Posts from — October 2009

I mentioned my fabulous neighbors yesterday.  I can’t begin to describe how blessed we are to live in such a wonderful community. Everyone here supports each other and we all come together throughout the year for bunco, progressive dinners, a fall or winter party, and the best Halloween trick-or-treating around!  The one thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned before is that I’m a Scottsdale,  Arizona native, a rare breed indeed! I’ve lived in the “Valley of the Sun” all my life and in this great neighborhood for the last 11 years.  I can’t begin to imagine not living here!  So a quick shout out to all the amazing women who are raising their families here too… including Amy, April, Cindi, Dana, Denise, Gail, Ginger, Jan, Jeanie, Joanie, Joanne, Kelly, Kirsten, Lisa, Lori, Marci, Mary Ann, Rainey, Robyne, Ronnie, Sarah, Susie, and Whitney… love you all!  And in your honor, here is another “Easy-Breezy” recipe, with the promise of “more to come”!
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I was spending an evening playing Bunco and chatting with my friends and neighbors a couple of weeks ago when the conversation turned to my blog. Some of the lovelies had found a few of my recipes a bit too complicated, time-consuming, or difficult. Hey, I understand – when you’re running in the door at 5:30, 6:00, or even later and still have to get dinner on the table, it’s rough!  And they are correct, some of the recipes here are a bit much for a weeknight. So in honor of them and the rest of the busy moms out there, there is a new category in “The Recipe Index” of this blog. Recipes with just a few ingredients that are quick to pull together while trying to get kids to do their homework, stop fighting, set the table, and still have some sane time for yourself!  I’m going to call the new category  “Easy – Breezy” –  because they are just that and because you all look like “CoverGrils” to me!
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I did not post yesterday because I was away the entire day setting up and then attending an event I’ve been working on. The event revolved around a house, but not just any house…
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Not much cooking will be going on this weekend at my house.  We just returned home from a charity Oktoberfest event for Creative Arts in Healing, Inc.  We bid on, and won, this gorgeous “Lidded Platter with Swallowtails and Oranges” created by ceramic artist Farraday Newsome of Indigo Street Pottery in Mesa, Arizona.  I was attracted to it for its vivid colors and, of course, food and garden theme.  Tomorrow night, we’ll be off to another dinner event, more on that later…
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tan-skinned sweet potato, red-skinned sweet potato, russet, red-skinned potato, Yukon Gold, and white-skinned potato

Is it a sweet potato or is it a yam? Often in our grocery stores, reddish-skinned sweet potatoes are labeled as yams.  In truth, it is extremely rare to find a true yam in a standard market, just about the only place you may be able to find them is in a Latin American market.  There is no need to worry though, if you have a favorite yam recipe, sweet potatoes will fit the bill, because in all honestly, that’s probably what you’ve been using all along.

A true yam is the tuber (or bulb) of a tropical vine and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato. Slowly becoming more common in US (Latin) markets, the yam is a popular vegetable in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yams are revered as religious objects and have ceremonial status, one reason may be because they can become amazingly huge. On the Pacific Island of Ponape, the size of yams is described as 2-man, 4-man, or 6-man, indicating the number of men need to lift the thing!  In fact, a 650-pound, 7-foot-long yam has been recorded.

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This evening I was helping set up for the Key To The Cure event that is tomorrow morning. My friend and neighbor, Ronnie, and I rode together and afterward stopped for a little something to eat and drink on the way home.  We went to Blanco, a fun “taco & tequila” restaurant, here in Scottsdale, which is another in the wonderful line of Fox Restaurant Concepts, YUM!

I brought home a “doggie bag” with a couple of wedges of leftover cheese crisp and made it into dinner for Dave by topping it with two fried eggs.  I love cheese crisps, as you can see here, they are so easy and versatile. Honestly, they can be breakfast, lunch, snack, or even dinner!  And they can be as simple as a tortilla topped with good old cheddar cheese or dressed up as this one is with fun Mexican and Spanish cheeses and a variety of toppings.  All these cheeses are white and I think it makes for a prettier and more interesting crisp!
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Believe it or not, it’s hot again this week in Phoenix/Scottsdale! It had been so nice and cool the last week or so, and I was fooled into thinking we were actually going to have an early fall… but no!  It was up in the 90’s today and is expected to hit 101 Saturday, setting a new record for October 17… what the heck?!  For the past three days I’ve been working at Les Gourmettes Cooking School, assisting Barbara Fenzl with her classes.  The menu is in honor of  Barbara’s friend and mentor, the late Julia Child. The food was beyond delicious and the classes were a great success, but after working on Beef Bourguignon and with these hot temps, I need something easy, cool, and refreshing – this salad fits the bill. Note to Barbara: Great classes, looking forward to the next go-round in a couple of weeks! xoxo
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Have you ever heard of an Æbleskiver or Kanom Krok?  If not, don’t worry, I hadn’t either. Until I was perusing the Williams-Sonoma catalog a few weeks ago and saw a cool pan for pancakes that looked more like big donut holes.  Intrigued, I researched online and found that Æbleskiver is a traditional dish in Denmark and all through Scandinavia.  Both the pan and the pancakes are called aebleskiver. It is a sweet pancake batter made from flour, eggs, milk, and butter that is poured into the depressions of the special cast-iron pan. They are partially cooked, then filled and rolled, and rotated with a special metal tool that looks like a chopstick or knitting needle, until the batter is cooked uniformly into balls that are brown and crisp.

the starter kit includes the pan, turner, pot holder sleeve, and a package of organic batter mix

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A common question in the culinary world is what is the difference between a broth and a stock? I will answer this question using chicken or poultry as the type of broth/stock, but the answer applies to any protein based broth/stock, meaning beef, fish, pork, etc. Vegetable broth, on the other hand, can only be a broth, not a stock. You will understand why in just a moment. Broth is made with the chicken meat and chicken parts, with a high flesh to bone ratio. Whole chicken, such as a fryer, can be used. The cooking time for a broth is about 3 hours.

Chicken stock is made mostly of chicken parts that have a very low flesh to bone ratio. Whole chicken carcasses or pieces such as the backs, necks, breast bones, wing tips, legs, and if you’re lucky enough to find them, even the feet, all make excellent stock. The cooking time for a stock is at least 6 hours.

The chilled stock is so thick, rich, and gelatinous that a spatula stands up in it.

The basic difference between a broth and a stock is in its richness. This is because the stock contains more gelée than chicken broth does. Gelée is the gelatin from dissolved cartilage or collagen given off from the bones. Stock has a fuller mouth feel and richer flavor than broth and stock will bind up the pan drippings when deglazing a pan to make a sauce.  That is why restaurant sauces taste so wonderful and can be so difficult for a home cook to recreate… unless you make your own stock.

Another important advantage to making stock at home is the fact that you can avoid the higher sodium content in store-bought broths.  You will notice that in the recipe below there is no salt. That is because there are so many uses for stock (sauces, soups, gravies, bases, pasta, etc.) so wait until you’re preparing the dish you’re going to eat and salt that – not the stock.
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At one time, flank steak was considered to be a poor man’s meat, since the cut it considerably tougher than other cuts of beef. The cost of flank steak has risen considerably over the past 3 decades. In the 1970’s flank steak retailed for about 79 cents per pound, now it is well over $6 per pound, when not on sale. The cause? Fajitas! Once fajitas became popular, so did flank steak and strip steak. Both are very flavorful cuts and contain almost no fat.  It is long, thin, and full of tough connective tissue. For these reasons, flank steak is usually marinated before being broiled or grilled whole. Because it is tough, you usually slice it thinly on a diagonal across or against the grain to sever the tough fibers and make the flavorful beef chewable. Flank steak is also used in stir-fry dishes as you will find with this quick and easy meal.

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