Lola at the Coffee House

I am not afraid of the word "glycoside".
I am however afraid of the popular sentiment that "natural" implies "safe".
We might also add to your list of crops tabacco, poppy, coca, psilocybe.
All quite natural and all deadly in extraction.

Here Wassau, allow me to get the bump for you.
[Matt tips his fedora with a wink]

I changed to Soya Milk from dairy some years ago, but recently started to use Almond Milk - love it! Makes breakfast cereal - specifically organic porridge - taste wonderful.

Sugar is something I use only in chai or green tea, or the occasional cup of coffee, but I want to cut it out completely - for health reasons, but also for weight control. Hence my queries about stevia! Because chai has such a distinctive flavour, I don't want anything to spoil it - the stevia I've used does have an aftertaste, but that might be the brand I've tried. So much helpful information on this thread which I need to assimilate before making any decisions.

Those grow wild down my way. I've got a few in the back garden.

Ossobuco…here is the recipe I used today…which was a tweaking of a larger recipe. (I tweak everything!) It was stupendous…I loved it.

Cook manicotti shells for 7 minutes (I made 7; they come 14 to a box)…drain and allow them to cool on waxed paper or plastic cutting sheets. Heat oven to 350. Grease a baking dish (I used olive oil). (Size of baking dish will vary with the number of shells you use.)

Filling: For the 7, I used ¾ of a 32 oz. Container of ricotta; a beaten egg; ¼ cup grated Parmesean cheese; 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese; two/three tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley (probably a bit more, because I like parsley); salt and pepper to taste. All in a large mixing bowl…stirred and mixed thoroughly.

Sauce: I have fallen in love with a very simply sauce with none of the fanfare of the more involved pasta sauces. I sauté ¾ pound of Italian sausage(sans casings) making sure that the sausage ends up in very, very small bits with slight browning. To that I add one large and one small can of STEWED tomatoes…processed in a blender. (Large is 28 ozs; small is 14.5 ozs) Dash of red wine…bit of chopped basil if available. NO frills…just bring to a simmer and let it cook for five to ten minutes. You can add a bit of sautéed garlic, onion, mushrooms, or green bell pepper if you like…but I enjoy it just as much without the additions as with. Sounds like scrimping…but it is delicious!

Fill the shells with the mixture. This is the only labor intensive part; tried doing it with a small spoon with marginal success…ended up using my index finger to scoop the filling and completely fill up the shells. Messy…and not easy.

Coat the bottom of the greased baking dish with sauce…place the filled manicottis in…spoon in more sauce…top with a bit more parmesean and mozzarella cheese. Bake in oven for 30 minutes…until cheese browns a bit and the sauce is bubbling.

Mangiare. E’ delizioso!

I never did, nor most of our clients. As I was learning what we called "plant materials" (or, the teachers did), I tried out a lot of stuff in my small yard, a lot of them perennials, just somehow never foxgloves, though they were available. Among other things, they like acidic and moist soil, not what we had. Then I went off on a long time interest on having plants be drought tolerant, a good idea in a semiarid desert climate. Pretty though, and I gather they escape in some parts of northern california to the roadside. Not the preferred thing for native plant lovers like some of us, including me.

Lots of plants are poisonous to some varying extents, and I don't recall re the extent for foxgloves. One time I was in hysterics trying to figure out about the lethalness (lethality?) of a certain plant that was always on poison lists and checked with a various experts - who told me that if the leaves and blossoms fell routinely into the swimming pool, someone would have to ingest the whole pool plus the droppings to feel the effect. The client then decided to keep it, but always well trimmed. And some plants are very scary ****, poison wise, or so I take it.

Wonderful. Worth getting the sausages at our good butcher for (they make many kinds, great place). My routine sauce is similar - I also used the stewed tomatoes and whizz - except that sometimes I'm garlic mama.

Cheap person that I am, I've tried making my own italian pork sausage, usually in patties, not terrific, but that was before I braved using the not very expensive food processor I bought at a not-bad grocery store... something like four years ago. I was sort of afraid of it, and it lived in the garage for all this time. I've gotten more scaredy cat as have gotten a little clumsier as time passes. All those blades! Anyway, I braved the blades recently and sure enough the damned thing is easy to work with.

So, watch out, time to play with sausages.
(cough)

wat would youguiys thibk is the best brand of commercial lemon curd or lemon marmelade?Mrs F has to make several cakes for Easter and she wants to make lemon with lemony inter layer schmutz

I don't know where you live Vonny, but if you have access to hazelnut milk you might want to try that on your cereal for a treat.
Almond milk is great especially for bioavailabe calcium, without the calcium leeching effects of animal proteins.
Most soy milks are fortified with calcium (here in the US).
Almonds however are naturally high in calcium.
Almond milk and hazelnut milk are lower in protein than soy milk.
I don't worry much about protein content as a rule, however.Unless your diet consists of a majority refined sugars and starches it is nearly impossible to be protein deficient without also being calorie deficient.

I don't know. And she has enough to do without making it herself for the first time on a deadline. I'm not sure I ever saw more than one brand in one place.

Schmutz is a word I'm fond of, a colleague used to say it about this and that.

these are my two current favourites

Those sfogliatelle look sooooooooooo delicious. I want some please.

I want your pasta too, Frank. Bring it over as soon as it's done. Man, I'm starving! Bernie, where the hell are you when I need you?

Oh, thank goodness. I thought at first you were going to tell me something bad about almond milk. I really like it and it's low in calories, as well as high in calcium. I drink the unsweetened almond milk, but with vanilla. It's yummy!

you think theyd be good to lather in between a lemon cake layer or two??

NOW, Ill see whether these are available in the colonies

All these erzats "milks"made from floor sweepings and plant material . Has anyone tried raw milk? Its well regulated and its got all the nutrients and lactase enzymes. i consider all those root and nut milks as heavily processed. You want to be afraid of food, theres the candidates.

fingers in ears, singing loudly...............la la la la la la la la la la la

theres more surfactants in almond and soy milk than there is almonds or soy (Im just guessing but Ill bet something like LAS or "Surfactants" are listed high on the list. And what they do is break up the types of surfactants into their formulae so they dont have to add em up and risk showing us that theres more chemistry than gardening involved in making the stuff.

la la la la la la la la la la