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
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
Summer Pest Woes for Pets: How to Be on Guard
A few years ago my dog Buster and I were running around in the backyard when all of a sudden I heard him yelping and saw him running in circles, his entire body covered with wasps. I was horrified to say the least. 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
Dog Days of Summer
No doubt many of you are feeling the dog days of summer heat. With the summer sun come unwelcome guests like pollen, fleas, and mosquitoes making their presence painfully known to us and our pets. Read more
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
Yard Larder: Sheep Sorrel
When I first moved into my house, I noticed this weed running rampant. I pulled up some…it’s a root propagator, “some” is a relative term…and brought it to my local greenhouse for i.d. The i.d. was followed up with advice on how to manage this weed. Since the management tool was chemical, I did a search to find alternatives.
Well, the best alternatives are to a) pull it up when it shows up, and b) eat it! Sheep sorrel leaves are really a nice part of a fresh greens salad. It has a sour, lemony flavor and is just good. I have a LOT of it in my yard, so I exercise both options. Sheep sorrel does not become bitter with age, so can be harvested all summer.
Besides being a nice sour green to add to a salad, sheep sorrel is great in soups, as a flavor boost to grains, in a pesto form, and just for muching. The tartness is sheep sorrel is caused by oxalic acid, which is something humans should consume in moderation. If you add sheep sorrel to your diet, do so in moderation, but enjoy nonetheless!
Photo credit: cuttlefish
