chromedome

I'm sure by now there's an Alexa equivalent to "damn you, autocorrect!" on the Web.

At the risk of shaming myself publicly, it had never occurred to me consciously until this thread that Serious Eats was a site with a front page and regularly updated content (I suppose some corner of my brain recognized this, but...mental blinkers, right?). It was always a site I searched when I had a specific question or piece of information in mind, as opposed to one I would go to and browse.

I'm glad there's beginning to be a glimmer of light on the horizon, health-wise.

I just think of it as an economical adjective to express the thought that a given food is rich or "fatty in a good way." Like ribs or pulled pork, or - I expect, not having had them myself - Robuchon's notorious "pommes purees" that were equal parts potato and butter by weight.

The "true" grains are all seeds of various grasses, while the "pseudo-grains" are grain-like seeds of non-grasses. Buckwheat, for example, is close kin to rhubarb (let your rhubarb run to seed, and you'll see the likeness). Quinoa and Amaranth are related to beets and chard. (ETA: This is the TL;DR version, but that's the gist of it.)

Other products and other producers in jurisdictions around the world are at varying stages of regulatory approval, but this will apparently be the first to actually reach consumers.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time

My cupboard currently contains most of the above, though I don't remember when I last cooked any buckwheat groats (thanks for the reminder!) so I'll probably toss those and buy new. Quinoa's in the regular rotation because it cooks more quickly than whole "real" grains, and I like its delicately herbacious note (though having said that, I'll also often cook it as a pilaf with lots of other flavors). No farro or rye at the moment, but I do have some whole kamut berries. Also millet, two sizes of bulgur wheat, stone-ground and regular cornmeal, wild rice, and the steel-cut oats I eat most mornings for breakfast. Oh, and a really ridiculous quantity of barley...maybe 6 or 8 pounds...because one of my cousins is occasionally gifted with foodservice-sized quantities of random things by a friend who works at a food wholesaler, and she had no idea what she'd do with that much. So it came to me, because I like barley in soups, pilafs and barley risotto (I also buzz a bit occasionally in my spice grinder and add the resulting barley flour to baked goods.

I don't keep nearly the volume and variety on hand that I used to, for a variety of reasons (one being a GF who has been keto-ing or similar for much of the time we've been together). Looking in my cupboard (because now I'm curious) I find some generic white long-grain, the tail end of a bag of Indian basmati (I need to get some more), some arborio, black "forbidden" rice, red Thai rice, brown rice and a mixed rice/multigrain mix from Costco which (IMO) isn't as good as the one they used to carry. Part of the reason I've been eating less rice is that I also eat a lot of other grains, but I'll maintain a tactful silence on that front lest I incur the Wrath of Mitch.

It's always a slog, with any of the three methods. I probably should have mentioned that it helps to have scissors with big handles and small blades (better mechanical advantage) and as far as that goes, my hands are probably bigger than yours (same thing). It's quite possible the dates were not especially fresh, though there's variance between cultivars as well. It's a tradeoff...a drier date is a firmer date and can be harder to cut, but a fresher, moister date is stickier so they're no picnic either. If you suspect they're past their prime and a bit dry you can steam them to soften them up, and then let them cool before chopping. That'll help. If you overdo it, and steam them to the point that they turn to paste when you put them in the Cuise, give them a couple of days and then try again.

My sister has also suggested a number of soups, mostly along the lines of those above. She's also suggesting chia puddings, which are (her words) "smooth, slippery and filling if made with boxed coconut milk." She has also asked whether your neighbour has any troubles tolerating hot or cold? If not, and especially if she finds cold soothing, "nice cream" is a good option and can have protein powder added for more nutritional benefit. ETA her followup advice:

You're miles ahead of me, already. My grains, pulses and pastas are in a random assortment of plastic bags, jars and original packaging, divided between (and piled over, around and between) clear plastic totes in an over-stuffed cupboard. It's 18 months now since we moved into this apartment, so "once we're settled" is starting to wear thin. I should really get that sorted.

LOL At first glance I thought that was marmalade. Pepper jelly makes MUCH more sense...

I'll drop my (vegan) sister a line, and see what she says.

Some of my fellow Canucks might be interested in this...after a hiatus of a few decades, there'll soon be Canadian-made cast iron again. There's a startup in Winnipeg on the verge of launch (they're just waiting on the final tooling, apparently). They're positioning themselves as an environmentally-friendly alternative to non-stick, disposable pans: The metal itself is recycled, the boxes they'll be shipped in will be recycled cardboard, and apparently even the sand used in the casting process will be recycled. https://www.castleironcookware.com/

We usually reserve the Medjool and Deglet Noor dates for eating out of hand, and use the inexpensive supermarket kind for baking. My mother was a fan of date squares (minor national difference in nomenclature...what Americans call bar cookies, Canadians call "squares") so the process of chopping up one of those compressed blocks of dates is a minor exercise in nostalgia for me.

Also a fan of the oiled scissors for this. Date nut bread is next week for me.

Well, we've already gotten through the first pound so...not too concerned about that. In a worst-case scenario, if I felt the urge to use them up in something, I'd incorporate them into something baked or some homemade "power bars" for my mom. We go through several pounds of dates in the run of a year, though, so this isn't a stretch at all. Heck, I'm still debating whether to go back for more.

The baby spinach recall has been expanded and is now classed as "possibly national. Time to dig into your fridges... https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2020-11-27/eng/1606524017665/1606524017899?utm_source=r_listserv

Was in my local Walmart for the first time in a while, and found Medjool dates on an end cap marked down to $2/lb. So I bought two, and then today went back and got five more. That should do us for the holidays, I think.

We bought some (local, Atlantic) lobsters just off the boat through a former-fisherman friend last night at $9/lb Canadian, well below the current retail price.

I feel your pain. My GF has had an uncertain relationship with food since having her gall bladder out, sometimes barely nibbling all day and then sometimes eating roughly her body weight over the course of an hour or two. I've come to accept this as just part of life together, but I will concede that "too flavor-y" was not an objection I'd ever expected to hear.

Some current batches of Fresh Attitudes brand baby spinach are being recalled for possible salmonella contamination. Currently affects Ontario and Quebec. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2020-11-26/eng/1606439055882/1606439056179?utm_source=r_listserv

I wouldn't normally bother to share this, because it's very geographically limited, but hey...botulism. PEI only, bottled (?) beef and chicken. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2020-11-26/eng/1606437567499/1606437572768?utm_source=r_listserv