Typing with the Ladies: A High School Adventure

[turbo]

You couldn't pay me to buy something like that. I avoid anything with too much processing. Just give me a plain turkey, and I can season it perfectly well myself, and I know I'm not adding weird preservatives or artificial colors, or who knows what.

Years back, I would get very sick after eating poultry, similar to the cramps, headaches, hives, etc that I would get after eating anything with MSG in it. I figured out after a couple of times that the poultry in the supermarket had been injected with MSG, among other things. We now buy only locally-grown free-range turkeys and chickens, and I'm fine. My wife gets a frozen turkey every November from her employer, and we cook it up and divide it amongst people who can actually use it, like her mother (90) and my father (81) and others.

 

[turbo]

Ooooh, that sounds really yummy!

What? You get me all excited over some yummy bird then tell me that I CAN'T HAVE ONE?

You can't have fresh ruffed grouse either, Evo. They have to be the tastiest critters in the Maine woods - maybe a tie with white-tail deer. If you hunt them without a dog (like I do) you'd better have lightning reflexes because they will sit tight until you're just a few feet away (or closer) before they flush, and they are very speedy for their size.

 

[Moonbear]

If only they were close enough for the cat to drag in...

If that were the case, I'd rethink the rules about the cat staying indoors and not being allowed to kill the wild birds. She might get some outdoor privileges while the chukars were around, but only if she brought home dinner for me (I'd share some with her if she did the hunting).

 

[rewebster]

You can't have fresh ruffed grouse either, Evo. They have to be the tastiest critters in the Maine woods - maybe a tie with white-tail deer. If you hunt them without a dog (like I do) you'd better have lightning reflexes because they will sit tight until you're just a few feet away (or closer) before they flush, and they are very speedy for their size.

you should take her snipe hunting sometime

 

[Moonbear]

you should take her snipe hunting sometime

You've seen how much damage she can cause herself with something as seemingly innocuous as a few blades of grass or a shelf of dishes...would you actually take her hunting? I wouldn't even arm her with a slingshot let alone a firearm.

 

[turbo]

Well since a snipe hunt usually involves a gunny-sack, a flashlight, and a whistle or call of some sort, there are curious possibilities for injury. Especially since snipe hunts take place at night in the woods.

 

[Evo]

Growing up in Houston, our Snipe hunts took place at night in the sand dunes on Galveston Island. Snipe are waterfowl.

 

[rewebster]

there's one way to get Evo in the sack

 

[Evo]

My Grannys fruit and nut compote ..served hot.

3 ripe green apples {peeled/sliced}
3 ripe pears {peeled/sliced}
10 dried figs {sliced}
1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup of water

Bring the water to a boil..add the fig, walnuts, sugar and cinnamon.
Cook on a rapid boil 3 minutes..then turn down to simmer
add vanilla, apples and pears, bring it back to a slow simmer, cook another 6 minutes.
Cover pot and take it off the stove.

It can sit like this for several hours..right befor dinner, heat it up..put it in a bowl...sprinkle LIGHTLY with nutmeg.

It is so good

That sounds wonderful!

 

[Math Is Hard]

for me, it's all about the green bean casserole.

 

[turbo]

You can have all mine, MIH. That stuff is way nasty.

 

[Evo]

DON'T LISTEN TO TURBO!

He's just jealous 'cause he can't eat the stuff the rest of us can.

Ok, for turbo, a HOMEMADE version of the classic.

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

For the topping:
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Nonstick cooking spray

For beans and sauce:
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 pound fresh green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half


Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
Combine the onions, flour, panko and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine. Coat a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, approximately 30 minutes. Toss the onions 2 to 3 times during cooking. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside until ready to use. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.

While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans. Bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in an 8-quart saucepan. Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately plunge the beans into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans. Top with the remaining onions. Place into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

 

[turbo]

I guess if we were willing to squander some of our home-made poultry stock, we could throw that together, but honestly, I never liked that stuff back when I could eat it without anaphylactic shock. I always preferred the same stuff that we make for our Thanksgiving dinners today: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, squash, mashed turnip, carrots, peas with pearl onions, flaky pastry biscuits, home-made cranberry sauce, and home-made pumpkin pie (made from a fresh pumpkin, not from a can) for dessert. Got to have real creamery butter for the vegetables, and rule #2 is that turkey gravy can go with everything except the pumpkin pie.

To be fair, the aunt that always brought the green bean casserole was the poorest cook in the family, so she may have something to do with my disdain for the dish.

 

[Evo]

My mother's Thanksgiving (she was from France, so picked this out of some magazine, I'm sure).

Baked turkey with dressing (butter, celery, onions and sage, sauteed, then tossed with pepperidge farms croutons and chicken broth) I think it was the standard recipe back then)

giblet gravy

mashed potatoes

peas and pearl onions

Ocean spray canned cranberry sauce (to this day the only kind I like) when we got older she started making homemade delicious cranberry sauce, but we always insisted on having a can of the REAL stuff since it is in a category by itself. The girls and I still feast on cans of this. You make a very thin slice and then suck it in through your teeth. Ok, I was a weird mother, but dinner was fun.

Pumpkin pie (Libby's canned pumpkin - NO CLOVES)

Pilsbury crescent rolls

 

[turbo]

Ocean Spray, Libby's, Pillsbury? That's not cooking! You may as well go eat Thanksgiving dinner at a bad restaurant. Blech.

Even my cooking-challenged aunt would never have dared show up with that stuff. She made pretty good sausages and hogs-head cheese, but her casserole/baking skills were very poor.

 

[Evo]

My mother made all of her breads from scratch and was an excellent cook, but being French, she had no idea what to cook for Thanksgiving, so pulled her menu probably from a Good Housekeeping magazine.

Thanksgiving was the worst meal of the year. We always felt it was a time of culinary punishment to remind people of the Pilgrim's plight.

We had no friends or family in the area, it was just us, but she felt she needed to "Americanize" us.

 

[ZapperZ]

It's 7 pm Central and Good Eats on Food Network (regular, not HD) this very moment is on turkey!

Edit: And he's going to DEEP FRY 'em! :)

Zz.

 

[turbo]

Thanksgiving was the worst meal of the year. We always felt it was a time of culinary punishment to remind people of the Pilgrim's plight.

We had no friends or family in the area, it was just us, but she felt she needed to "Americanize" us.

That is so sad. Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday as a kid. We didn't get many gifts at Christmas anyway, and Thanksgiving was a chance to hang out with all my cousins, and my aunts and grandmother would all try to out-do each other in the food department. My grandmother always made lemon chiffon pie that was light and slightly tart with lemon zest on the top, and her youngest daughter made mincemeat pies that were wonderful, and took at least 1/2 pint of rum to season. Food was always a HUGE thing at our family get-togethers. When we'd get together with one aunt and uncle and their family, his sister would always bring a goose-liver pate that was to die for. She knew that I was a fool for that stuff, and she would always find me and tell me where the pate was. I'd try not to make a pig of myself, but it was tough!

 

[Evo]

It's 7 pm Central and Good Eats on Food Network (regular, not HD) this very moment is on turkey!

Edit: And he's going to DEEP FRY 'em! :)

Zz.

My free cable doesn't have the Food Network!

 

[Moonbear]

To be fair, the aunt that always brought the green bean casserole was the poorest cook in the family, so she may have something to do with my disdain for the dish.

I've had really awful green bean casserole, and some pretty decent stuff. The worst are the ones where people use canned green beans. I've made it with frozen green beans instead (because my guests expected it), and that was pretty decent. Notice, I'm not saying any of it was great, just decent. Reading Evo's recipe, I could imagine it being a ton better, even very good, if it were made with fresh ingredients rather than the canned cream of mushroom soup. That's always been one of my least favorite soups on the planet, so it's hard to overcome that. Though, I'm perfectly content with just plain green beans and a little butter and salt, so only make the casserole for guests who I know consider it part of the traditional T-day dinner.

 

[turbo]

I've had really awful green bean casserole, and some pretty decent stuff. The worst are the ones where people use canned green beans. I've made it with frozen green beans instead (because my guests expected it), and that was pretty decent. Notice, I'm not saying any of it was great, just decent. Reading Evo's recipe, I could imagine it being a ton better, even very good, if it were made with fresh ingredients rather than the canned cream of mushroom soup. That's always been one of my least favorite soups on the planet, so it's hard to overcome that. Though, I'm perfectly content with just plain green beans and a little butter and salt, so only make the casserole for guests who I know consider it part of the traditional T-day dinner.

I've never had any of this stuff that I considered edible. My aunt's version was nasty, and my friend's mother's version was only marginally better, but I usually managed to "need" to get home if he wanted me to stay for supper and that stuff was on the menu. How did a "traditional" T-day dish arise from a confluence of crappy-tasting canned onions and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup? That is perverse!

People whose recipes call for cans of Campbell's soup or Lipton Soup mixes are not cooks. They probably have Hamburger Helper in their pantries. It's really sick to watch people like Alton Brown or Rachael Raye calling for a quart of chicken broth (from a paper carton) in a recipe. How can these idiots not bother to do shows on how to build super soup stocks from turkey carcasses, meat bones, etc? Cooking is in the details, and the best food does not result from a blind result-oriented short-cut attitude.

 

[hypatia]

You had to ask...

Green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company test kitchen under the leadership of Dorcas Reilly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean_casserole

 

[turbo]

You had to ask...

Green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company test kitchen under the leadership of Dorcas Reilly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean_casserole

Thanks for the link, though I wish I had not grown up during that culinary nadir.

 

[Math Is Hard]

DON'T LISTEN TO TURBO!

He's just jealous 'cause he can't eat the stuff the rest of us can.

Ok, for turbo, a HOMEMADE version of the classic.

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

Gosh, that sounds sooooo good!

 

[Math Is Hard]

You had to ask...

Green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company test kitchen under the leadership of Dorcas Reilly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean_casserole

Well, how about that!

I had no idea you could get a B.S. in Home Ec.
http://www.campbellkitchen.com/SpecialtyHolidayDorcasReilly.aspx?specialty=holiday

Deemed the "mother of comfort food," Dorcas Reilly led the team that created the Green Bean Casserole in 1955, while working as a staff member in the Home Economics department of the Campbell Soup Company.

Mrs. Reilly grew up in Camden, New Jersey, and received her B.S. in Home Economics from Drexel University. She began her career at Campbell in 1949, where she was one of two full-time staff members in the department. She says the inspiration for the Green Bean Casserole was to create a quick and easy recipe around two things most Americans always had on hand in the 1950s: green beans and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.

She's a legend!

In 2002, Mrs. Reilly appeared at the National Inventor's Hall of Fame to donate the original copy of the recipe to the museum. The now-yellowed 8 x 11 recipe card takes its place alongside Enrico Fermi's invention of the first controlled nuclear reactor and Thomas Alva Edison's two greatest hits: the light bulb and the phonograph.

 

[Moonbear]

Well, how about that!

I had no idea you could get a B.S. in Home Ec.

Yep, the college I attended still offered a Home Ec. degree, though considerably different from what it was back in the 50s. It was one of those early degrees offered to women to placate the men who thought they didn't belong in college. It's now more of a cross between Nutrition and Food Sciences. Needless to say, it's not a very popular major since most people see the name and think of their junior high school class where they learned how to bake cookies and operate a sewing machine.

 

[Moonbear]

I've never had any of this stuff that I considered edible. My aunt's version was nasty, and my friend's mother's version was only marginally better, but I usually managed to "need" to get home if he wanted me to stay for supper and that stuff was on the menu. How did a "traditional" T-day dish arise from a confluence of crappy-tasting canned onions and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup? That is perverse!

Shhh...when I make it, I leave out those canned fried onion things.

People whose recipes call for cans of Campbell's soup or Lipton Soup mixes are not cooks. They probably have Hamburger Helper in their pantries.

Not probably, they DO. Though, I do like a few of the Lipton Soup recipes. They're just really quick and easy to make, so on those days when I get home dead-tired and just don't want to think about assembling ingredients, or when the cupboard is starting to look bare and I don't have time for shopping and I just want to toss something in the oven while I hit the shower...basically, it's a step above ordering take-out. But, I'm not someone who uses that for every night's dinner, maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Any soup mix is very salty, and I'm not fond of that much salt all the time.

It's really sick to watch people like Alton Brown or Rachael Raye calling for a quart of chicken broth (from a paper carton) in a recipe. How can these idiots not bother to do shows on how to build super soup stocks from turkey carcasses, meat bones, etc? Cooking is in the details, and the best food does not result from a blind result-oriented short-cut attitude.

Alton Brown has done shows on making your own stocks, but I think he adapts his recipes to an audience who doesn't have hours and hours to make stock. I don't blame Rachel Raye at all...her whole point is quick meals to get people to stop making excuses not to cook, so if she started telling them to spend hours simmering a stock, it would entirely defeat the purpose of her show. I use a lot of chicken broth. I'd be buried in chickens to make enough stock to supply enough broth (I'd rather make chicken soup when I have leftover chicken than just stock).

 

[ZapperZ]

Yep, the college I attended still offered a Home Ec. degree, though considerably different from what it was back in the 50s. It was one of those early degrees offered to women to placate the men who thought they didn't belong in college. It's now more of a cross between Nutrition and Food Sciences. Needless to say, it's not a very popular major since most people see the name and think of their junior high school class where they learned how to bake cookies and operate a sewing machine.

Little did they know that if they learn how to bake cookies very well, they could be as filthy rich as Mrs. Fields!

:)

zz.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Yep, the college I attended still offered a Home Ec. degree, though considerably different from what it was back in the 50s. It was one of those early degrees offered to women to placate the men who thought they didn't belong in college. It's now more of a cross between Nutrition and Food Sciences. Needless to say, it's not a very popular major since most people see the name and think of their junior high school class where they learned how to bake cookies and operate a sewing machine.

When I was in high school, I did one quarter of home economics and one quarter of needlework. I know it was to fill some requirement but I can't remember what. I remember the captain of the football team sat next to me in class, and it was funny to watch him doing a delicate little cross-stitch with his beefy paws.

 

[turbo]

Back in HS, a couple of other guys (close friends) and I signed up for a typing course. I wanted to be able to type my own papers when I got to college, but perhaps the most compelling reason was that the teacher was drop-dead gorgeous. There were enough electric typewriters to supply all the girls in the class, so she equipped her three male students with old manual typewriters. After a week or two, she seemed to take some perverse pride in us because we routinely out-scored the females in speed and accuracy, and sometimes swept 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in our tests. Typing helped us satisfy a requirement to take some non-core course outside of our "track" and it seemed a good idea to hang out with a room-full of females a few times a week instead of heading out to the woodworking shop.