Starship Asterisk*

I visited my friend today, who loves to grow all kinds of vegetables in her allotment. We went there and got potatoes, carrots and onions. Then we made shepherd's π with a tomato-based meat sauce, made with my friend's carrots and onions, topped with a rich creamy mash made from her potatoes.

While the shepherd's π was in the oven, my friend went into her neighbours' garden and picked some apples there. (Yes, she is allowed to!) We then made apple π with apples and a crunchy topping made of oat flakes, flour, sugar and butter. Yummy!

Those were two very nice πs!

Ann

Ann wrote:I visited my friend today, who loves to grow all kinds of vegetables in her allotment. We went there and got potatoes, carrots and onions. Then we made shepherd's π with a tomato-based meat sauce, made with my friend's carrots and onions, topped with a rich creamy mash made from her potatoes.

While the shepherd's π was in the oven, my friend went into her neighbours' garden and picked some apples there. (Yes, she is allowed to!) We then made apple π with apples and a crunchy topping made of oat flakes, flour, sugar and butter. Yummy!

Those were two very nice πs!

Ann

The things one can do with math. I'll bet the remainder was -0-, after you 2 were added to it.

Beyond wrote:
The things one can do with math. I'll bet the remainder was -0-, after you 2 were added to it.

That's amazing! You're right!

Ann

Ann wrote:

Beyond wrote:
The things one can do with math. I'll bet the remainder was -0-, after you 2 were added to it.

That's amazing! You're right!

Ann

Math always sort of befuddled me, but the incredible edible Pi, i got along very well with

Beyond wrote:

Ann wrote:

Beyond wrote:
The things one can do with math. I'll bet the remainder was -0-, after you 2 were added to it.

That's amazing! You're right!

Ann

Math always sort of befuddled me, but the incredible edible Pi, i got along very well with

I loved in math the statistic pies , they turned in my mind to all kind of yummy food.

I thought Pi is when you need to go to bathroom, but I like Ann's apple Pi better!

It's all in how you pronounce it, Moonlady, all in how you pronounce it. Like a lot of english words.

Mmmmmh! My lovely wife made some meatloaf for super tonight. num; num; num!

orin stepanek wrote:Mmmmmh! My lovely wife made some meatloaf for super tonight. num; num; num!

Yum! Meatloaf, mashed potato and gravy and.... Dagnabit!! Now I'm HUNGRY! Gee, thanx, Orin. mumble,mumble,mumble

Go figure… I want to lose weight so I watch food preparation TV shows!
My favorites are the creative hamburger concoctions.

How about a $350 12 oz steak??
http://www.wfsb.com/story/19572966/hung ... -350-steak

One could buy 350 hamburgers for the price of one 12 oz. steak… it must be some kind of experience to merit 350 hamburgers!

Beyond wrote:How about a $350 12 oz steak??
http://www.wfsb.com/story/19572966/hung ... -350-steak

Wow! You could get a 1/4 of beef for that cost! Got room in your freezer?http://community.babycenter.com/post/a8 ... _good_deal

You can get good deals on bulk beef without buying the whole cow quarter, too. Pat's dad does it all the time and butchers it himself the same night at home. What he gets is probably more like 20 or 30 pounds of meat. I'm personally not sure it's worth the work of splitting it all up into single dinner sized portions but he's paranoid enough about wanting to know exactly what meat he's eating that he doesn't seem to mind doing it.

Yesterday I helped my best friend dig up weeds in her allotment garden. Then we took a big pumpkin and some onions from her allotment, as well as some rosemary and thyme.We peeled the pumpkin and removed the slimy central parts, of course, and cut the rest into slices. We roasted the pumpkin slices in the oven along with her onions, rosemary and thyme, and also several cloves of garlic, flake salt, black pepper, and olive oil.

When the pumpkin slices were roasted, we mixed them and the onions and garlic cloves with water, wine, cream and chicken stock. We ate the soup with puff pastry rolls with chanterelle mushrooms and roasted chestnuts.

It was yummy!

Ann

Sounds scrumptious, Ann. Roasted vegies, featuring our home-grown garlic and rosemary, is one of our favourites here at home, particularly through the winter months. Although, being carnivorous, I usually set a couple of chicken quarters on top of the vegies so the fat drips down and bastes them while they roast. As for "puff pastry rolls with chanterelle mushrooms and roasted chestnuts", my mouth is watering as I type! Yum!

Rob

On Wednesday I threw together a simple but delicious apple tart but tonight I came up with something even more simple. I'm not sure how I never thought of it before but all you do is take a slice of white bread, spread a layer of butter on, then put a layer of almond butter (plain, no salt/sugar) on that, then drizzle a little honey and devour.

Hey AnnI had a homemade Chile-dog the other day! I used a brat on a bun topped with a generous amount of Chile and some chopped onion! That really hit the spot while it was snowing and blowing Sunday!

I've just found something delicious.
Flavour some olive oil with lots of lemon zest and crushed garlic. (I left it to steep for 2+ weeks). Use oil
- with balsamic vinegar as a salad dressing
- drizzled on chunks of bread, perhaps with some tomatoes and/olives, and some himalayan salt.

We have a lemon tree, so know there is no pesticide on the fruit.

I suppose it's a warm weather food, but - OH! IS IT ¡¡ G O O D

Margarita

My best friend is a fantastic cook. She also loves to grow her own food and to use what grows in nature.

So last Wednesday, when we both had a day off because May 1 is a holiday here, she was digging weeds in her allotment, and she realized that there was just so much ground elder growing there. But ground elder is very edible - it was supposedly brought to Scandinavia by French and Italian monks who came here to Christen us and who needed some hardy foodstuff to grow in their monastery gardens.

So my friend picked a few handfuls of ground elderberry. She also picked a few small leeks and some tiny, tender stalks of black salsify that had been in her allotment all winter. She made a pie crust and filled it with the ground elder, the leek and the black salsify, plus a mixture of milk, cream and a lot of ground cheese. It was delicious!

Today we met again, and today she decided that she would make nettle soup. Do you eat nettle soup in the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom? What about Tenerife?

So we went outside and picked some small, tiny nettles. Even though I wore gloves, I still hurt my fingers. But the soup turned out to be delicious, again. We ate it with a lot of fresh chives from her garden, plus hard-boiled eggs and her home-made bread. Yummy!

So now, my friend said with satisfaction, we had eaten quite a bit of the weeds in her allotment - and they tasted good, too!

Ann

Ann, most people just pull weeds and things out of their garden and throw them into a compost pile to make organic fertilizer. But you two just skipped the whole composting thing altogether and turned it all into foodilizer

This is a link to the Flowers around my house thread.

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 25#p199030

What a coincidence! The link above is to my rhapsodising about DANDELIONS.

I would have mentioned there that I am also searching for NETTLES, if In hadn't already burbled on enough! Like Dandelions, I am told they exist on the island, but so far my scouts haven't found any for me. In England I used to be considered most eccentric as I would gather the young tips of stinging nettles from under the trees near my (social work) office. Steamed or wilted in butter like spinach they are delicious. And packed full of nutrients.

A herbalist I know had them as one of her panaceas for all ills, taken as a tea.

By the way, it has to be true nettle, that is 'stinging nettle' not 'dead nettle'. Mrs Grieve's Herbal has lots of info
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/n/nettle03.html

I've not heard of ground elder being eaten - but Mrs Grieve calls it 'Goutweed' and gives medicinal and food uses for it.
She doesn't mention it having a berry. (Ann, you wrote 'ground elderberry'). http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/goutwe32.html

BUT, there is a elder TREE that has both blossom and berries that are wonderful for making 'wine'. I don't think the tree grows on Tenerife, but it was very common in England. It has frothy creamy white flowers that make delicious Elderflower Champagne and berries, later in the year of course, that make a rich, almost port-like, sweet red wine.
The elderflower wine has to be made immediately the flowers are picked or the perfume, which is sweet and delicate, turns to smelling exactly like, err, tom cat pee...

Like Ann's friend, I am very 'into' eating what nature provides - but have to be careful here as there are so many plants that are completely new to me. I'm currently trying to check a variety of 'chenopodium' (goosefeet)that grows here, to see if it is edible - like the British variety, 'Fat Hen', is.

Margarita

Margarita wrote:
She doesn't mention it having a berry. (Ann, you wrote 'ground elderberry')

Sorry! My mistake.

Thanks for the info on the "dead nettle". I know they don't sting, but I frankly don't trust them not to sting me, so I don't touch them!

Ann

I have officially perfected spaghetti sauce. The family and guests have stuffed themselves. I'd put the recipe here but it's actually pretty standard--fresh Roma tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet italian sausage, a few spices, a can of tomato paste to thicken at the end, etc. It just takes quite a few tries at making your usual sauce to get a knack for it, I think.

geckzilla wrote:I have officially perfected spaghetti sauce. The family and guests have stuffed themselves. I'd put the recipe here but it's actually pretty standard--fresh Roma tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet italian sausage, a few spices, a can of tomato paste to thicken at the end, etc. It just takes quite a few tries at making your usual sauce to get a knack for it, I think.

Try adding a fresh jalapeño, very thinly sliced.

I have thought about that. I admit to opting to the dry pepper flakes since they are so quick. I've also got a fear of slicing spicy peppers since the last time I did my hands burned for three days after. Some gloves would have helped.