The food thread

The women here tend to get fat after marriage and children...
They get used to eating for two during pregnancy and lactation, and stay used to eating more than needed.
Friend was telling me his wife was 46 kilos at marriage, 20 years later she is 70 kilos, on blood pressure medication. She is 48 years old.
Cousin's wife was 80 at marriage, now she eats candy all day and watches TV, then goes to the gym...120 kilos on a 5'9" broad frame. Fat.

There is little need for them to stay fit, divorces are less than 5% here I think.
So it goes on, and the media with the rich food on their shows and articles simply add to the mess.
 
Actually, bread and cheese was a normal kind of breakfast or snack....
The typical Italian breakfast is Café Latte or cappucino and cookies.
If you really want to annoy the person who runs a café in Italy or stick out as a tourist order a latte or cappuccino after 11am. After that time Italians only drink espresso.
As Cal said Pizza Bianca is a snack eaten with cold meats and such or a may be bready sidedish.
 
My guess is this was introduced as the ‘light beer’ of pizzas more intended for the fairer sex than the average construction worker.
😂

I don't know why but I just laughed out loud at that.

Often better than what I see at the gym.
I didn't know that you work at a modeling agency. Either that or you joined a wrong gym...? 🐷
 
😂

I don't know why but I just laughed out loud at that.


I didn't know that you work at a modeling agency. Either that or you joined a wrong gym...? 🐷
Not gonna tell. I can say it is a tech position somewhere with a lot of web site design and data aggregation.
Lots of mountain biking and running happens to the point I can feel good about commuting by bike 25 miles each way occasionally and still feel at the lower end of fitness at times.
 
In Italy Pizza Bianca (white pizza) is simply a pizza with nothing on it except a bit of thyme and salt.
Yes and no. It's how it's often done in Rome but it's not the whole thing.

The pizza bianca appeared in Naples about a century before the pizza rossa (with tomato sauce), probably around 1660. It was basically a thinner foccacia with lard, cheese and basilic, These days, you can have pizze bianche with a wide range of toppings.
 
I must say... The best pizza bianca I had was in Paris, in a small Italian restaurant near Montparnasse. Smoked mozzarella, artichokes and bottarga.

In Italy, the pizzeria near my sister's place (in Tuscany) makes a mean one with porcini mushrooms. The tomato sauce would overpower the mushroom's taste, so just a mozzarella base works well here.
 
I see New York City is now not letting new construction buildings get natural gas service. I suspect some restaurants will end up with LPG.

However for my household use I was considering using a natural gas stove ( range) but my inductive cooktops have left me with the feel that it is no longer worth it. Ventilation is the new issue.

I did have my natural gas central heating fail last winter and the spike in my electricity use for the temporary electric heaters was more than a threefold increase for only partial heating.

So I must assume that cooking food without natural gas will also increase my electric bill. But as that will only be a few dollars, it should be worth it to avoid needing the additional ventilation. Of course the added ventilation may have increased the heating bill more than the added cost of electricity.

As to cooking ease, I find the induction cooktop to be the same as a gas burner, except the cook top does require more cleaning.

A gas oven I think still has some advantages for items like baking bread. However the electric oven has far more features in terms of set it and forget it. Although I have seen some gas units with almost as much programmability.

My gas range reference is a Chambers brand unit. Current models just seem flimsy compared to those. The exceptions are Wolf and Viking.

https://www.retrostoveandgasworks.com/chambers-stove-restoration
https://www.antiqueappliances.com/product/1954-chambers-gas-stove/
 
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I see New York City is now not letting new construction buildings get natural gas service. I suspect some restaurants will end up with LPG.

However for my household use I was considering using a natural gas stove ( range) but my inductive cooktops have left me with the feel that it is no longer worth it. Ventilation is the new issue.
Getting to food -- I am going to commence making fruit cake for the first time since the 1970's. There is a recipe on King Arthur using desicated fruit instead of the sticky stuff. Gonna soak it all in Ron Rico.

To Simon's point -- NJ will not allow "new" pipelines -- no "passing gas" to NY. from PA. NY has also shut down Indian Point nuke power. Gonna be a lot of cold and PO's people in NYC, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Orange and Rockland Counties,

The southern tier counties of NY State are one of the most beautiful parts of the USA, but still suffering population drain while those of northern PA are stable. We dragged our kids through their hundreds of times when we commuted back and forth between NJ and OH.
 
I think (hope) I am done with Christmas cooking for the year, other than dinner.

800+ spritz, two batches of Biscotti, three batches of Oblaten Lebkuchen, and 36 loaves of Raisen Bread made and delivered or shipped via USPS.

I still need to do 3 loaves of cinnamon bread, but that is easy peasy compared to the rest. I will use the mixer which can handle 3 loaves.

Next year some people will be dissapointed, I just can't keep this up much longer.

I am working on my mother's cookbook, and will mail copies out next year. It has all the recipies, so someone else can do the cooking or go without.
 
I am working on my mother's cookbook, and will mail copies out next year. It has all the recipies, so someone else can do the cooking or go without.
I have my grandmother's cookbook, written in 1928. It had much written on economy of the kitchen, but some fab recipes which satisfy the crowd even today (who doesn't love pineapple upside down cake!) I know from notes (left in the cookbook) that they took seriously the 1941-45 era. There are also some recipes from my folks who came to the US in the late 1880s.
 
I see New York City is now not letting new construction buildings get natural gas service. I suspect some restaurants will end up with LPG.

However for my household use I was considering using a natural gas stove ( range) but my inductive cooktops have left me with the feel that it is no longer worth it. Ventilation is the new issue.

I did have my natural gas central heating fail last winter and the spike in my electricity use for the temporary electric heaters was more than a threefold increase for only partial heating.

So I must assume that cooking food without natural gas will also increase my electric bill. But as that will only be a few dollars, it should be worth it to avoid needing the additional ventilation. Of course the added ventilation may have increased the heating bill more than the added cost of electricity.

As to cooking ease, I find the induction cooktop to be the same as a gas burner, except the cook top does require more cleaning.

A gas oven I think still has some advantages for items like baking bread. However the electric oven has far more features in terms of set it and forget it. Although I have seen some gas units with almost as much programmability.

My gas range reference is a Chambers brand unit. Current models just seem flimsy compared to those. The exceptions are Wolf and Viking.

https://www.retrostoveandgasworks.com/chambers-stove-restoration
https://www.antiqueappliances.com/product/1954-chambers-gas-stove/
The one thing I really like about electric ranges ,
is having the broiler up over the main oven .
 
Made spritz cookies this afternoon -- this recipe suggested 1/4 cup of almond flour and 3/4 tsp of almond extract in the batter. (Using 2 cups of white flour 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 C white sugar etc.) The incorporation of almond flour stiffened up the dough thus coming out of the cookie press much easier to work with. Cook a total of 10 mins in 350F oven, rotating the cookie tray after 5 mins. Excellent.
 
A charity we help out sent a box of pears -- poached some this evening (peeled, halved and de-corticated) in cranberry juice and sugar, lemon zest, crystallized ginger and a halved vanilla bean (~10 mins or so). I let the remaining poaching solution evap down to about a quarter of its original volume as syrup. This was a great finale to Christmas dinner.