Ham and Bean Soup variations!

[tenngun]

I do have to chuckle, we've been eating beans better then ten thousand years and never run out of stuff to talk about them

 

[satx78247]

YEP. - I've tried both sorts when I lived in NOVA & worked at NGB in both NOVA & Metro DC.

yours, satx

 

[tenngun]

Have to think about the traditional food comparisons though. Last night for dinner I made amilia Simmons Indian slapjacks,that's on Townsends calendar this month. Good dinner. However as I was eating it I though it could use a little more salt,and mate use buttermilk instead of sweet,and maybe a little molasses in the batter :idunno:
Italian food of the 16th century was not the same as the 18th or early 20th. Each Italian mama tweaked her sauces just a little.
Chinese cooks came to America and started cooking with the foods they got here. All those Chinese dishes we eat were never heard of in China, but are they less Chinese food then 'real china?'
I grew up in a town that was mostly Hispanic,and got a lot of good New Mexican food,not the same as accopoco or Mexico City or even Tex-mex. was the dishes the Hispanic mama brought to Sunday dinner at church less 'mexican' or less real.
Just food for thought :haha:

 

[tenngun]

Just a side note. After my aunt passed away I got one of her cook card files. Recipes she got from other ladies in her church. Almost all had penciled in changes. I doubt at any time ppl didn't tweak a little.
After all it's the little tweaks that make you go to Rositas and not Casa Jumeriz

 

[Vaino]

My Mother {Slovenian} prepared a great variety of meals mostly American and Slovenian, but seeing she was an excellent cook, no matter the origin of the dishes, they were all prepared well. She successfully owned a restaurant for many years.

So, I like just about every kind of food if it's prepared well....and seeing I'm not a world traveler having tasted the foods of many countries, I just sit down at the table and enjoy well prepared dishes w/o critiquing and just enjoy the meal for what it is.

I think most restaurants serve excellent food and most items on the menu are superior to the food served "at home". The chefs and cooks are professionals and no doubt are more skilled than most cooks in households.

I've eaten at the Olive Garden and enjoyed the meals and found them to be tasty in spite of whether they were "truly Italian". Again...I just enjoyed the food for what it is. Perhaps ignorance is bliss, but why spoil an outing by criticizing the food because it's nor "authentic". The people I dine out w/ don't spoil a good time by criticizing the food unless it's not prepared well.....and rarely is that the case.

We don't dine out very often, but when we do, it's for a good time and to partake of food that's not normally available at home.....Fred

 

[Billnpatti]

I'm with you, Fred. I care little whether a food is truly "authentic", the question is not its autheiticity but whether it is good or not. I do enjoy authentic foods but am not an authenticity snob. When I was growing up, we ate what mom prepared. Like your mom, she was a good cook and all of her food was well prepared. There were a few things that she served that I did not particularly like but I ate them anyway. At mealtime, we sat down as a family, gave thanks for the food and ate what mom put on the table. Our only choice was take it or leave it. In either case, we sat at the table until we were excused. I am, therefore, not a picky eater. When I was in the service, I, unlike many others, even learned to like most, but not all, of the C rations. The meat patties in gravy (AKA Alpo) was the worst....but I ate it. When I married, I told my wife that whatever she put on the table, it was exactly what I want. So, like you, Fred, authentic or not authentic.....I don't care, my criteria is does it taste good?

 

[Vaino]

You expressed it well....better than I could. Many of our tastes are determined by what we were served at home....if the parents were "picky" chances are the kids will be likewise....although some will expand their menu when in the world outside of the family.

Some criticize the pizzas served in the US.....but don't realize that American pizzas many tines are "the meal" of the day, whereas in Italy it's sometimes that but mostly an adjunct to a meal or a light lunch. Good American pizzas can truly be a "gourmet's delight" in spite of the fact that they're no longer Italian.... only in name.

Like I said....I eat and enjoy everything if it's prepared well and don't denigrate based on whether the food is "authentic" in it's ethnicity.....Fred

 

[BillinOregon]

Clyde, you mentioned growing your own beans. I did this last summer, using Hidatsa Shield seeds from Seed Savers. I only planted a few hills and didn't get much yield. What are your favorite varieties?

 

[coloradoclyde]

Clyde, you mentioned growing your own beans. I did this last summer, using Hidatsa Shield seeds from Seed Savers. I only planted a few hills and didn't get much yield. What are your favorite varieties?

Bill, I haven't grown the Hidasta shield variety, but I have grown about 20 others....
I always plant beans in rows...They also like something to climb on....I use a cow or hog panel.
Last year I grew pinto's and great northern's... as well as Kentucky pole.
The Kentucky pole's I have been seed saving for 20 years...The other beans I got from the grocery store food isle, the ones you cook and eat.

The only time I had poor yields was when I tried the "three sisters thing". otherwise I have had more than I could pick.

I use to grow fancy beans....but have decided to grow just the ones I like to eat most often.

 

[Black Hand]

You expressed it well....better than I could. Many of our tastes are determined by what we were served at home....if the parents were "picky" chances are the kids will be likewise....although some will expand their menu when in the world outside of the family.

Some criticize the pizzas served in the US.....but don't realize that American pizzas many tines are "the meal" of the day, whereas in Italy it's sometimes that but mostly an adjunct to a meal or a light lunch. Good American pizzas can truly be a "gourmet's delight" in spite of the fact that they're no longer Italian.... only in name.

Like I said....I eat and enjoy everything if it's prepared well and don't denigrate based on whether the food is "authentic" in it's ethnicity.....Fred

I agree and disagree.

If we were having this conversation about schools of building, people would be upset if the wrong trigger guard, lock or patchbox was installed on a rifle. Why? Because some things don't go together no matter how well the rifle was built. In order for something to be called X, it must be representative of X. It is the same with food for me.

Now, food being well-prepared and tasty is an altogether different (yet related) issue. But don't call a hotdog a steak and expect me to believe you...

 

[zimmerstutzen]

"When I married, I told my wife that whatever she put on the table, it was exactly what I want."

not at my house during the first marriage. I ate a lot of really crappy food, because the wife made it. Never any salads, hardly every anything but spaghetti from a can, and noodles. (She could boil water) I usually cooked when we had guests, (to avoid hospital visits) We started taking turns cooking. Figured I could survive if I ate every other day. . Well I came home one day to a casserole dish full of something dark pink. She dished out a big helping for me and I noticed a pink drum stick sticking out of what appeared to be pink rice. It smelled like those hot cinnamon candies you can buy at Valentines day. Told her it smelled interesting, what is it. "Creamed Cinnamon chicken with rice". Tried and tried to eat without saying a word. When she answered the phone, I emptied the plate out the window. I started cooking every day.

 

[Kansas Jake]

But don't call a hotdog a steak and expect me to believe you...

Tube steak? :haha:

 

[Black Hand]

To paraphrase Shakespeare (very loosely):
A hotdog by any other name is still a hotdog...

 

[Vaino]

Hi...Don't think that your comparison of gunbuilding and food is analogous and the hotdog/steak analogy is inane.

Don't think that many people are qualified to critique most ethnic foods....only those that are "in the family"......Fred

 

[Black Hand]

Hi...Don't think that your comparison of gunbuilding and food is analogous and the hotdog/steak analogy is inane.

A meal (like a gun) is built of components that when put together in the proper way, make the final product. Replace a part with an improper one or put it together in the wrong way, and it is no longer the same.

The hotdog/steak analogy works - too many things are called something they are not to make them attractive to those who know no better. Directly ties to my differentiating between "Eye-talian" and Italian food...

 

[Vaino]

Just a friendly reminder....a hotdog and a steak couldn't be confused. no how. Still don't get your analogy between food and guns...because I doubt if there is one.

I'm not that familiar w/ authentic Italian food but do enjoy it at the Olive Garden..... :grin: ....Fred

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

Not even a tube steak!

 

[coloradoclyde]

Calling Olive Garden an Italian restaurant is like calling McDonalds a steak house.... :shake: :haha:
It's Italian themed fast food...at best.

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

When I was a kid I worked part time for a stock dealer that specialized in animals specifically destined for the famous tube steak. To this day I am very particular as to where I purchase any type of meat products.Read the ingredients on a can of Vienna sausages (mechanically separated chicken) This is why I process all my own venison products also. You might say food for thought. No matter what part of the world it is from.

 

[coloradoclyde]

(mechanically separated chicken)

https://youtu.be/w2sndz9tNlw