Versatronic Hosts His First Boil-in

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Steaming Hot!

Said: It never occurred to me that people wouldn't question that someone would travel from Iowa to PA just to watch a pot boil!

HA.. I went to Nebraska and Arizona to see an agitator or two..And I would have gone to Texas too... (Trade secret: it's not so much the machines --for me-- its the PEOPLE who LIKE the machines).

Now Vera/ Mike. Do you mean to tell me those lovely girls would not travel to see your pot boil (over)? Especially the cutie examining your navel.....Come on now. I get people here to sample my (kithcen) goodies all the time.

Hi Dan! So how does one cook potatoes after they have been riced? Is this a must-have accessory, like my chicken BP?
 
and then there was this thought....

Said: I don’t even want to be present later during the post-shindig activities. That’s why I set up video cameras in all the guest bedrooms.

Did this not tip anyone off that the above was fiction?
 
Also Said: I was very nervous about the virgin run of the Rocket-Strat-o-Matic-Boil-Master 2000. What if it seized up and sent water and oil all over the floor? So many things could go wrong and I was worried that the whole Boil-in would be a big disaster. So, before the party, I pulled the agitator ......

You may have pulled your agitator to calm down before some party, but yet another clue, tea-pots don't usually seize up and leak oil..
 
Perhaps some of us

have inhaled just a bit too much vintage detergent?

I thought it was a spoof all along (and nicely done, too.)

Love and laughter!

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Damn, I think they call it tunnel vision

I will be 100% honest, as I always try to be.

I bought that hook, line and sinker. I figured there was a group into antique kettle collecting. Of course, I thought you were kidding about the agitator and the oil, in context of a real story.

I bought all the names of the people too. I figured many here have intereseting and fun names, why not there.

My wife is a member of a group that is really into Phantom of the Opera. Her interest is mild compared to some of these people, as you can imagine. I won't even go into some of their club names.

The fact that I know nothing about kettles and interests, I was fooled. I do know that there are big collectors of SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERs! not to mention Fiestaware, so I didn't think twice.

That said, MY MOM makes the gravy too, which we just had. My wife's turkey came out awesome, (Kimurkey) but my mom did the gravy. She does that thing in the pan that your mom is doing, and I don't know what they do!

I tried gravy two times. Last time was not bad. The first time I made it, it smelled great, looked great, and tasted exactly like paste!
 
Mike, Mike, Mike!

You we're suppose to post a picture, not form a group. LOL.

You probably had everyone trying to find the thing.

Nobody's gonna trust ya now. HA! Sneaky! Pretty damn funny though. So, does it work right?
 
Prognosis

It does work. Occasionally it got kind of hung up and I just gave it a little push to get it past the hang up and then it went back to its normal revolution. It honestly did scare me a little. I thought it was going to blow up like a pressure cooker. There is steam coming out of the rockets in the picture, but the camera didn't pick up the steam much for some reason.

I'm sorry BethAnn. I guess I got a little carried away.
 
Too Funny!

Mike-

I was laughing so hard as I was reading the "Boil-In" postings and looking at the pictures...

You really had me fooled as well, until I typed "whistlingteakettle.org" into my browser, and came back with nothing.

You're quite good at writing farce. Not sure if anyone's heard of it, but I'm reminded of a local newspaper gone national called The Onion. Their business is 'fake news' and *most of the time* is hilarious--a good break from a lot of the depressing news that fills page after page of regular newspapers. You should consider becoming a corresponeant.. :)

Check it out:

http://www.theonion.com
 
Riced, smashed potatoes

Over the weekend, I saw on Ebay that someone was selling a Rice Crusher! I immediately clicked on that and saw that it was an old potato ricer; close, but no cigar.

Then someone said that the coffee maker they were selling used the filter drop method. I could not tell if it was a typo, a very messy coffee accident or a new tense, voice or person of the verb drip.
 
That was one of the best reads ever! At first I almost bought it until you started talking about pulling out the agitator, though the name of the kettle made me think as well.

Well done!
 
Steve, you boil your potatoes first then put them into the ricer. The potato comes out the little holes like little worms (vermicelli),light and fluffy. You can then add some butter or cream etc and lightly stir it with a fork. I tried it for the first time last week and must say it makes good mashed potatoes, fluffier than using the mixer or hand masher. Some ricers usually metal ones have holes in the bottom and all around the sides, mine has holes only in the bottom with interchangeable disks. The only drawback is you have to add the potato chunks one or two at a time depending on how big they are. It's an extra step but worth it I think for small amounts, large amounts I'd still use the mixer and whip em
 
Said:
I tried gravy two times. Last time was not bad. The first time I made it, it smelled great, looked great, and tasted exactly like paste!

Didn't read abut recipes presented; So here I go opening the mouth without engaging the brain.

Sounds like the flour needs to be cooked.

Add butter to a pan.
Heat it.
Add flour to the pan (in the same quantity as the butter.)
Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.
I think this is called a ROUX to this point.
Add hot drippings by ladle- slowly.
(Heat in another pan or the nuker beforehand).

When the mixture reaches the desired consitency
let it come to a boil GENTLY for about a minute.

Shoulld be no lumps or paste taste.
If it gets destroyed, (too thin/.watery) add 1 or 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, but it MUST be diluted in COLD water or milk first.

Reboil..should thicken it right up.
and if a total mess..open a jar of prepared gravy.
Now I,must go back and see if this is anything like the recipe presented.

Sorry to ramble.
 
Potatoe RIcer

I occasionally use the ricer for potatoes. After they are cooked, you force them through, add hot milk, cream (decadent of course) and butter, more decadency. They come out wonderful.

Now for the turkey gravy, I make a stock from the neck with onions, celery carrots parsley and dill, strain and put aside. When the turkey is done, I take the drippings and skim off the fat with a spoon or I have one of the fat separators, it is ia pitcher with a spout, where the fat comes to the top and can be poured off. I bring the drippings to a boil, add some of the stock, and then dissolve some corn starch in cold water and add to the drippings for the desired thickness, add salt pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic if you wish. Perfect Gracy!!
 
Huh. I, for one, am just a tad disppointed that there wasn't really a Boil-In. The notion that someone would travel from Iowa to watch a teapot is just the sort of rabid dedication/obsession I so enjoy in people.

A well-conceived and executed ruse, Mike!
 
What I learned during my first Boil-in:

Well, I guess I should put a ribbon around this thread and do a post-mortem, so to speak. But you can continue to talk about gravy if you'd like. I have learned a lot from this, both from feedback here and through email. When the guy who I would think would be the least likely to buy into the story, the guy whose sense of humor I think most closely alligns with my own said I had him going, it brought a lot of perspective to the fore for me.

What I learned during my first Boil-in:

The Good Stuff:

People can be fanatical about stuff. And when you find a bunch of people who share your same fanaticism, it's very liberating. And you are perfectly willing to accept other people's fanaticism, regardless of what the object of that fanaticism might be. You become non-judgemental and accepting in the same way that your fanaticism was accepted.

It's not all about the fanaticism. It's also about meeting the people that you share an interest with. It's about commraderie with the people you have spent a lot of your time interacting with and have come to like. It's as much about socializing as it is about the objects of your obsessions. So maybe somebody wouldn't drive from Iowa to PA just to watch a pot boil, but they would do that for the opportunity to meet the people they've become friends with.

The Bad Stuff:

All the funny banter and wit that oozes from this site aside, which I'll always enjoy, I think that eventually I may fail to find the inherent humor in this place the way I do now. When my rookie season is over, will I still double over in laughter when ganky posts an eBay auction that says "This has the famous Kelvinator centric agitation that produces lots of splashing and washday drama"? I fear that I may become so jaded to this sort of thing that at some point I may fail to find it outraegously funny. Or I'll fail to be jaw-droppingly bewildered and amazed at some point, which is a common occurance for me right now. And just in case there's any doubt, I'm laughing with you, and at myself, not laughing at anyone. I'm see my own obsessivness in others here and have a better understanding of how the people in my life see me.

BethAnn will be way more specific when instructing me on what to do from here on out and will quite possibly throw a wet towel on all my fun.
 
Magnet

Frigilux, I no sooner wrote that than found a new thread in the other forum where you said a Westy had "sexy controls".

Pete, you got it bad and your significant other is either a saint or is planning the perfect murder.

Jetcone, I don't know what the original name for my tea kettle was. Though I can't date the tea kettle I have, it is definitely old. I can tell by the plastic that is used, the patina of the metals and the amount of rust inside the kettle. I had to clean the thing up quite a bit. It's been around the block and back again.

There is a company making a modern reproduction of this tea kettle and the box it comes in calls it a Rocket Kettle. Follow the link below to take a look. Though very close, the design is actually different in a number of respects. I took my monster magnet that I use to hang a lamp from my metal kitchen ceiling and put it close to the tea kettle and it doesn't attract much. So, are you a metalurgist? What does that tell us?

This was some kind of knob on the top that was missing when I got it. Fortunately for me, I have snagged a number of awesome pot lids at flea markets, hoping to find whatever the lids went on some day. So I was able to find a good knob to attached to the top, one that looked like the jetcone of a rocket. I sent the following email to the seller:

Hi. I received the teapot yesterday. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed. The lid had it's knob or whatever you want to call it broken off at some point in it's life, leaving a hole in the lid. Because the steam can escape through the hole, this negates the whole steam propelling the rockets mechanism. You notated some of the flaws with the tea kettle, but I would say that the missing knob/handle would be the first and foremost flaw in the tea kettle. I double-checked the pictures that you listed to be sure that it wasn't damaged in shipping, but I can see that this flaw was there when the item was listed.

I'm not asking for a refund or anything, but just wanted to point out that these are the kinds of things I like to know before I bid on something. The amount of rust inside the tea kettle was also a surprise. Even if the knob was present, I probably still wouldn't want to use it as a working teapot with the coat of rust that's on it.

The seller refunded my complete purchase price plus shipping and asked me not to mention the refund in the feedback since they insist they never give refunds, but thought it was warranted in this case. So, I got the kettle for free. Everyonce in a while, you do run across a fair eBay seller.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKET-TEA-KETT...ryZ20634QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
Some ribbon, huh?

By the way, when I was doing some research to come up with some good tea kettle enthusiast names, I stumbled across this modern tea kettle that I think is out of this world fantastic. I am a complete vintage snob, but I could make an exception in this case. Next to the Futurama tea kettle, this could be the coolest tea kettle every made. Check the link.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001QNNPC/102-9607683-1225741?v=glance&n=284507
 

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