Be careful what you ask for ...

[LeadAsbestos]

And FF- be thankful. If my wife made any sort of meal, I'd run up the bell-tower and do the Quasimodo I'd be so happy! :tea:

[Nathan Caroland]

Heh, no worries, it really wasn't that bad, just something that really didn't float my boat, but I had it for lunch today at work - the ladies here seemed to be really interested what I had.

:D


Anyhow, nah, mostly I don't eat out, about 90% of whatever I eat is either cooked or bagged and I take sandwiches and the like to work so I'm rather lucky in that department.

Goats - bleah. Don't like them. Don't like eating them. Don't like products from them. Just not my thing I guess.


This week coming we're doing a seafood whatnot, think we're doing black-tip shark steaks (friend of ours is overnighting them to us on Friday from the coast a few hours away) and whatever else we work in. Wife and kids will be all over calamari (sp?) and seaweed strips, I'll see if I can slip in a baked potato at the very least!


We've decided to go through and do something 'new' every other week and try something out. We're doing the seafood this week coming, after that we're going to try out some other stuff like French, German .. etc cuisines. All up for the German food, lived there for near eight years and loved it all.

Ah well, might not like it all, but I'll sure as hell try it.


Except for cows tongue and anythings brains. Sorry, can't do it.

[green stuff]

Concerning goat cheese, I don't think you can really appreciate it in the States since the sanitary measures there kill all the necessary bacteria to make it good.

Cow tongue is good (softest meat you'll ever eat); don't care much for the brain.

For french cooking, what do you have in mind?

[vincegamer]

Can you make human cheese? (yes, please insert fave joke here...)
Seriously, someone must have tried.

well, after an extensive search (5 minutes googling "breast milk cheese") I have learned that it is possible in theory, but because making 1 lb of cheese requires 10 lbs of fresh, unpasteurized milk, you would have to have several women lactating at a time. You really couldn't do it with 1 woman since by the time she got to the 10th lb, the 1st lb is days old.
I could, therefor, find no one who had actually made cheese from breast milk.

I did find someone's description of making yogurt out of her own milk though, as yogurt is more like a 2:1 ratio. She said all her male friends were anxious to try it and all said they liked it.

FF: Here's something the wife and I did shortly after getting married: we bought the cookbook "Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home" and made everything in it. I recommend that to anyone. One key aspect is none of the recipies takes a long time.

[tzor]

One thing to remember when thinking of cheese (especially human cheese) is why cheese was invented in the first place. Cows and also goats are bread to lactate non stop from the day they give birth. Cows especially have to be milked every day. With the various fasting regulations in both eastern and western Christianity, there were extended periods of time when milk could not be consumed. (Besides it's not healthy for you anyway. Beer and Coffee was considered the "safe" drinks of the Middle ages.) You had to milk the cow (or goat) anyway, so cheese was the best way to preserve milk over the fast periods. Not only does it last longer it tastes great too!

Another fine product made possible by SALT. Another piece of useless trivia learned by reading the Hstory of Salt.

Since generally speaking humans stop lactation quickly after breast feeding stops, infants are not generally beholden to fasting regulations, and the supply was always less than demand (because wet nurse was still an important occupation to serve the well to do) it seems unlikely that any serious attempts to make human cheese would take place.

---

Meanwhile, cows tongue is good eating. There was a nice deli near where I lived that had something they called a "tastemaster." It had a ton (well not a ton but a lot) of different meats including tongue. It came "dressed" or "undressed" or with or without Russian dressing.

[almathea toes]

Yeah....I use Ricotta all the time.....Lasagna just isn't as good without it...

I finally tried some CURRY....we found a 'bag' of 'heat and serve' curry at the grocery store. It was CURRIED CHICK PEAS or something, I make it and served it over rice. It was ok, but not phenomenal. I need to try some other styles before I judge it.

Seriusoly, get an authentic indian recipe and make it from scratch. A curry just isn't the same from a packet. Lamb curries are great, um, if you're not vegetarian or vegan.

Be careful what recipe you use though, there are different types of curries. Personally I don't carefor Vindaloos, as I like my hot in moderation, but there are a range of heavily herbed curries that are not hot. Really, there's a lot going on in the world of the indian curry, it covers a wide variety of different dishes.

The other good tip I can suggest is your recipe will most likely call for something called Masala (or close to that I can't remember the exact spelling). Get a recipe for it and make it fresh yourself. It will make a world of difference, and it doesn't take long to do. You just put the spices into a fry pan and cook them until they start to pop, then grind them up together. Great spice mix. You can make extra and keep it, at least that way you know how old it is.

Oh, Vince, the computer in red dwarf is Holly. Hal is from 2001: a space odyssey.

[Art-de-Vivre]

Concerning goat cheese, I don't think you can really appreciate it in the States since the sanitary measures there kill all the necessary bacteria to make it good.

True : you have to try some goat cheese made from unpasteurized milk to be had only in Europe unfortunately; it's a different experience alltogether !

Cow tongue is good (softest meat you'll ever eat); don't care much for the brain.

:AR15firin you're not serious, are you ? or at least you're not really French...

For french cooking, what do you have in mind?

go for snails and froglegs and you can't be wrong :dancing2:

of course I'm just kidding since I like none of those "clicheed" dishes that everybody seems to associate with French cuisine.
My personal favourite : gooseliver paté (foie gras); very expensive and usually available at year end on most French dinner tables.

For simpler pleasures try "coq au vin" (chicken in red wine sauce) or cassoulet (white beans with a leg of duck); this talk about food makes me hungry; gotta call my wife to ask what's for dinner :tongue2:

[tzor]

My one solitary boast. When I was a kid (perhaps 10 at the most) and I went to a resturant I actually stunned my parents by asking for the frogs legs. Why? Because! (My parents had one simple rule, I had to taste it. Even if I had it a month ago and didn't like it. "Tastes change when you are young." As a result I developed a hearty sense of taste spoiled only by an allergy to nuts.)

Tongue isn't really French as much as it is Jewish Deli. At least in my experience.

"Coq au vin" always sounded like heresy to me; chicken and red wine. But I love it none the less. I've never had "cassoulet" but anything with duck must be heavenly.

My favorite "french" resturant was (and still is when I go back) a little resturant with a lovely couple and about a half dozen tables in Key West Florida. They cooked a lot of provincial french meals as well as the classics you expect in a french resturant as well as a few things from local custom (like Key Lime pie which they actually inverted making the filling a key lime moose where it is normally the marange on top which is the light and fluffy part ... and the juice was from a tree growing on their property). The name, by the way is called "Moe's." (They close in the summer, but are open during the tourist season.) Their mascot is a gigant garlic clove man.

Many years ago, I worked for a small family business. The boss, son and daughter had to go to Paris on business. I had to remain behind. They hated it. They described in American detail their entire culinary experience. Unfortunately, I knew exactly what they were talking about and translating their words I could hardly prevent myself from drooling as they described the French "horrors." The kicker was their final statement, "The only thing I could recognize was chicken, but it was in jello!"

[green stuff]

@Art-de-Vivre : I was born in the Netherlands, lived 6 years in south-east Asia, and 5 years in the States. I guess I'm relearning the french way of life :P.

Frog legs taste like chicken , but careful for your kids Nathan, the bones are really small and break easily. Snails are good but maby a little bit costly if you're not sure to appreciate them.

Something that your kids should love is crêpes. You can make them either for the main dish (add ham, cheese, mushrooms, ...) or for dessert (add sugar, jam, hot chocolat, walnuts, sliced carameled appels, ...).

One receipe I've been doing a lot lately is duck breast with sliced carameled appels cooked in apple cider vinegar (count 3 apples for 2 persons).

[Art-de-Vivre]

"The only thing I could recognize was chicken, but it was in jello!"

:thumb: a real treat ... :hahaha:



@GS : funny, for me it is quite the reverse : I was born in the UK, am French and now live in South East Asia (Malaysia).


@FF : why don't you ask Edgar Ramos to shape a nice meal made of green stuff, have EricJ paint it up nicely (only 2 colors allowed this time :bowsucker ) and present it to your wife ? :gimmie!: Do you think she'll take the hint ?