Chick, I was introduced to okra when we lived in Oklahoma for 2 years. I was at a meeting pot-luck for new faculty wives, the talk was recipes, and EVERY recipe was okra-this and okra-that. I'm surprised no one brought okra ice cream or okra cake, because they put it in everything else. I took some recipes and tried them at home, but no matter how I cooked it, it still tasted like ... okra. I think it's an Oklahoma thing, because I've never seen much done with okra anywhere else. And I don't like pickles much, so pickling okra might just be too much of two bad things.

I stir-fry with a little canola oil and sometimes soy sauce. I may/may not add more sauce later. My cooking is an ethnic mishmosh, although my spice palate tends more towards Indian.

How long I nuke something depends on quantity and thickness. Thin leafy greens get only 3 minutes. Harder green veggies maybe 5-10.

Orchid, I got bitter melon once, and whatever I did with it, it was still too bitter for my tastes. Same farmer gave me fuzzy green melon as well, which I salted and stir-fried. I thought it was OK but not great, and Hubbo took one tiny bite and refused to eat it.

I eat one meal a day which is basically veggies and grain or rice. Usually dinner. Lunch typically is a generous amount of fruit(s) with maybe yogurt or nuts.

I've thought about using phyllo but it seems beyond my culinary skills.

When I went away to college, I didn't know the English names for half the foods my mother made. Which was bad, because I kept insisting to my friends and those kind clerks at the grocery store that those WERE English names, because our family always spoke English. Except for food, which had Yiddish names in our house, which I thought were English. DUH!