I'm on my 4th bread maker, starting with a pail that you turned a crank to mix and knead the dough, ( 1950s ) It was great when I had 3 teenage boys with huge appetites at home as it made four loaves at a time. Worked my second and third to the bone and now have a Breadman which I love. I just use the dough setting as Oldeman doesn't like the shape of ABM bread and I can make rolls, bread or pizza or what ever and then shape and bake to our taste. I couldn't keep up with our bread consumption if I had to knead by hand. BTW the Breadman cost me $5.00 at a yard sale.
Dartmouth Oatmeal bread
While DH and I were installing a laminate floor in our kitchen and the kitchen was completely torn apart a friend showed up with a basket of her home made pepperoni rolls hot from the oven. We love her!
I found this poem in an old cook book. It speaks for itself.
I didn't have potatoes so I substituted rice,
I didn't have paprika, so I used another spice,
I didn't have tomato sauce so I used tomato paste,
A whole can, not a half can, I don't believe in waste.
A friend gave me the recipe, she said you couldn't beat it,
There must be something wrong with her -
I couldn't even eat it!
I'm 73 and I share my recipes, but only with those I know will follow directions and ingredients exactly, otherwise this poem shows the pitfalls of those who don't respect your cooking abilities or you.
When I was growing up in New England in the 40s we had no food other than what we could get at the only market in a very small town. Very basic meals, meat, potatoes and either canned green beans, peas or corn. In the fall we had winter squash , spaghetti with a homemade sauce that was awful, tuna casserole, or venison if my Father had been successful when he went hunting. Christmas was turkey and Easter was ham, but the same vegetables. Saturday night was always baked beans, brown bread and hotdogs.
There were no chain restaurants, only a dairy bar which served hamburgers and milkshakes. When I was about 12 years old my Mother was struck by lightening one afternoon while sitting at the kitchen table she was Ok but my Father took us all to a chicken place several towns away for supper. WE HAD FRIED CHICKEN!!!! Never had tasted that before.
We never had fried food at home. Didn't even know that existed. I was in heaven.
As to what I discovered as an adult, everything else. Still don't care for many ethnic foods or spicy things or goat cheese and am allergic to shellfish, but my vegetable menu has broadened quite a bit.
I was going to wait until tomorrow, but..... I cannot read the print in the boxes on the left side. White print on pale pink plaid doesn't work for me.
Plus having to scroll down a whole page before I get "to the meat" is a pain. Will wait to see what else you have up your sleeves before I decide if it's worth the bother . I really hate change!!!!!!
What bugs me the most is the use of perfectly good ingredients in places they were never meant to be.....bacon in ice cream? chipotle in everything whether sweet or savory, maple syrup in cocktails, sea salt on chocolates, you get the idea. Some times I think people dream these combinations up just to see if they can shock you. They don't shock me but they sure make me think twice about the people who do these things.
My Mother made hot cross buns for Good Friday and my Father made Russian Kulich bread for Easter. Don't know why he made Russian bread as we weren't Russian. I continue these traditions, also a cake baked in an antique lamb mold for Easter just like when I lived at home. Fussy, but oh the memories!
I'm an East Coast forager, but the best advice I can give you is GO WITH AN EXPERIENCED FORAGER WHO KNOWS THE AREA! And yes I am yelling. Do not rely on books or the guy who says he found some great mushrooms, didn't know what they were, but ate them anyway and he's still alive. You can learn a lot from books, but you really need a knowlegable teacher for your first year or two. It will save you a lot of wasted time and worry and possibly a very nasty sickness or even death.
@square_pie Hey, I'm just trying to help one of my favorite sites be a little better! I subscribe to many RSS feeds through Google Reader. How else can I keep up with the news and opinions and blogs from all over? It's all in one place and easy for me to scan for the news, etc. I want to read and skip the rest. At 72 I'm a computer newbie and going from site to site is way too much for me and my ISP to contend with, so I choose to get it all on just a few sites!
@seriousb, Thanks for your input, I think I understand a little more now how this world of computers works. I have had an email from SE about this and I hope they can work this out. I just went back to the SE RSS feed and there is only one still on there so someone is watching the chicken coop.
They've done it again!! There are three posts on the RSS feed this PM that absolutely shouldn't be there. The titles are legit and were posted by members with real comments and questions, but the content is something else entirely. They are titled " Stories of Astonishing Food, Cinnamon, and Best Bake Sale Recipes" posted by Figurevich. Whoever this is should be stopped ASAP! How can they get this to show up on the RSS feed, but not the SE site?
Toast a couple of pieces of rye or pumpernickle bread, spread with some butter, top with cottage cheese. Good for breakfast, lunch or any other time of day. We also like it with pineapple crushed or chunks are both great.
I never had much trouble with dish soap and water on my old white appliances, but I just got new black ones. Wow are they ever hard to keep clean! We have a LOT of lime in our water so even when the new ones are clean there's a film on them which is very hard to remove.
As for cooking utensils I find that my heavy stock pot (not a LeCreuset but the same type of finish) is just fine with a soaking in hot water and dish soap. Plain, very hot water is just fine for my cast iron. "Yes, Dad i know I'm never supposed to put my cast iron in water, but I really hate scrambled eggs flavored by last nights dinner".
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook in any of its incarnations! I know it's not "new cuisine", but it's the one I end up referring to most of the time. Also it's a lot easier to handle than Mark Bittmans "How to Cook Everything" which is too heavy for an Oldelady to hang on to when researching a new ingredient or technique.
I don't know exactly where or when they started, but I remember selling them in the late 1940s in Mass. Man am I getting old!
So far, so good with the pullout shelf. Once I got it figured out and didn't try to overload it withstuff that didn't need to be there anyway, it has been a big help. Certainly easier on my back!
We are also remodeling our kitchen. My biggest hope is counterspace so I don't have to put my noodleboard over the sink to knead bread. Right now I have just over 2 sq feet of countertop. After reading the comments I am going to rethink the number of drawers vs shelves in cabinets. Oldeman recently installed a pull out shelf in an existing cabinet and that was a big improvement over getting down on my hands and knees with a flashlight to get to stuff in the back. I will certainly have that in any cabinet with shelves for both shelves. Also a lift mixer shelf so I don't have to ask for help to get the mixer or bread machine out.
cheeselady, we agree a piece of apple pie with a big slab of sharp Vt cheddar is just right for breakfast at our house. DHs relatives all came from Vt and if it was good enough for them then it's good enough for us.
I made the mistake of telling my DH that today was National pie day. As a result I just took a "halfanapple" pie out of the oven. Halfanapple pie is just what it sounds like, three apples, sugar, etc piled on one half of one pie crust which is folded over and crimped. Like a really big turnover. There are only two of us and I'm not fond of pie so in order to keep DH from eating a whole pie I make this and he's happy to have it. Better halfanapple pie than none.
All these answers are good if the power stays on, but what if it's out for two weeks? Electric stove? No cooking. Freezer full? Open it once and you'll lose it all. Could you eat from your pantry without cooking for that long? I doubt it. Better have an alternate way to cook or heat up your food.
We country mice where the power frequently goes out for a week or more at a time, usually have a wood stove or a grill that we can cook on, or even a gas stove, if you know how to make it work without electricity.
Think ahead and prepare!
I do not deep fry anything, don't like having to use all that oil for one meal and since fried food is a once a year thing at best all that oil would be wasted.
Also will not use the broiler in my gas stove. Long story, I was broiling some steaks in the broiler in my gas stove which was on the bottom below the oven. I was newly married and was cooking dinner for my in-laws and the broiler ATE my steaks. Opened it up to check on them and they were gone, slid right off onto the floor behind the stove! So much for dinner! oldelady
eaguk...I too grew up in New England near Lowell, MA and all carbonated drinks were "tonic". I had no idea they were called anything else until I moved to Northern NY state many years later where they were called "pop".
As for the question at hand, we called the evening meal supper, but those in the upper class in our town called it dinner. The only time my mother served dinner was at 1 o'clock on a holiday when it truly was a dinner with the good plates and linen napkins and special foods made only on those occasions..
oldelady
DON'T DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're a college graduate? ???????
What is the price for a pound of Ramps ( wild leeks) at your local Farmers Market?
Are there any for sale in your area yet?
We will be taking our first load to our local market tomorrow, Sunday, and since we will be the first in our area I want a premium price.
The date on this post is not Dec, it is March 31,2012
They're at it again! the post "engagement dinner in St. Louis" on the RSS feed has been taken over by a spammer, but the same topic on the SE website is fine. I have noticed at least one WAY OFF TOPIC message every day for the last week on the RSS feed. Is there no way to stop this insanity? I usually check the RSS feed and then come here to read the comments, but it is beginning to look like I won't be doing that much longer.
What say you?
In early December I puchased two "chicken size" cooked lobsters which were frozen encased in ice. How do I thaw or cook these? DH wants hot lobster with "buttah" for Christmas Eve dinner and I'm not sure how to make sure it's hot and safe to eat. Thaw first or just throw them into boiling water and check with a thermometer for what temp? Since we only have lobster once every ten years or so (allergies and cost and distance from coast) I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks
This term has been swirling around the food blogs and I really don't know what it means.
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For his last homemade dinner for a while (off to college 5 states away) I made our son his favorite desert, Eclair cake. It includes Cool whip which is mixed with milk and pudding. Since we were milking cows and always used raw milk for our family, that's what I did. We all looked forward to that cake, but when I served it there were some very strange comments..."This tastes just like SOAP and burns my mouth!" After much research I found out that Cool Whip and raw milk combine to make what I can only describe as SOAP.