The Mandoline: Slicing Made Easy
I’ve worked in restaurants off and on since I was a teenager. As a result, I’ve gotten pretty good at eyeballing consistent sizes when slicing anything. Then, I was given the gift of a Mandoline Slicer.
I love this contraption! Now, any dish I prepare that is best served by consistenly sized veggies (e.g., pickle chips or scalloped potatoes or sliced radishes for salad) is prepared using my mandoline. There are a couple reasons why consistent size is important; 1) same-sized veggies cook evenly, and 2) a dish with even sized pieces presents better, too! Things just look and taste better, in my humble opinion. Another BIG plus is that slicing goes SO much faster!
If you think a mandoline is a tool you’d like, one thing I’d strongly recommend is to look at one that includes a knuckle guard. The last thing you want to do is get caught up in your work and get too close to the blade.
Photo credit: Amazon.com
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Tomatillo Salsa Verde
One summer, I was gifted with about 5 pounds of tomatillos. I’d seen them before, but never actually eaten or cooked one. I found this recipe when trying to figure out what one does with tomatillos. This is an extremely tasty salsa verde. One of my favorite uses beyond the standard is to slow cook a nice pork roast in it. The flavor is wonderful. Pint jars of tomatillo salsa verde are useful, tasteful and memorable as gifts.
• 5 cups chopped tomatillos
• 1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped long green chiles
• 1/2 cup seeded finely chopped jalapenos
• 4 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup bottled lemon juice
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 3 Tbsp oregano leaves
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
Salsa Canning Recipe Directions
Combine all ingredients over heat until thoroughly mixed. Pour mixture into sterile canning jars and process. Best within 1 year of canning.
Photo credit: hozae
Zucchini and eggs
When I was a kid, my mother, sister and I lived with my Italian grandmother for a bit before moving into our own digs. There are several food related memories from those days, as you might imagine. Read more
Yard Larder: Chamomile
Chamomile is a lovely smelling and looking flower whose primary use is for a nice, calming herbal tea. I was given the gift of chamomile jelly once. I was a tad skeptical, but the first taste made me a convert. This light aromatic substance is a small piece of heaven. It is delicious. I can tell you this is a major hit as a gift, as well. If you are a canner/jelly maker and haven’t tried it, add this gem to your favorites list.
1 c. chamomile flowers, packed
3 1/2 c. water
1 box Sure-jell
4 c. sugar
Rhubarb Delight
This is an interesting variation on a strawberry/rhubarb dessert. It’s inexpensive to make, plentiful, and downright tasty. I got this from an old boyfriend’s Mom, and I make at least one batch every time I get my hands on some fresh rhubarb. I do use a little less sugar, because I like to taste a little more of that rhubarb bite.
4 c. rhubarb
1 c. sugar
1 (3 oz.) box strawberry Jello
1 c. water
1 yellow or white cake mix
Put 4 cups rhubarb on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch dish. Sprinkle with 1 cup sugar. Next, sprinkle with 1 box strawberry Jello. On the top, sprinkle 1 yellow or white cake mix. Over this pour 1 cup of water. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Delicious served with whipped cream or ice cream.
Photo credit: wheatfields
Yard Larder: Rose Hips
As often happens with me, I stumbled onto rose hips as food quite by accident. While walking on a beach in Maine, I found a remarkable patch of Sea Spray roses that had progressed to the rose hip stage. The hips were huge and looked like crabapples. Read more
Toasted Marshmallow Shake
I saw this recipe prepared on an episode of The View. It’s from the book Good Stuff by Chef Spike Mendelsohn. Is there any other flavor more memorable and more reminiscent of summer evenings than the toasted marshmallow? Not in my mind. This shake is quintessential summer… ice cream and toasted marshmallows. Yum! Read more
Yard Larder: Rhubarb
Because of its perennial status, rhubarb can easily be categorized in the Yard Larder category. It’s sour when eaten raw, but I do know folks who are perfectly content with a stalk of rhubarb and a shaker of salt. I’ve done that myself; not bad, but not my favorite use of rhubarb. Personally, I think sweetening it brings out its flavor, although I never use the amounts of sugar required by any recipe. I like the tang, too, and don’t want to bury it in sweet.
Paired with strawberries, rhubarb is used in many recipes — jam, pie, baked desserts, but it is also great stewed with sugar or an alternative sweetener, and rhubarb sauce (stewed rhubarb taken a little further), is really quite good on pork, say, or ice cream!
I’ve also had rhubarb soda. Not rhubarb ‘flavored’ soda, but honest-to-God rhubarb soda. It was stellar!
My point is that rhubarb is an item not to be undersold or overlooked. If you haven’t already, give it a go.
Photo credit: net efekt
Yard Larder: Wild Strawberries
I have a yard that is less a lawn and more a home for wild growing things. One of my faves among those things is Wild Strawberries. This tiny version of the popular fruit packs a lot more flavor per berry than its larger counterpart. Their season is short — three to four weeks starting in late May — and it’s a labor of love to harvest them, but the flavor is so worth it.
They are glorious in a fresh fruit salad, a nice Berry Vinaigrette salad dressing, as a salad addin-in, naked and right off the plant, in a smoothie, in muffins, in jam, for a wonderful flavored cream cheese. The options are only limited by the imagination. They freeze really well, too. Freeze them on a flat something (e.g., plate or cookie sheet, depending on how much fruit you’re processing) that allows them to be separate; they’ll then stay in the freezer without sticking together.
Photo credit: powi
Shrimp Pizza
Shrimp pizza is one of my favorite homemade pizzas. We make it a little more non-traditional by using an alternative pizza sauce. Our sauce for shrimp pizza is a traditional cocktail sauce, and instead of mozzarella, we use grated cheddar. Also, the shrimp is par cooked before topping the pizza. If put on the pizza raw, the shrimp juice that comes out during cooking makes the pizza soggy.
We make our own cocktail sauce. The ingredients, mixed to taste, are:
Ketchup
Horseradish
Garlic powder
Lemon juice
Getting the ratios right for your taste buds may take a little practice, but it’s worth it for the fresh factor. Also, there are many veggies that go well on shrimp pizza — fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, and summer squash or zucchini to name a few.
Photo credit: eliazar
