The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

@ChickenCanoe Sounds like a nice menu, although a bit low in proper protein sources for my liking. Seems like your kid knows his stuff.

I got a new pair of trekking shoes today, and we immediately took them for a test drive. Spent three hours walking around lake Meiko, here are some pictures if someone wants to see some Finnish nature camera phone shots.

http://1drv.ms/1mzOPqN

Tonight we're going to the movies, it's going to be Guardians of the Galaxy. I hope the 3D glasses don't give me a horrible headache.

 

[Peep_Show]

@getaclue I told the neighbor's kid we had watched Monsters University with Karin, he thought it was really strange that two adults watched cartoons together

My husband has quite the collection of cartoons... Claims they're for the grandkids, but I hear familiar music emanating from his office and the gkids are 800 miles away! He's a big fan of Pixar and just about did backflips when I told him the buyers for Mom's house both work there. Knowing that Pixar folks get their inspiration for local locales (and denizens) I thoroughly expect to see a movie with a kid sliding down the banister that will be eerily like Mom's foyer....and the next-door neighbor is a characature (sp) in herself without animating....

 

[Peep_Show]

BamaDude.....

Best cure for alleviating a hangover I got from my college days. Hasten thee to a 7-Eleven and fill a Big Gulp with half fruit punch and half 7-up. Works great for morning sickness, too.

Enjoy your vacation! (Well, sounds like you already have...)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@ChickenCanoe Sounds like a nice menu, although a bit low in proper protein sources for my liking. Seems like your kid knows his stuff.

...

Yeah, I'm a big fan of meat and I think an important part of an omnivore diet.
A vegetarian meal from time to time won't hurt me though. Probably a good thing. Everything was delicious but the cold cucumber soup was to die for. The first cold soup I ever ate was gazpacho decades ago. This was very refreshing for an appetizer on an extremely hot and humid day.

 

[LindaB220]

Tartare was popularized by the Mongols; it was also the direct ancestor of the Hamburg steak, also known as the Hamburger.

From Wikipedia:

Prior to the disputed invention of the hamburger in the United States, similar foods already existed in the culinary tradition of Europe. In the 12th century, the nomadic Mongols carried food made up of several varieties of milk (kumis) and meat (horse or camel) during their journeys.[11] During the life of their leader Genghis Khan (1167–1227), the Mongol army occupied the western portions of the modern-day nations of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan,[12] forming the so-called Golden Horde. This cavalry dominated army was fast moving and sometimes unable to stop for a meal, so they were often forced to eat while riding. They would place a few pieces of meat in the form of fillets wrapped in skin and placed under their saddles so that it would crumble with the constant jogging and be cooked by the heat from the animal. This recipe for minced meat spread throughout the Mongol Empire until its split in the 1240s.[13] During the Mongol Empire's existence, it was common for Mongol armies to follow different groups of animals (such as herds or flocks of horses, sheep, or oxen) that provided the necessary protein for the warriors' diets.[11]Marco Polo also recorded descriptions of the culinary customs of the Mongol warriors, indicating that the flesh of a single pony could provide one day's sustenance for one hundred warriors.
When Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan (1215–1294) invaded Moscow, he and his warriors introduced minced horsemeat to the Muscovites, which was later called steak tartare.[11] The city States of what is now known as Germany took to this ground meat product and created many of their own dishes by adding capers, onions and even caviar to the blend and selling it on the streets. [14]It is not know when the first restaurant recipe for steak tartare did appear.[15] While not providing a clear name, the first description of steak tartare was made by the writer Jules Verne in 1875 in his novel Michael Strogoff. There are certain similarities between steak tartare and the German dishes Labskaus and Mett. Other similar raw, chopped meats appeared in the 20th century, such as the Italian carpaccio, which itself was invented in 1930 at Harry's Bar in Venice.[16] Similarly, one of the oldest documents referencing a Hamburgh Sausage appeared in 1763 in the cookbook entitled Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy written by Hannah Glasse (1708–1770). Hamburgh Sausage is made with minced meat and a variety of spices, including nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, garlic, and salt, and is typically served with toast. A wide variety of traditional European dishes are also made with minced meat, such as meatloaf,[17] the Serbian pljeskavica, the Arab kofta, and meatballs.
While ground beef was used by various cultures in Europe and Central Asia, the hamburger's other vital ingredient, bread, has a different history. Among its many uses, bread has often been used to accompany other foods, but the description of the word sandwich was not recorded until the 18th century. Despite the many versions of the invention of the sandwich that are claimed by many cultures, the sandwich was given its name around the year 1765 in honor of the English aristocrat John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who preferred to eat sandwiches so that he could play cards without soiling his fingers.[18] However, it was not until 1840 when Elizabeth Leslie Cook included a sandwich recipe in her cookbook that it appeared in the local cuisine of the United States.[19] Bread had always been part of the development of many types of foods, including sauces, such as those described by Marie-Antoine Carême in his compendium entitled L'art de la cuisine française au XIXe siècle.
Hamburg and its port[edit]



The port of Hamburg in the 1890s.

Minced meat was a rare delicacy in medieval cuisine, and meat itself was an ingredient restricted to the higher classes.[20] Very little mincing was done by medieval butchers or recorded in the cookbooks of the time, perhaps because it was not a necessary part of the sausage-making process that was used to preserve meat. Russian ships brought recipes for steak tartare to the port of Hamburg during the 17th century,[21] a time when there was such an abundant presence of Russian citizens there that it came to be called "the Russian port." The commercial transactions of the Hanseatic League conducted between the 13th and 17th centuries made this port one of the largest in Europe. Its commercial importance was further heightened as it became vital to the early transatlantic voyages of the age of steam. During the period of European colonization of the Americas, a large influx of immigrants to this port became a kind of "bridge" between the old European recipes and the future development of the hamburger in the United States.[22]
During the first half of the 19th century, Hamburg established itself as one of the largest transatlantic ports in Europe as it became a hub for both passenger and freight shipping. Most of the northern European emigrants who traveled to the New World embarked on their transatlantic voyages from this port. Thus, the German shipping company Hamburg America Line, also known as the Hamburg Amerikanische Paketfahrt Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), was involved in transporting goods and people across the Atlantic for almost a century.[23] The company began operations in 1847 and employed many German immigrants, many of them fleeing the revolutions of 1848–9. The vast majority of settlers and emigrants from various parts of northern Europe began their voyages to the United States from Hamburg, introducing their culinary customs to their host country.[23] New York City was the most common destination for ships traveling from Hamburg, and various restaurants in the city began offering the Hamburg-style steak in order to attract German sailors. The steak frequently appeared on the menu as a Hamburg-style American fillet,[24][25] or even beefsteak à Hambourgeoise. This history caused American preparations of minced beef to evoke in European immigrants memories of the port of Hamburg and the world they left behind.[23]

What an incredibly interesting post. It makes you want to research all of the above. I wish I had time to do more. Life itself is so interesting. People turn on the TV and space out. And there is all this learning out there. I've only had a home computer for a couple of years and it has been a revelation. At work we didn't have the opportunity to roam around. I only realized the importance of google when I finally looked something up. Amazing.

On another note, my first rooster crow yesterday. Eight week old Sapphire. Gotta get some velcro before he gets loud.

 

[Alaskan]

Everything was delicious but the cold cucumber soup was to die for. The first cold soup I ever ate was gazpacho decades ago. This was very refreshing for an appetizer on an extremely hot and humid day.

The only cold soups I have ever had....well... i like my soup hot thank you!

 

[Alaskan]

On another note,  my first rooster crow yesterday.   Eight week old Sapphire.  Gotta get some velcro before he gets loud. 

I love roosters, I do -insert very sleepy emoticon- but right now I think I have about 15 roosters, all crowing together..... A few are still learning, so sound like dieing animals, or screaming somethings.. Pops me right out of a dead sleep. Arg

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I had to install a baby monitor so I could hear the roosters.

 

[LindaB220]

I had to install a baby monitor so I could hear the roosters.

That was the only concern of my family when I mentioned getting chickens. I have a mentally challenged gson AJ (20) that sleeps weird hours and Aimee said as long as no roosters wake him up Ok.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

... Life itself is so interesting.

People turn on the TV and space out.
And there is all this learning out there. ...
I only realized the importance of google when I finally looked something up. Amazing.
...

My wife will be watching a program and I'll ask her what they said and she says, I don't know. This happens all the time. She sits in front and blanks out.

I've rarely been to the library since Google. Don't know how I'd do research, or more importantly, how I did research without it. There is a lot of misinformation on the internet though. I tend to look for scholarly articles based on research.

The internet is wonderful but it takes a while to figure out how to ferret fact from fiction. That much information can't be true. I just coined that expression.
For political things, I like Politifact's 'pants on fire' section which verifies or vilifies crazy things politicians say.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/rulings/pants-fire/
It's amazing how much politicians and pundits lie and they don't get called out.

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It's already 93 and realfeel of 103. Heat index will be over 110 today. I'll have to put an air conditioner in with the chicks.