Snadra

I had fleetingly considered a commercial sized hobart, but my current kitchen is even smaller than my previous kitchen... There's just no room for something that big. The kitchenaid is living in the hall cupboard and any replacement must fit there as well. I suspect I will end up with a second-hand Kenwood, followed by a second-hand Magimix, but it's nice to dream!

Now that's reassuring! The compact is available here, so when I'm in Sydney during school holidays I'll visit a stockist and take a look at it and the other models (only 3 more weeks! Woo hoo!).

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has had KitchenAid issues! Getting a Hobart era KA isn't much of an option here - like searching for Henry's teeth in a haystack. They have popped up occasionally, but I wouldn't have much confidence in their condition, or in my ability to collect them (they have all been in Melbourne). And the two or three I have seen on eBay over the past couple of years have gone for over $350. A Thermomix sounds lovely (all hail the cult of Thermomix! ), but is honestly over twice my 'I want it badly enough to squeeze the budget for it'' absolute top limit. The most reasonable second-hand purchase in Oz is likely to be a Kenwood Chef. As a few others have pointed out they are rock solid and have been around for a long time. I can easily and inexpensively get ones that were manufactured on the 60s/70s for very little money, and get a wide range of accessories for them. After a bit more research and thought my question now seems to be: get a new Bosch (probably the MUM86), or get a Magimix and a second hand older Kenwood... I still want to make a few sticky doughs (eg ciabatta and bxrioche) and do some general mixing of egg whites and cakes in a mixer, but I would also like to get into some of the drier doughs, which is what I would use the Magimix for (as well as general food processory things). The comment above regarding a Magimix being wrecked by dough has me worried, as I was under the impression they were very solid. On the other hand, if I get a Bosch (not Universal as they are not available here), will it be able to hand tough doughs? And are the food processor attachments good quality? If they are I might not bother with two machines, and just get a Bosch. Electrolux is also not available here, by the way. So many decisions! And there is still the chance it's fixable, too.

Thanks for all the advice here. I don't recall seeing advice in the manual (what, me read instructions?!) to let the machine cool when mixing dough, but i have been concerned with how hot it gets. KitchenAid has only been on the market here for about 10 years I think, although occasionally you can see nearly household-sized old Hobarts for sale. Otherwise, there are 7 litre Birkos around, but they are in the $1,000 range. Anything bigger is really too large for me to manage in a tiny rented kitchen. I have been making ciabatta frequently (from the Bread Bible) and am just starting to get into some other breads, including ones that likely don't need a mixer. if I bother buying another mixer I really want one that will handle bread dough as well as eggwhites and cake mixes. As far as availability goes, used KA artisans usually go for upwards of $400, even ones from the US that need a step-down transformer. They are all less than a decade old. Bosch appears to sell a compact and a MUM86 here, not the Universal. (http://www.bosch-home.com.au/appliances/food-preparation/kitchen-machines/list.html). They came onto the market sometime late last year I believe. I've seen the compact for around $325 and the mum86 for around $800. Sunbeam mixers don't strike me as sturdy enough for bread dough, although they do look sweet, which is why I haven't considered them. Breville makes a range of stand mixers and I know nothing about them, however I used a Breville food processor last year and was impressed with how sturdy it was. Possibly some of their stand mixers are decent. A new top of the line kenwood chef costs as much as a KA Artisan and is not pretty, BUT I can get a 700 series Kenwood built in the 60s/70s for anywhere between $50 and $200. I used one years ago, but it wasn't in great shape and at the time I was vain and bothered by its looks so I never respected it as much as it probably deserved. Choice mag rated the KitchenAid above the Kenwood, but I don't think they did anything really heavy duty with it, and they were looking at new machines. My thinking was to get a Magimix to replace my aged, wearing and difficult to manage Moulinex Ovatio processor as it can do a number of bread doughs, and then get a 700 series Kenwood for cakes, meringues and other stand mixer-y things with the hole it could manage the ocassional ciabatta and brioche. I'm bothered that people here have had bad experiences with the Magimix and bread dough though, so maybe it's not the right way to go. Of course, this may all be moot if it really does only need a nylon gear replaced.

A few years ago I was given a KitchenAid Artisan for my birthday. I have used frequently since then, but have never been as theiled with its performance as I was with its looks. Yesterday, it caused me to make the most expensive loaf of ciabatta ever: the knob covering the attachment drive came loose as it shuddered it's way through the dough beating, fell into the bowl and jammed the paddle. The gears are now stripped and I won't know until I get back to Sydney in a few weeks whether it's repairable (or worth repairing). In the meantime, I want to work out what I should get if it needs replacing. I never got any attachments for it as they are so expensive (and I already had a marcato and an ice cream maker anyway). At the moment I'm leaning towards a magimix processor (4200xl or 5200xl) and maybe getting a used Kenwood or Breville mixer on eBay. I've seen Bosch mixers trickling onto the market here too. I still want to be able to beat buttercreams, cake mixes and that blessed ciabatta, and to eventually make marshmallows (in fact I had been planning on doing that this week....). Does anyone have any opinions or advice? I'm not super keen on another kitchen aid simply due to cost.

The review reads just like the local paper reviews I've seen in community newspapers. If anything, it's better than most of those and at least it gives a sense of the place. I'm sure no one expects a nuanced review of the food at a chain restaurant. I've never been to an Olive Garden, but i can imagine what the food would be like quite easily. Frankly, living in a small and isolated town as I am I'd be glad to have a half decent italian restaurant nearby, chain or not.

We can't all be real classy-like, and appreciate that herb-licorice flavour! Apparently in an effort to hasten the End of Days, Coors' will be debuting iced tea flavoured beer in April. If you find this depressing, Cupcake vodka (mentioned in this same article), is there to help you kill enough brain cells to enable you to forget that people have evidently lost track of the fact that booze is for grownups. Every time I trawl Pinterest there are a gazillion pins for Jolly Rancher flavoured vodka. {shudder} The pie makers, muffin makers and omelette makers (common local brands include Breville and Kambrook) have been seen here for sometime. My first pie maker sighting was way back in 1995. I remember a few years ago they were classed as one of the hardest sales on eBay, because they usually weren't selling for much more than 99 cents (hot dog steamers were in that category too).

Thanks again for all the great ideas. It's our turn again tomorrow, so I've made browned butter cocoa brownies, simply because I had the ingredients in the house and knew they would work. The shelves looked pretty bare ar the market last night - I gather the roads are still flooded. We haven't reached the peak flood yet - it's due Tuesday. However, I am collecting the ideas presented here and will let you know how things go! Any more ideas? Let me know!

It's middle of the road here - a few rather nice home made things and a few packets of random stuff. On my first prac my faculty put on hot chip butties and the next week it was pizza hut. On another prac it was a competition to make the most fabulous thing on the table, and on my last one there was barely anything at all laid out. I don't want to make the most amazing things, but I enjoy cooking, and it makes a good excuse (plus ensures few leftovers!). And there are definitely those who appreciate it. Ask me how I feel in October! I've gotten a couple of things from USA foods, but I find it pretty pricey for anything but a treat, to be honest. Or to share with the hordes...

Gougeres is a brilliant idea! And they're quite quick too. We absolutely get rice krispies here and I'd love a recipe that doesn't rely on marshmallow. I'm not that fond of local ones, although they do the trick, and rice krispies squares are uncommon here. Honey joys are something I've seen a few times at morning teas, and I understand they used to be a mainstay at school fetes.

Some excellent ideas here! I'm especially looking for savouries too, so tourtiere might hit the spot (and Aussies love a meat pie!). And tarte au sucre and and and... I'll cast my net wider into other forums too when I get a few moments - thanks for the tip, Andie! I actually hadn't thought of freezing the cookies in advance, but I think that's a perfect idea - let's me make something on the weekend. Choc chip cookies here tend to be drier and shorter, so when I make the flat and chewy ones they're really popular (the issue of course is making them rather than just eating the dough myself). California rolls would probably work really well, but they are a step or two beyond what I can easily get my hands on. I'm living in a town of less than 3,500 and while the local grocery store is pretty good (a surprisingly wide range), it's also fairly small. The nearest big grocery store is over an hour away and right now the roads are all closed due to flooding. I should probably start a thread on living in isolated communities.

So, I'm a newly minted teacher and am now living in a very small town some 600km inland from Sydney, slowly getting into country town life and working out how to survive teenagers in the wild. At my new school (like at all the schools I've done professional experiences at) there is a weekly morning tea for teachers. Here it's hosted by a different faculty every Friday recess on a four week rotation and it's something we all look forward to. I would love to hear any ideas or suggestions you might have for things to bring. In the common room we have an oven and a microwave, so I can do some limited reheating, but i prefer to keep it fairly simple and not too messy, as forks and plates are at a premium! I also don't have a fully equipped kitchen here yet (most of it is still in Sydney), although I do have my kitchenaid and a mini-processor and most of my baking pans, including a brand new mini muffin tin. Some of the things I have seen here and elsewhere include sausage rolls and party pies, mini quiches, purchased biscuits/cookies and cakes, cut-up chicken, chips or crackers and dip, cut up fruit (there's been watermelon every Friday at the moment as it's grown here), cheese and a few simple cakes. And someone brought curried egg sandwiches last week which disappeared in a flash. I also have a faculty meeting every second Tuesday afternoon which I'd like to bring something too, as we are usually all starving by then! They are all interested in the fact I'm originally from Canada, so I'd especially like any suggestions that seem particularly Canadian or at least north American. Keep in mind that I can't get many north American products here (ie graham crackers, flavoured baking chips, jet-puff marshmallows) but I can usually find a substitute. Mind you, considering all roads east of us are closed due to flooding, I may not be able to get any products at all if the rain keeps up! On my list of potential candidates so far are: Buttertarts Nanaimo bars Brownies (already a hit in my staff room and at a pre-deluge BBQ) Blondies Chocolate chip cookies (I use Abra's recipe in recipe gullet) Devilled eggs Any good suggestions? Ideally I'd like to take two things along each turn, plus something on ocassional Tuesdays. In return I'm happy to let you know what does turn up on the menu (fairy bread, honey jumbles, etc).

What about a slow cook to break it down, then use the meat to fill a dumpling, say a manti, or a Uighur-style naan (the little Uighur food I've had has been simply seasoned and dripping in delicious lamb fat). There is a dish in Beyond the Great Wall that would work well - a laghman noodle dish with stewed lamb (which I haven't yet made myself) that is probably made for odd-sized bits with bones. I don't have the book to hand at the moment, but it's quite simple as far as ingredient list goes. I suspect there are another one or two in the book which would also work well. If you have the patience to cut out the bones from raw, you could mince it and turn it into kofta. There's not much Aussie stuff that springs immediately to mind, other than maybe using the cooked meat in a pastie of some sort, or maybe a shepherd's pie.

My parents had a bottle of kirsch that lasted about 20 years. It was only used in fruit salads and fondue, a teaspoon or so at a time.

I currently have aging tins of hominy, chestnut puree and green peppercorns as well as three different kinds of rice flour (two asian flours for I can't remember what and a ground rice for shortbread, which I have made exactly once in the past two years). Wholegrain mustard and carrots both tend to go unused. I'm not quite sure why... I find I go up and down in things going unused, but I do best if I force myself to look up a recipe that uses whatever aging ingredient is hanging about and just use it up. Now if only I could not buy those things until I *really* needed them... For MJX, I've been making a sort-of salsa verde with anchovies to top parmesan chicken from Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food for a while now and it's delicious on anything hot and green as well. Inspired by that I now make a butter with anchovies, parsely, lemon and capers in it and keep it in the freezer in little disks. Excellent over grilled meats or fish, plain boiled potatoes or green vegetables, AND it uses up the whiskery little things before they go off. And Hassouni, kecap manis is delicious drizzled over fried rice (my husband also like to top his plain rice with a bit of butter and kecap manis when he goes back for seconds).

I noticed a link referring to this issue on Dan Lepard's Facebook site. http://chefeye.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/publishing-of-copyrighted-recipes/ As a prospective cookbook purchaser, I do like to see a couple of recipes and hear how others found them. But I know if I was a fiction writer I'd be incensed if bloggers essentially made my book a giveaway by posting their favourite chapters. If many of his recipes are being posted without permission it is like all the content is being given away and it makes sense for him to attempt to gain some control. Dan's website is full of hints and tips, and he publishes many recipes on The Guardian, which are freely available. In posts here about his books a number of people have commented about how helpful he is. I think that counts for a lot.

I have one of those and love It. Takes up little room and is a breeze to clean.

I'm fond of Schwartau and Hero. I done find either overly sweet and they really taste of the fruit.

I saw that article yesterday, too. I also pulled up this e-gullet thread on the topic to help me decide whether to spring for one or not. Still on the fence at the moment. It's a jaffle!! Or at least that's what they're called here. The cheese can get surface-of-the-sun-hot, but a tomato in it is usually worse. We have an old electric jaffle maker an I have used to make ersatz fruit pies with purchased puff pastry and whatever sounds good as a filling. I have a Breville at home and am about to buy a second one for the staffroom. The non-stick surface conducts heat just fine, an it seems that it doesn't take an enormous amount of pressure to crisp and flatten the sandwiches. When we were renovating the kitchen it was our only cooking surface.

I quite like to heat up frozen berries and thicken their juices with cornstarch (I guess this is a sort of kissiel). Very nice topped with a bit of cream. Unthickened quickly cooked fruit (or pureed tropical fruit) is nice topped with warm seed tapioca (although that takes a bit longer). Our quickest and easiest is to make a chocolate sauce by melting chocolate into cream then using it to top bananas or pears. Failing all else I will make popcorn with salt and melted butter and sprinkle icing sugar over it.

No Graham crackers here either, so I use shortbread or shredded wheatmeal biscuits mostly, but I have also seen Nice biscuits used for cheesecake bases and they work well. I think you could use almost any plain sweet biscuit/cookie and it would work.

With lots of sour cream and root vegetables you could try this side dish (skipping the chicken stock to keep it vegetarian friendly). Frankly, I think it makes a meal with a salad. If time isn't an issue, perogies filled with potato and cheese are very inexpensive and delicious topped with sour cream and loads of fried onions (+ bacon for carnivores). If you have freezer storage they are something you could make in advance then boil from frozen.

I was just re-reading your post. Is your budget 50 cents per person? Also, what are the contents of the pantry likely to be? substantial foods or just salt and pepper? And does your veg option have to vegan or just meatless? Another idea came to mind: boiled eggs in sauce. We ate sliced hard boiled eggs in a dijon-flavored white sauce over potatoes a couple of times a month when I was growing up, and with a green veg it's rather nice. I know many people here who ate the same thing in a curry flavoured white sauce over toast, and I've seen a few recipes around for eggs in spicy tomato sauces that are meant to be served over rice.

One more thought: Can you convince the group to purchase more equipment? If it was up to me, I would add a couple of rice cookers to the kitchen (my feeling is it's probably cheaper to get two regular domestic ones than a larger commercial one). They really make life easier - no sticking, no room taken on the stove and a keep warm function and it means you can expand the menu. I can find them here for under $30 - no doubt you can find decent ones for less in the US. Also, if you ever do decide to deep fry, japanese fried chicken is a great use of thighs: it doesn't have to be served piping hot and because you cut them into small pieces you can make the chicken stretch further.

Gado Gado? I think that's a brilliant idea, especially if you have rice. You don't have to cook all of the veg either. I've actually enjoyed it more with just the cooked potatoes and everything else raw. Use whatever veg you find give best value. You could do some seasoned oven baked chicken thighs on the side for carnivores. If you plan on offering dessert, a very inexpensive and vegan thing might be sago/tapioca with coconut milk and brown sugar syrup (and would also go with a vaguely Indonesian/Malay theme). I don't have loads of experience cooking inexpensively for a crowd, but some things that come to mind: Meatballs & spaghetti: I find baking meatballs is easier and less time consuming than frying them. I have often just made Marcella Hazan's tomato-onion sauce to go with meatballs. Use olive oil instead of butter to finish the sauce and serve it separately from the meatballs and it's vegan. Add garlic bread made with olive oil instead of butter and that's vegan too (although not gluten free). Plus salad... Veg Soup and substanial dessert: I make a 3-4 litre pot of a simple veg soup using 1 medium onion, 2 carrots and 3-4 sticks of celery (plus some of the leaves), all cut into small dice. Saute them over medium-high heat in oil until fragrant and a few pieces are showing colour, then add a 450 gram tin of plum tomatoes (squished through fingers to break them up) and about 3 litres of water. Season with salt, pepper and dried savoury and simmer until the vegetables are tender. I often add some small-dice potato after the soup has come to a simmer, but you have to be careful not to overcook. This is brothy soup rather than a thick one, but it's light and refreshing (and cheap and vegan). Other good soups would be gingered pumpkin or carrot, green pea or split pea (no hambone if you keep it vegan). Borscht would work too if you are sure there are no beet issues in your group. I never use stock in soups unless it's going to be a dominant flavour and it's always nice. Add some herb bread followed by a more substantial dessert. Something like a semolina pudding or an indian pudding would work, or maybe an apple crisp or brown betty (using a vegan marg instead of butter). Baked potatoes: You could bake a lot of potatoes and offer a few toppings - no doubt someone will have some interesting ideas. Spicy Chicken Thighs: Maybe make a pan with eggplant instead of chicken for the vegans, serve with rice and a vaguely asian coleslaw (this recipe seems to turn up at every barbeque, but it is nice. Also, has anyone mentioned mapo tofu yet?