A Month Of Easy Cooking

between now and the new Year there will be nothing but hectic rushing. There are Christmas concerts, office parties and of course shopping. Tons of shopping for both food and gifts. All that means easy meals that are quck to make.

This is where the air fryer and crockpot are necessary. Air fryer meals are easy to make in only minutes and the plus side they're given an extra crunch.Think chicken nuggets whether the real thing or plant based. Gardein has both nuggets and plant based chicken flavored filets which can easily be turned into lemon pepper chicken. Brush both sides of th efilets with lemon juice and then dust with pepper before air frying. This and air fried veggies make for a satisfying meal. Keep in mind that hot dogs are also good air fried. The best part is they only take five minutes to cook up. Serve on toasted butter buns with spray cheese on top for a fun meal the kids will love. You can also use the air fryer to make Hannukah latkes  or just regular potato pancakes for a quick Saturday or Sunday supper.Have sides of applesauce and sour cream as sides. Prepeared meat balls and sausages  can also be air fried and then easily added to a jarred sauce for a homemade flavor.

Your crockpot should be in heavy rotation during this time. The cold weather practically begs for a pot of easy to make chili. It's just a simple mix of canned tomatoes, tomato sauce and ground beef or plant based crumbles(Keep in mind this also makes for a grea homemade pasta sauce too). Add the chili and cumin to suit your family's taste. It can be mild or five alarm hot. Buy a square of cornbread (Acme has this fresh baked) to serve with it. You cna mix it up by making a white chili which has turkey instead of beef and cannellini beans along with cream cheese instead of tomatoes. Its flavored much the same way with cumin and got pepper along with garlic.  Serve with slabs of garlicky Texas toast. Your crockpot or even Insta pot can also wield up a good old fashioned stew too. Chicken or beef is perfect, Add carrots , onions an dleeks along with potatoes for a tasty blend. Serve with hot crusty rolls and an easy to make green salad for a quick week day meal.

Keep this four weeks easy cooking. It's easy , using your air fryer and crockpot. The meals will still be homemade, delicious but a snap to make.

 

Eat Like A President

 Everyone wonders what it's like to live in the White House , no matter what the era. You can experience one aspect of it on this President's Day - the dining.  White House recipes have been varied but attainable. Anyone now can eat like the Commander-In-Chief.

One of the most popular (and it was Abe Lincoln's favorite) was cornbread. Rutherford B Hayes, the nineteenth president also served it at the White House and it's easy to see why. Who doesn't love a square of the freshly made bread, drizzled with honey the way Lincoln loved it or warm from the oven slathered with salted butter. Cornbread is a great bake , either as a snack or with dinner. Yet it also is a great bed for chili - a popular favorite with both George W Bush and family and Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. Bake up a batch and then cut into squares. Ladle chili on top for a hearty winter dish. If you want something hardier, then look no further than William Howard  Taft and Teddy Roosevelt. Both men loved a good steak and potatoes dinner. This can be easily replicated with a good filet mignon and a baked potato. This would have suited them but you do need a little green in there to balance the meal's heaviness. Add a simple green salad with a few grape tomatoes , carrots and broccoli florets tossed in, Another spin on the presidential favorites is a grilled flank steak with French fries . You could add a simple au jus sauce to dip the fries into. 

Some of our leaders loved chicken instead of red meat. Woodrow Wilson loved his wife , Lou's, chicken salad. This dish is a great way to use up leftover rotisserie chicken. It's cubing the meat and combining it with mayo and chopped celery, Some add grapes for sweetness and color , other's add a dash of paprika for kick. A tastier add in would be green olives. It's good on white toast but also great on sliced French bread.Warren G. Harding was true to his Midwestern roots and loved chicken pot pie. Many home chefs shy away from it because they feel it's too complicated a recipe. You can easily simplify it by using frozen veggies, and canned cut chicken. The crust  can be Pilsbury pie crust or biscuits arranged om top. More recent presidents like Obama loved nachos. These are always a fun make. You can make them with just melted cheddar and salsa on top or try something more elaborate with guacamole, sour cream and chopped meat.  Our presidents weren't exactly ones for dessert yet some, like Calvin Coolidge loved a good apple pie. This is a great bake, and a refreshing break from all that bread and cake.  You can vary the recipe by adding walnuts or caramel. Dwight EIsenhower loved his wife's fudge and this is definitely a fun make. Add walnuts and marshmallows the way Mamie Eisenhower did. 

You can eat like a president. Make a recipe that was a White House favorite. It 'll be one of yours too.

Huel Chili Cold Weather Fuel

 We need nutritious and tasty food  to get through this season. Luckily Huel has come along with its' Hot and Savory line. These are nutrition packed instant meals that can be cooked with just hot water or microwaved.I thought I'd give the chili a try.

Huel is known for its' bars, ready to drink and powders. These are chock full of proteins, perfect for those on a diet or just want to eat better. The new line is perfect for providing the body with the important ingredients. There are three flavors, the Mexican chili, rife with quinoa, rice , peppers and beans, the tomatoes and herbs which mixes in lentils and onions and green curry, a blend of peppers, sweet corn and scallions.

The bags contain a whopping one pound of mix.

and each bag contains seven servings. a scoop is given for scooping out the mix and a cup to mix.You can see the different mix of grains, beans and spices.

since I was making it for dinner, I doubled the amount to four to five scoops and about a cup of water.

It was then cooking it for six minutes. You can use less to make a hot, satisfying lunch with it. 

It's a very thick mix , thicker than home made  thanks tot he rice and quinoa. You can thin the chili with a tablespoon or two of tap water.

It was fiery and super spicy. I feel I could its' spiciness can be cut with more beans but it was flavorful. I like how it could also be served with cornbread or polenta. A small serving is only four hundred calories, good for those on before holiday diets.

Huel Hot and Savory is the perfect cold weather meal for lunch or dinner. Try any of the three flavors for the maximum amount of nutrition. It's tasty and good for you during these hard times.

A Harvest of Cookbooks Part Two

Baking is one of the mainstays of the fall kitchen, whether for holidays or just dessert. There's nothing like whipping up a cake or pie. Luckily there is a whole range of new cookbooks that center on the different sweets and treats that are hot off the presses right now.

The New York Times Food section reviewed an entire array of them yesterday. The savory ones were written about yesterday  and they covered  a wide range of interesting cuisines from East African to Ina Garten's comfort food recipes. Contributors to the New York Times Food section also reviewed these baking themed cookbooks.Julia Moskin, Pete Wells, Melissa Clark and Kim Severson along with Emily Weinstein and Margaux Laskey critiqued all sorts . Pie lovers will go mad for Pie For Everyone : Recipes and Stories From Petee's  Pie, New York's Best Pie Shop (Abrams) is by Petra Paradez who owns the pie shop. She is a whiz at creating pies and tarts for all sorts of pie lovers, from the vegans to the buttery crust lover. She even has a way of sneaking more butter into her crusts for  a melt in your mouth bite. Chef Paradez includes a classic and almost forgotten New York favorite, the chestnut filled Nesselrode pie. Another book that features classic recipes is The Good Book Of Southern Baking :A Revival of Biscuits, Cakes and Cornbread, (Lorena Jones) features the chef of New Orlean's famed Willa Jean, Kelly Fields. She elevates classic recipes such as angel food cake flecked with two kinds of shaved chocolate and airy pancakes made with egg whites.

Fun cookbooks also are here as well. Snacking Cakes : Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings (Clarkston Potter) by Yossy Arefi a contributor to the Sunday Times T magazine, is the perfect book for any one who loves a good hunk of cake. The book is full of such mouth watering recipes as gingerbread and powdered sugar doughnut cakes. For more adventurous bakers there is A Good Bake : The Art and Science of Making Perfect Pastries, Cakes Cookies, Pies Breads at Home (Knopf) by Melissa Weller,a former chemical engineer and Carolynn Carreno.Ms, Weller shows how to make a sugar cookie top extra crackly and how to make toppings stay on focaccia. Advanced home bakers will love reading through Claire Saffitz's Dessert Person : Recipes and Guidance for Baking With Confidence (Clarkson Potter) Ms. Saffitz' is a pastry chef who has contributed to The NY TImes along with being contributing editor to Bon Appetit  magazine. She has detailed recipes with step by step how to recipes on almond butter banana bread and salted halvah blondies. Fans of San Francisco's 20th Century Cafe will love Baking at the 20th Century Cafe: Iconic  European desserts From Linzer Torte to Honey Cake (Artisan). Author Michelle Polzine puts' fresh spins on staid classics and allows home bakers to try their hand at elegant cookies and sweet and savory strudels.

Fall is the season for baking. Any of the cookbooks can give the recipes perfect for the cooler months ahead. They have a plethora of treats and desserts for home bakers looking for something new to create.

A Gathered Thanksgiving Part One

Despite the great political divide and intolerance that's gripping this country, there is one thing that unifies us as a nation  - Thanksgiving. No matter our ancestry, our skin color, or our beliefs we come together in giving thanks and gratitude. Many have forgotten that nowadays,. The New York Times Food section has it. This week , there are holiday recipes from all sorts of home chefs.

Diversity and the willingness to not only explore but to hold on to ttime-honored traditions is what make's America's kitchens so great. The Tmes interviewed fifteen families from all over the US. There is the taste of somalia thanks to clothig designer sisters Ayaan and Idyl Mohallim of Brooklyn  who have their family rice recipe, bariis iskukaris. This is a rich mix of basmati rice cooked in chcken stock and flavored with various spices such as cumin and fenugreek, Raisins top and red onions. Filipinos have bibingko instead of cornbread. Nicole Ponseca, a New Yorker and first generation American-Filipino creates this tasty dish made from rice and coconut milk. Preserved salted eggs and Parmesan cheese give it saltiness and richness Of course there is traditional recipes such as Sweeney potatoes from the Passanisi family  of Alameda California Theirs comes from grandmother , Florence Sweeney who took the recipe from her Dutch ancestors. she named it after her Irish husband Kevin Sweeney. It's like a scalloped potatoes, lush with cream cheese and sour cheese. Butter and cheddar cheese make it even more silkier.


The history of American food is the history of this country.It was never more evident in african cooking with dishes going back to the enslaved period in American history.. Erika Council  has her grandmother's Mildred Council's pork neck and macaroni. Her grandmother was a restaurant owner and chef  who crried on this simple but delicious mix of bomes and onion simmered in ater flavored with pepper flakes, ground pepper and salt.. It's cooked until the broth is gelatinous and then the macaroni is added. The Latino influence is also strong and vibrant in this country. Cuban american Margarita Velasco of Miami  who combines her two heritages into one pumpkin flan. It is made with calabaza, a kind of pumpkin shaped squash used in  many Cuban recipes. For MarthBeltrann of austen Texas, it pan de jamon, ham bread from Bogota Columbia, It is a labor intensive  and time consuming because the bread that is later filled with butter, olives and ham. It wouln't be a  family dinner without it,.

America is a truly diverse country. Our foods define us and our heritage yet they blend together to form our cuisine. It's varied, reflectng us and who we are.

Another Thanksgiving Issue

The New York Times Food section  has put out a second Thanksgiving issue. It's different in the than the first, rethinking time-tested recipes and putting new spins on them. There  are traditional veggies done differently along with a new way to cook that bird. It's a refreshing rethink of how to cook and bake for the big day.

All the big guns of the Food section have weighed in and written informative articles.One of the most interesting is Melissa Clark's. Her A Good Appetite  features splaying and searing the turkey as opposed to the traditional roasting. She decided to try the technique she uses on chicken on a much larger bird. Both are similar with the same amount of white and dark meat so the splaying technique that works with the smaller can help the larger. Is it easier than roasting? Yes, and it creates an evenly roasted turkey with silky and juicy white meat and perfectly cooked dark meat.Unlike spatchcocking , which requires intricate deboning, splaying is cutting the skin and then pulling on the thighs until you hear them pop out of their sockets. It's then laying them flat. Ms. Clark also pours wine on  the turkey for braising, although she suggests using any liquid , from cider to beer, diced tomatoes to  even water. What completes this? A platter of vibrant, green Brussels sprouts. Newcomer Alison Roman, a contributor to Bon Appetit magazine gives us them cooked in three tasty recipes. One is sauted with sausage and pickled red onions along ith one for honey roasted ones made exotic by the addition of harissa and lemon relish. More traditional home chefs may like the Brussels sprouts gratin bathed in a lush heavy cream and Gruyere cheese.

 Of course, there is a stuffing recipe. Kim Severson writes about a traditional cornbread one. It's a controversial one, with professional chefs  polarized about what kind of cornmeal - white or yellow - to use. There is a debate - which is sweeter?  She settles on the yellow for color and intense flavor. The recipe also includes  sugar along with buttermilk and butter to give it richness. The stuffing isn't entirely cornbread. There is also white bread used too along with the usual stuffing ingredients like onions,,sage and eggs. She bakes the stuffing separately and gives it extra flavor by pouring the  turkey drippings on it about thirty minutes into the baking time. For extra crunch and taste, there is also the addition of toasted pecans for real Southern flavor. Pecans also figure in David Tanis' A City Kitchen. He makes pecan rolls that have the extra sweetness of golden raisins.Instead of the usually gooey cream cheese frosting, he just dusts them with a mix of sugar and cinnamon. Make these the night before for a Thanksgiving breakfast treat. His other pecan recipes offer savory (!) cookies laden with cheese and sage and a dessert bar . The first is a great side to the first course of soup or a salad. The second is a yummy mix of pecans, dates, spices and rum on top of a buttery shortbread base.These are a nice stand in to the gooier, ultra sweet pecan pie.

Thanksgiving is all about tradition and traditional dishes. Yet , it pays to think outside the box and try new cooking techniques and recipes. It makes for a  more delicious and more memorable holiday meal.

The Fun Diet

Yes, January is here and with it comes the dread of a diet. No one likes to give up that fun holiday diet of roasts and cookies, champagne and caviar. Yet suppose we could have a diet that's fun, one full of tasty dishes and treats that makes us want more?Is that possible? Yes!

Everyone love pizza and tacos. A low calorie  homemade pizza is both healthy and fun. Start by making a whole wheat dough. It will be a denser, chewier dough but will be chock full of vitamins and minerals along with fiber. Use fresh tomatoes or other veggies such as broccoli, kale, and yes even cabbage. As for meat, think leftover chicken or steak. Tuna is another good topper and works well with tomato. Cheese can be held to a minimum unless you're using low cal mozzarella. Try an unusual and colorful topping of chopped scallions. Tacos re another fun meal that can be turned into a yummy diet treat. Instead of having iceburg lettuce, try red cabbage or arugula, Keep the tomatoes  but zing it up with fiery tomatilloes and peppers. Fresh chopped onions add crunch, zest and sweetness. You can also saute the veggies fajita style before adding them to the tacos. definitely use guacamole but nix the sour cream (unless you use the low fat kind). Make a heart healthy guac by  adding two to three tablespoons of olive oil. It not only is good for you but definitely makes the dip satiny smooth and super creamy.

Chili, done healthy is another yummy treat. Go with chopped turkey meat or vegan crumbles. This is a better fat free version. Serve with cornbread which surprisingly is not that high in calories. A fun dinner idea is taking corn muffins , splitting them in half and  then pouring chili on both sides, kind of like a spicy sloppy Joe. Salads , a diet must , can be livened up simply by adding a flavored vinegar, Try infusing crushed blueberries or a dash of pure pomegranate in a regular red wine or apple cider variety. Textures make those greens sing. Toast some sesame seeds  or almond slivers to sprinkle on. Dried cranberries add bother color ,tartness and chewiness. A great diet treat along fridge cleaner is getting rid of that leftover roast. Add cold cubed  London Broil or chicken to just spinach and grape tomatoes. Dress with just oil and vinegar and serve with bread sticks.Everyone love breakfast sandwiches at any time of the day. Make them heart healthy by just using egg whites, soy cheese and soy bacon on an English muffin.It makes just as good a lunch or dinner as it does a day starter.

Don't be discouraged by the thought of a diet. Make it fun with fun good for you dishes.  You'll still have a good time but will be losing weight instead of gaining it.

Real Southern Cooking

Just in time for the New Year yesterday's New York Times Dining section has a great piece on Southern cooking.. Julia Moskin celebrates the real deal in her paeon of the best regional cuisines. It's not just fried chicken and biscuits. It's truly American food with layers of nuances and subtleties.

This particular branch of American cooking has gone back to it's roots, thanks to a new generation of chefs.It's more of a farm to table transition focusing on fresh veggies and freshly cured meats. Everything has an earthy , home made  taste  from hominy or grits to the New Year's classic Hoppin' John. The last is a traditional dish that involves black eyed peas and rice.  Thanks to heirloom grains and old strains being grown again. this dish is returning to its' original glory.Of course, artesanal bacon fat and herbs are also added, creating a  recreation of what planters ate. Southern crops flavors are returning due to  careful farming and processing.The taste isn't being  'washed out" by added sprays of vitamins and pesticides.Also crop rotation, learned from the African slaves is also making a comeback. This helps in producing, bigger and healthier produce.

Southern chefs are also learning to recreate some other dishes as well.They are going into butchery, important for making delicious cuts of ham and ribs. Side dishes such as piccalilli and chowchow are showing up on many a restaurant table.Reezy peezy , originally risi bisi , rice and peas and learned from 18th Century Italian engineers who came to the colonies to advise, is showing up, with more flavorful peas.. These involved red or cream peas that were eaten when green . This basic dish also is getting star billing. Not to be outdone cornbread is being redone with the  original recipes. It is more flavorful, and moister than what is normally baked in supermarkets and bakeries.

Southern cooking is making a comeback while maintaining its' original roots.The result is a return to what cooking was- delicious and flavorful. It's bringing back the best of the South with tasty results.

From Blog To Cookbook The Homesick Texan Cookbook

Many bloggers dream of turning their daily weblogs into books and from there into solid gold. This has happened to Lisa Fain, creator of the great blog The Homesick Texan Cookbook. Her insights and recipes will be available September 13th when the blog turned book goes out to the public. It's a cookbook that has a definite appeal. Why? Because it features all old fashioned Texan recipes.There are chilis and biscuits, cornbreads and barbecues. Any foodie can recreate a perfect Houston barbecue or San Antonio Tex Mex feast.

Ms Fain was the subject of yesterday's weekly Feed Me column in The New York Times Dining section. The interview ,conducted by Alex Wichtel, highlights this former office worker's love of her native Texan cuisine. She started her blog when she was working in the magazine production section of Advertising Age . It became a full time job and she quit to work on it and the accompanying cookbook. It paid off. There are many people who follow her and love the down hominess of her recipes. These are family recipes with the chief ingrdients being love.

I checked out the site and it is a good one. The recipes are true Texan , using native chiles and produce. Since Texas is also part of the South the recipes also reflect that cuisine. There are a lot of cornbread, crawfish and biscuit recipes along with sweet buns and cobblers. I love her black eye pea dip and will try it along with her pea salad, a Texas classic.Ms. Fain also has a section where you can buy other authors' cookbooks featuring barbecue and Southern cooking. You can also buy chilies , Mexican chocolate and other ingredients along with pots and pans too.

The Homesick Texan Cookbook is a great blog and it will be neat cookbook too. If you haven't visited this site yet please do. You'll pick up some tasty homestyle Texan recipes and some interesting down home advice.