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The Ten Most Recent Comments By renewbee

From Recipes

Eating for Two: Brown Rice with Lentils and Apricots

It really matters what iron supplement you take, too - ask your OB - iron can be really harsh on your stomach, but I find Schiff's Gentle Iron far more tolerable. Your OB can help you figure out what dose, pregnancy changes things a lot. I just recall that my doctor said the dosage on the bottle has little to do with what your body will absorb, so they need to do some calculations for you. Best of luck - I understand what you're saying about thinking iron supplementation is a scam, I've thought the same for the longest time about calcium, gingivitis, acid reflux - any ailments which allow the drug companies to supply us with expensive supplements, or which require extensive dental work - hee hee. Nonetheless, you need to pay attention when your iron levels show as too low. Take care!

renewbee at 12:21AM on 07/03/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

I feel sorry for folks who don't like sourdough - I've been turning myself upside down and inside out trying to develop a starter with just the right tang - I've got a loaf proofing in the kitchen, and just can't wait to get the thing in the oven and find out what it will be like. It has been so much fun, feeding these little starters, and watching them become more and more vigorous. I agree with gb944 about crab, butter, and sourdough bread, but like a big glug of cocktail sauce, or lacking that, my own counterfeit made with a good organic catsup and Beaver company horseradish (made in Beaverton, Oregon) on top - with a cold beer. I prefer Dungeness crab, my husband is partial to snow crab. Sourdough makes it even better than it is by itself! Oh, and a sourdough bread, chopped olive, and cream cheese sandwich (haven't had one in ten years or so, but, yum!) And, sourdough bread makes lovely toast, with a good apricot jam. So, lighten up - some of us actually love it that we can find sourdough all over the place in SF, we just wish it was as good in other locales.

renewbee at 3:10AM on 06/28/08

From Talk

SE users: please introduce yourselves.

Hi, I'm renewbee (Vicki) - just a favorite id of mine on a lot of websites - my husband, Jeff, and I are in our fifties, married 4 yrs - we love to cook, but like to cook quick things that taste like they took longer. We live in Portland, Oregon, and if we don't need to be out of doors, have little objection to our winter and spring rains - that is why Oregon is green! Our grocery cart has mostly whole, real foods, but we use a few convenience items, like canned beans, and refried beans - they usually get worked into recipes, tho. I'm one of six children, hub is one of five - so, naturally, we' have an appreciation for affordable cooking - love a roasted chicken - a favorite is a recipe from the Oregonian FoodDay for an orange nutmeg roasted chicken. I've written a family cookboook and am about to update it - am considering a starting blog to make it easier for our families to access the recipes and to add new ones. I'm a former Linfield College computer applications adjunct prof, have sold real estate for about 18 yrs (tho, I should say, try to - the market is quite slow, although not really dead). Husband is my partner - lately, he is falling back on his former trade - construction. Recent comments on growing a kitchen garden resonate with us - we'll be starting our own garden in our back yard, and on one of our back lots. I've been enjoying SE for a couple of months or so - love knowing what folks are cooking, and seeing new approaches to the daily dinner. I love the positive tone on the boards here - you're a great community!

renewbee at 9:53PM on 04/26/08

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: The Oprah Magazine Cookbook

I'd love to share a meal with Oprah - she is one of the few people I truly admire. I think it would be fun to introduce her to a few of our classic Oregon foods - we have salmon, raspberries, hazelnuts, fabulous wines, and my husband and I would love to cook dinner for her. I really believe that hers is one of the few television programs which makes a genuine effort to improve the lives of her viewers, and truly appreciate her contribution.

renewbee at 3:13AM on 04/24/08

From Required Eating

Grounds for Divorce: Sexist Vintage Folger's Coffee Commercial

And if he doesn't like the way she makes the coffee, he can't figure out how to do it himself? My husband and I both make good coffee, but bless his heart, he gets up before I do and brews a fresh pot, and brings in the paper, and not at my suggestion. He's just nice that way. (If I wake up before he does, I do the same.) We live in a far more egalitarian time, but one of our kids is very sexist to his wife. Everything is his, and when they shop for a home, it is for his house, his investment, ad nauseum. We've called him on it, and gotten a lot of negative flack back. So, these things, once improved in one generation, don't necessarily carry on to the next, even if the kids have been raised to understand fairness. Go figure.

renewbee at 5:10PM on 04/16/08

From Required Eating

Häagen-Dazs Flavor Preview Giveaway

Woo hoo! We've been chocolate fiends this spring at our house - we'd doubtless and happily develop another "bad" habit if we won this prize - and, here's a bribe: a new flavor suggestion. I make my own thai peanut sauce, and have been craving it lately, seasoned with five spice powder, on ice cream - have yet to try it, but know it would be great - maybe even with a bit of coconut milk worked in - hows about five spice thai peanut sauce icecream? Yummmmmm!

renewbee at 2:49AM on 04/09/08

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: The Cornbread Gospels

I love the cornbread at Buddies', a little restaurant in Beaverton OR - they serve it with a cup of chili for $2.97 - I cut the cornbread horizontally, spread it out on the plate, and pour the chili (with onions and cheese, of course) over - mmmmmm! A tall glass of iced tea completes the meal, but if its cold out, I'll go for a cup of hot tea.

I just love Crescent Dragonwagon's cookbooks - if I win this one, I can try to fix some cornbread and chili for my hubby! Wish me luck!

renewbee at 8:19PM on 04/07/08

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: Nigella Express

We try to always have a choice of at least three side dishes in the fridge - favorites include sliced loaves of polenta (prepared in the microwave), cooked brown rice, mac'n'cheese (the new whole wheat pastas are fabulous, and we add small cubes of tofu to our recipe), broccoli salad, pea salad, 4-bean salad, etc. Trader Joe's has a wonderful (but strong)peanut vinaigrette, which we cut 50/50% with rice vinegar, and keep it and other dressings and olive oil in squirt bottles inside the fridge door. With either bagged salads or our pre-prep salads, and these other sides, our meals go together so quickly, we are far less tempted to go out for less nutitious, more expensive meals.

renewbee at 5:50PM on 03/27/08

From Recipes

Baking With Dorie: Corniest Corn Muffins

My latest favorite quick dinner is chili on top of a good cornbread or muffin - inspired by a local tavern's wonderful cup of chili with cornbread. Love it! Can't wait to try your recipe!

renewbee at 4:51PM on 03/18/08

From Talk

Where do you find your cookbooks?

Take a look at Zooba.com - I think they may be a remainder site for book of the month club family - any book is $10 including shipping - you queue them, and get one a month - Martha Stewart's most recent books have been on there, as have Oz & Roizen's "You" series. They have all kinds of books, too - when I'm not sure what I want for me in a given month, I order children's books - I always give the children in my life books for birthdays and Christmas - they already get "too many" toys. There have been some real treasures on this site, I have enjoyed it enormously. I keep a lot of books in my queue, and check in before the shipping date to prioritize (which of these books fits what I'm cooking/doing/reading this month?) - I also use e-bay, half.com, amazon marketplace, alibris, and campusi. And, sometimes, you'll find real treasures at Good Will for a dollar or two!

renewbee at 3:00PM on 03/18/08

Responses to Comments by renewbee

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

i love sourdough... actually I didn't like it when I first tried it, too tangy for my kiddy tastebuds at the time. But, now that my pallate has evolved, the ones I've had recently are not even as tangy as I remember the original being... they just taste like regular white bread.

I don't know how this rates with Bay Area dwellers, but I liked the Boudin sandwiches I had the last time I was in SF.

MadelynRodriguez at 5:21PM on 07/01/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

I live in Darwin, Australia, and work in a bakery and I've got to say, sourdough is my favourite type of bread that we make there. Actually it is my favourite type of anything we make there. You know a bread is good when a seventeen year old girl chooses it over a brownie or a cream bun!

GegeMac at 10:14PM on 06/30/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

SF sourdough isn't ideal for everything but just because you can get a passable (not great, but passable) loaf at every supermarket on the west coast doesn't mean that it has ruined every other kind of bread. I live in NYC and don't think that the lack of good bread in local markets and bakeries is because of all the rye bread baked in the area. I think his anger is really misplaced on this one. Of course, I also have no idea who he is or why I should care about his opinion so whatever.....

sloppy at 5:24PM on 06/30/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

There are various degrees of "sour" in sourdough breads. SF Sourdough is defined by a tartness that a French sourdough doesn't have. Starters that are rye based tend to be much more bitter than starters made with wheat. All too often in commercial bakeries all across the world, when a baker makes sourdough he/she is also using a flavour enhancer that is intended to up the "tang factor". As the proud caretaker of several home grown starters, I have a few that are very sour but I also have a few that make breads that have such a subtle tang that you would never know it was a sourdough based bread. It is all about the starter...

breadchick at 10:54PM on 06/29/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

IT'S HARD TO GET GOOD BREAD IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA???????

surely, SURELY you jest. i have lived in new york for 12 years and i STILL miss the wonderful bread in the bay area, especially berkeley -- semi freddi's, acme, grace, and the cheese board, to name just a few of the absolutely world class bread makers there. new york's got a lot of catching up to do, imho.

i don't much care for the touristy kind of sour sourdough bread, but the "levain" that is used to make the baguettes at the cheeseboard and semi freddi's produces some incomparably delicious baguettes.

cybercita at 10:40PM on 06/28/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

I don't really care for bread, especially dark breads. The only kind of bread that I find tolerable has been baked within a few hours. That said, I actually miss dearly sour dough bread. The only place I've been able to find sour dough bread regularly in metro Cleveland is the craptastic bread Trader Joe sells. No thanks. I love sour dough bread too much. I can get rye everywhere here, but I can't stand rye.

For a month every summer for 20 years, my mother and I would vacation in SF to escape the heat. I ate crab sandwiches on sour dough bread every single day with a bowl of soup. What bliss!

Sour dough bread works with everything, if you like it a lot. :P It's the only bread I truly enjoy with rare roast beef, along with Best Foods mayo, alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, and a dab of yellow mustard. Yum! It's great with lox or even with banana and honey sandwiches. It's wonderful in bread pudding too!

Cassaendra at 8:09PM on 06/28/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

ok....thanks all....now i'm freakin starvin......for some nice sourdough bread.....guess i gotta go to publix an get some.....i dont think i'd like sourdough bread dipped in olive oil.....but it makes a great stuffing for a turkey !!!

onepercent99 at 5:48PM on 06/28/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

Not that crazy about sourdough - I would never seek it out - but if it's good and it's fresh I enjoy it.

A severely underrepresented bread is salt-rising bread. It does not have that many "applications" (lol) but it makes the best toast in the world.

mcmvoices at 4:46PM on 06/28/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

I absoluty love sourdough - for anything - including French Toast and Bread Pudding. It makes FABULOUS sandwiches. I was born and raised in Oakland and my family owned a big Italian restaurant - so I grew up on sourdough. Sourdough is always my first choice. On the other hand, I absolutely hate rye bread. Yuk.

PattiShock at 1:52PM on 06/28/08

From Required Eating

Sourdough Doesn't Always Mean 'Good'

sourdough is excellent in almost every application! SF sourdough is famous because of their particular wild yeast. back in the early days of bread, before commercial processes were developed for baker's and instant yeast, every bread was sourdough because the only way to grow the yeast culture was through capturing wild yeast. SF had a particularly nice strain, and that's why they have such a wonderful bread culture there. anyone who complains that sourdough isn't appropriate for certain cheeses or wines really needs to check themselves -- a lot of these cheeses were developed to be paired with sourdough, the only bread available at the time anywhere in the world.

arobotar at 10:59AM on 06/28/08