SylviaLovegren

I don't know what a "jaffle" is, and I'm not a "Dude!" even without the exclamation point. I'd never heard of a "jaffle" either but google, as nearly always, enlightened. But I do admit to being "Dude!" frequently. I love it when my son calls me that, makes me giggle.

My brother-in-law makes chocolate oatmeal every morning for breakfast. His trick is stirring it so much that the oatmeal dissolves pretty much completely and it becomes chocolate pudding. It's actually not bad if you like chocolate pudding for breakfast.

Cream is heavy in fat and fat floats on water. If you add more water via strawberries to the cream it will have more of a tendency to merge with the water other (i.e., the coffee). Figuring out which cream whips faster or better than another is tricky. It depends totally on where you are, what kind of cream is sold and how it's labeled. The higher the fat content of the cream, the faster it whips. I used to get Guernsey cow cream in Seattle that was so thick, it almost didn't need to be whipped. If you did whip it, it would start turning to butter very quickly. That never happens, at least in New Jersey, with supermarket cream.

But if you have oranges you can grate the peel and use that instead of orange extract. Substitute some orange juice for the tea, too. Any of the warm spices can be lovely -- nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves (go easy!), ginger. I love cardamom but if you don't have any, well...

All those sound good but... Squishy whole wheat sandwich bread with processed "American" cheese slices in between. Butter in the cast iron skillet -- lots. Browned on both sides until the cheese is melty and the bread is crusty but not too dark. Cut across diagonally and eat quick. I know I should be ashamed but it's so gooooooood...

The millions of restaurants in China do serve alcohol. I've never found one that didn't. Even the Muslim ones do. Not around here in NYC. Not the ones cater to mainly Chinese. Even the ones which have a small "bar", you will get a blank stare if you ask for a wine list. dcarch Almost every restaurant in Toronto has a bar, including the smallest Chinese/"ethnic" restaurants, and even the small ones serve beer, wine and even sometimes hard liquor. The entry cost for alcohol must be small here. That said, growing up in Seattle, Washington, the Chinese restaurants there (which didn't have liquor licenses) served a pot of tea with all meals. I was fascinated to see Chinese families at the dim sum spots have big bottles of soda on their tables instead of the tea that the westerners were drinking. At one dim sum spot, which was BYOB, the Chinese families would have 7-Up and whiskey on the table, while we westerners had the tea. It seemed incredibly exotic to me at my young age to see adults drinking whiskey at a meal (my parents were the milk, iced tea or coffee types).

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/science-recipes-iced-chocolate-desserts-01354.html A recipe for an iced chocolate dessert (made with ice, not "frosted") described by the Earl of Sandwich -- 100 years before his descendant supposedly invented the sandwich.

Did you two see this while you were there? Manitoulin resident's and prisoner of war's historical cookbook: http://www.manitoulin.ca/2013/08/07/historical-society-reprints-japanese-prisoner-of-war-cookbook/

Gorgeous! And a steal!

My husband waters his wine, almost always. I'll do it with a cheap plonk, but will usually use a sparkling water rather than flat. I HATE the idea of watering a decent wine. But, I'm like you, I can handle hard liquor much better than wine -- more than a glass or if there's no food and I'm squiffy as well.

Apricot jam, raspberry jam, cherry jam, bitter orange,fig jam. Mint cream, hazelnut cream, hazelnut chocolate cream, orange cream, raspberry cream, vanilla cream, coffee cream, mocha cream, marshmallow, almond cream.... Yum!

I wish I could find the book. She was being slightly tongue in cheek, but she did say she felt like there was a big culture/world view of food that involved canning and she wasn't into it and felt left out and slightly frowned upon by the "earth mothers."

What a shame! We were just there a few weeks ago. Hope they can rebuild.

If you look at old American cookbooks, pre 60s, coffee was served with almost all meals, especially if men were involved, unless milk was being served. It's just so odd to see it now but some of my elderly relatives will still order coffee with lunch or dinner -- and definitely WITH not AFTER.

There's a difference in parts of the US, as well. In the pacific northwest, everyone is a "canning" fiend. When I moved to urban northern New Jersey I couldn't find mason jars or pectin to save my life. I asked friends there -- all of whom were big cooks -- and none of them had ever even thought of canning anything. An east coast writer -- whose name I can't remember to save my life -- lived in Bellingham, Washington, for a while and said one of the reasons she had to move away was that she couldn't get used to everyone canning things all the time.

Concord grape pie is delicious! My old recipe books call it "slip skin" pie and I've made it where you cook the grapes gently, then slip out the skins and strain the seeds. Bit of a pain but scrumptious.

My parents drank milk with dinner, except for fancy meals, to the end of their days. My Greek husband's family would think that insane. We have water, always, and usually wine, but sometimes beer if that suits better. Very occasionally lemonade or limeade if it's really hot and it works with the food. Iced tea sometimes for lunch in the summer. Never soda (pop!), although very very occasionally a soda with a bought hamburger or, if we're really indulging, a chocolate shake.

Grew up in farm country in the Pac NW in the US and the first time I had zucchini was about 1960 -- an aunt brought a can of it (Hunts, I think, canned with tomato and onion) to her beach cottage. None of us had ever heard of it and we all thought it was awful. Don't think I ever saw the stuff again until the 1970s, when it became very popular with us hippies...and everyone else! Out of curiosity, I just looked at my 1950 Betty Crocker CB, which is what my mom cooked out of, and there is one recipe for zucchini or summer squash -- the directions are to boil for 30-60 minutes! In contrast, there are 5 recipes for parsnips...

We were in Indiana recently and had the Bier Brewery's Witbier. It was a very hot, muggy day, and the beer was ice cold and the spice and orange without hops made it so refreshing and delicious. It was wonderful.

Books by Edna Lewis and Sylvia of Sylvia's Kitchen are soul food classics. Carolyn Quick Tillery has two good books out as well, A Taste Of Freedom A Cookbook With Recipes And Remembrances From The Hampton Institute and The African-American Heritage Cookbook.

We had oven fried zucchini the other day. Cut zukes in thinnish fingers, tossed in olive oil with salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes, then tossed again with some seasoned bread crumbs. Spread out on a baking tray and baked at 350 for 1/2 hour, turning occasionally. They came out deeply sweet and tender with crunchy crust. I was pleased. Another favorite is from Huntly Dent. Grate zucchini and a bit of carrot. Saute in oil just until softened with a bit of chopped green onion. Season with salt and pepper. Just before serving, stir in a bit of thick cream, crema or sour cream.

Yes, this, mostly. That's the problem I have with a lot of Korean food -- and some Chinese food, too. They tend to like gelatinous textures and I tend to hate gelatinous textures. (Kimchee is still a problem, no matter what the texture.)

Don't like Korean food? What? Bulgogi? You don't like bulgogi? How is it possible for anyone to not like bulgogi? Bulgogi I like. I said "most" not all...

Yes! There is a wonderful bakery in the Japanese food market in Fort Lee, NJ, and they make the most wonderful donuts --- but they fill (some of) them with red bean paste. Blech.

Refried beans? Really? But they are so delicious! For me, it's kimchee. Even the smell of it, when your spouse opens a jar downstairs and you can smell in the upstairs bedroom... Aaacccckkk. Although sad to say, most Korean food fits in that category for me. The hub loves Korean food and when we lived in NJ there were a lot of Korean restaurants nearby. At one place my husband loved -- we were the only non-Koreans in the place and a "special" waiter had to come to our table because he spoke English and the other waiters didn't -- I ordered a soup, figuring that would be "safe". But it turned out to be cold, with slippery noodles and then chunks of raw apple. My husband was happily slurping down all the quivery gelatinous stuff, he loved it, but I had to get up and remove my heaving stomach. Went next door and got a coffee and a bagel with cream cheese from a surly Hispanic guy (most of the bagel joints in northern NJ are run by Hispanics) and felt much better. Meanwhile, the English-speaking Korean waiter thought it was hilarious and comped my husband extra goodies.