Foodie Group- A Big Hello!
Hey everyone, I'm so excited to have found this forum category from @wonderfulMagic99 ! We were hoping to start a foodie/food appreciation group, and it appears there is already one happening, right here! Woohoo!
We were hoping to create a foodie group focus on the experience shared by cooking, eating and sharing meals. And also discussing how mindfulness and enjoying each moment can enrich an everyday task (eating!) that we take for granted.
Since 7 Cups is an amazing global community, I've found that the people I've spoken to have shared some delicious traditions and variations on dishes and appreciating food. I'd love to be able to continue this conversation to learn and discover more!
We are at present organising some exciting things to do with this category- such as group discussions and integration into the new Healthy Living group- and we will keep you posted with all of the news on this thread.
A big shout out to @politeOcean93 , @Kallie112358 , @Nadyadj , @faithfulltown7500 , @VC , @NadineH , @Holie and @understandingDrum9823 for your support on the original thread, posted here!
I'm looking forward to meeting you all and hearing all of your ideas! Please feel free to introduce yourself below, with any ideas or thoughts- and of course, you're favourite dish! Also, subscribe to this feed to keep updated on what's cooking in the foodie group... 
To start, I'll introduce myself! I'm fruityflamingo and I'm from Australia and we are really lucky to have such a brilliant mulitcultural food experience. Growing up it was fantastic being able to try all different cuisines - Thai, Italian, Malaysian, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, French... Vietnamese... the list goes on! My favourite taste sensations at the moment include Pad Thai Chicken (I love the zest of lemon with the crunchiness of the bean sprouts), Arancini balls- the cheesy tomato beautiful texture.... , and for something completely different, I recently discovered a new Ben & Jerrys flavour- Hazed and Confused- which is vanilla and hazelnut icecream with a sort of Nutella liquid down the middle and choc chips... Incredible!
Can't wait to meet you ! :D
Thank you for tagging me! I look forward to working with you on this and incorporating all of this awesomeness into awesome info and discussions ahead :)
Thank you for tag! I'm excited to discuss in this section.
Well, I'm italian and I love to cook. I tried to cook some japanese and arabian dishes, but I'm not sure of the results :P I love to cook american sweets, too. I'd like to talk about your typical food, and learn some recipes. See you soon :D
Hey @Holie , thanks for joining in our discussion and your excitement! I'm excited too :D!
That's great to hear you love to cook and you like to experiment with other dishes.. I think that is all apart of the fun! What type of American sweets do you like to cook? All of your cooking sounds delicious!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about what you'd like to see here, it's fantastic to hear what you think.
Thanks again for joining in and I can't wait to post more updates! :D
@fruityflamingo I love american cheesecake (is my favourite food!), lime cake, cupcake, muffins and brownies for example. But I'm not sure that I used use the correct recipes. 
Well, I cook italian food, obiouvsly. We have a tipical dishes for each region, often handed down orally
@Holie - Yum! I love cheesecake and brownies too.. I don't think it matters if it is the right recipes, as long as it tastes good! I love blueberry cheesecake, although when I cook it at home I find it a bit tricky to get the texture right. Have you ever cooked shortbread?
It's amazing how recipes get passed down from generation to generation through families... That must be really special :)
@fruityflamingo I just cooked shortbread yesterday! Well, they aren't special, simply in the countryside grandmothers cooked with few and poor ingredients and they don't have a recipe. But they knew evaluate necessary ingredients without it. However some dishes are delicious!
@Holie - YUM! I love shortbread! Except when I make it I always seem to eat a lot of the batter before it gets cooked... haha.
Ah ok, that's great knowledge to have- so you still get the best flavour if you don't have a lot of ingredients or money. They sound like they would be very unique to each local region. It would be interesting as well because it sounds like it would show what flavours each region likes best!
@fruityflamingo this is one of my favourite Christmas cake, well, this is one of the possible versions. It's similar to strudel. http://ammodomio.blogspot.it/2011/01/rocciata-o-attorta-forse-entrambe.html
sorry but the recipes is written only in italian! I can traslate it if you want
@Holie- that looks amazing too! :D ! Google translate has translated it.. but I'm not sure how accurate it is. I'd like to try and make it, it looks delicious.. I'll probably try and make it next week, can I check the translation with you then? :D
@Holie P.s. - this is what google says in its translation... is this accurate? :D
Rocciata (but perhaps Attorta ...)
For the dough
300 g flour
50 ml of warm water
1 egg
50 g butter, melted
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons sugar
A pinch of salt
Mix all the ingredients as you would for an ordinary pasta, but keeping it softer. Knead long on the table and then let it rest for at least an hour in a warm place, or covered by a steel saucepan heat a little done on the stove. It will be so much easier then, roll.
Once rested, roll the dough into a rectangle finely, put the filling three-quarters of the surface, then roll it up on itself, starting from the opposite left without filling. In this way, the roll will have in the bottom two rounds of paste which will serve to prevent external leakage of the filling during cooking. Brush with melted butter, to form a horseshoe and bake at 180 C for about twenty - thirty minutes. When the cake is cool, sprinkle with good Alchermes and powdered sugar. Serve warm with Vin Santo or Marsala, accompanied perhaps with a scoop of vanilla ice cream sprinkled with a little cinnamon. It will keep for several days in the fridge, you just heat it slightly before serving.
For the filling:
4-5 apples (rennet) chopped
5-6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
Walnuts
Pine nuts
A dozen prunes into small pieces
Three handfuls of raisins
A pinch of cinnamon
A pinch of grated lemon rind
A glass of Vin Santo or Marsala and a drop of Alkermes
Mix in a large bowl all the ingredients in order to create a homogeneous mixture. The amount of nuts and pine nuts to taste it, but obviously there are, the better the cake. For apples will typically use the Pippin, but if you want you can also use other qualities. For example, I used the Granny Smith. Sugar can be increased according to the 'harshness of the fruit and the quality of the cocoa. So you can when settling according to your taste !!
@fruityflamingo yes that's correct!
As I said this is a possible way to make the filling. For example my mother don't use dryed prunes and vinsanto or marsala, someone don't use cocoa and someone use candied fruit, too. it depends on taste.
I found some photos that show to different way:
http://cdn.cook.stbm.it/thumbnails/ricette/0/543/attorta-o-serpentone-26383-w400.jpg
http://cdn.cook.stbm.it/thumbnails/ricette/0/543/attorta-o-serpentone-26382-w400.jpg
here the filling was simply put on dough.
http://www.umbriaontheblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Attorta-foto-36.jpg
and here the ingredients of filling were mixed together to obtain that "mush". Dough is pink for the alchermes, but is not necessary. (I prefer the second way 
).
Ah, I keep it out of fridge.
I hope that you like it 
I don't think of myself as a foodie - I'm a bit too picky and I like some chain restaurants!
I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with though!
As for a dish, it's difficult to pick a favourite. Christmas is coming up and we've recently had a huge dumping of snow so it looks like Christmas here. I plan on making these soon, they are one of my favourites!
http://www.claudiascookbook.com/2012/12/23/pyrizhky-ukrainian-cabbage-buns/
@wonderfulMagic99 - I don't think of myself really as a foodie either- as sometimes I like some fast food too! Haha, so I guess we are redefining the foodie definition to include all lovers of (any!) food! :D
Thanks for joining in and I'm also looking forward to seeing what happens here.. it's exciting! I love that we can all offer a different perspective.
I've never heard of Pyrizhky before- they look delicious! Have you made them before? I may have to give them a go myself :)
@fruityflamingo I did them last year for the first time. They are traditional in my family for Christmas Eve, but my Grandma lives far away and she really reduced how much cooking she does and my Mom never made these. I missed them and figured I would give this recipe a try last year, and they freeze well.
I'm certainly not skilled like my Grandma - quite a few popped open, but they still taste good!
@wonderfulMagic99 - Oh wow, well done! That's great you can continue the tradition.. sorry to hear that your Grandmas lives far away, but it's good you can learn how to make them too- I'm sure it took a while for your Grandma to get skilled in making those!
I've never tried making something with a filling that is savory, so I think it will be a challenge.. but as long as they taste good, I don't mind if the pop open! Actually, I now remember I have made Filo triangles, sausage rolls and pies before... and it's always a challenge to get the filling to stay in!
@wonderfulMagic99 imma make these so thanks for sharing the link! :D
@Lulu2015 I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
YOOO \o/ I love food so you telling me to pick a favourite is like picking between breathing and breathing 😂 I just love all food! I'm from Egypt so mostly arabian food but I try everything and everything is awesome ✌
@NadineH what are some of your favorite dishes from Arabian cuisine?
@Lulu2015 ohh let me see I love shawerma! also koshary haha hmm idk what else nothing on my mind now haha
Hello everyone!!
Just want to let you all know that the Healthy Living Support Room and Team are up and running and here to help you!.... Please feel free to check out our daily discussion topics and ALSO......our NEW "Healthy Living FORUM"!! Feel free to share some of you awesome ideas and input there as well!!
@PoliteOcean Yay sounds great :) I'll definitely check it out!
@fruityflamingo
Awesome Flamingo! Hope to see you there :)