Mystery Food ???

Weird foods that you have in your house, and you don't know why. Presumably somebody brought it over at some point. Like this box of Twinkies in my cabinet. WTF? I'm eating one right now. It's okay. I know for sure I will never purchase Twinkies, and probably will never consume another one for the rest of my life, once this box is gone, of course.[COLOR="White"] >>>>>>> [/COLOR]I just can't imagine how a box of Twinkies got in here to begin with.

My sister sent me a huge jar of marinated artichoke hearts. ...and I mean hey-uge! at 65oz or 1.85kg! WHAT am I going to do with all of those?

I have a recipe for a cold rice-a-roni salad with artichoke hearts...but I don't want to eat it for months on end...

An unopened package of "dried fruit bits." I think I bought this at some point while I was pregnant. I don't like dried fruit, so who knows what I was thinking.

At least half a dozen boxes of Jello, both gelatin and pudding. We have never, to my knowledge, made a single box.

Seaweed for making sushi. I don't know why my husband thought we'd ever be making sushi at home. That's what restaurants are for.

2 bags of Polenta (I think its like your corn meal?) - I had good intentions of making corn bread, but failed dismally and cant be arsed now.

1 bag of sago - I love Lemon Sago steamed puddings, havent been arsed to making one though

Leithicin Meal - *apparently* its a great way to give your immune system a boost, you can slip some into cakes/muffins etc. That is IF you remember you have it.

Semi Dried Cranberries - I have no frikken clue!!

Pollenta is really nice bbq'd and then put on a burger.

An easy way to cook sago is with coconut cream and a can of apricot halves. Just add a bit of water to begin with, then top up with milk. Slow simmer till the sago is the right consitancy (creamy and smooth like rice pudding) Then serve it with a little fresh cream on the top, or maybe just a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg...or icecream...or...hmmm...almost any way you want it. ;)

I have a can of cocktail frankfurts in my pantry. They're from when Dazza and I moved in together. I'll never eath them. I consider them the devils food, but he likes them.

My wife makes a very imaginative vegetarian lasagna with sheets of polenta serving as the pasta.

that sure would be an interesting lasagne. Why doesn't she use pasta though?

Somehow theres a whole bunch of pig fat in cans in my freezer...

"pig fat is for luvvers..."

lovers of pig fat?

Aliantha wrote:

Why doesn't she use pasta though?

Just to do something different, I guess. She's a food alchemist.

ok then.

Well, my other answer was going to be: "because, shut your face..."

Somehow theres a whole bunch of pig fat in cans in my freezer...

Pork fat RULES !!!!!

We have a case or more of cafeen free diet ( mountin dew , sprite , coke , and a few others ) I don't and won't drink them , my wife doesn't drink them ,
I just wait untill she says " well I guess These are to old to drink " , my responce " TARGETS !!!!!"

Flint wrote:

Well, my other answer was going to be: "because, shut your face..."

Excuse me??

Hmmm? Nothing. Nevermind. See, that's why I never post things like that...

I thought it was a bit fucking rude actually

Hmmm. I like random threads like this. Let me think.

Hmmmm.

OK. I've got these cans of fish fillets hangin out in my cupboard. I did not buy them. Who gave them to me? I like anchovies, but I have no idea exactly from what kind of "fish" these canned fillets were derived; it doesn't say on the label.

I think they allow companies to label things generically like "fish fillets" and don't require them to declare the specific species of "fish" that they put in the can. WTF would I be eating? Pollock? Mullet? Poagies?

I bet, however, If I have a power outage because of an ice storm like I did back in 2000, those "fish" fillets will taste great under candlelight. Ymmmmmm. "Packed In Oil"

What kind of oil!!!!!!!

I don't think food can become mysterious here... I eat whatever I buy without leaving around too long...

I just remembered from where those cans of fish came; my dead former girlfriend, Kelley...now I'm a bit sad....

She knew I liked anchovies, so I think she bought a bunch of canned fish at the dollar-everything store....Nice girl. We gave everybody we knew gifts from the dollar-everything store; I just forgot about those cans she bought for me.

She was going to be a marine biologist.

There is a stained glass window in Kelley's honor at the William & Mary Marine Biology School in VA. She was one of the best.

And don't you guys freak out that I say this...death is part of life.

lol...see, when I read Flints "because, shut your face", I read it like he has no fucken idea why his wife doesnt use pasta and it would of been like..."err, umm, 'coz"

But maybe I am just in a "look for the good" mood, and Flint was really being a big meanie, but he is usually being funny :D

Oh and thanks Ali, I might try that sago stuff...dunno about the polenta.

I did make some and mix cheese n shit through it *al la jamie oliver* and it was sooo bad.


(no no, figuratively *shit* not reaaaal shit)

lol...well whichever way, people need to be more explicit with a simpleton like me. ;)

When it all comes down to it, if you don't like it, don't eat it. :)

Pangloss62 wrote:

...death is part of life.

Yup, it is.

Pango...I saw your post yesterday but wasn't sure what to say so opted for nothing. I was touched by your post though...sometimes memories can be so bittersweet.

I've got 6 bottles of clam juice in my pantry. They don't expire for another year or so.

Aliantha wrote:

I thought it was a bit fucking rude actually

I thought it was high larry ass.

Pangloss62 wrote:

I just remembered from where those cans of fish came; my dead former girlfriend, Kelley...now I'm a bit sad....

She knew I liked anchovies, so I think she bought a bunch of canned fish at the dollar-everything store....Nice girl. We gave everybody we knew gifts from the dollar-everything store; I just forgot about those cans she bought for me.

She was going to be a marine biologist.

There is a stained glass window in Kelley's honor at the William & Mary Marine Biology School in VA. She was one of the best.

And don't you guys freak out that I say this...death is part of life.

That is very poignant and sad. They made a stained glass window for her?

I've had a bag of cheap, horrible-tasting 'gingerbread' cookies in my pantry for a month or so. I know how they got there, I just can't figure out why they're still there. I am now inspired to throw them out as soon as I get home.

I don't think I have an entry for this thread. I know how and why cans of Underwood Devilled Ham are in my cupboard.

That, and roaches, will be the only things that survive a nuclear attack.

Do they still make those? I grew up mesmerized by the little devils, I really enjoyed their presence in our cupboard, but the visual of the contents didn't live up to the promise of the little guy with the fork... :(

Yes, they do. Still spreads on crackers with the consistency, look, and smell of catfood, only saltier. Yummy in a way that only stuff like that on a cracker can be. I think they've expanded their product offerings to include a devilled chicken variety. One thing that I actually appreciate about it ... the unlabelled can is still wrapped in paper that you have to pull off first. I'm glad they haven't changed that.

I was very hearily disappointed when SPAM stopped using the key.

It's not food, but I keep non-food items in my freezer. I did some 'binding' back a few years ago and that is still in there (and, working, too) and I've a list of worries that I wrote out and keep in there--whenever I want to worry about thos things I stop myself by saying, "oh. that's in the freezer. It's being taken care of!" and then go on my way.

Foodwise--I've a bag consisting of three dried craisin's...why am I keeping a bag of just three?

Polenta can be tasty, cut in rounds half an inch thick and fried as is... a starch, for dinner. You can also bust an entire chub up into a bowl of mush, and thereby achieve... corn meal mush! Serve lightly salted, w/brown sugar to make this bland starch fun to eat as a breakfast cereal.

Or whop some of it entirely into its little granules and incorporate into pancakes; somehow pancakes are improved by a bit of corn content.

glatt wrote:

I've got 6 bottles of clam juice in my pantry. They don't expire for another year or so.

Clam chowder, dude. Manhattan or Boston. Lay hold of clams, build it from the ground up and decide if you do it better than Campbell's does. Some do -- around here, Neptune's Net, right at the county line on US 1, is justly famous, and there's another outfit whose name I can't remember over Malibu way whose chowder can fight the Net's to a draw any day.

Brianna wrote:

... I've a list of worries that I wrote out and keep in there--whenever I want to worry about thos things I stop myself by saying, "oh. that's in the freezer. It's being taken care of!" and then go on my way....

Oh, oh, what a great idea ... I wish ...

Urbane Guerrilla wrote:

Polenta can be tasty, cut in rounds half an inch thick and fried as is... a starch, for dinner. You can also bust an entire chub up into a bowl of mush, and thereby achieve... corn meal mush! Serve lightly salted, w/brown sugar to make this bland starch fun to eat as a breakfast cereal.

Or whop some of it entirely into its little granules and incorporate into pancakes; somehow pancakes are improved by a bit of corn content.

UG. Are you from the south? Do you really know about corn meal, Polenta?
As in that was the one of the 2 or 3 grains you had to eat. :bolt:

Get a rope.

wolf wrote:

One thing that I actually appreciate about it ... the unlabelled can is still wrapped in paper that you have to pull off first. I'm glad they haven't changed that.

I was very hearily disappointed when SPAM stopped using the key.

I used to cajole my folks into eating it so I could unwrap the paper. latent ocd? maybe. ditto on the keys, and pop tops that actually came off and before I got used to them, I pined for the church keys...

As it's just me and the cats I have some bad choices in my cupboard, but no mysteries.

We used to have them when I lived with my parents though. Most were prizes from raffles or leftovers from hampers.

I don't know whether churches (in these days of credit) still run hamper schemes, but we had one every Christmas when I was growing up. Mum & Dad paid a little every week -they were both paid weekly in cash in those days. A few days before Christmas, Father H delivered the hamper. Every year there would be 1 or 2 things that we had no intention of eating. So they went to the Tins & Bottles raffle stall at the soonest school or church fete.

It was an ongoing childhood entertainment - watching the Dads try to win bottles of wine or whisky and walking away with tinned ham or fruit salad (not ours I hasten to add - we ate both of those in our house) I'm sure some of the more random items circulated for months before finding a home. I remember artichoke hearts causing much consternation on year - is it vegetable? meat? what do you do with it? Well I never claimed I had a sophisticated childhood...

I remember my Mum being mournful when I finally realised I liked tinned hotdog sausages at the age of 13.... "Oh SG, all those years of giving them away!"

tinned hotdog sausages

Around here they are called VIannEEs ,

Sundae Girl wrote:

...prizes from raffles or leftovers from hampers....

I won a hamper as a raffle prize about a year ago. I took it as a personal challenge to try to incorporate all of the contents into our household diet. It was an interesting exercise, but I think there were a couple of things I didn't manage to - can't remember what they were at the moment.

wolf wrote:

I don't think I have an entry for this thread. I know how and why cans of Underwood Devilled Ham are in my cupboard.

That, and roaches, will be the only things that survive a nuclear attack.

Hey. I like deviled ham. I'll even eat armour potted meat, though deviled ham is better.

Sundae Girl wrote:

We used to have them when I lived with my parents though. Most were prizes from raffles or leftovers from hampers.

Are we talking food here or dirty clothes. :eek:

Hamper must be a Brit-ism. A hamper here almost invariably refers to a receptacle for dirty clothes.

busterb wrote:

UG. Are you from the south? Do you really know about corn meal, Polenta?
As in that was the one of the 2 or 3 grains you had to eat. :bolt:

Nah; I'm not only living in California, I was born here too, though considerably upstate, during my dad's last year in the Army. And Mom and Dad were both pretty much Bostonians -- hence the baked bean recipe over on the "most recent recipe thread" which needs something to bump it.

I've tried doing up my own cornmeal mush, and it tastes just like -- cornmeal mush. Pretty good if you're tired of oatmeal. Seems you need to put the cornmeal in a mixing bowl and put some water in to soak it good before you add it to boiling salted water.

I've never learned how to make grits so they won't taste like the box they came in.

Urbane Guerrilla wrote:

I've never learned how to make grits so they won't taste like the box they came in.

When they are close to done, add a raw egg (stir vigorously). When the egg is mixed in and pretty much cooked, throw in a little bit of butter and a good bit of sharp cheddar cheese (shredded is best) and season with Old Bay and pepper. Add some Tabasco to give it a good kick.

dar512 wrote:

Are we talking food here or dirty clothes. :eek:

Hamper must be a Brit-ism. A hamper here almost invariably refers to a receptacle for dirty clothes.

Things you never knew you never knew!

A hamper here still technically refers to the receptacle (traditionbally a wicker box with a carrying handle.) But although people tend to specify Picnic Hamper or Christmas Hamper, I think it is generally accepted that the word refers to a container full of food, rather than dirty clothes.

Joe Dolce, american, early eighties:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.hart/lyricsd/dolce.html

SHADDUP YOU FACE - 21/02/1981
3 weeks at #1 - 10 weeks on chart

'Allo, I'm-a Giuseppe, I got-a something special-a for you, ready
Uno, duo, tre, quatro
When I was a boy, just about the eighth-a grade
Mama used to say don't stay out-a late
With the bad-a boys, always shoot-a pool
Giuseppe going to flunk-a school

Boy, it make-a me sick, all the t'ing I gotta do
I can't-a get-a no kicks, always got to follow rules
Boy, it make-a me sick, just to make-a lousy bucks
Got to feel-a like a fool and-a mama used to say all-a time

What's-a matter you Hey! Gotta no respect
What-a you t'ink you do? Why you look-a so sad
It's-a not so bad, it's-a nice-a place
Ah, shaddap-a you face

That's-a my mama, I can remember
Big accordion solo
Ah! Play dat again, Really nice, really nice

Soon-a come-a day, gonna be a big-a star
Den I make-a TV shows and-a movies
Get-a myself a new car, but still I be myself
I don't want-a to change a t'ing, still a-dance and a-sing
I t'ink about-a mama, she used to say

What's-a matter you Hey! Gotta no respect
What-a you t'ink you do Why you look-a so sad
It's-a not so bad, it's-a nice-a place
Ah, shaddap-a you face

Mama, she said it all-a da time
What's-a matter you Hey Gotta no respect
What-a you t'ink you do Why you look-a so sad
It's-a not so bad, it's-a nice-a place
Ah, shaddap-a you face
That s-a my mama

Hello, everybody!
'At's out-a dere in-a radio and-a TV land
Did you know I had a big-a hit-a song in-a Italy with-a disc
Shaddap-a you face
I sing-a dis-a song, all-a my fans applaud
Dey clap-a da hands, dat-a make me feel-a so good
You ought to learn-a dis-a song, it's-a real-a simple
See, I sing: what's-a matter you You sing Hey
Den I sing-a da rest and den at de end, we can all-a sing:
Ah, Shaddap-a you face! O.k., let's-a try it, really big

Uno, duo, tre, quatro
What's-a matter you Hey Gotta no respect Hey
What-a you t'ink you Hey do Why you look-a so sad Hey
It's-a not so bad Hey it's-a nice-a place
Ah, shaddap-a you face
OK one more-a time for mama
What's-a matter you Hey Gotta no respect Hey
What-a you t'ink you Hey do Why you look-a so sad Hey
It's-a not so bad Hey it's-a nice-a place
Ah, shaddap-a you face

Thanks, Beestie; will take for action.

N.B. for our friends elsewhere: Old Bay Seasoning has nothing to do with bay leaves. It's a spiced, red-peppered salt used for seasoning blue crabs (Callinectes spp.). Good on popcorn too.

Sundae Girl wrote:

. . . I think it is generally accepted that the word refers to a container full of food, rather than dirty clothes.

The connection seems to be that both were at least formerly made of wickerwork. My parents owned one such -- shaped like a tall kitchen wastebasket.