Easy, Cheap Cooking

Now that it's the height of summer and the height of the recession it's time we start changing our eating habits. We want something tasty and good We don't want to be chained to the kitchen . We also don't want to break what's left of our banks either. What to do ?

Rely on easy and cheap cooking. First of all stick to your grocery . It may be tempting to hit some of your local farms and farmer's markets but watch out. I've found that both here in New Jersey are higher in cost than my local A&P. All that freshly picked corn and tomatoes may look yummy but you re bound to pay a few extra bucks for them. Go to your local store and also check out sales too. Also sub in one kind if fruit , like the inexpensive peach for the more pricier bing cherry. (unless there's a sale).Think about what you want to make. Salads are easy. Just avoid the salad bar and pick up a bag of the less costly mixed greens. Add tuna or grill your own chicken for it as opposed to getting the inhouse fancier mixed Cobb or chef's salads.


Another place to shop is Costco or BJ's here you can save on burgers and dogs. Also look to your local Wal-Mart or Target for sales on frozen dinners and deli meats. Choose wisely on these , because they can be overloaded with sodium or fat. Try to get something from the Weight Watchers or Healthy Choice lines. You can microwave a tasty but low calorie dish along while saving money on it. Another easy choice is Ramen soup which is every dorm student's staple. Don't underestimate these. They make a good alternative to a brown bag lunch or a quick Sunday supper.

This is the time and the season to go easy on your kitchen and your wallet. Keep your food bill down to a bare minimum along with your cooking time. You'll feel better by havingmore money and less hassle in the kitchen.

Egg Creams A Hot Weather Treat

Happiness is a cold, frothy chocolate-y egg cream. For those who aren't from the New York area this is a wonderful concoction that's perfect for hot summer days. You can get it out at a diner or make one at home . A five year old can make it, that's how easy it is to whip up.

Egg creams are just a mixture of t seltzer, chcocolate syrup and milk. Why were they named egg creams if the main ingredients don't contain egg or cream (although you can put this in if you want a rich dense drinks)? The origins may have stemmed from a common 19th Century practice of putting egg and cream together with flavoring for a nourishing drink. It may have come from the Yiddish word echt meaning genuine or real . This comes from describing the cream. The name could have also come from the French chocolat et creme, a drink that WWII soldiers brought home with them from France. More than likely it's the second explanation with egg creams originating in Brooklyn soda shops. There were variations of it with vanilla syrup being used as well as the San Francisco version that mixes hazelnut and chocolate syrup.

How to make a good egg cream? That hinges on the syrup,. My favourite is the A&P brand which tastes exactly like Hershey's. Some people like Fox-s U-Bet, which is thinner and has a stronger, sweeter taste. As for the milk, just regular will do (don't try any soy or rice milk subs, there won't be the texture or the taste). Some recipes called for whipped cream to be mixed into the syrup and you can do this for a more decadent taste . Then add seltzer. This should all be done in a tall glass ,by the way, so you can have a lovely head of foam. Also make sure the seltzer and milk are well chilled. Adding ice will only dilute the flavor later on when the cubes melt.

An egg cream is the perfect antidote for these dog days of August. Make up one in a tall glass using your favorite chocolate syrup, chilled milk and seltzer. Then insert straw , sit back with your feet up and enjoy!!!

The Garden Freshness of Celery

Even celery's smell means garden freshness and goodness. this is the most aromatic of all garden vegetables and the most versatile too. You can make a fragrant soup with it or the base for a dip. It adds crunch and flavor to salads while giving subtletaste to dressings. It's also refreshing and low calorie - perfect for foodies on a diet.

Celery comes from the Apiaceae family and is a cousin of the carrot , dill, parsnip and even the pretty weed , Queen Anne's Lace. Both the plant's stalks or petioles or roots can be eaten. The seed is ground into a salt and used for Bloody Mary's as well as Old Bay seasoning. It's also the main spice in Chicago style hot dogs.It is a natural diuretic and hence a well preferred diet food. It's also low in calories with only 9 1/2 calories per cup of diced celery. It's also high in calcium which is good for the lactose intolerant tor milk haters out there.Another good thing about celery is that you can grow it in your garden. It''s known as a filler because people use it and lettuce to fill out any bare patches.

My favorite way to have celery is as an hors d'ouevre . This comes from a family recipe where we stuff cut stalks (usually cut tow to three inches in length) with a mix of hard boiled eggs and cream cheese. Salt and pepper are added for flavor and once the stalk is stuffed, then dusted with paprika. This last is done for coloring and taste. To be honest this is the easiest but also the most elegant appetizer to make. It goes well with summer cocktails or decorating a tray of Italian cold cuts. Celery soup is also a good way of using the veggie. The soup is richly laced with root's fresh , taste and blends well with the other ingredients. A great summer recipe is celery salad with red onion. The stalks are diced, mixed with cut Bermuda onions and tossed with just a simple vinaigrette.

Use celery as often as you can this summer. It's a great way of getting much needed calcium but also a versatile stalk. Add it to your Bloody Mary's or serve it up as an appetizer. Chop it in a salad as well. it;s so versatile. You can use it a hundred ways.

Let Them Eat Wedding Cake

August is the month of weddings nowadays and with it comes endless helpings of wedding cake. This is the high point of any big day , even if the couple is just having a city hall nuptial. No matter how fancy or simple the nuptials are there's always a wedding cake. It symbolizes the celebration of love and all the sweetness that comes with it.

Wedding cakes are nothing new.They go back as far as the Roman Empire when some form of a sweet (probably a honey) bread was broken over the bride's head. The Medevial period gave us sweet buns piled up to be given to guests later on. The couple were expected to kiss over these and if they succeeded it meant many children for them in the years ahead.Tiered and iced cakes started coming along with the marriage of the English nobles. It trickled down to the lower classes and the American colonies. Early Americans favored a white iced cake because it the whiter the icing the more refined and more expensive the sugar was , hence symbolizing wealth. A white wedding cake also symbolized purity. The whole tradition of saving the top most layer. That came form having a couple's first child christening close to the wedding (they weren't all that uptight back then). and eating it then.

Nowadays wedding cakes can come in different shapes , sizes and flavors. If a couple likes the beach, the cake can be made to look like a sand castle.If the couple adore football, then it can be turned into a stadium. Flavors are also different. Chocolate, once reserved for the groom's cake - a Southern tradition- is now the most popular flavor for wedding cake.s Carrot is another popular one while vanilla seems to be up holding its' own. Wedding cakes also have cascades of fresh flowers coming done them too, a popular decorating idea first executed in the 1980's

If you're invited to an August wedding or several , sit back and enjoy the cake. It's a tradition that has held up for millenniums . Enjoy it as you celebrate the new couple.

Macaroni Salad That Summer Staple

Mention a classic summer dish and everyone will say macaroni salad. it;s been around for decades gracing our picnic tables and complementing our burgers and dogs. For beginning cooks it's the easiest recipe to make. For gourmands it sometimes can be an embarrassment - a homage to white bread cooking. Yet you can put different spins on it to make the classic more hip and modern.

Macaroni salad was first made in the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Elbow macaroni was mixed with fresh cream , spices and herbs and then served on iceberg lettuce. Somewhere along the line the cream was subbed with mayonnaise and the classic was born. it was first served molded as a side to dishes, usually in diners and delis. It would take a few more decades for it to become a home standard. even then only the most adventurous housewives (such as my Mom) would add chopped onions and celery to the mix. The braver ones would add carrots and sliced bell peppers ,giving the sometimes soggy salad crunch color and taste.

Nowadays you can do interesting things with macaroni salad. You can boil of the tricolore kind and mix in an oregano laced vinaigrette. This is the perfect accompaniment to grilled kabobs or fish. You can also add some tuna to turn it into a pasta salad Nicoise. Another variation is tweaking up the original recipe. Add a good dash of tarragon to the mayo along with some cold grilled chicken. Or try a mustard laced mayo and then add cold ham chunks and coarsely chopped celery. This is a salad after all so you can be as creative as possible. Put the flavors and textures you want in it.

Macaroni salad doesn't have to be that bland mass of mayo and soggy pasta. You can liven it up with a variety of ways. It can still be a classic but with a very modern twist.

Lights! Action! Food!

Foodies everywhere should be excited at this summer’s movie fare. Yesterday’s Wednesday’ food section of The New York Times had a huge artile about the new Julia Child movie, Julie & Julia. The piece, written by, Kim Severson, tells about the food that was used for that and other movies. Yes there are movies where food gets the top billing. However the movies’ stars, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams are pretty appetizing too!

Julia Child was the champion of French cooking here in the States. The movie shows this with the variety and amount of food. The stylist, Susan Spungen even baked twenty five cakes just for the scenes for Julia‘s birthday. Another required plunging lobsters; in boiling water for the scenes however no crustaceans were harmed in the making of these scenes. Instead there were a cold water mist to simulate steam and there were lobster wranglers from PETA present to make sure no one got hurt. Another scene called for Amy Adams to drop a fruit Bavarian, a rich type of cream cake . That required a special breakaway mold filled with whipped cream and raspberry puree so that it could spatter properly the way one would if you tossed it on your kitchen floor.

The film was written by the great Norah Ephron (remember she also wrote Heartburn and that also starred Ms. Streep twenty some odd years ago). Ms. Ephron is a notoriously good cook and it’s no wonder that she would give us a movie like that. It should be funny and sharp, with special and loving interest on that third leading character - the food. (OK fourth, the film also has Stanley Tucci as Mr. Childs).

Will I see Julie and Julia when it comes out. Being a foodie I should. Although it’s fun to watch it when it comes out on DVD with a wedge of Brie , good crackers and some Asti.

The Bing Cherry - The Perfect Fruit

Everyone associates summer fruits as peaches or watermelon but there's another one it;'s also sweet and juicy and fun to eat. What is it? The Bing cherry The season is here to enjoy them. have them plain after a barbecue or pitted and sliced over vanilla ice cream.

The season for these is usually June or July but I've only recently noticed them in my local A&P. They come from the Pacific Northwest where they were first cultivated in the 1870's. Their "inventor " (if that;s the right word for him) was Seth Lewelling and his foreman, a man only known as Ah Bing.It was Bing, a Manchurian immigrant, who cultivated them and perhaps even invented this hybrid cross. Bing cherries are plump and firm when ripe but can spoil easily. Try to eat them within a couple of days of buying otherwise you'll have dry rotty, cherries in the fridge. Their skins are also delicate and they can burst almost upon touching They are helpful in lessening arthritis and gout pains. A cup is only fifty seven calories. Bing cherries as are very low in sodium but high in Vitamins A and C. They're the perfect snack if you're fighting off a summer cold or sniffles.

Bing cherries are a good dessert or snack just by themselves (although be careful, too many of them can cause a wicked stomach ache). They have a sweetness that just seems to envelope the mouth and leave a lovely aftertaste.I always feel that they should be left on their own and not paired with anything else. However you can mix pitted and sliced ones into your vanilla ice cream or use them in a decadent cherries jubilee. There's also Bing Cherry lemonade where they're crushed and added to fresh squeezed lemons , sugar syrup and ice water.They also are good cooked with duck, melding with the meats' sweet, gamy taste. Another use is sliced cherries in a melon or fruit salad, or even in a regular salad with chicken, and walnuts. You can also make a cherry vinegar adding a few Bings to red wine vinegar.


Take advantage of the short seasonthat produces htese amazing fruits. They're the perfect summer treat after a hearty barbecue or as a snack on a lazy hot afternoon. Enjoy one of the best fruits of the season.