A Clean Kitchen

The secret to a clean kitchen lies not in loading the dishwasher when things are dirty, but in emptying the dishwasher when the contents are clean.

Things you can't have too many of

Well, at least I can't. Or, if you can, I haven't reached that number yet.

Some things, you don't need any of, especially in a small space - a good, heavy pan can do the job of a meat pounder, for example. Some things you only need one of - Dutch ovens, for example. But, there are some things that it always seems I could use another.

Measuring spoons. Measure something wet (or worse, sticky) with a set, and you can't use them for dry ingredients until you wash them.



The Mario Batali set stays together thanks to magnets in the handles. I still want a red set. (I keep one set near the stove, and two sets near my baking supplies and stand mixer; I could use a second set near the stove.)

Measuring cups. In case you unknowingly turn on the garbage disposal with the quarter-cup measure inside it. A set with 3/4 and 2/3 cups is nice to have as well. My yellow measuring cups were a gift when I was about 10 or 12 from my "Aunt" Judy.



Rubber spatulas. And bottle openers. Only one lucky pig needed, however.



Cutting boards and pot holders.



Wooden spoons.



Okay, maybe I have enough wooden spoons...

Cash is king

A few weeks ago, I got new furniture for my living room. My parents, my sister, and her husband came with the pick up truck to take my old furniture. One of my sister's coworkers wanted my dilapidated leather couch - a $600 buy at BJ's 9 years ago that served me well. The leather recliner went to my dad's "man cave". The leather pieces took up too much visual space, and I've replaced them with more modern pieces - a love seat and an accent chair.

Now that I've gotten somewhat side-tracked... When they arrived, we went to get dinner - at the fish fry place a few blocks from my house. (Are fish fry places an Albany thing? We have several, but I saw it mentioned that you can't find them other places.)

My dad stated that if he lived where I live he would weigh 500 pounds. Here's what I always get, the "fish and chips deluxe dinner":



For $6.15 plus tax, it's fish, fries, cornbread, a choice of "salad" (I got macaroni), and a can of soda. And I get two meals out of it. A much better deal than McDonald's, and it tastes better, too!

My other favorite local place is a pizza place. It's a couple of miles from my house, but I drive there rather than go to places that are closer. It's good pizza.



In a world where McDonald's, Taco Bell, and every other shop under the sun take credit cards, these places are anomalies. I've heard a statistic that most people under 30 don't carry cash anymore. (I usually don't, even though I'm just past that marker.) Signs on the door state "CASH ONLY." If they restrict your purchases to cash, the food must be worth it, if you've got to find an ATM so that you can eat it.

Are "Cash Only" signs as good as a Zagat rating?

Not your "Mother's" animal cookies

When Mother's/Archway closed up shop last October, everyone was reminiscent of their animal cookies. I remember the (Archway) rich dark chocolate cookies that came in packages of 8 or 10, but their animal crackers...weren't the ones that I recalled.

I remembered these, brought to school and Brownies for snacks:



Stauffer's. They have a slight spice to them, and just a schmear of frosting on top. They boldly pronounce that they are trans fat free, but HFCS is one of their ingredients.

Stauffer's also makes an awesome slightly different version of Goldfish, called Whales - check them out, if you see them!

Added pictures

I've finally added flickr to my Crackberry, so I've added pictures to a couple of posts:

New York City

Nonna's Apple Cake, Take 1

(Pictures with the date stamp are from my Kodak DX6490.)

Nonna's apple cake, take 2

A few weeks ago, I had a second go at making Nana's Apple Cake. I still haven't got it quite right, but here's what I ended up with.

1.25 cup sugar (10 ounces)
1.25 cups cake flour (5 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon



I decided to go with all cinnamon after I noticed that there are recipes to make the apple cake mix into things like banana bread.



The batter had a better consistency this time.



And I didn't have the doming issue.



But the end result was kind of - candy-ish. (Too much sugar?)



I guess I will have to break down and buy a package of the mix to do some comparisons.

Black and Whites

This is what a Black and White cookie looks like to me. (Though, not necessarily chocolate.) Notice the buttercream frosting, versus the glaze-type frosting associated with NYC B&W's.

I'm not sure if this is a very local thing - this is what I grew up with, about an hour west of Albany. I found this at the Niskayuna Co-op today. This particular cookie looked better than it tasted, which was disappointing.