lesmel - 2023 lettuce celebrate

Hello, New Year!! Woot woot!

Loving the discussion of old-timey kitchen gear inherited from our elders. My dad started working for WearEver Aluminum straight out of college, and on to ALCOA, when they bought them out. So we had WearEver everything, pots, juicers, trays, candlesticks… I’m sure I will recall more types. I was given one of the small pots for my first kitchen and acquired more from various sources along the way.
We had the anodized aluminum cups too - and straws! My daughter has that collection now.
I upgraded to plate silver tumblers and discovered they are actually for mint juleps. But it’s what I serve smoothies and such to my grands now.
And because I don’t want cold hands for them, I use these wool cup holders that I found unused in my mother’s pantry:



They were still on the cardboard from the 50s(?). She had more kids than holders. My grands always discuss who gets which color.

How rude of me to burst onto your new thread without a cordial hello.

Hello!!!!

>2 2wonderY: I LOVE those holders and the cups!!

>3 2wonderY: Hello! :)

Happy New Thread!

I'm feeling old because I own one of those old Jello molds. When I was little, we had some of those colored aluminum drinking "glasses." Ours had more of a bell shape but were taller than the old Tupperware bell-shaped tumblers. We used those aluminum "glasses" for homemade milk shakes. They were the best, keeping the ice cream a little colder. I assume Mom sold those in a yard sale at some point--probably when they moved from Mulberry Street to Rogers Drive--because I would have snagged them if they'd still been around!

>2 2wonderY: Those holders are a terrific idea!

>6 thornton37814: I loooooove aluminum drinkware. The best way to drink milk is to stick the aluminum mug (that's what we had) in the freezer for 15 minutes, then pour the milk, and hope your lip didn't stick to the edge.

Ok, not food related; but kitchen tangential.

A friend bought some "The Pink Stuff" spray. I looked it up thinking what the heck is this? I bought a tub of the paste because my shower always looks dreadful. The scale and stains are awful.

I spent my lunch hour scrubbing the life out of my shower; I'm convinced this stuff is crazy good. Granted, the shower isn't perfect. Then again, I have been fighting this problem for 10 years with not even close to the same level of success.

I'm going to try it on some pans that won't come completely clean. The bottoms specifically.

Before


After

>9 lesmel: Wow! What a difference! Must find some to play with.

>9 lesmel: *whistles* Amazing.

I hosted the first Sunday Dinner for the year. The menu was:

Chicken spaghetti (because I clearly haven't had enough yet)
Green salad
Pickled green beans
Harvard beets
Pound Cake with sliced strawberries in sugar

I will be eating off everything for at least a week, probably two. We keep forgetting to get a photo of the food or us. One of these times, we will remember.

I still have a little bit of dressing from Christmas left over. I need to eat more of it or portion it and freeze it. I also finally finished off the last of the cookies. I tried hiding them from myself; but myself is good as finding cookies.

For Christmas, I got a Blend Jet 2. It's a portable blender. I love it. I've been making a smoothie almost every day this year. Smoothies so far:

Mocha frapp
Peach
Peach peanut butter
Chocolate peanut butter
Banana peanut butter
Strawberry
Coffee
Blueberry

My standard recipe is:

1 cup milk
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1 tsp flax seed
frozen fruit of choice, "float to top"
optional: 1/2 frozen banana, chopped -- for thickening and sweetness
optional: 1 packet Splenda
optional: 1 tsp tumeric spice mix

I bought a bunch of frozen fruit and some frozen veggies (spinach & broccoli) so I can try different things.

Part of my gift included Next-Gen Blending -- which is the company's recipe book. I'm interested in trying the dips and dressing in the book. Also, the pineapple daiquiri. The pineapple daiquiri is next on my list. Something about pineapple and rum are calling to me.

And now I just saw a recipe on YouTube I want to try. Saving for later...

1 cup OJ
1/4 cup frozen mango
1/4 cup carrots
dash tumeric
dash ground ginger
1/2 frozen banana
lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup yogurt

>14 lesmel: So you could pack that blender with goodies and take it to work? Cool idea.

>6 thornton37814: We also had the colored aluminum glasses. Not sure where they are now.

>14 lesmel: That oj/mango smoothie is good. It needs fresh ginger for a spicy kick. I swapped cottage cheese for the yogurt b/c it's what I had.

I've been making an effort to eat what I have on hand instead of giving in and eating out or buying more groceries. This includes my coffee. I have a lot of coffee on hand...much of it fully leaded. I try not to drink full caff coffee any longer. At most, I make/drink 1/3 caff 2/3 decaf. The next few weeks will see a change in that until I use up my supply. It may turn out I buy some decaf so I don't need to be peeled off the ceiling every afternoon.

I read the first issue of Sift magazine a few days ago and now I want to bake all the things. It helps that it's cold here and will stay cold for at least another week or so. The problem (as always) is where to distribute all the baked goods.

Also, baking means buying some ingredients for some recipes. My goal for the foreseeable future is not buying anything especially if I have substitutes (chia eggs instead of chicken eggs) or ingredients that aren't my preference (stick butter instead of spreadable butter).

My goal means choosing other recipes or being willing to accept some failures; but at least I'll be entertained!

Sift No. 1 (Spring 2015) recipes. Recipes I want to try in bold.

Breakfast
Gluten-free biscuits
Gluten-free scones
Honey Whole Wheat Biscuits
Lemon Zephyr Pancakes
Maple Bran Muffins
Orange Sunshine Coffee Cake
2-ingredient biscuits

Cakes
Caramel Cake
Carrot Cake
Coconut Cake
Devil's Food Cake
Honey Cake
Vegan Clementine Cupcakes
Yellow Cake (aka Moist Yellow Cake)

Cookies and Bars
Flourless Ginger-Fudge Cookies
Lemon Meringue Bars
Lime Rollout Cookies
Maple Sugar Brownies

Desserts
Baklava Sundaes

Dips and Sauces
Babe Ghanoush
Blue Cheese Spread
Cider-Artichoke Dip
Flavored Butters
Garlic and Shallot Confit
Hot Pepper Dip
Hummus
Tahini Sauce

Drinks
Fresh Mint Tea
Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix
Pomegranate Punch

Frostings
Brown Butter Frosting
Coconut Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting
Fluffy White Buttercream Frosting
Super Simple Chocolate Frosting

Main Dishes
Baked Kibbeh
Beer Crust Pizza
Chicago-style Italian Beef Combo
Philadelphia Roast Pork Sandwich
Shrimp Scampi Po Boy
Torta Cubano

Starters
Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls

Sides
Green Salad with Fresh Garlic Lemon Dressing
Lubiyeh
Rice Pilaf

Quick Breads
Gluten-free Apple Bread
Limerick Soda Bread
Rice Cornmeal Muffins
Sopa Paraquya

Yeast Breads and Rolls
Asiago Ciabatta
Cheddar Cheese Pull-Apart Bread
Chocolate Swirl Babka
Colomba Pasquale
Dipping Sticks
Easy Hot Cross Buns
Ginger-Honey Brioche
Gluten-free Pizza Crust
Gluten-free Sandwich Bread
Greek Tsoureki
No-Knead Harvest Bread
Olive and Onion Fougasse
Paska
Pita Bread
Raisin-Pecan Rye Bread

>18 lesmel: I can't stand decaf coffee. I just try to drink it in the morning. I can drink caffeine up until about 6 or 7 pm without it bothering me too much as far as sleeping.

>21 thornton37814: Coffee for me is 95% vehicle for cream and sweetener rather than caffeine source.

Is it the flavor of the decaf you don't like? I know some say it's got an off-putting taste or after taste.

>21 thornton37814: Seconding! I drink espresso and put nothing in it but sugar (and that only in one particular cafe—no, not that one—which has dreadful espresso but which Mrs H likes going to). I normally don’t drink coffee after lunch though.

The consumer magazine Which, in the UK, has just published a report on which of the UK coffee shop chains has the highest percentage of caffeine in its brews.

>22 lesmel: It is something with the taste. It just doesn't taste right.

Made old settler's beans (also called calico beans and cowboy beans); but I made it with what I had on hand. Cranberry beans, butter beans, bacon, ground pork, beef chorizo, onions, bottled bbq sauce, dry mustard. I made it in the instant pot; but I think I scorched the onions. I definitely scorched something because it never hit pressure and I did have burned on food once i got everything out.

Still, it's delicious and perfectly timed. We have cold weather again. I can serve the beans for dinner on Sunday with a green salad.

It's also perfect weather for me to bake one of my frozen loaves of white bread. I'm trying out this bread I found in the frozen section at the store. Not that I can't make my own; but I like to try things.

I made a bean dip/spread from cannellini, olive oil, garlic, a little bread, salt, and cumin. I used dried cannellini that I cooked in the instant pot. I'm a lot closer to using up the beans in my pantry! The dip is pretty darn tasty. I'm hoping to use in on lettuce wraps this week.

The bread I made in >25 lesmel: was good. It's a little soft for my preference; but it had good flavor. It took 7+ hours to thaw and rise. Next time, I will put it out overnight, bake it first thing in the morning, and let it cool and firm up the rest of the day.

>26 lesmel: That bean dip does sound amazing.

I made a pavlova-like thing this morning (the last recipe in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PcJYLc2J3k -- it's in the description). Followed by lemon curd (slightly modified version of this https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/lemon-curd-recipe).

If you have never watched B. Dylan Hollis (the video), he's a hoot. I think he got started on TikTok; but he's all over the social medias at this point. 99% of his videos are short form. He makes a recipe from an older cookbook and eats it. Sometimes, the recipes are great. A lot of times they are just ok. While, occasionally, they are horrendous.

And yes, he wrote a cookbook and I'm probably going to buy it. lol

This one is the most recent horrendous recipe: https://youtube.com/shorts/ZHl46zxAxs4

>28 lesmel: He is adorable! I will have to follow him for helpful tips on my family cookbook recipes.

>28 lesmel: >30 MrsLee: Not sure what the Youtube equivalent of a BB* is, but you caught me straight between the eyes with that one. Better Half and I thoroughly enjoyed two of Mr Hollis's offerings this evening.

*Book Bullet. MrsLee or any Green Dragon regular will be able to explain, if needed.

We're huge Dylan fans here! I think my daughter already preordered his cookbook.

>29 lesmel: Peanut butter onions. Ought to be sort of all right, given that we are on the way to a satay sauce. But I’m pretty sure that the hyperactive Mr Hollis is right on this one.

>31 hfglen: LOL. I'm so pleased you enjoyed some of his work. He's a bit hyper and loud; but he's so EARNEST!

>32 Marissa_Doyle: I ordered the cookbook the other day. I'm super excited.

>33 haydninvienna: Right?? Peanut butter + onion shouldn't be absolutely awful in the right ratio...but this is definitely NOT the right ratio!

Ok. The peanut butter onion is a bigger hit on the interwebs than I first thought. Supposedly, it's tastier than Dylan's opinion. I'm not sure I'm willing to try. I will say that salt roasted onions are delicious.

I binged the entire first season of Somewhere South with Vivian Howard. She's interesting. Being from Texas, I'm always fascinated by the food labelled "Southern." Depending on who you talk to, Texas isn't part of The South; but we are deeply influenced by it. While others will say Texas is firmly rooted in The South and you can't talk about one without the other.

Personally, after years of genealogy research, I'm always deeply curious about the foodways that followed my ancestors. Like chicken and dumplings. The style of dumplings my family makes is actually what would be in chicken and pastry; but our finished dish is milky and chicken and pastry generally is not.

Also, there's a dessert we make called chocolate butter roll that is very close to very thinly rolled biscuit dough, sprinkled in cinnamon and sugar, rolled, baked, and then covered in a chocolate sauce. Basically, cinnamon roll logs. Only until last year or the year before have I ever seen this outside of my family.

I'm also 100% addicted to Family Dinner with Andrew Zimmern. I've watched every episode and get excited when there's a new episode available. In fact, I want Andrew Zimmern to visit my family. I want to see him face off against my mother. 🤣🤣🤣

>36 lesmel: I love old community cookbooks because you sometimes stumble on a recipe a relative contributed.

Hello!

>36 lesmel: Andrew Zimmer used to be on a local channel in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is always so nice and fun to watch.
I have family recipes and I have made copies for my kids.