Kitchen Gadgets

Funny you should say that.

I go between trying to clean things up for those who tread behind me, and not really caring who's inconvenienced by my death. You should see my 3 car garage closet.

 

You should have seen my mother's place, but she had dementia.

You could not wade through the basement. She had all sorts of stuff. There were large trash barrels full of knitting supplies she bought at yard sales, even though she had not knitted for decades.

She had a small room in the corner where she would re-pot plants. We were down there after she died, my sister in law just happened to pick up an "interesting looking pot," and there was a large envelope behind it. Inside the envelope was $25,000 worth of Allstate stocks. Just laying there. In the far corner of the basement, underneath potting soil. Goodness knows how she even came to be in possession of the actual stock certificates.

We looked at each other, and we looked at the house full of crap, all realizing that we dare not throw a single thing out without going through it first. We found nothing else of value.

I'm not a hoarder, and I am way less tidy than I used to be, but I'm not like that. Not yet, anyway.

 

OXO is the best! I think I told of my years-old OXO mandolin losing the edge on its blade, and I contacted OXO customer service when I could not find a replacement on their website. They asked for details on how my blade mounts, and sent me a New & Improved replacement for free! I'm not really brand-loyal to manufacturers, but I sure am to OXO.

When I made all that French bread for the church Christmas event for 50 people, I bought 2 of these to speed up the process:

I already had one of these:


I still have all 3. I use one for the final loaf rise of my Italian bread (it's so loose it spreads.) I've not gotten rid of the extras. I may need them someday.

 

I almost opened up a place of my own...not a restaurant, but one of those places in a business park you get breakfast and lunch. I found a location, spoke with an accountant to get start-up costs, etc.

There were a few things that caused me to not do it, but the top of the list was I figured having to cook every day would kill the enjoyment.

 

So to get back to Breville oven...

They have been back-ordered on the baskets that are used for dehydrating and for air frying. The oven can hold 4 baskets, and it comes with one. They sell singles and a 3 pak.

About a month ago Breville Customer Service gave me an ETA of late August for the baskets. I put my email in the specified field on the product page to get notified when they were back in stock. I also started going to their website and checking inventory 2-3 times a day starting 3 weeks ago. They never appeared in Breville's inventory.

Today I sent my Customer Service contact an email to get an updated status, and she said the baskets have been flying out the door as soon as they arrived. I have no idea why I did not receive an email or why they did not appear in inventory on a First Come/First Served basis or how orders were being filled. She offered to set a 3 pak aside and process an order for me. I replied with my data, but this was all late this afternoon east coast time (Breville USA is in California), so I've not received a confirmation.

Hopefully these will be arriving soon. I'm glad I sent that email. Should have done it a week or two sooner.

 

I've been on the lookout for an economical way to contain the ciabatta buns I make so they don't spread out flat like pancakes as they rise and bake (the dough is very loose.) I tried the cheap way by purchasing some 4" diameter PVC pipe and cutting it into 2" tall rings. It worked fine for containing them when they rise, but they still spread when they bake...I cannot leave the PVC on them in the oven.

So I was reading a sous vide burger recipe that talked about "chef's rings." I find some on Amazon that look interesting, and this is the description:

Either these are not made in the USA, or this comment belongs on the "Our Education System Sucks" thread.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

I bought one of those. Works fine for regular dough. The problem is that once ciabatta rises above that shallow impression, it spreads out. It's just one more case of me never learning...I try to save money rather than spending the money on the proper solution in the first place.

Maybe I need to find a different ciabatta recipe, but the one I have is really good.

 

I forgot about these:


I help with an annual pulled pork fundraiser (start smoking at 5AM, end at 6PM.) I bought these thinking they would work better than 2 dinner forks...they don't. Notice how clean the ones in that picture are. That's because the guy probably pulled the pork with some plain old forks. These are a little better for pulling the initial hunks off of the butt, but not for the finer work.

These might work better:



The plastic ones are just too thick to shred well.

 

We have 2 smokers full of butts. I was looking for a way to lessen the tedium. These did not do it.