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.
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.
I helped my wife make a trifle today, using the King Arthur recipe for pastry cream.
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.
I've never found Colbert very funny.
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.
This morning I made a double batch of banana nut mini-muffins and 18 bagels.
Yesterday I made marbled rye bread.
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.
We celebrated my wife's birthday a day late, with Veal Zurich.
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.
I made a batch of custard today to go with leftover vegetable beef soup for supper.
I'm making a big pot of vegetable beef soup today, most of it will go in the freezer.
I have to admit, bourbon-barrel aged maple syrup sounds interesting, I'd have probably bought some of that.
I'm going to skip the holiday farmers markets this year.
Mozzarella freezes fine, just be sure to get it out several hours before you plan to put it on/in something. I tend to buy 5 pound bags of whole milk mozzarella at Sams and divide it up into 12-16 ounce bags for the freezer.
I made beef stock yesterday and today, and as soon as the remouillage (second wetting of the bones, which increases the output by about 25%) is cool enough to put in the fridge, I'm heading to bed.
