Marlene

I'm ready. I've got me a new gas cooktop and my chicken has been soaking in buttermilk since last night. The last thing my husband said as he went out the door this morning was, "good luck with your chicken, don't start a fire". Huh? What exactly does that mean? Somebody clue me in on the intricacies of cooking with gas and hot fat please. What should I do/not do? Besides keep a fire extinguisher beside me!

Thanks Dean, I can't wait to see your pictures! In the meantime, the oven doctor is coming tomorrow since my range's calibration seems to have taken on a life of it's own!

It's hard to stop isn't it? I'm thinking Aunt Minnie's recipe and method this time around. One last round of fried chicken coming up on Thursday.

Administrator's note: I have merged your thread into this topic as the topic really pertains to more than just Vancouver, as the replies indicate. This topic was already going and we like to keep these things together. Thanks.

I've lived here all my life, and I still cook in lbs and ounces. They didn't start teaching metric until I was already done school, and by then it was too late. I order cold cuts by the half pound or pound, while the ladies next to me order it in grams. Oh well.

Susan's pretty much talked me into trying fried chicken using my new range. So one more experiment to come. Probably on Thursday. Now, which recipe, I wonder?

Roast beef. Every time. Pancakes. You aren't supposed to use an egg beater to mix the batter, but I do, and every time they are light and fluffy. I suck at biscuts and pastry dough.

Certainly Braising with Molly. But I reach mostly for my William Sonoma series of books these day..

We all of course, wish Fat Guy and Ellen the best. As Fat Guy requested though, could you all PM them your good wishes, so we can keep this thread focused on Turning the Tables? Thanks.

Finally. Most of the boxes are unpacked, and I was able to take some time to actually cook a meal in the new house. Before I get into that, I want to show you the other cool kitchen appliance I aquired for the new house. After years of digging in my chest freezer, pulling out everything in there to see what I've got, finally, a stand up self defrosting freezer: I love being able to look inside and see at a glance, what's in there. My baby, in it's new home, waiting for me to turn it on: Easter dinner. Prime Rib. This is a 4 bone, 9 lb Prime Rib. Dinner for three anyone? I've put the potatoes in with the roast. The white blob you see is a bit of lard that I always add when I roast potatoes in the pan with the roast. Pime Rib: Roast potatoes: Broccol with hollandaise: Yorkshire pudding (not the best I've ever made) Gravy (of course) Me, trying to do everything at once! Ryan wanted a Roy Rogers, but we were out of orange juice. Instead, Don made him a pitcher of some sort of concoction he made up. I think it had, ginger ale, grenedine, tropicana twister and a couple of other things in it. Ryan loved it. I, on the other hand, felt it was time for a special red wine. A 1998 Barolo. What can I say. I love this range. Not having cooked a lot on gas before, I was concerned about timing for steaming the brocoli, making gravy and melting the butter for the hollandaise. A piece of cake I found, because I was able to regulate the temperature on each burner. I used pure convection for the roast. This oven differs somewhat from the KA. With the KA, I used a 300 degree convection roast setting at 22 minutes per pound. The dacor cookbook recommends pure convection at 350 for 10 minutes then 325 pure convection for the rest of the time. Of course, I ignored that, and set it at my usual 300 degrees., using 22 minutes per pound. I found about an hour into it, that they were right, and I moved the temp up to 325. I did use an oven thermometer to test the temp, and it was bang on the whole time. I have a new love. It's name is Dacor.

I'm pretty sure my cast iron pan is still at the other house. I don't have the energy to do fried chicken! Maybe one day next week.

I'm in, and the kitchen is pretty much organized. The range works, but I haven't had a chance to cook anything on it. I think Don is actually going to make breakfast in the morning, and I'll be off to the butcher to get a nice prime rib for Sunday dinner, so I can test drive the oven. Pics tomorrow sometime.

Ryan was "pumpkin" for the first 3 or 4 years of his life. Mostly because he was a little over 10lbs when he was born, and he had the roundest pumpkin face.

Final chicken pieces a la Brooks method: The egg wash dipped in egg wash and floured: Final result: a comparison of Brooks method and Dave's method. Brooks left, Dave's right Notes: There are a couple of major differences here as far as I can tell between the two methods. First is colour. The temp was pretty consistant between the two batches. Brooks was fried in peanut oil with an egg wash, Dave's in crisco shortening with a buttermilk bath. Dave's is darker in colour. Generally my preference. The crunch. Here's the big difference. Dave's method produced a covering that was crisp, but thinner in texture. Brooks was thicker and just crunchier, if that makes sense. the other difference that might have affected my results is that the pieces for this batch were larger than the batch I had for Dave's method. My regular butcher wasn't there when I got the chicken for this batch, and the kid that I ended up with had no concept of the request "cut it up into frying pieces. So I ended up with these huge pieces. Both methods produced very juicy chicken. Just the exterior was different. If you like thinner and crispy, go a la Dave and the buttermilk soak. If you like crustier thicker crunch, go a la Brooks.

excellent. I've mixed it with some soya oil. No cottonseed oil to be found around here as far as I know! This will be the last meal I cook in the old house. yay!

Here's a question. I don't have enough peanut oil. I just emptied a 750 ml bottle of peanut oil into my cast iron frying pan. It gives me a little over half an inch. Do I need to empty it and use some other kind of oil? Can I throw in some soya or canola oil or should I not mix the two types of oil. Help!

Fried Chicken just seems to appeal to everyone. I also happen to think that Fried Chicken is the best comfort food going, especially served with my other favourite comfort food, mashed potatoes. I'm big on comfort food these days. That said, this is exactly the kind of thing that makes us sit up and realize what a global organization we've become.

How late is late GG? 15 minutes? an hour? for 15 minutes, I'd probably order a drink and take the table. If they are later than that on a regular basis, I'd stop going out to dinner with them. I have a brother who's late for everything. I, on the other hand, am notorious for being early for everything. It drives my friends nuts.

That looks amazing Chufi. that mine should turn out anything like that tonight!

Beautiful, Gordon! Thank you for sharing with us. It's been simply ages since I've been to the market. I'm thinking that this would make a good reason to stay downtown on a Friday night soon and get up at that ungodly early hour that is required to get the best stuff at the market!

Actually, I don't mind the smell at all. And to get an extra crunchy crust, try double dipping next time.

Rachel, I'm doing Brooks's tonight. The soaking solution is ice water and 2 teaspoons of baking powder. I have no idea why. then when it comes out of the water, it gets the egg wash. I don't recall washing off the brine after, when I did Brooks recipe during my blog, but then again, I have a short memory. I'm going to put spices directly onto the chicken and some mixed in with the flour as well.

I've got chicken soaking today a la Brooks. More fried chicken tonight!

Put the ham in the oven before you leave for service and set the timer for it to come on automatically. Never mind asperagus. do the baby carrots in the slow cooker. Diana should be able to turn that on for you while you're at service. The pies can be done the day before and heated while you're having dinner. Mashed potatoes. Or a cheese potato puff that can be made the day before and reheated. you're all set

No advice on the lamb. Haven't done it. But, to your prior comment. The days are getting longer, the sun has more push. And, although we continue to get snow, this lass's thoughts are turning to spring, the grill, and not using the oven. But, I do think there are a few more braises in me. But, once we've turned the furnace off, I think this book will take a well-needed break for a few months while we explore those types of cooking, meals and ingredients associated with those lazy, crazy days of summer. ← I'd agree with this if we haven't gotten another few centimetres of snow last night. However, braises are ideally suited to cold weather cooking I think. I'll hopefully get one or two more in before the days start to warm up and I turn to the grill for the next season of cooking.