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That sounds more reasonable. Still not something I'd drink, but it's no longer "... wow, that's twice as much sugar as my mom's vilely sweet tea" levels.
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Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
Doh!
Silly me, I assumed the scoop I use was a cup. Upon looking at the handle I discover it's actually 1/2 a cup so it should be 1 1/2 cups sugar. |
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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Since you've got so many things already, why not get an electric kettle so you have even more options?|
Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
Also, as you might have inferred from the references to them, Americans, by not living in a third-world country like Europe(
 ), are able to own a microwave AND an oven (with stove!). So, we can make our food and drinks however we want, without an electric kettle (we can use a regular kettle, or just microwave the water if we're impatient, or, here's a novel idea, just boot up our coffee maker, since we're typically getting coffee). |
And a rice cooker, while you're at it.
On-topic, anyone who thinks about adding sugar to oolong tea I will stare at. Very Orientally.
Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue
Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~
Quote:
No need.
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Originally Posted by DKellis
Since you've got so many things already, why not get an electric kettle so you have even more options?
And a rice cooker, while you're at it. |
[B]The Once and Future Official Minister of Awesome[/B]
[I]And don't you forget it.[/I]
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Personally I see my rice cooker as being essential to my kitchen, and an electric kettle about the same.
A coffee maker is very much optional.
So you can see where I'm coming from. (Asia, technically.)
Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue
Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~
Quote:
That explains the hypnotic anime avatar.
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Originally Posted by DKellis
Personally I see my rice cooker as being essential to my kitchen, and an electric kettle about the same.
A coffee maker is very much optional. So you can see where I'm coming from. (Asia, technically.) |
[B]The Once and Future Official Minister of Awesome[/B]
[I]And don't you forget it.[/I]
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Quote:
With the number of people who've commented on it, I should stick something in my signature.
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Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
That explains the hypnotic anime avatar.
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Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue
Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~
I decided to get an electric kettle after finding out that water heated in a microwave can explode. You can get a decent one for fairly cheap and they're faster than heating water on the stove. Works for me.
"Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good and let me be judged accordingly. The rest is silence." -- Dinobot
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I need a rice cooker so bad. Rice and various beans have become a staple of my diet lately and this would make thing so much more convenient: beans in the slow cooker and rice in cooker (with a timer!) so everything is ready when I get home.
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Originally Posted by DKellis
Personally I see my rice cooker as being essential to my kitchen, and an electric kettle about the same.
A coffee maker is very much optional. So you can see where I'm coming from. (Asia, technically.) |
I hardly ever drink tea now, but in the past the way I prepare my tea is:
1) make lemonade
2) stick a teabag in it
This is typically made with boiling or very hot water as I'd usually be sick with a cold or something.
Teams are the number one killer of soloists.
Quote:
Microwaving water just seems so weird to me, in the manner of, say, milk sold in bags. It's something along the lines of "huh, never thought about it like that... still can't wrap my head around it..." I know it probably does work, but it's not even on the list of what I'd think to do if I wanted to boil water.|
Originally Posted by Wayfarer
I decided to get an electric kettle after finding out that water heated in a microwave can explode. You can get a decent one for fairly cheap and they're faster than heating water on the stove. Works for me.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ketch
I need a rice cooker so bad. Rice and various beans have become a staple of my diet lately and this would make thing so much more convenient: beans in the slow cooker and rice in cooker (with a timer!) so everything is ready when I get home.
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Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue
Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~
Quote:
I'm certainly welcoming of new foods and experience, but I hope the American way of over processed foods doesn't reach too far. I've been making a push in the past few months to make all my meals from basic ingredients and not cut corners for the sake of convenience, like say, buying a frozen pizza. I think that's an idea that relates back to tea in a direct way. The preparation should be considered part of the meal as much as the food itself.|
Originally Posted by DKellis
I have the Asian tendency to think of a meal as not being a real meal unless it has rice in it. With globalization this is obviously changing, but still.
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Also, I just posted so we could dance together.
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Rice is awesome and has been the basis of many of my meals. And while I love my rice cooker, I often just end up cooking rice in a skillet the same way I do Rice-a-Roni. The exception is sticky rice, which I almost invariably prepare in the rice cooker unless I'm making rice pudding with it.
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Originally Posted by DKellis
I have the Asian tendency to think of a meal as not being a real meal unless it has rice in it. With globalization this is obviously changing, but still.
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Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Quote:
One of the benefits of living in the country is that I have the room to grow what I want without the worry of space. My garden plot is bigger than a lot of the housing plots in a mid-size city/town. |
Originally Posted by ketch
I'm certainly welcoming of new foods and experience, but I hope the American way of over processed foods doesn't reach too far. I've been making a push in the past few months to make all my meals from basic ingredients and not cut corners for the sake of convenience, like say, buying a frozen pizza. I think that's an idea that relates back to tea in a direct way. The preparation should be considered part of the meal as much as the food itself.
Also, I just posted so we could dance together. |
Though at times it gets to be a bit much. Sweet corn is fine...till you have it every day for a month and a half. >.< There's nothing like going out into the garden and just grazing on whatever strikes your fancy. Peas fresh outta the pod or cherry tomatoes popped off the vine.
Popping in to say, while I'm no expert on tea, I like English Breakfast the most of all I've tried. I know I don't like it cold and I do like it sweet.
And of all my kitchen tools I need most, my skillet and my oven are most precious. While I make an excellent Filet Mignon Au Poivre (cheap, easy, and impressive) baking is my hobby.
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agree on the rice cooker. I've got one of those fancy-dan fuzzy logic models (samsung, I think) and it's like magic. |
Originally Posted by DKellis
Personally I see my rice cooker as being essential to my kitchen, and an electric kettle about the same.
A coffee maker is very much optional. |
I still boil my water the traditional way, but it might just be because I got a gorgeous blue enamled Chantal kettle for my birthday one year. Electric kettles are not only faster than the stovetop, they heat the water to that ideal temperature just below boiling. I achieve the same effect by waiting 30 seconds before pouring water, but electric would be more convenient.
It is impossible to make good coffee with a traditional electric drip brewer.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
The New Tea Lover's Treasury is an excellent information source for almost anything you want to know about tea.
There is all kinds of great historical information and fun tidbits:
- The oldest wild tea tree is 1700 years old
- The oldest cultivated tea plant is about 800 years old
- Why the coffee houses were at odds with tea houses, and why drinking tea was considered "immoral" for a time.
- Just how powerful was the East India Trading Company? (think Starbucks with the weight and power of the U.S. military behind them)
- How and why the elaborate tea customs in Japan differ from China.
Really, for a "coffee table" book, it's jam packed with all kinds of great info.
A note on tea preparation... the method of pulling certain properties/constituents from a plant by steeping in oil or water is called an infusion. The longer an infusion is allowed to steep, the more properties are pulled out.
With a hot water infusion, the heat shocks the herbs into releasing their properties in a quick burst. First the flavors will be released, then the more bitter properties, then the oils. Tannins are one of those "middle" properties, and they can be very bitter. The reason 3 minutes is the recommended time is that it produces a nice balance between the flavor properties and the tannins. Too much steeping, and the tannins will overwhelm the balance.
A cold water infusion, on the other hand, can be allowed to steep longer, as there is no shock burst. The herbs will release their properties much slower. There is still the danger of over steeping, but it is much more forgiving time-wise. This is why "sun-steeped" teas are relatively easy to do.
NEVER NEVER NEVER boil your tea/herbs. You will end up pulling out not only the flavors and tannins, but also the essential oils. Essential oils are very tricky, some plants that are fine for tea have extremely toxic essential oils. Oil infusions also bind/pull out essential oils, so be careful what herbs you use for flavoring oils. Research before trying something new. Boiling, or decoction, is reserved for woody herbs (like cinnamon sticks), and only for very specific purposes.
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Quote:
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Don�t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. - R.W. Emerson |
YUMMY Low-Hanging Fruit for BASE LUV
I tried making a deep-fried hamburger today...
It was ok. Just cooked it a trifle long. Maybe a lower temperature than what I had the fryer set at as well.
@ the thread:
Thank you. I tried making tea the way described here and found it tasty.
Work in progress no more. I have decided that I'm going to put my worst spelling errors here. Triage Bacon, Had this baster idea, TL
R"I'm going to beat the Jesus out of Satan!" My Wife while playing Dante's Inferno
Quote:
I still use mine, but thats because I am lazy, and often put tons of creamer in my coffee anyways. |
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
It is impossible to make good coffee with a traditional electric drip brewer.
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If I am trying to make coffee for guests, I bust out the french press.
Just asked that this thread not be stickied but not be deleted, either. Mod 8 told me that this would be possible. I'm assuming this won't work on requesting mass threads, but I thought I'd let you all know. After all, it would be obvious that exchange took place come Monday.
Discuss food and tea with wild abandon, friends!
The most heavenly hollandaise sauce evah; from The All New Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, complete and unabridged, tenth edition, 1959.
I inherited this little paperback cookbook when I married my Hubby, as his mother had given it to him (already somewhat worn) when he "left the nest". It is packed with the greatest little recipes (the index is 81 pages!), and is my most used cookbook.
So... word for word:
Put in a small heavy sauce pan or double boiler top
3 egg yolks
Beat with a wooden spoon or wire whisk until smooth but not fluffy
Add
2 tablespoons lemon juice or mild vinegar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
few grains of cayenne
Set over very low heat or over hot water and beat until the sauce begins to thicken (about 5 minutes). The sauce will be thicker as it cools. Makes about 1 cup.
Now, note that you do not put the sauce over heat until all the ingredients have been added, so have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go. Indirect heat seems to work best. I prefer lemon juice over vinegar, and butter by far over margarine. Also, 5 minutes is a long time to whisk, but it is totally worth it... the sauce comes out so light and smooth... absolute heaven.
Excellent for eggs benedict, served with tea, of course.
Also wonderful over salmon, rice, omelettes, asparagus, spinach.... I could keep going....
.
Quote:
|
Don�t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. - R.W. Emerson |
YUMMY Low-Hanging Fruit for BASE LUV
Ever make home made hashbrowns? If you have antique stores around, you can probably find a crank grater - an object with a handle and possibly several different grater styles on removable drums - for quite cheap. Get one of those (making sure to clean off any rust or gunk), clean and de-eye some yukon gold potatoes. Put in the shoestring attachment in the grater. Grate the potatoes.
Now, here's the neat part. Take a white onion, clean it (remove the outer layers) and then put that in the grater as well. Add the shoestring'd onion bits, vary depending upon your preference, to the potato mixture.
For convenience, you can use a cookie pan to spread out the mixture to about an inch thick. Separate into serving size portions while still on the sheet. Pop the sheet into the freezer. Once frozen, take out and put into a snap-seal plastic bag.
Voila. Quick and tasty hashbrowns that cook up with a bit of butter and salt real good. If you are feeling adventurous, you can throw in some chopped garlic as well to the pre-frozen mixture.
Quote:
oooo Yummy. Thanks for the recipe Impish
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Originally Posted by Impish Kat
The most heavenly hollandaise sauce evah; from The All New Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, complete and unabridged, tenth edition, 1959.
I inherited this little paperback cookbook when I married my Hubby, as his mother had given it to him (already somewhat worn) when he "left the nest". It is packed with the greatest little recipes (the index is 81 pages!), and is my most used cookbook. So... word for word: Put in a small heavy sauce pan or double boiler top 3 egg yolks Beat with a wooden spoon or wire whisk until smooth but not fluffy Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice or mild vinegar 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted 2 tablespoons hot water 1/4 teaspoon salt few grains of cayenne Set over very low heat or over hot water and beat until the sauce begins to thicken (about 5 minutes). The sauce will be thicker as it cools. Makes about 1 cup. Now, note that you do not put the sauce over heat until all the ingredients have been added, so have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go. Indirect heat seems to work best. I prefer lemon juice over vinegar, and butter by far over margarine. Also, 5 minutes is a long time to whisk, but it is totally worth it... the sauce comes out so light and smooth... absolute heaven. Excellent for eggs benedict, served with tea, of course. Also wonderful over salmon, rice, omelettes, asparagus, spinach.... I could keep going.... . |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dark One
Ever make home made hashbrowns? If you have antique stores around, you can probably find a crank grater - an object with a handle and possibly several different grater styles on removable drums - for quite cheap. Get one of those (making sure to clean off any rust or gunk), clean and de-eye some yukon gold potatoes. Put in the shoestring attachment in the grater. Grate the potatoes.
Now, here's the neat part. Take a white onion, clean it (remove the outer layers) and then put that in the grater as well. Add the shoestring'd onion bits, vary depending upon your preference, to the potato mixture. For convenience, you can use a cookie pan to spread out the mixture to about an inch thick. Separate into serving size portions while still on the sheet. Pop the sheet into the freezer. Once frozen, take out and put into a snap-seal plastic bag. Voila. Quick and tasty hashbrowns that cook up with a bit of butter and salt real good. If you are feeling adventurous, you can throw in some chopped garlic as well to the pre-frozen mixture. |
Just use a box grater. It does the exact same thing.
Or cold pizza!