<p>Long green beans - I chop them about an inch long and stir fry with cut up chicken and black bean sauce. Or, you can chop them about 1/4 - 1/2 inch long and mix with cooked ground beef and spices.</p>
<p>I am not sure what ridged lufta is but it sounds like sing gwa. I peel off the ridges, slice and put it in soup.</p>
<p>garland and fresno,</p>
<p>I take the same approach to freezing pre-pesto. Just process the basil with the oil (I find that adding a handful of parsley does not change the flavor, but helps the color) and freeze. I always freeze some in ice cube trays, pop them out when frozen, and store in ziplocks. These basil cubes are great additions to soups all winter!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I LOVE okra!!</p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone mentioned this, but we used to do it all the time when I was younger and we didn’t have lots of money:</p>
<p>3 jars of beef gravy, 1 box instant mashed potatoes (Potato Buds are the best IMHO), 1 pound ground beef</p>
<p>Brown ground beef, making sure to break it up into small pieces. Add gravy to desired consistency. Pour over prepared mashed potatoes.</p>
<p>We always had it with biscuits and salad. DELICIOUS…I ask for it on my birthday every year.</p>
<p>I love almost all vegetables, but, try as I may, I cannot make myself like okra. That gelatinous business just doesn’t do it for me!</p>
<p>Its’ Luffa not lufta(sorry for the typo). Here is a picture</p>
<p>[Loofa</a> (Loofah ) seed-Ya Lu F1](<a href=“http://www.agrohaitai.com/fruit&gourd/luffa/yalu.htm]Loofa”>http://www.agrohaitai.com/fruit&gourd/luffa/yalu.htm)</p>
<p>Why okra is good for you?</p>
<p>[Okra</a> - Food Facts & History - Food Reference](<a href=“http://www.foodreference.com/html/artokra.html]Okra”>Okra was discovered around Ethiopia during the 12th century B.C.)</p>
<p>[WikiAnswers</a> - What are the health benefits of the okra coffee](<a href=“http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_health_benefits_of_the_okra_coffee]WikiAnswers”>What are the health benefits of the okra coffee? - Answers)</p>
<p>mafool-Alton Brown did a great episode of “Good eats” on how to make okra without it being slimey. </p>
<p>I personally love it the best in gumbo, because it almost eliminates the need for a thickening agent.</p>
<p>Cook okra with anything acidic like tomato will make okra less slimey.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. I will make myself try it again. And I will try to get past my life-long eeew reponse.</p>
<p>Is okra a southern thing? Do I need to have been eating it since childhood to get it?</p>
<p>^I’ve never thought so…I do have southern family, but I didn’t try it for the first time until I was about 13 or 14.</p>
<p>Curried chicken is cheap, easy and lowfat. Thighs are cheaper than white meat. I hate them, but just eat the tomato/onion/curry sauce like soup anyhow, sometimes with a tiny blob of nonfat plain or greek yogurt.
Use a good curry powder, like the madras in the little square can.</p>
<p>A clamming update: We had success, or should say, H and his uncle, I just kayaked nearby and took pictures (don’t have a license yet.) Had free clams in wine/garlic sauce over pasta for dinner last night, and chowder today, with more left to freeze. Big fun, must get my license!</p>
<p>And you live right outside of NYC? Kudos to you, Garland. I’m coming to visit. We have not grown a thing here since the ground has stone underneath the top soil.</p>
<p>Hard knocks, so sorry for the pasta intolerance in your house. A friend with Celiac disease taught me about the rice lasagna noodles, which I think are just as good, and less obviously not wheat, when baked with lasagna ingredients. </p>
<p>Regardless, your family may be better off with less pasta unless you’re a skinny bunch. I think my overuse of it contributed to family weight problems. Too easy when cooking last minute. </p>
<p>Left to my own devices I’d live on beans for protein, with a little cheese on top. Black beans, frijoles con tortillas, dahl. All sorts of cultures use legumes as a mainstay. Cheap, helpful with cholesterol issues, and filling. Satisying when spiced appropriately.</p>
<p>Garland you must be living my old self sufficiency dream. Good for you!</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, raised beds. :)</p>
<p>I’ve got a different problem a shady small lot shaded by my neighbor’s trees. Not one of them belongs to me! I do manage tomatoes on my patio, and herbs in various places including my front yard. Most years I plant some lettuce, though it hasn’t done well lately.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse–we used to get a lot of veggies in our little inner suburban neighborhood, but the trees around us got too big. Our crop that I described here came from our new garden at the house in S. Jersey we are hoping to move to full time, where there’s more sunlight and it stays warmer cuz it’s on a cape sticking out into the ocean. We didn’t expect it to do so well, because the land is so sandy, but H did a good job building the soil up–we can’t wait to expand more next year to build on his success. (and we just need one full-time job with benefits to quit this backandforth gig and move down there permanently.)</p>
<p>Garland: are you harvesting eastern softshell clams? If so how much cleaning to you do for those things? I get these critters on the left bank coast, on mud flats, which means that I must clean out the guts. Other clams I do not clean. </p>
<p>I am the only one that eats them and wish I can enjoy them with someone else. I can get a limit of 24 without too much trouble.</p>
<p>Calreader, I made your “Quinoa with Black Beans” (post #6) and it was great! I did not have cilantro, so I skipped it. Thank you for posting it.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s great! So glad to hear it worked out. </p>
<p>My luck isn’t so good this week - yesterday I made a huge amount of beef-barley soup and homemade rolls and I didn’t really like either one. Back to the cookbooks.</p>
<p>Longprime–\ they are hardshells (littlenecks, cherrystones, chowder–all various sizes of quahogs). They take minimal cleaning. H scrubbed the outsides, but they’re clean on the inside. Virtually no sand inside. Luckily, clams are one thing the whole family likes.</p>
<p>I am getting the sniffles and a scratchy throat today so I am making a pot of miso soup but just adding potatoes and sliced onions to it. Makes a soothing potage. Autumn is definitely here.</p>