Be a ‘Man on Fire’ for your wife with tips, tricks and recipes that turn Mother’s Day into Mother’s Month

Gentlemen. Dudes. Bros. The Elmira blog is about to get. Very. Very. Real. The info we’re about to share with you could have a serious impact on your happiness — or lack thereof — for the rest of the year. Ignore us and prepare for months of cold shoulders, sideways glances and general unrest. Listen to us — follow our lead — and you’re likely to enjoy the peace and contentment that only a properly executed Mother’s Day celebration can bring. Yup…we told you things are about to get real. It’s Mother’s Day Month!

Your wife is awesome. Maybe she gave you children. She puts up with your foolishness. It’s time for you and the kiddos to team up and give her the respect and recognition she deserves. (And yeah, we’re absolutely sucking up. Our moms read this blog too.) The great news is that it doesn’t take much to knock this special holiday out of the park. Just a little bit of effort — that’s on you — and some timely advice — which we’ve got covered for you here — and your wife will be telling all her friends that maybe she didn’t mess up after all when she decided to give you a home. (Just saying…)

ELMIRA PRO TIP #1: Your wife will tell you in the weeks before Mother’s Day: ‘You don’t have to do anything special. Mother’s Day is the same as any other day. It’s no big deal. Seriously. You don’t have to give me anything.’ This is a trap, guys, designed to lull the unwary, uber-literal man who can’t read minds into false complacency. Fall for this trick and she might literally kill you — okay, maybe not literally – but she might at least remind you of it every day forever.


Mother’s Day pregame starts May 1 — every day closer is another day wasted

More good news, boys. The quality of the Mother’s Day extravaganza — that incidentally will determine the quality of your life for the rest of the year — typically has nothing to do with the amount of money you spend. It’s all about forethought, effort and game day behavior. An expensive gift is nice, but not necessary. Here’s what to do instead.

Start with fresh flowers. Not ones that you pull from your neighbor’s yard, “borrow” from a local church garden, or — for your own physical well-being — ones that are fake. Drop a 20-spot at your local florist or grocery store for some actual smell-good flowers wrapped in attractive tissue paper or dropped in a vase. Extra points if they’re her favorite kind or in her favorite colors.

Store-bought cards are ok, but not the best. Drop another $20 on art supplies. We’re talking construction paper, glue, glitter, markers, paint pens, yarn, etc. Then, get the kids (it’s time these little free-loaders started earning their keep, right guys?) and kick off a four-alarm card making session in the basement (for privacy). No basement? Your team operates in the bathroom — no complaints.

ELMIRA PRO TIP #2: If you hook-slide your car into the parking lot of the local gas station on Mother’s Day morning in search of gifts and cards that might save the day, you will be terribly disappointed. You will return home with Snicker’s bars, $2 Merlot with a twist-off cap, a gallon of windshield wiper fluid, and some scratch-off lottery tickets. These, an acceptable Mother’s Day symbol do not make. No sympathy from Elmira. You should have started planning May 1 like we told you.


Mother’s Day starts the second you wake up — not five minutes after

Trust us when we say this. Open your eyes, kiss your wife and tell her how much you love her, call your own mom and say the same, wake and assemble the kids, and get your behind down to the kitchen. Do those things in order and immediately or the day might be unrecoverable. Because Mother’s Day starts when the sun rises. If not, she’ll think you’ve forgotten.

Unless, that is, you have one of those wives that enjoys sleeping in. If this is the case, allow her to do so. It’s your job to stare dutifully into her face while she sleeps until the exact moment she opens her eyes. This could take hours. Doesn’t matter. Just do it.

While the kids are screaming, dropping egg shells into the yolk, and covering the dogs in flour, simply fire up your Elmira Stove Works pro-style range and create this simple, delightful brunch-style quiche.

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 medium yellow onions, diced
  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 3/4 cup half-and-half
  • 8 oz. Gruyere, grated (that’s a type of cheese, dude)
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 frozen piecrust in a tin

Heat oven to 375° F.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions, salt and pepper. Cover and cook onions 5 to 7 minutes. Add parsley and cook, covered, for 2 more minutes.

Whisk together the eggs and half-and-half. Stir in the Gruyere, nutmeg and onion mixture.

Place piecrust on a foil-lined baking sheet. Scrape egg mixture into the piecrust. Bake until filling is set and a knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.

ELMIRA PRO TIP #3: Tailor this quiche to her tastes by adding in a handful of chopped cooked ham or sautéed vegetables when you add the cheese. Remember, fellas, it’s all about her today. Resist the ingrained male urge to add pulled pork barbeque, blood-rare steak, shelled pistachio nuts or light beer. We understand that’s how you’re programmed — just not today.


The rest of the Mother’s Day rules — ignore them at your own peril

As for the rest of the Mother’s Day rules and regulations, they’re pretty much standard operating procedure for what you would expect of a day on which you’re not the center. (After this list, continue reading to discover how to return things to a natural order once Mother’s Month is over.)

  1. You may not watch TV, look at your mobile phone or stay in the bathroom longer than a few minutes.
  2. You may not permit your wife to do any housework, talk about housework or even think about housework. (Yes, she expects you to know what she is thinking.)
  3. Like brunch, dinner is on you — either to be cooked yourself or, if you eat out, to decide where to take her.
  4. You may not work in the yard — your grass should have been mowed and edged before Mother’s Day. (Remember…May 1, son).

When you’ve officially survived Mother’s Month unscathed and with reputation intact, come back to Elmira for the must-have appliances to outfit your ultimate man cave. From keg fridges to retro microwaves to custom air-brushed fridges, we offer a unique line of specialty appliances that will congratulate you on a Mother’s Day well-done and restore life to its intended balance — which means making everything all about you again. Kidding. But not kidding.

And take heart – once you’ve reached the end of May… it’s only 18 days until Father’s Day!

Where There’s Smoke, There’s…

… really yummy smoked food, coming out of an Elmira Fireview wood-burning cookstove! Who’d have ever thought you could lightly smoke meats, fish, vegetables and desserts indoors in a wood-burning cooker??? Well you can indeed, and you won’t even smoke up the kitchen while doing so.

The same technology that creates air circulation and even temperatures in the Fireview’s oven also draws the smoke out of the stove and up the chimney. A gap in the gasket on the oven door allows room air to be drawn into the oven, creating air flow and mild turbulence that helps eliminate hot and cool spots. That air is then drawn out of the oven and up the flue through three small holes in the back of the oven.

“Smoking and southern barbecue have become extremely popular over the past few years,” says Brian Hendrick, Elmira Stove Works’ Vice-President of Marketing. “For those who are interested in cooking on a woodburning cookstove, or supplementing their traditional range with a wood cooker, this is a real bonus.”

The smoking process in the Fireview is fairly simple. Elmira will soon provide a smoker kit with each Fireview cookstove it sells. The kit contains a broiling pan, cover, roasting rack, tongs, thermometer, smoke puck or “bisquette” samples, a puck pan and instructions. Once the oven is at the desired temperature, you simply set the food to be smoked on the rack in the pan, fully ignite a smoke bisquette in the stove’s firebox, blow it out, set it in the puck pan, and close the oven door. The oven will fill with smoke, and the smoke flavour will slowly permeate the food.

Each bisquette lasts about ten to fifteen minutes. For a hint of smoke, you’ll want to use four or five bisquettes. For a heavier smoke, double up on the bisquettes in the pan, smoke for longer, use a heavier wood smoke such as hickory or mesquite, close off one or two holes in the back of the oven to hold in more smoke, or a combination of these techniques: the more smoke, the more flavor. With practice and experimentation, you can get some great results.

“You might not get a really heavy smoke flavor,” says Hendrick. “If you want heavy smoke through an eight-pound pork butt, you’ll probably need to go back to your outdoor smoker, but the Fireview can definitely achieve a nice light smoky ‘bark’ on smaller cuts of meat.”

So not only will the Fireview heat your home or cabin, cook your food, provide a pleasant fire to watch, and provide hot water for your home; it will also let you enjoy the tasty pleasures of smoking meats and other foods… indoors!

Some suggested recipes* to search online and try in your Fireview: smoked chicken, pork ribs, pulled pork, mahi-mahi, or beef brisket; smoked corn on the cob, smoke-roasted asparagus, baked beans, smoked apple pie, apple-smoked peaches with ice cream. Hungry yet?

* recipes may require adaptation for use in your cookstove – experiment and have fun!

 

Woodstoves: A Resource of Renewable Energy

For those looking to decrease their carbon footprint, they could start in the kitchen with their stove. Elmira Stove Works offers a solution: the Fireview is a high-efficiency wood-burning cookstove that can be used as a cooking appliance, a high-output room heater and, with an optional water jacket, a source of hot water.

According to John Ackerly, president of the Alliance for Green Heat, in his article on  PopularMechanics.com, “woodstoves should play a major part in America’s renewable energy future.” Clean-burning woodstoves can be a resource of renewable energy for your home that could reduce your carbon output by up to ten tons. Woodstoves are a major and largely unrecognized source of heat that produces three times more residential heat than other renewable technologies such as solar PV, solar thermal, geothermal, and wind technologies.

Data from The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration reports, homes in the mid-Atlantic can eliminate five tons of their carbon output simply by replacing less efficient oil-fired heating systems with a clean-burning woodstoves and furnaces. In the colder New England region, the reduction of carbon output of a home could double.

With a growing market of environmentally-conscious consumers, the Fireview could be a perfect addition to their kitchens. What’s even better? Along with the Fireview’s beautiful antique styling, it also provides up to 60,000 BTU’s of heat, enough to heat a 1,400 to 2,100 square foot space.

For more on Elmira’s Fireview, visit http://www.elmirastoveworks.com/fireview.aspx

Fall in Love With a Wood-Burning Cookstove

As the landscape around us starts to turn red, yellow and orange, trees start to lose their leaves, nights begin to get longer, temperatures begin to drop, baseball season comes to an end and the start of the football season begins, we know it is surely fall!

There are many reasons to love Autumn, but our favorite reasons revolve around the wonderful, seasonal recipes that taste so good! Lots of fruits and vegetables come into season this time of year, such as apples, beets, broccoli, celery, cranberries, eggplant, figs, grapes, green beans, pears and sweet potatoes, just to name a few. What could be better than cooking up your favorite appetizers, comfort dinners, and yummy deserts? Cooking it all on a wood-burning cookstove, of course!

The Fireview is a high-efficiency, air-tight wood-burning cookstove that is perfect for your home. It serves as a high-output room heater, a cooking appliance and an attractive fire-viewing woodstove. With an optional water jacket, it is also a source of hot water, using renewable resources. If you want even more cooking versatility, you can add the optional side gas burners.

Wood-burning cookstoves offer families the best of both worlds: excellent cooking and an antique, right-at-home feel. They keep utility costs down and they are a reliable source for cooking, even when the power goes out. With summer coming to an end, now is the perfect time to fall in love with a wood-burning cookstove!

Tell us, have you tried cooking on a wood-burning cookstove?

What’s Old is New….and Green Too!

In our current world of high technology and fancy cutting-edge solutions, it can be easy to forget about the simpler joys in life. With fall slowly creeping in, it is the perfect time to sit back and enjoy some of the small comforts that come with colder weather…like the warmth of a wood-burning cookstove.

Despite the overabundance of modern features on today’s gas and electric ranges, the wood-burning cookstove has become relevant again with the trend of going green. With the environment in mind, wood-burning cookstoves can serve not only as a heating source, but as a cooking source, a recreational fire-viewing stove and a source of hot water. Don’t forget the added perk of a lower gas bill!

This is why Elmira Stove Works’ choose to create the Fireview Wood-Burning Cookstove, which provides functionality with character. There is no sacrifice of style and no guilt of using non-renewable fuel to generate heat in the cottage, cabin, ski chalet or even main home. Elmira has great confidence in the future of renewable energy and the Fireview a perfect match for the latest “go green” trends.

Elmira offers the Fireview in three models, including  a 36 inch wood-burning Model 1840, 48 inch Model 1842-0 with a second warmer on the right and a work surface above, and 48 inch Model 1842-G with second warmer and two 11,000 BTU propane burners on the right side. It even has optional hot water “jackets” that will produce up to ten gallons of hot household water per hour.

So as the fall leaves begin to settle in, wrap yourself up in a warm blanket and enjoy the comforts of the wood-burning cookstove. It’s the perfect way to add aesthetic appeal to your kitchen while capturing the charm of the simpler times of the past.

Elmira Heats Up with an Advanced Line of Fireview Wood-Burning Cookstoves

Elmira Stove Works offers distinctive, superior quality appliances with its innovative line of Fireview cookstoves. The Fireview is the only wood-burning cookstove to offer a full complement of features, including its trademark Fireview viewing door, high-efficiency burn with secondary air and glass-wash, antique or country styling and optional propane side burners.

“We at Elmira have great confidence in the future of renewable energy, and we think this is an excellent time for us to continue to promote our Fireview cookstoves to a growing market of consumers,” says Brian Hendrick, vice president of Elmira Stove Works.  “We tend to think of modern appliances as having all of the great multi-tasking features, but it is difficult to beat a traditional wood-burning cookstove for a unique design aesthetic and versatility!”

Elmira offers the Fireview in three models, including  a 36 inch wood-burning Model 1840, 48 inch Model 1842-0 with a second warmer on the right and a work surface above, and 48 inch Model 1842-G with second warmer and two 11,000 BTU propane burners on the right side.

With the environment in mind, the one appliance can serve as a high-output room heater, a cooking appliance, a recreational fire-viewing stove and a source of hot water. The Fireview has an optional hot water “jacket” that will produce up to twelve gallons of hot water per hour.

The Fireview door, originally included for aesthetic reasons, also allows the owner to easily monitor the fire without opening the door or losing heat. A large 1.5 cubic foot firebox, combined with the efficiency of the stove, provides up to 60,000 BTU’s of heat, enough to heat a 1,400 to 2,100 square foot space. Additionally, the Fireview’s three cubic feet oven is one of the largest on the market.

For more information on Elmira’s Fireview cookstoves or Antique appliance line, visit www.elmirastoveworks.com.