Random Observations- Two Crotchety And One Upbeat

[poliphilo]

1. I'm never going to make one of those lists of things I'm thankful for because my mother told me when I was small that if you make too much noise about how happy and fortunate you are God will squash you like a bug.  Just look what he did to Job. Or maybe it's not God, it's the Brownies. Same difference. The point is there are powers out there that are very, very jealous of human success and only a fool would provoke them.

2.  What's this Cool Whip stuff you Americans put on your pie? It sounds disgusting. Whatever happened to cream?

3. John Howard's gone. That guy was a toad. I'm just so happy for all my Australian friends.

Comments

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I've been intending for ages to ask an American about that!
I wonder if it's the same thing as UK Instant Whip - a powder that you whip into milk?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We keep powdered milk in the house in case of emergencies but, really, why would one want to eat processed, chemicalised stuff when one doesn't need to?

[richenda.livejournal.com]

No, Instant Whip isn't powdered milk - it's a flavoured powder that sets milk into a substance that has something of the texture and appearance of whipped cream. People use it to top trifle, or to eat as a softish blancmanfe substitute, but I don't know why they do.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hmmm....They can keep it.

[internet-sampo.livejournal.com]

Compared to whipped cream, it is disgusting. What is it? It's one of those things which is not real food but "processed." I've grown up with processed foods, processed cheese for example. If you don't think about it you can eat it. And why do we? I don't know. I think during the 50's and 60's commercials made the case that processed was better than natural.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So sad....

We're suckers, aren't we? TV tells us crap is good and we believe it.

[internet-sampo.livejournal.com]

or - taking off on your point #1 -- TV tells our moms this crap is good ...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And if our mothers feed it to us it's got to be fine.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I will wait to be squashed! Don't know if I believe in "tempting fate!. My mother told me when I was small to "count your blessings, one by one, and you will see how much the Lord has done". Maybe the Powers That Be like to be acknowledged. I have had my share of crap too but I don't like to dwell on them.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how things we are told in childhood imprint themselves on our psyches. I know this is a baseless superstition, but there's no way I'm going against it.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

CoolWhip is a matter of convenience, I guess, rather than anything else. For people who are (like me) a party of one, whipped cream is just too much. Making it isn't so bad, but storing the leftovers is impossible. And there's this matter of cholesterol...whipped cream is whipped butterfat. Of course, here in America it seems like no one ever heard of moderation. Anyway, it comes in a plastic tub, pre whipped. You must stir it up before you use it...

It's not so bad. When it first came out, it tasted a lot like whipped kaopectate, but it's gotten better tasting as time's gone on. Last time I had my cholesterol tested, it was high. So I eat 'fake' butter (smart balance) and 'fake' whipped cream, lowered my intake of red meat and have skimmed milk on my cereal in the morning. If I think too hard about it, I guess I'd have to say I am prolonging my life - maybe! - but perhaps lowering the quality of it. Still...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I use skimmed milk. I moved over for reasons of health and over time I've gotten so I prefer it.

But the whole point of cream is that's it's creamy. I don't eat a lot of it, but when I do I want the real thing. Double Devon clotted cream is the best.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Well, you know...if I could GET Double Devon clotted cream (which I've had exactly once at high tea in Kingston, Ontario,Canada)I would gladly never have another taste of CoolWhip again.

And oh yes, there's one other thing, - expense. My grandmother used both mayonnaise and miracle whip in her salads- and they were fabulous. She was a depression era cook, and that was a way to make the mayo go further. *I* can afford to whip a pint or even a half pint of cream and then leave it sit in the fridge because I just wanted a spoonful.

I feel as though I've been put down because I have to economise.

(not by you, Tony, I know you would never do that.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We're on a pretty tight budget too and normally it wouldn't strtech to things like clotted cream, but they had a special on it at our local supermarket last year and I binged on it.

TransFat

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

Cream is butterfat, CoolWhip is Transfat. Both are hell on the heart muscle and the arteries. Whipped cream is preferable, but only when it can be used up quickly. I keep a container of Cool Whip on hand for those emergency desserts. The taste is creamy, not plastic like that old powdered mix. I always order whipped cream at restaurants when it is an option for a pudding or whatever. If an ice cream parlor ever serves me fake cream on a sundae or a banana split, I would send it back and demand a refund and never go there again! Some things just cannot tolerate substitutes!

Re: TransFat

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Thanks, you put it best. 'Emergency desserts'. I seldom eat anything that requires it, at home. (I have been known to get those lovely little cans of the stuff, though!)

Re: TransFat

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Now a lot of the cream we eat over here isn't whipped at all. It's more or less liquid and we just pour it on. If it's very runny it's called single cream and if it's thicker it's called double cream. I don't believe we ever had whipped cream in my childhood.

It Comes in a Tub

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

Cool Whip comes in a tub, already mixed. It has good consistency and good flavor, but - I repeat - it is second best to real whipped cream.
By the way, what is "clotted cream" -- is it what we call "Sour Cream" in the USA (whipped cream without the sugar and vanilla, soured on purpose so that it wont go bad?) We have it on baked potatoes, potato pancakes, etc. -- also use it as a base for dips.

Re: It Comes in a Tub

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

mmmm...no. Clotted cream is like what rose to the VERY TOP of milk before it was pasturized, homogenized, or whatever. It's very very thick, spreadable (I had it with currant jam on hot scones) and there really is nothing like it.)

Re: It Comes in a Tub

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Clotted cream is very rich and thick. I imagine it's produced in a milk churn. It has the consistency, pretty much, of butter- only it's not butter.

Sour cream (we have that too) is something else again.

Re: It Comes in a Tub

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

we used to get milk with the cream on top when I was a child. It was not very thick, though, just about the consistency of heavy cream (which is probably what you refer to as "double" cream). We were not allowed to drink that cream - it was set aside for desserts and for coffee and tea for "company".

Re: It Comes in a Tub

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We used to be allowed to drink the "top of the milk" as a special treat.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Cool Whip = softened whipped styrofoam. Never cared for it myself.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And I don't suppose it contains any milk....

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Milk???? Silly man, it's plastic!

[oakmouse]

It contains milk fractions (mostly milk solids IIRC) but no real milk.

Fractions are enough to get me out of eating the vile stuff; I'm glad to be allergic to dairy when someone passes the Cool Whip or equivalent. An inoffensive and unanswerable way to say no!

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

As halfmoon_mollie says, Cool Whip has gotten better and more cream-like over the years. It reflects the weird American attitude that the worst thing you can possibly eat is a product with real butter-fat. That said, it tastes fine to me unless I've just eaten real whipped cream. *g*

Listing things you're thankful for is just something American LJers like to do on Thanksgiving Day. As I wrote in my post, gratitude is a healthy spiritual attitude/discipline. But I'm not surprised by your attitude of not jinxing things by being grateful out loud; it seems very English to me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it is a very English thing. It's not that I'm not grateful- I am- but if you ask me about my blessings I'll shuffle my feet, lower my eyes and say, "Mustn't grumble...."

It sounds disgusting

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

It is.

Along with "Miracle Whip" and margarine.

They are the Unholy Trinity of Food.

Re: It sounds disgusting

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz says they make margarine out of old tires. I've never checked to see if she's joshing me or not.

[mkhobson.livejournal.com]

As a patriotic American, I feel as though I should spring to the defense of Cool Whip.

It's not vile stuff ... it's sweet and frothy and tasty ... and it holds its shape well (due to the fact, as someone else pointed out, that it's made of plastic microspheres.) But it certainly can't hold a candle to whipped cream, especially not Double Devon clotted cream.

Maybe I like it *because* it is second-rate. Poor Cool Whip, always living in the shadow of her more delicious older sister. Her beautiful, perfect, "all-natural" older sister. But it's not her fault that she's kind of artificial. She's a product of a culture she never made. She does what she can with what she's got. Someone's got to love her ... and that someone is me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm quite fond of a stuff called salad cream- which is the poor man's mayo. It's thick and vinegary and yellow and- well- it's what we had when I was growing up.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Oh dear... maybe our streak of bad luck was caused by my saying that I'm happy and lucky... :-(

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ach- I should have kept quiet. I'd hate to plant this superstition in anyone else's head.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Too late, but the good news is that I am not very superstitious. :-)

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Well, as an American I'd like to stand up for those like myself who have never experienced Cool Whip because our parents (and later us) believed in eating real food. My folks liked convenience, but not at the expense of taste.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed.

On the whole I'd rather go without cream (which I do most of the time) than make do with a substitute that looks similar but doesn't taste as good.

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

Others have defined what Cool Whip is. I'll just add myself to the list of Americans who think Cool Whip is vile. I've eaten it, and I'd eat it again if someone served it to me, but I would rather die than buy that stuff for my Thanksgiving pie.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Excellent.

You'd use proper whipped cream, right?

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, defnitely.

Thanks List

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

You are so right. I dont know if you got to see any of the vitriole my younger daughter posted in my LJ before I wiped it out. That was my "Happy Thanksgiving" from her. Anyway, like I said in my own comments I do have other things to think about - good things. Meanwhile, so that my LJ friends will not be subjected to her extreme profanity I have shut her out of commenting.
I am still thankful for a lot of stuff, like LJ friends who have been most helpful during this stressful couple of days.

Re: Thanks List

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I read what you said about her comments but I felt it would be a betrayal of our friendship to read the stuff itself.

[sovay]

2. What's this Cool Whip stuff you Americans put on your pie? It sounds disgusting. Whatever happened to cream?

I cannot answer for my country; I have never eaten Cool Whip. I try not to eat things whose ingredient list sounds more chemically complex than my shampoo.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hehehe.

More and more I try to avoid eating stuff that ain't really food. Apart from anything else it all just tastes so gross.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

The secret of Kool Whip is that it is resistant to all types of radiation. Therefore in the event of nuclear war if one covers one's body with Kool Whip, one will survive, but then be eaten by roaches.

LOL!

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

That is a riot! He he he! ROFL. I needed a good laugh. Thanks!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The same is true of custard. See next post.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

yes, you got it. That thick impenetrable skin that develops after it sets for a while!