Friday, July 19, 2019

"Never think that Jesus commanded a trifle, nor dare to trifle with anything he has commanded." - D.L. Moody


Western culture has finally crashed. Reached its nadir. Lost all reason, value, and virtue.
GMC is selling a truck with an electric motorized tailgate lest the truck's owner should strain to lower it himself. So the next time he goes to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a new duvet he can simply hit the button on his key fob and his truck's tailgate will drop gently so he can load his precious cargo without difficulty.
Maranatha!

Several months ago we replaced the range that was original to MoHo (1979) with a nice used glass top range from the Habitat for Humanity store. It is SO nice to have things like an oven that's consistent, let's you know when it's up to the temp you set, and looks nice, too. But Pam read that if you're going to can fruits and veggies you shouldn't do it on a glass top stove. The combined weight of the large canning pot loaded with water and jars can crack the glass when it gets hot.So she ordered a single burner induction cooktop on eBay. Now she's in search of a big pot that's ferrous, which is what's required for induction cooking.
If we had the money we'd buy an induction range. (They aren't cheap!) The burners are induction and the oven is typically convection or a combination of standard and convection.
As long as your pots and pans are ferrous (have a base made of magnetic material) everything is the same as any gas or electric stove. Except...

  • They don't get even warm to the touch. No skin burns, including to any toddlers in the house who might reach up and touch the stove.
  • They heat the pot or pan almost instantly.
  • The temp control is more precise
  • They don't raise ambient temps; the kitchen doesn't heat up because you're using the stove's burners. 
  • They're more energy efficient, in part because they run on 110v.
All of the above are among the reasons commercial kitchens are turning to induction cooking. 

Canning, done during the dog days of summer, can be a miserable experience, especially if you don't have AC, work in a small kitchen with a low ceiling, and can't get any cross breeze. If you have a single or double induction burner you can take it out to the deck, plug it in to any available outlet (extension cord if necessary) and all the heat and steam of canning stays outside. The cleanup of any spills happens with a garden hose. and you have plenty of room to work.
Boom!

I took this three days ago when Goulash and Haggis were three weeks old. They are both growing very fast and are full of energy. It's fun to watch goat kids run and jump for the sheer joy of it. 
Marta thinks that Goulash, because of her coloring and sex, is worth up to $300. She'd be twice that if she was registered. (No, we can't register her because her mother, in the background, isn't registered and is 1/2 Nubian, 1/2 Boer.)

By 8 a.m. I was out in the garage, doors closed, painting Sally. I should have started up under the canopy where the fenders are on saw horses. By the time I finished with the coat in the garage the wind was already up to about 10 mph and I was picking fir needles out of the wet paint. That was the first coat of color and I may install them on the car before coat #2 so I don't have this problem as I near the end of the process. 
Lightly sanding between each coat turns out to make a BIG difference. I wish I'd have tried this sooner. But I'm hoping I can sand some of the early panels smooth, apply one more coat, and do that without ordering another $20 quart of paint. 

I'm watching the Tour de France when I get up early in the morning. That may be the most grueling sport on the planet. They take two days off over the stretch of three weeks, typically riding over 100 miles a day, most of it flat out and/or up crazy steep roads in the Alps. They don't make it look easy, but they do a good job of covering the pain. Maybe because it's their life. 
I watched a guy crash today at about 35 mph. They wear helmets, but other than that it's skin against pavement, and the pavement wins every time. 
Brutal.

I talked with Joe this afternoon about my time there and how to maximize it. We're going to talk next Friday and focus on the sessions with the pastors and church leaders during the day. 
I'm getting stoked.

2 comments:

dsm said...

Actually, ambient temp will rise. Forget that the "burner" doesn't get hot, that frypan or 5 quarts of liquid still does. With a gas or electric burner, what percentage of the temperature increase in the air is attributable to the burner versus what it's heating? Hard to know, but that percentage is the only portion missing with an induction device.

Craig MacDonald said...

You're correct, of course. (You usually are.) Which is why doing the canning on the deck won't heat up the kitchen as it would even with an induction burner. My "instinct" knew that, it just didn't penetrate my frontal lobe.
However, the gas or electric burner must contribute significantly to the problem. The articles I read said that's why restaurant kitchens like induction cooking.