Posted on 03/30/2009 8:56:15 PM PDT by Sally'sConcerns
I recently bought me an inexpensive bread maker. My reasons were two-fold. I had stomach surgery back in June, 2006 and due to a few neurological changes, my taste buds changed.
As an example of the changes, I actively disliked cauliflour as well as spinach. Now I don't automatically say I don't like something just because I despised it prior to my second tummy surgery. I haven't actually gone out to buy caulifour but I AM keeping frozen spinach on hand.
In some ways this change has been a blessing because it opens a whole new world to my taste buds. I've had freshly caught fried fish and thoroughly enjoyed it with or without tartar sauce. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately given the cost of fresh salmon, it's still on my "take it or leave it' list.
Am I the only one whose taste buds have changed after they became a little older? or had surgery or even had a change in likes or dislikes after after adding a few chronicallogical years?
What got me to thinking about this is I'm baking a loaf of bread in my almost new breadmaker. I've been going through one of my books, making a list of ingredients I'll need in order to make breads I never would have considered much less actually eat.
As I mentioned, spinach had a major ick factor for me but I now really enjoy it. Same with brussel sprouts, beets, even eggplant which is now in the like column. Up until a few months ago there wasn't enough money in the world to get me to eat spinach or cauliflour.
I've even go so far as to buy and keep frozen spinach in my freezer. I love spinach-artichoke dip now.
I know part of my changeing is because for whatever reason I can now taste corn syrup in so many things and I've developed an aversion to how sweet corn syrup tastes to me.
I even now eat fried catfish and bass where I used to actively dislike them.
Heh. Snicker snicker.
One of the more distasteful things I find are those who are quick to throw cold water on a group of people having fun in the area marked chat. You must not read very many threads on FR or maybe the humor goes a bit over your head.
Pity that...
My tastes started changing at a very young age. First was meat. I couldn’t stand meat until about age 10, then I couldn’t get enough of it. Started liking eggs about that time too. And tomato and onion.
Then came the harsh vegetables. All the stuff kids don’t like...cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts, etc...couldn’t get enough of that stuff by age 18.
Later, like late 20s, I started to dislike things that were too sweet. Like canned corn with sweetener added. Or milk. Or white bread, or juice. Or breakfast cerial. or mayonaise. Fruit started being a rare thing. A little fruit goes a long long way for me now. If I eat more than a handful of grapes, i start to feel nauseated.
Now I find I crave stuff with vinegar and oil on it. Anything pickled. Spiced meat not so much. No sausage. Not too much battered stuff...upsets stomach. crisp leafy green stuff, crunchy stuff, lots of oil. Fish, and sometimes chicken. Soups with barley, noodles, and rice in them. I like watery soups with lots of oil and grease floating on top. Anything with lots of cheese on it...especially melted cheese when the oil runs out of the cheese.
Certain kinds of salads...cole slaw, and cucumber salad...unless they are too sweet. Pasta salads with lots of oil and vinegar, and with fresh olives. greek salads with lots of oil and feta cheese...and fresh olives. Really oily fried rice, with black pepper. Three bean salads with lots of oil and vinegar. Gotta be olive oil though. Corn oil will make me feel ill.
And beer(dark extra dark, like guiness or darker). And whiskey. Wine not so much. Vodka not so much.
There’s an art to frying okra to get it crispy throughout. If fried okra were always slimy, like stewed, I’d never eat it myself. Don’t ask me how it’s done exactly, I’ve only watched. Lightly breaded with flour or cornmeal and a good old cast iron skillet, pretty darned hot. That’s about all I know, lol.
Now, if you want to talk grilling, if it’s cooked outdoors and involves fire, that’s more my turf.
I love sourdough! One of my bread books has a recipe for starting a mother. Of course I imagine it wouldn't taste anything like the mother from SF. So you mail order? :^)
Once I get used to this machine's quirks I plan on expanding into all types of bread, even the one with the mother.
Years ago I had a Breadman which was much easier to operate than the machine I have now. I didn't realize how spoiled I was with that old Breadman. It was a simple matter of adding your ingredients and then several hours later...poof...a delicious loaf of bread even though it wasn't sourdough.
One of the reasons I'm stuck on french bread is from everything I read, the bread machines of today have to be explored for their quirks.
Mu french bread is finally getting there but it took an accidental addition of more gluten. I've been using Hodgson Mills Vital Wheat Gluten because I was having a major problem with the 'crown' of the vertical loaf collapsing and only getting at most a third of a loaf. Now that I'm adding in the gluten my loaves have just the right texture for french bread not to mention the delicious taste.
Nothing like cashew butter topped with sweet cream butter folded over a piece of warm homemade bread.
Another bread I want to try is called Swedish Limpa. It has honey, dark molasses, flat ale, cardamon, anise, orange peel and a rye bread base. Can you tell I like strong flavors? I think this bread would be great with a little cream cheese and I volunteer to take the leftovers.
Now, if you want to talk grilling, if it’s cooked outdoors and involves fire, that’s more my turf.
I still can't do okra even when there's not the slightest bit of slime. I've watched other people make it and they didn't end up with any goo in the middle. I guess the reason I have a problem with it even if it's fried properly is because there just might be some slime hidden under the breading. Y'know, it's all my Mom's fault since her idea of serving okra was to boil it within an inch of being able to identify what in the world it was. Bite into it and there was a whole world of slime.
I decided a long time ago there'd be more for my sister and my son if I split my portion up with them. I really have tried to like okra, I've even made it on several occations for my son but the idea of the slime is still there in the back of my head. If my portions weren't alreday spoken for I'd be glad to give you mine.
Now, by grilling are you talking about that thing people do which involves a gas canister? Or are you talking about the good stuff with charcoal and smoke and smoke rings around the meat?
I've been told I make a pretty mean bbq'd chicken. Too many people throw their chicken directly on top of the coals where you get a burned, crispy outside with a rather hot pink inside. Indirect heat and good smoke make the best chicken in the world...well, almost that is! There's absolutely nothing wrong with a good plate of fried chicken with all of the fixin's. Lots of chicken gravy smothering 2 pieces of bread along with sides such as a good pot of well seasoned beans or green beans cooked in bacon grease with bisquits to mop it all up. And yes, I'll wade through the lime green jello with fruit in it just as long as the reward of some great fried chicken is waiting on the other side.
“...Mom was a really bad cook so I looked forward to school lunches...”
Reminds me of a guy I knew in the military who ate MREs for lunch. I asked him how he could stand them (particularly back in ‘93). He said, “If you had ever eaten my wife’s cooking, you’d know why I prefer these...”
That’s hilarious Sally!
I used to cut my meat into tiny pieces and sneak it to the dog that sat under my chair. One night just as Dad was getting ready to take the steak off the grill he saw the dog and asked why she was sitting under my chair already! YIKES - the dog went into the bathroom and suddenly my meat stayed on my plate *sigh*. I was so mad at the dog for messing up that great trick!
One other food story - I was in hospital awaiting 2nd child and hubby ate at my mom’s. She was excellent cook and made him a roast as that was something I did not cook. He hadn’t been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease yet although we knew something was wrong & docs were testing. One of the carrots wasn’t chewed well enough and found one of the weakened spots in his intestine (caused by Crohn’s) and his intestine ruptured. Didn’t know til I sent him to doc next day - did emergency surgery and a large chunk of carrot was in the midst of everything else. They said it was the only recognizable “thing”. Hubby still tells people “my mother-in-law tried to kill me”!
Okra’s a peculiar plant, anyhow. It was a brave soul, who first ate it; the foliage and pods look faintly alien, sinister and poisonous, like a sticker-y Nightshade. Eggplant does too, for that matter. But, done correctly, I do enjoy it. We have Africa and the ancestors of American blacks to thank for it; the seeds came over in little pouches attached to simple necklaces that the women wore. I forget what they were called. It wasn’t a mojo, I don’t think. The red clay soil of NC and the south was perfect for it, since the West African soil is nearly identical. Come to think of it, yams came to us in the same way.
But, I’m going to have to turn in for the night, it’s 1:30 AM here in NC. I’ll respond to your other reply tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed it.
Good night.
I’ve noticed that, as I age, I’m loosing my sweet tooth. A tiny nibble of ice cream or chocolate and I feel like I’ve eaten a tub of ice cream or 10 pounds of chocolate. I have to brush my teeth. As far as soda goes, I only like Coke, Dr Pepper and rootbeer and that’s a rare thing.
Salads are very seasonal to me now. I *hate* winter veggies and fruits. I end up going carnivore until the new spring vegetation comes in.
Yup, it’s funny how our tastes can change! Had you told me that a “Score” candybar would gag me twenty years ago I’d have thought you were nuts!
About two years ago I found out I was a Celiac (no eating wheat, oats, barley or rye). After eating the prescribed diet for about six months, I cheated and ate a doughnut.
Honey, it was horrible. I couldn’t even finish the darn thing. Cloyingly sweet. Heavy. NOT good! lol!
I think that just by eating a certain way for a time, one can train their tastebuds to accept new flavors and reject others.
So, what kind of breadmaker do you have? I have a Zojirushi, and I love it! I make a loaf of Seven Grain Bread yesterday, and we had the other half of it this evening with chili. Mmmm.
I can do without the cauliflower.
But life wouldn’t be worth living without spinach!
SUPER versatile, a great addition to scrambled eggs, salads, fish dinners, you name it!
Being a cool weather crop, I try to grow as much as I can, and get to it before it bolts, but if it starts bolting, I just let it go and harvest the seeds.
I was under the mistaken impression that spinach was the best vegetable for you. Now many sites will tell you it’s broccoli. No doubt broccoli an all the cruciferous guys are good.
But the MOST nutritious comes up over and over in the top ten when you search for a particular nutrient.
Try it here!
http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/nutrient-search
The number one most nutritious veggie turns out to be:
Red and green peppers
Interesting thread could be developed on this. I had open heart surgery and afterward many small things changed, like tastes, minor personality and spiritual things. Anybody else?
Oh no, I don’t mail order. I have a little recipe about how to start a “mother.” I followed it, and now I keep it in my fridge. Every three days, I refresh it, and when I want to make a loaf of sourdough, I take a cup out to use as a “starter.”
What I especially like is that my awesome San Francisco sourdough (not as tangy as I’d like, yet, but I’m hoping it will get tangier) costs me about 25 to 50 cents a loaf! At the store you spend at least $2, up to $4 or $5 for an “artisan” type sourdough bread.
LOL!
Sorry it took me so long to get back to the thread. I bought a Sunbeam 5961 model. It was the most inexpensive model I could find which had halfway decent reviews on Amazon.
I didn't want to start out with one of the nicer breadmaker models since I wasn't sure I'd be able to stand long enough to make it and I also didn't know what type of bread making items the local small store carried. No sense in spending a lot of money for a machine which wasn't going to get much use.
I've heard some good and some bad about the newer Zorijushi's but in reading the Amazon reviews I think my next breadmaker will be a Panasonic model since it seems to have the best reviews of all of them. The reviews on the Sunbeam were somewhat of a mixed bag. It seems either people really liked it or they out and out despised it. If I hadn't found the gluten I'd have been in the despise it column but the gluten made all of the difference in the world.
Now that I've semi-mastered the french bread I'm ready to try other breads in my Electric Bread book. My ex-sis-in-law came by yesterday and took me over to the town where WalMart is. I may have gone slightly overboard but since I never know when I'll get to WalMart again I stocked up on the gluten and my favorite yeast (Red Star).
There's a recipe which sounds like it might be good and that's the one I'm going to make today. I may have already mentioned it up thread byt it's called Swedish Limpa. It uses flat ale, cardamom, anise, rye flour, molasses, honey and orange peel. With the ale, cardamom and anise as well as the molasses it sounds as if it's a rich bread with a number of the flavors I like.
I wonder ir there's a way to exchange recipes without infringing on any copywright laws, especially since I'd love to have your Seven Grain Bread.
Now that spring is here for most of the country it would be interesting to learn some new recipes which people break out during the spring time.
Another topic I wouldn't mind reading about are kitchen tools (with critiques) which make cooking easier. I already have a couple of tools I love and would like to post about.
I wonder if there'd be any interest in a small ping list. As an example, why in the world did I pick up and buy avacado oil? I don't recall ever seeing a recipe with that as an ingredient but that didn't stop me from getting it when my sis-in-law took me out and about to the different kitchen stores. Surely someone out there might know when, why and how to use it.
Funny that I've never seen you comment about distasteful, frivolous posts when the subject matter involves semi-clad members of the opposite sex.
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