quiet1

Charcoal grill. I do have a cast iron griddle thing I could put on it to heat up. I'm waiting on confirmation from the family that no one is going to be horribly put out by beef for dinner instead of turkey or something (some people care more about food traditions than I do, and there are only 5 of us so I feel like it is reasonable to ask first) but if we do it, I will definitely report back. Another reason for the SV is I can do a lower temp for the meat and still make sure it is cooked long enough to be safe for my mom, instead of having to turn her meat into hockey pucks. She's rather tired of having to get well done for safety. CostCo almost always has really good tenderloin at good prices this time of year, so that is hard to pass up. Often I get more than one and freeze the rest as steaks or the trimmings for beef stroganoff, etc.

'Depends how the Joule is configured - all wifi chipsets have a unique address from when they pop out of the factory, so if the Joule is using that to say 'this is who I am' to the app, then all the changes should be on the app end as far as identifying more than one Joule. But if they didn't consider the possibility of people using more than one at a time, then they may have set it up differently, in which case they would need to upgrade the Joule internal software. As far as my own plans - I have an Anova so it doesn't matter what they do with Joule. But yes, I was planning on having the SV meat finish a little early and just hang out waiting for the rest of the stuff to be done. Though I'm thinking of doing beef tenderloin so I'm not sure how I will manage the post-SV sear. Maybe I can convince a helper to go out in the cold and get the grill going for a few minutes? (That's playing with fire, playing with fire is fun to do on a cold winter day, right?) Our exhaust fan is being crummy so I don't really want to smoke out the house searing on the stove.

To be fair I am contemplating using SV for the main protein this year because it will hold so well if timing is a little off.

I wander through occasionally to check out the sale/clearance corner. I've gotten some good deals on odds and ends there - I think last find was a silicone spatula in a 'holiday' color so they were clearing it out even though they still had the normal ones at full price. (And by holiday color, I mean it was green. No seasonal designs or anything, just green.)

Yup. A bit back when I had a particularly bad cold/sinus thing I was pretty much spraying everything down any time I touched something outside of my room, especially the downstairs bathroom and in the kitchen, to try to avoid spreading it around. I basically had my own personal bottle. It felt quite ridiculous but no one else got sick, so - win? (My mom has cancer and lives with me, hence the extra caution. There is an 11 year old here, too, so it's very easy to get a bug in the house that just gets passed around and around and takes forever for the whole house to get over if we aren't careful.)

I ate it before photos, but dinner tonight was Mexican from a local place. Beef taquitos and black beans, very tasty.

I do rather wonder about the metal antler things...

If time is short maybe just make up a few to use as signs on the table? No recipes, just a few ideas that are easy to read. People often will pause to read a little sign like that if it isn't too visually cluttered, and that gives the sales people a chance to offer a sample, see if they have any questions, etc.

Possibly not allowed, but if it can be managed with temperatures, selling cookie dough to bake at home might be popular. I've done it as gifts a few times and it's always been very well received. People like being able to just pop something in the oven when they need a treat, but with varieties you can't normally find in commercially available dough. Probably not something you want to work out for this time, but in case anyone reads this thread later and is looking for ideas. As a presentation thing, especially as you have some unique flavors, what about making up little cards or pieces of paper that you can package with the jars with recipe suggestions for using the jams and marmalades? Maybe a simple bread recipe that makes good toast, and then other suggestions that would work well, like baked Brie or easy appetizers or sandwiches - just help people think outside the box for using your product. The kids can probably help with that and it will help them think of the marketing aspect of selling. (I mean, you can double your sale if someone comes for a jar as a gift and you convince them to get a second jar for themselves to have on hand for a quick fancy snack for guests like small toasts plus soft cheese plus a dollop of quince or similar. I think people are more likely to buy fancy stuff for guests than for themselves a lot of the time. Oh, or maybe something would work well in a cookie, like thumbprints? I made a lovely chocolate cookie once that used a basic chocolate thumbprint dough, topped with some fancy cherry preserves from a farmer's market, and then a dab of ganache on top. Easy to make but not at all the 'normal' thing because of the preserves.)

For sanitizing handles and the like, Clorox makes a hydrogen peroxide based spray I like. It has very little scent (which is a big issue for me) and is super easy to spray around regularly. Also don't forget handles on appliances like the fridge, people often forget those at home.

That is really not a bad looking little kitchen at all. I like that potentially more than one person could work, though it might be a bit awkward, since one person could be on the other side of the sink counter to chop or arrange without having to move stuff around to other areas (like to the dinette) for workspace. Or someone can hang out on the 'wrong' side of the sink counter and give instructions to the cook. (I realize some chefs don't appreciate that much, but the crowd I hang out with will not infrequently ask for help/suggestions.) But that is something I'd want for long trips moreso than a short jaunt where a lot of stuff might be prepped in advance anyway.

I suspect if money were not an object, I'd look very carefully at a horse van with travel trailer set up, as that seems a good combination for most things - the stalls on the horse van could be used for storage when not taking horses along, or even very rough camping (basically like being in a tent without the tent set up) for a short trip. I know some people pull a horse trailer with an rv, but I don't like the idea of the horses being so far away from me as driver or passenger, all the way at the back. (I know cameras, etc. it just doesn't feel right.) And you'd have the horse van as a vehicle (albeit an odd one) for touristy stuff on horse-free trips. It'd probably be a little annoying in a city, but mangable for getting groceries or going anywhere with a decent parking lot, not much worse than some big pick up trucks. Drawbacks would be passenger space (you'd only have however many seats in the cab of the van) and also it seems like most travel trailers don't do that well in colder temperatures, so that would be something to consider to do something like a ski trip. (I don't know if anyone horse camps in the winter, most of the people I know don't really but they're also busy in the winter so they don't have the time for it anyway. But I could see a trail ride in the snowy quiet woods being quite nice.) We probably will rent something to try it out first. Part of the benefit of the show will also be to see who does rentals in the area and get a good idea of what size we would want to rent to start with - mobility is an issue for my mom but also for me, although less so. But I can't see myself wanting to have to climb up into an over-cab bed every night, for example, my joints just wouldn't appreciate it, and that has some size implications. My housemate likes to look at the super tiny and clever off-road camper conversion things (like an off-roading SUV that has been modified, those sorts of things) and when I look at them my joints just go 'hahah, no.' To bring this back to food - how much do you plan out what your meals will be in advance? It looks like the pantry is very well stocked so you can just do whatever seems right on the fly, but I'd guess a smaller kitchen requires more careful planning since you just don't have the space to store lots of supplies?

I would like to horse camp at some point, but I don't know how much of that we would do versus tourist stuff. I need to try horse camping and see how I feel about it. (I suspect I will like it quite a lot - the world looks better to me from horseback. But I wouldn't likely be traveling by myself and darn other people do get opinions. ) The ideal would be to win the lottery and get a custom equine motor coach so you'd have the luxury living quarters and nice horse stalls all in one. Supposedly that is a great ride for the horses, too. I should probably start buying lottery tickets if that is my plan... Or a smaller horse van with a travel trailer, but that isn't really that much cheaper, just a different configuration of vehicles. Short term, since I don't have a horse to worry about at the moment, we will possibly get a regular rv of some type for tourist stuff. My issue with a lot of the kitchens is simply that many have no counter space at all unless the sink or stove is covered, and I'd really prefer a little bit of counter always available as a safe 'landing' spot if I'm holding or carrying anything and need to put it down suddenly. Some of them do seem to have a little pull out counter top area (so a tiny galley turns into an L shape sort of) that seems like it would solve the problem without taking up space all the time. So that is something I hope to check out at the show. I like that there is a show, and hope that it has good variety - being able to see stuff in person seems much better than trying to guess based on pictures and floorplans when it comes to figuring out what you could live with versus what is a deal breaker.

There is a mini one but we are all skeptical about the ability of candles to do the job properly. My housemate just got one as a gift, actually - maybe I'll ask if we can test it this weekend. Finding good raclette can be a challenge, too. It tends to be expensive in the US, and I think sometimes people just import the stuff that sounds fancier to the detriment of the flavor. We did a taste test when my housemate's mother was visiting, and the store-brand stuff she brought over from Switzerland was much better than either of the imported versions we found here. Cheaper, too.

I know! I got him a piece of cake from the best bakery in town (IMO) once and he just went 'meh' at it. No more tasty Italian pastries for him! Most of the year I just ignore him and bake what I feel like if I feel like baking, but I figure for your birthday it's fair enough to have something you like, and of course none of the bakeries around do anything like what he is after. (Well, I haven't tried any of the vegan gluten free paleo whatever places, but they kind of scare me, so.) The key seems to be it has to be a cake that is dry enough that if you ate it alone, you'd really want something with it, like a frosting or ice cream. If it is moist enough to stand alone as a cake, that is too moist for him. I suspect he likes the combination of flavors from adding frosting and ice cream to the dry cake, as opposed to liking the dry cake alone?

I want to ask now in case I need any specialty ingredients, since I'm going hunting for fruit for fruitcake locally anyway: Does anyone have a recipe for chocolate cake that is tasty but kind of dry in the crumb? My housemate is weird and prefers dry cake (he grew up on egg-free baking so I think his idea of what is good was hopelessly warped) and none of my go-to chocolate cake recipes have been what I would consider dry. Last year for his birthday his son and I made a cake, but while it had the right texture the chocolate flavor was kind of lacking. My copy of The Cake Bible is in a box currently so I can't check there for ideas for this year. Does anyone have a recipe that might work, or suggestions for tweaking a normal recipe? He likes the sort of thing that really needs icing or maybe some ice cream with it. It need not be egg-free, just not too moist. (I'm vaguely contemplating doing a ganache with it, or maybe layering cake with chocolate mousse? Something a bit different than just dry cake and super sweet frosting. Maybe a flavored whipped cream frosting?)

Does that end up mostly cake with fruit specks, or is it still quite a fruit-dense end result? The amounts seem like a generous amount of fruit to other stuff, if my mental calculations are right. I might do a mix of raisin-type things if I can find more than just normal raisins in good shape. Maybe some dried cranberries? (I hope I can find good fruit locally. The baking supply shop I used to use closed, owner retired. I don't want to have to wait for mail order.)

I'm guessing a good thermometer is critical since you and Kerry both mentioned one. I shall have to find one that is good but not too ridiculous to specify because if I leave my housemate to his own devices who knows what I'd get. (He goes a little silly with gadgetry. I'd end up with a digital one that physically comes to get you if the temp is wrong or something.) I like the peanut butter cup idea, Reese's never last long in our house but the higher quality ones we can get locally have the proportions wrong or something - the flavor combination is off. Either too much chocolate (so it is too thick relative to the peanut butter) or they're using the chocolate they have on hand which isn't the best sweetness to go with the peanut butter mixture they use, maybe? They end up not seeming worth the expense, anyway. But that could be a good thing to experiment with. Do you mean a spatula scraper or a bench scraper, or both?

'Also for your sodium intake, raclette is insanely salty but doesn't really taste it the way something like Parmesan does. So you can eat a lot of it without realizing. Very good when you've been out all day in the cold skiing or what have you.

You put hunks of cheese (looks like halves maybe? I've seen them for various sizes) on the holders and there is a heating element in the bit covered by the black mesh stuff and it heats up the top of the surface of the cheese until it is bubbly and starting to brown, then the cheese holder units usually swing and pivot in some way so you can scrape the top layer off and dump it neatly on a plate of whatever the person's preferred goodies are. (Potatoes are most traditional but you can use bread or basically anything you think would be tasty covered in cheese, really.) My housemate wants to know how we can get the unit Kerry has from her. (We do not eat THAT much raclette. Home units usually just have little pans that go under a small element that you put slices of cheese in.)

I'm working my way through the thread, but i didn't find anything with searching so I want to ask - does anyone have a fruitcake recipe that is tasty without a long aging? My dad just asked for some for Christmas and rather than buy one, since he's been unimpressed in the past, I thought I might try to make something. But the recipe I've used previously is not tasty fresh. (It actually starts out a bit dry in the cake bits, and gets better as it soaks up the moisture from the fruit and from the alcohol you add and all the flavors meld. But that means its unpleasantly dry when it hasn't had any aging.) I'm hoping for something that will be successful in small loaf pans so I don't have to give a big huge cake when it's just my parents who will be eating it and they don't need a year's supply of fruitcake in one go.

Thanks. I used to make truffles when I was younger, but just ganache rolled in cocoa or other exterior coating options (red tinted sugar for raspberry flavored, for example.) I quite enjoyed it but when I lived in England I frequently didn't have time or enough people to eat them, so I got out of the habit. As mentioned the current housemates are very much chocolate consumers and they both could stand to put on some weight (they are the type who can eat anything and not gain) so I don't have to feel bad about tempting them, hah! Is there anything smallish that would be useful that I should maybe put on my Christmas wish list? Amazon of course has all kinds of special tools and things but it seems like a lot of people do just fine with a fork, and I have enough kitchen stuff I don't want to ask for specialty tools that won't really help that much.

I really love the marbled effect on the mittens, it captures the texture of knitted mittens beautifully. I will have to remember that. (I mean, they are all gorgeous, but the mittens in particularly made me go 'what a good idea!')

I feel like I want a tiny bit of counter space. But there is a show coming up in Jan that we are planning to go to so I can actually poke at different models in person and see what I think. The show will hopefully be very handy since we are also trying to consider how well my mother could get around in one - some look quite tight and she has mobility issues so I'm worried she'd have trouble. (We are already anticipating doing something to the toilet if need be to bring it up to a knee-friendly height. It looks like some models install the toilet on a platform, but I know there is also an ADA-height toilet now which doesn't seem to cost a huge amount, so we have options. My knees will also appreciate it. ) She doesn't need a wheelchair but she can't really squeeze through spaces well, or crawl into a bed. We did discuss the vehicle at location issue, but a good tow vehicle is not cheap and right now no existing vehicles need to be replaced so it just doesn't seem worth it. We are thinking for short trips nearby (2-3 hours by car) we could just take the RV and a car since there are multiple drivers available. For longer trips we think we'd either be in places where the whole point is camping, not being a tourist, so we'd just have to plan to have supplies before setting up camp, or if we did go somewhere we wanted to be touristy, either taxis or rent a car for a few days. (Like if we went to visit my family in MN we'd probably want to rent a car once we were there.) I suppose in some cases you can also tow a car, I've seen people doing that on the highway, but that seems much more complicated. I am a tiny bit nervous about driving such a large vehicle, but I keep reminding myself I drove a 4 ton ~20ft van that maneuvered like a boat when I lived in England, and if I could do it there, by gosh I can manage here!

Unfortunately the kiddo is set on buying the ones in the store. So now I'm pondering getting some chocolates to make something else anyway because all the reading about chocolates has me wanting to play with it. Maybe not for Christmas, though. Is there a good dark but not super dark chocolate I could use as a starting point? I know everyone has their own preferences but there are so many options even just with Valrhona that I don't know where to begin. (I prefer dark to milk so that is why I am saying dark to start with. )