h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

no idea... oven is broken... grill is ... temprimental, and now the gas hob is totally disconnected I guess we'll be living off salad until I can find someone to fit an entirely new kitchen currently trying to do oven chips and sausages.... they've had forty minutes and arn't cooked... by the time they've been in for an hour I'm just gona give up throw them in teh bin and get a takeaway...

That sounds like something they might enjoy in Florence....

When I was in a fancy-shmancy art museum in Rome, I lunched very happily on a tray of sliced tomatoes and mozzarella.

Sorry, my last post was in reply to the post about Italian Bread and cheese and spinach. When I was in Florence, a lot of the food concessions had sandwiches with spinach, cheese, and perhaps ham in them.

A platter of tempura vegetables, 12 each breaded and fried whole mushrooms and whole brussels sprouts, with a cup of Newman's Own Marinara Sauce.

Did you put extra marinara sauce on the brussels sprouts to mask the taste?

Used it for dipping sauce.

Drenched and dripping, the flavor still comes through.

I was afraid of that -- unless, of course, you like the flavor

Some people can't stand foods rich in phenylalanine, others thrive on the stuff.

To each, their own.

"Good sources of phenylalanine are eggs, chicken, liver, beef, milk, and soybeans.[5] Other sources include spinach and leafy greens, tofu, amaranth leaves, and lupin seeds." [wikiwhatever]

The last two I've never had, but I like the others.

I keep it simple - if I can't pronounce it in two tries, I don't worry about it. What-ever the "it" is ...

Amaranth leaves can be eaten, but if you object to brussels sprouts you'll like amaranth leaves even less.

Amaranth is grown mainly for the seeds which cook up rather like corn meal, though some varieties also make sugary roots.

European lupin beans are rather like the not too distantly related Egyptian fava bean.

Most lupines are dangerously toxic.

Until proven otherwise, anything in the pea and bean family should be presumed so.

So tonight is a really odd night. She is at a new job and hours a bit off, and the weather is just weird too. So ...

Some crudely and irregular cut pork loin chops - knife scored a bit, dust with simple salt and pepper, well punctuated with a table fork ... a dusting of flour and they will meet a hot iron frying pan with a bit of oil.

To get weirder, accompanied by tinned baked beans, a tin of cream-style corn, and some buttered toast.

Yeah, a throw together of ideas.

eas and beans are usually safe if you cook them long enough, except for Grasspea, a staple of dry areas of Africa, where it is fed to cattle. In a severe drought, people start eating it themselves, and the ones who are prone to neurological problems lose muscle poweri n their legs.

I'd still say, when in doubt, don't take chances.

Lîttle potential for trouble with the commercial varieties though.

I know of people who subsist mostly on beans. I try to stay upwind of them.....

This evening ...

2 generous chicken breasts (I know they are fresh birds), full bone and skin. In a round casserole dish with a jar of a honey and garlic sauce that turns to a thick sticky glaze on ribs or meatballs. Maybe add a bit of cube-cut orange wedges, as I have no pineapple. A side dish of a wild rice, or commercially 'poultry flavoured' one ... Simple and light'ish.

I'm about to make my award0winning* fish chowder.

*My father likes it, and he doesn't like some things....

Critic’s* Choice Chowder

Spice mixture

1 ½ tsps of garlic powder ¾ tsp of dry mustard
¾ tsp of dried basil ½ tsp of dried thyme
¼ tsp of dried oregano 1/8 tsp of nutmeg
2 tsps of parsley 1 tsp of baco-bits
[optional: 2 tsps of garbanzo flour] [1/2 tsp of salt, if desired]

Liquid broth

1 tbsp of olive oil
1 ½ cups of water
1 small bottle of clam juice
1 cup of water, put through blender with
1 small can of corn [preferably low-sodium] and
1 small can of mushrooms [preferably low-sodium]
One 8-ounce can of 2% evaporated milk, added five minutes before serving

Cans

One 6-ounce can of tuna, any kind
One 6-ounce can of salmon, any kind

Fresh vegetables to be chopped

One or two onions
Three stalks of celery
1 medium Idaho baking potato, or two small red potatoes

Instructions

Put the olive oil in the bottom of a cooking pot. Add the 1 ½ cups of water. Then mix the spices together and stir them into the water. Put the corn and mushrooms into a blender with the 1 cup of water and puree. Add this to the pot. Add the cans of tuna and salmon. Chop the vegetables and add them. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the milk 5 minutes before serving. Serves 3 or 4

* The critic in this case is my father

You always use loads of cans in your recipes, Paul - do you have a stock or do you buy them as you need them? I practically never use anything out of a can.

I need help with an American recipe.

It calls for:

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup half-and-half
(among other things, of course)

Can I use a heavy bread flour- wheat flour with no baking powder in it - ?
And is half-and-half milk by any chance? If so, half of what and half of what? Does it include goat's milk or sheep's milk?

A general purpose wheat flour is one without additives suitable for baking things like bread, pie crust, cookies or cake.

Generally a soft wheat rather than a hard durum wheat such as might be used for pasta.

Half & half is 1/2 plain milk and 1/2 cream, available advertised as such in the major stores.




Supper last night, stir fry whole cabbage leaves, with a 2 1/2 inch onion cut six ways lengthwise and broken up, 1 small potato cut into 1/8 slices, fried, a Polish sausage steamed with the cabbage and onion, a slice of apple pie and 2/3 cup milk for dessert.




Dinner at the monthly senior center get-together tonight.

Don't know yet what they'll be servîng except it'll be something catered by a commercial provider.

Footnote, with American milk products, unless otherwise specified, milk is always cow's milk.