As seen from rec.food.equipment, on
Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:52:41 -0400, "Ellen" > wrote:

>"Jeff" > wrote in message
>news
>>
>> What? With a shelf full of cookbooks? I thought that predictability was
>> the idea behind cooking by recipe.
>
>I know it's truly amazing how much dust the shelf full (or multiple shelves
>to be more exact) of books collects :-)

Now, how do you expect to look professional and impress your friends if
you're going to let your cookbooks get dusty? You've never seen a
lawyer let those (fake) law books that are always on floor-to-ceiling
shelves right behind the big desk get dusty, have you? You can't afford
to, either!

>> for soup. If you like potatoes, try dicing them up and putting them in
>> meat loaf in place of rice or bread crumbs. Killer good with the right
>> spices and such.
>
>Interesting, I'll have to try that.

Sauces (tomato or -?) and/or broth (chicken is nice) mixed in with the
ground meat give it flavor and keep it from drying out in the oven.
Eggs mixed in serve as a binder and produce a smoother texture, but
they won't absorb all the moisture from the sauces. The usual trick is
to put in rice or bread crumbs. On one occasion I was feeling
experimental, and put in some diced potatoes instead. They came out
light and fluffy, the meat kept them from drying out, and they absorbed
all that flavor. Mmmmmmmmmmm...

> Unfortunately I have this wretched thermadore stove (talk
>about a big mistake in stove purchases) and two of the burners are "normal"
>gas burners and the other two have this "turn on/turn off" feature for lower
>settings which took me about 2 days to learn to hate.

Is it one of those "burner with a brain" thingies that supposedly
senses the temperature of your cookware and adjusts itself accordingly?
I miss the old stoves (now sold as collectibles or antiques at premium
prices) that had a little burner in the center, with the main burner in
a ring around it. It heated more evenly when turned up, and could be
turned down to a very slow simmer with only the center burner going.

Sorry to hear about your disappointing stove. Along with a good set of
cookware, I think it's the most important appliance in the home. I had
better fortune with my Whirlpool. I had heard that KitchenAid/Whirlpool
(same company-- KitchenAid is the premium line) was the best, and was
fortunate enough to find a company "scratch and ding" outlet store. I
spent half a day there looking at stoves, but it was time well spent.
The one I got has a high output "power" burner, two regular ones, and a
small simmer burner. It turned out to be the right choice.

Jeff