A taco salad can have the emphasis on the “taco,” or on the “salad.” I’ve had taco salads in which the lettuce played roughly the same role that it does in an actual taco: more of a garnish than a base.
Meat pies are popular in some parts of the US, but seem almost unknown in others. Natchitoches, a town in Louisiana, is particularly known for them, with the classic being a fried pie filled with a spicy mix of minced pork and beef. Crawfish pies are also pretty common in Louisiana. I know of restaurants in Texas and Oklahoma that specialize in fried pies, both sweet and savory. I haven’t really seen this type of meat pie much outside the South, though.
I know people from Russia and China who have complained that root beer tastes like medicine. The Russian guy was particularly disappointed because he thought he was buying a real beer from a vending machine.
The more I think about it, you’re right. Salisbury is a hamburger in gravy. Served up all fancy and stuff. Chicken fried is a battered and fried cheap ass slice of cow, served up all fancy and stuff.
Okay, but there is zero lettuce in Frito pie.
In my experience, taco salad is corn chips or a fried tortilla bowl, topped with taco meat, cheese, onions, lettuce, salsa and sour cream. There’s always quite a bit of lettuce any time I’ve had it.
It might interest you to know that pumpkin pie (or pumpkin anything else for that matter) is not made from the interior pulp. It’s made from the shell; peeled, cooked, mashed or pureed, then mixed with spices, sugar, binder and baked in a pie shell. Anyhow, pumpkin is prepared about the same way you’d cook a winter squash. In fact, fresh pumpkin can be used as an interesting variation on many squash recipes. Whole pumpkins store well too, one reason they were a lot more common in the time before refrigeration.
That’s not quite accurate. It’s made from the pulp, after it has been cooked and separated from the outer shell. The stringy stuff and seeds are discarded.
Well I’m learning a lot about pumpkins I never knew.
Just keep in mind you don’t use the same pumpkins that you would buy for a jack o lantern. They are much, much smaller and sold as sugar pumpkins (or some such) in the produce section of the grocery store, next to the winter squashes.
I like a baked squash, baked like a potato with butter, etc. I thought of pumpkins as a weird hollow thing with no edible flesh except for a little mushy stuff and seeds in the cavity.
First off, unless I’ve lost the ability to count, that’s 16 things, not 15.
[ol]
[li]Rootbeer Floats - Liked them as a kid. Haven’t had one in years.[/li][li]Sloppy Joes - Ground beef in seasoned tomato sauce on a roll. What’s not to like?[/li][li]Velveeta - Notice that the label doesn’t say cheese. It says “cheese food”. I don’t eat anything they feed to cheese.[/li][li]Hot dogs - Yes please.[/li][li]Cheese Whiz - It’s not a proper Philly cheese steak if it’s not on an Amoroso roll with Cheese Whiz. (Okay, provolone works also.)[/li][li]Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie - Never had it. The thought makes me queasy.[/li][li]Pumpkin Pie - Of course! It’s not Thanksgiving without it.[/li][li]Frito pies - Chili? Yes please, but I think I’d prefer to dip it with Fritos rather than pouring the chili onto them.[/li][li]Grits - I don’t think I’ve ever had them, but I like oatmeal okay. Is it similar to that?[/li][li]Corn dog - Meh. Take it or leave it.[/li][li]Jello - Something my mother fed us when we were sick.[/li][li]Chicken fried steak - Yum.[/li][li]Red velvet cake - Chocolate layer cake with some red coloring.[/li][li]White sandwich bread - Great for PB&J, otherwise, I prefer harder darker breads.[/li][li]Peanut butter - Yes! Especially on white bread with strawberry preserves, or on white toast with butter.[/li][li]Biscuits and gravy - Hell yes![/li][/ol]
Someone mentioned scrapple. I don’t eat it often, it’s horrible for you; but properly made scrapple is the food of the gods.
No, they’re more like acorn squashes inside.
Ignorance fought.
AFAIK the stringy stuff w/seeds is the pulp. But I see what you mean. According to this recipe I’ve been doing it wrong. It advises cooking the pumpkin (after removing the insides) with the skin or outer shell intact, then scooping the “pulp” or inner shell out and discarding the outer layer. I’ve always peeled or sliced the outer part off before cooking, which works fine, but is probably a lot more work…
Ya learn somethin’ every day… 
Yeah, in any recipe I’ve seen, the part you actually eat is referred to as “pulp”.
I missed this!
My dad used to grow pumpkins, and my mom used them to bake pies. He grew giant pumpkins for a few years, large enough for a child to sit inside of. My mother said one year she made three pies from the eyes/nose/mouth we’d cut out of the jack-o-lantern.
I always use canned. I can’t be bothered to buy a pumpkin and cook it just to make the pie. A lot of “canned pumpkin” is actually Hubbard squash, which probably tastes better than actual pumpkin.
Well, the little dense pumpkins have better flavor than the big watery ones you carve faces into, but you can make pie from any of them.
Yes.
I’d say a pumpkin has, moving from the outside in, a rind or skin (the hard part on the outside of the shell) and then the pulp (the softer part that makes up the bulk of the shell), then some stringy stuff, and then seeds. The pulp and the seeds are good the eat. The other bits aren’t.
[quote=“davidm, post:151, topic:706307”]
[li]Grits - I don’t think I’ve ever had them, but I like oatmeal okay. Is it similar to that?[/li][/QUOTE]
It is a similar idea but not really the same. Grits are a special type of ground cornmeal that you eat as a cereal after boiling it (for a very long time for non-instant grits). However, it is much more course than oatmeal. It doesn’t taste like much one its own but your can put whatever you want into it to make it have flavor.
Most people add butter and choose savory flavors like mixing it with meat drippings and adding hot sauce but you can do whatever you want with it. You can mix in fruit or syrup if you want because grits are really just a base for whatever flavors you feel like. Some people claim they hate grits just because it is a traditional Southern staple but that is basically the same thing as saying you don’t like cooked rice.
You may have had grits and not even known it. Grits are also known as polenta in Italy and the fanciest Italian restaurants serve it as a side dish. I can’t think of any reason why anyone would think it is an odd or offensive food. It is very bland on its own just like white rice and the entire flavor comes from whatever you choose to put into it.
A roommate of mine cooked up a batch of rice, added some milk and sugar and ate it like a breakfast cereal. Gross!
On second thought, not that strange.
Cream of rice. My mother used to make that.
Pumpkin’s a savoury vegetable to some of us, this is like having sweet broccoli pie for dessert.