Tag Archives: scratch cooking

Feb 28 2012

The Lost Art of Home Cooking

The cool blender I had, that broke.

A couple of weeks ago my favorite pastry blender broke. It was a really cool design by Pampered Chef (pictured left) and I used it a lot over the past year. I figured I’d just pick one up on my next shopping trip. Well, first I checked the grocery store where I do my non-Costco shopping. It’s a smaller Save Mart store and the section with kitchen tools is small.  They didn’t have one.

Next I checked at Target. Surely it would be no problem to find a pastry blender there in the extensive selection of kitchen tools. Nope. Not at Target either.  I was a bit perplexed and then it hit me – a pastry blender is not part of a standard kitchen anymore.  Really, when you think about it, what do you use it for? Cutting in butter or shortening when making things like biscuits, scones and pie crusts.  But who makes those things from scratch anymore? Not most people.  So while there are four different sets of measuring cups, a variety of colors of colanders, and ten sizes of cutting boards at Target, there was not a single pastry blender.

I had to go to Bed Bath & Beyond to get one.  And even there, in the floor to ceiling display of cooking utensils I found just one offering. There are four kinds of tools for cutting, pitting and slicing avocados, but only one type of pastry cutter. Luckily it was a decent one by OXO brand.  Still, it made my kind of sad.  My mom has at least three pastry cutters in her kitchen.  They used to be standard equipment, like a rolling-pin.

Just more evidence that scratch cooking is a lost art. Something that used to be handed down through the generations.  And even if your mom wasn’t a great cook, there were home economics classes in junior high and high school.  That taught kids the basics of recipes, kitchen tools and techniques.  Today, home economics is gone. People ooh, and ahh at the cooking shows on TV, but they are mostly for entertainment, not for education. Scratch cooking is a lost art. And I want to bring it back!

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Jan 26 2012

What’s For Dinner: Enchiladas & Mexican Rice

Today’s assignment for the What’s For Dinner Solution Blogger Challenge is to post about a favorite family recipe. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite that I haven’t already blogged about!

Being from California, we eat a lot of Mexican food. Sometimes it’s the more “Americanized” Mexican food, but still, it’s tasty and fast.  Tonight I made chicken enchiladas with all the leftover chicken meat from Monday night.  The recipe is over HERE.

I knew the enchiladas would be a snap to put together so I started on my side dish first: Mexican rice.

Everybody has their own version of Mexican rice. It’s kind of like spaghetti sauce – lots of variations and most are great. I usually just wing it and it always turns out good.  I’ll try to approximate the measurements for those who would like to give it a try:

MEXICAN RICE

2 TBSP vegetable oil

2 c. white rice

1 medium onion, diced

1 TBSP fresh minced garlic

4 c. water

1 (8 oz.) can of tomato sauce

1 tsp  Better Than Bouillon

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

 

In a 12″ skillet heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the rice and cook, stirring until lightly browned. Add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook for one minute. Add the water.  Mix in tomato sauce and seasonings. Cover and simmer on low for 20-30 minutes. Do not stir. Remove from heat and stir to fluff up the rice.

Here are some photos to help:

Brown the rice in oil

 

Add onion and garlic

 

Add the water. CAUTION: It will boil and have a lot of steam.

 

Add tomato sauce and seasonings. You could substitute some canned diced tomatoes with juice.

Cooking is complete.

Finished fluffy Mexican rice.

 

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Oct 24 2011

Olallieberry (Blackberry) Muffins

I woke up way too early this morning.  No, I mean really early – 4 am and could not go back to sleep. Finally, at 5:30 I decided to head downstairs to the kitchen for some quiet time while everyone else was still asleep…and make muffins!  I wanted to make something easy and fast so muffins were a good choice.  I have two bags of beautiful olallieberries in the freezer from our trip to the berry farm this summer.

1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup washed raw sugar

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup whole milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup fresh or frozen olallieberries

 

  1. Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin tins with butter or non-stick spray.
  2. Mix dry ingredients.
  3. Whisk together wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
  4. Add wet to dry and stir until combined. Batter will be lumpy!
  5. Fold in olallieberries.
  6. Fill greased muffin tin. Makes enough for 10 muffins.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes or until browned on top.
  8. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to wire cooling rack.
  9. Serve warm!

Tips & Tricks: White granulated sugar can be substituted for washed raw sugar.  If your berries are very tart you may wish to add two TBSP of sugar to the berries before adding them to the batter. Personally, I like them tart!

 

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Oct 4 2011

Basic Scones & Variations

I love scones.  Really, I think I could have a scone with my coffee for breakfast nearly every day.  There are several fun mixes available, and my favorite pre-packaged mix is from Sticky Fingers Bakeries and comes in a variety of fun flavors.  You just add water and bake, pretty simple.

But I have to tell you that making scones from scratch is very easy and much cheaper than buying a mix.  The basic recipe goes like this:

  1. In a large bowl, measure out 2 cups of flour
  2. Add 3 TBSP of sugar
  3. Add 1/4 tsp of salt.
  4. Add 1 TBSP of baking powder. Stir.
  5. Cut in 6 TBSP of butter.
  6. Measure 1/4 cup half and half (can substitute cream or whole milk)
  7. Beat one egg and mix with the milk
  8. Pour milk/egg into the dry ingredients and mix with a fork
  9. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead a few times.
  10. Pat out into an 8-10 inch disc and cut into triangles
  11. Bake for 15 minutes in a 400° oven.
You can jazz it up a lot by adding the following mix-ins.  Fruits and nuts should be mixed with the dry ingredients after cutting in the butter.  Extracts should be mixed with the milk & egg before adding it to the dry.
Next time try one of these combinations:
  • Dried Cranberry (1/3 cup)
  • Orange zest (1-2 TBSP)
  • Dried blueberries (1/3 cup)
  • Lemon Zest (1 TBSP)
  • Lemon Extract
  • Dried Tart Cherries (1/3 cup)
  • Sliced almonds (1/4 cup)
  • Almond Extract (1 TBSP)
  • Fresh blueberries or raspberries (1/2 cup)
  • Vanilla extract (1 TBSP)
  • Chopped dried apricots (1/4 cup)
  • Chopped pitted dates (1/4 cup)
  • Bacon bits (1/4 cup)
  • Maple Syrup (1 TBSP)
Use your imagination and own tastes to come up with your unique flavor.  For more exotic flavors, consider things like fresh peaches, figs, macadamia nuts, currants or chocolate chips.

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Sep 28 2011

Chile Verde Pork

I bought a beautiful large (5 lb) boneless port shoulder roast a few weeks ago.  It was on sale so I grabbed it and threw it in the freezer, not knowing what I would make with it. I took it out of the freezer four days ago to defrost.

This morning I finally decided to make chile verde.  I’d never made it before, but that didn’t stop me from trying.  In fact, I’ve become more adventurous with my cooking lately, trying lots of new recipes and creating some of my own for the first time.

I browsed several recipes online to get some ideas of how to make the green sauce. This is what I came up with, which is an adaptation of Chile Verde on Simply Recipes.

5 lb. Boneless Pork Shoulder (pork butt roast)

12 tomatillos

1-2 Anaheim chilies, or jalapenos

3 TBSP fresh cilantro

2 TBSP Olive oil

Salt & pepper

1 small onion, chopped

1 TBSP minced garlic

Directions:

  1. Remove husks from tomatillos. Slice in half crosswise and place on a baking sheet, cut side down.  Roast under the broiler for up to 10 minutes, as long as necessary for them to start turning brown.

    Roasted Tomatillos

  2. While the tomatillos are broiling, roast Anaheim chilies over an open flame. Place roasted chilies in a plastic bag and seal.  After a few minutes the blackened skin will peel off easily.  Remove stem and seeds.
  3. Place tomatillos, chilies and cilantro in the blender.  Pulse a few times to blend the ingredients into a sauce.

    Blended Green Sauce

  4. Cut pork into 1-2 inch pieces. Remove excess fat when possible.
  5. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and brown pork in batches.  Season the meat with salt and pepper.

    Browning Adds Flavor

  6. Place cooked pork in crock pot. Pour in green sauce.
  7. Saute the chopped onion and garlic in the pan used to brown the pork.

    Saute Onion & Garlic

  8. Add sautéed onion and garlic to the crock pot.

    Place meat, sauce & veggies in cooker.

  9. Add 1 cup of water. Stir and set to on LOW for 7-8 hours.

    Finished Chile Verde

This recipe will make a large batch-serves 8 or more people.  I used a 7 quart slow cooker for this large amount of meat.  To fewer servings use less meat – about 3 lbs and omit decrease water to 1/2 cup.  

Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, guacamole and Mexican rice.

 

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