Milk: Hitting the Bottle

[maggiethecat]

Growing up I drank a lot of milk -- it was what we kids were offered in my mother's house. This was milk from cows, not beans. (I wonder where all those lactose-intolerant kids were back then? )We got a dram of OJ in the morning, tap water as necessary, and a soft drink as a special treat -- maybe once a quarter. I discovered Fresca and adult beverages at college and my milk intake flattened to about a glass a year, my typical intake for my adult llife. I'd switched to skim, which is the Tab of the Milk Group: no treat.

Of course we always had milk in the house for our daughter, baking and my oatmeal requirement. As a woman in her very very verylate forties, I should have been chugging it for health reasons, but that sweet blueish stuff -- ick!

I grabbed a jug of 2% a few months ago by mistake and decided to taste it. Man! It tasted so good that I wanted to bake cookies to go with it. It's my lunchtime drink of choice these days, I'll grab a glass when I'm feeling hungry and undernourished, one before bed...

Has milk made any other new converts out there?

[srhcb]

GF likes milk, and I use it for cooking and baking, (although I prefer dried milk for baking), but I can't drink it plain.

I don't care for the "mouth-feel".

SB

[Kerry Beal]

I go through a 4 litre bag every 4 days or so in my tea and in baking. Not so often that I drink a glass anymore though.

[Marlene]

My parents made the god awful powdered skim milk. I passed.

I drank milk by the gallon while I was pregnant. I haven't been able to face a glass since. My son tells me he's "outgrown" milk, thank you very much.

Milk goes bad in my house before anyone drinks it now.

[CaliPoutine]

Between my spouse and myself, we go thru a 4L bag or 1 gallon jug a week. Milk is freaking expensive here in Ontario, 4.39 for 4L. I usually pick up a gallon when I go to Michigan, its usually on sale for 2 bucks.

I only drink non-fat. Anything else tastes like butter to me.

Oh and since I'm Jewish( but not Kosher), I never drink milk with animal protein. Only with cereal, dairy meals, or dessert.

[prasantrin]

I love milk, and have always loved it. I can drink it with any kind of meal and be happy. In Canada I drink 1% or 2%, and in Japan I drink regular milk--usually around 3.8%. I love full-fat milk in Japan, especially from the small dairies around Tottori. I don't drink low-fat milk in Japan because it tastes horrible. It reminds me of milk made with skim milk powder.

[ninetofive]

I've always been a milk drinker, and my son is following my footsteps. We get 4 half-gallons of 2% delivered from a local dairy every Friday; by most Wednesday mornings, I have to stop at the store for a half-gallon to get us through till Friday.

Whenever someone makes fun of my milk addiction, I point them to my dairy-loving grandmother, who just turned 99. OK, the daily glass of Guinness might have something to do with it, too.

[GourmetLight$]

Hubby and I have always been milk drinkers, too. We go through 2 gal./week of 2% for just the two of us. I start every morning with a 16oz glass of Chocolate Flavored Ovaltine for some vitamins and chocolate milk fix!

Cheers,

[Anna N]

I drink a fair amount of milk (2%) but it has to be icy, icy cold so I usually fill a glass with ice and then add milk.

[Fat Guy]

Maggie, I too have slowly been reintroducing milk to my diet. Milk wasn't really a food group for me in college, and afterwards we had skim milk in the house almost exclusively for all of my adult life, until we had a kid and he reached milk-drinking age. All the authorities say you shouldn't give skim milk to toddlers, so we started buying whole milk. And because nothing is too good for the precious child, we buy the best milk on offer, which where we shop is either Ronnybrook or Organic Cow, depending on what's on the shelf.

The thing is, he doesn't drink it. He's a water drinker. He'll have maybe two sips of milk, and then ask for "Agua?" (Don't ask me why he prefers Spanish.) So now we always have surplus whole milk around, and as it nears its expiration I use it on my cereal, or as a beverage to accompany cookies or brownies or blondies or whatever.

And I love it. I don't drink very much of it -- the last thing I need is more fat in my diet -- but a couple of glasses a week has brought me a great deal of pleasure.

[snowangel]

Here in the Fahning household, it's milk or water, and almost no juice, except OJ in the AM before the milk.

When I was in college, Steven, even the off-campus livers were required to take one meal per day on campus, and the choice was 2% or water in an agricultural area (read not drinkable).

Now that the oldest is a teen, I've learned that many a heartbreak can be soothed with a mother's touch on the brow, accompanied by a glass of 2% with a couple of spoonfuls of Nestle's Quik stirred in. Skim? If I wanted blue water, I'd just add a drop of food colouring and skip the expense and trouble of buying the skim stuff.

Milk rules.

[KarenSherwood]

As a little kid, I drank milk because I was supposed to. I had a weird bad experience at summer camp....(sour milk, made me spit it was so nasty, I hit a boy by accident, camp counselor wailed on me cuz she thought I'd done it on purpose) and swore off milk for years because of it.

In 10th grade I broke my arm, ended up in an 'airplane cast'...LOTS of plaster. The doc told me if I drank milk I would heal faster. I reduced a 6-8 week 'sentence' to 4 weeks and 5 days. Now, I don't know for a fact that milk helped, but I'm willing to believe.

I kind of slacked off in my 20's, but since then I've had at least 1 glass a day. I prefer 4% but my waistline knows better...for years I drank 2% but now that I'm working on weight loss I've gotten tough and gone down to 1%. I will NOT drink that pale nasty swill known as skim milk. It has no taste whatsoever. My indulgence these days is 2%, but once in a while I swear I'd do bodily harm to others for a glass of the real, creamy stuff. Isn't that what cookies were invented for?

[CaliPoutine]

I drink a fair amount of milk (2%) but it has to be icy, icy cold so I usually fill a glass with ice and then add milk.

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I forgot to mention that I add ice too!! I have since I was a kid. My milk has to be freezing cold as well.

[enurmi]

Funny that this thread should come up right now! I am, at heart, a water drinker. It's the only thing I drink, and I drink a lot of it. (Take a bottle with me in the morning, refill it 3-5 times a day) Usually, the only other thing I drink is tea-- no milk or sugar. However, I made some rich delicious brownies on Friday and when I tasted one, the first thing I thought was "I NEED some milk." It wasn't even a want, I NEEDED milk. So I got out a glass and every day since I've had two cups of cold, frosty skim every night with my brownie. Methinks a new tradition is being formed! (Plus these brownies should freeze perfectly, so really, I shouldn't ever make them again because I am going to gain a lot of weight if I do.)

[lancastermike]

I drink a fair amount of milk (2%) but it has to be icy, icy cold so I usually fill a glass with ice and then add milk.

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I forgot to mention that I add ice too!! I have since I was a kid. My milk has to be freezing cold as well.

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I like mine very cold as well. What I like to do is pour a glass and put it in the freezer while I am making whatever I am going to eat with it. I used to drink whole milk, but now go for 1%. My wife, bless her soul, uses skim milk. I just cannot bring myself to drink that. I need at least a little fat in my milk

[doughgirl]

I use it for baking and cooking, but I just can't bring myself to drink it. The kiddos, however, drink milk once or twice a day (they are mostly water drinkers). I always feel slightly hypocritical saying, "You have to drink all your milk", at dinnertime when I wouldn't touch the stuff with a 10 foot pole.

I used to be addicted to Ovaltine when I was a kid, though. It was the only way my mother could get me to drink milk. I even used to pour it over my cereal!

[Lilija]

We're big on milk here. Milk on cereal, milk with cookies, milk as a snack itself. Soemtimes, in the afternoon when I'm dragging ass, instead of eating something, I'll have a huge glass of icy milk, maybe with some vanilla or chocolate syrup, as a great pick-me-up. I can't do milk with a meal, though, unless it's pancakes. Milk IS a meal for me, heh. We drink 1 or 2% mostly. Whole milk...that stuff is heaven. Sometimes I buy a pint of it, and treat myself with a fresh brownie from the bakery.

I've seen my husband down half a gallon in one sitting, with a fresh pan of brownies, or a box of Cheez-its (a very rare treat). I like milk with salty things, like pretzel rods, as a snack. Very comforting.

[slkinsey]

. . . either Ronnybrook or Organic Cow. . .

Compared to any of the other brands available in the NYC area Ronnybrook is such a quantum leap in quality over the other stuff, it's almost another product entirely. I only wish it were easier to find.

[Malawry]

I drank so much chocolate milk while I was pregnant, I thought my son would come out smelling like cocoa powder.

Ironically, he turned out to be sensitive to dairy in my diet (he nurses), so I had to cut out all cow's milk for several months. I got used to soymilk in my coffee and in my cereal. Now I'm so used to soymilk, I never really returned to the milk habit. I sometimes buy Silk Light Chocolate soymilk as a treat.

[Eden]

I am the living embodiment of those "Got Milk" advertisements - my husband knows not to let me have chocolate unless he's checked that there's enough milk in the house first .

I love milk, and think it's tragically wrong to have chocolate or almost any dessert at home without milk. I'll have it at restaurants as well, but not nearly as often, since so many restaurants either don't have it, or the waiter gives you attitude so now I don't even bother to ask a lot of the time...

We were at a friends house for a lovely dinner with several egulleteers last month and after dinner our host spontaneously brought out a tray with glasses of milk to go the lovely desserts and hand made chocolates we were enjoying - now that's thoughtful!!!

[Carolyn Tillie]

Besides wine, milk is my beverage of choice as I have never purchased sodas in any form. I alone can go through a gallon-and-a-half each week. There are some dishes where even if the bottle of wine is open and being sipped, I prefer a big glass of milk to accompany the meal; pot pies, grilled cheese sandwiches with soup, etc. (Basically, comfort food items.) And any chocolate dessert.

On that note, I will occasionally order a glass of milk in a restaurant if the dessert warrants -- did so at Gary Danko and got an odd look, especially after numerous bottles of wine through the dinner.

I was a firm 2% girl for a long time and have gone back to whole milk. It just tastes so much better.

[srhcb]

Encouraged by this thread, I decided to have a glass of milk tonite with some Girl Scout Shortbread Cookies.

I even chilled a glass in the freezer before filling it with 2%.

I still don't like it.

My dogs did though.

SB (will stick to coffee)

[insomniac]

Apropos this topic, has anyone read of the scientific studies being undertaken for a few years now on the consumption of milk containing beta casein A1 vs beta casein A2. Worth googling to see what the story is, but basically it is being proposed by some scientists that A2 milk (mainly from Guernsey herds) is far more beneficial to health than A1 milk, which may contribute to artheriosclerosis, diabetes and schizophrenia??....studies ongoing.....

[Carlovski]

I go through phases of drinking loads of milk and then not having any for months.

I agree with the rest of you though, it has to be icy icy cold.

I hated milk as a kid because we got forced to drink milk that had been hanging around all morning in the sun at primary school.

I want some milk now - might be frowned upon drinking all the milk out of the communal tea fund though!

[ludja]

...

I agree with the rest of you though, it has to be icy icy cold.

I hated milk as a kid because we got forced to drink milk that had been hanging around all morning in the sun at primary school.

...

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Oh my, I also like my milk to be very cold; the idea of having to drink milk sitting out all morning makes me ill! As kids we had to have milk at each meal.

I drink a glass of milk (ususally full or 2%) each day in addition to using it in other dishes.

I recently tried organic milk for the first time and was truly surprised in the postive difference in taste and perceived richness! I did a side by side with a brand I can't remember right now and also tried Trader Joe's organic milk in comparison to regular supermarket milk. It's probably a whole other topic in and of itself but was this an eye opener for me.