andiesenji

The only way she can hold you to a "no competition" pact is if it is in writing, agreed to prior to your beginning to bake for her and you are adequately recompensed for the exclusitivity. Also this generally refers only to commercial competition. A retailer will ask for an exclusive for a particular area, i.e., within a 1 mile, 2 mile or 5 mile radius or similar limit and outside that area you can sell your product to other retailers. Without an exclusive compact or contract, you can sell to businesses that are next door to each other. If she is not paying you for an exclusive then you can teach whatever you want. After all, the people in your class are not really going to be in competition with her. If she isn't putting up notices of your product and not pushing it then she probably doesn't really understand how having a special product can ratchet up a business such as that.

This is a Hoosier cabinet.

I use the paper "pans" like these from King Arthur - haven't tried the wood ones. And this is not in any way a traditional type of fruitcake. If you check the "Fruitcake" topic, melonpan made it and baked it in small loaves and has posted a photo. It is dark with cocoa and moist and rich. I have yet to find anyone who does not like it.

Wow! Melonpan, your photo is great and the cakes look scrumptious. It does make a lot of batter - the bundt pans I use are the large ones, 10 to 12 cup max and the molds for the trees, large and small use a lot of batter. It is also enough for a full-sized sheet pan to make a thin cake for cutting into shapes. When I do those I completely cover them with chocolate, rather like a petit four.

I posted this recipe on the "Fruitcake" topic but here it is again. There are also some other good recipes on that thread, not only fruitcake, as this is not a true "fruitcake" per se... I get the cocoa at King Arthur flour co. It just makes it so much better than the supermarket stuff. Once you use it, yo will not be satisfied with the regular stuff. This is my cocoa fruit cake. I have recreated this from a recipe written in difficult-to-read, spidery handwriting in the journal of an ancestor with the entry dated 1690. It is important to use Dutch process cocoa. I use King Arthur Flour's Double Dutch Cocoa and Black Cocoa Half and Half. When glazed with the glaze at the end of the recipe, this cake will keep for several days at room temp and will stay incredibly moist with just a loose cover. I have in the past made this cake ahead of time and wrapped it well in Aluminum foil and kept it in a cool place for 6 or more weeks. However I now live alone. When my family was still all together, I could not keep it more than a couple of days......to give you an idea of the way things used to be, the original "receipt" called for 6 pounds of twice-boulted flour and 3 full pound loaves of sugar well beaten..... 2 pounds of butter and 3 dozen eggs. I have cut it down to a manageable size. FRUITED COCA CAKE original recipe ca. 1690 1 cup BUTTER unsalted 1-1/2 tsp SALT kosher 1 tsp CINNAMON ground 1 tsp CLOVES, ground 1 tsp NUTMEG, ground 1 tsp ALLSPICE, ground 6 Tbsp COCOA, Dutch process 3 cups superfine SUGAR 4 large EGGS 3 Tsp BAKING SODA 4 cups, sifted FLOUR 1-1/2 cups CURRANTS 1-1/2 cups DRIED CHERRIES 1-1/2 cups WALNUTS, chopped or pecans or macadamia nuts, etc. 3 cups APPLESAUCE, unsweetened chunky style if you can find it. Preheat oven to 350 F Grease and flour a deep 11" x 15" pan or 2 10-inch square pans or 2 holiday mold pans. In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, salt, spices, cocoa and sugar. beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after adding each one. Mix baking soda with flour. reserve 2 heaping tablespoons of the flour. Instead of sifting the flour you can simply put it in a large bowl and run a wire whisk through it which does the same as sifting, i.e. fluffing it up a bit. Add flour to batter alternately with applesauce. Sprinkle the fruit and nuts with the reserved flour and fold into cake batter. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 1 hour or until cake tests done. (deeper pans will require longer baking. ORANGE GLAZE GRATED PEEL OF 2 ORANGES 1/3 CUP SUGAR 1/4 CUP WATER 1 CUP ORANGE JUICE 3 TABLESPOONS GRAND MARNIER LIQUOR OR BRANDY Combine ingredients in saucepan, bring to simmer, stirring constantly, continue cooking until liquid is reduced by 1/2. Drizzle over cake ( I use a turkey baster and a perforated spoon as the glaze is too hot to dip my fingers into which is usually the way I drizzle icing . After the glaze has set, decorate edges of the cake and the plate edges with powdered sugar sifted thru a fine strainer.

And most Hoosiers have a pull out counter which is great for pastry. My friend Gloria who has a craftsman home in Pasadena, has her kitchen restored to the way it was when new and done all in cream and green with an old Glenwood stove of the period. She has cream and green enamel steel cabinets with the upper cabinets with the obscura glass panels in some. She has a Hoosier (restored) with cream and green enamel counter which pulls out for more work space. She and I spent a lot of time rounding up all the original accessories that go with it. She was fortunate in that she was able to locate a descendant of the family that originally owned it and was able to borrow photos taken in the house when it was new. The only thing she couldn't restore was the hand pump in the kitchen sink. The cap of the old well is still in the back yard but the well itself was filled in long ago. I think a Hoosier is a great idea.

I looked through the photos on that site and they have a Roper also, the same color, looks identical to mine, I mean the photo looks identical, except the color is just a little lighter. I looked at the other photos of their stove and the clock face is different and I don't have the original salt and pepper shakers, just some that are similar in shape but are chrome. It's odd tha when I cropped the photo I just missed cropping out the steel step-stool chair next to it. I still use it in my kitchen now. It doesn't go with anything in there but I like it.

It is a 1959 Roper Town & Country range - 8 burners an 18 x 18 griddle in the center, 3 ovens and 2 broilers. The center oven can be used as a broiler with the "Broilevator" option put in. I bought it and had it completely restored by an antique stove restoration place in south L.A. They took it all apart and each piece was enameled (not powder coated) and re chromed, inside and out. It looked just like new. It has a cast iron frame and weighs 600 pounds with the doors off and everything removable. It took 5 men to move it in and out of the kitchens it has been in. We used a forklift to put it into my storage facility. They didn't make very many of these and the ones that are still around are very difficult to find. The restoration place put photos of it in their brochure back when it was first finished and another place did one almost identical with the emerald green. Mine was originally sort of battleship gray and white. I picked the color because I love it and had my sinks the same color as it was offered by Kohler at that time. (Bathtub and sinks in the bathroom also same color.)

Like this???

I love kitchen gadgets!! New, old, weird, odd, pretty, pretty ugly, scary. I love finding "treasures" that have been mislabeled and getting them for a fraction of what they are worth. Or stumbling across a rare piece of kitchen gadgetry at a yard sale and getting it for cheap. Being a hidebound know-it-all, I also take great pleasure in sticking a pin in a pompass ass who is going on and on about how desirable something is when trying to make a sale to a novice collector. When said vendor is trying to sell a farm related item to a guy that thinks he is buyin something used by early auto mechanics to pump oil, I sidle up and mention that "Gee, you have a hand-cranked cream separator just like we had on the farm when I was a kid." Then move away quickly. I could find something to spend 5 k on but I would have to think a bit. I can already find numerous excuses as to why I have to have something...Right Now!! I could always use some more knives. I love knives. There is this site Toys for Grownups That discusses gadgets. Actually there is something I want - a new chocolate temperer. My old machine (14 years old) is not behaving well. The temperature does not remain steady and I have to keep adjusting it. The new ones are really slick. And I think I want to get one of those supersized pasta rolling machines. Oh yeah, I can spend five big ones in a heartbeat.......

You can also sprinkle granulated maple sugar on the top of a pancake just prior to flipping it over. The sugar carmelizes and is just yummy. (sorry, to those who object to using words like "yummy", but it really is!) I sprinkle it on my "mock" French toast, which is bread pudding, baked in a loaf pan then chilled, sliced and cooked on a griddle. Quick, no mess and the flavor is exactly the same, only better.

This made me think of the deep fried Twinkies sold at the L.A. County fair (and others) - - - If there are no more Twinkies, what are they going to deep fry, banana muffins? Of course there is that ersatz "Twinkie-like" filled cake thingy made by one of the other commercial bakeries. I just can't recall the name at the moment. Come to think of it, I think it is banana flavored. There is, of course, deep fried ice cream. I bet deep fried pudding would work. You would have to roll it in something like corn flake crumbs first - or maybe in a little filo dough beggar's bag, or in a won ton wrapper. The mind boggles at all the possibilities. maybe I should fire up the deep fryer and see how it goes............ Of course I would first have to get some bananas - ah ha! Vallarta is having a sale... Off to the market, soon.

I'm trying to find a photo of my old kitchen from the late 60s and through the 70s. My tile man was the first I ever saw that put powder dye into the grout and tested it, waiting till it was dry until he got the exact color he wanted. On the long counters on either side of the sink I had a tile that had a sort of pebbly texture on the surface in light sage green. He made the grout the color of terracotta which was the color of the mexican tile on the floor with sage green grout. I had been solidly against tile on the counters but my dad convinced me that Bud, his tile guy, would do a bang-up job and so he did. The colored grout made all the different in the world, it never looked grungy the way so much does in a very short time. That kitchen was even bigger than the one I have now, a total of 39 feet of counter space, a huge range,(photo in my public album), two refrigerators and an enormous round table on a pedestal that went through the floor into the ground with 8 seats that hung from the frame under the table itself. I loved that table, it was so easy to clean under it, (after evicting the great danes that thought it was the coolest place in the house to sleep) and if I had been able to get it out of the place I would have taken it with me when I sold the house. However the people who bought it also thought it was neat and it was one of the reasons they wanted the house. They wanted my range too but I was not about to part with that.

My daughter and her family have been in Inverness, Scotland for four months and are enjoying the many varieties of tea cakes available. She sent me some Bell Heather honey that would make a slab of pine taste good. She said "they take their tea cakes seriously here" and so they should. In spite of eating much more than when they were home (in northern California) they spent so much time walking that they have all lost weight. I have been the recipient of a sheaf of postcards of the various castles, gardens, villages and kitchens they visited. After reading them I too feel "a bit peckish"........

I don't know why you think you are a dweeb. I think your cabinets and counter look nifty. I certainly understand about the overwhelming effect of too much wood. However it does work because there are trims and edges to point up the difference. It looks like you are doing a great job.

Regarding the counter tops. Dave, how tall are you? Scroll down to the bottom of this page for butcher block counters at Lumber Liquidators. Their prices are way below any other place. note that instead of pricing by the square foot, they have it in 8 ft and 12 ft lengths, and $286.00 for 12 feet of counter top is a bargain, even if it is unfinished. The wood is thick enough that you can drill into it to take large dowels then glue two blocks together with a bar clamp to make a wider table. That is how they did my center island. If you need smaller pieces, you can check their "Odd Lot Specials" as they sell pieces left over from larger jobs. Of course you might be able to get a similar deal at a local place but go armed with a printout from this place and you might get a better deal if they want to keep your business local. Anyway, its worth a shot.

I have a "vintage" popcorn popper identical to the one on this link and it says Popcorn Popper or Coffee Roaster for the stove top, electric or gas. Whirly Pop I know a lot of people who buy these only to use as a coffee roaster. They work very well on an electric hot plate as well as a gas burner but most of the people I know that use them prefer an electric hotplate. I am pretty sure they are available in Japan because one of the lab technicians who works in the office went to Japan for a class last spring and forgot his coffee roaster. He was going to have his girl friend send his but then told her not to bother he found one. He came home in August and apparently left it with his hosts, having initiated them into the joys of freshly roasted coffee. He stayed in Kyoto and probably didn't travel too far to shop.

Have you seen this site with various homemade roasters?

Usually the whole fruits were used as decoration but meant to be consumed. Very elaborate desserts would be fashioned of fruits and nuts, honey, wine or other liquor then topped with whole candied or glacé fruits representing those in the dish. They had to look natural but obviously be preserved. The Italians were the greatest artists at this and some of their candied fruits would even be covered with gold leaf for a presentation. Pure gold leaf is edible. Some of the larger fruits would take months to prepare but you have to remember that labor was very cheap in those days. Here are some web sites that discuss and have recipes/methods for the process. Here and here another recipe This place has it for sale more to buy This is the method I worked up for Melinda Lee to post on her website. She also has my recipe for candied ginger on the site. And for those who want to dip into history!

When I cut into the squash I will see how the seeds look. Sometimes they are just too woody to roast. Usually butternut squash have softer, smaller seeds that roast well. The "sugar" pumpkins that are used for cooking also have softer seeds than the carving pumpkins. If the Hubbards are small enough their seeds are fine for roasting. However if you get one of the big rock-hard ones, their seeds are usually tough and woody. I don't even try to cut those with a knife, they get sawn into pieces on the band saw. (It is used just for food and cleaned carefully after sawing bones or frozen meat.) Part of my left great toe is permanently numb from the time when I was trying to split a huge blue Hubbard with an axe and it glanced off the squash and into my boot, cut right through the steel toe cap and into my toe. There is one great big banana squash that is laying next to the fence, Jose couldn't see it from the garden side but I saw it when I was doing my morning exercise walk around the kitchen garden. I tried to get a picture of it but there is too much foliage to make out anything clearly. The vine is growing out of one of the compost bins, the same place the giant tomatillos were growing earlier this summer and which I posted photos of in another topic. There are a lot out there now but I can't get at them. Jose cut quite a few squash off the vines early this morning but he won't be here again until Monday so I won't know what exactly I have until he brings them in. I think I bought two of every variety they had at Lowe's, Home Depot and Green Thumb nursery. Some were new hybrids I have never grown before. It will be interesting to see how well they did.

I forgot to ask about the straight handles. Are they solid all the way to the end? Many early pots had handles that were round at the end and hollow. This was so a tapered piece of wood, usually having been soaked in water, could be twisted into the handle to form an extension to make it easier to lift the heavier pots.

The old ones are very thick copper because they were put directly over the wood/coal fire in an old range. One of the lids over the firebox would be lifted out using an implement known as a lid-lifter and the pan would be set down into the round opening which has a lip to hold the lid and which will also hold the pot. Most pots were made with flat bottoms and were of the correct diameter so they would fit these openings. Most stoves had three sizes of openings, some had four, smaller ones to fit sauce pans and larger ones to fit poaching pans or jelly basins. The poaching pans and jelly basins had rounded bottoms, the poaching pans often had depressions in them which causes people nowdays to mistake them for baking pans but they were not. When the water was simmering, the cook would use the handle of a wooden spoon to stir the water in the depression and then slide an egg from a saucer into the center of the little whirlpool that had been created, then do the same in the next depression. This kept the egg white from spreading through the water. Interestingly these came in several sizes, bigger depressions for larger eggs, hens, ducks, etc. and very small ones for quail eggs, bantams, etc. All the very old copper pans made for use on these ranges had very thick bottoms and are much heavier than the modern ones. My old French jelly basin is 18 inches in diameter and weighs 19 pounds. My newer one, same size, weighs 12 pounds.

I am hanging my head in shame. All y'all are so dedicated to making polenta so nicely, even when just for yourselves. Although I do make polenta in the classic manner when preparing it for guests, when I make it just for myself I make it in the microwave. It is tricky and one has to sit right next to it and be prepared to stir vigorously every couple of minutes but it comes out quite nice and unscorched which was a bit of a problem in the past.... When I am alone and start something like this I sometimes wander off and become involved in something else and forget all about it until I notice something in the air.............. This never happens when other people are around, I realize that there will be distractions and take steps to be sure I stay on top of things. And it can't go down the garbage disposal. As long as there is nothing in it except water and salt, the miserable mess can go into the worm composting bin.

I have an OT question. When did fois gras become foie gras? My first class in French method of cooking was taught by a Chef Gregoire who pounded it into our heads that it was fois gras and if he found our notes listing foie gras the page would be practically slashed with his red pen.... I seem to be the only one using the spelling as I learned it and notice that most web sites also use the foie instead of fois, except for a few such as this one. It really doesn't matter all that much, I am just curious....