OzPolly

How did you remove the handles? I’ve always thought of cast iron as brittle and have been afraid to try any alterations

I was wondering if anyone has seen the magazine Dill. First issue out is on noodles. It sounds good, but the postage to send a print magazine to Australia usually costs more than the magazine so I'd love to hear if it would be worth it. Is there any actual information on making the different noodles,? https://dillmagazine.com/products/first-issue-noodles

Soy sauce is OK, but I think Bragg's 'hides' better. Cooking 10 weeks of the year for an American vego child in regional Australia was a bit of a challenge back before we had the products she was used to (or anything much except Sanitarium). Scratch cooking for a palate accustomed to the flavours of these things led me to adding her favourite, Bragg's Aminos (outrageous import price), so went to soy sauce (even saltier). Making the dreaded seitan products led to nutritional yeast flakes. Lightbulb moment. If it had any other salty ingredients, I added yeast flakes, but if I was going to add salt anyway and the colour wasn't out of place, I used Vegemite, Aussie Mite, Promite etc, whatever was in the pantry. As the child concerned suffers from serious Imaginitis, I had to slip it in (or prep for the next day after she went to bed). She didn't know until I 'let' her 'catch' me preparing a favourite dish. I think it is good to challenge the challenged! I use a lot of different umami rich ingredients for cooking sans the Vego. I add a very little Vegemite to some wet, mainly beefy dishes, but I wouldn't use the yeast spreads in quite a few places e.g. pasted anchovies, not Vegemite in veal and pork meatloaf. Not surprisingly, the Vego's father also suffers from Imaginitis, so I didn't immediately tell him about the anchovies, which he claimed to hate. Introduced to me by a teenager: toasted fruit bread, butter, Promite, grated tasty (sharp cheddar style) cheese, then under the griller/broiler. Thanks Andrew! Chris, I'll take your word on the hot chocolate! I do add 1/4 pinch of salt to black coffee. Discovered this when I had only seawater to rinse mugs in. Maybe as you make hot chocolate without milk, a bit of salt would work for you? The big advantage to Vegemite/Promite IS the salt. Ignore the use by date, it's irrelevant. Polly

Such good ideas you have already received. I also cook occasionally for my 81 year old mother, and turn out food for the odd party for Mum and her friends. In my experience, the women tend to be much more adventurous than the men. It is like they have been turned loose from having to produce only what their (mostly deceased) husbands insisted on. So, if it's going to be mainly men, I suspect some may want to learn to cook what their wives used to make them. Mum always uses a timer these days (and not just for cooking). She clips it to herself so she can go about doing other things and not worry about forgetting. I do too, and I'm (only) 56. It has already been mentioned that as we age, our taste buds are failing, along with everything else. I don't think I read anything about the sense of smell, however. Anything that creates more aroma in a dish is often appreciated by the elderly. They actually sell aroma drops to get reluctant eaters (many chemotherapy patients) interested in their food. Browning foods is an easy way to get the saliva flowing (many elderly have trouble with dry mouths). The smell of onions cooking seems to get everyone interested. While caramelised onions may take a fair while to make, they do freeze well in tiny packets to be used for a quick start to a dish. Most elderly (here at least) do not have a deep freeze, so only small, useful things for what little fridge freezer space they have. If they like mushrooms, they are also a product that gets regular markdown and with the moisture cooked out of them will take up little space and freeze fine. I look forward to hearing how the classes go. Polly