And what did we buy today?

PRR

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Joined 2003
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>...cast-iron would be ideal, but with a glass top range, I’d be worried.
> the gas-fitter advised that with 5 connections on the existing line, we’re at the limit on our meter.

Aside from smacking the glass-- all cast iron I have seen has a raised rim on the bottom. The glass-top really-really-really needs FLAT full-contact bottom for any heavy cooking.

The number of taps on a line must be figured by how many can be in-use at the SAME time. If you have a winter kitchen and a summer kitchen, and only one cook, half the loads are likely idle. However you may have a gas dryer and forget it is running when you go to cook the goose. And you may have gas hot water which is very likely to come-on as you prepare several courses on the cooker. Or you may have gas heat, small to huge, which in not-warm weather will come-on when it feels like it.

It can be a problem. We have an on-demand gas water heater. Gas consumption much larger than any other load in the house. We started getting a half-burnt smell in the house. At the time it was fed from a fairly small propane bottle. Which we let get low. In cold weather. At full roar the manifold pressure dropped from nominal 11" to 9", 7", etc. The dumb burner could not compensate or shut-off. Once we traced and understood the problem (call Guy before 20%!) it was all "DUH!".

The AGA Handbook has data for figuring BTU versus pipe size and length. Being Canadian you may need the Metrics? The meter is rarely a limit in residential gas, but the feed pipe from the street sets a pretty strict limit, and the in-house main may be hard to up-size. (Mine was a joke and I over-estimated from maybe-1/2 to for-sure-3/4 when I had it replaced.)
 
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I can't say being a big fan of the non stick pans, sooner than later they all fail no matter it's Teflon, ceramic or some other exotics, that's why I make sure it's a stainless steel pan to begin with so when the layer goes I will polish up then pan, see picture of my old Teflon pan, will never again shy away from scratchy forks and knifes, and frying every day it becomes a tool that must work so no pussy footing around. :cool:

By chance I discovered a way to remove these Teflon and ceramic coatings easily when I was going to clean a ceramic coated pan with sodium hydroxide diluted with water but I had forgotten on the stove albeit at lowest temperature but with the water evaporated it became very concentrated and the heat made it dissolve like water paint (in the case of Teflon coating the Teflon comes of as a thin skin), add some sodium hydroxide in liquid form and warm up the pan gently, pH 13+ bites good but be very careful to not get it on the skin.

btw, I have one of those cheap portable Chinese induction hobs (grabbed some pic from the net), I don't know how those reputable brands have programmed theirs, but these el cheapos, or at least mine doesn't heat continuously below half the max power rating but switches into intermittent on-off cycling mode by as much as few seconds and it causes the cooking/frying to continuously over- and under heat which IMO doesn't work well for anything else than a fully filled up pot with water, say for cooking potatoes.

Have some across on the net people talking about these china hobs having a PIC processor and modding the FW, so have been thinking if I ever get the energy maybe I would re-program that hob doing continuous heating at all power levels.
 

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The Padernos are “ reinforced with titanium” - at less than a week old, life span will be interesting to monitor.

A separate cooking top of any type just for cast iron pans - Cal, have you actually met Susan? That’s one of two things that will never happen.

Our gas water heater is also an on demand model (Rinnai), and aside from the lag from cold start to get at full temp to the kitchen - run has gotta be at least 50’ total when you count all the bends, etc.- we’ve never had an issue, aside from dirt from city lines clogging the input filter which is an absolute bitch to access for cleaning. That’s definitely its Achilles heal.
 

PRR

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Joined 2003
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Our on-demand (Bosch) is on vacation. We now use electric storage. Despite having hot-water in the top of the tank all the time, and optimizing the piping, there is still a considerable lag at the sink. Part of that is modest well pressure, therefore less flow than when we were on city water which FLOWED.

The curse of the Bosch is that full-open it only warmed our cold well water, but when you turned-down it would run HOT, scalding; then a little lower it would run cold. There's supposed to be a flow-balance. I've never seen the flame modulate; as you say, dirt is trouble. I did briefly try a Heat Booster, which tempers hot water to warm water. The mid-flow HOT was moderated, but the wide-open cool and near-shut cold remained. I keep the pilot running because when the sewer freezes it is valuable to have endless hot water to run into the line; I can flip some valves and be running on gas.
 
My all-time favourite omelette pan is a LeCreuset cast iron one that once had a teflon non-stick coating. I bought it cheap, removed the teflon coating plus the underlying enamel using a paint stripping wheel in my angle grinder, then seasoned it with lard and have been using it happily ever since. Truly wonderful pan - perfect size (22cm) for a three-egg omelette, great weight, incredibly even heating thanks to being cast iron and nothing ever sticks to it.
 

PRR

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Joined 2003
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And what did we buy today?

Lunch at Dairy Queen.

For many of you, this is no big deal. But this far north on Rt 1, we don't have every possible burger-depot. As ex-Jersey folks, Dairy Queen is in our blood (why we take pink pills), but the nearest one was an hour away.

They kept saying DQ was coming to 'our' town, until we got tired of waiting. Finally they poured a pad on the old Ford dealership and raised some walls. That takes time...... and brutal weather does not help.

Unexpectedly, we saw the drive-thru line all the way around the building. OPEN! Well, business was so good that half the menu was out of stock, waiting on the truck. (It came as we were leaving.)

So not audio, not long-lasting, and not even good for us. Still glad we went.
 
Dairy Queen sounds pedestrian. Isn't 'merica the land of frozen custard with double digit milk fat? I had some in Milwaukee but have to admit I couldn't tell the difference from ice cream.

Bought a ticket to the motorcycle show and went today. Loved the Honda booth, they actually introduced a new bike right up my alley, the CRF250F. Signs of the cities woes were there though: attendance was surprisingly low and the KTM/Husky displays were outright shockingly small.
 
Lunch at Dairy Queen. As ex-Jersey folks, Dairy Queen is in our blood

After picking up a job application at the 1 year old Motorola plant in late 1972 and driving back towards civilization I came across a Dairy Queen where I stopped to eat lunch and fill out the application. The "Brazier Burger" looked and tasted like it was fresh road kill where a cow from the surrounding dairy had wandered into the road. It would be 20 some years before I went there again. It still sucked, and was shut down shortly after since all the major fast food chains had come to feed the now huge Motorola plant.

The DQ here in small town West Virginia has decent food for a reasonable price. I still get funny looks walking in there in a T-shirt and flip flops in the middle of winter, but the girl only has to ask "medium or large" (cookie dough Blizzard). It is one of the cheapest ways to quiet down a mini-van full of grandkids.
 
Hee! Cookie-Dough Blizzard is my fave too.

I won't pass on an Oreo Blizzard either. Usually one of the grandkids doesn't finish theirs and I get to eat it.

I spent the day outside, either at the table saw, or router table. It was 30 to 40 degrees F, but sunny and windy, hence minimal clothing, a pair of jeans.

A day like that requires lots of liquids and calories. My wife wants to lose weight while I'm trying to at least keep from losing any more. I have lost about 30 pounds of mostly muscle mass over the last 15 years.

Tonight she wanted salad......not anywhere near what I need, so I go through the fridge and find leftover meatloaf, and CHEESE, a good size block of Amish Baby Swiss, both went in my salad........all gone!

The next decent day will see some spindle sander and belt sander time.

I never left home today, but I bought hotel and swap space reservations for the Dayton Hamfest in May. The hotels fill up fast.