Useful Phrases

canned tomatoes 

cook uncovered 

blanch tomatoes

skin tomatoes

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, prepared as described below, or 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
• Salt to taste

• Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato.
• Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.
• Taste and correct for salt. Before tossing with pasta, you may remove the onion (as Hazan recommended) and save for another use, but many opt to leave it in. Serve with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table.

• Making Fresh Tomatoes Ready for Sauce
• The blanching method: Put the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or less. Drain them and, as soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin them, and cut them into coarse pieces.
• The freezing method (from David Tanis, via The Kitchn): Freeze tomatoes on a baking sheet until hard. Thaw again, either on the counter or under running water. Skin them and cut them into coarse pieces.
• The food mill method: Wash the tomatoes in cold water, cut them lengthwise in half, and put them in a covered saucepan. Turn on the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Set a food mill fitted with the disk with the largest holes over a bowl. Transfer the tomatoes with any of their juices to the mill and puree.

Source – https://food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter

Adverbs of Frequency – Grammar Notes

We use adverbs of frequency to show how often we do something.

1. I always have coffee in the morning.
2. I usually eat dinner at home.
3. I sometimes eat at restaurants.
4. I never drink alcohol.

Adverbs of frequency and relative strength.

1. Always (100%)
2. Almost always
3. Usually
4. Often
5. Sometimes
6. Hardly ever / Rarely
7. Almost never
8. Never (0%)

Adverbs of frequency can be used immediately in front of the verb.

1. Junko almost always paints in the evening.
2. She usually gets to work early.
3. We hardly ever rent movies.
4. I never stay out late.

Read the dialog and look for the Adverbs of Frequency

Daniel: So Hana, tell me, do you cook often?

Hana: Yes, I always cook. How about you?

Daniel: Well, I don’t really cook that often. I’m really busy during the week. I usually just get takeout. But on the weekends, I often cook.

Hana: Do you ever eat out?

Daniel: Only occasionally because I don’t really have the time. What about you?

Hana: Well, I hardly ever go out to eat.

Daniel: Do you ever get takeout?

Hana: No, I never do. I prefer to cook. Daniel, do you ever have friends over for dinner?

Daniel: I do sometimes but rarely. I’m not a great cook.

Hana: Well, I like to cook and like having friends over for dinner. Do you want to come to my apartment for dinner tonight? 

Daniel: Wow! Sure, I’d love to!

Source: https://www.elllo.org/english/grammar/L2-05-DanielHana-Cooking-Adverbs-Frequency.htm

Most Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving, about 9 in 10, eat turkey with their holiday meal. But if you’ve ever wondered why so many of people eat turkey on Thanksgiving, the answer is a bit more complicated than you may think. 

Vocabulary

venison – the meat of a deer used as food

settler – a person who moves with a group of others to live in a new country or area

indigenous – inhabiting or existing in a land from the earliest times or from before the arrival of colonists

fowl – birds 

plentiful – existing in great quantities

a one-off – done, made, or happening only once and not repeated

First Thanksgiving: No Turkey on the Table?

There’s no evidence that turkey was on the menu in late 1621 when the Pilgrim settlers of Plymouth Colony sat down with indigenous Wampanoag people for what we now recognize as the first Thanksgiving celebration.

According to a contemporary account of that event by Edward Winslow, the settlers and Native Americans dined on venison, fish, and shellfish as well as corn and other vegetables. While “fowl” may have been served, that may well have referred to seasonal waterfowl like duck or geese, rather than turkey. 

Turkeys were plentiful in the region when the Pilgrims arrived, however. Estimates put the total number of wild turkeys in North America at more than 10 million before European settlement began. In his history of Plymouth Plantation, written more than 20 years later, the colony’s longtime governor William Bradford referred to a “great store of Wild Turkies” around the time of that famous meal in 1621.  

By 1789, when George Washington declared a day of national thanksgiving—a one-off, not a recurring holiday—Americans were eating quite a bit of turkey. “I don’t know that I would say it was a staple, but it was certainly being hunted and eaten by the 19th century,” Abrell says. “It was almost extinct in the wild by that time.” 

‘Mother of Thanksgiving’ Popularizes Turkey

But like most of the Thanksgiving traditions we know today, turkey didn’t become a part of that November holiday until the mid-19th century. This was largely thanks to the efforts of the writer and editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who became known as the “mother of Thanksgiving.” 

In her 1827 novel Northwood, Hale included an entire chapter on Thanksgiving celebrations in her native New England and other regions. She also used her platform as editor of the magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book to sway both politicians and the public toward the idea of a national Thanksgiving holiday.

By 1854, thanks in large part to Hale’s work, more than 30 states and U.S. territories held Thanksgiving annually. President Abraham Lincoln made it official in 1863, declaring the last Thursday in November as a national Thanksgiving holiday.  Turkey was a key part of Hale’s Thanksgiving vision. 

Source: https://www.history.com/news/turkey-thanksgiving-meal