TSM for the detailed report, I was really hoping you'd do that. I had a cartoon vision of you flying around the kitchen.
GREAT JOB!!
Now, please tell us about your brother's reaction to all of his wonderful housewarming gifts!
I felt like a cartoon, I have been thinking about doing some videos to send friends of mine, one of my brothers friends wants to know how to make dinner for dates he takes home, lol...
I figured one for making home made pasta, marinara, and bread for 2- with just a few eggs, flour, water, tomatoes, an onion, olive oil, a packet of yeast, and some spices {garlic, pepper, salt, sugar, etc}. And just use a fork, knife, rolling pin, and a couple pans to do it.
That is where I really like to cook, just a simple dinner for two, I will often make my kids a pizza then make a tiny batch of pasta dough, hand cut it, boil it and make a small batch of marinara with just fresh toms, garlic, red wine, oil... and roll a couple small braids for me and my wife, it is such a nice clean pasta and bread dinner, with a couple glasses of red wine, that is what cooking is about to me. I can make that dinner start to finish in 30 minutes {If I make the dough ahead of time when I do the kids pizza}... Dinner for 2 is fun, dinner for 30 is super stressful...
Also, thank you for asking about my brother, he LOVES everything, he was blown away by the knife set, and the mixer sent him over the top, only 1 person at the party even ever seen one of them mixers before!!!
On the way to his house for the party, my youngest son said "did you get him flour and stuff to make bread", me and my wife looked at each other and laughed, I then stopped at the market and got him, flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil, and cornmeal. Sure enough as soon as he was done opening all the gifts {he was very emotional} he wanted to make some bread, we turned his oven on, and my wife washed the mixer bowl and his new pans.
That mixer is awesome for bread dough!!! It mixed the dough perfectly and pretty fast. We rushed it and only let it sit for about 20 minutes then rolled it and let it sit about 30 minutes, then cooked them... But they came good for the first thing he cooked in his house.
His friends chipped in and bought him a snow blower which was really nice, he has a large driveway to do and 2 walk ways so that will be handy, its really nice probably a $1700 unit!!!
He is off to a great start, he texted me last night for a recipe for chicken marsala, I emailed it to him and he made it tonight. He texted me and said his was a lot dryer than mine, and I told him to lower the heat and add the wine sooner, he will get there. He also said he bought a twine holder, he bought a sirloin and cut himself like 20 steaks. He is a steak and potato guy for sure, but I reminded him, he only eats red meat once a week twice max, he just bought 4 months of steaks, lol... But he said he will be cooking for friends that come over so it will go fast. He is having 8 people over for dinner and drinks saturday night, and then next week he is doing a big super bowl party..