Today I'm grateful for sharing good food...

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Today I'm grateful for sharing good food...

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Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 5/31/2008 10:30:05 AM

Thankful one

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I thought I might encourage a grateful outlook on our lives to discuss foods that we are grateful for and for the special times created preparing, eating and sharing foods with people we love.

This thread's inspiration comes from Jude who wrote,

"It's nice that she feels able to share her worries with me, and also to be able to share food with someone who really appreciates home cooking of the traditional kind."

Thanks Jude!

I realized I had no idea of what home cookin' (as we say down South) meant to Jude or Chloe.

We all have emotional connections with foods and special meals and I want to celebrate the richness of our food experiences.

Down South traditional home cookin' is a mess of turnip greens or collards (cooked with a hunk of fatback [pork]), cornbread with sorghum molasses, a tall glass of very sweet tea, and barbeque (cooked by men on a nearby smoky outdoor grill who have one hand on a beer) served on a red square plastic tablecloth. Ideally it is eaten with a big group that includes a couple of cousins you grew up with on an older wooden picnic table outside with a few hundred ants with the hot sun pouring down. The noise level is usually high with the women arranging the food while sharing words like "Honeychile" and "Shore enuf'" and "'(Mercy) Sakes alive" and the men much more quietly playing horseshoes occasionally discussing the latest hunt and the work done recently on their trucks while listening to old fashioned "cry in your beer" country music.

What is involved in special meals with those you love?

Post #: 1

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 5/31/2008 6:25:46 PM

buttington

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T.O. Well, in these days of the takeaway and ready meal, home cooking, in my view, is anything cooked from scratch at home.

Normally Chloe would have had something like a curry (home-cooked by her dad) or a fish and chips ready meal. Her dad seems to live on these 2 meals, with no green vegetables at all. Now Chloe loves plain British fare with plenty of vegetables. I've never known a child to so love cabbage! Her favourite meal cooked by me is sausages (port and apple) mashed potato, cabbage and carrots. She also loves a traditional roast dinner.

Today we had a mix of ready meal and home cooking. Roast chicken, supermarket cooked cheddar cheese/pototo mash, with several fresh vegetables, followed by bananas and custard. Very ordinary, plain food. Chloe's verdict was, "Mmmm, that was nice." What ,more can you want?

If I was cooking for a special family meal it would probably be a roast of some kind with lots of vegetables. There would also be a pudding because I like them.

Jude

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RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 5/31/2008 9:59:21 PM

Hildegard

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Thankful one, I basically agree with Jude's definition of home cooking. I might allow using some paritally prepared side dishes that are then improved upon with other ingredients and seasoning.

For my husband's 93. birthday we had a rather international meal, Smoked Wild Alaska Salmon canapes, cucumber salad, chicken curry with rice, and for dessert Austrian Hazelnuttorte, my mother's recipe. Our neighbor supplied the Champagne!

We might have stuffed cabbage with dillsauce, goulash, or stuffed peppers in tomatosauce as examples of Austrian home cooking.
Guten Appetit!
Edda

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RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/1/2008 12:22:03 AM

Thankful one

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Jude,
I have been thinking about the bananas and custard. Mmmmm.

Edda,
I am thinking about the cabbage that you and Jude refer to as I rarely cook it. Sounds good.

Thanks for sharing your stories.

Post #: 4

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/1/2008 7:53:22 AM

buttington

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Edda, with the exception of the chicken curry, which my digestion can't cope with, Leon's birthday meal sounds scrumptious!!

T.O. as a child I never ate cabbage, thinking it absolutely horrible!! But I have discovered that it was the way it was cooked. Of course, when cooked at school it was disgusting, but my Mother tended to overcook vegetables, and cabbage was over-boiled and had a pinch of bicarbonate of soda added to keep it green!!!!!!!!! The soda destroys the vitamin C, which my Mother didn't know, but it was the over cooking which was the problem. I slice the cabbage (with dark green leaves for a healthy preference) and lightly steam it.
When Chloe first came here she was 4 years old and had never eaten cabbage, but she loved it from the start, which I find extraordinary.
Also, white cabbage is the main ingredient in yummy coleslaw.

From my interest in herbs, I was amazed to read that the humble cabbage has a long list of healing remedies attached to it and is particularly good for the liver which is my weak spot.

Jude

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RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/2/2008 1:09:59 AM

Marie M.

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Thankful one, this is an interesting thread. LOL. Everyone likes/loves foods. I have a question for you. Many years ago I was down south to visit with a relative's mother. Hot Coffee, Mississippi. She had introduced me to tomato sandwiches, which they ate often. Is this common? It is just sliced tomatoes and mayo on a sandwich. Everyone once in a while I have to have one, even after 30 years.

Marie

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RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/2/2008 9:22:29 AM

Thankful one

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Marie,
Tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches are a definite hit down here.

They are usually served cold on a warm summer day and are generally from home garden grown fresh tomatoes.

The tomotoes are generally sliced on the thick side.

They are generally served on white bread, although I like them on whole grain.

I find them quite refreshing.

Are there different foods in your area?

Post #: 7

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/2/2008 1:08:24 PM

Thankful one

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Maria,
Another Southern dish that many outside the south do not regularly enjoy is sweet potato fries and sweet potato chips.

Around here the Amish build special large barns to cure their sweet potatoes for several months to bring out their sweetness.

At the end of several months, the sweet potatoes are so sweet that they are dessert.

They are one of my favorite all-time foods if cooked right.

Post #: 8

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/3/2008 11:50:10 PM

Marie M.

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Thankful one, thanks for sharing sweet potato fries and chips. I have never heard of them. It is not something I have seen here in the midwest. Do you dip in ketchup like french fries or use any type of sauce?

Another time in Mississippi and Alabama, I saw alot of the eateries had Po Boy sandwiches. I had never heard of them before. Can you explain them for us?

Marie

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RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/5/2008 11:34:25 PM

Thankful one

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Marie,
There are many types of po' boy sandwiches. What I hear is that they were started because poor people used to put whatever they had from the garden and a little meat and called it a sandwich. Now they have become more similar to a sub but down here they may have almost anything that's a vegetable on them.

The one above is a shrimp one and the one below is with eggplant.

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RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/5/2008 11:45:09 PM

Thankful one

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Marie,
No discussion of Southern food would be complete without discussing two things. Pecans are historically Southern and are in many more dishes than just the pecan pies that everyone is familar with.

Another popular Southern candy was started in 1912 and was the first combination candy bar. It's a mixture of marshmallow, caramel and peanuts covered with chocolate. They are a real mouth sensation and should really be appreciated by anyone who has a sweet tooth.

Post #: 11

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/6/2008 1:35:28 PM

buttington

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All this talk of food is making me feel hungry

Must be tea-time.

Jude

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Post #: 12

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/10/2008 10:44:11 AM

Thankful one

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Here's another Southern dish we enjoy. Hominy grits are usually served with butter and sugar or honey.

Juliana,
Do you eat strudel?

Jude,
When you serve tea, what kind of tea service do you use?

Marie,
How do you barbeque out there?

Joe,
Do you guys use the "barbie" as they say here at Outback steakhouses to cook meat and do you ever eat kangaroo?

Post #: 13

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/10/2008 1:11:51 PM

J1937

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T.O.,
Yes, as an Austrian I often eat Strudel and appreciate it. There are different kinds of it, depending on the filling. The most popular, of course, is Apfelstrudel. I do not make it myself, as the dough has to be made so thin "that you can read the newspaper through it". I have never managed that.

There was a story in my family that my grandmother used to start crying when she happened to tear a hole in it. I buy the dough ready-made and fill it according to my taste with thinly cut apples, cane sugar, cinnamon and nuts.

Juliana

Post #: 14

RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/10/2008 3:38:28 PM

buttington

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T.O. By "service" do you mean cups and saucers etc?

I'm afraid I've succumbed to the modern custom of serving tea in mugs. I haven't served a formal 'tea' in many a year.

Jude

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RE: Today I'm grateful for sharing good food... - 6/10/2008 4:18:18 PM

Thankful one

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Juliana,
Your strudel sounds worth making a trip to Austria to try.

Jude,
In the states, (as we think you call it) I think most people believe the English still serve tea in tea cups in mid-afternoon and throughout the day.