christine-murphy dot net

The one pictured here, that is.

As you may know, our landladies recently replaced our still-perfectly-good stove with a new one.  I did not ask for this, and was given no input as to what type of stove I wanted.  You’d think that after having lived here for something like 15 years now, I would have been asked first.  If I’d had the choice, frankly, I’d have just said that the old one was fine, no need to spend money on a new one.  Seriously, I don’t understand when people forever see the need to replace things that are still in perfect working order.  We’re the sort of people to use things until they die.

This is the stove we got.  If I were the one who was making the purchase, I would have read the reviews first.  For the most part, the reviews are good, but the few bad ones concern me enough, in that they would have made me NOT buy this particular stove.  For one thing, I’m concerned about the computers on the inside going on the fritz, it supposedly is something that would cost $400 to fix.  One person said they had this happen after using the self-clean feature for the first time, and was told by a Sears technician that this is a common problem.  Now I am afraid to use the self-cleaning feature.  I haven’t used it yet, because I’ve only had the stove for a few months, and the oven has not gotten dirty enough yet.

I also don’t like that there seem to be a million restrictions as to what you can and can’t use on it to cook in.  I had heard that cast iron is not recommended; however, I have been using mine anyway, because other people say they have used it on these kinds of cooktops, and have been okay.  You just have to be careful not to drop the heavy iron pan on the glass, or drag it on the surface, lest it get scratched.  So far, no problems.

Look at this, from the owner’s manual (you can click it for bigger, will open in new tab/window):

This is just a small part of the whole book.  It seems that I’m expected to jump through a zillion hoops to keep this cooktop from being scratched or broken.  What a wonderful way to kill my joy in cooking, huh?

Anyhoo, that leads to the stovetop smoker, which I definitely CAN’T use on this stove.  Not only does it break two rules of the cooktop (the bottom is not smooth, it’s ridged, and it’s big enough to overhang even the largest burner), but even Camerons, the manufacturer, warns against this.  This is from the manual from the smoker:

Well, since Camerons makes a big deal out of telling people this, I’d best heed their advice.  So I ordered the single burner hot plate seen above.  It’s mostly so I can use the smoker, but given the fact that this damned cooktop is supposedly so fragile and needs to be treated with kid gloves…it might end up being my ONLY cooktop.  Because if this stove breaks, it’s staying broken until we move out and the landladies opt to fix or replace it for the next tenant, and they can go and suck eggs if they expect US to pay for it.

Either they will blame me for breaking it, and refuse to pay for the repair…or they WILL pay for the repair, but cut corners by hiring one of their regular cast of skeevy workmen, rather than a Sears technician.  And I will NOT have the skeevy workmen in my house, not when I’m here alone (landladies often go out and allow skeevy workmen free reign of the basement and their own unit upstairs).  Even if Mike were here, I still might not want them in here, every single person they hire is a smoker, and none will respect our rule about no smoking in our apartment.  Mike is severely allergic to cigarette smoke.  If he is exposed to it for too long, his entire face puffs up to the point where he can hardly breathe, and then I’d have to call 911.

And I am NOT going to pay Sears to repair it myself, not when I don’t own it.  All the law says is that the landladies must fix the stove if it breaks, nothing about who they have to hire to fix it.  I just don’t like the skeevy workmen; I have seen cleaner, classier looking guys panhandling on the streets of Boston.

Mike is also severely allergic to whatever additives they put in supermarket smoked sausage; this is why I got into sausage making and bought the smoker in the first place.  I also enjoy using it for other things.  Why should I have to give that up, because of someone else’s stupid choice of a stove?

So if the cooktop breaks, I’m keeping quiet about it.  I’ll just use the hot plate, my George Foreman grill and rotisserie, my toaster oven, and my NuWave oven to cook.  I’ll do my best to be careful, but it just makes me nervous all the time, with all the warnings about the alleged fragility of this thing.  If I had my way, I’d never have agreed to this stove.  If we owned our own house, I’d want a gas/propane stove, but that is not possible here.  I’m not a huge fan of the electric coil stoves, but as a frequent cook who gives a stove a good workout, they are the lesser of two evils.  I am convinced now that these glass-top stoves are more for people who hardly ever cook anything, and want something that just sits in the kitchen and looks pretty.

It works just fine, I just don’t like the fact that it is too easy to break it, and very expensive to fix if it does break.  And that doesn’t even include the inner computers inside the thing.

Gack.

Tonight, after the Super Bowl, there will be the debut of a new show on CBS called Undercover Boss.  You can click on that link to learn more about the show, and watch some preview videos.

The basic gist of the thing is this dude who’s the CEO of Waste Management goes to work as a regular employee; he does things like riding the garbage truck and picking up trash, cleaning nasty old porta-potties, stuff like that.  He learns a lot about what it is like to be a regular worker, and comes away from the experience with a new appreciation for his employees.

If I ruled the world, I would create a similar TV show called “Applebee’s Slaves”.  My show would not only feature top-level executives at the Applebee’s restaurant chain working as cooks and servers in their own restaurants…but they would also  be forced to live on their pay.  For six months.

The fact is that these higher-ups, who do nothing but sit in their ivory offices all day, pressure their store managers to cut costs in any way they can.  This includes forcing employees on the closing shift to work for free.  I am NOT making this up.  I worked as a cook for that hellhole years ago, and they did it to me.  The restaurant closed at midnight, and that’s what time the managers were told to clock us out.  But we were not allowed to go home until the kitchen was cleaned to the manager’s satisfaction.  This could often take as long as two hours, depending on how busy the place was close to closing time.

I was paid ten bucks an hour.  So if I had to close every night, as was usually the case, and worked five nights a week, I was basically cheated out of $100 per week.  Money that we desperately needed.  At the time, Mike was still going to school at MIT, and the only money we had to live on were from my pay and his student loans.  It wasn’t much, that was for sure.  We couldn’t even afford a car at the time…after Mike’s old Ford Bronco II died its final death, we sold it to a junkyard for $75, canceled the insurance, and took the bus.

$100 a week may seem like peanuts to these hoity-toity higher-ups, but for us, it was a lot of money.  These people make millions in salary and bonuses for doing very little hard work; they can afford to buy diamonds, fancy cars, and other expensive toys whenever they want to.  They never have to worry about how they are going to pay their rent and buy food.  They think nothing about taking food out of people’s mouths, in order to be able to afford to pay themselves high salaries.  It is truly sickening.

What they did to me and my co-workers is illegal, but Applebee’s covered it up well enough so that none of us would have any way to prove that we worked until 2AM, while only being paid for no later than 12AM.  I have no idea if they still engage in this practice or not; even if they stopped doing this, I will still never patronize another Applebee’s restaurant ever again.  They stole thousands of dollars in pay from me and my co-workers during the time I was there, they will never get another penny from me.  Ever.

If the people who made these financial decisions were forced to live our lives, on what they paid us, for six months…no dipping into bank accounts or anything…maybe, just MAYBE, they’d understand and change their ways.

I finally had enough, and walked out on my shift one night, after the manager, in his usual cost-cutting ways, cut the entire kitchen staff for the night except me and some new guy who was on his second day, and wasn’t fully trained yet.  They even sent the dishwasher home.

Then it got busy.  Very busy.  The new guy behind the line was almost useless, so I pretty much had to work all three stations.  I was getting yelled at by the manager and servers for not getting all the tickets out within the 15 minute time allotment.  Yes, they had a rule that all food had to be out within 15 minutes of the ticket coming in.  They didn’t care if the kitchen was understaffed or not..dammit, MAKE that food magically appear on the plate!

I was getting very tired of being yelled at over circumstances I had no control over.  It was the manager’s fault for cutting most of the kitchen staff, but did he offer to come behind the line and help me?  Nope, he’s too good for that!

But as I saw more and more dishes piling up at the dishwashing station, I snapped.  I realized that I’d be working until 3, maybe 4AM, doing not just the regular cleaning behind the line, but dishes as well.  For not pay once the clock hit midnight.  I said, screw this, I’m not going to take it any more.  I’m not a slave; I expect to be paid for all of the work I do, especially if I’m doing the jobs of two or three other people in addition to my own.  As the tickets kept coming in, I walked off the line, went into the back room and got my bag and my jacket, and walked right through the crowded dining room toward the door.

The manager chased after me, begged me not to go, promised he would help me if I’d stay.  Where was this offer when I needed it, when I was literally begging for help?  Screw him. let him work the line by himself and see what it’s like!  I turned around, flipped him the bird in front of all of those customers, and walked out the door.

And it felt SO GOOD!

I found another job about a week later.  I simply told the truth as to why I left Crapplebee’s, that I was being overworked and not being paid for some of my time.

This is why I have so much resentment toward overpaid executives who do little work, while they allow the ones who do most of the work to suffer.  This is why I hate companies like AIG, who take OUR tax dollars to get bailed out of a mess that THEY caused, and still hand out hefty bonuses to people who already make plenty.  For once, I want to see these people walk a few miles in our shoes, and see how they like it!

A while back, our old cordless phone died.  Okay, the whole thing didn’t die, but one of the handsets did.  It was a cheap phone that came with just two handsets.  One of them was burning out the battery way too fast.  At first, when the battery died, I thought it had just died a natural death, so I bought a new one.  It was a battery like this one.  A few months later, that battery died.  So it was time to buy a new phone.

Another issue I was having were tons of unwanted calls from various numbers.  There were two different collection agencies who kept calling us, looking for someone else.  I guess the deadbeat either had this number before we did, or just pulled it out of their ass when they gave it out to the creditor.  In any case, it was getting seriously annoying.  One thing we learned a long time ago is not to argue with these collections people, even if you’re not who they are looking for, and do not owe them the money.  They do not care, once they reach an actual person, they will just try to collect the debt from that person.  I don’t know what the laws are about this sort of thing, but even if there are laws against it, these collection agency franchise places seldom obey laws anyway.

Our old phone did not have a Call Block feature, nor does Verizon offer it around here.  So, when I was shopping for a new phone, this was a must-have feature, I would not buy a new phone that didn’t have it.

When we went to the maul last weekend, I looked at various phones in stores, and I chose this one from Panasonic, model KX-TG6433M (pictured above).  I know I could have gotten it a little cheaper online than I did at Sears, but for one thing, I wanted to see the phones in person, and for another, I didn’t want to wait to have it shipped.  The collection calls have been coming in every other day now, from two different numbers, and I was getting sick of it.  I just wanted to buy a new phone, take it home, hook it up, and get it over with.

I absolutely LOVE this phone!  It is very easy to use and program.  I had the annoying phone numbers stores on the old phone, and it was easy to input them into the Call Block feature of the new one.  Now, when the collections people call again, the phone will ring once, very briefly.  The phone will recognize it as a blocked number, and then the person on the other end gets a busy signal.  It probably won’t stop these people from calling, but it does stop them from leaving messages on the machine.  It does make things much less annoying.  The phone will allow up to 30 undesirable numbers to be blocked…hopefully, I will never have that many, but it’s good to know, anyway.  Please note that in order for the Call Block feature to work on this phone, you need to subscribe to Caller ID from your phone company.  Caller ID is one of the greatest inventions ever, in my opinion, when it comes to keeping people from annoying you on the phone.  This Call Block feature serves very well to enhance that.

Speaking of Caller ID, this phone also has a Talking Caller ID feature.  At first I thought this would be annoying, but it can be turned off if desired.  However, I find that I like it.

I am horribly near-sighted.  If I am sleeping in, and the phone rings, I either have to fumble to find my glasses, and put them on so I can see the Caller ID, or just pick up the handset and bring it within a millimeter of my eyeballs so I can see who’s calling, and decide if I want to be bothered with them or not.  If I’m not asleep, but not right next to the phone, I can hear who’s calling, and not have to trip over cats to get to the phone and see who it is.

I was sleeping in this morning, because I had some insomnia issues for the past couple of nights.  Phone rang at about 9:45 AM.  The robotic voice said, “call from Plimoth Plantation“.  Since they are not annoying, I was able to pick up and talk to them without having to fumble for my glasses.  They just wanted to know what we wanted for the Valentine’s Day dinner that we’re going to there next weekend.  Chicken or beef?  They forgot to ask when I called the other day to make the reservations.  In case you care, I wanted the chicken, I figured that Mike would want the beef.  He wasn’t home for me to ask him, but I know how much he likes dead cow meat.

Even if you shut off the talking Caller ID, the display on the handset is very easy to read, even if your vision is not the best.  Another great feature that the old phone didn’t have, the old one was hard to read.

This phone comes with one base unit, two additional charging cradles, and three handsets.  The base is here on my desk, which is in the living room.  A second one is in the bedroom, and I put the third one in the kitchen, where I didn’t have one before.  The system can be expanded to up to six handsets, not that we’ll ever need that many.  It also comes with a wall-mounting unit that you can use for one of the cradles (which I didn’t opt to use) and a belt clip, which I probably will use for when I go downstairs to do laundry.

Rather than the type of battery that the old one used, this uses rechargeable AAA NiMH batteries, which can be found in nearly every store these days.  I like that a lot, too.

So, if you are still using a landline, and are in the market for a new phone, definitely check this one out!  I love mine!

I made another recipe from the Samuel Adams website…Cornish Hens in Sam Adams Cream Stout.  The recipe called for four Cornish game hens, but there are just two of us here.  So I took the leftover two hens, as well as leftover veggies and gravy, and made what I call a cross between a pot pie and a shepherd’s pie.

You may not have enough gravy for this, but you can always make stock from the game hen carcasses, combine that with whatever gravy you have, to make a thick veloute sauce to coat the meat and veggies.  You should do this even if you do have enough gravy (you will need about two cups or so of sauce).

I picked the meat off the leftover two Cornish hens, it came to about two cups.  I put the carcasses into my 3.5 quart slow-cooker, threw in a chopped carrot, a chopped celery stalk with leaves, and an unpeeled onion, quartered.  I also threw in a bay leaf, and a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme.  Added water to cover, and cooked on LOW for several hours.  Strain out the solids, put the liquid in a saucepan on the stove, and boil it down until you have about 2 cups of concentrated stock.  This can be done in advance, and if you don’t need the stock for the shepherd’s pot pie, you can refrigerate or freeze it for future use.

Next, you need about 3-4 cups of leftover vegetables.  I had peas, carrots, and corn…the frozen variety is fine.  Place the veggies and the meat in a baking dish (I used a 9-inch square one), combine well.

The Cream Stout gravy will likely thicken up in the fridge.  Mix it with some of the stock to make 2 cups or so, you need just enough to cover the contents of the baking pan.  This should be thick enough on its own if you have enough gravy.  If not, make a roux by melting 3 Tablespoons butter, mix in 4 Tablespoons flour, then pour in the hot stock/gravy mixture.  Cook until thickened.  If it’s too thick, add a little more stock.

Now pour this sauce over the meat/veggies in the baking dish, just enough to cover.

The Cornish hen recipe suggests serving it with mashed potatoes, which I did.  So, in lieu of a pie crust for a typical chicken/game hen pot pie sort of thing, I did the shepherd’s pie route, and covered the top of the dish with the leftover mashed potatoes.  Refrigerated mashed potatoes can be hard to spread, so warm them gently in the microwave until they are of a spreadable consistency.

Bake at 400° F for about 20 minutes, lower the temp to 350°F, bake for another 15 minutes or so, until heated through, and the potatoes on top have turned golden brown.  Remove from oven, let sit for five minutes or so, then spoon up and eat.  Perfect for a cold day, when you are tempted to run south of the border and look for the best weight loss surgery Mexico has to offer! It’s okay, you can get out and run and lose the weight in the spring!

Here is the recipe for the Cornish hens with Cream Stout…

4 Cornish game hens
Salt & pepper
2 Tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped juniper berries
1 bay leaf
1 (12 ounce) bottle Sam Adams Cream Stout
1 cup heavy cream

Season the hens generously with salt & pepper. Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat, and brown the hens on all sides, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the hens to a plate, as well as all but 3 Tablespoons of the fat.

Put the onion and garlic in the pan, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, stir, cook for 2 minutes. Stir in juniper berries, bay leaf, and Sam Adams Cream Stout, and bring to a boil. Add 1/4 cup of the heavy cream, and the hens, and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook 30 minutes, or until the hens are done.

Remove the hens to a warm platter, and skim off any fat from the sauce. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of cream, and cook until it just begins to thicken. Season with salt & pepper to taste, and serve.

Notes: if you can’t find juniper berries (they are hard to find around here for some reason), throw in a splash of gin, or just leave it out. And I confess that I didn’t use Same Adams Cream Stout, I used Guinness. That was what I had on hand, also, the store I went to did not have the Sam stout.

Enjoy!  And waste not, want not!

If you’re a Bare Escentuals fanatic like me, you know how wonderful their mineral veil product is.  The only way I could have thought of to make it any better was to add SPF to it.  And now, it’s here.  Check it out!

So now, in addition to giving your face that airbrushed, finished look, you can protect your skin from the sun at the same time.  As someone who likes to go to lots of baseball games in the summer, and who burns easily, this is especially important.

I actually already have a container of this stuff…it came with the Sea Yourself kit that was a “Today’s Special Value” at QVC last year.  The kit is still available at the Q, albeit at a higher price than the TSV offer.  Most of the products in the kit have some SPF protection, which was why I bought it.

All BE foundations have an SPF of 15.  When I used the foundation together with the 25 SPF mineral veil, it worked VERY well.  If it worked well for me, it will work well for anyone.  I really hated the idea of putting greasy sunscreen on my face (which was pretty much the ONLY way, until I discovered BE).  But the minerals are NOT greasy at all, nor do they dry out your skin.  Perfection!

Also, you can never apply too much mineral veil.  Carry some with you, perhaps in this compact, and you can reapply as needed during the day.  That way, your face will always be protected from the harmful rays of the sun!

I’m very happy that this product is now available on its own…I would not want to keep buying whole kits just to get this one item.  If I had to do that, I’d have to break out the job search paperwork so that I could afford this! But the 25 SPF product is the same price as the regular mineral veil, $19. That may seem like a lot, but one container will probably last you all or most of the summer.  As with most BE products, a little goes a long way!