Chocolates over Martha

So when I started the blog I was waiting to get a job. It was a period of down time where I had time to make the chicken stock that takes about two days. At the end of February I got a job. My hours vary from evening to midnight and is on any day of the week. These hours made it hard to have set days to do the cooking. When I do a midnight shift I don't want to do anything but sleep when I get back. I call those cooking days "guess it is cold cuts tonight!"

I also forgot which email I used for the blog and the password so I have been a horrible StepfordCTWife! My husband blogs as well and it was saved on his blog about fishing and hunting. But maybe I am not such a bad Stepford CT wife? I have been saving money aggressively with my husband for my Ugly Galley Kitchen transformation into a swan. I will blog about that in yet another blog.


So what has happened since the last post? I have been trying to lose some pounds I gained in nursing school (the pounds stayed on with a lot of friends and I left program because it was not going to happen even if Saint Florence Nightingale took the final exams/clincials for me). I have been running a lot of miles on the elliptical. I work out with a trainer who went to/ and left nursing school the same semester I did. I am using Weight Watchers Online tools to track my progress.


I am still not blonde. I am still not thin. I am still not a WASP (but I am married to half of one). I still kind of do not know how to cook. I still want to be a better cook and a better wife. But it has been so hot this summer. Standing over a stove for those soups or even turning on the stove for periods longer than an hour have been out of the question. So I have been doing quick and easy recipes and being creative with items in the freezer and "pantry."


But I have been happy the last two weeks my husband has switched to evening shifts and I have luckily been assigned to evening shifts as well lately.


Now it is August. It is almost my second year anniversary. Yes it is August and I have been actually reading another book. Don't make fun of me! It is too hot to do soups and eggs right now! Also Martha is a hand full! She is not actually good for beginning home chefs because


1.) The meals are costly to make and sometimes I do not know what she wants me to get. She has different words for them and I get confused if it is the correct item. Aso a lot of the products you have to travel across the world or find a speciality store that is not anywhere near me! You do not even know what it looks like so you try to subsittute the best you can which could be deadly.


2.) The soups that I made required fresh stock and that takes a lot of work more than half of a day (plus overnight refrigeration) and then they expire within two days. You are in a slippery slope of a hungry husband saying "that smells good when is it going to be done?" times one billion. Then you have to say "It will be done in 38 hours!" That is not a good Stepford Wife answer. With Martha's book you pretty much spend a whole weekend making a start of a meal. Then you are just having naked stocks or it goes bad quickly before you can use it. It is hard to do all that work and be tired without the final product done within 3 hours or even 15 hours!


3). They are written in a language that is not for new Chefs. What did she just say? What is that? Google does not even have the answer!



But I still have to salute Martha with my William Sonoma oven gloves because the soups that I made were fantastic. My husband is requesting them for the fall and winter. If you have the time and you have a special event coming up it will be a great star. The French Onion soup I made came out so well even with the searing burn marks I recieved. But I learned to wear long Oven gloves and I am thinking about maybe later on investing in a chef jacket to prevent more burn marks.


I am reading "Chocolates and Confections" by Peter Greweling. I am learning a lot about tempering chocolate which I NEVER knew how to do. You know you cannot just take chocolate chips and then dip pretzels or fruit. So there was a reason my chocolate covering skills were so bad it was because of a couple of things. Okay a lot!


1.) You don't use chocolate chips for dipping items. This is rule #1. You use either Chocolate pistoles or really good quality chocolate that is chopped into 1/2 inch pieces so that it melts better and uniformly. Peter that explains so much!

2.) You need to Temper chocolate before you dip items.

3.) I learned what Tempering chocolate actually means (I did not even know there were things besides melting it then getting it somehow on items you want to dip). Tempering: stabilization of chocolate through regulating the temperature of the chocolate between melting and cooling the chocolate. The result is that the chocolate reaches the correct temperature to ensure that sets firm and be shiny at room temperature (www.nestle.co.nz/Brands/Baking/AdviceCentre/Glossary.htm).

4.) Peter's explanation of the technique of Tempering chocolate with the seeding technique is featured on page 38-39 of the book. He has a great chart that makes it more scientific and easier to learn for visual learners.

A.) You only melt 75% of the chocolate at the proper temperature (120 F for dark chocolate and 110 F for white or milk chocolate). So you don't just heat up everything and then dump it on the item you want to dip.

B.) Remove from heat then add the other 25% of the chocolate.

C.) Stir for 10-15 minutes until the chocolate reaches 85 F for dark chocolate and 83F for white or milk chocolate (this is a reason they have confectionery thermometers).

D.) Then you use the back of a spoon to test if the chocolate set properly. Peter gives advice on what do if the chocolate does not set properly. On p. 41 shows pictures showing clearly when chocolate is tempered incorrectly and when it is set correctly.

So I pretty much was just burning the chocolate and then making "chocolate bark" (aka throwing stuff in the melted chocolate and let it cool) but it was just tasting good but not really looking right. Well it looked okay to me but now looking back it was not looking the way it should. My mom told me that you just melt the chocolate and add this Hebrew wax to make it shinny! Apparently it is edible and you only use a little bit. I hope it was edible. I hope never to have to use it! I could not cover anything in chocolate except for my kitchen and not what I wanted to be covered.

Also did you know that you should not refrigerate chocolate. Do you know where I was keeping my chocolate--in the fridge. Also you should not cover items like cereal or that would absorb a lot of water from the air. Fresh fruit is not the best to cover unless you plan to eat it the day that you make it. So starting off with candied or dried fruit is better. I have been doing everything wrong. So I am reading this book from cover to cover to learn from it like a science text book. Then I plan to then attack the basics then move onto the recipes. I am excited. Also Summer is not the best time to do chocolate because it does not set as well. So I guess if you are doing great chocolate work in the summer you can do it anytime? Or maybe you have a well regulated room temperature.

So apologizes to all the readers (which might just be my mom) but I do hope to continue to learn how to cook and bake along with becoming a better Stepford, CT wife.

French Onion Soup Lesson 1.32

 I have been lazy with my Martha Stewart Cooking school since I made my onion soup. It took a lot out of me and then I had crazy hard time with my personal trainer where I was in pain from squats for three days! Sitting down even hurt! Then this past Monday I made for the first time for a good close friend's mother E (I have adopted her as one of my other moms) some gluten-free and sugar free blueberry muffins. I used some honey that I got from my friend L who has a bee hive in her backyard and used it instead of sugar. I also recently made a head of time a lot of cookie dough for a cookie making party that I had over the past weekend. We made a lot of cookies in a short amount of time!


  My husband thought that he was not going to like this soup and it took a really long time! But he loved it and requested that I make it again for him. It probably was the fact that it was basically a veal soup with onions (too much for him but maybe less next time), a little bit of wine, croutons with butter ( a rare thing in this house) and lots and lots of cheese. If I gave him a wedge of bacon he pretty much be in Heaven!


 My burn are healing now but still I think it is going to be a scar. I have learned a good lesson to always wear an oven glove even if I do not think that I need one. I thought the tongs would be long enough and nothing would happen. Well I guess that proves I have been near an oven and was not so good at multi-tasking!


 The onions for me never really turned brown maybe it was the type of onion that I was using-- white onion? I cooked them for the fifteen minutes until they became clear and then a whole hour instead of the forty-five minutes because they did not seem to brown. It took me two hours plus to make the onion soup but Jon loved it and my brother Andrew (who is never interested in my cooking) is starting to think he might like to try it again!

 I will not be doing the fish fumet unless my husband catches a fish because my local supermarkets (I do not know of a local butcher, etc) does not sell fish bones. I am not sure if they sell fish bones without the fish in it? I might save this for the summer either way we were going to use the fumet for a clam sauce so... I also could not find Kombu or Bonito flakes at my supermarket so I cannot make Dashi soon. But my next soup will use a vegetable stock (it only takes like an hour! finally!) and then make a nice Minestrone soup. My husband is actually quite excited about this soup. I have to soak the beans for 8 to 12 hours in a large bowl with two inches of water above it so I better start on that tonight and do the vegetable stock tomorrow...

Basic Brown Stock Lesson 1.3

The original plan was to make the French Onion soup at my parent's house since my father adores it-- as does my brother Andrew. But my dad did not "want to have to smell the broth being made" which is very odd but to each their own... Here at my condo I thought it smelled rather good. In fact my poor husband, came home and was so excited he thought he was getting a roast (soon dear, soon let me get past soups).

So the family refusal was the cause of the delay of the brown stock until this past week. The Stock takes about 10 hours to make and it needs to be refrigerated for 8 hours before use. So either get up early or be prepared to be up late! I started this Brown Stock on Tuesday around 4 pm and on Wednesday I made the French Onion soup. When I now see the word "Stock" I should see it to mean as a "investment in time." My friend and College Roommate got it right to paraphrase "Martha has a lot of extra step, she does not make it easy but her recipes always taste good!"

I had an issue finding the veal bones because of the fact that I do not have a local butcher. I went to Stop and Shop and they are not very helpful in the meat department (in the cheese department the woman that helped me was Divine!). I got two pounds of veal Osso Buca which was mostly bone and two pounds of Oxtail which was actually Beef tail. These items and a lot of the veal and lamb was in the wrong parts of the meat department which only helped my confusion. Osso Buca was actually really expensive $12 for two pieces in a package as I learned via the web it means "hollow bone." I wonder if that was actually what I was supposed to get but I am not sure. I just tried to "fake it until I made it" when I picked up the Osso Buca.

I also decided to buy the pre-cut/ in water carrots and celery (since I knew it was going to be a long night-- but I did not know it was going to be that long) which helped cut down on waste. I bought a huge thing of carrots and celery for last soup only to see in the cookbook that I really only need like five pieces of both carrots and celery. I also buy them anyways because they are great to snack on-- you got to save in this economy when you buy $12 veal bones....

I got to try-out and use my onion goggles on Tuesday and they never left my eyes on Wednesday. They are not beautiful Dior sunglasses/glasses but they do the trick. But if I had on my new Shape-up Sketchers with the glasses then I could have looked more the part (and firmed my butt and thighs). Or at least I would have a guest spot on "what not to wear." But I did not cry and the onion goggles were comfortable for the amount of time I wore them.

Reminder out to people that it takes about 85 minutes to roast the bones. You are supposed to put the bones in for 45 minutes and then add in the vegetables. I did the reverse I added the vegetables in the beginning but burned myself on the roasting pan while I was trying to get them out of the pan. It was the part where you had to put the roasting pan on the stove top and heat it for 30 more seconds... I barely touched it but it is raw skin now. The stock still came out very well but I learned a lesson: always wear a pot holder even if you are using tongs or get a chef jacket. My forearm looks like a rebellious teenager's "revenge" and it hurts!

I was happy to know that you can deglaze a pan with just water and you do not need to also purchase red wine. I am not a drinker so getting the cognac and the Pinot Grigio (which is a white wine that I do like) was experience I had to get the Stop and Shop Wine Port (it is next to the Stop and Shop because Stop and Shop's licence will only allow them to sell beer) workers involved. I was able to purchase a really, really cute hotel size "nip" of cognac which still has enough I think for two thirds of round two of French Onion soup. I got those items when I found out on Monday during a bad rain storm/monsoon that my car battery that was just put in died. they were very kind in the store allowing me to use their phone and I pointed out where to get the cognac/dry white wines with price checks. Now I have a HUGE bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio.

Martha wants you to spoon off the fat but if you have to baby sit something for eight hours then have it in the fridge at least eight hours you can spoon it off the next day. And that is what I did and the next day I had a nice thick skin of fat.

Lesson 1.22 Tortilla Soup

I was able to use that chicken stock finally last night in Martha's Tortilla soup. I have to say that I am proud even though I had some stumbles and machine malfunctions. My high moments included being able to correctly and more quickly cut the chicken. I chopped/ peeled the yellow onion a little bit better. I was able to mince the red onion more efficiently and a little bit better/ the correct way. But my eyes started to water profusely and burn so the chopping proficiently stopped and I just settled for "rustic" cuts. I had to open the window, wash my face and take a break-- it was cold last night! I need those onion goggles and in the middle of this post I just bought a pair on ebay for $19.00, free shipping! In fact my house reeks of onions that I could smell with my bedroom door closed and gave me the weirdest dreams last night. Currently it is almost intoxicating on the verge of the making me sick. I also cooked the chicken better because I cut it into 10 pieces and I felt more in tune with the process. I still however need a meat thermometer to do it more accurately!

I learned last night how to correctly peel and mince garlic. One of them was a little bit stubborn and would not peel it's skin off. I also correctly rolled the lime before I used a hand-press juicer to juice the lime. I also cut correctly an avocado and chopped it more efficently.


I had to make a couple of adjustments to the recipe. I could not find the Pastilla chiles when I went shopping so I got three small green Chile peppers. In my small/ugly kitchen my oven does not have a broiler. I had to improvise by sauteing the tomatoes until they had burn marks on it. I also did not make my own Tortilla strips and I just crushed up Tostitos. I also did not include cabbage (which my husband hates!) or cotija cheese (or any cheese).

Mistakes I made: I used a flat griddle pan to saute the onions, garlic and the tomatoes without realizing that I would have to add the chile pepper water. You need to saute it in a skillet that has walls. Also I was not thinking that I would have to add the tomatoes to the onions/garlic and well that is not so smart either. My stove top is disgusting currently and I need to clean it!

My new blender leaks I do not know what I did wrong but I could not correctly puree half of the chile puree. The second time was the charm with the puree. So the chile puree did not come out perfect but it still was edible. I need to learn either how to use my blender OR I need a new blender. It could be both. Either way it seems like I am an idiot but if you were in my kitchen last night you would be sympathetic. The blender part would not come off and I had to unplug and pour with the WHOLE machine. Then after I did that and was done when return it the blender accessory easily fell on the floor to splatter the rest of the puree on the ground. I was a watery eye, puree splatter fool and I had to pull it together so my husband could eat before going onto his midnight shift. I am thinking of getting an immersion blender instead because I hate that blender! It has always leaked when I used it and I am an educated person. I am able to get my shoes tied in the morning, why can't I use this blender! I am going to go through that user manual and I am going to make it work!

 I have to admit that even though I read this recipe it seemed like it was not going to take that long but it took me two hours to make. My husband however thought it was worth the wait as he snacked on Tortilla chips and he likes it better than the chicken soup. I do not know how hot it would be with the other chile but Jon said the heat was just right for the soup.

Chicken Soup Lesson 1.2

  Finally my husband can eat one of the cooking projects. It is quicker to make chicken soup than to make the white chicken stock. I think that it does not make that much sense to go from making a white chicken stock to making something that does not include the white chicken stock. I am going to use the stock tomorrow for the Tortilla Chicken soup where the chicken is simmered in chicken stock instead of water. The Tortilla Chicken soup is different because in chicken soup the chicken is simmered in water.

  Part of the chicken soup lesson was how to cut a whole 3 to 4 pound chicken. This was the first time I ever cut a whole chicken in eight parts (or cut a chicken at all!). It is not as easy as it is described because your really are just cutting then ripping the bones out of the sockets when you cut the legs/wings. I used the kitchen shears to between the rib cage and the shoulder joints. I was very happy that I took anatomy while I was dissecting the chicken today. I think that with some more practice that next time (which is pretty much tomorrow) I will be able to cut the chicken faster and with less effort.

  First you start off by making the broth and also boiling the chicken. Pretty much it is the same technique as making the chicken stock except instead of chicken necks I used a whole chicken. I did not have a meat thermometer which put me at a disadvantage. The book said that it takes about seven to ten minutes for the breasts to cook and 10 to 15 minutes for legs and thighs to cook. Well... I cooked the chicken in the broth with the vegetables for 15 minutes. I then used tongs to take out the chicken and I put the chicken in the fridge for a couple of minutes. After the chicken cooled a bit I took off the skin and then I cut the chicken off of the bone. A couple parts of the chicken were still a bit raw. I put the chicken bones back in the stock and covered the chicken and put it back in the fridge.


  Originally my husband was not going to work tonight but he had to go in. But luck was on my side and I was able to get him to come home for dinner. It was so nice to be able to have him home for dinner! So this is where the chicken being a little raw was okay. After I put the bones in the stock with the vegetables I simmered it for 1 hour. I cut up the vegetables while I was waiting and did the dishes (I did a lot of dishes because I am also making plain beef broth for dog biscuits ). I decided not to put parsnip in the soup because my husband does not like parsnip and also I could not find it at Stop and Shop (I also got lost in Stop and Shop because it was not the one that I normally go to). Instead I took the recipe to the next level and personalized it for my husband. Martha talks about variation for different season and since tonight was cold I wanted to give Jon a good hot meal with his favorite vegetables. I added to the recipe (carrots, salt, celery and ground pepper) spinach and asparagus because he loves those vegetables. I also originally thought that it looked like there was not that much vegetables for the soup.


  Since I was done with the chicken stock at 3:45 pm and my Husband was not going to be home until 5:45 I decided to refrigerate the chicken stock after I strained it so that I could skim off more of the fat. I took out the chicken bones with my tongs and threw them out with the other vegetables in the broth.The recipe says to add the "garnish" vegetables and the chicken about 7- 10 minutes before serving it I decided that I would follow that rule. However I was going to add the chicken 20 minutes before Jon came home to make sure that the chicken was fully cooked. If you follow the recipe exactly you only cook the chicken to warm it up again but not in this case. I cut up pretty much all of the asparagus I had bought because I thought of the chicken stock volume when it was in with the bones not after the bones were removed and it was simmered. That is why I though there were not enough vegetables but there really were only three to four quarts. Well I had a lot of vegetables in the soup and the broth turned green. But it was very filling and it was still a soup. But next time I might not put as many vegetables in the soup. I also added instead of salt Parmesan cheese because my husband loves a little cheese in his soup.

  However it was ironic that I finished the soup with a lot of vegetables and Foodnetwork's Iron Chef Showdown (on PIX 11 not Foodnetwork for this poor Cablevision subscriber) secret ingrediant was anything from the White House's garden. It was ironic that I pretty much had a lot of vegetables in my meal and the vegetables were the main feature on Iron Chef. How vogue of me, only if I used a watermelon radish I would have been too Vogue-- even for Anna Wintour.

Lesson 1.1: How To Make White Chicken Stock

Pictures of Lesson 1.1: How to Make White Chicken Stock

I could not find assorted chicken parts except for the neck. I was kind of confused about where/how to get chicken parts (neck bones, wings and back). I talked to the butcher at Stop and Shop who helped me in a hurried manor. You can find chicken neck bones near the other cuts of chicken (at least at this Stop and Shop). The chicken neck bones are at the top of the shelves and are not at eye level -- which is not a surprise because they are gruesome. It took me twenty-five minutes to shop just for the stock and chicken soup today. It did not help that I was in a bigger and less organize Stop and Shop than I was used to--I burned 4 weight watcher points trying to find the leeks and doing the rest of my shopping! Yes, Leeks are not even used until further on in the chicken soup lessons.


 I had a lot of goodies in my cart today. I was proud that I had mostly good vegetables and "better-for-you-food" in my cart. I filled my cart with odd organ meats (to make homemade dog biscuits), five packages of chicken neck bones, five pounds of Beef bones, eight yellow onions, two red onion, five things of garlic, bundle of leeks, fresh spices, five pounds of carrots, two pounds of celery, fifteen pounds of flour, five pounds of wheat flour, five pounds of small things of tomato paste, five pounds of tomatoes, Oranges, lemons, limes and sugar cereals/ Pop-tarts for my husband (among other items).


  I pre-read the recipes a couple of times but not this morning. While I was making the chicken stock recipe I did not realize how long it would take to make the chicken stock. It takes a long time to make the chicken stock. It does not take too long to prep the food, then it takes two and half hours to boil/simmer the stock and then one has to strains the chicken stock. After the chicken stock is strained it has to go into a heat resistant bowl/container it has to cool. Then it is put into the fridge so that the fat of the stock and separate -- that takes 8 hours!!! So I was hoping to make chicken soup tonight for my hubby but I cannot. But that is okay because I started at 2:00 pm and it took me until 6:00 pm to finish. During the down times I washed dishes, had lunch, strained at least every fifteen minutes the pot and I also prepared for the chicken soup lesson 1.2. I was also kind of confuse when to add the vegetables so I boiled it for about thirty minutes first.


  For the chicken stock you cut the onions into eights but for the chicken soup you need to cut into cubes. I need to work cutting the onion and pulling off the skin. I was looking through the basics again and I obviously could cut the onions into eights but I messed up on cutting the onion into cubes. You should actually take the skin off of the onion (which I did but not swiftly) and then slice it lengthwise. But here is where I messed up because I went into my normal routine you are not suppose to cut all the way through. So one would cut the onion almost all the way horizontally repeatedly then it would easily fall into cubes when the chef cut it perpendicularly. I chopped it the hard way and not uniformly. But since I am actually not a real cooking school I can say that I just cut it rustically and move on. However I do plan to go back through the basics section and do it correctly!


  At first I was quite confused why I had to make a chicken stock when tomorrow when I make chicken soup I have to make the stock again. It does not explain in Martha's book how to just start off the chicken soup recipe using the chicken broth. But flipping through the book I saw Tortilla soup on page 47 which starts off using the white chicken sauce. Supposedly the Tortilla soup needs to start off with the chicken stock unlike the chicken soups which need to start off with water. I was thinking of trying to use the recipe starting off with the broth but I have to cut 4 lbs of a whole chicken, take it out then put it back in the soup. I want to be able to time it better. I also need to get a Meat Thermometer tomorrow! I did not realize that I would already need a meat thermometer, I thought I would need it when I would start roasting.


  To make the white beef stock it takes seven pounds of meat bones or four pounds meat bones and two pounds of oxtail or short ribs. You add in to the white chicken stock recipe (minus the chicken of course): four crushed garlic cloves, six sprigs of parsley, two basil leaves, two tablespoons peppercorn and four sprigs thyme. Then supposedly you have to simmer it for eight! hours-- simmer not put in a fridge! The you strain, skim off the fat and you store. I wish that I knew that because I bought (only) five pounds of different beef bones and I think they are only good for another day or two...


  I am tired! I think maybe the hour plus that I was food shopping with my mother-in-law in combination with act of dragging up two flights of stairs the heavy groceries by myself. But I got my weight watcher points burned and I am too tired to eat! I just want to watch "Miss Congeniality" on E! and not have to think/move

Getting my supplies for Cooking School

  I purchased most of the items that I did not have on the "Martha Stewart Cooking School essential list," online. These items are either on their way or have already arrive at my Stepford abode. For a Dutch oven I got a great deal on Ebay-- LeCreuset enameled cast iron 7 1/4 quart round French Oven in black  for only $220.00 and that includes shipping! That was one of my best deals on ebay for the cooking school because that french oven weights between 15-17 lbs and in store a 5 quart pot is $235.00 before taxes! I got another great deal on a Wusthof 8 piece 17 slot block knife set for $229.99 including shipping which is a savings of $70 of retail! I also got for a great price on Ebay: a pastry blender, 2 wooden spoons, Wusthof 5 inch boning knife, 2 small cutting boards for garlic/onions, Cuisinart 722-20NS stainless steel 8" non stick skillet, and four color coded larger cutting boards for produce, cooked meat, raw fish and raw meat.

  I purchased a 13" X 16" Classic Non Stick Roaster & Nonstick Rack at Macy's and got 3% cash back because I went through Ebates. I got also: Oxo candy thermometer, Pyrex prepware glass 4-cup measuring cup, Martha Stewart Asian Strainer (aka spider), one Microplane for Martha Stewart Zester, Cherry Spoon by Marth Stewart (which broke in transit/I need to return), Martha Stewart's 3 piece non-skid stainless bowls, and two Martha Stewart pastry brushes. I decided currently to not get another colander because I have a silicone strainer/colander that I got as a wedding gift that was made by the Martha Stewart line. I think it might be okay because in the book she was just against plastic strainers and perhaps down the road I might purchase a couple of Stainless steel colanders.

  For the Angel food cake pan, and the fluted tart pan my mom is kind of enough to allow me to have her old ones since she does not use them. I have looked through the book and I have decided to currently not get the mandoline because I can cut things by hand and I am kind of afraid of slicing off my hand with one of those things! I hear bad reviews for all of the different makes of mandolines and they all involve cutting his/her self in addition to the contraption breaking/rusting or not working part way through. I will just go back to the basics and learn how to cut by hand. Also I am not buying the citrus reamer because I have the hand held juicer which is more efficient. With the citrus reamer you have to ream the lemon/fruit over a strainer to collect the seeds. But with the hand held juicer you just cut the fruit in half and then squeeze the juice it has a built in strainer.

  If you shop at Chefs.com ebates gives 6% of your purchase back when you go through ebates. Chefs.com also had free shipping if you spent $99 so I got my: 6 inch Wusthof cleaver, biscuit cutters (4), decorating spatulas ( 6 inch straight, 9.75 offset, and 9.75 straight), and bench scrapper there. However I have a different shipping address than my billing address and they shipped it to my old address. I emailed them right away with an urgent stamp plus two others emails and they never got the email in time. Not until five days later did I get a phone call! So from experience even if it is 12 at night call the customer service line do not rely on email! Luckily I know the people at my old shipping address and they shipped only the really light items so the rest will be coming to my house.

   I still have some things left to buy. I need to purchase a: Meat Thermometer, Food Mill ( I think if I get one then I do not have to get a potato ricer?), Oven Thermometer, Cast iron 12 inch skillet, and I need to get the Wusthof's gourmet super slicer. So far I have spent about $900.00 on supplies and I have made an effort to save money but also get the best supplies that I could afford. The Le Creuset and the Wusthof knives take up about two thirds so far of the $900 I have spent. But I read the reviews of Martha Stewart's dutch oven and other dutch ovens that were pretty much close to the cost of the Le Creuset retail so I just went for better quality. The Martha Stewart dutch oven was on sale/cheap but people on Macy's complained that the paint chipped off. At Crate and Barrel the Mario Bello dutch oven was expensive and the reviews said that it was not easy to clean and paint also chipped off. Another reason I bought the Le Creuset is that I can get my cardio and weight lifting when I use the Le Creuset ( 15- 17 lbs of fun). I have to remember to bend with my knees and to not use the Le Creuset French oven above either 450 degrees or 500 degrees. Hopefully my oven shelves can support the weight of the Le Creuset!

  The reason I am willing to pay a lot for Wusthof knives is that I have always wanted the Wusthof knives and grew up using them in my parents house. My parents have had their wood handled Wusthof Knives since 1986 or so and they still are so sharp! The ones I got for my wedding they are rusted and already are dull/horrible. I know you can sharpen knives but I am so glad when I can get rid of those other knives!