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Posts Tagged ‘Cook’

DAY #7 – Why Don’t You Just Pluck It?

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Not all Foodies excel in the kitchen, some just love good food and they eat out all the time.  They love gourmet food, they  follow certain chefs but they may not do much cooking or baking at home.  However, if the Foodie on your list cooks and bakes, this handy-dandy little kitchen tool will make a great gift!  And inexpensive too – just $10.39!!

I know you’ve seen those famous chefs on television crack eggs with one hand swiftly and efficiently but how about the rest of us?  And what if you’re cooking for someone who is watching their cholesterol intake and wants only egg white omelets?  Or your recipe calls for eggs and then extra egg yolks?  

Well lookee here…You need to buy a PLUCK.  A PLUCK is a cleverly-designed egg separator. Think Sunny Side Out! Extracting the yolk from healthy egg whites can feel as tricky as pulling a rabbit from a hat. Pluck makes it easy by separating the two with a simple squeeze and release of its silicone chamber. Now everyone from bodybuilders to soccer moms can just pluck that caloric yellow stuff right out.  Pluck’s clear tip plastic and silicone bulb come apart for easy cleaning by either hand or machine.

Squeeze Me

Squeeze Me

Can you imagine how easy this makes separating a yolk from the white?  No more tiny bits of shell floating in the gooky yolk  or the sticky white!  I think this is a terrific kitchen toy for a Foodie.

Available online through Amazon and in stores such as Bed, Bath and Beyond.

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DAY #8 – SHEAR Ecstasy In The Kitchen

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

While cooking dinner this evening and thinking about writing today’s Foodie gift blog, it occurred to me this past April I found a wonderful new kitchen tool and I should write about it.  My husband and I and his sister and husband took a trip to Quebec in April.  We thought it would be lovely and spring-like;  Instead, it was cold, windy and rainy.  However, we were undaunted and covered the Lower Town and the Upper Town.  One afternoon while strolling though the Lower Town in Old Quebec City, Stacey and I wandered into a lovely shop filled with kitchen ware and flatware and cookware.  We are both Foodies and love to cook, so we spent considerable time picking up item after item, many of which we had never seen at home.

We came across a pair of strange-looking scissors. Fascinated, we asked the clerk about them and were told that these shears were meant to julienne herb leaves or thinly slice mushrooms, lettuce, and even ham.  Immediately I knew I had to have these scissors to slice my basil leaves over my juicy Jersey tomatoes.  Not only would the little shreds be distributed more evenly over a caprese salad, the slices would release some of the basil oil.

Made of stainless steel and with 5 blades, this is one of the most useful tools in my kitchen.  Available for purchase online from several stores as well as Amazon, you can purchase these MASTRAD shears for under $10.00

Shear Delight

Shear Delight

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Day #14 – I’ve Got A Crush On Garlic

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , on December 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I almost always increase the number of garlic cloves any recipe calls for.  I’m Italian and many dishes I make are of that ethnicity and with garlic.  I’ve had a couple of garlic presses and hated trying to poke all of the residual garlic out of the holes.   Then I had one of those that switch the head back and forth and it pushes the last of the garlic out;  Unfortunately I broke two of those – not sure how or why.

When the rubber tube garlic peeler came out, I bought one of them and one for my daughter.  At first it seemed like the ideal way to peel garlic and I used it hundreds of times.  Lately I’ve been peeling cloves sans tools because, because I have no idea why lol.  

LOOK what I found!  A new garlic tool and it looks like a winner.  It is called Joseph Joseph Rocker Garlic Crusher. It looks like this:

It ROCKS!

It ROCKS!

By using downward pressure and a ‘rocking’ motion, this stylish tool breaks up garlic cloves quickly and easily, forcing the pieces up through the array of small holes in its base. The crushed pieces are then held in the curved design, allowing them to be spooned or scraped conveniently into a pan or bowl. Additional cloves can also be crushed at this stage before emptying. Continue rocking for a finer texture. Rocker™ is easy to clean under running water but is also dishwasher safe. 

It was designed by Goodwin Hartshorn and is available through Yellow Octopus for $12.95

 

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Day #18 – Love Food, Love to Cook? This COOKBOOK’S For You!

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on December 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s hard to imagine being a real Foodie,  lover of food and not owning several cookbooks.  That’s not to say that you need to actually make any of the recipes although that would be the expected thing to do, you can just leaf through the pages.  Sometimes I do that, it’s like window-shopping.  I think of it as grazing without actually eating, a behavior known to perpetual dieters who can visually satisfy themselves (I’m not really one of those).

Besides The Joy of Cooking (I’m not a fan), there literally thousands of cookbooks available in every Barnes & Noble and through Amazon.  That’s not to mention the great recipe sites such Allrecipes.com, MarthaStewart.com, the cooking magazines and the hundreds of niche blogs dedicated to cooking and eating.  I could easily recommend  a cookbook a day for the next 18 days but I’m not going to do that.

Today my Foodie gift of the day is a cookbook written by Mark Bittman of the New York Times.  It can be purchased at Amazon.com for $25.75.  The cookbook is 

How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition) Hardcover

by Mark Bittman (Author)
How To Cook Everything

How To Cook Everything

Don’t be put off by the fact that the author is a New York Times staff writer.  Believe me, I’ve made several of his recipes that were featured in the Dining Section of the newspaper and we’re not talking gourmet ingredients and techniques.

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The Turkey Cost HOW MUCH???

Posted in BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Smooth or Crunchy, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 26, 2013| 4 Comments »

MEMO to Self:  Make sure you ask what the price per pound is before you order!!! I learned a lesson today that I WILL NEVER forget.    

English: A picture taken of a Turkey.

English: A picture taken of a Turkey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two weeks ago when I was in the Delicious Orchards store buying those delicious soup mixes I checked out the price per pound on their fresh-killed turkeys.   I have a thing for fresh-killed turkeys, never been a Butterball fan with the pop-up timer and having to thaw the damn bird in my refrigerator for days.   The prices vary slightly depending on whether the turkey was organic and/or free range.  I don’t exactly remember what the actual price per pound was at Delicious Orchards but it couldn’t be too much higher than Wegman’s.  Now they are selling turkeys for $2.49 per lb. and organic free range fresh killed turkeys for $4.99 per lb.  I don’t even want to tell you that when I was a young married, you could get turkeys on sale at Thanksgiving for .59 cents per lb.  Can you believe it?  And right now I want to go on record that I resent the fact that the cent sign has been removed from keyboards.

I thought we were going to be 3 AND I swore this would be sooooooo simple a meal so I decided to just roast a turkey breast.  After all we love the white meat… sounded like a good idea to me.  I made that decision about 10 days  ago when I was in NYC and called Delicious Orchards to place my order for a Bell & Evans full turkey breast.  Bell & Evans produces really fine poultry.  I don’t know if they are just regional or national, but around here, their reputation is excellent.

Well today was my shopping day and after I went to Wegman’s to pick up all the other ingredients needed to make the sides, the salad and the dessert, I drove to Colt’s Neck to the Orchard to pick up my turkey breast and pumpkin pie and just a couple more things. The store was beyond crowded and it is NOT laid out like a regular grocery store. There are no real aisles, omg the carts were circling and weaving everywhere.

They had extra check-out counters manned so I was able to step right up and put my 1 red pepper, 2 navel oranges, a bottle of blue cheese dressing, about 6 apples, a soup mix package, a half gallon of cider, a dozen eggs,  a pumpkin pie and my turkey breast on the conveyer belt.  I had $93. with me and assumed  I had plenty of money to buy my items and then some.

YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE MY SURPRISE WHEN SHE ANNOUNCED THE TOTAL WAS $106.23! Are you f_____g kidding me?  I was so taken aback, I actually repeated the number and muttered to myself, “wow”.  Luckily I had my American Express card with me and after I paid the bill, I hurried out to my car.  It was raining so I quickly put the bags in the back seat.  I just sat in the car talking to myself about what just transpired.  After a moment or two, I picked up my cell phone and called the store from the parking lot.  

“Please connect me to the meat dept”.  “Hi, I wonder if you could tell me how much it cost per pound for a Bell & Evans turkey breast”?  “The reason I’m asking is because I just picked my order up and the turkey breast was rung up for $62.37″.  He replies, “Let’s see, the price per pound is $6.49″ .  OMG! I had been so hoping he was going to tell me it was  an error and this turkey breast did NOT cost $62.37!  “Thank you” I choked out the words.

NEVER AGAIN! 

Well I am taking this platinum-plated bird breast out tomorrow and am going to inject brine into it.  This is only the second time I ever brined a turkey.  The first time I was convinced not to do it again because it was so salty. This time I am making the brine and controlling how much I put into the breast.  Then I’m going make a garlic and herb paste that Emeril and Martha made and put it under the skin.  It goddam better be friggin’ delicious! 

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ROMAN STYLE BUCATINI

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , on November 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Bucatini

Bucatini (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lately, if it’s not soup, it’s pasta (we call it macaroni) and you know I love to cook both.  This past weekend I made a pasta dish I’ve been wanting to try for awhile.  It calls for using a macaroni known as Bucatini.  As for as long as I’ve known, Bucatini was a long spaghetti-like strand of macaroni that was hollow in the middle.  Heavier and thicker than regular spaghetti or linguine and a macaroni that needed a sauce to stand up to it.

However, when I went shopping for this pastas, what I found was a package being marketed as Bucatini but the pieces had been cut into lengths of about 3 1/2 inches.  Mmmm I thought this is not the real thing BUT as it turns out, this cut was probably better than the long strand version.  Why? Because the sauce was a bit soupy and with those two open ends, the sauce just slithered into the piece and oh what a delightful mouthful it was.

1 lb Bucatini (cooked per directions)

1 pkg (4oz) Pancetta diced

1 pkg (4oz) Prosciutto diced

2 cups thinly sliced red onion (about 8oz onion)

1/2 tsp or + crushed red pepper

2 TBS Chianti Red Wine Vinegar

1 jar of pomodoro sauce, 24 oz ( I used Wegman’s Grandma’s Pomodoro Sauce)

1 jar of water using sauce jar

2 TBS Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Use a braising pan.

1. Add pancetta and prosciutto to pan on MEDIUM.  Cook, stirring, about 5 minutes until browned.

2. Add onion and crushed pepper.  Cook 10-12 minutes until onions are softened.  Add red wine vinegar, stirring to loosen browned bits on bottom of pan.  Add sauce and water; bring to simmer. Simmer gently 5-8 minutes.

3. Add oil.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir.  Add cooked pasta to pan and toss.

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU Magazine 

I served this dish with an Arugula Salad which proved to be the perfect complement.

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Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Everyday Food, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I said I was going to make it and I did but not tonight (Sunday).  I made it last night because we weren’t all that hungry for a big meal as we had taken a trip to the local turkey farm to check out what we might want to order for Thanksgiving.  The Hincks Turkey Farm, established in 1938 has a quaint little outlet shop/restaurant in Mannasquan, NJ.  We treated ourselves to turkey sandwiches.  I had the Russian Turkey and Peter had the Flaming Turkey.  Mine, you can probably guess the ingredients but his?  His had hot cherry peppers in it!  This late lunch took place close to 3:00 so as dinner time approached, we weren’t very hungry.  

Chicken Pot Pie Soup Mix

Chicken Pot Pie Soup Mix

I switched menus and made this hearty soup.  The problem with posting about it is that I didn’t make if from scratch so I don’t have a recipe to blog about.   When we were at the Orchard a few weeks ago, I spotted the soup mixes and remembered that I had made one last year and it was beyond “souper”.  The brand is Cherchies, and they make several different kinds of hearty soup mixes.  I think I paid $6.99 for the package;  You add cooked chicken to it and dumplings if you want to really make a meal of it.  And we did! I trimmed all of the meat off of the roast chicken  we had on Friday night and used it in the soup (love getting two meals out of something)  and I made dumplings with Bisquick.  What a delightful meal!  

I also purchased their Mushroom Chowder Mix so as soon as we have another nippy evening, I might make that one. 

I like to think of myself  as a good cook and love posting recipes of dishes I’ve made so I hope I haven’t disillusioned my followers tonight.

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SOUPER BOWL Weekend

Posted in Everyday Food, Friends, New York Speaks, tagged , , , , , , , on November 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It could be the slight nip in the air or just that time of the year, whatever it is, soup is on my mind and a few others as well.  I’m planning on making a chicken noodle soup tomorrow night with dumplings.  It will be the perfect Sunday night supper. Today I read on Facebook that a friend of mine made a delicious onion soup yesterday and the recipe came from the New York Times.  It reminded me that I need to check the Times’ Wednesday edition, which has the Dining Section.  I have gotten some really great recipes from there, especially around the holidays.  Anyway, Linda made the soup and gave it rave reviews-that’s good enough for me!

Here’s the recipe from the Florence Fabricant column in the New York Times.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 6 large red onions, about 3 pounds, peeled, quartered and sliced thin
  • 3 large cloves garlic, sliced
  • Salt
  • 2 tart apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 2 cups dry hard cider
  • 6 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 4 cups vegetable stock
  • Ground black pepper
  • 4 1/2 ounces Cheddar, slivered
  • 6 or 8 thick slices country bread about 4 inches in diameter, toasted

PREPARATION

1.
Melt butter in a 5- to 6-quart saucepan on very low heat. Add onions and garlic, dust with salt, stir in apples, cover and cook until onions are very soft, about 30 minutes. Stir in sugar, increase heat to high and cook, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes, until onions start to brown. Stir in cider vinegar, scraping bottom of pan.
2.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in cider, soy sauce and stock, bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently about 20 minutes. Season with pepper and, if needed, more salt. Meanwhile, pile the cheese on the toast slices, covering the bread completely.
3.
Heat broiler. Divide soup among 6 to 8 ovenproof ramekins, deep bowls or big mugs with about 12-ounce capacity. Place a slice of toast and cheese on each, place ramekins on a baking sheet and broil just until cheese melts and starts to bubble. Serve at once.
YIELD
6 to 8 servings
Onion Soup with Gratinee with Cider

Onion Soup with Gratinee with Cider

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Tuscan Baked Beans a/k/a Fagioli Al Uccelletto

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

TUSCANY

TUSCANY

It’s Tasty Tidbits Tuesday!  You know I love to cook on the weekend, especially at the shore because the kitchen is bigger although the stove is smaller as is the oven.  The real reason I love cooking in New Jersey is the accessibility to several marvelous grocery stores and two magnificent fruit and vegetable stands.  Believe they don’t call New Jersey the Garden State for nothing! Unabashedly, Wegman’s is my favorite grocery store and I love making the recipes in their seasonal MENU magazine.  This recipe for Tuscan Baked Beans is in the latest edition.   I don’t know if it was meant to be a main dish but it certainly would satisfy a vegetarian or vegan.

1 pkg dry Great Northern Beans OR 4 cans of Great Northern Beans undrained.

9 cups of water* (only needed it you use the dry beans)

24 leaves of fresh sage OR 20 if you are NOT using dry beans

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, OR 1 if you are NOT using dry beans

1/2 cup of Extra Virgin olive oil, divided

1  1/2 pkgs of chopped onions.  (12 oz)

4 cloves of garlic, finely diced

8 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 TBS salt

1 tsp pepper

1/4 cup basting oil (olive oil with Italian herbs in it)

2 cups of Panko bread crumbs

You’ll need a stockpot* and a braising pan

** indicates usage with the dry beans

*Place sorted and rinsed beans in stockpot.  Cover with about 2 inches of water, tilt cover to vent and soak 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans.  Put the beans and 9 cups of fresh water in the stockpot. Heat on HIGH uncovered, until boiling.  Skim off as much foam as possible.  Add 4 leaves and 1 sprig of rosemary to the pot.  Reduce to MEDIUM.  Cover, tilting to allow steam to vent.  Cook one hour, do not stir.

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in braising pan on MEDIUM.  Add onions and garlic, cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  Chop 20 sage leaves and sprig of rosemary, add to onion mixture.  Cook 1 minute.

Add tomatoes, salt and pepper.  Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat.

Check beans for tenderness. If not quite tender, cover completely and cook an additional 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Add beans and liquid to the onion mixture in braising pan.  Stir to combine. Drizzle remaining olive oil and bake for 60 minutes.  Beans will be done when liquid is syrupy and bubbly.  Carefully remove from oven, season with salt and pepper.

Mix basting oil and panko crumbs in small bowl.  Place mixture over beans and return to oven, bake 20-30 minutes until topping is brown and crisp.

This makes enough beans to feed 8 people. It tastes great, REALLY!!

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine 

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SUNDAY SAUCE -Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

Sunday sauce

Sunday sauce (Photo credit: letouj)

This past weekend, I decided to make Sunday Sauce.  It is so tasty, so delicious and even though it takes a long time to cook down, it is well worth it.  Pick an afternoon you’ll be home and soon your home will be filled with the aroma of simmering tomato sauce.  I thought I could make it in my crockpot BUT my crockpot was not big enough.  Using a crockpot would make the whole process easier since you could just let it simmer away for hours.

I started with a large stockpot but then thought, “Oh why not use the crock pot?”   I filled the crock pot and still had a lot of sauce in the braising pan so now I had to make a decision;  I took half of the meat out of the crock pot and put it in the braising pan and cooked the sauce in both.  I tell you all this so you won’t make the same mistakes I made which made a fairly simple recipe into a complicated process.  Mangia!

SUNDAY SAUCE

(but you can call it Gravy!)

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1.5 lb of boneless country spare ribs ( I used bone-in)

6 links of Hot Italian Pork Sausage (I used Hot Poultry Sausage)

2 cups (16 oz) chopped onions

8 TBSP of minced garlic (from jar) OR 20 cloves minced

2 cans of tomato paste

4 cups of water

6 cans of coarsely ground Italian tomatoes

4 TBSP dried basil (I used 2TBSP and basil from my yard)

16 meatballs (cooked)

Salt and Pepper to taste

You’ll need a large braising pan and a 16 Qt stockpot

Heat olive oil in large braising pan on MEDIUM HIGH; add ribs and sausage.  Cook, turning 2-5 min, until meats are browned on all sides.  Transfer meats to stockpot.

Reduce heat to LOW.  Add onions and garlic to braising pan; cook, stirring, 10 minutes, until veggies are translucent.

Raise heat to MEDIUM; add tomato paste.  Cook, stirring, 3-4 minutes, until paste just begins to brown.  Add water, stirring to loosen browned bits on bottom of pan.  Bring to simmer.

Transfer tomato paste/water mixture to stockpot. Stir in canned tomatoes and basil.  Bring to simmer on MEDIUM.  Reduce heat to LOW.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 hours.  Add cooked meatballs.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

Carefully transfer meats to serving platter; cut meats into manageable pieces. Transfer sauce to serving bowl.

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine

Congratulations to me! This is my 1000th blog post!  Wow, I’ve had so much fun doing this, I hope my readers/followers are enjoying  this journey too.  Thank you for all your support and comments.  

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