Donia

Hmmm...guess that's a no?

My husband and I are driving to Austin tomorrow specifically to grocery shop. We live in Killeen and have decided to start doing a once monthly shopping trip in Austin for the variety of products not found here. We usually end up going to Whole Foods and Fiesta, but we're venturing to Sun Harvest this time. We are on a budget and I am specifically looking for affordable, healthy foods. The day will be a splurge for me as far as my eating is concerned and I want to try someplace new. My husband is not as adventurous as I am and does not eat seafood at all. I am looking for a place that is affordable, but good. Any type of cuisine is fine. Any suggestions?

Heheheheheh ... reminds me of a parody-doggerel from my grade school days: "Oh say can you see Any bedbugs on me? If you do, take a few, But leave some for me!" Okay, now it's time for me to ante up, and I can't believe how much embarrassment I had to fight in order to post the following beauteous picture: This unattractive slop is a result of the bad convergence of several of my peculiar food behaviors: 1) My mom trained me so well to avoid wasting food that I can't bear to throw out leftovers, no matter how uninspiring they may be; 2) This in turn evolved into a penchant for trying to combine leftovers in various ways in an attempt to conceal their flaws; 3) When said combinations don't succeed as desired, I have a tendency to try throwing in additional stuff in an attempt to salvage the dish. So ... I had some leftover garbanzo beans and brown rice. I also had a left-over first attempt at cooking nopales--I didn't care for the finished product's taste or texture, but because of behavior (1), I just couldn't bring myself to simply toss 'em and try again (I have since learned that I should have gone for the really small paddles, instead of the big ones I got). I also had about a half-can's worth of leftover chipotle chiles in adobo, and some fresh roma tomatos, so I got the brilliant idea of combining them all and making some kind of stew/chili/thang. So I started a little mirepoix of onions/celery/carrot in a big pot, and then threw in all the other stuff to simmer. Realizing I needed a bit more liquid in there, I thought of another leftover in the fridge, this some (very jelled!) broth left from a batch of stewed pig's feet (which, while tasty, could have provided another photo worthy of this thread, but alas I didn't think to snap any). Anyway, so in went the jelled broth too, which did quickly liquefy. Everything seemed to be humming along quite nicely, but the finished flavor--urk. The chipotles and adobo were way too strong, drowning out almost everything else ... except those damn nopales, whose flavor, texture, and even odor were still putting me off. But could I leave well enough alone? Of course not! I had to try adding a can of tomato sauce, to see if it would even things out. It didn't. And the result is this gelatinous mass of red ... stuff. To be sure, this is straight out of the fridge, and it would loosen up some if heated. But trust me, it doesn't look (or taste) any more appetizing when hot. The saddest thing of all is that I still can't quite bring myself to throw this mess out. Not that I can bring myself to eat it either. I'll probably wind up keeping it in the fridge until it either goes haz-mat or just gets too much in the way, and then it'll get tossed (no doubt along with the disposable plastic container I've placed it in, which by that point will be contaminated past the point of no return). Whew. Okay, my conscience is clear. (Of that mess, at any rate.) ← I know this is an old post, but I'm new here, so gimme a break! I had to quote it because I did the same thing a few years ago...I never throw away leftovers and I just threw a bunch of stuff together that I thought would be ok. I don't remember everything that was in it, but I know it included peas and bacon. It smelled...and somehow tasted...like a wet dog. It was so horrible. I wanted to throw it away, but my husband ate it anyway. I really don't know how he choked it down, and I really wish I had a picture of it. He says that's the only thing I've ever cooked that he hated. Who could blame him?

I made this a couple days ago to give to share in class. I had expected people to exclaim that it was too sweet or that it was weird but everyone loved it. Even my pumpkin pie hating boyfriend loved it. Must be that combination of way too much butter and sugar. ← I made the double chocolate version for a party once, and now that's all any of my friends request! I'm like, "Dudes! I have a culinary degree! Don't ya'll want a cake or a tart or something fancy?!" And they're like, "NO! We want double chocolate gooey butter cakes!" -shrug- What can you do? When people excessively bash Paula Deen, I get a little offended even though I probably shouldn't. She cooks a lot like my grandmother did, and my great aunts did. Their food wasn't five star gourmet, but it sure was good. When people talk about how horrible her food is, it's like saying the cuisine of an entire region and people is horrible, which is really, really not fair. ← I found the recipe for an "Elvis" version with peanut butter and banana that I'm going to make for my mom this weekend for mother's day. She loves Elvis! As for Paula, I feel just like you. I was raised on southern food including those cheesy casseroles and even though I still get a craving for them every now and then (sadly for my Canadian husband), it's not all I cook. I have made a pretty good gyu-don and I love to make curries. My next project (after the Elvis gooey butter cake! ) is okonimyaki. I love Paula because she makes me feel like a little kid again in my momma's kitchen watching her de-bone chicken for a broccoli-rice casserole.

Everything is so beautiful! I would love to cook the way you all do, but I just can't afford it. We do the best we can with what we have though! My husband decided to get creative and do a big stir-fry. He did the veggies (carrots, celery, cabbage, onions, green peppers, and ginger) seasoned the way you would expect stir fry to be seasoned, but he cooked the chicken in a lemon and ginger sauce. It was AMAZING!

I am in love with this thread. Here's mine.. What was your family food culture when you were growing up? My parents are both small town Texans and I grew up on Southern food and Tex-Mex mostly. My mother grew up very poor and she fed us well because of it. We were never denied food and pretty much ate whatever we wanted whenever we wanted it. Was meal time important? Supper was very important. My parents both worked very hard (and still do) but supper was always at 6:00 no matter who was home to cook it. I still don't know how mom managed to get a meal on the table every night, but she did. Was cooking important? Cooking was important. It was very basic for the most part and my mom did not like Chinese food or any fish or seafood. We ate quite a bit of beef and chicken. The beef was always cooked VERY well done and I was so happy when I learned how to cook because then I could cook my OWN meat medium rare. My mom always had me in the kitchen with her and by the time I was 11 or 12, I was cooking full meals for the family when mom and dad were working. My grandmother on my dad's side taught me how to bake. In fact, she died recently and one thing that was brought up was that nobody knew how to make her yeast rolls. I had to point out that I sure did because she made me do them over and over again until I got it right. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? There weren't any penalties, but table manners were ingrained from the time we were old enough to understand. I still put my pinky up when I'm taking a drink and my Canadian husband often comments on how delicately I eat. Who cooked in the family? Mostly mom, but as time went on, I did it quite often. Dad would try every now and then, but it wasn't always very good. I have sisters, but they are 10 and 12 years younger than I am so they didn't start cooking too much until I was already out of the house. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occasions? They weren't very common at all. I didn't realize it at the time, but we just couldn't afford it very often. I do remember that it was a big deal for mom and I to get Burger King when dad was working at night. (He would work a week of day shifts and then a week of night shifts) I almost never eat fast food now, but Burger King is still mom's favorite hamburger. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? Only when the whole family was there...it was fun! When did you get that first sip of wine? My parents never really drank wine. I have heard the story over and over again about how I was 2 years old and I kept begging for a sip of my dad's beer. Mom finally said to let me try it because I wouldn't like it and I'd stop asking. She was wrong...there's a picture of me holding the bottle of beer with my head tilted wayyyy back. I do drink wine, now, but I still love my beer. Was there a pre-meal prayer? Only at family gatherings. Was there a rotating menu? Not really, but I can remember certain things that we ate all the time. Chicken fried steak, fried chicken, mashed or baked potatoes, pork chops, milk gravy, sour cream enchiladas, tacos, and a variety of casseroles which I still crave sometimes, much to the disappointment of my husband. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? Not much, really. My children live with their father and I do cook for them when they're here. They sit down at the table and eat just like we did. I am also much more adventurous when it comes to food and eating than my mom was. I'm teaching myself to cook Indian and Japanese and I'll try anything once. Mom still won't really try anything that she doesn't already know she likes and her favorite place to eat is Olive Garden. That's ok, though. She's mom and she's allowed to eat whatever makes her happy as far as I'm concerned.

I'm brand new here, and my dinners aren't always all that exciting, but I love this thread! I'm home alone tonight so I just had a big salad with dried cherries and pea pods and some basic greens.

My Canadian husband recently introduced me to sharp Canadian cheddar and I'm seriously addicted. It's like Heaven in my mouth. Of course, I also love Parmigiano-Reggiano. I also love a good basic Swiss.

I would love to have a personal chef. As much as I love to cook, I would love to have someone to prepare healthy meals that I would enjoy eating. That would be perfect.