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rebecca

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Everything posted by rebecca

  1. i don't have specific experience with pastry on a grill, but you could do something like a grilled sweet pizza. melted chocolate with strawberries, or maybe sweetened ricotta and/or mascarpone with lots of mint and any fruit. caramel (salted or no with nuts? a pizza crust could just be the vehicle for whatever dessert flavors you wanted...
  2. crisp salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies! soooooo tasty!!
  3. recently i discovered sardines and avocado. i don't know i have gone my whole life without sardines! i have started buying them in bulk the only thing it needs is a little olive oil and s&p. mmm...
  4. i go for the simple avocado sandwich: fresh homemade wheat bread is best, but french bread will also do. avocado mashed a bit with salt and lemon, a slice of good cheese (most any kind will do), tomato if it is ripe, lettuce arugula or other green, cilantro basil or other herbs, and a touch of mayo. if i am feeling up to a project, i can't resist a good monte cristo made to my own specifications: tender eggy french toast, only a small amount of ham and turkey, munster or cheddar (not swiss for me), and a mustard and sweet relish dipping sauce. ooh, it's getting to be about lunch time!
  5. Not my mom, but a friends mother. They are not really a cooking household, and my friend once admitted to thinking pasta with ketchup was normal... but her mother makes the most amazing chocolate chip blondies I have ever had in my life!! It is like eating chocolate chip cookie dough, except the egg isn't raw, and it is in a handy bite-sized piece!
  6. I have fond memories of the red ones. When I was in high school, those many years ago, I was on the technical crew for the school plays. The tradition was that if you worked in the lighting booth you lined swedish fish under the small console lamp during a performance, and were rewarded with warm (and gummier) fishes by intermission or shows end! Have never tried them dried though...
  7. chinese cleaver and hand! (like a stuff-to-cook sandwich)
  8. Toasted pita, naan, matzah, or other crackery/bready type items with some crunch, and preferably warm, with peanut butter and thin sliced apple.
  9. I can think of a bunch of reasons why we feel the need to cook for sick family… here are my thoughts: Evolutionarily, if someone was not doing well, there is a good chance that it had something to do with insufficient calories. A tribe of people would be more likely to pass on their genes if, at that point, other members of the community brought them food so they might survive and procreate. I think it is partially inbred in us. Since I am not a doctor, I cannot do anything medical to help. Since I can cook, I can relieve someone else from that burden, so they might do better with the patient. Cooking is a zen activity for me. It might distract me from the pain I am feeling at the loss of a friend. If I am able to pass on even a small bit of pleasure to someone in pain through food, I would do whatever I could. I am one of those people who, if told I had a week to live, I would go out and eat at every decent restaurant within range, stuff myself silly, and end at home for moms fruit stuffing, dads biscuits and gravy, sisters walnut torte and uncles cauliflower. I would hope that they all would give that to me. Finally, in my home food really is an expression of love. It is also the celebration of anything. All dishes come with memories of some awesome picnic, or hilarious ceder. I would like to think that is a very comforting way to pass.
  10. Say it ain't so! I love the flavors of them, but they take too long to eat. Luckily I discovered Jolly Rancher jelly beans. Now I can have more than one flavor every 20 minutes. I dunno - I kinda like being able to savor the taste for a longer period... a jelly bean disappears too fast for me. But I am all on board with Jolly Rancher flavors!! Watermelon, wahooo!!!
  11. rebecca

    Celery leaves

    I like them in thai-style salad. (like green papaya salad, but can really be anything veg and crunchy...)
  12. rebecca

    Homemade Granola

    Yeah, I don't think I have used a recipe since the first time I made granola, although maybe it would be worth a try to get other textures, etc. What I do is: mix honey and herbs and/or spices in a bowl, add oats (or whatever) and mix. Keep adding oats until it is the right consistency (everything is coated with honey, but not too thick). Bake it in a 350 oven, on a baking sheet WITH PARCHMENT PAPER, and every 15 minutes or so, take it out and stir it so it doesn't turn into one large clump of granola. How much you mix it determines the size of clumps you will have. Bake until it looks toasty the smell is intoxicating, maybe 30-45 mins, then take it out to cool. Continue to stir so it won't stick to itself and the parchment. Add nuts and dried fruits at the end so they don't overcook or dry out too much. (I toast the nuts separately.) One of my favorite combinations is a sweet-salty-spicy mix. Add a little brown sugar, salt, cayenne and cinnamon to taste (you should feel the heat!) and then add dried apricots, cranberries and chopped almonds at the end. I love the spicy granola with cool yogurt! But really, you can put anything in this...
  13. Wait, it's mothers day?!? Woops... Toast it is!
  14. Yeah, I forgot that one. Cleaning anything that came from the ground, that is to be cooked without peeling: radishes, potatoes, beets, etc. I get achy hands from scrubbing too hard.
  15. But why would we think that a Walmart wouldn't be influenced by NYC? The reason that NYC groceries are so cramped and crowded is because there is very limited space in the city. I guess it depends on what size a plot WM could get. But they might just end up being cramped and crowded too. For all we know, it could turn into an industrially supplied Zabars!
  16. I don't mind peeling garlic, and I love to use it, but chopping it is a pain in the arse. The knife blade gets sticky, then my fingers do... it has almost made me a vampire in my own home. I make other people do that one! The really sad one, tho, is that I don't like seeing people eat my food. I love to cook for others (I am of the is-zen-to-cook-large-quantities-by-myself school of thought) and I love when people appreciate what I make, but I just don't have the stomach (sorry!) for watching others eat my work. I like to stay in the back and hear about it later!
  17. The thing about Walmart in my opinion is that like so many things, it is hard to see the problems from very close up. You would be hard pressed to find a Walmart store, or any other large chain for that matter, that doesn't have some good and decent employees and serve the poor in someway (cheap prices, etc). These days it is necessary to survive in the business world to be seen as a do gooder. The problem is that Walmart has put itself in a position where few have a choice. I have a friend from a small town in Kentucky, and he shopped at the local Walmart because there was nowhere else to shop. And don't get me wrong. I appreciate that they are starting to offer products from local producers, and more "gourmet" products, and I even know someone who helped them pioneer an effort to promote green lighting technology, all good stuff. But in these communities they ultimately have a monopoly. As for the cheap prices, which is good for the poor... It is true that cheap food is better than expensive food, all else equal. But since when is all else equal? They way they get those cheap goods is by buying them from farms and factories with poor conditions, hours, etc, or products dependent on subsidized corn, which itself is an ultimately inefficient and unhealthy practice. We do get goods for cheap, but at great expense to our own health and others livelihoods. We are effectively trading our need for cheap goods for the workers need fore a good wage. I can't claim to have any solutions to this problem, and there are definitely places where little can be done but to shop at Walmart. All I guess I can say at this point is that I dislike the system, and try to support companies whose practices I like better.
  18. Has anyone seen this article about the FlavourCollider? Someone is mapping our brains reactions to tasty cocktails, and turning it into visual art... kinda nifty
  19. I've got only 25. A meager collection, but it is in its infancy! Tragically, my uncle (with a collection I am not capable of estimating) recently sent me a box of books by media mail (probably another 15-20 at least knowing him ;-) that go lost by the post office!!! What a bummer.
  20. Personally I am a fan of the industrial look, and mine stay that way. But if you want to dress it up, it really matters what it is supposed to match and how much of a carpenter/painter/craftsman/etc. you are. I can imagine (in many different forms) paint, panels (wooden or otherwise), clothe drapings, weavings through the bars (simple like straw or ribbon, or long strips of photos that match your decor). Many many possibilities!
  21. Sour cream and onion pringles. Forget the "sour" "cream" and "onion," I am not even convinced that they are potatoes! And yet, once you pop you can't stop. Right? That's the thing?
  22. I was just going to make an ice cream reference!! Ice Cream! When you get it from a cheap place and the put a big scoop on top of a small cone and don't stuff the ice cream inside... if you are not careful, one little nudge can tip it from its precarious perch. And a poorly timed speed bump can mean ice cream on the ceiling.
  23. rebecca

    Easter Ham

    What??? You can do the exact same thing with matzah! Put it in a frittata with some other yummy leftovers, and poof! dinner! Only then it gets a different name...
  24. Anything deep fried. I am unfortunately in the once-you-start-you-can't-stop group of humans, and also the very-unhappy-camper-the-day-after group. In the Venn Diagram, that subgroup has huge flashing red danger signs, but you never remember to notice them until you are already in the splash zone. What a sad existence...
  25. rebecca

    Easter Ham

    How about a simple omelet with gruyere and maybe some chives? Or did someone already say quiche? I am a big fan of ham and eggs in most combinations...
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