Meann's Profile
What did you have for lunch today?
grilled ham and swiss, and a broccoli/cauliflower/carrot/sunflower seed/golden raisin/dried cranberry salad from the supermarket
Tofu for a cookout??
I'm planning a cookout sort of party, and have several vegetarians attending. In addition to things like oil and vinegar potato salad and grilled vegetables (onions, peppers, eggplant, zucchini etc) I was thinking of grilling firm tofu. Any advice on how to make it great would be welcome!
What's the best thing you personally can make with white sliced sandwich bread?
watercress sandwiches
Things which you thought should have been food (from a childs perspective)
Similar experience for our son: Cape May is our favorite spot at the Jersey shore. It took a while before we realized why he was disappointed by a day at the beach. Even now that's he's a grown man, we sometimes get "Cake May" written on a cake at the bakery. And I only just found out that when we told him we were going to visit some of my relatives named MacDonald ... well, you can guess.
common salt and pepper bowls
So, I'm feeling incorrect: we went to a restaurant recently that had a bowl of salt and one of ground pepper on the table, rather than shakers. Each had an itty bitty spoon to go with it. I found that it was very hard to control a proper sprinkle or dusting of either salt of pepper from the spoon.
What do you all think is the best/most proper way to handle such an arrangement? (I was tempted to just take a pinch with my fingers, but I'm betting that a lot of people wouldn't be happy with that.)
Thanks for the guidance!
Adults that have been "sheltered" from cooking?
I think that depending on the generation it was very common not to teach the men "household" skills.. My husband was born in 1950. His mother (no shrinking violet, and college educated) carefully taught both his older and younger sister all sorts of useful domestic skills. My sweetie? Nada. Not cooking, not sewing on a button, not laundry.
His theory is that he was supposed to be helpless, so he'd be eager to marry.
In his defense, it didn't work. He painfully learned to take care of himself, and waited for me to come along when he was 30.
Magnetized Flatware
DH and I had the same experience. We asked the server what was going on. She was coy at first, but then claimed that they had a magnetic system to retrieve flatware from the trash. She explained that she wasn't supposed to tell people that their flatware had been in the trash at some point.
Charles Dickens and negus
I went looking for recipes yesterday (CD's birthday) and found several, all basically mixtures of port, claret, burgundy, and brandy, with sugar and spices. Oh, yum.
But. I could swear I had encountered literary references to "gin negus". Am I just hallucinating? hitting the absinthe too hard? confusing myself?
Has anyone ever encountered a gin negus, or other hot gin punch?
Thanks!
What food find still haunts you - that you had once and haven't found since?
I did grad school in south Florida. There were these shacks along the Tamiami Trail/Alligator Alley that sold smoked fish. Shrimp. swordfish, marlin, anything, really, and all wonderful.
Your mom's weird cooking ... and other stories? (recipes encouraged)
A can of sweetened condensed milk, plopped into a pot of boiling water and allowed to caramelize over hours. Then spread on saltines. My mother's idea of cheap luxury.
She was right.
split pea soup: green or yellow?
My local megasupermart was out of green split peas the other day, so I got yellow instead, and made split pea soup out of them. I didn't seem to make much difference, but what do you all think?
pickled onions???
DH loves Gibsons, but I'm having a hard time finding good pickled onions. I've made spiced cherries for Manhattans successfully. Does anyone have any ideas on how to pickle onions? Thanks!
Dinner guests who are chronically late and/or early...what to do?
That's not perfectionism. That's obsessive compulsive disorder, and it will f*** up your life. I've known such people, and at least one of them literally died because of it.
Did Your Mom Repeatedly Cook a Dish You Despised?
My MIL made tuna goo every Friday, all the time my husband was growing up. Then the Pope said you didn't have to give up meat on Fridays, and she never made it again.
My husband was crushed.
Now about once a month he makes tuna goo for us ... good tuna, shrimp, crab meat, gruyere, No potato chips, no peas, no celery. Just yum.
sour pickle relish???
DH asked if there was such a thing as "sour pickle relish" as opposed to the sweet pickle relish he so dearly loves. And I realized that all the "relishes" I knew about were to some extent sweet, some almost candied. No relish equivalent to a Kosher dill.
So: is there such a thing as sour relish? Not sweet-and-sour, not sweetish, not sourist. Truly sour relish.
Recipes would be welcome.
Thanks, all!
Forced to Rush Through Dinner at Pomegranate (moved from Ontario board)
Yes.
A while ago, but back when I was dating I remember going with a young gentleman and getting lost in each other's eyes or something. Eventually the owner came over and basically told us we were adorable, but he needed the table, and would we please leave.
By drunken mistake, i later realized i slightly undertipped...what to do? (long)
"i considered stopping back in (the place is right near my home) and giving them 40 bucks to add the night's tip jar"
Do it. The staff lives on their tips.
tips for fixing broken tastebuds caused by a broken heart?
Chocolate is traditional.
Seriously: just be nice to yourself. And consciously look for opportunities to eat with other people, thereby making new happy food associations.
Button Mushrooms--Massive Amount
Dry them. Then the sky's the limit.
Use in soups. Risottos. Gravy.
What do you make with your food dehydrator?
Mushrooms, all kinds. Can be used as powder or bits. powder great in mushroom risotto, for example
"Sun"-dried tomatoes and sweet peppers
Garlic and sweet red peppers dried brittle and powdered ... nice all-purpose rub/seasoning
Beef jerky (I've never had much luck with turkey)
lots of kinds of fruit
fruit/yogurt leathers
I had a cheap-o plastic model, and used it so much it warped. I moved on to a combat-harded metal box from a survivalist website and never regretted it.
where in Nevada (not Las Vegas)
Thanks, all!
I'm in Fallon at this moment, with a Heart of Gold on my motel room dresser.
So Your Friends Want to Go to A Chain Restaurant.... so What? :} [moved from Not About Food]
For reason's of plot, we found ourselves in a Friday's, and my husband ordered "gin martini, straight up, with a twist". The gin part was a bit of a stumper, but the two young women behind the bar conferred and got that sorted out. Ah, but the twist. What he eventually got was an adequate martini with three olives on a pick, and a slice of lemon floating in it.
We mentioned it to a real bartender at a real bar we go to, and he was surprised ... he said Friday's has a rep for training their bartenders well.
Any Philly area Ch'ers send their knives out to be sharpened?
I've been happy with Fante's.
where in Nevada (not Las Vegas)
Are there any interesting places to eat along Rt 50? I'll be exploring for a couple of days while DH is at a meeting in Reno. Thanks!
Food Scars - Things you will never eat again.
Well, never drink again. I had a great pregnancy, felt fine the whole time...except for one day. Whether it was morning sickness or a stomach virus or what I don't know. But I'd gone off caffeine, and had drunk chamomile tea for breakfast. Oh, I was SO sick. Never again. Just the thought...
I can't believe it IS butter.
I haven't seen Lyon's work, but I have seen the butter sculptures at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, held every January in Harrisburg. They are kept in a ginourmous refrigerated glass case (more a room actually) in one of the vestibules in the Farm Show Building. One year there was a full-scale Amish carriage. With, horse, as I recall. Climate control is all.
I suspect that the idea originated in the early 20th century rise in industrial farm tech. "Refrigeration? Wow. What can we do with this?"
Anyone know for sure?
What is the appeal of Cake Pops?
These sound much like the Oreo "truffles" that were in vogue a couple of years ago. Oreo-type cookies were mashed finely together with cream cheese, molded into balls and dipped in chocolate. Majorly addictive.
Mushed sweet stuff with more sweet stuff? Always a winner.
