[aaronatthedoublef]

I have a food mill that I use for mashed potatoes. I love it. I also use it for ricing potatoes for gnocchi. I also really like my fat separator. I have a plastic, Oxo one and I use it for turkeys, chickens, and carnitas. Sometimes I use it as a spare measuring cup.

Last Christmas someone gave me a strainer that clips onto the edge of a pot. I use it several times a week for draining pasta.

Any recommendations on whisks? I really need a new, small one.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I love the Maxwell House Haggadah story. We were just talking about it at temple the other night. It is hilarious and shows you some of what even people who have been raised following the rules can be confused about.

BA, I am sure your husband's colleague appreciated your thoughtfulness and the effort you went to.

We rented an apartment in Jerusalem and the kitchen was kosher. Everything was labeled but only in Hebrew and I am the only one in the family who speaks any. My wife is not Jewish so the rules were also challenging for her. Most things were left to me and we used paper good a lot!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Oh, I forgot, I have a bagel holder for slicing. I don't really need it but, again, it was cheap and I get closer to making sure the bagel is cut in two equal pieces.

Now if I can just teach my kids not to hold the bagel with their fingers in the hole!

[aaronatthedoublef]

We have a mini collection of pizza cutters. We have one shaped like a soccer player and one shaped like the symbol for Pi. Plus the fancy one my wife gave me. But my favorite is a cheap plastic one I bought. It cuts very well but doesn't cut fingers and it goes in the dishwasher!

Pizza cutters tend to work better than knives it seems when people will not wait for the pizza to cool!

[aaronatthedoublef]

People tend to buy me gadgets as gifts but they are not usually easier than what I use.

I wish I'd known about moulis! I would love something to grate cheese besides a grater or a food processor. I grate by hand because it is less time than cleaning up the Cuisinart.

I love cookie scoops! But I shape meatballs by hand. I weigh the meat portions out and that is how I determine size. My wife would not be happy if I used cookie scoops for meat even if they went through the dishwasher.

My wife bought me a new pizza cutter but it is over he top! And it squeaks when you use it unless you oil it which is kind of funny. She also bought me some fancy KitchenAid sheet pans but they warp in the oven. They snap back when they cool though. Kind of strange. I love my old ones even if they are old and ugly.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I subscribe to the WSJ so I can read it. It's pretty funny. I've brought my own food to a number of functions so I would know there was something there I could eat. I brought matzah to an Easter brunch years ago and everyone there thought it was cool and ate it. I had nothing to eat since it was all bread-ish. I mostly avoid yeast and flour. And sometime is the last few years chemical leaveners became acceptable but growing up they were forbidden.

The rules for Passover are VERY strict and obscure. Most restaurants I know shut down because it's easier and cheaper. When I lived in Seattle we had a customer coming in who needed kosher for Passover catering. None of the usual kosher places were open so the caterers asked me because I was the one Jewish person they knew. I tracked down a Chabad house that would bring in meals for them but that was it.

So if you are an Eastern European Jew corn is off limits because when you grind up corn the meal sort of resembles regular flour but this rule doesn't apply to you if you're a Mediterranean Jew. Of course never mind that Kosher for Passover flour looks identical to regular, everyday, all-purpose flour.

What makes flour kosher for Passover? It's grown in separate fields and dry-harvested and stored. If the flour gets damp or wet it may pick up some natural yeast and leaven so the rules for harvesting, storage, and transport are VERY strict. And all of this is in addition to the normal, daily rules of kosher.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, I'm glad your son was working at home and that he is okay.

[aaronatthedoublef]

It's Passover and I had a temple meeting last night so I mad coconut macaroons. The recipe is from p. 300 of the big KAF baking book. They are just meringues with a bunch of coconut thrown in. And they take way less time to bake. I have not made them in quite some time and they needed to be baked more. But most people have only had the ones from a can so their standards are low and everyone thought they were great.

We made matzah pizza which is just what it sounds like. But instead of shredding cheese I slice it thin, put it down first and put the sauce on the cheese to keep the matzah from getting too soggy. Also I've discovered that if making peanut butter and jelly on matzah it's best to put a little peanut butter on each piece of matzah and then put the jelly on the peanut butter so it does not go through the holes. It only took me 50 years to figure out that one!

If anyone is interested in the obscure and convoluted dietary rules of Passover I found an interesting website here that does a good job of explaining.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the FFA tip Mike. I wish I'd found that when I was at Whole Foods. When we were growing up we would go to the stock yards in Chicago and tromp around with my dad. We learned about different types of cattle and pigs but not much about cuts of meat. If my dad's dad had been alive he might have been able to teach us as he worked at the stock yards cutting and packing meat.

Whole Foods is hit or miss. There are two in my town and there are some very knowledgeable people behind the meat counters. And then there are some people who do not know very much. Of the people who do not know much there are those that readily admit and will find you someone who knows more or there are those who just want to fill your order and move on to the next customer. I knew almost nothing when I started and would go home and study at night to do a better job. There is a fellow I am friendly with at one of the butcher counters and he worked his way up to the meat department. He started out bagging groceries and gathering carts. He's learning and he's smart but he does not have a depth of experience.

We have another meat store that I may try but they are not as convenient as Whole Foods and as long as I do some research before I buy I am usually okay.

Fish is even more complicated because there are at least two schools of thought on how to properly farm fish but that is another story.

I have chef friends here who help me. If you know some good chefs who know their stuff they will usually help. I am about to embark on making my own corned beef and pastrami. I've found some good info on the website AmazingRibs.Com. There is a lot about a lot here and it's not well organized but it seems to have some good info and it is entertaining. For example, he needs to know the difference between a blog post and a recipe!

[aaronatthedoublef]

The cowboy cookies are a lot like my oatmeal cookies. I put coconut on top which was my wife's suggestion. I first made them when we were dating and I wanted to make something special for her. Re butter and spreading, I've had good luck chilling the dough to prevent spreading.

Unfortunately Google is as ad driven as Bing. if you look at Googles sources of revenue that is where they make their money. I used to use a search called Dog Pile that was pretty close to ad free but even they have some now. I may try using them again to see. If you are not charging people for your services then you have to make money a different way. Or, as my software friends say, when the product is free you are the product.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Bagel molds!?! Gimmick! The bagels on the page don't look very good either.

Also beware of places that offer bagel holes... 😉

[aaronatthedoublef]

Most people are terrified to experiment with baking. They think if they change something even slightly it will wreck the whole dish. They don't realize that this is how new things are created. I had a mom who improvised regularly as well as working for a pastry chef who did the same. That gave me the confidence to try it myself.

That's the one thing I dislike about the whole "baking is science" movement. It scares a lot of people away.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Most people are terrified to experiment with baking. They think if they change something even slightly it will wreck the whole dish. They don't realize that this is how new things are created. I had a mom who improvised regularly as well as working for a pastry chef who did the same. That gave me the confidence to try it myself.

That's the one thing I dislike about the whole "baking is science" movement. It scares a lot of people away.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll look for a bagel/bialy class.

And I am always happy to go to Chicago. Thanks for the heads up.

[aaronatthedoublef]

This reminded me of an old episode of "Friends" where Monica was trying to figure out Phoebe's secret family chocolate chip cookie recipe. Phoebe finally relented and told her and it was some weird pronunciation of "Toll House" cookies!

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