Text 7055, 123 rader
Skriven 2008-05-15 00:20:30 av Carol Shenkenberger (13110.cooks)
   Kommentar till text 6970 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
Ärende: Meat Balls, Mamma Mia!                                   [1]
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 >  CS> Mom made rice fairly often but not as often as I do.  Probably had it
 >  CS> once a week is my guess?  I think she made rice-a-roni pretty often
 > 
 > My mom's main use of rice was in the turkey soup she made from the left
 > over holiday bird.  Other than the very rare chop suey (maybe every 3-4

I do not recall my Mom ever making a scratch soup which is odd as it's one of
the first things i learned to do reasonably well (and got better at over the
years).  There was a turkey noodle dish she'd do though with the leftovers
that was pretty good.  Bland but tastey.  Most of the 'spice' came from
canned cream soups and green bell peppers as I recall.

 > rural area) so they were "spared" having to eat rice.  Rice a roni was
 > never in our house.

Hehe 'spared rice' oh my!  Mom was really set.  You got a meat, a veggie, and
a starch at every meal.  Sometimes the starch was in the form of potatoes
with the meat in a sort of cassarole.


 >  CS> leftovers (she'd make a little extra fairly often and sometimes we
 >  CS> didnt eat up the extras), she'd freeze it and then pull it out later
 >  CS> for the meatballs.
 > 
 > Makes sense; we rarely had left overs like that.  If it was just a dab
 > or two, it went into the dog's dish.  More than that and Dad would use
 > it as part of his lunch. Some meats had "planned re use" but a vegetable

No dog and we 3 kids handled the leftovers unless Mom said 'do not touch
these, they are for dinner later'.

 >  CS> Breadcrumbs were not common as she'd have to use up a slice or so of
 >  CS> bread for it.
 > 
 > My mom kept a can of the cheap ones on hand--still does.

I don't recall but rare times when she had that around.  She might have
refilled it with slightly burned toast bits (lol!).

 > I think cooking was more of a job to my mom with the 5 of us kids.  We

Mine too.  There's but 3.5 years between us 3.

 >  > That sounds like fun.  Were you predicatble with one kid always wanting
 >  > big meat balls, another always the small ones?
 > 
 >  CS> Yes, but since we'd trade off chores, Mom never really knew what to
 >  CS> expect. If it was my week to do dishes for example, I might trade that
 >  CS> night's chore to my brother and pick the little ones in exchange
 >  CS> (which he liked best).
 > 
 > Funny, you would have expected the boy to like the bigger ones. My

Naw, he loves spagetti.  To get that, you had to ask for the smaller ones.

 >  CS> the lot.  (Jarred spagetti sauces didnt exist then I think).
 > 
 > I think jarred sauces have been around a good while but they've been
 > more expensive than the packet.  I ate my mom's spaghetti/sauce but knew
 > there had to be something better--and found it when I met/married Steve.

Dunno.  I do not recall them in 1978 when I moved out from home, but may have
missed them then.  This though speaks to 1960's and early 70's with Mom's
cooking.  To this day, I have many packets always on hand for various things.
I was just used to seeing same as a kid when looking in the fridge and never
really thought about it.

 >  CS> Oh definately!  Most of us mention over and over how we almost never
 >  CS> make anything excatly the same twice <G>.  Thats my main failing with
 >  CS> Italian, other than not growing up with it as a cultural influance.  I
 >  CS> 'fusion' it too much so the results though good to excellent, are not
 >  CS> at all authentic.
 > 
 > But Italian doesn't lend itself to some regional fusions that well, as
 > you found out.  It would go well with Greek or other Mediterranian but
 > not Japanese.  I didn't grow up with it as part of my cultural heritage

I've seen the one place do it well at the hotel, but agree.  A few very minor
influances work but not a full blown fusion of Japan and Italian.  Patis
flavored spagetti anyone?  Didnt think so...  Though shiitake mushrooms would
go nice in a standard one.

 > You will learn, as we all do, in experimenting with new dishes, what
 > works well together.  Janis and I will jsut help you get a bit more of
 > the authenticity conquered.

Appreciated!

 >  CS> In fact, I have a recipe (will post it later if i remember to type it
 >  CS> up) Charlotte and Don want me to make.  It's a meat sauce but of a
 >  CS> greek roughly style with canned tomatoes, and baby octopus.  It's
 >  CS> vaguely spagetti-style but would likely be served over linguini or
 >  CS> rotini vice thinner spagetti noodles.
 > 
 > That would go well in a move toward Italian cooking. Just change out a
 > few of the herbs probably.  Sounds good except the octopus & that is
 > basically a matter of a difference in "meat". If I knew it were coming,
 > I'd have no problems eating it; if I were surprised  by it, there might
 > be more of a mental adjustment before I could eat it.(G)

It's a sort of almost italian but from the 'medly of the Med' cookery.  Now,
in *my* house the 3-4inch baby octopii are being left whole (cleaned of beak)
and gonna be setting there spectacular over the top of the spegetti sauce and
lingiuni mound, but i can see for others i'd probably wanaa chop'em up.

 > Just like so many things I've seen labeled as "Hawaiian" have pineapple
 > or coconut as an incidental ingredient and the total presentation is
 > nothing like would be found in HI.

Yeah, now and again I hunt for 'hawaii' in my MM base and clear that catatory
out from the stuff that just has a little pinapple or coconut.

 >  CS> Yup!  I've been enjoying watching the cooking shows now that I have
 > 
 > I'm picking up tips from the cooking shows too. It is fun to watch them;
 > I'll never be as fast as they are with a knife but I know how to use one
 > effectively as well as safely.

I learned a few things on potato salad and cooling the potatoes.
                xxcarol
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