Archive for the ‘Food Tips’ Category

Crunchy Seasoned Bread Sticks

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

bread-stiksI make a no-knead Italian bread couple times a week and always have a bit left over for these crunchy seasoned sticks.  You can use any combination of seasonings and fine grated hard cheese to make these your own.  They’re great in a bread basket, with soups, cocktails or a snack.  Super easy too!

Day old rustic bread makes great garlic croutons too.  Just cube the dried out bread, melt some butter and olive oil in a skillet or wok, saute a few cloves of garlic, sprinkle in some fresh thyme or oregano and toss the bread cubes in.  Stir fry until the bread cubes are crunchy and have absorbed all the oil and butter.  Cool on a paper towel or a brown bag.  Use to top salads, soups, vegetables or use in fondu.  Add a Tbsp of Italian herbs for more flavor and if you need seasoned bread crumbs for a dish, toss the toasted croutons into the food processor and pulse a few times.  Voila! seasoned bread crumbs at a fraction of the cost using leftover bread.

Ingredients:

  • Half a loaf of day-old bread, rustic artisan bread, Italian or French rounds
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 tsp Italian herbs
  • 1/2 tsp smoky paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic salt or garlic powder

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
  2. Slice bread 1/2 inch thick.  Slice long sticks 1-inch wide. You should have 12 sticks.
  3. Pour olive oil onto a baking sheet.  Press bread sticks into oil, turn and press again.
  4. Mix herbs and cheese together.  Sprinkle over bread sticks, turn and sprinkle other side.
  5. Bake until toasted and crisp, about 12-14 minutes.  Turn after 6 minutes.

no-knead-italian-bread

You’ll find the recipe for this no-knead Italian bread in the Bread Category.

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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Pass the Butter and snopes.com Update

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

What snopes.com has to say about:

The Butter Truth

      Claim:   Ingestion of some types of margarine increases the risk of
      coronary disease. 
   
Back in 2003 we compiled the following comparison chart for various brands of margarine as they were then formulated. Numbers given in grams refer to how many grams of each particular type of fat there are per tablespoon of that brand. (A tablespoon of butter or margarine contains 14 grams.)  Numbers given as percentages represent the impact of one tablespoon of that spread on the recommended daily allowance of that substance.  Margarines sampled were of the “tub” variety. (The same margarines in ”stick” form had consistently higher numbers.)

Total FatSaturated (Polyunsaturated) (Monounsaturated)
            Butter11g (17%)7g (36%)00
            I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter10g (15%)2g (10%)4.5g4.5g
            I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Light5g (8%)1g (5%)2.5g1.5g
            Parkay8g (13%)1.5g (8%)4g2g
            Fleischmann’s9g (14%)1.5g (10%)4g3g
            Blue Bonnet7g (14%)1.5g (10%)3g2g
            Imperial7g (10%)1.5g (7%)3g1.5g
            Country Crock (Shedd’s Spread)7g (10%)1.5g (7%)3g1.5g

Because butter is an animal product, it contains cholesterol, amounting to 
30 mg per tablespoon or 10% of the USDA recommended daily allowance. 
Margarines, because they are non-animal products, do not. The preceding 
chart says nothing about which margarines contained trans fats (or, if 
 they did, how much) because this information was not always included on 
 product labels back then.

 Since the issuance of warnings and regulations about trans fats in the 
last few years, many margarine producers have reformulated their products.  I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, for example, now (in 2006) bears a notice on its label proclaiming “NO TRANS FAT,” and the amount of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat per serving has dropped from 4.5g each to 4g (polyunsaturated) and 2g (monounsaturated) per serving.

Although a great deal of the information given in the e-mail is valid, one 
bit of intelligence is nothing more than hyperbole tossed in by the author 
in an effort to make his point more strongly. The claim that some 
comestible is but a “single molecule away” from being a decidedly inedible 
(or even toxic) substance has been applied to a variety of processed 
foods.  Some of the “Butter vs. margarine” mailings circulated in 2005 had this preface tacked onto them:  Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. 

 Contrary to the claim, margarine was not invented as a turkey fattener.  It 
was formulated in 1869 by Hippolyte Mège Mouriès of France in response to Napoleon III’s offering of a prize to whoever could succeed at producing a viable low-cost substitute for butter. Mège Mouriès’ concoction, which he 
dubbed oleomargarine, was achieved by adding salty water, milk, and 
margaric acid to softened beef fat. By the turn of the century, the beef 
fat in the original recipe had been replaced by vegetable oils.

In 1886, New York and New Jersey prohibited the manufacture and sale of 
yellow-colored margarine, and by 1902, 32 U.S. states had enacted such 
prohibitions against the coloration of the spread. (Folks got around this 
by mixing yellow food coloring into the white margarine.) In 1950 
President Truman repealed the requirement that margarine be offered for 
sale only in uncolored state, which led to the widespread production of 
the yellow margarine that has come to be the norm.

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/butter.asp

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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Beans and Sausage in a Pressure Cooker

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

recipes 020Pressure cookers for homemakers have been around since 1917 when the USDA announced that the only safe way to can low-acid foods was with a pressure cooker.  From then on the National Pressure Cooker company, now called Presto, has engineered and redesigned pressure cookers with reliable safety features for home use.  So long as the rubber gasket around the inside rim of the lid is in good shape and you haven’t lost the regulator (jiggler) or damaged the pressure valve, you can save time when cooking dried beans, roasts and other long cooking dishes.  A pressure cooker is absolutely mandatory if you home-can veggies, meat or fish.  They come in 4 quart and 6 quart sizes and up to the 10 gallon size for canning quarts.   You can find them in most housewares departments and even at garage sales. 

Try this method for chili, corned beef, pulled pork, or octopus.  Flavors have no where to escape, they’re locked in using a pressure cooker.  For more information on cooking  with a pressure cooker, see Presto.

Half full pot

Half full pot

Getting up a head of steam.

Getting up a head of steam.

 

Valve stem up, pot is pressurized

Valve stem up, pot is pressurized

Soup's Ready

Soup's Ready

 

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups pinto beans, washed and sorted
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 1 tsp fennel seed
  • 1 Tbsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper (about 1 tsp each)
  • handful of cilantro, chopped

Method:

  1. Soak beans overnight in 2 quarts water.  Drain and cover with fresh water.
  2. Saute ground pork in skillet over medium high heat.
  3. Add remaining ingredients, cook for 3-4 minutes, and transfer to pressure cooker.
  4. Cover pressure cooker, locking lid into place and set jiggler over steam vent.
  5. Once valve stem pops up and jiggler begins to rock, set timer for 40 minutes.
  6. When timer goes off, turn off stove and leave pot to cool down.  When valve stem drops, it is safe to remove jiggler.  If no steam is escaping from vent, open lid.
  7. Check seasoning and adjust if needed.

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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Chicken & Mushroom Quiche

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

ist2_163197-quiche1

This is a great way to use up leftover chicken or turkey.   I prefer to use chicken sautéed in white wine and herbs and I usually make extra just to use in this recipe.   The basil pesto adds zip and color if you’re inclined to use leftovers that are more on the bland side.  Any kind of mushrooms will do but portabella gives the dish more color, texture, and flavor.  With the store-bought pie crusts that are now available, preparation is a zip.  However, my own crust recipe, modified pâte brisee (recipe follows), never fails and blind baking prevents a soggy bottom.  Do enjoy this as a main-dish with a salad and glass of wine.

1 unbaked pie crust

1 cup chicken sliced or shredded

1 portabella mushroom, sliced thin

1/2 small onion, sliced thin 

1 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. basil pesto (homemade is best)

6 thin slices cream cheese (use dental floss to slice)

2 eggs

1 cup half-and-half

sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

pinch of nutmeg

Place pie crust in a 9-inch spring form cake pan with 2-inch sides.  Blind bake for 12 minutes at 400° F..  Reduce oven to 375° F.  Cool crust and lay chicken over bottom, set aside.  Sauté mushrooms in butter for 5 minutes, add onions and continue to cook until water dissipates.  Spread mushrooms and onions over chicken, dot with basil pesto, and top with cream cheese slices.  Whisk eggs and half-and-half together with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.  Pour batter over filling, sprinkle with a pinch of nutmeg.  Bake 45-50 minutes until eggs are set.  Cool 15 minutes before slicing.

Pie Crust (modified pâte brisee)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup salted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 egg, whipped with 1 tsp cold water

Cut butter into flour until cornmeal consistency.  Make a well in center of flour and pour in egg.  Toss flour and egg together with a fork for 5 seconds and scoop up the whole bit onto a sheet of plastic wrap, pull the corners together and twisting the plastic, form a ball, then chill for 10 minutes.  Wipe your counter with a damp cloth, cover the damp area with plastic wrap, dust with a little flour, place ball of dough in center and flatten slightly, dust with a little flour, cover with another sheet of plastic wrap.  Roll out crust.  If you’re in a hurry, skip the chilling and rolling.  Just push the dough into your pie pan like playing with putty.  Once the dough is uniform in thickness throughout and sides are crimped, chill to set it.  Then blind bake as instructed. 

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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The "Art" of Boiling Eggs

Friday, March 13th, 2009

easter-bunnyEaster is just around the corner so you can start practicing the art of boiling eggs right now.  For years the media hype on the ill-effects of eggs put off the daily consumption of eggs.  The fact is, eggs are very healthly.   The secret is to buy farm-fresh eggs that have not been refrigerated and are not more than 7 days old.  A farm-fresh egg has lutein for your eyes, choline for your brain, B12 for your nervous system and are a cheap source of protein for building strong bones and rejuvenating cells.  Eggs have also been proven to help lower bad cholesterol levels rather than exacerbate bad cholesterol levels.  If your local health food store or farmers market doesn’t carry farm-fresh eggs, ask them to do so. 

A tried and true method for boiling eggs:

Cover raw eggs with cold water.  Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 5 to 7 minutes uncovered.  (Use a timer if you are busy.)   Turn off the heat, cover the pan and let sit for 5 to 7 minutes.  Then drain off the hot water and run cold water over the eggs until they are just barely warm.  At this point, eggs may be colored for Easter baskets or an Easter Egg Hunt.

To shell eggs for your favorite dishes, crack the eggs all over while holding them under the cold water.  The shells should come off in a ribbon and the yolks will be lovely and yellow.

easter-eggsTo make your own colors simply use a separate ramekin or tea cup for each color and add 1 tsp white vinegar and 1/2 cup boiling water to each cup.  Then add as many drops of food coloring as needed to make the desired colors.

When I  lived in the South Pacific, only brown eggs were available and dyed Easter Egg was not a cultural tradition in the islands.  But, a lot of ex-pats got together and celebrated Easter with an Easter Egg Hunt, easter baskets and egg exchange.  Obviously, brown eggs would not color so we used felt pens and drew geometric designs, crosses, flowers and such on our brown eggs.  Some of them were quite artistic.  At any rate, we were still able to celebrate our Easter tradition a long ways from home.

Eggs symbolize the rites of spring or new beginnings.  The celebration of spring was actually a pagan festival prior to Christianity.  The Christians adopted the  pagan holidays for church holidays hoping to eradicate the pagan rituals.   However, small elements of those ancient pagan rituals have continued to exist in most of our holiday celebrations today.   So we can thank the pagans for their contribution to civilization and the pagan part of our Easter traditions.

How many ways can you use hardboiled eggs? 

Let’s see!  Drop a comment and tell me what I’ve missed!

  1. Deviled eggs:  add a pinch of curry and sweet pickle relish with the mayo and mustard.
  2. Egg-salad sandwich:  add tuna or chicken, pineapple bits, arugula and/or fresh basil along  with a slice of  tomato or mango chutney.
  3. Salads:  add chopped eggs to a Caesar salad, or wilted spinach salad, add sliced eggs to a Cobb salad, egg wedges to a Chef’s salad or Salad Nicoise.
  4. Creamed eggs:  on toast with parsley garnish for breakfast, or with  ham on biscuits for lunch or a quick supper.
  5. Pickled eggs:  Boil 1 cup water with 2 cups cider vinegar, add 1 Tbsp of pickling spice.  Let cool and pour over shelled eggs in a sterile jar.  Refrigerate for a few days.  To add color to your proverbial “boneless chicken” place pickled eggs in a jar of pickled beets.  They’ll change color within a day.

Donate to My Coffee Kitty and help a senior pay for cataract surgery. 70% of seniors are afficted with cataracts. It's a simple surgery to remove cataracts but very expensive...about $3000 per eye. If you're not old enough to qualify for medicare, and you're uninsured, can't find a job, can't get a driver's license, or read a good book because of cataracts, your world is impoverished. Help save someone's sight!

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