Add another person to the pressure-cooker phobic club:
My mom used a pressure cooker a lot in the days before microwave ovens. She never had one blow, but I was always leery of that hissing steam cap. It was always pretty tense until she diffused the thing.
Probably safer than microwave ovens, though. No radiation in pressure cookers.
I've produced any number of less than great meals, but my worst genuine disaster was leaving a forgotten boiling egg on the stove & going out. Hours later, on my return home, I walking into an absolutely stinking, smoked-out house (phew!), a red hot, ruined saucepan on the stove, plus exploded egg bits stuck all over the kitchen walls!
You wouldn't have thought that just one dried out, boiled egg could cause so much damage!
I find it odd that I'm afraid of them. I wasn't frightened by autoclaves (or anything else) in my old laboratory days. On the other hand, I'm quite the clumsy oaf.
I have had a couple of coffee grinder disasters... but those are nothing relative to wheat, etc. on the ceiling or egg bits on the walls.
unsolicited advice to bohne :
make the coffee over a campfire , the way we do it here in canada - and do it close to a lake or stream :wink:
hbg
oh , you are very welcome ! anytime !
Unsolicited advice is always welcome, I'm sure :wink:
Hey bohne, do you have a recipe for that apple pie? It sounds interesting.
My wife is the reason Farberware is still in business.
I make her scrape the disasters off the All-Clad though.
Yeah. My routine disasters are burnt pots. (I've no/little sense of smell, and always use timers. Almost always.........)
Quote:Yeah. My routine disasters are burnt pots.
mrs h has a couple of "wire" pot underlays that a friend made for her .
for any cooking where there is a chance of burning , she places one of them under the pot - we have an electric range ; don't know if it would work with gas .
it probably wastes some energy , but sure prevents burned pots .
so i guess it saves the energy in the cleanup .
hbg
I only do it about once a year ir two, but then it's a sad business of immersing the pot in a bigger pot of just boiled water with baking soda and letting it sit til cooled, and then using a not-scratching sponge to take stuff off and then doing it again if needed, and so on, all the time kicking myself.
I remember those metal screen things. Don't know if they'd work with my gas stove. Don't know if I'd be patient enough. When I do burn a pot, it's usually a long simmering soup, not a fast saute, etc. The long simmering soup simmers to death...
I have a couple of these...
Thanksgiving at my place, everyone coming over. I had just finished baking a Pumpkin pie and went to pull it out of the oven. I cheated that year and used the pre-made dough that comes lined in the ready to use aluminum pie dishes. I reached in with both gloved hands and picked it up out of the oven. I was making the turn to put it down on opposite counter when the cheap @$$ aluminum pan folded in half and spilled plasma pumpkin down my leg and on top of my bare foot.
Napalm could not have felt more intensely hot at that moment. The worst part is how it clung to my now vaporized skin. I had to wipe it off quickly but that just spread the burning mush around. I finally had to hop to my kitchen sink, hike my foot into it and run cold water. I couldn't wear socks or shoes for over a week in the middle of a New Jersey winter.
Oh, Aldistar, wow.
That reminds me of a friend having cheapo aluminum foil catch fire in her oven. Never happened to me, but that pie pan doing that and her aluminum foil are really dangerous.
Did you write the company or anything? Yikes!
Maybe those should be put on trays? Wonder if the label says so. (I use glass pie dishes...).
I grew up with the Queen of kitchen fires.
I vividly remember 3 or 4 big ones from early childhood...
Got a fire extinguisher next to the stove, but have so far disproved the apple and tree theory.
RH
I have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, but I don't think it's for a grease fire. Have a handy box of baking soda nearby.
Aldistar wrote:I have a couple of these...
Thanksgiving at my place, everyone coming over. I had just finished baking a Pumpkin pie and went to pull it out of the oven. I cheated that year and used the pre-made dough that comes lined in the ready to use aluminum pie dishes. I reached in with both gloved hands and picked it up out of the oven. I was making the turn to put it down on opposite counter when the cheap @$$ aluminum pan folded in half and spilled plasma pumpkin down my leg and on top of my bare foot.
Napalm could not have felt more intensely hot at that moment. The worst part is how it clung to my now vaporized skin. I had to wipe it off quickly but that just spread the burning mush around. I finally had to hop to my kitchen sink, hike my foot into it and run cold water. I couldn't wear socks or shoes for over a week in the middle of a New Jersey winter.
How awful! Those cheapo aluminum pans should be taken off the market. I think the ones that are supposed to hold a 20 lb turkey are the biggest joke. I quit using them because of the aluminum/Alzheimers connection but they were always flimsy, anyway.
So, are you turned off of pumpkin pie for good now? :wink:
@hamburger: good idea! Way to go for some coffee, though...
@swimpy: sure do:
*Base*
250g flour
125g sugar
1 egg
150g butter
1 1/2 ts baking powder
Mix, knead, cool for 30 mins
*Filling*
750ml cream or milk or a mixture of both (I use half each)
1 1/2 packets of vanilla custard (or whatever amount you need for 750ml)
125g sugar
3 ts vanilla sugar
3-4 sour-ish apples (like Boskop, if you know them)
Peel apples, core, and cut them in half.
put the dough into an oiled cake tin and make sure, you cover the sides, too.
Put the apples cut sides down onto the dough.
I usually get 7 halves into it, but if you have particularly small or large apples number may vary.
Put 500ml of the cream/milk to the boil, and mix the custard powder, sugar and vanilla sugar with the remaining 250ml.
Pour mixture into boiling milk and pour over apples immediately.
Bake on lowest rack for about 70 minutes (175°C).
Then cool for a few hours before serving.
(Don't open the Ring from the tin before pie has cooled, mine broke in half last time I tried.)
Variations:
apples can be filled with rum-raisins before pouring custard.
pie can be covered with a little cinnamon and sugar after baking.
I have heard some eat it while it is still warm, have not tried that, though!
Aldistar wrote:....I was making the turn to put it down on opposite counter when the cheap @$$ aluminum pan folded in half and spilled plasma pumpkin down my leg and on top of my bare foot.
Napalm could not have felt more intensely hot at that moment. The worst part is how it clung to my now vaporized skin. I had to wipe it off quickly but that just spread the burning mush around. I finally had to hop to my kitchen sink, hike my foot into it and run cold water. I couldn't wear socks or shoes for over a week in the middle of a New Jersey winter.
Awful, awful Aldistar! Aggghhhhhhhhhhhhh, agony!
Nice to see you here again, BTW. Seems like ages.
