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saskanuck

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Everything posted by saskanuck

  1. MIL would be a tough old bird to roast, methinks, and would be well smoked with all the cigarettes she's smoked over the years. I don't know what they are thinking. It's not only the food, but we were given bedding to sleep on that I would use to cover my vegetable garden in case of frost. I was brought up to treat my guests like they were royalty, no matter whether they were family or not. In fact, your family members are supposedly the most precious to you. My mother would have died a thousand deaths before she would have served leftovers like that to anyone. It's funny, too, because they don't make packaged, prepared foods, and everything is from scratch. It would actually be better if they did use prepared foods, because it might then be edible. Maybe. I will be cooking my little head off this weekend, making good food for us to eat, so that we can recover from this. I'm starting with homemade pizza on Friday evening, and we'll see what else I can come up with.
  2. They really did think it was a wonderful meal. I hate to think of what they eat on a daily basis if this was wonderful. Luckily, we only visit them every couple of years or so. I needed to lose some weight anyway.
  3. Mabelline, I can see my MIL not having any tastebuds, as she's smoked heavily all her life. But her daughters have no excuse. They said that it was an awesome meal. Awesomely bad, yes. The one sister did do some baking, which saved me as it wasn't too bad. Otherwise I would have starved. We did end up going for dinner between the bad meal and the bad leftovers, but it was to a crappy pizza chain restaurant that serves mediocre food. It was still much better than the home cooked food. I still have teethmarks in my tongue from biting it so hard. And having bedding to sleep on that was fit for more than the dog's house would have been nice too.
  4. In our house, my husband will say "it's edible", if it's just ok. He'll say that something's "okay", when he likes it. I've only heard him say that something is really good once or twice. He's just not an enthusiastic food lover like I am, and I really think he'd eat library paste if it was served to him. However, my 10 year old son gives me an enthusiastic "yummy!!!" when he likes something, and an equally enthusiastic "yechhh" when he doesn't. There's no gray area with him. My 6 year old is still Mr. Picky Eater, so I don't worry too much about him yet. I'll say that something's great, or wonderful, or all kinds of other adjectives until my husband tells me that I shouldn't brag about my cooking so much. Well, if it's good, I'm going to say so, so there!
  5. If anyone read my post on November 10 about my in-laws' cooking, we were subject to these atrocities again over the weekend. Roast beef burned to a crisp (but it's only burned on the outside, not in the middle!). Dear God, if it had been burned in the middle, I don't know what they would have done to it, put it in a nuclear reactor, perhaps? Underdone mashed potatoes, left to go cold. The usual cooked to death frozen mixed veg, and something called zucchini casserole, which looked like the bastard sister of turkey stuffing and could have been used for spackle. Whole wheat buns, shaped and baked before a second rising. Gravy that was almost black, and highly salted, from the burnt beef drippings. Two days later, we were served the sad remains of all of this for supper, along with a shrimp ring that had been left to unthaw all day and overnight. We did not touch the shrimp, pleading dislike of seafood (as if!), and picked at the meal. As we had phoned ahead to find out the plans for the night, and were told what slop we would be eating, stopping at the grocery store was a must. I bought some pizza pockets (I know, but at least the kids would eat something, and I didn't know what else to get that could be microwaved), and while I was in the store, my husband went and bought 2 large orders of fries at McDonald's that we scarfed down before getting there. My MIL was quite offended that we didn't want to eat the lovely leftovers. Oh yes, and there were a couple of pieces of blackened something that they called lasagna that had never seen cheese or tomato sauce. She also stated that the kids would not get to eat anything else until the leftovers were finished. The hell you say. They ate pizza pockets, poor things, and I did too, albeit surreptitiously so as not to get snarked at again. There would have been one hell of a fight, and I was not in the mood. The grilled cheese sandwiches and canned cream of mushroom soup for lunch the next day were edible, but just barely. But the grilled sandwiches were not grilled, they were fat-free cheese slices put between stale bread and toasted in a toaster oven. No frying pan or oil were to be found. I choked them down by dipping them in the lumpy lukewarm soup. I was, and still am, floored. I have never been so glad to get home in my life. When you add the old air mattress, and old ragged bedding we slept on for the one night, it was a weekend from hell. Thank God my husband saw reason, and we stayed in a motel room for the first 2 nights. Otherwise I may have had to kill him. They were most offended that we wouldn't stay in my MIL's smoke-filled, mold-infested, ramshackle house, but an asthma attack is just not worth the pleasure. Some people.
  6. I am floored by my MIL's and her daughters' cooking, if you could call it that. We are going to visit them for about 3 days this weekend and I am already dreading what we might have to eat. To look on the positive side, I could stand to lose more than a few pounds anyway, but I'm a crabby thing when I'm hungry. I am a bit of a picky eater, but dear God, the food is an atrocity. The last meal we had there was mashed potatoes, cooked 30 minutes before the rest of the food was ready, smashed in a bowl without any seasoning whatsoever and left on the table to cool while the roast beef and frozen mixed veg were cooking. The roast beef was done to a lovely gray colour and was cut in inch-thick slabs. I did try to save the poor veg by saying that they did not need to be boiled rapidly for 20 minutes, but to no avail. The topper was dessert. Fresh strawberries and (cheap) vanilla ice cream, you say? What could be wrong with that? Well, MIL wanted to pour boiling water over the $5.00 a pound strawberries to "soften" them up for the ice cream. By then I had enough. I asked her if she'd lost her mind and that it was an insane thing to do. By some miracle, she listened to me and left the strawberries as they were. So I had seconds at dessert, because by then I was starving. Please pray for us. We will have to endure this all weekend. Thank goodness there is a Boston Pizza restaurant in the town, so I may get an edible meal there, not great, but at least it will be edible. These are the people who scorned my beautiful Bavarian Apple cheesecake, and instead chose the unset, warm, Jello no-bake cheesecake with the burned crust that my SIL made. Heathens. And if I see food in the fridge again there that has an expiry date of 3 years ago, I'm saying something. That's just ridiculous.
  7. wordwiseguy, if you have a bag of cocoa nibs you have to share. Dark chocolate is the best. I used to only like milk chocolate, but my tastes have changed as I've grown older, and the milk choc is much too sweet for me now. And gack! indeed at the chocolate covered pork fat and anchovies. Shudder.
  8. What a beautiful vine. And yummy fruit to boot. You could send any extras to me, too!
  9. When I was a kid, I used to eat white bread dipped in ketchup or sour cream, never together though. My mom used to eat onion sandwiches or potato sandwiches. Good thing my dad had an extremely poor sense of smell, because you didn't want to be near her after those onion sandwiches. I don't eat sandwiches too often, but I don't really put anything too weird on them when I do. But toasted kalamata olive artisan bread dripping with real butter, now that's goooood.
  10. The green pumpkin seeds (pepitas) are just hulled regular pumpkin seeds. If you roast the seeds, then split them open as albiston said above, you will see that the seed inside is green. I roast some of the seeds every year, but we eat them hulled. They are good, although it takes a lot of work to get much to eat.
  11. I'm very interested to read your blog, Rachel. Show us your successes, as well as the ones that don't turn out so well, because we've all been there for sure. I've never heard of Malt-o-Meal, and what's wrong with Coke for your morning libation? It's no worse than a cup of coffee with a bunch of cream and 3 or 4 teaspoons of sugar in it like some people drink it. I'm looking forward to your next installment and curious to see what your son eats. I have 2 sons, ages 7 and 10, and the younger one is the picky guy, while my older son now eats almost anything.
  12. I would like a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, and a remodeled kitchen to make room for one. Additions to my Le Creuset collection would also be nice, as well as a set of Wusthof knives. For stocking stuffers, one of those bamboo cutting boards would do very nicely. And, and, and, a wine of the month club would be fab, as well as an olive of the month club if there was such a thing............I sound like my kids looking at the Sears toy catalogue. One can wish, can't one?
  13. Kris, what a great blog! You make such interesting and tasty-looking food. Now I'm off to read your previous blog, as I wasn't around back then.
  14. saskanuck

    Sea Beans

    I've never heard of this, living nowhere near a coastline. Looks interesting and sounds delicious.
  15. Those pictures are pretty cool, and a good story too! Now I want a fresh-baked coconut macaroon.
  16. saskanuck

    I dig figs!

    Dear God, these sound good. I've never had a fresh fig, and where I live, it likely won't happen. I like dried figs, but I'm sure they don't even compare. Where does one find fresh figs, and are they in season right now? I'd like to know for future planning of vacations.
  17. Yoicks, you guys are scaring me. I've got a 10 year old and a 6 year old son, and the 10 year old is becoming a bottomless pit lately. He's just about 5 feet tall and 85 pounds or so. They will both likely top out at least 6 feet tall as both of us are sturdy, tall people. I think the husband and I are going to have to get part-time jobs to supplement our income if they eat as much as you all are talking about here. There are some really good ideas in this thread, especially the smoothie idea. I couldn't believe it when my 10 year old wanted to try the wasabi I was eating along with my sushi. So I gave him some, and he didn't think it was that spicy at all. He's going to be a chilehead just like us, although he wasn't up to trying the Sriracha yet. He's also getting very interested in cooking, and likes to help me prepare food. I let him use my cheap set of chef's knives that I keep around, and he thinks that's just grand.
  18. OK, so I'm not crazy after all. When I used to wear contact lenses, I could chop onions without much problem with tearing and burning. Now that I've been back to glasses for a few years, I can't chop onions without feeling like I've been napalmed. I thought I'd just become more sensitive over the years to the onion fumes, but I guess not. Now I get my husband to chop the onions whenever he's around, because they don't bother him at all (and he has perfect vision, the sod). Too damned bad I can't wear contacts any more.
  19. Did you guys know that those rubber thingies are called "rubber husbands"? I also have a Starfrit jar key that opens things very well, although if they are the sealer ring type of lid, they don't work at all.
  20. I don't know if this exactly qualifies as a cookbook, but I think it's an important resource: Cookwise, by Shirley Corriher. I find it very helpful when I wish to change a recipe without messing it up entirely. Hmm, the title didn't come out in bold, wonder why?
  21. Dejah, I just finished reading your food blog, and it was wonderful! You don't live very far from me, that's for sure, and my husband almost took a job out where you live a couple of years ago. Again, thanks for a wonderful blog.
  22. Let's see. The first thing I need at that time of the month is salt, preferably Miss Vickie's Lime and Black Pepper potato chips. Then I'll need something chocolate to cut the salt, like fudgy brownies or good chocolate. Then I'll go to the salty side once more to cut the sweetness. Olives or pickles will do the trick. And so it goes, until I'm happy and more bloated than ever.
  23. Let's see. The first thing I need at that time of the month is salt, preferably Miss Vickie's Lime and Black Pepper potato chips. Then I'll need something chocolate to cut the salt, like fudgy brownies or good chocolate. Then I'll go to the salty side once more to cut the sweetness. Olives or pickles will do the trick. And so it goes, until I'm happy and more bloated than ever.
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