What Temperature Your House ?

[henless]

I love my house, but it's really too big. Love it more in the summer, than winter. We have cement floors, and it's freaking cold in the winter. Every winter we plan on putting down linoleum & carpet, then summer arrives and we put it off since it's nice and cool.

We put in a wood heater a couple years ago that is just wonderful. It makes a big difference in the warmth. In the day time, we usually keep it on 77 and at night drop it down to 74. Even at 77, when it gets really cold outside, we have to wear layers. No going barefoot with just socks on either. The cold cement makes your feet ache.

Stained cement is easy to take care of and looks good, but it's cold as heck. Unless you have heated floors.

 

[secuono]

66

 

[ducks4you]

I just saw a gardening program from CA on growing endive. My house is just freezing in the winter, and my basement isn't heated. Think I will try it. I would need to start the endive outdoors in August, harvest by digging the entire plants up in November, store them in the garage over the winter for the freezing temperatures, then try to grow them in the dark basement. Just a whim...we'll see if I get around to it.

 

[digitS']

Witloof chicory!I

I tried it one year. The plants were not all that demanding thru the growing season. What I had in the basement that winter looked like the pictures. The problem?

I don't like it!!! Yuck. I tried witloof chicory without ever having done more than nibble at the endive that now and then showed up on a restaurant plate. I learned later that I don't like radicchio!

Something that I did try that seemed okay was roasting and using the roots as a coffee substitute ...

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

That is why I don't grow eggplant!

 

[seedcorn]

That is why I don't grow eggplant!

Why?

 

[ducks4you]

Bc I don't like to eat it.

 

[digitS']

Slices of eggplant reminds me of slices of bread.

I enjoy coffee and, I guess, have come to tolerate some bitterness in cooked greens. But, don't want bitterness in raw salad greens. Truth be known, I'm not all that much of a salad person. Maybe having Mom pressure me to eat veggies when I was a kid made me something of a cooked greens crusader ..!

Back to eggplants - NyBoy talked about how tomato sauce was called "gravy" in Italian American homes. It's kinda like if you take a bland piece of starch and put a sauce on it to make it more appetizing. There! Gravy . All better ...

Umm, oh yeah, eggplant! It shouldn't be bitter ... now put gravy on it. I've learned that stress makes eggplant bitter. Maybe just the stress of immaturity or age. In the prime, and with "gravy," good!

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

if i can eat grapefruit i can eat eggplant. i don't mind a little bitterness. as far as i can tell the calling of a tomato sauce a gravy is a regional or family thing because we never heard that phrase in our family ever. it was just called what it was, spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, etc. the main thing is that it was good.

i don't ever recall grandma making eggplant anything so i just asked and Mom said she made it once for them as a basic dish of eggplant, tomato sauce and cheese and didn't make it again. so Grandma probably didn't like it much either.

Grandma spent a lot of time in the kitchen with 12 of them and any extended family members at the table (10 of them boys/men who worked in the family business or construction). if you went to visit and sat at the table even to talk she'd start putting little plates of this and that in front of you like a conveyor belt. "Here have a few meatballs and a bit of bread." "Do you want a muffin and some jam?" "I made this bread yesterday..." it never stopped as long as you sat there and even if you got up and went into the tiny tv room they had she'd get up and down and ply you with food, sweets, etc.

it was a 2-3hr drive to visit Grandma ("In the City" is how i always thought of it) where there were sidewalks and city water that tasted sweet (compared to our well water). we visited a lot because Dad was often away working jobs all over the state. the most fun for me was the huge train yard across the road from the other Grandma's place. out in the country where we lived a walk around the block was 4 miles. in the city it was just a few minutes, but so much more to see.

 

[seedcorn]

Put salt on your pieces of eggplant. Allow juices to escape, end of bitterness. Or grow Japanese eggplant as they are sweeter and can be eaten raw. Personally I don’t have the problem (with my soils) of bitter eggplant.

Eggplant is a “good for you” vehicle to combine so you use less starches-mousaka, eggplant parm, etc. can’t get my family to even try because “it’s not normal”-mashed potatoes, fries, etc....people!