The heart is a rose, and the fragrance draws the life we need. As it was in the beginning my life, when I was the honeybee and You were my apple tree For then, it was the fragrance of Your heart that drew me to You Remember, we let the seaswells rise in the air We let the mountains crumble, we did not care Whatever happened I was the honeybee and You were my apple tree I was Your Prince, Your Wizard, Your lion of Judah Anything You desired, I brought it to You DNATREE Starting in 1993 a great passion to Reach You led me to write a book called "Wild hearted Romance with Spirit" it was about the smallest of points overlooked by "thinking" and how the JOLT of the Storms and Tsunami's would be coming. Read the adventures of how I left florida in 2001 to go to California in order to do the project with the coming Storms in order to reach family and my daughter Raine that misunderstood the true intentions of my heart related to Synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) http://Stephentree.com http://www.stephentree.com/predict1.htm The right people love their interpretation more than they love each other and will demand You worship that interpretation. The smallest of points they overlooked will soon alter the largest of equations and render all the interpretations meaningless. Let go of the veil of interpretation given You by those that never knew me (Jesus, the heart, synchronicity) For they never knew the true intentions of their hearts.

I love it actually. Really learnt a lot of the fundamentals in cooking. You learn the theory and then you execute it in the kitchen. The best thing I'd say is that you get a lot of diversity and exposure. And the worst thing is probably that culinary school doesn't really fully prepare you for the actual kitchen. There's nothing like working in the industry and learning about it. Actually, I'm more of the proponent of the classical learning method which is practiced mainly overseas in Europe and such; which is through an apprenticeship. BTW, I'm also have a degree in mechanical engineering. Working on a career change. OK, well I have a few more tips that hopefully might help you. Putting out grease fires. Basically never use water. You can place a lid like the other person mentioned to basically suffocate the fire by removing the oxygen. Another method is to sprinkle flour, baking powder, baking soda. Basically that also works by suffocating the fire. ALWAYS remember to turn off the fire as well. Generally, when you sear, saute, or pan-fry. You don't ever want to heat your oil till the point where it smokes. At this point your fat has basically broken down and begin to disintegrate. You'll impart unwanted flavors onto your food. Also, if you continue to heat it long enough, you'll reach the flash point of the oil and it will combust. Bear in mind that it varies for different types of oils. Some oils have flash points very close to the smoking point and some don't. As far as technicality goes, searing basically has very little oil. Just about as much as sauteing goes. Searing however is not a cooking method in itself. It's just a step. Example, you sear a pot roast to seal the juices of the meat inside before braising it in the oven. Pan-fry generally is 1/3 to 1/2 way of the item you're cooking in. Then finally there's deep fry. Temperature is critical whenever you're frying anything. If the oil is too hot, your item will brown before the inside will have a chance to cook. If the oil is too cold, your item will basically soak up all the oil, and you end up with oily and soggy food. You also don't create a good seal on the surface and your juices will leak out. Now as far as types of oils go, peanut oil is the best for deep frying, pan-frying, searing, saute-ing. It's basically an all-around, high smoke-point, neutral flavored oil. Olive oil is not really the best type of oil to use for deep frying. Light pan-frying is OK. Sauteing is OK too. Olive oil is flavored and also have a lower smoking point. Clarified butter is also OK for quick saute-ing (thin food items). Example veal scallopini (where you pound out the veal to thin pieces). If you're unaware of this, clarified is basically butter with the milk solids and whey removed. Heat up the butter gently over the flame. Do not stir it. The milk solids will be at the top, the clarified butter in the middle, and the bottom is whey and water. The milk solids will float to the top when the butter melts. Skim off the milk solids. You will have clarified butter in the middle. The stuff at the bottom is the whey and water. You get about 75% of clarified butter from butter. OK, here's the heads up on BTU/hr ratings etc. There are a few things to keep in mind. Basically the burner element is a heat transfer device. Your pan contacts the burner and is also emitting heat into the environment. You're basically losing heat to the environment. Burner --> Pan --> Environment. The higher BTU/hr rating will allow you to heat the pan up faster and also accommodate for more heat loss. So lets say you have a really thin pan which barely has any thermal mass. You'll have a hard time retaining a high temperature on the pan if your BTU/hr rating is low. Basically thicker pans have more thermal mass. With all other factors being equal, more thermal mass means more heat retained. Now, at the same time, more thermal mass also means it'll take longer to heat up. Also the type of metal comes into play. Copper vs Aluminum vs Stainless Steel. Different metals transfer heat at different rates. So now that you have your pan heated up and it's a good nice and high temperature that you desire. You place a cold piece of meat on it. There's something else that you would have to deal with which is heat recovery. Higher BTU/hr burners will allow you to recover the heat much faster. Also a good heavy gauge pan (like a copper lined pan) will also help because it would have a high thermal mass retaining a lot of the heat. Another factor with good quality pans (generally thicker pans), is that you get even and uniform heating throughout so that you won't have any hot spots. Basically, it's not just one factor (i.e. BTU/hr rating), it's a combination of your pan, technique, etc. BTW, stir fry is done at a really high temperature. It's kind of a spin on sauteing except it's really quick and the temperature is really high. If you've seen it in a restaurant (mainly Chinese cooking I believe), you'll see the burner ring is huge and the wok is basically shaped to contact the flame all over. With the shape of the wok being concaved, I believe there's also a radiant heat effect at play as well concentrating the heat toward the center. I don't know of any residential setup which will allow you to "really cook" on a wok. If you have noticed, stir frys when done right has somewhat of a slight smoky flavor to them. It's hard to explain. It's not so much that it's burnt or like it's a BBQ. It's a distinct smokiness inherent in the high heat cooking. Hopefully this helps =)

Taliaferro - those plates are awesome. That's what I really want to do - hang REAL plates on the wall. I guess I just have to patiently start collecting. Patience is not my strong suit. ; 0. Alexa, that's a great idea, and very sweet of you. I'm not sure I want to paint anything on the walls but I could paint that design o something. I love architectural prints and prints of chandeliers and furniture. Maybe I'll create some new china pieces in that pattern, but on paper. I looked though the DR Eye Candy in the gallery last night and got some ideas for wall decor. As I was looking I remembered the 7/8s rule about filling the wall. That's why my art looks so lonely. I will definitely start looking for some friends for it. Thanks so much to everyone for your help. This forum rocks!

Thanks everybody! And I love western MI and the Great Lakes, too. Such beautiful beaches and the lakes are truly treasures. I love showing out of towners Lake Michigan for the first time. I had a friend from the UK who stayed in the city with me when I lived near the lake, and she kept calling it 'the sea.' She couldn't get over how big it is. JaneJune, so funny that you worked at Oval Beach! I'm sure we crossed paths. We used to walk over to Oxbow to teach a life guarding class to other staffers. Such a great area.