Betsy Carraway

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since Mar 14, 2012
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Recent posts by Betsy Carraway

Hi shovel breakers!!  I only wish to add one thing: we have had a lot of shovels and a fork break over the decades, on the working end, not the handle.  My husband likes to stick a fork or a shovel into the ground/manure and leave it standing vertical...sometimes he doesn't come back for a while.  It gets rusty, then brittle, and there you go.

prevention: clean off and hang your implements!!! XD

As far as handles go, they are no longer hand made of solid Ash, and are usually from China.  
6 months ago
Drunken shrimp!  A Japanese bar treat: live shrimp dumped into a clear container of straight alcohol; where they initially go NUTS and then sort of slowly, lazily DIEEEE... while you eat them.

Glad Durian was mentioned! (an acquired taste...) makes me think of jackfruit, which is (at least, from an old tree, it can be) the largest fruit in the world! It is a real discovery.  Green/unripe jackfruit arils are a new vegan meat substitute; you can get it at Wal Mart, already shredded and mixed w bbq sauce, just add a bun.  Popular also, since jackfruit is an anti-cancer food.  It is available in freeze-dried "chips", in shredded or hunks, wet and ready to eat as a meat substitute; ripe and frozen; and canned, both as young or green jackfruit, and ripe/sweet, in syrup.  Wanna know exactly how it smells and tastes...? Well, green jackfruit is rather bland...but ripe jackfruit it is the flavor they used for Juicy Fruit Gum!!  Very sweet and fragrant, and good for you too!  To open one is a really big deal; get one at the Asian market, keep til it gives just a little to thumb pressure, and is maybe a little yellow; then go outside and spread out a lot of newspaper, and get a trash can and some freezer containers. There are spines, and under that there is some really messy latex; you de-section it, and pull out huge numbers of these orangey arils, each enclosing a big seed.  Save those, plant them right away, you will be amazed how fast you'll have little trees!  Fast growing, unlike say the lychee, which takes 25 years to fruit. A jackfruit tree makes a great indoor plant, it is pretty, easy, and very fast growing: and it will fruit!! You can sell them for $10 or give them as gifts...or just line your atrium

Someone mentioned a fish jello: gotta tell you of two more from my youth: the first is Polish jellied pig feet.  My dad called it "zhemina"...you boil those suckers, then skim and slowly simmer til so soft, the bones are falling out.  You have added some aromatics to that: bay leaf, juniper, celery, seed (?) peppercorn...then when cool, strain the liquid and reserve.  Get a loaf pan, and take out all bones and other inedible bits.  Cut the meat into chunks, throw into the loaf pan and cover with the liquid, which will gel strongly in the fridge. It will create its own seal of fat. When ready, scrape the fat away and slice thick or thin, served with white vinegar and sliced thin onions, and some hearty rye bread; add anything else pickled, or whole grain mustard...Mmmmm

There are several tropical plants that create an eible gel when juiced. Look on Youtube!  All of them are not equally good; I like the Vietnamese one, I forget the name.  Had a plant, but let it die...In Asian markets it is available canned, as "grass jelly"...there is also one called Ai Yu Jelly, which I particularly love.  Since we are on jellied things...one can of cold, cubed Ai Yu jelly with kiwis and green grapes and a tiny splash of lime juice or syrup makes a fast but rather unforgettable dessert treat. Seriously.

Now my Lithuanian grandma's summer beet soup: Chlodnik.  OMG, this is the best!!!  You cook fresh beets whole, cook the tops too, but not too much; or you can use raw.  Cool and peel and dice the beets and tops.  Also dice up some cucumber, sweet onion, and chopped crunchy lettuce: iceberg is perfect. The base is water/mild broth, white vinegar, and sour cream. IBecause of the vinegar, it is Barbie pink! Correct w salt and throw some ice cubes in.  Make this for lunch on a hot day, aaah, so good: creamy and rich, light and refreshing, soft, sweet, sour, and crunchy...wish I had some now
9 months ago
one more thing: I am trying to eat more parsley.  I drink it too: incredible for the body, healing!!  And I found that you can make tabbouleh with cooked millet instead of the cracked wheat.  I LOVE it extra-sloppy: I was told this is the Lebanese way: chop up cukes, tomatoes, peppers, onion, etc and soak in garlicky vinaigrette.  Chop up all that parsley, fold together w the millet, and douse w the vinaigrette...GF and super-dense in nutrients, and SO DELICIOUS!!!
9 months ago
I've heard people say they ate bear meat in Alaska and Canada.  Moose, Caribou, Elk, and beaver tail too...
9 months ago
OOPS, my apologies; many foods I mentioned are not European; I was all over the place!!
9 months ago
Wow, so much info!!  But I gotta chime in here.  

Poland: The haggis, which I've never had, looked like a fat kishka, blood and buckwheat in a casing; and then there is Polish blood sausage which tastes of cloves!! and allspice.  Kruscziki are extremely crisp thick fried noodles, slit at one end and pulled into a knot; deep fried and heavily dusted w powdered sugar.  The interesting thing about these is, they are leavened with ammonium carbonate which is hard to find; gives it an incredible light-and-crunchy texture. (Note: ammonium carbonate cannot be used for any product that will retain a moist middle, or it will TASTE like ammonia!!)

This is funny: Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, Poland have soup dumplings. Tiny and stuffed w meat or dried mushroom, served in broth; OR just inhaled as they are, boiled and w butter!!
China has something they call a soup dumpling: it is a steamed wheat-dough dumpling stuffed w jellied soup, that turns liquid when you steam, MMMM!

There are a lot of organ meats missing from our rep here: probably because grass-fed is so hard to get, and they also do not keep.  In France (and etc) you can get things like Tripe A La Mode De Caen: you get a lovely, full plate of  one giant piece of honey comb tripe, impeccably fresh and tender, and the thin little edges all broiled to perfection...

Fish like Skate wing (which we do eat here, unbeknownst, as "scallops": same taste and texture.  They punch out little circles and go w it. A friend came back from Disney World to tell me now he knows where scallops come from: skate wings!! OY)
But a fresh skate wing is MMM, AAAH!!!  Lotte or Monkfish is interesting, as it is also a doppelgänger for lobster, I swear!!  Taste and texture are exactly the same.  Cockles, Clams, sea snails, conch (which I have to confess has such a strong taste and rubbery texture, I didn't like it...) not to mention esoteric things like sea cucumber

I totally adore salt cod: amazing in cream sauce, Portuguese style codfish balls (mix w mashed potato and peppers and onions, season and fry), and so many other ways.  So hard to get now.  

My Whole Foods used to have whole, smoked whitefish, in a freezer in back; you had to ask for it.   OMG!!  I kept telling them to put up a sign, as I knew a lot of folks would want it!!  Nope: they just stopped carrying it cuz didn't sell!!!

Should we mention the maggoty cheese from Sicily, which is officially banned (but you can still get it: had some offered me once but, no)

Millet, people!!  Millet comes in several forms.  All of it is a pseudo-grain: it is never going to drain minerals from your body, just to get digested!! Grains are anti-nutrient.  To fix this and open up the nutrition, ancient peoples fermented their grains.

In Ethiopia the traditional recipe for Injera (a most delicious, nutrient dense, spongy flat bread the size of a big tray or small table; food is ladled on, and you break off and scoop and eat w fingers.  Never had such delicious fingers!!)  was fermented: teff flour and water, a little salt, set it aside in the heat to sour and bubble.  Makes SUCH a delicious bread!!  And so good for you, teff being the grain highest proteins. Alas: now the Inera in restaurants AND homes is more likely to have white flour and seltzer: no fermentation...

And now, I gotta tell you about millet!!  You can eat it as a cereal, either whole or as millet flakes.  Main food of Russia! You can use it as flour; in a million ways: here's the thing: it is ALKALINE in the body, NOT anti-nutrient, and has one of the highest nutritional profiles there is in a seed/grain.  It has also been a human food (Mongolian; Attila the Hun!) for 10,000 years.  Your body WANTS it!  My favorite health bread is online; you can easily find the recipe. Google millet bread.  In 8 minutes, you can throw 2 loaves in the oven: 5 min is waiting time.  You mix millet flour w baking soda and powder, and salt; you mix the psyllium w ACV and water; let that turn into a gel, mix well and place in pans, smooth the top w wet hands, and bake.  It is crusty, and has a slightly dense, moist springy crumb: makes wonderful toast!!  The only GF bread I ever had that didn't turn to slush w poached eggs...VERY healthy, but also so good for you: other breads make you acidic (cancer likes this)
I like to eat millet flakes as a quick breakfast: can eat it plain or top w veggie hash, fruit, etc etc.  They use it all over India, in Ukraine, Russia...we need to get our hands on it here!  It is available; I bake w Bobs Red Mill.  The only other foods that are alkaline forming (health building) in the body are fruits and veggies.  Meat, sugar, and all other grains are acid forming: cancer loves this environment...so now, you can make real bread and eat it with meat, or whatever- and be just a little healthier.

I am a veritable wealth of info sometimes, but a dummy when it comes to links and stuff: please make allowances, I'm old...anyway, on here, someone said his homemade bread didn't taste like the bread in Germany.  Well, they may have used stronger flours, or a blend w rye: but the biggest thing is that Real Euro breads are supposed to be long-fermented, like good ol sourdough. The enzymes produced by that, break open the nutrients to be used by the body.  Instant yeast changed all that. Now even non GMO bread can be bad for you nutritionally!!

You can make an excellent sour rye by simply mixing rye flour and cool water, and adding half an onion, cut side up.  Cover and wait (depending on temp; 3 or more days).  When it bubbles all over and smells like beer, use that starter for your yeast.  The shiny top is achieved by cooking a starch slurry, and brushing it onto the hot loaves.

While we are on it, GARI is another fermented product, used in African and South American countries, probably elsewhere.  It varies in taste: I have had smoky, cheesy gari, also very delicious "lightly" cheesy, mild gari.  (usually pronounced, gah-REE) It is made by using a giant grater on fresh cassava, putting that into burlap bags, and pressing out the juice.  Then the bags are stacked up for a few days, to ferment.  Then it is spread onto thin, hot metal griddles and dried, then packaged.  Makes lovely fufu, or just a mash: I have used it in casseroles and meatloaf, even to top a wild kind of shepherd's pie.  You can buy it from Brazil as Casabe, in cracker form: heat and eat, very delicious!  (Big prices and breakage on Amazon tho).  A young friend from Cameroon said she ate it as breakfast cereal most mornings with cold water and some sugar.  A useful and long-storing, nutritional food. Cooked, it is creamy and good!!  
I wonder if they stuff it...?

Cuz, when we lived in NYC years ago you could get Puerto Rican Pasteles full of picadillo (meat filling): they were big, flat, and bright orange. IDK if that was annatto or real red palm oil; anyway, the dough was a little chewy and very smooth and yummy; made from green banana.  Oh man, they were good! After reading Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz, I know there are bunches of these different hand pies/empanadas throughout that region...like to go all over the Caribbean ad try them all!!

There has been a "thing" about eating bugs: in some places there are so many large grubs and beetles and etc, and maybe so little other foods sometimes, that that has become a fond food source for many: you may be thinking Africa, but it is easy to find them as street food in Singapore, Bangkok, etc...

We are some of us focusing on the UK and Germany, and maybe unaware of what else is out there; there is SO much more, but I don't want to type all day!!  It reminds me of when, after moving here to Mississippi, I was learning about herbs and getting VERY frustrated,  since none of the "all time standards" like chamomile or nettle or dill or lavender would grow we'll here...a kind of myopia, I think.  What helped was the Richter's Herbs catalogue: they are in Canada, and sell seeds and some plants, giving growing zones, from all over the world!!!  Roseroot, Ashaghanda, Bacopa, Joe- Pye Weed, Wild Dagga, Greek Myrtle, Caperberry, and Sea Buckthorn!! - so much...many of them are Native American items indigenous to my area!!  Get that catalogue, it is SO informative!! (They even have scented geraniums!!!)

Anyway, one more friend of haggis would be fermented oat porridge.  I HOPE people out there on farms are still making it: traditionally, a big wide drawer in the kitchen would be lined w a well-floured (oat flour) cloth, and leftover porridge spread an inch or so thick, smoothed and left to ferment.  When cool, cut into squares.  It would get cheesy and tangy; anyone hungry could nip in and grab one, or if you were traveling, a stack...

which reminds me of the traveling baked beans of the colonial era, also now a thing of the past but somehow, good to know: take cold, stiff, baked beans, fold into a square in muslin, stack up.  The thick material would help the outside dry some, and it would be a "bar"  to eat without mess or utensils for stagecoach or other long trips...inside, just a little succulent, but yummy!  (Not fermented; except for maybe pease porridge in the pot, 9 days old...)

9 months ago
I am constantly intrigued by the thought that I might be able to grow a soap nut tree; however, in my zone there are only a few weird, non-tree plants that saponify enough.  Would those who have been growing their own soap nuts please post about the variety (Latin name) and also their climate/growing zones?  I know my yucca plants'r roots yield nice suds but then I won't have any more yucca...

Thanks for any helpful posts on growing your own soap nuts!!
11 months ago
This is a very interesting topic; and so many things have been said.  One guy said he let the dirty stuff pile up (in that case, a hot water soak and a scrub, no matter what!!) - and another said that living on the Fl keys with only one dish, he cleaned it with sand.  He most likely left it out also to dry and disinfect in the bright FL sunshine...

This all reminded me of a book I once read, on life in Scandinavia in pre-Christian times.  The homes were dark (windows let in the COLD!) and so as much as possible in good weather everything was done out of doors in the sunshine; weaving, spinning, carving, mending implements, even eating...

In the winter of course you lived indoors, by firelight.

But all year long, they ate from wooden bowls and plates, and these were maybe scraped or licked clean...and then they scrubbed them out with sand, and wiped or rinsed that out, and left them outside business-side up,  IN THE SUN, which, as we know, disinfects perfectly.  

They may have used snow first in winter, then sand.  Or only snow; but drying in the sun was the constant, and the most crucial point.  It does what a dishwasher does: you may take that bowl out with stuff stuck on, but you now that even if it's dirty, its been disinfected.  

So IF you really want to go completely soap free and low water, use wooden plates and bowls (or bamboo, or stainless, which can also take a drubbing) and dry them right-side-up in the sun.

I guess in a SHTF situation this is good to know...
11 months ago
I was reading on here, and remembered something from a trip to India in the 1970's; our hosts had a small, tiled room with a raised slot/hole in the floor.  One would squat over it and do whatever business.  There was a small enamel teapot or kettle on the floor nearby, with water in it; one was supposed to rinse with that.  After a little practice it worked fine.  Maybe a similar water receptacle, or even a small plastic watering can with the spout-type end, would work.  (If you leave this outside all the time, you may wish to check it before use, for "guests"...). Just some thoughts.

There is also a nifty plastic squeeze bottle with a tilted squirt head, I think it is for post surgical perineal/anal cleaning; you could use that in a backpack or when camping.
11 months ago
Mine is heavy cast aluminum; it is an older, Good Grips (OXO) one.  It is perfect except that it is aluminum: I try not to scrape too aggressively with a knife, because I don't want aluminum in my food.  But the chamber is extra large and because it is cast, smooth, and shaped to the hand, it has a really smooth hand feel and is very strong.  Has integral cleaner.  I do love it. (and I am a retired chef; the chef's knife method is more effective, to me, when I have to do a great amount of garlic.  But at home the smaller amount seems a breeze with the right press. Maybe if they are not making these new anymore, you could find a used one on eBay...
1 year ago