Wow - that would be scary to me, chloebud!

I use only salted butter - organic. I don't see the point in unsalted if I'm going to add salt anyway.

And I do use a sprinkle of flaked sea salt on brownies and chocolate bark - not a lot tho.

I too like the butter with crystals of salt in it for certain purposes, like bread and finishing (hence the dark blue wrapper version of Isigny Ste Mere). I do keep unsalted butter on hand for baking and other issues, but it depends on the recipe.

I have not tried the whole-wheat tuscan bread at TJ's, What I have read is that the salt will strengthen the gluten and impact the crumb; the lack of it makes it more dense, which tends to be less appealing in white bread. (ETA -- googling images of the ingredient list on that gread show that their "tuscan" bread did contain salt. maybe that is a regional difference or recipe change, as they seem to change up suppliers)

I've been adding extra salt to my home made bread...it keeps the rapid rise down. Also less honey and less yeast. We're having a lot of humidity and heat, my bread has started rising too much and falling...so these pull backs have made a "perfect" loaf every time. I've actually deflated a 25lb bag of flour, only about 7lbs left. I'm amazed how quickly it went. 🍞🥐

My heritage foods are Middle Eastern or Russian Jewish (though they were from Prussia and Lithuania). When I was a kid, Chumus (not "hum-us") and Pitot (plural pita) were looked at suspiciously by our peers. 😝 I can make felafel but don't enjoy it. That's another that has progressed from the weird to the mainstream--I guess popularized by vegans. More people in general ate lamb, but that--especially kebabs--was also considered weird. On the Euro side, it was cooked spinach served with sour cream and chopped egg (so good!), blintzes (used to be easy--now I have to make the cheese), borscht (beet soup) and tschav (sorrel soup). And stuffed cabbage, but I think many people make it similarly. Oh, and pirushki (fried meat pockets), but I never learned to make them. My more Cental European grandmother made kugels and gefilte fish. The former were okay but the latter was rave worthy. Unfortunately, just the fumes of cooking fish gives me allergic reaction, though I can eat a little if it's cold. No one in the family makes it anymore. And one of the keys is the abolute freshness of the right fish, and I'd be clueless even if I could cook it.

What fun to read these childhood food memories. My father’s side of family was French & Irish, my mom’s side German, French & Norwegian. Our food was a trip around the world at holiday time! My mom was a terrific cook and baker. She was very creative and had to be to feed us on a strict and low budget. Oly is right that it’s some kind of miracle none of us died - if not from food processing issues then from really clogged arteries at a very young age! 😁 But gosh food tasted good then didn’t it?

ROTFL!!!

Those are excellent!

I think I've seen all of those! LMAO!

:0) :0) :0)

Just wanted to push back a little on the 'this is not a significant number of cases to be concerned about' argument - IMO, better to have the concern at the start, when numbers are relatively low, rather than wait for full blown emergency mode, which does seem to be the American way, like it or not.

I agree with both Carol and plllog. 😆

Plllog, the sad part for me is how far it feels like we have fallen. We have always had food borne outbreaks. But the lack of concrete information this time around is appalling. Again, IMO. Historically the government was on it, issues were addressed and clear information was forthcoming. This time...it is so different. They're pushing artifically low numbers, and you have to dig for real case counts. See above. 🙁

I think the graphic is unhelpful as it does not eliminate cases from abroad and distinguish where the levels are elevated from historical. In California, the number of cases YTD is half that of last year. However it is clearly elevated in some places and we need a better, conclusive and influence-free identification of the source.

I make it up as I go, so I'll start with the problem: Bland chicken. I haven't used Costco's, which may be different than the roast chickens I've gotten at the grocery store. Taste a piece. Does it taste watery? Salty? Stores often brine their chikcens so keep them from drying out unattended. Does it taste roasty toasty? Perhaps they also do get it all the way roasty, also so they don't have to monitor them, but in addition to give you some range before overcooked to rewarm.

If this is the case, you could use a big frying pan or small sheet pan with just a brush of oil on the bottom to tear the chicken into, add a little stock or broth and seasoning and heat at a low-ish temperature, stirring occasionally, but letting it also sit some and brown.

If that's too much trouble and you're okay with the texture, you can just toss the torn chicken with a little S&P, and add the other seasonings, like onion powder or herbs de province, or whatever, right into the mayonnaise and let them sit mixed while you prep everything else. Use a generous hand. Also, do check your seasonings. Salt is stable, but the rest fade and eventually become flavorless. Taste them! If they're just a little faded use more. If they're not at all pungent, it's time to throw them into the soup or something else big and buy new and fresh for the salad.

My go to version to is a lot of fresh chopped vegetables and herbs with mayo, or a version of curry powder chicken salad, though any flavor profile will work. I find oil dressings hard to use because they tend to be too heavy and hard to distribute well. The secret is to use a light oil like sunflower. Olive is way too heavy and safflower is too light. I find dry herbs work best. Soak them with the S&P and any spice you're adding in the oil for an hour or so. Dress the chicken first. A little generously, but not soaking wet. Let it sit about ten minutes. Combine with the vegetables and let sit another ten minutes. Stir well. If it needs more dressing, drizzle stingily. This kind of dressing works very well with pungent ingredients like fresh garlic

Chicken, diced celery, grated onion, seasoning salt, cracked black pepper, diced dill pickle (pat dry first), sprinkle of dry mustard powder, barely enough mayo to bind it together. Pulse it in the food processor a few times to make a chicken spread. Good with ham, also! Like the old Underwood spreads used to taste like.

carrabubble, nothing really new or different in this video, but I’ve found the recipes I’ve tried from her to be good. She also has a pleasing manner IMO. I agree with her regarding poaching vs roasting, or using good rotisserie chicken.

Oops. Didn't spot the date. Just the post from Rita onwards

“Then, if I want to share with y'all, I have this monster of verbiage.”

@plllog, coming from you I’d feel shortchanged if it were anything but! 😉

“I was actually taught this old fashioned method based on the principle of ’some’.”

@Patriciae - Back in the day this used to drive me nuts with German recipes from my mom. ”Etwas.” That and I’d google to estimate grams to volume conversions. Confidence helped resolve one issue, a scale, the other!

Nope, I definitely do not have the engineer brain type and I don't find that format particularly convenient or usable, mostly because I'm jumping from side to side instead of reading straight down. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how it was even supposed to work. Perhaps a lifetime of cooking has just ingrained the original recipe format into my psyche, but it works for me and I don't need updates, improvements, upgrades, or adjustments.

Annie

Yes. Last year I had a glut of green gages.

I was told fruit leather should be made by pushing uncooked fruit through a seive. No way I could be bothered with that. So I cooked up the fruit

Sieved it

and spread it very thin on baking paper on trays. Put in oven on lowest setting for some hours. (Don't remember how long. Just kept checking.

Rolled and cut up.

It was quite sharp but devoured by family including 1 year old dgd. Never even heard of fruit leather before visiting these forums. Nb I do not own a dehydrator or a food mill. It was a synch without either. It would easily keep a month imo but it didn't get the chance.

3 inch squares would be awkward to eat imo. The cut up rolls are just a pop in the mouth treat.

This topic brings back memories of using the Tollhouse recipe with Crisco solid vegetable shortening for the fat. My mother, who did not like to cook, didn't even have dry measuring cups. I had to portion out 16 tablespoons of Crisco to make up the cup needed.

Later, there were Mrs. Field's amazing freshly baked, buttery, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, huge cookies. Whatever you may think of her cookies, for many, she opened up a whole new world of cookie recipes.

Fun, I well remember Mrs. Field’s in malls. I had to look it up. She sold the business in 1992 for $100M.

The Tollhouse recipe is my go-to, though I often increase the amount of chocolate chips, or use half dark and half milk or white chocolate or even peanut butter chips. I also add a cup of chopped pecans.

The original Tollhouse cookies used chopped up bar chocolate as chips hadn't been invented yet- and were specifically invented for chocolate chip cookies. I've used chopped up bar chocolate when I needed to have dairy free ingredients. It's pretty good :-)

Your answer is make it. You can't beat the flavour and texture of home-made.

Tillamook makes the most delicious Peaches and Cream ice cream, but I have not seen it anywhere this year. The peach crop was quite damaged, so I guess I have to wait for next year. And their Cherry flavor is lovely, too.

Stopped by the Tillamook HQ/factory and restaurant/ice cream shop/cheese market. Was so packed we were unable to grab a parking spot. We had low motivation to go, and it was mainly for the types of cheese that are not broadly distributed.

^^ Thank you! Tastes good, too. :0) The blueberries are fresh from my bushes. I substitute raspberries for blueberries when my fall-bearing raspberries come in.

Date Cookies

Spicy cookies with chewy dates. The dates sweeten these cookies without going overboard.

Submitted by SaraPrep Time: 1 hrCook Time: 10 minsTotal Time: 1 hr 10 minsServings: 36 Yield: 6 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 ⅓ cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1 ½ cups chopped pitted dates
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves; gradually stir into creamed mixture. Combine water and dates; stir into dough along with chopped pecans. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition Facts

calories156total carbohydrate 20g dietary fiber 1g total sugars 12g protein2g total fat 8g saturated fat 4g cholesterol 29mg vitamin c 0mg sodium 78mg calcium10mg iron 1mg potassium 71mg