Now that we have addressed most of the world's problems here on TUG, can someone please answer this burning issue?

[Firepath]

I think the demand for it is less so they don't send it out to the stores. The latest items on my "scavenger hunt" at the grocery store are peanut oil (found it!) and angel food cake mix (no longer a spot for it on the shelves - not to be found).

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Re Cream of Mushroom soup - the occasional times when I'm in a regular grocery store in WA, if there is any soup available CoM and CoC are usually what is there. Also, when I have enough backlogged items to put in order at Costco for delivery, CoM is usually one of the few soup options that is available for delivery.

 

[dayooper]

No one I know outside of Minnesota knows what a "bismarck" is, either!

I know what a Bismarck is, but do you know what a paczki is? Bonus points if you can pronounce it. No cheating by looking it up. Additional extra credit if you what Paczki Day is.

 

[PcflEZFlng]

I know what a Bismarck is, but do you know what a paczki is? Bonus points if you can pronounce it. No cheating by looking it up. Additional extra credit if you what Paczki Day is.

Got me on that one! But I do know what a pasty is - they're as popular with Minnesotans as they are with Yoopers!

 

[Glynda]

I think a whole lot of people are making casseroles!

 

[PigsDad]

And I detest Jello with cottage cheese and carrot shreds.

Another Minnesota born and bred here. I am ok w/ carrot shreds in orange jello, but I'm with you on the cottage cheese.

This conversation reminds me of an old saying. A fancy Minnesota salad bar is one that include 10 different kinds of Jello. And we saw many more than that at the church basement pot lucks!

Kurt

 

[PcflEZFlng]

I don't ever recall seeing peas in a Minnesota church basement Jello salad. In the Covenant churches I grew up in, that must have been considered a sin, though I don't ever remember hearing that preached. Maybe it was addressed only in the Womens Circle meetings.

Nor do I recall anyone trying to pass anything like that off as chili. The chili I recall from MN days generally bore some resemblance to actual chili - though it often showed up with some interesting added spices. (Chili should never, never, never have noticeable nutmeg), My only experience along those lines was when I lived in St. Louis and was dating a local girl who spoke glowingly of her mother's chili. So When she finally had me at her house for chili dinner, what I was served contained nary a bean - of any type - and not even a hint of actual chili. She was very offended when I said this was goulash, not chili.

Consider yourself soooo lucky. I even saw chunks of celery mixed with the jello in some of the most frightening moments!
As for the chili, I agree it needs actual chili to make it count. And in my book - 'cuz I'm such an expert, doncha know - chili can either have beans (brown or pinto, or white bean chili, NEVER kidney), or have no beans. If in doubt, ask any Texan - I think most would in fact say no beans.

 

[PigsDad]

Consider yourself soooo lucky. I even saw chunks of celery mixed with the jello in some of the most frightening moments!

Speaking for frightening moments, imagine someone setting out an Aspic with the various Jello dishes at a church pot luck. I was about 10, and I doubt I had ever seen an Aspic before, so I took a scoop of that since it looked like an interesting Jello salad. Wow. It was a major shock when I tasted that!!

Kurt

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Got me on that one! But I do know what a pasty is - they're as popular with Minnesotans as they are with Yoopers!

One thing I do miss from Minnesota is good Swedish sausage (potatis korv). My mother had a favorite grocery store butcher in south Minneapolis where she used to get it.

After my parents retired to Alexandria, I found a grocery store butcher there who also made some good sausage. Occasionally during my trips back there, I would bring large size ziplocs, and as I left town to head back to MSP, I would buy a couple of freshly made rings, put them in the ziplocs, and bring them back in my luggage.

 

[dayooper]

Got me on that one! But I do know what a pasty is - they're as popular with Minnesotans as they are with Yoopers!

Do Minnesotans put ketchup or gravy on their pasties? There is a big cultural divide with current Yooper culture. In Marquette, it’s ketchup. In the smaller towns, they use gravy.

BTW - A paczki (pronounced POONCH - key) is a traditional polish jelly/custard/anything sweet and unhealthy filled doughnut made from a very rich dough. Paczki’s are traditional eaten on Paczki Day, which in Metro Detroit is the day before Ash Wednesday. Like Pancake Day in other countries, the tradition was started to use up all the ingredients before Lent and the Polish immigrants that came to Detroit in the early 1900’s brought that tradition with them.

 

[PcflEZFlng]

Do Minnesotans put ketchup or gravy on their pasties? There is a big cultural divide with current Yooper culture. In Marquette, it’s ketchup. In the smaller towns, they use gravy.

BTW - A paczki (pronounced POONCH - key) is a traditional polish jelly/custard/anything sweet and unhealthy filled doughnut made from a very rich dough. Paczki’s are traditional eaten on Paczki Day, which in Metro Detroit is the day before Ash Wednesday. Like Pancake Day in other countries, the tradition was started to use up all the ingredients before Lent and the Polish immigrants that came to Detroit in the early 1900’s brought that tradition with them.

They'd have them either plain or with ketchup. I don't recall anyone using gravy, although I think that would be tasty. And how about this one? While most seemed to prefer baked pasties, others preferred boiled. I've never heard of boiled pasties anywhere else. Do they have both kinds in Michigan?

Thanks for mentioning paczkis - they sound delicious!

 

[Krteczech]

I know what a Bismarck is, but do you know what a paczki is? Bonus points if you can pronounce it. No cheating by looking it up. Additional extra credit if you what Paczki Day is.

I know Bismarcks, paczki and koblihy. Relatives from different countries. Koblihy, however, are best tasting.

 

[PcflEZFlng]

One think I do miss from Minnesota is good Swedish sausage (potatis korv). My mother had a favorite grocery store butcher in south Minneapolis where she used to get it.

After my parents retired to Alexandria, I found a grocery store butcher there who also made some good sausage. Occasionally during my trips back there, I would bring large size ziplocs, and as I left town to head back to MSP, I would buy a couple of freshly made rings, put them in the ziplocs, and bring them back in my luggage.

I once did the reverse, bringing food in my luggage to Minneapolis. About ten years ago, when my son was in college in Boston, he craved 'real' Mexican food from one of the many taco shops where I live. With him flying from Boston and me from San Diego, we met for a long weekend to tool around the Twin Cities and take in a Vikings game just for fun. So I brought him a carnitas burrito and he devoured it in the airport!

 

[mentalbreak]

Now I am going to be looking for cream of celery soup at the grocery store. I only remember on recipe where mom mom ever used it - and of course it was a delicious hot dish. I don’t remember the actual name of it, we just called it “Betty’s Hot Dish” after the family friend that always made it. But I’m not kidding it had at least 5 cans of soup, egg noodles, ground beef, and I’m not sure what else. But we all loved it. Going to have to track that down. Or maybe just not ruin the memory.

 

[dayooper]

They'd have them either plain or with ketchup. I don't recall anyone using gravy, although I think that would be tasty. And how about this one? While most seemed to prefer baked pasties, others preferred boiled. I've never heard of boiled pasties anywhere else. Do they have both kinds in Michigan?

Thanks for mentioning paczkis - they sound delicious!

Nope, never heard of boiled pasties before.

 

[geekette]

Ok, jello has come up in the convo.

My mother could be called a packrat. I think it was when we were clearing out her kitchen around 1999, we ran across what looked like from 50s, a box of celery jello. The logo and styling of the box hasn't changed a lot.

My sister took it, was going to put it on ebay. Not sure she did, I thought she still had it. After all, packratism can run in families...

Cottage cheese in jello? Not in my experience. Sneaking in crap like carrot shards, yeah. As whacky as I ever got with it was fruit cocktail in it. I have, on very rare occasion, put a bit of cottage cheese in with peaches that came from a can. It's far from any kind of delicious peaches and cream, but, easy way to choke down some protein with the fruit.

Worst thing I saw time and again in those basement potlucks was 3 bean "salad". I guess I am a purist, I want my beans cooked and hot. I am not even going to taste the contents of several cans of cold beans thrown together. ew. honestly, it would take destitution to eat cold beans.

 

[bbodb1]

No one I know outside of Minnesota knows what a "bismarck" is, either!

Along this line of delicious reminiscing, @PcflEZFlng there is also a delectable pastry known as a fried cinnamon which was literally heaven-on-earth delicious. It is hard to describe, but a local bakery used to make these. The closest picture I could find was this one BUT ours were darker and had a cinnamon cream frosting that was smooth (not melted on or chunky). Hard to describe but a taste sensation happy dance just thinking about it. These were made by a local bakery that stayed opened for many, many years. I suspect there may have been some Amish influence to this creation as well.

 

[PcflEZFlng]

Wow, that sounds great! Now you did it. It's breakfast time here, and it's making me want to head to the local bakery!

 

[Jan M.]

I'm not a big fan of shredded carrots and chopped celery in jello but when it's lime jello, not just no but nohow, no way.

DH's paternal grandparents both came over on the boat from Poland sometime before 1910. DH and his siblings talk about how good their busha's paczki were. Once in a while DH will bring some home from the Polish Deli in Pompano Beach. There aren't many things I won't at least try but czarnina, duck blood soup, is one of them. My BIL makes it and I can't bring myself to even try it.

 

[louisianab]

Last time I was in the food section in my local Target the aluminum foil section had been completely cleaned out except for heavy duty Reynolds in the widest size. And there were only four of those left.

BTW - I mentioned being from Minnesota upthread. I often pronounce the store Tar-zhay. Which is what it was jokingly called in the Twin Cities when Dayton's opened the first stores.

The Tar-zhay is the fancy one in the area and the Tar-get is the dirty one and never shall they meet.

 

[louisianab]

I know what a Bismarck is, but do you know what a paczki is? Bonus points if you can pronounce it. No cheating by looking it up. Additional extra credit if you what Paczki Day is.

punch-key woot
before lent starts
and then dyngus day after

 

[bbodb1]

The Tar-zhay is the fancy one in the area and the Tar-get is the dirty one and never shall they meet.

Indeed.

I always thought the Super Centers were referred to as Tar-zhay as they were nicer when they first appeared in the Twin Cities.
Target at that time had a decent line of clothing and we bought a considerable amount of clothes at the Target Super Centers (Tar-zhay)....
But over the years, the quality of their clothing line dropped and we stopped shopping there. From this POV, it seems like Target is lost in between as they try (and fail) to compete with Wal Mart on price, and with Kroger and Wal Mart by expanding into groceries (a move which has been lackluster at best). Then, from the other flank, comes the onlines.....
Target needs to take action to stand out in the marketplace, otherwise Target will likely be looking a lot like K-Mart before much longer.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I once did the reverse, bringing food in my luggage to Minneapolis. About ten years ago, when my son was in college in Boston, he craved 'real' Mexican food from one of the many taco shops where I live. With him flying from Boston and me from San Diego, we met for a long weekend to tool around the Twin Cities and take in a Vikings game just for fun. So I brought him a carnitas burrito and he devoured it in the airport!

I grew up with about the blandest possible version of Swedish cooking - where being edgy is putting carrot shreds in the lime Jello and spiking the punch bowl with ginger ale.

We spent three years in Phoenix, when I was 5 to 7 years old. There was a grand opening for a grocery store in the area, and they were having a promotional event giving away free food. That was enough to draw my parents. They had strung up a sheet as a wall, and painted the sheet to look somewhat like it was water, with fish, etc. Then there was a fishing pole and you would cast a line over the sheet, and someone on the other side would attach a food item to the line, and you would retrieve the line with the food item attached.

When my parents did that, what came back was a can of tamales. My father was greatly disappointed, as that was not food he would ever eat. But food could not be thrown out or discarded, so the can came home with us. And one day, while Dad was working, Mom fixed the tamales for lunch. Now there was nothing fancy about the tamales; they were probably mediocre at best. Simply corn flour with meat, wrapped in paper (not corn husks), and packed in a diluted red sauce.

But to a boy who had never encountered food such as this, it was the most spectacular thing my taste buds had ever encountered. I was sure that I had just eaten the food of the gods. Soon after we returned to Minnesota, far away from such cuisine.

Then I moved to California in 1973, and wasted little time getting reacquainted. First meal DW ever cooked for me, early in our relationship, was chicken enchiladas.

And after we were married, my first job was in San Bernardino, and our Latina office manager gave some pointers. And that was when I got acquainted with taco trucks. Like the food truck that parked every day about six blocks from our office, and would have lines of people 50-deep at lunch time.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I know what a Bismarck is, but do you know what a paczki is? Bonus points if you can pronounce it. No cheating by looking it up. Additional extra credit if you what Paczki Day is.

Not food related, but I do know what a rubber binder is. I also know what a bubbler is, but that's more of a Wisconsin thing I picked up from a Milwaukee girl I knew in college.

 

[dayooper]

Not food related, but I do know what a rubber binder is. I also know what a bubbler is, but that's more of a Wisconsin thing I picked up from a Milwaukee girl I knew in college.

The also say “Bubblah” in Massachusetts, or so says my BiL and he’s from The Cape.

A definite Michigan thing is instead of saying soda, we say pop.