Where Everybody Knows You're Numb

Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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BoxDog wrote:

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Apparently briskets are going for something like 12 bucks or so and Irish soda breads for around 8. then theres potatos cabbage and carrots to think of. And all the mess. Not a meal for one.

 

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I'll be RIGHT OVER!

 

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 WAIT! Pick up the malt vinegar!

Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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BoxDog wrote:

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 In two days? Erin Go Bragh! 

"Go socair leaf. Bean ag smaoineamh."

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Was my thought too!  
Nice touch with the green font-- bet you thought we wouldn't notice. LOL. Made me smile.

 

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Smiling is much healthier than twittering. Though I've twittered me up som' interesting womoen. Maybe that wasn't twitter, maybe it was one or more of the FIFTY or so other "social networking" sites I've perused this past week.  I got out this after/evening with the family and Irish talked for a while over a good birthday meal. Apparently briskets are going for something like 12 bucks or so and Irish soda breads for around 8. then theres potatoes cabbage and carrots to think of. And all the mess. Not a meal for one.

Translation: Quiet Please; Woman thinking. ;)

PPS, we notice everything!

nesea wrote:

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BoxDog wrote:

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Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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Psych Lit wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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I have never tasted a mango. I wouldn't know how to pick a good one in the grocery.  Does it taste like guava? If so, I'll have to think about it.  I'll try a apple salad next time with the fish. Gator

mango chutney is good. mangos alone? eh.. the texture is lacking or something. it tastes sort of like a peach but not quite. i find them too sweet to eat unless mixed with other things.

 

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Yeah, sorta like a peach with a zesty zip, I'd say.

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I have a friend with not only huge pink grapefruit, lemon and tangerine trees but also mangos and avocados. I love mangos on their own, they're just really, really sticky and messy. One of my favorite summer dishes is a chilled mango shrimp salsa. It stays nice a couple of days in the fridge and can be tossed with cilantro, salad greens and red onions fast enough. Her trees yield a couple hundred each year of both the mangos and the avocados. THAT'S my definition of a friend with benefits.

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Love mango salsa, except the cilantro. To quote Owl in a previous post .. I hate, hate  ... HATE IT ................... (insert emoticon of Tom Hanks in "Big" scraping caviar off his tongue - here) ::ack::

sooooooo, I add a little mint or maybe some basil instead. I love watermelon salsa, quick and easy, cool and refreshing, without any of the cooking required for a chutney.

Yesterday I cooked my first corned beef, which was amazingly easy and came out really really good. I don't know how it escaped me all these years, but it's one of those things I've just never picked up before. I'll definitely have it again.

 

-- Edited by nesea on Sunday 15th of March 2009 03:18:25 PM

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 In two days? Erin Go Bragh! 

"Go socair leaf. Bean ag smaoineamh."

Anyway, he had a HUGE avocado tree which ... I don't know how old it was, but OLD, and I happened to be there when the thing was just top heavy with avocados. Was truly a thing of beauty... <sigh>  I enjoy watching people from colder climates come to Arizona for the first time, and flip out at the citrus trees laden with fruit. I guess I was probably like that with that avocado tree...

-- Edited by Nightowlhoot3 on Sunday 15th of March 2009 11:00:35 AM

 

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ah....i have an avacado tree...i got him when he was 2 years old and just about 2 feet tall...took about 7 more years to get my first avacado...now that he is the ripe old age of 12, lol, i get lots and lots of avacados....i can make a killer guacamole!!  YUM!!!

BoxDog wrote:

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Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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It's just too hot here for avacado trees -- and believe me, I've looked into it. Oh, if you spend a ton of time and money on 'em you can get 'em to grow, and stay alive, but not to bear fruit. Heads up, btw: they're going to be a LOT more expensive in the stores this year ...

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I won't think twice about shooting her and getting a new friend if she even THINKS about charging for the produce. I mean, if I were brash and confrontational that way, you know?

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 I'll just hold a good thought for laurel wilt and sun blotch to steer clear of her property, and you, the avacados, and she should all be in good shape.

California's really hurting this year, though, and that ain't good. 

Several years ago I was in LA on business, and stayed with a pal who did the special effects for Tales From The Crypt, or something like that. Anyway, he had a HUGE avocado tree which ... I don't know how old it was, but OLD, and I happened to be there when the thing was just top heavy with avocados. Was truly a thing of beauty... <sigh>  I enjoy watching people from colder climates come to Arizona for the first time, and flip out at the citrus trees laden with fruit. I guess I was probably like that with that avocado tree...

We do "ok" here as far a trees go, I suppose, but lilac trees here will NEVER smell the way they do in the mid-West, and it's just foolhardy to think about planting something like an apple tree.

I actually LOVE the climate of LA -- just ... not LA. :) If I were forced to live there (ain't gonna happen) I'd be a gardening fool.  

Meanwhile, I'm just gonna wait a couple of years (like ten or twenty, LOL) and see if my pygmy date palm bears fruit. Probably won't, but again, sometimes the anticipation is as much, if not more fun than the realization. I don't even know if it's a male or female, at this point, so, eh? I like it anyway. In theory, they get to be like 15' tall, and the females DO bear fruit: 







 but mine has a ways to go before it's there.







There IS a date palm across the alley from me, (it's the one in the center of the photo -- the other two palm trees are each a different kind)





but those things require professionals to trim them too regularly, and that again is just money I'm not willing to get committed to on an ongoing basis. Even so, I get a little envious as I look out my office window at the birds way up there in that tall tree, dining on those yummy dates ... I once rented a house in the middle of what was once a date groove, and it can be sorta messy, if you don't pick 'em, which can be a dangerous feat.

Dang ... now, I'm jonesin' for some dates!

BoxDog wrote:

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Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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Psych Lit wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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I have never tasted a mango. I wouldn't know how to pick a good one in the grocery.  Does it taste like guava? If so, I'll have to think about it.  I'll try a apple salad next time with the fish. Gator

mango chutney is good. mangos alone? eh.. the texture is lacking or something. it tastes sort of like a peach but not quite. i find them too sweet to eat unless mixed with other things.

 

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Yeah, sorta like a peach with a zesty zip, I'd say.

If you've never tried one, you really must. They're an amazing fruit from lots of angles -- LOADED with beta carotene, and all sorts other good for you things, but also seeped in romantic folklore going back to something like 4000 BC. Plus, they're just sexy as hell. :)) There are over a thousand varieties, and people tend to like them at different stages of ripeness. I've seen cooking shows where someone's cutting them up, and they look downright dry, which ... isn't ripe in my head, but oh well. I usually try to get one that's soft to the touch when you push on it, but not mushy ... I guess I sort of shop for them the same way I do avocados, really, if that makes a connection with you.   

I just googled it, and found this article you might enjoy ... and be sure to check out the nutritional value thing on this page.

 

Vegetarians in Paradise/Mango History, Mango Nutrition, Mango Recipe/Mango Folklore

And no, although they're typically right next to the guavas in the grocery store, their taste is completely different.

When I have the money to splurge (which means can afford to buy a mango and dilute it with other ingredients, rather than savoring it by its self) I'll sometimes make a mango salsa, which is pretty delish. Haven't in a long time, though, and I couldn't, off the top of my head, give you a recipe if my life depended upon it right now.

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I have a friend with not only huge pink grapefruit, lemon and tangerine trees but also mangos and avocados. I love mangos on their own, they're just really, really sticky and messy. One of my favorite summer dishes is a chilled mango shrimp salsa. It stays nice a couple of days in the fridge and can be tossed with cilantro, salad greens and red onions fast enough. Her trees yield a couple hundred each year of both the mangos and the avocados. THAT'S my definition of a friend with benefits.

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I've been seriously thinking about a tangelo tree for a long time. Grew up with the grapefruit trees in the front yard (surprisingly common here in the Valley), and they're nice too.  Again, the massive amounts of water thing ... and the running out in the dead of night to cover the citrus because a freeze is coming ... I dunno.

Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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Psych Lit wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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I have never tasted a mango. I wouldn't know how to pick a good one in the grocery.  Does it taste like guava? If so, I'll have to think about it.  I'll try a apple salad next time with the fish. Gator

mango chutney is good. mangos alone? eh.. the texture is lacking or something. it tastes sort of like a peach but not quite. i find them too sweet to eat unless mixed with other things.

 

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Yeah, sorta like a peach with a zesty zip, I'd say.

If you've never tried one, you really must. They're an amazing fruit from lots of angles -- LOADED with beta carotene, and all sorts other good for you things, but also seeped in romantic folklore going back to something like 4000 BC. Plus, they're just sexy as hell. :)) There are over a thousand varieties, and people tend to like them at different stages of ripeness. I've seen cooking shows where someone's cutting them up, and they look downright dry, which ... isn't ripe in my head, but oh well. I usually try to get one that's soft to the touch when you push on it, but not mushy ... I guess I sort of shop for them the same way I do avocados, really, if that makes a connection with you.

I just googled it, and found this article you might enjoy ... and be sure to check out the nutritional value thing on this page.

 

Vegetarians in Paradise/Mango History, Mango Nutrition, Mango Recipe/Mango Folklore

And no, although they're typically right next to the guavas in the grocery store, their taste is completely different.

When I have the money to splurge (which means can afford to buy a mango and dilute it with other ingredients, rather than savoring it by its self) I'll sometimes make a mango salsa, which is pretty delish. Haven't in a long time, though, and I couldn't, off the top of my head, give you a recipe if my life depended upon it right now.

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Anonymous wrote:

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What do you like? One of my favorite and usual is Pesto Baked Talapia.

i used to say i liked everything but then a pal pointed out how often i crinkle the nose at "strange" foods. must be my inner 8 year old or something. i like most veggies. i dont like garlic except for garlic bread. its an emotional trigger thing for me so i avoid it the rest of the time. i like red onions but not white ones except for the vidalia ones. i like broccoli but hate cauliflower (sic?) im not much of a fish eater. this falls into the strange category for me. im sure id like it if i gave it a chance but i cant get beyond the smell when its cooking. its another emotional trigger thing. i do eat lobster and shrimp and occasionally tuna. ill eat chicken and turkey and occasionally red meat tho i limit it to maybe 3 times a month. i like italian food but it doesnt like me. i like chinese but not thai or vietnamese. its often got a fish sauce base. blech. i like most kinds of beans especially white and red and black if mixed with other things. i like lentils. i like moroccan stuff but not greek food. in fact i love a lot of african type veggies things cooked in those clay pots with chicken. i like peruvian food a lot. brazilian too. kosher hot dogs are a plus. anything with carrots or yams or sweet potatos are yummy, i like a lot of raw veggies sugar snap peas, celery, cukes, tomatoes, and lets not forget chocolate. i love chocolate.

Serve with artichoke hearts and, ginger carrots. Iced black and lemongrass green tea. Sweeten with honey. Same with the carrots. I'm crazy with pepper so, season all to taste. What kind of fruit do you think would compliment this? Gator

im thinking owls mango chutney idea is a good one for this. it sounds perfect.

 

 

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Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Psych Lit wrote:

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any good recipes of healthy things?

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What do you like? One of my favorite and usual is Pesto Baked Talapia. A basic pesto coating the fish and, baked at 400 in a greased dish for 20 minutes or until flaky. To break things up at times I replace pine nuts with pecans and, basil with spinach. When I do use spinach I put a bed of them under the fish. I only use a mortar and pestal and almost never use a processor for my pesto. UNless I am making a big batch. Serve with artichoke hearts and, ginger carrots. Iced black and lemongrass green tea. Sweeten with honey. Same with the carrots. I'm crazy with pepper so, season all to taste. What kind of fruit do you think would compliment this? Gator

 

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Apples? A mango chutney?

 

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Anonymous wrote:

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Psych Lit wrote:

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any good recipes of healthy things?

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What do you like? One of my favorite and usual is Pesto Baked Talapia. A basic pesto coating the fish and, baked at 400 in a greased dish for 20 minutes or until flaky. To break things up at times I replace pine nuts with pecans and, basil with spinach. When I do use spinach I put a bed of them under the fish. I only use a mortar and pestal and almost never use a processor for my pesto. UNless I am making a big batch. Serve with artichoke hearts and, ginger carrots. Iced black and lemongrass green tea. Sweeten with honey. Same with the carrots. I'm crazy with pepper so, season all to taste. What kind of fruit do you think would compliment this? Gator

 

Anonymous wrote:

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Sounded good to me too. I'm going to try it with eatsmart garden sweet salsa. I love to take my leftover spaghetti and, put it in a baking dish and, then coat it with Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and, bake for a half hour. Gator.

with cheese?

i like baked spaghetti too. used to be a weekly dish when the young ones were in house. never tried it with barbque tho it sounds like it might work cept for the heartburn afterward. used to make it with lots of peppers and meatball and gooey mozzerella cheese. oh and  sides of garlic bread and a salad. oh and that caused the heartburn too but yum.

gator you seem to eat a lot of organic things? are you a vegan? any good recipes of healthy things?

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Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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...not just a fond tasty, memory, but a quickie.

I remember her ...

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Sorry ... Was just too inviting to be denied.

Then too, so was SHE!

 

and without the uhaul chaser! woo hoo:)

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BoxDog wrote:

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...not just a fond tasty, memory, but a quickie.  

Back in the day, my "secret" spaghetti gravy (or sauce) ingredient was red chili pepper -- 

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lol...this is only the second time i have ever heard spaghettii sauce referred to as "gravy"....i always thought that was unusual.....but cool!

BoxDog wrote:

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Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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Three ingredient, H.S. Spaghetti.

I love this topic. It usually brings up things we forget about. I had this habit of recreating flavors and dishes from restaurants and dives, cafeterias and buffets. Places where the "what the hell was that" question was asked.

Brown a pound of crumpled ground beef, boil and ready the spaghetti, al dente. After the beef is browned drain the fat, add a large sized jar of medium hot salsa and let it heat up. Serve over the drained pasta. Pasta, salsa and ground beef. It's not just a fond tasty, memory, but a quickie.

this sounds good. sort of a spicy american chop suey!

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nesea wrote:

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About those eggs you were talking about .. It makes peeling easier if after they're done, you leave them in the pot and drain the water out ... then shake the pot viruously <sp> until the shells break .. then run cold water over them for a minute or so. Peel comes off nicely.

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My Turn wrote:

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the calzones are a great idea....might have to make those tomorrow night since i have left over sauce from yesterday!  thinking the ricotta, spinach and mushrooms.....mmmmmmmmmmmmm......how long do you bake them for?

til the dough is golden brown!

 

-- Edited by My Turn at 04:29, 2009-03-11

 

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The next time you want to sweeten a sauce slightly, instead of reaching for your normal sweetener, throw in some bits of (young) carrots.

You can also make carrots sweeter (or at least so they seem) by cooking them with a little bit of salt and a couple of whole cloves.

I like to slightly blanch carrots before adding them to things like salads. I know that saps some of their nutritional value from them, but they do seem to taste a lot better, and are less of a surprise on your teeth, when you're munching along, and come upon that carrot "rock" thing. Of course, shredding them with a potato peeler eliminated that problem.

I'm also (while I'm thinking about it) a HUGE fan of the salad spinner. Don't know how I ever got along WITHOUT one, frankly. Now, when I come home from the grocery store, I wash and tear my lettuce and greens right away, and then put them in the salad spinner, and wash them some more, and then whip them to dryness (which takes really, surprisingly little time.)

Since ... I mostly fix this just for myself ... :) (for the "spreading germ" phobes out there) what I then do is put the cut and dried lettuce in a plastic bag of some sort, grab the top of the bag by "the neck" (if you will) and then sort of suck all the air I can out of the bag, and quickly twist it shut. Sort of "vacuum sealed" without the machinery, I guess. I like to make up several smallish bags this way (each having a variety of greens) and then, whenever I'm in the mood for a salad, I just have to grab one of the bags and dump it into a bowl, and then add the other ingredients. It really seems to cut down on salad prep time for me, if I do this lettuce/greens prep step right after I've bought the lettuce.  

Anonymous wrote:

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Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

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What are some of your best cooking tips/ideas/secrets... or whatever you'd like to put in this thread? LOL.

I'll throw one out, but I don't want it to (necessarily) set any sort of rigid tone, or anything...

I once heard someone say (while explaining all the packages of pre-cut lettuce in his fridge) "No guest ever says: 'Oh! I LOVE the way you cut that lettuce!'"

It makes sense, really.

Now, you need to weigh that with the realization that those pre-cut salads in the grocery store are PROBABLY the worst buy in the whole store, and too, that there may be msg or some other yucky thing on that lettuce, but ... sometimes, if you're in a rush, you're not being a bad host if you buy and serve things already pre-prepared a little.


Here's another: I was probably in my 30's or 40's before I learned to boil a hard boiled egg the right way, and have it come out perfectly. The trick is to put the eggs in a pan, cover them with water, bring the water to a boil, and AS SOON AS IT DOES, you cover it, turn off the heat, and let the eggs just sit in that water for 22 minutes. Probably everyone in the world already knew this, but I sure didn't, until after MANY Easters had come and gone, and green yolked ('cause they'd over cooked) egg salad sammers had been eaten.

"I don't like green eggs and chocolate"

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This has me wondering. I use to get the green yolk and, now do not. I still boil the same wrong way being, covered in water and, bring to boil / 15 minutes. The difference is I only use free range organic eggs. No green yolk. Maybe I have been lucky since? I will do it your way next time and, sure do hope the eggs are done enough for me. lol Gator

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 Well? If you're feeling "iffy" you can always cheat it a little bit ... I sometimes do, not (for some very odd reason) really "trusting" it fully, and sometimes maybe letting the water establish a REALLY GOOD boil before I turn off the heat.

The other thing, of course, is that they stop cooking when you taken them out of the water, and even moreso when you put them in cold water. (And I think even a little bit more, depending upon when you peel 'em.) Depending upon number of eggs, size of pan, yadda yadda, you can personalize your own times with a little practice. One of the perks of this way of hard boiling eggs, is that you don't get that "egg comin' outta the shell" thing going on, and too, really, you're saving $ by not having the gas or electricity on more than a couple of minutes, while you bring the water to a boil. Sometimes, I'll boil a batch, pull one out, put it in cold water, and crack it open, and it may NOT be hard boiled enough for me, so I'll just let the others sit on the counter for another minute or two, still in the shell, and not having been doused in cold water, and they usually firm up nicely. Or? You can just take on out of the pan and leave the rest in there for another minute or two. Experiment with it, and find what works best for you. I'm pretty much a cook-by-feel kinda cook, anyway, and usually don't pay much attention to imperative times, and amounts (like how much water in the pan)

Speaking of saving money ... I've learned that coffeemakers use an INCREDIBLE amount of energy, after they've made the coffee, while they're still on, "cooking" the coffee, keeping it warm on the hot plate. Years ago, I bought, for like $12-15 a thermal pitcher/caraffe thing, and the MINUTE the coffee has finished running through the coffeemaker, I pour the coffee into the caraffe, and pop the lid back on tightly, and then pour my first cuppa out of the coffeemaker caraffe (leaving the thermal one full.) That usually leave about one, maybe two cups in the coffeemaker caraffe, and the SECOND that's gone (depending upon how many people are drinking coffee that day) I'll turn it off, thus saving a ton of money on electricity, and that heating element. I've found the coffee in the thermal caraffe will stay warm for over 24 hours sometimes, (and maybe I'll nuke my poured cup for 10-15 seconds, if I want it piping hot)  and the good thing is, it's not cooking away at such a high temperature as it would be on the coffeemaker hot plate (and getting bitter.)

Another thing about preventing bitter coffee is to remove and discard the filter as soon after you've made your coffee as soon as it's safe ('cause it's hot!) to do so. I've no idea why this works, insofar as keeping the coffee from getting so bitter, but it does.

I also use very cold water with which to make my coffee.
I have VERY little counter space, so a couple of years ago, I just cleared out one eye-level cupboard shelf, right over an electric outlet, and cut some into the shelf directly above it (though didn't remove entirely) and made for myself an appliances "nook" where I keep, on the bottom shelf, the power strip (which goes through the hole I cut in the bottom of the cupboard) my coffeemaker, my coffee bean grinder, and my sweetener(s) and creamer(s) (powdered.) I cut into the shelf above the coffeemaker JUST ENOUGH so that the lid on the top will open enough for water (and on that same shelf I keep my coffee (one can only -- the rest is stored in a cool place) my filters, my coffee flavor things, and a container of hot chocolate packages. Because the coffeemaker is up pretty high, and the angle for filling it with its caraffe is awkward, I've experimented around, and found that the nozzel of a 2 litre bottle of pop will fit in there quite nicely, so what I do every week is fill about five or six of those bottles (running them through my water filter on my faucet which takes longer than I want to spend when I want a cuppa joe) and then put them in the fridge. This fills empty space in the fridge (thus saving you money on your electricity) and also keeps the water for coffee premeasured, and ready to go. And I've discovered too, that if you're without running water suddenly, it's nice to have some already filtered, cold water in the fridge. But the point of all that was that I use cold water to make my coffee. :)  

Psych Lit wrote:

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and speaking of calzones those are easy with refrigerated pizza dough, a container of ricotta cheese and spinach or some leftover ground beef or sausage. i do strain the cheese first tho or the calzone ends up soggy.

 

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oh...the calzones sound good! i have made pizza with the refrigerated dough, my leftover homemade spaghettii and meat sauce and the ricotta cheese.  i dont strain it tho.  to solve my soggy ricotta situation, i stir up the ricotta and mix an egg into it.  i cook down the sauce to make it thick...almost more of a paste than sauce, roll out the dough, put the sauce on then the ricotta, bake all the way to last 5 minutes. then put a package of the kraft six italian cheeses on top and put back in oven for the last five minutes to melt the cheese.  yum!  

the calzones are a great idea....might have to make those tomorrow night since i have left over sauce from yesterday!  thinking the ricotta, spinach and mushrooms.....mmmmmmmmmmmmm......how long do you bake them for?

my tip for cooking would be to add oil to your boiling water when cooking the long angel hair or spaghettii pasta.  helps prevent them from sticking to each other.