Genesia said:

Right?!

The thing is, it's truer than you know. I eventually found out that my paternal grandmother worked as a domestic for most of her life - as a cook, specifically. She was an amazing cook. She died when I wasn't quite 5 and I can still remember the Sunday dinners she cooked.

A decade after she died, my mom and I were cleaning out my grandparents' apartment after my grandpa went to the nursing home, and she thought she'd finally get my grandma's cookbooks or recipe file (or whatever). Guess what? There wasn't a single recipe in the place. All that amazing food she'd cooked, came out of what was in her head. Everything she knew was lost.

Except for two dumpling recipes she'd written down for my mom right after she and my dad were married. I have a photocopy of them, my mom still has the original. I still remember how delicious her food was, but this is the only thing of hers I can actually make.

That's too bad. But at least you've got the dumplings. And you clearly inherited her talent.

No great cooks in my family until my Uncle on my Mom's side. He's classically trained, but I don't know why he went that route as he's an circuit board engineer by trade. As I've said before, I decided to start cooking because my sister and I were on our own and I wanted sometthing other than mac n cheese and spaghetti all the damn time.

However, everyone in my family has always cooked. All the women (and some of the men), even those who worked still cooked and ALL of them kept all their recipes and cookbooks. We (the small group of people who make up the family I associate with) have literally thousands of hand-written recipes and more cookbooks than could ever be needed. Its amazing how much ingredients have changed in the last 100 years.

That reminds me, I still need to scan my great grandmothers scrapbook/cookbook. Starts in the thirties and is filled with tons of recipe and news clippings from all kinds of periodicals.

Anyway, the only special thing to come from ALL of those recipes is one of the great grandmothers Christmas Snack recipes (what is now sold on shelves as "Chex Mix", only ours shits on all of them). I made FOUR batches of it this week. I have friends all over the country ask me to send them "snack" at Christmas and its better after it sits for a week.

I want to go cook something now... but I'm a babbling blurry mess today. I think I'll stick with coffee and leftovers.

Cerebus said:

No nuts in ours. Never has been. Freaks me out when I have it with nuts. This is the only recipe I have ever known, although I'm sure its changed slightly at some point over the years...

3/4 lb Margarine

5 T Worcestershire

3 t Chili Powder

1 t Garlic Salt

1 t Curry

2 t Accent (yeah, its MSG the stuff stays fresh for over a month )

Dashes of Tobasco to taste (the recipe calls for a dash, I've always done 6 or 7 and its still not spicy at all).

Melt margarine and warm all ingredients in sauce pan until well blended (it will turn a dark brownish red color) and hot, but do not boil.

While heating flavoring...

In a large roaster mix half a box of rice chex, half a box of wheat chex, approx. a third box of cheerios (1/4 if its the large box) and half a bag of the slimmest pretzels you can find. Although its tempting to do so, its very important to NOT use too much dry product. It looses a huge amount of flavor if the ratios are not just right. Most roasting pans should be no more than half full (if not a little less than that).

Pour 1/3 of the heated sauce mix over as much of the dry product as possible and stir until all the liquid from the bottom of the pan has been absorbed. Repeat two more times or until the sauce mix is gone.

Bake at 250 for two to two and one half hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes, until dry product has browned (some pieces may even appear slightly burned - those are the good ones! ). Allow to cool completely before storing in sealed container (or gallon ziploc bags).

First time I've ever done that from memory.

Edit: Because I knew I would spell whats-that-there sauce wrong

[Edited 12/8/11 17:50pm]

Genesia said:

Right?!

The thing is, it's truer than you know. I eventually found out that my paternal grandmother worked as a domestic for most of her life - as a cook, specifically. She was an amazing cook. She died when I wasn't quite 5 and I can still remember the Sunday dinners she cooked.

A decade after she died, my mom and I were cleaning out my grandparents' apartment after my grandpa went to the nursing home, and she thought she'd finally get my grandma's cookbooks or recipe file (or whatever). Guess what? There wasn't a single recipe in the place. All that amazing food she'd cooked, came out of what was in her head. Everything she knew was lost.

Except for two dumpling recipes she'd written down for my mom right after she and my dad were married. I have a photocopy of them, my mom still has the original. I still remember how delicious her food was, but this is the only thing of hers I can actually make.

[Edited 12/8/11 16:09pm]

My grandmother was an amazing cook! She made everything from scratch.. she passed and I regreted not learning her recipes... Im gonna call my mother soon and learn her secrets so I can rope me a man

You ever go to My Org and see "There have been 9 new threads since you last left the site", but you've only been gone for thirty minutes and NONE of them are in General Discussion. It almost makes me want to go check out all the other forums more often.... almost.

Damn. This is seriously one of the single most boring football games I have ever watched. Glad this mess is almost over.

I woke in the morning darkness ~ made coffee and watched the sunrise over an hour later ~ it was beautiful

TGIF

Genesia said:

I've got a from reading the 'Regulation of the European parliament of the council on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency'.

I need a stiff drink

Cloudbuster said:

I.WILL NEVER. RIM AGAIN

thanks for that

sunflower7 said:

Genesia said:

Right?!

The thing is, it's truer than you know. I eventually found out that my paternal grandmother worked as a domestic for most of her life - as a cook, specifically. She was an amazing cook. She died when I wasn't quite 5 and I can still remember the Sunday dinners she cooked.

A decade after she died, my mom and I were cleaning out my grandparents' apartment after my grandpa went to the nursing home, and she thought she'd finally get my grandma's cookbooks or recipe file (or whatever). Guess what? There wasn't a single recipe in the place. All that amazing food she'd cooked, came out of what was in her head. Everything she knew was lost.

Except for two dumpling recipes she'd written down for my mom right after she and my dad were married. I have a photocopy of them, my mom still has the original. I still remember how delicious her food was, but this is the only thing of hers I can actually make.

[Edited 12/8/11 16:09pm]

My grandmother was an amazing cook! She made everything from scratch.. she passed and I regreted not learning her recipes... Im gonna call my mother soon and learn her secrets so I can rope me a man

I am thankful I thought about asking my Grandma for her recipes of my favorite things before she passed! What is even cooler, is my mom gave me a bunch of her stuff and in it was her old recipe card box full of recipes and a small little memo pad with handwritten notes and recipes I love the notebook because it has grocery lists, what bills she needed to pay and how much they were, There is a xmas list of what she was buying us grandkids that year, along with recipes she either wanted to try or got from friends.... I miss her!

MacDaddy said:

I've got a from reading the 'Regulation of the European parliament of the council on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency'.

I need a stiff drink

Christ, I got a headache just trying to understand that sentence!!

Cerebus said:

No nuts in ours. Never has been. Freaks me out when I have it with nuts. This is the only recipe I have ever known, although I'm sure its changed slightly at some point over the years...

3/4 lb Margarine

5 T Worcestershire

3 t Chili Powder

1 t Garlic Salt

1 t Curry

2 t Accent (yeah, its MSG the stuff stays fresh for over a month )

Dashes of Tobasco to taste (the recipe calls for a dash, I've always done 6 or 7 and its still not spicy at all).

Melt margarine and warm all ingredients in sauce pan until well blended (it will turn a dark brownish red color) and hot, but do not boil.

While heating flavoring...

In a large roaster mix half a box of rice chex, half a box of wheat chex, approx. a third box of cheerios (1/4 if its the large box) and half a bag of the slimmest pretzels you can find. Although its tempting to do so, its very important to NOT use too much dry product. It looses a huge amount of flavor if the ratios are not just right. Most roasting pans should be no more than half full (if not a little less than that).

Pour 1/3 of the heated sauce mix over as much of the dry product as possible and stir until all the liquid from the bottom of the pan has been absorbed. Repeat two more times or until the sauce mix is gone.

Bake at 250 for two to two and one half hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes, until dry product has browned (some pieces may even appear slightly burned - those are the good ones! ). Allow to cool completely before storing in sealed container (or gallon ziploc bags).

First time I've ever done that from memory.

Edit: Because I knew I would spell whats-that-there sauce wrong

Margarine? Margarine?!

Genesia said:

Cerebus said:

No nuts in ours. Never has been. Freaks me out when I have it with nuts. This is the only recipe I have ever known, although I'm sure its changed slightly at some point over the years...

3/4 lb Margarine

5 T Worcestershire

3 t Chili Powder

1 t Garlic Salt

1 t Curry

2 t Accent (yeah, its MSG the stuff stays fresh for over a month )

Dashes of Tobasco to taste (the recipe calls for a dash, I've always done 6 or 7 and its still not spicy at all).

Melt margarine and warm all ingredients in sauce pan until well blended (it will turn a dark brownish red color) and hot, but do not boil.

While heating flavoring...

In a large roaster mix half a box of rice chex, half a box of wheat chex, approx. a third box of cheerios (1/4 if its the large box) and half a bag of the slimmest pretzels you can find. Although its tempting to do so, its very important to NOT use too much dry product. It looses a huge amount of flavor if the ratios are not just right. Most roasting pans should be no more than half full (if not a little less than that).

Pour 1/3 of the heated sauce mix over as much of the dry product as possible and stir until all the liquid from the bottom of the pan has been absorbed. Repeat two more times or until the sauce mix is gone.

Bake at 250 for two to two and one half hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes, until dry product has browned (some pieces may even appear slightly burned - those are the good ones! ). Allow to cool completely before storing in sealed container (or gallon ziploc bags).

First time I've ever done that from memory.

Edit: Because I knew I would spell whats-that-there sauce wrong

Margarine? Margarine?!

Real butter..nothing beats real butter.

I posted this on facebook this morning, but it's worth a repost here.

This morning on the bus a woman was short a dollar for bus fare. It seemed she didn't speak english super well as it took a minute or two for her to understand what was happening. As she turned to get off the bus 3 different strangers jumped up to help her out with the dollar. Such a small thing, but with subzero winchills like this morning it was really, really nice

CarrieMpls said:

I posted this on facebook this morning, but it's worth a repost here.

This morning on the bus a woman was short a dollar for bus fare. It seemed she didn't speak english super well as it took a minute or two for her to understand what was happening. As she turned to get off the bus 3 different strangers jumped up to help her out with the dollar. Such a small thing, but with subzero winchills like this morning it was really, really nice

Lovely.

Generation Y, your laziness and overall general sense of entitlement in the workplace is so damn annoying.

For most of yesterday and for the past two hours, I have been emailing about an important (important to ME, anyway) business matter with a profoundly stupid 25-year-old. Trying to deal with her is making me insane.

.

[Edited 12/9/11 9:13am]

Efan said:

Generation Y, your laziness and overall general sense of entitlement in the workplace is so damn annoying.

For most of yesterday and for the past two hours, I have been emailing about an important (important to ME, anyway) business matter with a profoundly stupid 25-year-old. Trying to deal with her is making me insane.

My personal label for the so-called "millennials" is Generation E - for Entitled.

We are doomed.

Genesia said:

Efan said:

Generation Y, your laziness and overall general sense of entitlement in the workplace is so damn annoying.

For most of yesterday and for the past two hours, I have been emailing about an important (important to ME, anyway) business matter with a profoundly stupid 25-year-old. Trying to deal with her is making me insane.

My personal label for the so-called "millennials" is Generation E - for Entitled.

We are doomed.

This is how Generation E would say what you just wrote:

"My personal label? For the, like, so-called 'Millennials' or whatever? Is Generation E? For Entitled?

We are, like, doomed, like."

Efan said:

Genesia said:

My personal label for the so-called "millennials" is Generation E - for Entitled.

We are doomed.

This is how Generation E would say what you just wrote:

"My personal label? For the, like, so-called 'Millennials' or whatever? Is Generation E? For Entitled?

We are, like, doomed, like."

I just hope their lack of communications skills translates to job security for me.

There are three kinds of people in this world: Those who can count. And those who can't.

Genesia said:

Cerebus said:

No nuts in ours. Never has been. Freaks me out when I have it with nuts. This is the only recipe I have ever known, although I'm sure its changed slightly at some point over the years...

3/4 lb Margarine

5 T Worcestershire

3 t Chili Powder

1 t Garlic Salt

1 t Curry

2 t Accent (yeah, its MSG the stuff stays fresh for over a month )

Dashes of Tobasco to taste (the recipe calls for a dash, I've always done 6 or 7 and its still not spicy at all).

Melt margarine and warm all ingredients in sauce pan until well blended (it will turn a dark brownish red color) and hot, but do not boil.

While heating flavoring...

In a large roaster mix half a box of rice chex, half a box of wheat chex, approx. a third box of cheerios (1/4 if its the large box) and half a bag of the slimmest pretzels you can find. Although its tempting to do so, its very important to NOT use too much dry product. It looses a huge amount of flavor if the ratios are not just right. Most roasting pans should be no more than half full (if not a little less than that).

Pour 1/3 of the heated sauce mix over as much of the dry product as possible and stir until all the liquid from the bottom of the pan has been absorbed. Repeat two more times or until the sauce mix is gone.

Bake at 250 for two to two and one half hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes, until dry product has browned (some pieces may even appear slightly burned - those are the good ones! ). Allow to cool completely before storing in sealed container (or gallon ziploc bags).

First time I've ever done that from memory.

Edit: Because I knew I would spell whats-that-there sauce wrong

Margarine? Margarine?!

You can't make it with anything else. I've tried. Butter burns and leaves everything all greasy. Plus, it goes bad faster if you don't eat it all quickly. Again, margarine is the only thing that works. Its not like you taste it anyway - its just a base that will hold all the other flavors as they soak into the dry ingredients.

Side note: I knew you were going to post pretty much exactly what you posted.

retina said:

There are three kinds of people in this world: Those who can count. And those who can't.

Cerebus said:

Genesia said:

Margarine? Margarine?!

You can't make it with anything else. I've tried. Butter burns and leaves everything all greasy. Plus, it goes bad faster if you don't eat it all quickly. Again, margarine is the only thing that works. Its not like you taste it anyway - its just a base that will hold all the other flavors as they soak into the dry ingredients.

Side note: I knew you were going to post pretty much exactly what you posted.

You need to clarify the butter. It's the milk solids that burn.

Once you get all the water and milk solids out, the butter won't go bad for a looooong time. (It's the same principle as rendering lard or tallow.) It's a more stable fat than anything vegetable based.

Genesia said:

Cerebus said:

You can't make it with anything else. I've tried. Butter burns and leaves everything all greasy. Plus, it goes bad faster if you don't eat it all quickly. Again, margarine is the only thing that works. Its not like you taste it anyway - its just a base that will hold all the other flavors as they soak into the dry ingredients.

Side note: I knew you were going to post pretty much exactly what you posted.

You need to clarify the butter. It's the milk solids that burn.

Once you get all the water and milk solids out, the butter won't go bad for a looooong time. (It's the same principle as rendering lard or tallow.) It's a more stable fat than anything vegetable based.

Nope. It won't work with anything but margarine. It just doesn't turn out the same way. Since I love the stuff exactly how its been made for as long as I can remember it doesn't bother me in the slightest. It is probably the only margarine I eat at this point, though.

mediocre minds in a complicated world....

full moon lunar eclipse this morning!