Posted: 06 Jun 2021 01:00 AM PDT

DEAR ABBY: I am wondering how to handle finding a hair in your food or on your plate while eating at home, or even while eating at a friend's?

When I'm cooking, I try to prevent stray hairs by tugging gently at my hair, pulling out the loose ones and brushing off my sleeves and shoulders before I start cooking. However, once or twice a month, my husband finds one and complains about it, sometimes loudly. Of course I don't do it on purpose! It embarrasses me and makes me feel horrible and defensive.

Should he mention this, or let it pass? If we were at a friend's house, I know he wouldn't say anything, and I wouldn't either, for fear of causing embarrassment.

SHEDDING IN TENNESSEE

DEAR SHEDDING: Finding a foreign object in one's food — regardless of what it is, can make someone lose his or her appetite. Because it happens "regularly," consider preventing the problem as many professional chefs do while preparing food. Wear a hairnet, a scarf or a hat while cooking. Or, perhaps your husband should prepare his own meals.

DEAR ABBY: I have been in a relationship for two years with a man I love very much. We're both in our early 20s. I have a house. He lives with his parents and is going to school.

Last year, after living together for a few months due to COVID, I invited him to move in with me. It took him five months to even give me an answer about whether he wanted to.

It has now been eight months since he went back home to his parents. He says he will move in, but won't commit to giving me a date.

I have been blown off by him for his family multiple times, and I know it's not something that'll ever change. I'm wondering if we'll last, or if I should take a step back in the relationship.

SEEING SIGNS IN MARYLAND

DEAR SEEING SIGNS: If your boyfriend wanted to live with you, he wouldn't have gone back to live with his parents. If he wanted more of your company, he wouldn't blow you off.

Unless you are a masochist, this romance with him won't last, and you should definitely take a step back in the relationship, if not step out of it entirely.

DEAR ABBY: We are part of a close group of six couples who have a great time together. Although our political philosophies and worldviews are different, we always have adult and stimulating discussions.

The problem is, one of the couples doesn't believe in the COVID vaccination. We'd like to have a barbecue, but only with those of us who have been vaccinated. Is there a way we can do this without hurting the feelings of that couple?

READY TO SOCIALIZE, BUT …

DEAR READY: It depends upon whether they feel the same way regarding wearing masks and social distancing. Diplomatically discuss your concerns with this couple. It would be better than excluding them and having them find out about it later.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Cooking with PAM | Pamela’s Food Service Diary - SILive.com

Posted: 06 Jun 2021 02:56 AM PDT

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Funny thing about that red and yellow can of PAM — she's a gas. Well, actually she's a spray. And serving as the face for PAM as it's my natural birthright, given the moniker — and June is this Pam's birth month — it might be an appropriate time to talk about "Pam," a most food-forward name.

Pam Adamo of Grant City said her husband's friends used to say, "You're dating a girl named Pam? Oh, so like PAM in the can?"

Ha ha ha ha ha — yes, I am well-acquainted with that "canned" humor, Pam Adamo.

And now, a word about the elephant in the room — the real PAM in the can.

Pam Adamo from Grant City, not PAM in a can. (Courtesy of Pam Adamo)

STICK WITH PAM

The cooking spritz came about in the late 1950s, the brainchild of Leon Rubin and marketing man Arthur Meyerhoff Sr. Hence this stuff — the product of Arthur Meyerhoff — became the acronym "PAM," a zero-calorie cooking convenience now put out by ConAgra.

But for Pams everywhere all Hazes broke loose with decades worth of marketing campaigns. In the 1960s, as outlined by ConAgra, some mad ad man broadcasted, "When you pick up a pan, spray it with PAM." In the late 1970s, we learned from personalities like Carmelita Pope that "PAM stops food, even casseroles, from sticking."

Things got a little tacky for us Pammers in the 1980s when someone turned up the marketing heat on the stuff. On the less harmless side with flute music in the backdrop we heard commercials that said, "Start with PAM...Your recipes turn out right!"

That was encouraging.

Years later, we were reminded around Christmas that "PAM really cooks for the holidays" and "PAM just kind of works its magic and lets the food get all the attention."

Then, there was the commercial where two brothers personified the PAM. "It" became a "her."

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"Whoa. How'd you make lemon chicken?" says one brother to another.

"PAM," answers the other.

"She got a sist-ah?" deadpans the first bro.

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In a dramatic and ugly turn of events for us Pams, a commercial break for MacGyver in January 1987 featured a rap song in which the company sales pitch was conveyed.

"P-PAM! P-PAM! P-PAM!"

I was a sophomore at St. Joseph Hill Academy when my friends adopted the song with the gestures to match: "Have you thought about PAM? You can use it on a grill. You can put it on a mold. When you're frying it's a thrill!"

"P-PAM! P-PAM! P-PAM!"

And there was also this ditty, thanks to the Pammy jam: "You should think about PAM. There's none of this or that. When you're cleaning up your pans you get it done in no time flat." It's catchy, I'll admit, but not Pam-tastic for the Pamelas of the planet.

What is it like growing up as a "Pam?" Somehow there's always a food association — it's just innate.

Pam Carlton and Skippy, a nickname she received in camp because of her love for peanut butter. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)

"First there was that time in camp there was more than one Pam in my bunk," recalled Pam Carlton of West Brighton. "So they had to distinguish between us. I like peanut butter. So they called me 'Skippy.' My mother was not happy. But it worked for the summer I was in camp."

A retired EMS worker, Pam Carlton said, "On the ambulance, we used to have to carry 2-Pam which is used for organophosphate poisoning. So they would sometimes call me 2-Pam. Everyone had a nickname on the ambulance. Another one of mine was 'Spam-inator.'"

Yeah, I got the SPAM thing, too. But Pam Carlton did not earn such a meaty label until adulthood.

She reflected on the war-time protein and said, "I never really was called 'SPAM' because my Dad served in Korea and he vowed it would never be on our lips."

As a lifelong Pam-Pam and an occasional Pam-a-lamma Ding Dong, people don't always hear "Pamela" or "Pam" upon introductions. They hear "Ann" or "Fran" or some rhyming derivation of the shortened name. So I just go with it and say, "It's Pam...like the cooking spray." And that sometimes gets a laugh.

My name originally was supposed to be Pasqualina which means "little Easter" in Italian. That was my Dad's suggestion. But my Mom — the one who signed the birth certificate — was not having that. So here I am: Pam I am.

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.

Extension services are the best free cooking resource. Here's how to use them. - The Philadelphia Tribune

Posted: 05 Jun 2021 09:00 PM PDT

A few months ago, I wrote about why libraries are such a great, free resource for home cooks. Consider this the companion piece, because there's another invaluable service I want to make sure you know about: extension.

Julie Garden-Robinson, vice president for awards and recognition at the National Extension Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, says people in her line of work call themselves "the best-kept secret. We don't want to be a secret. We want people to access our resources."

Formally established by an act of Congress in 1914, extension programs are based at land-grant colleges and universities and tasked with providing nonformal, research-based education to agricultural producers, business owners and the general public on a wide variety of topics, from parenting and gardening to cooking and food safety.

"There's really something for everyone," says Shauna Henley, a family and consumer sciences senior agent with the University of Maryland Extension, Baltimore County.

That has continued to evolve especially since last year. "We had to really flex and change during the pandemic," says Garden-Robinson, an extension food and nutrition specialist at North Dakota State University. Extension programs have risen to meet the needs of people more interested in gardening, preserving and cooking at home in the past 14 months. Much of that outreach has come in the form of social media posts and other online programs, including classes. Plenty saw last year's fiasco at Bon Appétit, in which host Brad Leone demonstrated in a now-deleted video how to water-bath canned seafood (which you should never do), as a sort of call to arms — and a perfect example of why dependable, science-based education is so necessary.

Here's a rundown of what extension can do for you.

— Serve as a reliable information source: Anyone who has ever done an online search knows how much bad advice there is out there. When it comes to food, it may not just be bad, says Sue Mosbacher, a master food preserver program coordinator for the University of California Cooperative Extension, it could be unsafe.

— Provide affordable education: Most extension resources are free or low-cost. Those that do require a fee are often just to cover the cost of materials, such as for a canning class, Mosbacher says. One of my favorite extension offerings is the boring-sounding but infinitely practical fact sheet. Henley says part of her task is to try to find topic areas that haven't been covered so that she can produce fact sheets, which may be catered to her local audience. Can't find what you're looking for? Just ask.

— Help you be a better, safer and healthier home cook. Want to know what to plant in your backyard or container garden? Consult a master gardener. Many extension employees and volunteers are avid cooks who like to test and swap recipes, Mosbacher says.

— Give you your next volunteer opportunity. Volunteers on the local level (typically by county) are often the ones offering classes to the public or even, at least pre-pandemic, holding office hours and answering questions via email and phone. Those in Mosbacher's program, for example, must undergo 18 weeks of class and hands-on training. If you're someone who likes to make a difference in your community, consider reaching out to extension.

from What to Cook https://ift.tt/34Ro4Nl

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Dear Abby: His reaction to my cooking mishaps makes me feel horrible - The Mercury News

Dear Abby: His reaction to my cooking mishaps makes me feel horrible - The Mercury News

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