Archives for July, 2008
Every weekend during the summer, if we are lucky, there will be a good supply of wax beans at the farmers market. These golden yellow (and sometimes purple) versions of green beans are harvested young, and are sweet and tender. Here is a simple way to prepare them, with the subtle flavor of a mint infusion.
Continue reading "Wax Beans with Mint" »
From the recipe archive.
Every weekend during the summer, if we are lucky, there will be a good supply of wax beans at the farmers market. These golden yellow (and sometimes purple) versions of green beans are harvested young, and are sweet and tender. Here is a simple way to prepare them, with the subtle flavor of a mint infusion.
I just received this bag from my mother in law, who is moving. I’m thinking it is a hint, what about you? :-D I’ve never seen a 5-lb bag of baking cocoa! I laughed when I saw this and this was the first thing I thought of. I guess I’d better start making some cocoa-based dishes and (even better) desserts.
addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fmakingbananapancakes.com%2F2008%2F07%2F28%2Fa-hint%2F'; addthis_title = 'A+hint%3F'; addthis_pub = 'prickeke';
Okay, I give up. When did this whole "bacon" thing become a trend?
Smithfield.com is offering $30,000 for your best recipe! If you've got a great recipe that uses a Smithfield product and has 10 ingredients or less, we want to see it. Send us favorite entrees, side dishes, appetizers, sandwiches, soups and more. We'll choose our favorite ten recipes from your submissions. We'll announce those finalists in November and post their recipes on our website.
All finalists will compete for the grand prize of $30,000 cash and a chance to meet Paula Deen. We're also asking all of our website visitors to vote for their favorite recipe. That "People's Choice" winner will receive $5,000! The remaining eight finalist will get a Paula Deen Signature 12 piece steel and cookware set.
Paula DeAnda's "When it Was YOU" Video Contest - 04 May 2007
Create A Unique Cooking Video and Win - 25 October 2007
Christmas Cookie Contest - 05 December 2007
Rising Mango Star Video Contest - 10 May 2008
Place the small, new potatoes, whole, in a saucepan with enough boiling water just to cover them. Add 2 teaspoons of the salt, bring to a boil and then simmer them for about 12- 15 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile make the vinaigrette. Crush the garlic and add the remaining teaspoon of the salt, and the black pepper. With the back of a spoon, mash the salt and garlic together. Remove the zest from one lemon and add it to the bowl. Gradually whisk in the fresh lemon juice and olive oil. Set aside.
Chop the green onion and set aside until ready to serve.
When the potatoes are cooked, drain them in a colander and spill them out onto a cutting board. Cut potatoes in half (or bite size). Put the potatoes into a large flat dish and pour on the vinaigrette dressing while they are still hot. Gently toss them around in the dressing and let them sit for a few minutes in order to absorb the dressing. Put the potatoes into a decorative serving dish and scatter the green onions and on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Adapted From: Delia Smith
If I were a bettin’ girl (and I would be if this was poker night), I’d bet that you knew someone you could qualify as a “One-Upper.”
I used to work with a couple of women that constantly battled for the title One-Upper Queen. It never started innocently, either. One woman was always baited (not an incredible feat to accomplish) into sharing a story about her children and then like magic, the second woman would appear out of nowhere to talk about her children. One woman’s daughter recited Shakespeare at 8 months. The other’s son was potty-trained at 7 1/2 months. You get the picture…
The next thing you know, the women were lobbing stories at each other like grenades. There was never - never - any listening involved. They didn’t talk to each other - just at each other. The rest of us were not-so-innocent victims, but still caught in the cross-fire.
I’m always on the look-out for a One-Upper of my own. No, not a co-worker to talk at - a better way to fix a favorite dish. I would guess that I’ve gone through 20+ recipes for chocolate chip cookies looking for The One (which in itself is funny… ’cause are they ever really *that* different?). I’m loyal to a recipe only until I find a better one, which I guess really doesn’t make me very loyal at all.
I made Nigella’s Pasta Carbonara several months ago. It tasted fantastic and as is the case with many of her recipes, it was an over-indulgent dish of calories. I hate having to relegate a dish to “special occasions only” but I really couldn’t justify adding it to our regular rotation.
We stumbled across a lighter, a more authentic version of Pasta Carbonara on What Geeks Eat. 1 egg, compared to Nigella’s 4. No wine. Creamy and indulgent without the heavy cream. With an ingredient list like that, it immediately was added to our regular rotation - and just like that, Nigella was one-upped.
Pasta Carbonara
1 lb Pasta
6 oz Pancetta, diced
1 egg
3/4 cup Parmesan, grated
Ground black pepper
Salt
Cook pasta as directed. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Place pasta in a large bowl.
Dice the pancetta into small cubes and cook until crisp. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and add to pasta. Add the egg, Parmesan, and as much cracked black pepper as you can enjoy to the bowl with 1/4 cup of pasta water. Stir and mix well. The cheese will melt and the egg and water will create a creamy coating on the pasta. Add additional pasta water, if necessary, and stir. Salt, to taste.
Yields: 4 servings
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Those of you who have been longtime readers know that I struggle on the gardening front. Oh how I struggle. Some years I don't even bother planting anything. I'm sufficiently discouraged by the skeletons of previous crops - they greet me when I step out to stretch on my back patio each morning. One neighbor is convinced I'm simply a drip line away from my own personal container garden of Eden. Sure. I was having lunch with two friends back in March, one is an editor for the garden section of a major magazine, the other is an accomplished food writer - she had an article about her (newly) prolific lemon tree in the newspaper that very week. It was inevitable, the topic turned to gardening. I half-heartedly stated, "well maybe this is my year."
Thinking back on it, this was more a question than a statement. Over the course of the next five minutes, it was decided that I would grow lettuce. They said, "anyone can grow lettuce." They said, "sprinkle the seeds in a pot, water, seriously, anyone can grow lettuce." So I bought a $100 pot. It might have been $200, I can't remember. Shallow, wide, architectural - perfect for lettuce growing, right? Sprinkled the seeds (heirloom red lettuce!), watered, stood back and waited. Nothing really happened. Nothing really happened for weeks, and then months. It was a shallow pot of dirt for the duration of the summer. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a week or so back, the pot sprang to life with stunning red lettuce. In my eyes, a small miracle.
Although the lettuce seeds were (painfully) slow to sprout, it was a gateway crop of sorts. After I planted the lettuce I started collecting other edible plants. Why stop at lettuce? This was my year. I picked up a few edibles at Flora Grubb - one of the nice guys who works there set me up with an earful of advice and some organic fertilizer. I have a pot for thyme, a pot for snap peas, one for pineapple sage, curry, chives, red heritage raspberries, currants, basil and red-stemmed peppermint. The dill plant I bought at the Marin market back in April never made it into a pot, but it is still alive. I harvested three currants last week. Still no drip line.
I love my little garden, even though I'm still trying to understand it. Lots of the plants are flowering, I suspect they wouldn't be flowering if they weren't happy - or at least that's what I tell myself. I made this herb salad using some of them of what I picked out on my patio, supplemented with ingredients from the market. I can't quite bring myself to pick the red lettuce yet.
Continue reading Herb Salad...The best tastes on the net!
