Cold And Easy

 This is the time for a cold dessert or snack. Nothing beats soemthing that's a  snap to make  along with being eeasy to prepare. Look to some simple sweets that are frosty and delicious.

Many love homemade ice cream. Nothing beats the taste of a homemade chocolate or vanilla.Home chefs can create an eggless one using cocoa powder, whole milk, sugar and heavy cream . A dash of vanilla is thrown in to heighten the chocolate flavor. Everything is whisked together and the put in the fridge for thirty minutes before it s oured into an ice cream maker. You can add chocolate chips or even nuts for a Rocky Road flavor. Vanilla ice cream is also an easy make.I'ts just taking whole milk and combining it with heavy cream granulated sugar and vanilla. You can also make a vegan version using coocnut or plant based milk milk and cashew butter. It still uses vanilla as flavor. You could also try an ice cream that doesn;t require a machine.Melissa  Clark offers a  no churn caramel one in Wednesday's New York Times  Food section.It's an easy make of whipped cream,  blended with  a  can or jar of dukce de leche . A sprinkle of flaky sea salt cuts the sugariness. Serve ti in a cone of waffle bowl, with a spoonful of hot fudge for decadence.

That Italian classic granita is another cool treat that's super easy to make. A favorite is a coffee granita, a homemade ice that's served with whipped cream and chocolate syrup.Mix three cups of strong espresso with three fourths cup of sugar and teaspoon of vanilla extract. Stir until everything is dissolved and pour into a nine by thirteen inch pan. Place the pan in the freezer for one hour until the mixture becomes slushy. Rake the crystals with a dinner fork to break up the crystals. Pop back into the freezer and then rake it every thirty minutes. Serve in parfait or martini glasses with a drizzle of chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Granita can be made with fruit too. You just need four cups of any cubed fruit, a quarter cup of any flavorful liquid and a quarter cup of granulated sugar. A pinch of salt can be added to bring out the fruit's flavor. As for the flavorful liquid, try lemon or lime juice but even wine or kombucha can do. Puree all the ingredients and then freeze in a metal pan. Freeze anywhere between thirty and forty five minutes and start to flake it with a fork afterwards. Keep doing this every thirty minute two or three times. It't then frozen for four hours before serving.

A sweet cold treat is just as easy to make as it is to eat. Make a quick ice cream or granita to beat the heat.It's great way to beat the summer heat.

Vegan From The Pantry

A pantry can yield a host of different ingredients. You can get tinned cherries for a pie or sundae.There are the basics for making sauce ro chili. You can even go vegan with  all these cans.

New contributor Hetty Lui McKinnon and co author of the great vegetarian cookbook Tenderheart wrote about easy vegan cooking in yesterday's New YorkTimes Food section. As with any vegetarian diet  she recommends eating seasonally but don't stress if you can't find what you need or head to a farmer's market. Go to your pantry, Her recipes are built on te presence if unami or the Japanese word for deliciousness. The veggies themself star in the dishes as opposed to be second string. The first recipe is crispy potato tacos, made with chunks of any kind of potato cut into one and a half sized pieces, They're cooked and then roughly mashed with cheddar cheese (you could sub in Montery Jack for some bite)cilantro, garlic and cumin. The spicy red salsa can be made with fresh or canned tomatoes. It's mixing them with red onions, Serrano chiles.garlic cumin and oregano. A pinch of sugar is added to this as it's placed into a food processor and pureed.It's then poured into a saucepan with vegetable broth and cooked for fifteen to twenty minutes.It'll turn dark and become slightly thickened. Serve it over the warm tortillas for more flavor. Add sliced avocadoes if you want.

The other recipes also from Ms. McKinnon;s cookbook Tenderheart is a tasty soy butter corn ramen and salt and vinegar kale chips with fried chickpeas and avocado. The ramen is a nod to pasta dishes, fusing Japeanese and Italian cooking traditions. This is made with four ears of fresh corn, now in season. strip the cobs of th e kernal and add these to boiling water. Cook until the smell of corn permeates the kitchen. Noodle blocks are then added to this, being boiled until the pasta is loosened up for about two to two and half minutes. Drain and add the soy sauce, corn and butter.Tosss for a few minutes  and then sprinkled some chopped scallions on top. There is the fun kale chips. The kale is tossed with olive oil, either red wine or apple cider vinegar and garlic.The leaves are spread on two sheet pans and roasted for twenty-five to thirty minutes at 275 degrees Farenheit. After remove from the oven and season with salt. The olive oil should be fried in about three to four tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Reuce the heat a bit of the chickpeas pop and bounce out of the skillet. Take them out of the skillet with a slotted spoon,  and drain on paper towels. season the peas with cayenne and  paprika. Add salt and pepper if you like. You can add a  fried egg and sliced avocado if you want. This makes for a nice brunch bit also for a good appetizer  at a barbecue,.

The pantry can yield up all sorts of canned ingredients. Use these treasures to create a tasty vegetarian dinner or even a brunch dish. They three great recipes for bringing more veggies into the diet

Fueling Those Concerts

 Everyone has to eat and that includes rock stars. They have to be fed while on tour and a quick meal from a nearby eatery isnt going to do it.They need an army of chefs and their staff to provide them with ther favorite foods, It makes touring that much easier,

Multi media journalist and first time contributor Soo Yuon wrote abote this in today''s New York Times Food section. Just like an army that marches on its' stomach a singer and his or her entourage which include roadies and technicians also runs on their stomach as well. Being an on the road chef is challenging but interesting. The production demands are significant . The standard for a sizable tour is four meals on set up and show days. There's breakfast, lunch and dinner along with an after dinner meal usually eaten on a tour bus.Not only does the star have to be well fed  but also the back up singers and dancers, stage builders, the pyrotechnics crew and security guards. Also included are the managers and bus drivers, along with whoever else is involved in the concert. Usually these chefs and their staffs cook in the arenas' vast kitchens but sometimes kitchens have to be assembled.These custom based ones have to have shelves and cabinets built along with ovens..These have to be packed and repacked in specialized flight cases that are assembled and reassembled in each city visited. Sometimes they're  assmebled in parking lots too.

Then there is the problem of picky perfomers. Lizzo is a  vegetarian. Her recent show at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert , California had a juicing station with a blender ready basket of vegetables. There were also corn dogs and Southern fried chicken for the carnivores - namely the roadies - on her tour. She also had plant based Impossible sliders, couscous , squash  ,carrots and cookies. Stars  are not as bad as they were in the past. The band Van Halen had put a ban on brown M&M's in their candy dishes. Gene Simmons of the classic band KISS always wanted a turkey sandwich  with lettuce, pickles and tomatoes on the side. yet he only ate the sandwuch and nothing more. Marilyn Manson demanded that  boxes of Kraft's baked mac and cheese be shipped to england when he was touring there. Kraft does produce it in the UK but the taste is different. Beyonce does her own pastry chef Grant Byrd who bakes her favored cookie, a kind of chocolate chip with Belgian milk chooclate and chopped Reeses peanut cups folded in. One thing that all chefs have to watch - food poisoning. A sick star can cost an arena millions of dollars in cancellations. The food always has to be fresh

A full stomach and good food make a star shine brighter. These chefs and their staff work just as hard as these celebrtities to make a tour stand out. They are just as inportant as any musician.

A Chef's Kiss

 What happens when a restaurant loses a master chef? It continues as best it can. The recipes carry on despite  them not being as good as the original.

I feel that way with my Mom whose birthday is today. She would have been 101  - a great age.Her years with us were  very  great learning periods.Her imprint is felt in our cooking  and baking today. She was always a big one for mixing olive oil and butter to temper the oil. It's almost a knee jerk reaction to add a knob or two of Melt plant butter (what would she have thougth of that - maybe she would have liked it). Combining the two also gives sauteed and fried dishes a better flavor along with some body. Mom also cooked rice in vegetable broth which makes for a perfect quick lunch or weekend supper, but also a good base for ratatouille.Her risotto was amazing too and her patieince in creating this tempermental dish was also nothing short of amazing either. Both it and her other signature dish polenta (which she grew up on thanks to my Piedmontese grandmother) require constant stirring. That takes a  great amount of patience especially during warm weather. Yet the end result is worth it as she always proclaimed.

My Mom also passed down her love of culinary travel and boldness in making dishes from other cuisines. We were the first family on the block to have tacos for dinner. She was the first to have a wok.One of her all time favorite dishes , the Szechuan ants climbing a tree is still made. It's what connects me to her. I've tweaked it and made it vegan , using plant based beef crumbles instead of the real thing.Her culinary sense of adventure made me try Ethiopian lentil and tomato stew with Berbere spices.I try to step put of the box as I test out new recipes or vegan versions of traditional ones. Would she have like the fact that everyone uses the internet instead of traditional cookbooks nowadays? That's a good question. It is easy to get any kind of recipe yet there is something about reading a cookbook cover to cover. You do learn about the recipes better instead of a quick glance before combining ingredients. She loved to pore over the glossy photographs and imagine that's what her rendition would look like. There's also something about a cookbook with stained pages and tweaks pencilled written in.

It's hard when a master chef leaves. Yet the restaurant goes on. The food may not be the same but the love and sense of love for food still exists.

The Local Cuisine

 One of the biggest question any vacationer has is where do the locals eat  and even shop for food? It's impoirtant to go to decent eateries and shops where you know you'll get good food. However where do you begin? The locals.

Check out the your destination for all sorts of a good places to eat and drink. what helps is Googling the town or city and then typing in the best restaurants. Forget their websites . TRy the Yelp and even Facebook fan pages. Diners are brutally honest on these. Yelp reviewers even post pictures of their favorite dishes and desserts too. what happens if the dish is too expensive? Go for the eatery's cheaper dishes. They're probably just as good as what's posted.what if it's a big city like Paris or New York? Again Yelp reviews help but also restaurant guides and with New York , The New York Times always has excellent and pretty honest reviews. Check out reviewers' Sam Sifton and Pete Wells along with Ligaya Mishan. All three also cover the boroughs too and sometimes restaurants, on Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. Another way is ask the locals themselves. Don t be afraid to quiz at the gas station or even at the local drugstore. If it's a small town like a Jersey shore one, you'll get a whole slew of answers just by standing on line.

This also applies ot local farmers markets and grocery stores. Many are heading to shore towns, like in New Jersey. Most motel rooms have kitchenettes where you can cook a quick meal. You'll also need dishwashing soap and if you haven't packed them, shampoo and sunscreen too. Local groceries stock these too. How do you know of the local grocery store is a good one? Check out the parking lot. If it's relatively full then you kniow its a popular store. Again some grocery stores will have their deli sections reviewed  and list what it good to buy. Also local groceries usually get their produce from nearby farms so you know the fruits and veggies you;re buying are going to be tasty and fresh. Locals also buy from these farms too so check them out. They may also have great sovenirs and gifts, like homemade jam or honey along with homemad e ice cream and ices. Rememember to check out the local fish stores too if you want to make lobster or filets.

Alsways trust the locals when you go on vacation. They have the best advice when it comes to where to eat and shop. Heed them for a better holiday experience.

Frosty Drinks

 This is definitely the time for a nice cold drink. It doesn;'t matter if it's store bought or home made. As long as it's filled with ice and wintry cold. 

One of th emost fun frozen drinks is A slurpee ro Icee. Mc.Donamds; is offering their version  in both the Fanta Blue raspberry and Coca Cola Classic/ The lastt is really a gift. It is cold sweet and numbingly icy. I've been choosing it over regular soda when I grab a burger there. Another must sip (or slurp) is QuikChek Quick Freeze Try their Coke and Jarrito's manadarin orange flavors. Jarrito's is really refreshing and has a tang to it. You can easily make something similar at home by using a Zoku Slush cup. This is two cups with the inner cup being put into  freezer.  Keep in mind to use only regular soda and not diet. The best slush comes from a good fizzy sugary soda like Coke or Pepsi.

Iced coffee is a must too these days. Starbucks has a rich almost liquid-y dessert brew Chocolate Java Mint. This is more of a coffee slushie that should be sipped slowly through a straw. Get a vente  of that or their Mocha Cookie crumble for a tasty cool drink. Another must drink is their refreshers which have all sorts of fruits in it. A good place to hang out is Dunkin Donuts. Nothing beats a huge cup of their iced cappucino which is more like coffee ice cream. It's so thick that it can be eaten with a spoon.A nother is their refreshers. These come in such tasty flavor combos as raspberry watermelon which I could drink down in seconds. Try their peach mango or their dragonfruit strawberry combos.

The weather is hellish. Coool or ice down with a big sip of something chilling. It's a tasty way of beating the heat.

Reselling Your Kitchen

 Can a kitchen be taken apart and sold?The answer is both yes and no. Some things can easily be given over while others are better off junked. what works in a garage sale and what doesn't?

Appliances can be resold.If you love in New Jersey you can "sell" your fridge to the utilities company and receive one hundred dollars for it. There are companies that will also buy your stove too if you're getting a new one. Keep in mind the newer or "younger it is the better the resale. No one is going to buy an appliance that's reaching it;s third decade. Think anywhere from five to ten years in age. Also there are some brand slike Frigidaire and Whirlpool along with GE that are going to be more preferrable. Think about selling your college graduate's mini fridge too. There are many college freshman who would jump on the chance to get a lower priced  one .What about the smaller appliances like air fryers and microwaves? Again the newer model ones have a better chance of being resold.These are coveted items at garage sales where just starting out home chefs will snap them up. make sure you hve any kind of warranty to pass on for any appliance. This will be vital if there are repairs.

Smaller kitchen items are always a guaranteed sale. Thrifty home bakers will snap up holiday themed cookie cutters and cake pans. Try to keep all themed bakery items together.  although you could offer an all year round cookie cutter or cake set that includes Christmas trees, pumpkins, flowers and Easter egg shapes.A cookie or dough shooter is also a coveted garage and yard sale item. Make sure the barrel is thoroughly cleaned before you sell it . Also make sure the discs that cut the dough are also clean and shiny.The same applies to an icing gun and the nozzles. Sometimes it is hard to get the frosting out of the last. rewash just to make sure. Also check to make sure you have all the discs and nozzles before you sell the guns.KNife sets, espcuially Cutco and Faberware are also much desired resales. Keep in mind that they should be sharpened and checked for any rust or scratches.Cookbooks are also big re sellers. These are the opposite of the other kitchen resale items. Vintage ones from decades and centuries pasts are much in demand. each tells a story especially through ancient stains and notes written ;

Yes you can sell off your kitchen. Just make sure they're all in working order , whether its'a fridge or a cookie cutter. It'sa fun way to make extra cash and get rid fo what you don;t need