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It was 19F here this morning, and it is 20F now. We had over four inches of snow yesterday.
We do have the oven on its own circuit. We also had the refrigerator moved to its own circuit after the inspector insisted that the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen had to have outlets that were GFCI, even though they are far enough away to meet code. Our contractor realized the refrigerator was on that circuit, so we gave it its own.
I have good outlet position everywhere but at the end of the peninsula. We did make sure that the microwave had its own, and we thought carefully about where to put it.
Skeptic--For baking sheets, I selected a tall lower cabinet that is about 11 inches wide (10 inches entry). I took out the silly, silly half shelf the manufacturer had put in, and reused it in another cabinet. I stand my large baking sheets upright in it, with the ones I use the most at the right side.
Cabinet manufacturers like to give only half shelves on lower cabinets. The ide is that you can see everything at once and don't have to get down low. I, however, would use that low space for long items, so I would know what is in them. It took me a while to figure out the best configuration for the shelves that I had--and they were designed so that you can't just add a half shelf in front of another half shelf.
With over two inches of snow so far, it was a good day to try out the Zo. I used it to knead and to do a first rise of a batch of Ellen’s Buns dough. I turned off the initial warming, so that I could dissolve the yeast in the water and honey before adding the rest of the wet ingredients and the dry ones. I was impressed with how quickly the dough came together, so I went ahead and added the oil. This machine is much quieter than my Wel Bilt, and it does not move around on the counter. It does bring the dough together more efficiently and kneads it well. It is a cold day, and the house is cooler than usual, so I let the dough rise in the machine. Oddly enough, toward the end of the rise, the paddles start moving again, a little at a time. That was when I turned the machine off. The dough rose well, but it had a “skin” on top where it had dried out a bit. Next time, I will let it rise in an oiled dough bucket, which I find the best way to prevent the dry skin, unless I put saran tightly over a regular bowl. It took me a long time to try out the dough buckets with their snap lids; they are now one of the most useful items when I bake bread, and it cuts down on the saran usage by replacing it with a re-useable item.
Once I went to a conference in Boston, and a friend and I went to an Italian bakery for cannoli and some cookies to take home for Easter. At the counter, they had spools of colored string hanging down, and the counterperson expertly wrapped and tied each package in record time with two colors of string.
Would plain (no flavor) dental floss work instead of string?
I'm thinking of trying Ellen's rolls in my Nordic Ware pumpkin muffin pan. Each well is 1/2 cup, so it's a 6-cup pan. It seems to me that to get the pattern, the dough might have to be on the wetter side, or perhaps put a greased cookie sheet on top during the earlier part of the rising. The pan would have to be greased by hand with Crisco. I might try it this week, especially if we get the snow being forecast.
You make a good point about where to put a Zo. My other bread machine is small enough, and light enough, that I can put it on a shelf in one of the utility closets and pull it out as needed. The Zo is longer and a lot heavier. It probably needs a dedicated space on a counter or cart--and I've already filled all of it up.
You could allow your dough to rise in the machine. The second rise, in the pan, would be the issue. If you could put the loaf pan in a plastic box with lid near the stove, that would give it a warm, safer place to rise. I recall that Frick, from the KAF Baking Circle was a proponent of plastic containers for this purpose, and I actually use a plastic cake box for my loaves while they rise.
Note about kitchen remodels: Never assume that the person who does not use small appliances in the kitchen (my husband, for example), knows anything about location of electrical outlets. I did catch his attempt at one end of the kitchen, where we have a freestanding cabinet, to put the outlet down low. I pointed out that I needed to be able to plug in the countertop oven and my food processor. However, I didn't realize that he would still tell the contractor to put it 2 inches (corrected measurement) below where the cabinet top is. That is also why I do not have an electrical outlet at the other end of the kitchen, at the far end of the peninsula. It never occurred to me that someone (my husband) wouldn't realize that of course there should be an outlet there, especially, since before we extended the peninsula there was an outlet there that I used all the time. (Clearly, he didn't use it.) That omission limited where I can put the stand mixer. (My mixer controls are on the right as I face it--next to the wall and overhead cabinets. Because the cabinet at the far end of the peninsula is where the contractors would need to go to put in an outlet where I need it, the fix would be difficult and expensive. The best I could do there was to have a joint switch and outlet flipped at the peninsula's other end, and that extra inch helps, but it's still a pain.
My scientist husband can be attentive to many things, but he also missed that the light that had been outside next to the sliding glass door needed to be moved to the location of the new door. The contractor didn't see it either. I noticed after the siding was on, I turned on the light at the door, and wondered why there was no light. Well, there was light but four feet over!
