[Mike Nolan]

Happy New Year to you, Cass, and it's great to see you posting.

[Mike Nolan]

The downside of having had duck for Christmas dinner is that there weren't many leftovers. I did get several quarts of duck stock for the freezer to replace some of what we lost when the freezer died a few months back.

[Mike Nolan]

No apology needed, the microwave oven has a proper place in the kitchen, and not just for leftovers.

[Mike Nolan]

After having both sons here for a week, we've got a lot of leftovers, so we'll be in leftover mode probably until the new year.

[Mike Nolan]

One of the presents I got from my older son is a Meater+ wireless meat thermometer.

You stick it in the meat and it send data to your phone via bluetooth.

It can monitor both the temperature in the meat and in your oven, so you can see the oven temp moving up and down (the hysteresis effect) and the meat temperature as it approaches your target temperature. It can even give you an estimate for when the target temperature will be reached, including allowing for carryover. (For example if you set it to 150, it might have you take the meat out at 147 knowing that carryover heat will bring the center up to 150 over the next few minutes.)

I haven't used it yet, I also got an immersion circulating heater, we used that on the duck legs.

[Mike Nolan]

I never bother with butter for stuffing, I use the Pepperidge Farms herb cubes, add some onion and celery that had been boiled in stock for a while and raisins that had been moistened so they plumped up. I also added half a Granny Smith apple to the stuffing I made yesterday.

[Mike Nolan]

Whether or not the upper element comes on during a preheat cycle seems to be something of a fad. There was a time when most electric ovens did that, then for a long time only the bottom element came on during preheat, more recently it seemed like both elements are coming on again.

Best to check the manual for your specific model.

The 'cold oven' method of baking bread seemed to be assuming that only the lower element would come on, which more closely mimics the action in a gas oven, I think.

[Mike Nolan]

I helped my wife make a trifle today, using the King Arthur recipe for pastry cream.

[Mike Nolan]

My son prepared the duck today (2 ducks + 2 full breasts), the legs are being done sous vide overnight, the breasts will be steamed and then finished in a pan or under the broiler. He also roasted the bones, I added the giblets to the bones and then made a batch of duck stock. I also have about a cup and a half of rendered duck fat and the deglazed fond from the roasting pan to make gravy with tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

I've never found Colbert very funny.

[Mike Nolan]

We're having Steak Diane tonight. Tomorrow we'll have chili and oyster stew for dinner, my son is doing duck for Christmas, I'll do the side dishes.

[Mike Nolan]

This morning I made a double batch of banana nut mini-muffins and 18 bagels.

Yesterday I made marbled rye bread.

[Mike Nolan]

I just took a batch of Vienna bread out of the oven. I needed to make sure I've got lots of bread on hand, since we have all 4 family members coming in later this week.

[Mike Nolan]

We celebrated my wife's birthday a day late, with Veal Zurich.

[Mike Nolan]

After having had the drain cleaned out several times, and upon the advice of a plumber, I pour a cup or two of bleach down the kitchen sink drains at least once a month. I let it sit for about an hour, then flush it with lots of hot water. I do the same thing with the master bath sinks and shower/tub drains. I still have to dig the hair out every few months, though.

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