Little Luxuries

 During this time of food hardship and high prices it's time to indulge in a little luxury. It's easy if you use what you have on hand. Any dish from savory to sweet can be elevated and turned into something special.

One of the simplest and in a way cheapest of luxuries is a lush butter sauce. This is an easy make. All you need is one stick of butter or plant based butter cut into pieces.Minced garlic and lemon juice are also added along with a tablespoon of parsley for color and more flavor. This is a great sauce for any pasta ,especially for angel hair and spaghettini. This is also great for any seafood like filets.It  is delicious on spinach and Brussels sprouts too. Kids and veggie haters will change their minds once they taste this over any green.Another budget friendly sauce to make is Hollandaise. This is an easy blend of a whole egg lemon juice and  butter whipped together with a pinch for salt, water and a dash of Cayenne pepper. You can make an easy Eggs Benedict or Eggs Florentine. It can be used on chicken and fish too.It elevates asparagus to a special side with it's creamy tanginess. What can be better than  sauce over veggies? The addition of almonds. You can easily get an inexpensive bag  for as low as $2.99  at Acme and $4.69 at Target. These also elevate such fish as salmon and add crunch and taste to all sorts of salads.

Keep in mind that luxury eating can also apply to baking and cooking. Baking a loaf of brioche bread is as easy as baking a loaf of white bread. What it needs is butter and eggs Warm milk instead of an egg can also add richness.Another buttery baked treat to make is a tray of croissants. Some home chefs might fight the recipe intimidating however it's not as complicated as thought. What makes a batch of them a success is using chilled butter. The recipe calls for flour any kind of milk, whether dairy or plant based along with sugar and the all important yeast. Once the dough is made then it's a matter of chilling it and rolling it out  and then folding ot about four to six times. It's then popped back into the fridge for an hour. Once out again. it's rolled out again and cut into triangular pieces. These are curved into a crescent shape and left to riseThey're then baked. What is great about croissants is that you can add chocolate for pain chocolate or almonds. These make for luxurious breakfast treats. However the simple croissant sandwich elevates the brown bag lunch to new levels. It also makes a great afternoon snack slathered with Brie.

It's easy to make littleluxuries for yourself during these hard times. You deserve good food. Make it.

HelpThy Neighbor

 Americans  are helping others get through these terrible times.It could be governors declaring states of emergency to get more food to their constituents. It could be local restaurants stepping up ,proving free hot meals and drinks. We care for each other more than our government cares for us.

Gere's the question of the week. What are you doing to help friends and family in need? Are you buying their groceries for them? Are you protesting ? Are you a restaurant owner giving up hot delicious meals?Or a concerned teacher bringing in essentials for students' families?

My way is protesting - quietly although I would love to do more. Not only do people suffer but their animal companions do too. I'm donating at Pet Smart but I know I can do so much more to help everyone.

What are you doing? Let us know here and thank you for doing such.

Martha Stewart Forty Years Of Influencing

 Yes, there is Joanna Gaines, Meghan Markle and Ina Garten. There are the tradwives with their milkmaid aesthetic However they wouldn't be who they are , influencers with how we eat and decorate our tables without the first and most influential influencer Martha Stewart. She changed the way Americans cooked and threw parties. Forty some od years later she is still a driving force.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin wrote about this great lady in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday's Food section. . Keep in mind that beofre Ms. Stewart there were only a handful of chefs that America followed. The first was the impactful Julia Child who brought French food to the American kitchen. The second was Marcella Hazan who showed the country the subtleties of Italian regional cooking. Some relied on Fanny Farmer cookbooks along with the famed Joy of Cooking. Yet these omitted important components of throwing a good dinner party. Her message was is that anyone who is organized and determined enough can cook entertain and decorate. There was also lesson on gardening and growing fruits and veggies for dishes. The book that kicked it all off was The 1982 Entertaining which is now being reissued from it's publisher Penguin ,Random House. It originally went out of print in 20201, after the pandemic during which it brought in a million copies.

Entertaining was something of an anomaly at the time. COokbooks by independent authors were an unloved niche of the publishing world.. Color photography was reserved for corporate productions such as the Time-Life Cookbooks and Better Homes And Gardens. The best seller list at the time listed such cookbooks as The Silver Papalte Cookbook, The Moosewood Cookbook and it's sequel The Enchanted Broccoli Express. which represented the culinary and domestic revolution of the Seventies. These showed homey recipes like casseroles and potlucks, perfect for a cozy dinner in but not for a formal gathering at home. Martha Stewart's book was different.It featured lavishly illustrated book of dressy events.There were fancy luaus to even a midnight omelette party with the description terrifying. These showcased antique baskets and spotless white dresses as party wear. Her book and tyle influenced the  great chef Carla Hal. She became obsessed with tiny stuffed tomatoes served on antique silver platters. There were other followers like Katherine Lewin who opened Big Night Store in both Brooklyn and Manhattan She introduced dinner therapy to those who are not adept at it.

Martha Stewart is the original influencer. Even forty years after her book was published her words and actions have an impact. People will always follow her.

Rescuing The Olive Groves

 Olive trees may be hardy yet these tough beauties do need love. There are groves all over the world that need tender care and affection. For years they were abandoned. Now there's a way to give them the warmth and care they need.

Regular contributor and Washington DC food journalist Jane Black wrote about these groves in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Olive trees can last for millennia  as one in Spain has lasted three thousand years and one of the oldest on the Iberian Peninsula Yet it snot just Europe. California has a lot of abandoned groves too. The trees are still viable, with a good harvest that can be used for oil or just for eating. However many are just being plain abandoned. There are close to fourteen million acres and billions of trees that are abandoned. entrepreneurs and nonprofts around the Mediterranean are also working to revitalize these foresaken groves. One prime example is Apradrina Un Olivo or Adopt An Olive Tree, an organization in the small village of Oliete Spain. This village, located between Madrid and Barcelona was in danger of losing everything. People were moving out .It's population was as dense as Siberia's!!. However once Apadrina came it that all changed. Donors came in and both a tree for around sixty euros (around seventy dollars) annually. Donors alro receive two liters of olive oil from the tree's olives too. It has paid off 26,00 trees have been recovered.

Spain isn't the only country,Italy and the Us, particularly California here olives once ruled also have  tree adoptions.Eight hundred trees on Lake Trasimeno in Umbria have been saved.This was the springboard for additional community ventures including a food truck that sells "olive oil" cuisine. In nearby Tuscany the group Abandoned Grove has resurrected five thousand trees.They have also hired disadvantaged workers to produce the highest quality oil.In California Giulio Zavolta and Rachelle Bross  found a twenty acre olive Grove near Los Angeles. The trees were majestic, rising thirty feet in the air. They were over a century old and overgrown.It was hard to reach the higher branches to harvest the olives. With the help of a hired crew Mr. Zavolta lopped off the tree tops as well as printing back gnarled brittle branches.There was nothing left but sawed off trunks and giant stumps. It took the couple three years of contatnt burning to bring the grove back to health. Now they sell their olives to a local cannery while there oil has won a variety of awards, starting with a gold medal at the California State Fair in 2018.

Olive trees are ancient beauties. They should be treated as such.Luckily there are organizations and people who recognize their beauty and want to save them,.

Election Day Recipe For Calm

 How should you vote? Like you were following a recipe. With care and concern. This could make for a food secure future for all.

There are several crucial campaigns right now, from gubernatorial ones in Virgnian and New Jersey and the mayoral one in New York City. All affect how people in these states shop and eat. As a New Jerseyan I am more than concerned about not only my future but also the future of my fellow New Jersey and. Shopping here is tough. Luckily I have LIdl for all the major purchases like milk and cereal. Even the frill buys like soda and cookies are much cheaper at the store. The same with it's rival Aldi. So many are shopping here for all sorts of items, from pet food to baby foods and essentials to ingredients for holiday cooking and baking. They also offer valuable coupons for that enable us to get free stuff.It's always a fun thrill to get a free croissant, or bag of pretzels or even a free bottle of mouthwash. yet it's also important. Money saved is just that. With Trumps; tariffs' all over the place food has gotten more and more expensive. Parents are worrying about whether they can buy their kids fruits and veggies along with meat. That should not be. There should be  no worry when food shopping.

Then there is the SNAP benefits.Trump wants to halt  them during the government shutdown, even though thousands of families will be  affected. SNAP or Food stamps  have been around since 1939, the invention of then Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program's first administrator Milo Perkins. The program first operated by permitting people on relief to buy orange stamps for their food shopping .For every orange stamps bought there were blue stamps that enabled families to buy food determined by the Department to be surplus.Modern food stamps came in the early 1960's and in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law to make the practice permanent. The stamps allowed people to buy local food and vegetables along with basic foodstuffs. Alcohol and luxury food were not on the program as were imported foods.There have been decades of other reforms however no president has ever done anything this cruel. Churches and food pantries can only do so much.This is a Red problem  - no question about this. Yet Republicans can be as caring as their Democrat counterparts. If they're not vote them out.It's just that simple.

As with any recipe, care and concern should always be used. It creates the perfect dish.THis should also apply to how you vote too.

An Easy Pesto Sauce

 Years ago pesto sauce had to be handmade. It was picking fresh basil from the garden pulverizing it in a blender and then adding a slow stream of olive oil. Sometimes cheese or walnuts were added for more flavor.It was all so labor intensive. Not anymore. Any home chef can now have pesto at their fingertips.

I found this really great jar of already prepared pesto at Lidl

It;s from their Preferred Selection.

ction and for $2.19 a jar it is well worth it. This is a delicious blend of pesto, oil, Parmegian and walnuts. It's itnese on it;s own so I added some Country Crock Plant Butter.

=I mixed the two together to pour over these -leftover gnocchi also from Lidl.(

Now, all together, this may look unappetizing but once melted,it has a verdant, butterfly flavor that's just light and wonderful

This took only six minutes in the microwave.

It just requires a quick stir to evenly distribute the pesto sauce.

The flavor is simply heavenly. The pesto and butter create the perfect marriage of taste and texture.I think this is definitely my new favorite sauce. I plan on using this on angel hair and spaghetti in the future.

Pesto sauce is now so easy to whip up. Once made it's a great addition to any pasta ,risotto or gnocchi,. dish.Try it today for a nice change up from traditional sauces.

Wedding In Brooklyn

 New York City has become the destination place for weddings. One borough Brooklyn has become ultra popular.

This is where I am now.Tasting some traditional food at a DUMBO wedding venue.I think that  no matter where a reception is  held, food is food.The setting may be interesting  but the food will always be the. same Appetizers, soup , dinner , cake.It doesn't vary, although I wish it had.

Maybe the most memorable thing at any wedding reception is the love of the couple newly married.

Food is food.Love is love. It should unite at a wedding .It should.