Author: momsequitur

Reduced for quick sale

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Some things are obviously bad ideas.

Trimming your bangs after drinking is a poor decision.

Asking Donald Trump his opinion about anything will definitely come back to bite you.

And negotiating with a three-year-old or a teenager is pointless and painful.

But prudently purchasing meat on sale can be a great idea.

Every time I go into the supermarket, no matter whether I have one item or thirty on my list (don’t go shopping hungry or without a list; two more bad ideas), I always troll the meat aisle for mark downs.  When it’s getting close to the discard date meat is reduced, sometimes more than 50%.  Just be sure to cook it or freeze it the same day you buy it.

Look for a brightly colored sticker.  Most will say “Reduced for quick sale”.  But Kroger’s is the best.  Their sticker just says “WooHoo!”, which coincidentally is the sound I make when I discover an awesome carnivore’s discount.

The Matthews family loves duck breast.  But it’s not cheap, so consequently, we don’t eat it as often as we’d like.

Whole Foods is my most reliable source.  I normally get two breasts for about $14.00.  In Kroger the other day I got one breast on sale for $3.49.  In addition, there was a manufacturer’s coupon on it for an extra dollar off.   That’s an almost 65% savings.

We eat plenty of pork, but I’ve never cooked a center-cut pork loin roast.  They’re about a pound or so, and perfect for 2 or 3 people.  Normally they run between five and seven dollars.  But I found one for three bucks, so decided to give it a try.  It turned out really good.

pork loin

Primordial Pork Loin

1 totally frozen center-cut pork loin roast

2 teaspoons seasoning salt (I use Goya Adobo bitter orange)

Or

1 teaspoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

To dry brine:

Unwrap frozen loin and liberally sprinkle seasoning over the entire surface.  Place in zip top bag and refrigerate until thawed.

Herb coating:

3 cloves garlic, minced

Zest of one lemon

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced

½ teaspoon dried thyme

Pinch of salt and pepper

2 teaspoons olive oil

Stir together all ingredients and set aside.

Preparation (You’ll need):

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 350.  Heat heavy skillet (cast iron is best) on stove.  Add oil.  With paper towels, dry off loin.  Carefully remove any silver skin.  Silver skin is an outer thin skin of a white-ish, silver hue.  Place in pan, and get a nice golden sear all around.  Take off burner and paint the whole thing with a thin coat of mustard.  Press herb mix all over.  Put skillet with pork into oven and cook until internal temp is 140-145 for medium (about 8-12 minutes).  Let rest, lightly covered for 5-10 minutes.  Slice and serve.

You’ll need a probe thermometer to check the internal temp.  I have one which is inserted before the cooking starts.  You can also use an instant-read.  But in either case, don’t remove the thermometer until the meat’s rested.  If you don’t wait, the juice will run out of the hole like a punctured jugular.

I don’t automatically buy everything I find on sale.  I always look at it closely, and give it a good sniff.

Because you’re not saving any money when you have to lay out a couple of hundred bucks for your emergency room co-pay after dining on dodgy lamb chops.

Thanks for your time.

Orange you glad?

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Consider for a moment, the carrot.

The humble carrot.

It is literally, one of the most down-to-earth veggies that we have.  You’d think that something so humble would do well no matter what type of above-ground procedures it endures.

And you would be wrong.

You know those baby carrots that they sell in the plastic sack?  Yeah, they aren’t actually baby anything.  They are regular carrots which are whittled down, and treated with chemicals.  Don’t go there.  Buy fresh and cut them yourself.  They’ll be about half the price as well.

I’m a big fan of IQF (individually quick frozen) produce.  As soon as they’re harvested, the vegetables are taken to a processing center very near the fields.  They are normally frozen within minutes.  So, unless you grow them in your own yard, it’s hard to get much fresher.  With peas and corn, the sugars start turning to starch as soon as they ae picked.  I almost never buy fresh peas, and only purchase corn in the summertime, from a farmer’s market.

Fresh is almost always best.

Not though, for our friend the carrot.  The hard flesh seems to turn spongy when frozen, and the texture of the cooked carrot becomes unpleasant.  I think the sugar and ice crystals really slice the carrots up and they become badly damaged.  It makes for a very unhappy eating experience.

We eat a lot of carrots, but it’s always from fresh.  My favorite cooking method is glazed.  It seems that no matter how many I make, there are never leftovers.

It’s a simple dish, so every component is important.  Each ingredient has a cheaper, faux version, but I urge you not to use them.  You’ll only use a bit of each item, so it’s not an expensive dish.

Chinese five-spice powder is an ingredient in my carrots.  I also use it in my holiday ham, and on sweet potatoes, among other things.  It’s a spice blend used in many Asian dishes.  If you eat much Chinese, you’ll recognize the aroma.

Traditionally, it’s a mixture of star anise, clove, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seed.  Simple, right?  Yeah, not so much.  I use is a brand called Dynasty.  I get it at Li Ming Asian Market (3400 Westgate Dr, Durham).  But, I’d picked up a jar of Spice Islands at Kroger once when I thought I was out.  I’d never even opened it, so one day when my mom was visiting, I told her about the carrots, and gave her the recipe.  To save her a hunt, I decided to give her my unopened bottle.  Then I looked at the ingredients.  First off, there was way more than five; secondly, the only thing I recognized was cinnamon.  And, the aroma was not right.  I tossed it, and gave her a bag with some from my Dynasty bottle.

glazed carrots

Everything you need.

Glazed carrots

2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into similarly sized pieces

½ cup chicken stock

4 tablespoons butter

¼ cup pure maple syrup

¼ teaspoon Chinese 5-spice

Salt and pepper to taste

Put everything into a heavy skillet.  Cover and cook on medium until the carrots are crisp-tender.  Uncover and continue to cook until a thick, glazy sauce has formed. 

Serves four.

Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love making do, and saving cash.  But sometimes it’s not worth it.  What you save in money, you’ll lose in flavor and enjoyment.

So to save up for those cute boots, buy your meat on sale.  But don’t cheap out on the glazed carrots.

Please pass the discount tuna fish…

Thanks for your time.

Warm and Gooey

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So last week Petey and I had a couple of errands to run.  It was one of those really cold, windy, raw days.  It was the kind of day where you’d happily stay bundled up in bed sipping hot chocolate if you could.  But of course you can’t (or at least I can’t).

As we were coming home, we noticed that the convenience store on the corner wasn’t selling gas, and it looked kind of dark inside.  I started to get a wee nervous.

Inside our house my fears were realized.  The power was out.  It was dim and chilly.  We had some more running to do, so we locked up and left, hoping that the electricity would be back when we came home.

C’mon guys…

Once we finished everything, it was dark outside, and even colder than it had been, but the power was finally back on.  Of course it took the rest of the night to reheat the house, but at least we had the electricity with which to do it.  For the rest of the evening, we felt pretty chilly and quite sorry for ourselves.

That night would have been perfect for a warm, moist gooey piece of my special banana bread.

bb bread

Brown butter banana bread.

Brown butter country banana bread

The day before:

Toast ½ cup pecan pieces in dry pan until the color deepens and you can smell the toasted aroma.  Store them in airtight container.

Make brown butter:

Put 5 ½ tablespoons butter into saucepan.  Melt on medium.  Turn down heat, and continue to simmer until the milk solids turn amber and the aroma is warm and nutty.  Cool, stirring frequently to keep the brown bits suspended in the butter.  Once cool, refrigerate.  The next day, take butter out of fridge a couple hours before making bread, so it can soften.

Banana bread:

1 cup light brown sugar

Brown butter, softened

2 eggs

1 ½ cups ripe bananas, mashed smooth

1/3 cup water

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup toasted pecans

1-8 ounce bag Heath Bits’O Brickle Toffee Bits

1 tablespoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease bottom of 8 ½ or 9 inch loaf pan.

Cream butter and sugar in large bowl of stand mixer or with hand mixer.  Mix in eggs one at a time until blended.  Add bananas, water, vanilla, and nutmeg; beat 30 seconds.  Stir in rest of ingredients, except for nuts and toffee until it just comes together.  Gently stir in nuts and toffee chips.

Pour into loaf pan.  Bake until toothpick comes out clean, 60-75 minutes.  Cool five minutes and turn out onto cooling rack.  Makes about 24 slices.

There are two ways to eat this; for breakfast, or as a dessert.

For AM banana bread, spread slices with softened butter.  Place in a 300 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until browned and crisped.

Even better with a schmear of peanut butter.

For an indulgent after dinner treat you’ll need dulce de leche, a cooked caramel from Latin America.  But luckily, it’s crazy easy to make.

Take one can of sweetened condensed milk (unopened), and place it in a large heavy pot.  Cover it with water, and bring to slow simmer.  Continue simmering for 4 hours, making sure it is always completely submerged.   Remove from water and let it totally cool (I mean it.  For safety’s sake, make sure it’s cool) before opening.  Or cook completely submerged on low in a slow cooker for 8-10 hours (Please, please be careful—hot sugar is so dangerous it can badly burn your unborn descendants).

Presto change-o! It’s like magic.

Drizzle a little onto warm slices of banana bread and add a scoop of ice cream if desired.  If the loaf is to be exclusively for dessert, after removing from pan onto cooling rack, poke it all over with a toothpick, and pour warm dulce all over the top and let it soak in and cool before slicing.

This would be perfectly yummy if eaten in the summer.  But there’s something about eating it warm, when it’s cold outside that feels like a hug from Grandma, without that pesky eau de Bengay.

Yeah, she wasn’t feeling the Bengay line.

Thanks for your time.

Column, the first

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Good morning Henderson.

My name is Debbie Matthews, and I am delighted to have been asked to write a weekly column about food, cooking, and all the whimsy that pops into my head on a regular basis.

First, I’d like to tell you a bit about me.

Although a military kid, I’ve spent the majority of my life in NC.  I’m married to Petey, and have been since the invention of movable type.  We have one child, The Kid, who was educated at the New England Culinary Institute, and is my usual gastronomic partner in crime.

My favorite foods are potato salad and birthday cake.  I know all the lyrics to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (and most of the lyrics to American Pie).  I can bend my thumbs backwards at a 90% angle.  I love dogs, and have a 200 pound Anatolian shepherd named Riker.  My favorite movie is The Big Chill.  I’m a fan of Doctor Who and pretty shoes.

A few of my favorite things-look at those awesome shoes.

A few of my favorite things-look at those awesome shoes.

Not many things make me happier than putting on some good music (mostly 70’s and 80’s rock, with a dash of ragtime), and cavorting around my kitchen, coming up with new dishes and putting twists on old.

Although Petey is one of the least fussy eaters ever, I can tell by his extremely low-key reaction how well a new dish has gone over.  He is the best Guinea pig for whom a girl could ask.

Recently I had in the freezer both a bit of pastry dough, and some short ribs I’d gotten on sale.  I made short rib hand pies.

Sometimes called a pasty, but a pie by any name…

Petey liked.

Short rib hand pies

For ribs:

2 3-4 inch pieces boneless short ribs

¾ teaspoon either seasoning salt or salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 250.  Heavily season short ribs and double wrap with foil, leaving a little space around ribs for juices.  Cook for 2-2 ½ hours or until falling-apart tender. 

For gravy and pie:

8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

½ yellow onion, chopped

¾ teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped finely

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon olive oil

3-4 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon tomato paste

½ cup Sherry

2 cups beef stock

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons horseradish

Salt and pepper to taste

2-6 inch rounds pie crust, about 1/8-1/4 inch thick (either store-bought or homemade)

Roux:

½ cup butter and ½ cup flour cooked together until peanut butter colored.

In a skillet, sauté mushrooms, onions, and herbs in olive oil.  Season.  When veggies start to caramelize, add garlic and cook ‘til fragrant.  Add tomato paste and cook until color’s deepened to burgundy.  Deglaze pan with Sherry, and cook out.

Stir in stock, Worcestershire, horseradish, and bring to boil.  Whisk in roux until it’s the thickness of cake frosting.  Mix in shredded meat and any juices. 

Place about ¾ cup of cooled short rib mixture into each crust. Fold over and seal with egg wash (1 egg and 1 tablespoon water).  Brush egg wash over pie, and cut 3 slits to vent.  Sprinkle top with salt and pepper.

Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown.  Serves 2.

You’ll have filling left.  I froze mine, and another night will thin it and spoon it over grits.  Just make sure to label your bag.

Though I am very definitely neither Julia Child nor Erma Bombeck, I hope you’ll enjoy my earnest scribblings.  But if even you don’t, there is something that this column will do magnificently—line bird cages.

Yuck.

Thanks for your time.

Crying at the party

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A potato salad party.

Perfect resting place for mayo.

Yes.

A pork chop party.

Yes.

A buttermilk biscuit party.

Yes.

I would be much happier to attend any of those parties instead of a pizza party.  What is it about pizza that automatically makes it into a party?  Even ice cream only rates ‘social’ status.  Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person on the planet who doesn’t adore pizza.

Um…not so much.

I don’t hate it.  Every year or so I get a craving for classic, red-sauced, mozzarella cheesed, crispy-crusted pizza.  And if that’s all that’s available to eat, I wouldn’t go hungry.  But the thought of a big gooey slice doesn’t move me.  And I certainly don’t like it enough to eat bad pizza pie; which believe me, abounds.

I do really like a couple of specifically dressed pies, but Petey insists that they really aren’t pizza.

When the planets align and I’ve shown up on the right day, Whole Foods has a pizza that I love.  When it’s on the menu, I cannot leave the store without a slice.  In fact, I recently lucked out and it’s what I had for dinner tonight.

It’s carbonara.  Done right, spaghetti carbonara is a heavenly experience.  The traditional sauce is deceptively simple.  Four ingredients: pancetta, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and eggs.  It’s much easier to make badly than to do right, then you end up with scrambled eggs, or watery, flavorless despair.

Done right.

bc

Done oh so very wrong.

Whole Foods’ pizza uses an Alfredo sauce base, so skips the hazards that the eggs represent.  It’s pure, cheesy comfort food.

When I worked on Saturdays for Bosco at his bookstore I would order something to be delivered.

About half of those Saturdays I would order from Amante Pizza.  What lured me in is their ginormous selection of toppings.  Nine cheeses and thirteen meats.  Seven sauces and only one is red, not counting salsa.  Too many fruits and veggies to count—they actually have pecans.  Pecans on a pizza.  Who knew?

That’s the great thing about pizza.  Everybody can have their own pizza, and everybody gets to choose their own toppings.  But at restaurants each extra topping start at around a dollar, so pizzas for a crowd can get expensive quick.

So what’s a family on a budget supposed to do?

Do it at home.  Yes, at home.  I know, making crust can be a pain, and take hours.

But, I did some research, and many, many places sell raw pizza dough to take home and tart up yourself.  Both white and wheat.  Everywhere from Harris Teeter to my old fave, Amante.

And in case you’re a pizza pie apostate like me, here is my very special Amante order to get your own ideas percolating.

Now this is pizza pie.

Heretical pizza

Base:

½ cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

4 sprigs rosemary

1 bunch basil, ripped, stems included

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat all ingredients in small saucepan until fragrant.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Strain.

Toppings:

1 cup mozzarella (fresh cheese in liquid, not bagged and pre-shredded)

1 cup broccoli florets, steamed tender-crisp

2 tablespoons oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, julienned

½ small red onion, sliced thinly

4 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1 small zucchini, sliced

1 chicken breast, cut into bite-sized chunks

Put cookie sheet or pizza stone into oven and preheat to 450 for at least 20 minutes.  Sauté mushrooms and zucchini until softened in a bit of basil-rosemary oil.  Remove veg from skillet and place on paper towel to get rid of moisture, then add chicken to pan.  Cook until browned.

Stretch dough to make a 3/4 inch thick, 8-9 inch circle.  Brush with oil, then drop dollops of cheese all over it.  Scatter on rest of ingredients.  Season.

Place pizza onto stone or sheet.  Turn oven to low broiler, and cook for 12 minutes.  Then turn oven back to 450 and cook 2 minutes more.

Remove from oven and let rest for 3-5 minutes before slicing.  Serves one, but that’s the point.

So I guess I do like my own version of pizza.  But I still don’t think it deserves a party devoted to it.  Just off the top of my head, what if instead we started having bacon parties?

With bells on, I’ll be there.

I’ll RSVP that sucker right now.

Thanks for your time.

Elementary School Romance

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Special Note: Starting next week, The Henderson (NC) Daily Dispatch will be running a weekly original column by me as well.  I will also post it on the blog. d.

I’ve written before about how Petey is the perfect spouse for me.

But on the fancy/romance scale, he lands well above Blackbeard, but somewhere below Pepe Le Pew.  Hi heart’s in the right place, but he eschews elaborate trappings—he is absolutely and completely unpretentious.

More romantical than him…

But less than him.

So I started thinking about what would be a welcome Valentine’s dinner for him.

He wouldn’t want anything with complicated sauces, or something that has to be put together with tweezers.  I also don’t think he’d be impressed by a dish that comes to the table on fire.

Plus, me and open flames?  Probably not the best idea.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

What I came up with was bacon-wrapped tenderloin, boxed scalloped potatoes (hear me out before you make up your mind about them), peas and carrots, and an apple crisp.

The steak comes with some uncomfortable questions.

How many of you have made a tenderloin, and desired to cloak it in bacon?  And how many of you ended up with the meat marred by flabby, greasy uncooked bacon in the finished dish?  And why can restaurants serve up perfect, gorgeous crispy bacon around the food?

The answer is par-cooking.  It works like a charm.  I checked in with one of my favorite restaurant chefs, James Clark at the Carolina Inn, and he said that’s what pros do as well.

bacon filet

I’d marry it.

He bakes the bacon until it’s half-cooked, and I microwave, but the result is the same.  Partially cooking it before wrapping will ensure a brown, crispy, and delicious belt for the finished steak.  Then wrap, and cook the meat to your liking.

About the spuds: I told you that my spouse doesn’t go in for fancy, and the potato dish for his special dinner is the perfect illustration of this.

At the supermarket, in the aisle with the Hamburger Helper and their ilk, are potato kits.  Amongst them are scalloped potatoes.  The store brand is just as good as the name brands.  You shouldn’t pay more than a dollar.  In fact, the last box I bought was 85 cents.

They’re easy to put together, and cook at an appropriate temp for the steak, if that’s how you choose to finish it.  I’m almost ashamed to tell you, but I enjoy them as well (though they wouldn’t be on my special dinner menu).

For a veg, Petey enjoys the ubiquitous elementary school side dish, peas and carrots.  But not the colorless, flavorless, canned version from childhood.  Mine are fresh, colorful, tasty—and easy.

Pretty and tasty

Peas and carrots

1 ½ cups frozen peas

3 carrots, washed, peeled, and cut into ¼ pieces

½ cup chicken stock or water

3 tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper

Put everything except peas into skillet, cover, and cook on medium until the carrots are crisp/tender.  Uncover and cook until the liquid’s mostly gone.  Add peas and cook until hot and liquid’s thickened into a buttery sauce.

Taste for seasoning and serve.  Serves 2-3.

For dessert I came up with chocolate pudding.  Then I realized that chocolate pudding is a childhood favorite of mine.  Petey’s always loved apples and cinnamon.

The way to Petey’s heart.

Petey’s caramel apple crisp

For filling:

4 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/8 inch slices

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Pinch salt

Juice of ½ lemon

Crumb topping:

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

4 tablespoons butter

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla

For plating:

Vanilla ice cream

½ jar favorite caramel sauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 8×8 baking dish and layer apple into it.  In a separate bowl, whisk together rest of filling ingredients and pour over apples.

In another bowl, mix all topping ingredients except butter.  Put butter into bowl, and with fingers, mash butter into mixture until it’s in lumps.

Sprinkle over apples, and bake 30 minutes.  Let sit 15 minutes, then slice and plate.

Heat caramel sauce until bubbling.  Put scoop of vanilla ice cream on crisp, then sauce top.  Serves 6-8.

When everything is said and done, I’m pretty lucky.  My husband may not recite sonnets below my balcony, but I’m no Juliet.

Yeah, this ain’t us.

And besides, we don’t have a balcony.

Thanks for your time.

Pizza Birthday Cake

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Originally published in the Herald Sun 7/2012

If, this week, you should hear disembodied wailing and mournful lamentations along the Durham Freeway, it’s not an invasion of otherworldly entities.
It’s only me, as The Kid returned last weekend to culinary school, up in the maple-flavored north. We won’t reunite again until Christmas break.

See, I’m not the Lone Ranger. Even Dean Winchester cries–and that was before he saw Sam’s new haircut.

I will miss my little scholar in a thousand different ways.
The big, exciting class this fall is something called “meat fabrication”. It sounds weird, doesn’t it? But nope, it’s not what you might be thinking. There will be no attempts at cloning, or creating new, edible forms of life. It’s just a butchering course. But when you pay $35,000 a year for tuition, it’s called ‘Meat Fab”.
Although The Kid is training to be a pastry chef, the class is a requirement for a degree in culinary arts.
Being a non-repentant dessert lover, I couldn’t be more excited about those pastry aspirations. I love all things sugar. Strangely though, The Kid, not so much. While I literally dream of bakeries and candy stores, my child has never had much of a sweet tooth. Red velvet cake sans frosting, moon pies, a couple of odd, artisanal candy bars, and my mother’s strangely addictive Christmas cookies, are the sum total of the “like list”.
Which has made picking out a birthday cake somewhat problematic.
Years ago, The Kid fell in love with an odd dish. It has become the perennial b-day request. Not really a dessert, but a light, sweet and salty snack-type item. In accordance with its odd status, it has an equally odd name.
It’s called strawberry pizza.

Strawberry pizza–TaDa!

It a dish loaded with layers of salty pretzels, frothy, whipped, sweetened cream cheese, and fruit spiked jello. The alchemy of the ingredients combine to form a cool, yummy treat.
There are many permutations of the recipe, with various names and assorted components. After making it year after year, I have refined it to this lightly jacked up version.

The Kid’s “Birthday Cake” Strawberry Pizza
Pretzel crust:
2 1/3 cups crushed pretzels (the butter flavor ones taste best)
3/4 cup melted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon (pinch) kosher salt
Cream cheese layer:
2-8 ounce blocks cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1- 16 ounce tub Cool Whip, thawed
1 vanilla bean, scraped (or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Jello layer:
Large box strawberry jello
1- 16 ounce bag individually frozen strawberries (I actually like it better with blueberries; any berries will work great)
2 cups boiling water
For crust: Preheat oven to 4oo degrees. In the pot with the melting butter, add sugar. Let the sugar almost melt into the warm butter. Mix buttery syrup and pretzels, and press into 9×13 pan. Very lightly dust top of pretzels with a pinch of kosher salt. Bake for 8 minutes and let cool completely.
For creamy layer: Beat softened cream cheese, sugar, scraped vanilla caviar or extract, and salt. When totally smooth, fold in fully thawed Cool Whip. Spread over cooled crust. Put in fridge to cool further and set.
Jello layer: In a bowl, slowly whisk boiling water into jello powder. Stir in strawberries. Refrigerate. When the jello has cooled and just started to set, pour over cream cheese, spreading out the berries so that they are evenly distributed. Please, please, DO NOT pour the jello layer on until it is cool and has started to congeal, or the heat will float up the layers, and the jello will leach into the pretzels, and make them soggy (gross).
Refrigerate for three hours or until the jello has fully set. Slice and serve. Keep leftovers covered and refrigerated.

Almost everyone loves this sweet and salty treat. My brother has three daughters, and normally food is a minefield because of their very different tastes. But all of Bud’s girls eat up when strawberry pizza is served.
It’s an odd delight, and while not hard to make, it does take time because if you rush it, you get a 9 x 13 disaster. But, when you open the fridge and see a pan of this in there waiting for you, it makes you happy. It’s a cool, creamy, crunchy simple pleasure.
Give it a try. Who knows, it might be your “birthday cake” next year.
Thanks for your time.

Hello Yellow

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It’s a bum rap.

Calling a faulty piece of machinery a lemon—it’s wrong and unfair.  It’s just blatant anti-lemon propaganda.

It may not look like much, but don’t you dare call it a lemon.

Lemons are one of the tastiest and most versatile items in any kitchen.

The other day I was waxing rhapsodic about lemons, and said, “Lemons make everything better.”

A miracle can grow on a tree.

And Petey said, “Not if you don’t like ‘em.”

Well first off, I don’t think that person exists.  But, for the sake of argument let’s say that this freak of nature is out there somewhere, leading a lonely, lemon-hating life.

There are unconfirmed reports coming out of North Korea that this man is an unrepentant lemon hater. Figures.

Unbeknownst to him, he probably ingests them all the time.

Many fruit juices add lemon to keep them from becoming cloyingly sweet.  Lots of salad dressings contain a spritz or two.  And all kinds of dishes, especially long cooked ones, are finished by squeezing a bit of lemon juice into them.  Just enough to perk up the flavors, but not enough to taste.

Recently I cobbled together a recipe for sautéed spinach.  Except for creamed spinach, I’ve never liked it cooked, because it seems bitter and slimy.  But I read about a method that’s easier, and less messy.  I had a surfeit of spinach in the fridge, so I decided to experiment.  Besides, The Kid loves sautéed spinach, and I get a kick out of giving my culinary schooled child a little schooling from me.

Popeye called. He wants in.

To my surprised delight, wilting the spinach by microwave gets rid of both bitterness and sliminess.  I loved it.

Sautéed spinach

32 ounces fresh baby spinach (2 large boxes)

*1 tablespoon garlic oil

1 large shallot or 1/2 red onion, diced

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Juice of ½ lemon

Kosher salt to taste

Cracked black pepper to taste

*To make garlic oil, peel 2 cloves garlic and bruise by giving them a whack with a spoon.  Place into skillet with olive oil.  Warm until fragrant, then remove cloves with slotted spoon and discard.

Directions for spinach: Place raw spinach into very large bowl, pressing down to get it all in.  Cover with damp paper towel.  Microwave for 2 minutes.  Toss and put back into microwave.  Cook in 2 minute increments until completely wilted.

Put into colander and let it cool enough to handle.

Once cool, squeeze with your hands to get out as much water (and the bitterness it contains) as possible.  Put it on a cutting board and roughly chop.  Return to colander and squeeze it again to get out all the liquid you can.  Let rest in colander until ready to cook—or refrigerate and hold for up to 6 hours.

Heat skillet, add garlic oil.  Add shallots, season, and cook until translucent.  Stir in spinach, and nutmeg.  Season.  Sautee until it’s hot and it seems almost dry.

To preserve color of the spinach, take pan off heat then stir in lemon juice.  Check for seasoning, and serve.  Makes 4-5 servings.

Even though there’s lemon in the spinach, it only brightens the flavor.  So, there you go, mythical lemon hater.

But if you like lemon, there’s all kind of places to put it for a kick of citrus.

Lemon can make a good thing better.

Add it to scrambled eggs—but only after cooking; adding it to raw will curdle them, which is a pretty unappetizing sight at breakfast.  Give soup a hit; I recently added lemon juice to both Panera’s cream of chicken, and a bowl of egg drop soup.  Turned out awesome.  But lemon loves salt, so taste and re-season if needed.

Not just savory, lemon’s heavenly in sweets.

For a quick delicious dessert that will impress and delight your diners, make a granita.

A granita is a frozen non-dairy dessert that when placed in a goblet, looks like a million bucks.

See how pretty?

Just make a pitcher of lemonade and pour it into a baking dish and freeze (add a splash of grenadine for pink lemonade).  Every 15 minutes, take it out and scrape with a fork.  Keep doing this until it’s completely frozen and looks like snow.  Scoop into wine glass, and garnish with a sprig of mint or a twisted strip of lemon peel.

I hope I’ve convinced you to appreciate this sunny, daffodil-colored fruit so much that you, like me, are beseeching life to give you some lemons.

May I some more, please?

Thanks for your time.

A New Year’s breakfast for The Kid

/ momsequitur / Leave a comment

Originally published in the Herald Sun 12/19/2012

The Kid is flying back to NECI on January first.  The plane leaves at the terrifying hour of 6AM. (we’re not morning people).  So, a New Year’s breakfast won’t happen, but my little scholar at least one big, home-cooked breakfast while home for Christmas vacation.

My child has odd tastes.  The Kid will not eat an egg unless it’s been made into a Waffle House cheese omelet.    But, breakfast carbs are a different matter.  Pancakes and waffles?  Loves ‘em.  But hold the syrup.  It wasn’t a fave before going off to school, but Vermont maple saturation turned mild dislike into full blown animosity.

Mama like–The Kid, not so much.

When I was a child, my granny made corn pancakes for me.  Not made with cornmeal, but studded with corn kernels.  When The Kid was very little, I made them.  They were an instant and abiding hit.

Whenever I mention fixing pancakes, my big, grown-up college junior turns into a preschooler.  “Can we please have corn cakes? Please Mommy?”

I’ll have a stack or twelve.

How does a mother say no to that?

They’re actually incredibly easy to do.

Mix the batter in a normal fashion.  You can use any pancake recipe you like, from completely homemade to those shake bottles in the supermarket.  Frozen pre-made flap jacks, alas, won’t do.

When you pour the batter onto the hot surface (a griddle is best for cooking pancakes for a crowd), scatter about 2 tablespoons of frozen, thawed white shoe peg corn onto the uncooked cake.  Then cook normally.

This also works for any other add-ins you want.  Like berries, nuts, chocolate chips, or cheese and bacon.

Waffles can be tarted up like this too.  Sprinkle the goodies after you’ve ladled on the batter, then close the lid.

I like mine on the inside.

As a side, we all love potatoes.

My favorite meal to eat out is breakfast.  I love AM potato dishes of all types.  But I normally stick with the hash browns, because many joints make such awful home fries.  They’re too spicy or they’re deep-fried, which turn them into nuggets with only one texture; hard.  You could put an eye out with those things.

The other day at Elmo’s (776 9th Street), my buddy Paxton ordered some.  They weren’t deep fried, but they were burned to perdition.  They were less spuds, and more charcoal briquettes.

These are not home fries, no matter what anybody says.

On the third try, they finally delivered some that were palatable (the waiter called that batch “light”, we called them edible).  This bummed me out, normally Elmos’ food can’t be beat.

A while back, I was frustrated yet again when out for breakfast, so I decided to try making home fries at home.  I like mine blond-ish, but Petey and The Kid prefer more color and crunch on theirs.  That’s the beauty of DYI, though.  You get to fix them to your liking.

Now that, my friend, are home fries.

Home Fries At Home

5 or 6 medium waxy potatoes like red bliss or Yukon gold, unpeeled, cut into 1 inch cubes then boiled ‘til barely fork tender

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon cooking oil

½ teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

3/4 teaspoon seasoning blend (I use Goya adobo with bitter orange, you use your favorite)

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)

1/8 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

Add salt to taste if your seasoning mix doesn’t contain salt; check the label

Put butter and oil into heated skillet.  When the butter has melted and starts to sizzle, add potatoes, herbs, and spices (except parsley).  Toss potatoes to coat in fat and seasoning.

Spread out in pan and give them a little smoosh with spatula so the taters give a little.  This will give you nice crunchy bits.  Turn heat to medium-low, and let them go for 5-8 minutes without fiddling.  If they’re dark enough for you then, flip and cook on the other side until they’re done to your liking. 

Scatter parsley onto taters and toss to evenly mix in.

Serves four.

Although The Kid’s a fan, Petey and I don’t drink coffee with breakfast.  I do love embarrassingly complicated lattes, but only if they’re made by someone else.

However, we do enjoy hot beverages in the colder months.  I make hot chocolate mix from scratch, and it’s easy, at least as good as Swiss Miss, and way cheaper.

Yum–just yum.

Homemade Hot Cocoa

3/4 cup powdered milk

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

4 cups water or milk

8-12 Hershey kisses

Marshmallows or whipped cream (optional)

Put first four ingredients into food processor and pulse until the powder is finely ground and uniform.  Pour into large bowl.

Boil water, or if using milk, heat until it just comes to a simmer (boiled milk will become wonky and stinky).  Pour over processed mix and whisk thoroughly until completely dissolved.

Place 2-3 kisses into each mug, and pour about a cup of cocoa on top of them.  Stir to melt chocolate, and if you like, top with marshmallows or whipped cream.

Serves four.

It’s perfectly acceptable to make cocoa with water, but if you’re going for it, then go for it.  Also, I’m a fan of Mexican hot chocolate, which is so thick and rich you can almost stand up a spoon in it.

If you want to get all Martha Stewart with your cocoa, make homemade marshmallows.  Tyler Florence has a great recipe on the Food Network website that unlike most recipes, doesn’t entail cooking a sugar syrup.  Making marshmallows is kind of tricky, though.  I’ve ruined numerous batches, so having double the ingredients on hand before starting is not a terrible idea.

But marshmallows made by hand taste so much better than store-bought.  And you can flavor them, or coat them in chopped nuts or coconut.  Imagine peppermint or ginger marshmallows melting into your cocoa.

So, if on New Year’s morning you can face the kitchen, whip up some grub.  Or, you can make it later and enjoy one of my favorite meals, breakfast for supper.  And if you add a slice of melon, you can call it brunch.

It has now officially become brunch. Congratulations.

Thanks for your time.