Rebecca263

We have a teeny tiny plot of land here at the Coop (our home is on a 50'x50' LOT!) and we recently got our very own Billy the Bin for the yard.We're Earthy Like That! I do not put meat or bones in the beast, but we do put in egg shells and coffee grounds. I'm going to add the dryer lint now- we have very little in the way of leaves! Does anyone here know anything about the time frame for un-shredded newspaper? We don't have a working shredder, but I'd like to add paper to our bin.

Today I made felafel, pita bread alongside the challahs, yogurt and a lovely apple upside down cake for tomorrow's lunch- we are having guests! I can't wait- Shabbat Shalom y'all!

The only 'average' kitchen item that I can think of, that is a waste of money, no matter who you are, is a round cookie cutter. I mean, c'mon! Everything else, to each their own!

Onions would definitely moisten the filling.

I made gignerale! Well, honestly, it was more of a gingerbeer- very heady, and slightly alcoholic, I think. It came out too strong in flavor by far for my taste, but it certainly worked on my nausea!

We just sold 3 copies of the Joy of Cooking. I've added some more books to the sale, so I'll keep you updated as they go. We also finally got a new copy of Deal Delights- so that I can write in the margins for my daughter. YES, I am still buying cookbooks! We just got a cache of old cooking magazines- but they do not count.

We use Diamond here at home. I buy at least 3 boxes a year- we use it for cleaning as well as kashering and cooking. I bought a new box last week and I just checked it. The crystals seem exactly the same as the box I bought in November of last year. I tried Morton's but found it kind of 'heavy' tasting, maybe it is the size of the crystals, I don't know- but we definitely prefer Diamond in our home. Somehow it just tastes fresher, more like plain salt, to me.

Tomato powder, peantut butter powder, heck, there are some folks who have paid small fortunes to eat that stuff, provided it was served in a snooty plating! Have some tasting menus made up and send out flyers!

Oh my! Regarding #2- how does he feel about other physical pleasures, then? YIPES! Your relationship's food issue IS a major incompatibility... I'm warning you NOW. Are you really saying that he doesn't just like different foods than you, he doesn't ENJOY food? Food is so sensual, such a physical pleasure- how can one not like it, not have any interest in it, none at all? Run away, NOW! Preferably to the nearest decent restaurant. That man is going to end up being a PILL in your life! We need someone to do some food voodoo for you, darling gingerbeer. Your quality of life is in DANGER. I almost cried myself when I read your post, and I don't even know you. Now, if he was hooked up to a feeding tube for health reasons, I could see it, otherwise, Aaaiii!

When I was in 4th grade I read a Hemingway story, one of the Nick Adams bits, that contained a few paragraphs about 2 foods that I had never encountered in my life- a raw onion and butter sandwich and canned beans(if I remember correctly it was baked beans?) mixed with canned spaghetti. Now, there was NO way that I was going to find canned beans and canned spaghetti in MY world, but raw onions? Butter? Tada! I went into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich, slathering the Hollywood bread that was the daily slice of my youth with thick lashings of butter, then placing 2 hefty slices of raw yellow onion on the bread. It smelled delicious. I was enthralled, of course. I poured a glass of milk and sat down to feast. I took a bite, being sure to get some onion into my mouth with the first taste. The taste in my mouth was awful. I mean, really. I HATED it. Strongly acrid raw onion, thickly slathered sweet unsalted butter, the moist Hollywood bread, not a good idea. I washed out my mouth in the kitchen sink, drank a glass of orange juice, threw away the sandwich and the milk, and promptly forgot about onion sandwiches for a long while. Flash forward a few decades(I'm not sayin' how many, but go ALL the way past the 70's, 80's and 90's!) I now regularly eat onion sandwiches! No butter, mind you- mustard, or cream cheese usually mate with my onion these days. I also sliver the the onion, I never eat thick slabs of the crunchy pungent vegetable raw. I sometimes sprinkle a bit of cracked pink pepper on it, perhaps some thyme or zaatar. And, you know what? I LIKE it!

Tom, thanks! I am going to finish up my bottle of seltzer and attempt to make gingerale this week! I'm so excited! And, Chad- I went to the only Walgreen's in the vicinity last night(I live in CVS land, feh!). They had NO sodas with sugar, the Walgreen's brand had hfcs. Maybe the sugar is a regional quality- I'm in NJ. Which I do like. But I'm extremely homesick. (Miami Beach) I am going to look for a gingerale thread, actually.

You use the same filling for stuffed mulberry leaves as you do for other leaves- you just have to have access to a mulberry tree. At least, as far as I know, there aren't any commercially available mulberry leaves. Then, you have to blanch the leaves before you use them, or I suppose if you were going to preserve the leaves for later use, you could brine them, but I don't know- I've only been lucky enough to have mulberry leaves when I was in Florida- and they were fresh. They were really delicious! I would DEFINITELY plant a mulberry tree if I lived in the South again!

Substituting chick pea flour for 1/2 of the wheat flour in a basic cracker recipe makes for a really delicious cracker!

Hi! Yes, my chemotherapy regimen is wonderful and I've gained 40 pounds since last June! Now I look JUST like my grandmother did in the photos we have of her, minus the hair! I'm so grateful and happy to be here! Interesting about the celery. Tonight we had black beans in a stew that I usually made with chick peas and I had my daughter add celery- as we do for the chick pea version AND for Cuban style black beans. I didn't like it in the stew at all. Now, in my family, parsley is definitely a widely used green, as is mint to a lesser degree, but celery- I can really only think of it in hamoud or certain salads. Huh!

Oh, good googlies, these kibbeh threads are making me hungry!

You know, I lost this thread back then, I'm sorry. I believe that scubadoo97 and I are from very similar background- I wouldn't be surprised at all if we share some family. My kibbeh neyeh is very close to Scubadoo97's, except I never made it in such a small quantity, and we used more onion, a medium one per cup of bulghur, I'd say. One pound of lamb would feed 2 or 3 hungry boys with drinks-and leave none for me! I make a quickie kibbe neyeh once every few years now for myself- I go a bit heavy on the bulghur then- and I have to chop the meat by hand, so it's still sort of bits. You know what else? I don't care for too strong of an olive oil with this dish. It's just me, though.. my tastes are like me, a bit mejnoun! I wonder why we put tomato in our kibbeh neyeh and Lebanese don't? Do we have differences in our yebra, too?

Someone gave me a 2003 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon by Ella Valley Vineyard a few weeks ago. I drank it last week and found it a bit TOO dry and oaky. And it's not a cheap wine, either! AND I usually ADORE Cabernet! I put sugar AND seltzer in it. Quel horror, I know. Lucky me, I'm not snooty in the least. I like things for their taste, not their reputation, or mine- as many can attest.

Good grief I hope this becomes a trend! I went all over stupid tinytown and the vicinity last week looking for ginger ale made with suagr- I had a craving and nausea and I would have paid dearly- I couldn't find ANY! I ended up with a coffee soda- definitely not the same animal.

We recently sold 350 to a collector. we currently have about 75 or so on Amazon- so we are down to less than 1200 here.

My favorite pizza to make is sliced tomatoes, olive oil, chopped basil, mashed garlic, sliced mushrooms and mozzarella, all layered and pretty- then some parmesan grated atop all of that.Sauce? Well, I admit, we use sauce sometimes, but more often we don't, and I prefer a light layer of fresh tomatoes to a sauce on my homemade crusts. If I'm alone I also strew anchovies around- but no one else here cares for them so it is a rare happening. If I'm wrong about my pizza preferences, then I don't want to be right! My grandfather was from Italy- but he was more of a cardoon cooker than a pizza maker- so you see, I had no guidance- that's my excuse! As for pineapple on pizza-the idea of it turns my stomach, but I say if it pleases YOUR palate, why not?

We've got a canvas bag holding some forks, spoons, a knife, cloth napkins, a baggie of sea salt and a kitchen towel. I don't like to eat with paper napkins or plastic flatware, if I can avoid it, and we like to be prepared for any roadside eating adventure. We also always have a few canvas bags in the trunk, we don't use plastic OR paper when we go to market for anything, even electronics and clothes! Last week I drove a bottle of Cherry Heering around for a few days- I feel so dumb- someone gave it to me(I adore it) and I forgot about it. (Oh, yes, we always have scissors and a multipurpose can opener/corkscrew in the 'glove' compartment as well- but doesn't everyone?)

I vote for a riff on Scotch Eggs... perhaps hard boiled eggs halved and then stuffed with sausage in some way?

This has been one of the most difficult things for me, since we've been more alone recently, cooking only for two is really a challenge! I'm finally getting it right more consistently. Here are a couple of my tricks. Make a batch of unseasoned mixed rice one day, and pack the leftovers into small bowls- that makes my life a lot easier, I must admit. I just take out a bowl and do whatever I want to the rice, EXCEPT for making hashu, then I start from scratch. We had a surprise guest after dinner last week and I made rice pudding with the refrigerator rice- it was really delicious with the mixed rices- all chewy and nutty, although I admit to liking ANY rice pudding. Cook a pound of dried beans at one time, then put the beans and liquor in the refrigerator. You can just scoop out some beans for any meal, whether it is to add to a salad or to make a small pot of soup, some kind of dal or chili. When you make pasta, freeze the extra dough BEFORE you shape it, then you can just thaw it out one morning for that night, and have 'fresh' pasta twice with only one kneading session! I also freeze half of my dough whenever I make pizza now, so we don't eat ourselves sick on the pizza that day, and that way I have a dough in the freezer, too!Freezing things BEFORE they get to the table in finished form in the first place, is a GREAT trick to stave off the "it's a leftover" feeling. When you roast a chicken, after serving the lovely meal, divide the meat into 2 or 3 packets and make stock with the carcass. You can use the packets of flesh for different meals, and you won't feel like it's leftovers. Freeze extra sauce or soup when you make a batch, don't use the frozen portion for at least a couple of weeks- that's not leftovers, that's a bonus! One important detail is to get yourself some small pots and pans. It really helps to be cooking in a smaller pot, you don't feel the urge to add too much of something to a smaller pot. The most important detail for me has been to invest in some small baking dishes. They hold a quart each, which is only 4 cups you know. I even have 2 casserole dishes that only hold 2 cups- I have been known to use the last bits of fruit to make some very small desserts- and I also made the world's tiniest squash bake, too. Now I can make small crumbles with just a bit of fruit at one time, or small casseroles with just a few vegetables instead of immense amounts in one go.

Those Messermeisters look nice!

My honest favorite is the OXO, it just works so much better than any others for me. I was hesitant to use it when it was first given to me (I owned a number of different artsy fartsy and high faluting 'chef' peelers at the time) but once I tried it I just never had the same level of satisfaction with any other peeler. ESPECIALLY those all hard edged metal jobbers. After peeling 25# of carrots with one of those, my palm had a bruise for 3 days!