditional family farm, if they could raise crops they couldn't get them to market and many people couldn't afford to buy anyway. Big corporations began buying up small farmstead and turning them into factory farms where crops were processed into canned goods at sites near the farms and shipped all over the country. Feeding the country depended on cheap, standardized foods. During WWII people were encouraged to have Victory Gardens, in their yards to augment their diets because so much of our regular food supplies were being shipped to the military. However after the war these gradually fell out of fashion because people had more money, more variety was available in stores and women, who had gone out to work during the war, did not want to retire to being the home maker as before. Some areas of the country, in particular the south, retained the tradition of the kitchen garden and also maintained a distinct regional cooking tradition, whereas the rest of the country became more homogenous. Then TV invaded homes all over the country and an enterprising food processory developed the "TV Dinner" - talk about HORROR, this was it! People who had never known the diversity of the ethnic foods of their parents and grandparents, (often it was considered "un-American" to cling to "foreign" foods), settled for the mass produced stuff that everyone else ate. They were suspicious of odd-looking or different named foods, particularly those with names in foreign languages. Pizza was an exception. The GIs who came back from serving in Italy began looking for restaurants where they could find the "pies" they had enjoyed in parts of Italy and the phenomena of the pizza "parlor" began to spread. It began in the cities where it had been known since immigrants from the areas in Italy where it was traditional and spread to small towns. People began to get the idea that there were other foods that were good, nutritious and not scary. Into this came Julia, just at the right time, when homemakers were beginning to look beyond regional and national food fashions and discovered there was a bigger world out there.

First I sauté some shallots or onions in butter and while cooking, slice the plantains in 1/2 to 3/4 inch diagonal slices then add them to the pan and sauté the slices until they begin to brown then sprinkle over them the juice of one lemon and the zest of the lemon, salt and pepper to taste. I then transfer them to a shallow casserole, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and dot with goat cheese (or similar type fairly mild soft cheese). Put in the oven at 300 degrees for about 25 minutes. If you want them slightly spicy, add some hot pepper to the onions or shallots and sauté prior to adding the plantains.

Brioche. I started the dough last night, retarded it in the fridge overnight and baked it off this morning. All gone now, between my housekeeper and myself, we ate the whole thing along with poached eggs and some minced Serrano ham.

All the way up here in California, I buy "Marlborough Flaky Sea Salt from New Zealand, under the PacificSalt brand, certified organic, from the northern shore of South Island." I buy a lot of different salts and find that this one is terrific in salads, as a final addition to fresh vegetables and sprinkled on breads just prior to baking. I also knead it into my homemade butter for spreading on bread. Some of it dissolves into the butter but some of the flakes remain and we love the flavor it imparts to the butter. I should think that it would be readily available in Australia. I also use Maldon, as well as various French and other European and Mediterranean sea salts, in addition to a couple of domestic ones.

The link I posted upthread is for a "Black Forest Sundae" made with crushed chocolate wafers. Great flavor and no baking (unless you make the chocolate wafers yourself). I often used cherries cooked like preserves, as filling between layers in dark chocolate cakes, usually cutting the regular layers in half so I have 4 layers with the preserves between. Wonderful flavor combination.

All of these ideas are great. Contact with outreach organizations is the first base to touch as they already know what is going on in the community and know who needs (and who wants) help. I can tell you from personal experience that some people do not want help even though they need it and it takes a careful and diplomatic approach to get them to participate in such activities. Many senior citizen centers have good cooking facilities and often have shuttle service that will pick up seniors and return them to their homes. Another resource is the VFW, they have facilities in many places with kitchens and meeting rooms and they are organized. The service organizations such as the Elks, Moose, Rotary, etc., are also a good resource as many of their members are active in community affairs and I have found them to be endlessly helpful. In some communities the Chamber of Commerce will also be very helpful. A list of the things that need to be included in the instructions, along with the necessary implements to do what needs to be done should be the first project. Also, contact with community leaders who can help with certain roadblocks. Some municipalities do not allow restaurants to donate foods that are not served to patrons to organizations that distribute it to the needy. They are required by law to throw it away, which I have always though is absolutely ridiculous and an obscene waste of good food. Education on basic homemaking principles is also very important. Two years ago an entire family here in Lancaster died from carbon monoxide poisoning because they were using charcoal braziers in their home both for cooking and heating as their utilities had been turned off for non-payment. They were immigrants who apparently did not realize that the houses here seal tighter than those in their homeland where most people use these things. Also instructions have to be given orally for a lot of these people because there are a great many who cannot read, many immigrants understand and speak English but cannot read it. One last suggestion. It might be helpful to contact Homes for Humanity. Many of the homes that are built as part of this program are in the most disadvantaged areas and the recipients are, for the most part, eager to pass on help to others and in turn become volunteers with this organization and in their community. It might be advantageous to contact some of these people who could be instructed in how to teach others in their neighborhoods who need help with learning to prepare nutritious foods.

You probably already know about these sites. However I have an elderly friend, now living in Manchester,(lived near me in So.Calif. for many years) on a very limited budget and she has mentioned these sites as being very helpful to her - she and a neighbor in the same situation combine their resources and take turns cooking. She says these have been a great help. Frugal recipes/uk. She has said that she particularly enjoyed a couple of the wartime recipes as it reminded her of her childhood and all the "tricks" her mum used to make sure that their family was well fed. She says that the woman could do more with a cheese rind than many cooks could do with a joint. You are wise to buy whole chickens as after they are roasted and the meat removed, the carcass can go into a pot with the vegetable trimmings, tops, stems, onion roots and skins, to make a stock which can be the base of another meal. You mention white rice, cooked in stock, then with beans added, you have a good substitute for meat protein as rice and beans are a complete amino acid when combined. You can serve it as a soup or add other vegetables, reduce and thicken the liquid and you have a hearty stew. My daughter and her family were in Inverness for six months last year and she was surprised at the cost of meat, and often not of great quality or not well trimmed, with a lot of fat and gristle which is really waste. I think it is wonderfuly that you bake your own bread. I love baking and find it is very satisfying, especially at this time of the year. By the way, we have had quite a discussion regarding cassoulet on another thread but they involve more expensive ingredients. This one by Delia is one I have made. I have the cookbook, "Frugal Food" and it included a good many recipes that are filling, nutritious and very, very good.

After the '94 earthquake and the loss of several odd-shaped bottles that shook out of the "tinker-toy" type wine racks I had, I decided to try an idea I had seen in one of the shows on Food TV when they had the wine tasting show. For long-term storage, I bought some solid wood doors, drilled holes in them at an angle with a 1 1/2 inch hole saw, fixed the bottom of the door to the floor about a foot from the wall with a line cleat (marine hardware, won't rust) screwed into the concrete with a lead anchor, and leaned the top against the wall and fastened it to the wall with a cleat. I insert the neck of the bottled into the holes and they are held at an angle with the top down. I don't have a "cellar" but have a double wall concrete block storage room with triple insulation in the roof (tile) and it stays cool in there even in summer. I don't have access to it right at the moment because I have been having some work done in the garage and there is a pile of material that was moved into the garage when it began raining and is still there.