Just heard this on NPR. I particlularly appreciated the example of buying and eating those foods that your great-grandmother would recognize . . . not those that she wouldn't, such as gogurt (or other convenience foods).
Maybe that could be another new year's resolution . . . really stick to whole foods, whole grains -- foods that take a bit of time to make . . . . hmmm.
I started last year to downsize plate and glass sizes. THat's actually fairly inexpensive to do, if you don't mind mis-matched dishes, second-hand.
*ponders some more*
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote: I particlularly appreciated the example of buying and eating those foods that your great-grandmother would recognize . . . not those that she wouldn't, such as gogurt (or other convenience foods).
In my great-grandmother's era, they thought ketchup was a spice to be applied to bread and, when poured on top of a slab of butter or lard, produced an edible sandwich. I will not look to her memory for culinary advice. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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My grandparents considered pasta a strange foreign food. I can't even imagine what they would have thought of falafel or daal or any number of very healthy dishes with origins other than in eastern Europe.
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Yep. At least, that's what I took from the NPR snippet.
Food that is recognizable to someone with no previous experience with overprocessed convenience, prepackaged foods. Foods that don't have multi-syllabic words in the ingrediants.
Although, I do have to say the onion and mayonnaise sandwhiches (on homemade whole wheat bread, of which she ground the wheat and made the bread -- and her homemade mayonnaise and garden grown onions . . . ) MY grandmother delighted in do nothing for my culinary delight. *grin*
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quote: I particlularly appreciated the example of buying and eating those foods that your great-grandmother would recognize . . . not those that she wouldn't, such as gogurt (or other convenience foods).
In my great-grandmother's era, they thought ketchup was a spice to be applied to bread and, when poured on top of a slab of butter or lard, produced an edible sandwich. I will not look to her memory for culinary advice.
posted
Y'know, I am suddenly reminded of another sandwhich my grandma and my dad loved that featured leftover meatloaf and ketchup. As a matter of fact, they also used ketchup on scrambled eggs . . .
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Shan: Y'know, I am suddenly reminded of another sandwhich my grandma and my dad loved that featured leftover meatloaf and ketchup. As a matter of fact, they also used ketchup on scrambled eggs . . .
Both happened with my dad in our household. Heck, I used to put ketchup on eggs for a long time as well.
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My great-grandmother died in her 40s. I'm not sure if emulating her habits and circumstances would be healthy. In general, I think life is far better now than it was back then.
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My dad used to eat baked bean sandwiches(cold), often with ketchup. They were not the Boston style beans, but the country beans, white and pasty, best with about 1/3 cup of salt, with bits of pork fat. Tasted MUCH better than they sound!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I think the key to this method of losing weight is just the slowness of it. Once I decide to make a meal, I am much less interested in eating it. If there is something fast, or if it is served to me, I gobble it up.
If someone makes me healthy food, I eat it and love it. Salads someone else makes always taste so much better. I hate the salads I make, but other people love them. Food is weird, I tell you.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Shan: Y'know, I am suddenly reminded of another sandwhich my grandma and my dad loved that featured leftover meatloaf and ketchup. As a matter of fact, they also used ketchup on scrambled eggs . . .
Sounds like my house.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Elizabeth: Once I decide to make a meal, I am much less interested in eating it. If there is something fast, or if it is served to me, I gobble it up.
And me, I like my own cooking best.
While we tend not to have much processed food in the house (other than diet soda and cold cereal), I wouldn't want to eat "grandma style". Chicken fat on everything. No spices or seasonings beyond salt and paprika "for color". Boiled chicken, boiled beef, boiled vegetables, boiled eggs. I'm not sure if there were non-boiled foods in her repertoire. That's my ma's ma. My dad's ma subsisted largely on store-bought pastry.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I like to be the one who cooks when I can because then I can season and prepare everything exactly the way I like it!
There are a few foods that for some reason taste better to me when someone else makes them: grilled cheese sandwiches, cinnamon biscuits, and fried chicken are the first three that come to mind.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Shan: Y'know, I am suddenly reminded of another sandwhich my grandma and my dad loved that featured leftover meatloaf and ketchup. As a matter of fact, they also used ketchup on scrambled eggs . . .
Sounds like my house.
Despite the lack of royalty in my house, that sounds like us too.
Incidentally, to whoever said it earlier, I was under the impression that some cereals, like those whole grain cheerios or honey bunches of oats were actually pretty good for you. This year I'm going to try and eat more dishes that were grown directly from the ground, and not made from animals or byproducts, mostly for health reasons. If anyone has a direction to point me towards for easy, healthy, veggie/fruit/grain meals I can make for myself, I'd be appreciative.
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Hummus and whole wheat pita (or other bread) with fresh fruits and veggies is delicious, nutritious, and very easy. So is "throw all the vegetables in a pot" soup with some fresh bread (or just put beans and corn or beans and squash in it.)
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Oh, and how can I forget black beans and rice? Just throw a clove-studded, peeled onion in a pot of black beans and water, and slow cook all day (on the back of the stove or in a crock pot.) Serve with rice and salsa (fresh is best.)
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I'm not a fan of black beans, and I'm leery of Hummus. I've only had it once, and it was a decade ago so I'd be willing to try it again, but not so much with the black beans. Still, now I'm considering some sort of whole wheat pita burrito thing with rice, salsa and some grilled veggies, that'd be good.
I'll grab some hummus and pita at the grocery store next time I'm there, I'll try anything once, or a second time if it's been a decade or longer since I've eaten it. Thanks.
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I had Hoppin' John yesterday, for the new year. Oh, man, was it yumptious. My kid yummed it up, too.
Other veggie meals that we like are whole wheat pasta with sauce (there are many varieties of sauce), polenta with saucy beans, and vegetarian chili with cornbread on the side.
I've always been a fan of waffles with creamed spinach, but I've been unable to convince my guys at home that this is suitable fare.
My kid is happy to make a whole meal of a fruit and cheese plate.
Vegetable soup is always good, and I really like a nice thick mushroom barley soup with lima beans in it. With fresh and dried mushrooms, oh man!
You can take bread flour and water and make a stiff dough, knead it for a bit, and then place it in a basin of water, washing away the starch. You will have to change the water several times, until it is pretty much clear, and all that remains from your dough is the very very elastic gluten, which is all protein. Cut that into pieces and deep fry them, and the puff up into very appetizing looking crisp golden puffs. Then you can add them to your stir-fry as a stand-in for meat. You could saute the raw gluten, or steam it, but I find it more appetizing if you fry it first. It doesn't have too much flavor on its own, but it will readily pick up the flavors of whatever seasonings or sauce you are using. It has a nice, chewy texture, kind of like chicken. (Oh, another name for that gluten is seitan. Which sounds more exotic and appetizing than "I'm feeding my family washed-off flour".)
Cabbage and noodles with (fat free) sour cream and caraway seeds -- very nice. Eggplant baked with tomato sauce and olive oil -- oh man! Add cheese, and you're in Eggplant Parmesan territory.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Peel a couple few eggplants and slice into 1/4" rounds.
Arrange them in a single layer on a broiler pan. I line my pan with foil and spray it with olive oil spray to keep it from sticking.
Brush or spray the top side of the eggplant with olive oil.
Broil close to the heat for about 5 minutes, or until the tops of the eggplant get brown. It is OK if some of them are very very dark brown -- it lends a pleasant smokiness.
You will have to do the broiling in batches to get them all done.
Once you've broiled all your eggplant slices (on one side only), layer them in a baking pan thusly: sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce, eggplant, cheese, yadda yadda ya, until you run out of either eggplant or pan. Cheese is the top layer. I like basil sprinkled over the sauce, and a combination of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
Bake it for about 30-45 minutes at 350, or until it is all melty and bubbly. So good!
Shvester's Spanish Eggplant
Don't peel the 'plants, but slice them in 1/4" rounds. Into the baking pan they go. Anoint them generously with olive oil, and bless them with tomato sauce. Cover tightly with foil and bake slowly (250 degrees) for a long time -- a few hours -- until the eggplant is all soft and unctuous. My macrobiotic-type brother-in-law calls this the best thing he's ever eaten.
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My mom made something awesome with eggplant last night. (Well, to be fair she makes something awesome every time she cooks, and always just makes stuff up.)
She thin sliced: eggplant, sweet potato, purple onion and added: halved artichoke hearts, halved mini red and yellow peppers
Then she cooked them in a really hot, very large skillet with some olive oil, fresh ground salt and pepper, fresh parsley, fresh rosemary (which she made me pick on the dark; I felt very witchy.) Toss with black sesame seeds while in the skillet. That was my favorite part - they got so toasty and stuck to everything.
The onions barely caramelized, and the peppers got really nice roasted spots, and the sweet potatoes got completely dark brown and crispy on one side.
Then she cooked white northern beans in the leftover juice, which you could eat on the side or underneath the rest. Holy crap it was amazing.
posted
They are just a different kind of sesame seed. Sesame seeds come in red, brown, black, and the ivory color. They just look cool, and are delicious. They have a different flavor than the more common white/grey seeds.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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My grandparents considered pasta a strange foreign food. I can't even imagine what they would have thought of falafel or daal or any number of very healthy dishes with origins other than in eastern Europe.
On the other hand, I never considered hallupsie to be food. So it goes both ways.
posted
He spelled it wrong, although I wouldn't venture a guess as to the correct spelling. It's meat-and-rice balls wrapped in cabbage leaves and baked in tomato sauce.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by rivka: Why wouldn't that be food?
I don't know how it's done, but something in the preparation process destroys any remnant of flavor or texture the individual ingrediants had to begin with. It resulted in a big squooshy ball of yuck.
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Blood soup and Dumplings, with sugared Clabber for dessert? I think I will stick with what I have now.
Posts: 1167 | Registered: Oct 2005
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This thread is making me hungry. I want to start cooking real home-cooked food. I take that back. What I really want is to start *eating* real home-cooked food. And since none of you people who love to cook are around here to make it for me, by default that means I will have to start cooking it.
So, I want recipes for stuff that's really simple and really delicious, with minimal manual prep required, and preferably only one dish made dirty. Am I dreaming? Should I be looking at the crock pot thread? Is that the answer?
Oh, and they should be low-carb if possible, and with only healthy types of fats.
By the way, I LOVE black beans. They're the most delicious thing ever. I'm totally addicted to them. I also love eggplant.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Tatiana: So, I want recipes for stuff that's really simple and really delicious, with minimal manual prep required, and preferably only one dish made dirty. Am I dreaming? Should I be looking at the crock pot thread? Is that the answer?
quote:Originally posted by dkw: Not Haluski. Totally different thing.
Oops, sorry, never heard of halupsie or whatever so that's what came to mind. Haluski is yummy, though! ;-)
Tatiana, check out this super-easy crockpot recipe that I just came across on SparkPeople: Black Bean Chicken
It's perfect for me, because I belong to a chicken co-op (the Chicken Coop, they call it) that purchases frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts and tenders from a Tyson factory every 6 weeks. I'm not great at planning ahead, and so I never seem to have thawed chicken on hand when I'm inspired to use it--but in this recipe, you just use the frozen breasts. I'll be trying it in the next few days, and I'll report back when I do. The recipe is easily halved.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Hmm, hadn't thought of that. I hate defrosting in the microwave because it's hard to do it thoroughly w/o cooking the thinner parts.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Well, if it's still a LITTLE frozen, it's easier to cut. And if it's going in the crockpot, it turns out okay even if it's partially cooked.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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kq, do you have an authoritative source on not cooking frozen meat in the crockpot? A little googling turned up some anecdotal stuff saying that it's okay, but I realize that just because a few people didn't get food poisoning doesn't mean it's safe ;-) (One source said it doesn't reach 140 fast enough which promotes bacterial growth, but again, it was just hearsay and not from any kind of food authority.)
posted
That's because of potential damage to the pot more than any food safety issues, AFAIK. And if the pieces are small (as opposed to a great big hunk of ice), the odds of food safety issues or temperature differences cracking the crock are both very small.
Anyway, I've been using frozen chicken pieces in mine for years without a problem. *shrug*
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Why wouldn't that be food?
