Jazzy Foods From The Jazzy Vegetarian

Everybody's gone green thanks to today being Saint Patrick's Day. Imagine going ecologically green all year round, thanks to being a vegetarian. You can, thanks to a new cookbook by the famed jazzy vegetarian, herself, Laura Theodore. She has created another fun cookbook , full of flavorful and filling meat, egg and dairy free dishes.

Ms. Theodore's latest cookbook, Deliciously Vegan (Scribe Publishing Company 2018) is a spin off of her famed PBS and radio shows "The Jazzy Vegetarian". This is her third cookbook that features her eco friendly dishes and treats.  She has also written Vegan Ease and The Jazzy Vegetarian's Classic Cookbook. All these are perfect for those omnivores transforming into herbivores. What's great about this newest is that the recipes can easily be made for a party and not even the meat eaters would complain about the lack of beef, chicken or fish on the menu.The book holds her story of  how she went from being a jazz singer (as well as a child actor) to a vegan chef. Chef Theodore actually has six jazz CDS under her belt (you can buy her album What Is This Thing Called Jazz? at Amazon) and could have easily turned to a career solely focused on music. However she is also an excellent cook and baker along with being a fervid vegan.This cookbook is full of good recipes and good advice. I love her section on lists, especially the one on egg substitutes and what to sub in for cheese. Novice home chefs will appreciate the two ingredient  dish list for quick vegan meals. she also has an extensive list on essential ingredients such as wheat flours along with nuts and seeds. She also has a list for what spices to sock up on., because flavor is key in creating a successful vegan meal and dessert.

The book,itself,  is divided into section, from breakfasts to baked treats and puddings. Another plus is the variety which is important if you want to have a vegan or vegetarian kitchen like I have. I know I will be making her delicious looking mini quiche cups ripe with tofu and vegan cheddar cheese along with potato and spinach frittata, made not with eggs but with rolled oats and tofu.  The smoothies are perfect pick me ups too,loaded with a happy marriage of fruits and veggies. Cooking a vegetarian main dish is always a problem. That's going to change with the addition of gingered portobello steaks spiked with fresh ginger and cayenne pepper along with a tasty loaf made with pecans, sunflower seeds and zucchini.The Sunny Black Bean Burgers will definitely become a staple, They are rich with walnuts and fresh onion and get a kick from marinara sauce. The sides are geared towards these main dishes. The red potato and cauliflower mash would be the perfect foil for any of Chef Theodore's dinner loaves. Colorful Confetti fries is a mix of russet and sweet potatoes, dusted with chili and garlic would be perfect with the burgers for a fun Saturday night dinner.  Most home chefs think baked goods can't be made with out eggs, butter and milk, but they can. Home bakers and muffin affectionados will love maple-coconut muffins with sweet grape filling., made with bananas and non dairy  milk to sub in for the eggs and regular milk.Her Better Than Apple Pie Crisp will surely be the new apple pie. in many a vegan household. .Im excited to try her Crazy Coffee Chocolate Mousse made creamy with tofu and non dairy milk. There is also the tasty chocolate, almond and cherry clusters, ideal for parties and gift giving.

It's easy to go green with  Deliciously Vegan. It makes going vegan fun  with delicious meals,drinks and tasty treats. Buy it today and start on a healthy diet., full of good food

The Sweetness Of Sugarcrafting

Any serious cake decorator will tell you about sugarcrafting - the art of making sugar flowers, leaves and stems for cake decoration. It is one of the hardest cake arts to conquer, requiring a steady hand, delicate tools and determination. It also helps to have a comprehensive how to book on the ready. Luckily there is a brand new one , written by famed British cake decorator, Alan Dunn. This is the must have book in any baker's library.

Alan Dunn's Sugarcraft Flower Arranging (IMM Lifestyle Books 2018) is the definitive cake and flower arranging book for hardcore cake enthusiasts. Mr. Dunn has been creating amazing sprays of gum paste flowers and leaves for over twenty-five years. His website has several how tos along with merchandise to sell. Access to his tutorials is $12.45 a month, but it lets s home bakers view and study his tutorials (Mr. Dunn is like a UK version of Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro)on everything from shortbread cookies to icings. It can be a bit expensive to join which is why buying the book is a better choice. It  is divided in three sections : flowers, sprays and arrangements and cakes. Home bakers not only know about sugar fauna but also about h9ow to arrange them in realistic displays..Mr. Dunn gives the recipe for how to make the gum paste(he also gives the name of ready made gum paste sticks which makes decorating that much easier) along with pictures of all the tools needed - and there are many.)  What was needed however was a recipe for a cake - even a simple vanilla one. He does recommend using a fruit cake which is great for British tastes -not so much for the Americans,

The pictures and hows tos are stunning. Every known flower and leaf is in the book. Looking at them, you feel cheated by creating cakes with just rosebuds and buttercream leaves. The exotic Madagascar stephanotis is featured along with the South American Masdevallia orchid and the South African Brunia head seeds.There are the much wanted roses, always in demand. Mr. Dunn explains in in detail how to create them. For novices there is the dischidia,  a delicately leaved vine that doesn''t require the same amount of work as a bloom or the North American winterberry, a cousin of holly, that a round ball tinted deep red. I loved the flower arranging section. Mr. Dunn dosn't make it all about the cake. \The sprays and arrangements would look lovely on a table or even a coffee table. These are the sugar flowers and leaves but thanks to his masterful hand , they even make the real deals pale in comparison. The book is a godsend for those freelance bakers who include wedding cakes in their repertoire. There are beautiful sugar bouquets in many lovely color combinations. cascading down cakes .Any couple would love a three tiered masterpiece  topped with silvered roses or deep violet anemones.

Alan Dunn's Sugarcraft Flower Arranging is the perfect book for the hardcore cake decorator.It shows how simple sugarpaste can be turned into magnificent buds and blooms. Home bakers must have this book in their library and try their hand at coping Mr. Dunn's masterpieces.

Where Does Your Produce Come From

Ever wonder where those January strawberries came from? Or those tomatoes that  you ate last month and during this one? Probably not from the US. Think Mexico, Centra andl  South America and even Australia and New Zealand. Produce is not all American anymore - and with it comes a whole host of problems and dilemmas.

David Karp, a pomologist or self proclaimed "fruit detective", wrote this interesting and eye opening piece in yesterday's New York Times Food section.Supermarkets have a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, now during a Northern Hemisphere winter. It's easy to get tomatoes and grapes along with blueberries and peppers./ Years ago, the only  fresh produce you could get during mid March was oranges for fruit and winter cabbage for veggies.That was it.I had to f you wanted anything else, you would have settle for canned, pickled or preserved. Now, thanks to farms in Mexico ,and the southern hemisphere where it's the height of summer, we can have a wide range of just picked . Of course this is wonderful, especially for families with growing kids and teens. A varied diet, full of fresh produce is vital to having a healthy kid.There's also other pluses too . It's sometimes fresher than the domestic kinds. Gala apples, harvested in New Zealand are crunchier than their American counterparts. Chile's pink , seedless Muscat grapes are more flavorful than locally grown ones.Imports, though , can also go the opposite way. Mexican and Peruvian asparagus tends to be fibrous and rubbery while our stalks are plumper, juicier and just more tastier .

There are a lot of downsides to these imports. They do suffer in transit.. They are perishable, after all and can arrive bruised , nicked and rotten. They could also be prematurely picked  and allowed to ripen in the store. or lose their flavor thanks to treatments  to kill pests. Mangoes, have to soaked in hot water while citrus has to be kept in cold temperatures to control any bugs that may sneak in..Another issue is the large carbon footprint imported produce can cause  which can irk eco minded consumers..Most harvests arrive here by plane which guarantees fresher ,"younger " fruit  but that also means carbon emissions and pollution. A scarier aspect of importers is that they can be connected to drug cartels.looking to launder money and diversify their operations control. Even scarier extorting  the production and packaging of certain crops mostly from Mexico, Growers and militias have fought back . The implications of cartel control has remained unclear, especially in the areas of quality, cost, and healthfulness. Imported produce also has one more damaging side effect - hurting local organic farmers. They suffer the most , especially in when their crops are in season. After all consumers go for the cheaper which is the non organic., whether local or imported.If we buy nothing but  imports , then these small or niche growers will suffer greatly.

What should a home chef do? If you value nutrition over the earth then buy the produce,If you;re more green minded, then don't. It is your choice and sadly there is no  happy middle ground.

The Delicious Variety of Filipino Food

Filipino food is on the rise here in the States.It's no wonder.It's a cuisine full of rich flavors and tastes, from a milky sweetness to a mouth puckering sour.No wonder the cuisine is popular.It' 's full of exciting flavors melded together to create a  memorable taste.

Ligaya Mishan,  who normally writes the New York Times Food section's restaurant reviews, wrote this interesting article about the cuisine. Thanks to the influx of immigrants from this archipelago of seven thousand islands, Filipino foods are fast becoming part of the American culinary landscape.The cuisine is different from its' south Asian neighbors.Where their dishes are fiery , sparked with chilis, Filipino recipes are varying degrees of sour.Vinegar is a main ingredient  in many, used for centuries as a type of preservative. Since the islands are tropical, meats spoil easily, Vinegar is a way to keep them .One of their most ancient of dishes, kinilaw, possibly the precursor to seviche, is fish soaked in suka, extracted from sugar cane or sap from coconut trees or nipa palms. Another Filipino staple, daing na bangus which is milkfish, a tuna like fish, deboned. splayed and then soaked in vinegar.overnight. It's then crisped in a pan for a crunchy outside however the inside can be eaten with a spoon,thanks to the vinegar soaking.Even their version of spring rolls, or lumpia are dipped in a garlic laced dip called savsavan.

Adobe is the second flavor that define Filipino cuisine.Its' method of making and ingredients predate the Spanish name for it. At its' base it's meat being braised in vinegar and garlic for a long time. Other ingredients are added and that's when the  recipe varies.some put in a dash of soy sauce while others stir in achuete oil - made from annatto ,a peppery kind of nut. Some adobo recipes have coconut milk, sugar and even squid ink added. Every family has their own unique recipe.Funny enough it's not the national dish, despite its' popularity. That would be sinigang, a soup, according to Doreen Fernandez, born in the capital city of Manila and a food historian.. The first taste is usually so incredibly sour that it induces a shudder. The souring agent can vary according to where you are in the Philippines. Most use tamarind, a sweet -tart fruit that's usually made into a syrup to be mixed with water.It could also be guava alibangbang leaves - a type of orchid, the fruit of the sorrel tree kamia along with batuan similar to the mangosteen or unripe pineapple. Filipinos balance it out with kare-kare,  taken from Indian cooks who came with the Royal Navy.,a nutty-sweet stew of oxtail,bok choy, string beans and eggplant simmered in ground peanuts and achuete oil according to Nicole Ponseca who runs the Filipino restaurants, Malika and Jeepney in New York.

Filipino food is an interesting mix reflective of the many islands that make up the country. It can be eye opening and adventurous but definitely chock full of flavor. It's like no other South Asian cuisine.

A Gastronomic Love Story

Imagine the man of your dreams as being witty  and sophisticated , a great cook and gastronome.Imagine him taking you on tours as the exotic souks of Morocco and the best Michelin restaurants in Europe. Susan Washburn Buckley didn't have to imagine. The man of her dreams was the very real bon vivant Peter Buckley  - a larger than life figure who had an eye for adventure and great food. Their marriage is now the subject of Ms.Washburn-Buckley's new book and it is a wonderful, flavorful romp,

Eating With Peter  (Arcade Press 2018) is a tasty valentine to Peter Buckley, who started out as a photographer  as well as a writer He grew up in France with his soignee mother Elinor Hays Buckley, known in her own right as a socialite.,There Peter picked up his undying love for all things French , especially the food and wine. Along the way he caught the eye of Susan Washburn, who worked at her publishing company, Holt, Rinehart and Winston. They eventually married and their union led to some amazing gastronomic adventures. To be honest, I usually don't like the new hybrid of memoir/cookbook. The stories leading up to a promised dish can be tedious, but not with this book, I absolutely loved it!!!!.I couldn;t wait to see what the next exciting chapter held . Ms. Washburn   is famous for writing Young Adult books on American history She should definitely write more for adults. Her chapters are so well crafted that I felt like I was standing in the warm waters of the Caribbean with them as they dived for fresh sea urchins to eat or breathing in the exotic spices of a Fez market. I also loved how Ernest Hemingway and his wife Mary, especially the last, weave in and out of the chapters. Peter and Hemingway were friends, sharing a love of bull fighting. Ms. Washburn's style can only be described as sparkling - as sparkling as the champagne she and her husband  sipped.It is never boring , always fresh with a crisp wryness to it.

Each chapter has a recipe or a few at the end of it. Even the one featuring transporting their Bernese mountain dog, Nora to France  has a toothsome recipe for dog biscuits. The recipes excited me,I definitely want to try the gazpacho recipe  this summer. (I would love to try it now but somehow it's not the dish to have in chilly late winter). Many of the French recipes come from French  and Northern Italian chefs. Thanks to the Buckleys and their recipe for the heavenly sounding Gratin Dauphinois a l Ermitarge, a scalloped potato recipe taken from the kitchen of the famed Maurice Tuccinardi.The well known Troigrois, brothers Jean and Pierre, make an appearance as does their recipe for viand glace. It is a leaf taken from their actual cookbook so the recipe is  entirely in Frenc.h  Mary Hemingway's recipe is here also for her seviche, a delightful union of lime juice , onions and red peppers used to "cook" seafood. Peter Buckley was also a writer too  and he wrote a cookbook just on raw food, thirty years before it became de rigueur. His recipe for couscous salad is a refreshing mix of couscous cooked with lemon juice and spiked with  cherry tomatoes , chopped peppers and almonds. Both Buckleys were consummate New Yorkers and there is a chapter on the city's Union Square market as well as on the European ones . Any home chef can recreate Peter's transcendental beans recipe.There is only one dessert dish and that is Ms. Buckley's blueberry one made with a buttery French influenced crust.

Eating With Peter is a delicious romp through the world of food and adventure. Susan Washburn brings  us into that world with her amazing descriptive chapters and recipes. it is the ultimate foodie book.

Can You Be Sugar Free?

One of the worst habits  we have is eating sugar. We crave cupcakes wit sweet , gooey icing puffs,  we add more of the white stuff to already candy like lattes.We even add brown sugar  to our bacon. However that may all be changing . There's a no sugar movement going on challenging sweet tooths all over the world to give up their addiction.

Sadly we are hard wired to eat sugar. Blame it on our earliest days when a sweet flavor signified non poisonous in plants and berries. If it was sugary, like a plum or an apple , then the eater could rest easy, knowing he or she wouldn't be sick or suffer dire consequences.Then humanity  fell in love with sugar cane about 10,000 years ago in New Guinea. People got their first sugar rush and loved it. Cane syrup then was used in religious rites and as a medicine. Iit then went onto the Asian mainland where the Indians were turning sugarcane into a powder,  used mostly for healing.It went to Persia and then spread throughout the Arab world. hey combined it with ground almonds to create the addictive confection marzipan. The European Crusaders got their first taste of sugar cane during their crusades and again fell hard for it. Later Columbus discovered sugar cane on Hispaniola and that began Europe's hard core addiction with sugar.It replaced the all natural sweetener . Now we are trying to undo those centuries of sugar use. It not only puts on the weight but tricks the body  into gaining weight,. Those white grains also do extensive damage to the liver as well.The liver is the only organ that processes glucose ad eating too much will result in taxing it.It also causes extensive damage to teeth as well.

How do we curb our addictions and go sugar free? The obvious answer is give up baked goods, soda and candy. These are the easiest because the sugar in them is obvious.We can easily substitute cookies and sweets with with fresh fruit and 90 percent good for you dark chocolate. Soda can be replaced with flavored sparkling water. Hot tea and even coffee can be sweetened with honey or agave syrup.  , instead of white refined sugar . The problem is that sugar is everywhere, even in the most savory of foods.They lurk in our condiments.Ketchup has it to balance out the spices as does mayo, steak sauces and even mustard.The best bet is use spices  or herbs to flavor meats and vegetables.Salad dressing is a culprit too. It can turn a healthy bowl of greens into a sundae. Stick to a simple vinaigrette, possibly spiked with oregano or parsley.Yogurt, that much touted health food has a whopping forty-seven grams of sugar.if fruit is added Try to cut down on it or stick to plain Greek yogurt and add your own fruit. Bread is another culprit, with some of  us eating it as much as twice a day everyday. Try to sub in pita bread which has very little sugar in it. Another idea is wrapping up meats and cheeses in lettuce wraps. As for toast for breakfast, think oatmeal with a trickle of honey and cinnamon .


We can go sugar free. It's a hard task but will become easier as we distance ourselves further and further away from it. The end result is worth it.  - a healthy body.

The Green Kitchen

Everyone is hyper aware of global warming and what it can do to the planet. They are cutting down on ordering on  line along with buying locally grown produce. Yet to fully go green, home chefs have to rethink the way they clean,and cook. Nowadays that's pretty easy.

Water is always at the crux of conservation. One way to save is only boiling a cup of water for one cup of tea or hot cocoa. Boiling more just is a waste of energy. Another idea is keeping bottled tap water in the fridge as opposed to running the tap until you get cold water. The water is already chilled and good to go. You can keep bottled water in the freezer during the hot days of summer. One you don;t have to keep opening the freezer door to fetch ice cubes. The ice inside melts providing refreshing, thirst quenching sips. (have a few of these ready for those trips to the beach too.) Vegetables and fruit always have to be washed. Instead of rinsing them with running water , just place them in a large pan of water  and use a vegetable scrubber on the skins.Another chore we have to do every day is washing the dishes.If you have only a few from one meal, wait until the next to wash everything. You could also put all the dishes, cups and utensils in the dish rack and spray them clean with your sink's spray nozzle.Also don't prerinse dishes and cups before putting them in the dishwasher. The machine usually does a good job of it.

Not surprisingly how you cook on can also help in saving the environment, One of the easiest actions is using pots and pans the same diameter as the burner. This will not only save energy but also money.  Electric stove owners can save $36 annually while those who have a gas stove will save around $18. Also reduce  the amount of heat needed. Don't force a boil or try to cook something fast. That's what the microwave is for. Also a microwave can take up less energy than any stove.however it does have a lot of drawbacks. A better medium would be conscientiously using the stove and oven. Don't preheat unless you have to Another energy conserving idea is cooking several dishes together. This means one thing - more yummy sheet meals where the mains and the sides are all roasted together on one pan.Then there's the cook's tic of opening the door to see if everything is browning or baking well. Don't. It's a bad habit that allows  heat to go out. Instead always keep the oven window clean so  you can see clearly through it.Check the oven door seal too. A poorly fitted or degraded one can leach heat and energy  A good test is slip a piece of paper between the seal and the door.If it goes through then replace the seal or buy a new oven.

A green kitchen is a good one. You're making an effort to not only save the planet but also money. The ecology is helped and so are you,