Text 1778, 130 rader
Skriven 2013-06-26 11:36:24 av Nancy Backus (1:261/1381.0)
   Kommentar till text 1697 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Re: old journeys 762
============================
-=> Quoting MICHAEL LOO to NANCY BACKUS on 24 Jun 13  09:00:00 <=-

 ML> My father (rather like me) didn't seem to care about money.
 ML> He just did what he liked, which luckily involved puttering
 ML> around in the chem lab all day. While I was growing up he
 ML> never made a lick of money, either, despite being on the
 ML> development teams for several chemotherapies that are still
 ML> in use, as he was working for the government, then a solid
 ML> and secure but not richly remunerative business. It was

Daddy was either teaching at some college/university, or doing research
at a Navy lab...  like your father, doing what he liked, and not being
paid a lot.

 ML> only in the '60s that he got any recognition, when the
 ML> National Cancer Institute was gutted to aid the growth of
 ML> the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Texas (thanks in part to Lyndon
 ML> Johnson, who also brought the NASA Space Center there); by
 ML> the time he died he was fairly well-to-do, being taken good
 ML> care of by his bosses and the University of Texas. When I was

His brother, however, went the business route, and ended up rather
well-to-do, having retired a couple of times at the top of the
company...  All three of the brothers were physicists, the younger
brother stayed as a professor at the Naval Academy... also less
remunerative... 

 ML> a kid, however, my mother was forced to become a great home
 ML> economist - she already was a great cook -, and we made
 ML> delicious abundant meals out of usually modest ingredients.

Daddy was a pretty good home economist, and I guess Mommy was too...
both my parents were decent cooks, so what we had was certainly
enjoyable usually, if not always in the quantity I would have liked,
especially as a teenager (which is when I actually started noticing that
things were rather skimpy)... Like the kids in Cheaper By the Dozen, we
all had our tasks to do (rotated among us) to keep the household running
well...

 ML> We (just two kids - my brother was not born until I was 21)
 ML> had to eat everything on our plates, but it was almost
 ML> always so tasty that I wanted more even when my belly was
 ML> full - my sister was never so extreme and grew up slender
 ML> but still a great appreciator.

Ours was also usually quite tasty... just not always sufficient...

 NB>> Just checked the ingredients list for the Original Slaw dressing...
 NB>> no milk at all, just a listing of ingredients that would go into a
 NB>> mayonnaise.  I remember picking it over the Wegmans or the Marie's
 ML> I'm most familiar with the Marzetti ranch dressing, which by
 ML> necessity contains tons of milk.

Ah.   My choice, if I decide to take a chance on the raw lettuce that
doesn't usually sit well, is usually Blue Cheese... ranch is lower on
my radar...  :)

 ML> Which brings me to the issue of ranch dressing.
 ML> It still should be trademarked, only the inventors didn't
 ML> trademark it properly.
 ML> It was called Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, coming from a
 ML> farm of the same name. They trademarked "Hidden Valley Ranch"
 ML> but not "Ranch dressing." How silly is that. Later, a new
 ML> set of owners tried to fix this by trademarking "Original
 ML> Ranch," but by then it was too late.

I had wondered about that... when I came across the Hidden Valley Ranch
brand... whether that had been the beginnings of the item... :)   It
turned into the proverbial kleenex or xerox...  ;)
 
 NB>> slaw because it used corn cider vinegar instead of apple cider
 NB>> vinegar... it didn't trigger my apple allergy, so apparently that
 NB>> worked... 

 ML> Interesting. Does corn vinegar come from sweet corn, or does the
 ML> term refer to grain in general?

I don't know...  I've been wondering that myself... along with wondering
what euphemism it might be... or what trade secret...  (G)

 NB>> You're being so reasonable...  (G)   But, in a bit more serious vein,
 NB>> wouldn't the small snails cook in the soup water as well, and add
 NB>> their own taste vector to the whole...?  I suppose there might be some
 NB>> difficulty in getting them out of their shells afterwards...  :)

 ML> We're talking snails the size of a BB or smaller, which would
 ML> add more a textural than any other accent to a dish, same as
 ML> a pebble or grain of sand. 

Ah...  so crunchy-ish, and not necessarily tasty...  ;)

 ML> Not about the winkles and similar
 ML> edibles, which would be picked off and dealt with separately.

Ok... :)

 ML>> The freezer too is full. I was encouraged to use up a pot roast,
 ML>> a couple pounds of ground beef, a package of Texas toast, several
 ML>> BJ's or Costco-size bags of frozen vegetables, and other things.
 NB>> Ah.  Part of your pay for taking care of the house and pets, then...

 ML> I found a pound of Costco bacon (left over from a multipack)
 ML> use-by-dated November 2012. Opened it up and found it not
 ML> unpleasant, though very wet cured and hardly smoky. It is a
 ML> little sour, not too salty, good pork taste but stringy and
 ML> from perhaps too lean pigs. Carbonara tonight.

A good use for it.  :)

 ML> I haven't made the dulce de leche yet.

So you haven't found out yet how badly skim works... ;)

 ML>> [M would remove the solids to a
 ML>> warm place for the reduction time, then return them to
 ML>> the sauce before serving.]
 NB>> I like your method... it keeps the veggies from going to total mush...

 ML> Some people like that comforting mushiness. As I lose
 ML> teeth, perhaps I may as well.

Maybe...  I don't find mushiness all that comforting... except for
perhaps for eggplant sometimes... green bell peppers seem to digest
better that way for me, too..  ;)

ttyl        neb

... Only the rich can be eccentric, the poor must do with being nuts.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20
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