Mellie, honey, you are too much. ROTFLMAO

@Traci, I love Bobby Flay and watch the throwdowns all the time. We have a TV set in the den which is where my computer is, most of the time I have the Cooking Channel on as background noise but do perk up my ears for certain people, Bobby being one of them as well as Jamie. And I love Rachel Ray mainly because her style of cooking is kind of slapdash, just like mine, a handful of this and a pinch or two of that.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Joni Mari,

The thanks for this forum's quick acceptance should go to you. You took a random comment and followed through to create what seems to be an immediately popular forum.

And, yes, thanks to Cristine, who by my count has contributed more recipes than anyone else so far.

Me, I'm just wishing there was someone to clean up my kitchen....especially the pasta sauce that somehow managed to splatter on the ceiling...

Best,
Mellie

I've encountered the term "hob" in reading that don't seem to involve ferrets or sprites (though, @ you Mel, I have read a fairly lengthy sci-fi short story that involved a woman falling down a hob hole, so to speak. I mention this only because I know you're into science fiction. For the life of me I can't remember the title, it was in some anthology years ago. If anyone can help out with that, please do. I hate things that nag at my mind.<lol> I digress.) From the context I always took the word, hob that is, to mean either a piece of wrought iron for holding various things up in front of an open fireplace or perhaps the very edge of the hearth closest to the fire. Which, I suppose, not being very used to cooking at an open hearth, I guess would be where most cooking would be done.

Anyway, this is so fun. The cooking part and the language and usage parts. Can anyone tell my minor was in linguistics? Or perhaps philology to you Brit girls.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Lucy,

I'm not familiar with the term "hobs".

Among the Wikipedia definitions are:
Hob (folklore), a household spirit in Northern England
A male ferret
A generic term for various Dwarf-like and Elf-like magical creatures in Germanic folklore
A devil
The top cooking surface on a stove

I'll discount Northern England spirits, ferrets, Elves and devils, but how is "top cooking surface on a stove" different from cooking on a stovetop burner?

Funny how the British English and American English terms have come to the forefront so quickly in this forum. (Just wait til the Aussies weight in with the "real definitions", lol.)

Best,
Mellie

Thank you, Mellie. Yes, please, if you have a new recipe or cooking tip or anything, please, please, please, if you don't mind, please make it a new thread with the name of the recipe or technique or whatever in the subject line. I am going to have to scour all the previous threads when we make the move to our new home and make sure that all the wonderful tips and advice and recipes get moved over in some sort of way that makes it convenient for us to find something specific instead of just some hodge-podge of randomness.

Girls, and guys, I truly want to thank all of you so much for joining in this forum. It has drawn more participation than I ever thought it would. And extra special thanks to you Melody for kicking it off and to Crissie for all her help and encouragement. Tgirls rock! We are so talented and together in so many ways.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Gosh Anna-Marie, now I'm confused too. You guys serve Swedes? Isn't that against the law or something? Surely not city dwellers, perhaps feral ones? Ones gone wild? I am so confused.

Hi Traci,

Your mention of Viet Namese, reminds me of when I first joined the work group I mentioned. It took a while for me to be accepted by my Chinese (a mix of China born and Chinese heritage) co-workers. Julie Lu was very suspicious of me and she took Herb Chen (2nd generation Chinese) and I to a Viet Namese restaurant and ordered a sort of blood soup dish. I was obviously being tested. I tried it but Herb refused. I was pretty much accepted after that.

Traci, please (and I'm sure Joni Mari will agree with this) post your recipes, techniques, and whatever food/cooking ideas you have to this forum. That's what it is for...

Best,
Mellie

Hi Lucy-

Got it. Sheperd's Pie has sheperds in it and Cottage Pie would have cowboys in it, I guess. Whoops, I mean Sheperd's Pie has lamb and Cottage Pie has beef. Got it.

No knocking eggs and chips (or eggs and home fries) here. I love them, and with a strip or two of bacon or some ham, you are ready to deal with anything the day can bring you. Simple foods, simply prepared.

As a matter of fact, I do have a recipe for sloppy joes. Hmm, I'm not sure what would be in a bolognese sauce, though to me it brings to mind a spaghetti or marinara sauce. Most of the sloppy joes I've had have a ketchup based sauce laced with a bit of Worcestershire sauce and other ingredients. Anyway, off the top of my head, here's how I would do it. I imagine there are as many variations as there are cooks or perhaps memories of school lunches.

SLOPPY JOE SAUCE

UTENSILS:

Medium size skillet for cooking the beef and sauce
Spatula and spoons for the usual reasons
Measuring spoons and cups for, well, measuring things

INGREDIENTS:

Approx 1 lb ground beef (or minced beef for you Brit girls)
1 medium onion, finely diced
Approx 1-1/2 cups or so of finely diced green peppers (bell peppers, that is)
Approx 1-1/2 cups or so of finely diced celery
3-4 cloves fresh garlic minced fine or pressed
1 cup water
1 cup prepared ketchup
1 heaping tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp prepared yellow mustard
Dash of hot pepper sauce or to taste (go easy, you can add more but you can't take it out)
Hamburger buns or kaiser rolls

PREPERATION:

Brown the beef until lightly browned. Drain off any excess fat but leave a little so the other ingredients don't stick. Add the onion, pepper, celery and garlic and sautee until onions are transparent.

Add the rest of the ingredients except for the buns and cook until the sauce thickens. Serve approx 2 heaping tbsps (or more) to each bun. You can toast the buns a little first if you want. You can also add grated cheese, raw onion slices, tomato slices and so on like a regular burger, though this is frowned on by purists.

Serve with chips (not Brit chips, potato chips) or fries and coleslaw or a green salad. Kids love sloppy joes, maybe it's the name or something. Anything you might drink on a picnic goes with them, beer, iced tea, sodas, cold juice. I don't know what wine would go best with it though.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Anna-Marie,

I've had (endured) haggis, and I assume tatties are potatoes, but wtf are "neeps"? I'm 1/4 Scots so I don't want to sound negative, but most of what I've been served as Scottish cuisine consisted of boiled meat innards with unspiced veggies....(served to the soothing tones of bagpipes to settle the stomach).

Best,
Mellie

Hi everyone, oh yes, I can see where terminology is going to lead to a great deal of fun. It's always good to learn new things.<smile>

Not to add to the confusion, but what Mellie said about a grill is correct, at least on this side of the pond. Grilling in American parlance is to cook meat or fish or chicken and so on over coals such as charcoal or sometimes a gas fire, on an open metalwork grid until done. There are all sorts of grills from very basic to very fancy. What Aussie girls call a barbie, I think, which has also passed into American parlance.

Broiling, to me, means to cook meat, usually steaks or chops in the oven with heat from above either gas or electric just as she described it using a shallow metal pan that usually consists of two parts, the top part with slits cut in it that the meat rests on and the bottom part that catches the drippings and keeps them off the bottom of the oven. You can also run things under a broiler for a few minutes just to brown them a bit.

***Whoops, I still have time to do a bit of editing. I just saw Lucy's post about barbecues and so on. Barbecue to describe the device as well as the technique of cooking on it are kind of interchangeable with grill or grilling here in the US. Barbecue can also describe the food itself, but I have not heard "grill" used in that sense.

I think it's going to be a lot of fun trading recipes and ideas and techniques from all over. Fortunately for me, I live in a pretty good sized city with a huge number of various ethnic cuisines and markets, so I can probably find nearly any ingredient with a little bit of time and effort. Speaking for myself, I am pretty adventurous about food, I'll try nearly anything at least once. Is anyone else a fan of Andrew Zimmerman who hosts "BIzzare Foods" here in the US on the Travel Channel? I'm nowhere near as brave as him, but I will take a chance.

Oh, and btw, I usually do sloppy joes the way Mel does them, with the glop from a can.<lol> That is on the perhaps one or two times a year I feel like having one.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Lucy,

On this side of the pond a "grill" is usually an outdoor BBQ devise using either charcoal or propane to heat a rack that food sits on while being cooked, often covered.

A "grill pan" is a skillet or frying pan that has raised ridges that simulate the above on the stovetop. I've made a sort of personal goal to find the best one (I love grilled steaks) and have tried stainless steel, cast iron, porcelain aluminium and hard anodized and I've found the latter to be best.

Best,
Mellie

Hi Louise,

My dislike of sloppy joes dates back to my school cafeteria experiences like you describe. One recalls "mystery meat"... (I'm sure Joni's home made version is much better.)

Please post your fried rice recipe. My attempts always turn out soggy or burnt...

Best,
Mellie

As far as Swedes, I'm just hoping that "eat" is being used in the post-WW2 sense of the verb.

@Mellie, I think mincemeat actually had real meat in it back in the day, cooked and finely chopped and mixed with the fruits and spices. Liberally dousing foods with strong wine or spirits was a way of preserving them before there were fridges. Sounds pretty yuck to me, but then I've never tried mincemeat with meat in it.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Here's another one of those language things that was mentioned by someone earlier in this thread.

Where I grew up (in the US) the term "mincemeat" is not the same as ground beef. Rather it is a meatless pie filling made from dried fruit, spices and hard liquor. Never understood why it was called mincemeat.

I'm seeing that interpreting recipes across the pond may have hazards. A hamburger made with a patty of what we call mincemeat would make, IMHO, the worst veggie burger of all time.

Best,
Mellie

Hi Joni Mari,

There's also hobnail boots. You may think this has nothing to do with cooking, but I once had a GF who made anything she tried to cook taste like...

Best,
Mellie

No you're not.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Yep, cottage fries or home fries. Soft and hot inside, but fried so they're crispy on the outside or even with some little burnt bits. With a perfectly cooked egg or two, the whites firm but the yolks runny, and toast made from good wheat bread. Simple foods are often best.

So what do you call frenchfries over there? Long slivers of potato deep fried crisp and then liberally salted. While they're considered junk food, still if done right, they are very good. And honestly, Cristine, I really didn't think you would serve frenchfries and eggs together. Sounds like something only an impoverished university student would do.<lol> Though I have done that and far worse.

Hmm, sounds like we may need some interpreting as well from British English to US English and vice-versa. Please, no fights over which is correct. As someone once said, "Britain and the US are two countried divided by a common language." Or something like that.

So chips in Britain are what we call home fries or cottage fries here in the US, right? Or are they what we call frenchfries? And what we call chips here are called crisps over there, right? Very thin slices of potato fried very crisp and salted, come in a bag, can't stop eating them if you start?

Anyway, while potatos and eggs does sound good and very comfortable and filling (and quick) on a cold winter evening, it sounds more like breakfast to me than dinner. But then again, being TG is all about breaking (or pushing, anyway) rules, isn't it?.

Here's a recipe I like for a fairly quick dinner, though it isn't fancy at all and you can use leftovers if you have them. It's a casserole with only a few ingredients and I'm sure most of you girls are familiar with it. Oh, and btw, I am so not above using pre-made ingredients, especially if I'm in a hurry. There is hardly any work at all to this dish, prep time is probably 20 minutes or so.

SHEPERD'S PIE

As usual I am not going to list amounts, just eyeball what you have and judge how much you want to make.

INGREDIENTS:
Ground beef (hamburger)
1/2 medium onion chopped fairly fine (more if you want)
1 medium bag of frozen mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots)
Mashed potatos, left over ones if you have them or ones already maded from the deli. Of course you can make a fresh batch but it will certainly add considerably to your cooking time.
Approx 1/2 cup (more or less) of grated cheddar cheese.

UTENSILS:
Medium frying pan for the burger and onions
Medium casserole for the pie
Spatula, spoons, etc, for the usual reasons

PROCEDURE:
Brown the meat well along with the onion. Pour off any excess fat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Put the meat and onions in the casserole and spread it out, then pour the veggies over in an even layer.
Put the mashed potatos on top as a sort of crust, spreading it evenly and sprinkle the cheese on top.

Bake the dish for approximately 30-40 minutes in the oven at 350F (I leave it to you celsius type girls to do the math) until the ingredients are heated through and the cheese is toasty on top.

Serve with a nice green salad and beverage of your choice. Beer or ale goes nicely.

This dish keeps well in the freezer.

Enjoy.

Hugs...Joni Mari