To our British friends living in the USA...

no it's the Belgians if that is the correct word for someone from Belgium

yes Belgians are correct. When the English say biscuits, do they mean cookies?
A funny story: I went with my husband to visit an old lady he knew from childhood when he was 55 and she was close to approaching 100. He told me, in front of her, that he used to come by her house on the way home from school and con her out of cookies. She said, "Johnny! what makes you think you conned me out of those cookies! Why do you think I had those home-baked cookies all the time!" He was dumb-struck.
Her name is Love Hamilton and the name suits her well. Yes, she is still living........I think she's 104.

What a wonderful story, Wood! Kenny's name is Hamilton so that name sounds especially nice to me. It would sure fit his mother ~ she's the type woman that would do something like that. :)

Y'all's pasties sound like our pot pies and burritos ~ yummy things wraped up in some type of breading. But the pasties sure do sound better. I'll have to try them for dinner sometime.

nah they aint burritos. I'll go buy some in the morning to photogragh and let you see.

yep cookies = biscuits but to us it kinda means the smaller fatter ones that have choc chips in em.

Cadbury's was a UK corp (or maybe Canadian?) that was bought out by Hershey's a few years ago. Now mostly they are made with American chocolate. Lindt chocolate is wonderful. I really really really love Gheridelli's (San Francisco), but it is almost unobtainable here in Ohio. Italian chocolate is also incredibly good. Ever had it? Much less sweet than most other types, but creamer.

Aren't you nice, Mark! Or did you just want an excuse to buy some? LOL!

lupinelover, if you belong to Sam's Club, you should be able to get the Ghirardelli chocolate baking chips, at least. And yes, they are good, even if they do come in a 10-pound bag!

DH worked for a Swiss-based company for many years. When he went abroad for occasional meetings, we were always glad to see him come home, especially if he had chocolate stuffed in his bag, lol.

Speaking of US companies, last I heard Hershey's is up for sale, and Nestle is trying hard to buy them It's a bittersweet chapter in our country's candymaking history :(

What a marvellous name - Love Hamilton - and I wish she had been around in my time and place. I'm sure I would have loved this Love!! Sad about Hershey and the town's people since it provided so many jobs. See what you started Amaryllisgal and how we love to digress!! :-) I still buy the biscuits (cookies) that I used to love back home but boy what a price to pay!! When I lived near Norwich (England) the smell of the choc factory was overwhelming and nauseating. Yuk!!

It's amazing but just as we were discussing Love, I had to do some research in archives for an enquirer (inquirer)? who was working on their genealogy. I ran across Love Hamilton and her late husband Neil. It turns out her real name is Loveda. Never heard it before.
By the way, if you see chocolates with a faint whitish cast on the outside, it is only cocoa butter, not spoiled. It means the chocolates got a bit too warm and the fats (cocoa butter) leached out to the outside.
By the way, you all haven't lived until you've eaten pork brains cooked up with scrambled eggs.

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This message was edited Sunday, Oct 6th 7:34 PM

This message was edited Tuesday, Oct 8th 10:13 AM

I used to think that the whitish hue to choc was due to it being old. Now I know different!! So is Loveday!! :-) But I think I'll pass on the brains....lol!! Although I could do with a little more to beef up my grey cells!!

This message was edited Saturday, Oct 5th 9:04 AM

Pork brains? Offal! LOL

what a lovely word that is.........

Oh, Louisa - y'all go right ahead and digress away! I'm having a great time reading about everyone's food memories!

Well, thank you Maam!! :-)

How many of you have stains on your ceiling from a food that exploded, a blender that went nuts, or a pressure cooker that blew its top?

Not me Woody! Probably just a case of good luck!! :-) But I have shaken containers of tomato ketchup and orange juice only to find out that the tops were loose and the darn stuff covered most of the kitchen and the cats!! lol!!

I still say pork brains and ramps are good eatin'. Mmmm-Mmmm, good!

Stains on the ceiling! Yep. About 30 years ago my father and brothers got into a tug of war trying to get the cork out of a bottle of wine for Thanksgiving dinner. It came out, and splattered all over the ceiling. Still there, after 15 coats of paint. This is part of the family lore now. How not to open a bottle of wine :)

Woodspirit, what are "ramps"?

BRAINS?? RAMPS??

EEEEEEEEUUUUUCH!!!!

First of all, I've heard of people eating the insides of wee animal heads, yyeeuuccchh!!!, but what in the name of Godfrey are RAMPS!!!!??????

*burp*

Wintermoor

Oh, you-all are a-speakin' my language! I LOVE menudo!! And lengua sandwiches and beef heart stew and liver 'n onions and everything else! Mmmm-MMM! I'm one that thinks offal is awe-ful! LOL!

Winter, ramps are something that even YOU would eat! http://www.forestryencyclopedia.net/index.html?targetId=362&&anchorId=358

Isn't ramps seaweed!! I think I love it!! :-)

ramps if not mistaken is a wild onion or leeks ... http://southernfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa051901a.htm , http://www.main.nc.us/yancey/Ramps/ramps_or_wild_leek.htm , http://www.gloriamundipress.com/id261.htm

Thanks Mavie - I believe you are correct!! I was thinking of kelp - doesn't sound a bit like ramps now does it!!

my pleasure Louisa :)! when i saw the word ramp, i was thinking of the hind leg of a pig, but had my doubts. i remember the wild onion or leeks when i saw a chef on the cooking show how they fix it for cooking. to be honest, i have to research it to find the right identity.

Ramps is from a Middle English name for most types of onions (and their relatives) used for food.

Actually, ramps grow wild in the Appalachian Mtns., usualy above about 4000 feet. They are somethig of a cross between a garlic and onion, very strong. Cooked, they are great! Most people cook them up in a frying pan and then add scrambled eggs. But they can be eaten raw. There is a ramp festival in Waynesville, NC and a contest to see who can eat the most raw ramps. But oh dear gussie, what they do to your breath. I have heard of children being sent home from school because of the odor of raw ramps on their breath. It's worse than raw garlic!

LOL when I saw ramps, I thought Wood meant the kind you get on/off the freeway *blush* I thought he was escaping the awe-ful offal LOL

Winter, the inside of wee animal heads is "head cheese". Also offal. And the smell of it cooking is awful, not awe-ful.

Wingnut, you are going to have to send some Menudo to Wintermoor to help him with the morning afters :D

My husband's family used to hunt a lot. We ate a lot of squirrel and rabbit. My father-in-law would cook the squirrel heads too. Then he sucked the heads at the dinner table! He got my daughter to do that when she was a kid. To this day, we kid her about it.
It's funny, but my husband can't hunt anymore. He just doesn't like killing the animals. He can still fish, but just barely.....

Wood, my dad was a big hunter, too! He HAD to be, buying 500 acres on a teacher's salary (he was buying his family ranch from his siblings to preserve it). We ate a LOT of strange things, but I can honestly say that I've never sucked a squirrel head. I won't say "Eww!", but know that I feel it. LOL! And I can relate to the not liking to kill animals. I hate that part of raising your own food. But I console myself by giving the animals the best, happiest possible life beforehand then getting it over with quick so they don't suffer. We like to say a little prayer of sorts thanking them for their sacrifice to feed us, too. Like they say about a ham and egg breakfast, "The hen's involved ~ the pig's committed."

Lupine, yeah! That would do it! Menudo is the BEST hangover cure, unless you have a valium on hand and three more hours' time to sleep. ;) And head cheese! Yeah! Actually, head cheese is just bits of meat (yes, usually from the head, but real meat, not brains) and gelled meat juice. http://www.foodtv.com/terms/tt-r2/0,4474,3046,00.html You know how you can bake a roast or turkey, then put it in the fridge and the broth in the bottom of the pan congeals? That's what holds the "cheese" together ~ if you cook it a while longer, it won't have to be refrigerated to congeal. A similar Mexican thing is tamales ~ that's meat from the head wrapped in corn masa and steamed. Mmm-mmmmm!

A similar Mexican thing is tamales ~

when I am next in Mexico or Belize I will never let one pass my lips again ugh!

ROFL!!!!

Aw, come on, Mark! It's just meat from the other end ~ ever eaten a rump roast or ham? You'll eat cow and pig butt but you won't eat their heads? ;)

Well, Wing, when you put it like that !!!! ROCL

The only head cheese I have seen (most unwillingly) was my grandma cooked it for my dad when I was a kid. She used calf brains. Yucky squishy things too as I recall.

the only tamales I ever helped make or ate were made from ground beef, but of course who knows what the supermarkets use for "ground beef"?

Or how about chorizo made from the salivary glands? um-um. I miss that.

Oooh, oooh, chorizo! Yesssss! But NOT from salivary glands. Ick! Yes, there IS something I won't eat. ;)

Wing, that is the BEST kind!

It has long been a policy around my house to grind our own beef and sausage. The grinders are cheap and you can control the fat content. Also, there is no offal or awful stufff in there. One thing we discovered though, the little grinders are not sharpened and you have to do that first. It's pretty easy too.

Home made sausages - you can't beat em!! I dare not tell you what I bought today when I visited the International Food Store. Not offal, not cheese, but English goodies in time for Christmas!! AND blackcurrant jam - oh I'm in paradise!!

My black current bush never produces enough to make jam! Just tartlets. I am so jealous! I never thought to look for it in stores though. I will have to find some. We have a lot of international food stores here, mostly Asian and Mexican, but I know we must have a good European market somewhere!