How Do TV Cooks Do It?
11 years ago
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11 years agoRelated Discussions
where do I eat and where do I watch TV
Comments (18)Well until Friday I thought it would be able to put a fireplace in the basement. That Friday he told me the day before they poured the first layer of concrete. He said it was the base but not the floor or the walls just the outline of the house. As such he said there's no way that they could add a fireplace to the house now in the basement. So that leads me to ask if the builder is correct, But more importantly if he is correct and I cannot have the fireplace in the basement then should I just not have the fireplace at all? This would give me an additional wall in the family room and allow a couch/chairs on two walls. Then I could place the tv on the wall on the side of the elevator with a slight angle to the rest of the room so most of the room could see. Where is very important in this day and age to have a fireplace somewhere in the house? I really wanted it in the basement because I know some people in my family gets very cold even when it's not that cold. One person it could be 76 and they want to have a sweater on. hp...See MoreDo you watch cooking shows on tv?
Comments (38)If Indiana is right in the heart of the Midwest, then I must be living on the west coast. Better start learning the language. "Gag me with a spoon"? And why go crazy because someone uses more salt that you want? Don't you think you could, let's see. hmmm, maybe use less?? Recipes are guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Recipes will often vary, even when followed to the letter depending on a number of variables. I seldom follow a recipe to the letter since I might not happen to have the free range grapes, cage free milk or organic Vanilla Wafers that Marco Pierre White's recipe might call for. I often will add spice I like and tone down or eliminate what I don't like. Amish/Mennonite, etc cooking has a lot of crossover with what some people term "Midwest" cooking. If you consider Indiana "midwest" then I exempt this from consideration. However the midwest of the United States are generally or at least were, big farming areas and Amish/Mennonite, etc were also big farmers. Meat, potatoes, bread, coffee, milk, dessert was your typical farm fare. The midwest didn't use much in the way of rice however certain areas, including the upper midwest would have wild rice available and that could be included in the later menus. Native Americans of course used wild rice much more heavily than many others until others found out how great it is. Actually you'll find a lot of crossover in German, even Russian and certain other ethnic types of foods when they're living in a colder climate and doing a lot of hard work, but then again considering the number of Scandinavians. Germans, etc who populated the area, it shouldn't be a surprise. But the food changed to adapt to what's around. You won't go to Norway, Sweden, Germany, Russia, etc and find the same things. Just as "cajun" or "creole" won't be found in France, and probably not much in the French areas of Canada. As Annie said, hearty meals were needed for the heavy workload on a typical farm. You'd rise early and work late and burn a lot of calories. Actually what many people term "comfort foods" is quite common among both the A/M/etc and midwest farmers. You won't find finger sandwiches, consumme or sushi on these menus. You will find hearty soup, stew, roast, meatloaf, pasta and much much more. You'll also find a lot of pies, cakes, cookies and rolls. You'll find great breads, rolls, etc. Around here, mac & cheese is essentially baby food. A blue box and a package of Corn King hotdogs fed many a toddler by a new mother. Never could stomach mac & cheese. No meat, why bother. Watching Cookin' Cheap is different. Two gay guys doing their "cooking" and then dressing in drag to show a gadget of some sort. A pickle slicer, nut cracker or whatever. The "Cook Sisters". Initially it was to show people you could cook cheap. They'd figure out the cost of something and figure per portion. Although if they had a leftover from something before, they didn't include it in the price and would come out with 58¢ per person "meals". One thought he knew how to cook and the other admitted he knew nothing but would try anything. They both fancied themselves far better standup comedians that I would. Watch it sometime, it's, well, different. I wouldn't say it's funny very often, but entertaining usually. Actually hotdish for the food, (and go ahead and debate "food" if you're a Miracle Whip snob) and "hot dish" describes the ladies cooking or the temperature of the plate. Scalloped potatoes and ham is a type of hotdish. Marilyn's Party Potatoes, sometimes called "funeral potatoes" is a hotdish, etc. People stick out their tongues and stick their noses in the air over foods. Yes, some will be a can of cream soup with a can of something and a package of onion soup mix. But then again, people buy "blue box", TV dinners and produce from Walmart for cryin out loud! LOL Contrary to what a couple of you believe, not one of the terms hotdishes, A/M/etc or midwest cooking mean all from a can or a pouch. It can and often is made from scratch. The shortcuts are more publicized since it's a timesaver and many people who hit the net want to save time. I would defy most anyone to have tasted and claim they didn't like the scalloped potatoes and ham that was served at my aunt's funeral, or for that matter the roast beef and mashed potatoes served at my cousin's funeral or any of my mother's holiday meals, all made from scratch. I'll take that any day over foo-foo food! Or for that matter the Tex-Mex you get at Taco Bell, or the seafood from Long John Silver, or should I continue... Back to topic, a couple other shows I enjoyed watching included the Galloping drunk, er, Gourmet though never really learned much from his shows. When Andrew Zimmern was a local cook he was interesting to see on the local channels before he decided to concentrate on bugs and exotic roadkill....See MoreHow do I style under a wall mounted TV and in deep window sills?
Comments (26)I like the piece of art you have in the dining area of the last photo. I think maybe we should retreat to your original dilemma which was about how to display all your stuff. As before, I still suggest you divvy it up so it isn't all vying for our attention. Do you have storage bins under your bed? That's always a good idea for storing excess. Most of the decor items seem to be white ceramic and a few gold/brass pieces. If you want to utilize the window space, I would limit it to the two upper windows that appear as though they have shelves built in. The twisted gold piece and your other twisted white ceramic piece are both large enough to be seen well from those two locations. Separate hard and soft cover books. If you have enough hard covers to do the job, start with the tallest ones that will fit in the long cabinet openings and supplement with shorter ones. If you can manage to do all hard covers, that is a better choice than soft covers, but you can mix both if you have to. Can you get a 3rd bookshelf for the dining side of the column and style it in a similar fashion to the other ones?...See MoreHow do I arrange furniture in this small TV room?
Comments (5)I don't have an easy route to a mock-up right now, but I think I'd be thinking about an L of furniture along the left wall and then extending out into the room (whether a sectional or two couches or whatever). That encompasses TV and fireplace, clears both sets of doors, and leaves room for a coffee table and some other options, without impinging on any of the walkways....See More
11 years agoI agree that practice is a lot of it, as well as production assistants (PA's), but there's also Take #4.
That said, I can usually get the batter out of the bowl and into the pan without making a mess.
Here's how:
1. Use a bowl that isn't too big or heavy to tuck under the elbow of the non-dominant hand. The steel KA tilt head mixer bowls will do for most people. The round lift bowls are harder to hang onto. Big heavy ceramic bowls make it easy to make a batter with a handheld mixer, but are way hard to tuck under.- Use a long handled flexible scraper with a long blade. The shorter the handle and the stiffer and shorter the blade, the more your hand will be in the goo. Old scrapers get stiff and sometimes are better kept for other uses and replaced for batter. OXO SoftWorks makes a good one, with an easy to keep hold of handle:
3. Put your pan on a surface that is LOW enough for you to have good control of the bowl over it. If you're tall, this may be your kitchen counter. If not, it might be the table or even the sink. If you're too tall and it's a long drop from your elbows to the counter, put a block or box or books under the pan, perhaps with a silicone mat to keep it clean underneath. This is probably the most important thing. The center of your bowl should be about a foot from the pan, give or take, for you to have optimum control. - Start at the top of the bowl and scrape down the sides first. Set down your scraper and use both hands to start pouring the batter into the middle of the pan. If you start in the middle you won't flow over the sides. As you pour, you can run your ribbon around the edges of the pan once you're sure of the flow rate and position.
5. When it's no longer flowing steadily, tuck the bowl under your elbow and starting from the side that's up, scrape down and out, reaching back to the bottom of the bowl last. Given that you have an easily held onto bowl, in optimum position, with a long enough and flexible enough scraper, you should now be able to scrape the bottom of the bowl without getting your hands in the gunk.
OTOH, if everything else is working for you, and you don't want to change, just put out an old towel, and/or a bowl of water, to wipe your hands with and get on with it. :)
Fun2BHere thanked plllog- Use a long handled flexible scraper with a long blade. The shorter the handle and the stiffer and shorter the blade, the more your hand will be in the goo. Old scrapers get stiff and sometimes are better kept for other uses and replaced for batter. OXO SoftWorks makes a good one, with an easy to keep hold of handle:
- 11 years ago
- 11 years ago
Fun2BHere, I'm sure that's frustrating. When I was planning my kitchen, I was trying to wedge in a rolling center along with my other many wants, but all the designs I figured out would have been particularly hard to clean, and no shot of cleaning for Passover. I had tested for my optimal kneading/rolling height, which is 33", but really wanted my small island to be 38" for general work. The cabinetmaker declared that the perimeter would be 36.5" for his needs. :) And that's when I figured out that I just needed to have my shoulders 3.5" higher.
Given that there's a pair of rarely worn Swedish style (not high heel) wooden clogs in the front hall closet--rarely because they're too tall and dangerous with our uneven sidewalks and the unforgiving nature of clogs, but brand new and too hard to part with--I knew how to achieve this! One of the Kitchens Forum members labelled them Plllog's clllogs, because I recommended them. It makes so much sense! Clogs are great for this because they don't change the ankle/knee/pelvis/back positioning, so there's still a good power matrix, unlike with high heels that have the toes significantly lower than the heels. They're just convenient little stilts. IRL, I more often slip on some Crocs which aren't as tall, but close enough to get the angle of force right. I highly recommend them!
I also have a couple of these platform steps (from Amazon, of course). They were two for the same price when I got them, though, so might be better from a hardware or warehouse supply. They're great for reaching the back when cleaning high ovens, for nine-year-old helpers, and for reaching a shelf not high enough to get out a painting ladder. Very lightweight (plastic), secure, stable, interlocking, and each square able to hold a couple of big guys. Those are deep channels between the treads, though, so not for use with heels on. :) There are also plenty of folding or footed platform steps on the market, and you might find one useful.
- 11 years ago
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