I really don't like over head venting. I am 5'2.5". The noise over my head is really annoying. I have a down draft, and my only problem is that cleaning the thing is a real chore.

I hate that (non) word. it is like fingernails on a blackboard to me. There are so many terms to describe a place that are legitimate words. Does this irritate anyone else.

That is really too bad.I sure hope they don't screw up the Lemon Liberte' . That has to be the best lemon yogurt ever. I like Chobani too. My Kroger has both and and right now they are 10 for $10.00.

Do you have a food processor? If you do use it on the steel knife blade. Make's 2 crusts, top and bottom. To make a single crust. 2 C. soft flour (cake/pastry) 2 sticks unsalted butter, salt, about 1/8th tsp. baking powder. Have a glass with ice water at hand.

Cut your butter into 1 Tbs. portions. Stick it in the freezer for about 20 mins. Put flour into the work bowl of the processor. Add the baking powder and salt. Cover and pulse a tiny bit, just to combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Remove the cover and drop in the cold butter (scatter it over the flour). Lid back on and pulse 'til it looks crumbly. Stop and add 4 TBS. of ice water, lid back on, pulse again. Check to see if your dough will need any more water, it generally does but if it is a very humid day you may not need it. Add 2 more TBS ice water, pulse briefly, the turn the processor and let it work until the cough forms a ball on the blade. Stop the machine. Turn the dough ball out onto a floured board. divide the dough in half. Flatten the dough into discs. Wrap the dough discs tightly in Saran or what ever wrap you use. Refrigerate about 30 mins.

Take one disc and put on a mat to roll out the crust. ( I have a zippered dough bag from King Arthur's, that encloses the dough) roll out. When you are rolling the dough, roll from
the center out. Do not roll back and forth. That is it. Fit into your pie plate (hint, spray the plate with Baker's Joy) and then roll out the other disc.

Don't knead. That builds up too much gluten and will give you a tough crust. When I make a crust for savory pies like chicken pot pie, I use lard instead of butter.

I was born in the very southeastern corner of Az. it is on the Mexican border of the state of Sonora. I love Sonoran enchladas.

Being raised by southern women biscuits, cornbread (no sugar or flour), bacon & fat, fried chicken, pie, greens, sausage etc. etc.

I make an all butter crust in my food processor. Pastry flour ( I use White Lily all purpose and cold butter cut into 1 TBS pieces, a bit of baking powder, and salt. Pulse and pulse until the dough looks like a a bunch or large crumbs. Gather together into a ball. Refrigerate for 1/2 hour or longer.Then roll out

It helps with flavor and texture to butter the skin before baking and to get even baking get a potato nail. They are aluminum and go through the potato end to end.

Yes, in a pinch. If you buy the beef in a jar, taste it before shredding and adding it to your cream sauce. It can be quite salty and you might want to pour some boiling water over it to leach out some of the salt. Chipped beef also comes in a plastic packet. The brand is Carl Buddig. That is usually refrigerated ( I think). The stuff in a jar is Armour.

Last weekend I made Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. It was quite delicious. It was 4 layers, the rounds were split to make 4 (I used dental floss to cut the rounds in half) rounds. They were stacked and layered with lemon butter cream and red raspberry (seedless) preserves. Then frosted with the remaining buttercream and finished off with coconut.

I was thinking about other seasonal fruits to use in it. The raspberry and lemon butter cream were wonderful. I am thinking about other flavor combos for the cake.

It was a bit of work, I was crossing my fingers when making the butter cream, but it all worked beautifully. Everything in Baking From My Home To Yours works. It is my favorite baking book.

Actually pork fat, in moderation as in all things, is healthier than you know. Just Google up pork fat. There are actually some benefits from pork fat. One might surprise you.

I picked up one at TJ Maxx. The brand on it is not one I've ever heard of, Sabota. It is a terrific grill pan. Very thick aluminum, has an attached induction disc (my next cooktop will be induction)on the bottom. Non stick and it browns beautifully. I bought it on a whim, it may have been only $19.99, and it is one heck of a pan. I usually just turn on the grill but in very cold or rainy weather who wants to go outside to grill?

Yes, tim irvine is right. I have been in the house wares business for years. It seems that all small electrics are made in China. It is rare to find any that have not unless they are quite old. There are some very good products out there, Cuisinart, Krups, Breville etc.

Oh yes. I have been a grits lover forever. Grits were a family weekend breakfast. My mom was a teacher and did not have time in the mornings.

General Mills or Kellog's did a survey at the school she was teaching in, in Savannah, Ga. They (which ever one it was) wanted to know what the kids ate for breakfast. They all ate grits.

I use Anson Mills stone ground grits. They are the heirloom corn, full germ, long cooking grits that I store in the freezer.

Butter, salt & pepper. Sometimes I make Awendaw, it is kind of a grits spoon bread. Delicious with roasts.

I make my own. I started making them in the 80's. I have wings in my fridge right now and will probably make them for dinner tonight. I have never gone out for them.

I have a deep fryer that fries with the lid closed. It has a triple filter that catches the grease. I put the filters in the dishwasher. It is a DeLonghi and the clean up is pretty simple.

I clean as I cook. I love E-Cloth. It just needs water to clean everything. I have the E-Cloth mop too.

We used to say my mom got every pan in the kitchen boiling water. My sister and i were on clean up duty. I guess that is why I clean as I cook.

My DH and I were cooking at my niece's home last week. We were cooking for 19 people. She could not believe how clean and neat the kitchen was even as I was frying chicken.

How about Frank Stitt's Bottega Favorita?

Burma
Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking
Tender(Farmer's Markets are open and lots of young and tender veggies are available)

It was winter, I had been grocery shopping. In my groceries was a package of spareribs. I did not miss it when I was putting things away. About a week later as I got in my car and pulling out of the garage I noticed an unusual odor. I did not investigate. I went to my office and was there 2-3 hours. The temperature was very cold. When I left to go home the odor was gone. Over the next week the same thing happened. I figured it was something in my garage and that my DH could deal with it. Went grocery shopping again and while putting the groceries in my trunk the package of spoiled ribs had slid into view. They would freeze when I was not in the garage and then defrost in it.

I just bought the Cuisinart 14 C. Elite and gave my 11 C. to my niece. I am quite happy with this new one and I was happy with the old one (only about 5 Y.O.) the 14 C. Elite will shred cabbage with ease. The other thing like about the Elite series is that you can fill the thing with liquid and it won't leak. Big improvement over the regular models. With this and my 25 yr.+ Waring blender, which has never let me down (I did have to cut out a new gasket from a square of Neoprene) I don't need the silly Vitamix. IMHO they are over kill and over priced and I do sell the things.

Andrea Nguyen's cookbook Asian Dumplings has an excellent recipe for Banh Xeo. The wrappers can be a bit tricky to make. When I was testing the wrapper recipe for the book it took some trial and error, the wrapper is like a crepe. I was using a Swiss Diamond skillet and it is so heat efficient that I had to take the pan off the heat between each wrapper. It is a very thin skin. You take the loose dough which is in a bowl over ice. Pick up a wad of the dough and smear it over the bottom of the pan and put the remaining dough back into the bowl over ice to chill again. It is just a learning curve, once you get it, it becomes simple.

Just put a Lemon Pound Cake in the oven. Moving on to a Chocolate Pound Cake, and tomorrow a carrot cake. I'll be taking the carrot and chocolate to KC for my mother's birthday party and while there I will make Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake with butter cream and raspberry filling. It is beautiful and delicious.

I know the over priced bakeware is made there. We weren't discussing that. I have been in the housewares business for 40 years. I have never had any AC made in china. I guess I have been lucky not to have encountered it. Most of what I have sold is high end cookware.

The sweetness thing seems to keep growing. I cannot eat many commercially produced breads because they are too sweet. There are very few prepared foods that I buy without scrutinizing the ingredients list. I have become so sensitive to "sweet" that I really avoid it. When I am cooking from a recipe I frequently cut back on the sugar that is called for. I have found in many recipes (Usually not in baking where it could be part of the formula, but in things like breads it can be eliminated) you can halve it or eliminate it all together.

That is a price that All-Clad has authorized to move more of those particular pans. All-Clad is a fair trade company. Retailers who carry their line must sell at prices they set. They will have a number of pieces during the year, which in the All-Clad catalog are identified by "Try Me" pricing. Yes All-Clad is made in the US. Buy the pot if that is what you want it is in no way inferior to the 3 qt.

My mom's birthday is May 10. She will be 90 and is still going strong. My niece is hosting a birthday party for her in her home in another state. We are going over early to help with preparations for the birthday dinner which will actually be held 5/11 with family coming in from both coasts. I am going to make the fab. Carrot Cake from the Sarabeth's Baking book. No gloppy cream cheese filling that glues your teeth together. A lemon pound cake, and I am waffling back and forth between a Lane Cake and a white cake with fresh (farmer's mkt) strawberries (not the nasty flavorless Driscoll's) and whipped cream. I can make the carrot cake and the lemon pound cake before we leave and wrap them well in Stretch-Tite and also transport them in a cooler with other things I plan to bring along. Votes for which cake to make?

After moving to the mid-west, Bloomington, In. and having grown up as an Air Force brat living mainly in Japan, Calif, Tex, Ga, and northern NY on the Canadian border I am finding food here too sweet. This is still the case after moving here (1 more degree dear, 18 mos. tops) from Plattsburgh, NY.

Tonight's dinner was less that satisfying. I bought Perino Manicotti, some Johnson. Bros. Chicken and Pork mild Italian sausage and most of it went into the waste basket. I should have read the label carefully. Not only were the manicotti full of a lot of chemicals I'd rather avoid but there were 6 grams of sugar per stuffed noodle. I somehow thought with the name it might be from the east coast. Nope made in Michigan. The sausage was also sweet, 3 g./sugar/ link. I just don't get the amount of sweetness and sugar in food that I get here. Yeah I can make my own Maniccoti. I often do and make my own pasta too. I just thought this might make a good easy supper on a busy night. Wrong, wrong, wrong etc.

I am wondering if producers make foods destined for the mid-west with more sweetening for this area of the country. I have found Hellman's mayo too sweet. I have been buying Kraft Homestyle with the brown cap. acceptable, it has a small amount of sugar. Usually I make my own or buy Dukes when I can. You'd think by now I would have adjusted, but no. I just don't want sugar in my food unless it is dessert. I rarely buy salad dressing prefering to make my own with the oh so wonderful Castellas olive oil made from Fruite Noir (fermented black oilves) from Provence. I do buy Marie's Bleu Cheese, can't have good "wings" with out it. Oh well the end of the tenure here is in sight. It will be good to escape the land of sugar everywhere.

This is interesting. I'd love to know more about fellow hounds.

I have Swiss Diamond and Chantal cookware, both are superior to All Clad. The Swiss Diamond has a valve in the glass lid knob that can be opened and closed. I especially like it when cooking rice, I can see when it is done. Chantal does not have the vent but still has a glass lid. Chantal is probably my fery favorite. It is amazingly fast on induction and is faster or gas and electric cooktops than other cookware.