Appliances mostly pass their first tests
As some of you may know, the drying part of my dishwasher, the first appliance I put into use, wasn't actually drying. So they've ordered some new parts, and I'm keeping a good thought.
As to the rest, I'm just getting my toe in, so to speak, but here's what I can tell you. (N.B., the kitchen still isn't finished and has boxes, dropcloths and tools all over, so there will be no big reveal for a few more weeks, though there are some previews in other threads I've posted in the last week or two.)
As soon as the flipped the breakers on, I put my new groceries in my new fridge (Miele 30", also freezer same size). Love it! Very good places to put things. And I love the different temperatures on the drawers, and especially the deli drawer because I have a lot of flat things. I've never had an icemaker as an adult. Really love that! The ice are shaped like pill bugs! I think that's really funny!
But then I unplugged the fridge drawers (Marvel 24") because on the initial cool down it was just too noisy! It's still a little loud, but now that it's cool, and has contents, it cycles on and off and really isn't a bother.
I put an aluminum take out container with restaurant leftovers in the Gaggenau combi-steam on the reheat mode, per instructions, with a kind of randomly chosen time. It came out perfectly! The steamed vegetables weren't overcooked, everything was hot, the potatoes were creamy and the meat firm. That setting is amazing! I also tried to toast a piece of toast in the Advantium because it says you can. People had said that it doesn't make good toast. They were right. It wasn't carmelized and was dried out. I bought a little B&D toaster oven on sale for toasting toast. I thought of putting the warming drawer on for the Chinese delivery just a minute or so before it was delivered, and I should have put it on a higher setting. It did fine, but will be better another day.
The baking stuff isn't unpacked yet, and the kitchen isn't clean enough to bake, so even though my inclination is to make bread to start in the big oven, it's too close to Passover, so it's going to be meat instead.
But the days of leftovers and delivery are at an end! Yesterday, the hood was installed!! (See "If we were on schedule..." thread.) I can cook!! So I did!
Here are the vegetables and bag with chickens for the stock in the bottom drawer of the fridge drawers.
Here they are all in the stock pot with a couple of gallons of spring water. Our local tap water is better than it used to be but it smells too funky for the stock. It's okay for pasta nowadays, which is something. The stock pot is just the size of the large ring on the induction unit (Gaggenau 24"). The little ring is just the right size for the saucier in which I'm rending the chicken fat. My father looked at me crossways when I put the paper towel under the pot but it was sliding when I stirred.
My best friend from elementary school gave this to me for my 10th or 11th birthday. I think she just thought it was cute. My mother couldn't understand why she gave me a spoon rest! I used it on my desk as a catch all, but when I first got a place of my own and needed a spoon rest I went and got it, and have been using it ever since.
This is the finished chicken fat in an old jar in the fridge (that's one tough label--it's been washed several times, including at least once through the dishwasher).
I started the stock without thinking everything through. I had a sharp knife, a cutting board, a dull paring knife, a couple of small wooden spoons, my big ladle and the pots. I knew where the jars were in the box in the living room, so grabbed one for the fat and washed it quick. I also knew where the large containers were and washed them while the stock was simmering. But I didn't think of things like vessels and strainers. I figured the small roaster, which I did have in the drawer, and the old colander, and my mother's old camping strainer, which were unpacked and washed, though not necessarily loved, would work. The colander is in there just to hold up the strainer higher.
When the stock is done, one does not feed people the chicken! Even the cat won't eat it! Not that it's really chicken anymore. All the chicken goodness is in the stock.
The strained stock.
So people keep saying how it's wrong in a fairly large kitchen to have the sink next to the stove. There's over two feet between. It's very convenient! And this pile of disgusting, flavorless (now) mooshy solids (with a few bones) is why one is happy to have a garbage disposal!
I was good and took the vegetable trimmings down to the green bin, however, and noticed that the front porch smelled like chicken! The hood vents out the side of the house, and there was a breeze blowing toward the porch. No chicken smell inside. The hood is a winner! (ModernAire) I didn't hear a knock on the front door or the phone in the LR with it going, but it's really not very loud compared to the suckage, and I was chatting with my father, too, but I think it does drown things out in a white noise way. I had it on pretty high, and once I was alone, turned the music on, and turned it up a bit, but I could hear fine at a normal level (I usually have it on soft). When the hood was on fairly high though, since it was on for hours, I did get the feeling that it would have benefited from make up air, so I opened the slider. There was no whoosh, but that hood moves a lot of air!
Oh, you want to see the hood? Okay. Here it is again.
The finished stock dished up...
...And marked with scraps of painter's tape because I have no idea where the masking tape is.
My Miele freezer has a "super cool" setting. Turn it on hours before making the stock and the freezer gets very very cold. Then when the stock goes in, it freezes rapidly without raising the temperature of the other things in the freezer up past their freezing points (i.e., doesn't make them thaw).
It may not be finished yet, but my kitchen cooks!!
Comments (29)
chipongo
heart-of-dixie
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