#did a little compound butter with garlic and herbs

[kate-apologist]

i just made some fancy ass toast and it improved my entire evening, big bread win

[piccolo-limone-vivente]

LAB: Minestrone and other classic Roman dishes

Minestrone, like most other infamous Italian recipes was a dish made by peasants during hard times. Chopping up the little vegetables, meats and beans they had, throwing them into a pot of broth or water, letting the flavors marry and then served with bread, no worries if it’s stale the warm broth will soften the crunch and fill up a hungry belly.

Carrots, celery (leaves and all), and onion sautéed in butter and olive oil with salt and pep are the heart of Italian cooking. These three ingredients are called soffritto (meaning sautéed), a process that breaks down the chemical compounds that exude a all consuming aroma when cooked that fills the kitchen. Surprising that it’s only 3 vegetables. Carrots provide a sweetness, celery gives off a vegetal flavor along with some crunch and the onion, the most transformative process of the three, as we all know well, from sharp astringency to tender caramelization, sweet and savory with layering of flavors. As the soffritto cooks you deglaze the bottom of the pan alternating white wine and white wine vinegar. This helps the soffritto to create the dimensionality and homeyness of minestrone and other hearty and soups or sauces.

For our minestrone we put in Roman Zucchini, white beans, potatoes, Roman cabbage(which I think is absolutely beautiful and mind blowing plant, vein structures that pop out of the thick leaves, about as mesmerizing as Romanesco broccoli). Then you let the pot simmer for at least a few hours letting the broth cook down concentrating the flavor. We only had about 1.5 hours to make it, added parsley towards the end and served with a drizzle of olive oil, parm and a touch of cream if wanted. It was still amazingly flavorful and even more flavorful the next day.

The next day we made puntarelle salad and Roman style artichokes. The basic idea is artichokes, slightly processed to get rid of the tougher parts stuffed with herbs and soaked in olive oil lemon juice and white wine. It was a very simple recipe and the flavors were good, I would’ve added more salt and garlic but that’s my own opinion. I’ve made a version of Roman style artichokes from Alison Roman’s cookbook Nothing Fancy that was absolutely better and I think I want to make those here, I found that recipe to be better than the more stripped down/makeshift version we did in class. Puntanrelle salad is chicory stem sliced through a wire grid slicer to get long noodle like strips.

The salad dressing is simple with lemon, EVOO, garlic, some mashed anchovies and park to top it off. It’s very similar in flavor to Caesar but with an amazing vegetable that I’d never encountered before in my life. The chicory stem was crunchy and refreshing like celery but not fibrous in the least.

The anchovies came from the Campa Amica market in a jar with oil and lemon and they were some of the most delicious anchovies I’ve ever tasted, usually I enjoy them only in moderation but I would have been snacking on them if they had been mine hah! All in all a very delish class!

[trillian-anders]

huevos rancheros

pairing: chef!bucky x plus!reader

warnings: fluff, domesticity

word count: 1778

Description: chef!au; bucky makes breakfast.

just a taste masterlist

Sunday mornings had been especially good lately. The sunlight filtering through the curtains, the apartment quiet, the sounds of the neighbors not stirring, a couple of honking cars on the street below seemed muffled by the arm around your waist. The body at your back protects you from the sun’s rays. His soft snores the only sound you could really focus on. Hair tickling your cheek from where it fell from the bun he’d put it in to sleep.

In your stretch, legs uncurling and muscles moving for the first time in about nine blissful hours you could hear his snoring stop, fingers curling in your t-shirt as he breathed heavily, burying his face back into your neck and pulling you closer to him, wrapping his other arm across your shoulder.

“G’mornin.” His voice raspy and well slept. Lips soft and pouted with sleep pressed gently against the skin of your neck.

“Hi.” His blue eyes half-lidded met yours. His lips softly pressing against yours.

He’d been spending a lot of time at your apartment lately. It was a little nicer than his, a little less of a bachelor pad and more of an adult living space. He had a drawer. His toiletries sat next to yours in the shower, on the shelf next to the sink. His toothbrush, his electric shaver, a jar of hair pomade and so many discarded elastics. He had a couple pairs of shoes next to your door. Two of his jackets hung in your hall closet. Next to your bed, on the nightstand sat the book he was currently reading. It sat on top of his iPad that he used to look at new recipes and shoot off emails before bed.

It happened slowly before you’d even realized it had happened.

But you didn’t mind at all.

“You want coffee?” He whispered against your cheek, pressing a kiss to the skin there before pressing a kiss to your jaw. You hummed in response, he squeezed you to him tightly for a moment more before slipping from bed, your door left open you could hear him pad to the bathroom first. You spread across the bed, starfishing out stretching the last bit of sleep from your body before following him out. The tv was soft and rambling. The news showing the weather.

“What did you want to do today?” You asked, taking the coffee from his hands and taking a seat at the kitchen island. The scars on his left arm extended partially onto his torso. The skin rippled underneath the florals, his shoulder and back darkened purple, blue, and gold with constellations. He shrugged,

“We don’t have to go out if you don’t want to.” Your coffee was made exactly how you like it, he took a sip of his own before continuing, “Or we could go to the Village, Wanda runs a niche little bookshop there, she’s been asking about you.” You’d met the redhead in passing once, the sweet vibrant, boho woman was Sam’s wife. Which seemed a little crazy seeing as he was a little straight laced from the military, he did a lot of VA work, ran the food truck. But once you saw the two of them together, they meshed so well.

He stands between your legs, fingers brushing back a well slept mess hair out of your face, “Or we could stay in,” His lips tasted like the bitter black brew he’d been drinking, “Watch a couple movies,” Another soft kiss, “Maybe take a nap.”

“Either one would be good.” Fingers laced, he rested his forehead on yours. The two of you sat in silence for a moment, enjoying it, not fully awake. Still sleepy and wanting touch.

“How about breakfast first?”

You’d teased him multiple times about it. How elitist he was about food. Bucky was a very, “I’ll make it from scratch,” Kinda guy. There were a box of mason jars in your pantry that he kept for when he wanted to make something, rosemary salt, compound butters, and what he’d made a couple days ago that he wanted to get rid of. A deliciously spicy and well flavored salsa. The jar is about half full. The two of you having used the other half a couple days ago when you’d had a dip night.

It had been a night where he’d been trying out a couple recipes for dips that they wanted to offer on the menu. Some spicy cajun flavors melded with crab, spinach, a vegan artichoke, something with roasted red peppers and a load of garlic. The two of you had put on the Bachelor and dug into the various pots with tortillas, chips, baguette, and naan. This salsa he’d made for fun, just to have. Something simple and delicious.

He used it now with breakfast.

Black beans, a whole chopped jalapeno thrown in with onion and red and green peppers. Soft and bubbling. He’d cracked two eggs into a pan, basting the top with butter to get the white fully cooked but the yolk soft and runny. Corn tortillas toasted on the open flame of the gas burner, turned deftly with fingers he didn’t have much feeling left in. Put on a plate, tortilla, beans, the veggie mix, eggs laid on top. Leftover queso fresco from tacos he’d made last week, and a large spoon of the salsa.

Coffee was switched out for orange juice. A couple of spare tortillas on a plate between you just in case you needed them. He brought your leg into his lap, hand left on your thigh as you ate your breakfast, idly chatting about the new space they’d found that they think is the one. The one for their restaurant.

“It’s gorgeous,” He told you, “A real industrial space, two floors so we could probably do the resturant and the kitchen downstairs and maybe just have an upstairs bar for tapas.” They had a plan, Sam and Bucky. Their vision synced for what they wanted for the restaurant. All it came down to was pinning down the menu.

“Sam is from New Orleans,” Bucky's fingers entwined with yours while you walked to the subway. “And I’ve always loved Cajun food and that’s why we did the Connect NOLA food truck.” You stood against his chest, arms around his waist while he held onto the bar taking the train into Manhattan.

They were going to bring Connect NOLA into this restaurant. The themed truck, they were looking for an interior designer to bring in the green, gold, and purple—tastefully— into the industrial restaurant.

Fingers intertwined you walked hand in hand down two blocks to a new age looking shop with books in the window. The decor was witchy and gorgeous. The dark distressed wood shelves, the colorful intricate carpet. It was messy, but in an organized way. Herbs and flowers hung dry behind the register, a glass case with crystals and stones. There were comfy well worn chairs spread throughout the store. A small stand with a keurig that seemed the most modern thing in here. Other than the tablet with the card reader plugged into it on the front desk.

You marveled at the sight of her. Wanda was gorgeous. Her red hair was currently piled on top of her head, she wore a dress with a long skirt, the strap of the loose cotton dress half slipped off of her shoulder. Of course she would be a woman who could forego a bra and be fine. A brush of jealousy as she grinned at Bucky, unfounded jealousy. But she was wafish, thin, gorgeous, and married to his best friend. You knew you were being ridiculous. So you shoved that feeling aside.

She bypassed Bucky coming to you, “Oh it’s so good to see you.” She wrapped you in her arms, pulling you in tight. The faint smell of incense and patchouli on her.

“You too.” You couldn’t help but smile back. She was so genuine. She gave off such a pleasant and welcoming vibe you felt foolish for the jealousy just a minute before.

“I’ve been telling Bucky to bring you around for weeks.” She took your hand, pulling you over towards the counter, “He said you want to be a writer?” You felt your cheeks flush, looking back over at your boyfriend who rested his arms on the counter, looking at you innocently.

“I’m not great,” You shake your head, “It’s just a hobby.” You laugh nervously, brushing Bucky’s hand off your arm as he tried to soothe you from the little embarrassment he knew you were feeling.

“She’s good.” Bucky nods, grinning, “I’ve read some of her stuff.”

“When?” You turn to him in a glare. “When did you read anything?” He shrugs, playing with the little cloth bookmarks on the counter, avoiding your eyes.

“You left it open the other night.” He looks at you impishly, “I couldn’t help myself.” The little bit of anger you’d felt in your chest dissolved when he took your hand, rubbing his thumb over the soft skin there. “You’re better than you give yourself credit for.” You roll your eyes lovingly, looking back at Wanda who was smirking.

“I’m okay.” You say, “I’m not a bestseller.”

“Yet.” She grins, “Not yet.”

You’d left with a couple of books at a steep discount, well worn and scribbled in the margins as used books usually are. Bucky held the fabric tote in his left hand while you were tucked under his arm, waiting for the take out you’d ordered, the small shop barely fitting the two of you and the group that had just walked in.

“You’re a great writer.” He whispered into your hair. “I really liked it.” You hummed, turning your face to his.

“You’re not embarrassed that I’m writing a Lord of The Rings style romance?” He laughed, kissing you softly.

“Nah, I kinda liked it.” His fingers wiggled against your side, tickling you. “And it’s a cross between fantasy, romance, and drama.” Another kiss against your forehead this time. “I’m excited for the sex scene that seemed to be coming up.” You scoff, acting offended trying to push away from him which makes him hold you tighter,

“I’m not putting a sex scene in my book.” You laugh, he wiggles his eyebrows, smirking at you.

“Just for me then?” You roll your eyes, he pulls you tightly into his chest, wrapping both arms around you, “Write it just for me?” A slow languid kiss you felt all the way down to your core. And then another. Your order number was called, your half lidded eyes meeting his, pupils blown wide.

“Maybe.”

.

.

.

taglist // @bookish-shristi @saturnki @jennmurawski13 @geeksareunique @the-soulofdevil @tinmunky @gifsbysimplysonia @alwaysbenhardysgirl @albinotigerpython @93generation

[tipsycad147]

4 WAYS OF FREEZING HERBS TO USE ALL YEAR LONG

by Angi Schneider 

Some herbs loose their flavor when dried and are better preserved by freezing. Fortunately, there are several ways of freezing herbs depending on your needs and the herb itself.

FREEZING HERBS IN WATER OR OIL

The “right” way to freeze herbs is to chop them up, put in ice cube trays and then cover the herbs with some water or oil. When you want to use them you can add a little cube of herbs to whatever you are cooking

The “wrong way” to freeze herbs is to put the herbs into a ziplock bag, remove all the air and put in the freezer. Even though this is technically the wrong was to freeze herbs this way actually works really well. When you want to use the herb, just break off a chunk – no need to worry about extra oil or water in your dish.

Basil and cilantro both lose their flavor when dehydrated but not when frozen. If you have room in the freezer, consider freezing basil and cilantro instead of dehydrating them.

Herbs that freeze well…

Basil

Chives

Cilantro

Mint

MAKING HERBAL PASTES TO FREEZE

Herb pastes are quickly becoming the new cool way of seasoning food. Did you know you can make them at home…for just a fraction of the cost? You can.

To make an herb paste just put some fresh herbs in a food processor (a small one is just fine), turn it on and drizzle olive oil over the herbs until you have a paste. Yep. That’s it.

Put the paste in a mason jar and it will keep for two weeks in the refrigerator. Or put the paste in ice cube trays or small mason jars and store it in the freezer. You can do single herb pastes or mix herbs together and make your own blends.

Herbs that make a good herbal paste…

Basil

Chilli Pepper

Chives

Cilantro

Garlic

Oregano

Parsley

HOW TO MAKE HERBAL COMPOUND BUTTERS FOR THE FREEZER

Compound butter is just a fancy name for butter mixed with fresh herbs. You can use a stand mixer, hand mixer, food processor, pastry blender but a lowly fork works just fine too.

Mix 3-4 tablespoons fresh herbs with ¼ cup butter. You can use a single herb or several herbs.

Once the herbs are mixed thoroughly with the butter, put the compound butter in a small mason jar and store in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer.

You could also use a silicone butter mould to freeze the compound butter; there are many designs to choose from.

Herbs that make good compound butters…

Basil

Chilli Pepper

Chives

Cilantro

Garlic

Mint

Oregano

Parsley

Sage

Tarragon

Thyme

OTHER WAYS TO PRESERVE HERBS

While freezing herbs is a great way to preserve herbs to use all year long, it’s not the only way to preserve herbs. Drying herbs is an easy, no-fuss way to preserve herbs.

Many herbs can also be preserved by making herbal salts or herbal jelly. Herbal jellies are made just like flower jellies.

https://rootsy.org/4-ways-of-freezing-herbs-to-use-all-year-long/

[edithas-stuff-blog]

NUTRITION

Evidence Based

20 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste

Written by Jillian Kubala, MS, RD on November 20, 2017

Food waste is a bigger problem than many people realize.

In fact, nearly one-third of all food produced in the world is discarded or wasted for various reasons. That equates to nearly 1.3 billion tons every year (1).

Not surprisingly, industrialized countries like the United States waste more food than developing nations. In 2010, the average American generated about 219 pounds (99 kg) of food waste, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2).

While you might not think food waste affects you, think again.

Tossing edible food doesn’t just waste money. Discarded food is sent to landfills, where it rots and produces methane gas, which is the second most common greenhouse gas. In other words, throwing out your food contributes to climate change.

It wastes a huge amount of water, too. According to the World Resources Institute, 24% of all the water used for agriculture is lost through food waste every year. That’s 45 trillion gallons (about 170 trillion liters).

Although these numbers may seem overwhelming, you can help reduce this harmful practice by following the easy tips in this article. Every little bit helps.

1. Shop Smart

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Most people tend to buy more food than they need.

Though buying in bulk may be convenient, research has shown that this shopping method leads to more food waste (3).

To avoid buying more food than you need, make frequent trips to the grocery store every few days rather than doing a bulk shopping trip once a week.

Make a point to use up all the food you purchased during the last trip to the market before buying more groceries.

Additionally, try making a list of items that you need to buy and stick to that list. This will help you reduce impulse buying and reduce food waste as well.

2. Store Food Correctly

Improper storage leads to a massive amount of food waste.

According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, about two-thirds of household waste in the United Kingdom is due to food spoilage (4).

Many people are unsure how to store fruits and vegetables, which can lead to premature ripening and, eventually, rotten produce.

For instance, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, cucumbers and onions should never be refrigerated. These items should be kept at room temperature.

Separating foods that produce more ethylene gas from those that don’t is another great way to reduce food spoilage. Ethylene promotes ripening in foods and could lead to spoilage.

Foods that produce ethylene gas while ripening include:

Bananas

Avocados

Tomatoes

Cantaloupes

Peaches

Pears

Green onions

Keep these foods away from ethylene-sensitive produce like potatoes, apples, leafy greens, berries and peppers to avoid premature spoilage.

3. Learn to Preserve

While you might think fermenting and pickling are new fads, food preservation techniques like these have been used for thousands of years.

Pickling, a type of preservation method using brine or vinegar, may have been used as far back as 2400 BC (5).

Pickling, drying, canning, fermenting, freezing and curing are all methods you can use to make food last longer, thus reducing waste.

Not only will these methods shrink your carbon footprint, they will save you money as well. What’s more, most preservation techniques are simple and can be fun.

For example, canning an excess of ripe apples and turning them into applesauce, or pickling fresh carrots from the market will provide you with a delicious and long-lasting treat that even kids will enjoy.

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4. Don’t Be a Perfectionist

Did you know that rummaging through a bin of apples until you find the most perfect-looking one contributes to food waste?

Though identical in taste and nutrition, so-called “ugly” fruits and vegetables get passed up for produce that is more pleasing to the eye.

The consumer demand for flawless fruits and vegetables has led major grocery chains to buy only picture-perfect produce from farmers. This leads to tons of perfectly good food going to waste.

It’s such a big issue that major grocery chains like Walmart and Whole Foods have started offering “ugly” fruits and vegetables at a discount in an attempt to reduce waste.

Do your part by choosing slightly imperfect produce at the grocery store, or better yet, directly from the farmer.

5. Keep Your Fridge Clutter-Free

You've probably heard the saying, “out of sight, out of mind.” This rings especially true when it comes to food.

While having a well-stocked fridge can be a good thing, an overly filled fridge can be bad when it comes to food waste.

Help avoid food spoilage by keeping your fridge organized so you can clearly see foods and know when they were purchased.

A good way to stock your fridge is by using the FIFO method, which stands for “first in, first out.”

For example, when you buy a new carton of berries, place the newer package behind the old one. This helps ensure that older food gets used, not wasted.

6. Save Leftovers

Leftovers aren’t just for holidays.

Although many people save excess food from large meals, it is often forgotten in the fridge, then tossed when it goes bad.

Storing leftovers in a clear glass container, rather than in an opaque container, helps ensure you don’t forget the food.

If you happen to cook a lot and you regularly have leftovers, designate a day to use up any that have accumulated in the fridge. It’s a great way to avoid throwing away food.

What’s more, it saves you time and money.

7. Eat the Skin

People often remove the skins of fruits, veggies and chicken when preparing meals.

This is a shame, because so many nutrients are located in the outer layer of produce and in poultry skin. For example, apple skins contain a large amount of fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

In fact, researchers have identified a group of compounds present in apple peels called triterpenoids. They act as potent antioxidants in the body and may have cancer-fighting abilities (6Trusted Source, 7).

Chicken skin is packed with nutrients as well, including vitamin A, B vitamins, protein and healthy fats (8).

What’s more, chicken skin is an amazing source of the antioxidant selenium, which helps combat inflammation in the body (9Trusted Source).

These benefits are not limited to chicken and apple skin. The outer layers of potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, mangoes, kiwis and eggplants are also edible and nutritious.

Not only is eating the skin delicious, it’s economical and reduces your food waste impact.

8. Eat the Yolk

Although most people are moving away from the once-popular low-fat dieting trend, many still avoid egg yolks, opting for egg-white omelets and scrambled egg whites instead.

Avoiding egg yolks mostly stems from the fear that they increase cholesterol levels. Many people assume that eating foods high in cholesterol, like eggs, has a major impact on cholesterol levels.

However, studies have shown that in most people, dietary cholesterol only has a small effect on cholesterol levels (10Trusted Source, 11).

Your liver actually makes the majority of the cholesterol you need and your body closely regulates levels in the blood. When you eat foods that contain a high amount of cholesterol, your liver simply compensates by producing less.

In fact, evidence shows that most people, even those with high cholesterol, can enjoy whole eggs risk-free (12Trusted Source).

What’s more, egg yolks are packed with nutrients, including protein, vitamin A, iron, selenium and B vitamins (13).

If you simply don’t like the taste or texture of egg yolks, you can add them to other recipes to mask the flavor. You can even use yolks as an ultra-moisturizing hair mask.

9. Be a Seed Saver

Out of the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins produced in the United States every year, most end up getting thrown away.

While carving pumpkins can be fun for the whole family, there are ways to reduce the waste that comes along with this activity.

Aside from using the tasty flesh of your pumpkins in recipes and baking, a great way to cut waste is to save the seeds. In fact, pumpkin seeds are tasty and packed with nutrients.

They are very high in magnesium, a mineral that is important for heart and blood health and helps control blood pressure and blood sugar levels (14, 15).

To save pumpkin seeds, simply wash and dry the seeds, then toss them with a little olive oil and salt and toast them in the oven.

Acorn and butternut squash seeds can be prepared in the same way.

10. Blend It Up

Blending up a nutrient-packed smoothie can be a delicious way to reduce food waste.

While the stems, ends and peels of produce may not be appetizing in their whole form, adding them to a smoothie is a way to reap their many benefits.

The stems of greens like kale and chard are packed with fiber and nutrients, making them a great addition to smoothies. The tops of beets, strawberries and carrots also make great add-ins.

Other items that would otherwise be discarded can also be thrown into a nutritious blend, including fruit and vegetable peels, wilted herbs, overripe bananas and chopped broccoli stalks.

11. Make Homemade Stock

Whipping up a homemade stock is an easy way to use excess food.

Sauté vegetable scraps like the tops, stalks, peels and any other leftover bits with some olive oil or butter, then add water and let them simmer into an aromatic vegetable broth.

Veggies aren’t the only scraps that can be transformed into a flavorsome stock.

Rather than letting the chicken carcass or meat bones leftover from your dinner go to waste, simmer them with veggies, herbs and water to make a homemade stock that will put store-bought broth to shame.

12. Perk Up Your Water

Many people don’t drink enough water simply because they don’t like the flavor, or lack thereof.

Luckily, you can make water tastier and reduce your food waste impact at the same time.

One of the easiest ways to increase your water intake is to make it taste good. Use peels from citrus fruits, apples and cucumbers to add a kick to your glass of water or seltzer.

Wilted herbs and berry tops also make excellent additions to your water bottle.

After finishing your water, toss the leftover fruit or herbs into a smoothie for a zero-waste nutrition boost.

13. Keep Your Serving Sizes in Check

Overeating is a problem for many people.

Making sure your portion sizes stay within a healthy range doesn’t just help keep your weight down, it also reduces food waste.

While you may not think twice about scraping the leftover food on your plate into the trash, remember that food waste has a major impact on the environment.

Being more mindful of how hungry you actually are and practicing portion control are great ways to reduce food waste.

14. Get Friendly With Your Freezer

Freezing food is one of the easiest ways to preserve it, and the types of food that take well to freezing are endless.

For example, greens that are a bit too soft to be used in your favorite salad can be put in freezer-safe bags or containers and used at a later date in smoothies and other recipes.

An excess of herbs can be combined with olive oil and chopped garlic, then frozen in ice cube trays for a handy and delicious addition to sautés and other dishes.

You can freeze leftovers from meals, excess produce from your favorite farm stand, and bulk meals like soups and chilis. It’s a great way to ensure you always have a healthy, home-cooked meal available.

15. Understand Expiration Dates

“Sell by” and “expires on” are just two of the many confusing terms companies use on food labels to let consumers know when a product will most likely go bad.

The problem is, the US government doesn’t regulate these terms (16).

In fact, the task is often left to food producers to determine the date they think a product is most likely to spoil by. The truth is, most food that has just passed its expiration date is still safe to eat.

“Sell by” is used to inform retailers when the product should be sold or removed from the shelves. “Best by” is a suggested date that consumers should use their products by.

Neither of these terms means that the product is unsafe to eat after the given date.

While many of these labels are ambiguous, “use by” is the best one to follow. This term means that the food may not be at its best quality past the listed date (17).

A movement is now underway to make the food expiration labeling system more clear for consumers. In the meantime, use your best judgment when deciding whether food that is slightly past its expiration date is safe to eat.

16. Compost If You Can

Composting leftover food is a beneficial way to reuse food scraps, turning food waste into energy for plants.

While not everyone has room for an outdoor composting system, there’s a wide range of countertop composting systems that make this practice easy and accessible for everyone, even those with limited space.

An outdoor composter may work well for someone with a large garden, while a countertop composter is best for city dwellers with houseplants or small herb gardens.

17. Pack Your Lunch

Although going out to lunch with coworkers or grabbing a meal from your favorite restaurant may be enjoyable, it is also costly and can contribute to food waste.

A helpful way to save money while reducing your carbon footprint is to bring your lunch to work with you.

If you tend to generate leftovers from home-cooked meals, pack them up for a satisfying and healthy lunch for your workday.

If you’re strapped for time in the morning, try freezing your leftovers in portion-sized containers. That way, you’ll have premade, hearty lunches ready to go each morning.

18. Don’t Toss the Grounds

If you can’t fathom getting ready for your day without a hot cup of coffee, chances are you generate a lot of coffee grounds.

Interestingly, this often-overlooked leftover has many uses.

Those with a green thumb may be delighted to know that coffee grounds make excellent fertilizer for plants. The grounds are high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are nutrients that plants crave.

Coffee grounds also make a fantastic natural mosquito repellent.

In fact, research has shown that sprinkling spent coffee grounds in grassy areas deters female mosquitos from laying eggs, reducing the population of these pesky insects (18Trusted Source).

19. Get Creative in the Kitchen

One of the great things about cooking your own food is that you can tweak recipes to your liking, adding new flavors and ingredients.

Including parts of foods that aren’t usually used is an excellent way to repurpose scraps when you’re experimenting in the kitchen.

Stems and stalks make tasty additions to sautés and baked dishes, while garlic and onion ends can bring flavor to stocks and sauces.

Whipping up a fresh pesto made with broccoli stalks, soft tomatoes, wilted spinach or cilantro rather than the traditional basil is an inventive way to add a tasty twist to favorite dishes.

[sunbus45-blog]

How to Make Classic Oysters Rockefeller (and Not-So-Classic Oysters Oaxacafeller)

[Photographs: Vicky Wasik]

There aren't many dishes that have a clear-cut origin story. When researching recipes, we're used to parsing a lot of folklore and conjecture, with the hope of understanding more about the food we're cooking by finding out where it got its start. Most of the time this ends up being a fun but futile exercise—maybe French duck à l'orange actually came from Italy, or maybe not. But there are a few iconic dishes we can track back to a source. Oysters Rockefeller is one of those dishes.

We know the dish was invented by Jules Alciatore at Antoine's restaurant in New Orleans in 1889. There is one problem though: To this day we still don't know what exactly is in the original oysters Rockefeller. The story goes that Jules needed to find a more affordable and readily available alternative to French escargots, and he decided to tweak the popular snail preparation by pairing it with native Gulf oysters. It's a secret recipe guarded to this day by the owners of Antoine's with the same vigor as Colonel Sanders's blend of 11 herbs and spices. We know oysters Rockefeller is an incredibly rich (what's in a name?) dish of oysters on the half-shell topped with a buttery green sauce and then roasted or broiled. Every non-Antoine's rendition of the dish is an approximation. And in some ways, that's liberating. When nobody else can claim to make the "true" version of a dish, you don't have to worry as much about getting it totally right.

While we may never know the exact ingredients in Antoine's oysters Rockefeller, it's fun to play culinary Carmen Sandiego and make some educated guesses. The main matter of debate is whether or not the green color of the topping is achieved with the help of spinach. According to representatives from Antoine's, spinach is not an ingredient in the original Rockefeller. This jibes with the snail story—escargots are usually cooked with a garlic and parsley compound butter, not spinach.

In 1986, the writer William Poundstone snuck a couple Rockefeller oysters out of Antoine's and had them analyzed in a lab. The results indicated the topping did include parsley, as well as celery and green onions. Thanks to the excellent new food podcast Proof, I now know celery was the it vegetable of the Victorian era, so it makes sense that it would be used in a well-heeled restaurant dish of that time. Absinthe was also popular in New Orleans then, and I came across old menus in my research that indicate it was a common ingredient in oysters Rockefeller before it was made illegal in 1915. Absinthe is legal again, so we might as well use it, no?

After picking through historical tidbits like these, I cobbled together my best-guess version of classic oysters Rockefeller and then went off-book to make a Mexican-inflected version of my own. If every version of this dish is wrong, I figured we might as well celebrate that.

Make Some Green

For my take on oysters Rockefeller, I use the classic escargots compound butter of shallots, garlic, and parsley as a starting point. My research helped inform my additions of green onions and celery (I’m trying to get on that Victorian bougie vegetable tip), and fennel provides a fresh vegetal complement to the anise notes of absinthe. I temper the alliums' bite by cooking the garlic, shallot, and scallion first in order to not overwhelm the flavor of the oysters themselves. Because we want the topping to end up being a vibrant, rather than an army, shade of green, it's important to break up the process for the topping, first by cooking the sturdier vegetables to soften and mellow them and then incorporating raw green herbs into the mix in the food processor.

The first step is to sweat garlic, shallots, fennel, celery, and scallion whites in butter. The goal here is to gently cook the vegetables, softening them while also drawing out their natural sweetness as well as water content. Seasoning them early in the cooking process with a healthy pinch of salt helps speed up this process. Make sure you take the time to fully cook down these aromatics, otherwise you will end up with a loose and watery Rockefeller topping.

Once the vegetables are soft and their moisture has evaporated, remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in a tablespoon of absinthe (you can substitute Pernod or Herbsaint here). In order to preserve absinthe's intense anise notes, I don't cook the alcohol off at all; for this reason a little bit goes a long way. If you aren't into anise, or don't drink alcohol, you can obviously leave this step out.

Next, I transfer the mixture to a food processor, process it to a coarse paste, and then let it hang out for a few minutes to cool down slightly. I always like to blend or process vegetables while they are still hot because they break down more readily, giving you a smoother result while also putting less stress on the motor of your appliance.

It's now time to incorporate the greenery. Along with the requisite parsley (again, this dish originated as a riff on traditional escargots, which is all about butter, garlic, and parsley), I add the green parts of the vegetables that I cooked down earlier—fennel fronds, celery leaves, and sliced scallions. I process it all together just until the herbs are broken down and incorporated into the cooked vegetable paste. Then, with the food processor still running, I gradually add room temperature butter, one tablespoon at a time, until fully emulsified. At this point the mixture should be the consistency of a loose pesto.

Finally, in go some panko breadcrumbs, which are processed just until the breadcrumbs are incorporated. The breadcrumbs act as a binding and thickening agent (think Spanish gazpacho) rather than as crunchy topping: Under the broiler, the panko helps stabilize the compound butter as it melts, keeping it from fully melting and breaking in the heat.

The compound butter needs to be seasoned with salt and pepper, but keep in mind the natural salinity of the oysters themselves; this is a situation where you want to be a conservative in your salt application. If you have disposable pastry bags, this is a great time to use them. Bag up the paste, or transfer it to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic onto the surface of the paste to prevent a skin from forming and the greens from oxidizing. With the topping squared away, it's time to get shucking.

Aw, Shucks

Before busting out the oyster knife, turn on your broiler and position an oven rack in the highest position possible. Set up a rimmed baking sheet to place the oysters on. You have a couple options for doing that: You can either lay down an even layer of rock salt (sometimes labeled "ice cream salt") on a sheet tray, or you can crumple up a piece of aluminum foil.

Grab your properly stored and scrubbed oysters from the fridge, and get shucking, arranging the shucked oysters on the prepared sheet tray as you go. Once they're all shucked, it's time to cover them with the herb-butter topping. Pipe or spoon a heaping tablespoon of topping over each oyster, and then use a small offset spatula or a butter knife to spread it into an even layer, capping the oysters. Cover them evenly, since we want the topping to shield the oysters from the direct heat of the broiler, which will otherwise quickly overcook them.

The Broil Treatment

Pop the sheet tray in the oven, and broil the oysters until the topping starts to brown and the oysters are warmed through, which will only take a few minutes. While staring into an oven might not be your idea of fun, I wouldn't recommend walking away from the oysters at this moment. Home oven broilers are consistently inconsistent, and the last thing you want to do is burn the topping or hammer these beauties into chewy oblivion. I can't overstate how unpleasant overcooked oysters are to eat; please don't do it.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and serve up your Rockefellers. How you go about that depends on the type of company you keep and how fancy you want to be. You can just present them straight up on the baking sheet with lemon wedges, or if you are looking to class things up, transfer the oysters to a more attractive serving platter lined with rock salt.

After discovering that non-Antoine's Rockefeller recipes are more often than not a bad cover of a hit song, I decided that I wanted to come up with a riff of my own that paid truly delicious homage to the original. Reading through poor imitation recipes that paired bivalves with wilted baby spinach, cream, and cheese didn't really work up my appetite, but the combination of deep green vegetables and dairy reminded me of a dish that does: Mexican rajas con crema.

Rajas are the dream vegetarian taco filling—strips of roasted poblano peppers simmered with onions, crema, and melty cheese. (Hey, if you want wilted baby spinach on your broiled oysters, there are plenty of recipes out there to keep you happy.) Before we get into it, let's be clear that there is nothing "authentic" about this recipe. If my version of oysters Rockefeller by rule can't be the genuine article, then this play on it certainly is not a how-to guide for making real-deal rajas. But it is tasty.

Broil and Foil

My ode to rajas begins by roasting a couple poblano peppers along with some whole scallions. Rather than tending to and turning them over an open flame, I opt for roasting the vegetables under the broiler, seeing as I'll be using it later for the oysters. I stem the poblanos, cut them in half lengthwise, and discard the seeds. Then I place the peppers skin-side up on a foil-lined baking sheet that's been lightly sprayed with vegetable cooking oil, along with some scallions. After lightly coating the poblanos' skins as well as the scallions with vegetable oil, I pop the sheet tray in the oven until the vegetables are nicely charred.

Charred scallions aren't usually used for making rajas, but they are a popular accompaniment at taquerias. The last time I visited Mexico City I invariably ended up ordering a side of cebollitas along with my tacos. Seeing as scallions played a role in the Rockefeller recipe, it seemed right to fit them in here, as well.

When they're done, I transfer the scallions to a cutting board, pile the poblano pieces in the center of the piece of foil, and gather the foil to form a pouch around the peppers. This gives the poblanos a chance to steam in the foil for a few minutes to release their flesh from the skins, making it easier to peel away and discard.

After that, I chop the peppers and scallions up.

Sweat and Smother

The next steps follow the same basic procedure used for the more classic Rockefeller topping: Sweat down sliced shallots and garlic in butter (I use less butter here as I'll add in crema later) before adding the chopped poblanos and scallions, and cook this mixture until the moisture from the vegetables has evaporated. I then add a tablespoon of smoky mezcal in place of the absinthe. Again, feel free to leave out the booze if you prefer. To finish, stir in a half cup of crema (crème fraîche or sour cream will work, too), a pinch of ground coriander, and lime zest.

Purée and Pipe

Buzz up the mixture in a food processor, then add roughly chopped cilantro and panko breadcrumbs and process the mixture to a paste. As with oysters Rockefeller, shuck your oysters and then pipe the topping over them. Broil them in the same way, and then serve them up with lime wedges and some mezcal for sipping.

Might it be better than the original? You be the judge.

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Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/01/how-to-make-classic-oysters-rockefeller.html

[mealsforsquares]

New Year’s Day

After New Year’s Eve, of course, comes New Year’s Day, and with New Year’s Day comes one of the few times I actually get to host a giant meal. I love hosting a giant meal, actually, even though it stresses me right the heck out. Last year was the first year that we did it, in an attempt to spread around some of the effort of the holiday season. It was a fairly big hit, and it was nice to expose some more people to what it is I do in the kitchen*. Sinc eit worked out so well, and I had the operational business under my belt, it was time to move on and try to really knock it out of the park.

The crowd pleaser at last-year’s business was a serious eats-style all-belly porchetta. It was chosen for its relative simplicity - pork belly is a pretty hard thing to fuck up, as just about every restaurant in the world can tell you**, and wrapping it around some herbs and spices and slow roasting it is a pretty rock-solid thing to do. And I like things that are easy to do and impressive. They make me feel good about myself.

So I took a whole belly and laid it down, scored the skin deeply. I made a spice paste of juniper berries, allspice berries, coriander, cinnamon, and some sumac. I also made an herb paste of minced rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano and tarragon. I mixed the herb mince with the spice paste, oiled them up and ground them together a bit with a mortar and pestle. I mixed in some ground bay leaves and some brown sugar, and rubbed the whole mess into the pork belly. I rolled it up tight and covered the outside in salt into which I had mixed a bit of baking soda, then cut a bunch of lengths of twine which I used to tie it up. Instead of letting it sit with the raw herbs and spices overnight, I slow-roasted it first the day before, letting it go until it was a proper internal temperature, and then when it was done I pulled it and socked it away in the fridge until the next day when I would crisp it up. I threw it in a very hot oven about an hour before service, leaving it in there until the skin was hot enough to blister and turn brown, and then taking it out rest*** and then slicing it up, removing the string in the process

Last year I was further constrained by the two pickiest eaters (who are also members of my own family) being present for dinner, and having to make sure to include them in everything. This year, especially, R had to work, which meant that vinegar was much more on the table than it had been previously, so it was time to incorporate directly into the beans. Black eyed peas are traditional for New Year’s, which is pretty great, because it’s an excuse to make a mess of beans for a bunch of people to eat. In Jonathon Sawyer’s oft-aforementioned House of Vinegar, he mentions cooking lentils in red wine vinegar for a salad. I decided to run with that idea, except I would use black eyed peas. To preserve the color, and make them look less like brown glop on the plate, I decided to cook them in a mixture of white wine and white wine vinegar, so that I could more-readily play with colors and textures.

The theory was good, but in practice I forgot that cooking beans in acid is really hard. This is probably why the original recipe uses lentils and not a bean that requires more hydration. So I soaked the beans overnight, then poured in equal parts white wine and white wine vinegar, and let the beans simmer until they were soft. Or at least, I let them simmer for seven hours. They were softening (slowly), but they weren’t finishing. I had the idea that if I raised the pH a little bit they might find it easier to accept water into their skins, so I added a healthy pinch of baking soda. A couple of hours later, the beans were the perfect texture - the acid had enabled them to hold together pretty well without mushing out, and they did eventually hydrate fully to be tender. If I wanted a creamier bean, it might not be the way to go, but if I wanted a creamier bean, it wouldn’t be the sort of thing you’d want to make sour anyway.

The beans were actually pretty astringent, so the rest of the job of the salad was to mitigate the business. I cut some homemade bacon into cubes (I give away bacon as part of everyone’s Christmas basket), and got them working in a cold pan. As the pan heated up and the bacon started to brown, I would occasionally deglaze the pan with a shot of apple cider, which made a nice sort of apple-y glaze on the bacon cubes, which I thought would be nice for the salad, even as it did at another kind of pork to the proceedings. I made some bread crumbs out of some homemade tomato bread (not mine, but homemade in someone else’s home) by drying the bread out in the oven and then running it through the food processor, for a crunch and some texture. I diced the leaves off of a head of bitter endive or chicory or whatever you want to call it and mixed them in, then added a minced onion.

The question of dressing was an important one - it needed to augment the beans, but it couldn’t be too acidic or the whole thign would lose its balance. I kept it fairly simple. I poured out a generous half cup or so of olive oil, added a little less than a third as much vinegar, and a very generous dollop of dijon mustard, which can take the acidity and really add somethign to it. I also added a generous glug of pomegranate molasses, an ingredient that I’m relatively new to actually owning, but have wanted to start using for a long time. The end result was that the salad was magnificent, although I made entirely too much of it, ultimately.

Greens are also a standard-issue inclusion for New Years, so I decided to make some. . Into the dutch oven went a huge bunch of olive oil - this is an oil-intensive preparation****. I added one big onion and two small onions to the oil and let them cook while I did the rest of the thing. I mixed together a whole can of tomato paste with some cayenne and six or so cloves of minced garlic, which I then smooshed into the oil. I had  bought a holy firestorm of greens - a pound or so of collards formed the backbone, but also the rest of the head of chicory, some kale, some adult spinach, a head of dandelion greens, and a head of broccoli raab. I de-stemmed and washed all of these greens, then got them into the oil/tomato paste/garlic sofrito and let them get friendly. I added a healthy splash of water and covered them, letting them steam down for awhile.

When they had shrunk down a bit I added a couple of handfuls of adult spinach and gave everything a good hard stir. I salted them some more, and then added a huge glob of peanut butter and stirred them again to coat them in the peanut. I let them get friendly and salted and peppered them again. When they were tender, I squeezed the juice of a couple of lemons onto them to brighten them up. The effect is incredible - the effect is a bit like the greens in ground nut soup or peanut stew, only it’s a whole mess of them. It seems like an insane thing to enjoy, but it’s an utterly fantastic dish. IT was a big hit also, and it was designed to have a sort of savory, spicy richness that was there to compete a little with the pork and give everyone a break from pork fat, and also the astringency of the beans. It didn’t compete, in the savory slash unctuous flavor of the pork, but it augmented it, making it a nice little component.

Deciding that the bean salad would be lightly dressed and therefore that there might need to be a serious condiment, I made some cranberry mostarda. The day before new years I soaked a bunch of mustard seeds in some sweet wine. On the day of I heated up a bunch of fresh cranberries with a great load of sugar and a apple cider, to which I added the mustard seeds and their wine, some dry mustard, some red chili flakes, and a sachet made of some cinnamon, some cloves and some bay leaves. I simmered it until the cranberries were softened, at which point I smooshed them up and socked the whole thing away in the fridge. It set up more than I intended it to - there’s a tonne of pectin in cranberries - and made a kind of a jam rather than a sauce, but it did its job anyway, providing a nice sweet-tart condiment for the fatty, deeply-spiced porchetta.

Beans and greens aside, an actual salad-type vegetable with some actual salad-type flavor was also necessary. The Chinese believe that eating long food at new years brings good luck, and as it happens, I recently found myself in possession of a spiralizer. So the way through was clear: the way to go forward was to make the longest salad possible, out of a bunch of hard vegetables. It started with carrots - carrots are great with peanut butter, fantastic with pork, and enormously successful with vinegar*****, so it seemed it would be a slam-dunk to pair with the rest of the plate. To go with it was a daikon radish, which would be there for its spicy character but for also not being as funky and oppressive as other radishes can be (I like radishes, but they’re not a vegetable to spring on an unsuspcting someone). An asian pear was noodlefied and added to the thing to give it some crisp sweetness, and a cucumber was thrown in there for freshness and to help with the liquid content. It was finished with some parsley. For dressing some yogurt was compounded with some tahini and flavored with honey, then finished with some lemon juice and very lightly tossed with the mixed-vegetable salad.

Sauerkraut is also de rigeur with new years, and as it happens I had already made some suaerkraut traditionally in the leadup as part of the Christmas present. To make it a little more regular for the meal, I decided to church it up a little bit. I made both red and white sauerkraut. The white sauerkraut needed some real help - it was salty and crunchy and good, but it wasn’t great. So I poured the white out into a pan and added a little allspice, a few peppercorns, a couple of healthy glugs of prosecco vinegar, and a little bit of sugar to help balance it out. I let it get a little bit warm and loosen up a bit. It helped a lot. For the red I dumped that out and just added a bit of sherry vinegar and some red pepper flakes.

Other folks had provided some dolmades, white bread and beer bread (these all came from A’s dad) and also mashed potatoes (from A’s brother, who is a champion eater of mashed potatoes), and they were all pretty good. The rest of the food came out exactly as I wanted, and I was pretty happy with the way things turned out such that you could eat  abit here and a bit there from the various and sundry sources and end up with a non-exhausting plate of food. As feasts go, I was pretty happy with the way that things came together. Everything that had been a crowd pleaser remained a crowd pleaser, and the whole thing was filling and plenty feast-like without being overwhelming - I was full without being uncomfortably so, which I’m willing ot chalk up to it being mostly food that is actually not that bad for us. It’s entirely possible that I may do some more working with the sour beans to make them something that cooks even slightly quicker.

Oh, and I’ll have to work on quantity, because digging out from under the impossible, tremendous amount of leftovers was pretty oppressive. I will say this: a sandwich made of toasted bread, mustard, peanut greens, pickles and a slice of porchetta is a pretty incredible way to use up a leftover, all told.

Just eating the beans as a leftover was also pretty great, but it does seem to require that you like beans at least as much as I do to get through that many. I hope I can remember the next time I do it to make them into a croquette - fried pickled things are awesome, and I bet the fried sour beans would be equally incredible.

Or at least more interesting than other regular croquettes. But this is all turning into a digression for another time. So stay tuned. Maybe you’ll get to hear about it.

* I cook for the same three people, counting myself, most of the time, so it’s not common for people outside my household to eat my food - I’m not much of a host-er and prefer restaurants for socializing purposes, mainly because I don’t go to them that often - I’m cheap, and also I’m a better judge of how I want something to taste than someone I’m paying to do it. I’m generally a do-it-myself sort of person, and I tend to go out only for things that I don’t make often - organ meats are a tough sell for my housemates, and fish is expensive enough that I’m usually pretty happy to let someone with more experience do it for me, to name two examples - or where people want to go or whatever.

** restaurants, and especially mid-range ones, are sort of the silent partners in the pork belly explosion of a decade ago. That explosion has mostly died, and that’s great, because I was tired of being surprised and worn down by the constant baconification of everything, and it also means that pork belly prices are coming down a bit. I’ve been making my own bacon for a very long time, as well as my own pancetta, and obviously there’s a porchetta every year, and it’s great to not have to pay through the nose for it.

*** It probably didn’t have to rest, as the few minutes of very high heat wasn’t enough to stir up the interior juices, and so it probably wasn’t in any danger of that, but hey, it didn’t hurt anyway.

**** it’s also, weirdly, one of R’s favorite preparations, which is strange, considering his usual relationship to greens.

***** carrots are an all-time champion pickle.

[josephkitchen0]

Yogurt: Medicinal Food on the Homestead

By Habeeb Salloum, Ontario, Canada

The ancient Assyrians appreciated yogurt so much that they called it lebeny, meaning “life.” The venerable yogis of India mixed yogurt with honey and called it the “food of the gods.” Cleopatra bathed in this milk product to give herself a clear and tender complexion, and Genghis Khan fed it to his soldiers to give them courage. One of man’s earliest prepared foods, yogurt can claim few equals in the folklore of the medical and culinary arts.

Early in life, I had become familiar with yogurt dishes on our homestead on the western prairies of Canada. From meals and snacks to lunches and all types of dishes containing yogurt, our family’s culinary life seemed to revolve around that milk product. However, during that era of my life it was not my favorite food. That was to come later, when I gained wisdom.

“Not again!” I thought to myself as I angrily opened my lunch bag. Mother had this day, as she had for a whole week, made us children arous bi labana (a type of sandwich made up of a yogurt paste spread generously on paper thin Arab bread, then rolled into a long cylinder shape). How I envied my schoolmates munching on neat white bread sandwiches. As I moved away to eat my lunch in a semi-hidden corner, I childishly resolved that when I grew up there would be no more arous bi labana for me.

Little did I know, in those homesteading days and in fact long thereafter, that the yogurt I once detested is one of the healthiest foods known to mankind. My parents brought with them from Syria a love for this delectable and nutritious dairy product, consumed in the Middle East since the dawn of civilization. Perhaps they did not know its many benefits, but they, as I do now, relished its taste. We ate it almost every day for breakfast and for snacks, and I am now sure that this healthy food with a cultural and medical past was one of the reasons we children were rarely sick during our childhood years.

Modern nutritionists have established that yogurt’s reputation as an almost medicinal food is justified. It has been found that it contains a digestive enzyme which prolongs life. Humans naturally produce this enzyme in their childhood but it becomes deficient as they reach adulthood.

It has also been proven that, besides all the healthful elements found in milk, yogurt contains a teeming load of bacteria — about 100 million per gram. These multiply in the intestines and, by getting rid of the accumulated germs, relieve stomach ulcers, dysentery, and promote excellent digestion. When we children had stomach ailments on the farm, our mother’s remedy was always yogurt. As far as I can remember, it usually worked!

Much more easily digestible than milk, yogurt is ideal for the aged, pregnant women, children, and the sick. In addition, it is believed that regular eaters of this fermented milk tend to have clear skin and find no problem enjoying a good night’s sleep. Also, in a recent study, Japanese researchers have found that eating traditional yogurt reduces the malodorous compounds that cause bad breath.

All types of milk, ranging from reindeer to cow, can be utilized in making yogurt. However, the fat and nutrient values vary depending on whether it is prepared from cream, whole milk, or partly skimmed or skimmed milk, and if it includes additives like fruits or syrups. On the average, 100 grams of regular plain yogurt contains 77 calories and 7.1 g carbohydrates, 5.3 g protein, 3 g fat, 229 mg potassium, 181 mg calcium, 142 mg phosphorus, 75.her5 mg sodium, and vitamins B1, B2, and B12.

For those wishing to cut down on the amount of fat, cholesterol, and calories in their diets, yogurt made from skimmed milk is a godsend. In preparing meals, brands labeled low-fat and low-cholesterol can be substituted for mayonnaise, sour cream, or similar products. This will constitute a tremendous improvement in their diets — at times working wonders.

Besides its nutritious value, yogurt is a marvelously versatile and adaptable food. It adds richness, flavor, and an appetizing aroma to a myriad of dishes. The possibilities of cooking with this tangy, cultured milk are infinite. It blends well with cheese, eggs, grains, most types of meats, fruits, vegetables, and makes an excellent marinade. Delicious when flavored with syrups, nuts, herbs, and spices, it enhances and is enhanced by other foods. The gastronomic repertoire of this so-called “milk of eternal life” is endless.

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YOGURT DIP

Great when served as a snack food with crackers or pita bread.

4 cups plain yogurt

1 teaspoon sumac (can be purchased from Middle Eastern stores)

1/2 teaspoon dry mint

1/4 teaspoon salt

l/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

Place yogurt in a cheesecloth bag then tie with a string. Suspend over a receptacle and allow to stand overnight.

Combine remaining ingredients, except oil, in a bowl. Set aside.

Place yogurt on a platter, then spread spice mixture evenly over yogurt. Sprinkle with oil just before serving.

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CUCUMBER IN YOGURT (Khiyar bi Laban )

Cucumber in Yogurt Salad

Serves 4 to 6

We often had this dish on a hot summer day for lunch, chilled in a pail hung above the water line in our well — our Depression years’ refrigerator.

2 cups plain yogurt

1 medium cucumber (6 to 8 inches), peeled and diced in very small pieces

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon salt

Place all ingredients in a serving bowl then thoroughly combine. Chill then serve.

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BURGHUL AND YOGURT APPETIZER (Kishkeh)

Burghul and Yogurt Appetizer

Serves about 6

A simple dish favored by both rich and poor, especially in Damascus, kishkeh is delicious and healthy.

1/2 cup medium burghul, soaked for 10 minutes in warm water then drained by squeezing out water through a strainer

1 cup plain yogurt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon finely crushed dried mint

4 tablespoons finely chopped peeled cucumber

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine all ingredients, except coriander and olive oil, then spread on a platter. Chill, then decorate with coriander and sprinkle with olive oil just before serving.

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YOGURT AND EGGPLANT APPETIZER (Badhanjan Matabal bil Laban)

Serves about 6

Yogurt enhances most dip/appetizers and sauces to which it is added. It gives them a smooth texture and special tang.

1 medium eggplant, about 1 pound

1 cup plain yogurt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed mint

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander or parsley leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

Place eggplant in an oven, then bake for about an hour or until thoroughly baked. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Peel and place in a food processor, then add remaining ingredients except coriander or parsley and olive oil. Blend into paste, then place on a platter. Decorate with coriander or parsley then sprinkle with the olive oil just before serving.

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YOGURT-POTATO SALAD

Serves about 6

In my view, the use of yogurt in this somewhat different than usual salad gives it its uniqueness.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander leaves

1/2 small hot pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3 large potatoes, about 1 pound, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes

1 cup plain yogurt

Heat oil in a saucepan, then sauté onion over medium heat for eight minutes. Stir in garlic, coriander leaves and hot pepper, then sauté for a few more minutes. Add remaining ingredients except yogurt, then barely cover with water. Bring to boil, then cover. Cook over medium/low heat for 30 minutes or until potatoes are done, then stir in yogurt and serve.

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YOGURT SOUP (Labaniyya )

Serves 6

When cooking this Syrian/Lebanese soup, precautions must be taken in order that it does not curdle or separate. This is done by gently stirring in one direction until it comes to a gentle boil.

2 eggs, beaten

3 cups plain yogurt

3 cups cold water

2 tablespoons butter

6 cloves garlic, crushed

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons dried crushed mint

Place eggs, yogurt, and water in a saucepan then stir until well blended. Place over medium heat then stir gently until mixture comes to boil. Reduce heat to very low.

Melt butter in a frying pan then add garlic, salt, and mint. Sauté over medium heat until garlic turns golden then stir garlic mixture into yogurt sauce. Remove from heat, then serve hot.

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DUMPLINGS IN YOGURT (Sheesh Barak)

Serves about 8

During my youth when the cold winter months rolled around, a steaming hot bowl of Sheesh Barak diffusing its mouth-watering aroma through our kitchen, has left a lasting impression in my culinary world.

Dumplings:

1 pound fresh or frozen dough, thawed

1 pound ground beef or lamb

2 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons pine nuts or slivered almonds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Yogurt sauce:

2 eggs, beaten

3 cups plain yogurt

3 cups cold water

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons dried crushed mint

Form dough into 3/4-inch balls, then cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for 1 hour.

In the meantime, make a filling by stir-frying meat in butter until light brown, then add the remaining dumpling ingredients and stir-fry for 3 minutes.

Roll out dough balls to make circles 1/8-inch thick. Place 1 level teaspoon filling on each circle, then fold dough over filling and pinch edges to seal. Fold in half again to shape dumpling like a thimble and pinch to close. Place dumplings on a greased tray and lightly brown in a 350°F preheated oven, turning them over once, then set aside.

To make sauce, place eggs and yogurt in a saucepan, then stir until well-blended. Add cold water,  then stir well. Cook over medium heat and gently stir in one direction until mixture comes to boil, then reduce heat to low.

Place butter in a small saucepan and melt then add the garlic, salt, and mint. Stir-fry over medium heat until garlic turns golden, then stir garlic mixture into yogurt sauce. Place dumplings in sauce, then cover and cook for 25 minutes over medium/low heat. Serve piping hot.

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YOGURT CAKE

Eaten alone or utilized as an ingredient in the preparation of other foods, yogurt is enjoyed worldwide by more people than any other dairy product.

1-1/2 cups plain yogurt

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup whipping cream

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Thoroughly combine yogurt, butter, cream, eggs, and sugar then set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into the yogurt mixture then stir to make a batter. Place in a well-greased 8 x 11 inch baking pan and let stand for an hour.

Bake in a 300 degrees F preheated oven for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean.

In the meantime, place honey and water in a pot then bring to boil. Boil for about 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Stir in lemon juice to make a syrup. Remove from heat and set aside.

Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool. Turn over on to a serving platter. Spoon the syrup evenly over the cake and serve warm.

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YOGURT DRINK

In the hot lands of North Africa, the preferred beverage to quench one’s thirst is similar to this yogurt drink.

4 cups plain yogurt

2 cups water

4 tablespoons melted honey

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Freshly chopped mint leaves

Place all ingredients, except mint leaves, in a blender; blend for 1 minute. Chill, and decorate with mint leaves before serving.

  Originally published in the September/October 2013 issue of Countryside & Small Stock Journal.

Yogurt: Medicinal Food on the Homestead was originally posted by All About Chickens

[sherristockman]

Harvard Says This Is the Ultimate Meal Plan Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola It stands to reason that if different foods offer unique nutrients to heal your body and maintain (or regain) health, it might be a good idea to change up your meals to include as many beneficial vitamins and minerals as possible if you're not doing so already. Including as many types of nutrients in your overall daily meal plan has a fringe benefit: A little variety in your life really does spice it up, especially in the area of your food choices. Determining which foods provide the most important nutrients is a good strategy to optimize your health. The reality, however, is that many people eat the same meals over and over, day after day, usually because they feel they don't have time to research which foods they should eat and often end up eating snacks by default instead of real food. It's always easiest to choose what you already know works for you. If sticking to a set of go-to meals you enjoy eating and take the shortest time to prepare are your main considerations, you may be missing out on delicious options and super easy meal plans that will provide the nutrients you need without a lot of fuss. A One-Day Meal Plan for Optimal Nutrition? Many people wonder if it's possible to get all the nutrients they need from food alone, and the answer is generally yes, provided you focus on high-quality foods (vitamin D, which your body produces from sun exposure, would be one exception). According to Harvard Women's Health Watch: "Experts agree that the best way to get the nutrients we need is through food. A balanced diet … offers a mix of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients (some yet to be identified) that collectively meet the body's needs." It's not a new concept. Harvard Health explored the premise in 2009 when they reported on a study involving nearly 162,000 postmenopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), with an emphasis on how people could get the vitamins and minerals needed through their diet.1 The study revealed that women who took multivitamins had similar rates of heart disease and certain cancers, as well as longevity, as those who did not, which suggests focusing on dietary interventions may be key.2 When it comes to optimal nutrition, eating foods that will fuel your body and help prevent disease is important, but you need to know what to gravitate toward and what to stay away from. As a reminder, whatever you eat, when it comes to meat and dairy, pastured is best, and for other foods, organic is often crucial to avoid ingesting genetically engineered or chemically treated fare. Harvard expert Dr. Helen Delichatsios, nutrition educator at Harvard Medical School, suggested a variety of foods to include in a one-day meal plan that would, all totaled, provide the general nutritional requirements for a 51- to 70-year-old woman, which I've adjusted slightly:3 Breakfast might consist of 8 ounces of raw grass fed yogurt with a handful of walnuts (14 halves) and a cup of papaya and kiwi, along with 4 ounces of raw grass fed milk Lunch could be a colorful garden salad containing 1 cup of dark green lettuce, one red pepper, 1 cup of grape tomatoes and sunflower seeds, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar as your dressing and fresh-ground black pepper on top Dinner could be 4 ounces of wild-caught Alaskan salmon, topped with a raw grass fed yogurt, lemon and garlic sauce, and a cup of steamed baby Bok choy While this might not be enough food for some people, the quantities would vary depending on your size, age and health status. Further, it would be wise to include a wider variety of healthy foods in your diet than is listed above. With that in mind, what would you need to eat to get the right amount of vitamins, minerals and other more obscure compounds to feel and function your best every single day, and even improve your mitochondrial function in the process? 'Fat for Fuel' Ketogenic Cookbook: A Superior Option for Your Daily Meals More than half of all Americans struggle with chronic illness, and 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S. is obesity-related. This is a direct result of eating far too much sugar and grains, too much protein and far too little healthy fat. To reduce your risk of chronic disease, maintain a healthy weight and improve your mitochondrial function (a key to long-term weight management and good health) through diet, the key is to eat in such a way that your body is able to burn fat as its primary fuel rather than sugars. Ketogenic diets are very effective for this, which is the focus of my latest book, "Fat for Fuel." A companion tool to "Fat for Fuel" is my "Fat for Fuel Ketogenic Cookbook: Recipes and Ketogenic Keys to Health from a World-Class Doctor and an Internationally Renowned Chef," with celebrity chef Pete Evans. It provides you with the delicious, kitchen-tested recipes you can use in your daily life to make the shift to fat-burning. While the Harvard daily meal plan was an improvement over the typical American diet, it misses some key points, like incorporating healthy fats. Examples of the easy-to-prepare, go-to meals you'll find in my "Fat for Fuel" cookbook are below. Use these recipes to help ensure you're getting the nutrition you need, without all the fuss: Green Eggs and Ham (for Breakfast) (Serves 2) Ingredients 4 eggs Melted coconut, for brushing 4 tablespoons finely chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, basil, mint and/or chervil) 4 to 6 slices of ham, to serve Raw veggies (lettuce, carrot and celery sticks, cherry tomatoes) to serve Procedure Fill a small saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmering, add eggs and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Drain, and when cool enough to handle, peel the eggs under cold running water Brush the peeled eggs with coconut oil, then roll them in herbs, gently pressing the herbs with your hands until evenly coated. Serve the eggs with the ham and raw vegetables. Fennel, Watercress and Herb Salad with Shallot Dressing (for Lunch) (serves 4) Ingredients 1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and shaved, fronds reserved 1 large handful watercress 1 handful mint leaves 1 handful dill fronds, shaved Lemon wedges, to serve Shallot Dressing 1 French shallot, finely diced 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Procedure Using a mandolin or sharp knife, thinly shave the fennel. Place all the herbs in a large bowl and set aside. To make the dressing, place all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk. Pour dressing over the salad just to coat and gently toss to combine, season if needed. Arrange on a platter to serve, drizzling more dressing on if desired. (Leftover dressing can be stored in a sealed jar and refrigerated up to two weeks. Crackling Chicken (for Dinner) (serves 4) Ingredients 8 chicken thighs, skin intact 1 tablespoon sea salt 2 teaspoon coconut oil or good-quality fat 2 teaspoons spice mix (like Cajun or Moroccan) Lemon wedges, to serve Procedure Flatten the chicken thighs with a mallet so they'll cook evenly. Season with salt. Melt the oil in a large, heavy pan over high heat; place the chicken, skin side down in the pan and season with the spice mix. Fry undisturbed for 6 to 8 minutes or until brown and crispy. Flip and fry 3 more minutes until cooked through. Remove from the pan and keep warm. Serve with lemon wedges and vegetables or salad. Nutrient-Dense Foods to Include in Your Ultimate Meal Plan Some of the most nutrient-dense foods to include in your diet, in no particular order, include: Mushrooms Sardines and anchovies Crucifers, i.e., cauliflower and Brussels sprouts Bone broth Pastured beef Pastured organic eggs, milk and butter Berries, i.e., raspberries, blueberries and strawberries Nuts, i.e., pecans and macadamias Seeds, i.e., sesame and sunflower Olive and coconut oils Wild-caught Alaskan salmon Avocados Turmeric Red onions and garlic Sprouts, i.e., broccoli and sunflower Fresh herbs i.e., oregano, rosemary and basil Fermented vegetables Chili peppers Crimini mushrooms Dark leafy greens Some people have decided that, due to time constraints or other inconveniences, taking some kind of one-a-day multivitamin to make up for any glaring inconsistencies in the way of nutrition will do the job. However, Harvard Medical School experts digress. Dr. Clifford Lo, an associate professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, says this approach isn't as simple or as foolproof as it may seem, and for a couple of reasons.4 Taking dietary supplements to "fill in the gaps" nutritionally may end up providing more of certain vitamins, minerals and other phytonutrients than is good for you. Too much vitamin A, for example, can overload your system and actually become toxic.5 While in some cases a high-quality daily multivitamin can be beneficial, it's important to know what your body needs and what you're not getting through food before including dietary supplements in your routine. For nutrients that can only come through ingestion, getting them from food as opposed to through supplements is always best. However, if it's a nutrient you can't get through food, it's an essential nutrient. Unfortunately, nutritional deficiencies are becoming more common, and only being informed can help you move toward optimal health. Eating Well Is Wise, but Other Elements Are Also Important for Health Eating well isn't the only thing to pay attention to as you make progress in taking control of your health; other aspects of your life are just as important, especially as there are so many unhealthy aspects that make illness and disease more prevalent, such as free radicals caused by exposure to air pollution and chemicals in household cleaners, lawn fertilizers, pet products and beauty products. Protecting your ability to get eight hours of sleep every night is one consideration toward reaching optimal health, as is avoiding setting your cellphone by your bedside or carrying it near your body, exposing yourself to harmful electromagnetic fields (EMFs). As for putting together a nutritionally based meal plan, getting an array of different nutrients is one of the most important strategies for fighting disease. Coming up with what to eat for your daily meals is half the battle to eating right, which is why relying on a cookbook like "Fat for Fuel" makes getting healthy so much easier. Make it your go-to source for meal planning and soon you'll have confidence that in at least one area of your life, you actually are taking control of your health.