Unexpected Food Gifts

heidih · September 28, 2019

1 hour ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Okay. Who hung the invisible 'This Girl can't say no to huge amounts of things she can't use' sign around my neck?

Pulled up at the drive through car wash in the big smoke today, a man approached my window as I went to tap and go. I lowered it a gap, expecting to be told it was out of order, and he said 'Do you like Mandarins?'

Now what?!?

In my experience they do not keep so well. I would juice and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then whenever you need a jolt- pull one out for a dish. Alternatively you can do what many Asian countries do - gather a crowd and enjoy. Like a party featuring fruit - quite common.

TicTac · September 28, 2019

Save the skins as well.

I like to shave the pith off and dry the skins.

Fantastic in many Asian dishes and it makes excellent herbal tea too

Margaret Pilgrim · September 28, 2019

We were in Bayonne at a ham tasting. There were all kinds of French, Basque and Spanish sausages as well. Husband bought some Iberico for a picnic lunch, and I was fascinated by the boudin noir. I asked the seller if I could buy half a sausage. He smiled broadly and picked up a whole one, wrapped it carefully and handed it to me, saying, "Un cadeau". I guess he was not used to crazy American women who were up for blood sausage.

And, yes, I was nibbling on it raw. But I survived that as well as many other misguided samplings over the years.

kayb · September 28, 2019

I should send you my grandson. He'll eat a half-dozen in a day.

**Smithy** · September 29, 2019

8 hours ago, TicTac said:

Save the skins as well.

I like to shave the pith off and dry the skins.

Fantastic in many Asian dishes and it makes excellent herbal tea too

Mandarin peels scraped lightly, finely chopped, and dried make a very nice addition to breakfast cereal (oatmeal, for those who can stand it, or dry cereal) or fruit salads or vegetable salads. Heck, I've thrown them into pilaf to great effect. Once dried, those small chunks of peel last a long time if they're stored in a dry environment.

liuzhou · September 29, 2019

9 hours ago, TicTac said:

Fantastic in many Asian dishes

Indeed.

I always dry the skin of any that pass my way, but even if I run out, every market and supermarket sells dried Mandarin peel.

CantCookStillTry · October 1, 2019

Thank you for all the advice! I have carefully prepared the fruit (stored 4 in my fruit bowl) annnnnd... 1 bag was sent with the MIL and the rest to the mine with my hub...

I wish I had half the patience and dedication you all do!

CatIsHungry · October 29, 2019

I do A LOT of baking / cooking when I am able and I end up gifting quite a bit of it ... sometimes people will gift me with “homemade” cookies etc ... there is one flavor in particular I have *never* enjoyed - Red Velvet - so what do they gift me? 😂 ... Not to mention I can’t eat that stuff - AT ALL ... Same with a co-worker if Mr Cat - bless him - he spent days making oxtail soup - sent some home to give me - can’t eat that either 😠😔 ... brought back wonderful memories of my mom (so that’s what i told him in my thank you note (the memories part - not the couldn’t eat it part) ...

Has happened several times ... 😔

. Gravious gracious gracious ... Mr Cat sure enjoys it all, though 😁

CantCookStillTry · November 8, 2019

Another fresh bounty left at work for me today. I'm a little frightened of the cucumber and have no idea what the peppers are but will be fun finding out. I don't think they are spicy.

**Smithy** · November 8, 2019

That's some beautiful-looking rainbow chard, too! I used to love buying that and building it into pasta dishes, until my husband finally told me he didn't like the flavor of chard.

TicTac · November 8, 2019

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

That's some beautiful-looking rainbow chard, too! I used to love buying that and building it into pasta dishes, until my husband finally told me he didn't like the flavor of chard.

Smoked meats of any kind do really well to mask (and elevate) the flavour of chard. I too am not fond of it on its own, but a slow braise with a hunk of smoked turkey or pork and some stock makes it excellent (come to think of it, that prep would make shoe leather taste good! :laugh: )

**Smithy** · November 8, 2019

2 hours ago, TicTac said:

Smoked meats of any kind do really well to mask (and elevate) the flavour of chard. I too am not fond of it on its own, but a slow braise with a hunk of smoked turkey or pork and some stock makes it excellent (come to think of it, that prep would make shoe leather taste good! )

I agree that the smoked meat is a nice addition. As I recall, the pasta dishes always included some sort of smoked sausage or bacon. It may have improved the flavor, but not enough for him to really like it!

JoNorvelleWalker · November 9, 2019

13 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Another fresh bounty left at work for me today. I'm a little frightened of the cucumber and have no idea what the peppers are but will be fun finding out. I don't think they are spicy.

Does your country have venomous cucumbers?

CantCookStillTry · November 9, 2019

Rainbow chard thank you! Gives me something to google for recipes. We got a far as 'Really Pretty Silverbeet' 😂.

Hope the cucumber isn't poisonous... was a little worried someone would grab it out the bag behind me and use it as a Billy Club.

CantCookStillTry · November 15, 2019

I think I might have to move my posts to the "Unasked for but no Longer Suprising FoodGift Thread".

I also think I'm going to have to convince my husband I'm not up to no good with a Greengrocer.

liuzhou · December 4, 2019

This arrived at my door about 30 minutes ago. From a friend.

It is a form of cured pork known as 晒兰 (shài lán) only made in one small, remote town in Western Hunan province. I described it in more detail here.

3 kg of the stuff to play with!

liuzhou · June 21, 2020

Baise (百色) is a small city in the far west of Guangxi on the border with Yunnan. The area is famous for two things. It was here that, in 1929, Deng Xiao Ping led the Baise Uprising, a key event in the early stages of the Chinese Communist revolution.

More important is that the area is famous for its excellent mangoes. I have a couple of friends who live there. They don't know each other. This afternoon, I was doing not very much at home and my cell phone rang.

"Delivery for you! I'm leaving it with the gatekeeper. Please collect it."

I'm an obedient sort of chap, so down I went. Sure enough, a box of Baise mangoes from one of my friends. The delivery note told me which friend was responsible.

They need a couple of days to fully ripen, but thanks 井荣。

Edited June 21, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

heidih · June 21, 2020

@liuzhou Somebody cue up Mr. Rogers. I usually only see them on what we call Asian pears. They are not soft so maybe the padding is a tribute to their "specialness"

liuzhou · July 1, 2020

This lot just arrived for me. I didn't order them, but they were clearly addressed to me. I can't think who could have sent them.

4 x 250g packs of candied macadamia nuts

2 x 250g packs of salted cashew nuts

A mystery.

Edited July 1, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

CantCookStillTry · July 8, 2020

When life gives you Lemons.... WTF do you do ? 🤣

Work contact asked me if I used Lemons. I said yeah sure, apparently the citrus farm he works at can't sell what they have 😔, and he'd grab me some of the produce set to be composted.

I expected maybe 6 shitty lemons if any, him bringing me anything would be a extra 240km drive for him.

20kg later.... this is a small sample and they are the size of my hand🤦‍♀️.

heidih · July 8, 2020

3 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

When life gives you Lemons.... WTF do you do ? 🤣

Work contact asked me if I used Lemons. I said yeah sure, apparently the citrus farm he works at can't sell what they have 😔, and he'd grab me some of the produce set to be composted.

I expected maybe 6 shitty lemons if any, him bringing me anything would be a extra 240km drive for him.

20kg later.... this is a small sample and they are the size of my hand🤦‍♀️.

Ohh I am jealous! My stepmother has on occasion gifted those big juicy ones from the desert (Palm Springs). If too many to use I pile them up in pretty bowls as uplifting house art. Even the bedroom. I've done lemon marmalade. Have not done curd , I've also squeezed juice and saved in ice cube trays and then into plastic bags. I back off on vinegar in general and use wherever acid seems needed. Have fun

Edited July 8, 2020 by heidih (log)

Katie Meadow · July 8, 2020

Santa Rosa plums from a neighbor's tree. I was going to just eat them as that's one of my favorite stone fruits, but by the second day it was clear I needed to use them at once. I was thinking of a simple sweet plum sauce, but I forget that the sauce would thicken up when cooled. What I ended up with was fabulous jam. Just plums, seeded and roughly chopped but not skinned, a splash of water, modest amount of sugar and a half a small vanilla bean, scraped. So far we are spreading it on levain toast and stirring it into Siggi's yogurt. The jam was tart, and that's how I like it.