sparrowgrass

The thick crust exists because it was the lunch for miners. They held the pasty by the thick crust with their hands, which were dirty with tin or copper residue, then discarded the crust to avoid metal poisoning. It's all explained here: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly...,475394,00.html ← I used to be a historical interpreter at Soudan Underground Mine State Park, in far northern Minnesota. Here is the story of pasties as I learned it. Pasties were indeed eaten down to the bit of crust held in dirty fingers, but that last bit was not just tossed away. It was food for the tommyknockers, mischievious little fellows who plagued the miners. A miner who didn't save that last bit for the tommyknockers was liable to lose his tools, or bump his head, or his candle would blow out. Tommyknockers are Cornish, like the pasties, but all the miners had stories about mysterious creatures underground.

I have a slightly off topic question, related to the show. Isn't tilapia a fresh water fish? I thought you shouldn't eat freshwater fish raw, because of parasite problems, yet there were several raw dishes on that show.

Oh, man. Serbian pears and caviar. My first food memory is of a Peep, a little yellow sugar crusted marshmallow. I distinctly remember that sugar crunch and mooshy marshmallow, and I thought it was the greatest thing I had ever tasted. I must have been about three.

Don't mind a bit, Kris. Mine is sweet and hot, and I can several gallons worth each summer. Lucy's Hot Stuff 1 gallon chopped tomatoes 1 1/2 lbs onions, chopped 10 cloves garlic, minced 2 c vinegar 1 cup sugar peppers to taste--I use whatever I have growing, some sweet and some hot salt to taste I chop everything pretty finely in the food processor, and then simmer it on the stove or in a crockpot til it is thick enough. Sometimes, I add a big can of tomato paste, if I think it needs to be thicker. I can it in half pint jars, in the pressure cooker--10 pounds pressure for 10 minutes. You can also do it in a water bath canner.

Bread. Noodles/pasta. Stock. Salsa. Hardly ever buy any of those anymore.

After 6 weeks of no eggs--the young pullets hadn't started laying yet, and the 6 old girls all moulted and took a vacation from laying--I finally am getting eggs again. Yesterday, I took down the ham I sugar cured last January. It hung in the shed until March, then I brought it in and hung it in the front closet til now. I sliced that ham as thin as I could, put in the frying pan with a bit of water, and cooked it till browned. Then put some butter in the pan, and broke a couple of those new eggs in and over-easy'ed them. Salty, salty ham and rich orange yolks. Some toasted homemade bread, fresh ground pepper, and home canned V-8 juice. Good. Yes indeed. It was worth getting up for.

About a hundred egg cartons, all opened and nested together. Friends and family save them for me, but my old hens quit laying to molt about 8 weeks ago, and the new young birds are just now beginning to lay, so I have a backlog of cartons. My KA mixer. Just *had* to have it, but found that I don't use it often enough to warrant keeping it on the counter. The KA food processor is up there, too, but I just decided to get rid of the bread maker, so the food processor will move back down to the counter soon. The bread maker is possessed. It is a Zojirushi, with the long bread pan with 2 paddles. The little devil has decided to keep all the dough on one side of the pan, so the loaf is definitely not show quality if I bake it in there. Might as well just do the whole thing the old fashioned way. The pressure canner lives up there during the summer canning season, but goes out in the shed in the winter. Sometimes a loaf of bread or package of tortilla chips hangs out up there.

Oh, I wish I had brought the paper home from my mom's--all of the second grade classes published their "turkey recipes". I remember one said to cook the turkey at 25 degrees for 58 hours. Several (this is rural Missouri, after all) said to shoot your turkey, and pull the feathers off. My niece's recipe called for 23 eggs, one turkey, one cup of sugar and some salsa. And ketchup.

Don't you know that children belong at a card table in the kitchen? And that particularly rowdy children may have to sit in the kitchen until they are 27?

divalasvegas, I think I was at that potluck too!! I brought marshmallow ambrosia, not knowing what kinda meal I was attending. You'da thought I brought barbecued babies, from the ugly looks I got. I didn't take home any leftovers, however.

Skosh (pronounced with a long o sound) .is military slang--comes from Japanese sukoshi which means a little bit.

No matter how efficient I think it would be to "just get things started" for dinner, and then go change out of work clothes, it is a mistake. I will inevitably drip or spill or splash something, and the stain will always be front and center. I do have a couple of aprons, and I do wear them if I absolutely must cook while dressed as a grownup. One with the logo of some awful pre-made burgers (JTM, maybe) that I got for being cook at a company barbecue, and one that says "Vote Doug Henk for County Board". Doug is my brother, and Maggiethecat's neighbor, and he made an unsuccessful run at the power structure in Dupage Co. Illinois. (Maggie told me that she thought she was the only Democrat in Dupage County, when I told her to vote for Doug.)

Not really pie, but one year I bought a little pumpkin for each serving, hollowed them out, and filled them with the pumpkin filling (from the back of the Libby can). I baked them til the filling was done, and decorated with whipped cream and some pastry leaves.

What Munchymom said. I am a Lutheran born and bred athiest, but I would go for the bagels way before I would hit a peach danish.

I have something similar--a plastic mug that you put in the freezer. It is a two layer deal, with the ice pack liquid in between the two layers. It does chill warm beer, and keeps it very cold. I hate drinking out of plastic, so I don't use it very much.

Left over hot and sour soup, homemade. My uncle gave me a big bag of shiitakes from his mushroom "ranch" and that is my favorite way to use them.

Highchef, squirrels are MUCH harder to skin than rabbits. You can skin a wild rabbit with your bare hands--the skin is thin and fragile. Squirrels have tight, very strong skin. One way to skin them is to lay the squirrel belly down. Using a good sharp knife, cut at the base of the tail, NOT all the way around. Continue this cut down the outside of the squirrel's back legs. Stand on the tail, and grab that cut skin. Pull hard--the skin will come off the squirrel's back and right over his head. Cut his tail, his head and his little feeties off. Gut him like a rabbit. If you plunk it right into a bucket of water, the stray hair will be easier to get off. The Evil One (the ex) used to throw the squirrels away if the tail broke--too hard to skin any other way. I disjoint them like a chicken. The meat on an old squirrel will feel hard--and unless you stew them, will be too chewy to eat. Young squirrels feel soft, and can be fried like chicken. If you are in town and not allowed to shoot, try a live trap. Bait it with peanuts (or pecans).

Squirrel is my favorite wild meat. A young one can be fried like chicken, and the older ones make wonderful, flavorful stew or potpie. They are hard to skin--very tough skin that sticks tight to the body. Squirrel season here starts in early summer, and I have never heard anyone say that you have to wait til after frost. Hunting is easier when the leaves fall, however. (Rabbit season starts in the early winter. Rabbits carry tularemia, and the cold weather kills off the sick ones. At least, that is the theory.) Bubonic plague is found in the West, not Louisiana. You will have to ask local health folks if Lyme disease is a problem in your area, but making sure ticks don't stay attached is the best way to avoid that problem. They have to be firmly embedded, which takes several hours, before they can transmit the disease. edited because of poor reading skills.

What Jackal said. Relocating a mouse (or a deer, for that matter) almost always results in the death of the animal, at least according to my college classes in wildlife management. They get run over, eaten by predators, don't know the escape routes, or get driven out of prime habitat by local animals. Use a snap trap to kill mousie--they make easy set traps now so you don't have to worry about catching your fingers. If you must use the glue traps, put the gluey mouse in the freezer. It will die quickly. Some folks poke the mousie's nose into the glue, so he suffocates. Back on topic now--I have been an active participant in obtaining meat. I do think if you are going to eat meat, you should recognize what happens to get that meat into that little styrofoam tray. I don't think you have to do it yourself, but for Pete's sake, don't whine about someone killing poor little Bambi as you wrap yourself around your quarter pounder.

I am sooo glad I am not married any more.

My sympathy, too. My dad died suddenly about 3 years ago, and if there is a buffet in heaven, he is first in line. Maybe your dad is right behind him. I think it says somewhere in the Bible that heaven is full of sweet corn and tomatoes. Take care of yourself. The pain eases after a while, but the memories stay.

I read this as Elephant Liver Pate. You would need a big bowl to prepare that. I like pork liver much better than calve's liver. Dice up and fry some bacon, slice a whole lot of onions, quickly fry the slices of liver, and brown the onions in the pan while you keep the liver warm.

Snowangel, I am eating probably the last of my meager crop, too. Ordinarily, I would be canning salsa by the gallon, but the drought this year just did in my tomatoes--I have barely enough to eat fresh, and none for laying by. I do, however, have enough okra to feed all of Missouri. I keep picking it, but really can't face eating it any more. I also have jalapenos by the bushel.

I am using mine to peel up the tile on the kitchen floor. Wait a minute--that is what you are supposed to use it for.

I too have a bumper crop of persimmons coming on, but mine are the American wild ones, Diospyra virginiana. They are NOT eaten when unripe--my Pittsburgh dad used to talk about visiting my Missouri mom's family farm for the first time, and my mom fed him an unripe 'simmon. He said his mouth turned inside out. They are extremely astringent. I don't care for persimmons, so I leave them for the deer and the coyotes and (especially) the possums, but some folks gather them for pudding. American persimmons are orange, very gooey and sweet when they are ripe, and full of hard seeds. If you split a seed horizontally, you can tell what kind of winter you will have. If you see a white spoon inside, the snow will be deep. A knife means bitter cold. A fork means changeable weather. /naturalist mode