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Posts Tagged ‘Home’

Foodies have kids too!  At least many of the ones I know do.  It’s important to introduce your children to good food and good nutrition – we all know it, we all talk it, but often in practice harried Moms serve chicken nuggets and mac and cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches.

It’s a new world out there, so different from the childhood I had.  I grew up in the 50’s, my mother didn’t work and she cooked dinner every night.  There was no money to eat out and we surely didn’t live in a place where you could order in.  One of the results of this upbringing was that I was 20 years old before I ever ate in a Chinese restaurant and certainly I never held chopsticks!  NOT SO for my daughter and my grandchildren.  I hope my Finley and Francesca learn to use chopsticks much sooner than later.  

And I have found just the item to assist them in their Foodie cultural growth.  Check out these Dinosaur Chopsticks.

Dinosaur-Chopsticks

Dinosaur-Chopsticks

You can order them through Amazon and they cost $4.97 plus shipping.

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In the last couple of years I seem to be making more recipes that call for lemon zest or orange zest and so a couple of years ago I bought a Zester and then went on to buy another microplane with slightly larger holes and blades and is best used for grating cheese and chocolate.  

I don’t have a kitchen filled with lots of gadgets and expensive knives, quite the contrary actually.  However, when I find a kitchen tool that makes putting together and cooking a meal easier, I’m all for it.  I love using my zester and using it when  you can zest a whole lemon over a bowl or pot is so easy.  BUT when I have to measure out a tablespoon or two and am zesting the lemon over a small plate, the zest ends up on the counter and elsewhere.  Then you have to scrape up the zest and scoop it into a measuring spoon.  

Well LOOKY HERE! Edgeware Better Zester is a creative new product that has taken zesting to a new level.  This handy tool has  little zester teeth that are coated with a food-safe nonstick coating, similar to the popular brightly-colored Kuhn Rikon knives. Also, it has a plastic attachment on the back that catches all the zest.  

Where this really shines, though, is in that zest catcher. It has measurement markings, so you can shake the zest into the bottom and see how much you’ve collected so far. Then, when you’re ready to get your zest, you can slide the zest catcher off and it sort of squeegees everything off the zester, leaving you with clean blades and all the zest neatly caught in the little attachment. Works perfectly, every time. 

Add A Little Zest To Your Life

Add A Little Zest To Your Life

This super kitchen aid  is available online through several stores and Amazon.  The average price is $14.95

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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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I’m a chocoholic, I admit it, however, I am particular.  I mean there’s chocolate and there’s chocolate! I like dark chocolate, bitter and at least 75% cacao.  You can keep the milky soft sweet stuff and the calories that go with it.  

I also collect some chocolate-related items and probably should do  a post featuring my collection of chocolate candy molds and vintage chocolate bar labels.  I have several chocolate cookbooks and few odd chocolate nostalgia pieces.  But I don’t have this – it isn’t quite my style.

However, you might have just the Foodie on your list who also appreciates funky gifts and loves chocolate too.  If so, check this out:

"ADD" Me to Your List

“ADD” Me to Your List

This is a big calculator that looks and *drumroll* .. smells, like chocolate! And it is solar powered. A great stocking filler.

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English: A slice of homemade Thanksgiving pump...

English: A slice of homemade Thanksgiving pumpkin pie served on a glass plate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tuesday is shopping day for me.  I’m off to Delicious Orchards to buy a Turkey Breast, a pumpkin pie and some apple cider – AND anything else that jumps off the shelf into my basket.  I know I will get sucked into buying some of the produce and ingredients there WHEN I know I will be paying more there than at Wegman’s but I can already feel the deep-bone tiredness that comes from store hopping and grocery shopping.  

Each year I tell myself not to overdo it and that it isn’t necessary to make every dish from scratch.  Intellectually that works right up until shopping day.  For the past several nights I have been cruising around the  Martha Stewart, Real Simple and Cooking with Nonna web sites and for every dish I eliminate, I add yet another.  I really love to make special dishes and prepare meals like Thanksgiving.  It’s not like I am creating dishes necessarily of my own, since if you read this blog, you know I pick out recipes that I think will be delicious.  Over the years I have compiled a large Thanksgiving recipes folder.  It’s filled with several different root vegetable soups, lots and lots of side dishes, salads, a good number of stuffing recipes and of course a bunch of ways to prep and season the turkey.  I even have pie recipes in there but I have to admit once I discovered Delicious Orchards, I haven’t made a Thanksgiving or Christmas pie.  However, lest you get completely disillusioned, let me state that I do make desserts, such as a cranberry trifle, a pumpkin cheesecake (to die for) and this year I making a chocolate ricotta mousse.

My grocery list is now a page and half and I have one day to do it all plus a few everyday errands;  You know the dry cleaner, Staples and the liquor store.  I can’t imagine cooking tomorrow night or Wednesday night, sounds like take-out Chinese!  

We’ve invited 4 guests so it will be six of us which is 3 more than originally planned.  So all of my OCD planning, recipe-reading, list making of what needed to be purchased for each recipe HAD to be revised so each dish will feed that many.  

Now if I can only find those plates!! I can’t believe I’m in this predicament, me who has no less than 4 sets of dishes in my New York apartment  cannot find the china plates for the cottage. This sounds weird I know, but here’s the deal;  The cottage has a 1950’s kitchen theme and motif so all of dinnerware and service pieces of Melmac or Bootonware or one of the other plastic dish wares of that era.  I have turquoise plates, pink plates, bowls in both colors, green service pieces, Jadite mugs, all of my glasses are from the 50’s – I just love it! I even have vintage cookware;  who remembers CLUB pots and pans?  Mine are turquoise.  However, as much as I love my dishes, I would like to serve Thanksgiving dinner on china plates and somewhere I believe there’s a set of Martha Stewart plates.  But where?  This is a teeny tiny cottage and  I know they are not in here, maybe the garage….

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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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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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“All my life’s a circle…” Sunday morning I got up and went right to work in the kitchen.  This was my day to make some soups.  As soon as the sun is low in the sky, the leaves are tinged with gold and red and there is a chill in the air once the sun goes down, I start thinking about cooking and more cooking.  

My neighbor in New York left a big butternut squash at my door last week so I brought it with me to the cottage and decided to make Roasted Butternut and Chicken Soup.  I knew I was going to want to post this recipe because it is good, heart healthy and hearty too.  The more I thought about it, the more I began to remember making this last year and probably posting it.  Sure enough, last October 5th I made the soup (on a Sunday!) and posted the recipe to my blog.  

Here’s the link with the recipe – I hope you’ll check it out. I can’t believe it was a year almost to the day that I made this soup and here I am again.  I left a container with my friend, Alice, who gave me the squash.  I’m looking forward to her comments. 

ENJOY!  The recipe link is below the photo.

Cucurbita moschata 'Butternut'. Original descr...

Butternut Squash photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup and…

 

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From the title of this blog you might not think that things are winding down, but today it does seem like they are.  Of course not having to start the day with the hectic madness of school clothes, hair brushing, breakfast and off to school, does make a difference.   When I went to bed last night which was REALLY early for me, I was looking forward to sleeping in this morning.   First of all , I figured the girls would sleep late because we didn’t return from the Ocean Club till about 9:00pm.

Last night we went to a Friday night buffet and pool party.  The kids had a blast jumping in and out and swimming and jumping off the diving board.  I wish I could have taken a picture of Francesca jumping off the diving board.  Unbelievable!  And this was not one of those diving boards that you step onto, this was one you had to climb up to.  I have never seen a child that small actually jump off a diving board and she didn’t even hold her nose.  Anyway, the party was a throwback in time for me. OMG it was retro to the old GCA; Golf Club of Avon.  Even the characters were the same.  We sat under the stars and brightly lit half moon that just hung in the sky over us all.  The weather was warm, the drinks were cold and the food was plentiful.  So familiar…even Chiara said, “I’m living your life all over again”.

So I didn’t think it was too far-fetched to think that after hours of swimming and eating (a lot of sugar), those kids would sleep late and so would I.  And that Daddy was home so he would entertain them in the morning.  At 7:20am Francesca came into my room.  She climbed up to be with me, but not for long because the purpose of her visit was really to get me out of bed and into the living room where Daddy was laying down on the couch to watch cartoons with them.  I saw that there was little to no chance of me remaining in bed so I got up.  Tom proposed we go out to breakfast and then pick up Tia who was arriving this morning.     I didn’t think we had that much time; Tom thought she was arriving at 10:30 but I knew it was 9:30.  So Tom and girls headed  out to the airport and I stayed behind to make Chiara a really good breakfast, something she has been sort of skimping on this week due to Fletch’s feeding schedule.  I’m going to post the recipe which came from Confessions of a Pioneer WomanRee Drummond‘s famous blog.

We spent the afternoon at the Ocean Club, hence the SUN and SAND which was plentiful.  Lunch at poolside and once again I was taken back in time to Avon.  The kids spent time in the pool and then we went to the ocean.  The sun was glorious, Tom signed up for a surf board and Finley and two friends spent 2 hours getting up and falling off the board!  Finley did stay up long enough to float into shore – Uncle Joel and Uncle Justin take note!  SURFERS in the making.  We wound up the afternoon at the pool with a SANGRIA Blanco, NICE!

Tonight we are going to have a mini-birthday party for Francesca who turns 3 on Tuesday.  Since I’m leaving tomorrow, Chiara decided we could celebrate with dinner and invited her best friend who has 2 children fairly close in age to Finley and Francesca and so we had 4 kids plus Fletcher and 6 adults (you can get the picture).   The kids had pizza and we had SALMON!  And cake of course! Francesca had a ball opening gifts.  It wasn’t the gift that actually seemed to thrill her but rather the opening of the gift.  We had to hold off the older kids who so desperately wanted to help her.  Several threats of no dessert, a time out and the possibility of going to bed NOW were all invoked to keep the other 3 away from the presents.  Tia came through for them all;  She had assembled Halloween goodie bags for all 4 kids which amused them and held their attention for all of 2 minutes.

Well as you can see, things really have wound down.  There wasn’t any high drama today, there wasn’t anything too unusual going on around here, it was simply SATURDAY!  There was a very funny moment this evening when Chiara was discussing with Tom what Halloween costume would they wear when they went to a party with the theme:  Enchanted Halloween.  Ki has been online searching for appropriate attire and came up with a fairy-like outfit adorned with leaves.  Since they want to match somewhat, what does that leave (no pun intended) Tom to dress as?  The suggestion of stump came up but that was quickly withdrawn.  Chiara found a sort of shawl and hat that looked medieval and after ALL of the laughter died down, we all began firing out suggestions;  Maybe he could be a wizard, or a gnome or The Grim Reaper which put Chiara into hysterics, not to mention Tom who was more hysterical at the thought!  How about a Leprechaun? 

Pasha was quite evident tonight.  Wherever Mommy went or the baby, Pasha was soon to follow. Did you know that in Egypt Siamese cats were used to guard the throne of the King of Siam?  Pasha stands watch over our Prince.

Pasha Guards Fletcher

Pasha Guards Fletcher

Mommy, baby Fletch and Pasha

Mommy, baby Fletch and Pasha

It’s a wrap tomorrow morning!  I’m flying home, Peter will pick me up in Newark and we’ll head down to the shore.  LIfe just won’t be as exciting or as interesting to read about as it has been these past few days!  Oh well….

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Well if you didn’t know there had been a birth in this house, you might think someone died!  Every day a florist’s van pulls up and delivers flowers.  Everyday a friend comes and brings either food for dinner or a cake!  Today has been a banner day for both.  Bonita, one of Chiara’s friends dropped by with a cake to die for!  And then that would make this a  house to die in.  Anyway, the cake is moist, not too sweet, laden with chocolate chips and banana.  I had a piece after lunch and oh my!  I insisted she call Bonita and tell her just how delicious her cake was.

We have cake and we have the cat.  Pasha seems to be marking all of the baby’s furniture and making it his own.  In fact yesterday Pasha was sleeping in the baby’s bassinet.  Chiara is one of those moms who yell out, “Did you wash your hands before you touch the baby”?  And let’s not forget the extra large bottle of Purell that greets you as you walk in the door.  Bearing in mind all the admonitions that myself and others have received, I thought it best to point out something to her.  So I just casually asked if Pasha had washed his paws after he came out of the litter box before he hopped into the bassinet?  Mmmmmm.

Pasha Lays Claim to the Bassinet

Pasha Lays Claim to the Bassinet

Of course if you’re a cat you can choose and change your napping place anytime you want to.

Fletcher's Brand New Car Seat

Fletcher’s Brand New Car Seat

Sorry I couldn’t get closer but I was using my phone and was afraid he’d hop out.

We have been getting such gorgeous floral arrangements. Some have already been tossed because Pasha, yes the cat ate some.   So now all of flowers are up high on the credenza in the dining room where we NEVER eat, NEVER walk into and now it could be one of those rooms like in the old days, a mourning room.

White Tulips and Blue Hydrangea, Baby's Breath

White Tulips and Blue Hydrangea, Baby’s Breath

White Roses and Blue Bells

White Roses and Blue Bells

Calla Lillies and Tiger Lily

Calla Lillies and Tiger Lily

White Lillies and Blue Bells and Hydrangea

White Lillies and Blue Bells and Hydrangea

Yellow Roses, White Lilly and a Balloon

Yellow Roses, White Lilly and a Balloon

Welcome to my world!

 

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