ruthcooks

Here is the recipe you requested, Darienne. Good luck to you. Seven Day Cabbage Slaw 2 1/2 lb head cabbage 1/2 C. diced onion 1/2 C. diced green pepper 1 small jar diced pimientos 1 C. sugar 1 t. salt 1/2 C. vegetable oil 1/2 C. vinegar 1 t. celery seed 1 t. dry mustard At least one week before serving: Shred cabbage and mix with onion, green pepper and pimientos. Sprinkle sugar and salt over and squeeze well with your hands. Let stand at room temperature one hour. Drain well. Place in bowl. Mix oil, vinegar, celery seed and dry mustard and mix in. cover and refrigerate for 7 days before serving. Keeps at least 3 weeks, according to person who gave me this recipe.

How many people in your horde? How many meals need salads? How many different salads do you need for each meal? How far ahead depends upon how much you are willing to compromise flavor. IMO, most foods begin to deteriorate after 2-3 days in the fridge. Not all slaws are good keepers either, depends upon the recipe. I have a 7-Day-Slaw that is supposed to keep 3 weeks, and also a slaw for which you can make the dressing a week ahead, chop vegetables 3 or 4 days ahead and combine just before serving. If you choose the "recipe" salads carefully, you can combine them with some convenience items and no-labor items. Buy bagged and pre-washed salad greens and make homemade dressings a week in advance (or buy them if you must). Crudites are available all cut up--serve with dip. Rely on some last minute things, like sliced tomatoes or sliced/diced melons. You can always grab somebody to do this. A bowl of sweet cherries needs only to be washed, ditto for grapes. (Low on refrigerator space? Chill melons in a cooler with ice water a few hours ahead.) Pickled beets and other pickled vegetables may be done now or even purchased. Even if you premake salads within the last 2 or 3 days before guests arrive, you should be able to knock out quite a few in about a half day. Things like potato, pasta, rice or other grains, and beans. Fresh vegetables may be blanched and dressed with vinaigrette at the last minute. And serve a really good bread, either homemade (freeze ahead) or from a bakery. It fills in and fills up.

The worst I ever saw was "No Cholesterol" on a can of tomato juice.

Checking back in--I like my steak medium, but can stand anything just to the point where blood runs across the plate into my mashed potatoes. Hamburgers have to be well done, because as a child I was served one so rare the bun was bloody. I do use pasteurized eggs in applications like mayo and Caesar dressing, and try not to think about it. Chocolate chip cookie dough--or any kind of floury dough--I have never eaten and never will. I find the uncooked flour taste to be obnoxious, and can't understand why anyone would want to eat it. Hollandaise and Bearnaise I cook right up to the point of curdling, and the bonus is a nice thick sauce. If it's thick, it's cooked, I reckon. I definitely have a problem with ALL rare to raw proteins, and that includes seafood. You can have yours any way you like, it won't bother me to see it except for that runny egg yolk.

Not a week goes by--and sometimes not a day--without someone posting about the glories of runny egg yolks. They ooze and they drip down hamburgers and salads. They're a great way to get salmonella. And they make me sick even thinking about them, much less seeing photographs of the slimy things slipping and dripping. They are raw, people, and I don't "do" raw protein. We all know how the lovers feel, now it's time for the rest of us to voice an opinion.

I'm not a fan of molasses except for in gingerbread, although I did grow up with the soft-butter-mixed-with-sorghum on biscuits. Today, however, I ran aross this recipe for Lemon-Molasses Dressing in one of my many recipe boxes and thought some of you molasses lovers might like to try it. Lemon-Molasses Dressing or Marinade 1/2 C. lemon juice 1/4 C. molasses 2 T. olive oil 2 T. minced shallot 1 t. grated lemon rind 1 t. dijon mustard 1/4 t. salt 1/4 t. freshly ground pepper Whisk together all ingredients. Serve over salad greens or use as a marinade for girlled cicken, pork, seafood or vegetables. Yield: 1 cup. How about marinating shrimp and cooking on the grill, then serving over a green salad with the same dressing (just don't use the marinade!). Some cornbread croutons might be nice, too.

Tender-crisp. It's either one or the other. This is usually a mis-nomer for "warm raw vegetables," often merely nuked until warm. I think the French have another term which suits perfectly cooked vegetables better and that is "a point" which means "just to the point of doneness". Not mush, not raw. "A point" also means rare, if applied to steak.

Great for brunches: remove all pith fom whole orange. Slice orange into round discs, keeping the whole orange intact ( or reassembling) and store in single layer. Make one for each guest. Just before serving, or a day ahead, slightly thaw and puree frozen sweetened strawberries. When ready to serve pour puree over "whole" oranges. Fresh strawberries don't have the concentrated flavor of the frozen ones. Very refreshing. Prepare oranges in discs as above and alternate discs with mild onion slices. Dress with vinaigrette for salad and serve on a platter. May also add beet slices. Fruit "salad" or dessert: make a boiled dressing of pineapple juice, lemon, sugar, flour and eggs. Chill. Fold in whipped cream, orange supremes, dates, bananas, grapes, pineapple cubes. May add marshmallows and/or nuts, but I like just fruit. Add supremes to green salads with toasted walnuts and grapes and serve with orange vinaigrette. Add juice to marinades and barbeque sauces. Mostly, if I zest one, I just sit down and eat it. (And for those of you who don't recognize the term "supreme", it means an orange wedge with no membranes attached.)

I would live on a cruise ship serving exquisite food, and my job would be to taste everything served and to make menu suggestions which the kitchens/chefs would prepare for my approval. Job description would be "Cuisine Goddess". Sigh.

Anything hot should be underbowled, IMO. I like soup that stays hot to the end, and vegetable dishes piled high because cooked vegetables lose heat so fast. This is especially important if you do not preheat serving bowls. On the other hand, if you are not going to cut your salad ingredients to bite size (most restaurants), then please give me a bowl large enough so I can do it myself. There's nothing worse than trying to eat a whole lettuce leaf with dressing dripping--they can be unwieldy and flop all over your face.

I am single and therefore cook for one. A recent examination of my bank statement showed that I had spent only $106 on groceries in April. Without even trying. Of course, I'll go way over that in May, but I had let myself run low on staples. I have a new technique on buying staples: I keep a list of all that I'm getting low on, and every time I go shopping I'll buy one to three items that I'm the lowest on. Even so, there comes a time when you suddenly need a bunch of paper goods and non-food items all at once and this was the time. It's obvious I could save money by going to a discount place for this stuff, but my last trip to Wal-Mart resulted in about $80 in impulse purchases. Too dangerous. Another aid to lower grocery bills is to make a list of everything I bought so I can better prepare menus and see when time is running out on latest purchases. I'm not much for rummaging around in the refrigerator, but I do refer to the list a lot, and that cuts down on food waste. All this from reading postings, even though I didn't consciously participate this time, and really examining my food shopping and cooking habits.

Whatever that stuff was that I ordered for lunch a few weeks ago. It's name had a "tropical" in it, so I expected something kinda fruity. The waitress told me to "let it marinate" a while. I peeked in at the tea strainer which sat in the top of the pot of water and it looked like science fiction. Puffy little yellow things in it which resembled soaked torn nuggets of styrofoam. I tasted it. Yuk. Put in some sugar, still yuk. But I had to taste it once more because I remembered the smell/taste from somewhere else. Eureka! It smelled and tasted like the stuff the dentist used to rub on my gums before he gave me an injection for pain. Oh, the humanity...I drank water.

Tootsie Rolls are disgusting. Leo must have been a pig farmer in the old country. No offense to pigs. Now I have to go eat a GooGoo to take the taste out of my brain.

Because I live alone and have no one to fight for the skin, I can eat the crispy parts first. Then, with the leftover refrigerated chicken, I tear off the rest of the skin, place it on a piece of foil, salt and bake in a toaster oven until crunchy. I remove it to paper towels and in a few minutes it's crunchy as can be. I do this with turkey skin, too, which I much prefer. For one thing, there's a lot more!

Some years ago, I read that only 17-18% of the population has their blood pressure affected by salt intake. I am not one of them, and see no reason I should be affected by their problem. There is a greater % of diabetes, and I AM one of them, yet no one is proposing we ban sugar even though sugar causes many more problems than salt. Nor should they. Perfect world or not, the government has no business dictating food choices or anything else. It's not constitutional. Butt out, Feds.

Sorry, neither cooked eggs nor mayo freeze well. Probably a watery, rubbery mess.

Shirley Corriher does not care for scones, and gives only one recipe in her baking book which she says is light, moist and sweet. She gives a few tips: 1. use low protein flour like White Lily (although the consensus is it ain't what it used to be before they moved the plant) 2. eggs make the scones dry, as does using all cream 3. The wetter the dough, the lighter the scone Her recipe contains buttermilk, heavy cream and 1/4 cup shortening. (It's a variation on her "Touch of Grace" biscuits.) She flavors the dough with orange zest, white chocolate chips and fresh raspberries. and gives an optional icing. I'm with Shirley, I've never met a scone I didn't think was too dry to eat, but I might try this one.

Hollandaise is lovely, but my favorite asparagus is called "Dutch Asparagus". For each person, smash one or two hot hard cooked eggs on a warm serving plate. Add salt, pepper, and as much melted butter as the egg will absorb. Use as a dip with hot cooked asparagus spears. Or use a fork, if you're really hungry. A nice lunch all by itself. I also make soup, casseroles, roasted and serve it the way my mother did: Cook cut spears in salted water, add milk or cream and serve in sauce dishes. A friend told me her mother did green beans this way.

What she said. Cookbooks for reading, internet for research. I want to hear the voice of the author, have a good idea if she/he agrees with my philosophy. For instance, if she says "butter, no substitute" she hooks me. If there are too many "butter or margarines" in there, (or even one "Cool Whip") she's out the door. If she's all about "no fat", no way. There are a few exceptions, like a person who has sampled a dish made by another, liked it and then found out it contained some sort of canned or packaged quasi-food item. Too often internet recipes are copied from site to site, often with an ingredient or two being changed. You don't know if the version you see has two or ten changes, or if it even resembles the original. Much less if the "author" has even tried the new version. Also, I like books by cooks, not chefs. Chefs today often cook for effect, with weird ingredients. They also have access to many more foods than the home cook. I don't relate to this method.

About those recipes Sen McConnell posted. The Chocolate Nut Pie is a typical version of a "Derby Pie", although some folks make a sort of chess or pecan pie with a syrup base, nuts and chocolate chips and sometimes Jack Daniels. Like this version, most Hot Browns call for toast. It makes a world of difference, however, if you use French croutes. For each person, cut crusts from two slices of white bread and brush both sides with butter. Place in single layer on cookie sheet and bake until crisp, turning once. Don't use artisanal breads, but something from the supermarket like Pepperidge Farm. (Sliced tomatoes in season are not traditional but sometimes added.) Cranberry Relish is good alongside. Another recipe indigenous to Louisville is Benedictine, a cucumber and cream cheese spread developed by a caterer named Jenny Benedict. Personally, I never liked any country ham from Kentucky as they tasted musty to me and had to be scrubbed like a demon to remove all the surface mold. I prefer Tennessee hams and those from Smithfield, VA.

About grapefruit and Lipitor--or any of the other drugs whose effectiveness is lessened by grapefruit: I asked my doctor once about how much grapefruit it took to have this effect. He said "You'd have to drink about a gallon and a half of grapefruit juice." So I now enjoy the occasional grapefruit half for breakfast. Ask your doctor and see what he says.

Neon lime sherbet, canned beef gravy, sardines in tomato sauce.

I am enjoying everyone's creativity, but am not participating because I went from December 28 to February 1 only visiting the grocer once and spending only $68 on that trip. Actually, it has been two weeks since I went to the grocery on Feb. 11, so I guess I've been a non-active participant. Three things motivated me: my freezer, refrigerator and pantry were chock full; I was sick for several weeks of that time period and not motivated to leave the house; my December food costs were way out of sight. Can't say it was creative though, as I didn't feel like cooking for most of that time. This whole thread makes you stop and think. A friend is coming in on Sunday and I am planning to make a Hungarian Gulyas Soup which calls for 2 lbs. of beef chuck. I have one pound in the freezer and rather than buying another I plan to cut up a couple of thick pork chops instead. (I like to buy a loin and cut it up myself for chops, but I get sick of them before I finish them.) I'll make a loaf of bread and something chocolate for her and have lots of time for talk.

The first time I offered to make my eldest grandson (then about 5) a BLT, he looked at me with a look of horror and said "Grandma, it has SALAD on it." I think salad implies "good for you" and "cold ingredients"; the warm dressing, cold ingredients or the reverse is an anomaly. For interesting notes visit Food Timeline for Salads.

Salted capers. Or dried capers. Whatever they are called. They looked like some alien species of dead bugs and I couldn't bring myself to use them.