"16 Secret Supermarket Ingredients Chefs Love": Really?!

Now here's some of the ingredients I love: Basic, unadulterated whole foods, spices, and herbs. But Bon Appetit has posted an article today about "16 Secret Supermarket Ingredients Chefs Love". After running through the list of crazy ideas, a whole lot of chefs have popped up in the comment section to say, "Wait a minute..."

I suspect the article writer was given a nice bonus for mentioning all the brand names (Wonder bread, Pop Rocks, Altoids, etc.). Sneaky way to advertise: Write something that appears newsworthy, to make the ad seem more legitimate.  And of course the profiteers will publish these advertisements as "news" (it will mean more money for everyone, right?). But the fact is: Processed foods that use really cheap ingredients like sugar, corn syrup, white flour, cheap fat and artificial ingredients are also high-profit foods. You don't see nearly as much advertising for whole grain oat meal or carrots. There's not enough profit for such items! There's hardly a middle man; it practically goes from the farm to your table.

For the really savvy chef, nothing can beat basic ingredients. The Bon Appetit article mentions Nabisco Ginger Snaps to top a butternut squash; "only" $5/16 oz. box. So I assume you use a little bit for topping that healthy squash, and then you gorge on the leftover cookies? Not really economical. I discovered that I can take the basic table crackers we keep in stock, adding a bit of sugar and ginger spice if I want a "Ginger Snap" flavored crust or whatever.

The article also mentions Orange-flavored Pop Rocks, used to flavor Chocolate Mousse. But you can just add a touch of orange extract to that chocolate mousse. No need to buy a package of junk food candy, complete with artificial additives. Altoids are also mentioned, but again, mint extract works at least as well; it's packed with flavor and can sub just fine for those Altoids.

Wonder bread is even mentioned, as an addition to meatballs, because it "blends more easily... making a lighter meatball". But how 'bout just processing some oats for that meatball? The oats process into a fine crumb, they add thickening, and are a whole grain. Why would you pay someone else to process the life out of wheat, and substitute that?!

Also, humm... Potato Chips as a substitute for Panko (soft bread crumbs)? Just what we need when we're dipping things into the bread crumbs, to then get fried: Already deep-fried chip crumbs, that will then be fried once more! I guess I would opt for the panko, or soft bread crumbs. Using crushed potato chip crumbs before frying is right up there with the deep-fried butter stick offered at some state fairgrounds.

But hey, thumbs up on the organic tomatoes and frozen pearl onions mentioned in the article. Now there's a a case where you're paying for the basic ingredient, not for the extra processing of dirt cheap ingredients into artificial replicas of the real thing!

The idea of going for basic ingredients and avoiding processed ones is just one of the things you can do to help make this world more sustainable. A friend at Massage Therapy Schools has made quite a comprehensive list: "100 Ways You Can Have a More Sustainable Table". It includes links to more reference pages on where to buy local food in your area, etc. Check it out for details!

Presentation: Important Ingredient!

The garden's going full blast right now, so we're definitely "eating local". Some veggies grow more easily than others; onions are real troopers, popping up with minimal care. So when I saw a cool recipe this morning using onions, I zeroed in.

It's always nice to find interesting ways to serve the standard veggies. And not only are onions economical, they can be found in the "super food" category, being full of flavonoids and other nutrients. A featured recipe this morning, "Roasted Onions with Parsnip Puree" looked awesome, topped with some blue cheese and chopped walnuts. Thanks, "Delish", for an inspiring article.

I liked the rustic presentation, with the skins left on the onions. The root side is sliced off a bit so they won't tip over, and the top is cut off some, hollowed out a bit, and filled with the cooked, mashed parsnips. It's baked for over an hour, and garnished with the blue cheese and nuts. Yum. I'll be making this for dinner soon!

Fun Jello Desserts

I must say, if you're not bent on making a natural, healthy style jello dessert, a recipe for Sea Glass Jello might be just the ticket! I had worked out a recipe for "Natural Style Jello Salad", posting it here... It uses fruit juices and unflavored gelatin, so you can avoid the artificial flavorings and artificial colors. When I was wanting a special treat to serve along with dinner (one that our one-year-old granddaughter might be able to have), I opted for "Natural". But for special occasions, perhaps the Sea Glass Jello is even better! If nothing else, it just looks so cool...

Labor Day Recipe Ideas: German Potato Salad

I just made a batch of German Potato Salad for our Women's Group. It was a hit! I didn't have frozen apple juice concentrate, so I used 1/3 c. honey and 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar instead. Worked perfectly. I actually ate more than usual, since I knew it was made with some healthy olive oil and honey instead of that mayo-based stuff. This is looking to be a perfect Labor Day Potato Salad recipe. Yum ;)

Small Weddings: Budget Style in the Bay Area

A friend just had a beautiful wedding reception at San Pablo's Holiday Inn Express. I suspect she did it at a bargain, as it's only $220 to rent the reception room there for the entire day.

Another friend was able to go over early and properly decorate the room for their fifty guests. (Which is the maximum capacity.) The hotel provided tables and chairs, and the friend brought in her own tablecloths and decorations.

By the time The New Deli arrived to set up the food, the place was looking great. We laid out fruits and grape leaves and more greenery, platters of Chicken Salad w/Walnut Sandwiches, a few big bowls of Potato Salad and Greek Salad. And it looked beautiful on the two black marble counters we had to set up on, on either side of the room's entrance.

People occasionally ask us at The New Deli, if we have any ideas of venues for smaller events (showers, engagement parties, small weddings). I now know of one economical place right close by! We had prepared everything just before bringing it over, which was good, since there are no kitchen facilities available on site. You must come prepared!

In this economy, it's good to know a few affordable places. I would recommend Holiday Inn Express!

Martha Martha Martha...

I was curious as to whether my "Shaker-Style Lemon Bars" were on the internet radar, so I googled it. How fun- my web page was there, right under Martha Stewart's "Shaker Lemon Bars".

I actually thought I'd created this recipe, as I'd adapted it from a Shaker Lemon Pie recipe. Apparently, Martha Stewart had had the same idea, But judging from the comments on her website, I suspect my recipe's better. (I'm not partial, ha!)

I noticed she doesn't mention using Meyer Lemons, but I think it's an important detail. I made the recipe both ways, with Meyer and with Eureka Lemons; the Meyer rind is way sweeter and not as tough. It made a big difference. (If you were to use Eureka, I think you'd want to only use slices of one lemon.)

I put less sugar and less butter in my recipe too. Like I said, I'm not partial, but I think mine were perfect!

How To Cook Veggies

Thought I'd review today's article on "How to Cook 20 Vegetables" by Carolyn Malcoun; I checked it out figuring maybe I'd find a new tip or two. And I did like her idea that you can steam a veggie, then add a half cup or so of white wine. Remove the veggies when they're tender, then reduce the wine/veggie juices down until they get thick, then glaze the veggies with mega-flavor.

I wasn't too keen on cooking asparagus under the broiler, given the hot weather we can have in the summer. (I'm all for keeping the heat out of the kitchen!) Plus, I've always used my iron skillet for cooking asparagus (and most other veggies for that matter), getting the pan piping hot, then adding the asparagus and a splash water. The water instantly steams up, cooking the vegetables. This method is perfect for the more delicate veggies like asparagus, broccoli and beans; you want to cook them quickly and avoid their yellowish-green, overcooked tendencies. I might leave a lid on such veggies for just a few minutes, until the veggies are tender (cook longer if you like yours more done). If the water steams off too quickly, I add a touch more. I don't add so much that the veggie flavors are lost into the water, but just enough water to help them steam.

A pot with a steamer inserted can also work, but I prefer the big iron skillet as it has more surface area and I can get them cooked fast. Fast is good for me! And if you want to bring out the natural sweetness of vegetables without resorting to getting out the grill, you can turn the iron pan back on high after cooking the vegetables, add a bit of olive oil, and leave the vegetables in just long enough to brown a bit on one side, then flip to do the other side. Gives you almost the effect of the outdoor grill, but easier in many instances. Carrots, potatoes and yams are perfect this way. They get a bit caramelized as the natural sugars brown a bit.

Carolyn Malcoun's tip on microwaving acorn squash seemed helpful. It's true, you can add a bit of water and microwave squashes, cut in half with cut side down in a baking dish. But I have a wonderful little toaster oven; it uses minimal energy and doesn't really heat the kitchen up. Acorn squash can be left whole and put in the toaster oven to roast for an hour or so on 300 degrees or so (if your toaster oven's big enough to fit the squash). All the natural flavors of the squash itself are steaming it from the inside, making it perfectly tender and totally flavorful.

I also wrap some veggies in foil and bake them in that toaster oven until sweet and tender; all their flavor is caught in the veggie itself. This method is perfect for beets and sweet potatoes. I often will bake them ahead, letting them sit wrapped up in their foil to cool some; then the peel comes off pretty easily.

Eggplants are awesome using the toaster oven method too! I'll cook them on the highest heat, right up close to the broiler coil. They get charred a little; Mideastern cooks know full well that this brings out the perfect, silky eggplant texture. Once the outside's charred on all sides (rotate the eggplant as necessary), just leave it in the toaster oven a while longer on lower heat, until it's soft and pretty squishy. Yum!

It shouldn't be painful to eat our veggies. Once we know how to treat the various veggies, using an iron pan and grilling method, or using the toaster oven, microwave, or other methods, we can learn how to optimize flavor and texture, and veggies become a delight. As well they should!

Blogs: Vehicles for Advertising?

A gentleman from csnstores.com ("Sean and I’m part of the Promotions Team ") left me an email message this morning about how the company was "seeking out high quality websites and blogs" that might want to explore "advertising opportunities" through CSN Stores.

The first thing I did was determine whether I'd advise a friend to shop at that site. So I compared prices of one of my favorite cookware items: The Fagor Splendid 4-Quart Pressure Cooker. It's a bargain on Amazon, for $59.99. I would recommend it to a friend. But go to the CSN store, and you'll find that same pressure cooker "on sale" for $79.99. Not cool.

Should I be impressed that my little blog was singled out as supposedly "high quality"? Notice he didn't even mention the name of my "foodieblog.pccuisine.com" in the message. (A sure sign that this is a mass mailing to me and all those many, many other "high quality websites and blogs"). I'm not flattered.

Perhaps the idea of offering a free giveaway on my site by partnering with CSN Stores would stimulate my imagination. (As in, "Oooh, I see dollar signs of rewards coming my way!) But really, how desperate are we, fellow bloggers? Will blogs simply become vehicles for advertising? Will we all start measuring the success of what we're doing by how much money we can make?

I'm measuring my success by how much valuable information I can pass along, how much I can impact other lives for good. If I'm trying to sell you some overpriced products for my own benefit, how valuable is that?! Granted, I would love to be subsided by an even meager income from Adsense and Amazon. After all, many of us are contributing content free of charge. No journalist fees included. I don't fault anyone making a small stipend from a few ads; some of us can't really afford to spend our time blogging at zero financial reward.

Perhaps as a result (of greed or desperation?), we see many blogs and websites screaming with ads. A few are on my avoid list; there might be three sentences of interest on the whole page. To find the rest of that content, I have to move on to the next page (also peppered with ads). As I go from page to page just to seek a bit of info, the ad meter keeps track and that particular website benefits from my visit. But do I benefit? Humm...

Well blogger buddies, I welcome your input. Is anyone else getting tired of all the ads? Do you really feel you can trust that you'd be getting value for your spending dollar? Forgive me that I did mention that pressure cooker. Yes, if you clicked on the one from Amazon and ended up buying it, I might make a few cents. I made $1.67 from Amazon Associates in the last quarter (and zero dollars this quarter), so I'm serious when I say, "cents". But I do think Amazon offers some great prices. I shop there myself, so I'm OK with pointing others in that direction. But would I point them towards CSN Stores? I think not.

"Go Local"... REAlly?!

I wouldn't have even imagined that Lays would try to imply that if we eat their potato chips, whose primary calories come from an oil that's been distilled at (most likely) a NON local processing plant, then sent to a Lays processing plant to have (possibly) somewhat local potatoes dipped into it, before being shipped to the warehouse, to the grocery store, to our home kitchen, and finally, into our mouths with a carbon footprint too big to even fit into that mouth... THAT's "Buying Local"?! (Lays uses one "local farm" in particular, that covers 17,000 acres in 11 states. Yeah, real local!)

I enjoyed reading up about the latest trend among multinational conglomerates' think-tank advertising teams (which I'm sure have an enormous budget to work with), about marketing more product with certain key words: "Sustainable", "Local", etc. One of my blogging buddies at "Gigabiting" tells more about how even McDonald's and  Walmart are finding ways to spin things in their favor.

Implying that eating junk food from processing plants across the country is encouraging sustainability is right up there with buying that pink bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken to support the breast cancer foundation. I told my husband the bucket should be black, as in death, if they wanted to more accurately distinguish it.

Separation of Business and Politics? Please?

The American Family Association keeps up with what's going on in our country; their newsletters keep me informed. (For updates, subscribe here.) When Home Depot is marching in parades promoting a certain sexual lifestyle, I find out about it. I mean, really... I hear a lot about separation of church and state, but what about a separation of business and political agenda?!

This morning, the AFA newsletter mentioned that I could send a letter to Larry Costello, Director of Sears Public Relations department. I could give you a link to the AFA page (that's been digitally altered enough to not show everything); it shows the Sears website page that's selling pornographic posters. But I don't want to "stumble" anyone! Just trust me: It's porno. It's kinky. It's a far cry from the Sears of generations ago. Didn't Sears used to sell farm equipment and kitchen tools back in the day? I guess there's not enough money in that :(

The American Family Association makes it easy to fill in their online form. If an issue ever bothers you enough to let any given company know about it, the AFA's form is user-friendly. Even if you don't have much time, they've already filled in the text (if you just want to sign your name to it), or you can write your own message. And off the email goes, good and simple.

In this digital age, we ought to use the technology that can so easily make our voices heard. It's a hard war to fight, and until the return of Jesus Christ, I'm sure it's a losing battle. But, Good News: The right side wins in the end!

So here's my little letter to Mr. Costello, sent through that online form:

Dear Mr. Costello,

I don't know why Sears would sell porno on its website. Business should never be so bad that you'd need to resort to that. You might make more money, but I'll be sure to avoid your store. You might get rid of a few annoying customers like me, but you won't get rid of your conscience. It will come back to haunt you.

If you change your position, the AFA will inform me, and I'll be able to pass a better report along to my friends. Until then, I'll have to tell them about this...

Sadly.

Jennifer Cote

A Good Dinner: Make Ahead Even- Holds Well in the Oven

I had some chicken breasts on hand, and company coming... What to serve?! And where does the time go?! I usually have to get innovative in order to serve classy food without it taking too much of my time. And this time, innovation served me well.

So here's a tip for others looking to save a few steps. Make some Spaghetti and Meatballs. Yes, the homemade meatballs are awesome; seasoned with an authentic tasting Italian seasoning (including toasted, ground fennel seed, giving 'em that sausage-y flavor). Make extra of the seasoned oat mix. We do this at The New Deli, because when it's time to make another batch of meatballs, it's a whole lot easier to just add the egg, Parmesan, and ground beef to the already-prepared oatmeal mix.

While you're making the Spaghetti and Meatballs, make extra of the tomato sauce. Yes, double it even, and put up pints for the freezer. They come in handy for other entrees!

Now, if you've made extra of the oatmeal mix and of the tomato sauce, the steps to making an awesome dinner of Chicken Parmesan are moments away! Use the seasoned oatmeal mix, diluted by half with some extra flour; dip pounded chicken breasts into to mix, and grill both sides until browned. You don't have to keep cooking until the chicken's cooked all the way through, as it will finish baking in the oven. Put in a baking dish and top with a bit of tomato sauce (just enough to cover most of the top of each piece). (Now aren't you glad you have some handy tomato sauce from the freezer?!) Add Parmesan on top and bake until golden. If guests are looking like they'll arrive later, just turn the oven way down; this dish will hold well for even an hour longer if the heat's down.

So you can make a fine dinner of Chicken Parmesan, let it hang in the oven until serving time, and you can actually visit with your guests without all that fussing in the kitchen to get dinner served!

"What if I Stumble?"

One of DC Talk's songs asks, "What if I stumble, what if I fall?" The line takes on a new meaning for those of us trying to figure out just what "StumbleUpon" is.

I'd heard about StumbleUpon; I think I actually joined a year or two ago. Not that I knew what "joining" meant. Didn't really have time to figure that out. I thought: Cliff notes on what's so cool about this website would be nice. So, I'll try to explain in a nutshell. Or maybe a coconut shell. (I can get carried away...)

To quote The New York Times: "As you 'stumble' from site to site, you will feel as if you are channel surfing the Internet, or rather, a corner of the Internet that is most relevant to you."

You may wonder why it would be important to whittle down the internet to what's "most relevant to you". I can give one example: Foodbuzz! Oh, it's an interesting foodie website. Certainly moving up in the Alexa ratings. I've even met a few exceptionally cool cooks there. But now that I have all kinds of "friends" on Foodbuzz, my inbox gets inundated with messages. They won't just disappear; they only increase in volume. I might find time once a month to check through those posts, finding a few of interest. But I have to manually delete the other 496 messages, just so I can start fresh. By next month, I'll have 500 more messages!

This is where StumbleUpon comes in. If I have selected a few choice sites to "stumble", StumbleUpon's mechanics can get a feel for what's apt to interest me. Should I feel adventurous, I might click on the little "stumble" button on my toolbar, and StumbleUpon will generate a few suggested websites that might interest me. How cool!

But the number of social network and bookmarking sites one can join can be overwhelming. Can't a person just do Facebook instead? Well, as we Facebookers know, we will get updates from all our friends whether we need those updates or not. It's great to hear about our friends, but then there's the potential "TMI". And Twitter: It seems a bit random. I go there and chance on the latest Twitterings of my buddies, some of which might be interesting.

But I do find it exciting that, through StumbleUpon, I can "twitter" and add to "facebook", AND stumble! It's becoming my favorite place for inspiration. Sometimes, what I really want is to just get the updates of a few friends who faithfully produce interesting posts full of novel ideas. StumbleUpon is a great place for the timeless stuff. No, not the latest on Justin Beiber or other 24-hour trends. And not that "timeless" means outdated. The latest and greatest show up (like sites on local harvests and CSA deliveries, latest gardening tips, etc.).

That said, I haven't quite found time to post a "stumble this" on my pages... Sigh. But I'm getting there. First things first. For now, I need to go roast some potatoes and slice some beef for some friends' 60th anniversary...

Balance in a Not-So-Brave New World

Yes, God's talking to me in the garden again. I ponder how He's set things up in the natural world, as it seems to speak to me about other worldly realms as well.

Today the talk was about being a control freak. Yes, I'm guilty of that! I need to watch myself, or I can easily try to control everything. Let's not let things get messy; let's just control everything and make it "manageable"!

There's something wrong with our tidy, well-controlled world though. As I think of how man and science can aspire to get rid of all the "glitches", mastering DNA manipulation and genetic challenges until we can potentially avoid all those glitches, my stomach sours. So we can assert a preemptive strike, avoiding the birth of any more Down's Syndrome kids (and other "undesirables"?) with a simple screening. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Ask a friend who has a special needs child; many of them will say that, even though it's challenging, they wouldn't have it any other way. At a recent fundraiser, I witnessed one "special" young man who determined he'd won the raffle prize of a jar of spaghetti and some pasta. As he circled the room waving his loot, he hooted for joy over his triumph. Oh, we should all be so enthusiastic!

As we try to get rid of the uncomfortable "irregularities" in society, we might consider the popularity of "Seed Saver" groups, intent on saving those almost-lost heirloom plants of yore. Before there were perfect-looking but bland tomatoes, there were irregularly shaped ones loaded with flavor. A few wise souls have realized: We need to save some of those ancient plants before they're bred out completely!

I've been a control freak in my own garden at times, keeping everything extra tidy, not letting any "outsiders" in (weeds and other proliferators). I thought the garden would be more easily managed that way. Something's lost though, when we try to control exactly what belongs and what doesn't. God's got a master plan, and He's got a perfect design. I suspect the Garden of Eden was a flourishing plethora of vegetation. There's a reason for everything. Yes, even certain weeds; you can sow a particular kind to improve various deficits in the soil. Those weeds have a purpose. The ones with long tap roots reach deep into the soil, extracting minerals that are often washed away from the topsoil. Certain weeds are more alkaline or acid producing, balancing out the soil's PH.

I've fancied growing Mahalia Poppies at one point; I later discovered that they need their own back 40 to grow wild in, as they can easily take over. So I have them growing wild on the back hill now. But even when I thought they might be a nuisance, I discovered they are a perfect addition to the compost pile. Gardeners who compost know that it's important to get plenty of oxygen into that pile; the Mahalia Poppy has a large, hollow stalk to add a sort of natural air vent when composted. Same is true of the stalks of sunflowers and borage (two more plants that can threaten to take over corners of the garden).

At times I was too vigilant in what could take up space in my garden. It was an elite club. I would add fine, rich kitchen scraps to the compost pile daily, imagining what a wonderful end product I'd eventually come up with. (Kitchen scraps come in abundant when you have your own eatery!) Funny thing, though- I had too much of a good thing. I needed other additions to make the compost pile balanced. I started letting borage and sunflowers and Mahalia Poppies go to seed in their favorite spots; I used the plentiful leftover plants when they were done growing, to add that drier fiber to the compost pile.

We can't get too smart and tidy and controlling; eventually we discover that we didn't know the master plan. We have to allow some things to have their space, even challenging or seemingly undesirable things. It's part of God's master plan.

Hebrews 13:5

Hebrews 13:5 says, "God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"

But sometimes as I work through the gardening, I have to remind myself of that. Even while I'm gardening, He's with me. And He will speak to me.

Recently in my gardening mode, I pondered how a particular relative hangs on to some long term resentment about my having "deserted" them. (I had moved from the area.) This event happened 30 years ago, and yet I'm the target of this person's recent outbursts; they are still judging my actions from when I was a young and reckless teenager!

Thank you God for Your grace: You give us what we don't deserve. You give us eternal life even as we bumble through this life, as we believe in Your Son. And thank you for Your mercy! You don't give us what we do deserve, when we've downright evil and selfish and actually deserve hell.

Then I realize that the human race doesn't behave like that; the opposite can often be true. Our human friends and loved ones might very well give us what we don't deserve, but in a bad way! They might give us grief when our actions really didn't justify that. We might by chance actually deserve some love and kindness, yet sometimes we don't get it. Ah, at least our Father in heaven gives us that.

But back to the gardening. So there I was, shoveling away, preparing the ground. After looking at a few plants that never looked quite right, I realized that one plant just didn't belong there. I transplanted it to an area where its colors complemented the other plants' colors (and vice versa). And I thought about God. I felt as if He Himself was telling me: You needed to be transplanted. Yes, you were a crazy, reckless teenager, but you needed to move from one place to another. If you'd stayed where you were, your natural colors would've continued to clash with the plants already rooted there. It would never be your proper home.

So I moved one plant and the whole garden came together. Sometimes some things have to move away. In the process, God told me, "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper and not harm you. Plans for hope and a good future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Amen to that!

SF Chefs 2010!

My online buddy Vivian (From the "Visa Outreach People" helping to put the event on) reminded me that the San Francisco Chefs 2010 is coming right up. It will be at Union Square in San Francisco, August 13th-15th, 2010; Gary Danko, Tyler Florence, Thomas Keller and other renowned chefs will be there. All kinds of programs/events are planned;  local chefs Craig Stoll and Anthony Strong (of Delfina's) will face off Family Feud style with Staffan Terje and Sarah Burchard (of Perbacco's and Barbacco's). Should be fun.

Ticket purchases support the Golden Gate Restaurant Association Scholarship Foundation (granting financial scholarships to Bay Area students entering culinary and hospitality programs). That's cool.

Another cool deal: The event is partnering with "Recology", striving for zero waste, creating no landfill at the event. (Recology was previously known as "Norcal Waste Management". It's good to see they're redefining themselves!) Recycled paper products and other serviceware made from corn resin will be composted afterward. I love it.

Of course, when I first noticed the message in my inbox from Vivian, I glanced at the words "SF Chefs 2010" and thought, wow, has Pinole finally made it on the map? They want Jennifer Cote of The New Deli to offer up some appetizers for this event?! Well, Jennifer Cote is no Gary Danko. And Jennifer Cote's pretty busy with family, gardening and daily cooking at The New Deli to notch up to that category! Although my deli friend did comment that she fancied me the "Alice Waters of Pinole". I'll hang on to that generous title and leave it at that.

Carrot Cake: Get Your Carotene Fix!

I needed to make Great Grandma Marie a nice birthday cake this weekend. And it had to be good- she's 88 years old and deserves that!

She's always liked carrot cake. This is good news considering she's not at all fond of other veggies. Yes, carrot cake is as close as we can get! She's of that generation that focused on canned goods and spam; actual fresh foods and veggies were so old-school back then.

But hey, if we can get her to eat this Carrot Cake, we're doing all right. At age 88, I'm sure it'll be of no detriment to her health at this point. I remember trying real hard to come up with the ultimate "healthy" carrot cake, using no sugar in the cake batter; just honey. I posted the recipe here. But really, was it worth the sacrifice of lighter texture to use that honey? I finally decided: Not. The honey-sweetened version was maybe a smidgen healthier (at least according to some perspectives), but it came out heavier than I'd like.

So I finally made a new version using sugar (recipe posted here). We polished off the whole cake in one sitting yesterday. Everyone loved it, even Great Grandma. It's still healthy enough, using good oil instead of butter or margarine in the batter, and a whole lot of grated carrot. And it's got fruit too (from the raisins or dates that go into it). As my daughter-in-law said, "Hey, let's all eat our veggies- hand me a piece of that cake!"

"Email Marketing": For You or Not?

Let's take a quick side tour out of the deli kitchen and into the computer room. I do spend quality time here on my computer; for those of us who always did like creative writing and other creative pursuits, internet stuff can be pretty fascinating.

I've gone from having scribbled recipes on index cards to having all kinds of notes filed away in various folders on my computer (plus a few digital back-ups). Getting so organized made it easier for me to share recipes online too. (It's become quite the fad, to an almost overwhelming degree...)

When I first published my cookbook, back in late 2006, my business-savvy friend suggested that I send out newsletters. I really wasn't used to jumping on the publicity bus, tooting my own horn, promoting myself as an author.  When our 5th grade class got into groups to vote on stories written by various anonymous classmates, I had authored one of the top three stories. But I had decided (at the tender age of ten) that it was more important to conduct a study on social behavior: If I talked my own story down in favor of another author's story, would I be able to sway my fellow classmates to vote for her story instead?

Perhaps my gift lies more in the realm of affecting public opinion than in any actual creative talent. The other girl's story won; my story came in second, no thanks to my self-sabotaging. OK, I was a weird kid. But those of us out there who don't feel entirely comfortable promoting ourselves might understand.

So when this friend of mine suggested that I send out email newsletters, it felt a little like when mom said, "Eat your brussels sprouts." I wasn't eager to do it, but I knew it probably would be good for me. So I did my online research, comparing various companies, and found that iContact appeared to be the most user-friendly, offering the most extras for the most value. A friend or two might use some of the other email marketing companies; there's Vertical Response, and Constant Contact is a popular one too.

In any case, iContact has proven to do me well. I send out a monthly recipe newsletter (subscribe here), and I can also send out updates to various unique groups. Some stuff goes just to New Deli customers, some is of interest to almost all of my subscribers. I had wondered why I had received a bit of traffic on my website, straight from the iContact website; some sleuthing revealed that they'd used my quote on one of their pages (bottom right). It's a little like seeing a picture of yourself in the newspaper. Look, mommie- there I am! Super cool :)

Well, time to get some new email addresses on record at iContact. I'll be sending out a thank-you newsletter to the new subscribers I met at the Chamber Mixer we had last night in Hercules. It was great fun.

Gotbody Newsflash

I just had a nice talk this morning with the gentleman at gotbody.com; he assured me that they will make good on the $29.95 mishap I experienced. (See previous post here.) And while I don't have the check in hand yet, I feel confident that Andrew from gotbody is intent on winning back my trust. With all the scammers out there, it's important for us to find websites we can trust.

I really didn't want to have to start growing and juicing my own barley grass. I'm just not there yet. I was hoping to be able to continue getting my quick fix of Vitamineral Green. (Just 2 scoops shook up with some water first thing every morning does the trick...) Perhaps I'll be able to continue ordering from gotbody after all.

But I want my reimbursement check first!

AN UPDATE ON THIS TOPIC, JULY 22: I was mailed a check for $29.95, but in the meantime, I talked more to the Wellness Hub lady, who contradicted what the GotBody guy said.

The Wellness Hub Lady claimed she would've been the only one to have talked to GotBody, and that what he was saying couldn't possibly have been what she said. (What he said: "Wellness-hub told me that they'd experienced a glitch and hadn't sent out their emails in time." What SHE said, "We had no glitch. You must have missed the first email we immediately sent, when it went into your spam box.")

Wellness Hub Lady also said she couldn't be responsible for the fact that I'd overlooked their GIANT BANNER informing me that I was being automatically signed up for their service. She wasn't going to listen to me explaining that placing obnoxious banners up only makes a lot of us avert our eyes. (I try to avoid most of those ads. The latest one popping up on me told me I could "Find Desirable Men Over Fifty!!!" Is it any wonder that I avoided examining their banner that closely?

I'm still not real happy with the whole experience...

No One Buys the Cow if the Milk's for Free!

An online friend of mine is excited about the prospects of publishing her cookbook. She's worked hard at it and is now in the process of finding a publisher.

As a published author, let me offer my perspective! Especially about cookbook publishing. Since establishing The New Deli (in 1985), we had hundreds of customers ask us about recipes. Back then, all my recipes were for very large quantities. But I set about reducing those recipes for the home cook... By 1998, I took what I had to Staples and got a hundred copies, spiral-bound. Those sold pretty quick, so we did another printing in 1999.

I started getting a vision of including photographs, and making a cookbook that included scripture and personal commentary. How fun that would be!

Five years later, I discovered that, despite the endless hard work, my vision could not simply be printed up at Staples. Photographs require that a more expensive machine be used to produce copy. (And a dollar a page was just cost prohibitive...) So I started thinking about finding a publisher.

So there's the first tip, potential cookbook authors: Do not try to include photographs unless you have a real cushy deal, signed up already with a good publisher. Because, upon going to a publisher, I discovered that they too had their limitations. Books with photography couldn't be POD (print-on-demand), although the publisher I was using (Winepress) did have a special branch, a step up from POD, that could accommodate my needs. It would just cost more, that's all. And it would be a larger commitment. 3,500 cookbooks later, I still have plenty reserved!

Which brings me to where I am today. I got that cookbook published in late 2006, as the number of online recipe websites was beginning to soar. Little did I realize, as I compiled the manuscript and took pictures, that upon the cookbook's release, the internet would be saturated with endless free recipes.

It amazes me that recipe websites can be so popular. The recipes aren't necessarily tested, tried and true, but they are free! I'm overwhelmed at times with information overload; I don't have time to try all those recipes!

But hey, if you have your heart set on publishing your cookbook, I wish you the best. Every now and then, an author pops up with the ambition to continue on, after publishing, with the daunting task of promotion. Maybe I'll even do that some day. But for now, I'm too busy running that New Deli and keeping up with the family and the garden. Celebrity Authorship will just have to wait!

Cool Social Media Buttons

I chanced upon a real fun blog the other day; just looking for cool "social media buttons". You know, something that might fit my style a bit more. I had tried putting a facebook button on my pccuisine website, but awk. The blue. So not going with my other colors!

I'd seen a real cool set of buttons at scarymommy.com. Discovering the site to be full of the interesting musings of a creative writer who's also a mom and wife got me fairly side-tracked. Ah, but isn't that the case for the ADD generation? I don't even think the whole Attention Deficit is refined to younger generations. The whole modern way of life encourages us to be easily distracted by every latest thing. Isn't that what advertisers want anyway? We can't just drive along and meditate on the goodness of life. We need to be distracted by the billboards jumping out at us, appealing to our inner insecurities, inner desires. The big companies can much the better profit off of us that way, right?

Oh, but I veer from the course. I was just talking about social media buttons. For today, I'll try to focus on that. You can stop on by Scary Mommy's for fun. But for a full list of all kinds of options, for those of you also looking for cool social media buttons, check out these sites: Ezuka.com has a list of 55 free buttons; wpmods.com has even more.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to install some cool buttons that actually work on my site... But that's another story!

Tips from a Professional Chef

Recipes abound, like for Italian Dressing, but how do you make "homemade" practical? Everyone has a favorite recipe, but how do we find the time to make up a fresh batch of this or that when our schedule gets tight?

At The New Deli, we get plenty busy all right... And I'm not married to my work, so I don't want the business to take over my life. So, how do I maintain our reputation of offering freshly prepared foods, without spending all my time on it? I look for time savers; I create my own time saver for every recipe I can!

We have a few tips for producing quality food efficiently... One tip: We make up concentrated batches of the dressings. For our Italian Dressing Recipe, we process the fresh garlic, herbs, and salt, portioning up the paste and freezing. We can then mix in the oil and vinegar in batches, as we need it. The flavors stay fresh, without us having to go through the whole process of making a new batch from scratch. Fresh and homemade doesn't have to be complicated. Give it a try in your kitchen!

NO Thank you for ordering Wellness-Hub.com!

Aw man, I was so excited to have a value-priced resource for my Vitamineral Green. I went to GotBody.com and ordered 5 large jars at a time (saves on shipping).

Well, I won't be doing that anymore. I just got an email from some folks I've never heard of before: "Wellness-Hub.com". If you check out their website, it's a complete scam. None of the links are even active! But they will take your money. They offer a 14 day trial membership; it sneaks up on you when you place online orders for your healthy supplements at GotBody (and possibly other websites). If you don't notice the tiny little box that's already checked (by default), indicating that you've already agreed to the offer, then you will get that trial offer, AND monthly charges for $29.95 thereafter. You have to notice and uncheck the box to avoid this hassle.

Someone else on the "gotbody scam" complaint board said they might even be hooking people up with the offer through what's mentioned in their "terms and conditions". It's pretty outrageous. I wanted to comment on the complaint board about the validity of the post, as I too had been scammed in this way. I never did post though; you have to enter in too much information, and alas, now I'm getting more wary of doing so online...

I'm probably just going to have to get old-fashioned and buy my stuff at the store!

Cooking Veggies: Best Methods

A few of my friends are getting their CSA deliveries. I'm jealous. One of these days I might start getting my own boxes. Meanwhile, I don't feel too guilty, since the garden's producing an abundance of seasonal fruits and veggies. So that's cool. But for those who can't really garden (or whose fruit trees, grape vines, etc., haven't matured yet), a number of "Community Supported Agriculture" services are cropping up. (No pun intended...)

"Farm Fresh to You" is a local one established for us Bay Area folks. They explain more about why anyone might choose to get CSA deliveries in an article here. I noticed that when you google the term "CSA delivery", a number of websites pop up. It just doesn't do a lot of good, if you live in New York, to discover in some small print at any given website that that particular company is based out of Texas (or what have you). One of the first websites to pop up is one delivering to Southern Westchester County (NY) and Stamford and Greenwich (CT), called "My Farm Share".

So if you're looking into it, do a search for CSA deliveries in your locale. But I did run across a good website, "Local Harvest", that simplifies things by giving you local suppliers, no matter what area you're in. They've got info on online stores, farms, CSA Farmers' Markets, restaurants, grocery/Co-op stores; they've got suppliers for local honey, local meat... At their online store, you can buy all sorts of things from producers who use locally grown ingredients to make their products. (The soap line is impressive.)

Local Harvest also has info on the Ark of Taste project, which is cataloging forgotten flavors, documenting rare breeds and excellent food products that are in danger of disappearing. In partnership with Slow Food USA, Local Harvest lists growers and producers of these items throughout the US.

I love their website!

There's more information on sustainable food here, at the "Sustainable Food Lab" website. We really ought to think a bit more about what it takes to put food on the table! (Isn't it easy to take things for granted?!)

Best Foods for the Budget AND for Health

ALL YOU (Motto: "Enjoy life for less") posted some info today about the 10 best natural foods with plenty of value for the price. Hum, wondered who "All You" is; apparently it's a magazine owned by Time Inc (who also publish Time, People, Southern Living, Real Simple, and Sunset, to name a few). I guess you can find them at Walmart stores, or you can subscribe.

I like to know where the source of the info is; if it's the American Dairy Association or Pillsbury, well, you know those folks might be a bit biased in their presentation. (Money and profit drives so much of the information exchange, doesn't it?!)

The following is the "All You" list, with additional commentary by me. Got to run it through my filter, don't ya know...

• Peanut Butter: Seems like a natural choice, full of protein, calories, and unsaturated fat. (It costs about 20¢ for 2 tablespoons. Such a deal.)

• Eggs: Good; lean protein and other nutrients, at just around 13¢ per large egg.

•  Oats: Healthy, whole grain. Also, did you know you can get a good organic oatmeal at the health food store for a decent price?  It's way cheaper to buy dry grains (like oatmeal) than boxed cereal. Consider that you add water to it to cook it, getting even more value, pound for pound. Plus, boxed cereals (even from the health food store) have been extruded. Come on, you know you don't want that! (Devoid of the nutrients that would naturally occur, hard to digest...) Quick-cooking oats cost about 17¢ per 1/2 cup.

• Apples: Now the "All You" article mentions this fruit, but consider that apples are often heavily sprayed. I wouldn't put them on my "healthy AND cheap" list. But if you don't mind the potential pesticides, they are only about 60¢ each.

• Spinach: I would include this veggie on the list only if you can find organic. Sometimes organic is on sale. Otherwise, spinach is another leafy green that can be exposed to considerable pesticides. It's got lots of nutrients (vitamin A, C, K and folic acid and manganese). It might have pesticides too though. But it is reasonably priced; around $1 for 5 ounces of fresh spinach.

• Beans: The article I checked out mentioned beans too, but showed a can of beans. I would go a step further: Cook your own! If you want to make your carbon footprint just a bit smaller, don't buy pre-cooked foods (full of extra liquid). Think of how much less energy is spent transporting a pound of dry beans (which, after cooking in water, will yield up to 3 lbs. of beans). Dry beans are an incredible value, full of fiber and minerals, at quite a good price. If you do cook up a big batch of beans, they freeze very well. We keep packets of frozen garbanzos on hand at The New Deli, ready for salads, and portions of frozen Black Bean Chili on hand too. But even a can of beans is cheap too, about 35¢ per 1/2-cup serving.

• Frozen vegetables: I can't argue that frozen veggies need to be on this list. Picked at their peak and quickly frozen, they retain lots of nutrients and are easy to use as the need arises. They don't deteriorate in the refrigerator drawer. (You save a lot of money by NOT throwing out those veggies that got too old before they were used.) And most frozen veggies cost only around 40¢ per serving.

• Sweet potatoes: This veggie is low on the glycemic index, and it's filling too, with fiber and vitamins to boot. All for about $1 a piece.

• Brown rice: Now we're talking healthy. Now we're talking value. Less carbon footprint, too, transporting this dry good from farm to your table, at about 37¢ per 1/2 cup of cooked rice.

• Canned tuna fish: I just wouldn't put this on my list. If you're hard up for protein at a cheap price, why not go for the eggs, or beans? There's been too much talk about the metals found in fish. But tuna does have a lot of lean protein, for only 75¢ for 3 ounces...

Hot Summer Drinks

I remember Rachel Ray showing us how to make a simple syrup; getting her saucepan out, adding sugar and water, simmering it until the sugar dissolved. I said to my husband, "That should be called 'not-so-simple syrup'!" After all, if you want a really simple syrup, like to make a cool and refreshing spearmint tea, strawberry lemonade, etc, you can much more easily just put some sugar in a ceramic bowl, add a bit of water, and microwave until hot. The sugar will get good and dissolved, and you don't have to heat the kitchen at all (by warming it up on that burner). Lord knows we need to keep our cool as much as possible when summer temps are through the roof...

The current heat wave sweeping the nation has put recipes for cool, refreshing drinks in the headlines. You can almost lose your appetite when it gets that hot. (Maybe a perfect time to try that juice fast?) A few of the latest drink recipes caught my eye. Here's my list of faves, plus my personal commentary:

• Strawberry Basil Lemonade: If you have access to good strawberries (no, not those flavorless ones from the grocery store), then you might try this. These flavors are perfect together! A friend turned me on to the idea of adding basil to fruits. (Fruit kabobs are great with a bit of basil syrup drizzled over.) I would try the microwave for the strawberry basil syrup; just microwave the sugar/water until piping hot, then let the basil and strawberries steep in it. (Or rewarm the mix in the microwave a bit more, to extract more flavor.)

• Ginger Ale: The idea for this is good. Use some fresh ginger juice for optimum flavor. Yes, you can grate the fresh ginger and strain the juice out. We did this once for a wedding, when we wanted to add lots of ginger flavor to the sauce at the last minute; we used our Champion juice to juice a pound or two of fresh ginger. Made ginger ice cubes out of it and had that fresh ginger juice handy for months. (Without the pesky pulp floating around with it.) The recipe posted includes vanilla for more flavor, and some seltzer water (or soda water). But I say it fails by suggesting Stevia. I have concerns about the use of stevia. I'll post my theory on that in an upcoming post. I would opt for sugar granules myself.

• Watermelon Strawberry Lemonade: Super easy recipe; just blend the fruits with some sugar and lemon juice. What a great way to have that refreshing watermelon flavor, without all those rinds floating around!

Can't wait to try these!

Growing from Seed: Where it Works (or Not)

I've heard that parsley can be hard to grow. I know it's been a challenge to me! I could scatter the seeds in the open soil, but apparently, the birds would eat all the seeds.

I'd also heard that parsley seeds take some time to germinate. So I would try again, soaking them overnight, eventually sprouting them indoors on damp paper towels, to plant in the garden after they'd sprouted. Again, probably tasty food for some critter or insect. No survivors with this method either.

But I finally got one parsley plant to take off. I'd bought it in the herb section of the local nursery, planted it, watered it. It was going strong. I decided I'd let it go to seed. Perhaps if it produced lots and lots of seeds, a few of them might take.

Several years later, I have quite the parsley patch. But I thought it was interesting where it had decided to grow. I had sprinkled some of the seeds in one plot of dirt, and other seeds among the spearmint. (Spearmint will grow like a weed, so there's always some spearmint growing.)

I have a theory on why the seeds sprouted up into parsley plants in the spearmint bed, while the seeds in the other bed failed completely: Those darn birds again. They can easily find the seeds in a perfectly plowed, prepared plot. Ah, but they don't bother with the seeds sprouting beneath layers of spearmint. Perfect!

As we've been doing a study on stress with my woman's group, I considered the application for this truth of nature. In our study, it's mentioned that there is good stress and bad stress. The bad stress is that which we've created for ourselves. Imagine that the perfectly plowed, prepared plot is the stress we've created for ourselves. When the "birds" of our lives come along and eat what we've planted in this perfect plot, we become so frustrated. How could this happen after so much work?!

But imagine that the spearmint bed is God's perfect stress. It's the things in our lives that naturally pop up, even appearing "weed-like". Potentially stressful. But if we view those "weeds" as something that God allows, so that something even better can grow in our life, then the potential stress melts away as we realize, "God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

A verse mentioned in our stress study says, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:11)

In years past, I viewed the spearmint bed as something of a nuisance. It would easily get overgrown, expanding its territory into other regions, out of control. I learned to keep it pruned back a bit, containing it in one specific area. And that's where my parsley has come to grow.

Organic Gardening, Easy Style

I'm so excited to try this idea for regrowing celery, from Providence Acres. My newly found friend Sheryl posted this at her blog. Apparently, you can "regrow" celery by cutting the bottom off and planting it in your garden. Sheryl recommends letting the celery bottom sit on a saucer of water overnight, which probably helps. I personally found that, if left long enough in the refrigerator drawer, old celery will eventually start sprouting new growth. So I'm sure this is going to work.

More info on this subject appeared on a "Chickens in the Road" blog. Some folks say you can do the same for pineapple. Cut the top off, plant it, and it should produce a new pineapple! Amazing! Someone from Idaho said it worked for her, so perhaps it might work for some of us other folks too.

Someone else mentioned that you can replant the bottom ends of green onions too. I've got a whole big, empty part of the garden where I've been putting extra compost; think I'll use it for my experiment. Considering how many celery bottoms we get at The New Deli (so much soup and tuna and chicken salad...), we just might end up with a great bounty!

Another poster mentioned that celery likes cool weather. I might have success then, here in the Bay Area, with the cool Bay breezes. The pineapple might not like it as much. But I'll keep you posted :) What a great way to get some organic gardening going on, free of charge!

Canned Foods: Good vs. Bad

A good buddy of ours at The New Deli is always looking for salt-free food. He and I both are big fans of our Black Bean Chili, which has zero salt in it. Not that it's easy to make food with no salt; so many ingredients are already full of it. Even canned tomatoes. But check out a can of tomato paste, and you might be happy to discover: No salt! So I add tomato paste to our Black Bean Chili; it adds plenty of tomato flavor without the sodium. Very cool.

Today I noticed a recipe for Steak Sauce in my inbox. I thought it might be interesting; I always like to make things from scratch. Less additives, and less costly too, usually. Ew- I was a bit disappointed to find out that the major ingredient in this "steak sauce" was Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup. Loaded with sodium, don't you know...

Ah, but "Campbell's Kitchen" is one of the "partners" at allrecipes.com, where the recipe was coming from. So I guess that explains the promotion for a recipe using stuff that's already been "prepared". Personally, I would classify "cooking" as preparing your own recipes with basic ingredients. If you're just using processed foods as ingredients, perhaps it should be called "assembling"?

Also, if you're big on the Locavore movement, trying to eat more and more of whatever is grown locally (and not shipped miles and miles from farms to processing plants to warehouses to grocery stores to home kitchen), then it makes sense to prepare more foods truly from scratch. But, of all the canned foods to consider using, I must cast my vote for tomato paste. Consider that some farm out there is growing tons of tomatoes and processing them in no doubt a highly efficient way that can hardly be duplicated in the home kitchen. The product that is shipped is concentrated, so no extra gas is spent transporting a watered-down product. That's all good, right?

As we aspire to do good in our communities, respecting the planet by reducing waste and pollution, perhaps we need to put our minds to it, to see what changes, even small ones, we can make. Switching to recipes that call for more basic ingredients is a start. But this concept is harder to sell; basically, there's just not as much money in it. Less middlemen.

When our society revolves less around money and profit at any expense, perhaps more folks will live more righteously in tune with the planet. We can only hope!

Safe List for Produce: Which Are Better Organic?

With all the fresh fruits and veggies available during the summer, I find myself trying to memorize the "safe list" for produce. Since finding out that spinach and strawberries generally contain more pesticides that certain other picks, I try to steer clear from making them an everyday staple in my diet. I don't get compulsive about it, but if I'm going to have a salad every day, I'll try to find some organic greens before I grab some of that spinach that's on sale.

I found it helpful to pretty much memorize the list of vegetables and fruits typically highest in pesticides, and which are typically safer. An MSN Delish article gives more details, but here's the streamlined list of non-organic produce that you can probably eat safely:

• Asparagus
• Avocados
• Banana
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Corn
• Eggplant
• Kiwis
• Mango
• Onions
• Papaya
• Peas
• Pineapple
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Watermelon

On the Watch List are:

• Apples
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cherries
• Kale
• Grapes
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Peppers
• Salad Greens
• Strawberries

Potatoes left the Watch List- I'm encouraged by that. But they might get treated with fungicides as well, so use some caution. And I don't even want to mention how that morning cup of coffee might be laden with pesticides (must they take it all away from us?!).Well, we'll do the best we can, right?

Cooking Perfect Potatoes for that Potato Salad

Cooked up some red potatoes today for Potato Salad tomorrow. For connoiseurs: A great way to cook them is in a pressure cooker with just an inch of water. Bring up to pressure and cook gently until tender (20 minutes for average size). This method retains the most flavor and nutrition. (You don't pour off all those vitamins and flavors like you can do when cooking the potatoes in boiling water to cover...) In all my years of cooking potatoes at The New Deli, this is the absolute best way to cook potatoes for potato salad!


At the shop, the "All-American Potato Salad" is the most popular potato salad. It's a simple recipe using green onion, a touch of mustard relish, fresh grated black pepper, celery, and mayo. But a personal favorite recipe of mine is for a German Potato Salad. If you're looking for something besides the typical, All-American style, check it out! A touch of celery seed gives it extra flavor, and some apple cider vinegar, sugar and olive oil make for an alternative to the typical mayonnaise-based potato salad recipe. I love it!

Good Sides: Favorite Potato Recipes

A friend was asking for a good potato recipe to serve along side her steak dinner. I thought of Hasselback Potatoes; they look so good! I haven't actually made them yet (although I really really plan to).

I also thought of a recipe for "Garlic Spice Potato Fries" that I have tried; the recipe turned out pretty good. (I've posted it below.)

But meanwhile, another friend mentioned "Crash Hot Potatoes", posted at Pioneer Woman's website. I think I'll be making those before the Hasselback Potatoes. It meets all my criterion: Simple recipe, healthy, easy...

At The New Deli, we often serve a super easy recipe for "Herbed Potatoes". It's a perfect side dish at weddings and other events, to go along with a meaty main dish. But I discovered the hard way that it's best to steam the potatoes first. In an earlier attempt, I just tossed baby red potatoes with some of our fresh herbs and olive oil and popped 'em in the oven to bake. They never seemed to get as perfectly tender as I'd hoped. Since then, I've steamed the potatoes a bit first. They can then get tossed with fresh herbs and olive oil, and can keep warm in the oven. (Catering tip: We've even used the "cooler method", of putting hot potatoes in our food cooler, to hold them before serving. Works like a charm when no oven's available.) 

Meanwhile, here's the recipe for those fries, if you're hankering for something several notches above french fries:

Garlic Spice Potato Fries

• 8 garlic cloves, minced 
• 6 TBS. extra virgin olive oil 
• 3 russet potatoes (about 8 oz. each), each cut into 12 wedges 
• 3 TBS. cornstarch or corn flour 
• 1 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt 
• 1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder 
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the garlic and oil in a large bowl, warming it in the microwave until the garlic's fragrant, about 1 minute: > 8 garlic cloves, minced > 6 TBS. extra virgin olive oil

Transfer 5 tablespoons of the oil (leaving the garlic in the bowl) to a baking dish, coating it well. Add the potatoes to the bowl with the garlic mixture and toss to coat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and microwave on high power until the potatoes are translucent around the edges, 3 to 6 minutes, shaking the bowl to redistribute the potatoes halfway through cooking: > 3 russet potatoes, cut in wedges

Combine the dry ingredients: > 3 TBS. cornstarch or corn flour > 1 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt > 1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper > 1/2 tsp. garlic powder > 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Sprinkle the dry ingredient mix over the hot potatoes and toss well to coat. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake, turning once, until deep golden brown and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes. Serve with ketchup, mayo or sour cream.

New Lemon Bar Recipe!

Just had to post this awesome new creation: Shaker-Style Lemon Bars, using whole lemons, sliced real thin. Maximum flavor, but still real easy. (Recipe Here.) Forget zesting the lemon and grating the knuckles. Forget juicing the lemons. Just this simple: The night before, slice two whole lemons real thin, add the 1 1/2 c. sugar... By the next day, when you go to make the lemon bars, the lemon flavor has permeated the sugar (and the sugar's kind of melted, too)... Oh, these were delicious!

"Seattle Cooking School?!"

I had been wondering why some of the traffic coming to my website ("pccuisine.com") was coming from word searches for "Seattle Cooking Class". Apparently, there are a lot of people out there googling seattle cooking class, and getting pccuisine instead. But why?! My husband and I have been living in the Bay Area for over 25 years, running The New Deli of Pinole, California. What could we possibly have in common with a cooking school in Seattle?!

I do have a few cooking videos online; byproducts of a local cooking show I did a couple years ago. A few friends had suggested that I do cooking lessons, and I got the idea that it would be a lot more efficient to do a cooking video. I had thought it would be more convenient to watch a video at your leisure that to have to fit class attendance into a busy schedule. I have since then realized that doing some cooking lessons would probably be fun. One thing I missed in doing the taped show was the personal interaction you get with new people. How fun is that?!

But what does all this have to do with Seattle? I like going to Alexa to see how the PCCuisine site is doing, and "seattle cooking class" just keeps popping up. At first I thought it was a fluke, but it continued to be a popular search. So I finally looked into it, and discovered what people were really looking for. If you landed on this article instead of at that Seattle Cooking Class Site, I hope you're not too disappointed. Hey, maybe you can find some good recipes at pccuisine :)

And if you're STILL looking for the Seattle Cooking Class, you'll find all kinds of information at this PCC Natural Markets website. PCC is a certified organic grocery store specializing in natural food, organic produce and natural meat. Their focus is on using natural foods to create wholesome meals with whole food ingredients, buying locally, encouraging the community towards environmental sustainability. No wonder people end up at my site too... the focus is quite similar. There's more history about this great company here.

Spice It Up!

Just read an article about how good spices are for you. Medicinally, various herbs and spices lend their qualities to aid certain conditions. It's awesome that they taste good too!

And check out the ORAC Values here. (ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, and tells you which foods are the most antioxidant.) Cumin is one of the top twenty highest valued foods! It goes perfect in this hummus recipe (which we make at The New Deli; it's quite popular). Think I'm having me some hummus for lunch today!

Memorial Day BBQ

I've posted an easy recipe for a simple marinade here: London Broil Recipe.

What's so great about it? It uses simple ingredients: Soy sauce, red wine vinegar, and a touch of sugar, which helps the meat to brown perfectly. There's a recipe on that same page, for marinated mushrooms. Let them marinate in a zip-lock bag, then throw them on the grill too. They are succulent. So delicious.

But what's the deal with London Broil? I used to hear about it back in Michigan when I was a kid; then I moved to California and heard plenty about Tri-Tip instead (which was unheard of back east). Turns out there are different terms for various foods nationwide. You know, like "pop" in the east, and "soda" in the west. So quaint, hearing my friends and family back east, saying they're going out to pick up some "pop". Sounds funny after hearing "soda" for the last 30 years...

In any case, depending on where you live, you may want to marinate a London Broil OR a Tri-Tip roast. In either case, the meat is economically priced, but so flavorful for the grill. Check it out!

And: Happy Memorial Day. Thank you, Military, for your awesome service. An occasion to celebrate, for sure!

Marinate Your Grilled Meats!

Good news/ bad news... So grilling meats can create a few dangerous, potentially carcinogenic byproducts, as mentioned in this article. Apparently, it's the high temperature that does it (so broiling and frying can also be a problem).

Then what's the good news? Eating Well Magazine lists 5 tips; on the top of that list for me is the fact that marinating the meat beforehand reduces the formation of those unhealthy compounds by as much as 99 percent. Another tip: Avoid flare-ups, as when fat drips on the coals and catches fire. If you do get a flare up, cut that part away. It really isn't good for you!

My favorite marinade for chicken is a Ginger Chicken Recipe, although you can vary the seasoning for it, changing up the spices to suit your tastes (or just for variety). I've also posted a simple marinade for veggies here; it's ridiculously easy and good!

Another cool thing mentioned in the Eating Well article: A simple dry rub of herbs (particularly rosemary) can reduce carcinogens as well. One of my favorite rubs is one I throw together myself; it's more economical than what you can by. Yes, there are all kinds of fancy rubs and spice mixes out there, but I like mine (posted here).

Well, with Memorial Day Weekend around the corner, and a few tips on marinades and rubs, I think we can pull out the barbeque and grill up some good grub!

Now These Sounded Good!

One of my buddies from Foodbuzz posted a great recipe for "Blue Cheese Shortbread", in a tasty-sounding appetizer biscuit. Check it out at her site! It calls for some corn flour too, so it's even got a bit of whole grain to it. Great combination!

More Gluten-Free Goodies: Coconut Rice Balls

My friend gave me this wonderful recipe for a healthy dessert that's perfect for gluten-free diets:

Coconut Rice Balls

 

Makes about 15 one-inch balls

• 1/2 c sushi rice/ brown rice
• 1 c water
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 c coconut milk
• 1 TB. + 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. pure almond extract
• 1/2 c shredded coconut
• Optional: Dried, sweetened mango for garnish
• Optional: Chocolate Chips (for melting, dipping cookies into)

Combine the rice, water and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and partially cover. Cook until all of the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir the coconut milk, sugar, and almond extract into the rice. Let the rice cool to lukewarm.

Using wet fingers, take about 1 tsp. of rice and make it into a ball. Roll each rice ball in coconut to coat it. If desired, garnish with julienned strips of dried, sweetened mango.

"Gluten-Free Diet" Hits the Headlines!

I guess "Gluten-Free Diet" is hotly trending today, which makes me think of my favorite rice dish: Hawaiian Rice, with coconut, macadamias, and frozen pineapple juice concentrate. Oh my gosh- it's gluten free AND delicious! Check out the recipe! Great for potlucks, and no one gets hurt (gluten-wise, that is).

Travels Well, Reheats Easy: Spaghetti!

Spaghetti and Meatballs is a great dish to make ahead that reheats easily. A friend just wondered what food she could bring to a neighbor. I suggested this popular pasta dish; it makes a great dinner. It's easy to reheat, and not too complicated to make.

The recipe on my website is of course my personal favorite. The meatballs are healthier than average 'cause there's no fatty pork sausage in them, but they're packed with flavor thanks to the addition of certain seasonings (like toasted, ground fennel seed).

The secret to making it reheat well: Do not mix the pasta in with the sauce until serving time. We offer this dish at The New Deli, and can prepare it in 3 minutes flat. We cook the pasta ahead of time, then when it's ordered, simply add some pasta to a bowl, topped with meatballs and a hearty portion of tomato sauce. We cover and reheat in the microwave; serve with a side of Parmesan. It's so tasty!