All-Clad Lasagna Pan with Two Oven Mitts

We have a roasting pan, but it has paint or something and is beginning to flake, so a new one seemed advisable.   

I have been very pleased with my All-Clad pots and pans, so when I found a deal on this lasagna pan, I jumped on it.       

The All-Clad pots are great - but heavy!

This one weighs 5 1/2 pounds empty!

So I made lasagna.

The sauce is from tomatoes we canned from our heirloom tomatoes.

To that I added our garlic, basil, parsley.

The more meat the merrier  -  this one has chicken, ground beef, hot sausage.

Also lots of parmesan.

I used Barilla lasagna noodles, Cabot mozzarella, Galbani ricotta with eggs and parsley.

When we were growing up, we never had lasagna.

Father considered it a leftover garbage food.

We had one or more pasta meals each week, but never lasagna.

Well, I guess I agree with my father.

Although this tastes really good, it looks unappealing.

It's a lot of work, and it is probably not worth it.

Combine those ingredients in different ways!

But I do have a lovely pan!

Ravioli and Tortellini - 2012

I made ravioli for lunch today,and that reminded me of this old post

Ravioli and Tortellini

using my new

Cuisinart Food Processor

14 cup

Begin with 3 cups of flour.





















The recipe called for 4 eggs.  With the giant egg, I figured that made 4 eggs.
The large egg is 100 grams.  The others are 68 and 69 grams.



















The large egg was a double-yolked one!

















While processing, it became clear it needed more liquid.
I added another egg.

Notice the cute blue light framing the on button when it's processing.















I have a hand-crank pasta machine,
so D was enlisted to help me roll the dough into strips.

The filling was also done in the food processor.
It consists of roast chicken, onion, garlic, egg, black pepper.

The difference between ravioli and tortellini is the shape.

I cooked the ravioli in stock.

Then added sauce.
The sauce is from our tomatoes, with sausage, garlic, herbs, locatelli cheese.












Boy, was it good.

I think the Australian Shepherd, Tommy, is really Italian.
And Tommy got a taste of the sauce when we were done.

He was impressed.

Homepage

Published 3/16/12

Some of my other kitchen experiments:
You can click on these links to see them.
Altoids® copycat
Apple pie
Bean Soup
World's greatest Biscuits
Blueberry Buckle
Blooming Bread
Challah Bread
Dill Pickles
Focaccia
No-Knead Bread
Peanut Butter
Raised Rich Rolls
Raisin Bread
Ravioli
Yorkshire Pudding or Popovers

Pizzelle Part 4

Well, the pizzelle iron survived the flood.   After an amazing amount of cleaning (do you know how many nooks and crannies there are when you have to remove all the silt?) and then re-seasoning, it was possible to make a batch of cookies.

Alas, in the middle of batch 2, it stopped working.  After taking it apart, D found a broken wire.

Perhaps there was enough slack to pull it together.
Sadly, the wire was too friable and kept breaking.
  Time for a new iron.

I couldn't find the identical one on Amazon, but this one is close.

The new iron, using the last half of the old recipe made cakey, thick pizzelles.  

Disappointed.

In the picture above, one is being held vertically so that you can see the thickness.

This is rather difficult to clean, but perhaps, as it seasons it will get better.

Finally found the recipe I like.
https://www.browneyedbaker.com/pizzelle-italian-waffle-cookies/
It's crispy and thin.  Sweet, but not too sweet.  Easy to bend if you need to make cones or other. . .

I found it worked best if I popped them in the oven at 200 for about 20 minutes to get them really crisp.

The recipe is great.  Now, I just need to figure out the timing.

The recipe has these ingredients:

•  6 eggs
•  1 cup butter(melted)  227g
•  1½ cups sugar  300g   (probably could use less)
•  Pinch of salt
•  1 teaspoon anise extract (probably needed more)
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  3½ cups all-purpose flour  440g

FWIW, my family pronounces this Peet-ZELL

Cookies - December 15

It's cookie making time.  

I saw a video of a person making five different cookies starting with a basic recipe and adding to change it.  That sounded like fun. 

I had just tried using a cookie press to make cookies and that was extremely frustrating, since the cookies wouldn't stick to the cookie sheet.  Aargh.  She piped cookies, it went smoothly, and it looked great!  It looked so much easier and more fail-safe.  Famous last words?  So that's where I began.

I cut the recipe into thirds:

- 750 gr soft room temp Butter ( 6 2/3 sticks ) 250g

- 300 gr Powdered Sugar ( 2 1/2 cups) 100g

- 3 room temp X Large Egg Whites 1

- 900 gr All purpose Flour ( 6 cups + 1/2 cup). 300g

- 3 tsp Vanilla 1 tsp

- 1/4 tsp Salt   dash

Then I put the dough in a very sturdy pastry bag with one of the star tips.
I think her workspace was much warmer than my kitchen.  My dough was "room temperature", but it was very difficult to pipe, taking a lot of hand strength, and here's the result.

Sadly, that's my best work!

Here are some that have been dipped in chocolate and sprinkles.

 Toward the end, I gave up and made thumbprint cookies (bottom right).  With a puddle of chocolate and some sprinkles they are good.

I guess you could say they are festive. .  

And they are really delicious if you like a buttery not-too-sweet cookie.

For tips and advice, check the video that started this:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blKCLBWudZ0

Flood Part 4 - Thank You!

A Light at the End of the Tunnel - Thank You!

We are beginning to return to normal.  Still lots to do, but it does not feel as overwhelming! We had help from lots of people.

NYSEG came promptly to turn off the gas.  Then, NYSEG's Brooke Pierce came back several times to check the progress and to make sure we had electric and gas services as soon as possible.  She is really conscientious! Without her help, we would still be wet and shivering.

And there are lots of wonderful people in the city of Norwich, NY.

Norwich Fire Department Chief Jan Papelino and the folks at the Norwich Fire Department were super helpful.  They provided huge back-up pumps to get the water out, and Jan encouraged the city to pick up the flooded detritus.  That was so convenient and a huge saving and much appreciated!

We are also lucky to have excellent tradespeople in Norwich.

Collier Electric was quick and helpful.  Phil agreed that it would be a good idea to move the electric panel from the basement to the main floor of the house. If it floods here next time we're moving to Ararat.  And he kept the electricity going to keep us warm.

Marty from L W Morse & Son Plumbing arrived as soon as it was possible to get into the basement safely, and convinced our old water heater to work!  Hot water and the 4 electric heaters that he brought made the house almost livable while he and his assistant Keegan put in a modern furnace, replacing the antique one that flooded.

Luis has been helping us for over a year.  He does the heavy lifting.  He is always cheerful and is a super hard worker.  He got rid of a lot of the mud and muck.  We are very grateful for his help.

Kathy provided a delicious meal and visited for a bit of a break.  It was wonderful!  Karen kindly offered to do laundry - wow - that's an offer. . .

Flood Page 3 - More Cleaning

Now it's time to clean up the small stuff.  There were two sets of china stored in the basement, carefully packed in boxes with paper between the plates.  All wet!  And muddy.
This is a set for 12, bought in the 1960s.  There are dinner, lunch, salad, bread and butter plates, coffee cups, saucers, bouillon cups, and serving pieces.

D carefully washed the foam plate-separators, and the living room becomes the drying room.

These plate packagers needed scrubbing, too.

All set!

Years ago, we splurged on a set of Noritake for the younger daughter.

It was an amazingly complete set, and it was fun to dole out a few pieces for each event.

And there was still one more box.

That had to be scrubbed and has been repackaged for her to pick up.

Cookie cutters have all kinds of corners for mud to settle in.

A toothbrush helped.

 Now we're set for Christmas Cookies.

These very-50s stemware were covered in mud.

And if you were wondering. . .

The pizzelle iron does work!!!

Flood Page 2 - Clean Up - What a mess

Well, it's been a week.   This is a very unexpected and unusual flood.  We are in a flood plain, and we knew that.  After flooding a year or so ago where we got 18 inches in the basement, we replaced our weebly sump pumps with two powerful ones, and we thought we were set.

The police told the fire chief that at midnight all roads and bridges were clear.  At 1AM a car was stalled in flooding on the next street over (Prentice St).  That road is in a particularly low spot and often gets deep water, but not enough to flood!  And now it was flooded one hour after there was no flooding anywhere.  And our street was flooded by 2AM.  The other odd thing is that it was the creek that flooded.  The river never did flood here.  Our house is about equidistant to the creek and the river.

The city has been great!  The fire department set up pumps to pump out the basement.  They ran for 8 days.  D had to fill them with gas four times a day.  But it worked!  Today, two weeks later, there is no water coming into the basement and we have rolled up the hose on our two super-duper sump pumps.

We spent a week in a hotel.  We were warm and dry.  Poor Tommy had to stay home - but he does have a nice fur coat!

We had wonderful help from our electrician, Collier Electric.  He got here as soon as the basement was workable and moved the electric panel to one of the bedrooms.

Our plumber, Morse, has been great.  He was able to clean out the hot water heater, so that does not need replacing.  So with electricity and hot water, it was easy to move back.  Morse also lent us four electric space heaters, and we had two, so the house was toasty warm.  (The electric bill should be interesting.)  He is installing a new, more efficient, furnace - still in the basement, but high.

Above is the basement after the waters receded and a lot of stuff was taken out.

The water reached the hot air ducts that are now visible in this picture.

Notice the sturdy shelves broken by the weight of the wet things.

The flood water covered the first floor joists at the top of this picture. 

We had our back-up supplies in the basement:  Kleenex, paper towels, TP.  Boy, are they ever heavy when they are wet!  

Look at the silt left behind.  And it is a clay, so it glues on. 

 All the saws and chisels are rapidly rusting, but there is so much else to do.

 Water even got into the plastic storage boxes

 These will all have to be washed and ironed.  Sigh.

The tub needs to be filled at least four times to get sufficient rinsing.

Each piece of silver has to be hand washed and hand polished.

Fortunately, there were only two silver sets in the basement.

The cases are taken to the dump.

We sent a lot of stuff to the dump!

Today, D brought up some of my baking supplies.

 Even the closed containers leaked and were ruined.

I'll wash the containers and make my own sugar!

When we went to the Mennonite bulk store today I priced replacements.

These little tubs that were less than a dollar (all that time ago. . . )

are closer to $4 today.  And the silver and gold balls (dragées) are $8.

Last year I went nuts on food coloring, and the food coloring never made it to the basement, so this year I'll make my own colored sugar!

And, surprise, surprise, the silver dragées were spared.  No gold ones this year, though.

And I was tickled to find, in the back of the baking cupboard in the kitchen, all the flavoring oils!!!  

They had never made it to the basement!

I have 25 in the box (some duplicates) and those babies are $2-3 each to replace.

Now I don't have to!!!!

Some decisions are hard to make.  We have a pizzelle iron.  

Here it is in happier times:  Pizzelle Iron.  

Pizzelle Recipe.  

I use it a couple of times a year, so it's probably not worth replacing.  

Hooray - after cleaning, I think it may work.  

I have the plates seasoning in the oven.

Stay tuned for updates!

Flooding Surprise

Our adventure began in the middle of the night, when I saw flashing lights in the bedroom.  They had closed Prentice Street because of flooding, but that happens with many heavy rains.  I woke again around 2 and got up to investigate.  By then the rental car was flooded and the lights were on and the horn was beeping.  I was able to get it to stop beeping, but the lights stayed on, and that was that. . . 

Here, at 3AM, you can see the truck because the rental's lights won't go out.

Around 3, D moved his truck, which was not really happy, farther up the street.  The driveway with the car is a little higher, so we kept fingers crossed.  We did get water on the floorboards, but it seems ok, so far.

 The well-dressed problem solver - D had these waders in the closet, so he was ready to go.

More than a dozen houses on our block and two nearby blocks have flooded basements.

Well, NYSEG came out (at our request) to shut off the gas.  Since the furnace and hot water heater were under water, that seemed like a good idea.  Then we called the fire department to see if we could get pumped out.  Turns out they were already on our street - probably a dozen of us needed pumping.  While they were there, NYSEG came out and shut off the power to our house - probably a good idea, but it meant using my oxygen tanks instead of an electric concentrator.  And it meant that our two sump-pumps could not supplement the fire department pumps.   The house was getting cold (the winds are fierce!) and we decided to get a hotel room.  Alas, Tommy could not come with us, but we're at Fred's, so D or I can go back and forth to deal with Tommy.

This photo was taken mid-morning, after the water had dropped 18 inches.

Being optimists, we have an appointment with an electrician at 10AM to have him check the wiring.  However, since the river at Sherburne https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=bgm&gage=shbn6 has just barely dropped below "moderate flooding" stage, and is not projected to be below flood stage until Saturday evening, and that has to get to Norwich, I doubt that the pump will have it done by morning.

UPDATE:  Rather than leave a generator unattended, the fire department plans to turn it off tonight and return tomorrow with a bigger generator.

We have touched base with Morse Plumbing, and we will probably have them put a new furnace in the house or the attic.  But we do have electric space heaters, and the house is fairly tight, so if we get electricity we should be fine (with showers at the Y).

And, of course, today would be the day that the oxygen regulator on my tank would fail.  Fortunately, I had a back-up one left from our Baltimore adventure, but I really scared myself simple until we located it and replaced it.  And it was also fortunate that I had all my packing lists from the Baltimore trip, so I didn't have to think much!

There's no place like home!

Thank  you for your offers of help, support, and encouragement! I think we'll be ok.  I'm a little loopy with no sleep after 2am, but other than that, we're hanging in there.   Time for a nap!

USA Pan - Muffin Tin

USA Pan - Muffin Tin

            Time to get a new pan!

I love a good muffin, but I have a couple of problems with making them.

Number 1:  

          I hate washing the muffin tins.  It takes forever and it's annoying.  

                   There are too many nooks and places that need serious scrubbing.  

Number 2:  

     I hate using cupcake liners.

     I resent the waste of money on paper throw-aways.

     I hate that half the muffin ends up stuck to the paper.  (Sigh!)

I did a search for "best muffin tin" and USA Pan was highly rated.  I found it on Amazon.  93% of the ratings were 5 Star.  It's kind of expensive - approaching $20, and I wanted two.   It was quite a debate, but since I had been really stalling on making muffins, we decided to splurge.

They arrived October 1, and in the 11 days since delivery, I have used it four times.  (This is a baking record for me!)

The first test was America's Test Kitchen sticky buns.

I may have taken it out of the pan too soon.

Then I made Raised Rich Rolls into cloverleaf and pull-apart rolls.

I have a lot to learn about consistency.  (That has nothing to do with the pan!!!)

The rolls were delicious!

During the summer I made two-cup freezer bags of red currants, so they are ready to go whenever I want them.  I made The Joy of Baking Buttermilk Berry muffins.  To this recipe I also added 1 cup grated Grimes Golden apple.

These were excellent!  

The addition of the apple made them moist and delicious!

Today's bake was Bon Appetit's Lemon Pound Cake.  I had made it before in my Nordic Ware mini bundt pan.  The bundt pan makes beautiful cakes, but it takes forever to get butter in every nook and cranny.  Then the wash-up takes forever as crumbs stick everywhere! 

Beautiful cakes, but enough extra work that it does not get made often!

So I tried the same recipe, cupcake style, in my new USA Muffin Tin.

We like small bites. The recipe could make 12 (not the 24 I made).

 Check out the pan - you see drips from the glaze, and a few crumbs.  Wash-up will be a breeze with a soapy sponge.  You must not use a dish-washer, which is good, since I don't have one!

I am just tickled with my new pans!