Archive for January, 2010

• Scrub a dub dub. Treat your vegetables to a luxury loofah!

  Friday, January 29th, 2010

  Why not treat your vegetable skins the way you should treat your own dermis? With Whole Living Natural Loofah, Fruit and Vegetable scrubber, your vegetables are in for a spa treatment. It’ll scrub off all those icky waxes off your cucumbers and clean up the dirt off those taters. They even effectively clean your counters [...]

• An addictive seasoning ~ Recipe: Dukkah chicken

  Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

  I have been fortunate to travel all over the world. As you can imagine, food is a highlight, a centerpiece of my worldly adventures. I find myself more in markets than at monuments and always bring home a little taste sample of the world’s finest spices and herbs.
  Last summer I was in the Middle East: [...]

• Lentil in an instant (nope, they are not canned) ~ Recipe: Lentil, tomato and basil salad

  Monday, January 25th, 2010

  While soaking and cooking dried beans is basically hands off cooking, you still have to be patient and have the time to spend preparing them. That’s why I always enjoy preparing lentils as you can skip right on past the soaking step and head straight for the cooking. But even then, they do take more [...]

• You’ll want to do the dishes when you have these

  Friday, January 22nd, 2010

  Let’s face it, even in the year 2010, you still have to wash a few kitchen tools by hand. For instance, knives of course can’t go into the dishwasher and large pots and pans are still better cleaned by your own two hands. So you might as well turn a drudge job into a little [...]

• The right grater delivers a powerful ginger flavor ~ Recipe: Triple ginger grilled salmon

  Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

  I heart my microplane. I’ve been touting the virtues of the handheld grater for years ever since I fell in love with Oxo’s first version of the product years ago. I use it for grating zest, Parmesan cheese, garlic and of course ginger. But as much as it grates ginger perfectly well, what my beloved [...]

• Hey, there’s a truffle in my honey ~ Recipe: Roasted beet salad with oranges and Gorgonzola with truffle honey vinaigrette

  Monday, January 18th, 2010

  Whenever my husband sees truffles (the mushroom, not the chocolate) on a menu, he says “Oooh honey, look, they have truffles,” followed by a big eye roll. You see, he can’t understand what the big fuss is about truffles. He calls them dry dust like shavings that will cost you a [...]

• A meaty solution to kitchen accidents

  Friday, January 15th, 2010

  I’m always trying to get my nutritional counseling clients to eat far less red meat, but I am not opposed to them “wearing” it. Bacon Strips and Beef Adhesive Bandages just might have you purposely making a little cut on your finger just so you can don one of these very humorous first aid solutions.
  Completely [...]

• In the black: black rice that is ~ Recipe: Black rice with dried cherries and butternut squash

  Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

  Once upon a time, we all had to get used to brown rice after eating the standard white for so many years. I remember the switch over to brown rice in my own home in the 70’s and never looked back since. Although we occasionally succumb to the white (it’s usually though arborio or bomba [...]

• We’re cooking something that rhymes with boys ~ Recipe: Warm Apple Ployes

  Monday, January 11th, 2010

  You learn something everyday. After thinking I knew a lot about culinary history, a new product on the market proved me wrong. Ployes are a recipe based on the one created by French Acadian Exiles who settled in Northern Maine. The Bouchard Family has been milling light buckwheat flour in order to make these crepe-like [...]

• Are you a cooking slob?

  Friday, January 8th, 2010

  My dry cleaner and I have a close relationship. It started when she correctly guessed I must be in the food business when she first laid eyes on the bundle I brought to her on my first visit many years ago. Splashes of condiments, oils, and other stubborn stains were a match for her, and [...]