Buying kitchen virtue?

Thanks to Kitchen Daily Deal and a mail-in rebate, I was able to purchase aforesaid virtue-enabling appliance (the 750 model) for a whopping $85! Not bad for an item that normally retails at about $250 and even Target sells for only $200.

Is it possible to buy virtue? I think we all must agree that it isn't, but I can certainly buy virtuously!

The real question is, is buying something so good for so much less than it is worth the act of a properly virtuous person? Here are other variations of the same question:

• By spending only 85 bucks for years of aid in chopping and slicing by a well-made machine, do I dishonor the labor, both manual and intellectual, that went into its production?
• In demanding the lowest price possible, the "steal", the bargain basement blowout, am I buying virtuously?
  
• If I wait to buy an item until the retailer is desperate to dump extra merchandise, am I doing something akin to blackmail?
  
• Should I insist on paying at least the cost of production when searching for my bargains?

I am not looking for a laissez-faire reply referring vaguely to market forces making any good-faith economic exchange ethically ok, but a more wide-ranging discussion of what it could mean in principle to purchase virtuously.

Is there such a field as consumer ethics?

Who says that even if I like chicken pie, it can't like me back? See, it's even smiling at me!


Basic idea:
1-2 slices of bacon (opt.), sliced thinly
2 leeks, chopped roughly
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 carrots, chopped finely
2-4 chicken breasts (or whatever), chopped into small pieces
1/2 - 1 tsp. thyme
handful of mushrooms, chopped roughly
2 large handfuls of peas, straight from the freezer
hefty slurge of dry sherry or marsala wine
1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
puff pastry

• Preheat oven to 400 F. Heat a little oil over medium heat and throw leeks, garlic, and carrots in (and bacon, if you feel like it); cook for a few minutes while you chop the mushrooms and chicken
  
• Toss in chicken and stir around furiously; sprinkle over thyme; cook, stirring infrequently until the chicken doesn't look super-pink, like it will give you salmonella (you know what I mean), but don't over-do it. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Throw in mushrooms, peas, sherry/marsala, and soup, stir together and let it simmer away while you roll out the puff pastry to the size of your pan
• When pastry is ready, pour chicken mixture into a 9x13 or similar type baking dish and top with pastry. Cut a vent or two and use any scraps to make pretty or silly designs
• Bake at about 15-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Let it cool 10 min or so, or you'll burn your tongue and it will slide all over the place.
  

Add also small cubed potatoes, celery, turnips, parsnips, etc. Whatever will cook quickly... :)

Accompaniments: Newcastle Brown Ale or Blackthorn Cider for lighter tipplers like Ladybug

In aid of kitchen virtue

I've made the decision - someday, I want to buy a food processor. And thanks to the good folks at Cooks Illustrated and Cuisine at Home I know which one: the glorious Kitchenaid 760, with its blade storage, mini bowl and mini blade, and extra work bowl. It slices, it chops, it juices, it cuts butter into flour, kneads batter into dough, purees, shreds, grates, and probably could do cartwheels if the motor weren't so heavy.

It is also the priciest model I could have possibly settled on, so the price-hunting has begun, and will likely continue for months on end until a great deal comes along, so why am I, thrifty-hearted (or 'tight', Drumstick's most loving epithet) that I am, willing to shell out such a chunk of change?

All in the aid of a proper feast, of course! One which we can put on without exhausting ourselves so much that we can't enjoy as well as we would like. Quick work will be made of chopping carrots, onions, nuts, pureeing sweet potatoes, slicing potatoes, and suddenly Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and just plain ol' Tuesday night with the family can delight the cooks even more.

A virtuous appliance, indeed.

How to do Thanksgiving, from two greenhorns flushed after a modest success

So we had our first ever "on our own" Thanksgiving last Thursday, which was a blast. A few people brought drinks and starters--including a lovely tart by Anne and a salad by John--but we handled all the classic dishes, which is no mean feat when you don't have a car and live in a country that: (1) doesn't understand the use of pumpkin in desserts and the wonder of cranberries, and (2) thinks stuffing ought to be little balls of gluey breadcrumbs.

Well, it all came off ok, although I still find turkeys stressful. And we learned a few things for the record. First of all, I realized how much can be done ahead of the day to make the day easier! Second, I realized the IDEAL Thanksgiving is a potluck, where everyone brings a part of the show, and the host just handles the bird. So here's what we did:

Wednesday PM
- make cranberry sauce
- bake sweet potatoes and puree
- prepare pie crusts

Thursday AM

- finish pies
- make up and bake: stuffing, sweet potato casserole, honey-roasted parnsips

Thursday afternoon
- pop in turkey and prepare gravy
- peel potaoes

Just before dinner
- take out turkey and pop in rolls to warm/bake
- boil potatoes
- take out rolls and put in stuffing, sweet potato casserole, parnsips in oven to re-heat
- finish gravy
- warm peas and any other veg
- carve turkey

then...FEAST!

So here's the deal - if other people bring the stuffing, sweet potatoes, veg, potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, and pies, then all you have to do is pop other peoples' work into the oven for the 30 minutes while the turkey is resting. Then all you've done is turkey and gravy! OR if you're 'people' all you've done is one casserole or some such. Ahhhhh....sweet bliss...

For us, it all turned out amazingly well, although not the hottest food ever, and one of the 3 (!) small birds for 22 people+ was a leeeetle underdone, but no matter. We expected bumps in the road, so that when they came it was quite all right. The pumpkin chiffon pie plooped on us, but still tasted nummy. It was a great feast too, lovely atmosphere, good friends, lots of wine but never too much quaffed, just good fun, and much generosity of spirit.

Art in Everyday Life

Here's just an example of Drumstick's ability to see the art in everyday life.
His eye turned a piece of pragmatism into a composition:

Woman, with headpiece and flowers in the morning. 2006.