Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: cooking

  • Meeting Hank: My New Induction Stove Experience

    Meeting Hank: My New Induction Stove Experience

    Post Script

    I know that a PS is supposed to come at the end. But life interrupted the blog post and so it is at the beginning this time. There has been a real flurry of activity around here.

    The inside of the house is complete. There is still the wool room, but it is on hold for a couple of weeks. The next couple of weeks are for finding places for the stuff still in the storage locker. We will also let go of some of the stuff from the storage locker. Before we moved I got rid of some things but kept others “just in case”! So now comes the final cull!

    Hank

    Meet Hank, my new induction stove. He is not really dressed fully yet – his backsplash is being installed tomorrow. But he is still looking pretty jaunty.

    Hank is a thrifty guy. Uses less power, almost 50% less than a regular stove and cooks faster. Simply because the heat transfer is instant. The old stove that came with the house was on its last legs. It had an old glass top, which I hate. The heat cycling always made it hard to control the cooking process. Induction stoves give you much more control, almost as good as gas. Some chefs think that they are better. They certainly are safer for people and the environment.

    Now Hank is also a pretty fancy fella. Turns out that he requires his partner to invest heavily into all the modern doo-dads! Like pots, magnetic pots, induction requires pots that will conduct electricity. Now, in my working theory, stainless steel pots are magnetic and nearly every one of my pots was stainless steel. Hank and I would get along just great. Or so I thought. That was right up until the moment I started cooking!

    My base supposition was incorrect. Turns out old stainless steel pots were not magnetic! They need a carbon core to become magnetic!

    So, Saturday evening I am planning to cook a meal on my new stove! I didn’t check the pots. I just filled and placed on the stove and waited for the magic to happen! There was no magic! There was no heat! This new relationship was going nowhere!

    So I found a magnet and proceeded to test every one of my pots and my favourite roaster. Nothing, nada, they were all duds. Thirty years of collecting pots down the drain.

    And I mean collecting. Do you remember when Paderno pots first came on the market. They ran sales with “try me” pots. I couldn’t afford the sets, or the regularly priced pots. I was a single mum on a very limited income, but I watched for those sales. I collected every “try me” pot there was and occasionally even bought a full priced pot!

    So back to Hank and the Saturday night supper. So here it was. Six pm and nothing was happening in the kitchen. Talk about a fraught moment!

    I was thinking I needed to start a new collection. Buy pots one at a time, just like the early days. My real beau, my husband was having none of that! He said lets go and get a new set of pots, a whole set, all at once. Live a little, he said. So off we went and bought a full set of induction ready pots!

    Once we got home we washed what we needed and proceeded to start again!

    Hank came through. There was magic! The water boiled within minutes, the fry pan heated almost as fast and everything proceeded as it was supposed.

    Sunday I went and bought a new roaster. It was actually a large au gratin pan, made by Hestan. However, it looked like my old open roaster. And it could go from oven to stove top, which was necessary if I wanted to make gravy. Which I almost always do.

    Hank, is all dressed up with the new backsplash. It is Danish porcelain that was on sale at City Tile. Beautiful patterns and sheen.

    My old pots owed me nothing. We have already taken them off to find a new home. They held a lot of memories. We cooked big family meals with them. We shared food with friends around the table for high days and holidays and everything came from those pots.

    I really do have a thing about pots. A while ago I wrote about my grandmothers pots. These pots will not work with this stove because they are made from cast aluminum. However, the turkey roaster will still roast in the oven. The birds are the best when roasted in that roaster! And memories will still be made.

    I did keep my turkey roaster. Nothing could replace that.

    Hank, the new pots, and I are going to team up. We will create more memorial moments using the new pots and old recipes!

    Happy Cooking

    Lynette

    PS. for real! Next month’s square is almost done. If you want to add the beads you will need a few extra supplies. A 1.0mm crochet hook and 24 size 6/0 beads. Mine are clear mirrored glass. They sort of look like raindrops!

  • My Grandmothers Pots

    I have a few of my Grandmothers pots. They are Guardian Service Ware. She had bought them from a travelling salesman in the early 40’s. They were very expensive then and very well made. They are very heavy cast aluminum with glass lids. Originally they had heavy metal lids as well but they switched to glass during the second world war.

    I think my Grandmother bought them over a period of a few years. She had the most amazing collection of these pots. From serving ware, trays and coffee pots to every cooking pot and skillet you could think, in every size.

    The Guardian Ware pots and pieces were/are very heavy, made from thick cast aluminum and with pieces that could multitask. For example the big Stock pot, a 12 quart, kettle oven, canner, stock pot. that will take a large turkey and turn it into stock, also came with stacking racks to cook up to two pies and and canning insert! It did it all! My father took it camping once and made biscuits in it on the fire.

    My father bought them off of my Grandmother in the early 1970’s. We grew up with food cooked in those pots. As my father got older and cooked less often he started to pass the pots along – quite a few to me. I have the big stock pot that I am using plus a few other pieces. My two roasters have the metal lids. One is a turkey roaster that will hold up to a 22 lb turkey! It is perfect. The heavy metal lid holds in the moisture and cooks the turkey faster! My brother has a few pieces as well. They are amazing.

    I mostly use the big stock pot for turkey stock. These pots are not recommended for anything tomato based. The acid in the tomatoes leaches aluminum from the pot. Not good for us. (My mum her spagetti sauce in those pots, before we knew about the aluminum! That might explain a few things) The only physical drawback the pots have is the lids. Those glass lids are heavy and can take a little beating but they are glass. They are hard to replace.

    My favourite pots in the set when I was younger were the triangularly shaped pots. They usually only came out when we had company. A big trivet, designed to be used with the pots, was set over the largest burner and then the three pots were set on the trivet and they cooked three vegetable at once! My father still had the set 25 years ago. He used it at Christmas. But we can’t find it now. My brother has looked through all of the boxes. I keep hoping that there still is a box that he hasn’t checked.

    The Guardian Ware pots are over 80 years old and are still used and collected today! Sometimes old is better, great pots can last and be heirloom items. Of all the things our family gave us, to my brothers and I, these pots hold the most memories and are the most coveted!

    You can find pieces on Ebay and Etsy and there is also a collectors site to look for pieces that you may be missing! I recently saw a gravy boat available for sale! it was tempting.

    Happy Cooking!

    Lynette

  • Cranberry Sauce anyone?

    Cranberry Sauce anyone?

    This upcoming weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and we celebrate it in our home with family and friends and of course, Turkey and all the trimmings. I am getting a bit of a head start today by making the Cranberry Sauce.

    I make a big batch because I always need to send some home with a couple of the guests. The recipe is very easy to half if you only need a small batch. This one makes about 8 cups of sauce.

    • 8 cups of cranberries – the local Yellowpoint Cranberries are fabulous
    • zest of 2 oranges
    • 1 and 1/2 cups of water
    • juice of 2 oranges
    • 2 cups of sugar

    Throw it all into a large pot and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10 – 12 minutes. I like lumpy sauce – lots of cranberry chunks so if you like it a little smoother, cook a little longer.

    Once the pot is off the stove, add 3 tablespoons of Grand Marnier or Triple Sec. Stir into the sauce and then pour into bottles. You can seal them if you like. I usually just pop them into the back of the fridge once they are cooled.

    The house smells so good as the sauce cooks.

    Such a lovely colour.

    One of the things I love about this recipe is the colour of the berries mixed with the colour of the peel as it is cooking! It reminds me of one of my favourite Handmaiden colourways – Sangria. The header above is a photo of yarn from Handmaiden dyed with Sangria. Even when I cook I am thinking about yarn! LOL!

    Happy Day!

    Lynette

  • A New Sweater for Me – Maybe?!

    A New Sweater for Me – Maybe?!

    Ok, it really isn’t new. I started it eight years ago and have picked it up and put it down so many times as I have gotten distracted by other knitting projects – nothing is better than that next project sometimes.

    It was pointed out to me on Friday, as I reviewed my 5 + started sweaters for myself, that if I just gave myself a little push I could have a new sweater in a couple of weeks. A sweater perfect for this weather and something that would actually co-ordinate with my current wardrobe of slacks.

    Well the straight black sweater wasn’t ever going to happen. I need to rip that one back! Why did I ever even start? Well – what goes better with a wardrobe of hand knit colourful shawls than a basic black sweater? I really should knit myself one, just a plain one, one that would be a great backdrop for anything. In DK. Well between boredom and possible blindness I gave that one up. And it is staying that way.

    The cabled and lace Aran Riding Jacket is just a little too complicated for right now and even on the larger needles will take a fair bit of knitting. I am knitting it with some 35 year old Sunbeam Bainin, a traditional lanolin infused Irish wool.

    The fingering weight bohus yoke sweater in Solje is gorgeous and is supposed to be my travelling project as I am on the absolutely plain body. Who knew that travelling was suddenly not an option!

    The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.

    Robbie Burns

    Seems appropriate for our times.

    Well, the 4th sweater option I just can’t find. It would be perfect! A boxy, short, big fat cabled sweater knit in Prairie Wool on 10mm needles. It is currently lost in my stash and I am not willing to do the deep dive it requires. Which just leaves me with one option…. The Cathedral Sweater.

    It was started 8 years ago when this absolutely gorgeous hand-dyed dk weight merino from Madeline Tosh came into the store! I bought it all and started the sweater right away. It was going to be a top-down raglan with easy lace details. I really loved it! And then…. it got put down. I picked it up again a couple of years ago and really got into the body of sweater, it was going to be an A-line shape with a bit of swish, and down it went again….

    I knit for about 4 hours on it yesterday and this morning and added almost 3 inches to the length of the body! Only 5 or 6 inches left. That is motivation enough to keep me knitting. Then the sleeves. They will be fast! Lets see how fast this sweater will finish.

    I seem to be into fast knitting right now. I just finished a cowl and hat combo. Started Thursday evening and finished Saturday morning. Textured Bricks, I love the deep cushy feel of the yarn and slip stitch patterning. The yarn is Slubby Mix by Fleece Artist, in the Boreal and Earth colourways. I added this pattern to the 7 Hats More ebook as well.

    Today is a cooking day. I really do love to cook and some Sundays just seem to lend themselves to the task.

    I made whole grain waffles for breakfast and a Wacky Cake is already cooling on the counter. The recipe that I linked is pretty close to mine I think. I didn’t realize that there were so many versions! It was our family favourite when we were growing up! It was also perfect for my grandson as he was born with egg and dairy allergies, which he is growing out of now. But for a while it was the only cake I could make for him!

    I think that I will make Spanakopita (recipe from Greek with Gusto) to go with supper – finger foods in front of the TV! The Football playoffs have started and my husband is a big fan! And it gives me the excuse to cook something a little different!

    And of course I will be knitting on my sweater and winding yarn for a new project. A fair-isle vest in the Bio Shetland! I have brought home 12 different colours so far to play with – though there is this turquoise that I haven’t brought home yet! LOL!

    The Bio Shetland is the yarn I have been working my new shawl with, it works into lovely stitches, with crisp pattern definition. The first half of the shawl is resting while I contemplate my next move. There are two ways I can work the center, not sure which one I want to use yet.

    I will start with a hat to play with the colours and see what works and what doesn’t. This will be the biggest fair-isle project/pattern that I have attempted to date. I am not much of a garment designer, that requires a lot more patience and sizing expertise than I usually practise. But this year is going to be a year of trying new things I think, expanding on what I already do and just trying new variations.

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

    PS – while looking for my partly finished sweaters I found a another purple sweater, also half done and a great many of my stitch markers!