How I totally failed at Swedish Death Cleaning

Swedish Death Cleaning is the latest declutter fad.  The idea is to get rid of as much as you can so those left when you die won't have to deal with it.  So after you do the Maria Kondo's whole tidy plan and ask if each thing brings you joy, then you decide if your relatives will want to deal with it when you are dead.  If not you chuck it.  I'm not really sure it makes much sense but we have a bunch of extra stuff in the basement I needed to start somewhere. So I decided to sell all the Wii stuff scattered all around. We haven't played with it for years. I collected it all, lined up about 3 dozen games, took pics, confirmed the boys did not want any of it. Adam then casted doubt on it still working so I hooked it up to the TV upstairs and put in Tiger Woods golf 2008. It worked great and in fact I liked playing it better than the switch game I bought for the switch for Christmas.

I went back down to grab the newer Tiger Woods golf 2010 I left in the basement and found the box was empty. Turns out 80% of the boxes were empty because the boys took almost all the games with them...so I have much less to sell. But after having such fun playing golf when I can swing the controller like a club what should I do?

Well I decided to keep the Wii to play the better Tiger Woods but instead of having Jacob ship 2010 version across the country I bought Tiger Woods 2012, the best version, off Facebook,...so not only did I not get rid of anything I ADDED to my collection. But I'm sure when I'm dead the boys will be glad to get the newer version, so maybe I did this Swedish Death Cleaning right after all, thoughts?

Tuesday Tips

 Here are a couple pandemic tips:

1. Buy individually wrapped disposable masks and stash a few in every vehicle glovebox, backpack and purse in case you forgot to bring one when you need it.  I've needed mine 4 times already.
   
   
   
2. Setup Apple pay or Google Pay on your phone in case you get to the counter without your wallet.  Since you no longer carry a wallet around the house since you never leave, and when you do it's the last thing on your mind because your not even sure you still know how to drive.  Apple Pay saved me twice so far. 
   
   
   
3. Muster up an attitude of gratitude because it will make you and everyone around you feel a bit better even (and especially) during a pandemic.  If you can't think of anything, be thankful this is not the 1918 pandemic, or that your family is not off fighting a war, or that Netflix still works.

The 2020 Black Bean Scandal

 I like black beans. I like Wegman's Organic Black Beans. I buy 6 cans at a time. I don’t like the recent change of only filling the cans 1/2 full of beans.  

The can indicates it holds 3.5 half cup servings which totals 1.75 cups.  I confirmed the can indeed holds 1.75 cups of product.  However, I only got 1 cup of beans with .75 cups of water.  There is always some water, you know the kind of black sludgy water that recipes warn to rinse off so your whole dish is not a black gross looking mess...well no worries with these new cans, the water is almost clear and the beans are completely clean from sloshing around in the black bean spa in all their travels.  The cost is far fewer beans.

I will inquire about the bean drowning program with Wegman's officials and report back.

Review: Recipe Keeper

During the day I work for DocFinity which is software schools, businesses and governments can use to eliminate paper and optimize their processes, so for us printing and filing paper should be avoided at all costs.  A digital recipe box is perfect and I've been using one for many years.  No paper recipes allowed.

I started using Pepperplate because it was free and had all the things I cared about at the time, easy to add recipes, each could have a picture, and notes, and they even had a way to grab recipes of specific websites without having to type anything in.  I moved all my paper recipes to Pepperplate and it served me well, however over the 10+ years I've been using it they have not improved it at all.  The website grabber has not read a recipe I've found online in years but I paid nothing and it still functioned.  Then a couple months ago all Pepperplate users got an email saying we had 2 weeks to subscribe to continue using it, to the tune of $36/yr.  They claimed to need money to improve it but failed to list any planned improvements.  That got me looking for it's replacement and I'm glad I did.

I searched, downloaded and tested Yummly, RecipeBox, Epicurious, Big Oven, OrganizEat, Recipe Keeper and probably others.  Some were not really organizers and much as places to find recipes.  Others were klunky or complicated, in the end it was between Big Oven and Recipe Keeper and I chose Recipe Keeper

It's easy to use, can grab recipes off the web from almost anywhere perfectly, imports from other products, syncs recipes between all your instances, allows for custom organization, even let's you take a picture of a recipe to add it and uses OCR so it's searchable.  It runs circles around Pepperplate in every way.  But it does cost a little bit to get all this quality, which I'm glad to pay for once I used it.

Beth and I had our own Pepperplate accounts and kept our recipes separate but we do have many in common too.  Ideally we'd share one digital recipe box. Recipe Keeper has a two level organizational structure (taxonomy) - Course and Category.  There can only be one course per recipe but each can be in unlimited categories and you can add your own and remove any default categories you don't need.  I added a "Jim" and "Beth" category so we could see only our own recipes if needed.  I also added "Low Carb", "Crockpot", "Pressure Cooker", and "Try" for recipes that we have not made but added because they looked good and we want to try them.  If we are looking for something different we can check out what's in the try category.  As you can see in the picture above we have 23 things to try. 

It allows easy resizing of recipes by simply specifying how many people you want to feed and based off the "servings" listed for the recipe it does the math for you.  It also stores nutrition information and will grab it from a website recipe if available.  I use notes to tell me what worked and what did not and what to try next time.  There is a 5 star rating you can give each recipe so you can quickly find your best ones.  If you want step by step pictures you can upload those too.  If someone asks you for a recipe you can quickly share it right from the app by entering their email address.  This gives them a direct link right to that recipe.  I've already shared recipes a couple times.

We never bothered using the shopping list or planner with Pepperplate because it was more hassle than it's worth but with Recipe Keeper we have tried it really kind of like it.  Pick some things to make for the week using the menu planner, then go to the shopping list and all ingredient are there to make it all, simply click on all the things you already have, add things not part of the recipes like laundry detergent, and it creates a dynamic shopping list organized in grocery store categories automatically and you can reorder them once and it remembers, so ours are in Wegman's order.

We shop together and start at opposite ends of the store and as you pick something up, mark it off the list and it shows as picked up on the other persons phone immediately.  High tech shopping at it's best.

Recipe Keeper is not a website but a collection of apps which sync together, so we bought iOS version for my iPhone and iPad and then Mac version for our Macs.  Beth had to get her own on her iPhone since it's a different Apple ID.  Each app is $5.99 per platform, so we ended up spending just under $18 for all our devices.  Not bad for a top quality product.  They also have apps for Android and Windows.

The only complaint would be cooking off your phone is tough because the ingredients are on one tab and the directions are on another, so flipping back and forth to get quantities is a pain.  But on the iPad and laptop this is not an issue at all.

I highly recommend it. 

Review: Carbon Steel Pan - Matfer Bourgeat 11 7/8-Inch

Non-Stick pans have been the rage for home cooks for a long time, but they don't last and they should not be used on high heat.  The chemicals are either coming off as a dangerous gas or flaking off in our food when we use them too long.  They can't handle metal utensils but a good one let's a egg slide right out.  When our Pampered Chef non-stick pans wore out I went looking for the new and improved versions which solve the previous issues and while there are some improvements the same issues still exist.  What do the pros use?  The answer is Carbon Steel.

A carbon steel pan is similar to a cast iron pan but 1/2 the weight and much smoother so when it's seasoned it becomes non-stick, or so they say.  But they are also about the cheapest pan you can buy.  From a restaurant supply site you can get them under $10.  They heat evenly, can handle high heat, oven baking, and are possibly the best pan to sear a steak.

I picked America's Test Kitchen #1 rated 12" carbon steel fry pan made in France - Matfer Bourgeat 11 7/8-Inch for $37

It was heavier than I expected.  A cast iron pan this size is 7lbs and this is only 3, but holding 3lbs on the end of a long stick is not as easy as it sounds.  That said it way way easier to manage one handed than a cast iron pan.  I like the lack of rivets which always catch food and become a pain to clean.  The pan has a very smooth finish, though it looks a bit rustic with it's welds and rough looking edges.

The downside of cast iron or carbon steel is the prep and maintenance.  You must never use a dishwasher, or soap beyond the initial cleaning and you need to season the pan before use and perhaps occasionally refresh it.  I'm willing to put in the work if it is everything they claim it is.

This brand has one of the most bizarre seasoning rituals I've ever heard of but America's test kitchen and others have said it's the best way.  You put 1/3 cup of sunflower oil, 2/3 cup of salt, and 2 potato skins in the pan and sauté that mess for 15 mins. The last 2 minutes will fill your house with smoke, but as you can see from the pictures the result is amazing.

It's a beautiful color but is it really non-stick?  The answer is a resounding YES.  In fact, it is the most non-stick pan I've ever used.  That chicken appeared to be stuck to the pan and yet barely touching it caused it to slide across the pan.  As you can see it left a nice sear on the chicken too.

However, I had the heat too high and as I cooked the 2nd batch of chicken I noticed the remnants, fond, left  in the pan started to burn.  That should have been my clue to turn down the heat, but I pressed on removing the burnt bits and deglazed the pan with broth for my sauce.  The broth immediately turned to steam, clue 2 it was too hot, and as I stirred the sauce I noticed more than fond was coming off.  In the end much of the seasoning on the pan appears to be gone.  

Is it still non-stick?  Do I need to re-season it?  From what I've read it may be just fine and the seasoning and color will build up with continued use.  I'll report back once I use it again.

My over all conclusion:  I love the idea, the pan seems like a good one, and I'm excited to keep using it and experimenting with it.  I need to up my game, but that's really the point isn't it?

UPDATE (2/26/2020): My second use was cooking Smash Burgers as a test to see if the pan was still seasoned and still non-stick.  The result was great.  It was perfect, the burger got a great crust and none stuck to the pan.  I'm happy to say the color does not indicate the effectiveness of the seasoning.  I plan to continue using it and will report back any issues.

UPDATE (3/3/2020): Third use was sautéed onion and prosciutto. It was initially like a non-stick pan but as the meat started browning a nice fond began forming on the bottom of the pan. Note how amazing that crust looks. I really should have deglazed it and made a sauce. I was afraid it would be tough to remove but a little water and nylon scraper is all it took and it came right off. So far so good. 

Baby Back Ribs tip

One step in prepping baby back ribs for the smoker, pressure cooker or slow cooker is removing the membrane on the back.  It's either impossible or easy...

Whoever figured out that using a paper towel to grab the membrane on the back of a rack of ribs so you can peel it off was a genius.  I'm not sure what magic happens but barehanded that membrane is slippery and adhered to the ribs at an atomic level never to be moved but once you grab it with a paper towel it gives up and comes right off.  

Another tip I have found is starting at the small end works better than the wide end.  Not intuitive to me, but clearly faster and easier.  

Now go forth and make pork! Yum.

 

Best Burger

As a grill guy I was skeptical, but after using this method 5-6 times I can say without a doubt it is THE BEST way to cook a burger.  Every single time I make these I say "these are amazing, why would we do it any other way?".  I will warn you it gets a little stressful when you are in the middle of it since they cook so fast and sometimes are hard to get off the pan in one piece, but the reward is so worth it.

The Ultra Smashed Double Burger - https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/ultra-smashed-cheeseburger-recipe-food-lab.html