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Carole

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Posts posted by Carole

  1. I have a pair. I think I used them once, maybe twice. I have arthritis in my right hand so they are not functional for me.

    Then I saw one of the PBS food shows with someone using one of these (Norpro makes one that does not work well) so I ordered one and am very please with the ease of use and the resulting finely minced herbs.

    I tend to chop a lot of herbs for certain dishes - tabbouleh, for instance. Chives for cheddar cheese/chive soup and etc.

    (Amazon has one that looks identical for twice the price)

    This is going to save me a ton of time. Especially at Thanksgiving!

    • Like 1
  2. Oy! My BSO died completely unexpectedly yesterday, for no apparent reason. I'd used it for toast in the morning and then when I tried to use it to prepare dinner nothing happened when I tried to turn it on.

    Has this happened to anyone else? Thanks to Amazon (because you can always look up your old orders) I see I bought it almost exactly two years ago.

    I plan to phone their customer service later this morning and will post back with the results of that conversation.

    exactly the same thing happened to me. Right after warranty expired it died. Luckily I had bought it at Bed Bath and Beyond. They replaced it for nothing.
  3. I've had the Breville for around a year now and absolutely love it. I've done everything from baking a crisp to toasting my bagels. It remembers your last setting and that is helpful. I've toasted nuts in it at the high temperature and been very happy with it. I haven't checked the actual temperature with an oven thermometer so I can't comment on that. A quarter sheet pan fits just fine as well as a fairly large casserole. An it can do an entire 12" pizza.

    My "real" oven is a 36" Wolf so I really enjoy not having to fire it up, get it up to temp, just to cook one thing. And it comes in extremely handy at Thanksgiving when all potential oven space is needed.

    It was expensive but I use it every day for something.

  4. xxchef, thanks for the info!

    I'm now curious to see if the flavor 'ages' and becomes more goaty as it gets older.

    I grew up in Minnesota and remember from my youth when the margarine came only in white. They weren't allowed to color it to look like butter. My folks only used butter but I remember seeing it at the neighbors and wondering why they'd eat Crisco on their toast. So that goat butter color reminded me of that - and that wasn't a good thing!

  5. I've had the Simplehuman 35L slim for around 3 years or so and really like it.

    We just use Glad or Hefty bags in it. Even though the bags are 40L, they work well because there is a hole that you twist the excess width of the bag into. Keeps the bag out of sight and tight into the inner container of the trash can. Got it at Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% coupon so it came in at around $80. I originally thought that was a crazy amount to spend on a trash can but it was worth it. I absolutely LOVE being able to have both hands carrying something to the trash can, put my foot on the level, and presto it opens with no hands needed. Not automated, just use your foot on the pedal and it immediately opens.

    I would definitely buy one again.

    Edit: Also, I have a SimpleHuman dish draining rack and a piece broke after I'd had it way past warranty and they sent me a new one for free. So from that one experience I'd say their customer service seemed pretty good.

  6. I bought the goat butter from Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting yesterday and had it on my toast this morning. The brand is Cabrima and is from Belgium. They had both unsalted and salted and I bought the salted. It was very lightly salted and didn't taste nearly as "goaty" as the Meyenberg that I had at Fish. It was very pale in color and the milk fat content is 85%. To me it is much too bland and I didn't like it nearly as much as the Meyenberg. To be honest it looked like lard – but at least it didn't taste like lard. Melted almost immediately on the warm toast.

    Don't think I'll buy that brand again ....

    Guess a trip to Wegmans is in order.

  7. You're on the same search that I am since I tasted it at Fish!

    I've been checking around the Philadelphia area for about a month now with no luck. I've tried all places already mentioned (both my local TJ and WF said they don't carry it). I checked with some of the smaller markets and also no luck. I did call Wegman's in Collegeville and Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting and they both carry other brands of goat butter. Haven't made it to either to try them.

  8. It would take me a while to duplicate your 'pans I use all the time' list, but I found it very interesting. I make confections, ganaches, etc, and couldn't do without my 1/2, 1 and 2 litre sauce pans.

    One area I don't dabble much in is confections so the small ones are not so helpful to me. It is really interesting ... only took me 30 years to figure out what I needed.

    Oh, I also have a 1.5 quart saucepan that is basically only used by my husband to make his oatmeal in the morning. :rolleyes: He says it's perfect!

  9. I was a diehard All-Clad fan who has recently started picking up a few Sitram Profiserie pieces. And I really like them. I've had All-Clad for over 25 years and it does hold up. But one day when I was making soup, I got so annoyed by All-Clad's lack of a pouring lip on a saucepan that I ordered a Sitram one from JB Prince (where I've been finding the best prices). Love it! Pours great, heats quickly, plus the handle is more comfortable and I didn't even think I minded the handle.

    Anyway, regarding the sizes of the pieces in your set at Costco. I think the saucepans are pretty good, although the largest may be a little small for some things (like a big batch of pasta). And I don't think you'd need all four of those. Maybe just the 2.7 quart and another one around 7 quart (that would give you 6 quarts of boiling water for pasta). I think that the fry pan is too small and you'd do better with a 11" one. I have that 9.5" fry pan in All-Clad and it always seems a bit too small so I end using the 11" all the time. I do use a non-stick 9.5" for eggs. I also think you'd find a saute pan very handy.

    I second everyone else's advice to think about what you cook and just get the pieces you need.

    The pans I use all the time are:

    11" fry pan

    9.5" non-stick fry pan( just for eggs)

    3 quart saute pan (one of my favorite pans it's 11" in diameter)

    7 quart 1/2 stock pot

    2.4 quart sauce pan

    11" rondeau saute pan (it's taller than the other one and I use it to make chili, bolognese, curry, etc.)

    2 very large stock pots (I make my own veal demi-glace)

  10. I noticed the same problem when the flavor of my old reliable Maille dijon changed and I saw that while it is imported - it's now imported from Canada. It's just like when they started making the large aluminum can of Sapporo beer in Canada - it became a completely different beer. Anyway, near as I can tell, you just can't get the French made mustard in North America.

    Since then I've switched to a different mustard, made in France, that I can get at my local regular supermarket (a SuperFresh)! And I even like it better than the Maille. I buy both the regular and the old-fashioned (with seeds) versions. Apparently they have lately changed the label format but they say the mustard is the same. I haven't tried it yet in a bottle with the new label. I'm sure hoping that they didn't change anything else. Here it is:

    http://www.mustardmuseum.com/product/2640/french

    Edit: The old name was "Temeraire", in case you find that.

  11. I've been there when there was a cancellation and saw that they changed Opentable to reflect the opening. Also (not that I use Twitter :wink: but) I know they sent out tweets when a party of 8 (!) cancelled on New Years Eve with very little notice.

    So, I think it definitely pays to check last minute.

  12. For my Mac, I've used both MacGourmet and YummySoup. I started with MacGourmet and then tried YummySoup. The one I've stuck with is YummySoup. Their recipe importer is far easier. So if you get a lot of your recipes from Epicurious or FoodTV it does it nearly automatically. If it is a web site that YummySoup doesn't specifically support, it is still more straightforward than with MacGourmet. And as far as adding a recipe from scratch, it's a toss-up. The biggest problem is that it does have a very good Import function, but not an Export to other formats.

    The other thing is that YummySoup doesn't have an iPhone app yet (in the works apparently) and MacGourmet does. So if that's important to you it's something to consider.

    You can download I'm sure both for a trial period and see which you like best. Here's the link for YummySoup: http://hungryseacow.com/

    And here is MacGourmet: http://macgourmet.com/

    It's a real help to use something! For example, I have a Group set up for Thanksgiving that pulls together all the recipes I use. Very simple. And it makes it super simple to email recipes to others.

  13. Big time chicken pot pie lover here. So having read all the important information on pie size (thanks for doing all the work!), I went out yesterday and bought the large one. Found it in Swarthmore at the Coop grocery store. The smaller one was $12.50 and the larger was 19.xx. No brainer which to get.

    Overall, it was very good - certainly better than any other bought chicken pot pie I've ever found. Super top crust. Liked the amount of peas (do love peas in a pot pie) and the hunks of chicken were excellent. What I didn't like so much was the lack of enough gravy. It was pretty dry. I guess I just like it a bit looser. I kept wanting to throw in a bit of stock to thin it out. I also thought it was a tad too salty. Didn't ruin it for me, but I would have put in a little less. I generally like things to be salty so that surprised me.

    Because there are only the two of us (husband and I) we planned on leftovers for today. We managed to eat a little over half of it the first day so the rest went for lunches today. It did heat up okay in the microwave but the crust lost much of its crispness. And it got even drier than when originally baked. Have to figure out how to combat that.

    I'll definitely pick up another but it's not going to stop me from making my own when I feel the urge.

  14. Always use large unless I've been able to swing by the egg farm and grab some smalls for cocktails. Are chickens bred to lay a particular size of egg? I know that, back in the old days, the eggs were smaller, along with most things poultry.

    I buy my eggs directly from the farmer and he said that the size of the egg is dependent on the age of the hen. The younger the chicken, the smaller the egg; the older the chicken, the larger.

    My suspicion is that the yolk size kind of stays the same regardless of egg size. So for example, you'd get a higher percentage of yolk in a medium over an extra large. I like to make my omelets using medium eggs - they just seem creamier. My thought was that it was the additional yolk.

  15. This was my experience:

    I so wanted to like this place but there were many problems. We tried it late last Sunday afternoon.

    The fries were very soggy and limp. Thin fries like that should be fantastic. Either the person doing the frying didn't know what they were doing or the oil was too old or not hot enough.

    The taste of the meat was very good but it was clearly a pre-made patty and I missed the hand-formed (look or real??) of those at Five Guys. The looser formed burger has a much better texture and doesn't tend to seem so dry. The bun was good and fit the size of the patty (kinda small, but I like that) and the cheese actually tasted like cheese.

    As far as toppings go that was a huge disappointment. I asked for tomato, raw onions, and mayo. There was one slice of tomato no more than 1/4" thick, that's it. Same with the onion. Couldn't taste them at all. The mayo was also barely existent. If I try the place again I'll make sure to ask for larger servings of the toppings and crisp fries.

    Definitely a huge step down from Five Guys.

  16. They got a great review in DownEast Magazine & the menu on the web site looks terrific. Wondering if any eGulleters have been lately?

    Thanks!

    Yes! We were up in Acadia for vacation last week and ate there twice.

    We'd gone last year while on vacation and loved it (ended up going twice that week as well). So this year we were ready and made 2 reservations ahead of time. They try whenever possible to use local fresh ingredients and it shows.

    Our favorite dish was the ravioli. I also loved the baby back ribs - fantastic sauce and very tender and it came with excellent scalloped potatoes. My husband had the Mexican style seafood stew and really enjoyed that. The first night I had the scallops (very sweet and perfectly cooked) with the beet risotto and my only complaint was that there wasn't enough beets. I would have liked it best if they had just made a risotto and had beets as a separate side.

    The starters were just slightly less impressive but still tasty. I had a salad with caramelized pears (just so-so) and maytag goat cheese. And I had the lobster turnover which I enjoyed but the side condiment of orange mint was way too sour to even eat and wasn't at all necessary for the dish. My husband had as a starter the Maine shrimp in a peanut sauce and he thought it was very good.

    We also had a meal at Havana but I much prefer Red Sky. Other that than we ate dinner at Thurston's!

    Oh yeah, almost forgot an absolute killer chocolate cake for dessert at Red Sky.

  17. Thanks everyone!

    Yes, I'm looking for the cherries shown in the link found by slkinsey.

    Somewhere I found information that Priess Imports is the Luxardo US distributor. So I sent a query to them via their 'Contact Us' page asking if they distributed it any where in the greater Philadelphia area. But I haven't gotten a response back.

    I tried DiBrunos and Carlino's (in Ardmore) and a couple small specialty shops. Today I'll see if the herb, etc. person in the Ardmore Farmer's market has them. I really doubt it, she usually only carries items that are staples. But maybe. (Edit: I just checked her website and they're not listed.) And Williams-Sonoma has really cut back on their food inventory and didn't have them.

    Thanks Katie, hopefully your salesperson will have some information.

    I must be crazy. All this just to continue my quest for the perfect Manhattan ......

  18. I attended one of King Arthur's "Baking Across America" classes recently and the topic of Trader Joe's came up. They suggested e-mailing, writing, or talking to the store managers about stocking KA; supposedly Trader Joe's is more customer service oriented than some other grocers. They (TJ's) have reintroduced other items; with enough pressure, maybe we can get 'our' flour again!

    I did email TJ corporate as soon as I heard about them dropping KA flour and this was their response:

    "Thank you for writing to us about our switch to Trader Joe's label

    flour. We are happy to have carried King Arthur Flour for over 10 years,

    they are a good company and are very good at marketing the King Arthur

    brand. However, in order to continue to give our customers a

    high-quality flour at an impossibly low price, we needed to switch to

    the Trader Joe's label.

    Like King Arthur, we do not own mills or produce our own baking mixes,

    we must contract with others to produce our flour. It did not make sense

    for us to continue to pay costs associated with marketing a brand name,

    when we can contract for flour of comparable quality and pass the

    savings on to our customers. The retail for Trader Joe's Flour will be

    $2.99 for the same size bag. We hope you fill (sic) give Trader Joe's Flour a

    try."

    All I know is that a lower price won't be enough to entice me to switch from KA flour. That was what I told them in my original email. (Actually I used TJ's 'Contact Us' form.)

    I think they are trying to only carry their branded products. I've found myself buying less and less there over the last year. In my experience the quality consistency isn't quite what it used to be. Plus they've dropped some of my favorites (cheese blintzes!!! gone!).

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