Posts filed under 'Things I Love'
I love eggnog. Really, really love it. This year I saw Horizon’s Lowfat Eggnog for the first time, and I think it is truly one of the best commercial eggnogs around, and with all-natural ingredients as well. It’s thick but fluffy and not cloying, just the right amount of sweet and no artificial liquor flavor. Some eggnogs leave a coating on your tongue after you drink them — blech. Not this one. It’s a good thing it’s only available for a limited time, or I may have to override my one-quart-per-season rule. I had intended to try a soy nog this year (like the one from Silk) but couldn’t find it anywhere. If you’ve seen it locally let me know — I may apply my one-quart rule to dairy only, and make an exception for soy.
December 17th, 2008
I came across Amy’s blog at Super Healthy Kids a while ago, and bookmarked it because I thought the Healthy Habits Plate she created was cute. It’s a straightforward, visual way to show kids how to fill their plates half-full with fruits and vegetables, a quarter-full with protein, and the last quarter with carbs.
Amy has generously offered to send one Chick in the Kitchen reader a plate for free! Just leave a comment on this entry by Tuesday, November 18 at 8 PM EST telling me what time your family generally eats Thanksgiving dinner — is it early in the afternoon, mid-day, or a late evening meal? I’ll randomly choose a comment to receive the Healthy Habits Plate. Please only comment once. Good luck!
November 16th, 2008
On Monday night J. and I went to a great cheese tasting led by Taylor Cocalis of Murray’s Cheese. I have to mention her by name because she was full of cool bits of information and great tips about cheese selection and tasting. For instance, she touched on the impact of retro-nasal input on cheese tasting — if you aerate your cheese by opening your mouth slightly and breathing in while the cheese is on your tongue (similar to the way you taste wine), you’re both smelling it and tasting it at the same time, which is a much more full experience than sniffing it first, then putting it into your mouth and tasting it afterward. It was a surprisingly huge difference! I love learning tips like that. There’s a good explanation of retro-nasal smell, albeit in wine tasting, at The Wine Tasting Or, Should We Say, Wine Smelling Experience.
She also shared a good device for remembering how to choose a variety of cheese for a tasting plate: something old (a cooked pressed cheese, like Gruyere or Parmigiano-Reggiano), something new (fresh, like chevre), something stinky (washed rind, like Taleggio), something blue (a blue cheese, like Stilton). Buy about 1 oz. of each cheese per person if you’re doing a tasting of 3-5 cheeses.
In order, we tried:
- Selles-sur-cher: The first aged (lightly) goat cheese, I’ve tried, it was surprisingly smooth and mild. We both enjoyed it.
- Sweet Grass Dairy Green Hill: Mushroomy and more earthy than I’d expect in a cow cheese. It’s a double cream, but so silky and rich it felt like a triple. Yum.
- Serra da Estrela: Made with vegetarian rennet from thistles, this was too salty for me but J. enjoyed it (he thought it smelled of olives).
- Pecorino Foja de Noce: This cheese smelled wonderfully nutty — not surprising, since it was aged in walnut leaves. It was crumbly and dry and didn’t make much of an impression taste-wise (J. pointed out it tasted better with some pinot noir, and I agree).
- Valdeon: Our last cheese was this “aggressive” blue; a 7.5 according to Taylor on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most intense blue cheese flavor. I like blue cheese, but this was a bit much for me — I’d probably prefer something closer to a 6! One of our favorite blue cheeses is from Rogue River, and Taylor recommended Gorgonzola Dolce as a good “gateway” blue — something easy to taste to ease you into this type of cheese.
For the past several years, we’ve put together a cheese tasting for our family before our Thanksgiving meal. After taking this class, I’m especially looking forward to choosing the cheeses this year, and you can bet I’ll be including the Beeler Gruyere.
November 13th, 2008
In the middle of an otherwise is-it-tomorrow-yet? kind of a day, I was happy to receive news that I’d won second place in The Jew and the Carrot’s Rosh Hashanah Dinner Challenge. The contest asked readers to report on how they made their holiday greener and more locally-inspired. The three dishes I made for Rosh Hashanah — Maple-Glazed Delicata Squash Rings, Vegetarian Collard Greens, and Honey Cookies — all included locally-sourced ingredients, most of it organic.
I actually made one additional dish for the second night of the holiday that I forgot to mention in my entry; a chopped salad that included mixed lettuce and tomatoes from our farm share.
Special thanks goes out to Lauren, for being the laid-back kind of hostess who didn’t mind not knowing what I’d bring until the last minute!
October 6th, 2008
The first time I saw ices served in a fruit peel was at the New York Renaissance Faire, probably 20 years ago. I was enchanted by the sorbet stuffed into the peel of half an orange, and I recreated it for a Mother’s Day dessert (scooping out the orange, chopping it up, mixing it with vanilla ice cream, and then mounding the mixture back into the empty orange halves) not longer after.
My mom probably doesn’t remember that dessert, but she recently bought a package of Island Way Sorbet from Costco. It’s an assorted package of individual lemon, mango-orange, pineapple, coconut, and pina colada sorbets, all packaged in their original containers, if you will (lemon and orange peels, pineapple rinds, and coconut shells). They are incredibly cute, and, except the coconut, low in calories and fat.
G. tucked right into the pineapple sorbet, while A. was scraping the peel to get the last of his mango-orange. I had the coconut, which was as rich as ice cream, and was delicious (after I got past the feeling that I was eating sunscreen, just because of the scent).
What a fun summer treat. Now if only I was planning a luau…
August 14th, 2008
- Have you heard of Cookthink? I saw the site linked on Mango & Tomato. Cookthink is more than just aggregated recipes from all over the Web, they’re a super search engine (you can even search by “what are you craving?”) and they test all their own recipes. Their “Cookthinktank” includes Vegan Yum Yum, which I already read and love. Plus they have in-depth tips on how to handle specific ingredients.
- I stumbled across wastedfood.com today, and can’t stop reading. It bothers me when I waste food in my own home, and I’ve often wondered about the tremendous amount of waste grocery stores must have, especially in an area like mine where there is probably little market for reduced dairy and produce. Wasted Food takes a look at all the excess around us, and tries to find ways to redistribute that food to those that need it. They discuss how to create less waste, too.
- I’m thinking of getting back to composting. J. built us a huge outdoor compost bin a few years ago, and we’ve used it on and off (with the composted material being used in his garden). I just haven’t found a good solution to storing the compost in our small kitchen before I bring it outside and add it to the heap. I found a link on Wasted Food to BioBags, which makes biodegradable bags for countertop composting bins. I’m excited to get back into this and think having a bin that’s easier for me to use in the house will help me throw away less of all the veggie and fruit scraps we create, especially during CSA season.
August 3rd, 2008
I’ve just spent the past week chatting, shopping, laughing, reminiscing, navigating, walking, and, through all of it, eating with my good friend Jodi during her visit from Canada. It was an awesome vacation in my own backyard, since we stayed pretty local for most of her trip and then spent a couple of days in Manhattan as well. There was a lot of eating close to home: Cheesecake Factory, Nathan’s, Carvel, and a diner — all places she’d never been before.
In the city, we hit a lot of mass market, pop culture favorites like Pinkberry (my first time!), Ruby Foo’s, Dos Caminos (too many margaritas to remember much more than that we had a great time), Whole Foods at the Columbus Circle mall (including a huge, fancy cupcake that looked a lot better than it tasted), and breakfast at Pershing Square. We had to pass by some probable gems like Magnolia, Levain Bakery, Ess-a-Bagel and more because we were just too full. We walked a tremendous amount, too, thankfully.
Jodi also brought suitcases full of Canadian treats. This is just a small sample of the food-related loot: Kicking Horse Coffee (and several different Tim Hortons mugs), Spitz sunflower seeds (candy-coated, and even a dill pickle flavor!), Old Dutch ketchup-flavored chips, Kickbutt Amped Energy Ballz (no, really), Saskatoon berry products (jam, syrup, etc.), Kinder Surprise eggs, Nativa Organics cookie buttons and animal crackers, more varieties of chocolate bars than I’ve ever seen, plus much much more. I will not need to shop for snack food for at least a year, I’m sure.
Now I’m off to catch up on e-mail, and figure out what to do with all the farm share produce that has been untouched in my fridge this week — only two days until my next pick-up, which I will not be able to fit in my fridge without a major plan. I will be back with a meal plan for the rest of the week tomorrow — please hold me to it.
June 23rd, 2008
I’ve had both of these new-to-me items in the past two days, and no, I’m not pregnant!
The Talk 0′ Texas Crisp Okra Pickles were in my supermarket, I grabbed them because I thought J. would love them. I couldn’t have guessed I’d like them too, I thought they’d be soggy and unbearably spicy, but they were neither. I wonder if they’d make a good dirty martini…
My mom brought the chocolate back from Israel. It’s Elite milk chocolate with “popping candy” — like Pop Rocks — inside. Very bizarre. Even after the chocolate melted away you’d still get these surprising crackling sensations all around your mouth. The boys, of course, clamored for a piece and I was sure they’d be freaked out by it (they ask for a sip of soda every once in a while, and do not like the carbonation at all). But they loved the chocolate and even when I asked them directly they didn’t find the popping sensation to be unusual. Serious Eats mentioned this Israeli chocolate bar last year, and it seems Pop Rocks came out with their own limited edition version, so if you’re desperate to try it you can probably get your hands on one version or another.
May 27th, 2008
G. is starting to feel a little better, but he’s still lying around on the couch asking me to hold him and watching a lot of TV. If I never see another Super Why, it will be too soon. It was an episode of Little Bear, however, that made him decide he needed to eat pancakes, NOW!
I took our regular pancake recipe and adapted it a little, using 1¼ c. all-purpose flour, and ¼ c. flax seed meal. I’ve never tried flax seed meal before, but I grabbed it the other day when my supermarket was out of whole wheat flour. It worked beautifully in these pancakes.
I was initially put off when I opened the package: I was expecting something the consistency of flour, but the ground flax seed was much more rough and closer to its whole-seed version than that. Similar to wheat germ, but perhaps in even larger pieces. I figured that with such a robust appearance, it wouldn’t blend well into the pancakes. I was pleasantly surprised, however. You did not taste any crunchiness or extra grainy texture in the pancakes, and I didn’t think the flavor changed at all. I would definitely try upping the flax seed meal to a half cup in future batches.
G. took a couple of bites of a pancake, and then asked for applesauce instead. He said they were good, but he was just “not in the mood for pancakes today.” Apparently the 15 minutes it took for us to make them quashed his must-have craving. I’ll freeze the rest and pull them out another day.
May 15th, 2008
The tofu parmigiana last week was surprisingly delicious, and I will make it again (it was even better eaten cold as leftovers!). And the spicy pasta with asparagus was a hit as part of our Mother’s Day lunch. I like cooking for larger groups because there’s a greater chance someone will really like what I’ve made!
I am quite the sourpuss tonight, and I was only barely able to convince myself that getting the week’s menu planned would be a step in the right direction to shaking this grumpiness off. So here I am.
Bread bakers! I need your help. I have three ¼ oz. packages of active dry yeast, and I would like to try my hand at some basic rolls or egg-y bread, like challah. It’s been many years since I worked with yeast, and I’m feeling a little hesitant. Let me know if you have a recipe you love (if it includes whole wheat flour, even better). Thanks in advance.
Monday: Leftover Neil Sedaka’s Chicken, steamed broccoli, brown rice
Tuesday: Steak under the broiler, salad (mixed lettuce with yellow pepper, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, and grape tomatoes — leftover from our Mother’s Day lunch), soba noodles
Wednesday: Homemade rolls (I need an easy recipe using active dry yeast), hard-boiled eggs, cheese, crudite
Thursday: Falafel (I’m trying a new frozen variety), hummus, pita, Israeli salad
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Spicy Cheese Enchiladas, green salad, brown rice
Sunday: Take out (We still haven’t ordered Indian — it’s been weeks! I ought to just cook some myself…)
For more menu planning ideas, check out Laura at Organizing Junkie.
May 11th, 2008
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I'm Dara, the chick in the kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two boys, ages 3 and 5, and husband. Trying to feed my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Reach me at .