[Mike Nolan]

I don't drink wine much, either, but use it a fair amount in cooking. I have some Australian shriraz and cabernet/shiraz wines that are very good in dishes like coq au vin and beef bourguignon.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't tried it on the oven racks yet, but I've got a spray can of Carbon-Off that removed 18 years of built-up carbon from the stainless steel backsplash on my stove better than hours and hours of scrubbing ever did, so I think it'd do a great job on the racks. I'll have to try that the next time I clean them (and if I do I'll try to remember to take before-and-after pictures.)

Carbon-Off is what professional kitchens use.

It's available at restaurant supply stores in both a spray and brush-on liquid form. Be sure to use gloves and eye protection in a well-ventilated area.

[Mike Nolan]

I may have to try this cake in a Boston Cream Pie, I think the flavors would go well. But it's pretty good plain, too, as I haven't bothered to frost it.

I made it with AP flour, I wonder if it would have a finer grain if made with cake flour?

I keep the baking soda in Tupperware containers, too. My wife was a Tupperware dealer years ago. One of her closest friends was also a Tupperware dealer before she passed away and another friend still is a Tupperware dealer, so we've kept up on the latest and greatest from Tupperware. Nearly all my flours are in Tupperware containers and we've got several cabinets in the kitchen devoted to Tupperware. I also use Tupperware and Ikea containers to freeze small portions of stock, so I've got a freezer full of Tupperware, too.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

Baked a cake (see the 'semi-flopped cake' thread for details.)

[Mike Nolan]

Tried my hand at creating a tilapia recipe, since I hadn't found one I liked anywhere, came out good enough that I'm going to try it again tomorrow.

Melted some butter, added dried parsley and dill weed and some tomato sauce, then the fish, with a bit of salt and pepper. Sauce came out a bit too thick, but otherwise it was very good.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

I unintentionally duplicated your oven issue by forgetting to turn the oven on until I had the batter in the pan. 🙂

Cake is out of the oven and it is delicious! The buttermilk definitely kicks it up
a notch from a standard yellow cake.

The batter came out thicker than I was expecting, and I don't think I got it even across the top, it's got an area that isn't quite as high, but it's not so much that it collapsed as that the batter probably wasn't as deep there. It didn't seem to collapse as it cooled.

My baking soda must be a couple of years old, we bought a big bag of it at Sams Club, I haven't had any problems with it.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

I generally use 4.25 ounces per cup for AP flour and bread flour, you can always add more flour if the dough seems too moist. Cake flour is a bit lighter, whole wheat flour a bit heavier.

I've used this thin crust pizza recipe several times:
thin crust pizza dough

[Mike Nolan]

I'd suggest you try a babka recipe. It's usually filled with chocolate, but I've made it with a fruit filling and it was pretty good. It has the advantage of not being overly sweet, so it doesn't compete with a sweet filling.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure what Peter Reinhart pizza dough recipe you're referring to. The only pizza dough I remember ever posting isn't one of Peter's, it's adapted from one in the Great Chicago Style Pizza Cookbook.

Peter has a number of dough recipes posted at his Pizza Quest site.

I have used Peter's 'Roman' thin crust dough from American Pie, but I don't think I've ever posted it anywhere. That recipe can be stretched so thin it is almost transparent.

I think any pizza dough recipe actually gets better if aged for a day or two.

I completely agree that we need a better way to search the recipes area, I just haven't found one I like yet.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm thinking of making a half-recipe in an 8x8 glass pan.

[Mike Nolan]

We seldom see the ruby-throats until around August 15th, but we're pretty much on the western edge of their range. They don't stay long on their northward migration in the spring compared to when they're heading back south. The most we've ever seen at one time was somewhere around 15 (trying to get an exact count on hummingbirds is challenging), and that was in mid-September a few years back.

They're incredible competitive, we've seen one defend three feeders for an hour or longer against a half dozen other hummers.

[Mike Nolan]

I was hoping to get some good microphotographs of what impact a sharpening steel and an Accusharp V sharpener have on a knife edge, but most of my knives are pretty sharp at the moment from my work on the 'how sharp' post. So this might have to wait a few months for a follow-up post.

I've been checking other sites that talk about using a sharpening steel, though, and they seem to be split about 50-50 as to whether the steel should move in the direction from the edge to the spine or from the spine to the edge. Might be a good follow-up post here, too.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.

[Mike Nolan]

I've read that baking soda has a useful life of 15-30 minutes once it gets wet, which is why cake batters should go into the oven as soon as possible. The double-action part of baking powder is heat-activated, so it's less time-sensitive.

There are some recipes that recommend chilling the cake batter for a few minutes after it goes in the pan, but I've never tried that, and I'm dubious that a few minutes in the refrigerator would have much impact.

What size pan do you use? I may have to give your recipe a try, but probably not today, since it's supposed to hit 102 here.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.

[Mike Nolan]

In a few weeks we'll start to see the annual southward migration of the ruby-throated hummingbirds. I'm hoping to be able to get some good photographs of them. We know from past experience that once they start arriving in mid to late August, we'll see them until late September. And they have no fear of humans (or cats), they'll come to within a few inches of us if we're sitting on the back deck.

[Mike Nolan]

A few years back I was in a cooking store in Pittsburgh and one of the knife makers had a rep there using an electric sharpener, but I don't think they were trying to sell the sharpener, it was rather like taking a knife to a sharpening service, except that it was free. I asked the guy about using a set of whetstones, he said that they're the best way to keep a knife sharp if it doesn't really need a whole new edge.

Not all electric sharpeners work the same way, some are little more than grinding wheels, so basically what they do is build a new edge. If you know what you're doing (and especially what the sharpener is doing) they're good, but I don't think they put as fine an edge on a knife as a series of fine grit stones can. A friend of mine has some $500 knives, I'm going to be seeing him in a few weeks and I'm going to take my digital microscope along so he can see what his knives really look like.

My biggest concern with using them is that they can take off too much metal each time. Unless you use your knives for hours every day, they shouldn't need a serious sharpening more than once every few years.

As I was working on my sharpening post, I spent several days sharpening various knives in my kitchen, including a good meat knife that I hadn't used much lately. Now it works very well, better than my santoku knives for trimming beef. I buy large cuts of meat (almost sub-primals) and trim them down, I get better steaks, roasts and stir fry beef that way and the trim I can't cook with goes in the freezer for the next time I make beef stock.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by htfoot.

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