Subj : Greasy Spoons To : Dave Drum From : Ruth Haffly Date : Sun Mar 09 2025 17:48:40 Hi Dave, DD> A lot of chilli cooks put sugar in their chilli. White or brown. Or DD> some will do molasses - which results in a barbeque sauce undertone. DD> And I knew one lady who used honey. Bv)= RH> I still don't like overly sweet tomato things. Some cooks put sugar in RH> their marinara sauce, I don't. The original recipe given to me by my RH> (Italian) MIL had no sugar, just tomato paste, water, salt, pepper, RH> oregano, parsley, basil and garlic powder. DD> Sugar in the pasta sauce seems to depend on which region of Italy the DD> recipe came from. I've told the story here before of hitting sugar in DD> a "daily special" at an Italian joint owned by a chilli cook of DD> Italian ancestry. And his explanation. Neveer ordered red sauced pasta DD> there DD> again. Mostly stuck with my usual chilli-mac. Mardango was, after all, DD> six time Illinois State chill champion. I remember reading your account of it. My MIL's ancestry is from Calabria, the toe of the boot--down near Sicily. She has put a carrot in her sauce as she claims that it absorbs some of the acid from the tomato in the sauce. I've not really noticed a difference in hers with the carrot and mine without. I think I'm a bit heavier with the spices (except salt) than she is. DD> 8<----- SLIUCE ----->8 DD> And once in a while I hit a gem I've not made before that gets made DD> right away .... RH> I've done that--pulled out from a cook book, stack of print outs or RH> whatever, something that looks good, try it and it becomes something RH> we'll re do on a semi regular basis. The spicy Moroccan chicken recipe RH> was in a magazine at my in-laws house in Florida one time when we were RH> visiting. It came home with us and I probably make it at least once a RH> year, making enough to put extra into the freezer to enjoy a couple RH> more times. DD> That's how I made my first "new to me" recipe. My mother gave me a New DD> York Times cookbook and I was browsing through the page when BINGO. DD> One jumped off the page into my lap and said "Let's go to the DD> kitchen". DD> And that's how I was introduced to fish Parmesan. Bv)= RH> We've come across some real winners that way. The echo here is what RH> made me finally break away from the green can (Parmesain) and red can RH> (Romano) cheese, going entirely to buying it by the chunk and grating RH> out own. The echo also introduced me to balsamic vinegar; my original RH> purchase was a "let's see if Steve will like this". Now it's a regular RH> buy. DD> My house mate spotted the cans of tuna I got at Hy-Vee and began a DD> long reminiscence about his Aunt Joan's tuna salad and how it was the DD> best he had ever had. He won't be expecting this: My mom's only uses for tuna were in a simple macaroni and tuna (with mayo) salad or just with mayo for a sandwich. I'll cut up an apple or two (depending on how much tuna I'm using) into the tuna and mayo. My MIL was skeptical of that when she saw me do it; now it's the way she likes her tuna. As a Tupperware dealer, she passed on the suggestion at some of the demos she did, giving me credit. (G) DD> Title: Tuna Patties DD> Categories: Seafood, Breads, Citrus, Vegetables, Chilies DD> Yield: 4 Pucks DD> 12 oz (2 cans) tuna DD> 2 ts Dijon mustard DD> 1/2 c White bread; in small pieces DD> 1 ts Lemon zest DD> 1 tb Lemon juice DD> 1 tb Water from the tuna DD> 2 tb Chopped fresh parsley DD> 2 tb Chopped fresh chives, green DD> - onions, or shallots DD> Salt & fresh ground pepper DD> 2 Dashes Crystal hot sauce DD> 1 lg Raw egg DD> 2 tb Olive oil DD> 1/2 ts Butter Looks good but we'd sub whole wheat bread for the white. --- Catch you later, Ruth rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28 .... One of these days, I'll quit procrastinating. --- PPoint 3.01 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28) .