The Salvation Of Salad Kits

 One of the best things about summer is its salads. One of the worst things is getting the right veggies and then chopping them. Then there's the dressing and the extras to be put on top to give the greens some zing. What to do? Get a salad kit.

These have helped me tremendously thorugh the year, but more so during the summery heat waves we've been having. The best part is that salad kits come in all sorts of flavors from Caesar to Greek to Thai inspired and Mexican. 

Fresh Express is one of my go to salad kits.Acme's Signature's brand also has some very tasty mixes. Tonight was Thai and Cashews which went perfectly with the main course  - plant based chicken patties . 

This was a fun and yummy mix of sliced carrots, Romaine lettuce, red cabbage and green onions. The crunchy part came from Thai seasoned wonton strips. toasted coconut flakes and cashews. It was topped with a thick and creamy Thai dressing. I just added some olive oil and a tablespoon of vinegat to stretch the dressing.  Their Mexican Style chopped salad, complete with cotija cheese , cheddar tortilla chips and roasted pumpkin seeds is on my radar to try next.Keeo in mind that extras like shredded rotisserie chicken, sliced London broil or shrimp can be added to these salad kits to make them into whole dinners.

There will be more hear waves this summer. Make dinner easier by buying a salad kit. It's an easy side to create  cool and tasty.

Tattooed Chef's Vegan Two Cheese Pizza

 Trying to find a vegan pizza is hard. Most pizzerias don't offer it or you'd have to find one miles and miles away. Not to worry anymore. Tattooed Chef has a great vegan one that's loaded with non dairy cheese and the much desired thin crust.

I love Tattooed Chef's products.I'mm a big fan of their baked  mac and cauliflower .Now I've tried their two cheese pizza and it's a winner. Forget Blaze and my local pizzeria This is the pizza to get.

I just doctored it up a little bit with a good sprinkle of oregano  which I  love on pizza and a drizzle of olive oil.

It was just popping it into a 450 degree Farenheit oven for ten minutes. The baked oie was a gooey , delicoius slice with a super crispy crust  - always a plus.Its' crispiness comes from the mix of cauliflower and rice flour and starch along with chia flour. The cheese is a mix of  soycheddar and soy mozzarella I am definitely going to try their vegetable and plant based pepperoni versions. It really is the perfect pie.

Forget going to the local pizzeria. Get the Tattooed Chef's pizza for a delicious vegan treat. It; has every pizza lover's requirements , ac heesey top and super crispy crust. That more could you ask for? It;'s just pure yummy.

Hot Out? Take Out!

 Most of the wrls is literally burning up right now. The temps are high. Spirits are low. Who want's to cook? No one.It's time to take out.

That's my philosophy. Normally I would make any kind of salad for a ninety plus degree day like today. ecept I wasn't even into chopping veggies. This is where my local Subway comes in.

It's just easier. They create a vegan garden style for me with sliced tomatoes , tangy vinegar soaked green peppers which take like relish and sliced olives. It was just a quick, no fuss dinner. Keep in mind that you don;t have to have a hot burger and fries. Any one of the fast food restaurants, from Wendy's to McDonald's have a variety of different cold, fresh  salads. Wendy's has brought out their famed strawberry salad again for cool summer eating. Have it with one of their lemonades. With McDonald's finish with a frosty Coke  slurpee. Go visit your local hot do vendor and get a garden dog  along with a  chilled birch or root beer.Don't  bother getting hot, Italian  Chinese or Indian take out. Save those for cooler fall days.

You could push yourself to make a salad. I just combined fresh Roma tomatoes with purple basil which has a sweeter taste than regular basil. I'ts just chopping both with garlic and adding olive oil, salt  and pepper.This will be a quick side with the sandwich but also the main dish for tomorrow's Sunday supper. I just have to add some sliced Italian bread drizzled with olive oil to round it out.

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It's hot. Don''t cook. Get a simple hero or a salad. Make a salad if you feel a bit ambitious. Just enjoy a cool meal on a sweltering day.

Just Add Water

 Everyone is sweltering under these hot temps. The one thing to keep cool is drinking water and lots of it. Always keep a bottle or container of aqua.

What's the best water to drink?Some swear by their tap which is fine. You can r constantly refill an empty water bottle with it to save money Another idea is filling a metal container with tap water and ice cubes. This is perfect for long car trips and days at the beach when being hydrated isimportant. You can easily get an all purpose theemos at either Targer or Walmart. Some even have neat and pretty patterns on them. If you want , an add in think Splenda. It is always a tasty alternative. Try their iced tea, mandarin orange or strawberry watermelon for a different twist. Splenda also has a zero calorie water additive in such flavors as sweet tea,fruit punch, pink  lemonade and peach mango. A more natural flavoring is lime or lemon juice with a tiny bit of simple syrup drizzled in  Simple syrup is just cooking white sugar and water together to form a slightly viscous syrup. You could add rosemary or even lavender  for extra flavor. You could even put sprigs of herbs in your ice cube tray for flavored cubes. This gives water a nice dash of flavor.

What about the boittled kind? What brands are the best? Some say that Mountain Valley is one of the  top ones in the country.Theirs comes from springs located in the Ouachita Mountains between Arkansas and Oklahoma. It's one of the oldest being first bottled in 1871 ans it's still being sold in glass bottles. Another of the best tasting water is Smart Water sold in every convenience store. It comes from springs in Britain It also contains those needed electrolytes  for muscle contractions and movement. Bottled water afecionados will tell you that Fiji water , coming from artesian wells is th e most tastiest. The only problem is that its' bottle o alsmost half the size of the other water bottles. Still its worth it , with the liquid coming all the way from Fiji. There;s also the Hawaiian based Waiakea.It;s a natural alkaline water from the island of Hilo.It  is amix of rain water and snow melt  and is filtered  through thousands of feet of prourous rock. The flavor is crisp however it is hard to find in the NY Metro area. Purists will stick with Evian and Poland Spring which are fine .

Everyone needs a  good bottle of water right now. It can be a fine one from voclanic rock and artesian wells or it could come from your tap. The main purpose is to be hydrated.

A Kiwi Sweet Treat

 Imagine a different kind of ice cream. It's fresher less sweet and airier. Can there be a new twist on tis classic? Yes.It's coming from New Zealnd and it's their take on the iconic cone.

Regular contributor Priya Krishna wrote about this different kind of cold treat in yesterday's New York Times food section. I'ts now coming to the States with shops  selling it in Boston, Portland Oregon and Austen , Texas. The New Zealandrs call it  real fruit ice cream and it's a scoop of vanilla blended with fruit in a machine that produces a barely sweet swirls with a buttery texture. Real fruit ice cream probably originated in the country's berry orchards and has been the desired dessert for decades. However when the Americans took it over they made major changes. Cookies and other sweets are being added , much to the chagrin of New Zealander manufacturers of the Little Gem, the ice cream  blender that makes the blended ice cream. Dennis and Chris Little, brothers who make the machine  say that  they've been getting  alot fo requests from America but feel that adding cookies or candy to the mix would not make for a big seller.

This is upsetting to a culture that  leads te world in ice cream consumption An average New Zealander eats about 5.3 gallons a year while Americans eat only 3.5 gallons annually. What separates the two cultures is that the US is almost hedonisitc when it comes to the frozen sweet according to August Radhill, owner of Far Out Ice Cream in Brookline Massachusetts.It serves cones of real fruit ice cream.He and his business partner, Drew Beja opened up their store in 2021 wit just two flavors and four toppings. Yet customers asked for more toppings. Zeds Real fruit Ice Cream in Austin offers several flavors and toppings along with sundaes like berry Butterfinger, a strawberry real fruit ice cream with chocolate sauce and Butterfinger candies. sales have been so brisk that the onwer Mack Brown is looking for a second location.Its te drizzles or sauces that get the Americans not the ice cream itself. The reaction is mixed .some like it  like Kelly Ferrarosome like Otan Oy don't claiming it's too drippy. Americans ar enot used to the taste of fresh fruit in their ice cream.

Will real fruit ice cream replace American soft serve. That's a hard question. Americanslove their sauces and toppings yet the idea of a new kind of ice cream is intriguing.

The Surprisingly Easy Baguette

Mention baguettes to home bakers and they flinch. Most think it's a compliicated loaf to create but it really isn't. It has a scant number of ingredients and is not bad to whip up. Once created then it becomes a must bake on any list.

You Tube personalityand regular contributor Claire saffitz  wrote about this delicious bread in today's New York Times food section.french bread is well suited for home baking because they're made with commercial yeast instead of a sourdough starter. This means that there's no task of maintaining a starter and then feeding it as it advances before you can start. The entire ingredient list is simple, It's just flour water, yeast and salt. However the flour quality is important. She recommends the  King Arthur brand which has a ten to twelve protein level (check th elabel for this) King arthir has 11.7Other pluses is that it's widely available and has a bit of barley. This enhances fermentation and flavor. The protein rich flour also facilitates gluten development to trap gas and create those various sized holes. You don't want too many interior holes because they can cause the baguette's shape to misshapen. Apart from the flour  you do need a baking stone and a four by twenty inch wooden baking peel and a thirteen by twenty inch wooden board for sliding them into the oven. You can get these onlien ro have your local plywood store custom cut them for you.

After you have all the equipment start planning your time line. The dough has to rest overnight in the fridge which will improve its' flavor and quality of the crust. doing this gives you some flexibiluty in baking it the next day. Start by making the poolish a type of preferment much like a sourdough starter but made with store bought yeast the morning of the first day. Let it ferment. Then mix the dough in the evening pop in the fridge the next morning and bake. Ms. Saffiz' recipes will yield three loaves. If this is too mch , then refrigerate the dough and bake later. Keep in mind that french bread dough can be sticky and a little soft. This can make for tricky kneading. Ms. Saffitz recommneds using minimal flour and a light touch during shaping. The first  dozen or so baugettes that you'll make may not be bakery perfect but they'll still have that great taste and deliciously chewy texture not to mention that crackly crust. They'll be gone in an instant being sliced and slathered with butter or being turned into yummy sandwiches.

A tasty baguette is easy to create. It's just four ingredients mixed together and baked into a loaf of deicliousness. Try it for a flavorful bite.

 

Just Salad It

Most of the Northern Hemisphere is roasting right now. Theres no way anyone wants to cook let alone sraind in front of a hot grill flipping burgers. What to  do? Turn all those ingredients into a salad.

A salad can be just as simple or as compl.ex as you want it cna be. It can have lettuce or not. if you want a hearty one though, then add some protein to it. You can easily buy any kind of cold cut and julieene it into thin strips and pieces. Think Italian cold cuts like salame and capacola cut thin and mixed with a crisp lettuce like Batavia or French crisp. Add some sliced tomatoes or whole grape ones and chunks of mozzarella .Add a zingy Italain dressing, redolent with oregano and garlic. A nice side is sliced Italian bread drizzled with olive oil. This makes for a satisfying and tasty lunch or supper. A shredded rotisserie chicken also makes a great base for a salad. Save the legs and wings for munching on later. Shred the body and skin and add to a bowl of cold , crisp Romaine lettuce. Croutons would work here along with sliced almonds. You could turn it into a chicken Caesar with dressing or go for something lught like a lemon  or lime juice vinaigrette.Even fried chicken can be cut up and added to a salad. Add some cherry tomatoes and a honey mustard dressing for a quick and flavorful dinner.

Can you sub in another ingredient for the lettuce? Yes Cole slaw works well with any other ingredient . Think an Asian cabbage  one with fried tofu squares and a ginger dressing. You dont have to fry tor bake the tofu. That'll creare too much work and generate too much heat. Cube it first . Coat in cornstarch and then air fry it for five minutes, the toss and then air fry for an extra five more minutes. Add  some sliced carrots and water chestnuts for more Asian flavor. Serv with a soy sauce  based dressing. Rice is an excellent sub in for lettuce. A tasty rice salad can include tomaotes, broocoli and a hard cheese line Parmiginao or Gran Padano. If you want mor eflavor think about adding a few artichoke hearts. You coukld make the fun cowboy rice salad which is combining the grain with black beans.it has the usual salad extras like tomatoes,peppers and onions but corn kernals are also adde dalong with the beans. The dressing is a tangy lime dressing. If you want to make it heartier, sub in chopped steak for the beans. Macaroni also makes for a good salad base.  Put in some summer sausage along with mozarella , tomaotes and broccoli. Again an Italian dressing works here.

It's summer.It's hot.It's not the time to cook. Make a cool salad for easy eating during these  sweltering days.