"Food ways" is an expression that dates back to 1946. It refers to the eating habits and culinary practices of a people, region, or historical period. This blog shares finds for foodies and food lovers - curated content from around the web, sharing the ways we all like to enjoy our food! Food history, recipe sharing, and all things food-related. This foodie blog is aimed at newbie cooks or beginners. But everyone is welcome! (https://eesfoodiejournal.blogspot.com/)
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Fuyu persimmon is a fruit that ripens in the fall season and should be included in the American cornucopia or “horn of plenty”. It is sweet and has a beautiful color! It makes for a beautiful ornamental plant. It attracts birds, so you might want to put a cage around it.
According to folklore, if you crack open a persimmon seed from a ripe fruit and the shape inside (called a cotyledon) looks like a fork, winter will be mild; if you see a spoon, there will be a lot of snow, and if there is a knife, winter will be bitingly cold and “cut like a knife.” (Source: Farmer's Almanac)
You can make cookies, pies, breads, and jam with it. Slice or dice tme like apples and you can put them in salads, if you like fruit in your salad. Instead of apples with your roasted pork, substitute persimmons. You can dehydrate them and eat them like chips!
FUN FOOD FACT: You can freeze persimmons whole. Then when ready to eat, take them out of the freezer, let stand for 20 minutes to soften up, cut off the the top, take a spoon and DIVE IN!
It’s a common expression in American culture when people are praising something new and different that they might say something to the effect, “It’s the best invention since the napkin.” By the way, do you know who invented the napkin? Well, it was Leonardo da Vinci in 1491. (No wonder they call the man a genius!)
Back on point. In my humble opinion, TV cooking shows are the greatest invention since the napkin. People give the late Julia Child credit for introducing the American audience to the wonderful world of French cuisine. Her show was called “The French Chef,” and the first episode aired on February 2, 1963. Sorry, but … in 1963, I was eight years old, and the only TV show I cared about was The Mickey Mouse Club. Cooking shows did not interest me.
However, as a married adult who was trying to please a husband and a bunch of hungry kids, TV cooking shows finally got my attention. All of a sudden, there were loads of programs on local television and cable TV. They aired 24/7, and if you had Internet access, you could watch them online. Some of the chefs even have food blogs. You can learn how to cook almost any kind of cuisine OR just get some cooking tips to figure out how to make your home-cooked meals taste better OR you can watch a well-known popular cook or chef prepare a dish and get confirmation that your recipe you have been making for years is just fine. As an example, for years, my siblings told me I made the best macaroni-and-cheese. For the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, that was the dish I was responsible for preparing. Their compliments were very much appreciated. But you don’t know how proud I was the day I watched a Paula Deen cooking show. She was preparing a holiday meal, and guess what? She made her mac-n-cheese just like me!
Three (3) cooking shows are especially good to watch if you are a newbie in the kitchen. They are no longer being produced, so you might have to search online for old episodes or buy the DVD collection.
Rachel Ray – 30-Minute Meals
Ms. Ray always said that she was a cook, not a professional chef. But that didn’t matter. She really could prepare a meal in 30 minutes. A healthy meal from start to finish. Do you know what that means to moms who work a full-time job outside the home, to be able to prepare a meal for your family in half an hour? The original shows aired from 2001 to 2012. She also made macaroni and cheese, but not the way Paula and I made it. So I wasn’t sold on that particular recipe. But I did like many of the other dishes she made. She has hosted other cooking shows since, but this is the series that made me her loyal fan.
Ming Tsai can cook! Mr. Tsai prepares “fusion” dishes. In other words, he takes the best of the East and the best of the West and fuses them to make wonderful Asian-European recipes. Unlike Rachel Ray, Ming Tsai is a professional chef who attended Le Cordon Bleu, a culinary school in Paris, France. He made his appearance on television when he served as a substitute or guest chef for Sara Moulton on her TV show. When she returned to work to pick up where she had left off, to her surprise, people who had watched her program while she was absent kept asking about that Asian guy. He’s Chinese-American. One thing led to another, and he ended up having his own TV show. The East Meets West episodes aired from 1998 to 2003. I like the episodes where he cooks with his mom and pop. Although he went to French cooking school, he gives his mom credit for teaching him most of what he knows about cooking. Isn’t that sweet?
Paula’s a Southern gal, and I grew up eating Southern cuisine. To clarify, I am talking about the traditional food cooked by folks who live in the Southern United States. Black-eyed peas, collard greens, corn bread, fried chicken, etc. Get the picture? I liked Ms. Deen’s show for 2 reasons. The first reason I have already stated. It’s the food I grew up eating, so a lot of what she cooked reminded me of home. The second reason is that Ms. Deen’s personal story reflects the triumph of the human spirit. I always love the stories where a person gets knocked down, but they get back up and summon their will to survive. Ms. Deen found herself divorced with two sons to support. After trying various jobs, she decided to try something she knew she was good at: Southern cooking. She started a home business, making sandwiches. People would place orders, and her sons would ride bicycles and deliver to the customers. From that start, it was one success after another. She opened restaurants and published cookbooks and was ultimately allowed to have her own TV cooking show: Paula’s Home Cooking aired from 2002 to 2012. Yes, I know that her road to success has not been without controversy. But I personally admire her gumption! I also like her recipes, but confess that they need to be modified to be a little bit healthier and heart-friendly. It was not only one who had that opinion. Her own son, Bobby Deen started a TV show called “Not My Mama’s Meals”. He took his mom’s recipes and tried to revise them by reducing the fat content, sugar, etc.
Eat your veggies. I know this. But for me, it just required a little creativity. However, I learned that saying it and doing it was easy!
I Ate What My Mom Cooked!
My diet when I was growing up basically consisted of greens or legumes (black-eyed peas or lima beans) seasoned with ham hocks or smoked pork neck bones. That’s how my mother cooked. That’s what my mother cooked. And that’s what we ate. My mother let it be known that if we didn’t like what was on the stove, we were welcome to go out and try to find our own food. Or? We could hold out until we got hungry enough to eat it!!
Most of the time I was hungry enough!
But looking back, when I think about it, had my mother simply not added that one ingredient – the meat for seasoning – we could have been an almost vegetarian family. I say almost because of course for Christmas and Thanksgiving there was always turkey. For Easter, there was a ham. And for most of our Sunday dinners, there was fried chicken. Occasionally during the week we might have smothered pork chops or smothered liver.
I was blessed to receive government grant money which paid for my tuition and books, my dorm room, and my meals at the university cafeteria. It was in the cafeteria that I learned that it was perfectly normal to eat a large bowl of salad for lunch! A large bowl? Loaded with veggies? Really? My mom never served us a big bowl of salad!
Plant-Based Foods and Meatless Mondays
Nowadays plant-based food and meatless meals are all the rage. On Twitter, they circulate lots of recipes and meal ideas and hashtag them #MeatlessMonday. Not only are we treating our bodies well but we’re saving the planet too!
Life events actually forced me to completely change my dietary and eating habits. My late husband was diagnosed with heart disease. Consequently, when making out the grocery list beef and pork was no longer on the list. And we started adding more veggies to our meals. It wasn’t a difficult adjustment to make actually. Lots of times when I was at the grocery store there were certain veggies that I wanted to try. But we had a budget. By the time I finished buying all of the other foods on the list, there was no more money left for trying those veggies. But what do you know? Not buying beef or pork freed up $30 to $35. Now I had the money to buy zucchini, swiss chard, bok choy, cauliflower and lots of other fresh vegetables.
Cooking Tasty Veggie Dishes is Not That Hard
Now my only challenge was how to cook them and make the veggies tasty and not boring. TV cooking shows, food blogs, and Twitter to the rescue! There is no shortage of veggie recipes on the Internet. In fact, if you can find an Indian TV cooking show or YouTube video to watch, an Indian food blogger or an Indian food Twitter account to follow, you can learn all kinds of ways to prepare your veggies as a side dish or as the main meal. The spices they use to add flavor are amazing!!
However, if you’re not an adventurous cook and you just want a no-fuss way to cook and eat your veggies here is a way that is quick and easy.
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Chop up some veggies. What kind of veggies? Whatever you want. Pattypan squash (or any other squash), peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplant, etc. Season with fresh herbs like basil, parsley, oregano – whatever herbs you like. Add chopped garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss them in some olive oil. Mix all your ingredients, wrap in foil on a baking dish. Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes. You can drizzle the roasted vegetables with your favorite balsamic reduction or not! You can serve over rice, quinoa, crusty bread, etc. or just eat them!
Most dietary experts say that you should eat 5 cups of fruits and veggies per day. Most people don’t have problems finding fruit to eat. We like fruit. It’s sweet! But when it comes to the veggies? We know it’s good for us. But we have to get creative.
My youngest child is practicing (and hopefully improving) her writing skills. She picked a random topic and did some research. The topic was British desserts, a subject matter which she definitely had to find out about on her own because: (A) Her American mother was clueless. (B) Even though her late father was from The Bahamas, which at one time was beholden to the Queen of England, Bahamian food is in no way a reflection of British cuisine. In other words, he was also clueless.
(Arctic Roll)
I was pleasantly surprised with the results of her search. Has anybody ever tried any of these treats? Can you name 5 more British desserts? ☺
(Supplied a link below if you can't think of any.)
My mother;s favorite sweet treat was a jelly roll. It looks like the British Artic Roll. But the two recipes are completely different. I prefer the British recipe because it's made with ice cream. YUM!
“... a traditional English baked dessert tart. It consists of a shortcrust pastry shell, spread with jam under a layer of frangipane, which is a sponge cake-like filling enriched with ground almonds.”
Also called “Fly Cemetery”. Flies Graveyard?? Sounds perfect for celebrating Halloween. But looks nothing like a Halloween treat. More like a breakfast treat.
We get that the “spots” refer to the dried currants used in this recipe. But nobody seems to know why it's called “dick”. “The first known recorded recipe of Spotted Dick is found in the mid-19th century cookbook, The Modern Housewife or Ménagère, by Alexis Soyer, one of Britain’s first celebrity chefs who seems to imply that the pudding had already been around for some time.”
♥️ I must say that my daughter surely picked a fun topic. 😋 😊
Learning about the medicinal uses and benefits of flowers and plants has become my new passion. It grew out of concern for not only my own health and well-being but mainly the health and wellness of some of my children. Some of them do not like going to the doctor and prefer to search out natural remedies for whatever is ailing them.
My late mother rarely went to see a doctor. She believed in herbal medicine and treated herself as much as she could before finally being persuaded to seek the advice of a medical professional. I have to say that many times her natural remedies really did work. Unfortunately, I did not pay attention to the various concoctions she used to mix when I was growing up, and so none of her knowledge was transferred to me.
When my children started strenuously objecting to visiting the doctor’s office and opted instead to find alternative health practitioners, I decided to do research. I started studying on my own because I wanted to know about the various remedies that were being suggested to my children. I say “children” as if they are minors, even though they are past 20 and 30 years of age. My late husband also began to use herbal remedies in addition to his prescribed medications for his health condition.
Please note that I am not a healthcare professional and when I speak about using these remedies I am only talking about my personal and family experience. You should always seek professional medical advice if you have an ailment. Don’t play guessing games with your health.
In this article, I want to share a summary of what I have learned about four (4) flowers or plants used for medicinal purposes:
Many people grow honeysuckle flowers in their home garden because not only do they have a wonderful fragrance but they attract hummingbirds and butterflies. There are close to 200 different varieties, but the most common is the Japanese honeysuckle. This variety grows profusely in Japan and Korea. Other varieties grow in China, Europe, and North America. They remind me of the hibiscus flower because you can suck the sweet nectar from the tubes. Since the Middle Ages, people in Europe would eat the stems to treat dysentery, for infections in the upper respiratory tract. The ancient Chinese used honeysuckle for snake bites. Be careful which variety of honeysuckle you pick because some are edible and some are toxic. Botanists say the ones that grow in Europe are usually poisonous. You are also advised not to go by the taste. Sometimes the sweet tasting berries are toxic, and the berries that are not sweet are not toxic at all.
Who says watching TV for entertainment isn’t educational? The first time I ever heard the word “hawthorn” mentioned, I was watching a Korean drama about a vampire. They didn’t use crucifixes in Korea to repel vampires. They used hawthorn. Interesting huh? The hawthorn berry grows in Asia, Europe and North America. Good to know! Suppose you’re in Europe or North America but you get attacked by an Asian vampire. It’s just humor. On a more serious note, hawthorn berries have many health benefits. To name a few: they can lower your blood pressure, reduce blood fats, and treat digestive problems. Is it any wonder it is used with traditional Western medicine to treat heart failure? You can make a tea using the entire plant: the flowers, the dried berries, and the leaves.
This perennial plant has been called the “immortality herb” Some say it’s the “new ginseng”. Ginseng, as you probably know, is credited with making you strong, smart, and sexy. The gynostemma plant is a climbing vine that grows in southern China and other parts of Asia. It grows and grows and grows. The Chinese simply chew the leaves, serve them in a salad, or make tea to drink. Advocates claim that this plant can improve your cardiovascular health. They say it enhances the “yin” and supports the “yang”. In Vietnam, they are researching to determine if traditional medicine and Western medicine can be integrated, and this plant can be recommended in mainstream medical practice to treat diabetic patients.
The sophora flower is often used as a Chinese herbal remedy, and that’s why whole, dried flowers and the flower buds can be found in Asian markets. They treat headaches, high blood pressure, and even bleeding hemorrhoids. Be warned. It may be an effective herbal remedy but an overdose can prove fatal. Women who are pregnant or lactating should not that not take any medicines that contain the sophora flower. It’s also called the Japanese Pagoda Tree. Those who practice Western medicine are also familiar with this flower, but say that even though people use the flower for such ailments as hemorrhoids, menopause symptoms, and vomiting, there is no reliable scientific proof of its efficacy.
♦ What do these 4 flowers and plants have in common? When dried and combined, they can be used to make a medicinal tea that reduces your cholesterol. But, according to health experts, many other foods and drinks can lower cholesterol.
That was news to me. Also learned something else new. Very familiar with the Sandwich Cubano (Cuban sandwich) and Media Noche Sandwich (Midnight Sandwich); but did you know there are several variations of this sandwich? No doubt they’re all delicious! There is a third one called Elena Ruz (Cuban Turkey Sandwich). It has guava jelly as one of the ingredients. If you’ve never tried Cuban food, you must try the Cuban Sandwich. Even the world-famous chef, Bobby Flay has his own variation. Eating food is one of life’s greatest joys. But learning food history is also great fun too! References: Internetwriter62. "The Art of the Cuban Sandwich." HUBPages.com. HUBPages Inc., 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.
Have you ever found a food blogger or food blog that is undeniably magnificent? Several years back, I came across this woman's blog and am so happy to find that it is still being published. Her posts not only have great recipes but great food history, too! jovinacooksitalian
This one that is being shared as a reblog is perfect because it's for the fall season and it's about Italy, one of those places on my bucket list of "Places to Visit". Will likely never realize that dream, but dreaming about it is a wonderful thing.
Dream Italian? Think Italian. Be Italian!
The post begins by giving the reader a quick history of Neopolitan cuisine. Neopolitan is a cuisine? Only ever knew it to be a flavor for ice cream! In 3 short paragraphs, she took me from ancient Greece and Rome to modern-day Italy and the United States. Then she set forth an entire Neopolitan dinner, recipes and all, from the first course to the dessert. Of course, I skipped the courses and went straight to the dessert. But that's just me! :)
This blog post is dated 2013. Liked it then. Like it now! The image from her post is an Italian Apple cake. Isn't it gorgeous?!!
Thank you for stopping by. We apologize but the content you are looking for, though originally published here, was accepted by the Editors at Vocal.Media. Food historians say sugar art dates as far back as 4000 B.C. In the 17th century, Catholic friars taught Mexicans how to use sugar to create ornaments and decorations used in Day of the Dead celebrations. ♦ From 4000 B.C. ... Fast Forward to the 20th Century Michelle Wibowo, took the technique of sugar art to an entirely new level by creating and/or recreating incredible edible sugar sculptures. She recreated Michaelangelo's famous painting, 'The Creation of Adam', using marshmallows and sprinkles. Food Ways thinks she should be called the "Sugar Artist of the Century". Patience, please. One more click.
