annieC

Don't forget you can get Oster mini-blend jar to use with any standard Oster blender, which makes it much like the Magic Bullet. The smallest containers hold about 1 cup, and come with their own lids so they can be put in the fridge. They also have some larger ones, Oster Blend-n-Go cup, which holds 2 cups, I think. You can also use regular Mason canning jars, pint size ones are great, as are the ones with handles. Just don't use it for anything real hot, since there is no where for the steam to escape. This blog post covers it pretty well. As for immersion blenders, Braun has one of the smallest separate food chopper attachment, like others mentioned. A lot of other ones that have seperate food chooper attachments tend to hold 2-4 cups, which probably wouldn't be as useful in this case. If you know someone who shops at thrift shops, they can even watch out for extra Braun food chopper attachments- I know I picked up 2 or 3 for the Braun immersion blender I bought for my sister that way.

Shoreline Fruits, out of Michigan & northern NY have unsweetened regular dried cranberries for $52 for 4 pound box. Their organic sweetened cranberries are only $29 for a 4 pound box, so it looks like unsweetened ones are going to run a lot higher (their sweetened, regular cranberries are only $19 for 4 pounds). I use their dried fruits all the time, since they are a local company to me. When I get the chance, I love to stock up directly from them in northern Michigan; otherwise I have to rely on what Meijer's grocery/dept stores carry.

Little early yet here in Michigan I'm afraid...I'd have to shovel through a couple feet of snow just to get to my garden areas-lol. Shops are just getting their seeds in, so I did break down and buy some tomato seeds to start inside in another 5-6 weeks. I was very disappointed they didn't have much else out yet other then seeds & few starter sets, so I couldn't even start planning & dreaming, since this is the first year I've done much gardening in over a decade.

I keep liquid lecithin in the fridge, and I'm surprised as often as I grab it...though I have to admit, half the time is for making skin care recipes-lol. I think from using it there so much, I've started thinking where to use in cooking & baking more often. With all my allergies, I can't use no stick sprays to prepare pans, but I found straight oil, butter, etc just didn't cut it. Especially on my waffle iron- it seemed like it needed to be oiled after every couple waffles. I finally mixed up a concoction of butter with coconut oil and a little liquid lecithin, which works great- I only have to grease the waffle iron every 8-12 waffles or so, using a silicone brush with short cut bristles to spread it around. For baking, I use the same basic mixture, with a little flour added. Here is some more info from Bob's Red Mill: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipe/detail.php?rid=564 Can't help you on the Xanthan Gum- its grown on corn, so its out for me...to bad I didn't realize that before I bought a bag of it, which is still sitting here by my computer because I don't have the heart to throw it out.

I have a slightly different Wolfgang Puck immersion blender- its the same wattage, just a little different style. I've been very happy with it- I just used it to make homemade soymilk this afternoon, and was pleasantly surprised at how there wasn't any waste to speak of, as it processed the cooked beans finely enough to pass through an extremely fine reusable gold coffee filter. I'm making ricemilk right now, and its handling processing the thick rice mixture with no problems, and that's with very little extra water added yet (because somehow I always forget how much rice swells up & how starchy it is compared to other grain or bean based milks-lol). I picked my WP immersion blender up at Big Lots before Christmas- and I liked it so much that when I saw one on markdown for $15 after Christmas, I picked up a spare....some days in the kitchen its just nice to have a clean processing head to switch out to.

I you- I've been wanting some of those silicone pinch bowls for a while, but I have a couple extra silicone cupcake pans that will work perfectly. They came in a 9x13" silicone cake pan I bought for a couple bucks at GoodWill, which has turned out to be the most perfect pan for making marshmallows in, since they don't stick to the silicone. I'm on the lookout for another large silicone cake pan, so I can make larger batches of marshmallows or make my currant size batch shorter, as sometimes they turn out to be 2 1/2-3" thick. I've cut up some of those rubbery silicone baking mats to use for various things, especially since I now have almost enough Silpats for all my 1/4 & 1/2 sized sheet pans. I've been tempted to try to cut a new gasket for my Oster blender out of some of the silicone stuff- I have a lot of extra carafes for my blender, but the rubber gaskets don't hold up very well.

One of my favorite things about silicone pot holders & mitts is that I can wash them so easily. How often do we end up sticking an oven mitt right into whatever food stuff we're handling, and if they are not silicone, you're stuck with food goop until laundry day, at the least. And judging by some of the oven mitts I've seen at peoples houses, a lot of don't ever get washed. With my silicone pot holders & mitts, I can wash them in the sink, dry them off and go back to using a clean mitt in a matter of minutes. Maybe I'm OCD, but I especially like to be able to wash the inside of my oven mitts- I hate to think what all might be inside some of those cloth mitts people have. I also like that silicone gives more grip, since I don't have the best hand strength. There are many pans I would have dropped if I tried handling them with a typical mitt. I grab my silicone mitts for opening jars or other jobs where I need a good grip.

Can I say I'm jealous? Hopefully one of these days I'll come across a RC in decent shape with a reasonable price, but for now I'll be happy with my $2.50 DLC-10E, complete with all standard attachments/blades. And its older sister, a $5 DLC-10E that only came with the chopping blade & grating blade. I'm just so glad to be rid of the el'chepo Black & Decker food processor I bought back when I was in college 15 years ago.

Check your local Bed Bath & Beyond- I picked up a Bonjour Culinary Laser Thermometer on clearance for $29.99, marked down several times from its original price of $89.90, just like this one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/BonJour-Culinary-Las.../dp/B0001K18B4/ Even better, I used a 20% off coupon to bring it down to $23.99 I've seen them at a couple BB&B stores in different cities, usually in the kitchen gadget section, on the shelf way back in the corner, almost always nearly on the floor or practically hidden under other misc kitchen gadgets. I keep it out, stored right under my microwave, which sits in an exhaust/light unit for the stove. Having it handy right where all the cooking goes on makes it easy to grab to check the temp of a pan or waffle iron or even sugar syrup when I make marshmallows. I've gotten to the point with my marshmallows where I pretty much don't need to use a candy thermometer, which I only put in for the last couple of minutes when its really boiling. One thing the laser thermometer is good for is to double check the accuracy of other thermometers in a jiffy- it let me know one of my candy thermometers was way off at sugar temps, even though it pretty accurate when I tested it in boiling water.

I've been finding some great stuff at local thrift shops the past few weeks. The one I'm happiest about was finding a complete Cuisinart DLC-10E food processor, with all its attachments for $5. It got even better when they passed out coupons to change the color of any one item to the color of the week, making it half of, especially since the Cuisinart was the only thing in my cart that wasn't the sale color- $2.50 for a Cuisinart food processor-lol. I already had another DLC-10E I have picked up for $5 that only had the metal chopping blade & a grating disk- I plan on keeping it, since its nice to have a second work bowl set at times. Some other good finds have included a Pampered Chief pizza stone for $3; a Squeezo food mill for $5, an older model Food Saver that lets you manual override to seal whenever you want for $3, 3 rolls of Food Saver bags for $2 & several Food Saver containers for $1-$2 each; a 3-4qt Romertopf clay 'stuffing baker' that they no longer make for $5; an electric Brisker- http://www.fantes.com/brisker.htm - for $2.50, which I'm toying with the idea of using as a proofing box by adding humidity; an Oster blender for $1.50 because it was missing a push button- but the glass carafe looks brand new, as does the blade, which of course fits my Oster blender; and 2 Salton yogurt makers for $1.50 each, one is the smaller regular size & the other is the larger family size. Now I just need to find a couple larger waffle irons, so I can make more at one time- I just can't bring myself to buy new waffle irons when I know how often they show up at GoodWill & the like...I'd rather save my money to buy a new immersion deep fryer.

What size KA mixer do you have? I picked up an extra paddle at GoodWill that unfortunately doesn't fit my old style 5qt, narrow bowl lift mixer...it was worth a try for the price.

Anna- don't you just love your IR thermometer? BB&B had them on clearance before Christmas, so I picked mine up when I returned the silicone baking cups a friend gave me for my birthday (great idea, but I use silicone cupcake pans-lol). I love using it to check temps on various things- from checking water before adding it to a recipe to how warm is the rice sock I just nuked for my ear ache. For Christmas, I got a microplain grater & the grain grinder for my Kitchen Aid mixer...now I have to figure out exactly which grains I want & get my storage set up- I lucked out that there is a an organic farm/grainery less then 1 hour from my house. After Christmas, I took some of my holiday gift money & hit the resale shops, where I found an almost brand new, digital 6.5 quart crock pot for $7, a Squeezo strainer/food mill for $5, about 10 dozen pint sized canning jars for $12, another American Harvest food dehydrator w/temp control for $6, and some other misc stuff. Pretty good for $30!

What about a soft banana oat type cookie? That would be good for those who have difficulty chewing. There are tons of different recipes you could try. Another thing you might want to consider is making one or two types of diabetic appropriate cookies, using Splenda for baking or something similar- so often at the holidays everyone forgets to bring any holiday treats for the diabetics in the nursing homes.

Just an FYI- Good Eats has a new episode airing next week, called Puff the Magic Mallow, which shows the 'science behind homemade marshmallow'. According to Sony iEPG listings, it will be on the Food Network: December 3: 8:00PM December 4: 3:00AM December 13: 8:00PM December 14: 3:00AM All times listed are EST I figure for those of us like me, who are fairly new to marshmallow making, it should be interesting to see the actual sugar technique. My corn syrup free marshmallows have been turning out just fine, as long as I invert some of the sugar first. My pumpkin spice marshmallows turned out great for Thanksgiving...next up, I want to make black currant marshmallows, using strained black currant preserves with the gelatin and some of black currant sugar syrup from the Polish part of the international food isle.

There are also some books on sourdough only- I picked up a couple older ones recently. One is Sourdough Jack's Cookery and Other Things (1970), which has a decent assortment of bread, waffle, biscuit, etc recipes, along with a lot of history of sourdough in the West & Alaska. The second is Best of the Herman Sourdough Herald 1980-1990 (1990), which has more sourdough recipes then you could ever make, along with numerous different recipes for sourdough starters.

It was around way back then, but didn't come into wide scale use really until WWII, with the sugar rationing. Even then, it was recommended as a sub for sugar, along with honey. CS really didn't become a major part of recipes on its own until the 1950's, from what I can tell. Mamie's Eisenhower's "Million Dollar Fudge" is a perfect example from that era, and a sign of the end of real fudge, in my mind. And its not just the corn syrup, but all the corn derivatives that are used in so much of our foods today that make things so difficult for me- the list of names for corn is mile long. I did finally get the pumpkin marshmallows to turn out, with using a homemade invert sugar technique. I also picked up Lyle's cane syrup, Agave syrup (both light & dark), sorghum syrup, and a couple bags of cane sugar....some people collect wines, I collect sugar syrups-lol. I really want to try some of the tapioca syrup- hopefully one of the health food stores around here will have it so I don't have to pay shipping. I also picked up a used desserts/sweets cookbook from Australia from the late 70's/early 80's that uses no refined sugars. It even has a recipe for making a grain syrup, which uses a small amount of sprouted wheat. I'll probably give it a try at some point, not so much for making marshmallows, fudge & such, but for regular baking it might be a nice alternative for me.

If that doesn't work out, check out GFS (Gordan Food Service) on one of your trips to Michigan. I think you mentioned you cross over at Port Huron, and it looks like there are a few GFS stores in that area: http://gfs.know-where.com/gfs/ They are open to the public and carry all sorts of restaurant supplies. In addition to what the stores carries, they can also order tons more stuff from their catalog.

Our solution has been in really cold weather, is to run our exhaust fan on its lowest setting (it has 10 settings). The idea being that at least if air is moving out, no cold air can come in-lol. We really need to come up with a better solution of some sort- if I come across anything, I'll let you know.

I'm allergic to corn and my allergy has gotten much, much worse in the past couple years. I'm a former baker and very comfortable making subs for corn syrup, corn starch, etc in my baking- and thankfully Big Chief Sugar here in Michigan makes a Confectioners Sugar with wheat starch instead of the typical corn starch. Where I'm really stuck is when it comes to making candies and those dang holiday peeps have been calling my name every time I go to the store...they are definitely not worth an ER trip or weeks on Prednisone. I understand from the chemical reaction side of it, that corn syrup prevents the sugar from crystallizing in candies- is there any thing else that I can use that would do the same thing? Or at least help? I tried a small batch of marshmallows with Brown Rice Syrup and wasn't happy with the taste at all, so I went on to try the recipe from a 1930's Knox Gelatin recipe booklet with all sugar, but had some crystallization, even though I added a tablespoon of honey as insurance. I really want to make pumpkin marshmallows a try for Thanksgiving- the vanilla cinnamon ones from last night were great, even with the slight crystallization...but then I haven't had marshmallows in a long, long time Once I get marshmallows down, maybe I can make fudge again for Christmas...I use to have a wonderful old recipe from an aunt that was pre-corn syrup days that worked great that called for measurements like a 'piece of butter the size of a walnut', but I've misplaced it somewhere. Another thought I've had, is there a big difference between cane sugar & beet sugar? I know some think there is and I would expect the biggest difference would show up in candy making. Living in Michigan, we almost always have beet sugar, as that's what most of the store brands are- even our Walmart's carry beet sugar as their store brand. Should I pick up a bag of cane sugar and give it a try?

I'd do a vinegar solution soak, with heat turned on to loosen up any hard water deposits (aka- calcium deposits), much like you run diluted vinegar through a coffee pot or electric kettle every so often. A 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water solution is also recommended for cleaning a lot of home health equipment, so it will get rid of more then just hard water deposits. If you have hard water, you may find you need to wipe your immersion circ down with diluted vinegar every so often to keep the deposits to a minimum. If there are any stubborn spots, especially any with rust, I would try Bar Keepers Friend- it does wonders without being abrasive. If you don't have any, you could try a little baking soda as a very mild abrasive with a little dish soap. Is it a portable immersion circ or does it have its own attached bath? Mine is a portable, and I did my first vinegar water soaks in a stainless steel pitcher so I could change out the water a couple times easily...just be careful to remember the pitcher handle might get hot (mine had a heat resistant handle thankfully).

You want a good laugh- one of the vintage cooking books I picked up at the university surplus store last week was a 1921 "Balanced Daily Diet" put out by Criso, bestowing its many virtues over any other fats, especially 'crude' animal fats. The first part of the book tells you why Crisco is so good for you and then the second part has Crisco in every type of recipe you can think of. One had you fry bacon in Crisco and they even used Crisco in the potato salad dressing- ICK!

Could have the original recipe called for self rising flour? I just don't see enough leaving for the amount of flour given. And I agree with CandianBacon, that there seems to be more liquid then dry ingredients then you would typically see in a cake/cupcake recipe. How many cupcakes does one batch make? I noticed you mentioned making a larger amount at once, and I wonder if when you doubled it, for example, if you cut back one egg total if it would have turned out better? Sometimes when you multiple a recipe, not everything goes up in the exact same multiple.

Check for full sheet pan sized parchment paper too. I get it in the Midwest at Gordan Food Service and the full sized sheets are folded in half over a piece of heavy cardboard, so all you have to do is cut them along the fold to make half sheet sized. I pay around $4.50 for 50 full sheets (100 half sheets). Another advantage is sometimes I find I need a larger piece to line some of longer loaf pans, so starting with a full sheet works out better.

Here is my personal take on Brown Irish Soda Bread. I played around with a lot of recipes to come up with the right flavor & texture when I came back from living in Dublin for my internship. I like to mix the dry ingredients up ahead of time in ziplock bags, so all I have to add the buttermilk/yogurt-water when I'm ready to bake it. You can also change it up, into a sweet bread/scone fairly easily by adding a little more sugar and some dry fruits, orange zest, lemon zest, spices, etc. By the same token, you can also make it more savory, by adding adding savory spices, cooked meats & cheeses, omitting sugar to taste. If you want to make it more scone like, you can decrease the buttermilk slightly and add some butter, but I find I don't usually need to- I'd rather save the butter to put on the bread/scone directly. You could play around with the whole wheat to white flour ratio to your personal preference. It doesn't take long to whip up a batch, so its easy to experiment with and is a very forgiving recipe. I know I'll have to rework it once I start grinding my own wheat, which will also save me having to add the wheat germ and the wheat bran back in-lol. My Irish Oat Soda Bread Medium- Small Batch 75 grams Whole Wheat Flour 200 grams White Flour + extra to flour surface 60 grams Oat Flour (process oatmeal in food processor until it is flour like) 30 grams Irish Oatmeal (aka- steel cut oats or pinhead oats) 40 grams Wheat Bran 20 grams Wheat Germ 1 tsp Kosher Salt 2 tsp Baking Soda 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar 2 TBSP Raw Sugar (or brown sugar) 400 ml Buttermilk or 6-8 Fluid oz plain yogurt + water to equal 400ml *Mix dry ingredients, blend in buttermilk until moistened. *Lightly knead on floured surface 10-12 times. *Divide into two round loaves on baking sheet & flatten to 1 1/2” thick *Sprinkle top with extra oat flour & cut cross with sharp knife *Bake at 340F for about 40-45 minutes, or until bread sounds hollow when tapped BTW- here is a no knead whole wheat bread with an interesting history I've been wanting to try: http://www.saveur.com/food/classic-recipes...read-50565.html If someone tries it, let me know how it turns out.

Funny, that's the same thing I make my hair gel out of Do you use golden flaxseed or the regular brown flaxseed to make your gel? And do you use it as an egg substitute in your baking too?