Agree, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Wolfgang Puck soups. I think he actually had a hand in the recipe though, whereas he probably didn’t design this pressure cooker. Maybe he tested and liked it though? Not going to buy it regardless
I have an Emeril branded skillet I got from fuck-if-I-know, prolly a thrift store or something, that is by far the shittiest of the assorted metal-stove-top-cooky things that I own.
Like anything, it depends. Wolfgang Puck stuff is generally pretty good. Emeril or Rachel Ray stuff is always shit. Can’t imagine how bad a Todd English product would be!
@cocoabrioche i love my rachel ray stuff, but i’ve seen some terrible reviews on stuff like sheet pans & bakeware so i’ve not tried it. i have the enamel coated dutch oven as well as three frying pans and two pots though and they’re great. half of that stuff even survived our house fire several years ago.
generally, i feel it’s kind of a signifier that it’s crap, which is a shame. however i do like (and own, if that wasn’t implied) several of the rachel ray items.
i’m more likely to wait for someone like smitten kitchen to share what she uses simply because she likes it and/or someone asked and then i’ll add it to my amazon list.
i cook six days a week in a small kitchen though so i try to keep my kitchen ‘stuff’ to a minimum. a good skillet, a dutch oven, half sheet pan, decent knives and a few cutting boards, nesting bowls, glass measuring cup, spatulas, as well as an immersion blender and mini food processor are what i use 99% of the time. (and rarely all at once.)
@brhfl i have the cuisinart mini prep plus. just went and looked at it, the model number is DLC-2A. actually bought it on woot a few years ago.
i use it for all kinds of stuff - this past xmas i used it to make raspberry coconut macaroons and i also use it for frosting. but mostly i use it for marinades, as well as salsa, pesto, hummus, etc. also used to use it for smoothies all the time (frozen fruit, no ice) but since i’ve switched to overnight oats i haven’t made a smoothie in awhile.
two things to be aware of - if you’re adding liquid to whatever you’re grinding up, add very small amounts at a time otherwise it will spray liquid everywhere, heh. start off with no more than 1/4 of the bowl filled with liquid and then work up from there. the other thing, in case it isn’t obvious, is that it won’t get things 110% completely baby food smooth like i assume a vitamix or whatever other super fancy $$$ blender would.
but clearly i really like it - my immersion blender is a cuisinart too, and i use that for hot stuff because it’s just easier to be able to do it all in one batch while it’s still in the pot and not have to wait for it to cool. (soups, gravies, vegetable purees.) but mostly the mini processor is my go-to. i actually have a full size food processor with all kinds of different blades that i’ve yet to use!
@jerk_nugget Thanks for taking the time to write all of that out! I’ve had both that model and a comparably-sized KitchenAid on my Amazon list for a while now.
I have a commercial KitchenAid immersion blender that works very well, but is incredibly unwieldy compared to normal consumer-grade units. I’ve been considering selling that one and getting a Bamix, and if I did that I could always get the food processor attachment for the Bamix. So that’s part of the reason I haven’t pulled the plug on a dedicated food processor.
But ultimately, I don’t really make that many purées or super-smooth soups, and it may well be true that I don’t really need a blender at all, and a food processor alone would suffice. I have a tiny kitchen as well, so only tiny appliances are plausible… Good to hear the positive review.
@brhfl totally understand - while there are a few occasions a blender would be nice (i put something in a smoothie that i regret, texturally-speaking, or a couple times a year when i think about making a frozen cocktail) i really have no use for one. the processor & immersion blender cover almost everything, and blenders are just too expensive, clunky, and a pain for me to clean. if i had a huge kitchen and money to burn i’d probably get one, but hey
attachments are definitely something i wish i had looked into before i got my immersion blender. i was really bummed to find that mine doesn’t support other attachments and resulted in me buying a hand mixer that i use maybe 2-4x a year and solely for making whipped cream. (i found out the hard way that blades will not whip egg whites or cream…no matter how long you stand there waiting for it to happen, lol!)
@f00l They had the greatest mickey golf hat of which I have about 20 because everytime we brought the boy there I would invariably forget to bring a hat.
But I was going more in the direction of Julia Child and Jane Grigson and Elizabeth David and James Beard than towards hippie stuff. But hope stiff is fine.
A great cookbook is a great cookbook is a great cookbook.
Does that steak on the cover of Time-Life’s Foods Of The World: The Great West look all counterculture to you?
Here it looks a lot like Cattlemen’s Steakhouse. Or a thousand other places.
There is a Steakhouse here that serves 72 oz. steaks among other goodies. From the outside the place looks like a junk place. Looks ain’t everything.
By the way that Time-Life Foods Of The World series is killer good.
I know a lot if not most of those big tv-marketed book series from back then (where they mailed you one book a month) were nothing but junk.
But that series redeems the rest of them, the junk ones. It’s wonderful.
You can take my fav cookbooks out of my cold dead fingers after you take my life and my firearms.
We don’t get much good beef around here for normal people. There are a few butchers that sell good grass fed beef so you kinda have to do it your self or put up with O charlies. I only eat red meat about once a month since my 30s so I’m not a walking drug store yet. If you’re into such things on lazy days I’ve found that the shake and bake fried chicken at Cracker Barrel is good and of course the bowl of turnip greens that goes with it.
I don’t cook much either, I’ve become an open and dump cook lately.
I pay as much attention to their product endorsements as I do their political endorsements…none.
As a general rule, if something is celebrity endorsed, it is more often than not complete shit.
Agree, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Wolfgang Puck soups. I think he actually had a hand in the recipe though, whereas he probably didn’t design this pressure cooker. Maybe he tested and liked it though? Not going to buy it regardless
If I hear one of them screws up somehow, I hunt down their suddenly discounted products. That’s all I care about.
@simplersimon So you’ve got a lot of Paula Deen cookware, do ya?
@djslack it was like Christmas!
@djslack fun fact, one of the sharpest knifes i own is a Paula Dean Cleaver, only $5 new after the whole scandal
I have an Emeril branded skillet I got from fuck-if-I-know, prolly a thrift store or something, that is by far the shittiest of the assorted metal-stove-top-cooky things that I own.
Like anything, it depends. Wolfgang Puck stuff is generally pretty good. Emeril or Rachel Ray stuff is always shit. Can’t imagine how bad a Todd English product would be!
@cocoabrioche agree. I have Wolfgang Puck stainless cookware sine 2005 and it’s still in great condition. So a Puck endorsement is worth it
@cocoabrioche Do you suspect Wolfgang Puck has heard of this toaster oven?
I always imagine it’s more of a “How big is the check? And you say it definitely won’t burn down many houses.”
@cocoabrioche i love my rachel ray stuff, but i’ve seen some terrible reviews on stuff like sheet pans & bakeware so i’ve not tried it. i have the enamel coated dutch oven as well as three frying pans and two pots though and they’re great. half of that stuff even survived our house fire several years ago.
I don’t avoid them, but I don’t intend to pay a higher price for their name versus another brand with the same features.
Those Paula Deen diabetes syringes are a deal.
Celebrity endorsed cookware is often available in more fun colors than its mundane counterparts. That’s the only attraction for me.
generally, i feel it’s kind of a signifier that it’s crap, which is a shame. however i do like (and own, if that wasn’t implied) several of the rachel ray items.
i’m more likely to wait for someone like smitten kitchen to share what she uses simply because she likes it and/or someone asked and then i’ll add it to my amazon list.
i cook six days a week in a small kitchen though so i try to keep my kitchen ‘stuff’ to a minimum. a good skillet, a dutch oven, half sheet pan, decent knives and a few cutting boards, nesting bowls, glass measuring cup, spatulas, as well as an immersion blender and mini food processor are what i use 99% of the time. (and rarely all at once.)
@jerk_nugget Which mini food processor do you have? (I assume it’s serving you well or you’d no longer have it…)
@brhfl i have the cuisinart mini prep plus. just went and looked at it, the model number is DLC-2A. actually bought it on woot a few years ago.
i use it for all kinds of stuff - this past xmas i used it to make raspberry coconut macaroons and i also use it for frosting. but mostly i use it for marinades, as well as salsa, pesto, hummus, etc. also used to use it for smoothies all the time (frozen fruit, no ice) but since i’ve switched to overnight oats i haven’t made a smoothie in awhile.
two things to be aware of - if you’re adding liquid to whatever you’re grinding up, add very small amounts at a time otherwise it will spray liquid everywhere, heh. start off with no more than 1/4 of the bowl filled with liquid and then work up from there. the other thing, in case it isn’t obvious, is that it won’t get things 110% completely baby food smooth like i assume a vitamix or whatever other super fancy $$$ blender would.
but clearly i really like it - my immersion blender is a cuisinart too, and i use that for hot stuff because it’s just easier to be able to do it all in one batch while it’s still in the pot and not have to wait for it to cool. (soups, gravies, vegetable purees.) but mostly the mini processor is my go-to. i actually have a full size food processor with all kinds of different blades that i’ve yet to use!
@jerk_nugget Thanks for taking the time to write all of that out! I’ve had both that model and a comparably-sized KitchenAid on my Amazon list for a while now.
I have a commercial KitchenAid immersion blender that works very well, but is incredibly unwieldy compared to normal consumer-grade units. I’ve been considering selling that one and getting a Bamix, and if I did that I could always get the food processor attachment for the Bamix. So that’s part of the reason I haven’t pulled the plug on a dedicated food processor.
But ultimately, I don’t really make that many purées or super-smooth soups, and it may well be true that I don’t really need a blender at all, and a food processor alone would suffice. I have a tiny kitchen as well, so only tiny appliances are plausible… Good to hear the positive review.
@brhfl totally understand - while there are a few occasions a blender would be nice (i put something in a smoothie that i regret, texturally-speaking, or a couple times a year when i think about making a frozen cocktail) i really have no use for one. the processor & immersion blender cover almost everything, and blenders are just too expensive, clunky, and a pain for me to clean. if i had a huge kitchen and money to burn i’d probably get one, but hey
attachments are definitely something i wish i had looked into before i got my immersion blender. i was really bummed to find that mine doesn’t support other attachments and resulted in me buying a hand mixer that i use maybe 2-4x a year and solely for making whipped cream. (i found out the hard way that blades will not whip egg whites or cream…no matter how long you stand there waiting for it to happen, lol!)
In addition to celebrity endorsements being useless/worthless, perhaps sport franchises markings are even more ridiculous.
@likesowls
Except on coolers and gimme caps.
And whenever any object indicates that one has allegiance to, or is a fan of, UT-Austin or of TCU, that’s excellent, of course.
LOL F001! Well, I guess if we are going to expand it further, and to take your handoff, I would say any of that overpriced Disney crap from Orlando!
@likesowls
Disneyworld is ok, but Disney Swag is not my thing.
@f00l They had the greatest mickey golf hat of which I have about 20 because everytime we brought the boy there I would invariably forget to bring a hat.
I only trust Alton Brown.
@Al_Coholic
You are no longer a mere grasshopper, Grasshopper.
Celebrity Chefs are worth as much as any other celebrity. Zero. Except Alton Brown’s book. That was good
I entirely love the following kitchen equipment, from a different generation of well-known cooking aficionados:
(My fav)
@f00l you don’t have recipes for a small planet, or macrobiotiocs books. My wife hated those books. You don’t have Moosewood either.
@cranky1950
Oh I got all those books somewhere too.
But I was going more in the direction of Julia Child and Jane Grigson and Elizabeth David and James Beard than towards hippie stuff. But hope stiff is fine.
A great cookbook is a great cookbook is a great cookbook.
Does that steak on the cover of Time-Life’s Foods Of The World: The Great West look all counterculture to you?
Here it looks a lot like Cattlemen’s Steakhouse. Or a thousand other places.
There is a Steakhouse here that serves 72 oz. steaks among other goodies. From the outside the place looks like a junk place. Looks ain’t everything.
By the way that Time-Life Foods Of The World series is killer good.
I know a lot if not most of those big tv-marketed book series from back then (where they mailed you one book a month) were nothing but junk.
But that series redeems the rest of them, the junk ones. It’s wonderful.
You can take my fav cookbooks out of my cold dead fingers after you take my life and my firearms.
Even if I almost never cook anymore.
We don’t get much good beef around here for normal people. There are a few butchers that sell good grass fed beef so you kinda have to do it your self or put up with O charlies. I only eat red meat about once a month since my 30s so I’m not a walking drug store yet. If you’re into such things on lazy days I’ve found that the shake and bake fried chicken at Cracker Barrel is good and of course the bowl of turnip greens that goes with it.
I don’t cook much either, I’ve become an open and dump cook lately.
@cranky1950
I I like turnip greens.
Steak around here is still plentiful. People who eat beef a lot all have half a cow already trimmed in a freezer.
You can get grass fed or alphalfa fed or hormone and antibiotic free or whatever you want.
When my parents left us at home my Mom would thaw out bacon wrapped filet mignons for us kids.
It’s amazing any of its still have arteries.