Oh-My-God! You kill me! The strawberry-apple thing sounds like a good combo. I'm also an experimental cook -- the school of improving recipes was always for me. Do you remember anything I cooked? Or that I paid rent to Holly, Leah, and Co. by cooking for them? If *I* were making your straw-apple pie, I'd 86 the cayenne and use some lemon and mint although the cayenne is an interesting concept. i think I'd like cumin better, but then the pie would need raisins...oh, don't get me started!
I developed the world's greatest pumpkin pie recipe. It has a layer of ginger cookies in the crust. Everyone looks and expects that layer to be chocolate....... I also do an oil-based crust (life is interesting when you keep kosher/don't eat traife (no lard.)) It is unusual and delicious, especially with berry filling. Canned filling it too damn sweet for me......*shudder*
Regrettably, I don't remember any particular dishes you cooked. (On the one hand I keep feeling like I should remember; on the other hand, 20+ years is an awful lot of meals ago. I'm still sweeping the corners of the archive in my skull, hoping to uncover a taste-memory.)
Lemon/mint ... yeah, that would've been really good, in a completely different direction. I'll have to remember to get around to trying that.
And yes, the canned filling is too sweet (at least the apple is). But I knew that going in, so it didn't take me by surprise.
Don't worry. Remembering food from over 20 years ago is ridiculous and impossible. I do remember being in an Italian phase back then. I made stuffed shells and manicotti that were great. I've made them on and off since then. I've made a chicken, ricotta, parmesan, and mushroom combo that is amazingly good (I think omitting the chicken would be possible and still good.) I've done spinach and ricotta from back then (my secret is the nutmeg in the spinach.) I've done a number of cheese blends always with a ricotta base. I don't eat pasta any longer so it has been awhile since I made those. Perhaps after Pesach, I'll treat everyone around here....I think I may have made the pumpkin-stuffed ones back then, too. Cream and a whiff of mild onion in them, as I recall. I liked cooking for all of you people back then.....food happily received, appreciated, and shared in friendship and warmth, as I recall. Now when I cook, it's short-order, please everyone-no-matter-what-they-demand and with no appreciation....not to mention all the mean spirits. No wonder I don't like to eat.
(no subject)
The strawberry-apple thing sounds like a good combo. I'm also an experimental cook -- the school of improving recipes was always for me.
Do you remember anything I cooked? Or that I paid rent to Holly, Leah, and Co. by cooking for them?
If *I* were making your straw-apple pie, I'd 86 the cayenne and use some lemon and mint although the cayenne is an interesting concept. i think I'd like cumin better, but then the pie would need raisins...oh, don't get me started!
I developed the world's greatest pumpkin pie recipe. It has a layer of ginger cookies in the crust. Everyone looks and expects that layer to be chocolate.......
I also do an oil-based crust (life is interesting when you keep kosher/don't eat traife (no lard.)) It is unusual and delicious, especially with berry filling. Canned filling it too damn sweet for me......*shudder*
(no subject)
Lemon/mint ... yeah, that would've been really good, in a completely different direction. I'll have to remember to get around to trying that.
And yes, the canned filling is too sweet (at least the apple is). But I knew that going in, so it didn't take me by surprise.
Gastronomique!
I do remember being in an Italian phase back then. I made stuffed shells and manicotti that were great. I've made them on and off since then. I've made a chicken, ricotta, parmesan, and mushroom combo that is amazingly good (I think omitting the chicken would be possible and still good.) I've done spinach and ricotta from back then (my secret is the nutmeg in the spinach.) I've done a number of cheese blends always with a ricotta base.
I don't eat pasta any longer so it has been awhile since I made those. Perhaps after Pesach, I'll treat everyone around here....I think I may have made the pumpkin-stuffed ones back then, too. Cream and a whiff of mild onion in them, as I recall. I liked cooking for all of you people back then.....food happily received, appreciated, and shared in friendship and warmth, as I recall. Now when I cook, it's short-order, please everyone-no-matter-what-they-demand and with no appreciation....not to mention all the mean spirits. No wonder I don't like to eat.