chile_peppa

I have many American Indian friends, and we never serve alcohol at our gatherings. It's not exactly a dietary law, but rather an acknowledgment that many people have struggled to overcome alcohol addiction and that alcohol is a hindrance to certain spiritual matters. It is considered quite inconsiderate to serve any alcohol. When we have a celebratory feast, we generally have food representing the four-legged (venison if available) ones, the finned ones (generally salmon), and the winged ones (turkey). Wild rice (manomin) and corn are also served. Each of these foods has a spiritual meaning.

I'm kinda old school. I still use my DOS-based Mealmaster freeware. It's pretty much straight ASCII text with searchability. I've used it for years and am just too lazy to switch over to a Windows-based app (and I make my living in IT, too.)

I've tried it and I don't like it. Call me wierd if you must, but I have an aversion to most sweet flavors. I tolerate the sweet tooth affliction in others and will even provide them with fixes when called upon, but leave my salty/savories alone, please.

Amen! And what is with all this FRUIT mixed in with the meat? Grapes in chicken salad, mangoes on steaks, raspberries on pork -- I even saw an "appetizer" recipe once that called for stuffing prunes with hot dogs. What were they thinking? Bread pudding -- just don't get it -- why eat old stale bread for $7.00 a dish? Popcorn, especially microwave style, just turns my stomach. It's so gross to smell the artificial aroma emanating from the shared microwave just outside my office...time and time again throughout the day... Rice pudding -- why desecrate a perfectly edible food? Oatmeal -- yeah, so it's healthy, so what?

I live in a man-infested world: BF, sons, brothers, cousins, 80:20 male:female ratio at work... The BF makes a mean rotisserie chicken and does a great job of getting leftovers to the table in edible condition. He also cleans the kitchen and washes the dishes. And he hasn't complained about the kitchen experiments he has to eat. The sons DO cook. In fact, one day I was driving to Kansas when I got a call from the oldest son asking where to find my sausage stuffer because he and his friend took a notion to make Italian sausages. They turned out mighty fine, too. I'm heading off to the family reunion this weekend, where the men will sit around the grills drinking beer and watching meat roast, while the women do the plant-based foods. Ahh, those gender roles...

Of the Mustang or the pickup truck? Oh wait a minute, bottles of what? I've even been known to make my own hot sauces from homegrown peppers... Edited to add: Ack -- I posted right on top of andiesenji's reply. Girl, you sound like a woman after my own heart! I live in the big city now, but some of the country comes out in me now and then.

Well, dang. I have about 5 bottles of hot sauce in the fridge, some more in the pantry. There goes that masculine side rearing its ugly head again... (yes, I really do have two X chromosomes!)

I think vegetarians and vegans are subject to the same human foibles as omnivores and carnivores. SOME do tend to be a bit self-righteous and self-centered about their dietary habits. I witnessed a very sad thing during a visit with a vegan acquaintance. She had arbitrarily and unilaterally decided to become a vegan and stop cooking non-vegan foods for her family. Her decision was not founded on any particular principle (health, ethics, whatever), but seemed rather another attempt in her search for something mysteriously missing in her life. Anyway, she had served me a rather depressing meal when her 12-year-old son turned up. After one look at the table, he went to the freezer, took out a lump of frozen ground beef, and stuffed it into the microwave oven for his dinner. To me, sharing a meal is part of sharing our human experience, and it saddened me to see an example of how food choices can divide people instead of bringing them together.

I made pepper jelly with my homegrown habaneros - killer stuff! My pepper patch was on the side of the driveway, and the blazing sun reflected from the asphalt, not to mention the exhaust fumes from two Mustangs, gave those peppers quite a kick. I gave some of the jelly to a friend of my father's and he ate it on his breakfast toast. My sister likes it with cream cheese and crackers. Haven't tried it with peanut butter yet, but you never know...

Thanks, Marmish. I'll have to head over there soon.

Have anyone here tried Dutch oven cooking over a campfire? Stews, cobblers, beans, and biscuits all turn out nicely.

Many long years ago, I lived next door to a truly obnoxious man. One day, just before the weekly trash pickup, I cleaned out my freezer and threw out lots of fish that had been there way too long (leftover from a camping trip). This man's doberman got into my trash and strewed the fish all over his backyard. He yelled at me for throwing my trash in my own trash containers behind my garage. I told him he should keep his bloody dog in his own backyard or on a leash, and that he should be grateful that his brown, dead grass was finally being fertilized.

I have no idea how many cookbooks I have, but they currently fill one floor-to-ceiling bookshelf in the kitchen and most of one in the living room. I like to collect cookbooks from places that I visit, those of historical interest, and just plain odd ones. My sons find my collection very humorous for I never actually cook from my cookbooks. I have a slight anti-authoritarian quirk that does not allow me to follow directions, and I generally just make stuff up after comparing similar recipes from various sources. To Marmish: I'd really be interested in knowing where that bookstore in Forest Park is. I hang out at the Frugal Muse in Darien (75th and Lemont) now and then -- nice collection of used cookbooks there, too. [Moderator note: The original Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Cookbooks – How Many Do You Own? (Part 2)]