sparrowgrass

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks, but. . . . . The more I talk to my friend, the more I think this not eating is a depression issue, not a food issue. Zoloft might help more than tofu or heavy cream.

She actually has been off the feeding tube for quite some time, but has been losing weight. The doc threatened to reinsert the tube if she continues to lose. From what I understand (this is the parent of a friend, and I don't know her) she does have a sensitive stomach and a sore mouth, so anything spicy is out. Mayhaw Man, I did suggest grits to my friend, even though I'll have the hashbrowns, thank you very much.

She is losing weight, and her nutritionist actually recommended adding half and half or cream where ever possible. She cannot eat anything that is larger than a grain of rice, so chunks of meat won't work. Refried beans with some olive oil and cheese sounds good, and the egg drop soup might work. She is 83, and kinda set in her ways, so "country" style cooking is best.

Can be stress during growth, but may also be related to variety. Beefsteak tomatoes don't have much of a core at all.

My friend's mom had cancer surgery that removed part of her tongue and jaw. She has had her stomach tube removed, and is eating, but everything has to be pureed or liquid. She is losing weight like mad, because she gets tired of mashed potatoes and pureed string beans. Any ideas? I seem to remember a thread on something like this, but I can't find it.

Mash a clove of garlic with a good amount of salt, add a tablespoon of cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Chunk your tomatoes into bitesize bits, and pour the dressing over. Let it sit on the counter while you fix the rest of your dinner. Add cukes and green peppers, if you want. Crusty bread--yes. Steak on the side--optional.

I think the boy/girl grape thing is bogus. Your vine may just be too young, or not getting enough sun. I second the Extension advice. (Of course I do. I am an Extension agent. )

To find a hog, call the Extension offices in the counties in your area--they will surely know a farmer or a 4-H'er with a pig for sale. Use this LINK to find the local offices.

I work with a humane society group, and one of our fundraiser projects is making tote bags out of sunflower seed/dog food/rice bags. Some brands come in bags that are woven plastic with a colorful laminated outer surface, and we have been cutting them apart and using the fabric to make square bottomed totes. They are easy to sew--I just googled "tote bag pattern" and found several. I think we are sold out right now, but it is an idea for those of you with sewing machines. The plastic fabric can go into the washing machine.

I grew about 900 tomato seedlings on my sunporch this spring, and they went for an outing on Saturday. I work with a humane group, and the money from the tomatoes went to our spay/neuter program. I grew 13 different varieties: Ananas Noir, Break o' Day, Egg Yolk, German Johnson, Green Grape, Green Zebra, Golden Sunray, Red Zebra, Roma, St. Pierre, Sioux, Tess's Landrace Currant and White Currant. The only ones I have grown before are the Romas and the Green Zebras--the Zebras won the taste test last year. They are so good and very pretty, green with yellow streaks. Looking forward to putting the plants out in the garden--we had a good frost night before last, so I am a little cautious about putting my darling babies out in the cold. I did plant potatoes, onions and lettuce yesterday. Very late for me, but between the flu and constant rain, I didn't get the tiller out til this weekend.

I just found soy and wasabi almonds at WalMart. Bad mistake. Oreos, Cheetohs (alternating between the puffy kind and the crunchy kind), almond M&M's (luckily I can't find those very often), fresh cherries, avocadoes. My name is Sparrow and I have a snack problem.

I must admit that I have given up on "home-made" ice cubes. I don't use much ice, and if I make a tray, it tastes funny by the time I use it. I have taken to buying ice in bags at the gas station. The plastic bag keeps it fresh. But $6 for enough ice for a couple of drinks--I don't think so.

I remember Scotch Broth fondly from dormitory days--the dining hall was closed on Sunday evenings, and we had to fend for ourselves. If money was too short for a trip downtown to McDonalds, or a pizza delivery, Scotch Broth was my dinner of choice. I suspect that it wouldn't taste as good now as then, and we should just find ourselves a recipe.

Ahh, rachel. The world is mud-luscious here in Missouri, and I am sadly afraid there will be no peas this year. Peas must go into the ground early if they are to produce anything before the heat comes, and this year I have not been able to till the garden because it is way too wet. Last year, we had a late and vicious frost that took the tops off the peas, and the bunnies finished them off. This year, I got some chicken wire to guard against marauding rabbits, but the weather is just not cooperating. I did manage to till one row, so I put the cabbages/broccoli out, but everything else is still in weeds and stubble from last fall. The asparagus hasn't even poked any little tips up--usually I have had a taste or two by the first week of April. Maybe I will have a spring dinner sometime next week.

I haven't cooked any moose, but I have dealt with many a hunk of venison. If it is steak (evenly grained, no silverskin or sinewy/gristly stuff), I would do as you first thought--pound it out and grill it. Don't overcook it. Or slice it paper thin and do a stir fry thing, maybe with lots of mushrooms and onion. If it is sinewy/gristly, then make a stew or braise.

Just a note, in case anyone wants to google the goats--they are Boers, not boars. (Boars are boy piggies.) Good for you. Being a country girl, I don't quite get all the drama, but totally agree that everybody needs to know where food comes from. Gfron, holler at me next time you come to the cabin--I am in Iron County, and I could bring some good home 'growed' eggs to you.

Feedmecookies, that hot water/cold water thing is probably really easy (and cheap) to fix. Send me a pix of the underside of your sink, and I will tell you how to fix it.

I planted 13 varieties of tomato seed last week, and I noticed little green shoots just this morning. Also some poppies, anise and blue hyssop, rosa bianca eggplant, and a couple other things. Nothing outside--still a couple inches of icy snow out there. But the cardinals are singing away, so spring must be on the way.

Ain't she, though? I love her.

Sorry for not responding to the chicken question--I have the flu and I have not been keeping up with my internet surfing. Yep, the chickens ARE my garbage disposal units. They eat everything, veggies, meat scraps, even eggs and cooked chicken. The only things that go into the garbage are bones, because I don't want the dogs going under the chickenyard fence to retrieve them. I don't have a compost pile--leaves, weeds and veggie trimmings go into the chickenyard where the girls work their magic. When I need a shovelful of compost, I just dig in a corner of their yard. And, clever person that I am, I located the chickenyard at the top of my veggie garden, so, in the natural course of things, the rain washes thru and out onto the garden, leading to rampant growth of all things green. (Actually, I am not that clever, it just worked out that way. ) When I was a kid, my farmer uncle called our garbage disposal an "electric pig". I do have a dishwasher, which, like all new dw's, has it's own internal disposal.

My chickens would go on strike if I put in a disposal.

I must say that the canner/cooker thing confused me, too when I first heard it, because my small cooker is an exact copy of the big canner, except for size. Our nutrition specialist explained it to me, as a matter of timing. A little cooker heats up much faster, and thus the total time in the canner is less. If the directions for your cooker say it is ok for canning, go for it. My canner has a weight, so I can set the canner for 5, 10 or 15 pounds pressure. Maybe some of the little cookers have a set pressure? My canner directions say to put (I think) 3 quarts of water in before canning. The jars do not have to be immersed for pressure canning, but they do for waterbath canning. DO NOT "SPEED RELEASE" the steam--that is a very good way to break jars or ruin the seal. You always have to let the canner cool by itself. Don't run water over the canner, or let drafts blow on it. Changing pressure quickly is hard on seals and jars. Even if they do not break, you run the risk of having the liquid boil out of the jars. I am not too paranoid, but I do always add a little extra time when canning, just to be safe.

Just a note. USDA recommends that you not use a pressure cooker to can in. Seems the large size of a pressure canner means more time to heat up, and that heating up time is important in making sure that canned goods are safe. I have used my smaller pressure cooker in the past to can high acid stuff, but I think if I was doing stock or other low acid foods, I would stick with the big canner.

Mallet, it is true that rotten eggs produce gas and would float. However, I have been cooking for ( OMG ) more than 40 years, and out of hundreds of dozens of eggs, only once have I cracked open a "rotten" egg. You are much more likely to find a stale egg than a rotten one.

Nope. That shell can hide a multitude of sins. The cold water test only shows how much evaporation there has been from the egg. A washed egg will dry out faster than an egg that hasn't been washed, because eggs naturally have a barrier against evaporation. If you take 2 eggs laid on the same day, wash one and put it in an uncovered bowl in the fridge, leave the other unwashed and store it in a carton, the washed one will float much sooner than the other. The only real way to check freshness and quality is to crack the egg out onto a plate, and look at color and how thick the white is. The runnier the white, the older the egg. A really fresh egg will stand up--the yolk will be high atop a nice mound of white.