toferburl’s Profile
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Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
Avoid anything endorsed by Rachael Ray, Emeril, Mawtha Stewart, Wolfgang Puck, etc. They aren't that great, they are over-exposed and have sold their souls. The best cooks I know chop by hand, use cast iron cookware, old carbon-knives (you know, the ones that rust and take a sharpening like you wouldn't believe) and usually have a French Canadian accent (I'm from Northern Vermont). However, that being said, 20 years ago I bought a Melita Coffee Roaster from an off-price outlet and love it. I can buy beans for less than $5/pound and get the exact roast I want, according to the variety of beans, their region and the taste I want. Too many commercial roasters over-roast their beans, destroying the subtle flavors they possess. The biggest offender is Starbucks, they scorch everything!
What's the Best Cheese for Cheeseburgers?
Four year-old Shelburne Farms (Vermont) Cheddar. Cabot is good, but Shelburne Farms is truly amazing. That, some freshly ground pepper and a touch of sea salt (I occasionally use smoked sea salt, yum).
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Your Clever SE Name
Well, my name is Christopher and I live in Burlington, Vermont, hence, toferburl. It's not particularly exciting, but it has worked for a few years. I may change it here though, I would like to add some pizazz to my persona and then post more often. Stay tuned folks!
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
Avoid anything endorsed by Rachael Ray, Emeril, Mawtha Stewart, Wolfgang Puck, etc. They aren't that great, they are over-exposed and have sold their souls. The best cooks I know chop by hand, use cast iron cookware, old carbon-knives (you know, the ones that rust and take a sharpening like you wouldn't believe) and usually have a French Canadian accent (I'm from Northern Vermont). However, that being said, 20 years ago I bought a Melita Coffee Roaster from an off-price outlet and love it. I can buy beans for less than $5/pound and get the exact roast I want, according to the variety of beans, their region and the taste I want. Too many commercial roasters over-roast their beans, destroying the subtle flavors they possess. The biggest offender is Starbucks, they scorch everything!
What's the Best Cheese for Cheeseburgers?
Four year-old Shelburne Farms (Vermont) Cheddar. Cabot is good, but Shelburne Farms is truly amazing. That, some freshly ground pepper and a touch of sea salt (I occasionally use smoked sea salt, yum).
What's the Best Cheese for Cheeseburgers?
It has to be French Doux de Montagne cheese. It says so here Pork cheeseburger with avocado :-)
Your Clever SE Name
Great thread - missed it on the 18th, so I'm glad it turned up in "recently commented on"
@toferburl: Hi there. I live in Essex.
my name comes from a river in Vermont named the Lemonfair. No one knows how it got its name, but I prefer one of the possibilities, that it comes from "les monts verts," since we're the Green Mountain state. So this is my little way of saying I'm a Vermonter.
Your Clever SE Name
I live in Portland and travel solely by bicycle.
Your Clever SE Name
Y'all have made me laugh so hard through this great thread!!!!! I feel close to each of you. Simply using my initials and birth month and date help to get me where I need to go in my "old" age. BABY BOOMERS ROCK!!!!!!!
Your Clever SE Name
I could have a really good time following up on all your names, like: @toferburl, is your last name Kimball? Does the name "Pavlov" ring a bell?
This is really fun. The non-food names are every bit as interesting as the food-related ones. I'm very, very glad I don't have to pick a winner.
So, on hindsight, I should've gone with the nickname my little cousins--twerpy boys--gave me when I was about 14. Every time we'd come to visit, they'd run around hollering, "Hide! The FBI is here!" Flat Bette Irene. Yup, that's me. Depending on their mood and creativity and their ages, I've been Fried, Furry, Fruity, Flatulent, Full, Faux (padded), Fiendish, Frisky, Fixed, Freaky, Funky, Finky, Fat, Foolish, Floppy, Frickin'--every F-word they could think of went in front of my name. I didn't think F-words were funny, but my cousins thought they were hilarious.
Tonight, I'm Famished Bette Irene, and that's not at all funny.
Your Clever SE Name
@livefreeordine--I have a house in NH too but I always thought it was "slip, freeze and die!"
@capcooks ...That January I lived in Philadelphia and was 10 days over my due date with my second child. I had never seen so much snow. Luckily, the cheesesteak place reopened right before I had to go to the hospital...I miss all the good Phila food.
Your Clever SE Name
In our house we love butter and when I cook I get butter on my fingers simple no-brainer. butter, porkfat/lard, olive oil they all rule any natural fat is in reality good for you in moderation and tastes great. what would pie crust be without butter or lard? Eggs if not fried in bacon fat then butter? A sauce stew or soup without that last pat of butter, splash of olive oil or even a dab of chickenfat, porkfat, lard or some full natural fat to finish it off? Go figure , it's a miracle ingredient ! It would be like a world without salt a dash is all it takes! I sure hope Emeril Lagassi only uses that much salt for showmanship or his food would taste only of salt. It is rediculous the amount he uses it's so disgusting, he ruins what was quality ingredients before he got to it there is no other justification for that much. Aren't there people starving in America much less the world that would give their lives to provide for their families what he renders inedible?
I could also have chosen butterbrain as I slip off topic so easily.
Your Clever SE Name
My business is Paumanok Preserves jams, jellies, condiments, et.al. My products are "well preserved, " and people tell me my age (70) doesn't show. I started using my "handle" a few years ago when I decided to put a vanity plate on my truck: WLPRESVD. The NYS limit of 8 letters/numbers is also my birth number, so it all works. I plan to retire at the end of this season, but won't have to change my signature.
Your Clever SE Name
When my oldest daughter was in High School her two best friends had Moms who were blonde and small like me and they used to call us the "Small Blonde Moms". Those were good times with great memories so I am proud to be "Smallblondemom".
Your Clever SE Name
Oops, I just realized that I referred to SE as Chow... and just to show my lack of creativity ...my name is the same on both.
Your Clever SE Name
It's not the most witty/clever name on here by any means... but mine is wine-related (and by the way, wine counts as food!); I admit that I'm a bit of a "wine geek" (studying to be a winemaker, in fact), and I've been especially fascinated for quite some time by what is happening on the wine-producing "scene" in South Africa. In South Africa, the Chenin Blanc grape (and by extension, the wines made from this grape) is often called "Steen".
It's a short name, easy to remember, and references my love for wine (and I knew that quite a few people here on SE would "get" the wine reference)... so it became my name here on SE. (Although I could easily have gone with "LovesEveryTypeOfWinterSquash" or "GiveMeAllOfYourHoneycrispApplesRIGHTNOW"... but those definitely lack poetry as names!)
Your Clever SE Name
I had a terrible time trying to think of who my nom de Chow should be so I went with the obvious. I'm from WI and I'm a woman.
Your Clever SE Name
I christened myself "chiffonade" way back in the mid-90's in the days of yahoo chat. How do you pick a name? I define myself by the fact that I cook. Given I really identify with my name, it's my name on nearly every site I visit. When I joined Facebook, I had to include "chiffonade" as my middle name or 90% of my online community friends wouldn't have known how to find me.
I'm "therealchiffonade" because someone came to SE and posted "as" me. Luckily, the staff at SE quickly contacted me to confirm it was an impostor, I joined the site as "therealchiffonade" and stayed.
Your Clever SE Name
Well, I'm a chef who wants a TV show. My handle comes from my website (WannabeTVchef.com) which contains clips of my food writing, TV appearances and other culinary personality stuff.
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
A voice from the UK; I used to have a toastie maker. £9 from Woolworth's (sob...good bye, Woolworths). A clamshell design; you put the assembled sandwich in, closed the lid and waited for it to burn. The sandwich would come out dry and overdone with a thick layer of cheese-based magma in the middle. BUT...the thing also crimped the edges of the sandwich, building up burning cheese magma pressure. You bite into it and your lips and tongue need triage immediately.
Cheese, fresh tomato, bread, a bit of bacon or ham, and a good skillet full of butter. That's what you need. A toastie maker? Not so much.
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
@sandy O...i love my easy bake. still using the same bulb. the kids think i'm the coolest aunt. i use it at least once a month. my sister thought i would regret it. but she now enjoys cake right along with us. lol
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
@RegrettableFoodie--you are a hero.
I almost forgot--one of my friends has a wedge-shaped container for storing leftover pizza. It holds--drumroll please--one slice. Um, I can store, like, 4 or 5 in a Ziploc bag. If there are leftovers.
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
When I am in a bookstore and notice Sandra Lee "cook" books, I hide them. Sometimes it's tricky, especially if they're on an endcap. But really, all of you who love food should do the same thing to protect your fellow humans from buying them because they think they're somehow real cookbooks.
I'm trying to think if I have anything weird or gadgety but I don't think I do. I had a garlic press but it turned a weird color so I threw it away and haven't replaced it. I don't think I have anything unitasker-ish. If I do, I've forgotten it.
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
OMG, I forgot about those Tater Mitts! They look so gross and diseased.
I know this isn't an appliance, but that commercial for the steamed potatoes bugs me. You are supposed to buy these pre-peeled, pre-cubed, pre-cooked(?) potatoes, stick 'em in the microwave, and mash 'em up with your potato masher. Are they serious? I wonder how much extra this little convenience costs. And really, how hard is it to peel some potatoes, cut, and boil?
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
About 10 years ago, my dad fell victim to a gadget called the Rotato. If you didn't watch late night informercials in the 1990's then you probably missed it. It's consists of a wedge that you shove into the bottom of the potato and a blade that fixes onto the potato and is operated by a handle on top. The basic idea is that the handle spins the potato and the blade moves up and down, creating a neat spiral of peel. What you actually get is a lot of teeny tiny potato peel shavings, several cut fingers, and a half-shaved potato that looks like it's been attacked by tiny elves with knives. Which is to say, it does not work. To my mother's horror, my dad ordered this thing from the infomercial for $55. Two weeks later we saw it at Walgreens for $15. To this day, 'Rotato' is shorthand in my house for 'unnecessary, overpriced purchase'.
Goofy kitchen appliances (please don't buy that for me!)
I have a museum's worth of as seen on tv items in my kitchen. I love my Ron Popeil Rotisserie.(my favorite thing to cook in it is a small turkey or turkey breast that I've brined over night, It's nofail super moist!) magic bullet(makes great smoothies for the grandkids-mine came with rings to screw on around the rims to make a smooth drinking surface but the kids love using straws),I also have and love using the gt Express 101( it's round and sliver, divided in two sections,I love to do baked poatoes in it) it comes with tons of recipes.some are kinda scary but many are really good. and can't imagine not having my West Bend Just for Dinner Bread Maker(it makes a small loaf big enough to serve 2-4 people a nice slice) it comes with great recipes too. I did once recieve the Popeil Pasta Maker-what a nightmare! Got the Super Salad Shooter a few Christmas' ago, it took longer to use than it took me to use a knife and clean up! I have a pasta pot and use it for pasta and boiling shrimp,I once got a set of Ginsu Knives, my favorite thing to do with them was to prune branches from my trees. I lived vicariously through my daughter when she was in the second grade Santa gave her an Easy Bake Oven that looked like a microwave and tons of mixes. I'd always wanted one but was never allowed to have my own! I'm seriously thinking of getting one with a supply of mixes for my grandkids so they never know the heart ache of never having one. I got the food dehydrater years ago, I made great apple chips with it and not so good jerky. The odor of the jerky drying is unforgettable, not nice at all! I got one of those things to do eggs in the microwave, it worked a miracle! It turned eggs into hard rubber!! I know there are other made for tv items I've been blessed with but am drawing a blank! Anyone's phyche can take only so much trauma before it shuts down. self preservation and all you know . . .
What's the Best Cheese for Cheeseburgers?
I put blue cheese crumbles, bacon, and diced red onion *in* my burger patties the last time I made burgers and they were heavenly...
What's the Best Cheese for Cheeseburgers?
I'll eat American, but I prefer almost everything else. I like strong tasting cheese like extra sharp cheddar, bleu and gorgonzola and one of my faves is smoked mozzarella. Other smoked cheeses are also tasty on burgers.
What's the Best Cheese for Cheeseburgers?
The closest thing to an In-N-Out Burger is at the new Great American Hamburger and Hot Dog Company in Great Barrington, MA. I think that it comes wrapped in wax paper is key.
http://www.ruralintelligence.com/index.php/food_section/food_articles_news/586/
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Well, my name is Christopher and I live in Burlington, Vermont, hence, toferburl. It's not particularly exciting, but it has worked for a few years. I may change it here though, I would like to add some pizazz to my persona and then post more often. Stay tuned folks!