I can see that I should start up my own little cottage industry sending decent food to you deprived Americans! CW will have to make up the trifle from a kit so posting it is easy but steak and kidney pie may prove more problematic I think. There are plenty of places here to get steak and kidney pie but I doubt they'd send them that far. I would suggest that you try making your own as it's fairly easy and probably tastes better than one from the shop anyway.

Have you tried steak and kidney pudding?

Nope, I haven't tried steak and kidney (yuk!) pudding...nor do I intend to!

You think we don't have blackcurrant flavoured jelly? Sheesh...we aren't nearly as uncivilized as you think we are. Of course we do, and I have bought it a lot.

CW, I suspect, was pulling your leg about the trifle. Heck, even I have made that before, and it is lucious! Perhaps I will make it for CW when she is at our home!

Jello? You think we eat it all the time? I haven't had it in ages. Now, if someone is sick and can't hold much down, it does provide a little liquid. But that's about it. However, Robert is right that sometimes we have gelatin salads or deserts. I make an exceptional one with red wine, bing cherries and bing cherry juice. I think even you finicky Brits would like it!

As for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, arnie, with 12-grain bread, great raspberry preserves, and a cold glass of milk...mmmmmm! Not too shabby at all!

quote:

Originally posted by Robert Arvanitis:
In the US, especially the midwest, a concoction of Jello(TM) compounded with various fruits, vegetables and plant matter, is called "salad."

Yes, it's generally considered salad now, but when I was a kid in Kansas, it was dessert! Delicious.

Tinman

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I think even you finicky Brits would like it!

Sorry, like peanut butter and jelly, it sounds disgusting!

As for the trifle and blackcurrant jelly, if I were to base my assumptions on CW alone I would be inclined to agree that she was winding me up but she isn't the first American I've spoken to that had an ignorance of trifle and blackcurrant jelly (jello, whatever you call it). Perhaps your trifle is not quite the same as the great British product and with some of your culinary tastes I wouldn't be surprised!

Finally, you simply haven't lived until you've tried a really good steak and kidney pudding covered in a thick gravy. Now that's eating

Well, as to your comment about 'trifle,' of all my cookbooks, I took out the most common one used here in the U.S...."Joy of Cooking." Sure enough, on page 688, there is a recipe for 'trifle,' though it is also called 'raspberry rum cake.' Maybe ours is different.

Besides that, Shu and I have been friendly for a number of years with a couple from England, and they have introduced us to 'trifle.' So, that may have been it, too.

I don't get your point about black currant jelly and jello; they are definitely very different foods!

Next time you're in London, Kalleh, I'll have to take you to a pie and mash shop for a meal of jellied eels and pie and mash, covered with delicious green liquor.

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I don't get your point about black currant jelly and jello; they are definitely very different foods!

Ah! Now I see the confusion. You use all sorts of terms to cover these things that we don't. In Britain, 'jelly' is the firm wobbly item that is normally eaten by children, comes in various fruit flavours and is generally eaten as a dessert. I believe that it is this item that you call 'jello'. From what I understand, your term 'jelly' refers to what we would just call 'jam' and is put on toast in the morning. You distinguish between 'jam' with fruit bits in and a jelly consistency product that we still refer to as just jam.

Our trifle has a jelly (jello) base with a fruit cocktail in it, then a layer of cold custard and then topped with loads of cream. Some people choose to add sherry to it as well.

As for steak and kidney pudding, I assure you that your taste buds will thank you for the rest of your life.

Honestly - leave my home for a few days and you all go jaunting off talking about food with out me!

I know what blackcurrant jelly is. I THOUGHT I knew what trifle was, but Doad's descriptions sounded different from what I've had. AND in the middle of a chat about jello and jelly and jam and so forth I think we were both so confused I could barely remember my name. I'm like that sometimes, I guess. Yes, he's sent me some trifle, but it's probably sitting on my desk waiting for my return (I'm still in Chicago and frankly this will be my only post because the robber-barons who run the hotel are charging me an exhorbitant price for online privileges - excuse my spelling errors, etc). I have sent off some actual jello for him, though, so he can get his silly notions of what jello is out of his head.

Is jello an eponym?

Now you all be good til I get to Ken and Nancy's and can have some actual time on the computer!

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=j&p=1

from Jell-O, trademark for powdered gelatin food, reg. 1934 by The Jell-o Company of Canada, Ltd., Montreal.

(Likely from M.E. "gelen," congeal.)

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Now you all be good til I get to Ken and Nancy's and can have some actual time on the computer!

Forget that, baby. We only have two computers!

Since we are talking about food, there were 2 wonderful international articles about food in the Chicago Tribune today. One was a discussion of traditional Irish dishes, with the owner of Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland....with lots of yummy looking recipes. The interviewee said that Ireland used to think the U.S. and U.K. were better (with food), but not anymore! I notice on their Web site they have a headline, "Brilliant Breads at Balymaloe." We have discussed the U.K.'s use of "brilliant" here before, but we wouldn't say "brilliant breads"...unless of course we were talking of those breads at Yale or Harvard!

The second article was about a 25-year-old woman in France who has become very successful with her food blog, chocolate and zucchini. How can you miss with a name like that!

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The second article was about a 25-year-old woman in France who has become very successful with her food blog, chocolate and zucchini. How can you miss with a name like that!

You could miss by forgetting that, in the UK, we don't talk about zuccinis. Very few people would even know what they are.

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I notice on their Web site they have a headline, "Brilliant Breads at Balymaloe."

In England we could certainly use the word 'brilliant' in this context and as a headline I think it works very well due to its alliterative nature. Sadly I wasn't a member when you discussed this so I never thought about you using the word in a different way. Do you just use it to describe something that is very bright?

I don't see what's the marrow with calling them zucchinis...

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in the UK, we don't talk about zuccinis.

Why? They aren't French, after all!

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
... in the UK, we don't talk about zuccinis. Very few people would even know what they are.

What about courgettes?

Tinman

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Do you just use it to describe something that is very bright?

Ahhh - the sweet bliss of being at a computer again w/o the hefty charges (although Shu and Kalleh haven't drawn up my bill yet, to be honest).

We use the word brilliant to mean really smart and wonderfully talented. "He was a brilliant pianist."

quote:

We use the word brilliant to mean really smart and wonderfully talented. "He was a brilliant pianist."

Then what is the problem with calling bread 'brilliant' if it is wonderful and superior to most other breads?

HURRAY!!

Another milestone reached as he passes the big 100 postings!

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Then what is the problem with calling bread 'brilliant' if it is wonderful and superior to most other breads?

There are "flavors" to adjectives. I am loath to attribute to a loaf sufficient intellectual content, say, to distinguish a clever one from a more dull specimen. (That said I admit having experienced dense ones.)

There is an interesting effect to be had, by crossing "flavors" of adjectives unexpectedly. But not every cross applications works.

It seems that Americans will find our use of the word 'brilliant' very odd because we use it in a far more general sense. Children in this country also have a habit of saying something is 'dead brilliant' if they really like it.

I've always enjoyed that special English reversal of the weight of adjectives.

Bump someone - "terribly sorry." Smash into an iceberg - "spot of trouble."

(Glad to share a wonderful essay on British character: arvanro@optonline.net)

I hadn't thought of it like that before, probably because we do it all the time. Now I think of it we are masters of understatement. Perhaps this is part of the reason for the international perception of 'British reserve'. Personally I quite like to use understatement at times because it appeals to my dry sense of humour.

quote:

dry sense of humour.

Or as a person of Greek heritage might note..."Attic wit."

quote:

Glad to share a wonderful essay on British character: arvanro@optonline.net)

So where is it? All this address does is go to some strange site called http://www.optonline.net/Home whose purpose is opaque to me. Certainly no obvious links to and story about British Character.

The @ indicated it is my e-mail address.

Lacking a way to post the article, I offer a Word doc copy to any who cares to write to me.

How can humor be dry or wet? Is this another example of an ungrammatical phrase?

Actually, it is an example of when it is good for adjectives to cross "flavors."

Flavored adjectives!? How illogico-ungrammatical. You sentence has no meaning.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jheem,

jheem perceives NO meaning? How metaphor-immuno-literalist.

I'm on your side, Robert. If you take away the metaphor from language there's little left over.

I humbly refer you to a previous thread where I inquired for clarification on the variations of dampness in humor. Replies would still be greatly appreciated.

quote:

Another milestone reached as he passes the big 100 postings!

Congratulations! Good to have you here!

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Lacking a way to post the article, I offer a Word doc copy to any who cares to write to me.

Could you not copy and paste it into a posting here?

quote:

I humbly refer you to a previous thread where I inquired for clarification on the variations of dampness in humor. Replies would still be greatly appreciated.

Once again I didn't realise this had come up before but I found the thread very interesting and have made a couple of additions to it.

I like how each related thread has little bits of new information! Thanks for bringing it up again, Doad!

I don't really get this page so i'll never come on it again!

I WAS CONFUSED ABOUT WHY THE BRITS CALLED BANGS , FRINGE, BUT I AM AN AMERICAN AND MY MOM TOLD ME THEY USE TO CALL BANGS , FRINGE BACK IN THE OLDER DAYS,WE ARE JUST USE TO THE WAYS WE ARE TAUGHT AND BROUGHT UP, NOW OFF THE SUBJECT NOW IS WHY DO BRITS CALL ST. BERNARDS , ST. BURNARDS, AND WE SPELL SOMETHINGS DIFFERENT THAN THEM, ITS JUST SO AMAZING HOW ENGLISH LANGUAGE COULD BE SO DIFFERENT

Hi Robin, Welcome!

It's just the way that we pronounce words differently. Many American pronunciations are similar to the way they were spoken here in England three centuries ago. In fact, we spell "St Bernards" the same; we just say the word differently. Most of the variations of spelling are because of one man, Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary. He thought that English spelling was too hard, and tried to make it simpler. Some of his changes have stuck, but others have been forgotten.

If you are an American in England I'm sure you'll find a lot of differences in the ways we say and spell words, and also that we often use different words to you.

PS: Do take off your CAPS LOCK key! It makes it very hard to read what you've written if everything is in CAPITALS!

And welcome from me, too.

And I have to tell you that I positively like the eccentricities of English spellings. Were it not for the likes of Cholmondley, Featherstonehaugh and Belvoir, how would we be able to confuse Noah Webster's disciples?

Ah, Richard, you are so often good for a laugh.

Nice to have you here, Americangirl. I agree with Arnie, though, that it's easier to read if you click off the Caps Lock. I am not sure how old you are, but you might want to check out Wordcraftjr. That was a kid's forum that started from Wordcraft, though it isn't very active now. Still, I see that some of the kids are posting in Word Games.

quote:

Still, I see that some of the kids are posting in Word Games.

If you call one Dragonfly "some". Still, I suppose it's a start.

Oh...I saw some posting and thought there were more. Oh well. Too bad it didn't work out.

I still hope some class will find it and start using it.

Dragonfly made about four posts there the other day. Yesterday, however, Wren made a dozen posts! Perhaps things are looking up! The school's summer break has just started. Since the weather's pretty awful at the moment, perhaps some are getting bored already and have turned back to Wordcraftjr. I hope so!

I just went and posted about a dozen or more things. Of course I had to put in some things on the HP thread. Would be nice to see it again, wouldn't it? I mean, see it expand again.

It would! I had always thought there were 2 problems with it. First, it seemed to only include 1 school. Second, of those from that school, it seemed to attract those who were poorer in language. That meant that they weren't really that interested in language; instead they wanted to chat. It also meant that if kids who were interested in language and words found the site, they'd not be that challenged. I do think it could be a great site for kids who enjoy reading, the English language, and words. I know my oldest daughter would have loved it when she was a teen. My other 2? Probably not as much.