Bakin’ & Bacon

Spring Salad

Spring has finally sprung here in the upper Midwest and I've been out enjoying the weather; hence the lack of posts.

The past several days have led to a profusion of violets; I've been doing my best to eat as many as I can. I have a few in the fridge waiting to be candied, and I've been tossing them on salads every chance I get. Our yard has hundreds, if not thousands (oh, and dandelion greens have made an appearance on the table too.)

In some ways I'd like to have a lush lawn free of unsightly weeds. On the other hand, I eschew the use of most herbicides and pesticides, other than organic corn gluten meal, which I didn't apply this year due to financial constraints. So my yard is weedy. As I say, if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!

I guess kiwi fruit and mandarin oranges aren't exactly spring fruits, but they certainly contribute the right colors for this salad. It is (almost) too pretty to eat.

More posts to come soon. Upcoming: goat cheese cheesecake, the perils of not planning ahead when baking, a new twist on the kitchen remodel, and more newspaper articles that trickle down to the blog.

Food for Thought - Is Eating Out Green?

I've been eating out a lot recently due to my commute and other factors, and it occurred to me one evening that in some ways, eating out can be more green than cooking at home. Now, I'm not talking about going to McDonald's and getting something highly packaged and of dubious taste and nutritional value. I'm talking about eating at a neighborhood restaurant, where you aren't driving much, if at all, to get to it, and where you are served on china, not in a styrofoam box.

The logic behind my thinking is this: the restaurants are buying foodstuffs with much less packaging than in the grocery stores, their equipment is being to feed many, many people, increasing the efficiency of the fossil fuels used to cook it (I am assuming, although I could be wrong, that the cost/use per meal of gas/electric in a restaurant is lower than in a home kitchen). Mostly I am thinking in terms of packaging and distribution - instead of everyone driving to the store to buy food in little packages (many of which are not easily recyclable), then driving home, instead people walking to the corner pub and eating a sandwich (accompanied by a pint, of course!), may be more ecologically sound. Or maybe I had one too many Grey Goose sours when I thought of this. Am I just trying to justify my growing habit of joining my DH's co-workers for a drink and dinner at the local bar & grill?  I'm sure I'm forgetting something - what are your thoughts on this subject? 

Diners & Dives, but NO Guy Fieri

I've been eating out a LOT recently, since I have been away from home more than I've been home the past two weeks. First I was in Washington, DC, and ate mostly crappy hotel food for three days. Then I went to Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid_Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and ate mostly crappy chain food. Now I'm in Sunny Philadelphia, and I'll be darned if I eat any more crappy hotel food.

Instead of staying at the conference hotel, I am staying at the Thomas Bond House Bed & Breakfast (the hotel ran out of rooms for our conference, a situation I did not lament greatly). My flight arrived early in the morning, and the conference doesn't start until about 4:00 p.m., so I had time to do a little sightseeing. But first I needed to eat breakfast since I got up at dark o'clock. I asked the B&B proprieter if there were any good lunch/brunch places. He recommended a local diner, the Snow White Restaurant. It is a typical old school diner, and such a refreshing change from hotel "eggs" and "coffee."

I ordered pancakes and bacon, and I wasn't disappointed. No matter how hard I try, I can't replicate diner pancakes at home. I think I need a griddle with years' worth of greasy buildup in order to do it. The coffee was good, too, and the waitress tired and surly, just what one would expect. I almost expected Flo to come over and tell me to "kiss my grits."

Now in an email I've been informed that I'm supposed to eat at the conference hotel anyway, to the tune of $114.00 over three days. You bet your hiney I'll be fighting that charge. I didn't bring any checks - think they'll buy that excuse? I hope so.

We had planned to find a microbrewery tonight for dinner, but I might be dining at the Hyatt instead. Keep your fingers crossed that I can get out of it! If I have to pay the money, I will eat at the hotel since I'm certainly not going to pay without receiving SOMETHING. I might tell them I'm a vegan with gluten intolerance and make them suffer for it if I can't get out of the deal. Plus I'll take pictures and have a post for the Gallery of Regrettable Foods.

I just LOVE conferences, don't you??

Parting shot of the inside of the Snow White:

Cleveland - Foodie Destination?

Early this month, I met up with a group of friends in Cleveland for a foodie weekend getaway. (Note: I don't like the term "foodie" but words like gourmand sound so pretentious.) Why Cleveland? Frankly, until recently I viewed Cleveland as "The Mistake by the Lake." Watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episode on Cleveland changed my mind, as did the Food Network's Next Iron Chef where Cleveland Chef Michael Symon beat out all other contestants for the honor. I started reading about great restaurants in the Cleveland area (Chef Symon's Lola and Lolita, The Flying Fig, Fire, Carrie Cerino's), a good brewery (Great Lakes Brewing Co.), and my attitude about the city began to change.

My husband imports motorcycles and the port of entry is Cleveland so he travels there frequently. Before, I never wanted to accompany him on his business trips but now I had a reason. In addition to the restaurants and the Westside Market, there are two Trader Joe's, a new Penzey's, Whole Foods and Sur la Table (none of which we have here). So I've been going with my husband, leaving him to deal with the customs officials and brokers, and going off shopping. I hadn't eaten at any of the above-named restaurants, though, until a group of people on the Cook's Illustrated Bulletin Board decided Cleveland would be the next destination to "meet and eat."

We certainly did eat. Everyone brought goodies for an initial reception (I swear I could live on Marilyn's toffee), and there was a plethora of spreads, dips, charcuterie and pickles. Desserts were not overlooked by this crowd - the swoon-inducing toffee and a variety of cookies were offered (including one of my favorites, speculaas). Yum. It's nice to be able to talk fervently about food with people nearly nonstop and not have them try to commit you to a nice, quiet hospital.

We ate dinners at Lola and The Flying Fig. The picture at the top is of the Tempura Green Beans appetizer at The Flying Fig, which Michael Ruhlman recommended when he spoke to our group. Yep, Mr. Charcuterie himself spoke to our small group after we had been cooking together all morning at The Viking Store in Cleveland's swanky Legacy Village shopping center. If I had a kitchen like the one at the Viking store I might finally have enough room. It is bigger than the apartment I used to live in! I have included a few photos below of our group cooking together.

Most of the other food photos I took didn't turn out very well. (I even forgot my camera for the Lola dinner. Doh!) I tried sweetbreads for the first time and thought they were pretty good, but I probably won't try to make them myself. I also had duck at Lola (excellent), but I must say I was a tad disappointed with dessert. I had the 6 a.m. special, which was French toast and maple-bacon ice cream. The ice cream was okay but not outstanding, and the rest of the dish was not memorable at all. Perhaps my expectations were too high because I make a lot of desserts myself, but I just wasn't impressed.

The Flying Fig dessert was better (fig and thyme crisp with lemon ice cream that was excellent), but the rest of the meal, while very good, wasn't quite up to the meal at Lola. I had a small plate sampler with Ohio lamb meatballs (fair), a local goat cheese served with candied pecans, toast slices and a strawberry preserve (excellent), and a scallop stuffed with short ribs (very good). The tempura green beans were tasty, although the dipping sauces were a bit strange. One was a sweet maple sauce and the other a mustard. I might try to make the beans at home sometime - everything is better deep fried!

 

 

 

Proselytizing at the Grocery Store (A Compulsion)

How many times have you overhead a conversation at the grocery store debating the merits of certain products, and you wanted to scream out "NO, NO you idiot! That totally sucks rocks!" Well, you probably have a much better vocabulary than I do, and don't think of the phrase "totally sucks rocks." But at any rate, do you try to enlighten the proletariat?

Or, when you see someone reaching for the most processed, least food-like boxed dinner (like Hamburger Helper), do you feel like slapping and shaking them?

I might need anger management therapy.

No, I don't actually DO any of that, but I sure think about it. Sometimes I will even offer my opinion if someone looks hesitant, confused, or if she pauses just a little too long.

Once an elderly lady was peering intently at packages of frozen chicken breast. She seemed to be reading the labels, so I commented to her that it was a shame that we had to pay for water and chemicals since all the chicken was "enhanced." The woman looked at me blankly, so I pointed to the small print that said "may contain up to a 15% solution." The blank stare didn't change, so I tried one more time to explain how the enhanced chicken wasn't less expensive than unadulterated chicken if you factored in the amount of water you were buying - plus it was chock full o' chemicals. The woman nodded quickly and scurried away, presumably to escape the freaky chicken evangelist. (She kept the chicken.)

Sometimes people seem grateful for the insight I provide (especially guys - although sometimes I think they are just trying to strike up a conversation). A few people have thanked me profusely for explaining something or teaching them something new. But more often than not, if I offer an unsolicited opinion, I get a weak smile and the person slinks away. Recently I've been keeping my big trap shut, even when it pains me to do so. For instance, this week while passing through the "international" aisle, a man and what I assumed to be his daughter (please let that have been his daughter) were looking at pasta. They picked up a bag of Delallo, which I consider to be a  mediocre pasta, and the man said, "well it's from Italy." So are Fiats, but they aren't very good! (Actually I owned a Fiat and loved it dearly, but then again I have a live-in mechanic. Anyway, you get the point.) The sad thing was, the Barilla was right behind them, is a superior product, and it was even on sale. They paid twice as much for half the product. But I just walked on, because I know that evangelism isn't appreciated, no matter how knowledgeable the provider.

Charcoal - DIY

After my husband discovered that regular charcoal in fact does contain coal, in addition to other nasty byproducts, he switched exclusively to lump hardwood char. That can be difficult to find around here, and is more expensive than regular charcoal. So he decided to learn how to make his own char from wood trimmings we had after we cut down a large tree in the backyard. He has discovered that the flavor of REAL hardwood char is superior even to manufactured lump hardwood (which is mostly wood floor and pallet trimmings).

The most important thing to remember when making your own char is to be certain that the outside of the wood is completely charred, as in total carbon black, otherwise you are cooking with soot or creosote. My husband usually starts with with oak or maple branches with a wrist-sized diameter and cut to fit the length of the firebox. (I have seen some websites that recommend chunks no larger than 5-6 inches, but we have a pretty big firebox). To make your own, find some wood, cut it into the biggest chunks that will easily fit in your smoker or grill, and fill your firebox pretty full. You want to layer the wood criss-cross style for maximum exposure to flame and air during the beginning phase to be sure that it all chars evenly. This means you will be able to see light through to the bottom of the stack.

My husband prefers to ignite the wood with a MAPP gas or propane torch rather than soaking it in lighter fluid so it doesn't have any off-odors or noxious gases. You could also do it kind of like a chimney, by placing wadded paper underneath and lighting the paper until the wood catches. It takes a lot longer to do that, though. Once it's lit, leave the fire uncovered and burning vigorously until all the wood is completely charred on the outside. Now comes the critical step. Close the lid, close the dampers, close any vents. This allows the wood to burn with no oxygen. This consumes the wood and leaves the char. In the beginning of the process, a lot of smoke will be produced, which is actually the water being steamed out of the wood. It's our way of sending smoke signals to the neighbors so they know we'll be having some tasty pork and/or beef later in the day.

When it looks like glowing orange coals, rather similar to regular charcoal, it's ready to be used for cooking. This usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half in our firebox. If the chunks of wood are big enough, you can keep a medium-sized smoker can at 400 degrees for several hours just by regulating the vents/damper. When you are ready to smoke or grill, open up the damper and chimney vent to allow air to flow, thereby increasing the temperature of the grill. If you are grilling you can grill directly over the coals, or you can smoke with an offset or vertical smoker box.

You don't want to add fresh wood to this fire (to avoid soot), so if you have to add fuel to keep the heat up, it's best to add manufactured lump hardwood char. You can add small pieces of raw wood for flavoring, but don't add large chunks for fuel/heat. Just as with charcoal, this will burn until nothing is left but ash. We use the ash in the cracks of our driveway to keep weeds from growing. It's quite alkaline, and most plants will not tolerate a highly alkaline soil. It's better for the environment than weed killer and just as effective.

Food Processor Death Match: Round 2

The second, and deciding, round of the food processor battle is over. I'll announce my winner at the end, but first let's review how each competitor fared. The task I tackled next was making a puree. I chose hummus bi tahini, because the texture change is substantial moving from nearly crunchy chickpeas to an almost smooth puree. I like to leave my hummus a bit coarse so it doesn't lay like a paste on the tongue.

The KitchenAid took less time to achieve the consistency I was after. After the same amount of processing time, you can see the difference:
The KitchenAid is on the left and the Cuisinart on the right. You'll notice that the KA puree is finer, although it left a little oil unincorporated. The Cuisinart still has larger chunks of chickpeas, but all of the ingredients are evenly distributed. These photos are after 20 seconds of processing. It took another 10 seconds in the Cuisinart for it to achieve the same texture as the KA, but it eventually got the same results. The KA wins the puree contest.

Next I moved on to more vegetable preparation and grated cabbage and carrots for slaw. I had to cut the cabbage wedge down more to fit in the KA's narrow feed tube, and that may have been the cause of the noticeable difference in texture between the two units. But, it may have been the distribution of the grating holes - the KA has holes that are more evenly distributed, while the Cuisinart has a cluster of holes near the center and then fewer at the edges. Below, on the left, is the KA cabbage. It almost looks chopped rather than grated or shredded. I preferred the texture achieved by the Cuisinart - that's what I think shredded cabbage should look like.

The knife shown in the photo on the right was to chop up the "angel's share" of cabbage each processor left whirling helplessly around the top of the blade:

What's interesting, although I didn't take a picture of it, is that for the carrot, the KA left a perfect little carrot disc, and the Cuisinart left a piece from the side of the carrot.

One thing that confused me when I was setting up the processors to do the grating and slicing is that the KA blade is upside down compared to the Cuisinart. The lip is on the top side instead of the bottom. I thought it might cause more problems with food catching and such but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

The carrot test was not as conclusive. They both grated them well, although the Cuisinart's may have been a hair thinner. The KA shreds seemed more three-dimensional, but the difference was very slight. I don't know that one was better than the other but they were slightly different. Both were acceptable to me.

For what proved to be the final task I was willing to do, I did a liquid leaking test. I made a large batch of marinara, which called for 56 ounces of whole tomatoes that needed to be pureed. It was first cooked down, so it probably was only about 40 ounces by the time I put it in the processors. I put it in the Cuisinart first and spun it for two pulses. The amount of liquid went over the recommended liquid line, so I was expecting the worst. However, it didn't seem to leak. There was a little liquid on the stem of the processor, but no drips or puddles under the bowl. I transferred the contents to the KA, where the liquid just reached the liquid limit line. Two pulses later, and I had slight leakage. Again, the KA is the photo on the left:
While the KA supposedly has a higher liquid capacity if you go by the line indicated on the bowl, in reality the capacities are very close to the same in both models. It still beats my 7-cup, though, which leaked with a single 28-ounce can of tomatoes in it!

 

I hate to harp on a subject, but I have to go back to the sturdiness factor again. Looking at the blades of both units, it appears that the Cuisinart is again the winner. Cuisinart uses rivets more than KitchenAid, and where KA does use rivets they appear to be smaller. Again, there is no way of knowing for sure without doing destructive testing, but if I had to guess, I'd say the Cuisinart blades will hold up better.

I decided not to make a dough with the machines because I don't use a food processor for dough. But repeated tests have shown that the Cuisinart is a bit better for making dough, but that the KA will perform more than adequately in this task.

A couple of points I didn't mention before and I will wrap up this comparison. The Cuisinart motor is quieter than the KitchenAid; however, the bowl of the KA is thicker and therefore masks some of the noise from ingredients hitting the sides of the bowl, so neither one is a clear winner in this area. It's tough to make a silent food processor that actually works. But neither of these is jarring in its noise level.

Both have motors that are close to one another in stated wattage. I don't know how much difference 20 more watts will make when you are already at 700 watts. That is nearly 3/4 horsepower! Of course, the actual performance will depend on the current reaching the outlet. Although the electric company may claim otherwise, your household current probably varies between 90 and 130 volts throughout the day. The condition of the wiring in your house affects the outlet voltage as well. Our usually runs between 110 and 118. So we aren't getting quite the performance out of the motors that we could - the rating is for 120 volts. But both these puppies are pretty stout

I had some trouble getting the bowl off the KitchenAid. The indents on the base are longer than on the Cuisinart so you have to turn the bowl just right to lift it off. I'm sure I'd get better at it with practice but it annoyed the shit out of me during the testing. Also, I much prefer the paddle controls of the Cuisinart, because the buttons on the KA are fairly small and I always had to look down to make sure I was pressing the right one. So I am going to rate the Cuisinart higher on ease of use with a caveat that I previously owned a Cuisinart so my comfort level is greater with that brand.

In the end, both of these machines are great food processors, and are superior to the Black & Decker/Oster/Hamilton Beach models. You really can't go wrong with either of them, so base your choice on how well each one performs in the tasks you will be doing in your food processor.

Here's a summary of the results:

Looks: in the eye of the beholder
Size of unit: Cuisinart (it fits under my cabinets)
Dry ingredient capacity: Cuisinart
Liquid ingredient capacity: Tie
Smooth puree: KitchenAid
Grating: Cuisinart
Slicing: KitchenAid (two slicing blades)
Accessories: KitchenAid (extra slicing blade; mini bowl/blade)
Sturdiness (perceived): Cuisinart
Noise: Tie (I don't have a decibel meter to measure precisely)
Ease of use: Cuisinart (caveat - I was a previous Cuisinart user)

Neither of these units clearly outshone the other, so I can't say one is a much better product. It depends on the criteria that are important to you. If you want an all around machine and don't care if it fits under your cabinets, I'd choose the KitchenAid because it has more accessories and, if you like black, it's cheaper. If capacity and sturdiness are what you're after, choose the Cuisinart. I am keeping the Cuisinart, based on the following criteria:

1. The dry capacity is larger - it will handle a double batch of cookie dough (you could say 'it had me at double dough' - groan)
2. It appears to be more sturdily constructed
3. It fits under my cabinets - if I have to put it in a cabinet, I'll never use it
4. My comfort level is greater due to my previous Cuisinart ownership

Even though I had to spend an extra $70, I'm happy with my Cuisinart. I'm looking forward to many years of processing bliss.

Food Processor Death Match: Round 1

I have pitted two machines, the KitchenAid KFP750 and the Cuisinart DFP-14, against each other in a death match. I’m not actually going to kill one, at least I hope not because I can’t afford them both. But one of them will be dead to me, and will be returned to Amazon. I wonder if it will be resold as a refurb. Does anyone know what happens to unwanted used appliances that have been returned under a generous return policy?

Let’s begin by looking at the boxes. It’s interesting that the slightly smaller unit, the KA750 (12 cups) has a box that’s twice as big. It certainly aims to impress, but I always suspect that anyone who thinks that bigger and flashier is better is overcompensating for something. That’s why I always tell Hummer owners that I’m sorry for them.

The unit I’m replacing is a Cuisinart 7-cup, with which I’ve been extremely pleased. So you might think I’m partial to the Cuisinart brand, especially since I also own a Cuisinart hand mixer that I like very much. However, I have an older KitchenAid stand mixer and it’s very dear to my heart. I also own other brands of small appliances, so I really don’t have a strong brand loyalty. I’m sure brand-marketing directors everywhere gnash their teeth thinking about folks like me.

I originally purchased the KitchenAid because it came more highly recommended than the similarly sized Cuisinart, which has an 11-cup capacity. However, the Cuisinart I purchased for this comparison has the largest capacity available (14 cups), and is not the newer style that is usually tested for reviews. You could say I’m comparing apples and oranges (or perhaps more accurately oranges and tangerines) because the Cuisinart is larger, and maybe you’re right. But I wanted the largest available, and KA doesn’t make a bigger model. OK, I'm a dummy. The KA Pro Line food processor has a 16 cup capacity. However, it's even more expensive - $299, compared to the $199 I paid for the Cuisinart. That's not a price I'm willing to pay, although I bet it's a humdinger of a food processor. I wanted to compare products in the same price range, and even though I got a steal on the KA (black only at $129), most places have these two products for about the same price.

Let’s first put them side-by-side on the counter and compare their aesthetics. I’m not going to use appearance as a factor in my decision, but I know some people want appliances to look nice on their counter. I’m all about performance over style (do I hear gnashing of teeth again?). You can see that the Cuisinart is a bit stodgy. What I find interesting is that the larger capacity Cuisinart is much more compact than the KA. It fits under my cabinets whereas the KA is about 1/4 inch too tall, which although not a deal-breaker, makes the Cuisinart more attractive to me. The “black chrome” on the Cuisinart is going to be a bitch to keep free from smudges and fingerprints, and I did not see an all-black version available. Again, not crucial but it is something to consider. Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I leave it to you to pick the winner of this swimsuit competition.

Moving on to construction, it appears to me that the blade of the Cuisinart is sturdier, although the bowl of the KA appears to be heavier. It would be interesting to do destructive testing on these pups to see which is in fact more durable, but I can’t afford that, so unless someone wants to fund a destructive testing, we’ll have to just guess. My older Cuisinart is still going strong; I just wanted a larger one. I feel that the buttons on the KA are more prone to failure than the paddles of the Cuisinart, but I have nothing but a gut feeling to back up that assertion. Other than that, I feel they are equal in sturdiness. They weigh about the same, and their motors are on par with each other. So we’ll call this a draw, with perhaps a slight advantage to the Cuisinart on the controls.

 

After appearance I looked at accessories. The KA comes with two slicing discs, I think 2mm and 4mm, which is nice. The Cuisinart only has a 4mm blade standard. Also, the KA comes with the mini-bowl, which is good if you have a small batch of something. The first thing that comes to mind is mayo - you'd have to make a monster batch if you were just using the large bowl. But that smaller bowl is juuust right. I don't think I would use the mini-bowl much since if I have just a few ingredients to chop I would rather do it by hand and not muck up the entire food processor. You can forget about using the mini-bowl and not having to wash the larger bowl - I whizzed up graham crackers in the mini bowl and not only did the lid get dirty but particles ended up in the larger bowl as well so all of it had to be washed (thanks for warning me anisette). Yuck. The KA comes with a plastic container to hold all the accessories, which is handy, although that means you have to find a place for it. I usually just tuck the blades in a cabinet or drawer. Both units come with a shredding disc, a dough blade, and a hard plastic spatula shaped to fit the bowl. I'm a little 'meh' on those spatulas - I prefer a flexible one. Some people swear by them, though. Again, in my opinion, the Cuisinart parts seem a little heavier, although the KA stem/blade is easier to assemble. It just slips on, whereas on the Cuisinart you have to hold in a little button, insert just so, and twist to lock. It's a bit more cumbersome but I think it feels more secure. Of course, I haven't heard of any blades flying loose on the KA so I'm probably just being paranoid. Given the fact that the KA comes with two slicing discs and a mini bowl/blade, I have to give it the nod for this category.

Capacity is next on the list since it's probably the biggest factor I will use to determine which one to keep. You'll remember that a few days ago I tried to make a double batch of cookie dough in the KA and it failed miserably. Only the stuff on the bottom got mixed together, and it never pulled down the stuff from the top. I tried a similar recipe in the Cuisinart, one that had the same proportion of ingredients but had more flour and sugar, so it made the competition almost exactly even, considering the Cuisinart has about 14% more capacity, and this recipe ended up being about 14% larger. While not perfect, the Cuisinart did a much butter job. When pulsed, it brought the ingredients down from the top and got them incorporated. I did have to scrape the bowl down once, but it got the bulk of the job done, unlike the KA. So I’m going to give dry ingredient capacity to the Cuisinart, which of course is bigger. 

There is one thing I’d like to point out about capacity. Even though these are rated at 12 and 14 cups, there is no way you can use them that full, especially with liquid ingredients. The KA has an indicator for liquid level on the side. It took about 4 cups of liquid to get to that line, but even with careful pouring, it leaked around the stem before the line was reached. The Cuisinart’s liquid line only allowed 3 cups of liquid. I will process some liquid ingredients to see how well they each perform tomorrow.

Slicing and shredding were the next tasks I chose. I sliced a cucumber for a salad this evening, and put half in each unit. The KA750 has a small feed tube, so the cucumber barely fit. You'd have to cut a potato or anything bigger than a medium cucumber to fit it in the tube. However, for the same price as the Cuisinart, you can get the KA760 which has the larger feed tube, but I've heard that it is a pain to use. I thought the Cuisinart would ace the capacity test since it has an enormous tube. Well, yes but no. The tube is wide and deep, but the safety interlock is activated by the top of the tube, so anything taller than the tube (about 4"), needs to be cut down to fit before you can slice or shred. One caveat: if the item is very thin like a carrot or skinny cucumber, you can use just the middle portion of the tube and process a long item. That worked, barely, for this cucumber. But if I were going to do a bunch of carrots I'd have to cut them into pieces. A medium potato, though, would fit in the Cuisinart without cutting but not in the KA.

I don't know if the larger feed tube on the KA 760 has the same safety interlock "feature" but I'd bet it does. You see, a large feed tube means you can fit your hand in it so there has to be another safety device to keep stupid people from mangling themselves. (Sometimes I'm surprised we can still buy sharp knives in this country. We keep trying to make things idiot proof, but the idiots keep getting better at being dumb.) So the feed tubes are a draw.

Feed tube capacity aside, both did a fine job on slicing. The Cuisinart ended up with a little larger piece floating around on top of the blade, but that has more to do with my clumsiness at pushing it down than in the product itself. I'll do more slicing and shredding tomorrow and post some photos. But for now it's late, I'm tired, and my belly is full. Which is a good thing.

Knephla Soup: Germans-from-Russia penicillin

I've been battling a nasty cold for several days. When I'm sick, nothing makes me feel better like a bowl of knephla (pronounced nep-fla) soup. Whereas chicken noodle soup is Jewish penicillin, knephla soup is Protestant German-from-Russia penicillin. Every Friday during my high school years in my home town of Wishek, North Dakota, I would eat the knephla soup at the Prairie Winds Cafe. I can only imagine how many calories were in each large bowl, since the woman who made it was not shy with the heavy cream. Back then, I could handle the extra calories easily. Now I save this for a special treat or for when I'm not feeling well.

I have modified my family's knephla soup recipe quite a bit. My grandmother (and most other German grandmas) didn't sweat the onions and celery to draw out flavor; they were just added to the water along with the potatoes. I like to extract the maximum flavor possible, so I sweat a chopped onion and a couple stalks of celery, including the leafy parts, in a healthy (unhealthy?) amount of butter with a little salt. To that I add a quart of water, some bay leaves and allspice in a tea ball, and a large red potato, diced. While the potato is cooking, I prepare the knephla dough. It is typically a stiff dough, rolled into small cylinders, cut with scissors into tiny bits and boiled until tender. These dumplings are the knephla.

Before I delve into the etymology of knephla, a short explanation of Germans from Russia is due. My ancestors lived in the Alsatian (Rhine) area of Germany in the 1700s. When Catherine the Great invited foreigners to settle in Russia in 1762-63 with the enticement of free land, Germans began to escape the political upheaval of the 300+ municipalities and dukedoms that made up the area we now call Germany. After Czar Alexander repeated the invitation in 1803, a mass exodus of people from Alsace area occurred due to displacement during the Napoleonic wars. That is when my ancestors made the pilgrimage. Upon arriving in the Ukraine, these immigrants lived in relative isolation since the invitation included exemption from military service and the ability to keep their own language and culture. That is why the German spoken by emigrants to the United States via Russia is different than that of present day Germans. Many people think difference is due to the Russian influence, when in fact the language spoken by Germans from Russia has remained nearly the same for 200 years and the language in Germany is what changed.

The Germans living in Russia were not treated well and didn't integrate into the rest of Russian society. In the late 1800s, the czar wanted to unify Russia so he repealed the exemption from military service and imposed language and other requirements on the settlers. This caused a wave of people to emigrate from Russia to  America, mainly to the upper Midwest. I am fortunate that my relatives made it out  because after WWII, settlers who didn't return to Germany with the retreating German forces were deported into labor camps in Siberia and other places. Only recently has the Russian government tried to make up for these atrocities by repatriating the descendants of those so persecuted to the Baltic regions originally settled or to Germany.

Although the Germans lived in relative isolation, they did borrow some of the culture of their host country. For example, my grandmother often made a dish called Holubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls). Holubtsi is definitely a Ukrainian word and dish, not German.

Back to the knephla. I've done some research, and it seems to me that the word (also spelled knoephla) is a twist on the German word for button, knopf. This case is further supported by the name of another German dish called Kase Knephla, which translates as "cheese buttons." These consist of a dough (basically an egg pasta) encasing a filling of cottage cheese, onion, salt and pepper. I think of it as German ravioli. The cheese buttons are boiled, then briefly browned in butter.

Back to the soup. My mother and grandmother boiled the knephla separately, then added them to the potato/onion mixture. It's a real PITA, and I always get tired and end up cutting pieces too large and have monster dumplings with the texture of tire rubber. I like smaller, more tender dumplings and when I made spaetzle for the first time a few weeks ago, the proverbial light bulb went off over my head. So now I just make a spaetzle dough, and grate it right into the potato broth. These petite, tender dumplings are divine.

Once the knephla (err - spaetzle?) cook for a few minutes to tenderize, a healthy dose of heavy cream and a generous dollop of chicken base is added. This step cannot be overlooked, because the salty, pseudo-chicken-y taste of chicken base (either powdered or a paste like Better than Bouillon) is crucial to the soup. You either love it or hate it, but it has to be there. I once tried to make it "pure" by using only chicken stock and no bouillon, but it just didn't taste right. So I don't mess with tradition any more (well, except for the dumplings - and the sweating of the vegetables - oh, never mind). Lots of black pepper is de rigueur, and parlsey is optional but nice.

The rich soup needed a sweet and light counterpart. I defaulted to another sick-day standby, raspberry Jello with mandarin oranges. I don't care what you say about Jello, I like it. It is light, refreshing, vividly colored, and perfectly artificially flavored. Plus it's easy and cheap - so what if it's old pig hooves? If pig trotters are considered great food, why turn one's nose up at Jello? Kick me out of the food snob crowd if you will, but I will continue eating it. Maybe I should call it sweet raspberry aspic. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Birthday Results and More Puff Pastry

I've been playing with the puff I made the other day. I am learning a few things, like that you have to cut cleanly with a cookie cutter and not rotate at all. Here are a few little cookies that I made yesterday and filled with blood orange curd. They were devoured in no time.

I promised folks I would tell them about the birthday bash for which I cooked up a storm. (Yep, I cook and bake on my birthday. But I want to!) My friend and I have birthdays very close together (unfortunately he's a lot younger than I am), and this year we had a joint party at his place. I wanted to do pulled pork on the grill, but my husband broke a rib and I wasn't about to stand in 10 degree weather tending a fire. Someone suggested I do the crockpot pulled pork from Cook's Country. Since I already had the pork, I thought I would give it a try.

To dry to duplicate the smoky flavor that a long roast over hardwood provides, Cook's has you season the meat thoroughly, let it sit in the rub overnight, then place it atop two smoked and cured hamhocks in a crockpot. Additionally, liquid smoke is added to the sauce at the end of the cooking.

Although everyone at the party liked it very well, I was underwhelmed. While it tasted okay, it was definitely flat when compared to our usual pulled pork. It'll do in a pinch but this recipe won't be added to the repetoire.

In addition to the pulled pork, I made a sweet and sour slaw (yummy), chicken wings with my favorite wing sauce (I was afraid I would trip a breaker in their kitchen with 2 crockpots and a deep fryer - but it all worked fine), a sausage queso dip, chips and homemade salsa. My friend provided a cheese tray, veggie tray and dips. It was a BYOB affair, so I didn't have to worry about that, although I did bring some community beer.

As to the birthday cake, since this wasn't a big dessert crowd, I decided to make cupcakes instead of a fancy decorated cake. OK, the real reason was that I ran out of time due to unexpected visitors on Friday night. So I made one of my favorite cakes (it was my birthday after all!), Rose Levy Berenbaum's Cordon Rose Banana Cake, into cupcakes and iced them with her equally scrumptious Sour Cream Chocolate Ganache. A lot of people wrinkled their noses when I said I made banana cupcakes. However, upon trying them, most people decided that they liked banana after all. Many found the icing to be too rich and dark, and I didn't even use my darkest chocolate! I used Trader Joe's bittersweet chocolate, which I think is only about 56% cocoa solids. I saved the 72% for another project - although it's a little dark for most of my friends' tastes. The cocoa percentage has to be above 80% before I find it too intense.

Unfortunately, I captured none of this with my camera. Sorry, no photos of darling little cupcakes or drool-worthy fried chicken. But I had a great time and managed to avoid a hangover, so I was pretty happy with the outcome.