Text 21961, 97 rader
Skriven 2007-10-29 21:12:44 av Daniel Prather (2669.cooking)
  Kommentar till text 21949 av Carol Shenkenberger (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Rice 329
================
  Re: Rice 329
  By: Carol Shenkenberger to Daniel Prather on Mon Oct 29 2007 04:13 pm

 > Mom used the occasional packets you get at the grocery store.  She grew up
 > on not very spicy foods.  I recall rare times when she'd make 'fancy' with
 > nutmeg or cinnimon but mostly we kids prayed for TV dinners <g>.

Well, we didn't pray for TV dinners. :)  My mom made a lot of good stuff, but
was just really light on the seasoning.  On my father's side of the family,
though, they were all from Alabama and such, and they really, really know how
to cook.  But it was all good, I just learned to expand my horizons (and my
waist) once I moved out. :)

 > Same here, but I still liked the fancy stuff my friends had.  Michelle
 > Groger, lived next door.  Her family was Jewish and they had some of the
 > best food!

Yep, I remember eating at some friends' houses, and it was always so different
than what we had.  Though, my mom also didn't allow sodas and such in the
house, but my friends always had them.

 > I got a rude awakening the day I moved out from home and my new roomates
 > relegated me to bottle washer for the remainder of our time <g>.  They were
 > fancy cooks and showed me quite a bit at that start time.

Yeah, that'd be a little disheartening, but at least they taught you new stuff!

 > By the time I met Don, 7 years later, I was able to catch his attention on
 > our first date by making him a home cooked meal with nothing but a Navy
 > barracks microwave and a single cassarole dish.  I made him a curried
 > Jamacian style adobo, braised green beans with butter and mushrooms, and
 > some sliced fruit.  I think that was what I made anyways <g>.  I made him
 > dinner several times.

Wow.  I'd imagine that takes some skill and talent. :)

 > Same here.  I have never been able to equal her annual beef stew pot and
 > it's not just memory.  It really is that good.  I've even helped her make
 > it but cant
 > seem to get it that 'perfect way' on my own.  One of the important parts
 > though was it had to be a big batch in the stew pot (practically a
 > lobsterpot but not quite).  She said it never worked right in smaller
 > amounts.  She'd freeze up tons of it and we'd have it all the rest of the
 > year.

One thing my mom seems to make better than anyone else is corn bread.  Even my
southern grandmother, who is an *excellent* cook, doesn't quite make corn bread
the same way.

 > Giggles, we all have our failures.  Don was worried I wouldnt like the
 > first meal he made me (first night after I moved out of the barracks).  He
 > made me rice, sauteed mushrooms, and sashimi (Ahi tuna) with a 50/50
 > soy/worstershire dipping sauce.  I fell in love with that meal.  Invited
 > him to move in that night <g>.

Hahaha!  Well that sounds good!  Simple, but very appetizing.  Your posts and
this echo are making me want to be a bit more adventurous hehe.

 > Whats a 'pluot'?  Starfruit make wonderful soup garnishes BTW.  Very
 > pretty.

A pluot is kinda like a combination between a plum and an apricot.  They're
usually a sort of mottled color (like red/pink/orange, blue/purple/white), and
sometimes are also called "dinosaur eggs".  To me, they almost taste like a
pear and an apple put together.  It's a really strange fruit, but is pretty
good. :)

 > I did get a little tired of 'new' though at times in Sasebo, because so
 > *much* was new.  Of course, I learned favorites from those things too <g>.

Sometimes a good, old fashion standby is all that's needed.  I'll always be a
fan of some good, homemade macaroni and cheese.

 > Oh, if you arent sodium restricted and get olives, peel some garlic and add
 > that to the jar before you put it in the fridge.   Makes the cheap
 > manzanillas much better.  Also save the brine.  It's very useful in
 > cooking.

That's a really interesting idea.  I'd never thought of anything like that
before.

 > My first experience with squash was my mom cutting it, putting it in lots
 > of water, then boiling it 30 mins...  She did the same with unpeeled
 > eggplant once.
 > I got over the squash pretty fast and love it, but the eggplant took me
 > until sometime last year!

Eggplant is a bit of a weird one.  Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't, and
sometimes anything I make from it just comes out horrible.  My wife and I
experimented with spaghetti squash a while back, didn't prepare it right, and
hated it.  But then on a whim, we decided to try it again, cooked it properly,
and made some really awesome pasta-like dishes with it.  I'm not a squash
person myself, but this stuff was good. :)

-- Daniel
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