What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[scorpa]

I'm going to be spending the rest of the evening baking cookies. A bit early for Christmas cookies, but the last day of class for my students is this week, and they've been such a great group this semester that I decided I'm going to treat them with goodies for the last day of class. My lab will get the leftovers, so I figure everyone's going to have a very good Wednesday.

Awww Moonbear you are the best prof ever, what a nice thing to do! My class at university is only 18 people so one morning one of the profs brought us breakfast! And somehow we all ended up with advent calenders...I'm not sure who those were courtesy of but it was nice! I'm thinking now it was to soften the blow of the evil lab finals they have been throwing at us this week :P

 

[Astronuc]

Eating a BlueBunny Eggnog Ice Cream Sandwich. It's pretty good.

http://www.bluebunny.com/

Chocolate Raspberry Bar - sounds
http://www.bluebunny.com/ProductDetail.aspx?currentcategoryid=5&productId=559

 

[Moonbear]

Awww Moonbear you are the best prof ever, what a nice thing to do! My class at university is only 18 people so one morning one of the profs brought us breakfast! And somehow we all ended up with advent calenders...I'm not sure who those were courtesy of but it was nice! I'm thinking now it was to soften the blow of the evil lab finals they have been throwing at us this week :P

See, I don't have to be nice to make up for exams...my students don't get any exams. Maybe that's why I like them so much: no grading! Though, I think they must already be in final exam panic mode for their other classes, because they seemed to dive after the caffeinated sodas before the snacks and cookies! I baked so many cookies, I had enough leftover for my whole department...everyone loved me today. (And anyone who trudged into work through the snow today deserved treats.)

 

[Moonbear]

Eating a BlueBunny Eggnog Ice Cream Sandwich. It's pretty good.

Is that like Evo's catnog?

 

[Astronuc]

Is that like Evo's catnog?

I have not idea. She hasn't tried it on me yet.

 

[Evo]

Mmmmm, the office animal killer just brought me some deer tenderloin he cooked. WOW, it's excellent!

The girl in the cube next to mine refused to try it, she said she's sure there are still parts of the animal on his bumper. She said it was road kill.

The flavor and texture of deer always reminds me of good beef liver. Now I'm craving liver and onions. But all I can ever find anymore is thick frozen slabs. I'm going to have to go to a real butcher shop to get some decent thinly sliced fresh liver.

Oooh catnog...

 

[turbo]

Mmmmm! Venison. I struck out this year. The too-warm weather this fall meant that almost everything except trees and some berry bushes were still vegetative into December, and the deer didn't have to forage much. It's hard to find deer when they can sleep comfortably all day.

 

[Evo]

We started to have an Indian summer, then WHAM, we're having the worse winter in the 14 years I've lived here and it's not even winter yet! They're saying we're going to get another 5" of snow tonight. This is very unusual here.

 

[Evo]

ALERT ALERT!

Food dilema!

It will probably be snowing when I leave work so I don't want to drive to the store and all I have in the fridge is a bunch of pork necks. (don't ask)

I was originally going to make some soup, but I just got through eating the last pot of soup I made and I'm sick of soup.

What else can I do with these? I have canned tomatoes, a dozen different types of beans, some pasta.

They are pretty meaty and Dr Foofer is pretty excited, he's been camping in front of the fridge waiting for them to come out.

 

[turbo]

Cube the pork (small) and either stir-fry it in a wok or in a pretty hot cast-iron pan with peanut oil, chopped onions and green peppers, salt and pepper. Mix in some curry powder and serve over noodles.

That's a pretty quick meal, and just the smells from the stir-fry ought to get your taste buds going. For variety, you might want to include snow peas, broccoli, brussels sprouts or some other vegetable with a distinctive flavor.

 

[Andre]

Alternately, how about 'porc au vin'?

Cube porks, chopped onions, some kind of smoked meat for flavor if avaible, a bit garlic, seasoning, whatever. fry until the onions are a bit glazed then pour some ounces of cheap red wine on it until the mass is partly covered. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add some sauce thickener, whatever you call it at the end. Serve with rice, mashed patatoes, couscous, spaghetti, whatever is around.

 

[Evo]

Cube the pork (small) and either stir-fry it in a wok or in a pretty hot cast-iron pan with peanut oil, chopped onions and green peppers, salt and pepper. Mix in some curry powder and serve over noodles.

That's a pretty quick meal, and just the smells from the stir-fry ought to get your taste buds going. For variety, you might want to include snow peas, broccoli, brussels sprouts or some other vegetable with a distinctive flavor.

This sounds great, but I don't have any veggies.

Alternately, how about 'porc au vin'?

Cube porks, chopped onions, some kind of smoked meat for flavor if avaible, a bit garlic, seasoning, whatever. fry until the onions are a bit glazed then pour some ounces of cheap red wine on it until the mass is partly covered. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add some sauce thickener, whatever you call it at the end. Serve with rice, mashed patatoes, couscous, spaghetti, whatever is around.

Oh, I have the ingredients for this!

 

[turbo]

This sounds great, but I don't have any veggies.

You don't have fresh staple vegetables (onion, green pepper, garlic, etc) on hand? I am confused. How can you cook without them? I'd feel like I was handcuffed if I didn't have at least those 3 fresh vegetables available, not to mention potatoes, pastas, canned and dried beans and our fresh-frozen garden vegetables. If you've got meats and the fresh staple vegetables, a stir-fry is just minutes away. You can whip it up while the egg noodles are cooking.

2 food-thread demerits for being unprepared!

 

[Evo]

You don't have fresh staple vegetables (onion, green pepper, garlic, etc) on hand? I am confused. How can you cook without them? I'd feel like I was handcuffed if I didn't have at least those 3 fresh vegetables available, not to mention potatoes, pastas, canned and dried beans and our fresh-frozen garden vegetables. If you've got meats and the fresh staple vegetables, a stir-fry is just minutes away. You can whip it up while the egg noodles are cooking.

2 food-thread demerits for being unprepared!

Since I'm all alone, I just don't keep as much fresh produce on hand as I used to. By the time I get off from work, I'm too tired to stop at the store.

I have one potato, some onions and a few baby carrots.

I'm not going to tell you that I've been known to eat cold soup right out of the can, the condensed kind, not the "ready to eat". Did you know that Cream of Mushroom soup eaten out of the can has the consistency of cold snot?

 

[Andre]

Alternately, how about 'porc au vin'?

Cube porks, chopped onions, some kind of smoked meat for flavor if avaible, a bit garlic, seasoning, whatever. fry until the onions are a bit glazed then pour some ounces of cheap red wine on it until the mass is partly covered. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add some sauce thickener, whatever you call it at the end. Serve with rice, mashed patatoes, couscous, spaghetti, whatever is around.

Oh, I have the ingredients for this!

Then, just try it, I'm convinced that you won't be disappointed. The orginal recipe is about "cocq au vin" of course, but with pork it works too. The seasoning is called 'bouquet garni' and should contain cloves and bay laurel leafs.

 

[scorpa]

Mmmmm! Venison. I struck out this year. The too-warm weather this fall meant that almost everything except trees and some berry bushes were still vegetative into December, and the deer didn't have to forage much. It's hard to find deer when they can sleep comfortably all day.

That is unfortunate Turbo. From what I hear it was a pretty good season here, apparently at home all you heard was the popping of shotguns. Our poor dog isn't very couragous so he spends most of hunting season huddled up in our porch...he is a 80 pound chicken :P


I have no food right now. My fridge contents include an old bag of carrots, some ketchup, cream cheese and 2 three year old beers. I'm going home next wednesday so I don't want to get groceries. I've made it for 4 weeks so perhaps I can make 5...or maybe I will have to get some this weekend if I can tear myself away from studying :(

 

[turbo]

I'm not going to tell you that I've been known to eat cold soup right out of the can, the condensed kind, not the "ready to eat". Did you know that Cream of Mushroom soup eaten out of the can has the consistency of cold snot?

Oh, man! You are just begging for more food-thread demerits! How can you abuse yourself this way? Canned soup is 'way bad, and cold canned soup is piling insult upon injury. I may be able to fix you up with a woods-bound mountain-man if you bring in a trailer-load of canned goods as a dowry, but if you don't learn to cook with some real food, you'll be dumped after the first winter.

My newest neighbor (Maine native who moved to Mass in 1969 and moved back this year) still doesn't know how to properly gut and clean out a deer. I promised to teach him, but neither of us even caught a glimpse of a white-tail this year due to the unseasonably warm temperatures. I'll teach him eventually, and we are going to list each other as alternates on next year's moose permit applications.

 

[turbo]

That is unfortunate Turbo. From what I hear it was a pretty good season here, apparently at home all you heard was the popping of shotguns. Our poor dog isn't very couragous so he spends most of hunting season huddled up in our porch...he is a 80 pound chicken :P


I have no food right now. My fridge contents include an old bag of carrots, some ketchup, cream cheese and 2 three year old beers. I'm going home next wednesday so I don't want to get groceries. I've made it for 4 weeks so perhaps I can make 5...or maybe I will have to get some this weekend if I can tear myself away from studying :(

Darn! The deer that got hauled into the weighing stations were fat and healthy, but they were few and far between.

My brother-in-law Jim (now deceased of pancreatic cancer that went into remission and came back to kill him 10 years later) had a pointer named Quincy. He was a friendly, quirky dog, and every time there was a thunderstorm, he would run to the front door and quiver and shake all over wanting to be let out. He was convinced that someone was hunting without him, and with each crack of thunder, he'd work the tree-lines looking for birds to retrieve. He was a nut, but such a sweetie, too!

Get some food, Scorpa! Even a little fry-up of hamburg, onion, garlic, peppers, etc can give you a boost, especially when you combine that with some potato, pasta, or basmati rice. You've got to make a little bit of time every day to cook, because you are what you eat. That sounds like a cliche, but it's true.

 

[turbo]

I've got to mention that my finances in college depended greatly on my ability to buy/sell guitars and amps, and milk what money I made playing frat parties on weekends. Sometimes things got a bit lean, and I would make some pea soup, lentil soup, or baked beans during the weekend, with varying appearances of bacon, ham, etc. Good weekends often found me making batches of Spanish rice, spaghetti, or even lasagna. The really lean weekends found me making "Fench soup" which consisted of a thin soup of rice, potato, onion, and canned tomatoes.

 

[Evo]

I've got to mention that my finances in college depended greatly on my ability to buy/sell guitars and amps, and milk what money I made playing frat parties on weekends. Sometimes things got a bit lean, and I would make some pea soup, lentil soup, or baked beans during the weekend, with varying appearances of bacon, ham, etc. Good weekends often found me making batches of Spanish rice, spaghetti, or even lasagna. The really lean weekends found me making "Fench soup" which consisted of a thin soup of rice, potato, onion, and canned tomatoes.

I pretty much live on lentils and other legumes, loved them all my life. There is a French soup my mother used to make for us when we were sick, onions, potatoes and carrots, pureed with a pat of butter floated in the bowl.. I used to look forward to getting sick so I could have that soup.

I still eat very frugally most of the time, only splurging once in awhile. Probably why my cholesteral and blood sugar levels are so good.

 

[turbo]

When things were getting lean, my mother would send me down into the cellar to bring up a jar of salted leeks and some canned tomatoes. She would combine these with potatoes, rice, and onions to make "French Soup" that was to die for. A nice hot bowl of that soup with a stack of Saltines and some butter was a killer meal.

 

[Moonbear]

Darn! The deer that got hauled into the weighing stations were fat and healthy, but they were few and far between.

That's too bad. I've seen plenty of road kill, so they're definitely out around here. Haven't heard from anyone if they've actually shot any yet. Mostly, I've been getting deer jerky as they've been cleaning out the freezers of whatever was leftover from last year making room for this year's deer.

 

[Evo]

That's too bad. I've seen plenty of road kill, so they're definitely out around here. Haven't heard from anyone if they've actually shot any yet. Mostly, I've been getting deer jerky as they've been cleaning out the freezers of whatever was leftover from last year making room for this year's deer.

I had fresh deer tenderloin today. My deer killer is on the ball.

Also, I couldn't find any decent calve's liver, so I bought some chicken livers and am going to have my Jewish step mother-in-law's world famous chopped chicken liver. Got to have schmaltz.

 

[Moonbear]

I had fresh deer tenderloin today. My deer killer is on the ball.

Ooh...yum! That is the BEST meat. My friend is away bird hunting this week, so I'm really hoping he's hunting chukars (if I spelled that right this time) while out.

 

[fourier jr]

the "cooking as art" crowd don't usually like alton brown very much, but the "cooking as science" crowd, like people here, seem to like him though. if you like alton brown you'll probably like this site also:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

 

[turbo]

the "cooking as art" crowd don't usually like alton brown very much, but the "cooking as science" crowd, like people here, seem to like him though. if you like alton brown you'll probably like this site also:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

I don't mind Alton Brown's shows, except when he is absolutely wrong,

like his show on knife-sharpening in which he dictated that aside from honing on a steel, all cooks should let their knives be sharpened on belt grinders by itinerant knife-sharpeners "like the pros do". That show is so far from right that it turns my stomach. The suggestion that people like butchers (who rely on nice, sharp knives every day) cannot keep their own knives sharp is stupid. Worse, the suggestion that you ought to turn over your knives to some yahoo with a belt-grinder is short-sighted, unless you are unable to learn how to maintain a steady sharpening angle with your knives on a water-lubricated diamond stone and sharpen your own knives. There are plenty of jigs and other fixtures that will help you do this, so you do not have to let somebody with a belt-grinder take lots of material off your blades, or ruin the temper by over-heating the edges.

 

[wolram]

I had myself a Stilton and mixed mushroom steak.

Steak fried 2mins a side, put mushrooms on top then the Stilton ,grill for a minute or two.
served with roasted baby beets, roasted honey glazed parsnips , new potatoes and onion gravy.

 

[Andre]

wow, a copious meal.

I had "hutspot". Mashed potatoes, cubed carots and oignons mixed together with a smoked sausage.

One of the oldest traditional recipes in Holland. The "Water Geuzen" (Dutch freedom fighters during the 80 year war) broke the Spanish siege in the night of 3 October 1574. In the morning a small orphan discovered that the Spanish camp was empty and he found a big pot with "Hutspot". Later, the water geuzen gave the starving populating herring and white bread. Of course traditionally, the Leideners still eat herring and white bread and "hutspot" on 3 October. Nowadays my Dutch residence is exactly in the area where the Water geuzen assembled before the battle.

"Leidens ontzet"
http://quotidiana.punt.nl/upload/Leidens_ontzet.jpg

Distribution of herring and white bread at the Relief of Leiden, in the background, smoke from the burning Spanish camp

Painting Otto van Veen in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

 

[Evo]

Should there be a link? I like hutspot, although my recipe calls for beef brisket.

 

[Andre]

Yes that's true http://www.ethnicrecipes.org/index.php?search=&category=dutch However the meat is mentioned seperately Hutspot with "klapstuk". The personal touch for more flavor is to replace the beef brisket with "rookworst".