Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Liz]

This is a great finger food dish for the office party. I love that filling.

BAKED CRISPY WONTONS / ASIAN DIPPING SAUCE

FILLING Mix 8 oz tub PHILADELPHIA Chive & Onion Cr/Cheese Spread, 1/2 lb cooked grnd pork, well drained, tsp ea minced gingerroot, sesame oil.

ASSEMBLY Center Tb Filling on 32 won ton wrappers. Bring corners up/over Filling; twist tops to enclose. Flatten bottoms. Place in 15x10x1" pan. Brush lightly with water; sprinkle w/ sesame seeds option.

BAKE golden 425 deg 10-12 min; drain on p/towels.

SERVE w/ ramekin of Sauce.

SAUCE 2 tsp sesame seeds, 2 Tb soy sauce, Tb ea rice wine, water.
Can add hoisin or chili paste for a hotter thicker sauce.

[Jamestown1630]

I remember a feature in one of her magazine issues, of those baskets that crafters used to make out of plastic beads and safety pins. The photography was so pretty - the baskets looked jewel-like - and I remembered those things! So I started picking them up at the thrift store. They're packed away in boxes, somewhere - another instance where I was suckered-in by nice photography, and had to 'own' the material expression of the 'essence' ;-)

I did discover a really nice Christmas-y thing, this year. Avon is selling something that I liked and bought - and I learned that it's a knockoff of an old German tradition: papercut woodland scenes, under glass. Can't find a good pic of the Avon one, but they're all over the place. I've always been fascinated by things 'under glass', like terrariums - little, enclosed worlds that probably remind me of the 'Bottle City of Kandor', from my childhood comic-reading days ;-) - and I think I see another collection coming on. This one is from the Victorian Gifts website:



And this, from Etsy:

[Liz]

Just exquisitely beautiful.

[Liz]

Pinterest has these patterns pinned---in case you want to make them yourself.

[Jamestown1630]

I’ve developed a ‘thing’ for deer, as animal and motif, over the past few years.

There’s a wooded spot near my workplace, and last year a doe raised her two babies in there. She was very calm and tame - I thought she was just a huge brown paper bag blown behind the shrubbery, until I looked closer.

She would always just sit there, and stare us in the eyes; her babies were rowdier.

Pier One has some really nice little plates with deer on them, this year:

http://www.pier1.com/winter-buck-deer-porcelain-salad-plate/3118461.html#q=deer&start=1

[Jamestown1630]

Very Nice!

I actually bought some little Scherenschnitte scissors, when I first learned about this. Haven’t used them yet. (Retirement, Come!)

-JT

[kalee]

My daughter would love that piece! We gave her a deviled egg plate like it for her birthday. She collects milk glass. I used to collect Jadite but it’s harder to find where we live now and prices have risen dramatically.

[Liz]

Oh no....another “must have”....those deer plates are enchanting.

[Liz]

Martha Stewart’s gobbling up all the Jadite made it more expensive.

[kalee]

That’s what I figured. :)

[Jamestown1630]

I liked Pier One better when they were selling things from all around the world which were very typical of the countries that the items came from, including a lot of little things that poor people made for their livelihoods.

I worked in a Pier One store, back in the 1970s. One day I opened a box full of baskets, and woven into one was a long, coarse black hair, and it made sense that it came from the person - no doubt a lady - who actually had made the basket. I liked that; it reminded me of how my own long hairs sometimes get caught into my crochet projects. It felt like a connection with another human being, far across the seas. I wondered about her.

I didn’t like the store as much when they went more ‘upscale’ and trendy. But, to be realistic, there probably aren’t that many people in Asia who are making that old stuff by hand anymore; and Pier One still has some very neat stuff.

Do you remember the glass wind chimes, where the glass didn’t have holes drilled in, but was attached to the strings by a dot of paper, with glue, so that the chimes really ‘chimed’? I don’t think you can find those anymore.

I also remember the paper flowers for finger bowls - they were like tiny dots or short strings of crepe paper, and when you put them in water, they bloomed into beautiful flowers :-)

I wonder if anyone knows how to make those anymore...

[Liz]

Sometimes on the Science Channel program, “How Things are Made,” you see local crafts people sitting on the ground in makeshift huts making extraordinary things.

They are dirt-poor but so talented.

Guess they are glad to have a market for their creations.

[Jamestown1630]

I remember seeing a show like that about people who harvest cacao (chocolate) seeds in Africa. They had never even tasted processed chocolate, until the interviewer gave them some.

From what I recall, they seemed to think it was ‘interesting’; but I wasn’t left feeling certain that they actually liked it :-)

[Liz]

Chocolate doesn’t taste good at all....until Hershey’s gets ahold of it.

[manc]

My oldest boy is a Marine, and is based out west. He and others were invited to the Elks club for Thanksgiving dinner, and he enjoyed himself, along with us here sending an email thanking them.

It is nice to know how great some people are out there.

[mylife]

These Marines did a flag ceremony for us so we fed them with honors

[manc]

Well from my Marine family we thank you and yours.

[mylife]

Anytime

[manc]

Just got a call from him and he said that he might not be able to make it home for Christmas now. I know guys and gals like you and yours will do something for him. Just wish there were more people like you lot out there, and that goes for the USO people too.