Food Revolution

[taxguykarl]

I like the idea of soaking the beans,,,,I can snag some canned tomatoes and fake meats and make myself a good chili,,,,hmmm...

With a crock pot, you don't really need to soak the beans. I've made all kinds of bean dishes from dry beans (OK, just rinsed to remove dust and other nasties). I did a veggie chili in a crock pot once--I recommend adding the fake meat in about the last 1/2 hour of cooking...the stew will be nasty otherwise.

Did you know that crock pots were, in fact, originally marketed as bean cookers?

I learned to cook from my mother and cooking shows. Good Eats is my present favorite. Almost all of the episodes are on youtube now.

[AccountingDrone]

Veggie peelings make a perfectly fine stock. You just need to be careful about what peelings you put in there. Generally I don't put stuff in there that has problems beyond "tough". But carrot peels, the not-quite good onion peels (not the papery parts), celery leaves/the top of the stalks, spinach stems, etc, those are all fine. The only reason we don't eat them is because we're rich and picky.

I'm not sure where the wine comes in, and normally my meat base (if I'm using one) is either from a roast or I buy chicken carcasses. I know what you mean about not using ingredients you wouldn't consume on their own, but you need to look at why you wouldn't consume them on their own.

Then I must eat stuff that other americans don't ... the stuff we don't eat is literally inedible. Probably comes from being broke for a number of years [the government pays navy enlisteds for shit. I think Rob calculated it at something like 29 cents US per hour when you took into account all the hours he was actually on the submarine or at his duty station when on shore duty.]

[AccountingDrone]

My sister, who grew up in the same damn house and eating the same good food as I did, will not make sweet tea without a tea maker. It's one of the easiest things ever...but she just won't do it. When I have friends over, they rave about my tea and say they could never make it. Simplest thing in the world, really.

Tea maker as in Mr Iced Tea [by Mr Coffee?]?

Only reason we have one is we got it for our wedding ... we would never buy something like that ourselves

[BookstoreEscapee]

Did you notice how malnurished the scrawny kids are??

And in the part where he dumps out all the fat they eat in a year, when they show the crowd from above, notice how big a lot of the parents are...

[Jester]

...do the items to be used at the end of the week really stay good in the fridge when prepared on the Sunday? I ask because I never usually defrost meat if I am not going to use it withing two days and on that system it could be five days before it is used?

I am not sure, to be honest, but if you are in any doubt, freeze the meat that you intend to use for later recipes, and move it from the freezer to the fridge 24 hours prior to using it, to give it time to defrost.

[Evil Queen]

Sign the petition boys and girls!

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns...ution/petition

And in the part where he dumps out all the fat they eat in a year, when they show the crowd from above, notice how big a lot of the parents are...

I did. One of the parents back there is a freaking nurse too! Man, watching this show made me really happy that my Mom drastically changed my diet when I was a teenager.

[Spiffy McMoron]

I love liver. And I've tried heart once. The head chef at the brewpub I worked at got in some various duck parts. Duck liver is awesome! But duck heart? Might as well chew on a racquetball. Yes, I am serious. That being said, I would try cow heart if given the chance. But so far, my one experience with heart was pretty horrible.

My experiences with heart are pretty (actually, REALLY) positive. At Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have to fight with my brother and sister over who gets the turkey or chicken heart if there is one. It's not treated special, it's just baked in the cavity.

I suppose that comes from growing up with a dad that raised cattle. We'd get one butchered and the butcher would wrap up the heart, liver, and tongue as well. Liver was tasty (it was breaded, pan-fried, and served with bacon and onions) and heart was tasty as well (baked with a bread stuffing, and served with yellow mustard or crabapple jelly on the side to taste). I honestly don't remember if the tongue tasted good or not; I just remember that Mom had to remove the taste buds, that she boiled it, and that I knew I could never, ever trade my leftover tongue sandwich for a Fruit Roll-Up.

[RayvenQ]

Haven't seen the show, probably because Jamie Oliver purely annoys me, having met and spoken to him for a shrot time as well, that did nothing to help my opinion on him.

[Magpie]

Then I must eat stuff that other americans don't ... the stuff we don't eat is literally inedible. Probably comes from being broke for a number of years [the government pays navy enlisteds for shit. I think Rob calculated it at something like 29 cents US per hour when you took into account all the hours he was actually on the submarine or at his duty station when on shore duty.]

Yeah we do stuff like peel our carrots most of the time when we're having carrot sticks, chop the leaves off the celery. And if stuff is tough we generally don't eat it unless it's getting cooked (spinach stems and what not). Broth alleviates the guilt of being picky like that.

[Jester]

I honestly don't remember if the tongue tasted good or not...

I've never had hot tongue.

I did, however, grow up on tongue as a cold cut. Remember, I come from a New York Jewish family, and growing up, tongue was just another luncheon meat to us. Actually, it wasn't until I was about 12 that I realized that tongue was, well, tongue. I was at my grandma's house for some event or other, and looking down at the cold cut tray, it hit me that what I was eating was, in fact, cow tongue. I took a few seconds to ponder this revelation, shrugged, and then piled it up on my plate as I always did.

"Jester, what the hell did you think tongue was?" Before that day at Grandma's, I honestly just thought it was a luncheon meat with an unfortunate name. I mean, how many other things do we eat whose names do not truly denote what they are?

By the way, greatest sandwich ever: good shaved tongue, piled high on rye bread, with a good deli mustard. (Gulden's is an excellent example.) I know a lot of you think I am nuts. So did my Irish sous chef at the brew pub. He told me it sounded gross. "Do you like pastrami?" I asked him. He admitted he did. "Well, if you like pastrami, you will probably like tongue." He doubted me. "Well, next time you are down at Bowman's (the local Jewish deli), try some tongue. A few weeks later, he came in and told me had done just that...and it had been one of the greatest sandwiches he had ever had, and he admitted I had been absolutely right.

Sadly, no grocery store or deli in Key West carries tongue.

[dalesys]

My daughter kvetches "I won't eat anything that's tasting me!"

[42_42_42]

I'm a fairly adventurous eater, but I just cannot bring myself to eat offal or pluck. I will use the meat (muscle) and the fat and the bones, but that's it. For now, anyway. DH on the other hand, loves those kinds of dishes and one of the top things on his "life list" is to go to Scotland and eat haggis. Me, I'd rather go to Laduree in Paris and make myself sick on pastries. Remember the nursery rhyme about Jack Sprat? Well, that's me and my hubby, only he's meats and I'm sweets!

It realy amazes me how many people really don't cook beyone heating up canned or frozen stuf. My mom started teaching me and my sis how to cook when we were toddlers.

[Food Lady]

Remember, I come from a New York Jewish family

marry me

[Jester]

Food Lady, I come from a New York Jewish family. I have distanced myself as much as possible from both the New York and the Jewish part. So you might want to hold off on the marriage proposals.

While I am descended from Jews and have many very orthodox and religious relatives, I myself am by practice about as Jewish as a bacon-wrapped shrimp. And I am not much of a New Yorker, either, having a slight western drawl (more pronounced when I am drunk) and using phrases like "y'all" and "darlin'."

Just so you know.