Boil Alert Disk 

I am so glad you are finding value in The Blind Kitchen. All of the credit for the cupcake/braille video goes to my videographer, Edgar Garcia Chavez of NAYO Creative Productions. Who took my basic idea of using a 6-cavity muffin pan as a braille cell - and took it to the next level! I will make sure he hears your lovely compliment.

Thank you for your interest on the Boil alert disk, for more information on how to acquire the product visit the link below: theblindkitchen.com/product/boil-alert-disk/

Thank you for this question. I also love sauteed spinach. Losing your vision is stressful - but cooking is possible. The secret to sauteing spinach is to treat it as the delicate plant that it is. I first clean the spinach and remove the stems. Then I put a pat or 2 of butter in a pan. The secret is to cook over low heat and for a very short period of time. I keep the pan on low heat, just hot enough to melt the butter. When I hear it start to sizzle, I use a wooden spoon to move the butter around and allow it to sizzle, over low heat for about 30 seconds more after it has all melted. Then add the spinach in all at once. Spinach is made mostly of water so as it heats through, steam will come out of the pan. I only cook spinach for about 30 seconds in a single layer. Any longer will make it soggy and will turn the taste to bitter as the sugars are overcooked. After 30 seconds, remove the pan from the heat. The pan will not cool immediately and so the spinach will cook a little more. Overcooking the spinach is the most common error. If you are cooking a large amount of spinach, cook it in batches. If your intention is to saute spinach, it needs to cook quickly and come in contact with the fat and the pan. If the spinach is piled to high in the pan, the heat will actually steam most of the spinach not in contact with the oil or the pan. And that will taste different than sauteed spinach. Lastly, but of great importance, is that you cannot a good sauted spinach from frozen. The pieces that come frozen, the pieces are too smakll and too wet to get a good result. You may have noticed that I use a wooden spoon. If you want to learn more about my thoughts on using a wooden spoon for many cooking projects, watch this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ra0wOnMn2Rc.html. Also, for convenience in slicing butter gollow this link the Butter Slicer I use: theblindkitchen.com/product/butter-slicer/ Happy Cooking!

also, do you recommend stainless steel or ceramic? I have heard concerns about the stainless steel scratching pots. But I only use stainless steel pots and aluminum pots for water bath canning

@@thecooldinoman Thank you for this excellent question. You are exactly right on the concern with the steel version scratching non-stick surfaces. Otherwise they work fine. The only other advantage I can see to the ceramic version is that it is significantly smaller in diameter, and if your bottles take up the majority of space in the bottom of the pan - it seems the disk that has the smaller footprint would make more sense. As for the 45-minute length of time, that is not a problem. I have people tell me that they forgot about the boiling and walked out of earshot of the pan, and the pan boiled dry and the ceramic disk was just fine. While we are on the subject, there was also a glass boil alert disk on the market and it was also significantly larger than the ceramic version. But, when they accidently dropped into the sink on the floor they broke easily. That is why I quit using those. I do not know if there are even available anymore. I was afraid it might break when I lowered it into the pot and force me to throw away good food. Here is a link to the ceramic boil alert disk. theblindkitchen.com/product/boil-alert-disk/ Happy cooking! 😊

It was one of the most challenging problems to solve when I was losing my vision. If you are familiar with screen readers (such as VoiceOver or talkBack, your phone, computer or tablet can “read” recipes to you line by line. In culinary school I could not have any of these devices in a commercial kitchen, so we found another way. There is a device out there called a “Victor Reader Stream” and you can transfer the recipe you want read to you onto this little machine and press one very easy to feel tactile button to pause and play the document as you gather ingrediens and complete the steps in the recipe. You could also get a recording device and have someone read the recipe while you record it, and you can pause and play while you go through the recipe at your own speed. You can also call a “Be My Eyes” volunteer and they can read a recipe to you but you will have to have some way to take it down as they cannot stay with you through the whole recipe preparation. There is another visual interpretation service called AIRA, and for a small fee you can have a trained live person work with you to find the best way to do this. I would suggest that before you try any of these ideas, follow this link that we have on our website to listen to a discussion group that discusses this very topic. It is facilitated by Hadley (an esteemed education resource for the Blind and visually impaired) and there are blind cooks who call in and they have many ideas and solutions that I am not familiar with, but you may be and that would provide a better answer for you. Feel free to contact me through the website htttps://theblindkitchen.com and perhaps we can arrange to talk so I can learn more about you and maybe come up with even a different answer. Here is the link to the discussion: theblindkitchen.com/whats-cooking-discussion-group/ Happy Cooking!