I think like many people, my food junk food intake has a strong correlation to my mood – one extreme or the other and I am all over junk food!  In our family it takes many forms.  A stressed day at work brings on my secret delight – a bag of crunchy Cheetos!  My husband is mint chocolate chip ice cream hand packed from the local creamery ( you know that has more fat).  My daughter would be mac and cheese and my son would be pizza.

Apparently , according to Nielsen, Oklahoma City has the highest per capita rate of junk food consumption.  Food Network came up with an odd but delicious assortment of 30 ways to top a hot dog, but most surveys agree that America’s top three items are

1.  Chocolate

2.  Pizza

3.  French Fries

4.   … in fact fried everything.

If you are YouTube, you can find videos for fried ice cream, pizza, Snickers, hamburgers but the most popular seems to be the ubiquitous fried Oreo!

Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s your favorite junk food?

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Basil is one of my personal favorites.  I grow it year round.  Just smelling my hands after I have picked basil makes me feel the lightness of summer.  So what do you do with four basil bushes?  EAT!

5 Easy Ways to Use Fresh Basil

1. Add flavor to scrambled eggs – just cut up a couple of leaves and add.
2. Add flavor to tossed green salad – toss in a handful of leaves whole
3. Make basil sauce for chicken or fish – just throw some basil, olive oil and lemon juice in you blender or food processor and drizzle over the food while cooking
4. Fresh Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella salad (Caprese)-  use more than just your basil: Alternate slices of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, sprinkle with basil, olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette (proportions to your taste, but don’t use much because the fresh taste is best!)
5. Classic Pesto – The real reason we have four basil bushes.  Pesto is the family favorite. While this recipe is basic, feel free to adjust to what your family likes – we like extra garlic in ours. With garlic, parmesan and pine nuts it goes on everything from pasta to pizza, and it uses cups at a time!

Bon Appétit!

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At the beginning of the season, it’s not too hard to figure out what to do with the tomatoes as they come off – sliced on salads, sandwiches and hamburgers really are the best. But after a few weeks, you have more than you can eat for lunch! And you don’t want to refrigerate fresh tomatoes, it destroys the taste.  If you must refrigerate them to make them last, bring them out about 24 hours before use to let their natural flavor enzymes rev up.

Easy Weekend Tomato Recipes

So here are my weekend recipes: bruschetta (with tomatoes roasted or not), fresh salsa  – straight or for salads, and of course in our house – grilled!! 

Easy Salsa

Salsa and bruschetta are really first cousins. For simple fresh salsa, just dice the tomatoes, add diced onion and cilantro for the basics. Peppers, garlic, oregano  and fresh corn are up to you –even pineapple and mango are great additions! Beyond chips, salsa is a great topper for fish and hamburgers too!

Easy Bruschetta

Bruschetta you could really call salsa with olive oil! And maybe some extra flavors.  The bruschetta usually goes on toast as an appetizer. Here’s a simple recipe to use.  If you also happen to grow fresh basil, add that in for extra zing!

If you really want to go wild, have some great fresh cold tomato Gazpacho soup for a refresher!

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Easy Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

At the end of the season, I look forward to getting a crate of them to slow roast down to spaghetti sauce.  Just  pile in the quartered tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil and oregano and let it go in the oven all day on low heat (about 250 degrees)- when the water has been largely been cooked out and most things dissolve when stirred – then batch the mixture  in the food processor or put through a food  mill. Then freeze in the size that best suits your cooking. If you tire of spaghetti sauce, you can always add a little milk for creamy tomato basil soup. YUM!

Nothing like fresh tomato taste all year round!

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All around this weekend the barbeques were lighted and the scent of dogs and burgers filled the air – along with major squeals from happy family get-togethers.   We happened to be down the street from my brother and sister-in-law who had a healthy 26 for the weekend.  We expanded with the kids home to a happy foursome – six if you count the dogs.  And they should be counted for slider night.

As you well know, I love the kids coming home for all the usual reason, but also because they cook for us.  With several new food magazines for inspiration – they couldn’t decide how best to celebrate the holiday.  There were too many recipes for burgers to choose from, so they decided on a variety of sliders – you know –mini hamburgers so you can eat more than one without guilt!

Amazingly, a year ago, my daughter didn’t even eat hamburger (we’re talking age 20), but now she is in pursuit of the ultimate burger!  Who says they don’t grow up?  We all sat around discussing our favorite flavors and decided on four different varieties of burgers to try.

Burger Basics

Burgers are easy to customize with a little imagination.  Just take high quality ground meat, add seasonings cut finely to mix well, some sauce or egg for binder (so it doesn’t crumble on the grill) and voila!

The men decided bacon was a must to add, that combined with barbeque sauce was one for the grill.  Another version went Florentine with spinach, garlic and cheese.  There was also a Mexican version with chili powder, Jack cheese and a little salsa. Or you can try the Mango Peach Salsa Sassy Burgers. Finally, there was the mushroom and cheese burgers with chipotle mayo – as you can tell we are largely a cheeseburger kind of family. We each had four tiny samples, but all were delicious!

Burger Tips

When making burgers use the finest quality meat, add finely diced herbs or other ingredients, add a binder such as egg, sauce or breadcrumbs to keep it whole on the grill. Taste test!  Make a tiny burger of your favorite combination and grill first for flavor check – start light!  You can always add more, but it’s harder to take out or add more meat to compensate.

Burgers Don’t Have to Be Beef

For all those years my daughter didn’t eat ground beef, that didn’t mean she didn’t eat grilled patties in a bun.  Turkey burgers were a weekly staple in our house with mustard, onion and parsley  for flavor.  We also had our fair share of salmon burgers with mayo and dill.  If you still crave meat, but want something with a little less f at, you can always use bison with a heartier flavor which is increasingly available in grocery stores.

If you can grind it, mix it and grill it  – you have a burger for a holiday feast!

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Kids Love Grilled Vegetables

For those of you who lament every getting your children to eat vegs – this has to be the answer.  Take just about any fresh veg you can find, slice it, spray or brush lightly with  it with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and it’s guaranteed to vanish!  My family generally moans when I ask what vegetable they want with dinner, but in the summer I have to grill three times what I think is the correct amount because it is stolen before it ever hits the table.

For a family, you can make it a fun day if you start at the farmer’s market in the morning where everyone can pick “their” vegetable to include.  Maybe you can make it a game to add one “new” variety each week. This way each child has a vested interest in trying their new vegetable!

Easy Grilled Vegetable Recipe and Variations

My  husband, – you know, Mr. BBQ  – and I have different opinions about the best, easiest, and tastiest methods for grilling vegetables but the result is the same.  I like to slice my vegs in pretty large pieces and put them straight on the grill for those nice markings you get in restaurants.  I like yellow squash (it seems to hold up better than zucchini) red peppers, onions, asparagus, eggplant (for me- just the little ones) , onions and mushrooms (they go fastest).  Really simple oil, salt and pepper is great, but you can add a little extra flavor by marinating with balsamic vinegar – and for a little extra flavor you can add fresh basil, rosemary or oregano – depending on your taste! If you are short of time you can use TSG Garlic Parmesan Vinaigrette, Vermont Maple Dijon, or Island Ponzu Sauce.

By the way – those mushrooms and tomatoes seem to grill best on a skewer – they’re a lot easier to handle en masse!  For the onions and asparagus, it helps to have a smaller vegetable grill to put on the barbeque so they don’t fall in.  Here Rick and I differ – I think they should still be metal for texture in the barbeque – and not coated.  He likes some of the “basket” styles better, but I think they come out more steamed than grilled. And a little “spritzer” is handy to get the oil/marinade on the flip side when you turn them over.

Either way – when they are finished don’t put them in the oven to keep them warm – they get mushy.  Besides, if you leave them out on a nice platter – everyone who goes by steals some and they’re one of the healthiest snacks you can find!  Eat up!

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It reminded me of some of the fundamentals.  I wrote before about how I was humbled by a toaster oven, reminding me to follow directions.  The cooking class reminded me that my knives are probably my most important cooking utensil. I remember how excited I was to get my really good knives when we were married.  After 30 something  years, we now have two sets of knives  – mine have become un-useable to my husband because with pressure, they are now left handed knives.  The rest of the family has another set. (That excludes the serrated ones which are only for righties, unless specially ordered)

Importantly, keeping sharp knives is safer and makes cooking much easier for you to cook with.  My mother is afraid of sharp knives and I can’t tell you how many times the knife has slipped, or it’s taken the force of ten strong men to cut a cantaloupe. In my house, I use the steel on my knife to hone it every time it comes out of the block.  They get professionally sharpened regularly ( well, not as often as they should, but occasionally!)

Because I’m still learning, ( I may love to cook, but I’m not terribly skilled) I ordered a book on knife techniques.  After reading it, the good news is that you don’t need to purchase one.  With a few helpful techniques (which you probably have already adopted) you are in business.  If you want a primer on knives through cutting here’s a great video, if a little dry.  If you want the speed course, here’s another video where more is left to your observational powers.

What are the two most important things I’ve learned in the last ten years?

1.  You can peel a clove of garlic most easily by smashing it with your knife handle like a hammer.

2.  The red pepper trick?  Core your pepper, cut through one side, lay it flat, carve a little “v” out of the bottom and you have a flat sheet of paper to slice.  Thank you Jo!

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My son has a sign in his room – Garlic is the 5^th food group!  And in our family that’s true.  There are very few things that can’t be improved with Garlic.  Growing up in California, garlic is a staple.  Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world and its festival is world famous.

The Amazing History of Garlic

Garlic is one of the oldest seasonings available too!  It was used and worshipped by the Egyptians, making it’s way to King Tut’s tomb, as well as the Greeks and Romans. Both cultures used it as food an medicine. It can even keep away vampires and other evil spirits in many cultures! At least in the old mythology – and it can certainly keep away undesirable advances on occasions. Although other cultures claim it is an aphrodisiac.

Garlic is also now proven to be good for you.  Isn’t it amazing how many “old folk remedies” really have real benefits (like grandma’s chicken soup).  Garlic is supposed to help lower blood pressure and while that is debatable, Louis Pasture found that it has great antibacterial properties.  Garlic was even used as an antiseptic in WWI.

Great Garlic Ideas

I suppose that’s why Two Sisters Gourmet Outrageously Garlic is consistently one of the top three products in the line.  It has great garlic flavor.  My daughter takes a jar to school every semester and she doesn’t even really have a kitchen – you can use it a thousand ways. Most easily it makes an addictive dip with either sour cream or a combination of sour cream and mayonnaise.  You can also let it soak in some olive oil for a great bread dip (add a little parmesan cheese and pepper and WOW!). You can always sprinkle it on fresh vegetables or French fries for some extra zest. Last night I added it to creamed spinach and had flavor at a whole new level.

Four Easy Recipes

Here are links to four of our easy recipes for Outrageously Garlic:

1. Cheesy Garlic Bread Dip

2.  Lemon Garlic Shrimp

3.   Garlic Roasted Potatoes

4. Tangy Turkey Burgers

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The Basic Skills of Cooking: It’s Simple but Follow Directions

Last week I was humbled by a toaster oven!.  I think of myself as a pretty good cook, but every now and then we all need a “comeuppance” as my Grandma would say!

It all started when I needed to show our SRVP’s how versatile Beer Bread really can be.  We just had a meeting where I handed out the “21 Ways to Make Beer Bread” sheet, and now I really wanted to prove that no one should leave a party with just one box.

So I went to the store and bought ingredients to make 5 different varieties –sweet and savory.  I happened to be in the Hampton Inn where they generously let me their convection oven in the kitchen so I could make them all at once.  Well, convection ovens cook differently, of course.  Faster, but not quite so thoroughly, and I was making so many at once……

After rotating them around, I finally got them the crust looking toasty brown, but they still looked a little wobbly and didn’t sound right.  So I figured I bake a fresh one in a small aluminum pan at work the next morning in the toaster oven.  I whipped it up (Yummy with chocolate chips)  and went to do a few things.  I just about burned the building down!.

My bread was in too small a pan, so it rose into the coils and burned! And SMELLLED! And looked AWFUL! Then I went to cut the loaves from the night before – the crust was like leather and the inside was still a little soggy.  So I salvaged what I could and ….

This week I got a new large size toaster/convection oven. I have some new bread samples to try on my desk so I got to work.  I am now on the 5^th loaf

• the first was a small aluminum pan that rose, but looked like pudding in the middle
• the second was on convection and was almost as burned as the one that rose into the coils (and I accidentally left it on for hours!)
• the third was a slight dark brown with a crust that tasted like more leather

So I bought a real loaf pan….

• left it on convection, turned down the temperature and it was edible (in fact Chris Johnson, our meeting planner ate almost the whole loaf!)
• I’m on number 5 now  – and I ‘ll photograph it shortly.

The moral of the story:

         1.  Read the instructions – they were actually tested

         2. Use the right equipment – if it says 9×5 metal pan, they mean it

         3.    Never leave your oven untended

         4.    Learn how your own oven works, some tend hot or cold

          5.   Expect Disasters – they are part of cooking and make you better

Success at Least! I mean Last!

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We all know that you eat with your eyes as well as your mouth, so food styling for the catalog is very important.  There can be a lot of “bad press” about how food stylists “cheat” the dishes to make it appropriate for a magazine shoot.  Take for example ice cream, it’s impossible to get real ice cream not to melt under hot lights.  But the attitude of companies, savvy consumers and digital photography have changed the issues in shooting food and allowed all of our photography to be much more “natural”.

When we prepare food for the catalog, we actually create and test recipes (that’s a popular day in the office because they get to taste finished dishes, not just product).  At the shoot our fabulous stylist Catrine Kelty  prepares each of the dishes (with leftovers) and then works with our great photographer  Paul Saraceno to  bring it to you in the best possible light.

It’s true that we do help out our dishes a little – after all they do have to sit on the table for hours at a time and need to keep looking fresh.  We spritz the lettuce with water to make it glisten, hand arrange the leaves, stack berries just so, and melt our cheese with a gun that peels paint off  walls so it gets perfectly brown.

Tips to Make Your Table Look Great

Here are the top  tips that Katrine uses in preparing our food whether for photography or your family table.

1. Set the table beautifully – make sure you keep a nice centerpiece and candles ready to be lit every night.
2. Use fresh, high quality ingredients – there’s nothing more sad than wilted lettuce!
3. Light a candle!

Quick, Yummy Quesadilla Recipes

Like those quesadilla?  Well here are two of our great recipes using the Two Sisters Gourmet Black Bean and Corn Salsa, but you can really add your f avorite ingredients and make them your own:

1. Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas
2. Chorizo Quesadillas

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NPD, a consumer research organization says that nearly 47% of all consumers say the family eats together at least 5 nights per week.  81% of people want to eat dinner at home. And 71% of teens have dinner with the family at least five nights per week, up from a few years ago.

This is great news because eating together is good for everyone.  We all know the statistics that children are less likely to be involved in drinking and drugs if they eat with the family regularly.  Family dinners are also good for nutrition and stress control in all family members.  The dinner table is where we learn to take interest in each other, discuss issues, form opinions and gain self esteem.  Even when the TV is on (in 40% of HH) there is still a positive benefit.

But we also know that 80% of women are the people responsible for getting the meal on the table – it doesn’t have to be difficult.  The easiest way to get a meal on the table could be to use frozen or prepared dinners to take home from the grocery store, but that can be expensive and not necessarily the most nutritious.

Five Easy Family Dinners

1. Tacos – Families love tacos!  They are a great way to get in vegetables and minimize prep time.  You can make them either beef or chicken (ground or shredded).  Add some chili seasoning, lettuce, tomato, salsa and you’re all set.  All you have to do is warm the shells and cook the meat – the family can do the rest.
2. Baked Chicken Fingers with Creamy Dip – you can make them fresh and simple, or use frozen chicken fingers and your Lemony Fresh Dill blend made into dip.
3. Crockpot Pulled Pork – Start it in the morning and its ready when you walk in the door.  Only 3 ingredients.
4. Island Ponzu Chicken – for a little island flair
5. One Pan Penne Pasta – Quick and Easy, even when it comes to clean up.

Let’s all cheer for the return of the family dinner!

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