Thursday, January 8, 2009

Take a Bite of Bitten's Cabbage Salad


http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/recipe-of-the-day-cabbage-salad/

If Bitten’s cabbage tastes as good as it looks pretty, we’re in the game. Reminds me I want to try Margaret Fox’s red cabbage salad recipe using balsamic vinegar. My friend Sue Yates of Silverpine Lodge in New Zealnd  [http://www.silverpine.co.nz/] cooks up an awesome wilted red cabbage that keeps improving with age!

Ingredients
   * 1 small head white cabbage, about 1 pound, cored and shredded
    * 1/2 small head red cabbage, about
    * 1/2 pound cored and shredded
    * 1 or 2 carrots, peeled, trimmed and shredded
    * Salt as needed
    * Extra virgin olive oil to tast
    * Vinegar or lemon juice to taste
    * Black pepper to taste
    * Chopped fresh parsley leaves, optional

Method:
In a colander, combine cabbages and carrots. Toss with at least 1 tablespoon salt, enough so that leaves exude moisture within 10 or 15 minutes. If they do not, add a little more salt. Let sit an hour or two, pressing out moisture out with your hands once or twice. Taste, and if mixture is too salty, rinse and dry. Toss with oil, vinegar or lemon juice, and pepper; you may even need a little salt. Serve, garnished with parsley if you like.

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Loving the Williams vs. Manning DSRL commercial


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Also want to try Jacques' apricot clafoutis recipe


Download now or preview on posterous
211-recipe.pdf (16 KB)

Fell in love with clafoutis when we used to frequent Café Beaujolais in Mendocino on summer vacations. Margaret Fox always served it hot out of the oven! Like a custard souffle with fruit, delicate, not too sweet, divine! Having move away from the Bay Area, we’re not in driving range of Mendocino anymore – but maybe I can recreate the memory now with the help of dear Jacques!

Check out the whole 26 min KQED video with Jacques demonstrating Picante Mussel Pilaf and Onion-Crusted Sole with Anchovy Butter, as well as the Apricot Clafoutis:
http://www.kqed.org/w/morefastfoodmyway/episode211.html&feature=player_embedded

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Jacques Pepin's secret ingredient: Peet's Coffee! ((recipes))((food))


From KQED, San Francisco:

"To celebrate Jacques Pépin's new series, KQED and Peet's Coffee & Tea brewed up a recipe contest featured on Facebook, the social networking site. The contestants submitted their favorite recipes that featured Peet's coffee as an ingredient and the winners received two pounds of Peet's coffee, a shiny new coffee grinder from Cuisinart, and an autographed copy of Jacques' most recent cookbook, Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way."

Peet’s Coffee, if you don’t know by know, is my absolute favorite coffee. Beans are roasted daily, and if you mail order, they’re shipped the next day! Just discovered this fine recipe today, so I’ve not tried it. Let me know if you do. You can look up the recipe at this link: http://www.kqed.org/w/morefastfoodmyway/recipes.html#facebook. Or just grab it here!  ;-)

"Amazing Fudge Peets Brownies"
Recipe by Kanya Yoshihiro

Brownies (cook first):

    * Ingredients: 2/3 cup Butter
    * 3 oz unsweetened chocolate
    * 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
    * 1 3/4 cup sugar
    * 2 tsp vanilla
    * 1/4 cup turkish ground Peets Coffee (House 101)
    * 3 eggs
    * 1 cup all purpose flour
    * 1 cup chopped pecans

    * Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees
    * Grease square 9x9 pan
    * Heat butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly until melted
    * Turn off heat to let cool slightly
    * Beat sugar, vanilla and eggs in mixing bowl on high speed for 5 minutes
    * Beat in chocolate mixture on low speed
    * Beat in flour just until blended
    * Stir in nuts and spread in pan
    * Bake 40 minutes till brownies begin to pull away from side of pan. Cool.

Fudge Frosting (cook while brownies are baking):

    * Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups sugar
    * 2/3 cup evaporated milk
    * 3 tbsp dark corn syrup
    * 1/4 tsp salt
    * 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
    * 2 tbsp butter
    * 1/2 cup brewed Peets Coffee ( House 101)
    * 2 tsp vanilla extract
    * 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
    * 3 tbsp turkish ground Peets Coffee (House 101)

    * Preparation: Use an 8" round or square pan
    * Combine sugar, corn syrup, milk, butter, chocolate, pecans, salt and brewed coffee into saucepan. Cook on medium heat while stirring. Once it is at a rolling boil, stir constantly for 5 minutes
    * Remove from heat, stirring in vanilla and turkish ground Peets Coffee (House 101) coffee beans
    * Beat vigorously and continuously for 5 minutes
    * Pour into pan and allow to cool

Finishing and Serving the "Amazing Fudge Peets Brownies"

    * Remove brownies from oven and allow them to cool till warm or room temperature
    * Use a spoon to stir the fudge frosting
    * Take generous spoon-fulls of fudge frosting and spread evenly across brownies
    * Cut the finished "Amazing Fudge Peets Brownies" in 2" squares

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Yes, it's salty coffee!


Got the scoop first on Twitter / original article @ Monstersandcritics.com[ http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/health/news/article_1450547.php]

Taiwan's 85 Degree Bakery Café adds, yes, salt to this new specialty coffee drink, and I’m told it’s a winner. Much the way many Taiwanese like to salt some of their fruit to bring out the sweet flavor, 85 Degrees salts this coffee with seasalt. Try it yourself on your next watermelon. That's how I grew up eating watermelon!

"It gives you three tastes. First, you get the slightly salty taste from the cold cream foam, second, the mixed taste of the salty cream foam and hot coffee, third, the aroma of coffee," says Ho Hsiu-ling, a university student in Taiwan. "It is amazing. I ordered it out of curiosity and expected it to be salty, but the taste is not entirely salty. It is salty and sweet, and is more fragrant then sugared coffee."

Salt coffee is just one of 85 Degree Bakery's many products, which range from traditional coffees to milk teas, smoothies, and more than 50 types of  pastries. 85 Degrees currently has 35 stores in Taiwan, 20 in China, 4 in Australia, and one in the U.S. - opened last November in Irvine.

Why the name 85 Degrees? Simply because 85 degrees is the ideal temperature to drink coffee.

Take a peek at 85 Degree's Australian website since we can't read Chinese: http://www.85cafe.com.au/index.htm That’s the best I can do for now – salivate at internet photos!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Friday, January 2, 2009

20 Healthiest Foods for Under $1


New York Times [http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/healthy-foods-for-under-1/ ] recently reposted DivineCaroline’s 20 Healthiest Foods for Under $1 [http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22107/52070-20-healthiest-foods--1]. Read the original article at http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22107/52070-20-healthiest-foods—1

My thots:

  1. Oats Good for breakfast, lunch or dinner AND oatmeal cookies.
  2. Eggs One of the most affordable forms of protein around, eggs win the Miss Versatility Contest. Use them for egg sandwiches and Eggs Benedict, bread budding and flan, and don’t forget those Green Eggs ‘n Ham!
  3. Kale Something for my “I’ll Consider It” list.
  4. Potatoes Bake them, boil them, hash them, mash them. My fave: pan sauteed with garlic and onions!
  5. Apples An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Save ya’ some bucks, on that end, too. Too bad my favorite variety, Pacific Rose, can’t meet the $1 test.
  6. Nuts Accoring to DivineCaroline, “Though nuts have a high fat content, they’re packed with the good-for-you fats—unsaturated and monounsaturated. They’re also good sources of essential fatty acids, Vitamin E, and protein. And because they’re so nutrient-dense, you only need to eat a little to get the nutritional benefits.
  7. Bananas DivineCaroline found them for 19 cents apiece. Obviously she doesn’t live in Hawaii.
  8. Garbanzo Beans ‘Spose I can hummus them.
  9. Broccoli The one green vegetable 13 year old likes - but again not so cheap in my neighborhood.
  10. Watermelon Yes! Plus, a Chinese man at Costco this summer taught me how to finally pick a good one!
  11. Wild Rice What about brown and white rice?
  12. Beets DivineCaroline says they’re powerhouses of folate, iron, and antioxidants. I say they’re mostly red.
  13. Butternut Squash Time to dig up that butternut squash soup recipe.
  14. Whole Grain Pasta A keeper for all sorts of sauces. I like De Cecco, imported from Italy, which pushes me over the $1 limit.
  15. Sardines My dad taught me to eat them on soda crackers. Sadly gone are the tins with the roll back lids.
  16. Spinach Spinach salad, soup, dip and layered in vegetarian lasagne. Creamed spinach - mmmm!.
  17. Tofu For the best, go back to the source for Chinese and Japanese preparations.
  18. Milk Plus, I can still get a milk mustache from my morning latte.
  19. Pumpkin Seeds Only cheap if you’re scooping them out of a pumpkin. And then you have to use the pumpkin meat. Whatever.
  20. Coffee Once again, one of my favorite foods makes the list! Fresh roasted Peets Sumatra please.

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My sister's new 7-wk old yellow Labrador Retriever


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