USMB Coffee Shop IV

[blackhawk]

 

[Montrovant]

It's Summer, I sleep in every day. The little one likes to stay up late and sleep late.

Last night the little one went to bed in her bed at about 11. I think it was around 4 AM that she came and woke me up saying she'd had a bad dream. So she climbed into my bed and we went back to sleep. Today I asked her if she remembered what her bad dream had been. She said that I let her and her friend from next door (who's even younger than she is) drive a car by themselves. Then, I got thrown in jail.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I have always believed for a long time that happiness is the exception and not the norm. That happiness is those small moments in your life that are too short; the few seconds in which they occur can never capture the defining moment that it was. I thought happiness was remembering those moments. Those exceptional times.
I think differently now. Happiness can be the norm.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Speaking of rice wild rice is and always has been the staple food of my grandfather's people, the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwa/Chippewa), it's 10 times more healthy than even brown rice and I hate the taste of wild rice.......

Yes, I haven't been able to develop a taste for wild rice either. But we adjusted to brown rice quite easily.

Brown rice is good and I can even handle long grain and wild rice mix. Be careful with brown rice, read the label as some is nothing more than dyed white rice. Another I have had that is wonderful is black or Emperor's rice but it ain't cheap....... not by a long shot.

Brown rice is good with mushrooms, onions and pork. Better than white actually.

Mushrooms is another thing I like but the wife won't eat.

My brothers call mushrooms "death apples".

 

[gallantwarrior]

I have always believed for a long time that happiness is the exception and not the norm. That happiness is those small moments in your life that are too short; the few seconds in which they occur can never capture the defining moment that it was. I thought happiness was remembering those moments. Those exceptional times.
I think differently now. Happiness can be the norm.

Happiness is certainly the norm in my life. Only the fact that my parents did not live to share my happiness...that's a bit o' bittersweet.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I really don't have that much of a sweat tooth. I like bittersweet chocolate and fruit that is tart.

I prefer dark bittersweet also.
I have a definite weakness for a good cheesecake though. And cake doughnuts. And good pie. I think I will place an internet order for one of Ringels...cause I never bake. I can cook just about anything, but never baked.

Cheesecake is one of my special desserts. I have a fabulous old family recipe. It's not overly sweet, either - the cheese makes it a tad savory. It also has a sour cream layer.

I hope I never happen to find myself relying on you for dessert!

I don't eat cheesecake at all. Yuck. I'm not a fan of cheese most of the time with dinner, certainly not as part of dessert. I also don't like sour cream.

And while I'm talking about putting non-dessert foods into dessert, what's with carrot cake? Why would you want to ruin a perfectly good cake by making it with carrots? I like carrots as a snack, or in salad, but cake?

Too bad. Both cheesecake (made with homemade cream cheese here) and carrot cake are absolutely delicious. I have people who request my carrot cake!

 

[gallantwarrior]

You folks are just going to freak...

My favorite cake and yes my mother made for me was Mayonnaise cake.

Wha...wha...what? Got the recipe? I make my own mayonnaise, so it might be worth the try.

 

[gallantwarrior]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

 

[gallantwarrior]

You folks are just going to freak...

My favorite cake and yes my mother made for me was Mayonnaise cake.

I used to eat butter sandwiches.

Those are good too.

I used to eat peanut butter and dill pickle slices sandwiches. Sounds bad now.

Have you ever tried peanut butter and marshmallow cream sammiches?

 

[boedicca]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

Omigawd. Tortilla chips (real tortilla chips, not Doritos) and Guac are DIVINE!

 

[Ringel05]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

Flagellant........

 

[gallantwarrior]

Basmati, not sticky like Jasmine.

You don't seem like the Minute Rice type...I was at least hoping not that

No, was raised on that kind of crap, margarine, Miracle Whip, Velveeta, etc. When I discovered real food I never went back. The primary reason I use the powdered forms is when I'm cooking for the wife, she likes the flavor but onions and garlic don't like her in their normal state, she will bur them all night long. Frozen veggies means I don't have to make a trip to the store every day to buy fresh and considering I was raised on over cooked, mushy canned vegetables frozen is a huge step up. Don't get me wrong I prefer fresh veggies but I don't have a problem with frozen either.

Sounds like my childhood to the T.
My mother was, and still is, a terrible cook. Her idea of Sunday dinner was those "Banquet Salisbury Steaks" ...canned corn and boxed mash potato mix.
Her entire spice collection was salt. pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and chili powder...that's about it. EVerything was canned and boxed, that was the 60's and 70's.
Same as you, I discovered real food in my early 20's...and learned to cook..and never went back. I buy so little processed foods, almost zero. Ketchup, mustard and Hellman's mayo is pretty much the only prepared things I eat.
And one other thing...canned carrots...why in all that is holy do these things exist? They taste absolutely dreadful, and it's not like slicing real carrots is that hard.

I'll up the ante...I make my own ketchup and mayo. It's not that hard and you can leave out the sugar, extra salt, and all those unpronounceable preservatives. Just make small batches, more often. I have a new batch of home-made Worcestershire on the stove right now, too. Again, no additional salt or sugar in the mix and it tastes so good!

I actually do have a homemade mayo recipe that I use in a pinch if I'm out of the storebought stuff. Never tried ketchup or worchestershire sauce.

Both recipes call for honey, or sugar. I leave both sugar and salt out of the recipe and am quite satisfied with the results. The trick to mayo is gradually adding the oil of choice until emulsification begins. Otherwise, the whole mess separates and becomes, well...a mess.

 

[gallantwarrior]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

Omigawd. Tortilla chips (real tortilla chips, not Doritos) and Guac are DIVINE!

No argument, but I do have to pay attention to my dietary intake. Plus...just about anything 'corn' includes GMO corn in this country, especially. I try my best to avoid GMO trash.

 

[gallantwarrior]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

Flagellant........

I confess, I do like my kettle chips!

 

[boedicca]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

Omigawd. Tortilla chips (real tortilla chips, not Doritos) and Guac are DIVINE!

No argument, but I do have to pay attention to my dietary intake. Plus...just about anything 'corn' includes GMO corn in this country, especially. I try my best to avoid GMO trash.

GMO doesn't bother me. Most cultivated plants we eat were genetically engineered (although in lower tech ways).

Tortilla chips are a treat. I find if I weigh myself everyday and generally eat healthy and in moderation, that I can splurge without gaining weight. The main thing is not to make splurges The Lifestyle.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I just got back a little while ago from taking something called the COMPASS test, it's a placement test for colleges. I'm trying to get into an online course from an in-state tech school. I did great until I got to the algebra, then I didn't remember how any of that shit gets done.

Took algebra 3 times (including college), aced it every time...... I couldn't do an algebraic equation today if my life depended on it.

Only class I ever failed in HS was Algebra. Later, I aced Trigonometry...and figured out Algebra at that point in time. Gotta have AG to work through Trig.

 

[gallantwarrior]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

Omigawd. Tortilla chips (real tortilla chips, not Doritos) and Guac are DIVINE!

No argument, but I do have to pay attention to my dietary intake. Plus...just about anything 'corn' includes GMO corn in this country, especially. I try my best to avoid GMO trash.

GMO doesn't bother me. Most cultivated plants we eat were genetically engineered (although in lower tech ways).

Tortilla chips are a treat. I find if I weigh myself everyday and generally eat healthy and in moderation, that I can splurge without gaining weight. The main thing is not to make splurges The Lifestyle.

There's genetically engineered, and there's genetically engineered. If selective breeding has improved the stock, that's one thing. If inserting genetic material that would never have (and should never have had) found a place in the genetic makeup of an organism "improves" it...yeah, I am NOT a fan. Consider unintended consequences...

 

[gallantwarrior]

As I've stated numerous times my weakness is potato chips, they're my comfort food, I try to limit myself to one 10 lb bag a month. Used to eat a whole 2 lb bag in one sitting when I was a teenager.

I have fortunately managed to divorce myself from chips, potato or otherwise.

Omigawd. Tortilla chips (real tortilla chips, not Doritos) and Guac are DIVINE!

No argument, but I do have to pay attention to my dietary intake. Plus...just about anything 'corn' includes GMO corn in this country, especially. I try my best to avoid GMO trash.

GMO doesn't bother me. Most cultivated plants we eat were genetically engineered (although in lower tech ways).

Tortilla chips are a treat. I find if I weigh myself everyday and generally eat healthy and in moderation, that I can splurge without gaining weight. The main thing is not to make splurges The Lifestyle.

GMO (using modern definitions) should bother you, very, very much.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Mom makes the best pastries around. Period. Her pies are scrumptious. The crust, in my opinion is the benchmark for great pies, is consistently flakey and light and baked to perfection. Her cakes are also moist and tasty. But Mom cannot make a biscuit if the family fortune was in the balance.

Her first stabs at bicuitry were pitiful. Those biscuits, if I might call them biscuits, had the mass and weight of artillery shells. If they were soaked in gravy for a few weeks, they might be cutable with a cleaver or large machete. But they were not for human consumption. Such a mass in the digestive tract could lead to permanent and irreparable damage.

One batch she tossed from the back porch. They made impact craters in the lawn. Divots that Pop and I had to fill in with top soil from the garden and seed so that in the future grass might once again sprout up there. Captain, our dog, promptly peed on them and the song birds that frequented Pop's bird feeders refused to peck at them for fear of damage to their fragile beaks.

Mom, however, was undeterred. She continued to try to satisfy her family's craving for a delicacy we had heard of, but have never enjoyed. Bisquick recipes eluded her. The 'from scratch' methods of ingredients like baking soda and baking powder and what ever else she added like talcum powder or portland cement all turned out disastrously. Still, she beat on, like boats against the current, but there was no biscuit recipe to be found, even in the Great Gatsby.

Dumplings? No problem. They were dolloped upon chicken stew and thoroughly gobbled down by everyone but me as I do not eat poultry. Dinner rolls? Superb! Flakey little delights ready to soak in a pat of butter or wipe latent gravy from the dinner plate. Even magnificent loaves of bread; white, rye, whole wheat, pumpernickel all came out as if the were delivered fresh from heaven's own bakery.

Mom, the gourmand artist triumphed at every thing she sought to make. Only the lowly biscuit eluded her expertise.

Good biscuits are an art. I'll put mine up against most, but the perfect pie crust made from scratch too often eludes me. I suppose we all have our gifts.

Lard and ice cold water make the best pie crust. My biscuits aren't too shabby, either.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Mom makes the best pastries around. Period. Her pies are scrumptious. The crust, in my opinion is the benchmark for great pies, is consistently flakey and light and baked to perfection. Her cakes are also moist and tasty. But Mom cannot make a biscuit if the family fortune was in the balance.

Her first stabs at bicuitry were pitiful. Those biscuits, if I might call them biscuits, had the mass and weight of artillery shells. If they were soaked in gravy for a few weeks, they might be cutable with a cleaver or large machete. But they were not for human consumption. Such a mass in the digestive tract could lead to permanent and irreparable damage.

One batch she tossed from the back porch. They made impact craters in the lawn. Divots that Pop and I had to fill in with top soil from the garden and seed so that in the future grass might once again sprout up there. Captain, our dog, promptly peed on them and the song birds that frequented Pop's bird feeders refused to peck at them for fear of damage to their fragile beaks.

Mom, however, was undeterred. She continued to try to satisfy her family's craving for a delicacy we had heard of, but have never enjoyed. Bisquick recipes eluded her. The 'from scratch' methods of ingredients like baking soda and baking powder and what ever else she added like talcum powder or portland cement all turned out disastrously. Still, she beat on, like boats against the current, but there was no biscuit recipe to be found, even in the Great Gatsby.

Dumplings? No problem. They were dolloped upon chicken stew and thoroughly gobbled down by everyone but me as I do not eat poultry. Dinner rolls? Superb! Flakey little delights ready to soak in a pat of butter or wipe latent gravy from the dinner plate. Even magnificent loaves of bread; white, rye, whole wheat, pumpernickel all came out as if the were delivered fresh from heaven's own bakery.

Mom, the gourmand artist triumphed at every thing she sought to make. Only the lowly biscuit eluded her expertise.

Good biscuits are an art. I'll put mine up against most, but the perfect pie crust made from scratch too often eludes me. I suppose we all have our gifts.

I do know that Mom's pie crust recipe is deceptively simple. Flour, water (ice water), salt and a combination of chilled butter and lard. Cold, as it turns out, is the essential quality of the ingredients.

I do agree that lard content is a factor. And that is staple found in few kitchens these days, including mine. I may need to rethink that. Greasing your griddle with lard or even hard shortening makes heavenly pancakes. I don't know why that makes a difference, but it does.

Lard makes the best seasoning for cast iron cookware, generally. I have had great success substituting coconut oil for lard, though. The flavor of subsequent creations is somewhat different.