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SylviaLovegren

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Everything posted by SylviaLovegren

  1. Collect gray water whenever you can -- from rinsing fruits and vegetables, rinsing dishes, etc. If you have a grey water container (a slop bucket!) in the kitchen you can use that for watering plants. We used to keep one in the shower, as well, to catch the water running while you wait for it to get hot and whatever shower water could be recovered. That water can be used to flush the toilet, or to water plants. In the shower, we'd rinse. Turn the water off and soap. Then water back on for short final rinse. Get a low flow toilet and a low flow shower head, of course. My sister was telling me a story the other day -- she remembers our great-grandmother who died before I was born. She was from Nebraska and had to walk a long way to the creek for water. My sister said g-grandma -- who had moved to Seattle by the time and had running water -- would still reuse the laundry water until the last batch of clothes was being washed in brown water. We've become used to constant and generous water.
  2. I want to see your friend's pirozhok recipe. I'm so upset I can't find mine -- it came from a lovely Russian friend who died years ago. She was the best cook and her pirozhki and pirozhok were so delicious. Dang.
  3. Here is a very good recipe for pastiso -- very very rich, too. And with a slightly different recipe for the saltsa kima, so you can see which one works best for you. http://www.cooks.com/recipe/nm6ks32u/moms-pastitso.html
  4. Writing up the recipe for my meat roll/pirozhok made me think of Quebec tourtiere -- a delicious meat pie. There are lots of variations and as a newcomer to Canada I don't feel competent to judge the best, but everyone seems to have his or her own recipe. Most recipes I've seen combine ground beef and ground pork, but I think you could use all one or the other, or substitute ground chicken or veal for some of the meat, as well. I'm attaching a recipe I found online that seems very much like a few I've tried -- although I've never added mushrooms. Tourtiere is delicious and rich and certainly harkens back to medieval meat pies. http://www.canadianliving.com/food/cooking_school/tourtiere_recipe_and_instructions.php
  5. I can't find my Russian friend's recipe for pirozhok, but this is what I've done: Biscuit dough made with 2 cups flour (American biscuit dough, not cookie dough -- or use phyllo, pie pastry, or any other dough that can be rolled out thin) tablespoon butter 2 onions, finely chopped 1/2 - 1 pound ground meat 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon salt few grinds black pepper pinch dried thyme Soften the onions in the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add the ground meat and brown, breaking up the clumps. Drain off an excess fat. Let cool slightly. In a bowl, combine the meat, the eggs, bread crumbs and seasoning. Test the seasoning saute a small bit of the mixture for a minute and tasting. Preheat your oven to 450 (hot oven). Roll out the dough to a 6" x 12" rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough, leaving at least 3/4" clear at the edges. Roll up the dough like a jelly roll, pinching the seam to seal. Place on a baking sheet seam side down and bake until browned -- 20 to 30 minutes. Slice and serve with gravy (made from the ground meat drippings) or sour cream. You can also make a pie, dividing the two into two and stuffing with the filling.
  6. Here's the Saltsa Kima recipe I use -- it's based on Vilma Chantiles' recipe and also on watching my mother-in-law: tablespoon butter or olive oil one medium onion, chopped fine 1 pound ground beef (if fatty, you'll have to drain off the fat) 1 clove garlic, chopped 1/2 cup red wine 2 cups canned peeled tomatoes, chopped 1/2 cup pureed tomatoes (or use some tomatoe paste) 1 small cinnamon stick or ground cinnamon, see recipe salt and pepper to taste, bit of sugar if needed few sprigs parsley or basil, if possible Saute the chopped onion in the butter or oil in a large pan over low heat, until the onion is soft. Add the ground beef and saute over medium heat, mashing regularly with a fork. In Greek kima you want to have lots of small particles of the meat -- this is distinctive. Once the meat is browned, pour off some of the fat, if necessary. Add the garlic and red wine and turn up the heat, stirring and cooking until the garlic is fragrant. Then add the tomatoes and the cinnamon stick (you can also add 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon and skip the stick). Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower heat to simmer, stirring occasionally, and let simmer for half hour or longer. Sauce should be fairly thick. Remove the cinnamon stick if using. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste, sugar if needed (and a bit more ground cinnamon if you like.) Stir in chopped parsley and/or basil and serve with your favorite pasta. Buttered pasta was traditional in MIL's house, with lots of grated Parmesan-type cheese. The saltsa kima can be used for pastiso and moussaka -- so double the recipe and freeze some. Just don't double the cinnamon! The cinnamon flavor should be a faint warm sweet mystery, not a foghorn! I'll go look for the pirozhok recipe.
  7. A real adjustment, coming to Ontario. They regularly put herbs and things in their burgers. Got a hamburger at a Greek diner and it had dill, garlic and feta in it -- served with mustard, ketchup on a bun. Blech. The dueling English and Irish pubs down the street put their own "secret herbs" in theirs. And all burgers have to be cooked to well done. So I've learned not to order a burger here unless it's coated in bacon and blue cheese or some such to mask the flavors. If I wanted a meatball on a bun, I'd order it. Our son's Canadian girlfriend was amazed when she came to dinner at our house and had a handmade burger with only SALT in the meat. She said she'd never understood why people liked hamburgers before. There is one small chain in Toronto that has "plain" hamburgers -- but pubs and restaurants all seem to think flavoured burgers are the way to go. Ditto most of the frozen beef patties at the supermarket -- flavoured with soy, garlic and herbs.
  8. I love Greens/Deborah Madison's potato bread for sandwiches. It's a classic loaf, soft and delicious. Equally good toasted with lotsa butter!
  9. Plan on drinking tons of Planters Punch!
  10. Swedish meatballs, of course. You can also make a pirozhok -- a giant piroshki. Fill dough (many kinds work -- pastry type, phyllo, American biscuit) with seasoned ground meat (onions, thyme and pepper are my favorite), then roll up and bake. Served sliced with sour cream. Inexpensive and delicious. Greek spaghetti sauce with cinnamon is different with pasta -- makaronia me kima You can also use the kima to make a delicious pastitso -- You don't need the Greek cheeses if you can't get them, just substitute a mild soft cheese and a Parmesan type. Lamb or beef works fine. And if you're doing Greek you can also do a moussaka using the kima. You don't have to use eggplant (aubergine) if it's not available or you don't like it. You could also use courgette/zucchini or even potato for the vegetable layers. ETA: I tried to post links for a good makaronia me kima and pastiso but it seemed to break the post. Sorry bout that.
  11. Yes, that's it. Dickens is so wonderful. Thanks for finding it.
  12. The eggs and the sour cream may be extravagant, but the amount of sugar is amazing! How sweet were they?
  13. Well, if you want small pieces, you need to cut horizontally. If you don't want smaller pieces, then don't. Are you saying it's useless to want small pieces?
  14. Almost any of Dickens' works will have wonderful descriptions of food. One of my favorites is in, I think, Great Expectations, where the young hero and an elderly gentleman are sitting at a fire making toast and there is nearly as much butter applied to the elderly gentleman as to the sizzling bread. Christmas Carol, of course, has famous passages with food lovingly described.
  15. That's a shame. Went there once last year when we were in town and it was very good. Oh well.
  16. Don't know anything about these either but https://www.google.ca/search?q=raw+honey+snohomish&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gfe_rd=cr&ei=_UecU__qJYeN8QfH4YCgBQ and http://www.snoislefoods.coop/
  17. No help here at all, but yum.
  18. Mairzy Doats Always loved that old one. Tried to link to Wiki, but didn't work
  19. A great Canadian contribution, Stompin' Tom's iconic and excellent The Ketchup Song (ketchup loves potatoes!) If you can't youtube it, here are the lyrics (Leamington was, until just recently, the longtime home of a Heinz Ketchup factory) There was a guy from PEI they used to call potato He met this young Leamington, Ontario tomato But he had eyes for other girls and she was a little mushy So he said lets get wed, there's no sense being fussy Big size french fries how they love tomatoes So dress them up with Heinz ketchup Ketchup loves potatoes, Ketchup loves potatoes Well he went down to Windsor town to buy a ring on Monday Saturday they said ok we'll cut the cake on Sunday But Sunday came and what a shame they had no one to fetch it Without a cake they just sat and ate potato chips and ketchup Big size french fries how they love tomatoes So dress them up with Heinz ketchup Ketchup loves potatoes, Ketchup loves potatoes And so this guy form PEI they used to call potato He's got two boys and a little girl, two spuds and one tomato They romp and run around Leamington and boy when they get hungry The bottle drips all over the chips way down in Ketchup country
  20. Richard Olney was the series editor, for starters.
  21. There's the knife sharpener at Wychwood Barns on Saturdays, too.
  22. I use James Beard's idea (probably lots of other people's, too, but that's where I first heard it) of enclosed a pat of butter in the middle of the burger. Works pretty well for dry-ish meat -- and sometimes you get a Burger Kiev effect!
  23. EVO and butter. I also have containers of pork and beef fat that I use and sometimes chicken fat. Wish I could find a neutral oil for some things. Can't stand the fishy odor of hot canola. Can't use peanut oil because we have a peanut allergy in the house.
  24. Used to love quick breads -- (American) muffins, (American) biscuits, coffee cake, banana bread, etc. Often whipped them up in the morning for breakfast. And suddenly I don't. If someone else makes them, I'll nibble a bit but they just don't taste particularly good anymore. I thought it was odd, then I read a John Thorne article saying he'd had the same experience, so maybe it's an age related thing?
  25. LILAC ICE CREAM!!!!!???!!! Can you infuse lilac flowers in alcohol to make lilac extract?
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