Thanks for the Crepes

I didn't know what this was, so when I Googled, references to verjuice also came up. They both seem to be made of unripe grapes, but I was unable to determine if they are actually the same thing. Anyway, internet sources came up for verjuice.

I made a creamy angel hair pasta with milk, onion and garlic powder, dried parsley, MSG, butter and salt. This is the one I like from a box mix my Pasta Roni with pantry ingredients following their formula but without the weird gums and things which it doesn't need. It came together extra creamy this time because I bought full fat milk this time. I also pan grilled a ground chuck burger. There was supposed to be a spinach salad too, but it became too much trouble on the wheelchair. So a tall glass of V8 subbed in for the veggie component, and spinach tomorrow. Also has a tall glass of slightly chocolate milk and a Vitamin D3 capsule, so I think I'm good to go for a while.

Beer, okra chips, apple, orange, blackberries. There was Alouette cheese, cheddar and pepperoni on Captain's wafers, Waverly , Club or whatever they're called on offer too, but I couldn't bring myself to partake of those. Alouette, Boursin style cheese, while popular, is pretty devoid of any nutrition except calories IMO. I did get to go visit my husband at the nursing home, though, so the company was excellent enough to make up for the rather meager meal.

Two real scrambled jumbo eggs, two slices of flax and grain purchased bread, toasted with butter and a navel orange. Delightful breakfast that took me over and hour to realize on my wheelchair, but I got there eventually.

If you like your fried chicken a little hot and extra crunchy and moist and juicy, like I do, you'll love Popeye's. We had some outlets around here years ago, but they're all gone now. To me, Popeye's is the best fried chicken chain. Also for sides, I used to be able to get corn on the cob and fried okra. Both delicious! I never found it too salty, but I'm a salt aholic. You wouldn't want to eat it every day, but I could definitely do with some Popeye's right now. SO good.

I sort of understand where you're coming from, David. I admit to never having watched her TV shows and only reading her blog. I can use perfect English as well, but the country vernacular has a comforting appeal to me. I like to lapse into it under the right circumstances and it always brings me back to my roots. I have to be in the right company, and many times, that company also knows how to construct perfect English as well, but I just have to say that when I meet people who know the alternative dialect and can relax and speak freely in it, there is an instant connection for those of us who have farming or otherwise relatives for which this is the normal way to communicate. I don't look at it as faked, but rather a relaxed and comfortable way to speak and it draws me in. There really are pockets in rural places where this is the only was people talk, still today. Sorry it irritates a lot of folks, but I kind of like it. It reminds me of my grandparents. With the rigid education system we have now, and more and more urbanization, I think these country dialects are on their way out. Most won't miss them at all, but I will. Wrong or right, it just feels like home to me.

I was so disappointed the first time I ever bought and tasted OM cocktail "Smokies". I thought they were something special because they were significantly more expensive than regular hot dogs and was all fired up about serving them at a party where I was splurging. It turned out that they are nothing more than teeny hot dogs, which I don't care for. My guests enjoyed them, though, and that's good, but I won't buy those again. It was a real letdown for me, but at least I don't have to lust after them anymore. Polska Kielbasa is a sausage I do like pretty well, and that is good on a nice roll. Sorry for the folks that lost that option at Costco. I've read that their hot dogs are crazy cheap, like a loss leader, and perhaps the better quality sausage just didn't fit the budget. But yeah, in my book, kielbasa is a world above a regular hot dog. I really like a hot Italian sausage on a crusty roll with sauteed onions and peppers too. Do they have that at Costcos, or maybe it's too much trouble and expense?

Hi Darienne, I have a big problem with my local and formally accessible Subway outlet. Their quality is just horrible, and I'll never set foot there again, but other Subway stores are so great I've bought stuff that was craveable. It greatly depends on the management of your particular outlet. The reuben sounds good, and I'd try it from a good outlet, if I get a chance. Can you get Daisy brand sour cream in Canada? The ingredients are only cultured cream. No weird ingredients, thickeners or extenders. It's really mainstream around here, widely available, and very good. I don't understand why it doesn't put the other brands out of business. But yeah, like Subway outlets, you really have to warily watch sour cream nowadays ... and many other things.

That sounds like such a fun and interesting experience to me. I would loved to have gone with you! I love Mexican and Southwestern food. One question about the nice board in your second photo under the faucet on the wall. It seems to be a clever way to make more counter space over a sink. Who doesn't need more counter space? That board looks pretty heavy, though, and a sink is critical to kitchen function too. Did you see this in use, and how did that work out?

@gulfporter, my personal preference is to not bake cheesecake in a water bath. I enjoy the slight browning and drier, slightly lighter texture that results from a straight bake. Your cheesecake is more likely to develop cracks with this method, but if food snobs are coming to dinner, I cover those up with a fruit topping.

I made a spinach salad with tomatoes, white onion, chopped boiled egg and crumbled bacon. The dressing was white vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and just a little bit of sugar. This one was raw instead of wilted and I enjoyed it a lot. I like them both ways, but decided it wasn't worth it to stand on one leg and toss in the skillet this time. Then I had cottage cheese (full fat, of course) with fresh blackberries and canned apricots. Canned apricots are better than the fresh ones I can get here in season. I love apricots, but was spoiled by a tree from my childhood in San Diego.

On the no falling thing, yes ma'am in spades! I have blocked the Thanksgiving meal out of my mind for a reason. It was not a turkey and dressing spread, that much I can say with certainty. The "supper" that night was one that is branded into my brain as the worst meal I've probably ever been exposed to. I will not turn stomachs by sharing it, and I couldn't eat most of it. That's the one my brain went without my consent to cost out at about 60 cents. My advice is to avoid being sent to a nursing home like the plague. My poor husband is stuck there and my brief presence has renewed his fantasy that he will be returning home very shortly. He lives in this fantasy world and constantly talks about being able to come home and "help" me. I did watch him walk with his therapist and with the aid of the ballet style barres that run around all the corridors at the nursing home. Maybe 60 feet or so, and quite amazing considering he has only one good arm and one good leg. He just drags the whole dead side of his body around by sheer force of will. He wants to come home to our handicapped unfriendly house so badly. It ain't gonna happen.

Yes, @Kerala. I agree with @liuzhou. I'm not a hunter, but have been the lucky recipient of much venison over the course of my life. Please freeze your bounty. I had a cat named Squeaker at one time that would eat rare venison until he popped if I let him. It will freeze very well for this short period and will be better than if you just kept it in the fridge.

@David Ross, I hate it for you, buddy. I now have a collection of three screws in me too, but no plate. My surgeon compared them to the size of the pen he was writing with. I know you have been through a world of pain with me, and I wish you a speedy and successful recovery.

On the second day after I was allowed food, a hospital employee would come to my room and tell me what the menu was. If you really insisted, she would offer alternatives, but tried to discourage this. I suppose she didn't have time to go through it with all the patients she was responsible for. At the nursing home, the only way I could see to have any choice about what you would eat is to go on an extended hunger strike. One resident said he got a hamburger for almost every "supper" because he would't eat the other stuff on offer. I don't even like milk, but I would have had it at every meal for bone repair if I had a way to influence what I was served. There seems to be no real consideration of preference or health requirements at this nursing home. Randomly, menus for the day would be posted. I began to notice this corresponded with marketing tours given to relatives of prospective residents. There was always a mention of the "always available menu" at the end of each menu. I never saw a copy of this menu, was never offered alternative food, nor did I observe any resident being offered different food, except for the hunger strike guy. Like the "Internet Cafe" I believe the always available menu is a marketing device. The room service meals prepared to order described by @blue_dolphinsound really wonderful. Just the thing a person who is sick or injured and in pain needs to support their morale.

I was only familiar with this product even existing from "M*A*S*H" and my Dad's stories of shipboard food while he was in the Navy. I knew something was wrong with the eggs, but my 87 year old roommate was familiar with them from the WWII era and she said that's what they were. I can only guess they were using them to cut costs. It would certainly be less labor than cracking fresh eggs. I could eat them, because I knew I needed protein to repair my injury, but I hope to never encounter them again.

Thanks everyone for your concern and good wishes. It means a lot to me. We really didn't have to sneak anything in if we weren't on dietary restrictions. My brother brought a few snacks and beer occasionally. We enjoyed the beer in styrofoam cups in the parking lot on the down low, because we would have been in major hot water if found out for that. One night one of the residents had a friend visiting him and they decided to pick up seafood from the restaurant at the State Farmers Market which is close to the nursing home. They asked if I wanted anything, and when I said I had no money with me, they offered to treat. This was the best thing I ate while incarcerated, and is a meal I will remember for the rest of my life. We all shared two huge orders of calabash style popcorn shrimp. These were medium to small North Carolina wild caught shrimp lightly dusted and fried to perfection. When we opened the containers, the meal was still steaming hot! It had been weeks since I had had hot food, and this meal went down like ambrosia. There were also french fries, good coleslaw, iced tea and there was pie for dessert, but I was too full. I think five or six of us ate our fill from this order, and they said it cost about $35. The portions are HUGE at the NC Seafood Restaurant at the farmers market. I will remember this act of kind generosity until the day my brain shuts down. I could have ordered delivery food if I had had any money with me. When the paramedics scraped me off my kitchen floor and put me in the ambulance, I had on a little nightgown, no shoes, and I thought to ask them to grab my windbreaker from the coat closet on the way out the door. I didn't even have shoes with me! Weirdly, they sell junk food, candy and chips at the reception area of the nursing home. Also I was really surprised how unhealthy the food was that was being served for meals. Not a lot of vegetables, lots of fried stuff and carbohydrate heavy. I estimated the food cost of one particularly bad meal I managed to barely choke down at about 60 cents.

Hey y'all! I'm back. I was not able to access the forums in the hospital and then in the nursing home where my husband has been for a little over a year. I got sent home on December 6, but it has taken me this long to catch up on all the great culinary goings on on here. I saved the printed menus from the hospital and made notes of the the meals for the last six days of the stay in the nursing home about the institutional food I was served. Everyone is told that the residents have access to the internet in the "Internet Cafe", and it took me over two weeks to realize this was a propaganda lie, or I would have made notes earlier. I broke my femur at the neck near the hip joint, so I needed some help to survive. I got it and I'm very grateful, but the institutional food I was exposed to was disappointing to downright horrifying for the most part. I thought I'd share some of the delicacies that are served up in my local health care institutions. I fell on November 9 at about 7:00 AM, but tried to muscle through on my own until about 7:00 PM, and finally called for help because I realized I had no choice. I wasn't allowed to eat anything that day to prep for surgery, so meals start at dinner on the next day, after the surgery. Hospital: 11-10-17 Dinner 1 ea herbal salt substitute, black pepper 1 Smart Balance margarine cup (this stuff is horrible) Cottage Cheese and soft fruit 1/2 c green beans (these were cooked from fresh, and not bad, but overcooked) 1 white roll (extremely small about 1 oz) 1 c decaf iced tea 11-11-17 Breakfast 2 salt substitute, 1 pepper 1 Smart Balance slime 1 syrup packet 1/2 c canned Mandarin oranges Cinnamon French Toast 1 slice Skim milk 1 c Decaf Coffee 1 c Lunch 2 SSub, 1 Pep Margarine cup Mayo I packet (not sure what I was supposed to put this on?) Crax Low Sod 5 ea (crackers) Grill Cheese Sandwich LS ChixNdle Soup (no salt and none to correct it: inedible) Whole Baby Carrots 1/2 c Peach Cobbler 1/2 c (in name only, yuck) Decaf Iced Tea 1 c Okay, at this point, a kindly nurse intervened on my behalf on several points, but the one that applies here, is that someone paid attention to the fact that my blood samples were actually running low on sodium, so I was allowed salt from this point on. Thank you Sweet Jesus! Some of you have said in the Chef Interview thread that you think your most important ingredient is salt. Amen to that. That chicken soup above would have been very good with just a little salt. Without it, I couldn't even eat it. Dinner 2 Sugar, Salt, Pepper 1 ea Margarine Cup 1 ea (unfortunately this was still the same slime) Cranberry Spinach Salad w/RaspVin (dried cranberries and this was actually pretty good, except the dressing could have used a little oil) Turkey Sliced 3 oz (good real sliced turkey breast) Chicken Gravy 1 oz (okay but stingy) Dressing 1/2 c (I love dressing, but it needs onion and celery and parsley. This was just bread.) Caribbean Vegs (Don't remember what this was, but it was edible.) White roll (again about 1 oz) Pumpkin Pie Decaf Iced Tea 1 c This meal was actually pretty good after putting the salt and pepper on the bland dressing, and what I needed after a two day fast and horrible health food the next day. 11-12-17 Breakfast 2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea Margarine Cup 1 ea Jelly Packet 1 ea Banana Whole 1 ea Cheerios 1 small box Egg, Scrambled 1 egg Biscuit 1 ea (tiniest biscuits I've ever seen about 1 oz, not too bad though) Bacon 2 slices Skim Milk 8 oz Decaf Coffee 8 oz Lunch 2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea Margarine Cup 1 ea Tossed Salad/French Dressing Chocolate Ice Cream 1/2 c Beef Stew 6 oz (This was mostly potatoes, which tasted canned. Left most of the potatoes.) Lima Beans 1/3 c Wheat Roll 1 ea (again teeny, about 1 oz) Decaf Iced Tea 1c Dinner 2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea Tartar Sauce 1 pkt (This had no mayo base. Supposed to be healthy? but inedible.) Margarine Cup 1 ea Spinach Salad/Rasp Dressing Chocolate Ice Cream 4 oz Red Skin Potatoes 4 oz Green beans 1/2 c (canned and horrible, not eaten) Wheat roll (cute, but tiny ) Cod, Lemon Pepper (cooked to rubber) Decaf Iced Tea 1 c 11-13-17 Breakfast 2 Sug-Salt-Pep 1 ea Margarine Cup 2 ea Jelly Packet 1 ea Peach Slices 1/2 c (canned) Grits 1/2 c (Someone needs to teach them how to cook grits that aren't lumpy!) Biscuit 1 (teeny) Egg, Scrambled 1 ea Bacon 2 slices Skim Milk 8 oz Regular Coffee 8 oz Good thing I had a pretty decent breakfast that day, because I was kicked out to the nursing home before lunch. By the time I got settled into my room at the nursing home everyone else was being served dinner. They scared me up a tray. It was a "hamburger" with waffle fries. The meat patty was one of those gray meat things that might have had some actual beef in it before it was processed and frozen to oblivion. The waffle fries were stone cold. Yum. To top it all off, there were onions on these "burgers" and I hadn't had a shower since the accident. I wondered if that pungent smell might have had something to do with me. It took me a while to figure out that it didn't. I was hungry after skipping lunch, but couldn't eat the gray meat. I kept being lied to and told that I'd have internet access, so I didn't start making notes of the nursing home meals until I finally faced the fact that the "Internet Cafe" is for show as a selling point for relatives. So my notes on the food don't start until the first of December. 12-1-17 "Supper" 3/4 c salad (iceberg, little red cabbage, tiny amt. carrot w good Caesar Dressing) 2/3 c beef and macaroni (stone cold, no onion, in tomato sauce, but very dry) 2 T mashed canned fruit cocktail with a very few whole dices 12-2-17 Breakfast Powdered scrambled eggs equivalent to one egg Pork Sausage 1/2 c grits (not quite as lumpy as the hospital's but watery on top of the smaller lumps ) Biscuit (the biscuits here are more normal sized, about 2 oz) Land O' Lakes Spread packet (still not the butter I use at home, but better than the hospital slime) Strawberry Jam packet Orange Juice 5 oz Coffee 8 oz Milk 6 oz Lunch "BBQ" Chix Thigh (Can't remember why I put BBQ in quotes, but trust me, I had a reason.) Scalloped potatoes 1/3 c (dry, no onion) Collard greens (I despise collards, but was so starved for food and especially greens, I ate them.) Corn Bread Land o' Lakes Sweet Tea 8 oz Water 8 oz Supper Boiled Unseasoned Carrots 1/4 c Tuna Sandwich (mayo only, no onion, dry, not spread to edges, on buttered white bread, grilled. This was horrific and mostly inedible.) 1/3 c canned diced pears, peaches, 2 slivers pineapple 12-3-17 Breakfast Powdered egg equivalent of 1 egg, scrambled 2 strips bacon dried, stale inedible bread 1 slice (I think this was supposed to be toast, but it was not brown, only dried out.) Land o' Lakes spread Mixed fruit jelly packet OJ 5 oz milk 7 oz coffee 8 oz Lunch Ham (not bad, like a couple slices off a spiral sliced) 3 oz Dressing (on onion or any other seasoning - Stove Top is infinitely better) 1/3 c Cauliflower, boiled unseasoned 1/2 c (couldn't eat) Corn Bread Land o' Lakes Sheet Cake (dry and crumbly) 1-1/2" x 2" square Supper Salad (wilted iceberg, styromates, dressing) 1/4 c Uncle Ben's rice w/ground beef? in tomato sauce 1-1/4 c (pretty sure name brand rice isn't in the budget, but this was converted rice) 3 sliced canned peaches Sweet Tea Water This meal was soaked by half the water that slopped over the tray and wasn't appealing to begin with. I didn't even taste this meal. 12-4-17 Breakfast Powdered scrambled egg 2 strips bacon ramekin lumpy grits Biscuit 2 pks Land o' Lakes no jelly Coffee Milk Apple Juice Lunch Chix fried steak 3 oz (Sysco?) Fried Okra breaded 1/2 c (this was actually good) ramekin black eye peas Cornbread Land o' Lakes Vanilla pudding 1/3 c Supper 3" cheese steak sandwich (horrible and not enough for a child) Tater Tots Styromates 2 slices sheet cake w/powdered sugar topping 12-5-17 Breakfast Pancake (This was really, really good! Better than mine.) Powdered scrambled egg Pork Sausage ramekin grits Land o' Lakes spread Coffee Apple juice Milk Lunch 3 oz pulled pork (cooked dry, shredded in a food processor and moistened w/ vinegar. Abomination in this BBQ state!) corn kernels, canned 1/2 c scalloped potatoes w/a little dried chives (very dry) cornbread NO butter substitute! They forget to put things on the tray all the time. Savvy residents horde salt and pepper. sheet cake, small square topped w/powdered sugar (dry and crumbly, as usual) sweet tea water Supper Fried popcorn shrimp 3 oz (this wasn't bad but would have been better if it wasn't stone cold) 3 T soupy coleslaw canned tomatoes with a few small red beans and a few crunchy onions (I think this was supposed to be soup?) 1/3 c vanilla pudding 12-6-17 Breakfast Powdered scrambled egg Ham steak 1/8" thick 2 oz Biscuit (good) ramekin oatmeal (uneaten) cranberry juice cocktail coffee milk It was weird how a few really good things appeared occasionally in the seemingly endless litany of slop. The Caesar dressing and the pancake were better than I can make. I complain, but given how hard it is now to cook the simplest things on a wheelchair, I have to appreciate that at least someone was there to help me when I couldn't help myself. I'm not used to that, and I have found it quite humbling. The biggest problem with wheelchair cooking is that without both hands free, you are essentially immobile. I can't carry anything, and if even one hand gets dirty, I can't touch the chair with it. That being said, I did manage to make a 7 layer salad and a ground chuck "steak" for dinner tonight. I make scrambled eggs (real ones, YAH!) and have a good breakfast too. It just takes approximately forever. You have to take one item at a time, move it within the range of your arms, wheel toward the next landing pad for the item, but not out of reach of it, and transfer it little by little until you get it to your destination in the kitchen. I'm thankful this condition is temporary and also that I only lost two pounds in the nursing home. I thought it would be more, but I guess the limited activity contributed to weight conservation in spite of really bad food. I don't have that much weight I can afford to lose, but with my injury, excess weight would make things much, much worse, so two pounds isn't that bad at all. One thing I observed in the nursing home was that my fellow residents were also frequently appalled by the food, to the point of downright anger at times. They were willing to complain, but when I wanted to talk about ways to improve it, adding sauteed onion to a dish, for example, I completely lost them and was met with glassy stares. It's good to be back among people who are interested in talking about ways to improve the way we cook and eat. Endlessly, I hope.

I enjoyed the movie "Canela" 2012 on one of our Spanish language locally broadcast channels tonight. There are many scenes with lovely ingredients, food prep and meals being served, so you may enjoy it, if you can find it. I did, and my Spanish isn't good enough to keep up with all the dialogue. I tried to find it with subtitles, but failed. If anyone runs across it with English translation, please share it with us.

Welcome, Mr. Hog! There is definitely a lot of interest in curing meats around here, and your input will be greatly appreciated. I hope to hear more from you soon. I'm not one of the knowledgeable people about charcuterie or sophisticated cheeses for that matter, but there are many members here who are and we would all love to hear more from you.

Hi Jonathan! Good to have you here. We would love to hear about what you love to eat and cook. It would be great to have a member from Dubai. You can start your own topic in the Welcome New Members Thread, you know. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to hear about your culinary life in Dubai.

Okay, who stole the drool icon?

Yep! After @robirdstx's post, I was compelled, compelled, I tell you, to go and look at the menu and every single photo on Yelp for Floyd's. Some raw oysters and fried shrimp with fried okra for me, please.

That is why I make one single serving in a large glass petal bowl for seven layer salad. It takes quite a bit of mixing to get the veggies thoroughly mixed up with the mayo, tomato juices, egg yolk, salt and pepper dressing. Then, because I live alone now, I don't dirty another dish, but proceed to eat it right out of the over-sized bowl, Jethro Bodine-style. And yes, @blue_dolphin, I do almost every chopping or slicing chore with a razor sharp boning knife. The blade is 5" long, but the actual cutting business is only about 4" long. It also has a very thin blade. I find it most adept at almost every task except very large squashes or watermelon. I don't recall ever cutting myself with this knife in many years. Larger knives seem less precise, more unwieldy to me. In my experience, they are also more likely to bite the hand that is trying to feed me. People swear by their chef's knives design, including, chefs, but to me they seem like blunt instruments compared to my little scalpel-like beloved boning knife. And wow! I am disliking the persistent trend for kale. I used to grow kale. I loved it, but I picked it young. I grew it in a flower bed along a brick wall in fall after the season for flowers was over. It's a cool weather crop in TN, and would very frequently start producing again in spring before it was time to put in the garden and flowers. This was good stuff, and I had enough to share with neighbors out of maybe a 30' x 3' bed. This young stuff was very fine boiled or sauteed. This stuff you can buy in the grocery store now is so overgrown it is ridiculous. I don't see how anyone can eat it, much less having it trend into the restaurants. The only use I can find for the grocery store variety is to shake and massage it in a produce bag with a little olive oil until every tough leaf is coated, then spread it out onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with a lot less salt and pepper than seems intuitive. Of course, you need to strip out the even tougher stems and discard. If you roast it in the oven, it becomes kale chips which can be very delicious, when done just right, but that is the only use I have found for what I can buy nowadays.

Kim, Here's a link to where Kay shares the recipe for her roll dough and variations for the ham and cheese and cinnamon rolls. I've made the rolls, and they are good! I still have some in the freezer for later. I made fried clam rolls out a couple the other night for dinner. @kayb, When rolling up the ham rolls, do you start on the long or short side of your rectangle?