(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: Notebook #65: Prunes? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-24 Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find! Prunes? OK...I guess. Mary Elizabeth Williams/Salon Over the past few years, in an attempt at an image makeover, prunes have sometimes been renamed "dried plums." But the notion of a granny sipping on prune juice to keep her regular holds fast in the collective imagination. That's why I was recently surprised to read an article on CNBC in which registered dietitian nutritionist Lauren Manaker revealed that her "most underrated" energy-boosting food was the humble prune. Yes, prunes are high in fiber. (Calm down — so are kale, cauliflower and and avocados.) They contain iron, potassium and vitamins C and K. And, as Manaker notes, they're also "a good source of energy in the form of natural sugars." When I need convincing about a particular food, I usually find that throwing a little chocolate in the mix helps make the case. I was in London earlier this month, where a spectacular dessert at Ottolenghi reminded me of just that. While Ottolenghi's prune-infused sticky chocolate loaf takes its cues from the classic British sticky toffee pudding, my own chocolate prune cake, inspired by a simple Food.com recipe, is a more pared-down affair. [...] I know prunes are a tough sell. Despite never eating a prune in his life, my spouse refused to touch a slice of this decadent dessert. He was quite spooked by the dried fruit's geriatric reputation. My daughter and I, however, gleefully pounced on the cake, without a moment's regard for the fact that there might actually be something vaguely healthy in it. Prunes. My Great Auntie J. would make sure that everyone knew that she kept prune juice in her refrigerator. I know one lady that would swear that drinking prune juice when you have a cold would make you sh*t the cold out of you. My own mother, nowadays, swears by the need of eating a prune a day. And yet… On the rare occasions that I eat Danish pastries nowadays, I do like prune danishes the best and especially when said pastry also has a cream cheese filling. Some of the stigma against eating prunes actually started to wear away thanks to this episode of the 1980’s sitcom A Different World, (the prune dish comes in at ~2:05 of the clip) I have had prune cobbler twice and when heated and topped off with ice cream, it is good, I don’t care what Dwayne’s roommate Ron says. I mean, who is going to turn down anything made by a character played by Patti LaBelle? Prunes in chocolate cake, though? I don’t think I’m quite ready for that. That seems on the level of salmon at IHOP but...to each his or her own! The recipe is at the story link. Comments below the fold. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/24/2154850/-Top-Comments-Notebook-65-Prunes Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/