kayandallie's Profile
Quick lunch not far from 95 near Richmond
If you do make it as far as Petersburg, take the Washington St exit off 95. Go to 2nd light and take a right on S Adams. Go to 2nd light and take a right onto Bank St (at an old used car lot, across from the police station). Go down to the second block and you'll see Demolition Coffee on the left. Great sandwiches, great coffee, and it's fast and just a few minutes from the interstate.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/demolition-coffee-petersburg
didn't wash the beans...
Heck, I don't rinse them half the time,not because I forget but because I don't really see the point and plus I'm too lazy.
I haven't died yet and I've been not rinsing for many years.
What do you make for breakfast on Christmas morning?
We always have oyster stew, scrambled eggs, bacon, and blueberry pancakes. The oyster stew is my brother-in-law's family tradition and he stands at the stove stirring that while I am at the island mixing up the pancakes using the blueberries I picked last summer and froze. My son or daughter scrambles the eggs and the others tend to the orange juice, etc. This year, though, my sister wants to do Bloody Mary's and so I will use the Bon Appetit recipe for that. I'm thinking of doing a sausage/egg casserole rather than scrams. Because we are always so late eating and people are hungry earlier, my sister is going to make a coffee cake from my aunt's recipe for us to eat before Christmas present opening. My son will bring fresh eggnog from the local dairy in his town.
I love Christmas breakfast.
I beg you, can we stop all this hand-wringing and snobbery about cast iron
I admit to being a snob about mine. I have four skillets and I use them for everything skillet. I did buy a big skillet that isn't CI for some reason, but I have only used it a couple of times as haven't found a need for it. A couple of mine were my grandmother's (and I am pushing 60 YO, so they are kind of old) and I think a couple I bought new. One took forever and a day to season; I think I finally resorted to advice from this board. Now they are all black and shiny as can be. I'm pretty much a vegetarian, so there's not a lot of bacon fat going in them and they are doing fine. Mainly they get some butter and olive oil. I love them and plan on handing them down to my kids when I kick the bucket. Then they can be CI snobs also, hee hee.
Swearing off using convection oven
Yes, I think that is good advice. I will no longer think that I am supposed to try and use it for everything...I guess it does have its advantages; I'll just try to be alert as to what those are. All I know about are pies, pizza, and big hunks of meat things. Right now I will stick to those. After all, it is a gorgeous blue and the light set-up is very well thought out. Just using the regular oven settings coupled with that should make me happy enough.
Swearing off using convection oven
I can only speak for the Wolf. There are a myriad of settings to choose; it is not preset. You press the oven on button and then choose the mode. There are non-convection choices; none any easier or harder to choose than another.
Recommended size for cutting board/block
I just got a 14x24x3 end grain board. It is gorgeous but very heavy. It is on my counter and has no plans to go anywhere... I cut a tomato on it today for its inauguration and I totally loved that. It remains to be seen how it will work with the summer vegetable onslaught. In a week I will cut up a chuck roast on it. I totally don't freak out about germ type stuff, so will clean it with a sponge and proceed to cut my usual stuff in days after that, assuming that I will live.
I got this size thinking that I could still use my food processor on the counter behind it. It is so thick, though, that it will probably not work well like that. I have no regrets about the thickness as I am tall and can already tell that I love the height of it. If I did anything, I'd make it even bigger! But, so far, I totally love the size and the whole thing. It is a work of art.
Swearing off using convection oven
Ah, well, glad to hear I'm not alone. There is so much hoopla about the convection thing, and I was just going on the premise that, since I had one, I must absolutely figure out how to use it, and I really messed up. I am not a stupendously talented cook and I don't really even use my oven that often; most of what I do is on my cooktop, which I adore, and so I don't think I am well suited to try and adapt to the convection. I have used it for pies and will use it for that. I am a vegetarian, so there's not much meat roasting that I would do. I like my pizza but don't do that often, either. I think, for the most part, I will ignore the convection. The recipes I use aren't for convection ovens and I don't have the talent to convert.
Sigh; I am thinking there is one possibly salvageable cake and the other two, which were to be gifts, I will grind in the garbage disposal. I can't feed them to the birds; they would be drunk!
Swearing off using convection oven
Sigh, after brandying my cherries for months, after glaceeing my lemon and orange peels, after soaking my chopped fruits in rum and wine for two weeks, I made my three black cakes. I have a relatively new Wolf oven. Why I decided to bake these using the convection mode is now beyond me. I lowered the temperature the recommended 25 degrees and checked them after 1 hour 17 minutes rather than the 2 hours that the recipe called for (Laurie Colwin). They are burned around the edges and there are no crumbs sticking to the toothpick.
This is not the first convection failure. I am not using the convection mode, except possibly for pies, again. If I move, I will get another cooktop, but I am getting a normal oven.
Candied Orange Peel:How Many Ways To Skin A Cat, You Ask?...
Well, I am certainly no expert, but everything I read told me to leave the pith. I just did a bunch of lemon and orange peels and tried to just not get an excessive amount of pith if it was an overly endowed orange or lemon but otherwise I didn't try to leave it off. I followed instructions to blanch over and over until the peel was tender. The orange peels were definitely tender by 4 blanchings and the lemons by 6 (i just did them all together, though). Then they went into the sugar syrup, where I left them for maybe an hour simmering. My recipes were indicating less time but for some reason I thought it should be longer (can't remember why) and after it was all done I found another recipe stating it should be longer. Then I drained them, making sure to catch the sugar/oj/lemon syrup to keep for later (don't neglect that; it is yummy). So far as drying, I sugared mine before finding that they could dry in the oven. I left them somewhat spread out overnight, dumped them in a bowl in the morning with more sugar, decided they were never going to dry, and put them in a bag into the freezer (having found one mention that one could freeze them). I haven't tried them out of the freezer, so that is the one point I can't attest to.
You also have to take mine with a grain of salt; mine are not your typical peels. I was making them to put in a Black Cake and was going to have to chop them up when done and so I just chopped them before I started. So my peels are just little peel chunks. Actually, I have way too many little peel chunks; I had no idea how many peels would make 12 oz of peels. If anyone needs any candied peels already chopped for their fruitcake, I've got them. They don't have high fructose corn syrup!
Did Your Mom Repeatedly Cook a Dish You Despised?
Almost every Friday night: baked: frozen fish sticks, frozen mixed vegetables from the bag, frozen french fries.
I hated Friday night dinners.
My mother was not a good cook, was not inspired by it, and didn't like to do it.
Ugh.
Ask me what she made that I did like and the list would be extremely short, if there would even be a list. I was thin (skinny) as a kid.
Pie Crust...I will not be defeated!
I think you're probably overthinking it. I used to make perfectly good pie crusts using Julia Child's recipe/method. Then I got the overthinking Rose Levy B. pastry book and made the toughest crusts on the planet. Finally, last time, I just did the food processor thing, dumped the mess on my counter, used the heel of my hand to push it just like Julia said, threw it in the fridge and then made my piecrust and it was back to normal.
So, just go have a glass of wine or three and relax and your crust will relax also.
hors d'eurves (sp) for Christmas breakfast
Yum to frozen choc croissants, which my sister could get as she has access. And I've been thinking about making a black fruit cake and thinking that it would be great for early breakfast. I also just found a recipe for Fontina Risotto Cakes on Epicurious that I'm considering. They wouldn't be sweet and they are rice rather than flour, so it's another food group....
hors d'eurves (sp) for Christmas breakfast
Every year for Christmas, my B-I-L makes the oyster stew and I make the bacon and blueberry pancakes. Someone else scrambles the eggs, we pour the orange juice, and we sit down to breakfast (number and identity of people change year to year but it's usually around 10 or so). The problem is, we have to sit around, wait for people, I have to feed horses, and then we open presents and then we cook, so that it is close to 11 by the time we eat. By this time, some people are starving and have munched on stuff. I would like to have something that we could legally munch on before the present opening without impeding too much the hunger and delight of breakfast later. Since breakfast is already pretty much well rounded, does anyone have any suggestion for a special, make ahead carry one over till official breakfast type thing? Actually, I am leaning towards muffin/bread type thing; maybe a cranberry bread, but I don't know that it's special enough for Christmas.
Thanks!
Leftover frozen mystery meals
REALLY??? I think that was part of my masking tape problem. I was always searching for such a thing at the grocery store, to no avail. The hardware store... I shall have to expand my search. Then there are the special pens, which I assumed existed but never showed up for me when I looked.
Leftover frozen mystery meals
Anyone else do this? I couldn't ever remember to buy masking tape last year and so I, (as I did the year before, and the year before, and...) just put leftovers, to include stocks of various kinds, in the freezer with no identification, thinking at the time that surely I would be able to figure out what it was and when I stuck it in there. Like really... Tonight I am having something that appears to have black beans and maybe a sweet potato slice in it. I thought when I pulled it out that it was some borscht, but surely I wouldn't have made borscht with black beans.
Anyone else having a mystery meal tonight, or is it only me? Sigh.
I am pleased to report, though, that I have finally managed to acquire some masking tape and hopefully will never go through this again (next year).
How do you like your oatmeal?
Wow! Saw my post from the original topic's postings, ever so many years ago. I tried steel cut and apparently couldn't stomach them (in fact, I just threw away some recently when cleaning out the cupboards of expired stuff).
How the years have changed me...
McCann's or Quaker Oats Quick cooking: 1/2 cup oats to 1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk
throw some raisins in the bottom of the bowl and add the above
nuke for 1 1/2 minutes
dump into Starbucks oatmeal thermos
sprinkle cinnamon on top and stir
take to work and eat it as soon as I get there
Yum.
Do you measure?
Hah! If I follow the recipe exactly, often I'll like it. If I do my own estimating and throwing in stuff, often it is pretty disgusting.
I don't care if that means I'm a bad cook (I freely admit that I am). What I don't understand is people who are amazed that I do manage to cook and bake stuff that does taste good and say that they "don't bake" or "don't cook," like it's a mysterious thing to do. I am just happy that all I do is follow some written instructions and voila! something good to eat!
Really confused about what range to get.... Please help!
I've just bought a Wolf 30" cooktop and built-in oven for less than 5K, installed. The oven, admittedly, was on a big sale because it was a display model, and I've had some glitches related to having to move gas lines to get my oven installed (my old one was a different size, somehow) that may be taking it over the 5K mark, but the appliances themselves came to just over 4K. So far, I love the cooktop. Waiting to finish up work to get the oven in...
Good immersion blender for around $100?
I have a Cuisinart. I picked up one for my brother in law for Christmas for 30 bucks or so.
I see no reason for any fancier one. It does exactly what it's supposed to do, is easy to put together and take apart, cleans up easily, and is certainly not very heavy.
New Wolf Cooktop
Yup, gas. All night long???
So far, I haven't found the first thing to not love about it. I am waiting for a bad thing to show its face. This is, after all, only my introduction; although, it seems to be love at first sight.
Now, if only my cooking can improve to be worthy...
New Wolf Cooktop
Well, now that I totally destroyed my first post. I really love my new Wolf cooktop; installed today.
How crucial is enamel cast iron vs. plain? Anyone just use plain for almost everything?
I use my cast iron skillets for everything skillet. I inherited some and bought maybe one. I have one that won't season right but use it anyway. I use an enameled dutch oven but would use an iron one if I had one.
So far as leaching iron, my grandmother was slightly anemic and in the old days, they liked iron frying pans for the iron.
I love my cast iron skillets; wouldn't get rid of them for anything. i figure my kids will fight over them when it comes time for them to be inherited, hee hee.
what's a range hood good for?!
I'm with the original poster... maybe. I'm about to get a Wolf cooktop and so have been reading about them and then reading all the vent hood stuff on the internet. I feel like I "should" get a hood that will exhaust to the outside (the one I have now recirculates, which is useless, IMHO, and I never use it). Most of anything I cook is vegetarian. In the summer I do a lot of fruits/veggies for freezing and I just want to remove the heat. If I cook stuff in olive oil, I can't see how that it going to make it up to any vent hood, anyway. It gets on me and my cooktop and then I wipe it off or wash my clothes.
All I care about is removing heat in the summer. I wonder if there is anything to tell one if it does any good to use a hood to do that... I was trying to figure it out today. I have maybe 14 feet to be traveled between pan and outside with one curve. If the air goes through a non-insulated duct, does it get cooled before it gets outside (or, really, does the inside get heated) to an appreciable amount? I was thinking about the CFM thing and it seemed like it would be able to make it outside before losing its heat but I have no formula for figuring that out. Anyone?
Looking for the best vegetarian italian cookbook :) [Moved from General Topics board]
I have Jack Bishop's book and I love it.
What is your favorite tomato/marinara sauce in a jar?
I've never made a good sauce and so have always bought jars. By the far the best is "Joe's Market" from Ukrops around here (it's my main claim to fame in the food category in the land of not good choices). It has nothing fake, San Marzano tomatoes are the first ingredient, EVOO, and only veggie parts and a few spices. I've found nothing else anywhere near so good. The website is www.ukrops.com if I've convinced you to try it.
Let's talk store-bought yogurt -- what do you like?
Ah, a topic dear to my heart... I live in the heartland of only crap available for yogurt. There are a few places around here which have made a noble effort to sell something decent, but alas (and a-lack) they have not met with success. I have finally had to succomb to just buying Stonyfield lowfat, as it is the best I can do (and that is by going rather out of my way to get it).
I love Brown Cow cream on top, Fage, and Stonyfield full fat, sigh.
Tomorrow I will be in Charlottesville and will make a special trip to the Whole Foods to stock up on yogurt that meets my heart's content. I'll be able to savor my yogurt for the coming month rather than just make do.
FWIW, there's no way I'll buy most of the "healthy" brands stocked in my local supermarkets; a quick glance at ingredients warns me that they are not real food.
What did they make 40 years ago...?
No Spanish Rice? I made that for my Girl Scout cooking badge. Take some hamburger and brown it in the electric frying pan. Throw in some canned tomatoes and some rice. Let it all simmer awhile. There might have been some chopped green peppers but I'm probably throwing in my later life's experiences and advice.
What did they make 40 years ago...?
Yep, creme de menthe. My mother made creme de menthe parfaits for my next door neighbor's bridesmaid luncheon. Never mind that they were strict Baptists and never touched a drop!
