Text 29505, 83 rader
Skriven 2015-07-27 21:01:24 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 29355 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: stock answers 7
=======================
Hi Michael,

 ML> I'm not afraid of chemical soup; I figure it might be better
 ML> than no soup at all. Anyhow, we're pretty overvitaminized on
 RH> I'd rather avoid some of the chemicals at this stage of the game.

 ML> As the chemical industry liked to remind us in its commercials
 ML> decades ago, chemicals are everything. Of course that's
 ML> reductionist in the other direction, but I've never had a big
 ML> care about the naturalness or unnaturalness of what I put into
 ML> my body.

Yes, they are everything but if I can avoid consuming some of the ones
not intended to be (but currently a part of most) foods, I won't. For
example, bleaching agents in flour, I can very well do without, thank
you.


 ML> At what age did you allow them to do stuff with hot oil or
 ML> hot skillets? I figure that that's the great breakthrough
 RH> I don't recall but they started with a microwave when they were about
 RH> 8 years old. Hot oil (in larger quantities) was not used a lot in our
 RH> kitchen but they did know how to heat a bit of butter in a pan to make
 RH> egg in the eye. That was one of the first stove top things I taught
 RH> them to make. By the time they were about 11 or 12, if a parent was in
 RH> the house, they could make a cake or batch of cookies. They needed a
 RH> parent for a bit of supervision, to answer questions and help with some
 RH> of the less familiar techniques.

 ML> A little coaching is a wonderful thing. I didn't get any - my
 ML> sister did; but then she ended up being a better cook than I.

Mine was more sink or swim, especially with knife skills or hot oil. I
don't think I did much with the latter until I was an adult, and,
thinking back, not much of the former either. My parents didn't have too
many sharp knives around. (G)

 RH> Knives took longer to develop skill with than baking but we had our
 RH> girls using them (mostly paring type) by age 10 or so. Always with a
 RH> cutting board, as we were in military (rental) housing so we wanted to
 RH> keep counter tops looking good.

 ML> For some reason I never had a thing about knives, even though my
 ML> parents tried to instill a bit too much respect for them in me. They
 ML> never taught me to use them - I just did it myself starting around
 ML> that age. On the other hand I never really got comfortable with
 ML> baking.

Baking was easier for me to develop a proficency in, initially. I didn't
do much with knives (except paring knives) until I got married as my
parents didn't let us use them very often. They had a serrated bread
knife and a fairly sharp chef's type knife that were mostly off limits
to us. Their basic carving knife wasn't as sharp as it should have been
(looking in retrospect) and, except for the paring knives, others in the
set got very little use. OTOH, I was baking, unsupervised from about age
11 or 12.

 RH> Generally my  "save for stock" bag is heavy on onions, has some
 RH> celery, carrots, broccoli stems, and various other bit and pieces of
 RH> veggies. When I make the stock, sometimes I'll use a bit of veggie
 RH> powder like Spike to add more flavor if the bag wasn't that full. It
 RH> also rounds out the flavor assortment with some I may not have had in
 RH> the bag.

 ML> Spike is not my thing - way too much citrus for me, plus it crows
 ML> No added MSG while including lots of hydrolized protein, which is
 ML> full of the stuff. If my junk soup bag were not so full, I'd be
 ML> inclined just to use less water.

I just use some as an extra, not the main flavoring component. And, most
of the time, I have a full gallon bag (or more) of scraps in the
freezer. That'll give me a gallon (or more) of veggie stock.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... OH NO!  Not ANOTHER learning experience!

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)