Ask Carb Diva: Questions & Answers About Food, Recipes, & Cooking, #104

Two years, my friends, and thanks to all of you. I'm no math wizard, but I did a random sampling of these posts and found that they average 1,300 words and 3 questions each—that's 312 questions and 14,060,800 words. And we've done so many things together. We've learned from a lexicon of cooking terms, discussed "what not to do" in the kitchen, how to use up leftovers and table scraps, and made one soup for every letter of the alphabet.

So what's next? Darned if I know, but it’s been fun at the very least and hopefully, for you, never boring.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s get started on Year No. 3.

Let's get started with today's mailbox. If you're an old friend, you already know how this works. But, if this is your first visit, let me introduce you to my kitchen.

Each week I receive questions about food ingredients, cooking or baking terms or methods, requests for recipes, and queries about nutrition. Just about anything food-related has been covered here.

I'm sharing this past week's questions and my responses; it happens every Monday. Want to join in the fun? You can leave your question in the comments below, and next week the answer will be right here. It's that easy.

In truth, the questions in this mailbox were requests for recipes (my favorite thing). This one is from Bill Holland (aka billybuc):

When I was in college, every Saturday night we would go to a local sandwich shop and buy a stromboli...not technically a sandwich, I guess, but it was the best "sandwich" I have ever had. Oh, how I miss that stromboli from the Alleyway Shop in Seattle.

Bill, the story of stromboli is even better than the sandwich itself. For those unfamiliar with the name, a stromboli is a hot, filled sandwich shaped much like a jellyroll and it's 100 percent an Italian-American invention. You won't find them in Italy unless some entrepreneurial spirit is making them there to satisfy Western tastes.

The interesting part is how the sandwich got its name.

In 1950 Roberto Rossellini wrote and directed the movie "Stromboli" starring Ingrid Bergman as a Lithuanian war-refugee. In the film, she marries an Italian fisherman who rescues her from a post-World War II displaced persons camp and takes her away to his village on the volcanic island Stromboli. Despite her efforts to fit in, the locals reject her and soon she comes to regard the island as a bigger prison than the one she just left.

During production Rossellini and Bergman fell in love (despite the fact that both were married to others) and she bore his illegitimate child. In the mid-20th century, this was a volcanic scandal (sorry, I couldn't overlook the pun). An enterprising deli owner created the sandwich, slapped the "in-the-news" name stromboli on it, and almost 70 years later the name and sandwich are still popular.

Bill, I won't require you to make your own pizza dough (although it's pretty easy). Buy a pound of pizza dough (you can find it in the refrigerated section in most large grocery deli sections or in the freezer). Here's a link to a recipe that you can put together with no baking experience and just 6 ingredients.

Maybe in my spare time, I'll put together an article on all the different, creative ways one can make and fill a stromboli sandwich. Thanks for the inspiration.

Next, Eric Dierker had an online conversation that went something like this:

"Thanks for another great one. I want to make pickle relish, plain and sweet."

"Good morning Eric. Is that you asking for a recipe for sweet relish? I think I can do that (although I will have to be perfectly honest with you and let you know that I detest the stuff. I'm naturally sweet and don't need to embellish)."

"I get your point. But Gabe is not so sweet and I need not mention me. Yeah so maybe we could do one that is only 1/2 sweet. Never thought of that. That would be a perfect replacement for store bought."

Eric (and the rest of you), the good news is that pickle relish recipes are easy to find. The bad news is that 99 percent of them require that you process the relish with a hot water bath to seal the jars.

I'm not going to expect you to do that. Thankfully, I was able to find a cook-but-store-in-the-frig recipe in Gourmet magazine. Here's the link. I would think that you could spice it up with a little jalapeño if you want.

Did you know that there is a Table of Contents for this series? I have created an article that provides a detailed listing of each question I've received. It's broken down by category, and within each category, the questions are listed alphabetically. Each question is actually a hotlink back to the original post.

Here's a link to that Table of Contents.

I have also cataloged all of my personal recipes that I have shared with you in this weekly Q&A series and in all of my other articles as well. The link to that Index is here. There are hotlinks to each recipe and this will be updated as new recipes are shared.

Let's do this again next week. If you have questions about foods, cooking techniques, or nutrition you can ask them here. If you are in search of an old recipe or need ideas on how to improve an existing one I can help you. If you want to learn more, let's do it together. Present your questions, your ideas, your comments below. Or, you can write to me personally at this email address: lindalum52@gmail.com.

And, I promise that there will always be at least one photo of a kitty in every Monday post.