Zeldar, In my head, I pronounce “Vee’-tah Bee-Ya’-tah”. How it is truly pronounced in Latin may be “wee-ta”? but let’s not worry about that unless a true Latin scholar appears here with scoldings.
Yes, you are the link on these threads. What’s your preference for the thread title or group name?
Thanks for the pronunciation guide. I was seeing “Vee-tah Bee-tah” so I wanted to get it right before that got ingrained.
There’s no doubt I have posted the most in both these threads, but I would really love it if others could start posting without expecting replies from me, and not being miffed if I didn’t reply to every post. I’d like to see some side conversations going on and maybe adding my remarks only occasionally. As I said a little earlier, I’d like it to be like a party. Maybe even, perish the thought, a Chat Room environment. By my count we have had 24 people post at least twice in these two threads and surely some of you have things to discuss with others besides just me.
If it were left to me, I suppose I could be persuaded to call it (and us) Gossipy Geezers, or something that would imply frivolity and an older age group appeal.
But surely that name sucks, right?
Gossipy Geezers, as it should be! Zeldar, yes, you must reply to each and every post I make here, or I will be truly miffed into malicious malevolence. Do Not Even Consider not responding!
I’m going to work on oatmeal cookies. There’d better be a response waiting here … or I’m reporting you, Zeldar. Yes, reporting you for Breach of Response on Message Board. You don’t want to have to face those sanctions … no, sirree, no.
It’s negative 2 here. I’m waiting for it to warm up to a balmy zero before I go out.
As you wish, Ms. Beata-tude. Here’s your reply. Please don’t throw me in that briar patch.
It finally got above freezing around noon or 1-ish yesterday so I made use of that to go sit in the emissions=checking lane for an hour before waltzing right in with no line to get my decal to keep from getting pulled over for expired tags, which would have started tomorrow.
Freezing was my target. What’s magic about zero?
NP, I got my Mom’s 400+ cookbook collection, and love cooking enough to check foodgawker and a few other cooking sites pretty much every day, and mrAru and our roomie are food-adventurous enough to be willing to try pretty much anything we can get the ingredients for, afford to make and aren’t actually allergic to 
I envy your adventurous spirit in that department. Our food intake is rather same-old-same-old with the highlight these days being Indian take-out. Otherwise it’s frozen foods warm-up, grilled cheese and stuff out of cans. Now and then we’ll order delivery from a couple of pizza/pasta places.
And I used to collect cookbooks!
Cookbooks are fun to read! but then I just come back to my usual bowl of quinoa, nuts and berries with Tabasco sauce! cos I hate to cook anymore.
Or this week’s speciality: Guacamole! 
Im all for Gossipy Geezers!
Good deal! Maybe we can just use that until a better one comes into being.
I love me some Tabasco too.
Let me tell you about my special treat that I try to work in at least once a week.
Dinty Moore Beef Stew in the 20 oz. can. Dump it in a pan. Add varying amounts, depending on the phase of the moon, of:
Tabasco
Worcestershire
A-1
oregano
tarragon
lemon juice
If I’m extra hungry I dump in a small can of Niblets corn and chop up a white onion in it.
Heat until bubbling.
Fall upon it and devour it.
That sounds like a good hearty winter meal! No roadkill tho??? 
The DH usually puts a Kroger markeddownmysterymeat crockpot on once a week and he eats that with many variations. Meat&potatoes Lancaster County guy! You ever been to Amish Country in PA anyone?
Now this conjures up some fun times for me! Years ago, soon after Zoe were married we made the acquaintance of a Cajun family who had moved to Nashville to try their hand at a “Cajun Deli” not far from our place, making it easy to go there often.
One of their menu items was Roadkill Sauce Piquant, which was obviously just a joke name for something to attract attention. It sold!
They had some really great dishes, and probably the best boudin I ever ate.
They went back to Louisiana after the place’s novelty wore off but we’ve stayed in touch with them to celebrate (over the phone) 11:11 on Nov/11 each year.
Newsflash!
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Ok, I’ve returned to see Zeldar’s response which gives me great relief to be free of reporting him to the mods and insisting that they reach through the computer, grab him by the neck, and force him to Respond.To.My.Each.And.Every.Post. Some of the mods were squawking about human rights on message boards and it’s just much easier this way.
What’s magic about zero? The zero temperature mark is just winter procrastination, pure and simple. Back from the store, realized I’ve bought the 4 th bottle of Tabasco (chipotle version)
Zeldar has Indian take-out? Nummm for vindaloo, naan.
Aruzqan’s place sounds like the place to be … what nice offerings!
Serafina, Have never been to Amish country in Pennsylvania, but there are Amish living in MN & WI.
Quacamole: avacados, green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, salt, pepper
Serve with lime chips.
Quacamole: avacados, roma tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, salt, pepper
Serve with lime chips.
I forgot roma tomatoes in the previous post.
Thats a great story! I love Cajun cooking. In Loosiana last time I was there I visited the Tabasco factory on the island and even had some Tabasco ice cream! it was really good and unusual. My new favorite now is the Buffalo Flavor Tabasco. A bit tangier than the original.
We were there back in the 80’s. The salt dome where all their “secret ingredient” comes from may be the high point in the parish! I guess you must have seen where similar salt domes in that area are collapsing and causing monster sinkholes. One case: Louisiana Sinkhole Swallows Trees in Seconds - ABC News
Ahh from salt mines! We visited the salt mines in Bavaria (Glück Auf!) and I wonder if they are endangering the area altho they are no longer working salt mines.
You should hit foodgawker and make at least one new something a week - dinners get really boring otherwise.
My mom was raised Amish and left, though we have always been in contact with her side of the family and have no problems with being shunned. Her side of the family is from Altekirchen and came over with the original batch back before 1700 and sort of moved around the US to get better farmland or more space. I do a fair amount of ‘German’ cooking [my sauerbraten is to die for :p]
I’m basically ignorant about geology, and base what I think I know on isolated stories like the ones dealing with sinkholes in Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee, where they seem to be abundant and with ties directly to limestone. There’s a set of maps in that story I linked to (as a sidebar) that shows that sinkholes appear all over the planet but I have yet to read about their connection to salt mines more inland than the ones in LA. I do know the ones in my area (and there are quite a few around here) have no obvious salt connections. All the talk about fracking and its effects on the viability of subsurface rock formations is getting scary. The drying up of the aquifer under a big chunk of the Great Plains, the drying up of the Colorado River and all that type of stuff is jumping out of the news these days. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Bavaria has its share of eco-damage from haphazard mining techniques – if theirs are that way.
There are quite a few Mennonite communities in this area, but I’m not sure about Amish.
(I’ll check out foodgawker. Meanwhile, is your username pronounced like it looks (ah-roove-can) or something a lot less obvious? 
)
More or less correct, the language is pretty much dead so it really doesn’t matter
I like foodgawker because people post hundreds of different cooking blogs postings to it so I don’t have to look for myself. The search function is OK, and if you are a member you can mark interesting looking ones for future use, though if you really like something I would save it or print it off because if the original blogger drops their blog account, when it goes the link dies leaving a tantalizing picture with no blog post remaining.
I do understand that strategy of grabbing stuff off the web that I want to preserve and putting it in a Notepad (my word processor of choice) file and then into a folder where I’m most likely to go looking for it later.
I don’t mean to meddle, but the language is pretty much dead is intriguing. What language?