A little bit of this, a little bit of that...
Time for a bit of miscellaneous stuff today.
Sonia started a blog!
She's been wanting to try her hand at blogging for a while, and I helped her come up with an idea and name.
I signed her up for site through Bluehost, where I paid a little less than $200 for three year's worth of hosting (plus a domain name). Her blog isn't going to be making money at first, of course, but I think over the course of three years, it shouldn't have trouble earning back that investment.
I'd never used Bluehost before, but it was ridiculously easy. Like, waaaay easier than self-hosted WordPress used to be back when I started my own blog. So, if you're thinking about starting a blog, I can whole-heartedly recommend Bluehost as a great way to go.
(I use Synthesis web hosting for my own blog, since I need something a little bigger than what Bluehost typically offers. But for someone just starting out, like Sonia, Bluehost is perfect. And affordable.)
Anyway! Sonia is alllways making something, from paintings to slime to knitted creatures. So we thought it would be fun for her to have a place to share her creative endeavors, and we named her blog Sonia Makes.
You can visit it at SoniaMakes.com. Sonia will probably be posting once a week or so.
(Bluehost emailed me a referral link a while back, but I never used it because I hadn't tried out their service. But I can happily share it now because I'm sure that you will love Bluehost. SO EASY.)
I'm doing a 52 project. At least I hope I am.
Joshua and I attempted one of these last year, but found it difficult to keep coordinated. So I'm trying one all on my own this year, and we'll see if that helps me stay caught up.
I'm doing it because I think it'll be fun, and it'll give me a chance to practice photographing stuff that wouldn't normally fit here on The Frugal Girl.
You can check out my 52 blog here.
I'm getting ready to do my taxes.
Ohh, joy. This is never a fun job, but Turbo Tax does make it pretty easy.
(By the way...next week I'm giving away a copy of Turbo Tax, so keep an eye out for that! I had to buy my own, but one of you is getting yours free. 😉 )
I tried Milk Street Cooking and didn't love it.
This is a magazine started by Christopher Kimball after his rather dramatic exit from CI/ATK/etc. I got the free charter issue and decided I'm just gonna stick with my Cook's Country subscription.
Milk Street wasn't bad, per se, but I think it's aimed at people who are possibly a bit more serious about their food than me.
For instance, in one article, he talked about the perfect temperature to warm your plates to when serving scrambled eggs, and I was just like, ummm, I do not live a plate-warming life. I make food, I put it on the table, and we eat it on room-temperature plates.
I give myself gold stars for managing to consistently churn food out of the kitchen, and I just don't see myself spending any time on plate temperature, luxurious though warmed plates might be.
But hey, it was a free issue! And even though it's a bit high-brow, I still think it's way better than a lot of food magazines out there, and it's full of content, not ads, which is lovely.
Thus concludes this edition of Miscellany.
Before I go, I have to know...do you ever warm up your plates?
We eat simple meals so plate warming here. Thanks to your post I tried Milk Street but didn't subscribe. I liked the look but knew I wouldn't use it. I have had subscription to cooks illustrated and cooks country at different times. I don't remember making anything from either. I still have them through several purges, and just enjoy reading the recipes. I do know I learned a few new tricks.
At our old, charmingly historic house (read: old and never updated), we had the warm the plates in the winter because the cupboard was on an exterior wall and everything in it basically stayed refrigerated. The plates would be so cold right out of the cupboard that they felt as if they had literally been sitting in the refrigerator and any food put on them cooled down unappetizingly. So we could put them on a cooling rack (ha) on the woodstove to warm up just before dinner. But in this fancy new house, with it's insulation and fancy central heat (and no woodstove)? Nope. No need. But I think that's hilarious that he gave that instruction.
Christopher Kimball does live in a cold part of the United States...but I highly doubt he lives in an uninsulated house, being that he has a kazillion dollars.
What was especially hilarious to me is that he didn't just instruct to warm the plates. He was mentioning that you don't want to make them TOO hot or too cool. You need to warm them to the perfect temperature! 😉
I had never heard of this! No, I've never done it and probably never will. I live in South Ga. We rarely ever "warm" anything unnecessarily. Mother Nature does that for us.
I grew up in S Georgia and my mother did this only for holidays :). I also didn't like the magazine, but I appreciate the concept.
Warm your plates? I too give myself gold stars for churning food out of the kitchen and that is good enough for me/us.
I also signed up for the free coy of Milk Street and decided it wasn't my jam. I still have 2 years worth of CI I'm working my way though, anyway. As far as plate warming, I usually only warm plates/bowls if I am making pasta with a cream-based sauce (which helps keep the sauce from cooling and thickening too quickly while eating). Either I'll let the plates sit on the stove top for a few minutes (if the oven is on) or I'll put a ladel of the hot used pasta water in each serving bowl while I finish the sauce (dumping the water out of the bowl before serving of course ).
I have never warmed a plate....but, I have chilled a beer mug! 🙂
My grandma used to love warmed plates. For something like 50 years she had a divided oven so she could cook in one side and warm the plates in the other.
I have warm plates when they heat up in the microwave as I warm leftovers 🙂
I have warmed plates and do so by filling a sink with hot water and leaving them there. Most of the time here it isn't necessary. I have spent the last few weeks in England and Europe and I wished my plates had been warmed. I was served so many hot dishes turned cold before they came to me. I admit that freezing glasses happens a lot here in the sub tropics.
I've frozen glasses before too! When you serve Orange Julius in the summer, it just melts way too fast otherwise.
Sticking glasses in the freezer seems easier than warming plates, though, for some reason!
But are they the "correct" cold temperature? 😉
My plates are only warm if they just came out of the dishwasher.
Sometimes I pull hot plates directly from the dishwasher that's just finished it's cycle--does that count?
its not it's
I love your 52 idea and am going to do a 28 for February with a photo every day on Facebook. Thanks for inspiring me!
Um, yeah, no. I have never and will never be a plate-warmer. It's hard enough to get the kids to realize I'm not a short order cook, table busser or waitress.
Love your daughters creative wsys..rare for children now a days...I wish my granddaughter would be more inspired..they are too into electronics....I am a avid crafter so it's my passion..I have a soon to be 2 yr old granddaughter, so there is hope yet...Sonia's blog is sweet...I will pin it to follow....
Blessing
Rhonda
Everyone has different talents. Maybe your granddaughters will come around or maybe they just need the right creative task to be into.
My soon-to-be son in-love was kind enough to produce a granddaughter for me before he and my daughter ever met. This child has graced my life since she was just turned three years old. She has accepted the fact that at Mydear's house, we do not watch TV or play on tablets or watch YouTube. Instead, we do and we make. We play with building blocks and toy cars. She plays with baby dolls and stuffed animals. We go outside and play ball and pick flowers. She helps me cook and clean and do laundry. She has her own child sized broom , mop, ect. We color and paint and draw pictures. We sew. She's currently working on a crazy quilt with me for her bed. She has picked out items of clothing from the "to be made into quilts" closet that she likes and, with my constant supervision, is cutting them up so we can use them in our quilt squares. She loves to help me sort and purge when the decluttering bug bites me.
I think it helped that, from day one, TV and tablets and such were simply things that were never used while she's with me so it never occurs to her to even ask, lol!
I hope you get your wish for a avid crafter to follow in your footsteps with this next granddaughter!
I think it's wonderful what you are doing for your granddaughter. It sounds like you have nurtured quite a bond. Well done Mydear Domingue!
Why, yes, we do warm plates...but only for pancakes. We put the plates in the oven at 200 degrees when we start cooking. Helps the pancakes to stay warm and it's really no trouble.
That is the only time we do it too! Also allows for the pancake cook to eat with the rest of the family since all of the pancakes stay hot while the rest are being cooked. Learned this trick from Alton Brown, Good Eats I think.
Hee hee, I love your comment. Yes, we are not plate warmers here either. I'm too busy getting kids to get the tabled cleaned off/set off and getting the last bits of dinner together! At least we're eating together as a family, right?
People got jokes here about the plate warming, and I am cracking up!
I warm my tea mugs, because I don't want them to crack from pouring just-boiled water in them. Sometimes I put my plates on an "off" back burner while the skillet meal finishes. If they get somewhat warmed, so be it.
I like the idea about warming plates/bowls intentionally for cream-based sauces or for soups, though. Might have to try it out!
So the first time I'd ever heard of warming plates was on Downton Abbey when Mr. Carson fussed that his new wife, Mrs. Hughes did not warm his plate. I laughed and thought, "gosh, he'd never survive at my house!"
Oh, you're right! I forgot about that.
Yep, my first thought was of that Downton Abbey episode, too. And no plate warming at my house.
I feel like I do good around here to not serve dinner on paper plates. At least the plates we use are clean - since I unload and reload the dw at least once a day! Oy! I get his emails and I enjoy his writing style, but I get a lot of recipes from my cookbooks, the blogs I read, Pinterest, grocery store ads, the newspaper food section...all of that is more my speed.
Our plates are not warmed unless they just came out of the dishwasher. In fact, I tried a new recipe for Pork Medallions in Red Wine sauce from the NYT last week, and it said to take the cooked medallions out of the skillet and put them on a warmed plate while you made the sauce. Nope. I put those babies on a room-temperature plate from the cupboard! The medallions were very good, perhaps a bit labor intensive for a weeknight.
No plate warming here, but it does sound quite fancy! 🙂 I might have to give that a try!
Does Sonia have an Etsy account where she sells some of her handmade knitted goodies?
She doesn't...but it's something she's considered!
We DO warm our plates in the winter, but I wouldn't if it didn't seem so necessary! Our plates are stoneware and live in a cabinet that touches an exterior wall of our 1940 block and brick house. They're quite cold during our midwestern winters! I just turn the oven to warm (or off, after cooking something in the oven) and throw them in for a few minutes at the end of dinner prep.
I also did not love MILK STREET. It just wasn't for me. Couldn't really put my finger on why....
I too signed up for a copy of Milk street and did not subscribe.mWay too fancy for me:)
I warm my KitchenAid bowl before making yeast breads in the winter. It never in a million years occurred to me to warm a plate until reading this post.
I'm feeling a bit precious now, because my mother always, ALWAYS warmed plates that were for hot food, so I did, too. However, I rarely do now, unless I've been using the oven. When we still had a toaster oven, it was super-easy to pop the plates or bowls into it. I can't bring myself to heat the big oven just for some plates. When we had a woodstove, I used the warming oven (above the stove) as my china cupboard and it was heaven to always have warm dishes in that old, cold house. In our warm condo now, it's not such a big deal. Also, I store my least-used metal things in the range's warming drawer, as I can't bend that low now.
However, if I'm cooking something on the stove, I'll set the hot potato on each plate just long enough to warm it. And I do always try to warm bowls.
For Liz and others who warm their mugs, it's a nice way to keep your drinks warm longer, but not really necessary in terms of protecting them. I make hot coffee and tea many times a day, and none of our mugs (no matter the quality) has cracked. I do always "hot the pot" When making tea, but that is to keep the tea hot longer. (I also use a tea warmer when serving a pot.)
If I had loads of money, I'd rather have refrigerated drawers in strategic spots than a warming oven. Darn that Martha Stewart! 🙂
That was hot pot, not hot potato! Lol
I skipped Milk Street because while people are innocent until proven guilty, too much evidence seemed to be that Kimball was a less than reputable character (dumping your wife to marry your personal assistant who is half your age doesn't win good marks in my book.) I don't miss him from ATK at all. He always seemed so smug and believed he was the only reason ATK/CI/CC survived when they seem to be doing well without him.
I actually quit both magazines a while back because they were just getting to be too expensive for me. Maybe I'll see if my library has them, ya know, if I ever have the time to go there. 😛
I always get mine from the library!
My mom always warmed plates when we were having grits, because she always said there's nothing worse than hot grits on a cold plate. As you can tell, my family's from the south 🙂
I have a burner on my cook top for warming plates or keeping dishes warm so yes I am a plate warmer. Nothing worse than cold food that is suppose to be hot. Would love a warming drawer someday.
Wait, they make burners specifically for that?? I had no idea!!
My mom warms up her plates in the oven's warmer drawer. She's retired and has plenty of time for those considerations. LOL. 😉
I can see doing that if you have a warmer drawer...that seems fairly easy. I think my oven technically has a warmer drawer below it, but it is always just full of baking sheets. 😉
Wait, that's a warming drawer?? Not just a place to store the broiler and cookie sheets?
I feel like I remember reading in my manual that it's technically for warming things.
But where else would I store my cookie sheets and half sheet pans???
Oh my gosh, go Sonia! That's awesome of her to start her own blog. Her little creations always amaze me. I'm sure she's off to do great things. 🙂
Oy, I'm nervous about taxes this year. My income increased significantly and we bought a house--hopefully we can still score a decent refund instead of owing taxes. Yikes!
Thanks for the heads up about Milk Street. I hate when people add fancy-pants directions--unless the magazine caters to professional chefs, leave out the plate-warming and fancy torches and sous vides. 🙂
So no, I don't warm my plates. Although I can understand the idea with scrambled eggs since they become glacial within seconds.
But still. C'mon.
I got the first edition of Milk Street too and it is a beautiful magazine, but I agree with you a little high brow.
- IT forgot to tell us to leave our computers on overnight so the system upgrade could run in our absence. As a frugal person, I power down my computer at the end of the day. It took 3 hrs for the upgrade to run this morning. All my favorites and settings migrated properly, but still. Three hours, people! :-/
- I occasionally warm plates, if they are unusually cold and the oven is warm but not hot. More likely a serving plate than eating plates. OTOH, hot drinks get warm mugs.
- Pushing hard on my martial art this year, to test for black belt in 2017 instead of 2018 (only one test a year). 5-6 classes a week instead of 2-4 means plenty of exercise for me. It's lots of work and fun, and I'm enjoying working on the finer points of my technique.
- The gym had a nutrition class yesterday. I was pleased to realize how much I already knew.
- My insurance company gives gift cards and freebies for various activities and online work. Yesterday I earned a $75 gift card by taking 15 minutes to fill out a health survey. This is the first time I've earned $300/hr.
Yep, Mr. FG's company offers incentives like that, so he does the blood work, surveys, etc.
FYI, my insurance company offers the same benefits for covered dependents - maybe yours does, too?
His company used to...but then they got bought by another company, and I no longer get credit for doing wellness activities. Boo!
No plate warming here but I have a friend who has "plate warming drawer"--not the drawer under her oven but a specific take-up-precious-space-in-her-kitchen warming drawer. No thanks! I can think of about a million things that I would rather have in that space in my kitchen than that! 🙂
Way to go, Sonia!
Oh, ok, so the drawer under the oven is not exactly a warming drawer. Going to go google a warming drawer now!
Plate warming is more practical than fancy at our house (1940's, wall heater in another room). We pop the plates in the oven after roasting things. It helps our food stay an appetizing temperature as we tend to our tots during dinner.
I'm seeing a theme in the comments here...people who live in old houses have plates that are way colder than my plates. In that case, I can see warming them. Plates just never get that cold at my house, partially because my plate cabinet isn't on an exterior wall. So they stay pretty decently warm.
I'm not a high brow cook either. However I do warm plates for certain foods that tend to cool off very quickly. like eggs, pan cakes, waffles, etc. (I warm the syrup too.) I simply put the plates in the oven set on warm until ready to use. ~Sherry
Sherry, I felt like life got better when I started warming syrup and sauces. When there's a group, I use my tea warmer to keep such things warm and flowing. Cold gravy? Shudder.
Oh yes, gravy is a good one to warm. I do hate cold gravy. It gets thick so fast.
I am inconsistent about plate warming. I always appreciate it when I do, so I'm not sure why I don't do it more. The one dish where I always warm them is omelettes. We often have friends over for breakfast before church, and my stove only has one large burner, so omelettes are one at a time here. As they finish, I plate them and put them in the warm oven so the first one isn't an iceberg by the time we sit down. A little different than warming only the plate, but worth it.
I received my free issue of Milk Street, as well. I thought the exact same thing. It felt a bit over the top for me and I also live in a world where there is no plate warming action happening. It's more like, let's be thankful the kids actually washed their hands before dinner and we all made it through the day. Such is life with little people.
I wonder if plate-warming is something that's more common in before-kids years and empty nest years. It would be interesting to know!
I suspect your first insight is correct: that it was common when houses were a lot colder and kitchens farther away form dining rooms. Now you might see it in cold houses but not so much in other situations.
There does seem to be a long term trend to simplifying. For example, does anyone on this list decant milk from the carton to a pitcher? We did that when I was a kid, now my parents don't bother even when their grandkids are visiting.
Goodness, I've never even heard of that!
No, wait...now that you mention it, I think one of my grandmothers did that when I was a kid.
Ha! My mother decanted milk to pitcher - and I still have both of the ones she most often used - a Shirley Temple pitcher and a Moo Cow Creamer. But I don't actually use them.
My soon-to-be son in-love was kind enough to produce a granddaughter for me before he and my daughter ever met. This child has graced my life since she was just turned three years old. She has accepted the fact that at Mydear's house, we do not watch TV or play on tablets or watch YouTube. Instead, we do and we make. We play with building blocks and toy cars. She plays with baby dolls and stuffed animals. We go outside and play ball and pick flowers. She helps me cook and clean and do laundry. She has her own child sized broom , mop, ect. We color and paint and draw pictures. We sew. She's currently working on a crazy quilt with me for her bed. She has picked out items of clothing from the "to be made into quilts" closet that she likes and, with my constant supervision, is cutting them up so we can use them in our quilt squares. She loves to help me sort and purge when the decluttering bug bites me.
I think it helped that, from day one, TV and tablets and such were simply things that were never used while she's with me so it never occurs to her to even ask, lol!
I hope you get your wish for a avid crafter to follow in your footsteps with this next granddaughter!
Kim Domingue, you just gave me wonderful flashbacks to my late, great best friend/mother-in-love. Thank you.
I'm lucky if I'm not grabbing plates out of the dishwasher that I haven't gotten around to putting away yet, so yeah... Not warming plates are here, haha!
around* here >.<
Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who wasn't excited about Milk Street. I'm sure the food is good, but I'm not THAT interested in cooking. I just want to put tasty meals on the table. And no, I don't typically warm my plates, with the occasional exception of warming a serving plate if I think it will cool the food off too quickly.
I don't think it would ever even occur to me to warm our plates. That being said, I will warm coffee mugs in the winter (old house, cabinet on exterior wall, thermostat turned down to 60 overnight) otherwise my coffee is cold before I can drink it.
Yup - we live in a older house too, also have kitchen cabinets on an exterior wall. Sometimes, those plates are cold!! If I'm smart, I take them out to warm up before dinner. Because I do love my food hot (and especially my coffee - warm the cream in the micro first, then add the coffee), we have a joke here - do you want your soup hot or boiling? The only times I really focus on warming the plates are date nights with my hubby. We often fix ourselves something extra special and a warmed plate allows us to linger a bit over our dinner and enjoy the evening. Most nights (read 350 out of 365), plates on the table straight from the cabinet.
How exciting for Sonia, and what a good way to use her talents!
So, the plate warming thing.... no, as a Floridian, I have more trouble keeping my cool foods cool than I do my hot foods hot. Eggs do get cold very fast, true, and I will put a filled plate on warm in my microwave -- it has a "warm" button -- when I am cooking eggs for several people, but do I warm them before I put the food on, no, I don't. My plate cupboard is on an exterior wall, but the winter is not consistently cold, and I have an insulated house built less than 20 years ago, so cold plates aren't a problem, really.
When recipes start getting that involved, insisting on certain temperatures for plates, I tend to give them a pass.
And I thought everyone with an electric oven used the drawer below it to store the big pans! They don't?
My parents believe in things like ironing sheets and warming plates. And I think those things are lovely, I just don't prioritize making time for them! My dad will even warm the milk in a milk pitcher before serving tea!
That's funny, I was just looking at the photo books I made from my 52 projects a few years ago and thinking I should do another one of those! They are fun and inspire me to get out with my camera more. I didn't take very many pictures last year, so it would be good for me to commit to one this year. I don't stick to a program with my 52 projects, so it is always interesting to see what I end up with at the end of the year.
I also do not warm plates.
Same experience here with Milk Street! I was so looking forward to the Charter issue, then was disappointed that it was just not a match for me. 🙁
No artificial plate warming here. Here in central Texas----we have 4 seasons: Warm, Hot, Hotter, and Blazin' Hot! Our plates are warm straight out of the cupboard! lol
I don't warm plates. If I am making tea the mug or kettle do get scalded(warmed with a quick shot of water from the kettle and then dumped in the sink!) My Irish friend taught me that one.
First of all let me say your daughter's website is cute. What a great way to teach her and to allow her to show her creativity. I know it will be successful. I also checked out the Milk Street first edition and I am on the fence about it. The only time I warm my plates is if I am making Huevos Rancheros. I typically will cook my bacon in my toaster oven while frying my eggs. My hubby likes over easy and no brown marks so I like to get them off quickly and put them on the warm plate that has been sitting on top of the toaster. While it is keeping warm I can finish the rest of the eggs. Thank you also on the BlueHost information. I am getting my ideas together and I am going to start a blog but not sure if I want to start with BlueHost. I have also heard it is easy to use but I don't know how hard it will be to transfer to another site when the time comes. Also your Project 52 pictures look beautiful.
I can't wait to check out Sonia's blog!
Now I can't stand cold scrambled eggs - once they cool its all over for me, so warming my egg plate is probably not a bad idea but . . . no. I don't do that.
I have occasionally heated a bowl by running hot water over it, but I can not remember why now. And I have chilled salad plates on hot summer days here and there but not on a regular basis.
I also did not love the charter issue of Milk Street. In fact, I didn't even finish looking through it. Not that it was terrible, just not for me.
I'm starting to wonder who the audience for Milk Street is - we're a pretty varied lot and yet no one's said "I like Milk Street but didn't get it because it's pricy."
Ha. This would be me. I liked it because it's pretty and also heavy on the science, but not enough to buy it with the foreknowledge that I would make maybe only one recipe per issue, if that, because I rarely stick to a recipe of any kind.
In fact, as a designer for print products, I liked more the inspiration of its appearance and the appeal of having a print product than anything else.
All that to say I liked it on principle but I wish engagement on principle were free.
Way to train your kids up in the family business of blogging! Best of luck to Sonia and her new blog.
I completely agree about Milk Street. I read that scrambled egg article too. I remember thinking, if I ever eat scrambled eggs in a penthouse in Paris I want them cooked like that. In the meantime I'll just keep to my less-than-perfect standard.
Hmm, a little bit of hostility here over to warm plates or not. Never seen negativity here before. Why can't I warm my plates if I choose without being ridiculed? We choose to occasionally warm plates when it is cold, just to keep the food warm until the meal is finished, but I will not make fun of you for eating cold food. Nothing too highbrow about that, but I don't have children to feed. As for Milk Street, I subscribed to it.
Oh, and I don't live in an old, cold house in a cold part of the country, but I do like for my food to stay warm. Just a personal preference and really it doesn't take that much effort. Maybe you should try it?
Yes, I sometimes warm up my plate for eggs and pancakes. I really dislike eating these items warm instead of hot. Since I'm usually cooking and feeding these to my family at the same time, I'll warm up my plate so I can enjoy them as preferred. With young kids, they usually need help with something, so even if I try to be prepared, I get interrupted. Warm plates help with those couple extra minutes.
I've frozen mugs for drinks on occasion, usually in the summer.
Everything else gets room temperature dishes.
If the heat from the microwave counts, then yes, we heat our plates, ha! Seriously, no, I've never heated our plates. I received a sample issue of Milk Street and was left feeling that I may be a peasant. I do love Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country, both of which I download for free from the library.
I've never warmed a plate in my life. Although I just learned that the drawer area at the bottom of the stove is actually for warming, not for storage?? (Is this true? I just keep pot lids in it.)
My husband's grandma actually warms her plates though.... and she isn't anything close to high-brow (2nd generation American, uneducated, wife of a brick layer). So maybe it's just whatever you learned from your own family? I wouldn't consider myself high-brow either.... my West Virginia mama never warmed her plates, so neither do I. 🙂 Seems like an unnecessary step to me. Maybe I'll try it sometime though!
I too was super disappointed in Milk Street. I had such high hopes for it as I generally like Chris Kimball but this was too professional and stuffy for me. There was no room for a home cook in the magazine regardless of what he seems to think. I consider myself a pretty adept cook, but not one of those recipes would appeal to my family and could be made after I get home from work. Missed the mark for me as well. 🙁
I haven't received my copy of the magazine yet but I knew I couldn't afford to subscribe. I am enjoying my Prime Reading with all the magazines you get to borrow for free. I do warm my son's travel coffee cup with hot water so it stays warm as long as possible. In Alabama we have to chill things more often than warm.
Since my plate cupboard is on the north wall of the house, the plates do get very cold in the winter. IF I think of it, I'll put my plate under what I'm heating in the microwave, or maybe set it on top of where the pilot light is on my gas burners. But I seldom think ahead enough to do that, and certainly don't heat them to a certain temp!
That would be a no to warming plates however it is sooo hot here that everything feels hot! So the plates,may well , be warm! Haha!
Have a lovely day, I love reading your blog it always makes me smile.
Fi
I was not a match with Milk Street either. I will sometimes set my plates on the burner where the oven vents but the plates can get too hot so be careful.
I rarely comment on blogs or forums, but I am so bothered by what I am reading here that I have to say something. I liked Milk Street and subscribed, but I hardly think that makes me "high-brow." I really appreciate the unique emphasis that Kimball is putting on sharing techniques that cooks use around the world - such as using spices to improve the flavors of certain cuts of meat, or the trick that Japanese cooks use for pie crust.
As far as the egg recipe, my teen daughter decided to try it, and she thought the eggs were delicious cooked that way. That is how she always cooks her eggs now! We are not typically plate warmers here, but eggs DO get cold fast, so I am not offended by his tip. I think it could be especially helpful if you were serving them to guests.
Finally, as near as I can tell from reading some articles about Kimball's exit from ATK, I get the impression the board sort of wanted to "put him out to pasture" and go in a different direction. It also seems that now ATK and Kimball are on somewhat good terms, and both are happy with their new ventures. And while he did marry his assistant, it was a year after his divorce was finalized, and he did not leave his wife for her. To the person who made the comments about his character, they were unfair and unnecessary.
I don't think plate warming is necessarily high-brow (though I'm sure plate-warming has its origins with well-to-do people vs. poorer people. Like, people who had servants in a downstairs kitchen type of thing.)...it's more that I'm not sure I have the mental space or time to worry about the temperature of my plates.
Which probably has more to do with my stage of life (mom of four!) than anything else.
And I definitely wasn't offended by his tip. It was just an example of how different his life in the kitchen is as compared to mine.
Wow! Of course I warm plates! Not all the time but enough that it does not seem strange to do so and I don't think you need to be high brow or educated to do so. Was very disappointed with Milk Street. Good for Sonia! Going to her site now!
Thanks for sharing your review of Milk Street. I was thinking of subscribing, but I'll still too ATK. I too, do not have the time/energy right now in my life to warm plates. And THANK YOU for acknowledging that just getting dinner on the table every night is an accomplishment 🙂
I keep my house cold enough in the winter that my shampoo has frozen. I also own fiestaware (which can go in the oven, is easily replaceable, and will hold heat). So, yes, I have warmed a plate.
only when it is warmed up in the microwave with leftovers on it 😉
Ohhhh, I love warmed or chilled plates depending on what I'm serving. It only takes 90 seconds in the microwave to warm them. It takes a little longer for chilling in the freezer if I remember to put them there and I'm am so far from high brow...oh wait! I did order some slippers online from a schamchy high brow store, but only because my google search took me there for a deep, very deep, discount! lol Did I say deep?
I am however an empty nester so meal times are a little more calm at our house.
Congratulations to Sonia!!! How exciting for her to stretch her talents!!!
I grew up down the street from my grandparents and plates were ALWAYS warmed at dinner. My mother only did it for holidays or fancy dinners unless it was super cold out. I admit it is very nice.....means less wolfing down of food to eat it before it grows cold.
Yep, plate warming here in New England winters! Cold food kind of negates the effort of meal preparation.
http://researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.com/2012/09/plate-warmers.html
When we went to Texas ten years ago to care for Doug's mom, I became her houseguest/housekeeper -- and she wanted the dinner plates warmed . . . so I learned to warm the plates -- and yes, I have OCCASIONALLY warmed our dinner plates -- it's just the two of us.
I have gone to the trouble of warming a plate before serving eggs in the winter . . . and when I so, I think on my mother-in-law who touched the plate ever so lightly as Doug place it in front of her. She really did insist on all the etiquette niceties that I learned in 7th grade home ec., and from my own. She saw to it her that Amy Vanderbilt and Emily Post would approve! Those days are LONG gone!
I have never warmed plates, but I have warmed my teapot! A British friend told me that to brew a perfect pot, you warm the teapot with boiling water first. (I'm not sure how that helps..but she also taught me about "tea with a cloud of milk", which I love!)
If the teapot is prewarmed, then it's the right temp for brewing tea when you put in the tea water. Otherwise, the water gets cold too quickly. Same is true for the cup from which you drink the tea - al already-warmed cup means the tea will stay warm longer as you drink it.
I am excited to see what Sonia makes.
I also got Milk Street in the mail and loved the 5 recipes I tried and made each at least twice now. The foil salmon was so moist, it is now my favorite way of cooking fish--and I am not a foil person. The carrot salad was a hit and finding white balsamic was not hard or expensive-- white balsamic is delicious so will be a vinegar I use frequently. I never warm my plates either, but the recipes were easy and food turned out delicious every time, I subscribed.
How pray tell, does one warm up plates??? Like in a dishwasher? Insane, if you ask me.
Here in normally temperate San Diego county, it has been a little bit chilly - at least for our standards, anyway. We started sticking our cool plates in the (already warm) oven for just a few minutes before serving because we found that the cool ceramic dishes were sucking the heat from the food! Before we started warming the dishes, we found that by the time we all arrived at the table, the food had cooled a bit too much for our liking. Warming the plates made a difference. 🙂
My mother-in-law has a special 'warming drawer' in her oven. So she doesn't have to take up real oven space with warming plates. It's pretty nice. No warmed plates here