New member from NJ

[Pellice]

Hello Fellow Cooks -

I was searching for an online bulletin board for cooks, and found Discuss Cooking! I am looking forward to contributing. I like the bulletin board format for in depth discussion.

I am a single cook and have cooked for one almost all my life. There are many positives to this - I can freely experiment, I can eat the same thing day after day until I use it up, I can be either economical or buy a single expensive steak at will. I like cooking for one!

The negatives are that I never learned to get all components of a meal done at once (how did my mother do that?!) and that I tend to get lazy and go for Simple.

I'm now retired, so I finally have time to cook as much as I please. This bulletin board seems like a very rich resource, and I hope to dive in.

So I'll start by saying that today's recipe (which will be tomorrow's supper) was a spinach cheese soup, made with spinach harvested from my fall garden, which came out wonderfully - you can't go wrong with butter and cheese and spinach. The recipe called for heavy cream as well, but I am going to be very sparing with that, as the soup is rich already. I'll have it with a slice of bread and a salad. I wonder if I toasted some walnuts as a garnish, would that add or detract?

 

[Andy M.]

Welcome to DC.

I think walnuts would be a nice finishing touch.

 

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum, pellice, from a fellow Jerseyite! (is that a word??)
Are you anywhere near my town?

 

[Pellice]

Welcome to the forum, pellice, from a fellow Jerseyite! (is that a word??)
Are you anywhere near my town?

No, I'm up in Central NJ. I do go through Woodbury occasionally though on my birding trips.

One thing you can say about NJ is there is no lack of food of any sort. I realized recently that I get probably half of my perishables - meat, dairy, produce - from local farms. And any ethnic cuisine you can think of - though whether these cuisines are authentic - or just the general deep fried mishmash (I'm looking at you, empanandas) - is debatable.

 

[salt and pepper]

Hi pell, Welcome to DC. I'm also from Jersey, now living in MT. I need Taylor Ham, lol

 

[msmofet]

Hi pell, Welcome to DC. I'm also from Jersey, now living in MT. I need Taylor Ham, lol

WHOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!! You said it right! Taylor Ham! NOT Taylors ham.

BTW I'm for North Jersey and I say "Jersey-ian". I think either way is right.

Welcome to the forum!!

 

[larry_stewart]

Welcome, Im a little north and east ( from New York, Long Island).
I drive through Jersey a lot to get to PA

 

[Whiskadoodle]

Hi Pellice. Welcome to DC.

 

[pepperhead212]

No, I'm up in Central NJ. I do go through Woodbury occasionally though on my birding trips.

One thing you can say about NJ is there is no lack of food of any sort. I realized recently that I get probably half of my perishables - meat, dairy, produce - from local farms. And any ethnic cuisine you can think of - though whether these cuisines are authentic - or just the general deep fried mishmash (I'm looking at you, empanandas) - is debatable.

Do you grow any of your foods? After all, NJ is the garden state! lol

It is incredible how all of those ethnic grocers are now all over NJ. I used to have to go to NYC to stock up on Mexican food, in the late 70s/early 80s. Late 80s it was Avondale,PA. Early 2,000s the small Mexican grocers started appearing in this area, and several years ago one opened right here in town! A lot of other ethnic grocers are in the area now - things I used to have to go to Philly or elsewhere for.