What Are You Eating? Or the Last Thing You Ate

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Sat November 15th, 2008, 7:02 am

Raspberry Sherbert.

SM

Ellie · Post by **Ellie** » Sat November 15th, 2008, 11:53 pm

Currently munching away on a fruit salad- very proud of myself for going healthy!

Telynor · Post by **Telynor** » Sun November 16th, 2008, 12:20 am

Today has been spent making what is called here in the NE, Gravy -- ie, a tomato based spaghetti sauce. It's pretty much an all day process:

Your favourite blend of beef, pork and veal
Onions, chopped
Garlic, minced
2 cans Hunts whole peeled tomatoes (run through the blender) or Crushed tomatos
1 or 2 bay leaves
oregano, basil and thyme to taste
2 cans Campbells tomato soup
1 can of tomato paste, if needed

Brown meats, onion & garlic, and drain off fat as much as possible. In another pot, put in the tomatos and herbs, and start simmering. Add meat and let it cook. Once it starts to thicken add tomoto soup (but NO WATER), and if the sauce is too soupy, add the paste, and cook slowly. Add plenty of mushrooms if you want. Serve over hot pasta. Can be multiplied as needed.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Sun November 16th, 2008, 1:22 am

[quote=""Telynor""]Today has been spent making what is called here in the NE, Gravy -- ie, a tomato based spaghetti sauce. It's pretty much an all day process:

[/quote]

Goodness that's a coincidence - that's almost exactly what we had for dinner tonight and it's one of my basics.

Just eating the first mince pie of the season with my last mug of tea before bed-time. I'm a night owl. it's 1.20am here in the UK!

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sun November 16th, 2008, 9:58 am

I went to a friends house for lunch and we had a great feast!

Prawns, spanish omeletter, chorizo, bread, barbecued meats etc etc.

BTW EC, I had my first piece of Christmas Cake a couple of days ago.

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Sun November 16th, 2008, 12:55 pm

I'm still dousing my Christmas cake every week with brandy before I put the marzipan and icing on it!!

I had spaghetti bolognaise last night and this morning I've had egg on toast.

diamondlil · Post by **diamondlil** » Sun November 16th, 2008, 7:58 pm

Mine was store bought, so yours will be infinitely better.

Telynor · Post by **Telynor** » Sun November 16th, 2008, 8:52 pm

As a sidenote, what sort of foods are traditional to various folk at this time of year? I know that for Americans, there's Thanksgiving coming up, and then Christmas or Hannukah. I'd love to hear what other traditional foods there are out there. Myself, I make plenty of latkes (potato pancakes) at Hannukah, and generally anything that can be fried in oil for the holiday. And what is Christmas Cake?

chuck · Post by **chuck** » Mon November 17th, 2008, 12:10 am

Christmas cake sounds like something out of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol"......Latkes sounds delicious......Has anybody out there experienced Plumb Pudding?.....I would love to give it a go.......

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Mon November 17th, 2008, 12:38 am

[quote=""Telynor""]As a sidenote, what sort of foods are traditional to various folk at this time of year? I know that for Americans, there's Thanksgiving coming up, and then Christmas or Hannukah. I'd love to hear what other traditional foods there are out there. Myself, I make plenty of latkes (potato pancakes) at Hannukah, and generally anything that can be fried in oil for the holiday. And what is Christmas Cake?[/quote]

I've often heard of latkes but never actually tried making them. Are they easy?

Christmas cake is basically a very rich fruit cake further enriched with alcohol. When it has nicely matured (often being fed with more brandy as it does so), it is covered in a layer of marzipan and then white icing. Decorations are added according to taste, which can be classy or tacky. Here's Delia Smith's version (Delia being a British institution). It's a basic recipe and some people will like their cake considerably more alcoholic, but you get the idea...
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/the- ... 93,RC.html

Chuck, plum pudding is another name for Christmas pudding. http://whatscookingamerica.net/Cake/plumpuddingTips.htm
It's somewhat similar in taste to a Christmas cake, but eaten hot - most gangsters would not need to put concrete shoes on people who have eaten a full Xmas dinner of roast turkey, 3 different stuffings, sausage bacons rolls, brussels sprouts, other veg, followed by a portion of plum pudding with brandy sauce. (followed by cheese and biscuits and After Eight dark chocolate mint thins, and then a heart attack!)