Kouign Aman

Time, breathing, not worrying about it. Burn-out and grief together can really blunt the attraction of an activity. or another possible route is to rebuild the habit. Mechanically assign yourself something to cook everyday. Be sous to your husband, or take over some aspect of dinner. Sometimes 'just do[ing] it' does reignite a spark. Personally, I'd wait til after the winter holidays before imposing this one on myself, just to give the first one a fair trial. Good luck to you, whether you rekindle the fire to cook, or if something else fills its place to bring you joy.

I just remembered this one. I've had nothing so much "fun" as has been reported here, but this one did blow my mind. My husband and I were newly dating, and were hosting a dinner for 14 at his house. We'd planned 6 courses, with appropriate wines. All was well under control despite the selection of too many items with significant last minute prep requirements. There wasn't room to sit so many at one table, so we set up a table for 8, a table for 6, and to one side, a table for 2. This would allow us to chat with each of the larger tables easily, while still having a clear route to the kitchen. One guest arrived, and immediately rearranged the place settings, creating a very cramped table for 9 and an even more cramped table for 7, and in the processes blocking the narrow path to the kitchen. Her reason? She assumed the table for two was for her, and one other unpartnered guest, of whom her dislike was VERY well known. editted to correct typos

In terms of spoilage, it should have no effect, unless you plan to store your icecream for months (even then, I'd be surprised if there's an effect, but freezing doesnt entirely prevent deterioration, just slows it a lot). (Mine rarely lasts a week, before its all consumed).

But if one does reduce one's driving etc, by growing one's own food, then that drop in the bucket may be the one that keeps it from overflowing long enough to find the means to more dramatic reduction. Its unlikely to hurt, and the product tastes good, plus gardening has a number of other intangible benefits. Eating seasonally is fun. Its a great way to celebrate summer ever since my first boss explained I dont get to take June thru September off anymore. The really whacko stuff is shipping bottles of drinking water, in my opinion. And yet, our local tap water tastes so bad, its an ever present temptation. (and of course, our local drinking water travels far. We just let gravity do most of the shipping). Years ago, the Japanese beverage Pocari couldnt make a profit in the US due mostly to the cost of the steel can it required. Now people ship water from Fiji. Maybe its time for Pocari to make a comeback. Ah well. It would be good to crunch some numbers and figure these things out in exhaustive detail. Anybody looking for a dissertation topic?

Purslane appears to be the one weed my garden is free from. Go figure.

And take all the fun and fire out of the debate? That would be a shame.

No. I dont think this is about wheat. My point was in response to the claim that buying locally produced food necessarily saves on the difficult-to-measure 'carbon footprint'. I think 'it aint necessarily so'. This was an example designed to point out the absurdity and naivete in making that assumption blindly and across the board. I enjoy seasonal foods. I enjoy growing some food in my yard. I dont think I'm making much of an impact on the carbon footprint by doing so. I still go to the grocery or other outside source for most fruit, all meat, grain products etc. So MY footprint is not reduced. Is there a reduction in that the veggie producers ship that much less product to the grocery? Maybe. My point, made earlier, is much the same as your point, below the .... in the quote. One can figure out what one can & is willing to do, and do it. Walk more, drive less (which in fact, means get your food from one location, not several, unless you can walk to them). Eat raw food. Cooking burns electricity which is generated how??????? Oh yeah - mostly by burning carbon-containing fuels.... oh wait, but we like to cook.... Do you see how it can get absurd, and fast? Anna with the long name makes the point very clearly - how do you weigh in the cost of trucking fertilizer to your local store, etc. Where does the detergent come from, for spraying the bugs off the home grown organic garden? Garden. Its fun. But before deciding something IS going to reduce carbon emissions, consider all the factors. Efficiency is an amazing thing. Sometimes many small units are indeed more efficient than one large one. And sometimes not. And sometimes we do things because we like to (like buy specialty products from many vendors).

Can you borrow a neighborhood three or four year old to tell him to keep his hands out of the food? They have that imperious voice, and that surety of rightness........

When we were two adults, dinner was usually 6:30 or 7, because that's how long it took to get dinner ready. ( I worked later then). When I lived in Miami, dinner was at 8-ish. In general, San Diego dines earlier than Miami does. Now there's a smallfry who's ravenous at 5:30, so that's when dinner is. My husband leaves for work at 6:30, and I'm up in the morning at 5, so it works for all of us. If we are going out for a later meal, we'll have a late lunch that day. Its a pain in the ass if we're going to a show or concert. Many start at 7, but there are few places to eat after 10. So, eat early or eat tacostand.

Sounds like a useful list of Korean phrases might also be in order. I concur - speaking a few words is not an attempt to pass oneself off as a skilled speaker, its just good manners. It shows that one was interested enough to make an attempt. Its been my experience in traveling that my few words are always well received. I've not tried it in restaurants in the US, but I think it would be even better rec'd in that environment, where its even more unnecessary and therefore more thoughtful to learn the phrases.

Google 'nopales' or 'nopalitos' for recipes using the leaves. I dont like 'em. They're slimier than okra and the flavor doesnt do it for me, but lots of people like them scrambled in eggs, etc. When I was a kid, we harvested them once. We used leather gloves to prep the fruit: topped it, tailed it and then used a knife to skin it and remove the thorns. My dad just chopped it up and added it to fruit salad. We also made jam. Eh. The end result did not thrill us back then.

Think if everyone were growing their own wheat, then firing up their own trucks to take it to the mill. I think it would use more fuel for that trip alone, than the fuel used by agribusiness to get their wheat to the mill. Plus, the mill would have to do small runs, to keep the product separate. Wonderful for artisanal use, but not fuel efficient. Efficiency has been broadening our definition of 'local' for as long as people have been forming communities.

Its kinda like exercising. Figure out what you can do that isnt burdensome to you. Ideally, its enjoyable. Take that small step. Every little bit helps. Feeling guilty about what's not going to work for you, isnt going to help.

Dianabanana, that works for me. Tho I would then beg you to tell me your requirements, so I could determine whether meeting them would be a problem or not. If it would be, I would accept your gracious offer to be low key. I've cooked for those who eat everything, and those who cant. Sometimes, as in my kosher-keeping friend, the menu options were limited due to inability to render my pans suitable for cooking. In other cases, it just meant a little extra thought (no eggs, no peanuts). But please dont show up with your own ingredients and try to take over the kitchen while I'm trying to get the planned meal on the table. (more than one guest, but one in particular). And dont do what one of my beloved family members does, over and over. Dont bring a super filling appetizer. Please. I beg you. It makes me sad when a guest brings an appetizer that makes everyone too full for the meal.

Make your trips to buy food efficient ones. Try not to waste what you buy. If I took the time to grow/produce all my family's food, I wouldnt have the time to work on new diagnostic tests. Personally, I'm ok trading someone else's good growing, storage and transportation expertise (their contribution to my long life and good health) for my rather different ontribution to their long life and good health. One item I notice many of us have difficulty with is fresh herbs. They dont last well, and they are sold in fairly large bunches, so many posters in other threads have bemoaned tossing them when they get slimy. Perhaps you can grow them at home. If you have enough light. It gets debatable if its worth it (purely from an energy use pov) if you have to use special lights or leave your lights on all the time. et because.

Its not that I had bad food when I ate at RL, its that I can get better food, of a similar type, for the same price. Red Lobster aint cheap. So, for my money, I'd rather go to The Fish Market (a western US-ish small chain). But I like RL's cheese bisquits just fine. So if people I like really want to go there, and aren't willing to go to The Fish Market instead, I'll join them in a meal.

Oh my yes! My dad still has one of those, and its always full of some interesting variant on olives.

I've seen breakfast pizza in England too. I thought it looked good, but didnt have time to buy a slice. I keep thinking of your friend standing jacketless in the rain with it running down inside the overalls and pooling in his boots. Oh my - c-c-c-c-c-cold.

The munchkin snagged a small tomato off the shrub yesterday and ate it while I wasnt looking. This brings great joy to my heart. Half the reason I planted them was for this sort of 'theft'. But I think I wouldnt have been so happy had it been one of the pets....

One year, we decided to invite a whole buncho folks to Thanksgiving dinner. Two of the guests (my aunt visiting from Austalia and my sister's MIL) dont drink regular wine. They like really sweet wine (sweeter than white zinfandel). So for them, I had a bottle of berry wine from Whidby Island. I put it down next to the MIL, who was sitting 2 seats from my Aunt, and told her it was for the two of them. She drank the entire freaking bottle without ever offering it to my aunt.

Although this sounds delightful, [Rant] its NOT Oysters Rockefeller. Its not even in the competition to fake the original apparently secret recipe. Call it Oysters Carnegie, Oysters Perot, OilBaron's Oyster or whatever. But ferpetesake, dont steal a name already in hard use. This isnt like "coffee and donuts" - a play on the concept. Its an entirely different dish. [/Rant]

A lot of people use pepper plants for indoor decoration in the winter. If they ever flower, feel free to pollinate them yourself. I did it with the tip of a pencil (the plant was on my desk at work - very hard for the bees to find) and had several years of peppers before the plant decided it was done with life. Good luck! My bellpepper babies (outdoors) are just beginning to flower. Since I'm in SoCal, maybe just maybe there will be time to ripen the fruit.

Toliver linked to "Gardening for Dummies", over in the California gardening thread (the last post). I hope that link helps. I can see I'm going to be making space for at least one black tomato next year. Mr Stripey was the big stripey guys. The others were a mix of Early Girls (very very sweet) and that well known variety "I forget" (and I lost the tag). Mr Stripey was more classically 'tomatoe-y' than Early Girl, while still sweet. The flavor wasnt super intense. He was better in the Caprese Salad than Early Girl is. She's a bit too sweet for perfection in that application*. She rocks in a bacon sandwich tho, or for snarfing sun-warm straight from the shrub. (*someone asked us to show him where we were injecting the sugar. She's that sweet). I cant wait for the Big Boys to ripen. They are new for me. I think if I had a bazillion to spare, I'd make salsa and can or freeze it. Tomatoey salsa in winter is such a treat.

My folks used tupperware s&p shakers on camping trips. A generation later, we used the tupperware 'glasses' (the ones with lids) to teach the munchkin to drink from a cup. I really like TW. I have a cylindrical canister I 'borrowed' from my folks when I moved out some decades ago. They'd had it since I was a young child. Its not so pretty any more, but its still fully functional and keeps the ants & moisture out of the sugar. The rest of the collection came from thrift stores and garage sales, and is far from complete.

Spicy devilled eggs on a tray, with some in the arms of staggering sinners, (and others with a sinner's face buried in the filling), while a devil with a pitchfork gestures at them. Next to them, mildly flavored devilled eggs, watched over by an angel figurine. Rice pudding or pilaf made with forbidden (purplish black) rice.