i’ll have to dig it out of the file, and yes i use paper files for this kind of thing. maybe i can get to it tomorrow.
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Said people who have never heard of ramen or pho…
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right?! I love pho. I love to make pho. broth simmers neck nones, soup bones and tail bones for 24 hours. spice, cook until flavorful, then clarify clarify, clarify!
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I have a good friend who is unable to detect the smell of sour milk. When we were roommates, she regularly asked me to smell the milk for her. I recall reading somewhere once that a certain percentage of people can’t smell sour milk (but I’m not finding anything about it in a brief online search just now).
Also, what about all the people whose sense of smell is out of whack due to Covid-19 or long-Covid? This seems like the wrong time to force everyone to rely on their sense of smell 
At least, though, according to the article, they’re only dropping the “use by” dates, but will keep giving “best before” dates. After that, it seems, one is to use one’s own judgment.
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Good point! Hadn’t even thought of that.
I put milk in my coffee, and often that’s the first indication it’s getting close to going sour. It’s not quite sour yet, but it turns almost a little grainy in the hot liquid. That might be a good alternative for folks who can’t smell it, just pour some in a cup then put a bit of hot water or something in and see how it reacts?
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we ended up making nine pizzas so i just wanted to show off some of the results of the day–
top left is ham, pineapple, pepperoni, red bell pepper; top right is ham, pepperoni, italian sausage, and ground sirloin; middle left is italian sausage, pepperoni, onions, and jalapenos; middle right is pepperoni with extra pepperoni; bottom left is ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives; and bottom right is pepperoni, red bell peppers, and jalapenos.
factoring in the value of my time at $15/hour plus the cost of all ingredients, each pizza cost on average $13.61. given that it costs around $21 plus tip to get a large three topping pizza delivered to my house i personally think this is a bargain especially when you factor in how incredibly delicious each pizza is.
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PIZZA PARTY!!!
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Ditto on all the drool gifs. That spread looks amazing!
I find myself doing this sometimes about food, too, but it’s so funny. Because I enjoy cooking, so even if it wasn’t a bargain (though it always works out to be) I’d still do it. At this point it’s more of a permanent hobby than a chore, usually.
Somewhat related, I’ve been slowly reading “Square Meal,” it’s a look at the Great Depression through food history. She mentions early on that the rural/urban divide created this cultural chasm where the urban factory workers started seeing their time as units of a commodity while in the agrarian rural areas time remained really elastic, things like taking in the hay just took as long as it took. It got me thinking about my own concept of my time.
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another important element of this recipe, which i tried to touch upon in my recipe above is how comfortable and familiar making pizza is for me. this is part of a family tradition which i have experienced and participated in virtually my whole life. when i make homemade pizza i feel connected to my mom and dad as well as to the grandmother i never knew.
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tamales in the style of the navarro family.
i have a very large pot in which i place a pork roast. depending on the locality the style of roast i use might be called a boston butt, a pork shoulder, or a fresh picnic. regardless of label, this is a pork roast that has about the right ratio of fat to lean for the meat. so, into the pot with the pork roast. in addition to enough water to cover the roast i also add 6 cloves of garlic, two whole medium white onions, and six dried ancho chili pods. i bring this to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. cover and check the state of the roast every 20-30 minutes starting after 2 hours of simmering. you want to simmer the roast until it feels like its going to start falling apart when you poke it with a fork remove from heat and allow to cool enough to start working with it. at this point i draw up a sink full of hot water and begin soaking my corn husks.
remove the roast from the pot and shred the pork roast. i use a pair of pork pullers. you can control the level of fat by either incorporating it into the shredded pork or removing some as the case may be. we generally leave in 75%+ of the fat in the mix. once the pork is shredded season it with cumin powder, ancho chili powder, salt, black pepper, and i use a product called “new mexico ground chili” which i cannot further identify except that it adds a pleasant sharpness of flavor. i strain about two quarts of the cooking liquid into a large bowl for use with the meat and the masa. i moisten the meat with the strained cooking liquid. it doesn’t take much but i like to use at least a little even if the meat is particularly juicy. once the meat is seasoned to taste, set aside.
for the masa, i begin by taking a large can of hominy and pouring the contents of the can, including the liquid, into a blender or food processor and mixing it into a puree. i then pour about one pound of dry corn masa into a bowl and mix the hominy puree into it. i then add enough cooking liquid so that i end up with a mixture which is easy to spread on the husk but not so fluid as to run off the husk once applied.
at this point i flatten out some husks and spread my masa starting at one edge of the husk, spreading about two-thirds of the way up the husk and about half way across the husk. then lay the meat it the middle of the husk and covering between one-fourth and one-third of the masa. then roll the husk around the meat and masa so that the meat is completely surrounded by masa and the husk overlaps itself. you should end up so that the husk has a “tail” which you can fold down towards the filling.
as each tamale is wrapped i place it into a steamer. you want to stack the husks in such a way as to leave paths for the steam to go through as they cook. once the pot with the steamer is about two thirds full cover it with a lid and bring the water to a boil. i usually steam them for about 30 minutes and then remove from heat. at this point you could allow them to sit in the sealed steaming container until they are sufficiently cooled to eat but we generally need the steamer to cook more so we take the tamales out and wrap them in newspaper to cool. continue to cook your tamales until all are steamed and ready. depending on the size of the roast and how large you make them,this recipe will make anywhere from 6-11 dozen tamales. in order to satisfy various tastes in my family we cook come tamales as is, we add finely minced fresh jalapenos to the meat for those who want a little kick, and finely minced habaneros for those who like a lot of kick.
i realize that i haven’t listed as many exact measurements for this recipe but that is because there are so many variables i find it best to leave this to the individual cooks.
once, when i was in my late twenties, my dad decided he wanted to make tamales “old school” and so he purchased a scraped and cleaned pork head which we boiled to tenderness, trimmed and shredded all the meat we could find including peeling and chopping the tongue, we used this for our tamales. we decided that the results were fine but not really worth all the extra effort involved in getting all the meat from the head.
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Wow, thank you!
I have a really good friend who always complains about the one day a year while growing up when the extended family got together to make tamales, and I have BEGGED her to revive that tradition with her friends (me, me me!!), but apparently the memories are too difficult to reinstate.
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not everyone enjoys family traditions. my sister, while she loves the pizza and tamales when i make them, has not participated in either process since the early 90s 
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That is so cool! Thank you.
I does make me think is all the fruits, vegetable and grains that came from the ‘New World’ that changed the way everyone eats.
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Lovely post you shared. Thank you.
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The columbian exchange brought plenty of stuff in both direction across the ocean. Of course, the European contributions were more like measles and smallpox than corn, potatoes, and chilies.
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Sad but true.
Genocide of complete societies.
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Europeans also brought livestock/horses. Which helped spread the measles and smallpox.
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