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I meant to thaw meat yesterday, then all today. Never got to it. There just happened to be a roast in the thaw box. And it just happened to be good. I wasn't interested in roasting it, or grilling. The former would have heated the house. It has been comfortable lately. I mean to keep it that way as much as possible. As to grilling, I simply haven't figured out how to grill a roast. I suppose going by temp is the best way. But between the variabilities of even a fairly good grill/smoker/coal-powered slow cooker, the variabilities of each roast per pound by dimension, and some other things... Well... it would take perfecting the process then a lot of practice. Trimming the roasts to the same size, trimming the fat and carefully inspecting for fat portions... I just don't have that. So? So I brought out the pressure cooker. It does heat things up a bit, but very tolerably. As well, it cooks quickly.
My mother had just suggested beef and noodles. Problem? No noodles. I can't do egg noodles as she does. I just don't have the push, pull, or experience... probably lacking energy and focus as well... sometimes one, the other, sometimes lacking both. Still, meat is good enough. That is, mostly, what I am cooking for myself lately. Few veggies and grains, though... on occasion. Just meat of some sort for the most part. Now, roast of beef, in a pressure cooker, has a peculiar taste. It blends better into noodles with a mushroom or thicker beef gravy. And yet, if you are familiar with the flavor, you can make do straight up. The taste doesn't make sense unless you have had it a thousand times growing up, in various recipes. And I have. It's homey, but... different. Actually, it is good, very good, if you have learned to like it. Not the whole monty of a truly home-made, home cooked meal. Enough to enjoy, mostly. Sure wish I knew how to make noodles and the sauce(s) though. Still, it worked. And I finally did get meats thawing.
A bit more reading. This time back to the...urhm... Iron Chamber of Memory? I'm trying to press through. A long time reader, friend for my part, is a writer. He has had difficulty getting published, so he has gone solo, pulled the trigger, and put some of his works out, on his own. The world is not kind to such, not even Amazon. You have to break down doors, and push and pull, and even then you are only tolerated like the poor, peasant class, cousins... unless you come into a little fame or fortune... so long as that lasts. Anyway... so... I would like to read. I've been meaning to read some of his stuff anyway, I've just been all gimped up, confused, and not on top of things for a goodly while. So... I will be reading this, and that, to try to get ahead, tackle his books, and give him an assessment. The Lord knows, I hope he isn't a hidden SJW, or atheist, or... Still, both barrels, good or bad. It's how I do. I don't even like, always, that I am who I am. But... rock is stone is hard. And if you put you between me and where I am heading, it will hurt. Mostly you. I am used to it, comfortable. Anyway.
Actually? I picked a number of books based on the titles. I should have asked... will ask... what book he would pick for the reading. If it's six into a twelve-pack... not so much. But if he has one that is his darling, I would like to give that a shot. Perhaps if it is out of sequence even, I suppose, so long as it might mostly stand on it's own. Hey, when I give a chance, I don't pull punches. Go hard or go home. I've tried to ease it up. I... don't think it worked. Still, all are welcome to step up and in. Good luck. Oh, but... nothing personal. Probably.
On to bed. Good night.
I will shake the hand of anyone who can make noodles. Especially noodles of an honest width (as opposed to the anemic threads which find their way into the majority of pre-prepared food). It's a gift I wish I had taken the time and energy to master.
ReplyDeleteI've done it a time or three. But nothing is like mom's. And I... I don't think so. I can't tell if it is memory problems... remembering stuff from childhood as impossibly good? Or is it really that I can't quite get it, or have the recipe wrong? Though it is a bit of a lot of fuss that has to be just right in a lot of little ways that are difficult to explain. I just don't have the juice to have everything ready, and the energy beyond that, to do the work.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I tried canned recently. I just threw it out, couldn't eat a quarter of it. A few bites, and that was generous. I have also tried store-bought frozen egg noodles. No better. Have my tastebuds changed or has manufactured food gone way downhill? I just don't know.
I'm willing to bet the ranch in favor of manufactured food having gone way downhill. Unfortunately for contemporary manufacturers, my memory isn't as bad as they'd like it to be. I do know loaves of bread were once larger, as were things such as Twinkies (which also used to have more cream filling). Candy bars were also larger, as were Vienna sausages.
ReplyDeleteBut I think mothers collectively possessed an arcane knowledge concerning cooking. I know that, no matter how hard I try, my fried chicken will never be as good as what my mother made. Can taste buds be hard-wired for nostalgia?
Ah! Another with the same fried chicken problem! I have tried to cook it often enough to pick it up. It just doesn't work that way. I even went to lard, which helped if that wasn't the whole thing. Peanut oil just isn't it. She may have used Crisco, or turned to that wrongly in time, but I won't touch that stuff. Something about slow, even, rotating often, breading correctly. Maybe, as you said, there is no accounting for nostalgia. Problem is, she can still do it, or last I tasted her works. Gah!
ReplyDeleteI knew about the ever shrinking, suspected quality, good to think others might be noticing. If you think of who can still tolerate eating fast food, and who it has become aimed at... not a surprise if it ends up being... nasty. And that certain types would begin to find it wholly intolerable? I am quite sure all isn't even close to as it seems.
I'm going to keep buying from local ranchers and butchers. I guess I am well and truly done with most processed and fast food, minus some storage stuff... if even that is a very small, rare, part of my diet.
I know Mom used Crisco. Quite a lot.
ReplyDeleteI can tolerate "fast" comfort food (old habits are hard to break), but make my own when the opportunity presents itself. My own sour cream onion dip is far superior to anything you can find in a store. And boxed Chex Mix tastes nowhere as spicy as homemade version.
(One memory I had of my week in England years ago was the quality of snack food. Chocolate bars which were too rich to be believed. Potato chips . . . or "crisps", to use the local vernacular . . . which still had considerable favor. Things might have changed since then, but the food faddists hadn't yet made it to the Sceptered Isle.)
Just in Scotland, liked their fish and chips... loved the malt vinegar... never found anything like that combo in the states and can't replicate it. About the only thing I remember eating while there. Traveled Europe a bit, was a foody then, still didn't eat much while there... of their food. Wanted to try Scottish... hrm... bag o' meat stuff... Homemade or high-end... just never worked out.
ReplyDeleteI believe you're referring to "haggis" in regards to the Scottish dish. Something I don't think I could bring myself to try (although I have eaten snails, and I regret not having partaken of eel while over in England).
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify terms: by "food faddists" I don't necessarily mean foodies. Rather I'm referring to the people, such as we unfortunately have here, who feel it is their mission in life to suck all pleasure out of Life on behalf of that Will-O-The-Wisp known as "Health". Or at least Health as they conceive it, Due to their efforts a lot of formerly tasty food has long since had the flavor sucked out of it. One could almost get more pleasure out of eating the packaging that the food came in.
Didn't make it as far north as Scotland, but wish I did. With only a week in England I missed out on going to places on my "want list" (e.g. Jodrell Bank, Stonehenge and Portmeiron in Wales). What I did manage to see was nothing short of marvelous, however, and I hope to go back someday.
And yes: genuine fish and chips is an art no one here seems to be able to acquire.
Solid clarification, on foodies. My definition of a foodie, is one who tries everything... in it's original form... that he can. Though he may attempt to mix and match, but for tastes, textures, styles, even looks maybe. Haggis to snails to grubs... cooked or raw that last... not great either way, but better than earth worms from the states... or my child mind versus adult mind says so. Organ meat to unique fruits and vegetables. A true foodie will eat things... that make him question his sanity at times. Then again? I have ended up finding things, or ways I can like things, that I had thought I hated. I have met things I could not, would not, eat. Though have passed things I used to not be able to eat, though, too.
ReplyDeleteI seriously thought cabbage would never be something I could eat, same with brussels sprouts and much else. Even hot dogs, believe or else. Hated them, growing up. I kept looking for ways to not hate them. With Cabbage? A switch turned. Now I really do like the stuff. For some things, I either found how to cook or met someone else who could... Hot dogs? Crisp the skin. Couscous? A friend's wife cooks it just fine, and salmon (which I normally hate). Part of my foodie nature is to overcome food dislikes. Part of it is exploration.
Oh, when I was oversees, I ignored... most else. I just don't make a great tourist. If anything, it is the people that draw my curiosity. And the languages. The one thing I noted was the age. There are a lot of... memories, or ghosts, or just ages, there. Stacked, compressed, seemingly living, some dark, some very light. Some of it is just dark, some of it just seems dark because it is so different from America. It was like that in all of the old countries I visited, probably similar in many places. Not so much Africa, it never had the population density. But India, China, European, and other such... I'm betting those are mostly similar. Australia, Africa, and America... clean, or crisp, or unhindered by history? Something.