quiet1

Oops, I had the name slightly wrong, it's The Little Black Cocktail Book - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/088088360X - it's very small, pocket-sized, and spiral bound so it opens up nicely, and it just has recipes for various 'classic' drinks with a nice index at the back so you can look things up by spirit or by flavor. I forget where I saw it recommended but without trying the recipes myself, it at least looks reasonable and is a nice size to tuck in with everything else so you can quickly look something up. I did also get him the Morgenthaler book, but I got that as a Kindle version so he can read it on the go, since it is more of a cover-to-cover thing. Some of my health issues were stomach-related so I skipped all homemade food gifts Just In Case. I always forget you can make simple syrup without heating it, I need to make a note of that for next time. (Heck, I might make some for myself. ) I forget which other Kindle books I got - there were a bunch of them on sale before Christmas so I know I got ones I wouldn't have given as a starter bar book otherwise just because they are maybe a little in depth for someone who hasn't done much reading on the topic yet. (Like The Drunken Botanist, which looks interesting but isn't really a 'how to make drinks' guide.)

Going by your example, I just tried seasoning mine on the stove with thin layers of oil and heating it not quite to smoking between coats, then letting it cool a bit, heat, repeat. I did 4 layers, I might do a couple more tomorrow. Might just try it with an egg for breakfast and see how it does. It looks reasonable, at least. (I used canola oil since that is what I had handy. Wiped a thin layer on to a warm pan, let it heat a bit, then wipe again with a dry towel to make sure the layer of oil was VERY thin, which is something I got somewhere or another from a video on seasoning cast iron on YouTube since sometimes the oil kind of beads up a bit if it is a touch too thick.)

True. Any tips on finding one? One of the local cooking stores had a sharpening event a while ago that I didn't make due to health issues, and they won't tell me who did the sharpening for some reason. (I was expecting they'd have a flyer or something for people who didn't make the event, you know?) I'm in Pittsburgh, PA if anyone knows anyone good. I don't have good luck these days sharpening myself, although I used to do it just with a whetstone. My hands tend to shake due to arthritis which doesn't make for a good edge.

Bumping this to see if anyone has current comments or recommendations - I have several knives that need TLC and would rather send them off to get them spiffy again than fiddle with them myself right now.

What sort of level of heat did you use? I don't particularly want to smoke up the house or wait until it is warm enough out to get away with opening windows and doors for ventilation so I am curious about lower heat seasoning.

Our kitchen has awful ventilation so just about everything stinks up the house unless it is warm enough to have windows and doors open to air everything out. A proper hood is one of the top of the list things to redo. (The kitchen is in what looks to be a porch that was closed in, so the whole thing was done rather haphazardly as far as we can tell. The pipes for the sink go right up an exterior wall with no insulation, too, which is great fun in the winter.) That said, I was thinking of the seasoning methods that seem to call for quite high heat (as hot as you can manage without using a self-clean function, that sort of thing) - 400ish F sounds worth a try. And definitely better than the poor pan having to wait until it's warm enough to have windows open to air out the smoke and smell. I do like tea, although I haven't been drinking it as much as I'd like. (Just poor organization - no good place to keep a nice variety of teas so I've been sticking with one or two old standbys rather than ending up with a box of teas that doesn't get used because it's too hard to get to.) For Christmas I got a couple of flowering teas which I'm particularly curious about since I've never tried one.

I didn't manage to get a photo of the whole collection because I had some unexpected health issues and was frantically wrapping gifts last minute, but the bar stuff collection was very well received - I managed to get some Kindle versions of recommended bar books on sale thanks to this site (we won't talk about my personal cookbook collection, though...) so I just picked up a copy of The Little Black Bar Book as a hard copy reference, and tucked the codes for the other books in there, so he will have something to keep with his barware but also easy access to things that are more cover-to-cover reading like Morganthaler's book. I did end up just buying a bottle of simple syrup at the state store due to the health issues which offends my sense of financial sensibility slightly but what can you do when your health throws a wrench in the works, right? They were also sold out of the Bitter Truth bitters set (bummer) so I just got a bottle of Angustura and one of Perchaurd's (sp?) so he'd at least have the basics. I went with the fancy spoon just because I couldn't resist, and while I did not actually test it myself, I will say the construction quality and feel in the hand is very nice - I find it feels nicer in the hand than the typical cheaper twisted handle ones just because of the heft and smooth finish. I think the spoon and the prettiness of the Koriko shakers (shiny!) and the mixing glass helped elevate the presentation of some of the other items that seem a bit more utilitarian, like the Oxo mini-measuring cup. (I went for the clear one for ease of measuring to start out with since you can look from the top or the side.) So that may be something to keep in mind if you want your home bar to look prettier or are going for a gift you want to be nice looking but practical. It definitely ended up being a set of items that looks like you could arrange it nicely on a tray as a home bar without having to hide anything if guests came over. (I also picked up some minis of various spirits, but there wasn't really anything exciting there. I just tried to cover the basics - rum, whiskey, gin, vodka, a couple of liqueurs - so he could dabble with a drink or two to see what variety of cocktail he wants to experiment with first.)

I got a Darto pan I was completely not expecting, a digital instant read thermometer (one of the good ones from Thermoworks) and a timer that can do three times at once. Also some tea and a tea strainer, but I'm not sure if that counts as kitchen related enough? I'm currently pondering how to season the pan - I don't particularly want to smoke up the house with it in the oven. I could do it on a charcoal grill outside?

I am intrigued.

The trouble is I actually want to make mincemeat pies, which I typically do in a muffin tin as it gives the right ratio of crust to filling in a personal size pie, and I couldn't do that in a preheated pan. I can always dig out my normal metal pan and use the stoneware one for something else, but since the pies are the thing waiting to be made in need of a muffin pan, I thought I might try it. Oh, excellent, thank you! You're always so helpful.

Does anyone have any experience with glazed stoneware muffin pans? I was given one with no instructions and I'm trying to figure out how much to adjust baking times by without wrecking a bunch of things experimenting. I searched but I didn't find anything.

When I do cut out dog cookies, to make them more festive without adding a lot of sugar, I use the egg yolk method - egg yolk, water, food coloring to make a colored egg wash. As long as you aren't using a recipe that needs long enough in the oven that it browns the egg too much, it comes out nice and a bit more fun looking. (One recipe I've used has you flip the treats half way through, so for those I do the first bake, then flip and paint quickly, then back in the oven.)

For some reason it never would have occurred to me to check the author websites, thanks!

Right, but if you look at them, it does not look like they have the same recipes. The cookbook that came with the IP has both, and the Chinese recipe pictures look intriguing.

My mom's friends just gave her a 6 qt Instant Pot for her birthday, and since she is currently staying with me that means I get to play with it. Win! Also it gives me an opportunity for another Christmas gift for her - anyone have any IP specific cookbook recommendations? Must have accessories? (I am probably going to get her the glass lid for sure.) Bonus points if the cookbook has nutritional info since my mom needs to watch her sodium. Also, has anyone translated the non-English recipes in the book that comes with the IP? They look interesting.

Some of are also Amazon Prime members, so it works out. I wish they'd be clearer about what is a Prime deal, though.

One of our local pet stores sells decorated cookies for dogs that frankly don't look like they are that tasty (pretty but not tasty) for seriously absurd amounts of $ per cookie. They seem to sell well, too. (By not tasty I mean I strongly suspect they have all the flavor of sweetened cardboard, based on the ingredients and appearance. I know some dogs eat anything, but I've had dogs who took their time eating and really seemed to enjoy different flavors and I think they would be offended to be offered one of those cookies.) Anyhow, I agree I probably wouldn't try to compete too much if someone is already doing it, but if not - even just one type in little bags will probably do well, as people pick them up for stocking stuffers for the dogs or as gifts when visiting someone with a dog, that sort of thing.

Oh, another baking thing that might do well at a fancy-pants market would be dog-friendly cookies. I've made carob-chip cookies as gifts for friends with dogs with significant success, although there are also healthier recipes. I just try to make them fairly small so one cookie is a treat even for a smaller dog - larger dogs can just have an extra cookie. (This works better than having to break larger cookies for smaller dogs, since then the broken cookie pieces make a mess in the bag or tin.)

My mom and I also quite enjoyed tea at the Savoy, although it has been a few years. I'd probably try the Fortnum & Mason one myself if I still lived in England - I used to buy loose leaf tea there all the time, I love the selection and blends.

Not just smoke - cooking smells. As much as some stuff smells very good cooking, I'm not sure I want my whole house to smell of sautéed onions for hours afterwards, which is what happens if someone cooks without turning on the exhaust fan.

I'd be curious for the recipe, did I miss it already?

Bit of using things up today - burgers with vegetables getting a bit past-it used in one way or another (salad, burger topping, guacamole for burger topping, etc.) to clean out the fridge. I had to hold the potatoes longer than I planned so they got more crispy than I meant them to on the outside, but still tasty.

I have autoimmune arthritis that is right now behaving itself reasonably but it's hard to know if the current treatment will continue to work and if there will be something new to try if it fails (autoimmune diseases are sneaky in that they seem to have a high rate of eventual treatment failure even if you get good results initially) so mobility is something I consider a bit also, and I was pleased to see poking around recently that there is far more available in the way of wheelchair-friendly "off the shelf" design these days than there was some years ago when my late husband and I were looking to see about an rv to do a US road trip (we lived in the U.K. and he had to use a wheelchair and some other medical stuff so an RV seemed the simplest prospect to transport everything and see the sites) when there really wasn't much of anything unless you went totally custom. No sample floor plans or anything. I don't need a wheelchair right now and hope not to ever, but some of the features in the wheelchair accessible models are appealing, and I hope the fact there are more being sold means more wheelchair accessible used models to look at. Arthritis is awful, though.

I've gotten very gelatinous stock from using a pressure cooker and never had a major fat problem, either. Are there particulates in the stock the fat might be clinging to that are keeping it more emulsified?

Sounds like maybe it is actually too concentrated? Try reheating and add just a small amount of water to thin it out a touch so it takes longer to jell/doesn't jell as firmly?