Old Ingredients, New Dishes

Ever look into your pantry or fridge and just sigh? You're faced with the same boring ingredients day after day , year after year? Do you feel like you're boxed into making the same dishes?Then revamp your cooking. Use the same old stuff but in a different dish? You'd be surprised at what you can come up with.

Rice and cornmeal can be pretty boring. They do make a great aides for dishes like gumbo and the latter for chicken cacciatore. However they are also wonderful at the bottom of a chili bowl. Their creamy blandness is the perfect foil for any chili's fieriness and chunky texture.Pasta too is great with traditional sauces but you can also use it to make a zesty low mein or even fried into Chinese birds nests to house creations like Szechuan beef or curried chicken. Veggies , usually reserved for salads and sides can make wonderful grilled kabobs . Try onion peppers and grape tomatoes for a fun and new hors d"oeuvre.

Sweets also can turn run of the mill. Those Lorna Doone and Social Tea cookies can be used instead of Nilla wafers for ice box puddings.Even the wafers, especially the new multicolored ones, are a neat for layering in a trifle or individual parfaits. Take a plain chocolate bar. Scrape it along a hasp and then add it to softened plain vanilla ice cream to create stratichella, Italian chocolate chip ice cream. You can also add it to puddings for some extra crunch. That ho hum fruit bowl can be made into a dozen different things to help you come up with fun snacks and desserts.

Boring ingredients don;t have to be boring. Think outside the cookbook for once and try your own hand at creating novel dishes. it;s a fun way to approach the ordinary!

Crostoli - A Fried Holiday Sweet

Around this time of year we get in undated with sweets.there are endless cookies and scores of cakes. In th e midst of all this home baked goodness there's the crostoli , a fried sweet treat. it's a light an dairy alternative to all those snaps and tortes. One bite is crunchy, sweet and downright heavenly.

Crostoli is an Italian treat however the Poles make their own version called krusciki. The Piedmontese Italians also have a thinner version called bugie . It's basically a simple egg rich dough that's then fried. In Ital crostoli are a big carnival food.They can be made and then cooked on the spot being served piping hot. The Tuscan version requires Marsala wine for a sweet kick. while the Polish version is whiskey and sour cream laced. Some recipes just call for an egg, sugar and flour mix without any alcohol. However recipes vary from family to family. the one universal is that they all have powdered sugar dusted on them. (which creates a heavenly sweet cloud when you bite into one)

Crostoli can also be made plan and served with various sauces for dipping (hits was popular at the famous crepe chain The Magic Pan decades ago). You can make bougie or crostoli, ,nix the sugar at the end and serve with sweet dips. Most popular are chocolate along with apricot and raspberry dips. You can also sprinkle them with just cinnamon for Mexican vibe.

Instead of baking sweet treats this holiday season, think about frying them. crostoli are a different holiday sweet that everyone will enjoy. Not only that they are just heavenly to eat, light an airy as spun sugar.

Chicken Wars

There seems to be trouble brewing in the fast food industry. It has to do with chicken and what's being made and sold out there. Now everything is healthy as opposed to over fried and over flavored. However these last two are also popular. What a junk food affectionado to do? Good question.

It seems the Big Three, Wendy's McDonalds' and KFC are all heading towards the no transfat, eat uber healthy chicken. Wendy's has reintroduced its' salad menu with some new combos and all include fresh hot roasted chicken breast. This is a good move, especially for salad lovers. Not to be outdone Mickey D's is also serving both crispy chicken ad grilled chicken in its' wraps and sandwiches. These have much more choices than Wendy's however the best bet is sticking with Wnedy's. KFC has jumped on their bandwagon since last Spring when it introduced grilled, skinless chicken. It's a better alternative to the fried coated variety.

However there are always places like the Wing Zone and Pollo Tropicale to give you deep fried, or heavily spiced fowl.. I love the Wing Zone because it' so defiant. Nothing is just grilled . Its' fried wings are dripping in pure grease. Theirs is one of the most flavorful and tender chicken I've tasted . I also like the much healthier for you Pollo Tropicale. Unlike the other fast foods ' grilled chicken it comes highly spiced and just yummy. It's good for you but doesn't taste like it.

Who will win in the chicken wars? It depends on what the nation wants. We;re on the road to good health so I'm going to say Wendy's Mc Donald';s and KFC will win this one. That is until other fast food chains come up with an even healthier way to prepare chicken.