FauxPas

Another meal that turned out very well in the oven was braised beef short ribs. Usually, I would not be keen on making this on a warm day but short ribs were on sale and it's a fave dish. The oven did a fabulous job but this became messy. No need for a lid on the baking dish because the oven can generate the necessary steam, but I would either use a lid or a lower temp next time because this did splatter around the inside of the oven quite a bit. I used Bake Steam at 325F and maybe even Steam only at 210F would have been sufficient without causing the splatter? It's pretty easy to clean out the oven after doing an extra Steam run but I didn't really like having to do extra clean up. The meat was fabulous though and you don't need nearly as much braising liquid as you would in a dry oven. Maybe I used too much? But at the same time, even with the steam, you do get some evaporation after cooking that long. (I did almost 2 hours, but not sure I needed that much time) All the usual braising methods, pretty much - brown the meat, sauté onion, carrots, shallots, garlic - add red wine and beef stock. Put in casserole dish with some thyme and rosemary and bake-steam! After the meat was done, I removed it and strained the liquid and defatted it. Threw some lovely local nugget potatoes and carrots in the oven and steam-baked them while I reheated the braised ribs in a saucepan on the induction burner. Not a beautiful pic, but a very tasty meal!

More cooking in the Combo oven: This one was just OK. I put some fresh baby spinach in the little casserole dishes, then cracked some eggs on top and then some red peppers. My timing was off for the eggs, as the yolks became too hard. I did a steam only at 210F, not sure how I could make this work better. Definitely needs work. Very basic blueberry muffins. Needed something quick and had some blueberries and not a lot else. They baked up very nicely in the oven though. This was a huge winner - lasagna on the Steam Bake. The lovely thing is that you can make a non-watery sauce and the noodles (not home-made!) cook through very nicely without any of the dried out hard edges you can sometimes get in a regular oven. The sauce stayed thick and the noodles were just right and the cheese still browned nicely. Also, a decent-sized casserole dish fits in this oven, made 4 very generous servings. And finally, we have a bit of a weakness for Papa Murphy's pizza, so had to try a 12" one in the oven on a day when we had little time for making a meal. The oven was great, I rotated the pizza after this pic which evened out the baking. I do think the back is a bit hotter than the front so turning food is a good idea when you want even browning, etc. This is a Papa Murphy's with creamy garlic sauce, artichokes, mushrooms, black olives, feta cheese and pineapple. It looks a bit bent because it got squished in the car on the way home! All in all, still loving this little oven.

I have an over-the-range microwave (which was important to me because I didn't want to give up counter space for one) but I am using it far less than I used to - mostly because of the Cuisinart Convection-Steam Oven and the induction burner I bought. The Cuisinart and the induction burner perform many of the functions I used to use the MW for, although not always as quickly. But the results are usually better.

Do you eat any of the local fish while there?

Mmmm... Cider! We've always had cider in BC but we have better choices all the time. Two of my favourites on Vancouver Island are Merridale Ciderworks (which also has a nice little bistro) and Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse. I love the variety of ciders and Merridale does make a scrumpy, but I'm pretty sure it is tamer than the one liuzhou references! We also have larger BC producers like Growers or Okanagan Cider, but they churn out 'flavoured' ciders like Black Cherry or Peach, most of which I find unappealing and way too sweet. Their extra-dry apple isn't too bad, though, when choices are limited. But the smaller (artisanal?) producers have some lovely products. Nice little article on Merridale: http://vacay.ca/2012/10/this-vancouver-island-cider-house-rules/ I've found it hard to find cider in the US.

I like your choice in vodka - Iceberg is a nice brand!

Some of the best shrimp I ever had was in Oslo - small shrimp but so tasty - we had buckets of fresh shrimp steamed and we peeled it and ate it with fabulous bread, mayo and beer/wine. You know, Smørrebrød type stuff.

So maybe I just need to suck it up and try it! I don't have an easy way to do deep fried, but maybe that would make me braver about trying the heads.

I sometimes think I should dress our food up a bit more, but every day now we can get fresh pink shrimp straight off the boat and we live just above the marina and there's a very reliable shrimp boat that comes in every day at 6 pm. Back in June, we had Spot Prawns - big and amazing, but fussy to cook right and they have to be fresh. But they are so amazing when all goes well. The price is going crazy on them though, The pink shrimp we are getting now are more forgiving but we still like to buy them fresh off the boat and cook them immediately. Either sautéed or boiled, I adore them. I don't eat the heads though, and people give me grief over that. Do you eat the heads? What am I missing? I just don't like the look of them and we are very spoiled here - I can buy lots from the dock for a reasonable price.

I second Q Tonic - I love it's lighter taste and no high fructose corn syrup. From their website: And the link to their site: http://qtonic.com/index.html

Yes, I think you are quite right with your salmon suggestions and the type of things I will try in future! Or I might just use Steam only. Last time I used Steam/Bake and didn't bother with any broil. We are lucky - we live right by the ocean and we have a neighbour with a boat who likes to fish but he doesn't really like salmon so he gifts us some now and then. Anna, I hope you will try the beets again in the Cuisinart. I adore my little Cuisinart and have had so few problems with it, I'm sorry that you have not had better results.

I just commented over on the Manitoulin thread and didn't see that you folks were discussing the same thing here! I think I said before that i find the Steam Broil the least useful function for my purposes so far. Super Steam is great for cooking rice but I'm not sure I would use it for a lot of other functions though I will still try playing with it a bit. It makes sense that it's easier to burn things by using only the upper or lower elements for cooking - for example, 400F on Steam/Bake uses both upper and lower elements, but if you are trying to maintain a 400F oven by only using the lower element, then anything in the oven is more at risk of burning from the bottom, esp if your tray/rack are in the lower position. I assume that those elements are going to have to stay hotter to maintain that temp than it would by sharing the job with the upper elements. There might be times when you want extra heat on the bottom of the food, but with most I think you want even heat from above and below. Broiling, of course, has some obvious applications.

Super Steam uses the lower heating elements + steam. Bake Steam uses both upper and lower elements + steam. I agree that Bake Steam is a better choice for a veggie like beets that requires a longer slower cook and more balanced and even heat. However, for smaller beets I have used Steam only @ 210F and they were great. For larger ones, I would use Bake Steam. I use Super Steam for rice and I can see it for some quick-cooking veggies perhaps. But I do find that the top only (Broil Steam) or lower only (Super Steam) are tricky for cooking some things and it can be easy to overcook things. For example, I used Broil Steam to cook salmon and the top of the filet was browned more than I like. Edited to add: I place the rack and tray/pan/dish so that the food is centered in the oven for Steam/Bake. For Broil or Super Steam I would adjust the placement depending on what I am trying to achieve and type of food. With Super Steam the lower element is going to be hot, so placing anything in the lower position does put it at risk of burning.

I love this soup on cool days. It (or variations of it) help clean out leftover produce, also. Sauté onions, garlic in some olive oil. Add 'curry-type' seasonings or blends - sometimes I make it a bit hot with extra cayenne or red pepper flakes. Add chickpeas (I often have some in the freezer), chicken or veggie stock, fresh or canned tomatoes. Possibly carrots. Spinach or beet greens (this one had both). Possibly a bit of tomato paste.

You won't use up a ton of summer squash with this Early Summer Risotto recipe from Simple Bites, but I thought it was so lovely. You could, of course, increase the squash and decrease the other veggies. I love the squash blossoms! Picture is from (and recipe is at) Simple Bites: http://www.simplebites.net/early-summer-risotto-with-new-garden-vegetables/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+SimpleBites+(Simple+Bites)

Keep a cold pitcher of water in the fridge with lots of sliced cucumber in it. One of my favourite summertime drinks. Well, until cocktail hour, that is. But there are cucumber cocktails also, like this one: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Cucumber-Gin-Cooler Also, you can invite the girls over for British Tea one afternoon and make classic cucumber tea sandwiches or use cucumber + prawn, cucumber + cream cheese + red pepper, etc.

It is - both Scotland and Canada use the 'whisky' spelling. (and maybe Japan?) The rest of the world is just wrong. Here is one explanation: http://www.thekitchn.com/whiskey-vs-whisky-whats-the-di-100476

I haven't read all the way to the end of the current comments so not sure if anyone else has said this, but if it's whiskey it's not Canadian (whisky). Edited to add the smiley, to look less like an annoying dweeb.

FrogPrincesse (thanks!) got me started on this one - it contains peaches and golden beets, along with butter lettuce, Walla Walla onion, sweet red pepper and goat cheese. Almost everything is local or from nearby. Dressing was comprised of olive oil, white wine vinegar, fresh squeezed orange juice, a touch of honey, basil and pepper.

I have a One Touch opener as well. I love it because I am left-handed and manual openers are backwards for me. I've had the One Touch for at least a few years and had no problems with it. It does require a couple of AA batteries and it seems to go through them a bit faster than I would have expected, though nothing outrageous. It's fairly compact and fits in a drawer easily. It's not super easy to clean but it's not impossible either. I like the idea of that rechargeable one, andiesenji, would you recommend it?

I was thinking that if you really want the taste of dry-roasted veggies, then adding steam won't give you what you want. However, I would have loved to know how that chicken and orange dish would have worked in the Steam-Bake mode. I have cooked rice in the Cuisinart, then kept it warm while I steam-roasted some protein.

Anna (and weinoo), I have to say that I find the Steam-Broil function the least useful of the Cuisi functions for my purposes. I find that veggies or fish or whatever are usually better done with either Steam-Bake or Steam only. I tried salmon on Steam-Broil and it was not as good as the other functions. I do use steam-bake for several types of veggies and especially for potatoes. Right now, we get lovely little nugget potatoes locally and they are heavenly when steam-baked. No foil needed. 350F to 400F or so.

I have the Cuisinart steam oven so I steam-bake the beets in it w/o any foil. Here is a salad I make frequently at this time of year when we get the fresh local nugget potatoes and local green beans and the tomatoes are good (though not always local). Warm potato salad - steam or steam-bake those lovely little nugget potatoes then add green beans to steam a bit more, some kind of chopped onion and mix together while still hot with some chopped tomatoes and the onion. A bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and top with feta cheese and maybe some green onions. This alone can be dinner.

What do you like to put in your meatloaf? Is that carrot I see? Or red pepper? I like to add grated onion (always), maybe some grated carrot or some chopped spinach or beet greens. Maybe grated apple if I use a bit more ground pork in the meat mix than usual.

I was joking somewhat. Though we really do crave the Bick's burger relish every now and again. The very best relishes are the ones I make, of course! Ahem. And no fluorescent green in those!