My Air Fryer Adventure

I received an air fryer for Christmas.To be honest it came as a bit of a surprise.I didn't ask for it.It wasn"t on my radar.Yet, it's a great addition to my kitchen arsenal.

It looks like a Keurig coffee and tea maker.

The black circle is the temp control and timer.The cylinder in front is the basket handle.

The little fan spins away the minutes.The timing is on the left.The right side has the temperature which only goes up to 400 degrees F.

These are the inner and outer baskets that held my first experiment Gardein's chicken tenders.They  were cooked at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.This is how they came out.

They were crispy and better taste than when I oven baked them.Of course, fries had to go with them so I used Acme's in house brand Signature shoestring fries,

The result?Perfection.They crosped up nicely aft being cooked at 400 F for fifteen minutes.

This Christmas gift has turned out to be one of the best gifts ever.I am getting the cookbook on air frying .There"s a basket full of great foods to be made!

A Wild Russian Feast

New Year parties mean a lot of food and a lot of drink.The Russians amp this up with feast that rivals any holiday party or dinner.They create tables that literally groan with the weight of many dishes ~and of course vodka .

Julia Moskin wrote about this as well as interviewing chef Bonnie Frumpkin Morales!, owner of the popular Portland,Oregon eateries, Kachka and Kachinka.Her family came from Belarus,which was a separate country (emigres  use the blanket term Russia when asked where they're from).The Russian New Year revelry is less than one hundred years old, starting after the Russian Revolution.Vast properties of the Russian Orthodox Church were nationalized with religious instruction being outlawed, and the craziest - outlawing belief in miracles which probably meant the Virgin Birth. A decade later the Soviet regime completely banned Christmas.They twisted it into a day of work.New Year's Eve, however , was saved and declared a national holiday.   Gradually Christmas traditions snuck in.There were trees, presents and sweets.Father Christmas was transformed to Grandfather Frost who handed out gifts with the help of his granddaughter, the Snow Maiden.It is now a big to do night.That means the meal or the zakuski  course  may start in the early evening and last until midnight There are braised short ribs,  along with Georgian chicken tabaka, pressed flat and pan roasted with garlic.Another lush dish is chanterelle mushrooms and potatoes cooked in a Russian version of creme  fraiche,

Chef Frumpkin -Morales (her husband, Israel, is of Latino heritage and fromKansas City,Missouri ) and
her family create these dishes along with many others.Her parents brought over their dishes of pungent smelling fish along with their recipes for pickled fruit and vegetables.There was also jellied  calves feet and cured skeins of fish roe.One of the stars of any Russian New Year's feast is Salat  Olivier, which has become Russia's modern national dish.Poached chicken is folded with diced potatoes,pickles, eggs, carrots and whatever is dictated by family tradition.During the czarist  era, caviar and crayfish were  major additions for the wealthy.During the Soviet era, luxury was replaced with baloney and canned peas for everyone. There is also salo ,a cured pork fastback and dark, dense breads.All this is washed down with endless vodka shots.The meal has to be hearty to absorb all that strong alcohol.There are recipes that anyone can recreate, including the mushroom and potato one.There is also a herbed grain salad with mushrooms, hazelnuts and pears.Spinach and the Soviet staple.,barley is also tossed in.There is a neat  "cookie"  recipe called chocolate kolbasa that's a blend of shortbread, graham crackers and a fudgy mix of chocolate chips, chopped nuts and cocoa blended with butter and condensed milk.It's mixed together, filled into a log and then chilled.It can also star at kids  parties too.

The Rusians know how to do New Year"s right:. It is feasting and fun for all ages.They ring  in a holiday with gusto and passion .

Trends of The New Year

It's the day after Christmas and there are already predictions for what will be trendy in 2019.What will we eat? Or drink? Will we be more eco conscious or more snack ready? Time and our palates will tell.

Regular contributor.Kim Sevrrson pondered this in an interesting article in today's New York Times Food section.One of the most intriguing is cheese teas coming from Taiwan. This is green or black tea sipped through a cap of cream cheese blended with cream or condensed milk.It 's already big in San Francisco where it's  are with Meyer lemon and mascarpone cheese.Bet Starbucks will do e out with ,with Dunkin Donuts following.It  may be good, who knows.Another beverage that will be gaining speed is dry drinks.The 18 to 34 age group are more involved in spirit free cocktails.What does that mean? High alcoholic liquors such as gin will be relegated to the back of the bar.Drinks will be mixed with lower alcohol wines such as the spark ly Prosecco along with shrubs(!), craft vermouth, botanicals, and also non alcoholic drinks like Seedlip ,distilled vegetable and floral extracts.

We will be having more of a conscious when we eat too.Plastic straws and bags will have more bams throughout the country.Also diners are demanding that their favorite eateries cut back on packaging.Cutlery and plates will also be more reusable.Another green dream is the plant based main course.Substantial vegetable entrees will become fixtures on menus.Many people have started to eat less red meat or abandon animal products altogether.There are even some corporations  that have banned red meat from their campuses.Will this anger some carnivores? Possibly ,there may even be some law suits then?That said,another new trend is motherless meat, proteins that are laboratory grown that are entering  mainstream dining.There will also be more creams, milk and cheeses made from soy nuts and coconut.Even everyone's favorite ice cream will be made with no cream.A big trend that I've embraced is Middle Eastern food.Many will go wild over the foods of Lebanon,Syria and Turkey.Za'atar  and kebobs  will rule.There is also talk that the Stans  such as Kazahkstan, Tajikistan  and Uzbekistan will also give us the most popular dishes too.

2019 will be full of interesting trends that are both green and global.Embrace them or ignore them.Or come up with a few of your own.

They Meet

They do meet💘💘💘💘
It's a holiday coupling made in heaven! Vanilla mousse and pan d'oro.

The perfect Christmas match!

I hope everyone has holiday love like this!

Merriest of  holidays!!!

Pace Your Christmas Cooking

One of the craziest Christmas tradition, at least here n the States is cooking and baking for just one day - Christmas. Everything has to be made for December 25th;A better and less frantic idea is pacing yourself. No one can make a ton of food for just one day. Spread out the feasting to two or three days.

That's the philosophy I'm following.As I pointed out yesterday I was going to bake two different kinds of premade cookies. Then on second thought  it seemed kind of crazy, We'd be inundated with them and they'd lose their specialness. Plus I have a mess of other things to do between wrapping presents and the usual household chores.To spend an entire Sunday afternoon in the kitchen would seem too much. The chocolate chips can be made when the sugar cookies get all gobbled up.After all the holidays are supposed to last for twelve days until Three Kings or Tre Re day, January 6th. I have enough time to create all sorts of sweet treats, from cookies to maybe a cake or a giant sharing cookie for the New Year's. I do not want to go crazy with baking. It could lead to all sorts of disasters  from under baked to burnt.Another reason for pacing the desserts is the pan d'oro I bought. I will be dressing it up in the Italian tradition where this airy brioche type bread is sliced horizontally and filled with vanilla cream pudding.The cake is a foot high and will be more than enough for three people.

Cooking should be treated in the same light.There are many who cook huge meals on Christmas Eve followed by a second banquet Christmas Day. This is taxing even for the most experienced home chef. There are usually two roasts, sides and salads. Sometimes two or three main courses share
 the spotlight.Families spend the days before preparing sides. Then comes the letdown on St. Stephen's Day, or Boxing Day, December 26th. This day can be celebrated  not with leftovers but with fresh cooked main courses and sides. My Christmas Eve will be making gemelli - those twisty pastas with homemade sauce. I could have saved it for our Christmas Day dinner but one, it would definitely be too much and two,it wouldn't go with a vegan turkey dinner.It would also be a day of nothing but cooking and a night of washing up. St. Stephen's Day is going to be when  I take panettone the Italian fruitcake and turn it into French toast. This is the perfect "day after" lunch, just a lazy day to enjoy a long brunch y meal, and go over the gifts.Whatever wasn't made during these three days will be baked or cooked in the ensuing ones.

The holidays can drive anyone crazy, especially the home chefs and bakers. Pace yourself. Stretch out the holiday kitchen scene before you stretch out yourself.

Premade Or Homemade

It's the dilemma of the holiday season :premade or homemade. What do you bake for family and friends?Or for yourself. That is the question.

For me this year the answer was a no brainer.Actually two answers:Pillsbury

and 

Nestle's.

Last year I went crazy baking up to 200 cookies 😲

24 iced cupcakes😲

and a marble cake with homemade fudge frosting😲

Talk about gilding the lily.It was a lot of work even though I used mixes for all three.This year I thought I'd just go to B& W Bakery in Hackensack or head to Stop& Shop and buy mini holiday cupcakes. I saw the first at the Lodi Shop Rite , as I was searching for the Gardein holiday loaf and couldn't resist. It looked too cute   and the end result would be yummy sugar cookies straight from my oven. Then I saw the Nestle's chocolate lover's giant cookies at my hangout , Stop and Shop. I

couldn't resist. and besides they're supposed to be the size of wagon wheels. Again irresistible. 

What I needed was easiness this year.Just preheat the oven, separate the cookies and then pop into a hot oven. Simple.

Besides I have to save my energy for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day cooking!😱

Recipes From The Red Cat

The Red Cat restaurant was one of those eateries that stood out in lower Manhattan. It was a great place to get great food Their dishes were legendary. Foodies raved about their burgers and sauteed zucchini. The Red Cat may  be closing but their recipes will live on for home chefs.

It's closing was highlighted in yesterday's New York Times Food section. The food section maverick and former editor, Sam Sifton, and his photographer , Daniel Krieger went to visit this classic that will close this Sunday. The Red Cat has been there since 1999 , started by Jimmy Bradley and Danny Abrams. The restaurant was meant to evoke New England by way of Paris oozed a kind  of  particular kind of elegance only seen in New York.It was confident and relaxed, witty but not too formal, nor informal either. Its'  most famous dishes are its' hamburgers and the quick sauteed zucchini with pecorino cheese and almonds. There are also tempura fried green beans with sweet-spicy mustard that everyone orders and still  will keep ordering til the last order is taken.One of the best things about the Red Cat is that it's a family place. Mr. Bradley's father built the half hull model of a red cat boat on the wall.Workers have been there since the opening and one worker Valentin, Garcia -Luna has gotten his family jobs there.

Mr. Bradley fell in love with the restaurant scene when he was an undergraduate at the University of Rhode Island. He worked at several, and arrived in New York in 1994,cooking for a number of chefs, including Jonathan Waxman at the Bryant Park Grill. He became a friend and a mentor - a part that he took on and nurtured the latest generation of chefs .Luckily the Food section has published some of the Red Cat's recipes. There s Jimmy Bradley's Salad with Gruyere Imagine  bacon laced potato salad married to a creamy fondue. The potatoes are oven roasted so there's a nice crispness to them which goes well with the bacon's crunch. The dressing starts with a roux and then the Gruyere along with heavy cream is simmered together.. The salad is made first and then ladled on to the cheese mixture. It's a great dish for the quiet days between Christmas and New Year's/ The tempura green beans with the mustard sauce would be a fantastic  holiday party nibble.It's the classic tempura batter made with  egg whites, seltzer and flour.  It's fried on canola oil and served  a mix of Dijon mustard, honey and soy sauce.

The Red Cat has given twenty years of great food and atmosphere.The recipes will live on, thanks to  home chefs recreating its' best recipes. They'll be going strong