The cooking thread

[V]

I would add dried mashed potato in there, too as a thickener for most soups and stews.

Also general all purpose additions might include:

Mixed herbs
Dried Garlic
Chili Powder
Curry Powder
and, of course, Salt

It would also be worth getting a whole buch of these additioins all together in a box for when you might need to make 'nettle soup' more palatable for the nth day running

[Yugosaki]

Using honey instead of sugar. Honey is awesome, and doesn't go bad. We buy organic honey by the gallon in this household. Good for teas, spread on toast, and in place of sugar in some cases. One of these days I want to try my hand at honey wine. I've heard it's good if you like sweet alcohol.

[V]

Good point. In fact honey NEVER goes bad. An interesting and usful fact to bear in mind.

Honey wine is also known as mead, and is fermented honey added to something high in tanin (like acorns or tea). Good stuff to make, and strong in quantity.

[Jebusura]

Using honey instead of sugar. Honey is awesome, and doesn't go bad. We buy organic honey by the gallon in this household. Good for teas, spread on toast, and in place of sugar in some cases. One of these days I want to try my hand at honey wine. I've heard it's good if you like sweet alcohol.

I trust that you know it's not good to put it in hot tea?...

"The best honey is in the uncut honey combs. After being pumped out from there it is very vulnerable, and the main losses of quality take place during preservation and distribution. Heating up to 37°С causes loss of nearly 200 components, part of which are antibacterial. Heating up to 40°С destroys the invertase—the main bee enzyme, thanks to which the nectar becomes honey; heating up to 50°С turns the honey into caramel (the most valuable honey sugars become analogous to synthetic sugar). Generally any larger temperature fluctuation (10°С is ideal for preservation of ripe honey) causes decay."

[Loopy]

I wanted to use honey for preserving traveling biscuits. I wonder how heating it would affect that aspect? I was going to cook some biscuits and encase them in honey. The inside is sterile because it was cooked and the outside is coated in honey. Should extend the shelf life but the moisture is the enemy, especially when touching plastic. For some reason plastic causes rot when you add moisture. Perhaps glazing with caramelized sugar would be better. Have to look into that.

[Ziu]

If you really want a all-in-one nutrition answer somebody has already beat me to the punch it's called nutraloaf and prison officials in Vermont feed it to inmates as punishment or at least they used.

As far as real food goes garlic is awesome.

[Loopy]

Ok, heres what I made last night:

Lemon poppy seed cake
1.25 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks butter
3/4 C sugar
2 large eggs
2 tbls poppy seeds

Glaze
1.5 C powdered sugar
3 tbls fresh lemon juice

I added [B complex and Ginko]:
B-1 100 mg
B-2 25 mg
Niacin 100 mg
B-6 25 mg
Folic acid 100 mcg
B-12 25 mcg
biotin 50 mcg
Pantothenic acid 100 mg
120mg Ginko

The taste is pretty good. The glazed topping makes the cake. As an energy snack I would make it into cupcake size biscuits or similar. Might add honey to this and see how that goes. Sorry, no garlic.

[brokengret]

Okay, something that I should have thought of earlier.  Adding herbs and spices for flavor and vitamin content is good, but feeding a pregnant woman herbs that induce labor is bad.  There are many plants that are really beneficial if you're healthy, but the exact same plant can be really damaging if you're in a compromised state such as pregnant, ill, or have food intolerance/allergies.

If you want to experiment with food, know what it can do(such as peppermint, it's not only a flavoring agent, it can be used to reduce headaches, or sooth an upset stomach; hyssop is an herb in the mint family as well, but it can be damaging, if too much is used it can bring on seizures, but in moderation, can be quite tasty).

Not to be preachy, I just don't want anyone to get sick because they didn't know what they were eating.

[Scott Skawronska]

All that said, dogs and humans have been living together and sharing meals for a LONG time. You could just eat dogfood.

The mental image that flashed through my mind when I read this was the scene in The Road Warrior where he and his dog share a can of dog food: "Dinky Dy, Meat & Veggies"

Good point. In fact honey NEVER goes bad. An interesting and usful fact to bear in mind.

Well, never that we know of.  Although, honestly, after finding honey still good (and edible) in the tombs of some of the pharoahs after 3000 years, I'd be comfortable saying "never", too.

If you really want a all-in-one nutrition answer somebody has already beat me to the punch it's called nutraloaf and prison officials in Vermont feed it to inmates as punishment or at least they used.

Is that what they're calling it these days?  It used to be called "administrative loaf" or "punishment loaf", and it was given as a punishment because it tasted like crap.

The way it worked is that you cannot starve a prisoner or undernourish him.  However, what they did with prisoners who were unruly or otherwise disobedient, after Solitary Confinement didn't work, was to take whatever the day's meal was (say, mashed potatoes, carrots, peas, and beef stew with milk) and put it all together in a blender without spices and make a loaf out of it and bake it.  Technically legal under "nourishment" and not poisonous, but tastes like crap.

This has been a technique in prisons for almost a hundred years.

Just FYI.

Not to be preachy, I just don't want anyone to get sick because they didn't know what they were eating.

No, no.  That's an EXCELLENT point.

Know the properties of the herbs you use, so that you may both reap the benefits intentionally and not accidentally harm you and yours.

Good information.

S

[Loopy]

Okay, something that I should have thought of earlier.  Adding herbs and spices for flavor and vitamin content is good, but feeding a pregnant woman herbs that induce labor is bad.  There are many plants that are really beneficial if you're healthy, but the exact same plant can be really damaging if you're in a compromised state such as pregnant, ill, or have food intolerance/allergies.

If you want to experiment with food, know what it can do(such as peppermint, it's not only a flavoring agent, it can be used to reduce headaches, or sooth an upset stomach; hyssop is an herb in the mint family as well, but it can be damaging, if too much is used it can bring on seizures, but in moderation, can be quite tasty).

Not to be preachy, I just don't want anyone to get sick because they didn't know what they were eating.

Good point. Thats why I started the thread with "the vitamin measurements are important as your body may process some vitamins differently than others, so be sure to check ahead of time. My sister in law died from Iron (vitamin) poisoning as her body could not metabolize iron so be aware."

[Tych0]

A good thing to add to the list is protein powder, not that Weight Gain 5000 crap, but the instant breakfast stuff. There's a company called Shaklee that makes this soy based protein powder that is ideally supposed to be mixed with milk, but you can mix it with water if need be and even make it into a paste sort of like the protein glop they ate in the Matrix. It's a great boost for smoothies and shakes though. Toss it in with some frozen bananas or other fruit, crush up a multivitamin, add milk, blend, and you got a meal.

[Desette]

A good thing to add to the list is protein powder, not that Weight Gain 5000 crap, but the instant breakfast stuff. There's a company called Shaklee that makes this soy based protein powder that is ideally supposed to be mixed with milk, but you can mix it with water if need be and even make it into a paste sort of like the protein glop they ate in the Matrix. It's a great boost for smoothies and shakes though. Toss it in with some frozen bananas or other fruit, crush up a multivitamin, add milk, blend, and you got a meal.

Let it be known that Protein powder can be healthier. I have seen the more healthy (though more expensive) stuff for sale at local health food stores as apposed to the GNC crap that cant be good for you.

[APIPA]

Hey V,
Would that whole bunch of suggested stuff in a box be called a CUB by any chance? 
APIPA

[destined]

Why are we talking about Chalk powders (my term for diet and processed vitamin powders that you can buy from a store) in a cooking thread?

[Jebusura]

Why are we talking about Chalk powders (my term for diet and processed vitamin powders that you can buy from a store) in a cooking thread?

Because they are a get way of getting vital vitamin and minerals into your body when used inside a cooking recipe. I eat only healthy foods and cook it in the most healthy ways but I still take vitamin tablets before almost every meal because it is not really possible to eat such a wide variety of foods that will give you the vitamins your body needs. I even rotate the vitamin tablets I take so I am getting different vitamins all the time and not just taking the same ones on board every time; I think it's a great idea to add it in cooking (not that I do that myself).