andiesenji

If there is a health food store anywhere nearby, and often even the smallest towns have one, check with them. Any store that sells loose herbs also sells the fillable tea bags, usually the ones that can be ironed closed (I use a cheap (8.95) curling iron bought just for this purpose). So they can then be carried in a container, such as a ziploc baggie. Be sure and get the largest ones as "good" tea leaves need to expand to release all their flavor. It is best to put the tea into the bags as is and then crush the bags just before use. This allows more flavor to be released as it exposes more of the leaf to the water. For home use, the "Tea Sock" is very popular and available online from several vendors. tea sock However I know people who carry one with them, along with a small canister of their favorite tea and use them in restaurants.

Very impressive collection. Some of them I've never seen before. Care to share what's the name of #1, 5, 6 from left to right and the top left one and their usage? How do you like the ball whisk compared to the flat whisk? ← the one on the far left is a Mexican chocolate whisk. You use it just as your would the carved wooden ones with the loose wooden rings, that is, you put it in the container of chocolate and roll it rapidly between your palms. #5 is the palm spring whisk I mentioned in an earlier note. It is used interchangebly with the heart spring whisk # 3 from the left and the, #9 vintage spring whisk, and the #12 "gravy-master" whisk. These all do very nicely for getting the lumps out of sauces and gravies. Sometimes I have two or three sauces going at once and this way I don't have to stop and wash just one utensil when going from one to the other. #6 is also known as a "standing" whisk as it will stand on the end. It also gets right into the corners of straight-sided pans, but is useful for stiring things which include lumpy ingredients which you want to stay that way, because they don't get caught up in the more open wire design. I have some others that are made of hard plastic or silicone for use in the more fragile non-stick pans, however these are all wire or metal based. The black one is wire coated with some hard plastic which so far hasn't chipped off and it has had considerable use. The one at the top left is an "antique" egg whisk, it is designed to be used in a shallow bowl to whisk egg whites or whole eggs just enough to break them up but not to whip them until they are completely emulsified. It was my grandmother's. I have several more even older ones but they are hanging up very high in my pantry and I can't get at them right now. The one that has the tape on the handle is actually a Danish pastry blender I found in Solvang. I have a couple and one is used for cutting fat into flour, but this particular one I use as a whisk as I can put it into a deep mug and roll the handle between my palms, to mix cocoa, etc. It works quite well, better than some of the others for this particular job. My housekeeper has told me that there are several others, different styles, stuck here and there in various "junk" drawers, but these are the ones I use most often. I have one huge one that wouldn't fit in the picture - it was a joke gift from a friend a few years back and one I don't recall ever using. I forgot to mention the ball whisk. It is great for whipping very thick stuff, I use it for whipping my homemade cream cheese, which is softer than regular cream cheese, but it has to be whipped to make sure there are not lumps of cheese curd. Beating it with an electric mixer makes it watery. I took some to the L.A. potluck, it is quite different from the 'Philly' stuff.

Okay, here is the photo of the various whisks I use. There are no duplicates here, although I have multiples of several of the whisks or whips. The one at the far right is the Danish dough whisk which is ideal for mixing quick breads, scone, thick batters, as it mixes well without working the dough too much. Great for arthritic hands/wrists.

I too am looking forward to your blog. I love cheese and have been making my own, in small amounts, for many years. I also lived in Wisconsin for a few years back in the 50s and our village had a cheese factory which allowed visits when one went to purchase a supply. My mom owned a bakery, in which I worked, and we purchased the dry cheese curds, and other products for bakery use as well as home use. The only think I miss about Wisconsin is the brick cheese, which I have to order as no one seems to export it to the rest of the states. I am endlessly fascinated with the amazing variety in cheeses.

I have a couple, one still in the box, never used. Not sure what happened to the other. It used to hang on the wall above my baking center but isn't there now. I just looked at the box and it say the Original, Mountain Woods Fiddle Bow Knife. The handle on these seemed awkward for me to hold, so I never felt comfortable with using them. It is sharp, however.

If you take a look on the kitchen gizmo site, you will see one of the vendors, Villaware, has the traditional type moka pots.

Now those are some fine ideas - how does one get on your Christmas list? ←

Another advantage (for knuckle clearance) of the longer blade is that you do not have to have your hand over the cutting board because the blade is long enough to do the job and keep your hand clear of the board. This particular knife has a modified grip that keeps the fingers from sliding forward toward the blade if you hit something that the blade hangs up on - as happens when slicing a ham or roast - not so much in bread. I also use it for slicing cakes into thinner layers, it works better than the specialty items made for this. My trick for this and for slicing round boules into horizontal layers, is using a wooden hoop (made for embroidery work) put the cake layer or the boule in the center and the 12 inch blade is long enough so the end and the base of the blade can rest on the hoop as I work through the loaf. I then remove the bottom slice and set the cut face onto the cutting board and cut the next slice, working up from the bottom, instead of down from the top in the usual way, which always results in uneven slices. I have tried several of the offset knives, including the one with the "pistol" type grip reminiscent of a wood plane, and I have not been thrilled with any of them. Probably it is because I got used to using a straight knife many years ago and habit is very strong. I can't imagine using a curved knife for slicing bread. Seems odd to me.

This recipe does sound like it would work quite well. I also am intrigued by the cookbook and the other recipes you mention. I bake quite a lot of pannetone because my friends love it not only on its own but also as the base in an exquisite (and very rich) bread pudding I make for Christmas Eve. I too have used Nick Malgiere's recipe for the past few years for some of my loaves. I alternate with a recipe given me by my boss's mother (Italian, of course) which is very, very rich and has a very long list of ingredients and is also the kind that starts with a sponge and has additions added to the sponge over a period of two days. I have never put this recipe into the computer, it is still on the yellow 5 x 7 file card Carmella wrote it on back in the mid 70s.

I ordered a set of these after I signed off of eG last evening. A friend sent me the link and suggested it might be something quirky enough that I would like. Naturally, once I got into the site I managed to find a couple of other things that piqued my interest. and which I couldn't resist. Heh, heh, heh! I ordered this and this for a friend who needs some organization in her kitchen. I was wondering what to get her for Christmas when I came across them and they would be perfect in her kitchen.

Sorry! However I have hundreds of them in my bookmarks. I am addicted to kitchen gadgets and utensils new as well as the old ones I find on ebay. (And at auctions, estates sales, antique stores, etc.) I get emails from dealers all the time who find something rare or unusual. It has to be in working order though.

I think what you are searching for are stroopwafels. these are Dutch. style, made here in the U.S. However the exact same thing can also be found in Austria as well as parts of Germany and in western Hungary. (My housekeeper is Hungarian and she gets these from home.)

I have been trying to remember where I saw one of the SS hand deodorizers that was also an interesting shape and finally remembered it was on the "gizmo" site. Kitchen Gizmos which has all kinds of unusual and hard to find gadgets by uncommon manufacturers. The thing I recalled was this WMF egg shaped odor eater.

There are several reliable websites which offer this teapot at a lower price one of these is www.zackusa.com ← good to know that it is available elsewhere. I had a credit to use up with H-S, otherwise I would have looked for another source. There was quite a bit of talk about this teapot on the TeaMail list about a year ago.

That's it! That's the one I saw -- I loved it but couldn't justify spending the money on it... Why use it only once? It looks like great fun! ← Because I love my TeaMate. And, probably because of my age, I forget about the others until I am well into my routine of measuring tea into the basket of the TeaMate. I usually do this on automatic pilot.

The knife is made by Dexter-Russell and Smart & Final also puts their name on it.

Smart & Final sells this knife for $14.95. As you can see, it has a 12 inch blade - it can be used for slicing ham, roasts, but I use it for bread because I bake some very large loaves and if I want to cut them diagonally or lengthwise, I need a long blade. When one gets dull I toss it and get another, however they last, with fairly heavy use, on very crusty breads, at least 3 years.

I have a huge collection of teapots I have been collecting for 50 years. My most recent acquisition was this German Tilting teapot that I saw in the catalog from this site. It is a neat design. I tried it once and it worked just as it should. Of course for my everyday tea I use one of my TeaMates, the great appliance that was sold in the U.S. for a couple of years then, because of slow sales, was discontinued in this country. Fortunately I had bought an extra for "just in case" and very glad I did. It was distributed by ChefsChoice, the people who have the great electric knife sharpeners/Edgecraft. They still do repairs if something goes wrong with the TeaMate. A good company.

How about the odd plants such as chicory, in which the part above ground is eaten as a vegetable or salad (endive) and the root is dried and ground and used as a substitute or addition to coffee. I believe rhubarb is classified as a vegetable and is interesting in that the roots and leaves are poisonous but the stems are edible. One wonders who it was who survived to discover which part was ok.

In botanical terms a gourd, inedible, is a fruit, just as many indeible or even poisonous berries are fruits. Therefore the "edible" classification is a bit dicey, even if it is the OED. In some cases the entire plant is edible, as noted the fennel. Also there is mustard, in which the young leaves are edible as are the very young, green seed pods and then the seeds themselves when fully developed and dry. Beet greens and the root, also salsify, celery root as well as the stems and leaves may be eaten or the leaves and stems used as flavoring. Perhaps the crossover of fruit to vebetable is more common in the summer squashes which are indeed fruit, but are usually considered a vegetable, but as pointed out earlier, some can be consumed as a sweet when incorporated into cakes or muffins. They can also be pickled and the very sweet type pickles or bread and butter types are more fruit-like than vegetable, but we are now entering the realm of condiment which is a whole other subject. A fun topic...........

Fresh or "cake" yeast, the stuff that looks like putty, can be frozen for a short period. It has to be well wrapped and preferably sealed in something that will keep it from drying out. I use a foodsaver vacuum system with it double bagged. At best, it will keep for about 2 months in the freezer and has to be slowly defrosted - first place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours then bring it out and allow it to defrost completely at room temperature. If you have kept it longer and it is still active, you are lucky. It does have some advantages in certain baked goods, brioche, for one. It does best in breads and sweet doughs that do not need a lot of handling. Very nice in slack dough products. It is not as forgiving as the dry yeasts and does not hold as well if trying a longer proofing time. Some bakers have experimented with working a dough with half the fresh yeast and 3/4 of the flour, then retarding the dough overnight for the long, cool method to develop more flavor, then adding in a sponge made with the remainder of the yeast and the flour and proofing at room temperature then shaping, proofing again and baking. They say that it has more flavor but when I tried it I did not notice that much difference. I use it primarily when making the "southern-type" "light" rolls, that have long been a staple in my family. Active dry yeast or 'instant' yeast simply does not produce the same flavor. It is getting difficult to find, but often health food stores will carry it and will special order it on request. I sometimes get some from a friend who owns a bakery when I need just a little and don't have time to wait for some to be ordered.

I like your review on Amazon, Curlz. I use several types of salt, most of which probably wouldn't go through the opening. However I am going to order one or maybe two. I think they will be great for Splenda. Splenda is so light that often some blows off the spoon as I am transferring it to the cup from the bowl - especially when the exhaust system is running or one of the doors is opened. Someone gave me a salt mill from this place for Christmas last year: Peppermills and I ordered the matching peppermill. This topic reminded me about it and I have to get them out and fill them so it looks like the salt mill has been in use, just in case the person who gave it comes around to visit.

I got to a Lucy Devereaux, or at least her answering service. She is apparantly a VP or something so I will keep trying. Only on eGullet could we get so obsessive about ss mushrooms. ← I have been thinking of calling a friend of my boss who owns a company that makes things from SS. He has these huge machines that will take a block of SS and carve it into whatever shape the customer wants. He gave my boss a bowl carved from a block of SS on one of the machines when it was first installed, when they were practicing. Then reality set in and I thought of the cost of just starting the machine and putting the data into the computer that drives it. whew,

I've got this ricer. It holds more and has a hook that goes over one side of a pan and with the handle resting on the near side your can push down against something solid, rather than gripping - which is difficult for me because of arthritic hands. Sur La Table has a smaller one for about half this price. Admiral Ricer

It is a conical measuring cup similar to laboratory beakers. It was touted as being useful for both wet and dry measuring but I have had one since King Arthur flour first began selling them 7 or 8 years ago and mine is not truly accurate in the ounces/cups, etc. It is off almost 3/4 of an ounce in the one cup measure. Perhaps the newer ones are more accurate, but this one is not. The one ounce marker is off - when measured with a truly accurate graduated laboratory pipette, one true ounce of liquid is well above the one ounce line in the "beaker". So one would be getting less than the specified amount in a recipe. This may not seem like much, but in a baking formula fractions count. The metric measurements are accurate.