Silversea Water Cooler: Part 3, Welcome!

[mysty]

Welcome back Miss S. Your wit and wisdom were missed here. :) Thanks for your comment on the pics!

 

J...From the first time I dipped my toe in the Cooler water I was a fan! The warm welcome, the convivial atmosphere, the variety of topics, the wit, the respect and the generosity of spirit warmed my soul. This is my favourite virtual place on earth.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lovely words M. :)

[jpalbny]

MissSophia, welcome back! Sorry to hear about the dining issues on Silver Muse. Hopefully that will get sorted out.

 

Something occured to me looking through the Cooler and other threads. That is how talented coolers are! I know I shouldn't be suprised but we are seeing some great photography and some great food, and people are also trying to help others. And most posts are nice, and generous and appreciative of others.

It is of course the way, things should be, but it hasn't always been so, and it is nice to see it so.

 

J...From the first time I dipped my toe in the Cooler water I was a fan! The warm welcome, the convivial atmosphere, the variety of topics, the wit, the respect and the generosity of spirit warmed my soul. This is my favourite virtual place on earth.

 

It sure is fun here at the cooler!

 

***

 

Dinner tonight was a quickie. I have my own way of making eggplant parmigiana. It is normally such a fussy, time-intensive dish, where you bread and fry individual slices of eggplant then bake with tomato sauce and cheese. The eggplant slices end up soaking up a ton of oil in the process, and it's a very heavy dish. I'm not a fan of all that breading; it kills the taste of the eggplant.

 

So I can get one in the oven in under 20 minutes. Slice the eggplant, layer the uncooked slices with tomato sauce and cheese, and bake the whole thing for about an hour. Then cool it for 15 minutes so the liquid gels a little bit. When you eat it, you actually taste eggplant and tomatoes, not breading. Here's what it looks like:

 

 

 

Here's the cross-section of the cake we baked last week. Love all that mocha filling! We only have a little bit left.

 

 

And yesterday's dinner. Baked flounder with a tomato-mushroom sauce. Also a dish with minimal prep time and it baked in the oven in about as much time as it took to boil some spätzle to serve it over.

 

 

Good night all. This on call week is getting tiresome and it's only Wednesday.

[UKCruiseJeff]

JP,

 

That lovely food of yours is making me quite dispondant of the fondant. There was a time when my food seemed to be "up there" but now everyone is doing better than me and my stuff looks like peasant stuff.

 

Lovely pasta! I wonder whether the egg plant would be nice thinly sliced and dipped in a very thin Japanese batter and deep fried to crispyness with the tomato sauce used as a sort of relish?

 

Reading a fascinating bit of social history of life in the 1300's in the UK at the moment. It is amazing how much life has changed rather than simply evolved.

[Camillus112]

Lovely food, JP! I don't eat much sweets, but that cake of yours would not be a pass-by.

[MissSophia]

Thanks for the welcome back......still trawling along emptying cases et al.....

Hired a new gardener before l went away and I'm thrilled with what he's done in my absence, so much so that I've been pottering around this morning planning for the summer......

Simple lunch today, chicken pie with roast potatoes and peas.....oh and gravy 😃

 

S😊

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

JP...yummy, yummy, yummy! I know you are busy right now. When you get a spare minute (really who has spare minutes these day), I could use some of your wisdom on the Finger Lakes area, winery suggestions and accommodation suggestions. We have a nephew getting married in Sturbridge, MA at the beginning of August this year. It's about a 6.5 hour drive from here. I thought we might combine that trip with a side trip to the Finger Lakes area. Any input would be appreciated! :)

 

J.... Food presentation is a lovely thing. However, flavour is key! You can't judge a book by its cover! Don't put your spatula down just yet! :)

 

Miss S. ....happy to hear that you are pleased with your new gardener! That should make your life a little easier. :)

 

Have a great day all!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good afternoon all,

 

A Bighams chicken and mushroom pie with mash today ....

 

 

 

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[jpalbny]

JP,

 

That lovely food of yours is making me quite dispondant of the fondant. There was a time when my food seemed to be "up there" but now everyone is doing better than me and my stuff looks like peasant stuff.

 

Lovely pasta! I wonder whether the egg plant would be nice thinly sliced and dipped in a very thin Japanese batter and deep fried to crispyness with the tomato sauce used as a sort of relish?

 

Reading a fascinating bit of social history of life in the 1300's in the UK at the moment. It is amazing how much life has changed rather than simply evolved.

 

Jeff, don't be silly. All of us here at the Cooler cook differently, not necessarily better than each other. I'm envious of Shots' cooking. I think we could all throw one heck of a great potluck dinner!

 

Eggplant as you describe is a great appetizer, IMO. It's too rich for a full dinner. I've eaten something similar on SS, served as a small portion of 2-3 slices, and a nice ribbon of flavorful chunky tomato sauce. IIRC, the tomato sauce was more chutney flavored than a typical Americanized ("Italian") tomato sauce. It was very nice.

 

Wow, a lot has gone on since the 1300s. I think about all the stuff my 98 year old grandmother has seen. From school in a one-room schoolhouse in northern NY, all the way to Skyping with her older sister before she passed a few years back. Or my Grandfather, born in 1900, flew airplanes in St. Louis between WWI and II, knew Amelia Earhart, then lived long enough to see the moon landings and the space shuttle. And that's in less than a century, not 800 years.

 

Greetings Coolers!

JP...yummy, yummy, yummy! I know you are busy right now. When you get a spare minute (really who has spare minutes these day), I could use some of your wisdom on the Finger Lakes area, winery suggestions and accommodation suggestions. We have a nephew getting married in Sturbridge, MA at the beginning of August this year. It's about a 6.5 hour drive from here. I thought we might combine that trip with a side trip to the Finger Lakes area. Any input would be appreciated! :)

 

Will do. Start with our favorite winery - Hermann J Wiemer.

 

If you want a really nice place to stay, Geneva on the Lake is hard to beat. Belhurst castle is nice also, though their reservation system is antediluvian. You actually have to call to see if they have rooms, and they never do because it's always booked for weddings.

 

More to come. Off to the ICU for now.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks JP,

 

The social history route you may recall a bit of an obsession of mine in that one of my great regrets is our inability to travel back to those times in the way that future generations will be able to travel back to our times and see in moving colour how we lived. I'm working my way through .... currently on the medieval period and using well researched historians who are basically walking you through the periods. It isn't about kings and queens ans wars and Popes but about the trivial things of what people eat, and how they travel, and how they lived their daily lives. I think for example most Brits are not aware that between around 1066 to the mid 1300s English people's first language was French and English wasn't used either in conversation or written word for most except in some rural areas.

[jpalbny]

Thanks JP,

 

The social history route you may recall a bit of an obsession of mine in that one of my great regrets is our inability to travel back to those times in the way that future generations will be able to travel back to our times and see in moving colour how we lived. I'm working my way through .... currently on the medieval period and using well researched historians who are basically walking you through the periods. It isn't about kings and queens ans wars and Popes but about the trivial things of what people eat, and how they travel, and how they lived their daily lives. I think for example most Brits are not aware that between around 1066 to the mid 1300s English people's first language was French and English wasn't used either in conversation or written word for most except in some rural areas.

 

Absolutely. Though my understanding is rather elementary, I know that William brought Old Norman with him in 1066 and it marked the death knell of Old English. Old Norman was a significant precursor to both French and Middle (and Modern) English, but before it evolved into English, it was widely spoken in medieval England.

 

Thus there is way more word homology between modern French and English, than there is between modern German and English, even though English is called a Germanic language! Go figure. English retained much of its grammatical structure and syntax from German (e.g., noun before adjective), but lost most of its Germanic vocabulary, in the transition between Old and Modern English.

 

Since I speak a little of both French and German, this has fascinated me. I have an easier time with German grammar, but the words are just miserable.

 

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[UKCruiseJeff]

It is all fascinating JP!

 

In the 1300s for example the population halved between 1300 and 1400.

 

It was also fervently believed based on "scientific fact" from doctors that women couldn't conceive unless they had an orgasm. This believe had all sorts of unintended consequences in many ways.

[ShotsnCruises]

Wow! Talk to history, world cultures, events.... that's why I love this board.

I've never had anyone be envious of my cooking, especially someone who has never tasted my food!!! What a complement.

I'm not sure what I will be making tonight, but the DH is deserving of a nice meal. I've been tired after work the last few days and not at my best in the kitchen. I get out early today, so I guess I had better make it up to him!

 

 

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[UKCruiseJeff]

Have a blueberry muffin Shots!

 

Just into the oven for a later muffin tea ....

 

 

 

I'm going to experiment over the next few days. I fancy trying to make chestnut muffins with a muffin cream topping.

 

 

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[UKCruiseJeff]

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2017/04/20/couple-200-cruises-15-years/

 

 

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[mysty]

Thanks JP!

 

J...200 cruises in 15 years!!!!! Unbelievable!

[Camillus112]

Long but lovely day with my grandchildren and finally home. Jeff, that chicken pie is so artfully done it looks like a cake, and I'm sure the muffins turned out delicious. Eating out for both lunch and dinner in semi fast food places has made my stomach heavy. Back to fruits and veggies tomorrow....

[Camillus112]

Mysty, JP's suggestions regarding the Finger Lakes Region are very appropriate to your route from Canada (I am assuming you would be traveling from the Toronto area...). If you would divert some, I would recommend Skaneateles, with a beautiful lake and a picturesque town. The Sherwood Inn is a lovely accommodation, with a very good restaurant and tavern. There is a dinner boat that gives a very pleasant cruise and view of the surroundings. It is quite small village filled with happy looking people. Ithaca, overlooking Cayuga Lake, is a much bigger town, but the lake surroundings are not pretty. Nature wise, Tauganok Falls and its park are worth visiting. As per JP, Weimer, for wines, of course!!!!

[mysty]

Cam...Thanks so very much for your suggestions!!!! We will travel from Ottawa. The dinner boat sounds wonderful! Really appreciate your input!

[ShotsnCruises]

Greetings Coolers, despite my pledge to cook ANYTHING DH wanted for dinner tonight, he chose tacos again. I have a picture this time. I strayed a bit from the authentic with some fresh diced heirloom tomatoes.

I have found the trick is to keep thinly sliced beef in a Tupperware container in the marinade all week, and to use just enough for 2 servings. The longer the meat sits, the better the tenderness and flavor. Also, it makes for quick tasty meals!

 

I'm thinking of homemade pizza tomorrow. Although, it won't be anything quite as amazing as Jeff's. I have been unable to find an importer for the pizza oven. Also, my crust technique isn't quite as perfected!

 

 

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[UKCruiseJeff]

Good morning all .....

 

Wifey in bed and me picking around on the remote control looking for stuff to view!

 

Shots, that looks good, and I could do with one of those now.

 

Thanks Camels ... they were good and muffinmania is breaking out again here. I go through phases where there's none and then I get fired up. So I've cleared a muffin shelf in the kitchen and I have a load in mind.

 

I have in mind a few over the next few days ... the main one playing in my mind is some coffee and walnut muffins. Some chestnut with chestnut puree topping. I'm going to work out a pina colada one, but not yet thought through.

 

Here are some from previous muffinmanics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[UKCruiseJeff]

There is nuffin like a muffin.

 

 

 

 

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[jpalbny]

Tasty muffins! Sometimes we'll make them for breakfast. We have an old favorite cappuccino crumb muffin recipe that we are fond of. And one with raspberries...

 

Love those tacos, too. We always use ground beef in ours. Easy for lazy cooks...

 

Tonight I had to run back in for an hour before dinner. I was ravenous when I got home so we made a warp-speed stir fry with shrimp, mushrooms, and snow peas. Tasty, and it disappeared before any pictures were taken.

 

Plugging along on the India blog. Just started the last day, before we fly home. Will be good to finish, as we fly to Prague 4 weeks from tomorrow. Time to finish the last trip and get ready for the next!

 

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[UKCruiseJeff]

JP,

 

That stir fry has stirred me. It sounds lovely.

 

I wish there was stuff I could do at night that doesn't produce smells that wake wifey up! It is such a curse not to need sleep and to be peckish.

 

I have orderd some bream for tommorow. I think a hollondaise.

[spinnaker2]

Dreaded packing begun.

Posted yesterday to cooler, but it vanished.

Internet is not good.

I have been keeping up with the Coolers.

 

:-)