cbread
-
Posts
279 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by cbread
-
-
Ditto on croutons.
I start with the seasonings, adding salt, pepper, powdered or granulated garlic, smoked paprika, etc. in a large bowl, and mix the seasonings till uniform, then add in bread cubes and toss the whole batch up and over to coat the cubes. If the cubes do not pick up enough seasoning, I drizzle a small amount of olive oil in and toss again. Usually the oil helps the cubes pick up enough seasoning.
-
I'm trying to learn to do as much prep on the board as I can, but am far more comfortable tossing stuff in bowls ordered by time of use. Using lots of bowls seems the same as making more dishes to wash. Watching Tyler Florence and Anne Burrell prep on TV; they make more efficient use of the board than I and more efficient prep overall, and I'd like to learn to be more efficient. It appears to be about organization and knowing the flow of what one will need when.
-
Another way is to use the wrong side of a knife to scrape the skin off. Works OK, but more frequently, I find myself roughly lopping off the skin and quite a bit of the flesh just to get past the peeling part. I want to be productive, and my results, though to a degree wasteful, taste just fine and save my attention for more critical issues.
-
My hated local supermarket seems to get the produce the rest of your markets reject. Most of their garlic hangs tenaciously onto it's skin, making peeling an annoying waste of time, simply a chore. I can gently whack it, mightily whack it or thump it somewhere in between, but no matter how, the skin frequently has to be extricated tiny fragment by tiny fragment.
I hate peeling the second rate stuff our market sells. Not to mention how many cloves are utter waste because they are rotted or whatever. To hear that some pre-peeled garlics may be worth trying is a revelation. I'm going to try some.
-
Naming is always interesting...
Child to father,
"What does 'organic' mean, Dad?"
Father to child,
"It means they spray at night."
-
Brief contact would seem deeply unlikely to leach out anything harmful. I guess if one left food in a ring mold for a few days...PVC is high in BPA. -
... The instructions said that it was easy to get rid of this dark gray discoloration, if one found it unattractive, by simply filling it with hot water to just above the area of discoloration, bringing the water to a boil and adding Cream of Tartar, 1 tablespoon for each gallon of water. ...
Another vote for cream of tartar. It works better and easier than scrubbing; just mix and boil. I love the stuff.
Cream of tartar powder can be got in bulk for far less than the exorbitant levy at the supermarket spice rack. Search in Amazon for "Cream of tartar powder" The first result is less than $10.00 for a pound.
-
You say,, because:
I don't do restaurant cooking so I'm not qualified to answer about restaurant kitchen usage, but at home I have only managed to badly warp one aluminum pan when I did the dumbest possible thing and put a very hot pan bottom down in very cold water. It instantly warped. All my other alum cookware stays fine to this day.
With few exceptions, all my best cookware and all my cheeepest cookware have riveted handles. Welded would be much better but I suspect cost deters the makers.
Pitting and oxidizing? Hasn't been much of a problem. Continuous commercial usage would be different, but then, the cheapness would just mean toss it and replace it since it's cheap. For me, aluminum pans are throw away, but being a cheapskate Yankee, I still want to see how much mileage I can get from them.
-
-
I would add the category of rarely used stuff that takes up valuable space. I try to weed out items that can be replaced with more useful things. I have no argument with things that really work and do get used. My biggest beef is with the things of no or limited utility.The only kitchen items that are a total waste of money are those that aren't used or those that make the work more difficult. -
On wastes of money and space, maybe it's best if I pick on myself first.
My wok burner - way too little oomph for the job. I should have bought a couple more regular burners.
The biggest stock pot I have - just too big - I was deluding myself that I'd use it.
Things I think of as usually wastes in other's kitchens:
Granite counters - expensive and cold - to me they look like an admission that the owner really doesn't cook. Yes, I know some real cooks do like them, but granite's popularity had much more to do with fashion trends and money flooding forth at the same time. To me they are the SUVs of the kitchen, along with:
Ultra fancy magazine cover cabinetry. The kitchens that look like they are refugees from some some Victorian prince's kitchen are the one's I'm thinking of, and the ones that look like an Italian designer's minimalist fashion spasm. A kitchen is a workspace for making food. I'm sorta uncomfortable with trying to mix that with kitchen as fashion / status statement. I suspect utility will suffer.
Gadgets - just in general. Most fancy kitchen gadgets don't do any better, faster ... than by hand and don't get used enough to justify their space used.
Kitchen islands that sit right where traffic wants to go. I just don't get them at all, why put a giant speed bump in one's kitchen? Islands out of the way make perfect sense at times, but most are just where I would want to be walking to get something done.
"Perfect" matching sets of cookware. Gosh, no one maker does it all just the way any given cook most needs it. So when I see someone has exclusively Brand X cookware, I suspect they have never really thought about what they need and want. While I personally don't like Allclad's handles, they otherwise seem fine and as good a value than others. I just want to see that someone has thought out that so and so's sautee can't be lived without, and someone else's sauce pan ... In truth I do suspect that there are a few people out there who have thoughtfully sought and found that Brand X is perfection. It's my stereotype.
Then there are the indispensable items:
Microwaves - I love mine. There are quite a few things that the microwave does very frequently that make it a must have for my kitchen. It's used all the time, though I rarely use it to cook. The idea of a warmer that shuts off by itself so that I can forget about it till it dings ... near perfection.
My counters, stainless by the stove and the sink, and seven or eight feet of wood in between have worked out wonderfully.
-
I'm schizophrenic; lots of things, I want the actual cooking very slow, and others, very fast; whatever does the job best.
The prep however, I want to be as quick and efficient as I can make it, however far I am from that goal. I have minimal knife skills, and am not the best at sorting out the most efficient prep and cooking sequence. What steps should go forth immediately and what can have prep done just in time for when it is needed often escapes me. Too often I prep everything first so that I don't get stuck in the middle, but prepping everything ahead is frequently an inefficiency of time.
Two values motivate me most; the pleasure of cooking well and the pleasure of cooking with increasing creativity. Both benefit from the fluency that comes with experience and repetition. I like to just get the grunt work over with. I get the biggest bang out of gradually taking an ordinary recipe, iterating and evolving it into something more unique and better over the course of cooking it and modifying it repeatedly.
-
I have been pleasantly surprised by a very different type of cleaner. The tarnish removing metal cleaners like Noxon and Brasso, and others, that all seem to have ammonia as part of their makeup, do an a very good job bringing stainless back to an almost factory new look. I have to confess that I have been using Noxon and Brasso on MAuviel Stainless cookwares, not All-Clad, but I would be rather surprised to find that All-Clad responds differently. People have been surprised by how pristine stainless pans can be if kept clean. There is some sort of very fine abrasive in these cleansers, so they will actually improve the finish of smooth but not mirror finished stainless, if used aggressively.
They would probably be utter death for non-stick surfaces, so I am not recommending their use on non-stick.
-
She's wonderful. Why doesn't the Food Network have more of her shows? And more like it with other pros?
-
Perhaps you could buy some basic bread dough from a baker. That will work fine.if only the supermarkets over here (UK) stocked premade dough... -
...A minor amount of elbow grease and some Bar Keeper's Friend will get anything off that pan.
Well ... if you work at it a little, you can keep an amazing finish on polished stainless after the second, third and hundredth use. Use Brasso or Noxon polishes after every time you use the pan. A little elbow grease and those types of polishes will do a great deal to keep a near new look. I am guessing it has something to do with the ammonia in them. I've never found anything that will do as good a good job on stainless.
I have become a fool about my newish polished stainless pans. I never thought I would put any value in having items in the kitchen look good, but I got seduced by a mirror polish, People have asked how on earth I keep my pans looking new. When I tell them they are used constantly, I encounter skepticism till I show them the markings on the bottom of the pan from being shuffled on the stove. I don't use metal tools inside the pans so the insides don't get scratched, and the polish takes care of the shine and stains like you are encountering.
There are other polishes that will do as well, but I don't know all the brand names.
-
Propane is fine. I have it and am totally happy with it.
You can have a big propane tank buried most places so it will be unintrusive. I'm in NH where the frost gets three feet into the ground+/- in winter. I don't believe frost depth is an issue. A high water table could be though; tanks can float up through the ground if the water pushes them up.
If you are worried about the cost of the gas your stove will use, I want your stove; it must have a huge BTU output.
-
This is a wonderful thread. First off, I'm the cook and find the restrictions limiting.
GF's food particularities:
No beets - any kind - raw or cooked ever, anytime.
No cooked spinach - but raw in salad is fine.
No oatmeal - although I have put oatmeal into a bread she loved.
No grits.
No hot cereals - none!
No okra - never!
Gravy - OK sometimes - not others - I don't know why.
Squash - some are "bad" - but which is bad is a mystery.
Mushroom soup - sometimes OK but not very often.
Scrambled eggs + omelettes - have to be cooked till fully rubberized. A crime.
She randomly makes discouraging comments about foods and I can't figure out the underlying motivation.
She spreads out hot food for it to cool somewhat. Whatever happened to the joy of really fresh, hot from the kitchen food?
It's sometimes like feeding a petulant child. Dammit, I like spinach and beets and I want to cook more of them. I have to wait till she is travelling to eat them happily.
OK, in the interest of fairness, some very positive things; she, like me, believes bacon is a gift from the heavens and would be hard put to dismiss any reasonable use for it - and many unreasonable; she is far more daring than I about exotic ingredients.
For some reason quotes aren't working right now so...
Marlene said: " ... He won't let me put nuts in brownies or chocolate chip cookies, or in anything in fact, although he eats nuts ... "
Score one for your SO on this one...Nuts ruin the purity of a good CC cookie for me, and same with a brownie. I like many nuts, but they are just plain wrong for me in CC cookies, brownies and ice cream too.
CaliPoutine said " ... She also douses her french fries with salt. ... "
Ummmm, FF live for salt. They NEEED a heart attack.
DanM said " ... I occasionally make the mistake of getting her opinion on what to make for dinner. This usually devolves into a 1-1.5 hour "I don't know" ordeal with 5+ cookbooks on the couch because she cannot make up her mind and nothing I suggest is acceptable. ... "
My response: "so, I've suggested something and you shot it down. Your turn, what do you suggest?"
DanM said " ... Snacks in front of me just before I start to make dinner. Dan"
That's just plain evil! It's food bigamy.
gingerbeer said "All of you who are telling me to run... do you think that, apart from trying to cook/taking him to good places... I can use any other tactics to get him to like food? When we're out and he just wants to stop at the first random place, should I just be more assertive and put my foot down and say, 'No. We are going to find somewhere actually good.' ? He's very stubborn and complains that my 'planning' (e.g. investigating what are great places to eat beforehand) is stressful (though I don't make him do any of it, I just make a little list of good places wherever we're going to)."
Devlin said something much like I want to. I'm sure your friend has positive qualities that recommend him. But I would add, as others here have, that there is something very unsettling about the need to belittle your inclinations. I can't stand cilantro, but am happy others do and wish I did. I don't want to remove that joy from other's lives. Please be careful. There is the odor of something wrong here.
-
I am waiting / hoping for my not-that-old refrigerator to die. It is a bargain model, and works fine for what it is, but I don't think I bought very well when I was shopping. It it a top freezer, basic model.
I am gradually beginning to dislike it more and more. I hate reaching down to get veggies out of the crisper drawers. I don't know what possessed me not to get a bottom freezer. It happens to be rather small and as I cook more, and store more leftovers and partially used items, I am finding it increasingly constricted and annoying.
I did do one thing right. I didn't get the water / ice thingie in the doors. An ice cube maker in the freezer compartment works like a charm and the in-door gizmos waste a ton of valuable space inside the refrigerator compartment. I am baffled by the popularity of the in-door ice / water thingies.
I have begun to wander about in appliance shops. I am surprised by my tentative conclusion that the new French door refrigerators are a real practical idea and not a gimmick. The idea of a door that takes up less room as it swings open appeals to me, and that it doesn't suffer the narrow shelving of a side by side is a positive too. I remember reading not so long ago a very negative piece on French door refrigerators but I can't summon up whatever the specific complaint was.
Any thoughts here on the merits or demerits of French door style machines?
-
Sounds like a waitress who just doesn't remember what she served a few minutes ago.
I have no problem with the question,"Diet?", once. The repetitions would annoy. I want the server to listen the first time. I don't want to have to fend off an inevitable repeat query by saying,"Coke, regular, again", each refill.
-
The "We" thing just irks me as the server insinuating him/herself into false chumminess with the customer. Presumably I don't know the server and probably don't desire the attempt at wheedling themselves into my inner circle.
Regardless, I'm more frequently bothered by, "My name is Joe Bob, and I'll be your server tonight". I'm not even sure why it annoys me other than that it is such a canned line. I'd much rather hear someone be him/her self than be the victim of a scripted performance. When the meal continues on in the same vein, with every part obviously designed by management, I am likely to avoid the place in future. I want my dining experience to be my dining experience.
-
Prior to seeing that youtube clip I thought Paula Deen merely awful, but now ...
-
Veena,
As best I can tell, it's a Bosch Wall Oven HBN 445A UC or it's a HBL 445A UC. The uninformative brochure lists 21 model numbers and I was able to narrow it down to two.
-
I have a single Bosch convection wall oven. The performance of everything is excellent with the glaring exception of the broil which is rotten. If the broiler were even average, I'd sing it's praises, but the broil is useless. So weak I just don't bother. I bought a countertop toaster oven to get some broil power.
Manufacturers' directions are stoopid
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Many manufacturers indulge in over the top CYA behavior. Of course you can store a Silpat rolled up.
At best many manufacturer's instructions are merely inane. Some companies, however, achieve complete ignorance of their product and it's proper use.