Small Talk: The Prayer Closet

[amitville]

Giada needs to turn in her Italian card. No Italian would invite people over only for them to go home hungry!

I agree no Italian would send anyone home hungry.  

Edited October 19, 2015 by amitville

[emma675]

I watched that Ree Drummond show one time and thought my head was going to explode. Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought a cooking show on the Food Network was going to be about making things from mostly scratch and she spent about 20 minutes walking through her giant pantry showing what she loved to cook with--99% of it was prepackaged, canned or frozen. I don't want to see things I can buy when I watch cooking shows, I want to learn how to make things myself. 

 

But it seems like most of the programming on Food Network now isn't even about cooking anymore. It's all game shows and competitions and freaking gross Guy Fieri.

[amitville]

I watched that Ree Drummond show one time and thought my head was going to explode. Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought a cooking show on the Food Network was going to be about making things from mostly scratch and she spent about 20 minutes walking through her giant pantry showing what she loved to cook with--99% of it was prepackaged, canned or frozen. I don't want to see things I can buy when I watch cooking shows, I want to learn how to make things myself. 

 

But it seems like most of the programming on Food Network now isn't even about cooking anymore. It's all game shows and competitions and freaking gross Guy Fieri.

I questioned the Food Network  via email as to why so many game shows.  I was told that is what the public wanted less cooking and more cooking game shows.  Guy Fieri not my style at all.  

Edited October 19, 2015 by amitville

[Jellybeans]

I used to know how to cook but after my daughter died, I blanked out. Now I can't cook anything. It is really disabling (well...no one gets food) and a very silly hangup.

My idea of a meal is pinning a recipe.

[Wellfleet]

My mother would recycle leftover mashed potatoes into mashed potato kugel.  Actually, she'd make a double batch so she could make kugel.  Basically, it's mashed potatoes in a casserole dish (old-school Corning Ware for the tate of authenticity) with the top brushed with oil and sprinkled with paprika, then baked until the outside is super-crusty.  It should have a nice, thick crust, with creamy insides.  If you serve it with meatloaf, it's like deconstructed shepherd's pie.  I never had mashed potato pancakes, but latkes?  Awww yeahhhhh!!!!   Latkes are so good that I wish Chanukah was more than eight days. 

 

This is how I know I was Jewish in one of my past lives - LOL. I love Jewish food!! Well, except for pickled herring...

[Tabbygirl521]

And while you have the syrup out, take 1/4 cup of maple syrup, mix with 1/4 cup of soy sauce and marinate salmon fillets in the mixture. You'll never have such tasty salmon, whether you grill it or panfry it.

Or smoke it, for salmon candy. Utterly addictive.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Tabbygirl521

[MargeGunderson]

My husband and I have 2 Christmas traditions. The first is that we go out to a really nice lunch on Dec. 24th. It started because we worked near each other and both had a half day. We also have the week between Christmas and New Year's off, so it's a great way to start our stay-cation.

 

The other tradition is Christmas Eve appetizer dinner. There are a few mainstays, like spinach artichoke dip and shrimp cocktail, and I try out a few new things. Last year I made my own country pate. It was pretty taste and no one got food poisoning, so success! (I was worried about the low temperature and the pork's pinkishness.)

 

One year I made a yule log from scratch, a 2 day effort that included meringue mushroms and sugared rosemary sprigs and cranberries. It remains my culinary masterpiece (I'm not very good at decoration, so the bar is low). I'd love to try a croquembouche but with just me and my husband, that's a lot of cream puffs!

[momofsquid]

The other tradition is Christmas Eve appetizer dinner. There are a few mainstays, like spinach artichoke dip and shrimp cocktail, and I try out a few new things. Last year I made my own country pate. It was pretty taste and no one got food poisoning, so success! (I was worried about the low temperature and the pork's pinkishness.)

 

We do this for lunch on Christmas day! For us there is usually a LOT of cheese involved.

[Fuzzysox]

Mmmmm cream puffs! Love them. SO easy to make too.

 

And I'm jonesing for a whatchamacallit now. I have to stay out of this thread.

[burlsa]

All this talk of food is making me hungry. I have four hours left that I can stuff my face, then I'm off of food until after surgery tomorrow. Maybe I should have picked up a cheesecake for me to eat after. I know I will eat a ton. After each procedure I've had in my life, I eat myself into a food coma.

Once after a colonoscopy, I ate a grinder that was probably 16 inches long and 10 cheese sticks. That is probably the most food I've ever eaten in one sitting.

[kalamac]

I have no idea if GEML's a troll, so I sincerely apologize for repeating a rumor I read elsewhere. But I'm stickin' by the rest of my post, in which I expressed my feelings re some of her behavior. Gotta own it. And no, we will not be sitting next to each other at Thanksgiving.

You took the words out of my mouth. Thank you for saying it better than I may have.

My grandmother was also a horrible cook. Vegetables were boiled until they were limp and lacking in colour, and meat was usually either undercooked or overcooked, because at some point in her life she'd been told you cooked a roast at 180C for an hour and a half, and we could never convince her that that was a guideline to be adjusted based on the size of the roast and how well the oven cooked. Urk. She also used to knit us jumpers for Christmas, then get mad that we wouldn't wear them, because none of us were putting on woolen jumpers in 40C heat.

Edited October 19, 2015 by kalamac

[KittyS]

My family is Swedish, so we always had Swedish food for Christmas Eve - meatballs and sausages, numerous varieties of pickled herring, shrimp, homemade gravlax, ham, breads and cheeses, and Jansson's Temptation (a potato and anchovie dish). Definitely heavy on the meat and seafood! Now we "lighten it up" with lots of salads and vegetable sides.

My husband's family is Italian, so they always had lots of Italian food alongside traditional American dishes. His family always did turkey (which I think of as a strictly Thanksgiving food) and my family always did ham (which he says is Easter food). Now, depending on who's there, I tend to have a buffet of Swedish, Italian, and American dishes with both ham and turkey (so wrong!). It all seems to work tomorrow together.

[Bella]

I don't know if anyone else here watches Chopped, a FN show where they get "mystery baskets" of strange ingredients. But I'm always imagining mystery baskets of horrible foods from my childhood, when my mother was still learning to cook. First on my list is always canned asparagus. There are worse foods, but that one is pretty bad!

[Jellybeans]

Has anyone ever eaten a Cherimoya? OMG...

[Fuzzysox]

My friend Melanie actually entered a cooking contest and won. What did she win? A trip to Ree Drummond's ranch. I'm not sure how it went because Melanie actually knows how to cook from scratch. lol Here's the post from way back.

 

http://www.thecoupongoddess.com/2011/06/big-day.html

Edited October 19, 2015 by Fuzzysox

[GeeGolly]

Spoiler Alert: Sob story.

 

Christmas was my favorite holiday when my kids were little. I still enjoyed it as they grew into adults, but not so much the decorations. A few years back we lost our house in a natural disaster. For some reason I haven't cared for Christmas since then. The holiday almost irritates me now, however we still do celebrate it.

 

On a lighter note, as far as the Food Network and the folks being mentioned, I'm clueless. I absolutely dislike cooking and feel I have paid my dues feeding my family all these years. Obviously I still prepare meals, but hubby pitches in a great deal. I prefer cleaning a toilet over any kind of food prep!

[IOU Payne]

 

I don't know if anyone else here watches Chopped, a FN show where they get "mystery baskets" of strange ingredients. But I'm always imagining mystery baskets of horrible foods from my childhood, when my mother was still learning to cook. First on my list is always canned asparagus. There are worse foods, but that one is pretty bad!

 

Bella, maybe you should see if you can get treatment for PTSD quickly, because if you read this next paragraph, you may need it:  There was a "semi-popular" party sandwich consisting of squishy white bread with the crusts cut off, schmeared with Cheez Whiz, then rolled up with canned asparagus in the middle.  It was then heated in the oven.  Thank goodness we've evolved!!

[kathe5133]

I love canned asparagus! I would never serve it to guests, but it was my favorite veggie as a child. We called it "sparagrass". I admit that it bears absolutely no relation to fresh asparagus, but it is one of my guilty foods that I consume in secret. It is especially good heated up with melted American cheese and bread crumbs for crunch! Sorry to gross everyone out! Lol!

[Julia]

I don't know if anyone else here watches Chopped, a FN show where they get "mystery baskets" of strange ingredients. But I'm always imagining mystery baskets of horrible foods from my childhood, when my mother was still learning to cook. First on my list is always canned asparagus. There are worse foods, but that one is pretty bad!

I'll see your canned asparagus and raise you ham, unchopped kale and rutabaga soup, with the hambone broken to release more salt and artificial smoke flavoring and razor-sharp bone shards into the huge leathery kale pieces. Which had more texture than sole filets boiled in reconstituted skim milk, but not as much as liver boiled in vinegar...

[pennben]

There was a "semi-popular" party sandwich consisting of squishy white bread with the crusts cut off, schmeared with Cheez Whiz, then rolled up with canned asparagus in the middle.  It was then heated in the oven. 

 

I thought we were done with hoaxes in this thread:)

[BitterApple]

My nightmare food from childhood was peanut butter and Fluff sandwiches on white bread. For those unfamiliar with Fluff, it's a sticky, spreadable marshmallow concoction in a jar. No kid growing up in Massachusetts could escape those things.

[Bella]

Spoiler Alert: Sob story.

 

Christmas was my favorite holiday when my kids were little. I still enjoyed it as they grew into adults, but not so much the decorations. A few years back we lost our house in a natural disaster. For some reason I haven't cared for Christmas since then. The holiday almost irritates me now, however we still do celebrate it.

 

Sorry about your house. The last time I moved, it was a slight downsizing in that the storage area went from ample to tiny. I donated bags and bags of Christmas decoration. Now I put a big bow on the front door and set out some stuffed Santa figures that I kept. Past that, I bake. And bake and bake and bake. My house may not look very Christmas-y, but it sure smells it.

[lookeyloo]

We watch Chopped on occasion. I tell the Mister that if I were on it I would serve them the separate ingredients slapped on a plate because I have lost my mojo on the cooking. Lucky he isn't fussy and we use the George Foreman a lot. And bagged veggies.

[magpye29]

BitterApple, I still eat Fluffernutters!  Can't right now due to aforementioned 21 Day Fix, but Fluff is one of those things I have to keep out of my pantry or it becomes my 2 AM snack go-to!

[Fuzzysox]

Has anyone ever eaten a Cherimoya? OMG...

I had to look it up since I had never heard of it before. Sounds delish.

 

In Chicago jackfruit is all the rage. I see it at the produce store and my husband wanted one. I had to say no because it was huge and I have no clue with to do with it.

[GeeGolly]

Yup PB & Fluff on Wonder white. Or a HUGE spoonful of Fluff in hot chocolate.

[Wok Chop]

I think it would be great if someone could compile a lot of these nasty food recipes (along with the stories that go with them) and create a cookbook. Anyone want to volunteer because I want to buy a book like that. These stories are endlessly entertaining.

Back a page or two someone mentioned serving green beans and cashews on Thanksgiving. I forgot who you were, but if you see this, would you mind sharing your recipe? I love cashews, and I started thinking about green beans and cashews together...and, well, it sounds good.

[magpye29]

How about white bread with the crusts cut off and that pimiento cheese spread in the middle?  Or the neufchatel cheese with pineapple in it?  (And the added bonus of keeping the jar to use as a juice glass!)

 

I used to love the Stella d'Oro anginetti cookies with the cream cheese, cool whip and pineapple filling.  Those were a staple here in Massachusetts at showers and holiday parties, but SD no longer makes them.

 

To be clear, you bought the cookies, cut them in half, spread the filling on the bottom half, and plopped the top half on the cookie.  Decadent and delicious--Aunt Sandy would be proud!

Edited October 19, 2015 by magpye29

[BOOgen3]

Skip the deliciousness and go straight to olive loaf and pimento loaf.

[Delft]

As a Canadian, we've just had Thanksgiving. Mom is in a small condo, so my home is the official gathering spot. We had 25 for dinner this year. I cook the turkey in an electric roaster, fast and hot, and it is as tender and juicy as you could ever want. No dried out turkey for us!

I make a dressing/stuffing (the term is interchangeable for us) from bread cubes, apples, onions & celery. We used to have the canned cranberry sauce, but my daughter has taken over and makes that from scratch. We have mashed potatoes & gravy, mashed turnips, and usually some combo of peas/carrots/corn. Salads depend on who's making them. Cole slaw, caesar salad, brocolli-raisin-bacon salad.... It changes every year. I always get at least one Costco pumpkin pie. That is seriously the best pumpkin pie ever! Mom does fruit pies, and my neices try to outdo each other with pumpkin/ cream cheese and chocolate/peanut butter creations - which is wonderful!!

Canadians do not eat green bean casserole or sweet potatoes with marshmallows. We don't understand it, either!!

Breakfast the next day is usually left-over pumpkin pie, and lunch is turkey sandwiches. We need more holidays like that!

ETA - and ham!! We always have a smoked ham too.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Delft

[Chicklet]

Oh Julia, rutabega soup?? Soup? That right there is a recipe for disaster to me. My mother used to serve liver and lima beans, in the same meal, I think I used to just go hungry after pushing stuff around on my plate. I still cant eat lima beans. She tried to poison my 3 year old self by putting lettuce on my tuna sandwich. I remember this as clearly as if it happened yesterday. 

Edited October 19, 2015 by Chicklet

[SomePity1066]

I think it would be great if someone could compile a lot of these nasty food recipes (along with the stories that go with them) and create a cookbook. Anyone want to volunteer because I want to buy a book like that. These stories are endlessly entertaining.

Back a page or two someone mentioned serving green beans and cashews on Thanksgiving. I forgot who you were, but if you see this, would you mind sharing your recipe? I love cashews, and I started thinking about green beans and cashews together...and, well, it sounds good.

Couldn't find a cookbook (yet !) but saw this online and thought it was fitting:

 

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/foodblog/2010/02/16/20-unholy-recipes-dishes-so-awful-we-had-to-make-them

 

The "Pickle Stretcher Salad" should be of particular note for the Duggars !

 

Seeing this is the best diet I've ever been on...

[Satchels of gold]

I haven't had a carb since 1998.

[Fuzzysox]

How about white bread with the crusts cut off and that pimiento cheese spread in the middle?  Or the neufchatel cheese with pineapple in it?  (And the added bonus of keeping the jar to use as a juice glass!)

 

I used to love the Stella d'Oro anginetti cookies with the cream cheese, cool whip and pineapple filling.  Those were a staple here in Massachusetts at showers and holiday parties, but SD no longer makes them.

 

To be clear, you bought the cookies, cut them in half, spread the filling on the bottom half, and plopped the top half on the cookie.  Decadent and delicious--Aunt Sandy would be proud!

I've never heard of this but it sounds interesting. My mom sucks at baking so I've had my share of Stella O'ro cookies in my lifetime but this is new to me. Is there a recipe? I actually have the recipe for anginetti cookies but have never made them. I love to bake and can most of the time pick out a recipe that comes out great. I have some that are ancient that I collected because once my aunts are gone so would the recipes. I used to beg my aunt for her recipes but she never gave them to me. One day I asked my cousin and BINGO I won the lottery. She let me copy them. Now I made them every Christmas. I would hate for those old recipes to die. The ones that you can't find in a recipe book. The closest thing to real Italian cookies in a cookbook come from Nick Malgieri's books. I love him! Not only does he replicate Italian cookies but also cookies  from around the world (Cookies Unlimited is the title of my go to book). I'm so lucky to have found him and have a collection of most of his books.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Fuzzysox

[MarysWetBar]

As a Canadian, we've just had Thanksgiving. Mom is in a small condo, so my home is the official gathering spot. We had 25 for dinner this year. I cook the turkey in an electric roaster, fast and hot, and it is as tender and juicy as you could ever want. No dried out turkey for us!

I make a dressing/stuffing (the term is interchangeable for us) from bread cubes, apples, onions & celery. We used to have the canned cranberry sauce, but my daughter has taken over and makes that from scratch. We have mashed potatoes & gravy, mashed turnips, and usually some combo of peas/carrots/corn. Salads depend on who's making them. Cole slaw, caesar salad, brocolli-raisin-bacon salad.... It changes every year. I always get at least one Costco pumpkin pie. That is seriously the best pumpkin pie ever! Mom does fruit pies, and my neices try to outdo each other with pumpkin/ cream cheese and chocolate/peanut butter creations - which is wonderful!!

Canadians do not eat green bean casserole or sweet potatoes with marshmallows. We don't understand it, either!!

Breakfast the next day is usually left-over pumpkin pie, and lunch is turkey sandwiches. We need more holidays like that!

ETA - and ham!! We always have a smoked ham too.

Canuck here too and i concur with everything you said right down to the turnips! I'm glad we have a longer break between the two holidays up here cus i have single sons so it is me doing all of it! Edited October 19, 2015 by MarysWetBar

[magpye29]

Fuzzysox, the filling is super easy--you mix an 8-oz. package of cream cheese, a can of crushed pineapple with most of the juice drained out, and half a regular tub of cool whip together.  Cut the tops off the anginetti cookies, plop some filling on them, and put the tops back on.  They are really yummy.  I never thought to look for an anginetti recipe, so I'll be working on that this weekend!

The recipe used to be printed on the bag the cookies came in.

Edited October 19, 2015 by magpye29

[Wok Chop]

I haven't had a carb since 1998.

My condolences.

[Wellfleet]

So, first update with the new Toast family member: he really, really, really didn't want to get out of his crate this morning. We actually had to force him out, which we didn't want to do, but we knew he had to go (to the outdoor bathroom). He blossoms when he gets outside, but is not happy with the stairs (he got down them but has yet to make it up) and with the non carpeted floors. Even so, progress--he did walk on his own around them. We went for a walk this chilly morning and he loved it. Time, patience and love and he'll figure it out. He definitely likes being with us, so that's a good thing. He's only the second dog I ever saw that doesn't inhale their food. The adoption lady said he was a grazer, but if we get another, that's not going to work out as well. But there are techniques to make feeding two dogs easier, and the groups caring and adopting the dogs are great resources for any help. 

 

Wow, whatever they do to those poor little Greyhound puppies to mess them up so radically is criminal - or should be. Imagine, our regular-life world is a whole new and unfamiliar experience for him. Poor guy! Sending him virtual tummy rubs and treats. And a nice warm flannel doggy-coat.

[Fuzzysox]

I haven't had a carb since 1998.

How do you live without? I would die because somedays my colon and I hate each other and the only thing I can eat is bread.

[Wok Chop]

Couldn't find a cookbook (yet !) but saw this online and thought it was fitting:

 

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/foodblog/2010/02/16/20-unholy-recipes-dishes-so-awful-we-had-to-make-them

 

The "Pickle Stretcher Salad" should be of particular note for the Duggars !

 

Seeing this is the best diet I've ever been on...

YES! I have looked at those vintage recipe blogs before. They are horrifying. However, my grandma made some type of apricot salad like the one in that article, and I loved it as a kid. I think it had apricot baby food, Cool Whip, pecans, and some type of Jello. Sadly, her recipe didn't include the eight pounds of sugar.

[magpye29]

This is a New England staple (and one I thoroughly loathe), but a lot of people here love Grape-Nut pudding.  I have never been able to eat grape-nuts since my mother made me eat a bowl of them with sour milk because I hadn't heard her say not to use the milk and she didn't want the cereal to go to waste.  Anyway, it's a custard-type pudding with grape-nuts in it.  I can't abide it.

Edited October 19, 2015 by magpye29

[Pixie Chicken]

I'm from the Midwest. I feel like that's Ground Zero for gross concoctions. How about "mashed potato boats"? Leftover mashed potatoes, fashioned into a loaf with a hot dog on top, and a Kraft single on the top, broiled until hot. Gag.

Or how about "ham buns"?

Jello dishes involving mayonnaise. Or vegetables. Or both!

[IOU Payne]

If you've never seen this site, and you're brave, check it out.  And wear Depends, because you will laugh so hard that you'll need them.  #overshare

[Delft]

I haven't had a carb since 1998.

How is that possible??

[Joe Jitsu913]

Screw the 'Good Housekeeping' cook book. I've always wanted to make the 'Bad Housekeeping' cook book.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Joe Jitsu913

[scriggle]

Yup PB & Fluff on Wonder white. Or a HUGE spoonful of Fluff in hot chocolate.

*delurks*

 

Nah, skip, the PB and make it an all Fluff sandwich on Wonder Bread.  Yup, I used to eat that when I was a kid.

[Julia]

I used to love the Stella d'Oro anginetti cookies with the cream cheese, cool whip and pineapple filling.  Those were a staple here in Massachusetts at showers and holiday parties, but SD no longer makes them.

 

Trustory: we used to live a block away from the Stella D'Oro plant in the Bronx, and I knew I was almost home on the train when I could smell anise.

 

If you've never seen this site, and you're brave, check it out.  And wear Depends, because you will laugh so hard that you'll need them.  #overshare

Oh, yeah. Lileks is kind of a tool, but that site is gold.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Julia

[theredhead77]

My mom still makes this shrimp dip concoction that has godknowswhat* in it (besides baby shrimp and cream cheese) and puts it in a copper salmon mold to serve.

 

*I do not want to know what's in it but I'll eat it up like it's nobodies business!

[Cherrio]

I'm from the Midwest. I feel like that's Ground Zero for gross concoctions. How about "mashed potato boats"? Leftover mashed potatoes, fashioned into a loaf with a hot dog on top, and a Kraft single on the top, broiled until hot. Gag.

Or how about "ham buns"?

Jello dishes involving mayonnaise. Or vegetables. Or both!

 

Edited October 20, 2015 by Cherrio

[Satchels of gold]

How is that possible??

I was kidding...sort of.