Whoah - loonie ladies represent!! Y'all clearly know how to get it done.
Our summer trips are of a different sort. Saturday we're flying off to Taiwan to see family for the rest of the summer - kind of a forced language immersion for the rug rats, since that side of the family speaks nary a word of English. Given all the "foreign" goodies we're bringing back (aged rum, fresh-roasted coffee, prosciutto, a variety of luxe cheeses, etc. etc.) I don't believe we'd be able to cram the Cuisinart into the checked luggage. I won't be doing any cooking anyway... my FIL is almost 90, a cook of the old school who serves killer Sichuanese food out of a kitchen the size of my bedroom closet, whose implements he hardly permits others to touch. The Mrs. and I were just dedicating a rather extravagant budget toward an earnest attempt at burning down every seafood restaurant, hotpot joint, and food stall in Taipei, which is one hell of a food town when you get right down to it. it almost makes it worth enduring the sparsely air-conditioned dog days along the Tropic of Cancer. Hopefully the typhoons will all miss us this time.
Upon my return I will resume research into the miraculous effects of steam baking. There's a really great kind of Chinese snack called a shui-jian-bao ("water fried bun") which are kind of like big potstickers with yeasted dough... I've made these successfully in a cast iron pot with a lid... but, you know, surely they could be made less traditionally and with greater fuss in the Cuisinart steam oven!
Happy potchky'ing to all.
