I received a bunch of plain Hershey's kisses from a well-meaning gift giver this Christmas. I'm a horrible snob about chocolate so won't eat them as-is, but I can't bear to waste food. Anyone have a suggestion for transforming these things into something delicious?
I also haven't found a way to get around the brussels sprouts smell. I brought leftover sprouts to work one day (the skillet-roasted type are actually really good cold, with some extra salt and balsamico), and was *still* paranoid that I'd stunk up the lunchroom.
Same with cauliflower. Even cold, roasted cauliflower has that distinctive smell that really bothers a lot of people. I've resigned myself to not eating any of the cole family veggies in a public setting.
Some things are just meant to be enjoyed only in the privacy of one's home, you know? :)
Great question!
1. Nutrition - but not at the expense of
2. Taste! Flavor is always critical, but it's important that the food not be highly processed junk.
3. Ethics - with sub-priorities of local, then organic, then ethical (free trade etc)
4. Cost - I do pay attention to price when I shop, and often the factor that decides What's For Dinner is What's On Sale. :)
5. Lifestyle - We have varying schedules and only get to eat meals together once or twice a week. This does affect the way I cook because I try to make meals that reheat well and make good leftovers.
6. Culture - This doesn't really come into play for us. We're not of a particular cultural background. The flip side is that there's not much variety of ethnic foods available where we live anyway, so it's a moot point.
I love reading these intros!
My nickname stems from an episode of The Backyardigans. My other usual internet nickname was taken. :)
I'm a mild-mannered 31 year-old tech nerd at a bank by day, mother and loving wife by night, and a home chef on the weekends. We live on a few acres in a rural area, which allows our family to have a some chickens and a huge garden. In the upcoming year we're going to try our hands at canning some of our lovely produce.
I'm a pretty good all-around cook who likes to learn techniques and the science behind them, then use the knowledge to make my own recipes. I love to cook for people, and believe that the act of providing a wholesome and delicious meal is one of the most important and loving things you can do for a person.
I love to eat both pancakes and waffles. Waffles slightly more than pancakes.
I love making the batter for both- pancakes are so easy, but folding in egg whites for waffles is fun!
BUT. I prefer cooking pancakes strictly for the fact that you can turn out a griddle-full of lovely small fluffy pancakes in the same time it takes to make one or two waffles. Sure you can hold waffles for a little while in the oven but it's not nearly the same as having them hot from the iron. When I make waffles, it's like we all eat our breakfasts seperately and that's not as fun.
ZOMG alien lemons from SPACE!! :)
I think the green dust is some kind of dry mold. I've had a few citrus fruits do that in the past. It is really weird, because they don't rot like you'd expect- they dry up and crumble. I've also never seen any fruit other than citrus do that.
I'd think that a firm, dry-surfaced fruit like a lemon (especially because it's waxed) would be okay to use as long as it was not moldy or squishy itself and you washed it thoroughly.
I loved the original Iron Chef for entertainment value and a sort of... cultural education. I used to watch it late at night, cradling my crabby newborn, semi-delirious from lack of sleep. It was a trip. :) Wish it was on somewhere...
I like the American Iron Chef for it's instructional value. I learn techniques and ingredient combos that are far more applicable to my cooking than the Japanese version was. I also love to see Jeffrey Steingarten rip on a chef in his own unique style, though that doesn't seem to happen as much these days.
Anyway: I'd Tivo the former, but only watch the latter if it happens to be on.
I was thinking cauliflower soup until I read hrobb's kale dish. Mmm.
I'd like to know the criteria for this list too. Maybe it was the top 100 searches of the year? It's definitely not rating or number of ratings.
Top Whatever lists always bring out my inner pedant, and she is not usually a happy lil' sunbeam!
Custard, like romance, takes time. Curdling isn't a function of temperature in and of itself- it happens when eggs are heated too quickly and/or haven't been adequately denatured before you start tempering.
I've had good luck with custards as long as I:
a) beat the egg yolks very, VERY thoroughly when you start the recipe,
b) temper very slowly and carefully, even if the recipe doesn't specify you do so,
c) use a double-boiler, and
d) whisk like a mofo. :) Not whipping, just stirring constantly with a whisk.
I've used a recipe that incorporates some cornstarch when you whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, and that provides some thickening and curdling insurance. It gets a little gelatinous for my tastes, but it makes an excellent base if you'll be mixing in other ingredients anyway.
Good luck!
I second Tellicherry's recommendation (oh how I love that book!), *if* you are interested in working with unusual (for the US) ingredients and techniques and by baking you mean more than just desserts. Don't get me wrong, there are some pastries and such, but the focus is primarily on daily breads. If you're pretty much just interested in upscale dessert bakery, then it's not really the book for you.
ooh i never thought of it
the only priority i have is that i don't eat Smithfield pork because of their abuse of employees
and taste and budget!
I wasn't offended, Sieseye. I don't offend easily - it takes either chasing me around with ongoing attacks or else attacking someone else, to offend me. :)
Your comment But, I think what I regret most is what I've done without knowing why. is really apt to the question the topic posed. It's really good to think about the why's of the ways we do things, isn't it.
The lens of food is always an endlessly fascinating way to look at people and the world. :)
Now, off to make breakfast for two kids who like vastly different things to eat! Hah!
Karen,
Hope I didn't offend. Certainly not my intention. He was the first Libra I'd knowingly had much interaction with and I looked up his sign because he seemed so different. Balance seemed like a great thing to me but I had a different idea of it which I'd say is often how we have so many misunderstandings with people... though this guy seems to be special but not so much in a nice way and I'd say it has little to do with what time of year he was born (nor do I think he gives much thought to balance). The good thing (and I always try to find it) is I've change where I go and what I do (restaurants and stores also because he took those too) and I've found great new things I wouldn't have otherwise in my previous comfort zone.
I do know about vegangelicals too. I've encountered them myself and they are unpleasant (as is any extremism). However, I've also been attacked by non-vegetarians just for not eating meat. Accosted with the excuse being the vegangelicals; that they exist means all vegetarians should be harassed (to some people). In comparision the meat-eaters have been more vicious, tenacious and numerous but they aren't marginalized so people not only don't seem to notice when they are being mean, they join in. So, I usually tell the extreme veggies to back off and that they are doing more harm than good but I feel a little forgiving because they do feel intensely about their cause, just unable to understand how polarizing they are. But, it is exasperating to be attacked and be put under a microscope for my every action and lifestyle choice (what I feed my pets and what shoes I wear get examined for instance) because any "unpure" action by me is an ah-ha moment that releases them to not just continue what they were anyway (only now with permission vicariously via me) but also to attack me for the way I live and the choices I make even though it seems to be their own insecurity and issues and because they were nosey and poking around my plate. Sounds personal but it happens to a lot of vegetarians/vegans. It was something I had noticed before switching myself and while never joining in never paid much attention let alone stood up to it. However, it's fresh on my mind this week between the Slate article (found thanks to SE) and some related classes I took this weekend. While there are a lot of issues beyond animal treatment what I'm most intrigued in is how and why people do what they do. Motivations.
It also surprises me how much we do when we don't know the whole story (or sometimes even more than a fraction). I used to look on in admiration to those who said we don't regret what we do as much as what we don't do. But, I think what I regret most is what I've done without knowing why.
I'd rather spend time with Gordon Ramsey than most people as despite being a bit confrontational he's quite together -- just wouldn't let him cook for me. :)
As far as different... I do understand. I felt that way too when I considered going veggie even though I was unhappy not being one. I'm finally discovering Indian food in all it's glory. It's so amazing but felt so strange for so long. I realize now it's because I so dislike cilantro but now I know I don't have to put it in when I prepare it. My regret is not doing this sooner. Another tradition busted. :)
Thanks, I've enjoyed the conversation and exploration.
That's okay, Sieseye. Sometimes there's just a lot to say. :)
I'm actually a Libra. And yes - we do have our mood swings. But then again, each astrological sign has their particular focal points that are positive or negative.
Probably you just don't like this particular guy. Shame he has to ruin the good mood of the Farmer's Market by hanging around it.
Your notes about balance being missing so much today, particularly in food, are so true. But I do think that if one searches back through history, the same lack of balance exists in some way, in some factors, with our food in an overall sense. Whether it was the historic factor of the better food going to the wealthy as it has for so much of time (still does, but we have a larger middle ground) or whether it be the issue of contaminants or ways to extend the amount of food there has always been something going on. So in that way I have to give a nod of the head to some sort of "progress".
Actually, this entire topic would seem to be something entirely astonishing and unbelievable to most people through times past - for pretty much the only thing that ran through their heads about food was: How do we get enough of it?! And of course: How can we make something delicious out of what is right in front of us? So in that sense, simply to be able to ask ourselves these questions posed by HeartofGlass is a very real gift. :)
Gordon Ramsay in real life has promoted women cooks to higher positions, so in that way one can be sure he's not a sexist pig. Ha, ha! Also the persona on TV is pushed to the limits for entertainment value.
In my own experience I've seen both men and women be equally helpful, not helpful, able to perform or not able to perform in the kitchen. There is no one style that makes it work - but if the chef is able to work with people rather than doing the towering over them with a whip sort of thing it can definitely make the work more pleasant, just as in any sort of workplace with any boss or leader.
As far as people being turned off by the idea of vegetarianism there's two things. First, it's "different". People often do not respond positively to "different" just because it is different. No good reason, really. Just people being people. Secondly there's the self-righteousness that some vegetarians or vegans carry as their swords in life - pushing the idea forward like a merit badge that nobody really wants to see. That creates a feeling of not wanting to be interested or supportive among those not really all that interested in the idea in the first place.:)
The great thing is that as we do have the gift to be able to prioritize our food choices there's much more within food to discover in lots of ways - both in reality and in how and what we think of it conceptually.
And it is easier than people to figure out, thank goodness. There's a great quote by someone (too early in the morning to figure out who) that says "What I like about cooking is that if you put a chop in the pan, it will cook ."
So at least something in life is under control. Ha, ha!
This is a great discussion. Yes, thank you HeartofGlass. :)
So much touched on here.
My stalker is Libra which I thought when I read about them (out of curiousity not to guide my life) means balance but more that they achieve balance by wild swings rather than hanging in the middle. :(
Balance. That's what is missing from so much but especially food these days. We've taken food apart from the very beginning, with monster farms growing only one thing supported by chemicals which meant putting the animals elsewhere in huge building supported by chemicals which meant putting their waste in huge pools... no integrations, instead attempting to solve each new problem with more tech which only creates new problems.
Interesting the gender thing. I've been watching Gordon Ramsey because I loved the idea of the remaking a restaurant to work better (I have a secret desire to have my own cozy food emporium with inexpensive but yummy comfort food of the best quality). His no nonsense approach appealed to me because it's more about little tolerance for idiocy and manipulation rather than being mean. I found out later how little respect he gives to those who shun meat which is still hard to reconcile (he's a famous one who has taken pleasure in sneaking meat in veggie meals). However I happened on his new chef competition show where there's a woman's team and a men's team. The girls were all working together and talking while the guys wouldn't even acknowledge each other and undercut, tricked, schemed... but in the end when it came to knocking one out at the end the girls did turn catty (hate that word but that was what happened) and it turned the next show unpleasant because of the resentment factor. However, one of the guys was so fed up by the way the guys are he asked to be allowed on the woman's team. That's next week. I'm so intrigued to find out how it goes. So it's especially interesting the point about food science and molecular food.
In another round of coincidences, I had just come back yesterday from a seminar on the Myths of Vegetarian Eating where the question was asked about why so many are resistant. The speaker talked about how mothers (mom's day being the next day) have their identity so wrapped up in the food they present, as well as the nurture factor, they take their child going veggie as a rejection of them rather than the meat, cruelty, political, or whatever. Then along with the societal pressures and the industry that has pressed our ideas of nutrition, it feels as if we (as mothers) are being told we've never understood how to keep our children healthy... that we aren't very smart after all. Lots get twisted into our meals. It's not just food by any means.
I know my daughter has been taken aback by how accepting I've been of her going veggie (even becoming one myself -- I just needed a reason) then going vegan. In some ways I've unintentionally undermined her rebellion but in a good and loving way. I even started sending her to cooking classes which she despised in the beginning (natural extension of the resistance) but now pretends to tolerate while having gained huge confidence in the kitchen and become valuable amongst her friends for her food talent.
My sis-in-law tried for years to sneak mushrooms (and later cilantro) into foods she served me. I guess she figured if I just "tried" them I would finally realize how good they are and my life would be so much better and she'd be the hero or something. Why couldn't she understand I *had* tried them (long before she came into my world) and that's how I knew I don't like them? Why couldn't I have my own preferences? I did always find them, and pick them out (or not eat at all) which amazed her but she never learned. All it did was make it unpleasant, so I didn't trust her, and lost respect for her as well. Stopped visiting (maybe that was her point?). However, when my daughter went veggie she was very accommodating and kind. On the other hand we spent little time there by then so she didn't have much chance to sabotage.
Speaking of which, I spent years trying to convince the ex™ I wasn't his enemy which he would say he knew only to find out he felt I was trying to sabotage him (like if I was late, for getting held up; he thought I did it on purpose to ruin his life) so felt he needed to not just get back at me but punish me. Not even to get me to not do something again because he never admitted till the end he was doing any of it on purpose and in fact he was still taking revenge for minor "trespasses" upon him a decade before. The thing is, it wasn't really about me. He'd have done the same to someone else. He was trying to give me his own pain somehow. Of course that doesn't work for anyone involved.
Now, I celebrate the food itself. I figure if a new person in my life doesn't like what I make they either don't (and won't) like me or they can get what they need themselves (and hopefully let me know too so I can get to know them as well). But I won't give up myself anymore. If people don't like me for who I am, why would they like me for who I'm not? Further, why should I waste time with those who aren't going to like me when I could be free to find one that will?
Course I feel the same respect for the other person in that I won't waste their time sticking around if I'm not digging them. Only to get someone who's taken it so personally he's become increasingly unpleasant in forcing himself upon my world (because dumb*ss is just so irresistibly attractive and sexy... /sarcasm). No kidding, he's taken to hanging at the Farmers Markets for me to show up then following me through a few feet away the entire time.
Sorry for the essay! :)
Yes, to so much of what both of you have written, Sieseye and HeartofGlass.
Food, with all its potential to heal, nurture, succor, please, carry love - in some hands at some times has its dark side.
The lifestyle issue is huge for almost every woman who is a care-giver to others apart from herself - with the balancing point being something one always has to question, almost in self-defense. :)
Making food that was finely honed for my guest's taste was a skill that served me well in a professional sense. Kudos, money, better jobs, etc, followed upon the heels of this way of being. To have that turned against me was one of the biggest shocks of my life. I still don't believe that it really could and did happen.
The discussion of whether women chefs cook differently than men chefs is an interesting one, also - many agree that more often than not, we do.
As a professional rule, one can cook "to the food itself" (impressing one's own persona upon the food) or one can cook "to the diner" (thinking more of what the person at the table would want if asked). Obviously overall there has to be some balance or either creativity or diner appeal would be lost on either side, but often there is a feel to the food of women chefs or there is a feel attached to their intent in what they make that is not there or is differently shaped with men chefs. The most outstanding example of this is the currently low level of women chefs who are involved in molecular gastronomy - a metier which is more about the food itself than it is about the diner. The diner bows to the food - not the food bowing to the diner.
This may change of course - it might be only one of those "women in science" discussions but I rather think not. I think in food there is more than that - there is a mystery and there are indefinable things that it carries that other things or metiers in life do not carry. Which of course makes it the most fascinating thing.
We do have a responsibility to look at how we prioritize the factors that go into our food choices. Not only for ourselves but most particularly when we are mothers with children who are watching our behavior, who may someday model it or who may someday run like hell from it. We have to find a way to offer them the best bites, the best tastes, the best memories - that our hearts can offer . . . and for each one of us that is something entirely different. If it is given with love and intelligence, it should work as intended - to give nurture and love to those we care for. But we all have our different ways which make life interesting.
Thanks for starting this discussion, HeartofGlass. :)
Siseye and Karen Resta, thanks for sharing such wonderful stories of coming back from a negative relationship, culinarily and spiritually. As positive as food can be, I think lots of times in families it is used as a negative instrument of control--and as a vegetarian, it's interesting how with my stepmother and my father, quite often she would leave the room and have a tantrum if I didn't eat what she prepared, and I have accidentally eaten meat on a number of occasions, including bacon bits in a salad ("it is not meat, it is just bits," according to her) and every kind of chicken fat in the potatos, rice she cooks. Also, when she served chips with olestra in them I refused to eat them (having read the label about the *ahem* side effects) she pitched a fit...as if she had made them herself, rather than opening the bag!
On topic, I do see that with many women in relationships, 'lifestyle' in the sense of the prefrences of their partner or children takes priority, even if they would prefer to eat healthier or more adventurous options
Karen, thanks so much for your sentiments and good wishes. I agree with you. I'm also very sorry for the pains you've had to go through in your past. Wish we'd been given better tools to avoid them and/or know we didn't need to endure them.
While I'll never understand the need to inflict the same pain they went through on others, I do get (now) that they have some serious pain/issues they aren't able to deal with for whatever reason. Of course, that doesn't mean I need to put up with it and in fact now know that anyone who does so (whether by conscious choice or not) is enabling them to not face their demons.
Rather philosophical for food but boy does so much get wrapped up in food. Rewards, punishments, celebrations, worth...
We were talking in another thread about how some people exert control over others by slipping meat into vegetarian dishes. That's another need I'll never quite understand.
At least I know better now, and even though I recently dated someone who presented a facade of acceptance and excitement over food only to turn out to be just as critical, I realized it quickly and put it out of my life quickly (though months later he's still dogging me as I apparently have done him great damage for not accepting him in all his flawed -- and mean, soul-sucking -- glory). We can't "make" someone happy and trying at our own expense is folly. Better one miserable person than two.
Yes! The tomato sandwich. I had no idea till last August. So simple even though quality and particulars are so important. Organic white sandwich bread from the local independent bakery a couple blocks away, toasted and slathered with good mayo and topped with thick slices of just picked, super ripe big toms from the farmers market, generously salted and heavily sprinkled with crumbled dried basil (the fresh was available but not quite the same), and eaten open (tomato doesn't squish out and I'm not big on bread). Like heaven, not terrible nutritionally, yet wouldn't have been considered a "meal" before. I can hardly wait to try again to make myself tired of them. Until then I'm going to revel in local strawberries, then blueberries, then cherries... Life *is* good. :)
Sieseye - It is a crime against the soul when someone plays games with food (or with any good thing such as food) against someone else (as has occurred in the examples you detail above).
I've had similar experiences in the past. It added another confusing layer to it all having been a well-respected chef to have this occur.
There are intellectual answers as to "why" but there is no good final answer, emotionally . . . except definitely to be really sure you know who you are cooking for. And to know that there are actually people in the world who do set out to fool people for their own rather sick internal reasons - and to be sure to avoid ever cooking for them.
Your new food priorities sound delicious. Bon appetit on and into the future!
Now I'm longing for a tomato sandwich! :)
HeartofGlass, I wish it were funnier actually. The ex™ was a nightmare. I can't even begin to describe it. He was very much a meat eater (and yet he married the next girl who gave him any attention and she's a vegetarian too so now he takes the daughter when he has her to places he can eat meat even if she doesn't want to go there...). He also was very controlling in all things but he really played games with food; as did his mom to him in that she would make all kinds of desserts and then forbid the kids from having any so that they learned to cut half inch pieces off the entire end of a pan of brownies rather than just take a piece.
So... he gave a lot of pressure to buy cheap because we weren't worth it, withholding money and being the one to pay for the food which meant we went when he said it was okay, and he watched everything go in the cart so everything had to be justified... and since he was a big sweet tooth it was easier to get crap in the cart but not healthy stuff.
About 10 years in I just quit making food. He was so critical. Nothing was good enough, fast enough, made often enough, made too often, made too much, not enough... I asked him one time what he would like to eat and he refused to tell me and his reasoning was that I would then make that for him and then he'd get it too often. Towards the very end he finally said that whoever does the cooking should be the one who get prerogative over what is served and the eater should just be happy; that of course contradicted his behavior the entire time. But the worst was he taught the daughter to be extremely critical. The only good thing is that when I did quit cooking they both missed it because I was actually pretty danged good and now am even better but in a whole different way. Unfortunately it was a good two years after parting before I could face doing more than opening a can or ripping open a box for the frozen dinner. The abuse just completely shut me down. Even still I struggle.
As far as eating better? Yeesh! Just in that I can have a package of cookies or ice cream for more than the day they are bought... he'd eat an entire big package as just knowing they existed made him insane so I found myself trying to get my share in before he finished it off, or worse, hoarding and hiding. Not to mention I craved crap more... just such a depressing situation.
And those are just some highlowlights.
But it sounds like you had some idea with the parmesan and provolone (and other high cal oddities). As icky as it is, it does feel nice that you can understand. The ex™ had a cheese fetish too absolutely covering some foods with a thick layer and I understand he does that to the spaghetti he gets these days (hee hee -- not my problem anymore and apparently I wasn't *his* problem...). I love all the fruits and veggies I get to have these days and I spent about two weeks last summer having pretty much nothing but "tomayo" sandwiches for every meal while I spent a great deal of several other weeks eating a zucchini/tomato fresh cranberry bean mixture only to go into a tomatillo chili jag and it was all okay. Quite possibly the best summer ever. :)
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Location: Montana USA
About: By day I'm a mild mannered nerd girl and help-desk monkey. By night I am... THE PIE NINJA! Pastries quake with fear for their delicious flaky little lives when I'm around.
Favorite foods: Simple stuff, mostly. Pie and pastries. Fresh-from-the-garden veggies. A medium-rare grilled ribeye steak. Chocolate cake with a glass of milk. Italian food that doesn't contain offal.
Last bite on earth: A perfectly ripe tomato still warm from the garden sunshine.