Good point. I wonder if it was the same bloke who discovered that the auroch he'd just killed would taste nicer if he cooked him*.
D. will quite often come through from the study (usually) late in the evening and say "do you think we should have some tea and TOAST?", to which the answer is invariably a resounding yes.
* with garlic, juniper berries and a red wine jus, obviously ...
I ban myself from buying Warburton's white Toastie or Super Toastie bread, as I basically have no control over how much toast I will eat if that is in the house.
I ban myself from buying Warburton's white Toastie or Super Toastie bread, as I basically have no control over how much toast I will eat if that is in the house.
Divide the loaf into (say) four quarters, place each into a plastic bag and freeze three of them.
We once bought an Ordinary White Loaf with the sole purpose of making TOAST (and froze it in bits as BT recommends), but it really wasn't awfully nice bread (and didn't even make particularly good TOAST), so we just toast the bread I make myself. It keeps quite well (better than shop-bought French sticks) and we usually keep the leftover end bits for toasting even if we start a new loaf to eat as it is.
It's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and if we'd gone native, we'd be having turkey and all the trimmings today, but we're not because (a) we don't like turkey; and (b) we're broke, so we made a chicken casserole last night, and that's going to be our Thanksgiving dinner (and much nicer IMHO).
I ban myself from buying Warburton's white Toastie or Super Toastie bread, as I basically have no control over how much toast I will eat if that is in the house.
Dunno what is about Warb**tons, but their Toastie bread does indeed make very acceptable TOAST.
Accompanied by BUTTER, MARMITE, JAM, MARMALADE, or whatever other Precious Gift Our Lord And His Blessed Mother have seen fit to bestow...
I have had some lovely cheese on toast for my tea. I like putting slices of cucumber on my cheese on toast after I've grilled it, which most people find very odd. I like the combination of hot and cold, and the different textures.
O, I think I could appreciate cucumber on TOAST - if I liked cucumber, which, alas, I don't (or, to be more fair and accurate, it doesn't like me ).
I can't abide tomato (aka fruit, or vegetable, of Satan) on CHEESE, or anything else, for that matter, but a dash of Worcester Sauce is always acceptable!
O - it's nearly Tea-Time! How convenient! CHEESE, where are you??
Fridge, open door! Bread-bin, open lid! Grille, light up! Cook Ing and Grill Ing, to your stations!
I ban myself from buying Warburton's white Toastie or Super Toastie bread, as I basically have no control over how much toast I will eat if that is in the house.
Divide the loaf into (say) four quarters, place each into a plastic bag and freeze three of them.
How would that work; that is stop me from over making toast? You can make toast with bread straight from the freezer.
....... I like the combination of hot and cold, and the different textures.
My favourite pudding is ice cream in a bowl of custard - after a while I saw it in a pub rather poshly called Isles Flotant.
That is to say the pub was trying to be posh but just looking what my Dad would call jumped-up
Ile flottante is a traditional French dessert with creme anglaise (which differs from English custard by being runnier) and soft meringue. It's a way of using both halves of the egg. In Ingerland you will sometimes see the name anglicised as floating islands. No ice cream is involved.
Ile flottante sounds like just my favourite thing - I do love a good custardy pudding.
Our church celebrated it’s 25th anniversary today so a lovely cheerful service with lots of worship and thanksgiving followed by cake with our coffee. Then we spent the afternoon at the church monthly board games meet. Other half is now making pasta and cheese before we catch up with Doctor Who.
I have had some lovely cheese on toast for my tea. I like putting slices of cucumber on my cheese on toast after I've grilled it, which most people find very odd. I like the combination of hot and cold, and the different textures.
Sounds lovely, .fineline.
When my sons were quite yyoung , we used t have up to a dozen Sunday School children around for evening meal on a Sunday. Known down here then as tea. Cheapest and easiest was toast with a great variety of spreads and toppings available. He only rule was that if you put something on your toast, it had to be eaten.
One of my sons outdid everyone else. He was about five, he had marmalade which he loved, mashed boiled egg, cucumber and cheese. It all went down. Possibly sliced tomato too.
That almost sounds kind of nice, Loth. I don't like marmalade by itself, but I imagine it might be nice with cheese. Not sure about cucumber or egg with marmalade though! But I do tend to like sweet stuff better when it is mixed with savoury. I got myself some Marmite chocolate for Easter, and loved it.
I'm going to throw something else into the mix: toasted cinnamon-and-raisin bread, which is what we had for breakfast* this morning.
* Not a meal I usually bother with, but D. quite likes to have something before heading out to church, and this morning he asked if I wanted some raisin TOAST, and it seemed rude to refuse ...
Today I have followed my usual Monday-and-Thursday routine, which is a swim when the Leisure Centre opens, pop in to L+idl on the way back, then coffee and a warm croissant (half with Marmalade, half with Marmite) for breakfast. Normally we go a bit later so Herself can attend a water workout session, but at present she is Somewhat Indisposed (and off to the Doctor's in a few minutes). By going earlier I miss the traffic.
....... I like the combination of hot and cold, and the different textures.
My favourite pudding is ice cream in a bowl of custard - after a while I saw it in a pub rather poshly called Isles Flotant.
That is to say the pub was trying to be posh but just looking what my Dad would call jumped-up
Ile flottante is a traditional French dessert with creme anglaise (which differs from English custard by being runnier) and soft meringue. It's a way of using both halves of the egg. In Ingerland you will sometimes see the name anglicised as floating islands. No ice cream is involved.
Well, what do you make of a student hall of residence that called it "Floating Islands". This was thirty years ago and we would describe it as melted Baked Alaska.
I've never got on with Ile flottante (floating islands) or similar puds. I think it dates back to a disastrous home economics lesson when I was at school.
We got back from our lovely Italian holiday late on Saturday night. I now feel very fat. There was lots of walking but lots of good food, ice cream and wine too.
On the cooking theme, tonight we are having slow cooked ox cheeks, one of my favourite things. Our veg delivery box have lots of unusual meats so we get things like pig cheeks, ox cheeks or trotters (really not worth the effort and smell).
Term started this week so I sent the morning online with students, via email and forums, and doing telephone tutorials. This afternoon I did some training about some of the features in our online teaching room and left the session actually having felt I’d learnt some useful skills. So productive all round. And my new computer works perfectly and is beautifully quiet.
Has anyone come across fruit curds? Lemon curd has been around for ever, butt some years ago I bought a raspberry curd in a National Trust shop, and since then, I've come across fruit curds in various places.
Ginger curd on toast is lush
Ginger curd is particularly nice. MuminElmet makes a good classic lemon which is nice and sharp and good on toast with some cream cheese (or on a tortilla, which is just my weirdness - I can't explain it).
@Heavenlyannie , I agree about pork and ox cheeks. They're readily available in the local Morrisons, which keeps us well stocked with piggy stew. Mm, stew.
I've never tried ox cheeks or pork cheeks. They don't have them in Asda, or I would. I like trying unusual things. I often buy lamb heart, as it's much cheaper than regular cuts of lamb and tastes exactly the same, with a smooth texture. And often on the reduced aisle too, because I guess it doesn't sell well. Once another customer - an older man - had a bit of a rant at me when I put lamb heart into my basket, telling me how horrible it is to eat the poor lamb's heart.
Would he have been so upset if it had just been chops?
I confess hearts, cheeks and such things hold no appeal for me whatsoever; if anything, it would be the smooth texture that would put me off - it's what I don't like about kidneys. The only offal I can contemplate is chicken liver for pâté and lamb liver for haggis.
It was a glorious day today (12° and sunny), so after lunch (baked meat and macaroni pie*) we took a wee run out to admire the trees, which really are looking glorious, and then I had a nice amble over the bridge.
* It's a sort of pseudo-lasagne with penne instead of lasagne sheets, so less faff. I had some leftover sauce in the freezer from a spag bog I made a while ago, so all I needed to do was make a white sauce, cook the pasta and then it was just an assembly job. It really came out rather well - I'll be doing it again.
Kidneys are the one thing I don't eat - not because of the texture, but because they smell like urine when they are cooking. I wasn't expecting that when I first tried them, but apparently it is the norm.
I love liver and bacon and onions, with mash and peas.
And I suspect he wouldn't have cared about chops - he probably buys them himself. It was the fact it was hearts - people can get emotional over the idea of eating a heart. I posted about lamb heart in a frugal food group, and got a lot of angry comments from people who never protest about other meat posts. I just figure if the lamb is being killed for food, better to use as much as possible and not waste.
I think I have an odd ability to disconnect from psychological associations when I eat. I just see it all as part of the body of the animal, and if it tastes nice, then I like it.
We were at a dinner party many moons ago where the starter was devilled kidneys. The flavour was quite nice - a fairly piquant sauce, as I recall, but the texture left me feeling very glad I only had to eat two of them!
Offal generates such odd reactions. I quite like some of it, because it's so lean, and I suspect the reason I don't really like meat is the fat - the leaner the meat the more likely I am to enjoy it. But then offal is often so meaty and I'd much rather eat some vegetables or oily fish.
I was the strange kid at school dinners because I liked the offal dishes (cheap, so we got it) although the liver cooked to leather wasn’t good.
I used to slow-cook pigs cheeks (lovely and tender with a delicate flavour) until I found out that it’s probably the only part of a pig that a pig-farmer friend (pork at every meal!) wouldn’t eat and wouldn’t tell me why.
Another sunny day and I hear the allotment calling me to free it from the weeds that took over during the summer. I’m probably about a third of the way through and hope to finish clearing it by the end of the month. Then I can sit back and browse the seed catalogues and dream of next season. This evening I’m taking a neighbour there for a bit more moth spotting - I think there is still enough vegetation to keep the moths happy.
Yes, cheeks aren’t smooth like liver and kidneys, they have a sort of loose grain with lots of gelatinous fat.
I eat kidneys but am much prefer liver, chicken liver is beautiful lightly fried with some paprika and pepper. And my veg man sometimes has chicken hearts which are very nice (and tiny). I suppose having slaughtered and eaten our own hand reared chickens I’m rather immune to any sensitivity as to what part to eat!
I really need to do some gardening too, lots of weeding needed. I need to catch up on my students first and do a bit of study.
Far from being cruel to eat the heart and other offal, one can regard “nose to tail eating” as a mark of respect for the beast. Having once taken its life away, it would be wrong to waste any edible part of it.
TBH, once upon time there would have been no thought of not eating all of it, and even today in cultures where meat is still expensive and scarce, the whole beast is consumed. African friends of mine insist that the tastiest morsels are the ones that appal most Westerners. In particular the choicest bit of a fish is considered to be the head, and the cartilage of a chicken is reserved for honoured guests. The Chinese also have a culture of using every last scrap of the meat. One of George Dubya Bush’s achievements was to make a trade deal to sell chicken feet to China – worthless and revolting to Americans, a delicacy to the Chinese.
Heart I can take or leave. Liver on the other hand, is flipping delicious. Calves’ liver, especially, is possibly my favourite meat in the world, although I grant that it is not a cheap cut. OTOH, I dislike gelatinous food, and do turn my nose up at tête de veau (calves’ head) and the like.
I had a friend who was a missionary in Bolivia and she was horrified when we ordered chicken feet in a Chinese restaurant. She said that in South America chicken feet were leftovers which only poor people ate and she couldn’t see why she should pay good money for them in a restaurant.
Far from being cruel to eat the heart and other offal, one can regard “nose to tail eating” as a mark of respect for the beast. Having once taken its life away, it would be wrong to waste any edible part of it.
This is exactly how I see it. I hate waste. And if you're only using half the animal once you've killed it, then twice as many animals will be killed than if you use the whole thing.
Costco rotisserie chickens don't have giblets* either, but I make stock with the bones - I'll get about 5 pints of stock from one carcass and it freezes beautifully.
Lunch chez Piglet today was a paella, made with the very last bits of meat left on a chicken**, sausages, prawns and veggies. It was really good, and there was enough left to freeze for another day.
Must beetle off now and set some laundry going.
* I don't think I've ever bought a chicken with giblets
** carcass now in freezer waiting to be turned into stock
I make stock with the juices and bones too, Piglet. And I save the fat to roast roat veg in. Ducks still have giblets in them. I like to buy a duck or two when they are half price before Easter and Christmas.
It's been a warm, rather sticky day today: when I went out for a little amble at about six in the evening, it was 21° and feeling like 27, with that sort of headachy feel you get with humid weather. It's now almost half past seven, and darkness seems to have fallen with a clunk - it looks and feels as though there ought to be thunder any minute, although there's no mention of it in the forecast.
The weather really doesn't seem to know whether it's coming or going at the moment - the low for tonight is 15°, and the high for tomorrow is 13°
Never mind, there's freshly baked raisin bread - help yourselves!
Wow - will you be able to grow them where you are? The idea of free avocados is very appealing! I wonder if avocado stones would grow as readily as accidentally-scattered sunflower seeds ...
It's a dull, rather moist sort of day here, so making SOUP for tomorrow's lunch seemed like the right thing to do, and it's bubbling merrily on the stove as I type. Should be ready for virtual tasting in an hour or two.
Far from being cruel to eat the heart and other offal, one can regard “nose to tail eating” as a mark of respect for the beast. Having once taken its life away, it would be wrong to waste any edible part of it.
This is exactly how I see it. I hate waste. And if you're only using half the animal once you've killed it, then twice as many animals will be killed than if you use the whole thing.
I am trying to remember where I read (possibly Alistair Cooke) that it was a native American practice to show respect for the animal by using all of it. I'm about 98% vegetarian - had a bacon relapse yesterday - though by preference rather than conviction. I'm never going to eat a bear.
Comments
IJ
D. will quite often come through from the study (usually) late in the evening and say "do you think we should have some tea and TOAST?", to which the answer is invariably a resounding yes.
* with garlic, juniper berries and a red wine jus, obviously ...
It's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and if we'd gone native, we'd be having turkey and all the trimmings today, but we're not because (a) we don't like turkey; and (b) we're broke, so we made a chicken casserole last night, and that's going to be our Thanksgiving dinner (and much nicer IMHO).
Dunno what is about Warb**tons, but their Toastie bread does indeed make very acceptable TOAST.
Accompanied by BUTTER, MARMITE, JAM, MARMALADE, or whatever other Precious Gift Our Lord And His Blessed Mother have seen fit to bestow...
IJ
I can't abide tomato (aka fruit, or vegetable, of Satan) on CHEESE, or anything else, for that matter, but a dash of Worcester Sauce is always acceptable!
O - it's nearly Tea-Time! How convenient! CHEESE, where are you??
Fridge, open door! Bread-bin, open lid! Grille, light up! Cook Ing and Grill Ing, to your stations!
IJ
How would that work; that is stop me from over making toast? You can make toast with bread straight from the freezer.
Jengie
Ile flottante is a traditional French dessert with creme anglaise (which differs from English custard by being runnier) and soft meringue. It's a way of using both halves of the egg. In Ingerland you will sometimes see the name anglicised as floating islands. No ice cream is involved.
Our church celebrated it’s 25th anniversary today so a lovely cheerful service with lots of worship and thanksgiving followed by cake with our coffee. Then we spent the afternoon at the church monthly board games meet. Other half is now making pasta and cheese before we catch up with Doctor Who.
Sounds lovely, .fineline.
When my sons were quite yyoung , we used t have up to a dozen Sunday School children around for evening meal on a Sunday. Known down here then as tea. Cheapest and easiest was toast with a great variety of spreads and toppings available. He only rule was that if you put something on your toast, it had to be eaten.
One of my sons outdid everyone else. He was about five, he had marmalade which he loved, mashed boiled egg, cucumber and cheese. It all went down. Possibly sliced tomato too.
* Not a meal I usually bother with, but D. quite likes to have something before heading out to church, and this morning he asked if I wanted some raisin TOAST, and it seemed rude to refuse ...
Well, what do you make of a student hall of residence that called it "Floating Islands". This was thirty years ago and we would describe it as melted Baked Alaska.
We got back from our lovely Italian holiday late on Saturday night. I now feel very fat. There was lots of walking but lots of good food, ice cream and wine too.
Term started this week so I sent the morning online with students, via email and forums, and doing telephone tutorials. This afternoon I did some training about some of the features in our online teaching room and left the session actually having felt I’d learnt some useful skills. So productive all round. And my new computer works perfectly and is beautifully quiet.
Ginger curd on toast is lush
@Heavenlyannie , I agree about pork and ox cheeks. They're readily available in the local Morrisons, which keeps us well stocked with piggy stew. Mm, stew.
I confess hearts, cheeks and such things hold no appeal for me whatsoever; if anything, it would be the smooth texture that would put me off - it's what I don't like about kidneys. The only offal I can contemplate is chicken liver for pâté and lamb liver for haggis.
It was a glorious day today (12° and sunny), so after lunch (baked meat and macaroni pie*) we took a wee run out to admire the trees, which really are looking glorious, and then I had a nice amble over the bridge.
* It's a sort of pseudo-lasagne with penne instead of lasagne sheets, so less faff. I had some leftover sauce in the freezer from a spag bog I made a while ago, so all I needed to do was make a white sauce, cook the pasta and then it was just an assembly job. It really came out rather well - I'll be doing it again.
I love liver and bacon and onions, with mash and peas.
And I suspect he wouldn't have cared about chops - he probably buys them himself. It was the fact it was hearts - people can get emotional over the idea of eating a heart. I posted about lamb heart in a frugal food group, and got a lot of angry comments from people who never protest about other meat posts. I just figure if the lamb is being killed for food, better to use as much as possible and not waste.
Kidneys are fine in a snake and kiddley pie, but they do remind me a little of GCSE biology dissection classes.
I used to slow-cook pigs cheeks (lovely and tender with a delicate flavour) until I found out that it’s probably the only part of a pig that a pig-farmer friend (pork at every meal!) wouldn’t eat and wouldn’t tell me why.
Another sunny day and I hear the allotment calling me to free it from the weeds that took over during the summer. I’m probably about a third of the way through and hope to finish clearing it by the end of the month. Then I can sit back and browse the seed catalogues and dream of next season. This evening I’m taking a neighbour there for a bit more moth spotting - I think there is still enough vegetation to keep the moths happy.
I eat kidneys but am much prefer liver, chicken liver is beautiful lightly fried with some paprika and pepper. And my veg man sometimes has chicken hearts which are very nice (and tiny). I suppose having slaughtered and eaten our own hand reared chickens I’m rather immune to any sensitivity as to what part to eat!
I really need to do some gardening too, lots of weeding needed. I need to catch up on my students first and do a bit of study.
TBH, once upon time there would have been no thought of not eating all of it, and even today in cultures where meat is still expensive and scarce, the whole beast is consumed. African friends of mine insist that the tastiest morsels are the ones that appal most Westerners. In particular the choicest bit of a fish is considered to be the head, and the cartilage of a chicken is reserved for honoured guests. The Chinese also have a culture of using every last scrap of the meat. One of George Dubya Bush’s achievements was to make a trade deal to sell chicken feet to China – worthless and revolting to Americans, a delicacy to the Chinese.
Heart I can take or leave. Liver on the other hand, is flipping delicious. Calves’ liver, especially, is possibly my favourite meat in the world, although I grant that it is not a cheap cut. OTOH, I dislike gelatinous food, and do turn my nose up at tête de veau (calves’ head) and the like.
This is exactly how I see it. I hate waste. And if you're only using half the animal once you've killed it, then twice as many animals will be killed than if you use the whole thing.
Lunch chez Piglet today was a paella, made with the very last bits of meat left on a chicken**, sausages, prawns and veggies. It was really good, and there was enough left to freeze for another day.
Must beetle off now and set some laundry going.
* I don't think I've ever bought a chicken with giblets
** carcass now in freezer waiting to be turned into stock
The weather really doesn't seem to know whether it's coming or going at the moment - the low for tonight is 15°, and the high for tomorrow is 13°
Never mind, there's freshly baked raisin bread - help yourselves!
I think he’ll pass with flying colours, touch wood
It's a dull, rather moist sort of day here, so making SOUP for tomorrow's lunch seemed like the right thing to do, and it's bubbling merrily on the stove as I type. Should be ready for virtual tasting in an hour or two.
I am trying to remember where I read (possibly Alistair Cooke) that it was a native American practice to show respect for the animal by using all of it. I'm about 98% vegetarian - had a bacon relapse yesterday - though by preference rather than conviction. I'm never going to eat a bear.
I have eaten porcupine (not a whole one!) Like pork, but rather fatty.