Food Blog Dot Com

Food Blog Dot Com is written
by Lin Ennis, a writer passionate
about good food, healthful
food and food as medicine.

( Food Lovers Only )

KITCHEN HACKS

A hack, in today’s parlance, is something that makes life easier, whether a shortcut or a new idea. Here are a couple of my favorite kitchen hacks. Odors: Hate the lingering smell of onions and garlic on your hands after some food prep? You can buy one of those fancy pieces of stainless steel shaped like a bar of soap. A couple of rubs and the pungent bulb smell is gone. There are two reasons I see to not do this: 1) It adds to the clutter you must keep on or near your sink. 2) It costs money you could use to feed a child in a third world country for a week. But I am seriously against leaving the smell on my hands. (About 11 years old, I pulled a giant garlic [weed] out of the garden, and the smell on my hands made me so sick I called Mommy at work for help.) If you have a stainless steel sink, blessed be, just rub your hands across the divider or any convenient area. No stainless steel? Stroke the spout or spigot or any metal part (This works for me in our bathroom, too, where the finish is antique copper.) Go ahead. Sniff. Odor gone! Veggies: Are vegetables spoiling in your crisper, even when you think you haven’t left them too long? If they’re wet when you remove them from the plastic bag, you just found your problem. Before storing, especially if you’ve just washed the celery or lettuce, wrap a few inches of paper towel around the base to keep them dryer. When you use some of the vegetable, do not rewrap in the wet toweling. Get a dry one. (You can compost the wet one, or use it to wipe up the counter top.) This is imperative for cut bell pepper. I was taught this by someone I thought didn’t know what she was talking about. I love being wrong when that means I’ve just learned something. You don’t have to wrap the entire bell, just lay paper over the cut edges. (You’ll notice when they go bad, the cut edges have gone to mush. That is what you aim to prevent.) Leave some of your favorite tips or kitchen hacks in the comments below. Pretty please?

SPLIT PEA SOUP IN 10 MINUTES

Half an hour before lunchtime I got a hankering for split pea soup. That’s usually a day or at least a half day recipe in a Crock Pot, but I figured I could do it in the pressure cooker in half an hour. Wash the peas (2 cups) and put them in the pot with five cups of water. While that was heating up, I rough chopped an onion, 3-4 celery ribs and a few baby carrots. Tossed in two cloves of garlic, peeled but whole. Added a scant tablespoon of pink Himalayan salt and a healthy drizzle of my new favorite extra virgin olive oiloil: Gremolata. And a handful of fresh basil leaves. While the pressure built, I checked the Internet for how long to pressure cook split peas. Turns out it isn’t half an hour but only 10-12 minutes. I set the timer for 10, but when it beeped, I took the cooker off the stove and let most of the pressure dissipate naturally–just to make sure the legumes were thoroughly done! This is exactly why I love a cordless mixing wand. The Cuisinart creamed the soup, onions, carrots, garlic and basil leaves beautifully. A hearty, filling meal in a hurry for a cloudy day. Including prep and pureeing, fewer than 20 minutes.

CREAMIEST ASPARAGUS SOUP

My new favorite soup was inspired by a chef from whom I gathered the idea of bulking up hearty, traditionally creamed soups with compatible vegetables that will not overpower the flavor focus, thus eliminating the need for butter and heavy cream (delicious though they are!). When I got a coupon for asparagus at $2.49, while the produce department price was $6.59, I bought two large bunches—enough to experiment with and still have some steamed as a side dish. The experiment was a success, so here’s how to make the creamiest, heartiest “cream of asparagus” soup with no cream at all. 1 pound of Lima beans, cooked (I used frozen baby limas, pressure cooked for 8 minutes) 1 pound of asparagus trimmed and steamed Saute together in water or olive oil:* salt—about 2 teaspoons (add some to the beans, some to the onions, some to the asparagus) cracked black pepper to taste In batches, filling the blender no more than half full, and holding a kitchen towel over the lid for safety, puree all ingredients together, reserving a few asparagus spears to be cut into 1/2 inch lengths and stirred into the finished puree. * TIPS: Because of olive oil’s sensitivity to heat, I prefer to saute in water, then add oil after cooking is complete. You can add the saute veggies in descending order of the list, because onions and celery need longer to cook, garlic less, and the peas really just enough to thaw. Gremolata: I am in love with Gremolata, an extra virgin olive oil subtly flavored with garlic, Italian parsley, lemon zest and a hint of mint. For this dish, instead of putting oil in the soup, I drizzled a heart shape of gremolata onto the ladled serving. Delicious! photo credit stu_spivack, Asparagus soup with crème fraîche and pink peppercorn, chosen for this post because the green color is similar to my recipe.

EGGPLANT PARMESAN LOWFAT

NO BREADING – NO FRYING – DELICIOUS Eggplant fruit always look so beautiful in the grocery store–deep, rich purple, almost black, the color of royalty and ‘please pay attention to me.’ But what do you do after that? I taught at a private boarding school in Moab, Utah, in the 70s. Students and (mostly male) faculty grew a great deal of what we ate. In fact, my “buy from the store” budget was $10 per household member per month. Everything else had to be acquired from our commissary for free, or at a reduced price by being purchased in bulk (such as rolled oats; corn meal was 4 cents a pound). The Commissary had gunny sacks full of cubed and dried eggplant. I added it to sloppy Joe mix, and chili, and god-knows-what-else. It bulked the food. It was filling. And almost tasteless. The girls living in my home accused me of putting it in cookies. I could have, because what flavor does eggplant have? Couldn’t chocolate chips overpower that? Isn’t eggplant, almost like rice or pasta, a carrier of the sauce? I succumbed recently to the seduction of the jewel-toned globe on the top shelf of the produce aisle. A smallish one. I try to include deeper colors in my diet for phytonutrients and blah, blah, blah. Before I knew it, the little purple globe I carried home had developed a soft brown spot the size of a nickel–even in my crisper. I called my neighbor who cooks everything from scratch three times a day because of an allergy her husband has. (She’s a totally amazing cook and an even more amazing hostess!) She emailed me a recipe for eggplant Parmesan that did not involve breading or frying. Not even peeling. I liked the result so well (it served 4 meals for one person) that I bought another small eggplant this weekend, with a promise to myself not to keep it in the fridge so long before preparing it. Here’s how it goes: Depending upon the size of your eggplant, you’ll choose a small or medium or large baking dish. Spray with non-stick spray. Bake 10-30 minutes, depending upon the thickness of your slices. DO NOT COVER! (makes the dish too watery) If this is a main dish rather than a side dish, meaning no meat is being served, increase the sauce quantity and add Morningstar Farms Burger Crumbles to give a more main dish texture and feel to the entree. Tell us all in the comments below how you like this.

CABBAGE CONFUSION

After my ode to Napa cabbage (my first post), a correction is in order. I went on and on about Napa cabbage. I talked to friends about trying it. When I bought one last week at a different supermarket, it rang up as Savoy. I said, “I thought that was a Napa.” “No it’s savoy!” said Jeanie, the cashier whom I know from Weight Watchers. “Well, it’s marked ‘Napa’ at _____ store!” I countered. “Of course they have it marked wrong!” chimed Jeanie. I couldn’t argue. My main pet peeve about the supermarket Jeanie does not work in is that the produce is sometimes not priced. Produce managers come and go, but item names and price tags are often hard to find (not exactly near the produce they speak to), or are missing. If ______ store ever gets a produce manager who sticks around, I’ll train her or him to keep prices close to the items and names readable (I don’t mind, really I don’t). So this little curly-leafed thing is savoy, savoy, savoy. (Why didn’t I select bok choy, which is unmistakable?) It’s always more expensive than ‘regular’ cabbage, but to my taste (and appreciation of texture) is a completely different vegetable…like red cabbage does not closely resemble green cabbage in taste or usage. So I treat myself to it, about every third or fourth cabbage purchase. And occasionally use more than one type of cabbage in the same dish. While I’ve not made slaw with it, I have eaten leaves raw while cutting for a stir fry. Love them! Do you have a favorite cabbage? Can you talk about Napa? (I’ve eaten more varieties than I’ve cooked with. Help me here!) Thanks to Wikipedia for the photo and confirmation on the savoy cabbage.

VEGGIE WRAPS

haven’t been a big fan of making wraps at home; though, wraps are often one of the most healthful choices when eating out. The main reason I didn’t stick with buying the huge flour tortillas and wrapping food in them is their calorie load often compared to that of bread while their ingredient content (white flour base) was inferior to good bread. La Tortilla Factory Smart & Delicious Soft Wraps have been all the buzz in our local Weight Watchers group. I chose the Multi-Grain variety. At 3.5 fat grams, this flavor barely squeaks in at the 1 WW point the wraps are famous for – and that’s if you have a very steady hand when using the points value slide rule. The wrap is 100 calories with 12 grams of fiber! The multigrain has contributions from wheat, oats, flax, millet, rice, soy, corn and sunflower seeds. (Other varieties have less fat.) Men love it! It made the top 125 Best Foods for Men in the 2009 Men’s Health Nutrition Awards, selected by Men’s Health Magazine. The wrap pictured contains a combination of lightly steamed vegetables (yellow squash, mushrooms, spinach) and diced raw veggies (cucumber, red bell pepper, scallions). I wanted to add tomato, but obviously, my eyes were bigger than my wrap! Radish and broccoli sprouts added a little spice and crunch. It rolled up like a giant taquito. I was unable to fold the ends in…possibly because it cooled too much while I added the ingredients. I drizzled a little balsamic vinaigrette in it, and held on for dear life to keep the innards from becoming outtards as I ate it. My recommendation to improve this would be to marinate the veggies, then drain well before wrapping. And use less filling. Or use all cooked veggies which would keep the wrap warm and stretchier (I think). Again, I recommend eating a wide range of colors and varieties. Don’t stick to what you know and love all of the time. If you eat spinach, for example, try Swiss chard, too (which itself comes in three colors). Besides, color makes a pretty lunch. All trademarks used belong to their owners. This website is not affiliated with any brands or programs in any financially remunerated way. The opinions expressed are mine…but you knew that, right?

FOODIES UNITE

When my friend Kate and I scheduled a meeting over lunch at my house, she said, “Let me bring lunch. I’m a real foodie.” Knowing I am a vegetarian, she brought quinoa-stuffed acorn squash and an elegant salad. As she laid things out, I learned she was a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. (That means she’s achieved and maintained a rational weight according to Weight Watchers International charts). Having never seen Kate overweight, I was shocked she’d ever been “fluffy.” What really struck me though was how lovingly she talked about food. As we munched on salad and seasoned Ry-Krisp, she revealed more about the amount of time she spends cooking (for the week), the quality she reveres, and nourishing her body. I’d never thought a thin person could claim to be a foodie — and why would a fat person? isn’t their problem obvious? I was 80 pounds overweight and probably didn’t like mentioning food out of fear people would think, “Duh; it’s so obvious you dream about food!” I joined Weight Watchers soon after that (the exact how and why are another story). It took a few months, but eventually I realized I was becoming a foodie. I was focused on food, wanted the best-tasting food I could get for my calorie expenditure and wanted the food to make me healthy and fit, not just thin(ner). I started cooking more-elaborate dishes, cooking for one, cooking for one every day, and trying new ingredients: new-to-me vegetables, different varieties of apples and oranges. New seasonings. More seasoning, learning that packing in flavors – like onions and garlic – can make a dish much more satisfying. Something I feared would make me fatter – thinking and talking about food, a lot – has supported me in achieving my Weight Watchers goal and lifetime membership. Sure, I’m still 30 pounds heavier than I need to be to be healthy, but I am in a healthy range (ok, at the very top of a healthy weight range. To stay on track, I focus on food. I intend to eat food I like. Like a lot. For example the pre-made frozen Indian platter I have in the freezer right now. And veggies–always veggies. I love peas, but not just any peas–they must be petite peas (about $3/pound frozen). I intend to take more time to prepare food, to think of different seasonings instead of my former trio of onion powder, garlic powder and crushed dried sweet basil leaves. I’m testing out Thai and Indian and yellow versus red curry. Steamed versus sauteed. Roasted versus steamed or baked. Spinach with onions or plain…or with nutmeg? I love plain food, veggies that taste like the earth from which they came. It’s hard for me to add seasonings and lose that fresh, earthy flavor. But so much color and pizazz await becoming a foodie and experimenting, listening to others, asking questions, ordering something interesting sounding at a restaurant you would usually not visit. If you’re a foodie, too, dab some vanilla behind your ear or leave a little vinaigrette on your fingertips–somehow identify yourself to the rest of us. Here’s one: write comments on this blog, and send the link to others you know who cherish their bodies and their gustatory delights! Weight Watchers and other brands mentioned are trademark names for the companies that trademarked those names. They have not yet reviewed and decided to endorse this Food Blog. Nor do I receive any compensation or punishment for any brands I mention. Kate is a psychic healer totally nuts about health in a fun-loving way. Here’s her PsychicSedona website.

STUFFED PEPPERS

Intending to roast more red peppers, I picked up three very large ones at the market for $1 each, day before yesterday. They looked so lush and inviting on the kitchen counter, my partner suggested we have stuffed peppers for our special Friday night dinner. That’s how yesterday’s lengthy post came about…I was thinking peppers. You can see I had to encourage them to play snuggle together in my 7 X 12 ceramic baking dish. I was rushing to get them in the oven on time, so I didn’t trim the white membranes carefully with a knife. What I pulled out with my hands is all I removed. The seeds and stems get tossed out the back door for whatever wildlife browses by: Western and Eastern cottontails, mule deer, collared peccaries, and, of course, squirrels who might like the seeds. I mentioned tenting the dish. Of course, if your baking dish has its own cover, aluminum foil is unnecessary. However, acidic foods should never bee cooked in aluminum. If you cover lasagna (or our tomatoey stuffed peppers) with aluminum foil, whether in the refrigerator for a few days or in the oven a few minutes, there will be some breakdown of the aluminum by the acid. On foil, that shows up as dark pin pricks. On the food, it shows as white spots. While some online cooks and Extension Service Officers say the jury is out on whether eating aluminum is harmful, for me it is enough that it is called into question! “Is this poison?” you ask. “We don’t know,” we say. “OK, I guess I’ll eat it.” Is Homer Simpson your nutrition advisor? After the ends of the foil are secured to the dish, it’s easier to pull up the middle. Your tent doesn’t have to have vaulted ceilings like the one shown here. Just keep the foil off the tomatoes! We baked ours 2.25 hours at 350. I turned it up to about 375 for 10-15 minutes near the end of that, because these peppers were huge, with thick skins! After they fork-tested tender, we sprinkled about 2 teaspoonfuls of finely grated Mexican style cheese on each one, popped them back in the oven, turned the oven off, and waited a bit under 10 minutes for the cheese to melt. They were a big hit! Everyone had seconds!

LOW-CARB STUFFED PEPPERS

Vegetarian stuffed peppers are often stuffed with rice, and I’ve made them that way many times. However, I’ve switched to using MorningStar Farms (MSF) Burger Crumbles – a low-fat, pre-cooked substitute for ground beef. To bind the meatloaf-style mixture together, you can use egg or cheese. Egg makes it taste more like meat, but only slightly so because the seasonings are the real kicker in this comforting dish. I use grated mozzarella cheese as a binder, and it works well with a low-fat version (white cheeses are generally lower fat than are yellow cheeses). We buy grated Mozzarella in a large bag and keep all or most of it in the freezer. (You can keep a small amount in a baggie in the fridge, but air in the bag and warmer temps can make it spoil if you leave it in the fridge too long.) We used to use a blend of yellow and white cheese, but including cheddar within the mixture increases calories per serving. Our favorite recipe is very flexible both in quantity and ingredients. While many people lean toward Italian seasonings, we prefer Mexican. STUFFED PEPPER RECIPE about 30 min. prep, from start to cleanup Also you’ll need: Mix ingredients (just the top set of bullets, please) together in a large bowl. You don’t have to put tomatoes in the mixture, since they will be poured over top, but putting a can in the mixture lowers the calorie count per serving (cut large pieces). The crumbles and cheese can be mixed in frozen; just break apart lumps with a fork or a hammer. Spray the baking dish lightly with non-stick spray. Cut the stemmed tops off the peppers to stuff them whole, putting their caps back on (or not)…OR…halve the peppers. We usually halve them lengthwise, so one pepper makes two servings–and they bake faster. Also, if you halve them lengthwise, you don’t have to buy peppers with flat bottoms to stand on! Stuff the peppers by pressing the mixture into each pepper tightly and fit them like puzzle pieces into the dish. I usually start the stuffing with a spoon, but as the crevices fill, I finish off my pressing by hand. The reason measurements don’t have to be precise depending upon how many peppers you’re stuffing is that you fill the peppers based upon how much mixture you have – either mounding it up high or just filling! (Extra mixture can be frozen for next time.) Pour a can of S&W Mexican Style Stewed Tomatoes over top, making sure the liquid covers the bottom of the dish. Tear off a l-o-n-g sheet of aluminum foil (half again the length of your dish). Form it into a tent so that it does not touch the food. Crimp it to the handles on the dish. (Tomatoes will ‘eat’ aluminum foil; then you’ll ‘eat’ the aluminum in your food. Tremendously dangerous.) Bake at 350 for 90-120 minutes. At our altitude, 4300 ft. above sea level, we bake for at least two hours. This dish is best baked a longer time at a lower temperature, than rushed by turning the oven up. (Even 300 degrees is nice.) If you need to shorten the baking time, parboil the peppers. You can do that in the microwave by placing them in a covered dish (don’t use plastic) with just the water remaining on them after you’ve rinsed them inside and out. Nuke on high for 90 second to 2 minutes. The peppers should show slight softening. Test doneness of the completed casserole by piercing a pepper wall with a fork. We like ours completely soft, but you may prefer more crunch. For a great finish, just before serving, remove the foil and sprinkle a bit of grated cheddar cheese on top. Return to the oven to melt (or brown, if you prefer) the cheese. This is one of our favorite dishes to serve non-vegetarians. They never ask what it’s made of; though, most know I’m a vegetarian. My mother-in-law always asked prior to visiting us if they could expect to have some of my famous stuffed peppers. We sometimes fix a side salad to go with it, but when it’s just us, we may not. I love peas along side. What’s great about this dish: 1. It’s delicious 2.It’s nourishing comfort food 3. It’s high-protein, low carbohydrate 4. It keeps well in the fridge, tastes good as leftovers and can be frozen 5. It’s all about “assembling,” not “cooking” 6. You can put this together at 4:00, and have a steaming, savory dinner almost by magic at 6:00 or 6:30 (depending upon altitude) 7. Can be baked and reheated! Yay!

RED PEPPERS VS. TOMATOES

Bell peppers have been on sale lately. When any color but green is 99¢ or less, I buy them. Red peppers are more expensive than green ones because they’re, well, not green! Green peppers are red peppers that aren’t ripe yet. (I can think of very few foods we intentionally eat in a not-yet-ripe state!) Suddenly the refrigerator has bags of peppers–red, yellow, and orange–tucked everywhere. As I understand it, yellow and orange peppers are cultivars. (Bell peppers can also be white or purple!) I’ve grown bell peppers, and seen them turn from green to red. The redder (riper) they are, the sweeter they are, especially when ripened on the plant. I roasted half a dozen reds, peeled and jarred them. (I just discovered a bag of yellow and orange awaiting roasting!) This has inspired me to find new uses for roasted peppers. Of course, they’re delicious on sandwiches, but what about salads? Tomatoes are so prosaic! Here’s a loose comparison of the nutrition of red peppers compared to tomatoes. I say ‘loose,’ because I’m using Internet results for raw peppers and raw tomatoes, without verifying the variety. I found roasted pepper information, but I didn’t know whether the canned/jarred varieties contained additives, such as oils. My home-roasted peppers don’t. Raw Food Cal Fiber Vit A Vit C Pot Lyc 1 c chopped tomatoes 32 2 1499 IU 23 mg 427 mg 4631 1 c chopped red peppers 46 3 4666 IU 190 mg 314 mg 459 Though I added a column for the recently popular Lycopene (appearing in ketchup ads everywhere!), I think the numbers above cannot be correct. Lycopene is red (in all red or pink foods, even grapefruit). The redder the food, the more lycopene it has. Thus, roasted red peppers have more lycopene than raw peppers, and more than raw tomatoes. In addition, lycopene is more bioavailable when cooked, so tomato sauce trumps raw tomatoes for this nutrient (though not for vitamin C–again, we’re back to variety, variety, variety). If you have nutritional information on roasted red peppers, please post it below, especially if you know about its lycopene. Meanwhile, sprinkle some diced roasted red peppers on your salad tonight and enjoy. (Add pine nuts and you’ll think you’re in heaven!)