During the month of October, I will be participating in the Write 31 Days hosted by Crystal Stine. My category is Food, Health & Wellness and my theme is "Into The Kitchen".
Sundays can either be busy with church, social or sports activities or lazy afternoons to be whiled away with a book or taking a leisurely walk with mother nature as your companion. Whatever your day holds, you will likely still be putting dinner on the table.
For me, Sunday dinners usually mean either leftovers from the week or something simple I can whip up in a jiffy. Wow, I haven't used that word in a while. It reminds me of my mom telling me something or other would be 'ready in a jiffy'.
One of the things she would whip up to go with dinner was what she called lazy bread, which is something akin to drop biscuits, I think, only with a softer dough. Anyway, maybe one day I will run across her recipe. In the meantime, I found this recipe for mayonnaise rolls. These are so easy and quick to make and bake. Hot bread is on your table...you guessed it–in a jiffy.
What you need:
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk (I use skim)
3 tablespoons regular mayonnaise (light or non-fat will NOT work)
3/4 teaspoon sugar (optional)
I say the sugar is optional because I have never added it, and we love these rolls as is. Also, please heed the mayonnaise warning. I gave this recipe to a co-worker once, and she reported back to me that it didn't work which was because she unfortunately had used light or non-fat mayo.
Mix all ingredients together, and spoon into a greased 6-cup muffin pan. Bake at 425° for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. The recipe may easily be doubled.
Whether you are putting a simple dinner together on a Sunday evening or want some hot bread to go with that soup that has been simmering all afternoon, these rolls are the answer.
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.
During the month of October, I will be participating in the Write 31 Days hosted by Crystal Stine. My category is Food, Health & Wellness and my theme is "Into The Kitchen".
We are half-way through the month and well into Fall. What is more comforting on a chilly evening than a nice, hot, one-pot meal that is as easy to make as it is delicious? Grab your knife and follow me into the kitchen.
Tonight we are making a quick and easy, one-pot version of the famous Creole Red Beans and Rice. Red beans and rice were typically made on Mondays years ago. Monday was wash day and the women would set the beans to cooking and go about the business of washing the clothes while the beans simmered away.
Now before you go getting your knickers in a twist, I know that this isn't authentic, okay. Now that that's out of the way, we can get on with it.
What you need:
One can red beans, drained and rinsed (if you can't find them, you can use kidney beans)
1/2 cup of long-grain rice
2-4 ounces Cajun or other spicy sausage, sliced or diced
12 ounces chicken stock
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1-2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive oil
Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy, lidded sauce pan over medium heat. Cook the onions until they soften, then add the sausage. Continue cooking until the sausage is lightly browned. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the rice. Bring to a boil, then add the rice, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
Again, I seldom measure, so amounts are approximate and customizable.
Options
If you want a creamier dish, you may take about 1/4 cup of the beans and 1/4 cup of the stock and puree them before adding them to the pan.
To make it a vegetarian/vegan dish, use vegetable broth or water and omit the sausage.
For a less spicy dish, use smoked sausage instead of the Cajun style.
Stay tuned for more great one-pot dishes.
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.
During the month of October, I will be participating in the Write 31 Days hosted by Crystal Stine. My category is Food, Health & Wellness and my theme is "Into The Kitchen".
A little pizza history
Pizza is one of the most popular foods in the U.S., but where did it originate? It could have been as the flatbread of ancient times in the Middle East. It could have come from the Greeks and Romans, who baked flatbread topped with olive oil and seasonings now known as Focaccia.
However, most historians agree that pizza as we know it today did, indeed, originate in Italy. In Naples to be exact. A baker named Raffaele Esposito was asked to make a pizza for the Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita in 1889. His creation, made with mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and basil, is still made today and known as Pizza Margherita .
Pizza migrated to the U.S. by way of Spain, England and France but did not become popular until after World War II. Our Americanized version of pizza has made it's way back to Italy and is popular there as well.
Making a Great Pizza Dough
Many chefs and home cooks will argue that the secret is in the flour, so let's explore some different types of flour you might use. All purpose flour is a blend of hard and soft wheat and is so named because it is suitable for most baking needs. Bread flour, on the other hand, is high in gluten and therefore excellent for bread and pizza dough. And lastly, there is an Italian 00 flour, which is lower in protein and highly praised for making great pizza crust. However, availability and price may preclude this for many of us. I just use a good-quality bread flour, and here in my kitchen that is good enough.
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| Ready for the oven. |
Topping It Off
While I love a good crust, the adornments are pretty important, too. After experimenting with different commercially-prepared sauces, and one homemade sauce, I settled on a canned sauce from Dei Fratelli which we really like. Since I divide and freeze the remaining sauce, I can get four pizzas from one can. Having just admitted to using canned sauce, I don't grow my own onions or peppers or make my own cheese either. Does that make my pizza any less homemade? I don't think so. 🍕
My favorite cheese is Sargento's Off the Block mozzarella, but I'll use whatever I have a coupon for and/or is on sale. Some of our favorite toppings include pepperoni, Italian sausage, onions, green pepper, and green olives.
Bubble Crust or Not?
I have already posted my recipe, but there are a few things I omitted since they are not critical to a good pizza. I happen to dislike the large bubbles that often form in the crust. To avoid this, after I roll out the dough (yes, I use my rolling pin), and take a fork and dock the dough all over, in other words, I poke holes in it. This gives me a flat pizza, but if you don't mind the occasional bubble in your crust, just ignore this step.
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| Wood-fired pizza oven. |
The Finishing Touch
Another thing I do that I learned from Alton Brown, is to oil the edge of the dough with olive oil before baking. Does it make a lot of difference in the overall scheme of things? Probably not, but the crust is a nice golden brown.
Baking Your Pie
Not everyone has a wood-fired pizza oven (I don't, but I know someone who does). If you don't, then turn your oven to it's highest setting. Mine goes to about 550°-600° F. I use a pizza stone which I always keep in the oven on the bottom rack. Preheat for at least 30 minutes for the best results. My pizza cooks in 8 minutes.
Final Tip
If you are using a pizza stone and peel, roll out your pizza on parchment paper. It makes the transfer to the stone much easier. The pizza and the parchment paper go onto the stone. Our process is when the pizza is done, hubby takes it out stone and all. He then slides the pizza with the parchment onto a wooden cutting board where it slices it, after which he slides it back onto the hot stone. This way the pizza stays hot down to the last delicious slice.
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| Hot out of the oven. |
There are recipes out there with more complex instructions and more detailed ingredient lists, but this is definitely great for beginners or anyone who just wants a good homemade pizza.
What's your pizza? Delivery, take-out or make your own?
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.
During the month of October, I will be participating in the Write 31 Days hosted by Crystal Stine. My category is Food, Health & Wellness and my theme is "Into The Kitchen".
How many of you have ever eaten yellow rice? It's good, isn't it? I thought so too. Then one day, as with other pre-packaged food I enjoyed, I decided to make my own. It is really quite simple, and you can customize it to your own taste. Even better is the fact that your rice doesn't have all the extras such as MSG, anti-caking ingredients and loads of sodium.
What's in that package, anyway?
This is what is in a national brand of yellow rice. I am not saying it is bad, what I am saying is if you want to control what is in your food, make your own.
"Enriched Long Grain Rice [Rice, Niacin, Iron (Ferric Orthophosphate), Thiamin (Thiamin Mononitrate), Folic Acid], Saffron Yellow Seasoning [Salt, Sugar, Dehydrated Onion, Monosodium Glutamate, Turmeric, Garlic, Corn Starch, Spices, Safflower, Saffron, Silicon Dioxide (Prevent Caking)]."
Yellow Rice―the essentials
1 cup white rice, preferably long grain
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup sweet onions, chopped*
a pinch of saffron or about 1/8 tsp, of turmeric*
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil*
Place about a tablespoon of olive oil in a covered saucepan and heat over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until the onions soften, then add your salt and pepper, chicken stock and saffron or turmeric. When the liquid begins to boil, add your rice, stir and cover. When it returns to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve.
I don't measure these so amounts are approximate.* Feel free to play around with amounts, flavors and add-ins such as garlic (or garlic powder), parsley, etc.
What is your favorite rice dish?
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.
During the month of October, I will be participating in the Write 31 Days hosted by Crystal Stine. My category is Food, Health & Wellness and my theme is "Into The Kitchen".
Yesterday's discovery that the pumpkin is actually a fruit instead of a vegetable leads us to question the things we eat. Are they vegetables, fruits or berries?
Years back, before I became somewhat enlightened, I thought that vegetables grew in the ground, fruits and nuts grew on trees and berries on bushes. Still I would have thought that peppers were vegetables. This is one of those things that just when you think you have it figured out, Bam! It is not what you thought at all. We are here to learn what is what because in the natural world, all is not clear.
First of all, what are the botanical definitions of fruits, vegetables and berries.
Vegetables
The word vegetable has no botanical meaning, but is based on the part of the plant and is used to categorize the foods we eat that do not fall into the fruit/berry category.
Plant Part Example
Leaves lettuce
Stems/Stalks celery
Roots carrots
Tubers potatoes
Bulbs onions
Flowers broccoli
Fruit
The fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperm) formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which the angiosperm disseminate seeds.
Berries
Berries are technically a fruit with multiple seeds on the inside surrounded by edible flesh.
To a botanist, tomatoes, eggplants, grapes, persimmons and chili peppers are also berries, so try and wrap your head around that. Based on this definition, a banana is also a berry.
Okay, now that we have some definitions, let's look deeper. We have pretty much established what vegetables are, and that seems fairly straight forward. The more confusing issue is the fruit and/or berry question.
All berries are fruit. There are subcategories of fruits, and the categories some of them fit into may surprise you. Some foods that you know as berries aren't really berries at all. Included are strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Blackberries and raspberries are considered an aggregate fruit. Aggregate simply means that the fruit is made up of multiple little sections.
Strawberries are particularly strange because their seeds are on the outside, rather than the inside. For this reason they are known as accessory fruits. Perhaps that is because they wear their seeds like accessories?
In addition to berries, there are other subcategories of fruit such as citrus, drupe or stone fruit (peaches) and pome (apples).
Wow, that is a lot of information. So what do we take away from this?
Vegetables are leaves, flowers, stems or stalks, roots, bulbs and tubers. Examples of vegetables are potatoes, broccoli, carrots, onions, beets, rhubarb, greens, turnips, Brussels sprouts and asparagus.
Fruits are the seed-bearing part of the plants. Examples are watermelon, all legumes, avocados, squash, pumpkin, eggplant, okra, cucumber, nuts, olives, corn and peppers. You may be questioning why corn is listed here. While eaten as a vegetable or grain, botanically speaking, it is a fruit.
Berries are a subcategory of fruit, and most of what we thought were obviously berries are not.
All this lends new meaning to getting your kids to eat their vegetables.
Sources:
Bananas are Berries?
Wikipedia, multiple entries
Surprising Truth about Fruits and Vegetables
Corn, Is it a Fruit, Vegetable or Grain?
Classifying Fruit is an excellent article detailing the different categories of fruits.
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.
