SylviaLovegren

No interest in vegan food, whatsoever, but love the name.

Where do you store all that? Do you have a giant fridge and freezer?

The dim sum place we used to go to in Seattle always had the Hong Kong style egg tarts and then a steamed sponge cake that I found very odd but addicting. But they were eaten along with the pork bao and shrimp dumplings, not as a separate or later course. There was also a taro thing, that was very sticky but I recall it having a dark, savory meat dab inside, not sweet.

I'm sure it's totally cultural-ist of me but Forest Frog Oviduct & Taro Sweet just doesn't... I'll take chocolate mousse for a thousand, Alex, thanks very much.

When I was a kid, my parents lived in pea-picking country and they always insisted on getting fresh picked peas but the smaller, the better. Sweeter and tenderer. In the City, even the farmer's market peas are too old and too big for me. I stick with the baby frozen peas.

A wonderful description and the house sounds like just the kind of place you want to be. The tablecloth with the pears and cherries? I have one, too, also found out thrifting somewhere long ago!

Ours in Toronto used to keep it out in a big tub, but now you have to ask and they dole it out in mini paper cups.

Our son's girlfriend hates the texture of tomatoes, cooked or fresh. She says they "feel like tongues"! She'll eat them happily if they are chopped finely or pureed.

Congrats PanCan! And RWood, that Maleficent is magnificent!

It would be fun to try the experiment -- but I love sweet sweet sweet angel food. "Too sweet" is not something you'll hear outta my mouth very often.

If you consistently use the same measuring cups and the same flour and are an experienced cook, good results are not only possible but likely. I can look back to Grandma Nora's angel cake, Great Aunt Edna's sour cream cake, Aunt Molly's chocolate fudge cake, Aunt Beki's lemon sponge cake and my mother's impossibly light biscuits and pie pastry. None of them would have known what to do with scales in the kitchen and Nora and Edna probably only had a few battered old cups to measure anything with, but their cakes were famous among friends and family. Oh, for a slice of Nora's angel food with the pink icing... Sigh.

Baking is fun! But tricky. You must follow recipe directions exactly and measure exactly. Start easy! What kinds of things do you want to bake?

Diane Kochilas, one of my favorite Greek cooks, says "several hours" or overnight.

Could you make your own Mounds bars? Yum.

What are Yum-Yums? And ditto on Costco dogs -- $1.50 for a huge dog, with sauerkraut and mustard, with a soft drink. Fun lunch!

Lots of wines get sort of flat and blah tasting when they've been opened for more than a day. Very few get that weird bitter metallic thing that my rose did or that the OP describes. Maybe that flavor was underneath all along and just came out when the "good" flavors oxidized, but I'd be curious to know if that's actually the case or if there is another chemical reaction going on.

I had a refrigerated 3-day-opened French rose turn bitter on me the other day. Was quite surprised. No idea why that happens.

The only place I actually SAW baby sausages with grape jelly sauce, rather than reading about it, was at a party in Manhattan in the 1980s. (Sausage with grape jelly was the most edible selection available at that party, the other stuff was not only worse esthetically but looked as though it had been involved in a road accident.) As for hot dogs, NEVER ketchup. Must have mustard. Preferably cheap yellow mustard, but higher quality mustards will do if the only alternative. Hot dogs may also be adorned with relish or sauerkraut or even both. My MIL was a toy designer in the 80s and 90s and she designed the cutest toy food but I was always mad at her for having mustard AND ketchup on the toy hotdog.

I know, right? But the kid liked it...just not if some of the ketchup got on the plate near the pizza!

My son's best friend in grade school was an incredibly picky eater. Both of his parents were very good cooks and they always had amazing food around, everything fresh and beautiful and beautifully cooked. The kid, Luke, would eat almost nothing, he especially hated fruits and vegetables. He once came to our house and I knew two things he WOULD eat were hot dogs and pizza (much to his parents' dismay). So we had hot dogs and pizza, which Luke was enjoying....until a drop of ketchup from his hot dog fell on the plate next to his piece of pizza. He was so disgusted by this that he did not eat anything the whole rest of the time he was at our house (and he spent the night). I felt terrible that he wouldn't eat but he wasn't worried about it, just drank his water (he hated fruit juice, milk, and soda pop) and said he was fine. Now, Luke's all grown up and eats a fairly adventurous diet, although he still won't drink juice or milk. My father loved most fresh fruits and vegetables and proteins, but he loathed rice and pasta, and anything that was sour or bitter. And garlic. (He thought people were pretending to be sophisticated if they "claimed" they liked olives or vinegar.) Whenever he was away, my mom would feast on spaghetti with other verboten foods. She was a good cook but I know she would have loved to expand her repertoire -- but she practiced "exotic" things on her bridge club get-togethers. Unless someone's being an annoying arse, I figure their food dislikes and phobias are sincere. Yes, sure, if they were in a prison camp or a desert island, they might be grateful to eat roasted larva, but my kitchen/dining room isn't supposed to feel like a prison camp (I hope!). I have no problem accomodating people's food preferences, even if it's sometimes difficult or even irritating.

Hello, back! Where in the world are you and what are your interests?

Your brain polar opposite my brain!

Old fashioned cook books from the 1930-1960s have suggestions for "oven meals", where everything is cooked using the same heat. I did that last night -- we had meatloaf, roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes and cherry cake, all cooked at the same time. We also unplug most appliances -- microwave, coffee maker, radio, etc. -- that we're not using that have ready lights, only plug them in when they're wanted. Since we started doing that, our electric/Hydro bills are about $8/month lower. Don't let the water run -- especially the hot -- and try to reuse water as much as possible (I think the latter is a holdover from my West Coast days). I also fill a container for water for coffee in the morning the night before, so I don't have to run water to flush the pipes in the morning.

My niece's niece, who is 2, contracted e-coli and very nearly died. She was 2 weeks in the hospital and will probably have damaged kidneys for life. Now, her neighbor, who is 1, is in the hospital with the same infection -- they thought he wasn't going to make it because his kidneys were shutting down but they were not able to get the dialysis shunt inserted. Fortunately, the 3rd surgical try yesterday was a success, so it looks like little Bennett has a chance but he, too, will very likely have damaged kidneys for life. I am very much against using antibacterials and over using antibiotics. I am very much for washing, cleaning and using good sanitation in food and water handling.

That is totally disgusting. Things like this only encourage my determination to eat only animals that have been raised without torture. Expensive and as a consequence we eat less meat. I will refrain from a lengthy disquisition on socializing the costs and privatizing the profits that is at the heart of most agribusiness today.