ohh... one more recipe

I really love French Onion Soup. I mean really. LOVE.
So when I ran across this recipe in my reader this morning, I had to add it to the list of things to cook soon. A bonus is that she recomends using chicken or vegetable broth, instead of the traditional beef.
The Dinner Files French Onion Soup

(I also found another blog to add to my list!)

Cider onion soup
Peel and thinly slice 2 1/2 pounds onions. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a medium or large heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until onions soften up. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring when you think of it and adjusting heat so onions are cooking but not at all browning, until onions caramelize and turn all deeply amber from the inside and taste almost like candy they’re so sweet. Be patient, this process takes awhile – at least 40 minutes and up to an hour. Add 1 cup hard apple cider and bring to a boil. Add about 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock (I’m guessing plain water would work fine too) and bring to a boil. Add a couple sprigs of fresh thyme, if you’re so inclined, reduce heat, and simmer soup for 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and add more salt if you must.

Toast slices of whole wheat, rye, or other whole grain bread, then top those toasts with slices of bloomy-rind cheese like Brie or Camembert. You can float these as-is in the soup (the heat from the toast and the soup will gently melt the cheese) or broil these toasts to give the cheese a head-start. Some people will want freshly ground black pepper in their soup; some people will not. I found the sweet, peppery, cheesy combination divine.

Warm Cinnamon Apples

This is very quick and easy to make. Kids will love this!. Serve as a side or snack.

4 McIntosh apples, peeled and sliced or diced
½ cups packed brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
¼ t. nutmeg
2 T. water
1-2 T. butter

Toss together first 4 ingredients in a zip lock bag.
Cook apple mixture, water, and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally 10-12 minutes or until apples are tender.

Tip: if you can’t find McIntosh apples, substitute another baking apple such as Rome or Gala, or try a crisp, tart green apple like Granny Smith.

.

Coconut Oil is simply wonderful, why so?

I love Virgin Coconut Oil and I make no secret about it. It is an essential tool in my skin care routine and also an essential item in my healthy diet. Coconut Oil really is a remarkable product that has so many health and beauty benefits that it would take simply ages to list them all. There are many websites detailing the remarkable health benefits of coconut oil purely as a health food, never mind as a beauty product!

THE BASICS

The enormous health and nutritional benefits of coconut oil have been ignored for decades because of the general advice not to consume saturated fat. Coconut oil is 86% – 90% saturated, which makes it look unattractive – if you look no further. Most people looked no further until recently. Now we know that coconut oil is the most healthful oil in which to cook our food and the most healthful to spread on our toast. The cosmetics industry has always made wide use of coconut oil because of its extensive shelf-life and its wonderful effects on the skin.

The warnings we received about saturated fat never took account of the fact that there are three types of saturated fatty acid. We now know that long chain and short chain fatty acids should be avoided. Medium chain fatty acids are uniquely healthy. There are only two products on the market which belong to this group, palm kernel oil and coconut oil. (Palm kernel oil is difficult to obtain at the right quality and causes great environmental distress).

Coconut oil is used by the body in a different way from the other saturates and from mono- and poly-unsaturates. It is transported directly from the digestive- tract to the liver where it is converted into energy. This is why the oil has become known in some quarters as ‘athletes’ food’.

Seed oils (eg sunflower, safflower, rapeseed and canola) have long fatty acid chains. This means that they are not the healthy option that they’ve been made out to be in the media. They are not easy to digest and they encourage weight gain by aggravating the thyroid gland and by interfering with the action of thyroid transport protein. The epidemic of thyroid disease, largely caused by the seed oils and their junk derivatives (margarine etc.) has not yet hit the headlines – but it soon will.

Coconut oil has the opposite action. By stimulating the thyroid it steps up metabolism and encourages weight loss even without other dietary changes or an increase in exercise. Coconut oil has 10% fewer calories than all other fats which also helps!

There are many symptoms of hypothyroidism (sluggish thyroid). These include weight- gain, tiredness, lack of motivation, aching joints, loss of hair, premature loss of hair-colour and dry skin. All of these symptoms are improved with the introduction of coconut oil into the diet (and the removal of seed oils).

There are further problems with seed oils. They are extracted by solvent, residues of which pose a real health threat. Some seed oils, canola for example, need to be de-odourised, otherwise they smell disgusting. This process hydrogenates the oil by up to 5%. Hydrogenated oils are implicated in Altzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases.

The cells of the human body, wherever they are found in the body, have a requirement for saturated fat. It contributes to the integrity of the cell membrane or wall. In the absence of saturated fat in the diet, the cells are described by researchers as being ‘flabby’. Because poly-unsaturates (seed oils) are unstable in sunshine, if the skin-cell membranes are partly composed of these, the skin itself is unstable in sunshine, the worst outcome of which process is skin cancer. Not only do you do your skin cells a favour by eating coconut oil, you can apply it to the skin as natural protection from the sun (so long as you’re not tan-binging!).

There is mounting evidence that coconut oil has benefits in a variety of gastro-intestinal disorders. Sufferers from Crohn’s disease who have introduced coconut oil into their diet have experienced relief from digestive distress and those who suffer from an infestation by the parasite giardia (which is often mis-diagnosed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome) also experience relief since the lauric acid content of coconut oil targets giardia and other parasites. Lauric acid, which is only found in coconut oil, palm kernel oil and human breast milk, kills the bacterium helicobacter pilori which causes stomach ulcers and, ultimately, stomach cancer.

Because the lauric acid in the coconut oil goes directly to the liver, some hepatic conditions are considerably improved by the introduction of coconut oil into the diet. The lauric and other acids mop up harmful bacteria and help to protect the liver from free-radical damage (oxidative stress). Coconut oil supports recovery from hepatitis C and cirrhosis. It may even help to prevent cirrhosis caused by alcohol abuse.

It was heart health which prompted most of us to switch from butter to margarine, from full fat to skimmed milk. We were advised that all saturated fats were bad and that we should avoid cholesterol. What that actually means is “avoid all animal products” but it has seldom been expressed in that way.

Coconut oil is cholesterol free. Studies which followed populations who changed from coconut oil to seed oil found that alarming changes in the indicators of heart disease had taken place. The opposite was true of populations who changed from seed oil to coconut. Their heart health improved. In fact, studies of populations who traditionally used, and still use, coconut oil as their main dietary fat, show these populations to be very heart healthy; good hdl/ldl balance, little plaquing of the arteries, low mortality rate from heart disease etc. Post mortem studies of the fats which clogged the arteries of victims of heart disease in the west found the clogs to be mainly composed of poly-unsaturated fat with mono-unsaturated next. Saturated fat, of whatever sort (!) was the least implicated fat. Coconut oil promotes the required cholesterol levels in due proportion (hdl/ldl) and, quite clearly, reduces the risk of heart disease.

Because the lauric acid in coconut oil kills lipid-coated (fat-coated, ie unfriendly) bacteria as well as fungi and yeasts, ingestion of the oil restores the balance of bacteria in the digestive tract. The ‘friendly’ ones help us to digest our food and don’t appear to be affected by coconut oil. A healthy adult human has about five kilos of these! Candida, a yeast which occupies the digestive tract and causes misery if it gets out of control, is killed by lauric acid.

At the time of writing there are clinical trials going on looking into coconut oil in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, prostate disease, dental caries, MRSA, eczema and psoriasis.

Other benefits of coconut oil can be summarised as follows:-

It is stable. It can be kept at room temperature for years without going rancid. Seed oils are rancid when you buy them.

Coconut oil starts to smoke at around 185 deg. C. Under normal cooking conditions it doesn’t smoke at all.

At normal room temperature coconut oil has a consistency similar to that of butter which makes it convenient for spreading on bread or toast. It becomes a clear, bright liquid at about 25 deg C.

Virgin coconut oil is unrefined (all the goodness left in), chemical additive free, GMO free and processed at the lowest possible temperature. It is simply pressed from premium quality ripe fruits of cocus nucifera. It is not bleached or de-odourised. It contains no hydrogenated fat.

Baking with coconut oil is pretty much like baking with lard or butter but without their disadvantages. Although the oil has a slight coconut flavour this is seldom imparted to the baking or cooking.

If you don’t want to cook with coconut oil but need to get the benefits, most people find that carefully selected VCO is pleasant enough to eat by the spoonful.

Coconut oil is a fabulous skin moisturiser. Individuals with psoriasis, eczema or just dry skin benefit greatly from using it as a lotion. A little goes a long way.

Virgin coconut oil is the champagne of dietary fat. Avoid other types of coconut oil as these will contain residues of contaminants.

The lauric acid in coconut oil is converted by the body into mono-laurin which is a unique and powerful nutriceutical (a food which acts like a medicine). Since infection control is now a priority because of the imminent failure of antibiotics, the inclusion of coconut oil in the diet (about three and a half tablespoons per day) is an obvious step to take.

© ‘08 Independent Health Publications.

autumn cooking

I don’t post many recipes, but decided to share one of my favorites today. One of the best things about living in a four season state is changing your cooking with the weather. We’re covering up the barbecues and firing up our ovens and Crock Pots here in Michigan. My sister Carrie, the family cook, made this beef stew for us once and it immediately became an all-time favorite around here. Not only because it tastes so good, but because it’s pretty much a no-fail recipe!

Carrie’s Beef Stew

4 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed, cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained
1/2 cup hoisin sauce (I use Kame brand because it’s Gluten-Free)
2 bay leaves

1 pound slender carrots, peeled, cut diagonally into 1-inch lengths
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over high heat. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Add meat to pot; sauté until brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Push meat to sides of pot. Reduce heat to medium; add 2 tablespoons oil to pot. Add onions; sauté until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Mix meat into onions. Add 1 cup wine, tomatoes with juices, hoisin sauce, and bay leaves. Bring to boil.

Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrots and 1 cup wine. Cover; simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, increase heat to high; boil until sauce is slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes longer. Reduce heat to medium, add cornstarch mixture and simmer until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Season stew with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Bring to simmer before serving, stirring occasionally.) Transfer stew to large bowl. Sprinkle with parsley; serve.

Okay, so that’s the recipe. Now I don’t know about you, but I always change things up as I go depending on my mood and what I have in the pantry. I like to use lean, thinly sliced steak, I usually make it in a Crock Pot cooking it on low for about 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. I throw in baby carrots sliced in half if I have them, I rarely have fresh parsley around so I skip that or use dry, most of time when I make this all the wine goes in at once, my husband and onions don’t get along so I use onion salt or flakes, and I often don’t get around to the cornstarch. The stew goes great with mashed potatoes or rice. I’ve even made it into a rich soup a couple of times by thinning the stock with a little water and adding frozen chopped vegetables.

The cows in the photo hung out in a pasture near our condo in Jackson Hole. Hmm, their cute little bovine faces are giving me a case of the meat-eating guilt’s, maybe I’ll skip the beef and throw in some tofu next time!

Fat Rascals

There is lots of history behind these biscuits, and they may originally have been cooked on open turf or peat fires on Whitby Moor. Another suggestion is that they were made from trimmings of shortcrust pastry that were rolled out and had currants and sugar sprinkled over the top. They were then baked and eaten warm, with butter spread over them. Preparation time – 10 minutes Cooking time – 18 minutes Calories per biscuit – 200 Kcal Fat per biscuit – 9g of which saturated – 5.8g Makes – 10 Suitable for vegetarians Plain flour 250g (9oz) Salt pinch Butter 110g (4oz) Currants 50g (2oz) Light muscovado sugar 2 tbsp Milk 3–4 tbsp Caster sugar for sprinkling 1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. Butter a baking sheet. 2 Sift the flour into a bowl and add the salt. Rub in the butter, then stir in the currants and sugar. Add the milk and bind to form a dough. Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface and then roll it out to about 1cm (1⁄2in) thick. 3 Use a 5cm (2in) cutter to cut out rounds and place them on the baking sheet. Re-roll and cut trimmings as necessary. Sprinkle caster sugar over the tops. Cook in the centre of the oven for 15–18 minutes. These will keep in an airtight container for up to three days. Cook’s tip • Some people make these into faces by arranging currants for the eyes and nose and flaked almonds for the teeth. There is lots of history behind these biscuits, and they may originally have been cooked on open turf or peat fires on Whitby Moor.

Fat Rascals

Another suggestion is that they were made from trimmings of shortcrust pastry that were rolled out and had currants and sugar sprinkled over the top. They were then baked and eaten warm, with butter spread over them.

Preparation time – 10 minutes
Cooking time – 18 minutes
Calories per biscuit – 200 Kcal
Fat per biscuit – 9g
of which saturated – 5.8g
Makes – 10
Suitable for vegetarians

Plain flour 250g (9oz)
Salt pinch
Butter 110g (4oz)
Currants 50g (2oz)
Light muscovado sugar 2 tbsp
Milk 3–4 tbsp
Caster sugar for sprinkling

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. Butter a baking sheet.

2 Sift the flour into a bowl and add the salt. Rub in the butter, then stir in the currants and sugar. Add the milk and bind to form a dough. Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface and then roll it out to about 1cm (1⁄2in) thick.

3 Use a 5cm (2in) cutter to cut out rounds and place them on the baking sheet. Re-roll and cut trimmings as necessary. Sprinkle caster sugar over the tops. Cook in the centre of the oven for 15–18 minutes. These will keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

Cook’s tip
Some people make these into faces by arranging currants for the eyes and nose and flaked almonds for the teeth.

Recipe taken from Around Britain Dairy Cookbook

Prepare yourselves for the flurry of sickness-induced posts to come!

Hello dear DBIH-ers. Yes, it really is I,. DirtyHippie, returning from a rather lengthy hiatus away from my (fam)blee and home here, at good ol’ Dear Blog In Heaven. Why have I been absent of late, might you ask? Well, its a long story, but suffice it to say that I am just a super fucking awesome and important person, and I had shit to get done (for instance: buying a treadmill and procuring tickets to the midnight showing of New Moon). Alas, I return today as I have been sidelined from life in general with a case of “unidentified general sickness,” or potentially, la grippe de porc.

this may or may not be how I spent last weekend...

Anyhoo, I plan to periodically release a series of posts this day, due to general boredom and my overwhelming desire to share it with you. I may also be slightly delirious. But I think its a great plan. Lets break some records, people! Say it with me now: book deal book deal book deal!

Now, onto the topic of my first post: the wonderment that is pumpkin bread.

look at this guy!!

After about three weeks of living off of nothing but hummus and apples (literally–it was a bleak time…) I finally went to Whole Foods a few days ago and procured, among other things, the most delectable treat known to man, and also my very favorite thing about fall: pumpkin bread. I have been eating it, with my hands, for about three days now. It is simply too good to take the time to cut it up and use “eating utensils.” Eff that shit.

It is seriously divine. It has raisins. It is pumpkin colored (my very favorite fall color, might I add), and it is very nearly entirely vegan (legit, I checked the label, it has one egg in it, but that be all).

I am in complete love with it. I hope that by letting all teh gheys marry it really DOES open up a slippery slope and eventually I am able to devote my life, legally, to this wonderful culinary masterpiece.

On another note: seriously, Jappy, if we do not go pumpkin-patching tomorrow I will cut a bitch. And by a bitch, I mean you. just an fyi.

lubchu.

Fooling Around With Another Man's Knife.

Trying to find a pot. Harder than it looks.

Found the pot. Obvs.

Cooking in another man’s kitchen is a lot like trying to wear his stokies on your head. Nothing fits the way it should, and in the end everything just smells a bit too much like other people’s feet.

I’ve been housesitting a newly-married couple’s place for about two weeks now while they’re on honeymoon (Mauritius, in case you were wondering…) and so of course this means I’ve had an entirely new environment in which to burn myself on a pot I’ve left on the stove for too long.

Now I have some incredibly nosey habits when it comes to temporarily occupying someone else’s house. For example, I will judge you on the contents of your bookshelf (one cock-punch for every book by Kathy Lette), I will judge you on the DVDs you have chosen to pay money for (one trip to the evil dentist for every Saw sequel), and I will also judge you on the content of your kitchen cupboard. According to this scorecard my honeymooning friend totally killed the first two categories, but was then sadly let down by cupboards that were almost entirely filled with bottles of Wimpy mustard and seven tubs of smooth peanut butter that wasn’t Black Cat.  Two cock-punches and a root canal for him then.

I don't understand the tomato-sauce-to-mustard ratio here...

Cooking in a new environment is always simultaneously a totally fun thing and also the biggest pain in the ass ever. There’s usually only one knife for everything and it’s never as sharp as you’d like it. The oven requires you to sacrifice a virgin just to get the door open (this particular oven is a fancy-looking industrial beast with a polished metal door, the first time I opened it a piece of the handle literally pinged off it and across the room – wtf?), and there’s always some ridiculous situation where they have seven cheesegraters but no pot to boil pasta.

Anyway – I haven’t cooked properly in a while and for some reason I’d been thinking about cauliflower cheese for a while and so this seemed like as good a time as any.

Now firstly, the right thing to think at this point is in fact: what man in his right mind thinks about cauliflower cheese when there’s things like Currie Cup finals, Guitar Hero and naked girls with which to occupy his mind. I can’t offer any explanation other than… um, shurrup go bother someone else, cauliflower makes me happy dammit.

I have to say that I might have started this whole process thinking about alternate takes on cauliflower cheese, but ended up as something quite different, as is often the case. The guy who invented the fax machine originally started by trying to develop a waistcoat that also played vinyl.

Also, I totally didn’t have my camera with me at the time and so a Samsung cellphone had to come to the rescue.

It was like it was calling out. Uuuuuse me, uuuuuuuse me.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets

1 red onion, chopped

3 sprigs of rosemary stripped of leaves and then finely chopped

a handful of strong mushrooms, either Shitake or Porcini, chopped

half a chorizo sausage sliced into rounds

6 new potatoes

2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes

1 handful of grated mature cheddar cheese

salt

pepper

Mr Spice Portuguese Chicken Spice (hey – I found it the cupboard and was intrigued….what can I say?)

What to do

Fill a medium sized pot with water, add a general sprinkle of salt and bring it to the boil, then add the potatoes.

In the mean time, chop up the onions, rosemary, mushroom and chorizo and then break the cauliflower into florets.

Heat some olive oil in a pan, and add all the ingredients with a generous seasoning of salt and pepper and Mr Spice Portuguese Chicken Spice (or nearest crappy alternative). Once everything has started to brown, turn the heat down and go and play Guitar Hero for as long as it takes to not get booed off stage during Muse’s Knights of Cydonia.

You can't tell, but this solo was EPIC.

Drain the potatoes and cut them roughly into halves and then add them and the two tins of peeled tomato to the pan, put the lid on and let things simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

Spoon portions into a bowl and grate some strong (mature) cheddar cheese over it and serve.

It seems that Wimpy tomato sauce is good for something after all...

Math and Other Dangers

Recipe #7: chocolate kisses

The recipe for chocolate kisses calls for 3 1/4 oz of chocolate, and the bar of Scharfenbergers semi-sweet chocolate was 9.7 ounces. This was bad news for me. If these had been rounder numbers, or if I were less of a mathematical moron, I could have seized the opportunity to turn this into a teaching moment. You know, showing how to apply math in everyday life and ending up with chocolate kisses! Instead, I punched numbers into a calculator and got nowhere. I looked at the bar of chocolate and started over. No number came up that was useful. Luca was watching me fumble around and in an effort to hide my fear of math, I turned it into a comedy act. I stared at the calculator and made funny faces at it and banged it on the table as though it were broken. Luca is at an age where his mother can still crack him up.

I have truly despised math all my life, and I will feel horribly guilty if Luca inherits my deficiency. I realize that in certain fields, math is power and that it even contains a certain beauty. I was too bored by math drills to appreciate any deeper mathematical concepts, and now I see that I missed out. In drumming, for example, I can see that having even a basic understanding of math would be beneficial. For this reason, I lie to Luca regularly, saying things like, “Math is fun, right?” And, “Math is cool. You are so lucky to do math every day!” Luca is already a lover of books and words, and I am determined that if he decides to hate math it will be his own doing and not mine.

The best I could do was to come up with an approximation of how much chocolate to use. Then Luca looked at the recipe. “30 kisses,” he read. “That’s a lot,” he said looking doubtful. Then he said, “Oh, because they are small.” But I didn’t see how the little block of chocolate could amount to 30 kisses no matter how small they were. Luca agreed. “Let’s make the whole thing,” he said. We decided to double the recipe which made the math calculations only marginally easier.

Cutting the block of chocolate was hard so I did that and then Luca put it into a metal bowl. When the water was “just bubbling,” I placed the bowl over the water and Luca got up on his step stool and started stirring. The chocolate melting into thick goo was a divine sight. Luca kept stirring. The metal bowl was smaller than the pot of water underneath it so that I had to hold it in place. Even so a little water got inside the bowl of chocolate and I had to pour it out. Luca had on his blue mitts and kept stirring.

When all the chocolate was melted, I got out the “cold butter,” and cut out two tablespoons worth. It went into the bowl and Luca stirred some more. We took turns stirring until the butter had disappeared into the melted chocolate. I don’t know why this was so much fun but it was.

“Now it has to cool,” I said. Luca read from the book. “Place chocolate in a small plastic bag and squeeze into a corner.”  I looked for a good plastic bag and when the chocolate held its shape, we spooned it in. Luca laughed because it was messy.

“This is easier said than done,” I said and he laughed some more.

“Is that an expression?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Is it an expression people say all the time?”

“Not all the time, but when something sounds easier than it is.”

Once the chocolate was in the bag we had to get it all into one corner. Luca went to work on this as I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper. Luca was being extremely thorough about getting the chocolate into the corner of the bag and when he was done he said, “Now we need scissors.” I told him that all of the scissors were in his room, probably three or four pairs, because every time we have a pair anywhere else in the house, he takes them and they subsequently disappear into the unholy mess that is his room. He grumbled something on his way to his room and then emerged holding a pair of child’s scissors. He cut the corner of the bag.

“Here comes the fun part,” I said. I squeezed out the first kiss. Really it was more of a blob than a kiss. The second one looked like a slug. Another cooking mystery: how do you get a perfect kiss shape? It seemed impossible to get them to look like the picture:

Luca took the bag and made a few. “These don’t look like kisses,” he said, and I told him that they would taste great no matter what shape they were in. We took turns squeezing out the kisses, and then we did some together. Luca started getting silly with it and filled a second baking sheet by himself. Doubling the recipe made 36 kisses, not 60, and some of them were very small.

Who cares what they looked like? They were delicious.

Chocolate smudges

Luca’s own batch tasted just as good.

Now these are kisses!

Luca went to work on the bowl with a spoon and his fingers, and I put the kisses in the refrigerator to cool. Just then I got a call from my bank saying that someone was at that moment trying to cash a check from my account for 996 dollars. I didn’t know this person, and she was just then fleeing from the bank. She had all my account information including my home address. I was instructed to go right away to my nearest bank to close the account. Since my husband’s name is also on the account, I wasn’t sure they would let me do this, but I told Luca we had to go right now. He got on his shoes and we went to the bank.

Luca seemed unfazed by the fact that some strange person was trying to steal our money. He has seen a few bikes stolen from our old house in Venice, but that is about it as far as his awareness of criminal activity goes. When I was his age, my house was getting broken into regularly. I’d come home from school and find that the place had been ransacked with a chilling ferocity. Other times we’d wake in the middle of the night to the sound of people breaking in and rifling around through our things. Once we even saw a dead body in the street moments after a stabbing. And then of course we lived under the forbidding shadow of the prison next door. So the life of crime and its aftermath was never far from my consciousness. Luca, on the other hand, has been largely sheltered. He knows there are “bad guys” out there in the world, but he hasn’t brushed up against them much.

The “personal banker” closed my existing account and moved all the money into one with just my name on it. She did all this without so much as a phone call Jim. So this is how easy is to steal from your spouse, I thought. I’d put Jim’s name on the account as soon as we could get to a bank together but how did the banker know that? As Luca and I were leaving the bank, my phone rang again. This time it was another bank asking if we had authorized a check in the amount of 998 dollars to a woman with a different name than the first one. I didn’t know if they were two separate people or if it was one person with fake ID’s. I explained the situation adding that if the woman was still in the bank, she needed to be arrested.

It felt strange asking for someone to be arrested. I have taught writing in prisons, mostly to juveniles and women, and have heard about the desperate circumstances that lead to incarceration. Many women end up in jail because some guy has coerced her to commit a crime. I had no idea what the story was behind the woman (or women) who was trying to steal our money, just that right then I couldn’t feel much sympathy. Still, whoever she was, she was having a shitty life and sending her to jail wouldn’t solve any of her problems. Nor would it make me any safer from thieves. In any case there was little chance of her being arrested because the bank teller couldn’t exactly jump over the counter to detain her and what were the chances she would hang around long enough for a cop to arrive?

When Luca and I got home, he suddenly looked panicked. “What about my account?” he said. He has exactly $52 in his account, one dollar for every week of 2008 (more math!). I told him not to worry, that we didn’t pay bills with that account so his money was safe. He was relieved.

The chocolate kisses were cold by now and we ate a few of them. They were buttery and melted instantly. “Mmm, so good,” Luca said. My phone rang again and this time it was a policeman saying that he did indeed have the woman with the bad checks in custody and that he would call back later with more information. Luca was excited that I was talking to a police officer and he got on another phone and listened in. I was very surprised that the woman had been caught. This was probably the first time I have ever been the victim of a crime where the perpetrator had been apprehended.

Luca and I went to meet Jim for dinner at Mozza Pizzeria. We had three different kinds of pizza: clams and garlic, funghi misti, and what we called the Pig Fest: sausage, salami, bacon and guanciale.

Outside Mozza

The View From Mozza

When we came home Jim saw the bowl full of chocolate kisses and opened his birthday present. We watched “Bringing Up Baby” with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn and ate all the kisses. I can’t think of a better combination of mood elevators. Luca laughed all the way through the movie.

Right before bed he asked, “What would happen if there was no such thing as money?”

23 Days in the Steakhouse

Big D owns a steakhouse.  I worked for Big D eleven years ago, before he became a steakhouse guy.  Last Friday afternoon found me sitting in the restaurant discussing the steakhouse with him.  The reality of my culinary situation is that I need experience.  A true, proper restaurant kitchen is a mystery to me – and daunting.  Starting Sunday, I’ll be working in the steakhouse every Sunday 3 to 9 pm.  Big D is letting me cut my teeth with him.  He’s a good guy.

But, frankly, I’m not looking forward to this.  My day job is exceedingly stressful and weekends are my respite.  I loath giving up my peaceful Sundays for more work.   And, this is a new experience for me… rather than a challenge, being the newbie has always made me uncomfortable.  I don’t do well out of my element.  However, I’m taking a deep breath and stepping forward.  Thi is my “continued education” – the next step to becoming a fully formed chef.  I’ve given myself six months – the same amount of time I was in school (sort of) – and then I can quit.  Just as in school, I’m counting it off in “days” – it’s 23 days, to be exact.

Real custard sauce

Do you have favourite dislikes? Things that were better in your childhood maybe? One of mine is custard powder – given the opportunity I can’t resist boring everyone with, ‘Oh, real custard is so much better. It doesn’t take long to make at all, but it is worth the effort.’ Well, this week my family’s patience finally snapped and I was told to put up or shut up. OK. Mild panic. So, real custard… how hard can it be? And it had better be fantastic. No pressure then. After several hours scouring cookbooks I realise that there is an bewildering variety of recipes. Yikes. Can they all work? Well this is the recipe I used and yes, it was so much better. And worth the effort. Do you have a better recipe? Preparation 5 mins plus 15 mins standing Cooking 15 mins Serves 4-6 Fresh milk 300ml (½ pint) Vanilla pod 1 Egg yolks 4 Sugar 25g (1oz) 1 Reserve 45ml (3 tbsp) milk. Place remaining milk and vanilla pod in a saucepan. Bring almost to the boil. 2 Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes. 3 Place egg yolks, sugar and reserved milk in a bowl. Beat until thick and creamy. 4 Remove vanilla pod from milk and pour milk on to egg mixture. 5 Strain mixture into a heavy-based saucepan and cook, stirring, until custard thinly coats the back of a spoon (about the thickness of single cream). 6 Pour into a cold jug and serve. The custard thickens on cooling. Try it and let know how you get on. Can you improve it? Click on the ‘Leave a Comment” link below. Now you will want something to pour this delightful custard over won’t you? How about a delicious Apple & Plum Crumble from Hearty & Healthy Dairy Cookbook. Do you have favourite dislikes? Things that were better in your childhood maybe? One of mine is custard powder – given the opportunity I can’t resist boring everyone with, ‘Oh, real custard is so much better. It doesn’t take long to make at all, but it is worth the effort.’

Making real custard sauce

Well, this week my family’s patience finally snapped and I was told to put up or shut up.

OK. Mild panic. So, real custard… how hard can it be? And it had better be delicious. No pressure then. But after several hours scouring cookbooks I realise that there is a bewildering variety of recipes. Yikes. Can they all work?

Well, this is the recipe I used and yes, it was so much better. And worth the effort.

Preparation 5 mins
plus 15 mins standing
Cooking 15 mins
Serves 4-6

Fresh milk 300ml (½ pint)
Vanilla pod 1
Egg yolks 4
Sugar 25g (1oz)

1 Reserve 45ml (3 tbsp) milk. Place remaining milk and vanilla pod in a saucepan. Bring almost to the boil.

2 Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes.

3 Place egg yolks, sugar and reserved milk in a bowl. Beat until thick and creamy.

4 Remove vanilla pod from milk and pour milk on to egg mixture.

5 Strain mixture into a heavy-based saucepan and cook, stirring, until custard thinly coats the back of a spoon (about the thickness of single cream).

6 Pour into a cold jug and serve. The custard thickens on cooling.

Try it and let know how you get on. Can you improve it? Do you have a better recipe? Click on the ‘Leave a Comment” link below.

Now you will want something to pour this delightful custard sauce over won’t you?
How about a delicious Apple & Plum Crumble from Hearty & Healthy Dairy Cookbook.

Emily is taking a well earned break. Today’s blog has been written by the Dairy Diary Chat administrator.

Stocking a Tiny Kitchen: Mastering the Art of Pantry Cooking

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been posting Notes to my Facebook page about my adventures in cooking. I’ve reading the Julie/Julia Project blog online, and when I got some terrible news about a friend of mine, I threw my energies and focus into cooking ridiculous meals from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Since those notes had nothing to do with small-space living, I spared you ll the details. Until now, of course.

One of the charms of Julie/Julia is that Julie Powell had the kind of NYC apartment that makes parents’ hair turn gray. As crappy as the neighborhood was, though, and inasmuch as she often had no water and had holes in her ceiling, she had a big kitchen. (At least it sounds like she did.) I don’t. And if you’re reading this blog for any reason other than entertainment, I assume you don’t have a big kitchen, either. So here’s my combo food/space blog: keeping a well-stocked pantry in a 42′ square feet of kitchen.

Pantry cooking, to clarify, is planning your next meal by saying, "What have we got?" instead of "What do we need?" At its purest it’s leftover reinvention, an art in which David has a black belt. We don’t have the luxury of a chest freezer, or, indeed an actual pantry, and keeping certain items in stock all the time is vital to our sanity. (Fortunately, we do have the option of walking across the street when we’re out of some staple–as opposed to loading up the car and driving 15 minutes to get milk–so urban living does have its bonuses.) Last night, for instance, David went to run some errands and brought home a box of fresh cheese ravioli from Lucca, a delightful surprise. A half hour later, we had their fantastic cheesiness, dressed in a bechamel sauce with white wine, pancetta, peas, and lemon zest, atop a bed of arugula. And, of course, topped with crunchy salt.

At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all (something I risk every time I open my mouth), I thought I’d offer advice on keeping a well-stocked pantry for such meals on the fly. Keep a group of harmonious ingredients on tap at all times, and you can make a harmonious meal. Of course, yours will differ, as it depends on your favorite cuisine. We lean toward American, Italian and Mexican food, but if you’re a big fan of cooking Chinese food, you’d be much more likely to keep, say, star anise in the house instead of fennel seed. But you get the idea.

Here’s my recommendation of When It’s Running Low, Buy It Now Staples:

IN THE REFRIGERATOR
Also known as "perishables."

• Milk
• Eggs
• Unsalted butter
  Yes, UNSALTED. You can add salt, but you can’t take it away.
• Sliced wheat bread
• Large flour tortillas
  We often use last night’s leftovers to make a wrap of some kind for lunch.

• Cheddar cheese
• Parmesan cheese (ungrated – it stays moist longer)
• Boxed white wine
  Boxed, indeed! Boxed wine has come a long way since Franzia. I cook with it so frequently (I don’t actually drink much white) that having an easy-pour spout is convenient; plus it’s in a vacuum bag so it stays useable much longer.

IN THE CRISPER
These four items are non-negotiable. I don’t often eat celery and carrots on their own, but they end up in almost everything.

• Celery
• Carrots
• Romaine (washed and in a tupperware container lined with paper towel)
• Italian parsley

ON THE FRIDGE DOOR
These condiments are what’s truly Mediterranean-specific–someone who’s really into cooking Indian food will likely not find capers a required item on the door. That said, this is probably the most important of all these little lists. Condiments last a long time, so if you’ve really got an empty refrigerator, but you have an array of items below, all you need for a delicious dinner is, say, eggs.

• Capers
• Olives
• Cornichons
• Pickled jalapenos
• Pepperoncini
• Dijon mustard (for vinaigrettes, it’s indispensable!)

• Mayonnaise
• Ketchup
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• A tube of tomato paste: If you EVER use tomato paste, GET THE TUBE.
• Any, or all, of the following hot sauces: Hunan Chili; Cholulua; Tabasco; Sriracha
• Jam

IN THE FREEZER
Our freezer is not large, but it has room enough for these goods. When I buy meat, I always separate the pieces into individual servings and separate them with waxed paper before freezing. OK, not always, I didn’t do that with the sliced pancetta recently, and last night spent five minutes cutting a hunk of sliced frozen pancetta from the larger hunk of sliced frozen pancetta.

• Pancetta
• Bacon
  This we cut to half-strips and store in stacks of six.
• Frozen peas
• Frozen pearl onions: Beats the hell out of peeling them.
• Frozen corn

• Hot Italian sausage
  This is the ultimate shortcut. No time? Squeeze the meat out of an Italian sausage link, sautee it with some canned diced tomatoes, and serve it up with the pasta. Delish!
• Frozen bread rolls
  This was a recent discovery at Whole Foods. Usually I’d buy six dinner rolls from ACME bread company, and we’d wrap them individually in foil and freeze them for the nights when we didn’t have fresh bread in the house.
• Ground beef
• Chicken breasts

ON THE SHELVES
We don’t have an actual pantry, but we do have plenty of shelves.

• Yellow onions
• Shallots
• Garlic
• Lemons
• Limes
• Potatoes
• Apple
• Tomatoes
  Note: we usually get hothouse roma tomatoes out of season, and only occasionally.

• White wine vinegar
• Red wine vinegar
• White vinegar
• Spray canola
• Spray olive oil
• Olive oil
• Boxed pasta
  Usually it’s farfalle, orzo and rotini that we keep on hand.

CANNED
Don’t let the food nazis fool you. Canned food is indispensable, unless you always plan meals 24 hours in advance and thusly have time to soak the beans.

• Tomatoes
  Most cooking magazines and chefs recommend getting canned tomatoes out of season–they’re picked at the height of freshness, and as long as you don’t expect to slice them, they’re perfect for sauces, salsas, etc. We usually have a few cans of diced and whole on hand, always packed in juice, never in sauce.
• Black beans

• Pinto beans
• Kidney beans
• Cannellini beans
• Tuna packed in oil

SPICE RACK
The spice rack is the backbone of pantry cooking. When you have a good spice rack, you can make anything. Like I said, we tend toward Mediterranean flavors, hich is pretty obvious in the list below.

• Oregano
• Dried basil
• Tarragon
• Thyme
• Fennel seed
• Fennel flower
• Red pepper flakes
• Herbes de Provence
• Dill weed
• Dill seed
• Celery salt

• Cumin
• Coriander
• Cayenne pepper
• Chili powder
• Paprika
• Fresh ground black pepper (ALWAYS fresh ground!)
• Kosher salt
• Large-crystal kosher salt
• Fleur de sel

That’s not everything, but that’s just about everything we need for a spontaneous Italianish dish. I’d like to expand in favor of some East Indian spices (garam masala, for instance) but these are our standards.

BULK
We buy a lot of items in bulk, right from the bin, and it’s a great way to stock long-term staples.

• Flour
• Rice
• Arborio rice
• Sugar
• Brown sugar

So that’s it, folks. We keep all those items on hand, at all times, in our tiny kitchen. The list looks really long (and boring) now that I’ve typed it up, but it’s only half of what we have at the moment. From this list, you can make mac and cheese; burgers and fries; all-day meat ragu; or Gateau de Crepes, if you’re so inclined.

And just to end with an especially know-it-all bang, here’s a recipe for tuna salad, my favorite "I have ten minutes to cook and eat" meal:

• 2 cans tuna in oil, drained
• 1 can cannellini beans, drained
• 1 finely diced carrot
• 1 finely diced celery stalk
• Chopped parsley
• 1/2 finely diced apple

• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
• The following herbs to taste: fennel seed, dill, dill seed, and celery salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Large-crystal kosher salt
• 2 large flour tortillas

Combine all the above ingredients, ending with the salt to taste–taste carefully on the herbs and salt! Wrap in a tortilla as you would a burrito. Presto: pantry lunch!

Care For A Casserole? - #2

Dear Readers,

Last week I mentioned having quite a few good casserole recipes.  Well, here’s the second entry in the “Care For A Casserole?” series.

This recipe appeared in a magazine ad for Ragu Spaghetti Sauce.  It’s a quick and easy one-dish meal that, when combined with red wine, tossed salad and crusty Italian bread, is special enough to serve dinner guests.

Hope you like it!

Simmered Tuscan Chicken

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1″ cubes

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 med. potatoes, cut into 1/2″ cubes (about 4 cups)

1 med. red bell pepper, diced

1 jar (27 ozs.) Ragu Old World Style Pasta Sauce

1 lb. fresh or frozen cut green beans

1 teaspoon dried basil

Salt and pepper to taste

In a 12″ skillet, saute chicken and garlic in olive oil until chicken is lightly browned.  Add potatoes and peppers; continue to cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add sauce, basil, green beans, salt and pepper; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium; cover and simmer for 35 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and potatoes are tender.  Stir occasionally. Cooking time:  40 minutes.  Serves 6.

Enjoy and

Keep smilin’!

Top Chef

It’s Wednesday.  That means Top Chef.  A few weeks ago, much to my children’s happiness, Carlos and I decided to put on our own Top Chef right here in the Romero kitchen.  Although my husband hasn’t cooked much since his bachelor days, 15 years ago, this competition was his idea so I agreed.  After all, I thought, how can I lose?  I’ve been cooking my whole life and during our marriage, I have taught myself to cook well (if I do say so myself).

So off we went, separately, to different grocery stores for the supplies we would need to wow the judges (the kids).  Secrecy was the mood of the evening, as I got to work on a flat bread pizza appetizer with arugula and my dessert, a cinnamon poached pear with pumpkin whipped cream.  Los came in with his sacks and immediately started working on something I recognized…could it be?  Was he actually thinking he was going to win by making his “famous” single guy rice and tomato soup?  HA!

I realized that he had some tricks up his sleeve when he started grilling a halibut steak.  I could also see that he had purchased some very expensive steaks.  Was I starting to sweat a bit?  Never!  As I served my flatbread appetizer, he continued to work at an AGONIZINGLY slow pace toward finishing his main dishes.

Well, we would have all starved if it wasn’t for my forethought in preparing an appetizer.  Finally, the man was done and the judges were seated at the judging table:

My darling husband HAD prepared his “famous” rice and Rotel soup, but with the addition of a perfectly cooked halibut.  He also produced a succulent filet mignon and fried potatoes.  We ate all of it up, including my pear dessert and waited for the judges to add up the points.  Oh, the anxiety of waiting!

The time had come to award the winner and the winner was….ME!  Horray!  Whew!  I was a little worried there!  My husband, who can normally only make cereal and chips and salsa, brought his “A” game!  I can’t help but wonder if I would have lost if I hadn’t served dessert, but…no matter, the important thing is that I WON!  Woo Hoo!

Ok, so here’s the challenge:  Host your own “Top Chef” party THIS Wednesday!  Let me know how it goes.

Faux Spaghetti

by Paulette of Smith Funny Farm

Being from the South I do love my yellow summer squash. Until just a few years ago I didn’t do a lot of venturing out into cooking other kinds of squash. Then I ran across this recipe, and I have another favorite.

I love finding quick and simple recipes, and this really fits the bill. I can make this in 20 minutes, and 13 minutes of that is cooking it in the microwave.

Spaghetti Squash with Coarse Black Pepper and Parmigiano Reggiano (or, your favorite cheese)

Select a medium sized spaghetti squash. Cut it in half, and scoop out the pulp and seeds. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil.

Turn each half upside down in a casserole dish.  Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the dish, and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

 

Microwave on high power for 13 minutes.  Anytime I’ve ever cooked this, I’ve selected a medium sized squash, and 13 minutes has always been perfect. 

When cooked, carefully remove plastic wrap and turn each half right-side-up.  Using a fork, scrape the flesh of the squash from the skin.  It will resemble spaghetti as it comes up.

 

Place on serving dish and add LOTS of coarse black pepper, and top with LOTS of your favorite cheese.  I use a 4 cheese blend of shredded Asiago, Aged Provolone, Parmesan and Romano.

Mix well and enjoy.  I could eat the whole squash myself!  It’s really that good.  And simple.  And quick.

Total chaos, and reflections on house painters

Well, it’s organised chaos anyway. I’m at home on the second of my five days off. It’s 9:30 in the morning, and I’m showered and coffeed, and have a cat on my lap – a good start! I’m also sharing the house with a team of four Vietnamese house painters, and a window guy, David, who are all beautifying the house as we speak. It’s great! I’m loving the fact that soon we will be able to actually open all the windows in the house, without having to pound at the frame to squeeze the window open. And no more of that nasty red mould (lichen? whatever it was) that was creeping up one side of the house. And we’ll have doors and gates painted in Pohutukawa, one of the loveliest trees (and colours) if you like your reds. So it’s all good. I just have to put up with all the doors and windows in the house open (it’s a nice day luckily, but still spring, so not the hottest), scraping, whizzing of drills, yelling, and the occasional hunt down of the one Vietnamese guy who can speak English to make, er, adjustments to what the guys are doing.

I think that’s the bit I’m having the most problem with. I’m not a bossy person – would make a terrible foreman. Steve notices things, like – the guys have painted the doorsteps, when we told the boss man we wanted to sand them back and polyurethane the wood. (He didn’t tell them, argh.) I didn’t even notice. But if I had, I would have felt terrible telling them – especially after they spent however much time painting the steps. And I also have this weird paranoia that they are all on the outside looking in, and thinking how lazy I am, reading all morning, and spending time on the computer. Gah. I wonder if it is awkward for them too, or if they really don’t care at all.

I went down to the Karori library cafe yesterday around 11:30, and stayed till 1. It was quite nice – they make a great soy flat white. But I also felt a bit aimless, even though I’d brought my notebooks and laptop with me (no wi-fi, but no biggie). So I walked home again, did some weeding in the garden, did the dishes, and then made chickpea and lentil patties for dinner. Oh drool. They were so delicious, and there were heaps left over for my lunch today as well.

Anyway, I’m trying to be productive, so I’m going to sign off now, make a cup of tea, and then hop back on the computer and review some of the workshop stories the others in my writing class have submitted for the week. Then there’s some of my own writing to do, and I have to wander down to the post office to send off some games I sold on TradeMe.

Adios!

The Last Post On Chili - Promise

When does chili stop being ‘chili’?

If I were to scramble eggs in butter in a fry pan and call it ‘chili’, you’d question my use of the word.

“That’s not chili! That’s eggs, you idiot!” Or something to that effect.

So is what follows, ‘chili’? Beats me. You be the judge.

Anyway, after 2 pots of the stuff, each one less adherent to what the word ‘chili’ traditionally means, I decided to push the envelope even further. Up the veggies again and bring way down the meat.

The reason to bring down the meat was that I was using  very expensive ground beef that comes from a local ‘beyond organic’ farm nearby. $8.99/lb for ground beef is pretty expensive – except when you compare it to the ground beef you get at the grocery store. At this place, you can ‘meet your meat’, so to speak. As you drive in, you drive by the cows who end up in their freezer – and you know that you are supporting just having a local farm like this just 20 minutes away – and that there’s less of a chance of some of the abuses that can occur with ground beef from traditional sources.

I don’t want to get into that right now – that’s a post for another day – but the beef  for this recipe was 1-1/4 lb. – a pound less than before.

I also decided up the onions and pump up the zucchini – 2 lbs of onions, and 7 zukes.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 lbs. yellow onions quartered (7 or 8 of ‘em)
• 2 large eggplant, with skin on, diced
• 7 medium zucchini, diced
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (forgot the chilies and due to the volume, I thought I could get away with it)
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1-1/4 pounds ground beef
• 1 (28 ounce) can peeled tomatoes

In a large pot, drizzle olive oil over the sides and bottom. I browned the beef in the pot with a little salt while I cut up the veggies. I got smart this time and cut the onions up and threw them in the pot before going on to the next veggie. The problem in the last batch was stirring the entire pile of veggies at the same time. This allowed the onions to soften and give up some room for the next ingredient.

This worked quite well, actually. May I just cut slow. But the result was that the pot was more amenable to stirring this time round.

With only one last eggplant to go, I put in the tomatoes, the spices and stirred. Then I threw in the last of the eggplant, which just fit. Thank God I softened the first vegetables earlier.

Again, worried that there was not enough liquid, I put in 2/3 cup of chicken broth, which was totally unnecessary, as I keep forgetting that while these vegetables seem dry, they aren’t – locked up in their cell walls is a LOT of water. There is no need that I found to add extra liquid.

After stirring in the last of the eggplant, I let it cook for an hour on high, then simmer for another 1-1/2 hours.

It came out great – but perhaps a bit ‘light’ in the meat department for the Atkins dieter used to slabs of beef.

If I feel deprived of fat, I can always sprinkle on some shredded cheese, but it’s not necessary.

I have been successful in getting more veggies down the gullet these past weeks, so I’d say these chili experiments have been quite the success.

If after another giant pot of chili, I can stand to look at the stuff ever again in my life, then I will consider this a ‘hit-it-out-of-the-park-home-run’ success.

Tools every Budget Gourmand should own

Obviously, eating high-quality yet inexpensive food is going to require a fair amount of home cooking. And while you can probably get away with not owning many of the items on this list, just know that everything here will seriously cut down on the time it takes to prepare food, make it easier for you to accomplish your goal and, thus, increase the chances that you’ll continue the behavior.

Let’s just get the most obvious items out of the way first…

At least one really good knife: I’m not suggesting that you spend $1,000 on whatever fancy set Sur la Table is featuring, or even necessarily investing in an entire set, but you should splurge (more than $25, but less than $100) on at least one knife you can trust to nicely slice a tomato. If you are going to buy a whole set, do yourself the favor of buying one that at least CAN be sharpened, meaning don’t bother buying anything that has a plastic handle.

Multiple cutting boards: If Alton Brown teaches us anything it should be that cross-contamination is the enemy. You should have at least one cutting board for veggies, another for raw meat and one more for cooked meat. I actually prefer having separate ones for different kinds of raw meats, but assuming you aren’t using more than one meat in a given dish, you should be able to clean it sufficiently to avoid danger before its next use. If you can’t spare that much space, there’s no shame in using plastic slips.

A set of stainless steal pots and pans (but probably just one nonstick pan): For whatever reason, most people feel the need to buy nonstick everything. I guess they clean up easier and are a little cheaper, but they really aren’t practical for everyday use. I suggest buying one nonstick pan — for things like over-easy eggs or fish — but buying a set of stainless steal. They’re far superior for sauces (deglaze, deglaze, deglaze!), you can put them in the oven, they’re easier to maintain and generally last longer. The extra money is worth it. This is probably your biggest investment, be prepared to spend at least $200-$300.

As for the less obvious stuff…

A dutch oven: I’m not sure what this means in the culinary world, but for these purposes, I’m talking about any pot that is safe to put in the oven. That could be regular-old cast iron (you can find one for less than $30) or an enamel version (pictured). Le Creuset is the gold-standard of the enamels, but they’re also extremely expensive. I’ve been very happy with my Martha Stewart brand dutch ovens, and spent a fraction of what it would have cost to buy Le Creuset. They’re especially nice for soups and roasts. Of course, the reason to use a dutch oven is because you’re planning on cooking for a long time. If you don’t envision yourself being able to do that, I would whole-heartedly recommend a slow cooker, which serves as an adequate facsimile, but can be left unwatched.

A food processor: I’m using a miniature version (pictured) that attaches to our immersion blender (another handy tool, especially for soups and sauces). While I certainly can’t do some of the bigger projects (like making dough or mincing meat), it takes up significantly less space and is great for stuff like salsas. Ours cost about $30.

A toaster oven (as opposed to a toaster): This was one of the bigger disagreements my wife and I had over what we should keep and what we could do without after moving into our smaller apartment. I voted for the toaster oven … and actually won! While a toaster is, admittedly, better at making … toast, that’s really all it’s good for. A toaster oven will set you back a little more (maybe $30 on the low end or $100 for a really nice one), it is far more versatile. I often use it as a broiler or to reheat anything you don’t really want to put in the microwave, like pizza. A full-sized oven is such a pain to preheat and is not a lot of fun to use during the summer.

A set of glass bowls with covers: Every home cook needs mixing bowls. What is often forgotten is having a good way to store food you’re not planning to eat it immediately. Sure, you could use the knock-off tupperware you bought at Ikea, if taste really matters to you, I highly suggest buying something nonpourous — like glass. While most food will keep fine in plastic, soups and sauces (sense a theme?) do a lot better in glass. Glass is also a lot easier to clean and keep clean.

If you have can’t-live-without kitchen items I failed to mention, please feel free to share.

Review of The Baby Bistro Cookbook: Healthy, Delicious Cuisine for Babies, Toddlers, and You (Hardcover)

For those who are just starting your baby on solid foods, this is NOT the book for you.There are a few token recipies I think were thrown in (pureed fruit and rice cereal) but other than that the majority of the recipies are for much older babies or toddlers.Recipies here include whole eggs, milk, citrus and other ingredients that are not suitable for babies under 12 months.If you have an infant,and want to make your own baby food, find another book and save this one for the toddler years.

Product Description
If Julia Child were to have written a cookbook for new moms, this would be it. The Baby Bistro Cookbook speaks to a growing population of parents who want the same fresh and healthy, great-tasting dishes for their children as they have come to expect for themselves. Not only will these recipes satisfy little ones, but they are delicious enough for the entire family. Unlike previously published baby and toddler cookbooks that either appear outdated or offer unsavory health food alternatives, The Baby Bistro Cookbook demonstrates how easy and satisfying it can be to cook for little ones with thoughtfully conceived and smartly written recipes. The book is chock-full of helpful sidebars and timesaving tips, such as: -Substitutions for children with food allergies -Directions for preparing an entire week’s supply of dishes that can be easily refrigerated or frozen -Lists of the best finger foods and snacks to have on hand -Hints on what foods to pack when traveling with children -Pediatrician-approved information on adapting recipes to suit your child’s age and tastes

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Baby Bistro Cookbook: Healthy, Delicious Cuisine for Babies, Toddlers, and You (Hardcover)

..snapshot..

I’m back, I think I am sane enough to write over here again. Yes I just said sane enough. I’ll elaborate, okay actually no I won’t but I will say this, I write in two places. One is happy and the other is not. Rather than dragging you down with me, I go to a more private place to wallow and when I feel better back I come.

 Currently I am sitting in my office having lunch. Writing and having lunch is sort of multi tasking right? Today I am wearing a dress, it’s my most favorite one and I have on a super soft sweater. It’s the best kind of day, clear, crisp and cool.

Yesterday morning I went for a walk it was so foggy I literally could not see five feet in front of me. It was wondorous and I enjoyed every second. It almost felt like it was raining but it was a fine, fine mist drifting about from the thick fog. I hope everyone is able to experience such a salubrious environment.

Okay so I am finished my lunch, actually writing and eating did not work so I ate and now I will write.

Today is the Feast day of our lady of the Rosary. I enjoyed the homily very much, but it stirred something in me that I couldn’t identify. I will think about that some more. I love the name Dominic. If I ever had another baby boy, I’d like to call him that. I learned something this morning, St. Dominic founded the Dominicans. That sort of seems obvious to me now, but it was interesting none the less.

Dd and I have a dream. It’s a plan sort of but if it works out it would be wonderful. In nine years the summer I turn forty, she will have graduated high-school. She and I are going to Europe. We want to visit different places for different reasons. This morning, Toulouse, France was just added to my list. Some of my favorite saints have lived, taught, and died there. It’s quite interesting.

I think for reasons I have yet to discover having something just for her and I to look forward to will become very important some way in the future. I can only speak from experience, but when I was young I didn’t give any thought to my future, I had no hopes or dreams or aspirations. I think it’s important to always be moving forward. Nothing should ever be done with out knowing why we are precisely doing it. I’m not talking about faith or spirituality, but in our material world, nothing should ever be done without a clear purpose. When it comes to God, then I believe it is okay to trust blindly. It is only in God can we follow with out caution.

There are many places, we will visit with our maps, backpacks and rosary beads. I don’t want to be a tourist, I just want to see humanity. I hope having this as a goal will help to open her mind to what a small rather insignificant piece of the world we live in. It’s important for children to know there is more out there than just Redford St. and Wal-Mart.  You know what I mean?

Okay back to the present. Thanksgiving is coming. Our Thanksgiving tree is set up and we have all being considering the things for which we are most thankful. The thanksgiving tree is a tradition in our home. Every year the kids and I go outside and pick some branches and put them in a vase, then we cut out ‘leaves’ from stiff construction paper. We,  over a period of time write what we are thankful for on the leaves and then glue them to the tree. This is a little side note, but two years ago the original O, Dh’s Abuelita was here for thanksgiving. This is her leaf.

She went into the hospital the next day and died a week later. It was sad and happy, as happy as you can be when someone you love passes away, and sad of course because we miss her, but happy ultimately because I know she is in Heaven with God. And really you couldn’t get much happier than that. It’s funny, the little coincidences we experience in life, today the feast of our Lady of the Rosary and me remembering so vividly the woman that brought the devotion into my life. She taught me to pray, and by example and in her last hours showed me if you will, the strength that those little beads contain. I’ll never forget one time in the middle of one of my turns at the hospital (we shared in sitting with her, day and night) during the night, in that dim hospital room picking up her beads and just starting to pray. I didn’t know much, I didn’t know about the meditations or the mysteries I just knew that for as long as I knew her she faithfully prayed everyday for all of us, so I using her beads prayed for her.

I felt something, I know what it was now, because sometimes I experience the same feeling while adoring Jesus.. It was the Holy Spirit. That room there in the middle of that night in October was filled with the Holy Spirit. She died on a Friday. That woman was pious until the very end. What a blessed death.

So as this thanksgiving approaches, I will think less about my needs and wants and try to be more aware of all the blessings around me. Like O, I am thankful to God to have my family near. That’s all that really matters.

Now to get back to work, I have about 30 lbs of apples I picked from a friends tree the other day that need to be skinned chopped and turned into applesauce.. Did I mention that I love fall!!

~ Have a wonderful day~

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I haven’t updated in a while. I’m a bad blogger. I had a beautiful long, entry typed up when we went grocery shopping last Thursday, and wrote all about our bargains and such, but then I accidently selected “Restart now” on a computer pop up, and my wonderful entry was lost. Than of course, Heather, had to rub in my face that Tumblr.com auto-saves your entry drafts. Sorry Heather! But I am staying true to WordPress.com. Eat my skinny jeans!

Speaking of skinny jeans, I’m totally loving the fact, that I am just about twenty eight weeks pregnant, and I’m still in my size two jeans! I really hope I don’t jinx it! I’m scared to death of getting those really large, palm tree leaf like arms. You know, the ones that they used as fans to cool off a king back in the day? Also, I think going completely Vegan slimmed my body out, my jeans are definitely saggier in the butt and leg areas. And they aren’t sagging because they need a washing. I love that all my new, gained weight is staying right where the source is. Baby Belly! Thank God!

I’ll give you a short summary of how our grocery shopping went. If I hadn’t purchased two extra items, which were congestion medicine and something else..I’m drawing a blank, we would have spent $58.58 total on two weeks worth of groceries! How crazy that I stayed under $60 this time, after I upped my budget to $100. The official total was $62.37. It was nice to be way under budget! So nice, that husband decided to treat me to lunch Whole Foods when we were there. I got vegetable sushi, cucumber and avacado assorted pieces, and husband got the grilled tofu teriyaki bowl, before we stopped eating meat, he had gotten the white chicken teriyaki bowl, and let me tell you, Whole Foods doesn’t make the best grilled tofu teriyaki bowls..I was kind of disappointed when I tried it, and so was he, it tasted like nothing! But my sushi was delicious, and so was my blueberry-acai green tea. I tried to get husband to let me go get him more sauce from the guy that prepared it, but he’s too stubborn and finished it off just how it was.

Since we’ve been grocery shopping, I’ve made a couple new recipes that I listed before in our dinner meal plan.

The Seitan Kabobs-
Husband liked them, but I was quite disappointed when I marinated them for 24 plus hours, and they still didn’t seem to take a whole lot of flavor. This could have been my fault though, I didn’t make the marinade from scratch, I tried a “House-Vinagerette” dressing as a marinade. Husband scarfed down his and mine, for some reason he said when he mixed it in with his potato, it was just like eating steak. Email me if you want the recipe.

Mushroom Seitan Stroganoff-
Absolutely amazing, husband scarfed it down like no ones business, which is ALWAYS a great sign, since he is Mr.Picky eater! I got the recipe from VeganYumYum. I didn’t use the mushroom powder like she suggested, she said you could use soy sauce if you didn’t have the mushroom powder, and it was a little bit too much. I would recommend sticking to the mushroom powder. I didn’t try the Tofutti Sour Cream by itself I just added it like the recipe told me to, and it didn’t taste any different than a real sour cream stroganoff sauce. Also, it says that it makes two large servings, well, those two large servings, are equivalent to about four to five healthy servings. My dilemma was how much pasta to make to sauce ratio. I need to invest in a pasta measurer..

Bean Quesadillas-
I didn’t follow the recipe to a tee. I don’t like cilantro so I left that out, and I had a hard time melting the Vegan Cheddar before the quesadillas were ready to come out, if you are going to make these with the Vegan Cheddar from Follow Your Heart, I recommend cooking them open face. That was Heather’s suggestion to me when I told her what happened, and well, she would know! The quesadillas were really good, overall. I left out the pinto beans and just made them with black beans and onion as the filling. Next time I think I might add some spanish rice into the quesadillas. This recipe ALSO recieved the “Husband Seal of Approval”

(Picture taken from where I got the recipe, VeganYumYum)
I woke up one afternoon not too long ago before husband did, and decided to go ahead and try out the Silver Dollar Pancake recipe I had found, and planned on making for dinner later in the week. I didn’t add enough baking powder the first batch, so I had to re-make the batter, but once I got the correct measurements (I was eyeballing everything, screw proper measuring utensils…) they were fun to make. Husband isn’t a big pancake person, but, these, were demolished! He loved them so much, he asked me to make them every morning..I didn’t have anything else to do, so I doubled the recipe and made two full batches of the Silver Dollar Pancakes, sixty-five of these babies! I sorted them into freezer bags, and now all I have to do is pull them out and pop them in the microwave for a quick reheat!

Between yesterday and today, we’ve been running around til so late, I haven’t had the motivation to cook, last night we got a $5 dollar large pizza from Little Ceasars, my half without cheese, and they charged an extra dollar for it! Husband decided he wants to keep cheese around..until I can find a delicious Vegan equivalent for Mozzarella cheese sticks, any suggestions? Bueller? Bueller? I am not a fan of Little Ceasars and husband actually said he would have preferred to eat my cooking, but was glad I could rest.

Then today, the plans were to eat the schedule Baked Potato and Hearty Tomato Soup from YESTERDAY’s menu spot, BUT, husband’s doctors appointment kind of threw us a curveball when we had to get him an x-ray AND an MRI, and then go to the pharmacy, so we decided to pick up some fast food. Husband got some Taco Bell, and I got a sandwich from Quiznos. We definitely got it through our thick skulls tonight, that eating out, at fast food especially, really is painfully horrid! Being vegan has really sensitised my tongue and as Heather put it, it’s like “Comparing a grape to a jolly rancher. More flavorful isn’t always good.” My food and Dan agreed about his, tasted like someone multiplied the ingredients by one hundred for just one serving and then threw in a block of salt. So much sodium and additives in my food, it actually made my lips hurt! Lesson learned, officially. Cooking > Dining out, and that’s that! So really, I don’t miss that food one bit!

And you’d think I’d be making Baked Potatoes and Tomato Soup tomorrow night, but, I am actually going to be making the next thing on the list, Simple Fried Rice. I want to cook one of the new recipes I have, and well, since my Quiznos sucked and I threw it out, I ate some of the soup, a slice of garlic bread, and some grapes that I picked up from Jewel to cleanse my palette after Quiznos. I keep buying stuff which is defeating the purpose of the budget, BUT, a pound of red grapes were only 88 cents! And I also picked up three Bartlett Pears, two apples, and three bananas, so that instead of warming something up when I get my midnight hunger, I can eat a piece of fruit instead. My midnight dinner was much more enjoyable than Quizno’s. And I don’t have to feel crappy about what’s in it. By the way, Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup, is absolutely amazing. Probably my new, all-time favorite canned soup.

I’ve mentioned Heather a lot in this blog entry, she’s beautiful, and my bestest friend. I couldn’t ask for a better sister. She helped me do something exciting tonight. She told me about UPromise! It’s basically a way to save money for college by spending with your debit or credit card! For instance if you fill up at Exxon or Mobile you get one cent added to your college savings and then you can chose to invest your savings in a 529 plan, pay down a student loan, or request a check for college expenses. We have about eighteen years of spending to do, to help us save up for our son, and I think it will actually help with a good chunk. And it’s not just spending on gas, you can get savings money from going out to eat, buying certain items at the grocery store, shopping online (They have an application basically that you can download onto your browser that tells you when you’re online shopping, if the site you are at or the results in the search engine have products that can contribute to your savings.), and it’s FREE. I’m so excited to start using our debit card next check!

I’m trying to think of what else to mention in this update..
OH! Crappy quality picture I know, but it shows you our exciting find. And excuse the mess, I’m reorganizing the closet and needed a spot to hold some things for a hot minute. Yesterday, we were driving down the street our house is on, and we passed a vintage nine-drawer dresser with a sign taped to it that says “Free”. Came to a safe stop in front of it, and I jumped out, nothing was broken on it! So, I went to the front door and asked the woman if she would hold it until we could get it to our house down the street. The woman actually offered to put in her SUV and drive it down there. One Hundred Percent Free and absolutely beautiful! I found an almost identical dresser on Craigs List last night, and it was going for over two hundred dollars! It was crazy timing since the night before we found a dresser we were going to order online when payday comes around, and that saved us about one hundred and twenty dollars! I like finding great things for cheap or free!

We also cleaned out the nursery, and are getting ready to put furniture in it. I really need to stop looking at Etsy though, it’s going to be the death of me, I keep finding things I want to buy our son. I did find one thing though that husband really liked, it’s an old vintage printers drawer, we are going to put it in the nursery for now, until we have a bigger living room, and by the time that happens, we’ll actually have a lot more things to put on it. But for now it’ll hold cute, baby knick knacks. Which could also be a threat to our wallet if I feel the need to fill up every slot, or even just every other one..

Also, we were able to pocket a nice sixty five George Washingtons by finally selling our old Round Glass Top dining set! Now I can buy these as soon as we deposit the cash into the bank:
I love them so much! They remind me of Maple leaves or Autumn leaves, and I’m going to wear them everyday for the rest of my life, even when I deliver the baby, just you wait and see, I’ll post a picture of me through out the labor and delivery process with these babies on. They remind me of my favorite season, Autumn, and now I can have a little bit of Autumn, every single day! Smiles for miles over here!

I think the last thing I will add is that I have decided to really take initiative in pursuing my dream job of providing people with more Vegan food options. One day I will make my dream come true and renovate an old row house into a restaurant/cafe, but for now I’m starting small. I remember a few months ago when I went into the local Health food store, the woman told me they could sell my Vegan baked goods, if they were prepared in a commercial kitchen space. Well, there aren’t any near me that rent out to the public, but I just learned that husband’s aunt, knows the owner of one of the nicest restaurants in town. And I am thinking about asking her to get me some time with her friend, to inquire about renting out some space a couple hours a week to make some cookies, muffins, and mixes. I would like to be able to provide dips, dressings, and sauces, but the preserving and packing process would be a little bit more costly, and I’m not ready to make such a financial commitment. I am also hoping to maybe hold a baked goods sale/tasting at the Health foods store to see how many people would actually be interested in having Vegan baked goods provided to them on a regular basis. I haven’t narrowed down a ton of recipes that I would like to sell, but I do think Maple-Apple Muffins and Crumble Cake (Coffee cake) are going to be two of them.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully next entry won’t be a week from now.
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Well I’m at work again so hay.
9-5 today and tomorrow. Freezer was full this morning; only like 3 pallets were frozen dept. though. The rest were all bakery (5 pallets) and one pallet for meat. The new bakery manager (who is also the deli manager) is sucking hard at his job. He downstacks a pallet that is 90% bakery and 10% frozen dept. right in front of the freezer cause “the bottom half is your department” when only 11 boxes were our department’s. Then he leaves with that pallet and leaves the cart with our 11 boxes on it AND the whole meat pallet out of the freezer. No one was there to put it back in, he just left the shit out. He’s lucky Lisa came back and saw his mistake. He’s done that before too, it’s like commonplace for him to try and ruin product. Hopefully a manager told him to just freaking stop and put the crap back in the freezer that he takes out. Idk though the managers seem to like him for some reason. Lame.
I plan on making christy croquettes tonight; if I end up hungry and motivated enough. I have some mashed potatoes that you make just by steaming this bag of potato cubes then mushing them so that’ll take a lot of the work out of it. I wonder if they are any good, though. We’ll see. The next pain in the neck is cooking the chicken, it’s mostly just messy pain; it doesn’t take too long and it’s easy. But you have to wait for it to cool down, which is a pain and breaks yo stride. Maybe I’ll play a L4D campaign while I wait :3 OH YA I got left 4 dead; Jason bought it for me and I bought it for Anthony but it’s really too choppy on his computer for him to play well. It’s fun! But it starts a lot of shit with Anthony where he bitches about me “talking to other guys” and how I’m “flirting” with them (all I’m doing is killing zombies, I’m not hitting on anyone) but I still love to play.
Anyway, back to croquettes..then I have to deep fry them and that’s a pain, I don’t have anything to put the oil in and it’s just a pain and blah blah. But they taste so good! They are worth it.

Catch my disease

Ok not MY disease, but it seems like everyone is sick – ugh! – including some pretty important people in my life. I have escaped (so far) but who knows where this week will lead! Oh, and the picture is of our puppy (well, he’ll be 19 soon – eek!) standing in the entryway while I was out photographing the new containers.

I’m super super tired (no wonder why. Ugh.) I have an unbelievable amount of reading to get through this quarter; it’s actually pretty ridiculous, but fortunately I’m really enjoying all of my classes so maybe the reading won’t be SO much of a chore… hopefully…

Dinner tonight was spectacular: pot roast with potatoes and carrots, a Waldorf Salad and then, the coup de gras: apple upside-down cake! The cake recipe will be up later this week; I’m bloody exhausted and just don’t have the energy to write it up right now – it IS fairly easy and bakes in my beloved cast-iron skillet – not to mention, it looks and tastes fantastic!

Cookbook of the day - Le Répertoire de La Cuisine

Repertoire de La Cuisine, Le: A Guide to Fine Foods

byLouis Saulnier

Publisher Barron’s Educational Series (December 31, 1977)

ISBN 10: 0812051084

ISBN 13: 978-0812051087

I found this handy little volume yesterday in my local used bookstore. I suspect that it’s going to prove handy as a reference in the future.

It assumes that you know how to do certain things like poaching, reducing, masking, etc.  Quantities aren’t listed and the reader is on his or her own in determining how much of something to add to the “recipes” or determining cooking times or order of cooking, which are along the lines of Escoffier. As Jacques Pépin points out in the preface, “The professional chef will use the Répertoire mostly as an aide mémoire (reminder) to find out the necessary ingredients for a garnish, as well as to get the correct spellings for different proper names and names of dishes”. he goes on to point out that amateurs can also use the “pamphlet” to “clarify confusion” and simplify the organization of a menu.

Whether you need the definition of ancienne (”small braised onions without colouring”) or come across a reference to “Turtles Baltimore” (”cooked pieces of turtle, tossed in nut brown cooked butter, dressed in cocotte, with the thickened gravy, and a glass of Xérès wine”), this book covers the gamut of esoteric and obscure French cooking terms. If you’d like to do filets mignons marly, you’ll quickly discover that it’s filets cooked in butter, coated with madeira half-glaze and garnished with artichoke bottoms filled with carrot balls. You’ll find it quickly because each main ingredient is followed with a multitude of preparations.

This is a small format book (hence the use of the word “pamphlet” in the preface) and is a handy helpful adjunct to Escoffier.

If you can find this hardback and jacketed book for $2.00, as I did, you’d be a fool to pass it up. and if you have to buy it from Amazon for $12, it’s worth it if you wish to have a complete culinary reference library.

Mac 'n Cheese Magic

Dear Readers,

Recently found a magazine clipping from Kraft Macaroni and Cheese showing a box of it combined with various ingredients.  The idea is to cook the meat and fresh or frozen veggies in the microwave while cooking the mac and cheese on the stove and then combine all the ingredents.    Check out the various combos and create your own Mac ‘n Cheese Magic!

Combo #1 – 1 cup chicken with 1 cup broccoli and 2 teaspoons mustard

Combo #2 – 1 cup ground beef with 1 cup stewed tomatoes and 1 teaspoon chili powder

Combo #3 – 1 cup ground beef with 1 cup green pepper and 1/2 Kraft Barbecue Sauce

Combo #4 – 1 cup chicken with 1 cup stewed tomatoes and 1/3 cup green pepper

Combo #5 – 1 cup ham with 1 cup peas and 1 teaspoon mustard

Combo #6 – 1 cup Italian sausage with 1 cup broccoli and 1/4 cup red pepper

Granted, these aren’t gourmet meals but if you are in a hurry, they make a quick main entree that can be served with a big tossed salad and either crusty Italian bread or cornbread.  M’mm I think I can smell the magic now!

Keep smilin’!

Potato Cakes

Tonight, Mum went on a bit of a potato cake frenzy.

How To Make:

Grate 1 raw, peeled potato.
Add 2 raw eggs
Season with Salt and Pepper etc to taste
Stick it in the frying pan until lightly brown

Now, you’d think that these delicious, fried gifts would be the best thing you could have for dinner.
Stupid fussy siblings.
Regardless of what you feel like, I decree that whatever Mum makes, is eaten. In this case, my stomach is now flopping over my pyjama pants as I type with a stomach completely full of potato cakes.
Four, hand-size globs.

*Pats tummy* I suggest you try it. =D