I am at a loss how to pack my kitchen electrics. I have a 6 qt KitchenAid stand mixer and a big KitchenAid food processor too. How should I pack these? The original boxes are long gone, and I need suggestions. Do you just move them loose?

Do not suggest not moving these appliances. I use them both often, and I’d sooner gnaw off my arm than abandon my 6 qt mixer. Not really. But you know what I mean.

In related news, packing sucks, my back hurts, and the fridge that goes with the house is now broken. Of course the property manager wants to send out a repairman. Bad words. Bad words. Just take the darn thing away and I’ll have more room to pile boxes. That would work…

This is a non-food-related post. I’ll get back to food-related posts once my life resumes normalcy and I’m not tipping over boxes to find my desk.

I have a ton of things I don’t want to take with me. Sofas, computer parts, golf balls, old magazines… So I thought, I’ll just Freecycle them.

So on Saturday morning, I went to the Yahoo group page and posted about six OFFERs for various crap. I followed all the rules and didn’t do a CURB ALERT like I really wanted to. My local Freecycle group frowns on curb alerts because some members complained about getting there and the crap was gone. :insert big eyeroll:

Twelve hours later, my six OFFERS were approved and the email started coming in. One fantastic guy said he’d get the 1000 or so golf balls AND my computer graveyard. Cool. Someone picked up my various and sundry kitchen things, like cheap wineglasses and interesting teacups and saucers that match nothing I own. (I’m letting go of my clutter. Be proud of me.)

One crazy woman emailed me that her husband had JUST BEEN to my house, and TRIED TO CALL and there was NO ANSWER even though HE SEEN THE LIGHTS ON and the stuff was not by the road where I said I’d set it. I went back through email to ensure I did not send anything to this woman. No. So I restrained myself and sent a polite note, “You must have me confused with someone else. I’ve already promised these items to others. I’ll let you know if they don’t show up.” She sends back that her husband has an EMAIL from me, that said to just COME PICK IT ALL UP and I’d PUT THE STUFF BY THE ROAD. So when should they come to get it because they CAN’T KEEP MAKING TRIPS.

Yes, she was an all-caps emailer.

At this point I got more firm. “You or your husband are mistaken. I did not send any such email to anyone. There are no missed calls on any of my phones, nor would I place things by the road for pickup at 11 PM.”

And she emailed me again. Apologizing. Telling me how she REALLY WANTED the stuff which included a plastic wading pool, because her baby was about to turn 1, and the other babies were coming over for a birthday party and the pool would come in handy. I’m thinking, lady, I don’t care, I just wanted it gone from my backyard and someone else sent a phone number and time they could come. They win. Then a few minutes later I get ANOTHER EMAIL with pictures! “THIS IS MY LIL CUTEY PIE WHAT I WANT THE POOL FOR. NO PRESSURE. I JUST LOVE DRESSING HIM UP AND TAKING HIS PICTURE. SEARS IS SO EXPENSIVE.” It’s after midnight at this point and I’m getting these emails on my phone. And if this woman thinks I’m going to give her my address and phone number after all this, she is certifiable.

All the stuff is gone now, except the old ugly sofa. Not even an interested email on that one. I think we’ll just drag it up to Goodwill. I think I’m done with Freecycle.

We’re at T-minus 8 days.

I’m posting to Freecycle like crazy, trying to get rid of couches and golf balls and old computer parts and stuff.
I made the executive decision this afternoon to start packing the plates and glassware and just eat and drink from disposable things. I hate the idea but just throwing things away takes less time than washing, drying, and putting away.

I don’t think I’ll be cooking anything worth talking about this week. If I do, it will be some crazy business, I’m sure!

This week’s Tuesday’s With Dorie recipe was chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion and is displayed there in full text.

Where to start on this week’s baking challenge… It’s a slightly different pate choux recipe than I’ve used before, but the technique is pretty much the same. It’s very much like cooking a roux, then adding eggs to it.

I’ve made mini-éclairs many times, but this was my first attempt at a ring. Pate choux should be baked on parchment paper or a teflex so that it doesn’t stick. It will look like it’s going to burn, but it won’t if you’ve turned the oven down. When you take the puffs out of the oven, poke a hole in them to allow the steam to escape. But the ring… it rose nice in the oven, then fell upon cooling. I think a small change in the technique would help it stay puffed. Instead of piping two rings, touching, pipe them with about a half inch gap. Then pipe the top ring into the gap. I didn’t use a bag and tip to pipe it, just a foodsaver bag. I’ve already packed the pastry bags and tips, so I’m making do with multitaskers.

The ring did collapse before I sliced it, and the center was eggy. I pulled some of the egginess out, and before I filled it, I popped it back into a 225º oven to dry it out a little more.

The mint whipped cream was a very adult taste. The kids thought it tasted too much of green leaves, and probably would have approved of whipped cream flavored with peppermint extract. I didn’t have a problem with it thinning out after adding the sour cream, but I like to beat the cream almost to the point of too-far. Since I’ve packed the pastry tips, I didn’t pipe the whipped cream. I just piled it into the ring with a big spoon.

The top broke as I put it on, and the chocolate was a little thick. But I like thick chocolate.

The grownups loved this, rich from the chocolate, but so light otherwise. The kids ate it too, but were not as complementary. Perhaps I’ll make it again one day. But I’ll probably stick to éclairs or cream puffs for my pate choux.

Dinner last night turned out great. The menu was nearly what I’d planned, substituting fresh sweet corn for the green beans. The substitute tomato pie recipe may become the permanent tomato pie recipe. It was that good. Find it here.

The chicken fried steak was as good as it always is, but I ran short of gravy. Horrors! Note to self: for future reference, ’tis better to give the dog a treat of leftover gravy than ’tis to eat a steak and taties without it. I did show my brother how to make advanced gravy, the kind where you mix the flour in with the grease in the pan. He uses a slurry of milk and flour. That’s what I used to do too, when I was a gravy beginner. (Thank God for Martha, she showed me how to do Gravy 101 in a mason jar and for that I am forever grateful.) But one you get that technique down, it’s time to cook the flour in the oil to give it a toastier flavor. Then you add your liquid and cook to thicken. Maybe for Christmas I’ll get him my magic flat whisk that allows perfect flour/pan drippings mixing.

The sangria… if you are any kind of a cool, refreshing, alcoholic-type drink fan, you MUST make this sangria. Find the full WaPo article and recipe here.

I did make some changes here, and it did require two trips to the liquor store. But it was worth it. The first trip I picked up Tuaca, which I think would be quite tasty by itself over ice. But I got home to find that I had no sweet vermouth or limoncello. The ABC store didn’t have Punt e Mes, so I intended to sub sweet vermouth. Unfortunately I had apparently told husband to go ahead and get rid of it. (So very out of character.) And the adult children squatters apparently drank up the limoncello during one of my weekends away. It was a nearly full bottle. I hope it gave them all headaches and heartburn.

I used a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck merlot for this recipe. Better wine would improve it, but I wouldn’t go too high end. I would reduce the amount of orange juice next time, or go with a truly premium brand, or squeeze fresh. I used homemade simple syrup for sweetening but went shy on it, and topped off the drink with Sprite. The topper is important because it lightens the glass up really nicely. I didn’t garnish with anything since a cinnamon stick and an orange slice gets in the way of drinking. And drink it we did.

The Ingredients

• 1 750-ml bottle (3 to 3 1/2 cups) red wine
• 3 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 3/4 cup Tuaca (a citrus-vanilla liqueur)
• 1/3 cup Punt e Mes (an Italian vermouth)
• 1/2 cup limoncello
• 1/4 cup sugar, preferably superfine (for easier dissolving)
• Ice
• Orange slices, for garnish
• Cinnamon sticks, for garnish
• Club soda or sparkling water (optional)

Come visit, I’ll cook for you and feed you sangria!

Yes, I’m thankful to have a job, with an unreasonable amount of freedom and a nice rate of pay. But I am still free to complain when they take my Sunday morning away.

Sunday morning is my time to laze about in bed with my husband, watch travel shows, maybe a movie, and just relax. It’s my favorite time of the week. Then why am I at my computer while Passport to Europe is on? Because there was maintenance this weekend at work. Because it took longer than expected. Because I have to test one remaining thing. I got up at 9 AM, no news. Here is is, 10:30 and it’s well past the timeframe at which testing should have commenced. All I’ve done is read my feeds and look for a temporary replacement tomato pie recipe. Which I may have found.

So while I wait for the go ahead to go and see if something has shown up on the site yet, I’m making my shopping list. I’ve stopped writing out my list on the backs of used envelopes and have started using Evernote (web version - and free). I write up the list on a new note in my Evernote web account, and I can access it via my iPhone when I’m in Publix. I’ve also started saving recipe pages to Evernote so that when I get befuddled in Publix, wondering what to make, I can look up what seemed tasty in my feeds this week and buy the ingredients. So far it’s working for me, but I’m an early-adopter and embrace my gadgetry. Evernote is good for more than shopping lists or work-related templates. When I take my low-quality food porn pictures, I don’t email them to myself, I just save them to Evernote. When I got to add them into my posts, they are right there and handy. (I do this for other pictures too.) The Evernote web app is still in Beta, but I have a generous number of invites. If you’d like to try it out, register and leave a comment. I’ll send the invite to the email address on record in the registration.

Since husband and I have both lost our dads in the last few years, we tend to sit home and brood about how much we miss them. I think this year I need to just cook a mess of down-home food, and some killer drinks, and play some cards on the back porch. I’ve invited my brother and his kids, his wife will be visiting her father and grandfather over in Tampa.

So I think I will make chicken-fried steak, melted green beans, mashed potatoes, tomato pie, and probably knock out my Tuesday’s With Dorie baking, a peppermint cream puff ring thing. I don’t have recipes for most of that, it’s just stuff I make.

The chicken-fried steak consists of the best cubed steak you can get your hands on, dipped in seasoned egg bath and seasoned flour. (Some day I will try Alton Brown’s cubing technique, after I buy the gizmo. They really do work, we used them in a restaurant kitchen to tenderize cheap steak cuts.) Cream gravy out of the pan drippings, of course!

Melted green beans are slow-cooked in a sauté pan, with chicken stock and fresh chunks of garlic. Maybe a tomato diced up and tossed in toward the end. Long slow cooking caramelizes the garlic and the beans giving them a sweet flavor. Everybody likes these beans, unless they have a strong aversion to green vegetables in general.

Mashed potatoes, I simply make the best ever and the secret ingredient is sour cream.

Tomato pie, I use Rose Levy Berenbaum’s cheddar cheese pie crust recipe, from The Pie and Pastry Bible. Holy fred, that stuff tastes like Cheez-Its. Only better. The tomato filling is made with fresh tomatoes (or high-quality canned, in a pinch — which might happen because of the salmonella freakout) combined with mayo, cheese, and seasonings. It’s one of those handwritten recipes I have stuck in a book someplace… I hope I have not packed it! HORRORS! I probably have! I’ve packed most of my cookbooks! Might not make this, or might try a new version.

I’m thinking that this Tuscan Sangria recipe sounds good for the afternoon. Fruit punch for the kiddos and wine for me.

Have a good weekend, and cook something fun!

So we finally have a female Top Chef winner, and I’m glad it was Stephanie. For a few horrible moments, I thought Lisa might have pulled one out of her butt on the same day that Stephanie and Blais choked. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. I’d have had to boycott Top Chef forevermore.

I was really rooting for Richard Blais. I feel like he’s my hometown boy, even though I don’t live in Atlanta yet. Husband and I (and Sneadwoman) are talking about eating at Home at the earliest possible occasion (Sneadwoman on a separate occasion, I think husband and I might have an anniversary dinner there after moving.)

There is nothing wrong with good simple food. But I am a good cook, and I can cook for big crowds — 30+ isn’t a problem. I can do good simple food. But I like to be surprised. I’d like to try a duck with olives and pistachios and berries. I’d like to eat an oyster with Tabasco ice cream pearls. I love a good roast chicken, but I can do that at home. But I can’t get bacon ice cream at home. (Or can I?) Point being, don’t knock the new techniques. Food is ever changing, yet so basic, that you can’t take a style for granted or sit back and say “This is all I do,” if you’re a restaurateur or chef. It was so neat to see Richard Blais show liquid nitrogen technique to Eric Ripert — and Chef Ripert seemed fascinated!

So TC is over for a while. We get PR next month, and no, I won’t be talking about it here. It’s entertaining, but not food.

Congrats Stephanie! Chef Blais, we can’t wait to try your food!

Check it out! Down on the bottom of the right sidebar, I’ve added The Foodie Blogroll. And, look, I’m in the Most Recent 10 Blogs today! W00t!

I’ve found some new favorites via The Foodie Blogroll, and I hope you do too. In particular, I suggest Daily Diner, Honey Pig :O), and The Food Librarian.