Katie Meadow

After another half day of shopping at the showroom with the most dishwashers and the best floor help and very good prices (plus free hotdogs, popcorn, bottled water, and just-baked cookies if you can believe this) we have determined our kitchen remodel of 1992 will probably haunt us into the grave. The space in which our old KitchenAid just fit will not accomodate any new KitchenAid and almost nothing else. We're talking about a quarter inch of space here. Aside from some very short low-end American models that don't have stainless tubs (which I want), would require inventive carpentry to hide its low stature and which exist only to comply with the American Disabilities Act, there are only two models that are adjustable down by that critical quarter inch we need: a high-end Bosch for something like $1200 and a lower end Asko which we can get for $850. If anyone has anything nice to say about Asko, now's the time. I did read this full thread, and it sounds like A) not too many people have them, and B) they may need more repairs than KA and Bosch and may not last as long but C) if you're lucky you will get a good one and be happy with it. $850 (white ext. panel, not ss) seems like a good price for an Asko. More money than we were expecting to pay, but the racks are really nice and you can stick on a strip that's in French to explain the cute little icons on the front. And since we're not French that seems cool.

Thanks, these comments are very useful. Tomorrow we are going to look at Kitchen Aids and Bosch and others. I called a friend who has a Bosch this morning to get his take and he said, "Funny you should mention this..." and he informed me that there's just been a recall of nearly 500,000 bosch dishwashers--including his--due to an electrical element that can overheat and cause a fire. I don't believe it applies to dishwashers sold in the last couple of years, but make sure you didn't let that letter from Bosch get buried in a stack of mail. Those with problematic models are being told not to use their machines. Anyway, he's very happy with his Bosch, recall aside.

Bumping this thread up to see if anyone has anything new to add in the last two years. Our KitchenAid is finally having serious problems, after about 17 years of pretty good performance. It wasn't quiet, and didn't even do a fabulous job of cleaning, but it was satisfactory and until now the only problem has been a broken latch for five years that necessitates the use of a grapefruit knife to open the door. But it worked without a singe service call for 17 years. (No replacement latches exist.) It replaced a 30yr old KitchenAid that was in it's death throes when we moved in. I'm looking at low-end Bosch and KA. I've eliminated the snazzy looking LG on the basis of some dreadful reviews. My husband is intrigued by the Bosch drying system--me not so much. It appears that the hookup is pretty different, and perhaps the hookup would be easier w/another KitchenAid. One thing about the KA I liked was the "energy-saver dry" button, which simply stopped the machine before the heat-dry. In another hour or so the dishes were dry enough to put away. I don't know if the new ones have this option. I want quiet, but I don't need silent. I'm sure both would be quiet enough for us. We are now only two people and don't even run the dishwasher every day. My most important criteria are reliable performance, longevity and good design. We rinse well before loading and don't put pots and pans in as a rule. I want stainless interior and a top shelf tall enough for salad plates and wine glasses. I was sad to see that all the new dishwashers have seemingly cheesy racks. Our 17yr old racks appear to be steel coated with a very durable material and still look excellent. I prefer the look of the stainess panel, but it sounds like white might be easier to keep looking clean or free of spots (white is what we have now.) Do you think that's the case? I don't want to constantly be noticing the panel. White is cheaper of course. The kitchen can probably live with either stainless or white, since the range is ss and the fridge is white. So any new thoughts on these two brands? Also, any thoughts on the idea of the fully integrated controls as opposed to controls on the front panel? Thanks!

My daughter is doing a semester abroad in Athens so her 21st birthday happened here without her. I miss her, so I baked a cake! Don't ask what came over me--I hardly ever bake. I made the Buttermilk Cake with Spiced Vanilla Icing from the current Feb issue. Fine Cooking must be wary of advertising the ingredients in this cake in the title, because what's significant about it isn't that it's made with buttermilk, but that it's made with a substantial amount of grated butternut squash and the icing is studded with crystallized ginger. The squash all but disappears and no one would believe 2+ cups of coarsely grated vegetable was in this cake. It came out looking beautiful, and it tasted great. It's a very easy recipe (which is how I need my baking to be.) Really really good. It didn't need the full hour to cook--it was done in 50 minutes, but my oven may be on the hot side.

I've never seen a cast iron wok. I thought most traditional woks were carbon steel (aka black steel or blue steel). They build up a nice finish so stuff doesn't stick, heat well, and are light enough to be able to pick up and dump the contents out quickly as needed when everything is done. I would think a cast iron wok of adequate dimensions would be prohibitively heavy. I guess I don't think of a wok as needing to "hold" heat--they just need to get really hot for a relatively short amount of time. The carbon steel seems able to distribute the heat well enough up the sides to make it an effective tool for stir-fry.

Hi Dave, I'm sorry to hear about your strokes. That's scary, to get a wake-up call like that. How are you feeling? I've always enjoyed your posts about cheese, especially because I enjoy them vicariously. For the past several years I have cut way way back on cheeses and animal fats because my cholesterol is borderline high. So believe me, I sympathize. I don't have any suggestions about low-fat cheeses. You're the expert, so I'm guessing you already know what's what in your neighborhood. "Low-fat" is a relative term, anyway; low-fat cheeses probably still have plenty of fat in them. I'm guessing there are some nice chevres out there with less fat than a triple creme brie, but if you eat all the chevres you want you will still be getting more fat than your doctor probably thinks you should. But here's how I deal with my diet restrictions (and I have others which would be too tiresome to name and which are far worse, at least to my mind, than just eliminating cholesterol-bearing foods.) How I cope might not work for everyone, but it works for me. There are a few cheeses I just can't imagine living without forever, so I treat them like the precious gifts they are and only indulge once in a great while. And wow, do I enjoy it when I do. I find that there are plenty of cheeses I can live without totally and that most of the low-fat substitutes ultimately are not worth bothering with. Take care of yourself. Just think about all the fabulous spring vegetables you will be having soon, and then...summer fruits!

Valrhona. Really deep taste.

I make five very different kinds of chili/chile. 1) Very traditional New Mexico "bowl of green" or green chile stew using only long-cooked pork, roasted green chiles and sometimes potatoes. MUST be accompanied by flour tortillas! 2) Red chile with pork made with New Mexico dried red chiles and tomatoes, coffee and/or chocolate (or cocoa). Sometimes, but not always, I add rattlesnake beans at the end. 3) Chipotle chile with pork or beef that uses stout or dark beer and black beans. This one and #2 tend to cross-pollinate somewhat. 4) Vegetarian black bean chili that has tons of veggies and garnishes and is a family recipe that everyone has put their own spin on. Best in summer when fresh corn is sweetest. 5) American Chili. This is the kind of chili I make when I have nostalgia for the potlucks of my youth. It uses course-ground beef, tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, ground chile (I use NM or ancho), and typical spices like oregano and cumin. It gets beans at the end, and a finish w/cider vinegar. Sometimes I add cocoa as well. It might as well be called New York Chili or California or Heartland Chili, since it can be made without using regional specialty foods and by shopping any big grocery store. I used to call it Texas style, but I'm sure that's not actually correct. Is there a chili that's Texan or Tex-mex? I'm guessing there are a lot of different Texas traditions when it comes to chili or chile. I lived in New Mexico and not in Texas. So BBQ sauce? Why not? At the risk of being slammed by purists--if there is such a thing as a chili/chile purist--it seems like a wide-open field. (Not like the land of pizza, ha ha, where purists are born and nurtured.) Sometimes I use a stock made from ham shanks or hocks to get a smoky taste. Using smoked meats in chili might be pretty yummy. A little BBQ sauce would be a quick 'n' dirty way of adding smokiness. Go easy, so you don't end up with something that tastes like...bbq sauce.

Is it just me, or do others find that shopping at farmers' markets is not necessarily a way to lower food costs? If I had unlimited funds I would do most of my shopping at the Berkeley farmers' market--everything there is beautiful. But my husband and I have roughly calculated the price of one bag of vegetables at about $30. I'm talking about onions, beets, greens, peppers, lettuce, beans and so on. Make that lots of tomatoes and a few peaches in the summer and we're talking more like $40 per bag. A dozen eggs from free-range chickens are now over $7. Perhaps south of me on the central coast the farms are local so the produce doesn't have to travel. It isn't exactly making a small footprint to drive a pickup truck from the farm 3 or 4 hours to Berkeley. I appreciate the value of shopping locally and organic, but it costs a premium in many locations and isn't realistic for anyone watching their dollars and cents.

Just about any place is cheaper than Whole Foods. I will check it out next time I am at TJs. Thanks! Tri2, I didn't even know a dark corn syrup existed. I don't get out much, do I? This ketchup recipe is the only thing I make that calls for corn syrup, so it's the only reason I buy it.

Okay, I'm curious... when I was gung-ho about making my own Viet coffee last summer I think I tried to get some Trung Nguyen, but couldn't find it in the bean, only pre-ground. Is it available in whole beans? I think I gave up the search quickly once I became fascinated with the chicory thing. I was adding it to all my coffee, Viet or not.

The drip contraptions or press-cups are obtainable on line--I know because a friend ordered me a couple as a gift. They came with instructions, but I found better instructions on line. I like a little more coffee for the amt of condensed milk than is typical I think. I have experimented with various coffees and find that, as with most things coffee, the best is usually whatever you favor ordinarily, freshly ground. A french roast is a good bet. Cafe du Monde has a nice web site, and I'm sure you can order the coffee that way. I simply use my regular favorite coffee and add some chicory--which is what Cafe du Monde is: french roast coffee with chicory. Chicory can be bought ground (it's the root, not the leaf) and I like to add it to the coffee when it is about half-way ground, then grind it a bit more. I have used several different condensed milks. Longevity Brand has a very cool looking can with a picture of a wise old sage doing something mysterious, and, at least in my neck of the woods it is a little cheaper. In fact, it is made in Holland and distributed by Sun Hing in So San Francisco. Truthfully I don't notice a big difference. They are all sweet enough to send you into orbit. Yum!

Agave nectar sounds like an interesting idea. How available is it? I'll check it out. It sounds fairly neutral in flavor, so I guess if I wanted to introduce a hint of maple flavor I could just back off the nectar and add a little maple syrup. It's a pretty good recipe--great on burgers and has the right consistency for use as a meatloaf frosting; I'll never go back to store-bought ketchup. so I'm not after an overhaul, just a new twist. What is inverted sugar and when is it used?

It's still there on Grant Ave. They have a web site, so maybe you could mail order one from them. I know I got my carbon steel wok in SF Chinatown, when I lived just up the hill on Powell, which means I've had that wok for almost 30 years. That's a little scary, but not because the wok is old. I would think carbon steel woks are available in any Chinatown in a major city, but check out www.wokshop.com

You mean "subbed for" right? In other words, if I decided to use Lyle's or Maple syrup I would need less of it than the recipe calls for karo? Okay, good. I don't want the end result to taste sweet. Tri2: yes, you read me right. Don't ask me why I want to dump the karo, I just do. I think I want a new mystery taste. But I don't want whatever I sub for the karo to overwhelm the ketchup.

For those of you in the east bay who are interested, my husband just came back from Berkeley Bowl with a bergamot and a pile of Sevilles. He claims the Sevilles appear to be a fresh crop and better looking than the last two batches we bought. And this is the first time he's seen bergamot there this year.

I admit my question was partly inspired by comments in the pecan pie thread, in which it was noted that Rose Levy Beranbaum uses Lyle's Golden Syrup instead of Karo or corn syrup. I love Lyle's, but the only thing I ever use it for is Laurie Colwin's recipe for "Damp Gingerbread." Now I'm thinking of making a pecan pie, but that's beside the point, too. Okay, so I make a knockout meatloaf which gets a "frosting" of home-made ketchup-type sauce before getting a decorative bacon wrap and going into to the oven. The recipe for the ketchup includes, among many other things, corn syrup. It's the only time I ever use corn syrup, and although I have made this ketchup a million times, until the other day I never even tasted the corn syrup by itself. It's rather icky, isn't it? So, here's what I want to do. I want to sub something for the one-third cup of corn syrup in my ketchup. Subbing Lyle's would never have occured to me for a savory dish, but it doesn't have a super strong flavor of its own, which is why it might work--and if you can sub it in a sweet thing, why not in a savory? Maple syrup and shagbark hickory syrup might be interesting, but they have so much of their own flavor they would risk changing this into something that isn't essentially ketchup, although it does already have a subtle bbq / smoky nature. What about using brown sugar? Surely the proportions are changed if using a granular product vs. a syrup--and frankly, I need help with that one. What do you think I should use to get Karo out of my Ketchup?

The question "Is it worth it....?" Well, it's worth it if it isn't creating stress. If you are too tired, feel you need more help or just want to relax with a glass of wine and have someone else make you dinner once in a while, then forcing yourself to do all the work isn't worth it. You mention spending $100 a week on food. I would venture to say that's a tight budget for two people. We never go out, eat roughly half our meals vegetarian, purchase expensive meats or seafood infrequently and we spend more than that. Anyway, I am assuming that you don't eat out because it's not in your budget, as it isn't in ours these days, so giving yourselves a break by having dinner out isn't an option. My husband is the clean-up hitter, and he does the big shopping on the weekend. I cook every night, although sometimes I run out of steam, ingredients or any sort of motivation. On those nights we have completely unbalanced wacky meals. And you may be like me: I would rather have scrambled eggs with a side of buttered carrots when that's the only thing left in the crisper than pay for junk food just because it's cheap. I cook a big pot of beans or a casserole or "vat of the week" soup on the weekend and that helps. Some weeks we have great dinners, some weeks not so great. Once in a while our dinners are just pathetic! Like home-made popcorn and a plate of raw kohlrabi! But then we drink some cheap scotch and have some dark chocolate and feel better. So don't feel bad about taking some shortcuts and don't beat up on yourself if you don't have time to bake bread or put together a perfect meal.

.....dining out. We eat almost 100% of our meals at home, and my husband brown-bags his lunch every day. Learning to make my own potstickers has taken the edge off that one. .....expensive sources of protein. Rib-eyes and ahi tuna are a once-a-month treat. We're eating a lot more chicken, and I'm learning how to roast a really good one (and that is partly thanks to you, Chris), although Rocky and Rosie aren't exactly cheap dates. I've also perfected my meatloaf. And we eat a LOT of beans--although I admit to purchasing relatively expensive heirloom beans. Still a deal, though! .....store-bought marmalade. We consume vast amounts of this, but now we make our own. This is production season! .....high-end scotch. Although in fairness we quit that one a few years ago. .....cheeses. This is mostly a health thing for me, but I'm surprised at how much I used to spend per month on Clarins, La Tur, Stilton, etc. Now I buy it when company comes and bliss out with an itty bitty portion. .....Panzanella crackers. Okay, I haven't kicked this habit totally, but I have cut way back. Original flavor's pretty good with Stilton.

Although EVOO isn't synonymous with "tastes great," there's plenty of EVOO around that's adequate and not expensive that can be used for cooking. Recently there was an expose of olive oils, and I am guessing that some really low-price super-market brands are not only not EV, but may not be all olive oil, either, so I would be wary of those, although I don't have a clue how you could tell. In my area I buy bulk Italian EVOO for cooking at a specialty store I frequent. For drizzling or finishing I buy something better--whatever tastes really good to me--and I make it last. If there's a place near you that sells quality products you could talk to them about it; I trust my store to be dispensing a decent oil. When you buy from a bulk source and fill your own bottle you can buy in small quantities. In days gone by I would purchase giant cans of Italian EVOO for good prices, but I was probably using rancid oil by the time the can was half way down. If you can find something like that for a good price and have a couple of friends who want to share, you can decant it and everyone get a pretty good deal.

I've had lemon sorbet with basil--that's yummy. How about lime with thai basil? Grapefruit with tarragon is a tried and true combo for sorbet/palate cleanser. I would stick with white cane sugar--it's nice and pure. Expensive sugars like demerara might be wasted in a frozen dessert....?

There are probably a million ways to make marmalade. I prefer a delicate, clear fine-cut marmalade and that's what I've been making this month. Without going into the details of the recipe, my method is as follows. The oranges are juiced and the peel set aside. A percentage of the pips are put in a bag and hung from the side of the pot. Water is added to the juice and this mix is simmered. Meanwhile, we scrape the peel we plan to use to get rid of all the pith, and very finely cut the peel. I like a modest amount of cut peel in the final product, just enough to add a little depth of flavor and extra bitterness and give the marmalade some texture. I don't like using the white pith at all. I find it makes the marmalade cloudy and I don't like the flavor of it. After half an hour the peel is added to the pot and the mix is simmered another half hour. Then the pips are removed and the resulting juice is measured. Sugar is added per cup of juice. The pip bag is squeezed to get a teaspoon or so more pectin (or whatever that gloopy stuff is called), which is added to the mix and then the mix boils until it reaches the desired temp, and poured into jars. The cut peel does not seem essential to the chemistry of marmalade. We use far less than even our recipe suggests and it makes absolutely no difference to how "set up" the finished marmalade is. How well it sets up depends upon the quantity of pips, the amount of sugar, and the cooking time. So yes, you could make a clear marmalade without any peel. It might not be a true jelly (I'm not sure what that is, actually, since I've never made one) but it would be well set like a jelly if you cooked it on the longer side.

Not sure how Sevilles got into the Bergamot thread. The best place to buy either of them in the East Bay is Berkeley Bowl; right now they have plenty of Sevilles but no bergamot. Last year we got Sevilles all January and February there. Last year we added a little bergamot juice to one batch of seville marmalade and that was great. Bergamot has a very short season--like maybe three weeks here. Usually it is around New Years. In years past on New Year's eve we made Bergamotinis by simply subbing bergamot juice (but a bit less) for lemon juice in a Leap Year cocktail. Very exotic!

Chezcherie, I was inspired by your cream of poblano soup recipe. I made a terrific soup tonight, being lucky enough to have all the ingredients on hand--and not much else! I used your proportions with the following substitutions: New Mexico green chiles that had been roasted and frozen, red boiling potatoes instead of a russet, and for stock I used a rich turkey stock that I had frozen after the holidays. I used the blender and didn't strain the soup. For the finish I used half and half and milk. No cheese. If I had cilantro I might have garnished with that. The chiles turned out to be hotter than I expected (they were Big Jim's which are relatively mild for NM green) so the soup was pretty hot; next time I will use a bit less. A great and very simply soup--thanx!

Okay, not to embarrass me or my husband, but here's our hurdle. I don't like to sharpen knives. It sets my teeth on edge and makes me nervous. My husband likes to sharpen knives (with a steel and a stone) but he doesn't know how to do it properly. Here's what has happened to our stainless steel knives: He invariably--over the years--wears them down unevenly, so the knife blade ends up with a slight convex curve. In other words if you put the cutting edge on a board you could see light coming through the middle. Functionless, right? Walk in my clogs and try mincing parsley with a tool like that. I will take a look at the knife you are suggesting, but I may have to make a choice between extra cost and harmony vs. steel and strife. Thanks!