July 03, 2008

• I am pleased to say that the only thing on this list that I don't eat at least once in a while is sardines. But I do take horse-pill-sized fish oil tablets twice a day, which should make up for that.
• hmmmm... eat beets all the time, chard too. cabbage occasionally. cinnamon??? are they joking? do these people not eat oatmeal? pomegranate juice: yum dried plums/pumpkin seeds, nah sardines: sure! turmeric: thats in indian food, right? I eat indian food frozen blueberries?? dont these people eat oatmeal?? canned pumpkin: only in pies
• I do eat fresh from the gourd pumpkin a lot tho...
• Does salmon count as sardines? /Homer
• Sorry, my diet consists entirely of candy and pork-and-beans now.
• I wish I could afford really nice sardines. I had some fancy-ass gourmet sardines once and they were so incredibly nice. Mr. meredithea and I are on a sorta-kinda-healthy eating kick, and I've added lots of nuts and seeds to the diet. The next step is making yummy fruit smoothies with soft tofu and soy milk (I can't stand the stuff with cereal, but I loves me some soy milk in beverages.)
• *coughs, but says nothing*
• 12. Red wine
• Who the hell says I don't eat these things? Sounds like another "authority" with letters after their name assuming that most people are stupid.
• I'm sure medusa just said something saucy, but my innocent mind cannot figure it out. Anyway, beets - fuck yeah. I also made a fear-based purchase of goji berries yesterday, unsure as to whether its supposed remission-extending properties are to be trusted. A bit like deciding to put the same lottery numbers on every week. You're fucking trapped.
• I hate pumpkins. I mean I fuckin' loathe 'em. Also egg plant. They can all just fuck off. Blech.
• Briank and Medusa, you are way ahead of me. The only thing on the list i eat sometimes is cabbage. I will go out this afternoon and get a sardine.
• Is that what you kids are calling it these days?
• Pumpkin pie, Hank. PUMPKIN PIE. No eggplants, either? You are not HUMAN, sir.
• Anyone tried Quinoa? David Lynch likes it so that makes me nervous...
• I'm with Hank on this one. My pumpkin aversion was reinforced this past Hallowe'en, when I set about carving a Jack o'lantern, and discovered that, despite its fresh appearance, the pumpkin had totally rotted away on the inside. I couldn't vomit fast enough.
• Another pumpkin-icky vote here. Horrible stuff. And also eggplant. Something to do with the texture of both, I think. As well as tasting vaguely of old sock. Yuck. Quinoa on the other hand, is ace. Especially if you chuck a stock cube in the water while you're cooking it.
• Never tried quinoa. Never seen David Lynch cook before. Hope I never do again.
• He's no Alton Brown, that's for sure.
• *makes a giant vat of curry pumpkin soup*
• *vomits* *compares*
• More punkin' pie for ME!! (don't like punkin' pie, WEIRDO) Yummy yummy yummy fried eggplant straight from the garden. Itty bitty baby ones. Eat 'em up! MonkeyFilter: I wish I could afford really nice sardines* MonkeyFilter: I couldn't vomit fast enough. How do you know it's a really nice sardine? Where would you get them?
• Haven't had Swiss chard since I were a wee lass. Mom used to grow it in the garden. A bit bitterer than spinach. Quinoa is great in a cold tabouli-like salad.
• *tugs at Gramma's apron, pleading for just one more little slice of pumpkin pie*
• I like sweet potato pie. Punkin pie is kinda icky. You know it's a really nice sardine when it says "please" and "thank you."
• Well I went to my grocery store in search of the nice sardine. The good news: they were on sale at 99 cents. The bad news: they come in a tin and they don't let you open it to pick out the nice one. I bought it and learned 4 things: 1. Sardines don't have heads. 2. They are delicious. 3. There are different flavors - lemon sauce, tomato sauce, soya oil and like that. 4. The sardines did not come with their own set of hiking Germans as suggested by the sardine website. Where are my hiking Germans? Do I have to send away for them?
• 1. Motherfuckin' beets. Love 'em 2. Cabbage. Check 3. Swiss chard: They protect the Pope and are also green and leafy. Never had 4. Cinnamon: Sometimes spelled cinammon. Hate it but have some occasionaly 5. Pomegranate juice: A type of juice. Nope 6. Dried Plums. The food previously known as pruny prune-faced prune fruit. Sometimes 7. Pumpkin seeds: These are packed with magnesium. Also available in .44 hollow point. Sometimes 8. Sardines: Mash them up, use as a spread or as figurines. Nope 9. Turmeric: Sounds like tumor. Don't think about that. Yep 10. Frozen blueberries: a.k.a. "tundra testicles" Yep 11. Canned Pumpkin: i see the big-assed can, but where da seeds at? No way Like Hank I detest both Pumpkin and Eggplant.
• There are different flavors - lemon sauce, tomato sauce Gags on the idea of flavored sauces for sardines. OIL! Only oil. Or maybe packed in water. NOT TOMATO SLOPS!
• Seriously, sardines can be crazy expensive, but the fancy ones (which I've only been lucky enough to afford a couple of times) are crazy yummy.
• Bah! Sorry about that. here's the link.
• Please xplain diff in taste, etc. between common grocery store canned sardines and your crazy expensive ones. About once a year I get a craving for a sardine on saltine appetizer, ditto pickled herring. But not more often.
• Okay, this is probably a stupid question, but I've never had sardines before. What exactly do you do with them? Drape their soggy little corpses over a cracker and chow down? What about the bones? I have trouble wrapping my my head around the concept. But I'm willing to give it a shot and buy a can the next time I'm at the store, if someone can provide guidance.
• On posting, Ralph I think you just answered my question. Eerie.
• NOT TOMATO SLOPS! *slides tomatoey sardines underneath napkin*
• I think sardines age in the can (ferment?), and supposedly the older they are the better they taste. But that is hearsay, I never had old ones.
• It's OK, SB. Enjoy. To each their own taste. *gags* Mech: Sardines in oil. Mash 'em up, skin, bones and all. No problem with the bones. Good calcium and you'll never know they're there. Spread the resulting mushy goodness on toast. EAT 'EM UP!!! YUM!!! I know, I know. The oil ones are more fattening. But oh, so yummy. Sardines without bones and skin? What? If they don't have their little tails, how do you pick them up to eat them? *scratches head in puzzlement* *checks pantry, puts sardines on shopping list*
• 1. If beets are good enough for Kit, they're good enough for me. Also, borscht. 2. Mmmm, coleslaw. 3. ??? 4. Cinnamon buns! And apple pie! 5. ??? 6. Prefer plums pre-prune. 7. Bland. 8. As GramMa says, mash 'em on hot buttered toast. Have with a Bloody Mary and a pot of coffee the morning after, mechy. 9. Poor man's saffron. 10. Mmmm, pie! 11. Mmmm, Punkin pie! With cinnamon! nth quinoa. Tasty, nutritious, versatile and just a little bit weird. Cheap too. Great camping grub.
• Sardines are great. I prefer the ones with tomato sauce or especially chilli. If not, add some. Eat them all, EAT THEM ALL UP, AND THE BONES. Brilliant calcium. (they're just tiny Herring) On toast, on crackers with cheese, or straight out of the fucking can. I EAT YOUR SARDINES, I EAT THEM UP. The Poms often call them Pilchards, which sounds like some Victorian verb denoting a scurrilous activity of some kind, possibly involving urchins covered in coal dust. And I reiterate: Pumpkin is VILE. VILE, I tell you. Pumpkin pie is just a cheap way of getting you to foolishly eat that tastless, mushy crap. In other news: I quite like Brussel Sprouts.
• Fresh sardines, straight off the boat onto the grill, are also good.
• Speaking of pilchards, they always make me think of a really old TV ad where the pilchard comes on with a bowtie and mike and begins singing: "Each night I ask the stars that shine, Why must I be-ee-ee a pilchard in brine?" I'm almost sure I didn't imagine it.
• Sadly, the Newlyn Pilchard Works has now closed.
• Pilchards are the evil metamorphosis of sardines. Don't even taste the same. To call a sardine a pilchard is a vile insult. And herring ain't even in there. This fish [Sardinus Pilchardus] is only called a Pilchard when it is an adult. The young fish (up to one year) are called sardines I quote direct from The Pilchard Site And a Sardinus Pilchardus is NOT a Clupea Harengus. I don't want to be herring you say that ever again. You pie haters know nothing. NOTHING! MMMmmmmmmmmmm, punkin pie. Irresistible. Hank, don't be hatin' on the pie, you filthy pilchard!
• Pilchard. Assmonkey. My vocabulary of insults broadens.
• Mmmmmmmm, that's punkin pr0n.
• I have a recipe somewhere for pumpkin pie dessert squares, which uses yellow cake mix as the base and has a crumb topping. Served with whipped cream. It's like pumpkin crack.
• I found a soup recipe online that required pumpkin pie filling instead of actual pumpkin. It kind of freaked me out a little bit.
• It's just because pumpkin pie filling is smoother than what you scoop out of the pumpkin, which is very stringy. Saves you the step of having to put it through the food processor. That's my guess anyway; I don't think they add anything to it.
• I've got to try sardines on toast. I can imagine the tasty lipsmack goodness. Next up - the punkins! Pie, seeds, the works.
• If God wanted us to eat pumpkins, he would have made them taste of something.
• They taste like pumpkin. DUH. If God wanted us to eat beets, he wouldn't have made them taste like DIRT.
• Ah, no! Beets don't taste like dirt! They taste like sunshine, when sliced not too thin, cooked till not too limp, and well buttered! And when they're in the proper borscht, they flood your body with so many happy nanobots that you wind up with perma-grin, at least for a day or two. And, they make you pee red. What else could you ask for? You beet haters must have been frightened by Harvard beets as children. I'm sure there must be a support group for that, somewhere.
• pumpkin: get yrself a sugar pumpkin, cut the meat in chunks and add it to yr chicken soup/stew with other root veggies & some garam masala paste for super yum!! beets: put em in yr salad with some goat cheese = yum!!!!
• Beets are red and do not taste like red things. Hence, they are evil. See strawberries, cherries, watermelon, raspberries, naughty bits.
• Don't want to forget cabbage. It's absolutely essential for a good beef stew. Come to my house for dinner and I'll show you what I mean. And Middle Eastern cabbage rolls are the perfect winter comfort food. There's also some cinnamon in the sauce, so you get 2 for the price of one. No sugar, so the cinnamon blends with the tomatoes nicely, and it also thickens the sauce. Pumpkin is also good for thickening, and adds a nice musky-ness to curries, as Medusa said.
• You beet haters must have been frightened by Harvard beets as children. Spot-on. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I learned that you could eat beets without sickly-sweet vinagary sauce, and discovered their true deliciousness.
• RTD: beets are the original red thing. Most of t what you referred to are pink-tasting things. The one exception would be cherries, but only if they're Bings. Beets are serious red, but need to handled properly. And, naughty bits, well I think they've got a lot more pink, orange and purple, not to mention salt.
• It's the sickly sweet vinagary sauce that floats my boat. Cheese and beetroot sammiches AGAIN today! YUM!!
• EAT 'EM UP!!! YUM!!! Ah, now I have some VIOLENT CRAVINGS for pumpkin pie & sardines (oily ones, on a loaf of fresh bread...) Monkeyfilter: strawberries, cherries, watermelon, raspberries, naughty bits
• Not to derail, but I have a two-part pet theory, and this is it: Part 1)Most food hates are not about the taste of the food, but the texture. Part 2)Most people who squick about food texture have a reason other than food.
• I have a recipe somewhere for pumpkin pie dessert squares, which uses yellow cake mix as the base and has a crumb topping. Served with whipped cream. It's like pumpkin crack. KOKO, YOU ARE EVIL!! Post the damn recipe already and quit tormenting us punkin lovers! (why is it nobody wants to talk about prunes?)
• Yeah, I can't even get my kids to eat prunes. Ew.
• "2)Most people who squick about food texture have a reason other than food." You don't need some kind of deep psychological trauma to not like a certain food. When I was a kid I hated strawberry jam because of the pips in it. They stuck in my teeth and were bitter. Simple as that. I don't like pumpkin because it is mushy and tasteless crap with stringy annoying bits in it. Not because daddy was pumping galons of goo into my gob down in the toolshed every saturday night. Although he did do that.
• Monkeyfilter: mushy and tasteless crap with stringy annoying bits in it.
• I hate strawberry jam too. It has a weird smell and taste to me - I still remember having jam sandwiches in my school lunch when I was 6 and the awful smell, right before I chucked them in the bin. Also, I loathe corn, especially corn on the cob, and occasionally I have a dream of my uncle (who I haven't seen since I was about 3) forcefeeding me an entire plate of corn on the cob. I sometimes wonder if it wasn't a dream.
• I'm working on being less stringy.
• I learned to enjoy strawberry jam as an adult. I had some peculiar tastes as a kid, for instance I wouldn't eat fruit cake because there were bits of fruit in it. ! Weird kid. But yeah, mum used to make me jam sandwiches for school lunch too, and it put me off the stuff for even longer. I don't mind corn on the cob, but I can do without the cellulose bits stuck in me' teeth. I'm a fan of the stuff most people don't seem to like, such as brussels, or leeks, which I adore.
• we're such a bunch of weirdos. pretty much the only way I like corn is straight off the cob :P
• You guys aren't disproving my theory, you damaged freaks!
• I read somewhere that kids' tastebuds aren't fully formed until they're like, three or something. So I think texture probably does have a lot to do with deeply held likes/dislikes.
• I love prunes!
• I like prunes too. Especially stewed prunes, which my gramma used to make. I'll see if I can find the recipe for the punkin pie squares. Please stand by.
• 
• Better Beaver prunes than pruney beavers...
• PUMPKIN PIE DESSERT SQUARES CRUST 1 pkg (18.5 oz / 524 g) (-1 cup) yellow cake mix 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 egg, slightly beaten FILLING 3 cups canned pumpkin filling 2 eggs, slightly beaten 2/3 cups milk TOPPING 1 cup yellow cake mix 1/4 cup sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 cup butter whipped cream (optional) INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) Save 1 cup cake mix for topping. Combine remaining cake mix, butter and 1 egg into smooth dough. Press into greased 13"x9" baking pan. Combine pumpkin pie filling, 2 eggs and milk, pour into crust. Mix reserved cake mix, sugar and cinnamon, cut in butter until it forms coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over filling. Bake until knife inserted into center comes out clean (45 to 50 minutes). Cool in pan and cut into squares. Try not to eat it all in one sitting.
• Last instruction wil be hard to heed. And, hey, I'm looking at you, you foodists.
• But some of my best friends are green!
• koko, you forgot to include when you add the crack.
• I'm going to make pumpkin and kumara soup today. NONE OF YOUR CRACK LIKE PRODUCT
• RTD: right there^ 3 cups of it. Canned crack punkin. I am eating a sardine sandwich on toast right NOW with iced green tea as a chaser. There may be a couple sliced kiwi fruit in my future, also. Later there will be punkin bars for dessert. YUM!
• can i mention the dinner blog yet? you can search for each of these magical ingredients and see how people have prepared them and share your own ideas too!
• I'm making a trip to the store later today. Tonight for dinner I'll be having sardines on crackers and Pumpkin Crack(tm). Monkeyfilter dinner! Iced green tea is THE BEST. I make a pot every morning in summer, then pour it into a jug and stick it in the fridge.
• On my stove right now is a big pot of pumpkin, kumara and ginger soup with tons of fresh ginger. I am getting very, very hungry. I may even remember to post it to WIHFDT.
• *gets a warm fuzzy or three*
• The expensive-y sardines are yummy and nice, whereas sometimes the cheaper ones are too fishy or salty for me. Somehow, the nice ones avoid this (tho if someone could tell me how to pick out a nice cheap one I'd be happy!!). I like to eat sardines on a bagel or toast with cream cheese. It's less intense than lox (which is salmon, I think?).
• I agree with the texture theory because that's why I don't like mushrooms. They are yucky, icky, rubbery things that nevertheless leave behind a good taste after you pick them out of whatever you're eating.
• Enough of this! You Monkeys just sit yourselves down until you finish what's on that plate. There are starving people monkeys in third world countries, you know.
• omg mushrooms! I love mushrooms! Anyway, my two fabulous mushroom-loving offspring both hate steak and chicken, preferring processed crap like sausages and minced beef. I'm pretty sure that's a texture thing. We are big fat meanies and make them eat their delicious steak anyway, even though we would both be happy to take it off them and eat it ourselves.
• WRONG! Trac. Bad psychology. Anything my kidlings didn't want--asparagus, shrimp, broccoli, ham hocks and beans...We just told them fine, more for us! The comment always was,"OK, honey, this is more ADULT food anyway. I'll make you a peanut butter and jelly sammich." One meal or several of PB&J doesn't hurt a kid, and it's AMAZING how they clamor to eat ADULT food. I raised four kids that love ethnic foods and are not afraid to try new things. (The other trick was to just put some kid meal on their plates--different from what you're eating, or don't dish that item up for them. "Oh, you wouldn't like it." "OH YES I WOULD!!") Dang it. Didn't work for rib eye, melon sherbet, or french fried onion rings. Voracious little !@#$!@#s
• I love mushrooms. I particularly like them raw.
• Experiment #1 is complete. I purchased the most expensive can of sardines that Safeway had for sale ($3.50, packed in oil). Result: DO NOT WANT. I nearly gagged when I cracked open the can and caught a whiff. Only love for my fellow monkeys and the spirit of scientific inquiry carried me forward. I mashed up two and ate them on a fancy cracker. Or tried to. Sardines qualify as a spitter, I'm afraid - I ran straight over to the trash and spat out the mouthful. I can see how people might like them. But to me, they taste like canned cat food. CHEAP canned cat food. Part of it may be that I have spent my life in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, and my family is big on fishing. A lifetime of eating nothing but fresh-caught halibut and salmon has spoiled me. If it's more than 2 days from the water, why even bother eating it at all? Sardines: FAIL. Koko's Pumpkin Crack is baking in the oven as I type. Judging by the smell, I suspect it will be MEGA FUCKING AWESOME.
• Update: Koko's Pumpkin Crack (that's the name of the recipe, y'know) is as delicious as the sardines were NOT DELICIOUS.
• Cats certainly love tinned sardines. I didn't realise how much until I visited a cat-owning friend who opened a tin. As soon as there was enough of an opening for a small whiff of sardine to escape, the cat, previously not in evidence, materialised and there was basically a no-holds barred all-out wrestling and clawing match for the can. It took three people to subdue the cat (actually it was never subdued, just expelled). If you're ever in Portugal, mechagrue, try the fresh sardines. Like I say, out of the boat, onto the grill. Sounds more like your kind of thing.
• Glad you liked it, mechagrue! A nice lady in Maine gave me the recipe years ago.
• I use sardines as bait in my live animal trap. Raccoons seem to love them.
• Monkeyfilter: never subdued, just expelled.
• MonkeyFilter: like canned cat food. CHEAP canned cat food Yup, Koko's Punkin Crack. Betcha can't eat just one bite!
• isn't anyone else curious as to how mechagrue knows what cheap cat food tastes like??? ;)
• Yup, Koko's Punkin Crack. Betcha can't eat just one bite! No, I couldn't.
• "isn't anyone else curious as to how mechagrue knows what cheap cat food tastes like???" I think it's fairly telling that we aren't. Must go to the store very soon and buy punkincrack ingredients.
• P.S. "I use sardines as bait in my live animal trap. Raccoons seem to love them." There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that raccoons won't eat.
• Sardines also make great, cheap crab bait. Punch a few holes in the can, put it in the crabtrap, toss overboard for an hour or two and it's crab cakes on the menu.
• Lara, perhaps he's a connoisseur of cat fud. I wish I could afford really nice sardines. I had some fancy-ass gourmet sardines once and they were so incredibly nice. So maybe it's the same for the cat fud. Mech, how's that fancy-ass Fancy Feast?
• There's a tin of sardines in tomato sauce in my cupboard. Thanks to this thread, it might get opened tonight.
• I eat 'em all, except for the frozen blueberries. Raw beets, cooked beets, pickled beets. Raw cabbage rocks, blanched cabbage (excellent with aojiso dressing and kewpie!), and fried goodness. Swiss chard is one of my favorites. Paired with some chorizo and garbanzo beans, it's outstanding! Cinnamon in everything. Use it sparingly in dishes that you would never imagine using it, and you will be surprised at how the subtle flavor brings quite a dramatic twang to your dish. I loves gnawing on some quills of cinnamon. I don't waste time with Pomegranate juice very often, because I love fresh pomegranates. Dried plums, fresh plums, prune juice. Yup. Loves roasting mah own pumpkin seeds. Store-bought are OK on occasion. Even eat the shells. Sardines - a true snack. My favorite are with chilis and olive oil. Turmeric - have ground and seeds in the cabinet. It gets used often for lotsa Indonesian dishes. I loves canned pumpkin, straight outta the can. Give me an opener and a spoon, and I'll treat that pump'n just right. Bolding for Hank
• oh my god that is vile. I would vom.
• SMT, you da (healthy) man!
• *will take a pic just for Hank to post later* Now, if I could just cut all of the high fructose corn syrup from my diet, I would feel truly healthy.
• Now, if I could just cut all of the high fructose corn syrup ... *withdraws healthy man comment* *frowns*
• Now, now... the high fructose corn syrup in my diet is not by choice - - it's just nearly impossible to avoid it while living in the US. It's in nearly everything. But I do my best to avoid it the best I can... *begs for "healthy man" comment back*
• Auntie Koko, Just to be clear before I go to the supermarket - is the punkin filling the recipe clls for just plain canned punkin, or the sweetened-and-spiced, ready-to-pie filling?
• It's in nearly everything. But I do my best to avoid it the best I can... Anyone knowing where I can find kosher Coke please let me know KTHX.
• Think it's probably hard to find this time of the year, Capt, but I'll keep my eye open on my next run through Williamsburg.
• Apparently, the Real Thing is still available in Mexico, so you know, if you're down there... Either way.
• TUM: Plain canned punkin, punkin!
• Had some of the "real" thing on my recent trip to Indonesia. And I must admit, the taste and overall texture certainly does outperform the fructose-laden imitator sold in most of N. America. Had some fine Norwegian Brisling in extra virgin olive oil last night... a few sprinkles of Tabasco made them extra tasty.
• I'm a big fan of homemade soup. Not at this time of the year, but come October, the tureen returns. I wasted a lot of beef-based soup-making years ignoring the magic of the ethereal beef soup spices: cinnamon, star anise, ginger, cloves, etc. There's just no reason to make beefy soup if these guys aren't in there. Thank you, Pho.
• When I became vegetarian, I thought I'd never be able to make stock again. Turns out that vegetables and herbs make a yummy stock, too. There's nothing like a big pot of soup on a fall day.
• Pho... thanks, Ralph. Think I'll swing by for some tonight - - a big steaming bowl in the middle of July would do me just right.
• mr medusa & I started rocking out the bean soup this past fall/winter. 15 bean soup mix + big hunk o' ham (shank or other parts) cooked together until it turns into the most hearty, bacony-delicious thing in the world. highly recommended with some walnut levain bread (my fav!!)
• That's too many beans.
• ...ethereal beef soup spices: cinnamon, star anise, ginger, cloves, etc. aye, that star anise packs a hell of a taste wallop for such a tiny little thing...
• This guy is an idiot. First of all, what kind of a pho bowl is that? Mini me? Second, let's at least give the chef a chance at coming up with a decent broth before you slosh in the hot and hoisin. Third, maybe you wanna rip up those leaves a bit before they go in the bowl? Pho you, asshole.
• Actually, Koko, that's really not enough. I've never counted, but I'll bet there's at least 400 beans in my pot.
• Lara, a couple of potatoes with garlic, onion, some leeks, and some herbs will boil down into a very good veggie stock.
• SMT: About 20 years ago in my fifties,my body started rejecting sweets, and where I could eat a big bar of Hershey's chocolate with almonds before that, or much of a box of See's candy, or a double cone of Jamoca Almond Fudge from Baskin Robbins..., But I'm just not interested anymore. It makes me sad, because it was such a pleasure, and I miss it, but I just don't want that anymore. I would have thought it was just another step in the growing up process (aging, for you kiddies) and maybe it's a natural progression, but my 91 year old mother really wants to eat nothing but sweets. Ir'a difficult to get protein and veggies into her daily diet. I think her favorite food is sickly sweet Frosted Flakes. So listen to your body while you're young.
• My body and I haven't been on speaking terms in years.
• Wow. I was just taking to her yesterday. She asked me to go away.
• Fuck all y'all pumpkin haters.
• The reasons to hate high fructose corn syrup.
• Thanks for posting that, Ralph - - why, I read it at the same moment that I had mentally declared a ban on sodas. I might allow myself the occasional root beer (I'm only going to dance with sugar cane varieties), but no more of that vile crap for me.
• Ralph's article is factually correct but purposely misleading. While fructose is bad, and HFCS is, in fact, 55% fructose and 45% glucose, so is cane sugar. The "high fructose" part of the name doesn't mean higher than table sugar...it means higher than raw corn syrup. The danger of HFCS is that it's cheaper, so manufacturers of processed foods are putting it in everything and in greater amounts.
• MonkeyFilter: no more of that vile crap for me
• HFCS is, in fact, 55% fructose and 45% glucose, so is cane sugar. Not exactly. Depends on which type of HFCS you are talking about, though the most common variety is a 55/45 mix of fructose and glucose. Cane sugar is sucrose, a disaccharide of fructose and glucose (50/50 mix). HFCS is a monosaccharide, and the case it not yet out as to whether this chemical difference may have an effect on our health. That aside, I'm still going to avoid injesting the stuff - - HFCS is produced by adding a genetically modified enzyme to corn syrup produced from genetically modified corn. I'll take my chances and attempt to stay au naturale.
• The danger of HFCS is that it's cheaper, so manufacturers of processed foods are putting it in everything and in greater amounts. Good question: why is HFCS so cheap?
• Beacuse it's made of PEOPLE.
• *dumps Flagpole in the bubbling vat of corn syrup*
• SMT, the U.S. corn subsidy has a lot to do with it. All my aggie friends are up in arms about biofuels making food (and feed) more expensive, but there'd be more corn on the U.S. market if we'd resume the sugar trade with Cuba.
• Sorry, TUM. I was being a bit rhetorical with my question. Yes, the US corn subsidy has a lot to do with it. Bioengineering too. Once you start digging into the subject, and the companies involved, it starts to get quite sticky.
• Hehe, sticky.
• Being an old codgerette, I still find it amazing that the US population has become so addicted to teh sweet. It was once a treat, now it seems to be a dietary dietary necessity. I see mothers who give their kids KoolAid or sodas instead of milk or water from an early age. And that's been going on for at least 40 years, to my knowledge. You can't blame it all on the desire of farmers to make a profit.
• And yet couldn't it be argued that increased availability has affected dietary habits?
• I think increased demand has affected supply.
• Soy. So gay.
• there'd be more corn on the U.S. market if we'd resume the sugar trade with Cuba. What? And give in to the Commies? Why, we've got them on the ropes, and anyway there are all of those Floridians who are entitled to get their parents' land back! You're not going to go against the only subset of a minority the Republican party really cares about, are you?
• > Soy. So gay. Yes, just look at how few people there are in places that traditionally eat soy.
• You can't blame it all on the desire of farmers to make a profit. I don't blame it on the farmers, I blame it on big agriculture and corporate food producers that want to maximize profit and put that ahead of producing a healthy food. Sugar becomes addicting.
• What Granny said. The farmer is only a lowly pawn in the game. What "farmers" are left anyways? Gone are the days of family farms. Who is "tilling" the fields nowadays? You may as well head to DC to watch the corporate agricultural lobbyists in order to get a lesson in true "farming".
• SMT, could you please tell my next-door neighbor that? He and his family are wasting a lot of time tilling their fields and growing (probably gay) soybeans, and someone should tell him to stop.
• Sorry, Cananda doesn't count. And yeah, tell him to quit growing those queer fairy berries!
• Speaking of picking berries -- I picked a whole whack of wild blueberries up North, and bought even more off of a nice Ojibway lady just south of Sudbury. I'm hoping to put them in a jar with a lot of sugar and straight alcohmahol, so I have something to put on ice cream, after letting it sit for a few months. We used to do it with cherries, but I imagine blueberries should be tasty and disabling as the cherries were in my childhood. The key is to find pure alcohmahol, which the government liquor store doesn't seem to carry, nor really wants to sell. I imagine selling something 80% not really intended for ordinary consumption is something they'd like to avoid. My other option is to get a gin or vodka which is as neutral as possible, bringing as little of its own taste to the blueberries as could be. Any suggestions? This has to happen in fairly short order...
• Cross the border. Buy everclear. Come home.
• Set up 'yer own little home distillery? Better yet, what Ralph said. *falls over from memories of my dance with Everclear*
• Although easily available here, I don't think blueberry wine itself would be strong enough to pull out the flavour. It'd just be lumpy wine, rather than KA-POW blueberries.
• Whatever the final method of delivering your alkomahol into the blueberry mix there, care to share some of the final product?? Sounds quite yummy. With nice side-effects, I would assume...
• The liquor store seems to carry two kinds of neutral alcomahols -- whether my local outlet does or not is a different matter. Probably -- there's enough Italians around making homemade lemoncello and stuff... We'll see. And of course, you're all welcome to come to my house for ice cream.
• Um, "farmers" incluldes big agriculture. They farm thousands of acres, at least in my neck of the woods. In fact, 10,000 acres of even marginal land seems to be the ante for even medium, local farmers. (That varies by area, of course, but with crops like corn, cotton and almonds, the commodity nature of the plantings makes scale important. Small organic farms or new fad niche situations (like pomegranate juice, these days) may be sustainable on a truck farm basis, but with the commodities, even smaller farmers band together in marketing and distribution associations that give them some of the power of "big agriculture.") You can't make a living with 40 acres of corn and a mule.
• Hence my reason for putting "farmers in quotes... And you are very correct.
• Yo, RTD. Ask your farmer neighbor about big conglomerates. I'll bet you he's either under their thumb and producing for them at a lower price than he should be, either because they have the market cornered or the power to drive down prices. If not, they're shafting him in the rear with GM seeds, or over-charging him for fertilizer, or maybe forcing him to use antibiotics and growth hormones on his meat animals in order to get them to market early, and heavy enough, to make a good price. If he starts singing their praises and telling you all the good things they've done for him lately, I'll buy you dinner long distance!
• Doesn't the LCBO sell Alcool anymore? How do the kids make their Purple Jesuses?
• Ummm....maybe, Gramma. But your point is off topic. My response was to the comment: "What "farmers" are left anyways? Gone are the days of family farms." Well, no. They may be fewer (and probably should be) but they are not gone. I can drive north a kilometer on my road and buy organic sweet corn in season, and fresh eggs year 'round from a family farmer. South a kilometer: fresh strawberries. From his neighbor, fresh lamb and beef. These are all family farms, very much alive, very much thriving. Sure, there are a lot of large scale agricultural outfits, economics demands that. But don't tell me my neighbors don't exist. They hate it when they become figments of my imagination.
• She didn't say "gone are the family farms". She said "gone are the days of the family farms". In other words, not that they can't exist, but their "days" (as in heyday, era, golden age of) are over. That's how I read it, anyway. I happen to be growing tomatoes on my patio. The deer keep nibbling the blossoms, so I may never see fruit :(
• She did? I was responding to SMT who said what I quoted. I am glad the "golden days" are over. Family farms don't scale. The world can't afford food grown only on "family farms". But those that remain are dear, and I love that they are near me and in my life.
• Alcool is what I ended up getting. Never heard of it before. But a mere 40%. Which is hardly the strength I was looking for -- I was going to throw in some of my Lamb's Navy Rum (182-proof) just to boost it a bit, but decided against it. Don't need to water down my rum...
• We're sort of cross-talking here, I guess. Ralph: You're neighbors are not figments, but the family farm is. Go ask your farming folk how many of them make their living solely from the farm without any outside income. There will most likely be at least one adult member with a job in town, if not two. If not, then the farm was inherited with fairly new equipment and everything paid off. Probably with 500+ acres. Often the farm is large enough that there are government subsidies. I know two 'gentleman' farmers, one owns 40, the other 100 acres, they and do make good money with an orchard and raising show cattle. One was a dot.com millionaire, the other could finally afford to quit working after his folks died and left him fairly well-to-do. There are a few retired Air Force people outside of town who do the organic beef and egg thing or raise hay on 15-20 acres. If your families don't fall into any of these niches, I'd questioning if they are land rich and money poor. Several years ago I met a gal that was going to school for a teaching degree who had just enough money left over from medical bills and debt on equipment after selling the family farm that she could afford to buy a house and go to school. Her oldest was putting himself through college by working, and the only way her other kids were going to on further education was either with scholarships or working on their own. She said farming was a lovely life, a great way to raise kids, and they always had enough to eat, but they bought furniture and clothes at thrift stores and cut each other's hair.
• Ralph, quit 'yer whining! Lara read my comment correctly. Ummm....maybe, Gramma. But your point is off topic. My response was to the comment: "What "farmers" are left anyways? Gone are the days of family farms." Well, no. They may be fewer (and probably should be) but they are not gone. What I said was, Gone are the days of family farms. I didn't reply to your slight-of-hand, because I knew that you probably just read my comment in the wrong context. No biggie. Suppose that's my fault for being vague and using too many quotes. Also, I think you gave in to the concept of "family farms don't scale" too easily.
• Capt, how long do you let your jar of berry concoction sit before it's good-to-go?
• Idunno. I figure a couple of months. The alcomahol was already turning a deep purple this morning, being a mere twelve hours later, so already it's turning into Blueberried-Goodness. This is all going back to concoctions we made with cherries back when I was a kid. It sat there on the counter for years, only getting better. No recipe as such -- I talked it over with Mother Renault, and she can't remember any details, either -- so there was a lot of eyeballing in terms of the amounts of sugar, berries and booze. The one thing I did make sure to do was to fill the Mason jar as much as I possibly could, overfilling it with booze, actually, so when I sealed the jar, there was as little air left in there as possible. Being wild blueberries, there are a few errant twigs and leaves in there, but that just means it's real. I'll let you know how it turns out. And have the paramedics on standby. I took pictures and all that for my blog, but LJ wasn't letting me do much last night. Maybe later.
• Capt. check out: http://www.danish-schnapps-recipes.com/ for some similar stuff. I'm not sure you need to add sugar.
• Prolly not, but it's done now. Besides, it'll make it sweeter, and the sugar will no doubt feed the alcomahol that's already in there. Of course, I could have made blueberry pruno instead...
• Though their suggestion of adding a touch of sherry would have been good, too. For the schnapps. Or the pruno, I suppose.
• blueberry pruno! Good one, Capt. You're on to something there... I did come across a recipe for mixing cherries with some homemade pototo vodka and sugar - - sounds like it could be dangerous.
• When I was at the grocery store, I couldn't remember if Koko's Punkin Crack required "canned pumpkin" or "pumpkin pie filling" so I bought a can of both. I ended up with a spare can of canned pumpkin, and made pumpkin bread last weekend. Pretty tasty!
• I have been staring at the ingredients for Punkin Crack for 2 weeks now. Need to make.
• Update: the blueberries were leaking a tiny bit. I'd put it all in a glass jar with a rubber seal, rather than a Mason jar like I should have, but was unequipped for. I figured it was just air pressure -- the sugar + alcomahol was leading to some extra fermentation. I knew I'd have to open it up and take out a bit of juice, create a bit more room in there. That I did just now, and upon opening, there was a small explosion. A blueberry explosion! A taste explosion! And an actual explosion. Tiny one, so no worries -- the alcomahol was saved. In any event, the preliminary findings are positive. The juice is becoming nice and syrupy, and the sweetness has overcome the industrial-solvent smell of the pure hooch. (In the making, I really should have did all the mixing outdoors.) So it's looking good. It's stuffed away in a dark, cool cupboard, and I expect to bring it out for Hallowe'en or such.
• Heee! Based upon your earlier comments, I had to wonder if you weren't on to the makings of a small blueberry bomb (an old friend had a similar experience; a mass of blueberry alcoholy hit the ceiling upon releasing its pressure - - forever leaving a lovely purple stain to gaze upon). Sounds delish. Please wear goggles when you crack the seal on that baby!
• I once had a car which ran its radiator dry about weekly. I learned that you in fact CAN remove the radiator cap while the engine is hot. Just use two big bathtowels: one wrapped well around your hand, and another draped over the whole affair to catch the escaping steam. *WARNING: DO NOT ACTUALLY DO THIS; DEATH, MAIM, INJURY, etc* It occurs to me that you could use the same technique when you open the blueberry hootch.
• blueberry hootch So... blooch.
• Well, I'm certainly not eating Henbane.
• My late Gramma used to make us blueberry dumplings every year. She passed last July, and I'm really wanting blueberry dumplings and missing her. I should make a big batch.
• Plz send dumplings.
• Now my mouth's watering for some dumplingy goodness!
• Had some wonderful ginger-infused sardines from Japan last night. Also picked up a tin of miso variety - - surely they will be a bone-crunching delight. Blueberry dumplings? Never heard of 'em. I bet a dallop of crème fraîche would be heavenly on them though...
• Blueberry dumplings! I have never heard of such a delight. Does this look right? Holy crap, Lara, your Gramma must have been AWESOME! Dear Monkeyfilter, I hate you for making me eat sardines. But then you told me about Koko's Punkin Crack and blueberry dumplings, so I guess we are even. Love always, Mechagrue
• My Mom used to make those, too. The dumpling underbellies would be all soft and blueberry-saturated, while the tops were all golden.
• Eggs.
• Almost three years to the date, Ralph. Cluck! Cluck! *pecks in dirt*
• mecha, that's the stuff. Teeth-staining heaven!! Gramma was awesome. I've gotta source me some blueberries stat.
• And now for something hard to beat....more about beets Yes, it's the "new spinach".
• I had to laugh when I saw that article title. So... is that a good thing or a bad thing? I actually bought some beets this week. Gonna roast 'em. Hoping they taste better than the crinkle-cut canned beets of my childhood.
• Roasted beets = unimpressive.
• I was watching a recent episode of At Home with Jaime Oliver, and he roasted up some beets that *looked* mighty delicious. He wrapped 'em up in tin foil, and threw them right into a pile of hot coals on a small outdoor grill for about 40 minutes. My mouth was watering...
• mechagrue, slice up those roast beets & put em in a salad, or add some goat cheese, a little olive oil, & S+P for a yummy sidedish.
• On a recent trip West, I discovered the joy of fresh kumquats. For comparison, I tried one from my local (East Coast) market, and it was awful. Maybe they just don;t travel well.
• Sister-in-law from up north was cleaning out freezer before hunting season starts and sent down a whole cooler full of elk steaks and elk sausage. Unfortunately, wild meat upsets my tummy now that I'm older. :(
• I had Auntie KoKo's Punkin Crack for breakfast AND supper today. It's crackin' good eats. Taking Batch II to a meeting tomorrow night. I chucked a few extra spices in Batch II just for giggles - some nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.
• AKPC was a huge hit at the meeting. Thanks, Monkeyfilter!
• You got my silhouette just right.
• Scientists develop purple, cancer-fighting tomato.
• Funny. Yesterday I got my dose of anthocyanins by drinking a bottle of purple carrot juice. *burp* The kids also had some, and managed to splatter one wall with it - - effectively turning the living room into a crime scene of sorts
• Does the purple, cancer-fighting tomato have a cape?
• And a sword? It should have a sword, I think.
• perhaps if it brandished a small carrot?
• This sounds like a project for the TUM Monster monster.
• Me and Barack are in the tank.
• You PIN-number having freak, Ralph!
• Doesn't like beets??!! My god, what have we done?
• *wipes a beet-filled tear* Want to live longer? You need this nutrient. The ocean is the world's richest source of DHA and EPA, particularly from plankton-eating oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, and herring.
• Walnuts are also a good source of omega 3.
• I thought omega 3 was a good source of walnuts.