Not So Much Work

Melba's Jammin said:

I

Quoted message said:

A year or to ago I was at the check counter of the grocery store and the
woman behind me noticed my bag of cranberries and said that she would like
to make cranberry sauce but didn't know how.

Now this is interesting to me. How old was she?
There's usually a recipe for making cranberry sauce on the bag of raw
berries.

I would say that she was in here late 20's or early 30s. Maybe she was
raised on the canned stuff. Both my mother's family and my father's always
made theirs, but most other people I knew used canned, which tastes more
like a thin. sweet jam than a nice [censored] condiment.

Dave Smith said:

I would say that she was in here late 20's or early 30s. Maybe she was
raised on the canned stuff. Both my mother's family and my father's always
made theirs, but most other people I knew used canned, which tastes more
like a thin. sweet jam than a nice [censored] condiment.

It is an interesting thing to me the way people will say one thing when
they mean another and the way the things they say when meaning something
else become so ubiquitous that they're not fooling anyone any more.

When people say "I'd love to (come, help), but I don't have time," I
know they mean that they don't hate the idea but they don't love it
enough to go out of their way.

I'm starting to think that asking for recipes or stating that one
doesn't know how to make something is another way of saying something
nice about food in general. It's revealing personal information:
"Cooking isn't my hobby or interest, but it's great that you enjoy it."
I'm starting to think that the right answer when someone a stranger
says that she doesn't know how to make something isn't to tell them, but
to ask what they enjoy doing instead.

--Lia

Christine Dabney <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

sf said:

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:53:16 -0800, Terry Pulliam Burd
<[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Curiosity drove me to follow the directions on the back of the bag.
This was when I was in my new-bride-learns-to-cook stage. I think that
may have actually been one of the discoveries that triggered my
passion for cooking: there is food out there that doesn't taste like a
can! (And I put a little orange juice in my cranberry sauce! I've
always wanted to try a soupcon of chambord, but been too chicken to
try it. Maybe this year...)

Quoted message said:

This year, I will try the idea I saw here of mixing jalapeno jelly in
with cranberry sauce (was it your idea?). Sounds delish.

This is what I have been making these past few years....and it is so
darn good!! I have a hard time not eating straight from the pan once
it has cooled down a bit. And it has a hard time making it to the
table,it is that good. And divine on a turkey sandwich!

This comes from food columnist and author Russ Parsons of the Los
Angeles Times.

Christine

Mom Parsons' Cranberries
Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 15 minutes plus 1 to 3 days
chilling time

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

3 cloves

3 allspice berries

2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks

1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries

Grated zest of 1 orange

Bring sugar, water, cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks to boil in
4-quart saucepan. Cook, stirring, until syrup is clear, about 3
minutes. Add cranberries and cook just until they begin to pop, about
5 minutes.

Remove from heat, add grated orange zest and cool. Refrigerate 1 to 3
days before serving. Remove cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks
before serving.

2 1/2 cups relish. 1/4-cup serving: 132 calories; 1 mg sodium; 0
cholesterol; 0 fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.41 gram
fiber.

I do something similar except I use less water and use brown sugar.
Sometimes I replace the water with orange juice.

--

The house of the burning beet-Alan

It'll be a sunny day in August, when the Moon will shine that night-
Elbonian Folklore

Giusi said:

"aem" <[email hidden]> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Okay, there's a discussion about foods that are too much trouble to
make. As we grow in cooking experience we sometimes try something we
thought was too much work and it turns out to be easy, or if not easy,
then do-able and worth the effort.

For a long time, I assumed that homemade egg noodles were something
only grandmothers and people with all day to cook could do. Then I
tried it, and it turned out to be dead easy and well worth the
trouble. I used to think that Chinese cha siu, usually called
barbecued pork, was something you could only get at Chinese delis or
restaurants. Then circumstances forced me to try it and again it
turned out to be easy. I'd be interested in hearing what others have
first avoided and now find routine...... -aem

I think even complicated foods are just many different easy steps. Example:
pirogi; are they really hard? Can they be harder than ravioli or Chinese
dumplings?

Not hard, just too much work! I don't make ravioli oftener than
every 10 years either. And to this date have not made Chinese
dumplings. I love pierogi enough that I will make my own if
necessary if I am desparate.

Kate

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
[email hidden]

Julia Altshuler said:

Quoted message said:

I would say that she was in here late 20's or early 30s. Maybe she was
raised on the canned stuff. Both my mother's family and my father's always
made theirs, but most other people I knew used canned, which tastes more
like a thin. sweet jam than a nice [censored] condiment.

It is an interesting thing to me the way people will say one thing when
they mean another and the way the things they say when meaning something
else become so ubiquitous that they're not fooling anyone any more.

When people say "I'd love to (come, help), but I don't have time," I
know they mean that they don't hate the idea but they don't love it
enough to go out of their way.

That may be, but It is enough of a challenge for most people to make a
simple dinner, never mind tackling new things. In the case of cranberry
sauce I knew that it was simple because my mother used to do it all the
time and I often helped. I can understand that some people who have never
done it might never even buy a package of cranberries to see that the
simple recipe is on the side of the bag. It is not like cooking up a batch
of jam and having to use sterile canning procedures.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Sqwertz said:

Dan Abel said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Sqwertz said:

Char sui, the pork, has never been duplicated at my home even

Always worked for me, although maybe I don't have high standards.

You probably feed from the bottom of barrel, Dan.

I smoke and grill everything, but I can't do char sui correctly
without a small smokehous/oven.

I do have an oven. It works for me.

"Dave Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Melba's Jammin said:

I

Quoted message said:

A year or to ago I was at the check counter of the grocery store and
the
woman behind me noticed my bag of cranberries and said that she would
like
to make cranberry sauce but didn't know how.

Now this is interesting to me. How old was she?
There's usually a recipe for making cranberry sauce on the bag of raw
berries.

I would say that she was in here late 20's or early 30s. Maybe she was
raised on the canned stuff. Both my mother's family and my father's always
made theirs, but most other people I knew used canned, which tastes more
like a thin. sweet jam than a nice [censored] condiment.

Growing up it was always the jellied can shaped cranberry ... stuff.
If someone told me they were making cranberry sauce themselves
I would have wondered Why. Who knows, maybe she will try it,
since she bothered to ask a total stranger. At least she knows there
is something besides The Can.

nancy

aem said:

Puester said:

Would you be willing to post the cha siu recipe? I've always though it
would be impossible to duplicate at home.

Here's the one I used when I didn't have easy access to good Chinese
delis. Garlic can be added, and you can vary the proportions. The
result will not be as red as that you buy because it lacks food
coloring. A lot of store-bought cha siu also has a more glazed
finish. You can get that by adding more honey when you baste it. -
aem

Thanks. Looks like quite a few ingredients but
not a difficult technique involved.

I'll try it soon.

gloria p

Melba's Jammin said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Dave Smith said:

A year or to ago I was at the check counter of the grocery store and the
woman behind me noticed my bag of cranberries and said that she would like
to make cranberry sauce but didn't know how.

Now this is interesting to me. How old was she?
There's usually a recipe for making cranberry sauce on the bag of raw
berries.

When I was a newlywed some 40+ years ago, I was in a supermarket picking
through a big display of raw spinach (Can you imagine--they used to sell
it in bulk, not bagged or tied in bunches!)

Two "older" ladies (must have been late 40's, early 50's) stopped to ask
me how to cook it. They had never cooked anything but frozen spinach.
I was flabbergasted and still am whenever I remember the episode.

gloria p

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:12:46 -0700, Christine Dabney
<[email hidden]> fired up random neurons and synapses to
opine:

Quoted message said:

This is what I have been making these past few years....and it is so
darn good!! I have a hard time not eating straight from the pan once
it has cooled down a bit. And it has a hard time making it to the
table,it is that good. And divine on a turkey sandwich!

<snip>

Okay, girl, this better be good, because I just switched gears from my
old Tried and True and am going to try your recipe. And remember: I
know where you live <g>

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
--
"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "meatloaf" with "cox"

Terry Pulliam Burd said:

Okay, girl, this better be good, because I just switched gears from my
old Tried and True and am going to try your recipe. And remember: I
know where you live <g>

No you don't...LOL

But Koko does...

Make it now though..cause it needs the day or so to mellow and get all
the wonderful flavors...

Let me know how it is..

Christine, taunting Squeaks...

aem <[email hidden]> wrote in news:610b9211-f6b6-4eb1-aef9-
[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Okay, there's a discussion about foods that are too much trouble to
make. As we grow in cooking experience we sometimes try something we
thought was too much work and it turns out to be easy, or if not easy,
then do-able and worth the effort.

... I'd be interested in hearing what others have
first avoided and now find routine...... -aem

Stir-fried noodles (pad thai, char kway teow, mee goreng etc)
Curry from scratch
Stock

K

aem said:

Okay, there's a discussion about foods that are too much trouble to
make. As we grow in cooking experience we sometimes try something we
thought was too much work and it turns out to be easy, or if not easy,
then do-able and worth the effort.

For a long time, I assumed that homemade egg noodles were something
only grandmothers and people with all day to cook could do. Then I
tried it, and it turned out to be dead easy and well worth the
trouble. I used to think that Chinese cha siu, usually called
barbecued pork, was something you could only get at Chinese delis or
restaurants. Then circumstances forced me to try it and again it
turned out to be easy. I'd be interested in hearing what others have
first avoided and now find routine...... -aem

I have done well with hollandaise sauce. I learned ney insisted I do
the turkeys when we got tired of the over-emphasis on garlic flavored
turkey using the turkey bag turkey mutilator method.

Of course when the previous turkey actor compliments the flavor and
juiciness of the turkey
it somehow seems to always go to the brand of turkey.

Christine Dabney said:

Dave Smith said:

Julia Altshuler said:

Chicken stock
Pie crusts
Growing herbs
Pesto

I don't have a problem making chicken stock, but I don't use it often
enough to keep it hanging around in the fridge until I need it. I suppose I
could freeze it, but then it would likely end up in the mystery pile at the
back of the freezer.

I make a big pot every of stock every so often, and I reduce it down.
Then I put it in ice cube trays and freeze it. I keep the cubes in a
ziploc bag in the front of the freezer. It is really fast to reach in
and pull out a cube of stock for whatever reason. I use it a lot.

Christine

I recently kept a chicken carcass in the fridge trying to firgure what
to do with it and finally tossed it.

I am looking forward to using this with turkey. Thanks

Terry Pulliam Burd said:

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:45:33 -0600, "jmcquown"
<[email hidden]> fired up random neurons and synapses to
opine:

Quoted message said:

And *looks* like the can, too! LOL Mom always served this. She'd chill
the can, open it and dump it on a plate... and there it sat, looking like a
can-shaped jell-O mold. I never ate cranberry sauce until I had the stuff
made from scratch. I like it with a little grated orange peel added.

Yup - I didn't realize that cranberry sauce could actually be shaped
in any way other than a can (complete with ridges) until I discovered
an actual Real Bag Of Cranberries at the market as a young bride.
Curiosity drove me to follow the directions on the back of the bag.
This was when I was in my new-bride-learns-to-cook stage. I think that
may have actually been one of the discoveries that triggered my
passion for cooking: there is food out there that doesn't taste like a
can! (And I put a little orange juice in my cranberry sauce! I've
always wanted to try a soupcon of chambord, but been too chicken to
try it. Maybe this year...)

Orange juice, the great equalizer from tartness without reducing it's
effect..

Dan Abel said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Puester said:

aem said:

Okay, there's a discussion about foods that are too much trouble to
make. As we grow in cooking experience we sometimes try something we
thought was too much work and it turns out to be easy, or if not easy,
then do-able and worth the effort.

For a long time, I assumed that homemade egg noodles were something
only grandmothers and people with all day to cook could do. Then I
tried it, and it turned out to be dead easy and well worth the
trouble. I used to think that Chinese cha siu, usually called
barbecued pork, was something you could only get at Chinese delis or
restaurants. Then circumstances forced me to try it and again it
turned out to be easy. I'd be interested in hearing what others have
first avoided and now find routine...... -aem

Would you be willing to post the cha siu recipe? I've always though it
would be impossible to duplicate at home.

Pretty simple. Go to the Asian store. Buy a pack of BBQ pork mix.
Follow the directions on the packet.

I bought a packet of red pork mix, very red, too red and fake looking
for me, and the strength was
strong compared to the amount of pork mentioned in the directions for
some reason, but worked around that.

After forgetting about it I looked around and found it, I still have a
good amount. Always got a mmmm response from it though and have a
mountain of pork in the freezer..