andiesenji

There was a previous topic on this subject in which I confessed my use of rather mundale ingredients.

And here is yet another gadget for turkey stuffing. The Cage!!! Is this a "gotta-have-it" item?

More kitchen gadgetry to buy. Or rather already bought. A "friend" who knows my propensity for buying kitchen gadgetry directed me to this item: Rev N Chef which I really don't need, but it looks so neat in the video demo I just had to order it. I already have some of the one-handed pepper mills (also salt mills) which are great in some situations, as well as the one-handed can opener and the safety peeler, so am familiar with this company. They come up with the neatest gadgetry. I have a list of several others I have come across in recently perused catalogs. Anyone else have something new and interesting on their Holiday wish list??? Inquiring minds want to know....

There has been a lot of rumbling in recent years about how stuffing the bird is a prime candidate for promoting growth of bacteria in the stuffing, which might not reach the correct temp rapidly enough to prevent the bacteria growth. I have long advocated my method, and given the tip to all and sundry, to use an aluminum baster (sans rubber bulb) stuck in the center of the stuffing and this will transmit the heat into the center of the stuffing and bring it up to temp rapidly. I should have patented the thing. While leaving through one of the myriad cooking gadget catalogs I receive daily, I came across an item made specifically for this only out of stainless steel (which in my opinon will not transmit heat as well as the aluminum). Dang, missed again!

I have an earlier memory of Tater Tots from my Army days, 57 to 59. They were a staple in the enlisted mess hall at the Presido, S.F. and we often took them back to work and re-heated them in the autoclave in the lab. Hey, it was sterile..... I can also remember being hit with a frozen Tater Tot propelled by a rubber band by one of my buddies. It hurt like the very devil, left a bruise and ruined my uniform skirt as the cleaners were unable to get the spot left by the grease out of the wool.

Check with Nichols Garden Nursery. California has the strictest agricultural importation laws so citrus trees are drop shipped from sources within the state. They may be able to make similar arrangements for Texas. It doesn't hurt to inquire. Since they are in Albany, Oregon, Chef Metcalf might be able to drive down and take it through customs himself. I have a friend (with basenjis) who lives in Edmonton and drives to Nichols to get herb plants for her greenhouse at least once a year. I have ordered from them for years and they are great folks and have excellent plants. I have never had a problem.

This is an especially good point. Stainless lined heavy copper cookware is expensive, although it's not all that expensive compared to brands like All-Clad and Demeyere -- but it is expensive. However, the cost needs to be put into perspective: An 11 inch sauciere (aka curved sauteuse evasee) from Falk will run you 235 bucks. If you keep it for 20 years, thats a cost of around 12 bucks a year. For one of the very best pans made. It's like being able to drive around a Ferrari for a hundred bucks a year. What else can you get for 235 bucks? Well... you can get a good DVD player. That might last you around 5 years if you're lucky. Or, hey... it might get you one-fifth of an okay laptop. That might last you three years. Now, I happen to use my copper pans a lot more often than I use my DVD player and I'll still be using them when DVDs are as obsolete as Betamax. So, in my opinion, the money was better spent on the pans. ← And you can pass them along to your children and grandchildren. I have copper pots which my grandfather brought from England in 1919 and they were at least a generation old at that time. The oldest one is the old-fashioned type of saucepan that is wider at the bottom narrows to a "waist" about 2 inches below the top edge then flares a bit at the top. It has a cast iron strap around the narrow point and the handle is attached to this. I have it put away because it needs retinning. It was made before 1862 because my great grandmother bought it in France that year while on her wedding journey. I have collected quite a few pieces that may be even older but as I do not have the provenance of the pieces I can't be sure. I expect the stainless lined pots and pans will last even longer, after all, there are copper vessels in museums from Roman times that are still intact and usable. We don't really know how well the alloys of stainless will hold up over time because it has not been around that long. We do know that the plain aluminum will pit and degrade with just normal exposure in cooking. The aluminum alloys are better but even they will break down with long exposure to acids. It also becomes brittle after a number of years. I have had several pieces of cast aluminum break when dropped on a concrete floor. (if this ever happens to you, don't toss them in the trash, take them to a metal shop and have them cut the sides off so you have the bottom to use as a flame-tamer, or in the case of one supersized oval Magnalite roaster, a two-burner griddle for my portable stove. In this case it dropped on the handle on the end and a semicircular piece broke out of the end.) Once you get a piece of good copper and see how well it works, how quickly it heats when compared to other cookware, you will be seriously hooked on it. One of my friends is married to a Frenchman and she has told me that when they were in France they met some young people, just setting up their household, and saving to buy their first copper cookware. They had an ancient car that was falling to bits but thought it more important to buy the copper pan than fix the car. She said she shared their priorities.

There IS something about grinding things that look one way and have them look totally different when they come out of the grinder. I love making pimento cheese, alternating mild cheddar and the canned large pimentos or sweet peppers from the middle eastern store. The mincemeat mixture would be good in stuffing. It is also good in fried pies or little tarts. I also seem to remember that Meemaw made a side dish with this mincemeat and chestnuts. Since I didn't spend as much time at their house as I did with my other grandparents, my memories are not as sharp.

Many years back when the kids were still at home, I had a Garland stove with a salamander. After school the kids would come home, fire it up, throw a bunch of Tater Tots in a big square carbon steel pan with a long handle, made for the salamander, slide it into the opening and shake it back and forth until they were brown and crispy. It didn't take long and I don't think I have ever tasted better. It was their favorite snack and they added cheddar cheese powder or taco seasoning, and after H. Salt Fish and Chips appeared on the scene would sprinkle the vinegar bought at the shop on the corner. I liked them with just salt & pepper or with melted cheese. (see earlier post) I was sorry to lose that stove but when we moved I had another stove that I liked better so we sold it along with the house.

First of all let me say that I have never been able to understand what people see in Pu-Er tea. To me it tastes like leaf mold smells. I often buy the "bespoke", "estate" and limited edition teas and visit Chado in Pasadena as often as possible. Devan Shah is extremely knowledgeable about teas and with James Norwood Pratt, founded The Nilgiri Tea Society. The tearoom itself is rather plainly furnished (as is the original in Los Angeles) but this is a place for serious tea drinkers. Their food is excellent and the servings are very generous, particularly when compared to the more "frou-frou" tea places that are heavily into Victorian ambience and believe that a couple of thumb sized scones and a 2 inch sandwich constitute appropriate accompaniment to a cream tea. The world of tea is extremely complex, and there are far more varieties than there are of coffee. Whenever I hear about someone complaining about the cost of a POUND of Jamaica Blue Mountain, or similar rare coffee, I mention that an OUNCE of one of the rare teas will sell for 3 times as much. I am picky about the tea I drink in restaurants and carry my own with me and am careful about giving directions as to how I want my water for tea (near boiling and fresh, not out of an urn) and I tip accordingly. In places where I am known, they know my habits and the first thing they ask is if I am having tea today and go off to put the kettle on, then come back and take my order. I have converted several of the servers in Coco's, here in Lancaster, to drinking tea after they tasted the good stuff.

If I had to compare them to any other type of potato creations, I would say they are most like rosti. (Can't figure out how to get the two little .. over the o.) I was making rosti long before TaterTots came on the market, and always made them by using a #20 disher to portion them so there would be more crust rather than just flattening them in the pan.

I want to add my vote to how great the place looks. I have an artist friend who lives in Woodstock and has a sister in DeWitt that she visits at least once a month. I sent her an email about your place. She is a devotee of the Arts & Crafts movement and has collected a fair amount of furniture and accessories over the years. She is also an avid coffee "collector." Whenever she comes to California to visit she is armed with a list of coffee/espresso places she has to visit. I have three Stickley pieces, dining table, desk and armchair, all purchased when MGM had their huge auction years ago and cleaned out the barns and warehouses where much of the furniture had been stored since the 20s and 30s. Sadly, the chairs that went with the dining table had been stored in a loft that was damaged in a fire sometime in the early 60s. (I bought a lot of furniture at that auction, mostly art deco, at extremely reasonable prices.) Nothing has been done to the Stickley pieces except cleaning and oiling.

I use my 5000 with the variable speed several times a week, sometimes several times a day. I often use it to make creamed/pureed soups in small batches as it cooks them as well as pureeing. However I use it most for making condiments, grinding mustard mixtures. This one is the third Vita-Mix I have owned. I still have my old commercial model with the stainless steel vessel. I got the newer one because it had a larger capacity and also had the extra vessel for grinding grains.

This is one of the Art Nouveau fonts often used for posters and for book titles - You can see it on this sitesee #4. The books of Aubrey Beardsley used this type for titles.

Years ago, when the kids were home, I used to roast them in the oven then put them out for dipping into cheese fondue. The kids didn't like bread dipped in the cheese sauce but they would eat the Tater Tots with cheese until they couldn't swallow. I would set out little "sideboys" to add a bit of pizazz to the cheese and we liked the combination of crisp crumbled bacon, scallions, toasted nuts and crushed pepper flakes. So the routine was to spear the TaterTot on a fondue fork, dip it in the fondue, lift it out and turn it a few times until it began to set a bit then dip it into one or more of the "extras". A quickly thrown-together meal for game nights.

My guillty pleasure in sandwich form was pickle and bacon on sheepherder bread. I don't remember just when I had the first one but I can remember sitting on the veranda outside the kitchen and munching through one and drinking buttermilk. Years later, when I was in the midst of pregnancy, I suddenly developed a yen for this and would take the fixings along with me to work. I take a long slice of bread or the crust sliced off the side of a long loaf, sheepherder works too, then put on a layer of bread and butter pickles then several strips (or a layer of crumbled) bacon. Roll it up into a cylinder. Consume, goes really good with buttermilk. My boss couldn't stay in the room when I was eating it. He thought it was gross.

By the way, your photos are wonderful.

My aunt said that one of the "problems" of making this stuff was that if Meemaw (and now her) turns her back after the roasting, some of it would "disappear" and she would catch one of her sons tucking into a leftover biscuit with a bit too much gusto. This is a reduced size recipe. Meemaw made 8 quarts in a batch and usually made two or three batches. My aunt cut it down when she began making it 40 or 50 years ago. She hasn't made it for several years but our discussion has reminded her just how good it was and she is going to make a batch this week. She said her husband liked it layered in between layers of "Johnnycake" or sweetened cornbread. She would make 4 or 5 thin layers of sweetened cornbread, with buttered brown paper on the top during baking so it wouldn't form a crust. After putting the cake together with the mincemeat in between the layers, she would drizzle "raisin wine" on it. Which is simply sherry in which raisins (or other dried fruits) have been soaking for some time. She would then wrap it tightly in muslin with more of the liquid drizzled over it and then in "tin" foil. However she would store it in the ice box, usually hidden behind the vegetables to keep the boys out of it.

I use these on phyllo dough cutters from King Arthur Flour. I also have the nylon ones. I have a different one with no handle and a rolled top edge on which I can tap with a mallet for cutting many layers but I don't remember where I got it. It is quite tall. I found them. I got them from Fantes the linzer cookie cutter.

If you go to this site Melinda Lee's recipe archives. You will find Rick Bayliss' recipe for Tres Leches Cake and his version of dulce de leche. It is something to do with your homemade dulce de leche............. as if you had a problem...

Or stainless steel.

Y??Y®?Y?(Yù@(Y+?^how I handle the items listed and I hope everyone else will chime in with their tips. Ok speaking to the items specifily mentioned. I would remove my charlotte even if I assembled it in a springform pan, by freezing it, then heating the sides of my pan to release. When frozen I can easily pick-up the whole cake and place it on a cardboard circle. Place it in my cooler to let it defrost to a semi-frozen state then slice it perfectly. ←

I don't think I have ever tried Parmalat. I used to buy their non-fridge, shelf-stored milk but it disappeared from stores several months back when there was a problem with a factory. Have you ever tried Guerrero y Meza? It is difficult to find, even here, but occasionally the carniceria near my home has it - they keep it at the checkout stand as it comes in little, easy pocketable, tins. It has a picture of a smiling goat on the label but the text is all in Spanish and I read only a little. It is made in Iguala, Mexico. It is the best I have ever tried, except for Mrs. Obregon's. It has so many layered flavors that one moment it tastes like caramel and the next like chocolate, there there is a slightly smokey flavor that sneaks in at the end. They had it last year about this time and I bought a box for the Hispanic kids that come around for trick or treat because they would much rather have that than candy. Timer just went off, back to my cooking....

Once you try the traditional stuff you will know why some people like to make it from scratch. There is a world of difference in the product. Have you ever tried the real stuff that comes in a jar or in little tins? The flavor is far more complex with a hint of the bitterness one gets with true sugar carmelization. I used to make the canned stuff but haven't for years. It is really so easy to do it in the crockpot that I would much rather do that. I don't ever want to settle for second best when I know a better product can be obtained with a little more effort. However that is just old, obsessive me!!!

I saw this thread yesterday and went over to my neighbor who makes the stuff from scratch. I posted her recipe a few days ago. She says the soda is to keep the mixture from becoming grainy.