HAVE YOU EVER: COOKING EDITION

[matgb]

Five years. Five years without posting. Oops, that wasn't intended. We've moved house, new desk I've setup with the laptop and a spare monitor--the linux desktop doesn't appear to have survived 6 months in storage, propably fixable, it''s On The List, but nowhere near top. Anyway, going to try to start posting regularly, because, well, Facebook is evil, Twitter sucks and Mastodon is a bit of a loss. So, memes are easy, right?

1) Made biscuits from scratch?

As others have said, this is a USian meme, fortunately thanks to DW I know what US biscuits are, so the answer is, yes, from very very young we made scones regularly. I've also, often, baked proper English biscuits and even occasionally proper biscotti

2) Fried fresh okra?

I don't think I've ever eaten okra let alone cooked it

3) Made sourdough bread?

Yes, lots--it turns out my gluten problem wasn't gluten, it's refined yeast, I can eat sourdough, although haven't at all since lockdown, no idea why, I'm the only middle class white guy in the country that stopped making it from what I can tell. James Morton, the Scottish jumper wearing doctor from Bake Off, has a book called Super Sourdough, get that if you want to get really good really quickly, he has actual science in it. This mean I can eat pizza sometimes, I just need 24 hours notice to get things together

4) Fried chicken?

Nope, Mum didn't approve of frying things generally and we had roasted or spit roasted chicken until I turned vegetarian at 17. I know how to, and have fried many meat substitute things tho, deep fried batttered quorn and halloumi is a thing

5) Made spaghetti sauce from scratch?

Yup, not my favourite eating style but I know how to make several spaghetti suitable sauces--most of them work well on pizza as well, see sourdough, above.

6) Made any kind of yeast bread?

Yes, before we worked out what was going on and I developed the intolerance I got really good at it. I still do it/teach others sometimes, pizza in a couple hours is something the teenager is fascinated by.

7) Baked a cake from scratch?

Granddad taught me how. As did Granny. And Gran. Oh, and Mum. Dad was never really into baking. But yeah, we're getting shelves made especially for the massive cookbook collection, I don't bake enough tho.

8) Made icing from scratch?

See answer to 7, Granny went on a confectioners course when I was a kid so she could make wedding/birthday cakes for the village, no idea what she charged but they were popular

9) Cooked a pot roast with all the veg?

What's a pot roast? No, I don't like the style or the result, Jennie has a slow cooker but rarely do I want something from it

10) Made chili from scratch?

Nope, same as for 9, especially seeing as I have zero capsaicin tolerance, much to Jennie's regret.

11) Made a meatloaf?

Vegetarian. Also, WTF is a meatloaf? It's not something I ever encountered as a kid.

12) Made scalloped potatoes?

I don't know. Fuck it Google

Ohhh, potato gratin. Yeah, done that, too much faff for too many carbs, but quite nice.

13) Made mac/cheese from scratch?

Yup, not as often as I should tho, I have a weird mental block with white/cheese sauce cooking where I convince myself it's really difficult even tho I know it's not.

14) Made a jello salad?

Gods no. USians mock Britain for our food based on rationing-inspired stereotypes, but invented this. No thanks.

15) Made peanut brittle? Until a year ago was convinced I was allergic to peanuts. Apparently I'm not but a lifetime of teaching yourself to remove anything nutty tasting immediately is hard to break.

16) Made fudge? I'm from Devon. Gran ran a dairy.

Also, USians? What you guys call fudge, the "baltimore" style, is a pale immitation of proper Devon fudge. I mean, it's nice, don't get me wrong, I'll happily eat it, but it's not fudge...

17) Made cookies from scratch? Many many time, using the British meaning which is narrower than the US more general meaning, also see 1 above

18) Cooked a pot of beans from dried beans?

Yes, but am rarely bothered.

19) Cooked a pot of greens? "Greens"? What the hell is wrong with American cooking? Not sure what, specifically, is meant, but almost certainly because, well, peas are great as is spinach

20) Made cornbread from scratch? I've only got a vague idea what cornbread is and the ingredients aren't dirt cheap/easily sourced over here

21) Made a pie dough from scratch? Yes, in so many different styles.

22) Cooked a whole turkey? Granny and Granddad (Dad's parents) raised turkeys for sale when I was a kid, and yeah, I have. Hated it, and avoiding Xmas turkey decided the timing of going vegetarian (November when I was 17 so 1991)

23) Snapped green beans and cooked them? Various types, yes, Dad foists handfuls of them on me if ever I visit in the summer, I'm not a huge fan but...

24) Made mashed potatoes from scratch? Yes, but Jennie's is always better than mine and it's too much faff for me

25) What’s the most people you have (alone) prepared a whole meal for? Alone? 2 or 3, if we've got guests Jennie and I prep/cook together, we work well toegether in the kitchen and she's way better at some stuff than me--for which I mean faster as well as more competent, and I'm better at other stuff.

26) Poached an egg? Yes, not a fan, even with fresh from the chicken eggs

27) Made pancakes from scratch? Yes, in multiple styles, if we bother with pancake day I'm the designated frier and have mutliple same size pans to do batches.

28) Roasted vegetables in the oven instead of boiling them? Um, yes?

29) Made fresh pasta? A couple times, lots of faff, very little benefit.

30) Made croissants from scratch? Once, but given the top patisseries in Paris use machines and my results weren't as good as Tesco, not likely to do it again--having said that, I can't eat them unless I make my own now so making sourdough versions is on the list

31) Made tuna salad? Gods no, gave up fish way before meat and tuna just doesn't appeal

32) Fried fish? As a kid, and helped the teen once.

33) Made baked beans? Once. Heinz is a massive conglomerate for a reason

34) Made ice cream from scratch? Yes, when Granny passed I used some of her money to buy a stand mixer and an ice cream making attachment, have made many many many variants of ice cream, although tend to use no churn methods these days.

35) Made jam or jelly? Yes, both intentionally and by mistake. Forgot to use pectinase on blueberries once and over cooked the cordial. Oops.

36) Zested an orange or lemon? Regularly, I heartily recommend microplane zesters, take all the annoyance out of it.

37) Made grits from scratch? I had to look this up. Nope, never seen them, oat porridge is common over here and I love that but we don't have the corn culture the Americas have, maize may be a marvel of ancient science but it's not replaced wheat here.

38) Made an omelette? Oh yes. So many different ways to make a nice omelette

39) Lived in a house without a dishwasher? Yup, bought our first (and only so far) with the same money I got the kenwood. I actually have a weird eczema reaction to washing up liquid so everyone else is meant to do the non dishwasherable washing up and I do the washer. Given how cheap they are don't want to go back to not having one again

40) Eaten a bowl of cereal for supper? There are people that haven't? That was long. Oops, was meant to go to Tesco before it shut, ah well.

And the DW markdown editor doesn't like number dot format posts it thinks it's an ordered list, ah well, fixed now I hope

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

Ooh I don't think I knew you weren't allergic to nuts, nice!

This isn't even a USian meme, it's southern U.S. (except I don't know if they have jello salad, that seems to be the one concession to my people). I still don't think USian biscuits are scones but no one believes me.

[matgb]

The recipes I've read for biscuits are the same as Granny's scones, and drop biscuits are drop scones. Apparently there are scones in the US that have sugar in and are something else again but I've not seen them.

Mum's scone recipe is heretical and uses eggs but is more consistent so gets a pass.

We knew for ages I wasn't allergic to all nuts and I finally got blood tested last year, and it came up completely negative, which is weird because I do get reactions from almonds. The doctor warned that it could be it'd been so long that the reaction wasn't there and it might come back over time if I eat. So I'm going to, occasionally, try small amounts of nice things and see, but it needs to be when I'm not having any other health problems and relatively stress free.

So, um, yeah, not started that one yet.

[watervole]

Eating a little of everything at regular intervals makes a lot of sense.

(Maybe something used to treat almonds. Have you tried ones grown in a different country?)

[matgb]

That's the thing, 30+ years of a gag reflex at the taste of nuts and I don't actually like many of them, almonds being top of my list of Bad Tastes, I'm more likely to try ground almonds as ingredient at some point, I have some lovely cake recipes I've been using substitutions for. We'll get there

[frith]

Hellooo revenant! What's the news with Mastodon? People don't mention it much anymore.

[matgb]

It's there, it works, the interface is fine, but not enough of the people I find interesting or want to keep in touch with use it, so it's either make new friends (again) or use a site that has people I want to talk to.

And I miss this place. Didn't think I did but having been basically phone only for ages going back to using a proper compueter meant I could use this more.

[mountainkiss]

I've done (5), (7), (29) and cooked a meal probably for six people on my own, possibly more. I am not a domestic goddess - more the opposite (domestic succubus?)

But it is noice to see you here and I hope all is as good as possible.

[matgb]

Oh, apart from The Virus and associated issues we're fine, bought the house, but it's old and needs a LOT of work, much of which can't be done during lockdown, but it's nice to be able to settle in

[mountainkiss]

I do see! Hope it is habitable and comfortable and finances as secure as they can be right now.

(nice not noice)

[watervole]

It's still good here. Fewer people, but much higher quality of posts and no hate-fests.

[cesy]

Good to see you back

[nadriel]

It's aliiiiiiiive!! :-P

[matgb]

Well, technically, possibly anyway

[norfolkian]

Welcome back!

[andrewducker]

Nice to see you back here!

[83_tauri]

I've been finding that my posting frequency is edging down too. I don't think I'm quite at the "oh just going on hiatus" stage yet, but it feels like it could be coming sometime in the next year or two.

[matgb]

I think/hope to try to post more, I think the feedback/conversation level of it is important and you can properly talk to people on here over days without feeling pressured

We'll see.