Here are some of mine

From this

and this

to this

and ending with this

Here's my fave photo of my KIA. My "cup o dirt" recipe with real clay pots (lined) and real flowers (in a straw).

{{gwi:1912945}}

A couple of months ago when I did my every-6-month-cooking binge, I should have taken photos.

My kitchen is far from finished, but if I remember correctly I made:
Spaghetti
Beef Stew
Jambalaya
Chicken Noodle Soup
3 meat loaves
Vegetable Soup
A 3 to 6 grain dish I made up
Mac & Cheese
and a bunch of other things I cooked by the vat and froze for the next six months. As a matter of fact, it might be time to start planning..

All your dishes and family pics make me smile.

i will have to take more photos. here are just a couple. the beginning and the aftermath.

Here's my after. I'm not sure what happened before or during.

LOL chiefneil :)

Beautiful food everyone!!!

Chiefneil, that's my kinda after!

Food p*rn...disgusting! But oh so nice! Thanks for reminding me there's more than an espresso machine in my kitchen.

loves2cook - I have one of those machines too!

Proofing in the oven

my version of wok cooking on an induction cooktop

Canning up fruit sauce

DH cutting up venison - "please sir, may have have some more?"

Trailrunner... glad you made it part of the way. That sounds like a great trip. What a beautiful area that is. I bet you got some great pics.

Our neighbor is painting her house and they are painting their porch ceiling blue. I thought of you right away. I even found the pics of it from old garden web posts!

P

But wait Chef, there's still Lemoncello to serve!

LOL good eye on the Limoncello. That stuff scares me! It's still sitting unopened in the pantry....

Chief - that's very funny! I can see capping it with Limoncello would not be... ick that stuff's nasty.

Macy, loves2cook: will you please adopt me? I want you to cook for me! That machine is wild - what is it???

Babushka -- that picture belongs in a magazine. The before one at least; it's so pretty with the white garlic and the white everything else!!

The problem with baking is that no matter how it looks, it usually tastes fantastic. :)

mtnredux - those look like birthday party favors! ...and they look like they were a lot of fun to make.

Trailrunner - I hope everyone is recovering from their mishaps. I have *always* wanted to cycle through Banff and Jasper. At this rate it will have to be during another life.

I was surprised how easy it is to make pasta. It's just the simplest of bread doughs; flour, egg and water. That's it. So much mystique around a chapati by any other name. (well OK, Indians don't stick egg in their bread and they don't boil it either, but it's still the same old...).

Library girl -- I have no idea the provenance of this pasta maker. It is indeed old. I vaguely remember my parents acquiring it, but it could even have been brought over from another relative's house. Both my brother and I had hunted for it for years but he actually found it. When I heard this my heart sank -- I wanted it! But he graciously passed it along to me. It's Italian, "altea", "made in italy". "noodle machine guaranteed" -- the English in the brochure is very iffy! The machine is very heavy and seemingly very good but I have zero experience with any others. But it strikes me as a bit of a mountain-sans-handrail, if you follow. I think you could probably suck a finger down into that roller and lose it altogether. I'm kinda nervous about letting kids have at it. We're invited to a "pasta potluck" soon and I was vaguely thinking of bringing the machine and letting the kids make their own. But I am also nervous about digit damage.

I don't have much by the way of suggestions - you might post in appliances asking if anyone there has actually used one of the machines you were wondering about. I presume you've googled for reviews of them. This machine has been used almost not at all and comes from a house I know. I might actually feel a teensy bit unsure about using a stranger's machine. You're not really supposed to wash them and part of the reason I presume is because they will rust. I'd just worry about grunge buildup in the rollers. Like buying a used car, I'd go for one with very low mileage if at all possible!

Here's a picture of its box:

There's an old warranty card as well for Berarducci Bros Mfg. Co., Inc.; McKeesport, Pa. 15132. Old abbreviation for the state. 50's maybe? There's no date written on it.

Mamagoose - what a great project. Somewhere I have a toaster oven that's also a dehydrator. I've been waiting for this current one to die so I can uncover the old -- I would like to make apples like this!

Trailrunner - I know this is a stupid question; everyone's supposed to know how to roast veggies. But I never do it and so I just don't know and have long since become too embarrassed to ask. Maybe I've turned the corner on age and I'm told old to let it bother me so please, tell me what you do to acquire those delicious-looking vegetables.

Here's tonight's efforts, a mediocre reproduction of what I'm assured were the best muffins ever made by my bro. This version was a little light on greatness:

I'm happy to report those muffins are not unevenly baked; this is an artifact of the light and my miserable photography. In fact, having once reported troubles with my Capital oven, I've since learned that leaving it to preheat sufficiently goes a long way toward mitigating problems. YMMV

The pasta machine I have is an Atlas. It is quite old too. I am linking to the web site that has a very good reputation...I wouldn't buy from Amazon. Fantes has great stuff and the prices are the same/less. I know that they" don't make them the way they used to" so if you do know someone with one you will be fine. All you do is brush out any old flour...should be done every time you use it. And aliris is correct that you DON'T wash it. My son ruined my MIL's machine that I gave him.

aliris the roasted vegetables are really easy. Cut in 1/2 peppers and in large slices the red onion. Brush all with olive oil...not too much and dust with some salt and fresh ground pepper. Roast on parchment at 450 for about 30 min till edges are black . That is it. I also cut up everything in large chunks and toss with EVOO and salt and pepper and I add an eggplant too. Cut into approx 2-3 inch chunks. Do not use too much oil..they won't roast correctly...just enough to lightly coat. That is the key. High temp and not too long but you want the edges to just get black. Go for it !

Here is a link that might be useful: pasta machines

Ok, it was time for the maiden voyage of the rotisserie in the Miele. I was going to use it last week, but while reading the instructions I saw "install the grease filter"....what? What grease filter? Oh, it is an accessory. Stupidest thing ever--why is it not included? I stopped by the appliance store on Monday and picked one up....$40!!!

I will say that it was a lot easier to use a rotisserie in a wall mounted oven vs the one in the Capital range that I left behind. And of course, the weight of the spit itself made things easier. I guess the Capital's is the same as they use for BBQ grill. Very sturdy, but a little overkill for a small chicken. No exciting "action" shots, but this is the evening:

Here's the infamous filter:

There is the fan it will be covering:

Chicken in the fridge....yes, taken through the glass door!!! Yes, that is a rotiesserie chicken bought on Monday, used it for sandwiches and it's going to be soup soon!

(I also found a milk man who delivers here...so happy! I hated leaving our last one.)

There he is, waiting to go in. My dream when planning the kitchen and picking this sink was to have raw chicken on that shelf of the sink....dreams do come true...

In the oven, pushed a couple of buttons, and he was off..

Checking in on him, yep,still spinning

Sweet potatoes in lower oven, again, just pushed a couple of buttons, and voila, it was baking

Asparagus in the steamer pan, waiting to go in the steamer. I admit it, I don't like steamed asparagus, I'm more of a broiled asparagus gal. But, what the heck, I'm taking one for the team here.

Chicken done

"I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Demille"

Sliding in the asparagus

And the potatoes are done

I don't have a picture of everything on a plate! Wild storm ripped through just as it was finished, power blinked off & on. Forgot the final shot. But it wasn't that beautiful anyway! It was very good though. Even the steamed asparagus.

Bee

Aliris, I found a pasta maker at an estate sale and thought of you. It's not a very old one so hopefully it will work well. It was brand new, the guy selling it didn't think it had ever been used. It's an Imperialia made in Italy too. Please share your pasta recipe so I can try it out.

Breezy, LOVE my VitaMix but not using it as much as you. As you can tell I am a gadget girl. On the other hand, like Macy, I love my mixer. It's an Electrolux (DXL or DLX I forget) and I've had it for 15 years. It can make dough with TWENTY cups of flour. Did I mention I LOVE it.

Bee, I too have the Miele ovens. What settings did you use for your chicken and potato. I've experimented a lot and have to say that I don't like MasterChef. Auto Roast does a much better job but obviously you can't use the probe on the rotisserie. It would be so cool if the probe was built into the spit.

C, sounds like you had a fabulous trip. I'm definitely not fit enough to join you lol. Did you hear about the 60 something Russian Granny who was riding 10000 miles a year across the continent and home?

Keep sharing, folks, I love seeing what ya'll are doing.

Glad you like the Miele rotisserie. I have been using mine for over 6 years now. It came with 2 of the grease covers..one for each oven. Not sure why they don't include them now. I have the Perfect Clean finish so when the oven cools I immediately spray all the sides with grease cutter and leave it till the AM and then wipe it all out. Otherwise the spitting from the spit ( LOL) makes a mess ! So make sure and clean it all out very well before you use the oven again. Once you get used to it , it is so worth it. Also go ahead next time and do the max number of chickens or roasts or whatever so that you can then freeze it and then you only have to clean once :) Great pics ! c

When I first got my ovens someone over here shared a tip I'll pass on. Put a 1/2 cup of water in the drip pan and it cuts down on the spitting. It really works!

Well, I took a picture, but DH has the PC with him!!

So, a lousy description will have to do for now....I did the first cookies in the Thermador today! DH thought I was acting like a spoiled brat when I said I had pretty much quit baking because I did not like the results of the electric oven. HAH! No, I did NOT lose any weight when I quit baking, either.

The cookies are PERFECT!! I did not have to turn the tray three times to get them even remotly even, they are not spread out like pancakes, and they are evenly brown on the top and bottom.

Really, I thought I had completely lost my touch!! I wondered why my self esteem was SO low! No therapist could figure out I JUST had a BAD OVEN!!

Nancy

Bee - that looks like a lot of fun! I'm glad to see the steamer oven too, I don't think I know what they look like. I remember plllog waxing beautific about it.

Question: I've been "steaming" veggies in a MW container I got at an Asian store with a ceramic tray on top of a plastic bowl and plastic lid that allows you to put water in the tray and essentially steam the veggies. Do you think that's essentially a work-around or is it just different...?

lovecooking ... well getting you to think of me while cooking might just be that first step toward getting cooked for? ;)

My pasta recipe wasn't, really. In the booklet that came with my machine it said - mix an egg into some flour until you have dough. Really. That's what it said. So I grabbed this recipe randomly from the web and discovered the first wasn't all that bad, actually. Like it says, take a pile of flour and add an egg and a bit of water until you have dough - stiff dough. That qualifier could have been helpful, perhaps.

I ended up dumping 1.5 cups wheat berries (=2 c flour) into the vitamix and grinding, loudly, for two minutes. Then I added some salt and two beaten eggs. Then I splashed in a little water a couple times to get it kneadable. Which I did for a minute or two. The instruction book for my machine suggested you could essentially knead the dough with the machine by running it a couple times through the flattener part. For the record, their suggestion was 5x through setting "7" (of 9 I think, which is the least-squashed), then once at "4" and twice at "2". I followed that advice. Then you send it through the shredder part. ;)

Comments in the online recipe suggested letting the dough relax after kneading which seemed sensible. I let it sit maybe a couple hours because I was busy. No issues; I kept a wet cloth over the container. I cooked this shy of 2min in roiling water. I may have overcooked it a tad.

Enjoy!

BTW, I'm not sure whether Breezy has a vitamix (but she should!). It's me who's in the throws of new-love. I swear I'd sleep with that thing :)

p.s. It may have been from the instruction book as opposed ot the online recipe which you have access to, where I learned about using the machine. They recommend rolling the dough into a cylinder, 4" x 2" and then cutting approx 1" rounds from it for feeding into the machine. I shaped my double recipe into 3 cylinders not really understanding what was going on; no need to do this, one is fine as you're cutting it anyway. And then that round you cut off gets flattened into a rectangle, +/- and that's what gets fed through the flattener-part. So the cylinder is just a way to get an approximately correct shape and size for feeding into the first stage of the machine's squashing roll. HTH I've no doubt a detailed blow-by-blow can be found on the web. Oh also - they suggested while "kneading" it at setting "7" five times, to fold the resulting sheet in half. I used that stage to try to get an approximate elongated rectangle, so I only sometimes folded it in "half" but more often folded edges in toward the middle and the like....

it's actually really easy and almost fun -- if you can get over worrying about little fingers getting squashed. Images of Emergency Rooms kept dancing in front of my eyes.

alaris, the 'corkscrew' apples are the favorites here--I have to hide them to have enough for Christmas baskets and stockings.

I had to snap a pic of my pasta maker, an old Marcato/ampia, made in Italy. It belonged to my neighbor, who was elderly when we moved here in 1994. She didn't have the instruction booklet, but I've always used the egg noodle recipe from the Better Homes cookbook. Now that it's sitting out, I need to make some linguine!

Mama - that looks just like mine! Linguine ... next. Not tonight; still procrastinating (bet you noticed ;) )

ah..I got out the pasta maker ...that is exactly what I have too ! I got mine in the French Quarter when we first got married so like 1971 or so. I knew it started with an "A" :)

246..yes I remember to do that too...it does cut way down on the spitting !! And you use the rotisserie it is the Broil setting that makes it work. It is so much better than the ones from the store since it isn't so fat. The meat is juicy and tender and it cooks so quickly. Try it you will love it ! c

DH cooks more than me and this is how he gets started every night!

loves2cook4six--for the chicken, I pushed Rotisserie, and chose 400 degrees. It could have been hotter I am convinced. I think that is why in the old Capital it came out darker. There was no choice, it was just broil. (Except for the turkey at Thanksgiving, we did the broil thing and then turned it down to 350). The potatoes, I did the master chef setting, for baked potatoes, crispy skins...I think it said 375. I really do not know what I am doing because I thought, like a microwave, it would just ding when done. No, I had to make that determination! Whoops. But they were good. Oh, a probe in the spit, excellent idea. I always wanted one that was wireless, jab into the meat and it would keep track outside of the oven remotely. Not sure what THAT has not been invented.

And yes, I do put water in the tray. It really does help. A lot.

trailrunner, what is this "grease cutter" you speak of? And yes, I realize I should have done something else on the other spit. Now that I am not a rookie anymore, watch out. I sense gyros in our near future....

aliris--I do not know. All I know is that when we did corn in this steamer, my husband declared he has never had corn taste that good. That is saying a lot. The other day I picked up just one ear, with the husk and tossed it in. It was delicious. I love that you tell it what you are cooking, and the desired tenderness. It does the rest. I know it is not like the steamer that sits on top of a pot on the stove. There is always steam escaping from those. The steam doesn't escape, it just stays in there. It also has been great for reheating leftovers.

All the pictures of the pasta makers are making me want to get mine out....maybe it is time.....

You have to let me know how the gyros turn out !! I haven't tried that...would love to . I used to use Greased Lightning but I have changed to Awesome...it is from walmart. I use it full strength. It works great. The gunk just drips down and you wipe it out and rinse with a clean rag a couple times and your oven will always look new. Mine has only a couple dark places in it after over 6 years of hard use so I am pleased.
What is the "steamer " that you have ???? Looks wonderful. c

trailruner, the steamer is the Master Chef Miele. Looking forward to trying some fish in it. I wonder if I can put green tea in the tank that holds the water. I love salmon steamed with green tea.....oh the experiments.....

Here is a link that might be useful: gyro recipe, the rotisserie

Making pasta salad for 80.

I did a cookie/dessert bake/exchange for about 30 last Christmas, but no photos. Every surface and every oven (including the Breville) were heavily used, but I forgot to take pics. Those are the times I'm glad I remodeled "to excess." ;-)

love that photo segbrown.

Ok, in honor of the Olympics and Greece....we did gyros tonight. Didn't go as planned. The meat was not firm enough when it went on the spit and IT FELL OFF!!! Quickly scooped up the hunks and threw in the loaf pan. Here is the photo essay:

Thanks Breezy....although I haven't ordered the tins, it's a start

appetizers (bruchetta w/ walnut oil, tzatziki sauce, and olive tapenade,

after 3 1/2 hours in fridge, not long enough

after I pulled it out from the loaf pan and cut it

and the final product. Opa!

Great pics! Love the rotisserie, Bee!

Here is a pic of a pizza from a Bobby Flay cookbook, bacon and carmelized onion pizza. The white is creme fraiche. This is NOT Weight-Watchers friendly. I made the dough in the KA mixer that DH bought me for Christmas.

Yesterday, my kitchen-at-work produced spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes in the garden and banana bread to use up those 3 very ripe bananas. This is as far as I got with the photos of spaghetti sauce, but it turned out great:

Those of us with small houses, though, know that a kitchen isn't just about food. The peninsula is also the main craft area, so I give you today's project in the kitchen...

drapes for our newly renovated guest bedroom (otherwise known as the boys' room, but "the boys" are in their mid-30s).

Well, the "work" was done with the all the picking, but so far all we've done is eat them hand over fist . . .

Oh man, am I jealous! Someday I'll have a nice kitchen, too! My current one is okay but with all the DIY'ing DH is doing on our other place, I have no one to cook for half the time, anyway.

These food pics are wonderful. The braided bread, fried oysters, pasta, pizza.....wine.....

*drool*

Tonight's desert - bread pudding with apples and cranberries. Creme anglaise not shown :)

Leela, Chief: groaaaan

We camped out in front of the TV for the British spectacular tonight, all 4.5 hours of it resulting in one down in front, the other self-dragged to the "real" bed. Homage-food included shrimp, which always strike me as a TV-party food; don't know why. And smoothie and pizza and a great cheese and french bread. Hmmm, veggies? Should have tossed some salad in the smoothie but I guess everyone will survive a meal without greens. No pics.

Beautiful food and gorgeous kitchens! The bread pudding finished me off.. food of the gods :-)

Best part about new kitchen - having company. Usually, DD and DS camped out on computers, while I cook. Lately, DD has been playing Nancy Drew. Thursday night, DS set up the scrabble board to my right and we played while I prepped.

Last night I tried a new pizza crust, from 'How to Cook Everything'... was quite good but next time I need to slice the tomatoes much more thinly.

Great pics...I would kill for that bread pudding !!

About the tomatoes on a pizza. I have a great trick. Slice them paper thin and then wait to put them on after you have added the cheese. Put them right up on top and make sure you have the oven as hot as it will go...550 is best for your stone. Then if you have it in the top part of the oven you use your broiler for 15 min to really heat up the stone. Here is the rest of the trick....turn of the broiler and place your pizza on the stone with oven back at 550. The residual heat from the broiler will char those tomatoes so beautifully and the heat of the stone will do the crust...voila the pizza gets nicely done top and bottom. Try it you will love the result . c

Thanks trailrunner, I will try that out.

We love biscuits for breakfast. It's so nice to be able to turn oven on, prep biscuits, put them in the oven, and be all cleaned up and ready by the time they are done. I use the recipe from 'Baking with Julia' for this.

Love the 30" countertops for this and making pie dough:

Now, do I tackle those overly ripe bananas...?

I thought banana bread was always delicious like this, but my daughter says no, ours is the best ever, and in great demand wherever she takes it. So, if you have 3 over the hill bananas, try this:

Banana Bread
Grandma

3 very ripe bananas
3/4 c. sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp. soda
1 T. water
2 c. flour

Mash bananas with fork. Blend in sugar, salt, and beaten egg. Melt butter and stir into banana mixture. Dissolve soda and water. Add with sifted flour. Mix.
Bake at 350º for 45 min.

["Grandma" in this case is my mom who passed away last Feb. at 93. I'm finding that for recipes and photos I'm having to actually name which mom, grandma, etc. as we have multiple generations of moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, and grandads.]

Alternatively you can substitute another egg for the butter...

3 ripe bananas
3/4 c sugar
salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp soda
2 c flour
nuts if you like....

I love how there just are no ingredients in this recipe and it works great anyway. You can be very flexible with the number of rotting bananas you stick in the recipe. Doubling or tripling the recipe requires you to cut back on flour a bit.

Thanks, oldbat ... I was just wondering what I could do that might be a little special for breakfast, and come to think of it, there are at least 5 moldering bananas in the fridge! I would have continued to forget had you not mentioned this.

Will you please post the biscuits recipe? I hate most of the ones I've tried, and those I didn't hate I've lost. ;)

TIA

Thanks alaris19 and suzannes1! The banana bread I made yesterday was not good; I am copying down your recipes and will try.

The most important thing to remember is to not overwork the dough. It will be wet and sticky but that's fine!

Baking Powder Biscuits (Julia Child, Baking with Julia)

Oven: 425. Grease a 9x12 baking pan.

2 c. all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup milk

Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and stir with a fork to mix. Add shortening, roll it around in the flour to coat it, and then break it into 4 or 5 pieces. Rub the flour and shortening together with the tips of your finders, making little crumbs. Keep doing so until most of the shortening is mixed together with the flour. Don't worry if you have a few largish pieces.

Add milk and stir with a fork to moisten the flour. Don't worry about getting everything evenly mixed. You'll have a sticky mass of dough.

Flour a work surface, scoop the dough out, and drop it on the counter. Flour your hands. Knead only 10 times. Do not overwork!

Pat the dough into a circle about 9" and cut with a 1.5 - 2" biscuit cutter (or glass, whatever works). It helps to dip the cutter in flour to prevent dough from sticking.

Brush with melted butter if desired. Bake for 12-15 minutes until they are golden on top.

Wow! Such lovely pics of wonderful foods across lovely kitchens. Great thread.

Ours would be nothing so exciting...just trying to get DH to make more graham crackers as we're running out....

BTW, I love limoncello...has to be cold though...I keep mine in the fridge and use as an after meal drink on occasion or spill a little over vanilla ice cream.

...and then there is limoncello sorbet....

Thanks, oldbat. I keep forgetting biscuits are essentially pie dough with a little leavening...I guess that may not be really right looking at the ingredients. But you do make it the same way! I've yet to try this recipe of yours but I will anon and report back.

Here are the banana muffins, gone in hours:

And here are some shots of the messy prep as that's what this thread is supposed to be about. I tried to remember to take some pictures of that. Though I should have cleaned up a little bit ... things are especially bad at the moment with summer camps and coming and going from town...

Hardest part, of course, is just greasing those tins, but I got some teenaged help this time!

Don't forget to reduce flour for doubling the recipe. I used 1 3/4 c. for 6 -- maybe it was 7 bananas. And with the use of muffin tins instead of loaf pans, that's another strike against the dryness of flour; I could have stood to go even less.

Wow...love the mess ! You were definitely going bananas :) A tip about the batter. Add buttermilk to thin the batter if you get it too thick. I also use it for my biscuits and all pie dough. In fact I sub it for almost anything I can think of . All you need to do is add a pinch of baking soda and the buttermilk takes off in the rising dept. It will make pie dough and biscuits as tender as can be and very flaky. So the next time you are making any quick bread,doesn't matter what kind, have your buttermilk out and add a splash to get the batter the consistency that you want it. c

I did pop these out of my new Wolf oven - yum
Yogurt berry muffins! My own concoction!

cheifneil, you have got to be kidding with that bread pudding, AND with creme anglaise. Too many other yummy pics. I can see I am going to bed hungry tonight.

Thanks, c, with the buttermilk accolades. I'm a fan too. Spoiled milk works as well. Even fairly severely spoiled; can't quite figure out why some of what I use sometimes doesn't taste icky: alchemic miracle. [yogurt/kefir: same].

But one thing I like about this banana bread recipe is there is no liquid in it, just eggs and gooey bananas. As I mentioned, it's incredibly simple. Even I can remember the ingredient list! (banana & sugar; eggs, flour, salt & soda. done).

Gemini - how did you do that? My berry muffins never stay distinct like that. I am thinking that frozen berries are simply useless baked; they look OK-ish defrosted, and I try coating them with flour, but it's still just not a viable substitution I guess.