Window Shopper

Recently, I received some samples of Grey Poupon mustard. I was asked to try these mustards and give an honest review of them. The ones that I received were the Hearty Spicy Brown mustard and the Harvest Coarse Ground mustard. Frankly, I was not sure if I could try them because I do not do well with spicy foods. However, I wanted to give an honest review so I decided that a little would not hurt at all. WOW!

First, I tried them on a plate with just the Grey Poupon mustard. The Hearty Spicy Brown was a tad spicy but really had a great taste. I loved it right away. Then, I tried the Harvest Coarse Ground mustard. To tell you the truth, my mouth lit up. HOT!!! Yes, it was hot to me but it was also incredibly tasty. Now, my husband did the same taste test I did. He loved both. They did not seem hot to him at all. He loves spicy hot foods!

Okay, I needed to figure out something to have these mustards either in or on to give them a real test. Burgers! But I didn’t want just any burger. These burgers are great with any condiment and especially good with both of these wonderful mustards. So, choose one mustard for your burger.

Mix the ground beef or turkey (yes, turkey burgers work great!) with onion soup mix. Add some shredded cheese (we like cheddar but would also put any other type of cheese as well). Mix well. Put them into a frying pan, broiler or on the grill. It all works great. When they are done, add cheese to the top, slap into a bun and get out the mustard! Slather a good helping of Hearty Spicy Brown or Harvest Coarse Ground onto the burger (my husband would use both at the same time for a really rich mustard taste!). Add your favorite side dish and watch out! Love those burgers!

One of the things that had been constant early in my life as long as I was at home was that we had dinner my Mom or my Grandma cooked themselves. It was something that I assumed everyone did because it was so usual. And it was with a great deal of surprise that I found out that homemade wasn’t exactly normal for everyone. Because I lived in a home that chose to sit around the table and eat together, we had some pretty good meals. But then came desert. Ah.

My Mom makes a Lemon Angel Food Cake for my birthday every year because it is one of my favorite cakes. It takes a while to make but it most assuredly worth it. She has been doing this for several years now and it’s become a family tradition over the years for her to make the cake of choice.

For me to make this particular recipe would take a Hamilton Beach® Mixer since my little hand mixer could not handle the job. The Hamilton Beach brand of kitchen appliances just happens to be one of my favorites to use. This recipe is similar to the one Mom uses to make her cakes. Hope you like the Lemon Angel Food Cake:

2 lemons
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
12 large egg whites
1 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

For the lemon sauce
1 large lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 375 deg. From lemons, grate 2 teaspoons peel and squeeze 1 tablespoon juice; set aside. On waxed paper, mix flour and confectioners’ sugar; set aside.

In large bowl, mixer at high speed, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until soft peaks form. Beat in vanilla and lemon juice. Still at high speed, sprinkle in granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until whites stand in stiff peaks.

Sift flour mixture over egg whites, one-third at a time, folding in with rubber spatula after each addition, just until flour mixture is completely incorporated. Fold in grated lemon peel.

Spoon batter into ungreased 10-inch tube pan with removable bottom; with metal spatula, gently spread evenly. Bake cake 35 to 40 minutes, until top springs back when lightly touched with finger. Invert cake in pan on funnel or bottle; cool completely in pan.

Fixing the Lemon Sauce: From lemon, grate 1 teaspoon peel and squeeze 1/4 cup juice. In 1-quart saucepan, mix sugar and cornstarch until blended. Add lemon peel, lemon juice, butter or margarine, and 2/3 cup water; heat to boiling over high heat, stirring frequently. Boil 1 minute, stirring. Transfer sauce to bowl; cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Yield: 1 1/4 cups.

With metal spatula, carefully loosen cake from pan; place on cake plate. Serve cake with sauce.

For this and so many other recipes, I found that I want to choose the Eclectrics® Mixer and the because I took a good look at them on their website and I was thoroughly impressed with what it could do. With 12 mixing settings, it would certainly be easy to control what’s going on in the bowl. Speaking of bowl, this machine has a 4 and a half quart locking bowl. Nice feature!

One of the biggest problems I have found with a mixer is trying to mix a large amount of dough. That can be very difficult, even with the standard mixers. This machine can handle it with it’s 400 watts of power. And just on a fun level, I visited their website to see this beautiful Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer. They have a color click thing where you can see what color you want. Yes, I had to play with that. There are several colors I like so it’s going to be really tough figuring out the color I want but the Hamilton Beach® Mixer is definitely one I want to buy.

My parents remodeled our kitchen one time when I was a teen, I think. It was gruesome. It was not a big kitchen to start with and then they started tearing out everything. I guess it was because the kitchen cabinets weren’t going to match the wallpaper and the paint that was going up in the near future.

Eventually, the whole thing got worked out. The very new kitchen cabinets were very nice and the gleaming, shiny new cabinet hardware was especially great. The whole kitchen looked absolutely fabulous after it was all said and done. But I do not want to go through the mess of that again. If we move into a house that needs that much work, I say we get a room and let the repair guys have at it!!!

Recently, I started looking for a microwave. Ours is a bit old. We have had it for 10 years now. It’s really been working great. However, the paint on the inside is chipping off so I thought that might be a problem. We wanted to see what was out there that’s affordable and to my surprise, the machine we spent almost $200 on would cost us a little over $100 today. Yet, I found one that I really like the look of for less than that!

This baby is 1100 watts. Ours is 1000 watts. This microwave is 1 cu. ft. Ours is 1.5 cu. ft. Hmm, I would be giving up some room inside. But, it’s really affordable at the lowest price of $71. Add shipping and it’s still under $100. The machine is a Sharp R-306LK. But the specs did not mention power levels.
Okay, not bad but I really want one that’s at least the same size as mine since we do a lot of microwave stuff that fits into a casserole dish. So, the next one I researched was the
GE JES1142SJ Stainless Steel. Once again, it’s 1100 watts. The cu. ft. is 1.1. Getting better. It’s lowest price is $76 and has 10 power levels, turntable (that’s one thing I will NOT live without. I have it now.)

On to the next one. This one is a bit more expensive but that’s a relative term. Panasonic NN-H264 has a lowest price of $100. But that’s not bad considering what it has. 1200 watts. I’m already impressed. 10 power levels. 12 inch turntable (which looks to be standard in most microwaves). But it’s a 2.2 cu. ft. BIG! So far, this is the best purchase for me.

Okay, I looked at Polaroid SCM1101C (POLAROID??? I thought all they did was cameras). This one is affordable at $72 for the low. It has 1000 watts and 1.1 cu. ft. 10 power levels. That 10 power thing is getting common too. But no turntable, no cigar. This one is out.

Then I checked out Daewoo KOR-860A. The price was right at $66 but it didn’t have a turntable. The capacity is 1350 watts but no power levels were reported. And it had bad reviews. According to what I read, the warranty is not worth it. The person had the oven for about 12 months when it died. The company has not honored it’s warranty at all. This is a no.

Well, from what I have researched, if I had to pick today without looking any farther, it would be the Panasonic NN-H264. It has what I want and it’s affordable. Wish those prices were around when I bought the other one! Ah well.

From the Window Shopper. Happy Shopping!