Food Chat thread - for general convo by food forum regulars (meats, quinoa)

[Happy in Wyoming]

I'm in Zone 4. I have good drainage with sandy soil. I generally get intermittent thaws during the winter followed frequently by chilly nights until late June. What do you folks think my chances are? What about growing them inside?

[Dirt Grinder]

Try a hardneck garlic - plant in Fall in well-drained soil and mulch heavily with straw to overwinter. You can also go to the local farmers market and purchase whatever garlic they are growing in your region.

[nmnita]

If your parents or grandparents were alive today, what would they say about the way we cook and some of the foods we eat, they never heard of in their lives? What would they think about the spices we use and the way we cook?

I know my dad, who was my inspiration for cooking was considered at blue ribbon cook, but he never used cumin or even heard of it, nor did he attempt Greek or Indian food and rarely Chinese except for rice. Grilling a vegetable would never have entered his mind and he used the broiler all the time. We have never used our broiler. I am sure a George Foreman grill would have blown his mind.

My moms mom, who was a wonderful farm cook would roll over in her grave, to think we buy pie shells already made or use something called olive oil.

[nmnita]

What about growing garlic in pots? I think that would make a lot of sense and certainly would have good drainage if the pots have drainage holes.

[gentlearts]

Both parents and grandparents were plain meat, potatoes and vegetables cooks. Pizza was exotic to us. I cannot imagine them changing into experimental cooks if they were still alive. Perhaps they would have dared use some rosemary on the roast lamb or fresh sage on the chicken, if it had been readily available at the corner store, but Mexican or Indian? No way.

[SXMGirl]

My grandmother was a southern country cook and probably never had pizza, spaghetti, or anything that she was not comfortable cooking. I never knew her to eat in a restaurant, no matter how much I tried to get her out. What is interesting is that my SIL and other relatives who live in the same small town will not try anything new. For several family reunions, I would send a container of pizzelles, and no one eats them. I finally stopped since they take so much time to make, but since they had never seen them before, they were not eating them. Their baked goods seem to come from Walmart.

[PennyLane2]

"If your parents or grandparents were alive today, what would they say about the way we cook and some of the foods we eat..."

I would hear this from every one of them:

- these vegetables are not done
- this pork is still pink

[Mightyqueen801]

My mother is still alive at 84, and she did change some of her ways over time, although I doubt she will ever eat Indian food. But I do remember as an adult going over to her house and finding to my shock that she was making her own tomato sauce. We were not Italian, and I was probably an adult or nearly so before I heard of anyone who made their own sauce and didn't get it from a jar. To us, spaghetti was something you ate near the end of the month when you were getting broke.

LOL at the above--my grandparents and probably my mother still would have said the same thing about the vegetables not being done, and all meat was cooked to shoe leather.

My daughter and I took my mother to a Mexican restaurant last year. She didn't like it--she seemed shocked that it was so spicy--and I felt bad because she barely ate anything. I didn't realize that she hadn't eaten Mexican food before.

[red4ce]

My grandparents were quite well off and always had a housekeeper to cook so I'm sure they'd be just as clueless in the kitchen as I am. On the plus side the fact that they had money and schmoozed with upper crust society meant they got to travel and eat at a diverse array of restaurants during their heyday, so overall they were more open minded towards cuisines from other cultures than is typical for their generation.

[debzkidz]

My parents are still alive. Mom, who is 77 eats Mexican, Italian and some Chinese. Dad, who turns 80 this year, eats Mexican and Italian, but would die before he allowed any other "foreign" food to cross his lips. His comes more from not liking veggies as opposed to not being willing try new things. As far as the way they cook, my parents tend to like more fried foods and sugar than is common now days but they have changed somewhat. They do at least use olive oils and have cut out some of the salt. My mom has always been one to use packaged, frozen or canned foods. I can't ever remember her making a pie crust from scratch. At most she used those pie crust sticks.

My grandparents all ate Mexican too. Maybe it's because we are from Texas where its always just been a normal thing to eat. I remember as a small child going to my family's favorite Mexican place and watching my dad and granddad have a jalapeno eating contest. They would eat them until they had sweat pouring off their foreheads, tears pouring from their eyes, and their noses running.