cooking, furnishing, household appliances, fashion, shopping. http://www.dregston.com/boards/list.php?15 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:57:47 -0600 Phorum 5.2.7 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32929,32929#msg-32929 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32929,32929#msg-32929

The following quote is from “Flavors of Puglia” by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. I picked up this lovely recipe book in Gallipoli, mainly because it is in English and explains not only how they put meals together, but why it is done that particular way. It helps, of course that Ms Jenkins is a qualified American cook, and that her versions of the recipes use ingredients that we can all understand in measurements that make perfect sense to most


“ The directions could not have been clearer: Mix together flour, leavening and clean sea water (specifically so you wouldn’t need to purchase salt, which government taxes made prohibitively expensive ). Knead the dough first thing in the morning , before anyone else is up, then put it to rise in a bed still warm from the bodies of those who have slept therein. But don’t worry- the sheets will have been rinsed in water perfumed by bay leaves, which will give the bread a special flavour. When the dough has risen a couple of hours, shape it into loaves, stamp them with an identifying mark, and give them to the baker’s boy along with a pan of focaccia and a tiella with potatoes, rice and mussels. The whole cook together all morning in the baker’s oven, and as soon as the youngest son comes home from school he’s sent on the run to the baker’s to bring back the family lunch. That’s the way bread used to be made in Bari’s old town years ago, when seawater was still clean, rinse water was scented with laurel, housewives stayed home to bake bread, and schoolboys (and girls) came home for lunch. If you have a source of clean seawater, by all means use it for the salted water in this recipe.”

Here’s the ingredients of Ms. Jenkins’ recipe:

2 cups water, preferably unchlorinated (i.e. pure spring water)
6 bay leaves
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp dry yeast
5-6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour*
Cornmeal**

* She recommends King Arthur brand unbleached, unbromated flour. I use organic bread-making white flour.

** Cornmeal is a loaded word down here in Louisiana. I am assuming she means ordinary yellow cornmeal in a medium grind.

N. B. Not only is there no fat in this recipe, buy there is no sugar either, a fact that might unnerve North American cooks. However, I promise you that it does work, if the bread is made in the traditional way.
I won’t go into the details of the method, since if you already bake bread, what I will give you should be enough, and if you don’t already bake bread, this probably isn’t the best place to start. But here’s the generality:
Boil one cup of water and steep the bay leaves 30 minutes. Heat the second cup separately and dissolve the salt. When the bay water is lukewarm, remove the leaves and sprinkle yeast over the water and allow it to dissolve for five minutes.
The method is to put four cups of flour in a large bowl with a well in the middle, and adding the yeast water and kneading to incorporate. Then the salty water is added the same way. The bread is turned onto a table on which another cup of flour has been sprinkled, and kneaded again until pliable and non-sticky. You make the judgement as to whether it needs any more flour at this stage (see what I mean about not being for a beginner?). When ready, you set it on a long board or baking sheet with the cornmeal. Using a sharp knife or a baker’s razor, make a cut the length of the loaf about half and inch deep. Cover lightly with a damp towel and set aside to rise in a warm place until doubled, about one and a half hours.

Now cut the dough across the first cut into two pieces. On a lightly floured board work each piece rapidly into a long rectangle, then fold one end of the rectangle lightly over the end of the other. Cover with a dry cloth and let rise about two hours.

After the first hour and fifteen minutes of this rising, preheat the oven to 450 ° F and continue heating it for at least 45 minutes. Place the loaves in the pre-heated oven, either on a baking sheet or casting them directly onto a stone. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 350° F and continue baking for another 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.

Cooks that know will agree that baking bread the traditional way isn’t that difficult, but it does take a long time and intermittent fussing. I tried this method out, got very hot and bothered, but the bread was fantastic, and there was a lot of it. Cutting it down for the breadmaker didn’t work nearly so well, unfortunately. But certainly the bay leaves add an interesting tang to the finished product….]]> Caroline Dish Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:17:33 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32907,32907#msg-32907 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32907,32907#msg-32907
Is chili popular anywhere but in the U.S.? It originated in Texas, I believe.]]> Patti Dish Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:44:36 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32900,32900#msg-32900 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32900,32900#msg-32900
My mum used to have one and throughout my childhood used it to overcook vegetables every night. They went out of fashion but seem to be slowly creeeping back in and I was vaguely wondering whether it was worth getting one.]]> louise c Dish Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:52:10 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32860,32860#msg-32860 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32860,32860#msg-32860
Any suggestions?]]> JaneGS Dish Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:13:38 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32844,32844#msg-32844 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32844,32844#msg-32844 eat crane?]]> Patti Dish Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:55:55 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32837,32837#msg-32837 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32837,32837#msg-32837
Another favorite is fresh green beans, onions, potatoes and ham.

Soooo good!]]> Patti Dish Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:33:17 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32752,32752#msg-32752 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32752,32752#msg-32752
So I want something small, flat panel, not too expensive (under $300); I expect that for that price, I will need to find something on sale to get better quality, since that price point is pretty low.

Any suggestions or experiences to share? Has anyone bought an Insignia, which is the house brand at Best Buy?]]> Gina Dish Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:56:39 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32741,32741#msg-32741 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32741,32741#msg-32741
Was anyone else tempted by the movie (or book) to try this? If so what did you think of it?

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Dish Sun, 15 Aug 2010 22:47:29 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32397,32397#msg-32397 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32397,32397#msg-32397
Any ideas for something really good you've had or something unusual you've run into?

In case you ever wonder, fresh pineapple jam is a big pain if you need to get all the little brown flecks out.

We'll probably all do apple butter together when the apples come down in price because we used more of that than anything. I'll probably make some peach-plum ginger because it was so good we used that up first.

Anybody else having adventures in canning this summer? I'm thinking next year we'll move on and try some other categories but jams and jellies are a much greater incentive for kids to learn to can than canned green beans.]]> LisaRS Dish Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:28:01 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32057,32057#msg-32057 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,32057,32057#msg-32057
A few months ago my friend Caramel emailed a bunch of people to arrange this weekend for her husband's birthday. It was a secret from him until a week or so before when it became impossible for her logistically to keep the secret (they have two kids). The idea was a whole bunch of his friends would go and camp at the site in Debden.

As it happens I camped in Epping Forest when I was about 13, and in keeping with the squirrel suggestion on the cooking for one thread I, and my friends, saw a red squirrel, which must have been one of the last ones left in southern England. My dad drove myself and two friends out to the middle of the forest and just left us there. Coming back to check on us the next day. It seems unimaginable now.

Anyway, this campsite is great and unusual in that in a couple of fields it allows fires. Caramel asked for volunteers to cook and in a fit of foolishness I offered to cook on Saturday night. Not just the usual foolishness either because I had somehow convinced myself that England were playing on Friday and intended to go looking for a pub to watch it in. By the time I realised my mistake it was too late to pull out.

A couple who I orignally thought were called Stephen Gerard cooked curry on Friday night (it wasn't just me, someone else said, Stephen Gerard? it was actually Steve and Jane). It was good, too, which added to the pressure.

The weather forecast had been so dismal at the start of the week that we considered cancelling the whole thing, but when I got there it was a beautiful sunny evening. I just sat about and poked the fire and drank too much beer then wine then some very nice Caribbean rum, and told my most disgusting stories about Highgate Cemetery and coffin gravy to some new victims.

Si is big on mountain biking and Epping Forest is one of the main, London handy venues for that. He regularly rides round the forest in the middle of the night! But he didnt do anything hard core and we just had a mass easy ramble through the forest as I was not the only one who had drunk too much - and assembled wood for the evening meal.

I was quite nervous about it as though the dish, Basque chicken is a climbing hut staple, I had not cooked it on an open fire. Stephen Gerard had bought a two burner gas stove which was set up on a rather rickety table. And that was useful but not solid enough for my massive pot full of chicken. I used that for the vegetarian option (Basque mushrooms?) and for pudding which was bananas in cream.

Just as I got into the cooking, England started playing. Most of the people there were football haters, but there were a couple of guys who had an interest and they had a radio but were made to share the earphones by the rest. However one of them, Chris, took pity on me half way through so I got the radio at my cooking station. So I got to listen to Green's goalkeeping error. Great!

The fire was a bit hot but the system I had worked out earlier worked amazingly well. Experience helps with stuff like this and I knew that rice and stew type dishes keep cooking a long time in that sort of bulk. So I just put it on the heat for a bit and then took it off so it could cook away, off any actual flame.

The only mini-disaster was that I got into a defence of football with the rugby fancying Steve (well, it might have been a rant about how crap rugby is) when the custard milk came of the unsteady stove and made a horrible mess. But not too much was lost.

The upshot of all this activity was that I had what I think was the best compliment my cooking has ever recieved. There were a whole lot of kids on the campsite but they had all gone to bed except a little girl called Ellen who I would guess to be about seven. The kids had all been fed earlier but she shared her mum's and kept eating it. Then her mum told me that she had said "it was like something from Masterchef (rubbish tv programme that I don't watch).

And today, just as her family were leaving she came and found me and said thank you again for the dinner. OK, her parents might have told her to do that but she really seemed to be impressed.

Why does this please me so much? I am not sure. But I think it is because Basque chicken is a grown up sort of dish: olives, garlic, wine etc. Quite powerful tastes. And because adults are always polite in such circumstances and always say "that is great." Indeed, I do myself and know perfectly well that I am going to say that whether it is really good or not.

But I think she was really impressed. And kids are a tough audience.

The custard for the bananas in custard was lumpy though...

Anyway, having got burnt by the sun and burnt over the fire, I proceeded to drink far much too much red wine and have been paying for it all day today.

If I had known it would make me feel like that I would never have drunk so much of it!]]> Spencer Dish Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:29:50 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31990,31990#msg-31990 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31990,31990#msg-31990
I could describe how it was made, but why bother when sombody else has already done it so beautifully? Look at this page: [www.calabriafromscratch.com] and see it all in glorious technicolor.]]> Caroline Dish Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:12:56 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31930,31930#msg-31930 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31930,31930#msg-31930 Caroline Dish Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:04:27 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31783,31783#msg-31783 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31783,31783#msg-31783
A few weeks ago I saw an over-sized cast pan (about 12 x 16 with 3 1/2 inch sides) at a garage sale and when I asked she told me it was an old campfire griddle. I decided it was too heavy to haul on camping trips so I left it behind, then regretted it because at least we could take it to our nearby trips. I went back the next day and she'd marked it 50 cents. I took my daughter camping last weekend and it worked great making breakfast over the campfire. I looked around online and haven't seen anything remotely like it so it must be pretty old.]]> LisaRS Dish Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:15:14 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31326,31326#msg-31326 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31326,31326#msg-31326
[www.foodnetwork.com]

Wellzones with Cheesy Side Sauce (the idea is Beef Wellington meets Calzone...hence Wellzone). One thing I really liked about them, besides being delicious, was that they were smaller than most calzones you get in a restaurant, which could easily feed a family of four. These were more meat pasty sized.

Ingredients
Mushroom filling:

* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 8 ounces cremini or baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
* 1 garlic clove, chopped
* 1/2 teaspoon paprika
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Wellzones:

* 1 egg
* 2 tablespoons water
* 1 (1-pound) box frozen puff pastry, thawed
* Flour, for dusting
* 1/2 pound filet mignon, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cheese Sauce:

* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 cup dark beer (we used what we had on hand, Corona)
* 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
* 1 teaspoon paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
* 1 cup shredded white Cheddar

Directions

Mushroom Filling:

To a large saute pan over medium heat, add the oil, mushrooms, garlic and paprika. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and saute the mushrooms until brown and tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the mushrooms to a food processor and add the mustard. Pulse until coarsely ground. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let cool.

Wellzones:

In a small bowl whisk the egg together with 2 tablespoons of water, to make an egg wash, and set aside.

Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured flat surface. Lightly dust the top of the pastry with flour and roll out, using a rolling pin, until it is 1/4-inch thick. Cut out 6 large rounds about 5 inches in diameter. You can use the lid of a small pot to cut out the rounds.

Put a heaping tablespoon of the mushroom filling in the center of 1 of the puff pastry rounds. Add a heaping tablespoon of the cubed tenderloin on top of the mushroom mixture. Season with a salt and pepper, to taste. Brush the edge of the lower half of the puff pastry round with egg wash. Fold the upper half of the puff pastry round over the filling to make a half moon. Press the edges together and crimp with the tines of a fork to seal. Put on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining rounds and filling. Put the Wellzones in the refrigerator until the dough is cold and firm, about 30 minutes

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Brush the tops of the Wellzones with the egg wash and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven to a serving platter and serve hot with the cheese sauce.

Cheese Sauce:

While the Wellzones are baking, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, beer, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and white pepper and bring to a simmer. Stir in the cheese and cook until completely melted and combined. Remove from heat and serve with the Wellzones.]]> JaneGS Dish Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:50:20 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31087,31087#msg-31087 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31087,31087#msg-31087
It's not at my house this year (Thank God!) so I'm bringing rolls and green beans. I'm pretending that I didn't see the invitation specified green bean casserole--which I think is that stuff with cream of mushroom soup topped with french fried onions--and am bringing a dish we like better. I'm sure we'll have ham...because we always have ham.

I've really been off my bread baking game lately. I don't know if it's because I don't bake it as much as I used to, but the hot cross buns I made a few weeks ago didn't turn out well (too dry), and neither did my last batch of dinner rolls (pasty texture). In light of that I tweaked my hot cross bun recipe and took a lot of care and they turned out perfectly. I forgot to take a pan of water out of the oven and don't know if that would contribute. I thought steam was supposed to make a crusty bread so I was surprised to see they turned out moist.]]> LisaRS Dish Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:57:51 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31063,31063#msg-31063 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,31063,31063#msg-31063
We've got spinach, tumeric, coffee, and blueberries seeping in hot water and vinager now and she'll add the eggs later on.

Has anyone done this before? I'm kind of excited to see how they'll turn out.]]> LisaRS Dish Mon, 05 Apr 2010 05:16:16 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30930,30930#msg-30930 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30930,30930#msg-30930
[www.simplysmartliving.com]

and I have to say it works perfectly at least for normal sized bbq sauce bottles. I also cut and sealed a piece of dowel that I can insert into the end so I can use it with other sauces. The silicone holds up to the bbq heat much better than I expected it to. In fact the only negative is that it doesn't really get clean in the dishwasher, not that it's any big deal to wash it by hand. I'd rate this one 4 out of 4 stars.

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Dish Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:16:25 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30827,30827#msg-30827 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30827,30827#msg-30827 www.realage.com]]]> Patti Dish Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:27:33 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30750,30750#msg-30750 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30750,30750#msg-30750 not included in my "all people" rants. I'd be interested in your comments, though.

Chickweed and Horse Sugar
Fact: The six billion people on this plantet, in all climates and terrains, rely almost exclusively on less than seventy different food plants to survive. Exactly why this is so, when there are literally millions of good-tasting and nutritious plants out there which very many people do not know about and very few know how to use, is as much a product of politics and superstition as it is of availability. The population is getting bigger hourly, our reserves of food are static, the Green Revolution of the 'seventies made things worse, not better, and yet Mankind still depends on just a few crops and heavily-processed meats for almost all their food.

Fact: "Agribusiness", a phenomenon where food production is mechanised and streamlined on an industrial model, has been around since World War II. In some parts of the world, there has been a backlash against it, but like Globalization, the idea has still got a lot of steam in it, and it won't stop any time soon. In North America, the vast majority of food production and distribution is in the hands of a handful of mega-conglomerates who treat food as just a series of chemicals to be manipulated and juggled with in order to make something new and marketable and keep their shareholders rich. Today, oranges have lost almost all of their natural vitamin C. Tomatoes have quadrupled their sodium content, and grown tough skins. And I'm not even including genetic engineering in this- simple selective breeding for portablity, pest resistance and convenience has lowered the nutritional value of many of our foods. Food is now cheaper than it has ever been, but it has never been less nutritious and and with such little flavour.

Fact: Although some people are aware that "wild food" exists, very few will actually gather it for themselves. I asked around here, and nobody seems to have actually done it, ever. They pay lip service to farmer's markets and free-range eggs, but they shop in Walmart. Very few in fact ever venture out into the woods, or rivers, these days- let alone take their kids! Ask them to go for a walk in the woods, and they start muttering about poison ivy and insects. We are surrounded by pinewoods and people insist on living an urban lifestyle.

Fact: as Lizzy Bennett says, "The woods are so beautiful at this time of year!" No heat. No bugs. Lots and lots of green shoots and dead leaves, yes. A few tiny flowers, some birds and perhaps, if you look closely, you'll see deer.

Fact: Walking in the woods is as good for you as walking on a treadmill- if not better.

Fact: Wild food is free, and in some places, available year-round.

So why don't people take more advantage of it? No, I'm not being all romantic here. Gathering nuts and berries, when in season, is hard work and results in scratches, and I will readily admit that . I remember blackberry picking on Blackbushe Commons as a child- it took hours, it seemed. But we didn't get seriously hurt, and we made lots of jam and pies! Later in life I made wine from elderberries and blackberries, picked the occasional mushroom (no, not exotic ones, just the ordinary white kind) and cooked up nettle soup and crab-apple butter. So why don't more people do this? When did we stop? And why? I learned that acorns are bitter, beech mast not so much, and clover is sweet if you suck the nectar out. I know not to eat horse chestnuts, but that sweet ones are fine and don't have to be all mouldy like the imports. So why don't people use them?

I'm incredibly lucky. I have the leisure right now to walk the woods on a nice day. I live inside a National Forest. And one of the forest's Environmental Control Officers gives regular talks about plant identification and has written books on the subject. So when I found out he was giving a demonstration of Useful and Edible Plants of the Gulf South, I was determined to go. The least that could happen, I thought, was that I would learn to recognise more of the growing things around me. This is something I just have to do- not knowing what that tree is, or this little flower, or why the leaves are so thick on the ground, niggles at me until I understand it. Okay, maybe I should be paying more attention to federal politics, or the Olympics, but I just cannot get up the same amount of enthusiasm for such things. I need to know what's out there.


Dr Charles Allen isn't just a biologist. He's local man who learned from his family to live off the land, and he continues to do so. He runs a bed and breakfast, keeps free-range chickens of many fancy and colourful kinds; he has developed a labyrinth and a butterfly garden on his property. And he eats wild food. A walk with him, over his gardens and into the forest, provided us with edible leaves, twigs and shoots. We learned to recognise salad-y things like mouse-ear chickweed, sow thistle, wild lettuce, mountain mint. In the forest itself we learned about red bay and white bay and gallberry. We found that horse sugar , also known as sweet leaf, has leaves that taste like apple peelings and can quench thirst. We dug up some sassafras root and brought it back. He had us smell black cherry twigs, in order to recognise it when the fruits are ready. Inside we sampled teas made of blackberry tips, goldenrod, sassafras, sumach and clover. Other things, too, that I've forgotten.We looked at the (medicinal only) rabbit tobacco and epazote. We had black walnuts and chinquapin nuts to feel, but not taste, because they were a bit old...


It was a sunny aftrnoon, and the woods were lovely. I'm not sure how far we walked, but it sure did me good. I made a few new friends and learned rather a lot- my brain was absolutely full when I got home! I was really glad to have Dr Allen's book handy, to go over a few things. Now I just have to put this knowledge to some practical use. There's chickweed in my garden! Fortunately it's seasonal: I'd much rather harvest than weed... I think! I'm interested to see if I can find a horse sugar tree, somewhere, too. Here it is: Symplos tinctoria. It's also a dye plant, you see.

And before you ask- Plant dyeing is very hard work. Messy and hard. But maybe that's for another day...]]> Caroline Dish Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:57:54 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30715,30715#msg-30715 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30715,30715#msg-30715
Just remember- don't skimp on the quality of the ingredients. Use real lemons and fresh lemon juice; use butter and not margerine. Your guests will thank you for that, and nobody will mention calories- or if they do, assure them that these calories don't count...


Book Club Lemon Shortbread


These quantities are for an 8”X8”non-stick pan. I usually just double them and use a 9”X13”.

Set oven to 325°F, 170° C
Base:
1cup all-purpose flour (5oz. plain flour)

½ cup butter (4oz. salted butter)

¼ cup granulated sugar (2 oz. sugar)

Blend all ingredients together with fingers or with a food processor, until you get fine crumbs. Press into the pan, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.



Topping:
Whilst base is cooking, prepare the following:

1 cup granulated sugar (7 oz sugar)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Zest (yellow skin only) of one large-ish lemon, grated.

3 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

¼tsp salt



Combine all (I find a food processor does this combining very well.)

Take base out of the oven, and pour over egg-lemon mix. Spread evenly with a spatula.

Bake in oven at 325° F for about 25 minutes, or until nearly set.

Cool in the pan. Cut into small squares.

Dust the top of the squares with icing sugar.

(Can you tell I have been reading and watching Julie and Julia?)]]> Caroline Dish Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:45:54 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30622,30622#msg-30622 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30622,30622#msg-30622 [notsohumblepie.blogspot.com]

I think some solar system cookies are in our near future.]]> LisaRS Dish Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:06:43 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30530,30530#msg-30530 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30530,30530#msg-30530 This could have gone on Moon, I suppose, or on Muse, but... well, where else could it go? Here is as good as any other place...

Today I had a problem- well, actually two problems, and I didn't just have them today, but I managed to solve them together. Today. So I feel good about them now. The first problem was the big one: my house is small and dark, and my kitchen, being in the centre of the house, is small and even darker. The size is not insurmountable as I can get around and I can cook whatever I want to cook, and if I need more space, it's easy to overflow into another room, so I've got used to it. But, being small (pretty tiny, actually) I have to put the space I have to good use, which means hanging things on walls if possible, and that leads to a) a very cluttered look, and b) me ruefully realizing that although my pot holders, utensils etc. are fully functional, they look a bit tired. The darkness, however, is a problem. I've gone from a big kitchen flooded with light built with maple cabinets and gentle green counters, to a 9-foot square windowless box with dark wood cabinets and black appliances. Oh, and beige walls; the same rental beige found throughout the whole house, which isn't in itself a bad colour, but my rather scruffy potholders, etc look awful near it. So they have been stuffed in a drawer, which meant that they were never on hand when I needed them. So, of course, I have managed to burn my hands on the oven a couple of times because...well, because I'm just always too lazy distracted to get them out and have them just lying around handily. They need to be on the wall, but it's such a small space, and the colours were all wrong, and, well, there were um, discolourations , if not actual stains, on my lovely old potholders.

So, what to do? Well, the one bright spot in this tiny box is a bright red fire extinguisher, and red is actually one possible solution to the problem that I can live with. So I have been hunting around for "red" bits and pieces, without a great deal of success. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this enterprise, but that was really immaterial because , frankly, there wasn't a lot to get. And yesterday I was looking at the red teatowels I'd got from Walmart thinking that they helped a bit, but not much. I couldn't find fabric that seemed to "go", I couldn't find utensils, and I was getting a bit down about it.

My second problem , which was actually only a very minor one, was that I was at a loose end. We'd planned a visit to the zoo today, but we'd had a storm warning, so called it off, and when I woke up to snow this morning, I was glad to be home inside, doing something. Anything. And I cast about me, as the saying goes, for something useful and productive to do, other than laundry. In opening a drawer full of cast-off clothing, some red caught my eye, and the sewing fairies started whispering in my ear . Here was an old skirt. Years ago, (ooh, my goodness, it must have been over thirty years ago!) it had been a bolt of fabric in a Florida fabric store; I had turned it into a regency-ish long dress for my woodstock period, about the time of leaving school and heading for uni. Then, having carted it around with me all over the globe, practically, it had sat in various boxes and drawers until I lost some weight about ten years ago, and I converted it into a long skirt. Then, of course, I found some weight again, so it went back into the drawers, until... the fairies found it for me. Along with a bargain scrap of thinsulate-type stuff for making a new tea cozy. And some sewing mojo! Wasn't that nice of them?


Below (linked) is the skirt, partially unpicked, just to make sure everything would work. And below that (the second link) is the result: a tea cozy, lined with an old t-shirt of matching colour; a large hanging oven mitt (a really good towelling one just re-covered with a removable, washable sleeve); a red tea towel with an appliqué border, and a rather scruffy towelling potholder with the worst stains appliqué-ed over with a splodgy floral bit made of t-shirt and skirt scraps. I've turned up the front bottom of the tea cozy so that you can inspect its t-shirt lining....


Total cost of refurbish:
Three dollars for the tea cozy lining stuff, of which I have used about a third.
Two dollars for some stick-on hooks which are not up yet.
Three dollars for tea towels a few weeks ago.


And I still have the front half of the skirt left!


[4.bp.blogspot.com]

[2.bp.blogspot.com]]]> Caroline Dish Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:03:50 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30285,30285#msg-30285 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30285,30285#msg-30285
Louisiana is also gearing up for Mardi Gras. Okay, I knew Mardi gras was connected to Shrove Tuesday and New Orleans, but I never realised before that it's about six weeks long, and that everybody does it! There are parades in every town- even in Leesville. Well, it's the kind of thing that Leesville wouldn't miss out on, even if theye are not very good- but there will be a parade, and floats, and parties, and throwing things at the crowd. Traditionally it's beads and candies that get thrown, but other "krewes" (i.e. organizations that do floats) with specialist leanings throw other things. I have been told that the Krewe Of Zulus in NO thows Coconuts..... ouch! I'm also reminded of Fasching, in catholic Germany. We used to take the kids to Fasching parades in our village, and they loved the candy throwing, of course. then there's the (rather ominous) saying ,that during Fasching, nobody is married.... I haven't heard anything similar to that down here. Not yet, anyway.

Anyway, almost any oganization here that has anything to do with kids- The Zoo, the schools, daycares, church youth groups etc are organizing craft parties to decorate masks, and to eat King Cake. These concoctions are startnig to appear on bakery shelves in Walmart, or in adverts for restaurants. From what I can see, it's a circle of bready mix rather like a cinnamon bun, which is stuffed with fruit (raspberry at Walmart, strawberry at the local baker's), covered with white glaceé icing and sprinkled liberally with sugar crystals. Green, purple and gold sugar crystals. Sounds disgusting? Everyone informs me that they are delicious. And they have a baby inside. For Good Luck. Which means that you have to buy another cake... I'm sure that there's a definite reason for having a baby inside a cake that the unsuspecting can break their teeth on, and I'm going to have to investigate. The concept reminds me so much of coins in Christmas pudding, and Bean cake for New Year.

Here's a blog with a recipe. Paula Deen is a popular cooking personality down here, and whilst her main meals seem waay too full of fat and salt and southern fried charm, I must admit her baking recipes seem to be okay. The blogger is completely new to me, though.

[www.skiptomylou.org]


What do you think, all you cooks out there? This recipe doesn't have that fruity filling, but might be a bit more traditional , for all that...]]> Caroline Dish Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:40:44 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30247,30247#msg-30247 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30247,30247#msg-30247
[www.guardian.co.uk]

Didn't we fight a war so we Americans would be free from the tyrannical "foods" like haggis, spotted dick, black pudding and toad in the hole?

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Dish Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:57:46 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30153,30153#msg-30153 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30153,30153#msg-30153
[www.aldenteblog.com]

And I hate to rub salt in the wound but it was 51 degrees when we got back from our walk this afternoon.

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Dish Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:15:06 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30090,30090#msg-30090 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30090,30090#msg-30090
[www.mydemy.com]

Edit: I just checked amazon to see if there were any reviews and it looks like there's still some bumps to be ironed out. It looks like you can type in new recipes but I'm not sure from reading if you can simply download them directly from your computer.]]> LisaRS Dish Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:13:55 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30024,30024#msg-30024 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30024,30024#msg-30024 Margaret S Dish Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:10:59 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30014,30014#msg-30014 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,30014,30014#msg-30014
Recently I have discovered at CVS Lindt chocolate bars that are flavored with both Sea Salt and Chili Pepper. Believe it or not, both of these are quite tasty.]]> Katlyn Dish Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:21:24 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,29798,29798#msg-29798 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,29798,29798#msg-29798
Whattya think...should I sell the rights to this show and retire?]]> JaneGS Dish Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:06:31 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,29748,29748#msg-29748 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?15,29748,29748#msg-29748
Eating dark leafy greens like spinach is supposed to slow down the degeneration so I want to eat more spinach. I don't each much spinach currently--sometimes adding it to salad in the summer when it's fresh. I do like it in enchiladas at Cantino Laredo, but have never attempted this at home. I do like it (somewhat) stewed to a massy disgusting pulp and drenched with vinegar and coated with salt and pepper, but a little of that goes a long way.

Ideas?]]> JaneGS Dish Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:57:31 -0700