Sifter and vegetable peelers

I’ve been bolting flour to make bread, because it’s really clear that if I want that kind of bread, I’m going to have to get some / all of the bran out. I have a really nice drum sieve (looks like a tambourine, without the jingle-jangly bits and with a mesh) that I was using with a silicon “lid” to cover it while tapping in a bowl that it sat in pretty well. That worked, and didn’t create a lot of airborne particles. However, it was noisy and it was time consuming and kinda tedious. After extensive online research, I realized that more or less everything in the kitchen with a motor that accepted attachments had a sifter attachment and the only one I wanted was the one that attached to my new Bosch Universal Plus. (I looked at the one that went with the KitchenAid I had recently moved along to a new home, and was quite happy I’d never bought it). I had to wait for it to be back in stock, and also, it came with a very fine mesh and I didn’t want one that fine. I bought the mesh I wanted directly from Royalux, and once it arrived, I ordered the sifter itself from Pleasant Hill Grain, where I had a $30 gift card from buying the Bosch Universal Plus. However, with the $30 gift card, my order total was low enough that I was a little bit away from free shipping. I _was_ going to order grains, but they sell other kitchen tools as well so I asked my husband if there was anything he wanted for the kitchen, and started listing possibilities. He went with vegetable peeler (you can never have too many, he says).

I have been peeling vegetables for at least 40 years at this point. I’m good at it. I’ve used a lot of peelers, my own, and ones at other people’s houses. I’ve replaced mine and curated mine so that I know I already have better peelers that many, many, many other people. This particular peeler is a brand I have mad respect for (Kuhn Rikon), as I had bought their manual spice grinder and of the various spice/pepper grinders I have owned it is probably my favorite. However, it is a handle type I’ve only had bad experiences with. So this was an adventure!

It is easily the best vegetable peeler I have ever owned.

https://pleasanthillgrain.com/kuhn-rikon-swiss-metal-peeler

I am reasonably certain that the other peelers by this brand will be equally good. I know it’s not the handle type because I normally hate that handle type. They have some other handle types (I have no idea whether they are in stock or not).

The sifter works fine, altho like all machinery in the kitchen, is moderately annoying to clean up after. Like all kitchen machinery, it’s best used for larger projects.

someone posted about the Hoba meteroite on FB

https://www.geologyin.com/2016/09/the-worlds-largest-meteorite.html

The inside of my head is often like a cocktail party with a lot of people talking usually being much more clever than I am in real life.

When I read that “ The name "Hoba" comes from a Khoekhoegowab word meaning "gift". ”, the cocktail party mutter started up.

Oh, it means gift. That really goes to show the universality of the meaning of “gift”. Someone gave it to you. You didn’t ask for it and you can’t give it back. You don’t really know what to do with it. You put it on display, and people talk about it.

It’s a pretty cool meteorite. I looked up Khoekhoegowab in wikipedia, and that makes for some very interesting reading, altho obviously much of it sad.

Lego Eiffel Tower complete! Also, cashew cookies

I’ve been working, on and off today, on a long post, and a Note and talking to the kids, about How Do I Know that a Substitution Will Work. Or, more typically, multiple simultaneous substitutions in a recipe. It’s a stumper of a question! The answer is kind of, here’s how I learned to cook. And that’s how I know. I’m trying to get it out of my head and down in writing, and looking at other people’s writing about substitutions and I’m learning all kinds of interesting things along the way.

I made the 3 ingredient cookie (1 cup nuts, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, in a food processor) with cashews. Obviously, processor the cashews first. I used costco cashews, so they have some oil and salt added to them. I used white sugar. Sugar goes in second. Together, you get something very crumbly. Add the egg and it should dough-ball up. It … mostly did. And it was very, very cohesive. I thought about adding some flour or cocoa powder or something else to get the classic dough ball, decided it did not really matter, and just baked the cookies. They turned out great! Most of the nuts I have been using are _only_ nuts — no salt, no added oil, etc. So having the oil and salt definitely changes things a bit. They spread (unlike the peanuts / peanut butter cookies), but not as much as the walnut or pecan. It doesn’t taste overwhelmingly CASHEW, so you could spice these in a variety of ways. Highly recommend.

Lego Eiffel tower is done! I did the last 2 bags this evening. Very exciting!

A. and I went for a walk with M. T. had martial arts and he worked and in between F. came over and everyone but me had a piano lesson.