When to Buy Organic

I've known of some foods that one should try to buy organic, because of how heavily they receive pesticides (raspberries, peanuts/peanut butter). I've known of other foods where it isn't as much of a concern, because there is an outer skin (oranges, bananas). I read a helpful post on Whole Food nation summarizing what types of you should try to buy organic and which are ok being non organic. I summarized the info below but there is additional helpful info in the original post, including why certain foods should be bought organic and how many pesticides are sprayed on the foods (most are 25 or more).

Non organic is ok:
Asparagus
Avocados
Bananas
Broccoli
Cabbage
Eggplant
Kiwi
Mangoes
Onions
Pineapples
Sweet corn
Sweet peas

Organic is safer:
Beef, Pork and Poultry
Milk, Cheese and Butter
Strawberries, Raspberries and Cherries
Apples and Pears
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Spinach and Other Greens
Coffee
Peaches and Nectarines
Grapes
Celery
Red and Green Bell Peppers

I would like to add that I believe buying local produce when you know how it is grown (like from a CSA) can provide a happy middle ground to the expense of organic and the lack of quality and nutrients of the non organic, conventionally grown items above. Cost is unfortunately prohibitive of our buying more organic.

Are there particular foods you regularly buy organic? There are some for Ryan and I, though I don't think there are any foods we always buy organic. I prefer organic raspberries, for the lack of chemicals and because I have found them to taste immensely better. We have never bought organic meat. By the way, don't be fooled by "all natural" or "100% natural" labels on chicken - there are no established guidelines for what constitutes natural.

How to Rescue a Roux

Have you ever found yourself making a sauce with flour and milk and there are more lumps than you care to have, and they're not going away no matter how much you whisk it?

That happened to me a couple of weeks ago when making beef stroganoff, and I did something that worked perfectly. Using a mid-sized Pyrex measuring cup (a mixing bowl would do) and a fine-meshed strainer placed over it, I carefully poured the hot roux into the strainer and let the smooth sauce strain into the bowl. The lumps were left in the strainer, and I whisked the lumpy roux until it smoothed out and blended into a paste. It didn't take long. Placing the pan back on the stove and turning the heat on, I put the roux paste in and added a little bit of the strained, smooth roux and whisked it until it combined, then I added a bit more and whisked to combine. I repeated those steps until the paste was no longer a thick past but a smooth, thick sauce, then I added the rest of the smooth liquid and continued whisking to allow the entire roux to thicken as needed.

The alternative? Taking out the lumps scoop by scoop and losing the proportion of flour to milk, or starting over. The above trick worked well with no loss of ingredients. I'd recommend turning the burner off while you do this to keep the empty pan from getting too hot. Otherwise, the roux may scorch when you return it to the pan.

Do you have any kitchen tips that have saved you? Please post in the comments! Also, if you haven't taken the poll to the left, I am awaiting your answer!

Our first "Harvest"

This week was the first pickup for the CSA that we joined. Thanks to a lot of rain and not a lot of sunshine, the harvest is a couple weeks behind from what the owners anticipated. What we got this week looks fresh, vibrant and full of good flavor and nutrients.

Spinach

Kale

Collard Greens

Humongous green onions - I've never seen any this large!

We also got asparagus, rhubarb, tomatoes and a huge head of green lettuce. I trimmed the ends of the kale and collard greens and put them in water - the ends smelled like broccoli.

Any recipe ideas for kale or collard greens? I've never used either. I have a recipe from Heidi Swanson that I may try, called Meyer Lemon Risotto, made with barley. Ryan and I have been wanting to expand our repertoire of foods that are, well, truly good for you and that are a whole food. I bought some organic pearl barley at the East End Food Co-op today ($1.09/lb!). I also got other goodies, including the most wonderful raspberries my mouth has ever met, and some hippie things like organic quinoa ($1.49/lb!), agave nectar, raw milk, and bulk raw organic sugar.

The next thing I plan to make with the quinoa is what may become my new breakfast that appears to be flavorful, filling and probably better for me than any other breakfast I can imagine: Warm and Nutty Cinnamon Quinoa. I actually found red quinoa which the recipe calls for but does not require. What is convenient about this is I can make a week's worth at home and take it to work each day.

For those interested in the photos, I shot RAW, ISO 100, manual mode with a diffused Canon 430ex flash. I use Photoshop Elements 6.0 for editing.

Skewed Skewers?

America's Test Kitchen has an interesting review of skewers used for grilling. I bought my first set a last summer, and they're long, flat and metal. I've found them to be pretty satisfactory. They weren't too thick to thread meat or vegetables and kept the food in place while grilling and turning. I remember that I bought them at a store in the Strip District of Pittsburgh [a wholesale shopping area...not the other possible meaning] but am unsure of the brand.

Let's take a look at the review. Bamboo skewers stink, they say. They are bound burn and break when cooking at high heat, regardless of soaking. The food typically ends up turning on round skewers, making it difficult to turn the food when needed. They recommend flat skewers, which works for me since I already own them! So as grilling season heats up, be on the lookout for flat skewers. I hope you can find some and enjoy skewering to your heart's content. Chicken thigh meat, by the way, is a delicious choice!

There Is No More Cheese

It's usually a little sad when I use up the last of our supply of Tillamook Cheese. What's this cheese, you say? It's made in the coastal town of Tillamook, Oregon and growing up, we'd always get a 2lb loaf of "Oregon Cheese" from my grandparents in our Christmas box that came in the mail. Not only are we fond of it because it's from Oregon, but it's also a highly rated cheese for it's quality and taste (which I didn't appreciate as a child for obvious reasons: it was just CHEESE!!!). As an adult, I certainly appreciate it more, but I can't get it here in Pittsburgh without paying an arm and a leg for an itty bitty block at Giant Eagle. Tillamook ice cream, by the way, is the best I've ever tasted.

These days, since I only get it from Oregon, having Tillamook Cheese in our home means that I saw my family recently, either because I was there or they were here, ever since they moved more than a year ago to Oregon. My mom generously brought me not one, but TWO baby loaves of Sharp Cheddar Cheese when they came for our wedding about two months ago. We just finished up the last of the cheese last week.

At this point, the next time we'll have any Oregon cheese is when we visit my family over Labor Day. Labor Day! It's so far away!! Mom, can you send some more before it gets too warm to mail it? :) We miss you guys too, not just the cheese.

Photo from company website

Chefs Catalog Free Shipping

Today and tomorrow only, you can get free shipping on any sized order at ChefsCatalog.com using this link. If you have never shopped there, they have an AWESOME selection of kitchen items. There are items you can't find at BB&B, and items that are cheaper than Williams Sonoma and Sur la Table.

We're looking to replace our digital thermometer (maybe with this one?) and may take advantage of this offer. Check out their extensive array of sale items. You can narrow down easily by price or category. This $10 egg plate is pretty and holds more eggs than most egg plates I've seen.

Mother's Day is next month!

Item pictured: Ceramic bowls

Farm Share

Ryan and I are thinking about joining a local farm share this summer. It goes into the fall and you can get either weekly or bi-weekly shares of fresh produce. We'd choose the bi-weekly share and get 8-9 varieties of fresh produce every two weeks. I think it will help to increase our vegetable intake!

The farm we are considering is the Dillner Family Farm. I've been interested in this for a little while and was glad to find one fairly close to where we live. We're looking forward to having very fresh produce which will last longer than grocery store produce. The Farm is a CSA farm (community sustainable agriculture). We'd pick up our [already washed] food every two weeks on Tuesday afternoons. There are some friends from church who are doing this farm share too, so maybe something can be coordinated for the pick-up.

This will be a great move for us if we:

1. Eat all the food and don't let any/too much go to waste.
   
2. Lower our regular food budget by the amount per week by the weekly cost (paid up front): $14 a week.

I hope we like everything that comes in the share. Looking at the harvest calendar, I don't care for beets and eggplant, and neither does Ryan. I like almost everything else though and could surely make do with what we don't like. Ryan will become giddy over the sweet corn, especially if we make it with Chili Lime Butter (I always work LIME in somehow....I know, I know!!).

Have you tried something like this or are you considering it? Do you like LIMES? lol.

Yams or Sweet Potatoes?

I purchased yams last week to make Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes. I became curious about the difference between sweet potatoes and yams; I figured there was some sort of variance but never really knew what it was. From what I found online, what I bought last week were not actually true yams but sweet potatoes. These two "flowering plants" are not related botanically, and most stores sell a variety of or two of sweet potatoes, with one of the varieties being tagged as a yam. The terms are often used interchangeably, but yams are less common in the US than sweet potatoes. Apparently, the USDA requires that produce labeled "yams" must also have "sweet potatoes" on the label.

A summary of the description of yams:

• starchy in taste, like a baking potato
• dry in texture
• the skin a brownish, almost black color
  
• non-tapered ends
  
• the flesh is usually off-white
• requires a year of frost-free weather before harvest
• most commonly available in ethnic markets
• Yam Dioscorea Species
  

A summary of the description of Sweet potatoes:

• sweet in taste
  
• more moist in texture
  
• can have a skin that is thin and smooth
  
• can have a yellow or orange flesh and can have slightly tapered ends
• requires 100 to 150 days to harvest
• some varieties remain firm when cooked; some soften. It is the soft variety that is often sold as a yam in the US.
• Scientific name: Ipomoea batatas

The potato in the second picture, based on the above descriptions, is a sweet potato. That is what I purchased last week from a bin that said "Yams $.99/lb."

In conclusion, you are most likely buying sweet potatoes at a typical grocery store, even if they are labeled yams. It seems not all stores adhere to the requirement to include the label "sweet potatoes" with the yam label. Or, I just missed that part when shopping.

An aside: I was doing internet searches for information and came across this picture on flickr that I think is captioned incorrectly. Someone also left a comment saying so, and I found the pictures above from the link in the comment. I believe the commentor is correct in saying the potato on the left in the photo is not a sweet potato but a yam.

Lime 'N Chili Almonds

Ryan and I have recently been hooked on the delicious Lime 'n Chili Almonds from Blue Diamond. In fact, I might buy case of 6 from amazon since the per unit price is about $2.69. I would like to compare the Target price first. There are also other bold flavors such as Jalepeno Smokehouse, Wasabi & Soy Sauce, and Maui Onion 'n Garlic. They also have Salt & Vinegar which might be really good if you like salt and vinegar potato chips (I do).

The nuts have a great kick, and if you let them sit in your mouth for a moment before munching on them, the lime flavor blasts through. And you all know I love me some lime!

Photo from the Blue Diamond website

Sweet Potato Fries

Have you ever eaten Sweet Potato Fries? The first time I had them was when two friends took me out to lunch a few weeks ago. We ordered them at Mojo Bistro here in Pittsburgh and they were fabulous! They were crispy on the outside with a smooth, mellow sweetness on the inside.

Fast forward to my honeymoon in Colorado a couple weeks ago, and sweet potato fries appear to be a staple in that area. I ordered them with nearly every meal and really enjoyed them. The next step is to find a great recipe to make them at home since they aren't as common at restaurants here. If you live around Pittsburgh, do you know of any other restaurants that serve them? (update: a quick search yielded a sandwich shop near us that serves sweet potato fries. It'll be fun to go there with my husband)

I hope to share an online wedding slideshow in a couple of weeks! Ryan and I had a wonderful wedding day with each other and our friends and family, and our honeymoon was all that we hoped it would be. We are thrilled to be married to each other!

Some more honeymoon pics here.

Pumpkin Rolls

This is a recipe I must try. But when???

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

The recipe yields a lot of rolls (48) and it would be a risk for me to have so many delicious rolls in my home, so maybe I'll do half or less of the recipe.

Oh Papaya

One of my favorite fruits is papaya, but only with lime juice. Because of my severe lime leanings, I might like it better than others. I've had people try it though and most liked it. I halve, seed, peel and dice the [large] papaya and juice a lime over it. I'm pretty generous with my lime juice. Give it a try!

Second Annual Cooking Poll

Last year, I posted a poll for people to list their top 10 favorite ingredients. Knowing that tastes can change over time, I am going to list my 10 and compare to the list I made last year to see if there are any differences. They weren't in any particular order.

1. Garlic
2. Olive Oil
3. Salt: kosher and sea
4. Lime juice or zest
5. Balsamic vinegar
6. Piquin chiles (tiny, very hot dried chiles)
7. Parmesan cheese
8. Onions
9. Sugar
10.Chocolate

I just checked my old list, and three items didn't make it this time but ARE still favorites: coffee, cilantro and butter. How could I forget butter? I also checked my pantry...I have six varieties of salt! Oh man. And I have 10 kinds of vinegar.

My Food Diary

I would like to put out a recommendation for My Food Diary. It's an online food journal and support center for weight loss. I have been working and stalling and working and stalling for years to achieve certain specific fitness goals, and MFD has contributed to the successes I've had. I'm now stepping up and focusing more seriously on reaching my goals this summer, and MFD is an essential tool for me. It has been a great resource to teach me how to eat well and track my progress. It's $9 a month, which I think is GREAT (compared to Weight Watchers $12 or so per week and you have fewer tools). The features include:

• a very large database of foods, including hundreds of restaurants
• the ability to add your own recipes by inputing ingredients, amounts, and number of servings. It'll then give you the nutrition data per serving and add that to your "Fridge", which is your personal database of foods you eat.
• a body log, where you record your weight and measurements. It tracks it on a graph and lists how many pounds or inches you have lost, and how many pounds you have left to lose.
• an active forum where you can post questions, get support and learn more tools and ideas. I am in a group of about 7 women whose motto is "deadly determined" to reach our goals, for our own health, fitness and long-term wellness.
• a daily summary of how many calories you have left in the day to lose __ pounds per week and maintain your weight. It'll tell you "if every day were like today, in one month you would weigh ___" and it gives what date you'd reach our target weight.
  

How do you use it? Daily, you go to your Fridge, enter what you are eating or will eat, and it adds it to your diary for the day. It gives you a "smiley" on the summary page for things such as reaching daily amounts for vitamins and minerals (A, C, Iron, Calcium), high fiber, low saturated fat, water consumption, no dessert, and exercise. You get frowns for high sodium, no exercise, not enough calories, too many calories, and more.

The fridge starts out empty when you sign up. Over time, you'll add the foods you eat, like milk, cheese, etc. You can put anything in your fridge - ANYTHING. If a brand or type of food isn't in the existing MFD database, chances are the company's website publishes the nutrition data. If you have the nutrition label from the package, you can quickly add it to your fridge.

With the recipe building feature, I am able to add in the decadent desserts I sometimes make in order to know how many calories a slice contains.

The system doesn't let you eat too few calories without warning you. You are supposed to eat the calories you earn by exercising. Why? If you are already on a 1400 calorie diet to lose weight, but you burn 500 that day with exercise and don't eat those calories back, you essentially net 900 calories, which is way too few to be healthy and to lose weight in a healthy way. Your metabolism will slow and your body will store what you eat once it enters survival mode at that calorie level.

It works when I use and stay in my calorie range and log my food intake. The times it doesn't work = user error/failure, not method error. I know that not everyone is like this, but I believe I will need to be mindful on a long-term basis about what I eat in order to be fit and healthy. It's a good wake-up call to see how calories quickly add up without really realizing it.

The only downside is that a trial period isn't available.

Th Ancho-Lime Marinated BBQ Chicken went swimmingly with the couscous and vegetables I made yesterday. I grilled the chicken tonight and had some of the couscous leftovers. I loved it! So flavorful, healthy and complimentary.

After removing the chicken from the marinade, I boiled the excess in the microwave instead of discarding it, and I basted it on the chicken as it cooked. I might add some brown sugar to the rest of the marinade that wasn't used today (I made a whole recipe but used a portion for one breast of chicken).

More Recipes

I prepared the marinade from a recipe, Ancho-Lime Marinated BBQ Chicken today and will use it tomorrow on boneless chicken breasts. I was drawn to it for the lime and ancho chile part and need to restock some spices soon from Penzey's. I've been improvising with my lack of vanilla extract by scraping some vanilla beans for a couple other recent recipes.

Tonight, I am having the third grilled vegetable dish from my post below and hope it turns out well! I also made the recommended side dish, Onion Raita.

---

UPDATE
My dinner was delicious and so flavorful! I made Grilled Vegetables & Chickpeas w/ Couscous. The accompanying side dish tasted great with it. I made some changes to the vegetables. I don't care for zucchini, so I left out that and the yellow squash and used only onions and red and yellow peppers. Also, I added ground red pepper, an extra tablespoon of lemon juice, extra salt, some lemon zest, and a crushed clove of garlic. I would definitely make this again and look forward to the leftovers. It's so healthy too! I didn't make any changes to the Onion Raita, and it was handy to grill the onions together for both recipes.

Veggies

I added a few recipes to "Recipes I Want to Try" which I hope to make in the next week. All involve grilling vegetables with various seasonings or rubs.

Grilled Vegetables with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Grilled Vegetables With Cilantro Butter
Grilled Vegetables and Chickpeas with Couscous
Grilled Vegetables with Feta

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UPDATE
For dinner tonight I made the last recipe above and was really pleased with it. It was filling and nutritious. Once the grilled vegetables were cut, I tossed them in some leftover vinaigrette for additional flavor. I'd make it again!

Cakeness

I made a Double Chocolate Torte for Ryan's birthday yesterday. I made it ahead on Saturday night, and it turned out wonderful! The bottom half is a dense, dark, chocolaty cake (minimal flour), and the top half is a smooth mousse. It's a great do-ahead dessert that isn't necessarily "quick" but is worth the multiple steps involved.

Food

Cranberry Pot Roast: turned out great, will type/post recipe if requested. I couldn't find fresh cranberries, but a can of whole cranberry sauce was an acceptable substitute. I combined the instructions in the recipe with instructions from America's Test Kitchen and was pleased with the results. In short, the roast was cooked for about 3 3/4 hours at 300 degrees. I was happy to see it got to the stage of being "melty" and easily falling apart when I cut it. It was cooked in beef broth, chicken broth and white wine, among other seasonings, with the liquid coming halfway up the sides (per ATK).
Swirled Cranberry Cheesecake: this didn't happen, unfortunately, since fresh cranberries weren't available. I made Texas Sheet Cake instead. I hope to make it in the future.
Green Beans with Pine Nuts, Garlic & Basil: didn't happen since I couldn't find fresh basil. Instead, I made Green Beans with Pine Nuts, Garlic and Diced Tomatoes (adapted/made up), and my guests liked it quite well.
Lasagna: didn't happen. I made Macaroni Salad from America's Test Kitchen for the fellowship dinner instead. Main ingredients, besides pasta and mayo, were red onions, dijon mustard, lemon juice, cayenne, celery, salt and pepper. I liked. Friends liked.

I also made Tuscan White Bean & Garlic Soup for myself, from Giada De Laurentiis: easy (especially if you have an immersion blender), high in protein, nice taste. Two out of two friends approved.

Last week, I made some sandwiches called Venetian Panino for Lord's Day lunch, also by Giada. I liked them a lot and would make them again. I'm not a fan of a strong dijon mustard flavor, and the spread for this sandwich was just right.

Cook's Illustrated is in need of recipe testers for their magazine. I was [spontaneously] compelled to join with An Elite Force in the food industry by enlisting myself as a "Friends of Cook's" to test recipes before they are published. This calls for Duty, Honor, Fortitude! I emailed them and got an automated response,

"Thank you for signing up as a Friend of Cook's Illustrated. We will be contacting when we need your help. Please note that we only test our recipes every two months, so you might not hear from us immediately."

I think they mean it, right? Of course! I'm sure they will come through and solicit my Free Services of Cooking. Free, because their "'Friends' are not paid--they buy their own ingredients and cook the food on their own time--but they get to sample our recipes before they're published in the magazine and they help us make sure our recipes really do work."