Grandmother is watching you

[jsharr ★]

 

My grandmother sharr would be ashamed of my air fryer.  

[Razors Edge ★]

Funny, but I have definitely come to the firm conclusion that food in 2024 is way tastier than food was in 1954!

[MoseySusan]

1 hour ago, jsharr said:

My grandmother sharr would be ashamed of my air fryer.

Grandmother Mosey would have told one of them boys to kill the chicken so she could fry it up. 

[jsharr ★]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

Funny, but I have definitely come to the firm conclusion that food in 2024 is way tastier than food was in 1954!

you need to cut yourself a switch and meet grandmother behind the wood shed.

[jsharr ★]

Just now, MoseySusan said:

Grandmother Mosey would have told one of them boys to kill the chicken so she could fry it up. 

Same with my mother's grandmother.  Mom told me about them killing and plucking chickens for dinner.  She also told me about the outhouse on the farm.  None of the fancy indoor plumbing needed.  

[MickinMD ★]

My maternal grandmother's Polish parents lived in Germany before emigrating to the USA and my mother grew up with a lot of Polish and German cooking.  But grandma lived out of state, died when I was very young and I didn't know her very well, but between my mother and older cousins, learned to cook ethnic food.

My paternal grandmother lived close-by and baby sat me a lot but died when I was 7 or 8.  My main memory of her is playing Klondike solitaire where you place the next descending-value card on top of another card.  She would cheat and put the next ascending value card behind another card.

After my father, Louis, passed away, none of us had his great potato salad recipe.  I couldn't reproduce it, so I called dad's last living sibling, my Aunt Mary, and asked her if her mother. born in PA but whose parents were born and raised in Alsace and in Germany, had passed down a recipe.  "Mickey, all I can remember is that my mom had a bottle of vinegar sitting on the table for every meal.

That was it!  Dad used vinegar and Americanized his mom's German-style stuff with an equal volume of mayonnaise!  Here's my recipe file - dad also added hard boiled eggs but I prefer the salad without them:

 

Lou’s Potato Salad

Ingredients:

5 lb good quality potatoes

1 lb bacon

2/3 cup of mayonnaise

2/3 cup of apple cider (or white) vinegar

1 large (baseball sized) sweet onion

2 tsp sugar or honey

1 tsp celery seed (or celery)

Try: Making it for myself, I may add a hint of BBQ spice or crab seasoning, a tsp of Better Than Bouillon Beef Stock, some actual celery and maybe some eggs if the urge moves me.  The Dee Amoré Loaded Potato Salad I love from Costco (after I add a little vinegar) has sour cream and cheddar cheese in it and I'm going to give them a try next time I make it.

Preparation:

1. Peel and cut potatoes into approx. ¾ inch cubes and immediately place in a pot with enough cold water to cover the potatoes.

2. Spray a large frying pan with pam or spread a tablespoon of cooking oil across it’s surface so the bacon will not initially burn before releasing it’s own fats – do not heat the frying pan yet.

3. Cut the strips of bacon into 1 to 1 ½ inch pieces. And place them in the unheated frying pan.

4. Dice the onion into bite sized pieces – this should make 1 –1 ½ cups of diced onion.

4. Heat the bacon in the frying pan until the bacon begins curl significantly.  Add the onion and continue frying until the onion becomes translucent and the bacon reaches the desired crispness. (Note: if you desire raw, not fried, onion simply add it to the cooked potatoes later.). Save at least 2 tbsp of the accumulated bacon fat to flavor the salad. The rest may be removed from the pan. Remove the pan from heat and set aside.

3.  Heat the potato pot water to boiling and continue boiling until potatoes are soft throughout – but don’t overcook.

4.  Drain the cooked potatoes into a colander, then transfer to a large bowl.

5. Sprinkle potatoes with the sugar and celery seed.

6. Dollop the mayonnaise onto the top of the potatoes.

7. Pour the vinegar over the mayonnaise dollops.

8. Pour the bacon and onion mixture over the top of the potatoes.

9. Stir, with a large spoon (a fork will promote mashing of the potatoes), the mixture until all the ingredients have been mixed.

 

 

[MickinMD ★]

I was surprised on one of Julia Child's cooking shows when she said, "Today, a house is not a home without an automatic bread maker."

I'll bet a lot of the old grandmas would have loved modern, time-saving kitchen equipment, though my mother never used the pressure cooker I bought her: she was used to long, slow-cooked Polish dishes.  But I bet she'd have loved my Instant Pot recipe for Golabki: Polish Stuffed Cabbage aka "Piggies."  I set the Instant Pot for 25 min of high pressure - it takes about 20-25 to get there, and a 15 min. natural pressure drop is allowed, so about 1 hour total compared to 3 hours in an oven and tastes the same.

 

[Airehead]

My memaw would never have bought single use gadgets. Neither shall I.

[MoseySusan]

11 minutes ago, Airehead said:

My memaw would never have bought single use gadgets. Neither shall I.

Not even this?

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

2 minutes ago, MoseySusan said:

Not even this?

What would you use that for other than a sharp chef's knife and a cutting board?

[MoseySusan]

41 minutes ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

What would you use that for other than a sharp chef's knife and a cutting board?

It’s a single-use gadget, but it saves a lot of time and my grandkids can use it.

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

Understand. My kitchen rule 1 is, “get out of my kitchen”. I’m not used to trespassers. 

[MoseySusan]

2 minutes ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

Understand. My kitchen rule 1 is, “get out of my kitchen”. I’m not used to trespassers. 

But this gadget is a total waste. It’s a shame how much apple comes off along with the skin. 

[MoseySusan]

And I couldn’t get anywhere near as fast and accurate as abuelita when rolling out tortillas, so I use this. A red one. It has one job to do. 

 

[Airehead]

2 hours ago, MoseySusan said:

Not even this?

I stand corrected. 

[MoseySusan]

22 hours ago, Airehead said:

I stand corrected. 

But to be fair, I had used a paring knife for as long as I’ve been slicing and coring apples. Last Christmas my grandson wanted an apple and asked if I have an apple slicer. I told him no, and I’d slice up an apple for him. But he said no, thank you. He’s very independent and likes to be left to his own for anything a kid his age can reasonably manage, like using an apple slicer. So, I bought one for him to use while he was visiting. 
 

My mom and abuelita were lightning fast at peeling and slicing potatoes to fry. I tried for years to match their deftness with a paring knife, but I confess I’m much more adept with a vegetable peeler and the slicing side of a box grater. It’s lucky for me that mr prefers chunks instead of slices for his home fries. And I make scalloped potatoes, at most, once a year.