Portions:  4 servings
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

 

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of butter
1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and quartered
1 pound of Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 pound of turnips, peeled and quartered
6 cups of chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt, adjust if broth is salted
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

 
Preparation:

Place butter in a 3-1/2 quart soup pot and melt over medium heat; add onions and sweat until translucent.  Add apples, potatoes, turnips, chicken broth/vegetable broth, water salt and white pepper.  Cover and bring to a boil; turn down to a simmer and continue to cook for 45 minutes.  Puree with immersion blender; taste and adjust.  Garnish with chopped parsley.

Servings: 8
Portion size: 1 cup
Preparation time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1 head of bok choy, finely slivered
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 medium shredded carrot
1 cup shelled soy beans

Dressing:
1/4 cup minced fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 clove of minced garlic

Preparation: 
Wash and drain bok choy.  In a bowl, combine slivered bok choy, onion, shredded carrot, soy beans.  Place mint, cilantro salt pepper, rice wine vinegar, sugar, mustard and garlic in a blender and puree. Just before serving pour over bok choy and toss ingredients. Dressing the salad at the last minute will keep it nice and crunchy. More recipes at www.isimmer.com on the recipe page.

Believe it or not AWOL is still with us. As some of you may know from prior posts, our dwarf hamster gets out of her cage a lot. I couldn't take the late night chases and was determined to stop the catch and release routine. Same strategy, I caught AWOL going for the food dish, we locked eyes and she bolted. I took to the chase and scooped her up, put her in the cage and then...put the cage in the BATHTUB. Its a good sized space, with nice high walls, the drain is closed and there is plenty of room for her to to do laps when we leave her cage open for "yard time". I told my mom she is a free range hamster. Sometimes she’s a bit freer than I like.

How was she getting out? There was the slightest bend in the bars of the cage and that's all she needed. Did she bend those bars? Hmmm-mighty mouse comes to mind.

Since I closed the breech I've I tested the cage (in the tub) to see if she could get out. I'm happy to say the problem is solved. I'm sure there will be more adventures for AWOL, after all she does have visitation rights and she is very difficult to keep a hold of.

Miss AWOL has an interesting behavior that I can't figure out. She fills her exercise wheel with nesting and food and then runs in it. All I can think is that she craves adventure. Diego and I have decided that she is acting out an avalanche or mud slide and running for her life, hoping not to get dumped on. OR maybe she is trying to build on our chases and the bits that she runs from are ME…For two ounces of furry pet, she does give us plenty of amusement!

I’ve cooked a lot of broccoli over the years. Personally I think its best served bright green, still firm in texture with a bit of crunch left in it. I prefer steaming over water rather than blanching in water for two reasons. You get the most nutrition out of your veggies when they're raw or steamed AND it takes less time, energy, & water to cook them in.

 

At home I use a steamer pan. Put 2 inches of water in the pan, put the lid on, and heat over high heat. While the water comes to a full boil, wash the broccoli, cut it into florets then place it directly in the steamer insert. Place the pan over the boiling water and put the lid on the steamer insert. At an average altitude it takes from 6 to 7 minutes. Once cooked, run it under cold water to stop the cooking, or even better, use ice water to shock it. This process prevents carry over cooking. If I want to serve it hot, I place it in a dish, sprinkle with salt or a squeeze of lemon,then serve it immediately.

 

Carry over cooking is what happens after you take food off or out of the heating source. The internal heat in hot food continues cooking the meat or vegetables. What this means is that carry over cooking can cause your food to overcook even after you’ve removed it from the heat source. When you account for this and stop the cooking by shocking vegetables in cold water you’ll notice a big differene. How? You’ll know when to pull your vegetables from the heat, cued by both color and texture. That's the precise time to cool them down quickly. So give it a try and...EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!

 

I was cooking with a friend here, at her house, and took a few photos as I helped her put dinner together.

This is a true story about hunting for my eight year old son's hamster, AWOL.

AWOL broke out of her cage and has been on her mission for 24 hours now...

Throwing the clothes in the dryer is an every day affair, hamster on the loose or not. I did shake all the clothes out before tossing them in the washer. My first thought when I went to turn on the dryer was...hit the button, my second thought was...no, abort, don't hit the button…my third thought was "what is that thumping noise? OMG, I've done her in." I emptied the dryer pushed the button again. Not sounding good at all. It was making the same sound as the hamster wheel with food in it, only with a little thump and rattle with every round. "OH! So that's how it ends!!" I thought. Good job Mom!!! I think I gave up hope there, proceeding to take the dryer apart just to see what I could to see.

My car was parked outside at that time and the garage had been sealed off. (Almost used the yellow crime tape) Diego and I got home late, quietly entered the garage, and looked around while listening for no less than an hour. Frustrated and gloomy, we trudged upstairs to push on through four pages of homework, front and back. Once that was out of the way Diego got ready for bed. I said, I'll go check again to see if I can surprise her. (With no internal hope at all)

 

WHO-HA! There she was, cute nose and whiskers a twitching as we both froze and locked eyes for less than a split second. Then like lightening, she shot across the floor darting under the dryer. I used a stick to scare her out from underneath, blocked her in the corner and called for Diego. He ran down the stairs and coeced her in my direction. On my second attempt, muttering under my breath, I scooped her up, tossed her into her cage, and snapped the door shut with a rush of satisfaction and a high five. OH YEAH! LOCK DOWN BABY!

Report on AWOL'S 4th secret mission: Project Spider Web. Intent: to cause a complete upheaval in the garage---Mission accomplished. To put things in order will no doubt take me countless hours. That will take place only after I have rousted out all the eight legged tenants, big and little. Then I’ll I be able to put my dryer back together, which, BTW, includes reassembling the lint vent that leads outside. The only casualties on this mission were spiders. I'm sure Miss Houdini is comfortably spinning on her wheel as I write this.  (Or is she?) Her new code name while on missions is Bratty Rat. A Robo hamster...What the *!#> was I thinking!

As I started to put laundry away Diego lay back waiting to be tucked in. He commented on cruelty while reading about an animal that wears a shock collar. This sparked my comment... "Hey, maybe we can get one of those for AWOL". His immediate response was "Hell no!" I said "DID YOU just say Hell no?" He said "Yeah!" We laughed so hard, after which I said..."Honey, the thing about swearing is you have to know where, when and around who you can use words like that. I'm okay with that one since I deserved it, and we have had one heck of a day. But none of that in school, around your class mates, and older people, except Grandma of course. Why? Cuz she wrote the book on cursing!"

 So there you have it, AWOL'S fourth adventure. Oh! And if you ever want to deep clean your house room by room, I have the perfect little companion to help you with your mission. She likes working nights and hardly eats a thing.

 

 

 

I offered a gentleman a cookie today at work and he said, "Oh no, if I have one, it will be down hill for me every time you serve cookies. There should be a group called Cookie addicts Anonymous!" That made me laugh, but I totally understand his philosophy. I could attend a C.A.A. group occasionally myself. Hmmm, but what would we have with our coffee at group? That is a cookie conundrum! Here is the recipe for the cookies I baked off today.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter     
1 cup brown sugar 
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup quick oats
12 ounces chocolate chips (or more in place of nuts, if you SO desire)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (OPTIONAL as I would rather add more chocolate and skip d nuts)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugars together in or with a mixer.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture.  Stir in oatmeal, chips, nuts and mix well.

Form into uniform pieces with a cookie scoop, place evenly on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Press down for uniformity onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until golden. Makes about 4 dozen, 3-inch in size cookies.

When my son Diego asked me for a dog I thought about it long and hard. I’d love to indulge him, but knowing how much attention and care a dog will need, kept me from saying yes. I have every reason to say I’d like to, since his father and I recently separated. There is a dog in our future, just not right now.

                     

Next was the request for a hamster. Okay, I thought, I’m down with that, it’s small.  So I mentioned this to his dad saying it would be fine to go out shopping for the new pet with “D” if he wanted to. The next day Diego left the pet shop, not with a hamster, but a bloody finger. He was very disappointed on many levels to say the least. The next few days were rough on Diego. He’s learning to ride a bike. Scrapes may be part of growing up but that doesn’t cushion the fall. Wanting to turn the week around for him I took him to buy a hamster, thinking… they can’t all be biters.

 

When we arrived at the store they were out of regular hamsters but they had one dwarf breed, a Roborovski, also called a Robo hamster. As we checked out with the hamster and her condo, the sales person asked, “Do you have a name for your new pet?”. Diego and I looked at each other and said no… I figured, like most pets, she would earn her name.

 

We all went to bed with the exception of the nocturnal one. Her condo has an exercise wheel, which she uses fanatically right around midnight. She likes to snack as she exercises, keeping spare food on the wheel, which rattles around as she spins. How can a critter so small create such a racket?

 

Next morning I couldn’t help myself, I just had to get her out to pet her. That lasted about 2 seconds as she leapt from my hands and then table to floor. She headed north towards the couch. Quick I thought barricade the room. I tore up the whole living room to no avail. Great, how am I going to break this news to “D” I thought. I peered into his room, and despite barricading the living room, I saw our robo pet bolting by Diego’s bed, heading south for the desk.

 

Diego started to wake up and I tried to explain the situation but was too busy to give all the details. She is twice as fast as she is cute, and she is very cute! Five minutes of trying to capture her and it seemed as if I was about to succeed. I strategically blocked off areas to make sure she didn’t get out of the room or into the most cluttered spaces of the room. Then I heard it… a little rustle in the big closet, which BTW was packed from top to bottom with “stuff”.  I dug in, frantically tossing stuff to the side. The room was quickly transformed into a disaster zone. Finally, I scooped her up and said to Diego, “For now we’ll call her AWOL”  Once I explained the term to Diego he said, “AWOL, I like it” So there you have it, that’s how she earned her name. AWOL is now on lock down, however, she gets an occasional supervised visit and is always able to exercise. Thanks to AWOL I cleaned our closets on my summer vacation.  

 

 

 

 

 

It isn't difficult to purchase a ripe melon when you know what to look for. I've included photos below to help you make a knowlegable choice. Hope you'll give it a try for melon season is upon us. 

Okay, this sort of thing happens to me in the produce section frequently. I must look relaxed and as if I know what I'm doing or perhaps I'm just a little OCD when selecting my fruits and veggies. I'll admit though, this encounter was more fun than most of my shopping experiences.

I stood in the store, intently perusing the melons. I heard a male voice say, "How do you know when a melon is ripe?" I tried not to smirk, knowing that if I did I was going to LOL. I looked up, surprised to see a fireman standing before me in his blue and yellow S.F. Fire Department t-shirt. "Well... I take a few things into consideration when making my choice" I say casually. "I usually choose the medium sized ones and look at the stem end to determine when it was harvested.  If it was cut from the vine and has a long green stem, that means it was harvested early, so it is not vine ripened. If the stem has dried up and fallen off or is loose enough to gently pull away from the melon, than it's probably ripe. I look for the ones that have a clean divot, like that one, see where the stem used to be.  Then I press on the divot to see if it yields a bit to the pressure, which is a good sign. Oh! And when most melons are fragrant, they’re ripe." I handed him one of the three I'd been comparing and said, "Does that help?" He grined and said "Yeah thanks! Wow! You really know your stuff". I shruged as I turned to walk away, then glanced back at Mr. SFFD and replied "I'm a chef, it's what I do." 
 

More on melons...
If you can only buy a melon with a stem on it, let it ripen on your counter until you can tug the stem from the fruit. This will happen when the stem starts to dry. When melons mold at the stem end and get soft patches, you may find they taste winey and are past their prime. If a bit too soft but really sweet, you can make a quick soup with the following recipe. I like to cut a melon up when it's at room temperature, but then chill it until ready to serve.

Perfect for those hot summer days. Its light and refreshing

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 2-1/2 pound cantaloupe
3 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
a pinch of cinnamon
1 cup crushed ice
1-1/2 cups low-fat yogurt

Garnish:
10 strawberries
sugar to taste

Peel and seed melon, cut into wedges. Place sugar and ginger in blender and puree. Add lime juice and cinnamon and blend until smooth. Add a slice of melon to the ginger mixture and puree. Pour into a large bowl. Blend the remaining melon with yogurt and ice until smooth. Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Chill soup and serving bowels in the freezer for 1/2 hour. Garnish each serving with fresh berries or a berry puree sweetened with a touch of sugar.

By Mark Johnson

Heat and timing are key elements to master when learning to cook. One trick I use when making an omelet; is heat the pan, whisk the eggs, add them to the pan, then wash the dirty bowl and whisk while the eggs begin to cook. The other night I made a three egg omelet, using my dish washing routine as the timer. Standing at the sink I noticed that the eggs were'nt cooking as fast as usual. I quickly realized that the pan was on the wrong burner. You see, my stove has big burners in front which quickly heat the outside of a pan. The back burners on the other hand are the opposite, heating the center of the pan. That’s great to maintain a simmer, but not hot enough for a sauté. So, as soon as I noticed the omelet was not sizzling from lack of heat, I brought it forward to speed things up. I finished washing the bowl and whisk, and then went back to the stove to finish the omelet. Using a silicone spatula I moved the eggs around the pan, gently folding each side of the omelet over to envelope it’s filling. I slid the omelet onto my plate, sat down and ate.

It seems that this winter my good friends keep me on speed dial when needing a gravy lifeline or a bit of advice on cooking. Helping my friends in this way really sparked my thoughts on the value of kitchen experience. I’ve been thinking about recipe use comparing the knowledge of an accomplished cook to that of a novice. Experience based taste matters when it comes to reading through and selecting a recipe. During the holidays my mom and I decided to skip the tarragon in a dish, mid-preparation, because we agreed, tarragon is pungent and throws its weight around. Other decisions I’ve made allow me to condense a recipe's step-by-step narrative. For instance; not using every mixing bowl, whisk, platter, and skillet, a recipe calls for, makes for easy clean up without affecting the flavor of a dish.

Another area where kitchen knowledge is valuable is when reading a recipe. Sometimes it's a matter of saying "that sounds great" (or awful), but a lot of times it's the ability that experience has allowed me to figure out a confusing recipe. Recently I read directions that said "continue to let the vegetables simmer..." Well, that made no sense because there were no liquids in the dish, making the word simmer non-applicable. After skimming the recipe's ingredient list again, I decided that the author had switched the word "sauté” for "simmer", an error sure to confuse the cook. What happens to the inexperienced cook who prepares that recipe? Someone who knows the difference between sauté, simmer, broil or bake could easily decipher that recipe. Inexperienced cooks however, may give up, call a friend, or take a chance and add wine or broth, ending up with a glippity-glop.

The difference between an expert cook and the beginner became apparent when I blended four of Julia Child 's recipes together to create a delicious creamed spinach dish. More accurately, Spinach in Mornay sauce with Gruyere topped with a bread crumb gratinee. This was simple for me, already knowing what a Béchamel looks like. I did however; have to pay close attention to the many detailed steps chosen from the various recipes I fused together.

That dish brings me to Julie Powell's book, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. This book, which started out as a blog, is where Julie endeavors to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". The author took the project on to challenge herself hoping to give her life some meaning. This was, to say the least, an ambitious journey as a novice cook who had no idea what she was getting herself into. At first she is challenged by the basics. How do you make the foundation sauces? What does she mean by mince? Oh yeah, there's an illustration of that. Later in Julie’s culinary escapades it's a search for odd, unfamiliar ingredients Child’s recipes call for. Included in the focus of one chapter is a marrow bone, the oddness of this little morsel, the trouble with finding it, and the question of what to do with it in the recipe. Julie regularly finds herself putting a meal on the table at 11 at night, exhausted and not really interested in eating the crêpes she just spent five hours preparing.  Her husband tries to remain positive about her project despite the messy kitchen, late dinners, and some less than successful results. In addition Julie packs on the pounds as Chef Child’s recipes call for lots and lots of butter. Powell is frequently confounded by Child’s Cookbook but manages to forge through her personal challenge.

Julie does improve her cooking skill; several recipes turn out brilliantly and at a decent hour to boot. She masters pate brise without having to think, and aspics quickly become routine preparation. This book is about several things, accomplishment, Julia Child, relationships, and how messy a kitchen can get. It's also about learning to cook and how experience, through trial and error, can become a powerful teacher. By the end of one year Julie Powell learns to flip food in a pan (something I still can't do), figure out realistic prep times, and that Child was heavy handed with the butter.

 I knew my omelet wasn't cooking fast enough the other night  because as I started to wash my dishes because I didn’t hear it sizzling. Over time and with experience I’ve learned to use all my senses when cooking.  Precisely the experience that caused me to say "that's insane" when I heard about Julie Powell's writing project. "Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?" I thought. I realized that she didn't and that’s precisely what makes this book so entertaining. The insight Powell gains through her experiences make Julie & Julia, a fun and worthwhile read for any cook, novice or pro.

Also available as an audio book

Buy the book used on Amazon.com

Mark Johnson is an experienced cook and writer who generously contributed to iSimmer's blog. Thank you Mark!

 

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, A Year of Food Life; Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp & Camille Kingsolver, Harper Collins Publisher, New York, 2007, 354 pages.

 

This is the perfect book to read in conjunction with, An Omnivore’s Dilemma as it is a memoir and part journalistic investigation of a family of four that returns to a rural farm to test the premise that a family can sustain themselves on only the food they themselves grow and raise or can obtain locally. This makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back in the center of family life and diversified farming at the center of an American diet of locally produced foods. Kingsolver’s family makes out a food shopping list that excludes all items not locally grown and produced to see if they can sustain themselves for a year. Along the way are humorous and poetic descriptions of their gardening and live stock raising efforts interspersed with some great recipes. A great read that will make you think to change your dinner menu from a food industry driven menu to a menu of fresh grown and raised foods.