Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: kitchen

  • 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!

  • Living and Knitting Through a Renovation: Kitchen Revamp Updates

    Living and Knitting Through a Renovation: Kitchen Revamp Updates

    Kitchen

    I have been living though a major renovation and the cold of the year over the last month. The cold, though as aspects of it linger, is finally moving on. The cough is the pits and surprises at the most annoying times.

    The renovation is now in its final stages, except for the Wool Room! Finding that the small room needed a new roof was a bit of a setback. The rest of the kitchen is coming together though.

    The main room has been painted. It currently looks like a store backroom. Everything is piled up and covered in drop cloth. You can see that the new flooring has been covered with heavy cardboard to protect it from all of the activity!

    Cabinets are being installed
    I found it interesting seeing how the uppers are being supported.
    We have countertops.
    And lighting, and appliances. The new dishwasher has been delayed and the new microwave needs to be installed!.

    Knitting

    The laundry room is finally back in action and I got to felting the Granny Blanket Swatch!

    My machine is newer stacking Samsung front loader and it did the job well. I threw the swatch in with a few small napkins. I dialed the heat up to the highest and added the detergent. It took a while – approx 2 hours but it worked beautifully. My swatch shrank at approximately 30 percent. It has become a lovely soft and cozy fabric. So the Estelle Eco Shetland Worsted is a great felting yarn.

    The center weave and seam felted well. You can’t see the weave or the seam as separate from the fabric. Each segment also shrank to the same size. Something I had been worried about. Sometimes the dyes can affect the felting of the yarn. But this turned out perfectly.

    Before Felting
    After Felting

    The swirl shrank from approx 37 inches to about 28 inches.

    Before Felting.
    After Felting.

    Next steps, decide how wide I want my blanket to be and start the knitting. I will also need to update the pattern download. You can expect the updated version to be available next weekend.

    I was originally gong to fold the swatch and turn it into a half circle pillow. But now…. maybe I should keep it a full circle. I love the effect!

    You can have a lot of fun with AI. I love this version of my original sketch. But I am thinking about changing…

    Of course I have kept on knitting, not as much as I normally would in this time frame. I was sick or recovering for much of that time.

    I am thinking a fall class and new sweater for myself.
    Two new projects, one for me and class and another a new baby/toddler pattern.

    Spring is Springing

    I have discovered that I have a Forsythia in the garden. it is small bush, but it wil grow.

    I didn’t know it last spring because we moved in too late to see the blooms. The bright yellow flowers add so much cheer to the grey surrounding us right now. These are so fabulous for Spring colour. I did not have any in my last garden. My neighbour had a huge bush so I got to enjoy it fully every Spring.

    I love watch the birds darting around right now. There are so many showing up, Robins, Sparrows, Finches, they are so much fun to watch! Everything is waking up.

    I hope that you have a great week! I know I will. The kitchen and main room should be fully finished. The main bath and laundry should be finished. And maybe the Wool Room started!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • 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