BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 07:32 AM

Steve, since one of your formost expert talents is botany, do you find flavour has suffered because of breeding mono culture? strains?
I find ripeness is critical in strawberry flavour.

Do you own a Hortus?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 10:13 AM

I know Steve is enough of a gardener to have ready access to parsley and similar greenstuff any ol' time he wants it. I suffer badly from envy.

Ripeness is critical to the flavour of strawberries. I have been making strawberry jam and related preserves since the age of 12, and I can say with authority that the best results come with fruit that has achieved the condition we Canadians call "dead ripe" -- on the cusp of collapsing into red mush. You know it's there when you pull on the hull and the leaves pop off with no loss of flesh. Or you could eat one, but market traders tend to frown on that practice; customers swooning with bliss clutter up access to the stand.

Size is also a factor, and that depends on the cultivar. "Jam berries" are smaller than the Bobdignagian items that come from Mexico in plastic boxes, and they don't travel well. I wish the growers would indicate the cultivar on their packaging, but only the "tree fruit" growers do that, and only because their customers insist; apples, for example, vary widely in sweetness and cellulose content, so their culinary potential varies just as widely. don't think the berry business is quite there yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 02:06 PM

In this season, I have cooked less than usual but sometimes make a meal of blueberries, cut up strawberries [use 'em before they go soft], pitted cherries and yoghurt. The yoghurt seems to make everything taste sweeter.
And yes, I agree about the ripeness of fruit, especially melons. I truly miss the sweetness of properly ripened cantaloupe. In that respect melons are getting more like avocados--you buy them hard and watch for that moment of ripeness before they go downhill.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 03:12 PM

My very favourite summer fruit is picota cherries. They're the little ones with no stalks from Extremadura in Spain and you only get them for a few weeks, starting soon. They're as cheap as chips too.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 03:22 PM

A sandwich on whole wheat bread with mayonnaise, fresh cucumber pickles, home grown tomato, and sliced baked chicken. The more places I can find to use those tomatoes and other garden crops, the happier I am!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 07:54 PM

I've recently discovered that cherry tomatoes (it's imperative that they are flavoursome to begin with, otherwise don't bother) are amazingly good if you thread them on soaked flat wooden skewers (I mean, whoever thought that round skewers were any good...) and barbecued for a max of five minutes. No messing around with marinades or added flavours. A bit of rocket on your burger and some of those tomatoes with your sausages or chicken wings gives you the veg you need to stay healthy. Substitute barbecued corn on the cob for spuds and you eating so healthily that the two bottles of wine each/crate of ice-cold lager (non-American) per person will do you no harm at all. Just stay in bed and accidentally skip 24 hours.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 07:56 PM

YELLOW CHERRIES stay at the peak of sweet ripeness for weeks.
Just like we don't get Spanish produce, I bet you don't these.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Jun 20 - 08:37 PM

Try repeating that in plain English.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: JennieG
Date: 26 Jun 20 - 12:51 AM

No tomatoes - no. Just no.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of my mother holding me down with one hand and trying to force-feed me tomatoes with the other. Is it any wonder that, even at my advanced age, I still don't eat tomatoes?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 27 Jun 20 - 02:55 PM

Jennie, you are angry with your mother, so you punish yourself by not eating the many delicious dishes with tomato in them. Does that make sense?
========
Last night we had our Double Goop Dinner. A restaurant called Paradise Cafe used to mix chicken-breast bits with cream cheese and ancho peppers and serve it with chips. I modified it to make Goop of Paradise.

Cook chicken breast any way you like. Chop it fine.
Mix together: cream cheese, lemon or lime juice, tarragon, black pepper. If cheese is too stiff, it's easiest to soften it with milk yogurt or sour cream. Otherwise you have to use elbow grease.

Serve with corn chips (we like no-salt chips.)
======
In addition make guacamole and eat that with chips too.

It's cool to serve these with blue corn chips, but I can't find them without salt.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 20 - 04:12 PM

It's time to have a few things handy for assembling what in the US is called a "Chef Salad" - it is an ample bed of lettuce topped with shredded or small sticks of cheese, then some kind of meat, at least one. Chicken, ham, turkey, are all good. Halved hard boiled eggs to edge the plate, alternated with whole or halved tomatoes, depending on their size. I usually use an Italian dressing, usually one of the fresh ones from the grocery store, but I have some bottles in the pantry also. Mmmmmm!

Meanwhile, I'm also preparing to make enough marinara sauce plus some kind of meat (sausage, but I have also been known to add cut up chicken) for a couple of days' meals. And make extra pasta. I keep it in a container in the fridge and reheat by pouring boiling water over it in a bowl. Purists may not like this, but it works when its so hot and humid and you don't want to cook every day.

I'm going to make a batch of hummus soon, starting by soaking the garbanzos, not using canned peas.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: JennieG
Date: 27 Jun 20 - 05:34 PM

It makes perfect sense, leeneia, but I don't like the taste of tomatoes at all......which is probably the reason I didn't want to eat them in the first place!

We probably all have foods which we like, and foods which we don't. I don't like tomaties, but apricots now......oh my goodness, I just lurve them.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 30 Jun 20 - 04:19 PM

Supper tonight is leftovers — creatively put together to make a new meal.

I lost my "personal shopper" a couple weeks ago (he went back to work), so I'll soon have to make a quick well-planned foray to the grocery store for mostly perishables. And I felt it best to avoid the store this week before the July 4th holiday.

So... I had some ziti pasta left in a mostly empty box, so I cooked it up. The ziti were longish, so when they'd cooled, I cut them in half.

My bunch of celery is almost kaput, so I finely diced two interior stalks (leaving a couple small interior stalks for emergency crunch before my shopping trip). The shallots need to be used, so one of the remaining got chopped up. And cut a bunch of cherry tomatoes in half.

And a couple days ago I pan fried a large marinated venison steak. I've had a couple meals already from it, so I sliced up the rest into little chunks.

Seasoned salt (sparingly) and Penzey's "World's Best Ground Pepper" and mayonnaise to hold it all together. Had a couple bites before I put it in the fridge — it's going to be a tasty supper.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Jul 20 - 11:36 AM

Today we're trying something new.

We have company coming for supper, a treat for us, after months of isolation. As family -- Himself's brother and SIL, recently moved to town -- they're in our bubble.

We now have a firepit in our garden, and Himself is forever banging on about outdoor cookery. So today we will do some.

There are four racks of back ribs, but room for only two in the barbecue. So two will be cooked Chinese-style in the Instant Pot, sauced with an exotic sticky concoction from a New York Times recipe, and finished on the grill over the firepit. Himself will be in charge of that, since he has long arms and tolerates heat far better than I do. He likes sitting in a lawn chair with a beer and a pair of tongs.

The other racks will be smoke-cooked in the barbecue with a dry rub. I have done this before, so no drama (I hope).

I will also make cornbread in a skillet (in the house, I'm not crazy). And salad, because nutrition.

It's stonking hot today in Perth County, so outdoor cookery is a Good Thing. Let's hope we don't get that thunderstorm Environment Canada is teasing us with.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 01 Jul 20 - 01:30 PM

Hi, Jennie. What you say makes sense. Also, I love apricots too.

Charmion, your upcoming party sounds delightful.
===========
Last night we had Quarantine BBQ chicken

Order ribs from a barbecue place. Save the little plastic cups of sauce they give you.

Trim excess fat and skin from 3 or 4 chicken thighs. Kitchen shears are good for this.

Warm the chicken to room temperature in the microwave at half-power for about 4 minutes. Helps it brown better and kills the germs (I figure.)

Meanwhile, cut a sweet potato or two into slices about 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick. No need to peel them.

Put a small amt of oil in a non-stick skillet. Put in the chicken, skin side down and brown it. Then turn it over and gently spread the BBQ sauce on the browned side.

Put in the sweet potatoes, mostly around the outside of the pan. Or you can cook the sweet potatoes separately. It depends on your mood.

Cover and simmer till chicken is tender and sweet potatoes are cooked.

You can eat it at this stage, but I like to chill the food overnight and remove the chicken fat which has risen to the top and solidified. Then I reheat to serve.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jul 20 - 03:56 PM

I had a bunch of small onions harvested from the yard a couple of weeks ago that needed using. I sliced them up along with some small poblano and a few jalapeno peppers from the yard and added some sliced frozen organic bell peppers, stirred it all together, then added a couple of shredded chicken breasts with Mexican spices (cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, chili powder). I'll use this to fill some corn tortillas and bake as a pan of chicken enchiladas for several meals this week. Top them with tomato sauce, salsa, and lots of cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Jul 20 - 04:23 PM

Chitten the chat shootin the breeze
ticklin the ribs inventin degrees
piled higher and deeper BS is cheaper
Than Harvard, Wheaton or Yale

Learning to cook by hook or by crook
is like stealing from out of print books
The art of cuisine is almost obscene
in textures tastes and smells

Who puts the shish on your kabob
or relish on your hot dog
Who puts a pinch of salt on your egg
or sauce on your gonzofazoul

Your imaginary Chef can
Who has a secret rhthym
that you can't understand
but your secret cook knows

What the Chef does with a can of
whipped cream very few have known
When its done right turn out the light
Because you'll begin to glow

Who takes chocolate ice cream
and puts it on you to make steam
if they spill chocolate syrup
you know they'll clean it all up

The loving cook knows
all the best ways
to cure your weary woes
with hot buttered rolls cuz

there's no need for faking
When the aim is to please
The dish is in the making
and not a recipe

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Jul 20 - 05:45 PM

Misread as Put a small ant in a non-stick skillet...

Crunchy!

Raw tomatoes, which I disliked till fed them in some street food in Istanbul in [I think] 1975, still have the taste I remember disliking. Kind of metallic. I just like it, now.

Most other foods I used to dislike but don't anymore have no taste I remember disliking, so I don't grok why I used to dislike them. But I can tell, with raw tomatoes.

Hope that makes sense.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 02:16 AM

No ' grok ' doesn't make any sense to me.


Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 09:35 AM

Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein. Grok.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 10:15 AM

Mrrzy, that metallic taste of raw tomato is why many people sprinkle the cut fruit with sugar or salt, and your gradual adaptation to it is an example of what happens to the human olfactory sense with a bit of age.

I am very interested in what people liked or disliked as children, and how those reactions change or don't with time. It seems to me that negative reactions based on texture (slimy, mushy etc.) tend to persist, but pure taste reactions (metallic, acidic, "hot") are likely to change if the person tries the food again in later life.

Himself was a definite refuser of hot peppers of all types when we first took up together back in the old century, but he loves the aromatic flavours in south Asian dishes. Consequently, over the years, he has gradually adapted to a bit of heat, especially if combined with acid (with lime juice in a chutney, for example). Likewise, he loathes cooked spinach, but he will eat it when mixed into dahl. But kidney beans are a complete show-stopper -- he can't stand even the sight of them. It's the mealy texture that triggers his gag reflex, so the typical American chili does not grace our table. I sometimes eat it at Tim Horton's when we're travelling.

My trigger food for many years was oatmeal porridge. My parents used Quick Quaker Oats, a type of parboiled rolled oats that is no longer on the market to the best of my knowledge. It had a distinctive slimy texture that revolts me to this day. I successfully weaned myself of this problem about ten years ago with steel-cut oats and large-flake rolled oats cooked with spices and dried fruit. The slimy texture was not there to trigger memories of my mother's frequent rage, and now oatmeal is part of our routine menu.

Both of us loathe liver when it is served "natur", but we both like sausages and pates that contain ground or minced liver. I think that's a combination reaction, to the texture of organ meat and to the intensity of the flavour. Change the texture and attenuate the flavour, and poof! the dislike is gone.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 11:15 AM

I loathed the processed peas we used to have with school dinners - couldn't eat them without gagging. I haven't tried them since, or the nasty looking green mushy peas served up in English chip shops, so I don't know if my taste has changed, but I very much doubt it.
In a Rochdale chip shop, however, I was once given a little pot of brown peas, which were totally different and delicious. I believe they were Carlin / Maple / Parching peas. Has anyone any more information about them?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 01:16 PM

They were probably what we called black peas (they were more brown than black) . My mum, who owned a chippy in Radcliffe for ten years, served them up for free at the bonfire every November 5. You had to take your own mug and spoon. They were always served vinegary. I used to buy them dried on Bury Market until quite recently. You can quite likely still buy them.

We are having mushy peas with dabs and home-made chips tonight. You can buy kilo bags of frozen marrowfat peas for a quid in Morrisons. You simmer them with some salt and a bit of water for 20 minutes, and voila, mushy peas much better than the chippy ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 01:23 PM

Thanks Steve. I don't remember the ones in Rochdale being vinegary. It wasn't bonfire night, it was during the Rochdale Rushcart. If I can find some dried ones I'll experiment.
I won't be trying your mushy peas though, even if they are better than the chip shop ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 01:26 PM

I know what your old man means about the texture of red kidney beans, Charmion. I don't use them in anything else besides chili. But you can use any bean in chili. On one occasion when I thought I had tinned kidney beans but didn't, I just put a couple of cans of baked beans in a sieve, washed away the tomato sauce and used them instead. They were fine! I have a feeling that I pretended I'd done it on purpose....

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 04:13 PM

Quick oats are still out there and going strong, but I always buy old fashioned if I'm going that route. I use steel cut oats a lot now, cooking them overnight so they're fully cooked and no crunchy bits.

Lima beans. I didn't like them as a kid and I don't like them now. Liver and kidney. Mom used to fix them when I was a kid but I think met so much resistance from us she finally stopped.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 06:07 PM

Lima beans are called butter beans this end. They can be a bit dry and grainy, but I was brought up on them and I like them. They're good to mush up into some kind of dip or to spread on bruschetta, mixed with other stuff such as olive oil, rosemary and chilli flakes. If I'm using canned beans I tend to stick with cannellini or borlotti. Or chick peas if I think the recipe can take the substitution. Or all three.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 01:56 AM

Chilli should be made with pinto beans, but I don't expect it makes a lot of difference.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 04:04 AM

I think my choice reflects what I can easily lay my hands on in this remote fastness. I shall be looking out for pinto beans...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 05:23 AM

Pinto beans are the only ones I've ever come accross a shortage of [ a few years ago mind ]

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 10:02 AM

Quick Quaker Oats are still around.

I used to only like peanuts out of what are loosely called nuts. Now I only dislike cashews, but like all other nuts (again, loosely speaking).

I didn't used to like hot spice, now I prefer it.

Still hate cilantro.

Texture is still a thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 10:55 AM

Chili con frijoles is made in Texas with pinto beans. There are lots of other US regional bean dishes that are meant to be bean dishes (it can be argued that the original chili is just a sauce, hence the names recognizing the additional ingredients, con frijoles or con carne. Beans or meat.)

I prefer to cook with kidney beans, they have better flavor and are nutritionally a notch above pintos. The little red beans are used in a lot of Puerto Rican bean dishes, but when I was learning recipes from my late mother in law, I didn't have little red beans available. So I used red kidney beans.

"Ranch style" beans is a pinto bean dish you often find in Texas barbecue places, and they usually have a couple of choices, sweet or savory.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 12:33 PM

I didn't know that about chili, Stilly; thanks. And here I am, sixty-five years old, and I finally learn that "frijoles" is beans.

I guess, then, that "chili", as a culinary term, is somewhat analogous to "curry" in that it indicates a cooking style with a certain range of ingredients and flavourings, rather than a particular dish.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 12:52 PM

Pinto beans look like what the Indians call Rose Coco and the Italians call Borlotti, but this wiki makes them seem different…

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 06:08 PM

Bit of a freezer disaster last week. The door of our smaller upright freezer had been slightly ajar for around two days without our noticing. Everything except big blocky things had completely thawed, though still very cold. I had to ditch a few items such as two packs of bacon, some raw prawns and some tuna skewers, not to speak (lamentably) of a huge tub of very nice vanilla ice cream. I've done two trial cookings of things that got thawed then which got a panicky refreezing, and they all passed the test, namely some home-made meatballs (they were delicious), some classy uncooked artisan sausage rolls (I have three more packs, so thank God for that) and some Marks and Spencer ultimate mash, of which I had five packs. I'd bought them at the start of the lockdown, to my shame, as I never rely on ready-made mash. I cooked just the one as a trial, and it was fine. I have a truckload of the finest local butcher's sausages in there in the hope of many a summer barbecue, and I'm assuming they'll be fine. I also have a considerable number of free-range pork chops that are vacuum-packed, and I'm pretty certain they'll also be fine. One or two other items we'll be devouring in the next day or two. Some things you'd eat yourself but wouldn't risk disappointing your guest with!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 07:44 PM

I've had that happen with the freezer door - and after such an event make sure to test the door every time.

I picked another bowl of tomatoes and am now looking at several quarts of tomatoes when I can. I blanch and peel then dice, though these tomatoes are smaller and I may blanch and can them whole in pint jars.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 07:52 PM

Even in our Cornish greenhouses we can't pick tomatoes for at least another three weeks. I always grow a cherry variety called Sungold: they are delicious and they resist soil-borne tomato diseases....

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 09:05 PM

Steve Shaw, your story is why I do not and never will own an upright freezer.

We have a small chest freezer Himself purchased in 1991 when he was posted back to Canada from Germany, having won the Cold War. The technician who replaced its thermostat some ten years ago told us to keep it going as long as possible because they don’t make ‘em like that any more.

In summer, I go out to the garage to exhort it to extra effort and promise it wine and roses if only it survives another year. So far, it’s working.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 20 - 09:26 PM

We had a chest freezer at my mom's house growing up, and it was a black hole. So much stuff got buried and forgotten down in the bottom. Upright are so much easier to organize (though I still manage to lose track of stuff; with my old freezer it was defrosted twice a year and reorganized. I'll have to work out a routine like that for the new one.)

Chest freezers are always the go-to freezer for murderers trying to confuse investigators about the time of death. That's the other reason why I don't want to have one.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 05 Jul 20 - 03:34 AM

There is never ever enough room in my chest freezer to hide a body.
However, it is still going, having been given to me by someone moving to a smaller house back sometime in the last century.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: JennieG
Date: 05 Jul 20 - 04:12 AM

We had to lose our chest freezer in following The Second Great Flood of 2017 (plumbing problems) - because we were away on the weekend it happened we had a partial blackout, due to electrical cords and a power board sitting in water. The fridge wasn't affected but the chest freezer was, meat had started to drip out the bottom (talk about a body in the freezer) so it was taken away unopened and disposed of.

We didn't lose much food, and it was covered by insurance anyway. I did, however, lose some alpaca knitting yarn that was stored in a plastic bag to kill a couple of flying bugs and that, in the fuss of having to throw out much of our furniture, I just forgot about. It was discontinued years ago so could not be replaced. Sigh.

Now we have an upright freezer.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Jul 20 - 09:14 AM

Jos... It's a chest freezer, not a whole-body freezer, eh?

Ice cream can be refrozen?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Jul 20 - 08:23 PM

Ice cream can be refrozen if you churn it — y’know, do what was done to make it the first time.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 20 - 11:48 PM

It looks like someone could start an interesting thread just to do with the fate of freezers, chest or upright. :) Too bad about the yarn. You might have wanted to slam the lid closed if you'd gone in looking for it, though, so you saved yourself from one of those awful views that can't be unseen. Or smelled.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: JennieG
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 01:56 AM

Honestly, SRS......when I realised that my yarn had gone it seemed such a small thing considering the amount of flood damage to the house, furnings and other Stuff, but in the end it was those small things that tipped me over the edge.

Back to recipes!

Pumpkin scones are an Aussie favourite, and a recipe idea currently sweeping the internet in Oz is two-ingredient pumpkin scones. One needs a tin of condensed pumpkin soup, and self-raising flour. You empty the soup into a bowl and add enough flour to make it stiff, roll out on a floured board, and cut into squares or rounds. Bake. Spread with butter. Enjoy. While shopping earlier I bought the tin of soup (always make my own soup, very seldom use tinned) so, when the mood strikes later in the week, I plan to have a go.

Two ingredient pumpkin scones

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 02:15 AM

Maybe the pumpkin scones could be made with a tin of other pureed fruit, such as apple. Or how about other kinds of soup - mushroom scones, anyone? Tomato scones?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 09:59 AM

Pumpkin soup? Condensed, in tins? Yikes. You Ozzies will eat anything.

Of course, Squash soup is a completely different class of article. Totally.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 10:04 AM

In Ontario, we are approaching peak tomato/zucchini season. In a week or two, green-thumbed neighbours will start sneaking about with baskets to deposit on doorsteps in the dark of night.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 10:35 AM

That's the classic behavior in the Pacific NW as well. And zucchini can grow so very large very fast if you're not watching them.

This morning's breakfast will be a whole ripe mango that needs to be eaten. If I feel need for any more I'll reheat a little of the oatmeal I made on Sunday. Yes, it's a lump in the container, but scoop a few spoons-ful into the bowl, shape it a bit, nuke it, add brown sugar and milk and you are scouring your arteries and meeting about half of your calcium needs for the day.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jul 20 - 11:09 AM

Did I describe my "house" iced tea mix? I never drank iced tea until I moved to Texas, and now I can't imagine life without it. To cut back on the caffeine, I use green tea. In a 2-litre glass jar I suspend 3 green tea bags and use a generous sprig (several inches long with several leafy stems) of lemon balm that grows unrestrained outside my back door (it escaped from a pot). After brewing I sweeten it with three level tiny scoops of Stevia. Once it's cold I put ice and a little water into a glass and fill it with the tea. The point of iced tea is not to be the same strength as a cup of hot tea, hence the extra water. If you use the hot tea to try to make a cup of iced tea the cubes melt too fast and it's too dilute. There is a sweet spot, when the tea is only a little warm, when you can start making a glass that will come out perfect. I make enough to drink for a couple of days, hence the added water once the tea is chilled.

I can drink this into the early evening and still get to sleep at night (I have to stop drinking black tea by early afternoon).