MelissaH

Could you give us sketches of what you think you're aiming for? MelissaH

We'll check it out the next time we're down that way. Well, we're pretty much due north of Ithaca. So for us, the best way to get there is actually to zip down Rte 34 through Weedsport, Auburn, and Lansing, which usually takes a hair over two hours. Unless we're coming from Geneva, in which case it's 414 to 96.

I'm holding my breath... MelissaH

Here's another shout-out for the mocha-walnut marble cake. I was able to find ground walnuts at one of the grocery stores with a large Passover food section last month, and stuck a couple of packages in the freezer. They worked perfectly for this recipe. Since I still have half the open package left, I plan to make another cake for the chemistry department picnic this weekend. The ginkgo leaf pattern is beautiful, and oh so easy! MelissaH

We've now been through an entire winter with the kitchen. (Even though it's not yet the Fourth of July, I hereby declare winter over in Oswego! ) Nine month assessment: The kitchen has been fabulous. Everyone we've had over envies our stove. We did the first self-cleaning of the oven on a cold and rainy day, and realized once we were in too far to stop the cycle that we really should have waited for a nice day when we could have the windows open. After the self-clean cycle, I noticed that the racks didn't slide as well as they used to. Other people have also noted this happening. I e-mailed the Monogram customer service, and this is what they said: I haven't tried this yet, but I'd be inclined to use mineral oil rather than cooking oil, since we keep it around for the butcher block countertops (read on...) and because I won't have to worry about a rancid oven that way. Earlier this month, we were finally in a Container Store, and purchased an Elfa unit to hang on the pantry closet door and give us more storage there. We're still trying to figure out how to organize things best. We've rearranged a few more things. We vacillate whether the napkins should be in the second or third drawer down. We finally put the "good" china into one of our corner cabinets. I've moved things around my baking section. My ruler mysteriously vanished, and I should probably just get a new metal one that's easier to find than the clear plastic one I used to use. We still haven't settled on a final resting place for the kitchen towels. We've also had to relocate the cat treats from the pull-out below the microwave, where the cat food lives, into a completely closable drawer. Lyon finally figured out that the Pounce treat bags are much easier to tear into than the old canisters used to be. I think we need to find some kind of sealable container, so they can stay with the rest of the food. And about the countertops: I think I know why people typically use butcher block for an island, not their main countertops against walls. Over the winter, despite oiling, it shrinks. And as it shrinks, the caulk and grout etc. between the butcher block and the wall cracks and falls out. This is obviously less than ideal. If we could find some cheap inch-thick stone to use for a backsplash, this would also solve the problem for us, because the thickness of the stone would then hide the gap. But other than that, I love how the butcher block performs. I actually made a successful batch of biscuits last night! Still no kitchen party. I guess that means we're not really done quite yet. MelissaH

And the pricing on Kenmore Pro is about comparable with GE Monogram. (I'm basing this on what I saw for a 30 inch dual fuel KP range on the Sears Web site, and what my mom paid for her 30 inch dual fuel Monogram range.) MelissaH

If we hadn't replaced our water heater just a few years ago, I'd definitely be looking at tankless. Probably when this one goes (the last one was at least 15 years old) we'll do that. But I think the next big thing to replace will be the furnace to one that's more efficient. I'm not even sure the energy-star ratings existed when my furnace was installed! Great tips, too, on the valves. I know that I want to make sure my electrical panel is clearly labeled. Whoever did it originally looked like they were writing with a spider, and it's all but illegible. Pass me the p-touch labelmaker, baby! I'm not anal-retentive for nothin'! ← Are you sure you're not channeling me? Our "boys" are both orange tabbies, a hair under ten pounds so they're slightly more piccolo than your Piccolo, but they can get the same evil-eye glints and they're also both sun-soakers. And we're definitely planning to replace our hot water heater with an on-demand system when the need arises...although it looks like we're headed for a boiler replacement first, since the one we currently have is original to the house and therefore about 40 years old. Here's hoping that, for both of us, major utility replacement proceeds with less agonizing than kitchen remodeling! Hope you're staying warm and dry. We're not too bad temp-wise (not quite 20 degrees F at this moment) but I'm getting ready to go out, run the snowblower again, and dig out and haul in some more woodstove fodder. As of this morning, my town had 62 inches of snow this storm, and we're expecting more to come. MelissaH

And I'm about 50 miles north of Owen in a college town of about 8,000. Delivery options here are pizza, Chinese, Thai, subs, and the local burrito/taco joint that leaves us pining for Chipotle. We live close enough to town that it's usually just easier for us to go out and get whatever it is that we're going to be getting, rather than waiting for them to deliver it to us. Or once we're going out, we might as well just go to the supermarket and get whatever it is that we need. (But ask me again when they close the major bridge across the river for replacement sometime next year.) Our nearest Wegman's is a 40+ minute drive away, which significantly cuts down on the meals-to-go option in the supermarkets. The more local stores don't have even close to the same variety as Wegman's. Did you say something about winters, Owen? It's ugly enough here that the university's actually cancelled classes today and tonight! Therefore, I get the unexpected pleasure of a morning with eG rather than a study session with the German textbook! MelissaH

What does Barbados taste like? (Seriously, whoever came up with these names obviously had kitchen floors in mind.) And I love the sunny yellow Butter, especially since you have the same north-facing kitchen issues that we did. I like the LED lights. Have you tried turning one on, and leaving it on for a couple of hours? I'm curious whether they heat up much. We thought about going with ceiling speakers for both the kitchen and dining room, but because we were able to keep our drywall intact, it would have been a PITA to deal with. Translation: my husband would have had to spend even more time up in the attic. So with ceiling speakers ixnayed, we knew that we had to go with something self-contained. Ergo, the iPod with the hard drive big enough to hold the entire CD collection (and then some), and the iHome system for playback. (Hands down, the Bose sounded better, but we like our NPR station too much to forgo a radio in the kitchen.) And after reading your tales of needing to kill the heat, I'm glad that (1) we did our reno in the summer, and (2) that you aren't trying to do this now where I live! We're having temperatures in the single digit F range, winds steady in the 25 mph range with gusts into the upper 50's, and lake effect snow galore. It's bad enough that the university cancelled classes today. Leo and Lyon send a shout-out to Piccolo, and wish they could share a spot in front of the woodstove with him. MelissaH

Judith, I think (someone will surely tell me if I'm not correct) that Quinn's the first service dog we've seen in a foodblog. On this side of the Atlantic, many food-related places, such as grocery stores and restaurants, ban animals except for service dogs. When you're feeling better, could you tell us about any educating you've needed to do in your area so that Quinn's allowed to shop with you? Do you have trouble with people wanting to bother and distract him when you're trying to get your soup-making materials and he's working? Or do you live in a small enough town that after the first introduction, everyone just says, "Hi, Judith! Hello Quinn!" and that's the end of it? MelissaH

I'm enjoying this reno story very much. MelissaH

Another way to get a smokey hit into soup, or anything else, for that matter, is to season with Spanish smoked paprika. Of course, the paprika will turn whatever you're making into a brick (color-wise, anyway). Depending on what you're making, this can sometimes be a good thing. MelissaH (About to start prepping soup for dinner tonight also; I think I'm going to try a recipe from Jacques Pepin for a potato, savoy cabbage, and sausage soup. The sausage I have on hand is turkey kielbasa, and I think I'm going to try adding some caraway seeds to the soup. Accompanying: a salad of romaine, apple, and maybe some cheese. If the soup turns out well, I'll add it to RecipeGullet.)

Klary, you're making me very hungry! We have a wheel we bought at the market in Amsterdam last January (Thanks, Klary! ) as one-year-old Gouda sitting, unopened, in our cheese fridge. (I think of it as a cheese fridge. My husband calls it the beer fridge. It was sold as a wine cooler. Whatever! ) We can't get aged Gouda locally, so we figured we'd make our own. We also have some cheese wax, and the capability to sterilize cutting boards, knives, and the like. Does anyone know whether it's possible to take our precious wheel of cheese, cut it open, and then rewax the cut area to let the rest age some more? Or once it's cut, is that it, game over, no more? We're aiming for something on the order of three years, but we're also getting impatient. MelissaH

I had a loaf not turn out so well today. But I can't pin the problem on any specific change, because I did a few things differently than in the past. I started it last night, using about a third WW flour and the usual water, salt, and yeast, and adding a healthy spoonful of my sourdough starter. (My starter's been quiescing in the back of my fridge for a while, and because I'm starting to feed it and wake it up again, I had plenty sloshing around. So I threw in some, not so much for leavening power but to try and add flavor.) I also cut back on the water a bit, aiming for something that was a little less batterlike. What I wound up with was barely a dough, kneadable (which I did for a few minutes) but only with the aid of a plastic dough scraper. It sat at room temperature for about 24 hours. My room temperature is on the cold side at the moment, because it's been very cold and windy here (temps in the single digits F, and gusts up to 35 mph) and I don't feel like burning money in the boiler. At the end of 24 hours, I was seeing plenty of bubbles on the surface, and when I tilted the bowl I could see definite strands of gluten. This morning, instead of dumping it onto a coated towel, I dumped it onto a silpat, on my peel for easy transport again. Then I gave the dough a couple of folds (which it took to quite nicely). I cleaned out my bowl with hot water, dried it, and turned it over on top of the dough to serve as a cover. Two hours later, I turned on the oven with the usual oval LeC pot inside, to preheat. After about half an hour of preheating, I uncovered the dough and brought peel with silpat and dough over to the range. Although the dough didn't hold its shape quite well enough to keep it away from the bowl, I had no problems getting the bowl off. The dough came off the silpat readily, and I was pleased to accomplish one goal: keeping down the level of flour dust in my kitchen's atmosphere. I think I'll continue to use a Silpat, although I may go back to using a rice-floured towel to cover the dough rather than the bowl. Or try the parchment route, especially if I decide to play around with methods of baking other than inside a pot. I baked for 15 minutes at 400 degrees with the cover on the pot, and then a total of another 20 minutes uncovered. (After 15 minutes I tested the internal temperature of my loaf, and decided it needed a smidge more time.) And then I tried to dump the loaf out. It wouldn't come. I pried at it with my leather welding gloves. No dice, but it felt like I got some bubbles at the top of the loaf, just under the crust. I pried at it some more, with a wooden spatula. It remained firmly attached to the inside of the pot, but the top crust did start to tear out a bit more, confirming my fears of bubbles. I finally got a metal spatula, and used that to free a few spots on the sides that had seized. Once one long side was free, I was able to get underneath. The real culprit seemed to be a spot on the bottom a little smaller than a square Post-it Note, which stayed stuck but ripped away from the rest of the loaf. And even once the rest of the loaf was out of the pot, this stuck-on chunk stayed stuck on. I finally did get it dislodged, and set it aside next to the loaf to cool. Once the small no-longer-stuck chunk cooled, I tasted it. Beautiful crisp crust. And finally, FLAVOR! The bit that I ate most definitely tasted like something, the first time that's happened for me with a recipe like this! (I can't speak to the inside of the loaf yet, because I don't plan to cut it open and mangle it any worse until dinnertime. When that happens, I'll find out how bad the bubbles up top were.) I'd like to know what I did that made this stuff stick, for the first time. Reduced water? Sourdough? Slightly lower temperature? Whatever caused the bubbles up top? The fact that I've only brushed the inside of the pot out previously, rather than properly washing it? Speaking of the latter: now that the pot's cooled sufficiently, it's time to give it a soak to remove the last bit of stuck bread, and then a good scrubbing. If it's simply an unwashed pot that causes sticking, that should solve the problem...I hope. MelissaH

Grease your pan well. MelissaH

We went with the Akurum system, Adel birch doors with birch look insides. The horizontal cabinets are also Adel birch, with the glass insets. So far, they've been great. MelissaH

I don't ever remember having a problem with baked potatoes. Rice, on the other hand, can be a disaster. Or beans. The ragu turned out fine, most definitely not overcooked. I think it needed that hour and a half on high, even though it looked like it was boiling, to get hot enough to melt that collagen. The biggest challenge turned out to be separating the meat from the bones while things were still warm enough to be easy. Tonight, I defatted the liquid and recombined it with the meat shreds. I heated it and let it simmer and reduce slightly while the pasta cooked. I'd hoped to serve it over penne or ziti or something like that, but EVERY SINGLE BOX of pasta in the house was whole wheat, not exactly what I had in mind because even in my own kitchen I have yet to find a brand that I can cook to be al dente but not chalky. I settled for fusilli, because that was the only shorter cut of pasta around, and cooked it a little softer than I would ordinarily do for normal noodles. The fusilli held the sauce nicely, and it got rave reviews, as in only a small serving left. MelissaH

Bill, Thanks for the help. After an hour and a half with the crockpot on high, the bones finally fell out of the meat. (I'd intended to only let it go for an hour, but we took the dog out for a romp in the snow, and stayed out longer than I'd thought.) The ribs shredded nicely, and didn't taste overcooked. (Things cool off very quickly here!) The meat and liquid are now in the fridge in separate bowls, and once I skim the fat off, I'll recombine and heat through before adding to the cooked pasta, once that's ready. Lesson learned: definitely a pressure cooker next time. Especially since the crockpot here is old enough that the bowl isn't removable for easy cleaning. We're now at about four inches and counting.... MelissaH

I'm visiting my parents, staying in their house at 8600 feet. I haven't lived at altitude now for 8.5 years, so a lot of things that used to be second nature have since drizzled out of my brain. We'd heard that it was going to snow today, so last night I started a batch of braised short ribs, thinking that they'd go nicely over pasta tonight. I browned the ribs in the oven; chopped carrot, celery, and onion and browned them on the stove; and put them in my mom's crock pot, which is very close to me in age. I heated up a little white wine (no red open here) to a boil and added that to the crockpot, along with a big can of crushed tomatoes and a little water too. I put the lid on the pot, turned it on to high to get it started and then turned it down to low for overnight because high bubbled like mad. When I woke up this morning, I tested the ribs with a fork. Even though they'd been cooking all night, the bones were still not detaching. So I kicked the crockpot back up to high, and it's still there because the ribs aren't yet tender enough for the meat to shred nicely. Here's what I think is going on: At this altitude, water boils at about 195 degrees F. But the melting point of most substances, including collagen, doesn't change much with altitude. So even though the stuff in the crockpot is bubbling like mad, it's just not all that hot. Has anyone else been braising at altitude? Have you had similar problems with things not getting tender, and needing to be up to a full boil? Would it be a good idea to say uncle and just move everything to the pressure cooker for a bit? Is all lost for dinner tonight? MelissaH

I'm visiting my mom in Colorado now, and yesterday she started a batch. She uses about a quarter of the flour as whole wheat, and also typically adds a bit of onion powder (yes, the dried stuff ), some raisins (or, for me in this batch, dried cranberries because I despise raisins) which have been hydrated in hot water, and some coarsely chopped pecans. It's still in progress, so I can't give a report on the taste yet. One thing to mention: this house runs COLD at this time of the year. But the rising time isn't out of whack: we're at about 8600 feet above sea level, so the low temp pretty much counteracts the altitude. We'll see if there's any flavor. MelissaH

How was the blood orange zest? I have quite a few blood oranges at home and would like to use the zest for baking. ← It tasted just like ordinary orange zest, but showed a little more obviously. Go for it! MelissaH

I can't speak for DCS, but I love my Monogram. MelissaH

I made a yogurt cake on Saturday, using blood orange zest rather than lemon zest. It mixed up easily, looked beautiful in the oven...and refused to come out of the pan in one piece. I wound up cutting the cake into cubes, and serving ice cream with cake pieces for dessert. Tasted good, though.

Many of the Japanese knives won't work in our household. I'm a lefty; my husband isn't. We generally try to avoid making expensive purchases that we can't both use or appreciate. And because Japanese knives are often single-bevel, we'd have to buy two. Ditto for any other knife that lacks a plane of symmetry. MelissaH

OK, here's one: Once upon a time, I was an underage college student who liked to cook. I learned much about cooking from my mother, who didn't hesitate to make coq au vin and other dishes involving wine, usually with me watching or helping, and often with me eating the results. So when I moved into my first apartment and finally had a stove, I decided one day to make my own coq au vin. You can see where this is going: if one is underage and cannot buy a bottle of wine, one cannot make coq au vin (or many other wonderful dishes that are great for a student lifestyle: make on the weekend, eat the rest of the week). I was fortunate in that I had cooperative friends who shall remain nameless. I'd send them out with some cash and instructions, and they'd come back with no cash but a bottle. I did not go to the store myself, because if I did, both of us would be carded and they wouldn't sell if anyone in the group was not of age. It was better to send the friend alone. Since I was underage, I of course did not drink any of the wine. The whole bottle generally went into the pot, minus maybe a glass for the friend-of-age, who also got a dinner out of the deal—and it wasn't uncommon for me to ask the friend-of-age to actually open the bottle and add it to the pot, more than anything because I still hate screwing around with corks to this day. Obviously, this is at least a little bit wrong, because I (an underage consumer) used an alcoholic beverage, albeit one that had long been cooked out by the time any of it crossed my lips. Had anyone asked my friend about the end purpose for the wine, they could have been in big trouble because they were purchasing it for me, an underage consumer. We all got lucky: nobody asked, I got my wine, we all ate well, and nobody got arrested. (I don't know if anyone could have been arrested for this without someone asking some questions that would make me, at least, very angry. And if it takes place in the privacy of someone's home (my own apartment, one NOT owned by a university) is it even questionable under right-to-privacy laws? The question: is it any different to do something a little bit wrong, like this, compared to doing something blatantly unlawful, such as being underage yet ordering and drinking a glass of wine in a restaurant? Does violating the law in a subtle way do anything to negatively impact those who *do* follow all the laws, and wait to make coq au vin until they are old enough to buy their own wine? MelissaH