Elementary Chef

From Shawn Lea:

Kathee and Bill Austin of Diabetic Recipes have been working doubly hard to make sure that we have plenty of healthy recipes to try, and the Carnival of the Recipes is now up for your viewing pleasure!
Be sure and let them know how much we appreciate their hard work - especially under the circumstances. (They are snowed in up in the White Mountains of Arizona at a resort up in the wilderness around ShowLow, Arizona. I felt sorry for them for just a moment until I got to the word “resort.”)

Next week’s Carnival will be hosted by Right Wing Nation. Submit your favorite winter comfort recipes (since it finally decided to get cold) to recipe.carnival@gmail.com by noon CST on Saturday.

If you’re interested in hosting a future carnival send a message to the same address with the word host in the subject line. I still need volunteers, so let me know if you are interested in hosting.

For a line-up of future Carnivals , visit our Carnival of the Recipes page on Blog Carnival. You can also review all past Carnival of the Recipes there too.

Sincerely,
Shawn Lea
http://everythingandnothing.typepad.com

You probably already know about the US Postal Service’s new stamp for Valentine’s day. But wait — there’s more!

They have a contest with the prize of $10,000 for a romanticgetaway. Guess how many Hershey’s Kisses fit in a Priority Mail box. Enter online here.

Getting creative on a budget:

BETHLEHEM, Pa., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ — Valentine’s Day 2007 - Just Born’s candy brands have sweet ideas for Valentine’s Day. To make the gorgeous Valentine’s Bouquet or scrumptious chocolate covered Sweetheart Lollipop treats, fans can use the Peeps(R) Decorating Kit, Peeps(R) Vanilla or Strawberry Flavored Creme Hearts, and Pink Hearts.

Joe Villiano, Just Born Brand Manager, commented, “Valentine’s Day is one of the largest candy giving holidays and we know that our 65,000 Peeps Fan Club members love to create unique personalized gifts. The Valentine’s Bouquet and chocolate covered Sweetheart Lollipop treats are just two of ideas that are available at http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com.”

The Peeps Valentine’s Day Decorating Kit is sure to entice fans who want to decorate and personalize their Peeps. The Peeps Decorating Kit comes with a 4-pack of pink Peeps marshmallow Hearts, 1 tube of either red or white Cake Mate decorating gel, and on-pack decorating ideas.

Other Valentine’s Peeps include the two-count Pink Hearts, Vanilla Flavored Creme Hearts, and Strawberry Flavored Creme Hearts. The Pink Peeps Hearts have a “to-from” space on the packaging making them ideal for classroom handouts.

Remember the potato soup recipe from yesterday? Well, that’s only the beginning.

If you want, you can “start from scratch,�? and instead of using the instant mashed, start with one or two actual potatoes, peeled and cubed. This is a good use for potatoes that are somewhat past their prime. After they’ve been cooked, mash them in the broth, and let them cook some more.

Sometimes I like to add regular cream or sour cream. This is a tad tricky, so pay attention: either one will curdle if you let the soup come to a boil again. To stabilize the cream, add a couple of tablespoons of flour to the cream, (cold from the fridge) and blend it in well. Add it to the soup, and allow it to cook for a few more minutes.

This way an accidental rise in temperature won’t ruin your soup.

Another garnish for potato soup – that makes it more of a main dish – is to add some sliced, cooked Polish or other sausage. The reason I don’t suggest cooking the sausage in the soup is that it tends to lose its flavor in the broth. It also adds a little contrast in texture this way.

If you’ve got a cold, you won’t want to add the cream. (Dairy products make you cough more.)

Better yet, try some of this:

NewAge Chicken Soup

To a cup of hot chicken bouillon, add 1/4 tsp. garlic powder, 1/4 tsp. Mrs. Dash, and a few red pepper flakes. That’ll warm you up!

We’re on our fifth day in a row of below-freezing nights. When I think of something to have for dinner, it’s been something that would give me an excuse to crank up the oven, or keep the crockpot going.

Today it might be soup. While you might think of soup as something that needs hours of simmering, that’s not always true. So here are two recipes for quick and easy soups that are way better than anything you can get out of a can.

Potato Soup

This one is so easy you’ll wonder why you never thought of it before!

To four cups of boiling water, add 4 teaspoons chicken bouillon or soup base. Add ½ to 1 cup of instant mashed potato – flakes or granules, doesn’t matter which. Sprinkle in some dried minced onion and parsley for color, and there you have it!

You might want to garnish it with some thinly-sliced cucumbers or sour cream.

Corn Chowder

Brown 4-6 slices of bacon, drain and set aside. Sauté ½ an onion, chopped, ½ a green pepper, also chopped and two stalks of sliced celery. Add 4 cups water, 4 tsp chicken bouillon or soup base, 1 bay leaf, and bring to a boil. Add 1 large or two small potatoes, peeled and cubed. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add one 10-oz package frozen corn, the bacon, and allow to heat thru.

Whisk 3 tablespoons flour into 1 cup of milk, making sure there are no lumps. Add to soup, again bring to a boil. Allow to cook another 10 minutes or so, and serve.

If you can get pumpernickel rolls, they go really well with either soup.

Jenny over at

Coaching Cooking

has some more toaster oven recipes to try. I do love those sandwiches!

You might have heard about the cold snap out here in the Desert Southwest. Hey, it’s cccc-old!

I’m hearing from friends in Phoenix who’ve had problems with frozen water pipes, which is a real problem we don’t often encounter here. This year has been the coldest winter in 28 years, I hear. I’ve even been wearing the coat I borrowed from my daughter in law for my trip to Washington in two weeks. Never expected to need it here!

What you’re going to see as a result, no matter where you live in the US, is higher produce prices. We’re not sure yet how much the weather has affected the citrus and lettuce crops, but in my experience, once that word of price increases gets out, the prices go up anyway, no matter how bad or good the situation is in the field.

How much the prices go up is something I’d need a crystal ball to predict. I’m hearing rumors of double and triple price increases. We won’t know, really, for another week to ten days. Quite often, what they do with partially-frozen orangesis use them for juice. So that might make orange juice cheaper, if there’s a lot of it around.

There’s more on the cold weather here at my local paper.

produce, shopping, groceries

OK, I tried it, but I didn’t expect to like it.

There’s some history here: back in the early ’80s, there was a product called “Mug O’ Lunch,” which was kind of the same concept of a pasta-based single serving. Problem was, the stuff tasted like nothing. No flavor whatsoever that we could discern. Plus, if you didn’t wash the mug pronto, the residue would turn into something resembling cement.

I was hoping times had changed.

To my surprise, I found that yes, this was something different. I tried the Lasagna-flavored variety. Despite the visual lack of tomato product, you can taste it, and it does have a sort-of Italian kind of flavor. The amount of hamburger in it was negligible. I liked it well enough that I’ll probably have it around for quick lunches from time to time.

Now, the marketing is aimed at kids — teenagers, to be exact. I don’t think the single serving is anywhere near enough for a hungry 15-year old, but it is enough for a 50ish lady, and it would be enough for my 21-month-old granddaughter. I made it according to package directions, in a 16oz bowl, because it does boil furiously. When all was said and done, the bowl wasn’t quite half full.

So I’m guessing their eventual serving is about a cup. They have directions on the package for making a double portion, and since it comes four packets to a box, at about $3.58, it is kind of pricey if you’re going to feed big kids. I suspect one boy could make short work of the whole box at a sitting.

A regular frozen dinner would be a better nutritional value, and you might be able to get two of them for the same money.

So there’s the facts — you be the judge!

You can see if it’s available in your area

here

More on the varieties

here

HamburgerHelper, GeneralMills

My husband and I were working on a menu/grocery list for the next two weeks, and I realized we have sunk deeply into a rut. We are eating the same few things, mostly because we’ve both been so busy, we stick with the easy stuff.

So went looking online for something different and unusual.
What I found was

FoodProcessing.com

a site devoted to the processed food industry. It was neat to look around!

Though I didn’t find any radically-different meal ideas, I did find some new food products. Like these:

Sometime this spring you can look for a new carbonated soft drink made by Pepsi. It’s called Tava, and comes in four flavors: Brazilian Samba, Caribbean Calypso, Mediterranean Muse and Malaysian Satori. It will include vitamins and fruit flavoring, though I don’t know what fruits..

Three new flavors of Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate: Pure Dark Chocolate, Pure Dark Chocolate with Cranberries, Blueberries and Almonds, and Pure Dark Chocolate with Macadamias and Cranberries.

Knorr brand Mini Cubes of Garlic and Onion — which are like bouillon cubes, which may be interesting. I know Knorr’s bouillon is the best of the bunch, so this may also be a quality product.

Hamburger Helper Microwave Singles are a big deal right now, if you like Hamburger Helper. ;>) It’s packaged in a shelf-stable pouch, that you add water to and nuke. Yes, it has hamburger. If you’re wondering how they did that, well, it’s freeze-dried. I might have to try this, just for grins, though it’s being marketed for kids.

O’Coco’s organic chocolate crisps by Nspired Natural Foods Inc. are probably the most intriguing of the group of new foods mentioned. Imagine, if you will, chocolate, but crunchy, like potato chips. I wonder what provides that crunch?

…as a bonus, here’s

an article on chicken wings

— all the history, and how they evolved into one of the most popular snacks in America.

food, products, newfood

People get cookbooks in a lot of ways. They can come to you as gifts, or you’ll hear about one online or maybe see one that looks interesting in the bookstore.

Thing is, it’s hard to know if the recipes are accurate, or the if writer has any idea what he or she is talking about. I heard a long time ago that Martha Stewart’s first cookbook was of better use as a doorstop, as many of the recipes were said to have some bad mistakes.

I don’t know since I’ve never seen it, but I’ve seen my share of bad cookbooks.

One I had was about sourdough baking. There were some good ideas in there, especially a spinach-cheese bread that was more of a snack item than just bread. Problem was, the basic sourdough method was wrong. Not only were you using the sourdough starter, but adding yeast as you would for a regular bread recipe. This resulted in loaves that were a grey color—not very appetizing—not to mention there was an odd taste as well.

There was also one that was supposed to be low-fat, “healthy�? recipes, which turned out to not to be low-fat at all!

Probably the best thing you can do when choosing a cookbook, especially if you’re new to cooking, is stick with the tried-and-true, at least until you know more about it and can better judge the good from the not-so-hot. You can waste a lot of time and money using recipes that have basic flaws or typographical errors.

Your first one or two cookbooks should be those that somebody you know uses frequently, or that you’ve heard about so often you know it’s reliable.

Otherwise, it’s probably best to stay away from impulse buying when it’s a cookbook you’re considering. Most of my major mistakes came from buying cookbooks from the remainders section at the bookstore, and/or the author was somebody I’d heard about.

Now I realize those marked-down remainders got there for a reason, and it may not always be because of faulty marketing. Maybe the book itself has problems. Also, sometimes celebrities don’t write the book themselves. Well, you live and you learn.

Sometimes you can encounter a rare gem among the unpurchased and unread. Once you’ve had some experience in the kitchen and worked with a variety of recipes, then you can trust your own instincts.

cookbooks

According to

this piece from British Columbia

, fondue may be making a comeback.

I remember it as being fun, but for those who were really hungry, it somehow didn’t fill the bill.

We used to do something a tad different. We’d have plates of sliced steak, shrimp, veggies, etc., and in the middle of the table we’d place a propane torch. We’d use our fondue forks to torch our steak and shrimp.

That was more fun, at least by our standards.

I see by

this story

General Mills is going to advertise more to try and prop up their sagging sales.

I remember way back when Sean was a toddler, and I got a bunch of single serving packets of cereal for free. These were all things like Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks — the sugary kind of cereals.

Sean refused to eat any of them, but he’d play with them for hours!

GeneralMills, cereal

Well, I guess it’s a step up from killing monsters and flying simulations. From the reviews I’ve seen, it appears everybody has tried it loves it. One day I keep telling myself I’ll get a Playstation or an Xbox, just to have around for the kids.

But apparently this game is so far only available for Nintendo DS and in March for Wii. Maybe by summer it’ll be out in some other platforms.

I’m intrigued. I’m also all for it if it encourages kids to learn how to cook for real!

CookingMama

If there’s any “First Rule�? of measuring, it is this: never measure over the pot the ingredient is going into. All kinds of things can happen that could ultimately dump a whole lot of whatever into the pot, which could ruin your dish.

When you’re trying a new recipe, it’s a good idea to start out with the amount called for, and then add more if you want later on.

There are two kinds of measuring cups: liquid and dry measures. Dry measures are quite often a group of graduated cups. The reason for this is that you scoop up the flour or sugar, etc., and even out the measure by scraping off the top with a straight edged knife. This is the most accurate way to measure. When you’re measuring these kinds of ingredients, it’s important to avoid shaking down or compacting the contents of the cup. This can give you way more than you need.

The best way to use a liquid measure is to hold it at eye level, and pour in the amount needed. Or you can set it on the counter and bend over to look. If you’re looking down into the cup, you could easily get less than the amount you need.

For measuring ingredients, you don’t want to use things like coffee cups or spoons from your tableware set. It’s pretty much guaranteed they won’t be accurate measures.

While there isn’t much you can do about too much oregano, or too much hot sauce, if you get too much salt, try this: put a couple of slices of raw potato into the pot, and let them soak up some of the salt. Just don’t forget to fish them out before serving!

This was a Christmas gift, but I’d been wanting one for a long time. In that inimitable way my husband has of figuring out what I really want for Xmas, he scored big this year!

I know, I’d read all the reviews about how toaster ovens don’t toast well, yadayada. Still, I wanted one, because I figured it would be a great help in the morning for my cheese toast – I have this almost every day, and it’s been a two-step process of toaster and microwave.

We also like garlic bread, toasted sandwiches of all kinds, (not to mention quesadillas!) and frequently find ourselves with one or two servings of something we just want to heat up. A microwave doesn’t always provide the kind of results we are looking for.

There’s also the issue of heating up the kitchen. Come summer, we try to come up with ways of having real food without having to raise the temperature in the house unduly with the big oven.

If you don’t mind if your toast comes out striped, and have limited kitchen space, a toaster oven may be the way to go for you, too. It’s a good idea to read through their (blessedly limited) user’s guide to ensure you’re using it right, as they’re a tad different from using a regular oven.

Never again having to trim oddly-shaped slices of bread is also a major selling point for me. When you do a lot of your own baking, or like the popular “artisan breads,�? you know what I’m talking about here. ;>)

toaster oven