Okay, I finally proved to myself… Smithfield’s Chicken N BBQ has really good sweet tea… has awful unsweet tea! I would normally not order sweet tea at Smithfields. I’m Type 2 Diabetic and don’t need the easy sugar, so I did order unsweet tea, and then I had some really lousy unsweet tea at Smithfields. I have had really bad unsweet tea there several times, not just one location but many. I’ve sent emails to the company, and no reply.
When I say the unsweet tea tastes like someone put cigarette ashes in water, that is genau (exactly) what it tastes like to me. It is no exaggeration. And, no amount of sweetener is going to make it taste good. I’ve told this to friends, and have even said several times, “I used to love the tea at Smithfields, before I had to switch to their unsweet tea.” I didn’t think to actually try their sweet tea again, until yesterday. Damn, what a surprise. Their sweet tea was fantastic! It had a distinctive flavor, and it was sweet… and even the remainder, this morning was still a good flavored sweet tea.
Why would Smithfields intentionally make good sweet tea and intentionally make awful unsweet tea? Well, cigarette ashes are probably much cheaper than tea.
Skylark brand Calf Liver from WalMart
So, I had a stack of frozen beef liver (Skylark) that I had for some time. The liver slices were packed neatly as a solid frozen block, but slices individually wrapped also. But I just never seemed to have the desire to unthaw some of it and cook it… and I love beef liver. Get it sometimes at the Rainbow.
So, when I finally take the package out, each slice is also packed in a sealed plastic package. I take two out to thaw in the refrigerator. A couple of days, and now I am ready to try to cook this at home. I finally decide to peel a couple of potatoes and boil them and make some descent mashed potatoes, with margarine and half-n-half. They turn out well. I also open a can of garden peas, put some margarine in them and they heat well. When I slice the packages of liver, I pour out a little blood, and then the slices, which now appear as very thinly cut, ooze out into the pan. I don’t add any flour. A little olive oil in the pan, and oh yeah, I’ve also sauteed a small onion which I now add back to the liver in the pan.
Bottom line is that the liver turned out okay. The mashed potatoes with a little more margarine were good, and the garden peas were also good. I would say however, that although none of the four items mentioned (onion included) had any off flavor or bad taste, the whole experience wasn’t a super positive. Not really negative either. Let’s just chalk this up to my old age, and my taste buds not serving me as well as they have most of my life.
I think this thin sliced liver will make an excellent sandwich, with maybe some sweet mustard. Susssenf.
Here was another day trip to Goldsboro, North Carolina. I like the Longhorn Restaurant, which is in the Berkeley Mall parking lot. Although Longhorn is part of a chain of restaurants, their Crab & Lobster Chowder has better flavor than two others of this chain (Fayetteville & Southern Pines). Mistakenly, I asked for my burger to be “medium rare” where I normally just want a little pink in the middle. A good portion of this burger was too raw for me.
So, I normally go up Hwy. 13 which passes through Newton Grove. If I have the time, I will go around the circle in Newton Grove fully so that I can see all of the destinations.
I drove down to Mount Olive to get a small chocolate Frosty at Wendy’s. The price, and I was surprised, was about $2.34 cents. Now, the small cup was slightly larger than the size of the small cup when Wendy’s had a 50 cents special, but I’m not sure that four times as much for maybe a third larger container is actually worth it.
There is a dead end road which ends near the runway fence at Seymour Johnson AFB. I found it, and like to return to see if I can see some jets taking off or landing. I’ve missed them at least twice. Yesterday I saw a couple of jets that looked like they were on approach to land (passing nearly over Wilber’s BBQ Restaurant), but by the time I got around to my dead-end vantage point they were nowhere to be seen. Another thought was that they might be practicing approaches, and didn’t actually land that time.
The above three images were taken on a different visit to my “dead end vantage point for SJAB”. I’m guessing that the large airplane is a “tanker” used to refuel the smaller jets. It was landing. There were several smaller “fighter” jets that were taking off.
After SJAB, I headed back into town and stopped at the Library. The article regarding Margot Robbie wasn’t very interesting, although I think she, in the character of Harley Quinn looks a good deal like Jamie Pressly.
The picture of the Crab & Lobster Chowder shown above was actually the second one they brought to my table. I had already finished the first one, before the burger came. I didn’t eat the second bowl of soup, but the first was good. I love the bread they give as an appetizer.
I saw that the vessel San Alberto was travelling down the Cape Fear River toward the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to see if the web cam at Southport would be able to capture the passing of the San Alberto. This web cam has a set of positions that it cycles through of various points of the Southport waterfront. You can’t control where or when the camera focuses in on a certain location, so I had to hope that it would capture the passing of the San Alberto, and you can see that it did.
I think the app says that the San Alberto is next destined for Norfolk, Virginia.
Southport Waterfront Park [Surfchex] Should be able to see some ocean going vessels as they pass by (as San Alberton above).
Taco Bell is my “go to” place for a simple, comforting meal. I would like a beef burrito supreme, a bean burrito and a crunchy taco (regular). I might leave off the crunchy taco, or the burrito supreme sometimes.
I’ve spoken elsewhere about spiffing up my beets. I buy a cheap can of beets, sliced or whole, and pour off the canned liquid. I then add back some balsamic and red wine vinegar, with some sweetener (Equal). *Yesterday I was spiffing up some sliced beets and before pouring off the liquid, I tasted it. Surprisingly, the canned juice was both sweet and vinegary. I actually thought that if beets came in this sweet vinegar, I wouldn’t need to spiff them up myself. I then looked at the can and it said, “Pickled Beets”. I checked some other cans, and they didn’t say “pickled” but just sliced beets. These beets were bought at Walmart. If I can buy the beets with the sweet vinegar at a price close to the regular beets, I will. *I also thought that I might use the pickled beet juice to try and pickle some cauliflower. The white cauliflower would just soak up that reddish beet juice.
Late night, I decided to make some spinach dip. I checked and had a couple of packs of frozen spinach in the freezer. Just need one of those. Had the cream cheese, the Ranch Dressing packet, and some sour cream. Chopped up some yellow bell pepper and sweet onion, and a can of water chestnuts. Defrosted the frozen spinach and squeezed out most of the moisture. Mixed it all together and found some wheat crackers. It was good. I did not use a recipe for the amounts, and it might have been better if the ingredient portions were in the correct amounts.
This morning, I was looking on the Marine app and saw a new vessel in the Wilmington, NC harbor, the Yang Ming – Warranty. The icon for the vessel was large, and when I viewed the image for the ship, she was a large container vessel. I see that she was built in 2019, three years ago.
I was also looking at my various, favorite web cams, and stopped to look at the Wilmington view. Surprisingly, at about bridge level, the name “YAN MING” was displayed as if underlined by the bridge. I caught the vessel, in mid-stride as she was being turned around in the Cape Fear. I’ve seen that she was due in port at about 9 am today. Looks like she is inching her way to the dock.
ADDENDUM [12/23/22]: “Wilmington NC Sets Record for Largest Container Ship Arrival” article published 10/28/20. I just came across this article on the Maritime Executive website. The article includes three photos of the Warranty, the first time she came to the Wilmington, NC port. One of the photos shows the Warranty as she is being turned around, and as I commented, she looks as if she is almost touching both sides of the Cape Fear River during the turn. *This is one of those things, that “was meant to be”. That I happened to view the Warranty, as she is being turned around at Wilmington… that I just happened to view the Warranty as she was in the Panama Canal lock at Cocoli and that they had a webcam. [end addendum]
Looks like she came through the Panama Canal on November 3rd, and then headed up to New York City where she was in-port for almost three days. Then she came back down to Norfolk, VA and then is now docking in Wilmington. She is now hidden by one of the tall supports of the Cape Fear River bridge.
It is Wednesday, December 21, 2022. I just checked the Maritime App and the Yang Ming – Warranty was in the Panama Cocoli Lock.
There is a web camera at Cocoli Locks (Panama Canal Expansion). When I pulled up the page, the Warranty was there in the lock. It was moored, while the lock water line was being adjusted. I took several pictures (stills) and saw the mooring line going limp and then the ship beginning to move through the lock. She will now be in the Pacific Ocean, and I see from the Maritime App that the vessel is headed to Busan, Korea. The ETA to Busan is 01/20/23. *I checked online and 18 days is the suggested crossing time from the Panama Canal to the port of Busan, so I am not sure why the extra time for the crossing.
I was attempting to upload the lock pictures of the vessel, and am having a problem with Windows not being able to find the images. They would have been impressive. Perfect timing of the vessel in the Canal.
Managed to recover 5 of the 6 canal images I took.
ADDENDUM [ 01/26/23 ]: The YM-Warranty arrived a few days early and waited for her time to dock/moor and offload/onload. Today she made her way to the docks and moored in Busan, KO. She is scheduled to depart on 01/28/23. *Amazing about the turn around time, but nothing special about the “monotonous” circuit: Busan, Pacific, Panama Canal, Atlantic, New York, Norfolk, Wilmington, NC Port, Charleston, Savannah, Panama Canal, Pacific, Busan…
Addendum [01/26/23]: The BBC Volga arrived in Shanghai, CN yesterday, and proceeded to moor at a location on the Huangpu River Minhang District of Shanghai.
There is something wrong with the Google Map for Shanghai. All the streets are offset by about a block, so you see gray street lines that end deep in the river.
*Not sure if the BBC Volga has been sold. I would imagine that this vessel will stay near the China coast and run in the Asiatic Pacific. Doesn’t make sense for a vessel of this size to travel back and forth across the Pacific Ocean (like the YM-Warranty).
ADDENDUM [02/04/23]: When I referenced the “monotonous” circuit of the YM Warranty, I did not know there were several other ports to be included in China before returning across the Pacific to the Panama Canal. And worrisome, to me, is that the YM Warranty is currently anchored, along with many other cargo vessels, a short distance from Qingdao, CN. Worrisome, is that she is currently showing an ETA of 03/09/23? Why would you put the vessel “on the shelf” for over a month? It would seem that keeping her going, from port to port, efficiently (with just a few days in each port for loading/off loading) would be the goal.
I have not been able to pull up anything on the Web regarding why the YM Warranty is sitting just off from Qingdao, CN with a projected ETA of March 9th. But today, another reason for this extended anchorage came to mind. This may be COVID related. I see that some vessels were quarantined during the height of COVID. Although I have not been following COVID in China, I think they are having a resurgence. So, my current guess is that the YM Warranty is under quarantine.
The BBC Volga is again “on the move” toward Dalian, CN [ 02/10/23 ]. Interesting, to me, is that because the YM Warranty is currently sitting off from Qingdao, CN until about March 9th, the BBC Volga and YM Warranty will once again be near each other.
[NOTE]: Okay, March 9, 2023 arrived and the YM Warranty quickly made it into the port at Qingdao, CN. Not a clue why she sat idle just a few miles from Qingdao for over a month. I checked at least a couple of times to see the arrival dates of some of the other vessels that were parked near the Warranty, and all of them were scheduled just days from the date I was checking. The Warranty was being treated differently, for some reason. I still don’t know why you would take an almost new, extremely large, container ship out of the rotation, when we are having shortages due to supply line problems. [end note]
I found the airport on Lake Constance – der Bodensee, before I found Lindau, one of the shooting locations for the German detective show referenced in the above title.
I happened to go to Google StreetView for the airport and started travelling down a side road by the airport. Nothing of interest, except I started to see abandoned vehicles pulled off to the side of the road. I have images of three of these commercial vehicles. From the advertising on these vehicles, I visited their web sites… see links below:
Interestingly, while visiting the Hunn Gartenmöbel site I gravitated to a page entitled, “Winterschutz für Gartenmöbel” and I understood quite a bit of what was being said on the page, without referencing an online translation. e.g. “Wenn die ersten Blätter von den Bäumen fallen und die Abende kühler werden, ist es an der Zeit, die Gartenmöbel… ” One of the words, “Schutzhüllen” was translated “protective covering”. So, “Winterschutz” – winter protection, and “Schutzhüllen” for protective covering, were recognizable because I knew from my recent Duolingo practices that “Umweltschutz” meant “environmental protection”.
One of the things I have gravitated to, in learning German, is to go to Google Maps and then the StreetView to see various locations. I’ve done this in connection with TV shows or movies that I have been watching. At some point I may see a restaurant icon, and I click on it to get a feel for that particular restaurant and inevitably, I take a look at their menu. Sometimes, rarely, the restaurant web site shows pictures of the food that they have on the menu. But often I have to type the menu item into a google search, along with some of the other included ingredients… and often I have been pleased to see several images of how others have produced the listed item. Their version.
Now, I don’t understand how baked beet root, risotto and green pea puree, even with Saffron foam can be priced at 22 euros. Still the four images above of baked beet root (none with Erbsenpuree or Safranschaum) “alles sieht für mich sehr lecker aus”.
So, just before I closed the web site for Eilguthalle, I came across their “Emphalung” for “Grüne Curry Suppe / Garnele / Bananen / Kokosmilch” apparently, a green curry soup with shrimp, bananas and coconut milk… hmmm? I couldn’t find any images for all of the ingredients listed above, but it sounds like something I might like to try. *I visited “Thai Lanna” restaurant today for lunch. This was the renamed “Thai Pepper” restaurant that I had frequented each week, for so many years. But, there is no more daily buffet, and the food I had, a “Basil & Chicken” dish, with rice just didn’t have a distinctive flavor. It was hot, very hot, and I had asked for very hot, but even sweetener did not “turn” this for me. I don’t get anything out of hot for hot’s sake. Oh, and no buffet meant very few customers, which I guessed at “probably no buffet” because there were very few cars in the parking lot, at a time, just after noon, when there should have been many.
Talked with a young black man, my waiter, in a protective mask (him not me) about “Tamed Jalapeno” peppers, and showed him a photo of the Mezzetas Tamed Jalapenos that I had tried previously. Also mentioned the “Jalapeno Pork” dish that I used to love, but hated the late night, early morning, results.
I had a bag of Lady Cream Peas from the Camelia Company. Camelia seems to be the company to get these dried peas from.
I had transferred these dry peas to a small canning jar. The Dukes Mayo jar lids (those yellow soft plastic ones) fit the quart canning jar lids, so I am able to store both cooked items (soups) and dry veggies prior to cooking.
So earlier today, I put the peas in a small bowl and added water, salt and baking soda to them. After a few hours I was visually able to tell that the beans had become slightly larger and soaked up some of the liquid. A few hours later I transferred half of the soaked peas to a large cooking pot, added some chicken broth & water, some seasoning meat and started cooking them. *I’ve already added some S&P and garlic, with some margarine also. I plan to add some sauteed onion about 30 minutes into the cooking process.
I can already tell that I am going to like the flavor of these peas. The broth already has good flavor.
I thought I was going to need to cook the peas for over an hour, but about 35 minutes into the cooking time, I tasted one of the peas and it was already soft & tender. So, I sauteed the onion quickly, added it to the peas, and took the peas off the heat. They are now cooling on the stove top.
An extremely soft “melt in your mouth” pea, with a mild flavor. I definitely want to try these peas in other venues, such as my vegetable soup, and maybe with lentils.
NOTE: I decided to only cook half of the soaked peas, so I put the rest, without the soaking liquid into a Tupperware container and placed that in the freezer. I did use the soaking liquid to start soaking some other beans. I think the other beans were some that were left over from the Speckled Butter Beans.
Might be interesting to mix Lady Cream Peas, Yellow Eye and Black Eyed Peas in a single dish. I recall the Yellow Eye Peas had a slight Black Eyed Pea flavor, and I think the Lady Cream Peas do also.
NOTE [11/12/22]: I had some dried green split peas that I soaked for several hours. I also had a large (for my personal use) ham hock that I probably have had for a year or more. This was one of those that I had bought at Food Lion, and I thought it had a bone in it, but when I cut into it, there was no bone. The company had a way of cutting a strip of country ham and placing it over the cut end of the hock. It finally came to me that I had better use this before it went bad.
When I found that there was no bone to cut through, I sliced the ham hock into 3 fairly equal portions, and froze two of them (separately packaged).
I drained the soaking liquid from the green peas, and added some chicken broth to the pot. I sliced the third of the ham hock and put those slices in the pot. I also took out the frozen Lady Cream Peas (that had already been soaked), and put a good portion of them in with the split green peas. But, here was the surprise… I don’t think it took even 45 minutes to completely cook the green split peas & and Lady Cream Peas. I got up to take a look, and saw that the green peas were already breaking down, but the Lady Cream Peas were still intact. The surprise was that stirring the pot broke down most of the green peas, and when I tried a Lady Cream Pea, it was already completely cooked through. It wasn’t hard, or mealy, it was cooked and “melt in your mouth” soft.
See the photos. This pea combination looks “cool” (a word I am using in learning German) and the flavors do go great together.
I just tried some more of these peas and I have to say that I can’t imagine the flavors becoming any better if you refrigerated them overnight (as you do to make exceptional black eyed peas). *Make this! Combine these peas for a really good soup.
It had been a long while since I had made one of these collages.
As I walked along the meat isle at the IGA, I saw some packages of “stew beef”. Most of these packages contained “family” size portions of beef chunks, but I then spied a “REDUCED” sticker on a small package. I looked closer. Only $1.73 total, reduced from about $3.42 and about .83 lbs. of beef chuck. I put the package in my cart, and made a note to try and make sure that I was charged the reduced rate. *I think I noted at the register that I had been charged the lower amount.
There were some dark red chunks of beef visible through the plastic. Once I opened the package, I did see that a few of the chunks were lighter in color. I sifted through the larger chunks, and cut them into smaller pieces.
I did get online to look for “Stew Beef Recipe” and then “Vegetable Beef Soup”. I thought I had thrown away some old (beginning to soften) white potatoes, and when I went looking, sure enough I had no potatoes. Had used the last of the little white potatoes that I bought at Pate’s weeks ago. Vegetable soup without potatoes is lacking, but I wanted to get this meat on the stove.
I braised the beef chunks in the pot, in olive oil. I chopped up some onion and added it to the pot. Added a can of Roasted Garlic diced tomatoes and set all of that to cook for an hour, or more. Added some Agave Nectar, and some Splenda sweetener to the pot, some marjoram, thyme, ground coriander, S&P .
Cut up some carrot, and got a small container of garden peas, lima beans & corn that I had frozen (a long time ago) and thawed that in the microwave. *Went looking for canned corn, and could not find any (small or medium cans), thought I had frozen some from a previous soup, and after digging around did find the Tupperware container in the freezer. The frozen veggies may not add anything to this soup (which is beginning to taste pretty good), but hopefully won’t detract from the flavor.
I also added a few dried Lady Cream Peas, and then thought, “Oh, these may take a long time to soften.” I checked online and if they are soaked, the Lady Cream Peas should soften in about 30 minutes, so not having soaked them, hoped 1 hour cooking time would get them in shape.
It’s about time for me to add the chopped carrots, celery, and thawed-frozen veggies. I’m also going to add a little green bell pepper, and a can of green beans. *It is important to have just the right blend of tomatoes and other veggies in this soup, and I usually know that by taste. Tomatoes need to be a primary flavor, but some green beans and corn can add to the mix.
I did not add many of the dried Lady Cream Peas to the soup, but they cooked well. I think I would add more of these peas to the next soup, but would probably try to soak them first. I have added Pearled Barley to previous vegetable soups. The Lady Cream Peas are larger than the barley grains, but I think they provide some of the same texture to the final product.
I used the last of the little white skinned potatoes and put them with green beans & some seasoning meat. They turned out pretty well.
I started a pre-soak on some lima beans, putting in both salt and baking soda, and heating the water. Pulled it off the heat and let it sit for several hours.
I knew I wanted to make some more Cranberry beans & chard, so I thought… could I use the water in which I soaked the lima beans to soak the Borlotti beans. I did a google search and the questions & answers weren’t quite on target for the answer for which I was looking. The online answers address if you wanted to use the soaking water to cook the beans in. *I knew you wouldn’t want to do that because the soaking water was probably too salty, and whatever things had leached out of the beans, due to soaking, was what you were wanting to get rid of. And without looking, aren’t those the things that cause flatulence. But, I saw no reason not to try re-using the soaking water, saving it from the limas and putting the Bortolli beans it it to soak. I guess the worst that could happen would be that the baking soda would have been used up.
The butter beans turned out really well. Seasoning meat, some margarine and at the end, adding 5 biscuits as “pastry”. Placed the dough on top and then spooned some of the beans and seasoning meat on top of the pastry. Left it to cook for a while. Came back and the dough had cooked and the pastry had puffed up a little. The beans and pastry turned out to be delicious.
Hours later I drained the Cranberry beans and started to cook them, with some onion and seasoning. The beans seemed to have soaked well, and it took about an hour and a half to finish cooking them. I prepared the chard, onion & garlic for cooking, and cooking these down then adding the Borlotti beans and some chicken stock. It looks good. The taste was subtle, but still savory – “earthy flavored”.
Forgot that I also took a can of beets and “suped” them up by adding some balsamic & red wine vinegar and some sweetener. Drain off the liquid in the can prior to adding the vinegar. Put this in the refrigerator to chill.
So, lunch was limas & pastry, beets, and green beans & potatoes. All good, but my favorites, in order, the limas, the beets and then the green beans & potatoes.
I had bought some small white potatoes at Pate’s Farm Market earlier in the week. They were displayed loosely, and I selected most of them to be the same size. Not sure if I knew what I was going to do with them. One thought had been to fix some potatoes & green beans seasoned with bacon. Done well, the flavors are delightful. *I think it was Essie Davis, at a Bear Creek Senior Citizens luncheon, who brought a delicious dish of greens beans & potatoes seasoned with bacon. I recall that I did not go back for dessert, but for another helping of green beans, potatoes & bacon. The luncheon was held in the old fire station, that had been used for Boy Scout meetings, but now a meeting place for senior citizens. I was probably working for Region P Community Action Agency at the time, and that would have been more than 40 years ago.
I already had some white potatoes at home, but with darker skins, and larger.
Small, white potatoes from Pate’s
Through the years, microwaving a potato, for about 5 minutes, and then cutting it up with margarine, sour cream, some herbs (marjoram, thyme) and S&P was a “go to” for me. I could have it by itself, or as a side with a pork chop or a hamburger. But for several months now, I haven’t had the desire to fix a potato this way. My favorite potato had become the Yukon Gold, but I’m not sure what has happened, but they don’t seem to be in the market (any grocer) any longer. *I took this to be a result of COVID, but haven’t checked. I don’t think I could blame the same on the small, flavorful “Sweet Bites” tomatoes from Sunset (company). But, those too have disappeared from the store shelves.
Maybe a year or so ago, I saw a way to bake a potato giving it a soft center, but a salty, crisp skin. This was on America’s Test Kitchen. The steps. Use Russet potatoes and brine them briefly before baking. I’ve tried this and it does make for a good baked potato.
This afternoon, I took about six of the small white potatoes, and quartered them. I boiled them with a little salt water. I later cut most of the quarters in half. As I was boiling the potatoes, I cooked some bacon in the microwave. For me, currently, this is the way to get consistently good bacon. After four minutes, the bacon is cooked, not overcooked, and crisp. As I am cooking the bacon & boiling the potatoes, I started to cook a couple of “round bone” lamb chops on the stove top. I use both olive oil and some grapeseed oil in the pan, but also added some bacon drippings as they were produced from the microwave. I needed to attend to the doneness of the potatoes because I don’t want them to overcook, nor do I want them undercooked and hard. Once they were done, I drained them and put them in a bowl for a little later.
The bacon finished and I took it out of the microwave. The lamb chops finished and I took them out of the skillet and set them aside in a plastic container, only planning to eat one of these for lunch.
I poured off most of the oil from the skillet and added some finely chopped onion (not a sweet Vidalia onion) to the pan. Not all of the onion was finely chopped. I like enough onion to distinguish it from the other ingredients. I cooked the onion down until it was translucent, but not blackened. I chopped the bacon into bacon bits. I now added some red wine vinegar and sweetener, and Agave Nectar to the skillet and mixed the onions with it. I then poured the potatoes into the pan, along with celery seeds, and added the bacon bits. I mixed the potatoes, onions, vinegar and sweetener in the pan. Tasted, and added a little more Splenda and vinegar to taste. Yes, another good German Potato Salad, but made with the small white potatoes.
I now had a lamb chop and warm German potato salad, and I pulled some rotkohl (Red Cabbage) and some of the Cranberry beans with chard, that I made yesterday out of the refrigerator. I left both of these cold. The flavors and different temperatures worked well together. A little slice of lamb, and some rotkohl. Some potato salad. Some of the beans & chard. Really good flavor. And now mixing and alternating each of these. It was all good, and all good together. *I do think I will make the Cranberry Beans & Chard again. I now think that it is the chard which adds that distinctive, earthy flavor. I plan to try chard in several dishes to see.
I normally would not have potatoes and beans in the same meal, but the two sides above were distinctive enough, and warm & cold, and sweet & savory. The starchy items that I usually would not have during the same meal are potatoes, beans, rice and pasta. All four of those starchy items would be used to “soak up” any gravies or sauces that came with the meat entre.
NOTE: I just thought, those small white potatoes would go well, sliced and mixed with fresh goat cheese and ramps. Ramps have a distinctive flavor, which are as different as garlic is from an onion, and ramps are as potent as garlic. You can’t eat either one without others knowing. Ramps only grow above a certain elevation, in the mountains and at a certain time of year (I think early spring.). I first got them at the State Farmers Market in Asheville, NC.
NOTE [05/26/24]: Tonight is the second time that I have thought to cook a white potato with some water in my microwave “onion” cooker. I think it actually causes the potato to cook more quickly because it is “steaming” it. The cooked potato ends up moist. *I added some salt to the water, but am not sure if it flavored the potato. However, the water was completely cooked off in just 3 minutes. I stuck a fork in the potato and it seemed to be done, but I cooked it for about another 30 seconds. **I didn’t add any margarine or sour cream to the finished potato, but just salt, garlic powder and pepper.
I thought I had bought same Country Crock Margarine Original Flavor from the IGA. I even recall looking at two sizes of the Country Crock in the display. The smaller size was about $5.99 and the larger container was about $7.99. I made a mental note that I didn’t need the larger size, but did think the smaller sized container was smaller than what I usually get. But, it might have been the same size. Still, that I apparently did not put the container in my shopping cart is amazing to me. Still, I didn’t find it in my refrigerator, my kitchen, on my dining table, or anywhere in my car. So, I must not have bought it. This is almost like running out of onions. I cook an onion for most of my meals (at least lunch & dinner), and even saute some to go with my liver mush for breakfast. I ran out of olive oil earlier in the week. This too was unusual.
I am wondering if these “things” I am forgetting, or misplacing, are illustrative of a fading memory, in my old age. And, I am old. I am 70 years old, and that IS old. And, when someone introduces you as “70 years young,” you know that they view you as being “old.” I ran out of lime juice.
I have certain things that I try to make sure I “buy ahead of time,” before running out of them. They include Splenda, chicken broth, garbage bags, and dish washing detergent. I try to drink a little milk every day. I use Half-n-Half regularly for both my coffee and some of the tea I drink. *I have learned to love my “Scottish Tea.” The first time I tried it, I didn’t like the overpowering flavor, but very quickly fell in love with it, and love it with the creamer. The hot teas I like include: Bigelow – Constant Comment / Earl Grey / Raspberry Royal. I have drank Constant Comment and Earl Grey since about 1985. Rick and Linda Bell introduced me to both of these long ago. I think they lived on Brynn Marr Road in Jacksonville, NC at the time. I came to like the Raspberry Royal flavor from a short vacation I was on. I stayed at a Quality Inn in Lynchburg, VA about 2017 and tried this tea (on a whim) as I was checking out one morning. I fell in love with this flavor and ended up buying boxes of it from Amazon.com.
I have a drink that I make almost every day and consume a carafe. I add some cranberry juice and orange juice to a combination of Iced Tea with Lemon and Pomegranate Lemonade flavor packets (added to water) that I get at WalMart.
One of the things I do, is to give Christmas presents of the various things I have tried and liked in that year. I’ve given away the Bigelow Raspberry Royal tea, some Tiger Sauce, and even bought a hand grinder to grind the Indian Long Pepper that I fell in love with a couple of years ago. The Long Pepper is oddly shaped and hard and won’t grind in a regular pepper mill. But freshly ground, the Long Pepper has a pungent pepper flavor and aroma. I’ve given an old style metal vegetable peeler, that serves a double function when peeling a cucumber. It will peel the cucumber, and once done and halved, you can use the opposite end of the peeler to easily scrape out the bitter seeds. I’ve even given one of the plastic microwave onion cookers because you can cook various fruits & veggies quickly in the microwave with it. It will cook an onion, a white or sweet potato, and a apple. But you can also cook an egg in this cooker and it will come out with a rounded edge that will fit in an English Muffin, like an Egg McMuffin. You can even add shredded cheese in this cooker, and the egg will encase the melted cheese inside. [end NOTE]
I like vinegar. I’ve even been known to drink vinegar, but I know I am not the only one. There are vinegars made for drinking. Add a little sweetener to vinegar and you’ve got ‘pickle juice.’
Take several types of beans (e.g. green & yellow wax beans, pinto beans, cannellini, black or navy) add vinegar & sweetener, S&P and you have a good ‘bean salad’. I’ve also added sweet pickles, peppadews, onion, pickled peppers or sweet pepper drops to a bean salad. Any vinegary item should work in a bean salad.
Bean Salad with onion & pickled peppers
Why do I like German Potato Salad? Could be the vinegar & sweetener that changes everything.
I may have only cooked Rotkol once in my life. Not sure how many times I have eaten it, but I know I like the flavors. Once again it is the vinegar & sweetener that changes everything. But, you also add cloves, an apple & onion. I add onion to almost everything I cook. “Any onion is sweet, once it hits the heat.” Meaning, even a bitter, hot raw onion will sweeten when you begin to cook it. I like pickled onions, and okra.
@ 1 Hour Cook Time – Half way there…
So, I am fixing Traditional German Rotkohl (Sweet/Sour Red Cabbage) right now. I didn’t realize it took a couple of hours to let it cook down. I did not follow the above recipe closely. I chopped up some red cabbage, some onion, a small apple and added it all to a pot with some chicken stock. I put in some margarine, red wine vinegar, Splenda, Agave Nectar, S&P, a little Worcestershire sauce, ground cloves, and bay leaf. I can already tell from the cooking liquid that I’m going to love this.
The article title was a phrase that I had to transcribe while doing one of the lessons on Duolingo. “Die Universität in Freiburg ist sehr bekannt” is translated as, “the university in Freiburg is very well-known”.
Germany restricts “Google Maps Streetview” due to privacy issues, but some areas, including Berlin have allowed Streetview to record much of the city. Freiburg is not one of those German cities/towns that allow it, so I happened to find “Elbe Obst” (Elbe, the river and Obst – fruit), a company headquartered in Freiburg. *I haven’t looked for the famous university yet.
But the Elbe Obst web site has been very informative and entertaining. The site includes videos, about apple production, and has extensive apple recipes which reminded me of how useful food/cooking/recipes/ingredients are in learning a language… and this web site is written relatively simply so that I understand much of the text/content without having to “look up a bunch of stuff.”
Frank Döscher Elbe-ObstFräulein Advertising the Brandenburg Gate
Frank Döscher is managing director of the German company Elbe-Obst.
Fräulein a new variety of apple in Germany which apparently is both sweet and juicy.
So, knowing where Freiburg University is located would help. Needless to say, the University is NOT in Freiburg, Germany. However it is located a great distance away in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. And by now, I am not really interested in pursuing the University.
Bill Gibson, II 