Braided Avocados?
Peter
8 years ago
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breathnez
8 years agoPeter
8 years agoRelated Discussions
What's For Dinner? #273
Comments (100)I really should eat before I go to work but I was worried I didn't have an appetite. This thread solved that problem!! Love those red depression glasses Kathleen. And that chocolate rose Marigene! And the basil pic Sharon! I almost never post or read here because my average dinner is: a handfull of corn chips and a hunk of cheese, or canned tomato soup and grahmn crackers, or whatever looks good at the canteen at work. But this weekend, due to furious poofing, I cooked up a storm and I just have to brag. I made cherry yogurt bread that gave me fits last time due to not rising. This time it over rose and then collapsed. It's still yummy and edible though. I cut down on the salt from the recipe which I think was my big mistake. I made root vegetable gratin from the Cook's Illustrated Cover and Bake cookbook, which was good but way too rich for my taste. It featured potatoes, parsnips and carrots. I even cut down on the cheese and cream called for, and it was still too rich. I am going to experiment with the idea of a gratin a little more and see if I can come up with a lighter version that I still like. The best cooking adventure was poofed morroccan chicken that I made to use up some leftover mulled wine. It was red wine spiced with cinnamon, cardamon and cloves. Not enough to make it worth drinking. But I combined it with a tsp. corriander, cumin and paprika and some garlic and put it in the crockpot with some skinless chicken thighs, sweet potatoes and onions. Yum deluxe! I made a gravy with the juices left in the pot, to which I added more curry powder and a generous dash of hot paprika and some lemon juice. I also added fried green peppers and a half a leftover apple. Served with cous cous and sweet and sour stir fried chard that used up some oranges that were way past eating prime but supplied the "sweet" juice for the sweet and sour. I am having it all as leftovers for lunch today. The only problem was the potatoes got way overcooked. The Cook's Illustrated book said to put them on the bottom of the crockpot, closer to the heat, but that was way off base. The sweet potatoes cooked faster than the meat. Best to mix I think. I sure wish Penzeys sold a moroccan spice blend. I sure wish I knew how to spell Morocco!...See MorePost Traumatic Stress Disorder As It Pertains To Decorating
Comments (84)As a person with PTSD, I definitely appreciate the accuracy of this post's comparison. I'm one of those weirdos who actually likes decorating styles that came from the eighties or earlier. Those cringey little details that people hate? I love them. My fondest dream is to someday own an ugly house that was built between the 60s and 70s and looks like it, burnt orange, harvest gold, and all. I often visualize the confused looks on my neighbors' faces when they see a house that looks like the 70s threw up all over it, hear a random mix of big band, classic rock, and nu metal coming through the windows, and realize their neighbors are - GASP! - Millenials! These daydreams are how I cope with living in an apartment full of beige, beige, and more frickin' beige. That said, even I've got my limits: Carpet in the kitchen. My grandmother (God rest her soul) had her kitchen floor covered in some sort of flat indoor-outdoor carpet in geometric patterns of green, gold, and black...or, at least, I remember the shapes being green, gold and black. It was very old carpet, very rarely vacuumed, and always dirty. Sure, that's bad enough, but you know where the trauma came from? Well, Gran grew up in the South during the Great Depression and came from a dirt-poor family. You never got caught wasting anything around her; she even washed and saved disposable straws for future uses. During one visit with her, I was helping her prepare a modest lunch. (Green beans with butter and garlic, a small burger patty on white bread, and white rice with butter and salt. Yes, heart attacks run in the family.) I turned away for a moment, can't recall why, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the butter fall off the knife halfway to the green beans. It landed right on that nasty, ancient, smelly carpet...but you don't waste food. Gran picked it up with her bare hands, looked it over, and brushed something off. Maybe it was gravel, maybe it was a hair, or even a toenail clipping - all were entirely possible in that house. And - AND! - she tossed it right on the green beans and stirred it in like it was completely normal. I suddenly "got a stomach ache" and went home hungry; after my mother heard the story, she started sending money for us to get takeout so Gran didn't poison me. To this day, the idea of carpet in the kitchen makes me want to sit in a corner, rock, and whimper. Spherical knobs on cabinets. Like stick a marble on a bolt and it's a knob shape. This one's simpler. When I was in fifth grade, my parents bought a fixer-upper dating back to the twenties. It's a beautiful house but as the kid (read "unpaid manual labor assistant") I got a good close look at all the horrors from the renovation. Over twenty years later, I can still recall the obnoxious shiny round 'clown nose red' knobs on the kitchen cabinets...which, by the way, matched the 60s era strawberries-on-butter-yellow wallpaper...so Bozo nose knobs and butter color on the walls, double-whammy. The horror! Wallpaper in general. Sure, I don't mind having paper on the walls, but if there's any possible way, I'm leaving that wallpaper up until I die. I can't stand the wallpaper? I'd almost rather not consider the house. This, too, dates back to that 20s era house. Previous owners, instead of removing the paper and starting over, put layer upon layer of wallpaper and paint on the walls...and it took my parents three rooms of countless layers of painted paper to decide to leave it in place and paint over it. In the half-bath alone, we found about a dozen layers of wallpaper and painted wallpaper dating back to the 20s...and one of those papers had simplistic designs of women in bathtubs, all with beady eyes fixed on the room. I still feel watched anytime I use that bathroom. Lastly, this one is actually literally a PTSD thing. Buildings without a safe room, basement, windowless interior room, external shelter, or other ideal place to take shelter during a tornado. To simplify a too-complicated explanation, in 2011 the apartment building I lived in was in the direct path of an EF-5 tornado and I was home when it hit. The building had the latest in hyper-paranoid fire safety but it had no posted plan for a tornado in the vicinity. My neighbors and I wound up sheltering in the corner of the hallway just yards from several big glass windows and four all-glass doors. Needless to say it wasn't pretty, and most of the buildings in that neighborhood were either flattened or nearly so. I won't go into detail beyond this: our building was brick, and there was non-brick construction obliterated for about half a mile in each direction of us. None of my neighbors were injured or killed. We were so far beyond lucky it's dumbfounding. Ever since then, my first response on entering a new place or checking out a house is "where will we go when s**t hits the fan?" Not if...when. The tornado in 2011 was only the second or third in my city's history; we've had two more smaller tornadic events since 'the big one' and I've lost count of how many "once in a decade/lifetime/generation/millennium" storms have happened since. Missouri isn't known for calm weather, after all. There was such rampant PTSD around here from the tornado (and so many people who ignored the sirens) the city upgraded to new models that test silently. People are finally building safe rooms into most new structures, but it shouldn't have taken that level of destruction. Put your mark on your place - include all the little details you love and ban those you hate - but for the love of Mike, when you're building, buying, or remodeling, seriously ask yourself where you'll go and what you'll do if your region's form of natural disaster happens, and consider whether or not your plans will keep you and your loved ones safe. That got heavy. Here are my cats modeling the latest styles in boxes and bags to lighten the mood. Goldie's sitting in three nested boxes. Those proud cheeks! Skidd just wanted to remind me that he's the present....See MoreDoes this group still do Rosh Hashana recipe posts?
Comments (12)How many people? Some things are fine for up to ten but don't scale up well. I just made up a salad that got raves and it's dead easy for the smaller crowd. It's instead of a caprese salad. Dice up some avocados and meaty tomatoes (seeds in unless they're obnoxious), equal quantities. I cut the avocado half in both directions in the skin, and just push from the back and they come right out. A few might need a nudge with a fork, but it's not messy like it can get on the cutting board. Put them all in a lidded bowl or container, in layers. Every inch or so sprinkle not lightly, not heavily, with a mix of dried Italian herbs (It's Delish is fine, or make your own). Drizzle a very little aged balsamic vinegar and really good EVOO over the top--not enough to pool--this is for flavor as the tomato juices should give plenty of liquid.. Put the lid on and invert a couple of times, then let sit for at least half an hour, but serve within four hours. It's nothing, but it tastes like something special. Eggplant spears are fantastic, and can be made well ahead. They're good hot or cold. They're not sweet, but you can make them round instead of spears. Get skinny Italian eggplants with intact skin. Each piece, whether spear or round (either should be thin), should have skin on it. Lay them out in a pan and brush or spray with light olive oil or whichever you prefer. Sprinkle with a blend of seasonings and herbs. I usually just use salt free garlic pepper or lemon pepper, but you can select herbs that match with your meal. Roast at 350° for at least an hour, until they're all shrunken and soft. We're not a kugel family, but if the family won't eat it, why not change it up a bit? I usually find it too sweet and won't eat it if it has raisins. I tasted one that used fresh ricotta instead of milk and cheese to make the custard with, and instead of sugar it had a few drops of date syrup (you can make your own by melting a date into a little simple syrup (half water, half sugar) in a little pan on the stove). The fruit were fall fruits like apples and pears, and I think apricots, that were diced large and sautéed until browned at the edges. I think you could roast them instead. It was really good. :) I've been thinking about Sukkot, but I'm thinking of doing more lunches for company than dinners. But I have a lot to get through before then!...See MoreWhat foodstuffs stay on your (informal) eating place?
Comments (34)Oh, Lars, I so agree on the salt pig! I was given one many years ago and it lives in the back of a cabinet. I don't think anything much can live on salt, but I don't like putting my cooking-dirty hand in it. I like cooking with regular salt, and I got a diner style stainless salt bin with perforated top and easy handle for myself when we moved into this house. If I want to "measure" a pinch, I'll sprinkle some in my hand until it's the right amount. If I want a proper measure, I unscrew the top and use a measuring spoon, or by weight I have a little very accurate digital scale for tiny amounts. I don't like using kashering salt, sea salt, or any such thing for cooking, though I will actually use my (washed and well dried) fingers for pinches of finishing salt, like fleur de sel. So the end of the old Bragg's vinegar bottle is still on the table, and it was useful! I got a little too enthusiastic with the habanero sauce at breakfast. It's delicious, but left a lot of burn. Nothing like a good slug of the vinegar in one's water to fix that. :)...See Morebreathnez
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoTodd C
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