2ND MAN HAS A NEW TOY

SO, a bit of backstory.  When we moved into the first apartment here in the building after we sold our house, it had a cooktop and a separate oven/micro combo.  The oven was convection, which is what we had at the house, 2nd Man loved baking with it.

When we moved to this 1 bed/1 bath unit a couple years later, it had a regular electric, glass top slide in range/oven, no convection.  A couple of years ago, we went to the model of this unit we are in now just to kill some time and see how it was decorated and noticed the range had a convection oven and an induction cooktop!  We asked about it and they said it was ordered by accident.  We asked if we could have it swapped with ours but someone was about to move into that model unit.  

Flash forward to when we signed our lease this last time, they asked if we needed anything in the unit.  We told them how we were big foodies and asked about having a new fridge and possibly a new range with convection oven.  We got a new fridge a few months ago and last weekend...

BEHOLD!

Our brand new range and not only did we get a CONVECTION OVEN, we also got it with an INDUCTION COOKTOP!

There are no knobs, it's all touch pad tech, so no cracks and crevices to food and splattered grease in.

When you touch them to turn on a burner, you move your finger along the scale to the desired temp. It also makes a really cool sound, ha.

There are five cooking areas with the one on the left having a bridge to make it one long griddle area.  Now this is not just a glass cooktop...it is induction, which some may not be familiar with.

There are three types of cooking surfaces...gas (flame)...electric (coil or glass top)...and induction (glass top or hidden).

Induction is incredible to cook with.  There is no direct heat, you can't get burned and heating begins instantly.  Using magnets, it heats the pan itself and doesn't transfer it from the surface to the pan.  Because the technology uses magnets, you must use cookware that works on it which is almost anything except aluminum or ceramic/glass.  A good way to test is to see if a magnet sticks to the bottom of your pan, if it does, it will work on induction.

The first thing we did was boil water, ha.  A little over 60 seconds to bring a pot of water to a boil.

The other cool thing (literally, ha) about induction is when you remove the pot from the surface, you can put your hand right on it.  There is no hot element that can burn you.  It's a very efficient means of cooking and doesn't heat up your kitchen.

We also have a convection oven once again.  The convection feature is selectable which is nice; for example, you don't need it for casseroles or covered dishes, you also don't want to use it for sensitive cakes/breads where moving air would affect their rise.  The convection works great for breads and regular cakes and makes unbelievable roasted meat and veggies.  The fan blowing hot air around is what helps that.  The racks also roll out and there is even a steam feature for cleaning!

We haven't even started to try out these features yet but it will also Air Fry, Warm, Proof (bread rising), and has preset selections for frozen items and baked goods.  

2nd Man has used a convection for a while since we had one at the house and one for a bit at the first apartment.  At the new house at the farm, he wants double convection ovens and since we won't have gas out there, we had already decided on induction.  It's efficient, doesn't use as much electricity as electric burners and doesn't heat up the kitchen.  Plus it's just so amazing to cook with.  Now, we'll get to become proficient at it by practicing, ha!

ELECTRIC SKILLET EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

So 2nd Man has a new favorite kitchen appliance...and it's something familiar...an electric skillet.

Curtis Stone electric skillet

This model is from Curtis Stone (the TV chef).  It came with a rack, a silicone divider and a glass lid.

Electric skillet plug

It's not even anything fancy with digital or LED, it just has the regular old school plug in piece with a rotating knob for keep warm, low, medium and high.

Pork chops and potatoes in electric skillet

Here is a recent meal he did.  Using the silicone divider which just slips in lets you cook two things at the same time.  In this case he just did pork chops on one side and some small potatoes on the other side.  Just salt and pepper seasoning and olive oil on one side and some butter to sauté on the potato side.

Cooking in an electric skillet

It comes out great!

Nice cook on both items.

Sautéing vegetables

He uses it for sautéing veggies when preparing larger dishes and needs a lot of them...

Steaming vegetables in electric skillet

...and for steaming broccoli, asparagus and other veggies when needed for that.

One pot meal in electric skillet

Even one-dish meals like this one with rice, lentils and chicken where it can all cook together at the same time, come out great every time.

It's easy to clean up and while you can put them on the counter anywhere, we just put it on top of the glass stovetop.  We have to smile when we get it out (and it is used very often) knowing that our Moms would be laughing as they said "um, yeah, we used those too..."

Hey, whatever works, right?

DUAL ZONE WINE FRIDGE

Dual zone wine refrigerator 

Here is what we got as our joint birthday present (which was in March, LOL).  The latest addition to the mudroom at the farm.  Since we leave the window unit air conditioner thermostats turned up very high when we are not there in the Summer, and we do enjoy our wine, we felt a special fridge was the best choice to keep the wine we have at a constant temperature.

We moved the water cooler into the kitchen, so that left a gap between the orchard rack and the mudroom shelving.  As you see in the photo above, it actually fit perfectly, literally without an inch to spare.

24 Bottle Dual Zone wine fridge doors closed

Above is what it looks like full, though I'm sure we'll be slower in filling ours up with our favorites.  We found this unit that holds 24 bottles, including large bottles on the bottom shelf.  The reason we liked this one best was because it is dual zone, meaning we can have 12 whites on one side, and 12 reds on the other.  Best of all, each side can be set to its own temperature.  It also has a unique feature that will come in handy next Winter; not only does it cool things down, it will also heat up when the ambient room temperature is colder than what you have the temperature set to.  The mudroom can get cold at night during the Winter so that feature will work perfectly.

24 Bottle Dual Zone wine fridge doors open

It has nice LED interior lighting and is EnergyStar rated.  It was, as I said, a splurge, but it's something we will definitely use.  If the heat and air conditioning at the farm were on as in a normal home, it might not be that necessary and we could just have a wine rack with some bottles in it.  But when the window unit thermostats are set at 83/84 degrees when we're not there, and then 45 degrees with the heaters in the Winter, a bottle of wine, even an inexpensive bottle, shouldn't be hovering at high temps and low temps and back to high temps because it can change the quality/taste.

One of our favorite things to do when we spend the night out there is to have a great dinner (of course) with some wine...and then we sit on the porch afterwards with another glass of wine and just 'listen' to the silence...

Recent dinner and wine

And we all know that a full tummy and a nice glass (or two) of wine just so happens to make for a wonderful night's sleep as well.

A FOOD DEHYDRATOR - PRESTO DEHYDRO DIGITAL

This is the latest acquisition (delivery delayed due to weather) for the farm!

Presto Dehydro Digital Food Dehydrator

I received a gift card at work for Christmas and we've been deciding what to get with it.  We didn't want to get just anything, like books or kitchen tools, we can always get those.  Instead, we wanted something that we've never had before and something that could help at the farm.  We started tossing around ideas and came to the conclusion that this would be a great choice.  With fresh produce from the garden this year, hopefully it will be the perfect addition.  We decided on this brand/model.  We like the timer feature and adjustable temp range.  I'm sure there are other fancier ones out there, but we want to start small, learn and work our way up to something bigger and badder, ha.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT ON AMAZON

We are excited to begin the process of learning to dehydrate things and preserving some of what we grow.  Any suggestions or 'must try' tips?  We have lots of great grocery stores and farmers markets in Houston with organic and/or fresh veggies, so we won't have to wait until we get our own produce to start.

More when it comes in, and of course our first adventures with it.  We got a message from UPS delivery saying that because of the icy weather somewhere, the delivery has been delayed.
Now we'll wait!

Update:  It came today after all!  Yay!  I've already sliced up some tomatoes I bought at a local farmers market and they are doing their thing.  I'll give you updates later and see how the first batch goes.

CEILING FAN DIRECTION WINTER SUMMER

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about getting some space heaters put in at the farm and how well they worked at warming up the room temperature.  I forgot to mention that we made sure to switch the ceiling fans around to run the other direction for "Winter".

Ceiling fan direction, image courtesy of Hansen Wholesale

I found the image at Hansen Wholesale where they have more information about the process and the science behind it that you can read about.

EDIT:  The direction is as you look up at the fan.  Easy way is to just turn it to low, wait for it to slow down and then just look up.  Doesn't matter where you stand, just look up and see if the blades are rotating clockwise or counterclockwise and adjust accordingly.

CLOCKWISE - Winter (warming effect)

COUNTER CLOCKWISE - Summer  (cooling effect)

It worked great.  When I got there, I realized the fans were still spinning counterclockwise which is the way they should be for Summer.  This pushes air down and blows it around you, making it feel cooler.  So I turned them off, waited for them to stop spinning and then flipped the switch.  I also followed the suggestion of turning them to the lowest speed in order to draw the air up and then push it down and out without giving you the wind chill effect that you actually want in the Summer heat.

As I said in the earlier post, the room warmed up quickly and I know the fan direction made a huge difference.  All you could feel was a gentle warmth circulating around the room which is definitely what you want in cold Winter.

Polar Vortex record low temperature map, image courtesy of NOAA Mesonet

With the record cold blast affecting most of the country right now, I figured if something might help us all be a bit more comfortable or make the heating more efficient, I'll post it.  I know I could never remember which way is the right way, so hey...flip your switch this Winter and maybe it will help to keep your house a little bit warmer!

And in the meantime...

EDIT:  Great suggestion from Galestorm, this would be a great time to clean your fan blades!  It is always amazing how quickly they can get dusty and, if you have pets, hairy!  If you forget, and the blades go the other direction, it will all blow off into the room and that's never a good thing, ha.

LET THERE BE WARMTH

Based on your suggestions when I asked about heating options for the farm, we made some purchases.  First, we decided on these oil filled radiator heaters.  We bought two for now.  I did my research and found that these by DeLonghi were the best reviewed.  

DeLonghi radiator heaters

The unique thing about this particular model are these unusual vertical thermal tunnels which allow more heat out into the room.

 

DeLonghi radiator heater with vertical thermal vents

And wow, did they work great!

We only took one out this weekend (in case I needed to send them back).  It was cold and damp on arrival.  The temperature in the house was 56 degrees.  Outside temp had been in the low 30's overnight and was about 44 degrees when we got there.  So the house does stay warmish even without heat.

Anyway, I put it in the bedroom (where we'd want to make sure it was warm when we stay overnight) turned it on and closed the curtain door I blogged about here.  In one hour it had warmed to 65 degrees.  When we got ready to leave, it had warmed to 70 degrees!  Holy cow!

Then we got one of these:

Beautyrest heated mattress pad

I debated between an electric blanket or the heated mattress pad but after some research, I found that the mattress pad was a much more efficient way of keeping you warm.  This is because heat radiates upward and around your body, whereas the electric blanket loses more than 50% of its heat because it's on top of you and that heat radiates up and away from where you want it, on your body.  Now we haven't slept on it yet but will soon and I'm sure a warm nights sleep will be wonderfully relaxing.

I'm going to look at the bubble wrap on the windows next.

Baby steps, right?

RETRO RED MICROWAVE FOR THE FARM

Nostalgia Electrics Red Microwave

Here is our microwave story; we haven't had one in years!

It's probably been 10 or more years without one.  We cook most food fresh so we just never needed one.  Coworkers and other friends would often ask "but how do you cook popcorn?" or "how do you melt butter?"  or "how do you thaw stuff from the freezer?" or "how do you cook potatoes?"  Well let's see, we cook popcorn on the stove top in a pot, takes a few minutes, we melt butter in a small saucepan, it takes a few minutes as well, we put stuff from the freezer in the fridge and let it thaw the night before, and we roast potatoes in the oven when we need to.  You'd be surprised how you can make do without one.

That being said however, as 2nd Man gets more and more into baking, there are times when a microwave could speed up the process.  We're fans of the Cooks Illustrated show "America's Test Kitchen" and a lot of their shortcuts often involve a microwave (to give things a head start).  There are even crafts I'd like to do that need microwaving (dried flowers, melting wax, etc).

Last week, we decided that if we could find the perfect microwave, we'd go ahead and get one.  So I was doing some online research and stumbled across the one above.  It is made by Nostalgia Electrics and is called the Retrowave.

While we didn't get ours from Amazon, here is the link to the same one on Amazon, complete with, at the time of this posting, free shipping.

Nostalgia Series Microwave.

Yep, it looks like it is sufficiently retro to fit in at the farm.  Pretty cool huh?

Vintage Swanson Ad

No frozen dinners are on our horizon because I am certain that they would NOT come close to our own home cooking, contrary to this vintage ad, ha.

For now, it's in town, so we can use it and experiment with it but it will eventually move right on out to the farm, where it's already got a spot waiting for it, the top of the fridge in the mudroom.

AIR CONDITIONING BUT WITH A GLITCH

Sears Kenmore 15,100 BTU Window Unit

Yay, we have cold air, but, alas, with an asterisk.

We bought two of them Friday night after work.  Since they were on sale at a great price, and were the largest BTU's you can get for 110V electrical, the timing was just perfect.  We got them loaded into the Jeep, took them out there, and carried the heavy monsters into the house.  The instructions, as I feared, left a little to be desired, but after about 2 1/2 hours, we had the first one in and turned on.  Wonderful cold air blowing into the room and it started cooling down the house, at least the front part of the house.

So we decided to go ahead and unpack and install the second one too.  Actually, 2nd Man voted for waiting until next weekend, but I said let's just do it, while we don't want to do it and get it over with.  You know, like when you just rip off a band aid.  So we did.  Second one only took about 30 minutes start to finish!  No, we are not available for hire, haha.  We turned it on as well, and there was even more cold air blowing.  It started cooling the back half of the house, and was awesome.  First time in years the house had been that cool,
well, on a 90+ degree day of course.
So we were enjoying it...until....

Blackout

With both of them turned on and running at the same time, they tripped the circuit breakers and everything went dark and quiet (not mention, warm).  I did some checking and it looks like the two outlets, even though they are in different rooms, are on the same circuit.  Unfortunately, we can't move them to different windows and the cord is only long enough to reach those outlets.

However, we can at least run one of them at a time with no problem, so it's not like it will be hot in the house.  Just need to call the electrician back out to do some more work (ugh, more $$).  Until then, we'll just cool the part we're in at the time.  There are a lot of home renovation projects I'll at least attempt to tackle, but electricity is something I don't want to mess with.  Sure I can put up a light fixture, change out a switch, or do something simple like that, but when it comes to circuits and rewiring, I'll leave that to the experts.  If I mess up the plumbing, I get wet.  If I don't lay the tile just right, it will just bug me every time I look at it.  If I paint something wrong, I can just paint over it.  But if I don't do the electricity just right, it could have serious, life altering consequences, LOL.

Anyway, we have them in, we know they work and we know they will completely cool down the house so this is but a mere hiccup in the road.  At least the next time I mow, I will have cold air when I come inside.

NEW KITCHENAID 7 QUART MIXER



Kitchenaid 7 quart Mixer in the box



2nd Man keeps asking me if I posted about his Christmas present yet.  So here is 2nd Man's sort of Christmas present.  I say sort of because we bought this before Christmas and he said he didn't need anything else for Christmas, after of course I had already Santa had delivered presents.

Unboxing the Mixer

It's a new Kitchenaid Mixer.  With two kitchens for the foreseeable future, the mixer is not one of those things we can easily move back and forth as we need it.  So we moved one of these, the older one we've had for years, out to the farm (you probably saw it in the recent kitchen pictures) and we bought this one.  It's a new version they have, it's commercial quality, and has a 7 quart bowl, with the largest motor they have ever made, 1.3 hp!  It's also the quietest one they have ever made, and trust me, as great a product it is, they've never been on the "quiet side".  They really changed it with this new one.  Running on high, you can't even hear it in other parts of the house.

Kitchenaid Mixers, Old and New

Here they are side by side (new one on the right), before they were separated, ha.  We decided to stick with white, it goes with most anything, and since we have new, white appliances out there, it was the best choice.

Me: "Wow, you sure got a nice early present"

Him: "It's for us, not just me"

Me: "How do you figure that?"

Him: "Because you get to eat the results that come from the mixer"

How can I argue with that logic?  It's absolutely true!  LOL!

Of course, still not to the point where he can go out there and cook and bake, on a regular basis, but that will be coming, soon.

And you'll have a front row seat (and recipes)!

APPLIANCES HAVE ARRIVED

 The appliances came!  The appliances came!

We finally have a refrigerator, and it fit perfectly in its new spot in the mudroom.  When we decided to get a refrigerator, we measured carefully to find one that fit the spot the space and this one was the best and as you can see, it's about as good as it could be.  Side note, don't you just love a brand new refrigerator?  All the potential, it's clean, it's empty, it's shiny and new, just waiting to be filled up with food, including the bounty of the garden!

Here is the new stove in its home.  The house is all electric so we had to get an electric range.  I'm sure 2nd Man will have a "electric burner learning curve" as we have a gas stove in the city.  The oven is electric at both places.  An electric oven allows for "convection" baking and that's what this one is, a convection oven.  He loves that aspect of it.

So now the appliances are in and we are excited, as we now have a means of storing food, keeping drinks cold (and having ICE for drinks), and, of course, cooking meals and baking some great things.

One more major step...

NEW KENMORE CONVECTION STOVE & REFRIGERATOR




Kenmore Electric Convection Stove

 

Well, this is the stove we decided on.  One requirement 2nd Man had was that the oven had to have a convection oven for his baking.  We were also limited by the fact there there is no gas out there, it's all electric.  This will be a big change for 2nd Man's cooking.  He's been used to gas all these years.  Most decent convection oven ranges are electric ovens with gas burners up top (dual fuel they call it) which is what we have at the city house.  But out there he will have to get used to electric.

Anyway, we knew a standard 30" range was all we had room for.  We also knew we wanted to go with Kenmore, just so we could have an easy to repair/parts readily available (in the country) appliance.  So our final decision was color.  Our kitchen in the city has stainless steel appliances.  I like that look.  I think it would be particularly well suited toward the farm as well.  But the kitchen wall where we are putting the stove at Seda Bolsa is a bit dark.  We are leaving it as is since it is original to the house.  Black was immediately off the list, that would be way too dark, a black appliance against a brown wall.  Then we looked at the stainless steel.  While very pretty, they all had black sides and/or black tops.  Again, probably just too dark.  Since everything is going to be white, the other walls, the cabinets, the ceilings...we figured that the best thing to do would be go with white.


Kenmore Refrigerator

 So last night, we went to Sears and put this stove and this matching white fridge on layaway.  Layaway for appliances is a great way to get them.  We have 12 weeks to get them out (though I'm sure they'll be out WAY before then) but it's still a nice way to to get the higher ticket items, and pay for them over time without resorting to credit.  It's hard to even find a store that will allow layaway anymore, much less putting appliances on it.

We might not have much furniture, but we'll be able to keep cold drinks, food, and cook when we're out there!  Baby steps, right?