Darcie B

Yeah, my husband tried that a couple of years ago...his way of never having to clean again, I think.

I delivered pizza for a short time during college in western Minnesota. Once I got pulled over for speeding and begged the cop to let me finish my delivery before he gave me the ticket because I was running behind. He followed me to the delivery, but didn't give me a ticket. Guess I won the award for most original excuse that night. Same job, different occasion: We kept getting complaints from customers about the pizzas being messed up. Turns out one of the new delivery drivers was carrying the pizza bag on edge, thus allowing all the toppings to slide off the pizza. He never did get it and only lasted a couple of nights before he was fired. What a maroon! One night a guy called and wanted a pizza delivered. It was the middle of a blizzard, the roads were closed, and we were in the process of closing up (luckily we all lived within walking distance of the store). We said, "if you can make it here, we'll make you a pizza." He said, "it's not possible to drive on my road." Then how the hell were we supposed to deliver a pizza to him? Ever try keeping a pizza warm, even in the insulated bags (no electric bags then), in 20 degrees below zero? Got a lot of free beer offers (always declined), party invitations, and, uh, other invitations (always declined those too) with that job. Lots of free pizza, too, natch - I don't get the guy who bought back a slice of pizza from a customer. Couldn't he wait the 10 minutes until he got back to the store??

About 20 years ago I would have been appalled and dismayed if I found out that someone other than the celebrity chef author had written most of the recipes or verbiage. Now I would be surprised if the chef had done much more than collaborate with a handful of people during a few key meetings in the beginning development/outline phase of the cookbook. Does that make me jaded or a realist? Really, I don't care who wrote the recipes as long as they work. I generally don't buy celebrity chef cookbooks (actually, have never purchased one that I can recall).

Wow, I didn't know there were so many foods that the USDA does not recommend for canning. I can understand the stuff w/eggs, but not canning caramel sauce? Sounds strange. While searching this question (as I would like to can such things as well) I found this website with recommendations from a state extension service for canning lemon curd. It was even using a waterbath, not a pressure canner. However, they only recommended keeping it for 3-4 months. They recommend freezing for longer storage (up to 1 year). Anyway, here it is: Canning Lemon Curd. Hope this helps.

Pie - no question. It can be fruity, creamy, or fudgy, with a crisp and flaky crust to contrast the smooth filling. It can have nuts for crunch too. To add to the many textures of pie, the flavor possibilities are nearly limitless. Cake texture varies, but no to the extent of pie texture. In fact, most cakes have such a homogenous texture that people say "it's cake-like" to describe other foods. I haven't heard anyone say that about pie. It seems that no matter how moist the cake, you need a good sized drink to wash it down. Not so with pie (with the possible exception of peanut butter pie). And icing sucks - pretty much all of it. Fake American buttercream (too sweet), real buttercream (too greasy, even IMBC), fondant (nuff said) and for goodness sake why would anyone want to eat something made with Royal Icing or Gum Paste? Oh, one exception on icing: ganache. I eat it with a spoon, sans cake. I, like K8Memphis, make cakes for othes (although I do my cake baking as a side job). Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt?

I have worked FOH and BOH in various positions, dishwasher, short order cook, buffet line, busser, and waitress. Defintely the crappiest, nastiest, most demeaning part was dealing with customers as a waitress (mostly drunk as I worked late night shift). I'd much rather take the burns, cuts and scrapes (had plenty of scars for many years) than deal with drunk bastards at 2:00 a.m. that want you to sit on their lap (and actually drag you down onto it) or want to put the tip "directly into your pocket" wink wink. Blech. Edit for clarity.

Perhaps it is different in Canada, but here in West Virginia waitstaff and other jobs that rely on tips have a lower minimum wage than the standard minimum wage. I just checked and the minimum wage for tipped employees is 20% less than the minimum wage for non-tipped employees. Guess if I actually want to leave a "tip" I need to leave over 20%...

We have a few friends that are poor tippers (~10%). We usually wait until they have put down all their money then slip some extra on the table as we are leaving. I don't have to eat with these people very often and I don't want to get into it with them. These are really friends of friends, or we would probably say something. Some of our closer friends have become better tippers (at least when we eat out with them, but I expect overall as well). I don't know if we enlightened them or guilted them into it, but either way it works for me.

Cook's Illustrated has a good oatmeal scone recipe. It only has 1/4 cup of cream in it (but it's no light recipe - it has 10 tablespoons of butter in it). Glazed Maple-Pecan Oatmeal Scones If you aren't a subscriber to the CI site, PM me and I will send you the recipe.

The biggest advances in reliability have been in the fuel delivery and ignition systems, which is probably the most likely thing to cause a "break down" in older cars, so I see your point. I wasn't thinking of 60s to 80s cars when I was talking about "older cars", I was thinking 30s to 60s...the 80s was probably the worse decade for automobiles, especially for U.S. models. Most "modern" engineering has been around since the 30s and 40s (i.e. overhead cam, disc brakes, forged rods, insert bearings, etc.). Much of it didn't hit domestic production here until the late 60s or 70s though. As far as durability, there is no reason that an older car cannot get more than 200k or 300k miles. We have had some older Mercedes and Volvos that have passed the 500,000 mile mark (50s and 60s models). Our '71 Datsun 510 has so many miles on it we're not even sure how many. Older cars may require more maintenance, but can be just as durable or more so than modern cars. Now that I think about it, we are confusing reliability and durability in this discussion. I am referring to durability. So I will agree with you that modern cars are more reliable, but I beg to differ that they are more durable. The items you mention replacing aren't either reliability or durability issues in my mind, they are just regular maintenance for a car from any era. Oil change intervals are longer mainly because of the improvements in oil, not improvements in the engine. My husband is a mechanic and will attest that there are many electrical or "black box" problems. I'm glad you haven't experienced any. Of course, if your vehicle is nearly 10 years old it doesn't have the more sophisticated control modules that are now required with OBD III (OnStar...where someone can remotely turn off your car...that scares me). I think we will soon reach a tradeoff point for diagnostic capability/engine control vs. reliability with the ever increasing complexity. Since this is all terribly off topic, that is all I will say on the subject. Please forgive me, moderator, but this subject is near to my heart (I used to race cars and built my own engines, made my own performance mods, etc.)

I think older cars have the capability to last a lot longer with less maintenance than modern cars, mainly because they were much, much, much simpler. I don't remember the name of the law, but there is one that states that every time you add a component that has a certain percentage failure rate, the chances for the total unit's failure increase by a certain amount. With enough components, the failure rate gets pretty close to 100%. Think about how many components are in a modern car with OBD III! My husband taught Automotive Technologies until he started his motorcycle business two years ago. He would separate the wheat from the chaff by starting with the chapter on Electrical Systems. I think this is another reason service stations changed to gasoline pumps attached to convenience stores. It's becoming nearly impossible for independent stations to have enough diagnostic equipment to repair new cars. Actually, you can't repair much of anything on new cars, you just replace the defective part. And as sophisticated as the diagnostic software is, it still doesn't quite tell you which part is bad (except in a few circumstances). It tells you the general area of the problem. It's still up to the competence of the mechanic to determine which part is broken. Yep, and the advent of and improvements on radial tires have made a big difference in the quality of automobile travel too.

I'm not an electrician, but I don't see why you couldn't just cut the cord off the undercabinet plug in light, separate and strip the wires, and wire it (in an appropriate box) with other undercabinet lights to a single switch. That way you could switch them all on/off at once, but the individual switches on the lights would still work when the main switch was in the on position. We have converted a few things from plug-in to hard-wired and vice-versa with no problems.

Andie, What do you use to make the vegetable inks? I have a jaguar face that would be well suited for a rubber stamp. Please forward me information on getting a custom stamp if your friend has it. Thanks everyone for your info.

I want to line the boxes I put pastries in with a printed tissue paper that coordinates with my business name (Cinnamon Jaguar, named after my late cat). I found a place online (papermart.com) that sells tissue paper printed with water-based inks. It doesn't say food safe, however. Can I use this, or do I need to get waxed paper? (I can't find any waxed paper with the right prints, though!) Thanks.

Well, I'm 37, and I recall gas stations in rural North Dakota that sold mainly gas, but which also had dusty racks of candy bars next to the dusty and greasy racks of oil, v-belts, windshield wipers and Heet. If it was a high class joint, there would be a Bunn coffeemaker with a pot of coffee so black it looked like oil sludge. You took a chance on the candy bars because usually the station wasn't air conditioned and the chocolate was bloomed, melted or both. All of these were service stations, and you could usually count on an old Chevrolet or Ford pickup truck to be parked in one of the stalls. Gas was pumped for you. If I was with my grandpa, I would get a dime to get a glass bottle of pop from the machine that looked like a chest freezer and had a labryinth you had to work the bottle through to get it out. Two of those service stations still exist in my hometown but now offer lottery tickets and 12-packs of pop in addition to the items mentioned above. One also offers bait and DVD rentals.

How about a fruit crisp? Use shortening instead of butter for the streusel topping. I did this for a friend who is allergic to dairy and soy and she really liked it. You could serve it with cool whip. I try to make a special dessert for this friend when she comes over and it really challenges my creativity, since I'm a real butter fiend. Last time she was over I made a mango sorbet. It was excellent. You could serve that with a crisp cookie of some sort, like a spiced shortbread made with shortening. Using spices partially makes up for the lack of butter flavor and it would add an extra texture dimension with the crispness. Good luck!

I'm happy to report that no one will be getting cancer from microwaves. Microwave radiation is non-ionizing. Only radiation that is ionizing (such as from nuclear weapons and x-rays) has been shown to cause cancer. This is from the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors at Cornell University. Complete article

Spaghetti carbonara.

Tree hugger! Don't forget you also have to consider the energy and water used when cleaning a reusable bag. Consumption-wise, it may indeed be a wash (no pun intended). The parchment cones would be a good alternative in this instance, IMO. For me, the time, energy and amount of water to clean a nylon bag are too much. I like both the plastic bags and parchment depending on the application. Parchment is surely more cost effective. If the icing I'm using isn't too thick I'll use a large Ziploc with the corner cut out. About 1/3 the cost of the disposable Ateco bags which is all I can get around here.

I know you are looking for mfgs not retailers, but Lehman's also carries a stainless meat grinder (body and screw are stainless; plate and blade are cast iron). I bought one a couple of months ago at their retail store in Kidron, OH, but I threw away the box so don't have any other info. It was not made in the USA. Lehman's has always been very friendly and helpful and I would certainly not hesitate to call them for info. [hijack] Lucky me I get to go to Lehman's again this weekend. Woo hoo! Last time I was there I got to see an interesting (well, to me anyway) sight: a young Amish (maybe Mennonite) young man driving his horse drawn carriage while drinking a Mountain Dew...for some reason that really tickled me. [/hijack]

Great demo - thanks! The only buttercream I have tried is a Swiss buttercream. This looks great! I wish I weren't going away this weekend or I would try it. How long does it keep? And can it be left at room temp on a cake or does it need to be refrigerated? Thanks again!

Regarding the pie, were both the top and bottom crusts black and the inside cold, or just top or bottom? If it was just one, it may be the one of the oven elements is not working. When the oven is preheating, both top and bottom elements should be glowing red (if you can see the elements; some ovens have covers over them). Also, where you position your food in the oven will have an impact on how it cooks. For instance, it is often recommended that you bake pies on the lowest rack so that the bottom crust will get nicely browned. I agree with everyone else: get an oven thermometer and set your oven to a desired temp. Place the thermometer in different parts of the oven and let it set for several minutes so you can see where any hot spots are (wait for at least 15 minutes in between moves as you will lose oven heat every time you open the door). Taylor is a good brand of oven thermometer.

I think it would probably be a good idea to have variable pressure...I assumed the compressor would be variable b/c all of the larger ones we have are...guess I should never assume, huh? This might inspire me to jump into this, as there is a Harbor Freight tools close by...

Ok, I don't know anything about using an airbrush, but I do know a little about compressors (mainly for automotive applications). I just can't imaging spending $129 for an itty bitty compressor (gosh they are so cute). Here's a site with an airbrush compressor (30 psi, so close to one of the more powerful Badger models) for $49.99 Harbor Freight tools. Does the airbrush model you have specify a PSI range? I would start by taking a look at the manual.

Really, any oil should only be used a handful of times. The flash point of oils decreases with each subsequent use, and oils degrade quickly under heat, so will get rancid easily after just a couple of uses. I would rather fry in peanut oil than use shortening (icky trans fats). My fryer also says not to use solid fats (but I occassionally add a few tablespoons of drippings to add some flavor). I mostly use soybean or canola oils because they are much less expensive than peanut oil, which is probably the best (along with grapeseed oil). Have fun frying!