http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x48155Oh my. Read on; it's there.
Husb2Sparkly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-21-08 08:29 PM
Original message
Do you like how your house smells?
We made a summery pasta for supper. All fresh and cooked no more than a minute or so - more a warm salad dressing than a sauce.
It had very finely chopped fresh garlic. That was the longest cooking item apart from the actual macaroni.
Whenever we cook with garlic, the house has that wonderful smell. Tonight it was very fresh smelling. Unadulterated with too many other ingredients .... just some fresh basil, parsley, and oregano.
I wish some smells could be sensed longer. It seems our nosese get used to smells so quickly and can't really smell them for very long. They just seem to fade - or become ignored by our senses.
I loved the way our house smelled tonight. We ate on the deck with the door left open. The small wafted out into the unseasonably cool, dry night air.
Tangerine LaBamba Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-21-08 08:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. Oh, yes..........
The other day I coarsely chopped a trio of yellow onions and left them to brown ever so slowly in some seasoned butter (parsley, smoked paprika, chipolte powder) for a couple of hours, with the occasional stir. Then I threw in a handful of chunked garlic cloves, about ten cloves in all, stirred them up a bit more, and, a couple of hours later, they were all gently cooked down to a rich, golden topping for plain grilled steaks.
There was no need to exhale here. Inhaling took care of everything.
grasswire Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-21-08 09:06 PM
Response to Original message
2. with five cats..........
sometimes not so much.
Tonight, however, it smells of roasted root vegetables drizzled with olive oil and fresh thyme, of oven barbequed chicken breasts and of homemade yeast rolls -- the old-fashioned white dinner rolls everyone's grandma turned out at the drop of a hat. I haven't made them in a long time, but it's cool-ish today and we have fresh blackberry jam.
I'm about to pop them in the oven; rising is done. I'll fight off the neighbors if the smell brings them to the door.
grasswire Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-21-08 09:10 PM
Response to Original message
3. have you ever eaten at the American Cafe....
...I think there used to be one at the harborfront in Balmer. It had the best aroma and I remember it many years later. It was like a combination of toasted garlic croutons and coffee. I loved it. I particularly remember it at the American Cafe by the National Press Club in the District.
Husb2Sparkly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-21-08 09:31 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Ah ....... the American Cafe ..........
...... my partner was their consultant for years and years.
Little secret about them ...... no real kitchen.
All their food was produced in a commissary they operated. They shipped the finished product to the stores where it was finished off and served.
Now, that's not to say the food was no good. It was actually very good. Excellent, even. They perfected the commissary thing to a high art and a science. They foresaw the shortage of skilled culinary help and figured out how to make it work with fewer highly skilled people and some clever recipes and fast chilling methods. They were very advanced for their day.
The original stores got sold years ago. The partners made a boatload of money. Two left the food business. The third one, along with the guy who was their original chef, and who is now a partner, is still going strong in other restaurants.
hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-21-08 09:25 PM
Response to Original message
4. Usually only when I cook.
I'm kinda with grasswire on this one. We have two cats and a very small house. No place to really put the cat box that is out of the way and still convenient for the cats, well particularly the old, arthritic one.
But when I cook or bake...aaahhhh! 
Glad you had such a wonderful fresh dinner to savor on more than one sensory level.
Husb2Sparkly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-21-08 09:49 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. What we do with the cat box .......
We have one, and sometimes two, dogs. We also have a cat. We got one of those Litter Maid things.
after which photograph of a cat-litter box
We were mercilessly teased when we got the first one. We're now on the third one and would not have it any other way. There is absolutely no cat smell in our house. Were it up to us to keep up with the litter box, our house would be condemned as a Super Fund clean up site.
Further, I keep it in a basement bathroom's shower stall. I also keep the bathroom's vent fan on.
I share that bathroom with the cat. We get along fine. Except when I'm in there and she has to go. She scolds me.
Damned cat.
There's more, but I have to stop here.
When I was in college, working for a wholesale hardware distributor, I had a boss, an old German who dined much on German sausages and other German things.
He always showed up for work precisely at 7:50 a.m. every morning and after putting his lunch-box on his desk in his office, high-tailed it for the bathroom on the loading dock.
Even though the loading dock was half open-air, the stench was something to behold.
He did it because his wife didn't like him stinking up their bathroom at home.
