Shel_B

Good point about the length of the blade. I recall reading that many bread knife blades are too short, so I'll be sure to pay attention to the length of the blade. Thanks!

That Forschner [Victorinox] you linked to is our current very satisfactory breadknife. The offset blade does a couple of things - it keeps your knuckles up off the board, and it gives you an effect similar to the depth of blade your 'chef' knife allows. That's to say that you can pinch grip, and have better control over direction of cut. Bread knives are saws of an altogether cruder nature than honed stropped razor-sharp wonders, but [iMO] a thick blade doesn't help much when you are trying for a clean slice through crust and crumb. When Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" came out he wrote that many chefs had taken to carrying an offset blade as a go-to general purpose knife, using them [i paraphrase here] for just about everything, sawing up frozen materials, cutting bread etc. I always pictured one of these. Great info about the knife shape. Thanks! Good to know you're satisfied with the Victorinox.

This afternoon was the last straw - my old, weak bread knife is going into retirement, but before that can happen, I need a new one. The old one had trouble cutting the heavy crust on a pain levain, and I'm tired of fighting that hard-to-handle blade. I need a knife that will easily cut bagels, hard crusts on artisan breads, soft rolls and pastries, like brioche or croissant. What do you recommend? I've seen knives with similar shapes to this one: http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Cutlery-9-Inch-Polypropylene-Handle/dp/B0019WZ7EW/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_11/187-2965196-0926155?ie=UTF8&qid=1387859263&sr=8-11&keywords=bread+knife What are the advantages / disadvantages to such a shape? What knife might you recommend? Thanks! Oh, I should mention that I'd like to keep the cost around $50.00 or so, and certainly not more than $75.00. Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays

The difference is the number of times you use it before placing it there, which reduces the number of bottles that have to be recycled.Don't forget the energy used to transport those plastic bottles of water. Depending on the brand, some of those bottles travel a great distance. And then there's the resources used in making and transporting the bottles themselves, and their raw materials. I couldn't stand to see Toots drinking time and again from old plastic bottles, so I bought her an appropriately sized stainless water bottle: http://www.kleankanteen.com/

Hope you get one that you like ...

Thanks! That's good to know.

Don't know why I didn't think of the Tokyo market. Thanks for the kick in the butt! I don't know if I've tried Lundberg basmati, although I know I tried their brown basmati. I used to get my basmati in large bags from India. The stuff was aged and it was superior to any other basmati I'd tried. Be interesting to see how the Lundberg compares. Thanks!

Thanks for the helpful reply. Just the kind of info I'm looking for.

Very helpful - a good start!

I'd like to experiment a little with white rice. I'm far from familiar with all the options that are available. I'm familiar with basmati, jasmine, arborio, as well as standard long grain rice, but not much else. I read a reference to coconut rice, which I never heard of, and that's what prompted my question. So, what's out there, what's it like, and where can I get it? And what'd coconut rice like? Thanks!

Styrofoam wine shipping containers: http://www.uline.com/BL_5450/Styrofoam-Wine-Shippers Why you shouldn't use Styrofoam: http://www.paulgregutt.com/2011/10/dreaded-styrofoam-wine-shippers.html Special cardboard containers: http://www.spiritedshipper.com/?gclid=CKT5gJDgwbsCFe1xQgodHkgA0g Made in the US from strong corrugated Kraft cardboard, our wine shippers are layered with extra cushioning and include a special insert for each and every bottle for safe and secure shipping. Light weight and tough, our wine shipping containers are environmentally safe, fully recyclable and made with recycled material. They ship flat, saving you money and valuable storage space.

The question isn't just that, but what other damage or degradation may occur. The oven isn't self cleaning, however, it seems that there's an open flame from the heating element of the oven. I should check that to be sure.

In the FWIW Department, we have a commercial coffee maker at the Senior Center where I teach http://www.cw-usa.com/equipment-commercial-coffeepotbrewers-bunn-pourover-vps.html?utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=googlebase&cvsfa=3170&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=323833&gclid=CLjN9tClvbsCFYw1QgodLCgANA I always thought that the filters for these machines http://www.bunn.com/pages/commercl/related/rel_paper_filters.html would be ideal for use in a bowl strainer. I may grab one or two from the center and see just how well they work in my situation. I'd imagine the size of the strainer would be important, and need to fit the filters appropriately. Did you mention if you had anything specific in mind to filter?

We ALWAYS use separators. Yes, I think they're pretty good. I had one that lasted a L-O-N-G time, replaced the set, and then got another set for Toots. Here's an interesting aside: the new pans are stamped "Dishwasher Safe" on the bottom. The earlier pans were not recommended for the dishwasher.

Haven't a clue what the manual says. Toots has the manual filed somewhere and we can take a look at it. Never thought of that, although I don't expect to learn much, if anything, from the manual.

Toots has a new skillet. It's an anodized aluminum Calphalon non-stick model, specifically this one: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/calphalon-reg-contemporary-nonstick-10-inch-and-12-inch-omelet-pan-set/1014506683 Storage space is tight in her kitchen, and she was thinking of storing the skillet in the drawer that's below the oven in her gas range. We'd like to know if leaving the skillet in that drawer while the oven is on could damage the skillet. Thanks!

I cut slices thin and thick, toasted them a fair amount and per the instructions. Never had dry and baked toast. Maybe it's the choice of bread. Shelf has never ended up on the counter. Can't imagine why yours does.

Breville BOV450XL Mini Smart Oven Review, such as it is ... Tuesday I purchased a standard-shaped loaf of very good quality (http://acmebread.com/bread/whole_wheat) whole wheat bread, and Wednesday morning I made three slices of toast in the Breville. I was minimally disappointed as the top of the bread was nice and crispy, just the way I like it, but the bottom seemed somewhat insipid and nowhere near as crispy. I’m not obsessive about my toast, so it was OK enough to eat and enjoy, but the next time I made toast I flipped the slices about half way through, and tried to get an even toast and crispness on each side. That helped a bit, and now my toast is nice and evenly toasted on both sides. In addition, all the slices were charred at the top of the slice, where the knife entered the loaf at the crust. I don’t understand that. Last night I baked three potatoes and the results were just about perfect. What impressed me was how quickly the oven preheated. I suspect that the Breville will save some electricity $$ over time, just on potatoes alone. I’ll know just how much after the Kill-A-Watt gets here, although it’s not much of an issue. My electric bill over the past three months has averaged about $5.00/month, so from a cost standpoint it’s not very important. However, I do like to conserve, and enjoy the challenge of reducing electric usage as much as possible. My best month was $4.56, and I’d love to get down to below $4.00 – just to see if it can be done. The rack doesn’t slide out when the door is opened. I knew that was the case before we got the oven, but I didn’t realize that it would annoy me so even though the workaround is simple and easy. Size wise, it’s just about perfect. The Breville’s footprint is small enough that it fits comfortably in several places in the kitchen, and I may choose to move it around a bit to see what works best for me. How nice to have options. Well, that’s all for this review. Maybe there will be more comments when I’ve used it more, and for different things.

I've decided to go with the Kill-A-Watt. Here's an brief article about these devices. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/march-2009/appliances/energy-monitors/overview/energy-monitors-ov.htm

Definitely worth looking into. Thanks!

Yeah, Romertopf - that's the other terra cotta pan I have. There is really no comparison between the Tufty ceramics terra cotta and the Romertopf - they are worlds apart.

The terra cotta pans I'm referencing are a little different than others, certainly different than the other terra cotta pan I have. http://tuftyceramics.com/ and http://tuftyceramics.com/history.html to give you some general idea about the pans. I don't know if the manufacturing technique would be considered glazed or not. What I do know for certain is that I have been using one of their loaf pans for almost 30-years and have never found a need to soak it in water. While not having made a clafoutis in the pan, I have used the one pan for bread, sweet, dessert bread, vegetable and meat terrines, meat loaf, and probably some other dishes as well. It's one swell pan, and I like it so much I just bought three more after looking for the pans for many years.

Thanks for the tip... looks pretty complicated to me.

That looks about my speed, and is pretty much as I imagined what I wanted. Thanks!

That's not the info I'm looking for. I want to measure actual use while the appliance is running, i.e., how much juice the fridge uses when it cycles on, how much the toaster uses when it's toasting, etc. Sorry if I wasn't clear.