Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I cannot believe--but I do--what Hubby just came in and told me. He'd been out on his motorcycle, and I told him I'd made blueberry muffins and the strawberry bread (of which neither loaf came out of its pan intact) this afternoon, and happily informed him that we have a ton of sugared, crushed strawberries all ready for shortcakes any time we want them. I went on to say that I had used the little bag of sugar he'd brought back from camping, since I had used all of our other sugar already. He got a look of horror on his face, and with good reason: that little bag had not contained sugar, but kosher salt, which he had used to clean the iron skillets! So I'll be putting a whole lot of strawberries down the disposal here shortly. He said they taste every bit as nasty as you'd expect. I'm not trying 'em! At least I fixed the ones for the bread separately.

Just thought y'all might appreciate being given a smile...

Life is so bittersweet Jackie

Hey! At least they're kosher.

strawberries

I got some strawbs the other day. I washed, cored, and then quartered them, and then put some sugar on them and some dry red wine. Left them over night in the fridge in a covered casserole dish. They were just as good as grandma used to make. No need to spoil them with spongecake or the like.

.....and I watched Jamie Oliver throw together fresh berries for desert, last night (on TV)and he suggested pouring Elderberry Cordial over the fruit to enhance the flavour. I don't know if its available here, But I'm going to find out. (Says its better than sugar).

Jackie...how is 'kosher salt' different from usual salt?

Here you go: Kosher Salt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_salt

or
http://www.google.com/search?q=kosher+sa...=2&ved=0CFIQsAQ

I have heard of pepper on strawberries but not salt! All that work! Poor Jackie.

and some dry red wine. I know the word for that! You macerated 'em! (Yay, something about words!)

Yeah, Zed, that was a lot of strawberries--prolly about three pounds-- down the drain; one of those situations that just seem to come up every so often, of one person not dreaming what another might do/say or have done/said/meant. Ah well--lesson learned!

And the moral is always snack taste as you cook.

Or never use sugar as a sweetener. ( still take care to not confuse maple syrup with motor oil );-)

I bought some fresh strawberries and made shortcake from
scratch. Delicious. I like things tart, so no sugar,
salt, syrup or motor oil used. Yummy.

I put salt on my Cheerios once. not nearly as tragic as your strawberries, Jackie!!

That would be OK if you were in NZ, Buff. Cheerios are little sausages there...salt and tomato sauce goes good on them.

Ah,they sound good. Could use some right about now.

They do, but I just ate some leftover fajitas.

Had those last night. Tried a new place, and that is the last
time I go there: no good at all, and I love fajitas.

Another food tale, fitting the same subject heading:

Hubby and Son picked up a turtle yesterday that they found that had been run over, with damage obviously too severe to heal, so they brought it home and...butchered? it, and made soup this evening. I wasn't about to try it, but Hubby said it's delicious, and even I have to admit it didn't smell bad--though I have opened all the windows in the house and have the attic blower on. At least in this case I wasn't able to detect the smell of the meat itself like I can when he cooks venison . BUT--ew, ew, ew! By the time I got up, they had already cooked all the eggs--poor old girl. My son tried frying a couple, and they boiled the rest. Both kinds were pretty bad, and there's a dish of boiled turtle eggs for the dog in our refrigerator.

I hope they 'butchered it' humanly. Euthanised might have been a better choice of words but then it wouldn't fit in well with the cooking theme.

Where did you find the eggs?
Did they have soft or hard shells?

Thanks for the enjoyable Morning Reading, Jackie.
Turtle stew and soup is made around here, and the catching
and killing are very often not humane.

Does anybody do normal cooking? Turtle eggs, Yeeech. Almost
a case of roadkill here. Jackie: you've got some educatin' to do.

From the Mock Turtle song by Lewis Carroll:
(in fond memory of a once good turtle :-))

""Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail,
"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle - will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"

I had remembered and forgotten that ditty.

Oh, yes, they chopped its head off immediately*. It was roadkill--badly shattered, poor thing. The eggs were inside her--I don't know where--and had leathery, soft shells. I wish she had had a chance to get them laid somewhere.
*But the legs continued to twitch, even after being severed from the body--ew, ew, ew!!!

Just what we needed: the bloody details. Thanks for that, Jackie.

Any time, Luke...hungry?

No thanks, lost my appetite for at least a week.
Any other great recipes from out ole Caintuck way????

I prepared more strawberries this evening over at my mother-in-law's. She prefers powdered sugar in them, and told me where I could find it. This time I did a taste test first!

Right on! Too many things look like powdered sugar!
But were it something else we could have had a laugh.

The lesion wasn't wasted on you then Jackie.

I once swallowed yellow dish-washing liquid because;

1) I used a straw into the bottle (instead of pouring it into a glass to drink)

and

2) someone decanted the dish-washing liquid into the bottle and stupidly put it in the fridge, where I found it and thinking it was Apple & Orange Juice..... proceeded to drink it!

It made me violently ill and even now I only buy the green variety....never the yellow washing up liquid. I get queasy just thinking about it.

Always label things you put in different containers.

Wise advice. And keep out of the reach of children, not
under the kitchen sink.

someone decanted the dish-washing liquid into the bottle and stupidly put it in the fridge Stupid is right--yuck!

It was my Father-in-law. He filled up the dishwashing liquid bottle with water and put it in the freezer, intending to use it to keep food cool in the esky. If only I had poured my drink out into a glass, like people do, I would have noticed the consistancy and been suspicious. As it was....I had to suck hard to get anything up the straw and did it several times....can you believe that because when drinking from straw, you don't really taste anything straight away.

esky

Never heard this one before. I take it it's what we call a cooler. Is it from a genericized trademark? (Eskimo?)

I guess so...now its a trademark brand, cooler YES.

Even I knew that one, Candy, from previous conversations.
I feel so "in".

(Eskimo?) Wow--I had no idea what it was--good one, zmj.

Candy and I discussed esky and barby before. Cooler and grill.

Good for you Luke. Top marks

I remember the conversation – do I at least get a pat on the head?

of course Peter

AAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!
Peter, you's so nice.