My BBQ sauce

Zests, peels, and juices, OH MY!!

What beautiful things these zests, peels, and juices are!  Especially as they liven up any recipe, refresh us in the heat of the summer, and create an incredible and healthy addition to our diets.  But which to use and what can be a substitute?  I want to examine and study this deeply and share it with you.

First, lets define what they are:

Zests are the scrapings of the brightly colored peel, be it yellow, green, or orange. There, we have also handled what Peel is!!  Don't go too far, though or you will hit the membrane that is very bitter.  To quote "Joy of Cooking" by Rombauer and Becker,

"What better name than "zest" could be found for the gratings of the colorful outer coatings of lemons, oranges, tangerines, and limes - those always available, valuable, yet somehow not fully appreciated ingredients!"

 Zests brighten up a dish, just a teaspoon of zest can make such a pleasant difference to a dish!  Zests, I have found, need a certain grating system to be successful, not just any grater works well.  Microplanes are the best, a box grater can work well too.  In this video, you can see how they work:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/preparation/zest-citrus

The Peel of the fruit is just that, the outside colorful skin of the fruit.  Zests are made by grating the peel...see above.

Juices, directly from the fruit is the best and only true ingredient when a recipe calls for the juice of "such and such" fruit.  period.

True juice is not from concentrate with water added, it is the real deal, squeezed from the actual fruit.  It is more expensive, but oh so worth it.  Just a little goes a long way here too!

So how much is the right amount and what can be a substitute?

"Joy of Cooking" says

1 tsp of freshly grated zest (peel) = 2 Tablespoons of fresh juice = 1 tsp dried zest = 1/2 ts extract = 2 tsp of grated candied peel(zest).

Hope this helps!!

Snow Cream!! Jonas the megasnowstorm is coming Reposted from Jan 2014

Well the snow storm hit yesterday here on the coastal side of North Carolina.  Everything in the area is closed and there are hardly anyone on the streets....hopefully.  The four of us are snuggled in for the day, gladly I may add.  It's always nice to have husband home during the week, along with the kids.

Snow Cream was the order of the day and both girls went out and filled my big Tupperware bowl with the rather dry and powdery stuff.  I grew up in the north, Upstate NY, and never EVER had I heard of snow cream until I moved to the south.  Anyway, here is the recipe that seems to be our favorite.  There are many Many variations, some with butter, some with sweetened condensed milk, some with chocolate, but we like the plain vanilla version best.


First, send the kiddos out with a large bowl to get the snow with the very careful instructions that they get the snow from the MIDDLE not top and definitely NOT the bottom!  No yellow snow either...yuck!

Then to the parental inspected snow, add:

2 cups of whole milk...or as much as needed to make it creamy
1 Tbsp of vanilla
1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar

Mix until fluffy, smooth, and enjoy!!

Chicken with Bowties

Well, the race was on and I beat my husband home the other night.  It was a long day for both of us and we were hungry.  I knew that I had some chicken and about half of a box of bow tie pasta in the pantry, so when I got home, I got the frozen chicken out and in my large frying pan with a cup of some of my turkey stock from our Thanksgiving bird.  Next, I chopped up some celery stalks (along with the leaves), an onion, carrot, and celery and got them in the pot as well.  Letting that cook, I started got the pasta water started in another pot.

In about 15 minutes, the chicken was cooked so that I could shred it and I added some breadcrumbs to thicken the broth into a nice tasty sauce and added a can of diced tomatoes.  Covering it and letting it warm up together, I drained the pasta and added it to the dish and voila!

Here's the recipe:

Chicken with bow ties

Chicken pieces, boneless, skinless
3 Tbsp Olive oil
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cups of turkey stock
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of Breadcrumbs
seasonings to taste:
Sea salt
Pepper
garlic powder

one half box of bow tie pasta

In a large deep pan, heat up olive oil, add the chicken and let cook for 10 minutes on each side or until cooked enough to shred.  Add the vegetables and broth and let cook for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.  Shred the chicken and add back to pan along with a can of diced tomatoes. Add the breadcrumbs to thicken the stock into a nice sauce.

In another pot, cook the pasta and drain.  Add the pasta to the meat/vegetables and cover.  Let simmer until completely heated through.    Enjoy!

Serves about 4

Thanksgiving leftovers

Happy belated Thanksgiving all!  Yes, I was very busy cooking, preparing and serving up the family all the traditional holiday fare at our house.  This year we had 2 thanksgivings one on the traditional day and then the second on Saturday when our son and his wife were able to drive up for a visit and a meal.

Every year, my family expects to find on the table, their daddy's baked turkey (baked in a bag) and all the fine sides their mom (me!)can come up with.  Usually, that means the "Yankee dressing" as the kids like to call it, the "green salad" also deemed by the family years ago, pumpkin bread and pecan pie.  This year all our kids came from other places where they live...dorms and homes, so with all the leftovers and just the two of us, I got to thinking about what to do with the turkey, sausage, and ham............

Turkey Rice soup

3 stalks of celery, minced
1 onion, chopped/minced
1 small carrot, chopped/minced
1 tsp, minced garlic
1/2 of a large green pepper, minced
1/3 c    Olive oil
1 cup of spiced sausage
4 slices of bacon, cooked and diced

In a large stew pot, cook all the ingredients until tender, 10 minutes.
Then add:

5 cups of turkey stock
4 cups of water
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp  parsley flakes
1-2 Bay leaves
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Turkey meat from the Thanksgiving Bird

Stir and heat to boiling, stirring periodically.
Then add:
1.5 cups of uncooked rice

Cook at a low boil for 25 minutes, or until the rice is completely tender.

Well, it was delicious and I learned something along the way, homemade worcestershire sauce...I'm still working on the recipe, so I'' post it when it's ready for publication.

Thankfully!

Thursday night throw together

Last night I worked all day and was hungry for something different.  My husband was coming down with a cold and I knew a good hearty dinner was in order.   Getting in the door before my husband, I dropped my purse, and hit the kitchen with hardly a plan, but that is me...."A cook on the fly"!!

Looking in the fridge, I realized that I had some cabbage and celery that needed to be used asap.  I got out a couple of pieces of chicken and chopped up the red cabbage which was just a quarter of a head and 2 stalks of celery, and one small onion and put them all in my deep frying pan.  I really like the chicken stock in paste form from Sam's club and made 1.5 cups of stock with it.  Poured some olive oil in the pan first and let it heat up.  After it started to steam, I added the stock, salt, a dash of sugar (for the cabbage) and pepper and garlic powder then put the lid on it.

Note:  did you know that the leaves of the celery are delicious and make the dish that much more flavorful??  Oh yea!

Anyway, the chicken dish was cooking along and I knew I had to get some sides and a starch for my honey, so I got out some Brussels sprouts that were frozen and put a stick of unsalted butter in the pan and after it melted, put the Brussels sprouts in and let them steam on low heat.  Cousus is a great and quick side that provides starch and flavor if you do it right.  I always add garlic and butter and some chicken stock while it cooks.

Looking back at the chicken and cabbage cooking, I realized that the whole dish had turned purple, including the chicken!  Well, the show must go on and as my better half walked in the door exhausted and sick, I had a warm meal provided for him.

It turned out to be very VERY good!!  The chicken was well cooked and moist simmering in the cabbage, and stock, and the couscous was the perfect foundation for the dish.  I finished the meal with grating some cheddar cheese on the tender Brussel sprouts and serving them with some bread crumbs as a topping.

Voila!  a meal on the fly!!

Mexican Chilli: Taco meat has a second life!!

Left overs they can be so annoying or so amazing depending on what you can think up to do with them!  A few days ago, I made some tacos and since it's just the two of us for the most part, we had leftover meat.  Last night I was starving coming home from work and I thought about something with corn, lots of flavor, and beefy....voila!  I got home and before I even changed out of my work clothes, I got to work on my creation.  First I got out a deep frying pan and sauteed some onions in a bit of vegetable oil, then when they were transparent, I added the corn, black beans, diced tomatoes, and leftover taco meat.  With everything in the pot, I just let it simmer for about 30 minutes.  Oh, I added another Tbsp of my taco seasoning to give all the beans, corn, and tomatoes some flavor, there wasn't enough seasoning in the taco meat to give the entire product good hearty flavor.  When my husband came home, he was hit with the smells of a delicious mexican chilli!   

Here's the recipe:

Mexican Chili
Half of a medium onion, diced
1 Tbsp, vegetable oil or unsalted butter
1 can, undrained black beans, (American's Test Kitchen recommends Goya beans)
1 can of whole kernal corn, drained
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained...slightly
1/2 lbs of Taco meat  ( I prepare mine with my own taco seasoning)
1 - 2 Tbsp of taco seasoning

Directions
Saute onion in oil until transparent, add the remaining ingredients and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy!