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Enjoy the Taste of This Tangy Coleslaw Recipe

March 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This is a coleslaw recipe submitted by Pat Cole of Polebridge, Montana to the Taste of Home: Mom’s Best Meal’s 2009 catalog. This is an excellent coleslaw recipe for anyone who loves regular creamy coleslaw, and for people who aren’t fans of the typical creamy coleslaw. To put it in Pat’s own words, “The fresh flavor and crunchy texture of garden vegetables star in this tart, colorful coleslaw. Lightly dressed with vinegar and oil, it’s a refreshing summer salad.” I can attest that this is an excellent coleslaw recipe.

Tangy Coleslaw
6 cups shredded cabbage
4 medium carrots, shredded
4 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, celery, green pepper and onion. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the vinegar, oil, sugar salt, pepper and paprika; shake well. Pour over cabbage mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate until served.

Yield: 10 servings

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Recipes, Side Dishes

What is Allspice Seasoning?

March 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Allspice (one word, not ‘All Spice’) is a superb spice to use in savory cooking. Allspice is made from the dried pimenta fruit of the evergreen myrtle plant Pimenta Dioica. The pimenta tree is native to the West Indies, Southern Mexico and Central America, but from what I understand is mainly cultivated in Jamaica and, therefore, has the alternate name Jamaica pepper. The allspice berries are cultivated before they ripen and are dried in the sun, causing them to turn brown. If you’ve seen them whole on the store spice racks, you’ll notice they look a lot like peppercorns (see allspice picture below)—although it’s typically sold as ground allspice. I think the best way to describe the taste is as a mixture of nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon (in fact, that’s what I thought ground allspice was at first).

The uses of the allspice seasoning are quite broad. Perhaps some of the more common dishes that use allspice are pumpkin pies, desserts, cookies, sausage entrées, hams, and smoked meats. Allspice is also used when preparing pickles. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on dried allspice tree leaves, they can be used like bay leaves to flavor your stew or stock. Both the ground allspice and the allspice tree’s wood can be used to smoke jerk.

If you don’t have any allspice at home (you should get some), you can also create a similar flavor by combining equal portions of cinnamon and ground cloves and then add a small amount of nutmeg. All these spices pack quite a punch, so I’d recommend starting with just a little bit of each—maybe ½ to 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon and ground cloves and just a pinch of nutmeg. I’ll post some allspice recipes in the near future.


Dried allspice berries. Photograph by Jonathunder.

Filed Under: Kitchen Sink, Tips & How To...

How to Make a Quick Lime Salad

March 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The next time you need to change up your salad routine, try using lime and salt as the dressing. A while back I lived in Guatemala and was introduced to new foods and cooking methods—mostly dealing with black beans and rice. Something I found interesting about the food down there is that it was mainly meant to fill you up, not to delight your taste buds; however, there were a few exceptions. The way the Guatemalans made their green salads was one of them. As with most green salads, fresh vegetables are the way to go.

Now that I’ve built it up, I’ll simply say, there’s not much difference between the way Guatemalans build their green salads and they way Americans build theirs. It’s the salad dressing that makes the difference. The Guatemalans use a lot of fresh lime in their cooking, and I was surprised one day when they served me a green salad with no salad dressing – at least that’s what it looked like at first glance. The truth was, they had squirted fresh lime over the top of it and then sprinkled salt over the top. My first thought? Bizarre!

Since then, I’ve done a lot of experimenting with green salads and lime. I can tell you that I love the combination, and it tastes great with almost every green salad out there. The exception has been when I’ve added fruits such as fresh peaches or kiwi. Lime and those two fruits don’t mix well for me. The fresh lime does work with grapes, apples, strawberries, and other fresh fruits and berries though. Squeezing lime and sprinkling salt also works with ingredient-rich green salads such as those mixed with meats, cheeses, and eggs.

I recommend trying your green salad with a smaller amount of lime and salt at first… if you’re not used to the flavor of lime, it may be a little different. And as they say in Guatemala, buen provecho!

Filed Under: Recipes, Soups & Salads

Tasty German Pancakes Recipe for Breakfast

March 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment

German pancakes are a fun and easy way to mix up the typical breakfast routine. Kids love them because of the wavy shapes it creates when baking. Who knows why they’re called pancakes because they don’t resemble the pancakes you’re used to.

Prep time: 3-5 minutes
Bake time: 15-20 minutes
Serves: 4-6 depending on how hungry you are

Materials needed
1 9 x 11 baking pan
1 9 x 9 baking pan
Whisk
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups and spoons

Ingredients Used
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp butter*

Recommended Toppings
Lime juice and powdered sugar (personal favorite)
Maple syrup

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 450 F.
  2. In the 9 x 11 baking pan, add 1¼ tbsp butter. In the 9 x 9 baking pan add the remaining ¾ tbsp butter.
  3. Place the two pans on the oven’s middle rack and melt the butter while the oven preheats. Be sure not to burn the butter.
  4. Mix all other ingredients (not the butter) until frothy and smooth in a mixing bowl.
  5. Remove the pans from the oven when the butter is melted and slosh the butter around until the entire bottom of the baking pan is coated.
  6. Pour the egg mixture into both pans. There should be about ¼” of liquid in both pans.
  7. Place the baking pans back in the oven and set the timer to 15 minutes. The mixture will rise up to 4 inches out of the baking pan, so don’t be alarmed.
  8. Cooking is complete when the tips of the German pancakes are golden to medium brown.
  9. Serve hot with any of the recommended toppings.

*If you prefer a slightly more buttery taste use 2 ½ tbsp butter: Add 1½ tbsp butter to the 9 x 9 pan and 1 tbsp butter to the 9 x 9 pan.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes

Some Down-Home Beginning Cooking Advice

March 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment

If cooking intimidates you because you lack cooking experience and cooking terms look like a foreign language, don’t worry there’s still hope.  Many experienced cooks all around the world have been down that same road a time or two.  Even they had to start somewhere, you know.

I’ve been asked many times where I learned to cook, and I almost always provide the same answer: my mom taught me when I lived at home (my mom is an excellent cook). She taught me the basics plus some, the rest I learned through study and making mistakes.

Unfortunately, it’s the basics that so many people are missing, and that’s one reason this blog exists. In time, we’ll uncover and chat about all the basics, but until then, here’s some basic cooking advice to wet your palette.

One thing you must remember is that you’re going to mess up. Pessimistic, I know. Life will go on, I promise. Various versions of this Thomas Edison quotation exist, but I like this one the best, “I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.” This can be applied to anything, observe: “I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT flip an egg.” Having this attitude will help you out when you burn your 5th crape in a row.

Cookbooks can be your best friend. Don’t buy a gourmet cookbook if you’re just starting out. They’re a lot of fun to look at, but you need something practical for every day kitchen cooking. “A Taste of Home” produces seasonal magazines that include recipes from regular cooks, just like you. That’s a great place to start. There are also hundreds of recipes on-line. When you find a cookbook that appeals to you, stick to the recipes. Resist the urge to experiment because you want to be an amazing chef—it will come with time. Following recipes teaches you what types of spices and foods mix well together as well as appropriate temperatures and baking times—an essential skill.

You need a crock-pot. If you don’t have one, stop reading this article and buy one. You can make almost anything in a crock-pot (pot roast and stews are my favorite) with little preparation and hardly any maintenance. It’s almost as easy as breathing. Another plus about crock pots is that if they’re large enough you can make enough for 2+ meals all at once. I’ll be posting some of my crock-pot recipes on this blog later.

Take some risks and learn to laugh. This seems contradictory to what I said earlier about following the recipe exactly, but that’s okay. Experiment with recipes you’re comfortable with or with more common foods that don’t take a lot of preparation and are cheap. As a kid I could never get my eggs to flip without breaking the yolk, so one day I went through two egg cartons (sorry mom) until I figured out how to get them to flip and not break the yolk. Do the same. Live free. At the same time, keep it simple. Experimenting too much may lead you back to frustration. If one of your experiments ends up filling the house with smoke, laugh it off and start again.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and for most people it’s at the beginning. With each step in the right direction, you’ll find that cooking can be a lot of fun and you’ll take pride in every tasty meal you make.

Filed Under: Kitchen Sink, Tips & How To...

Onions on the Go! How to Freeze Onions

February 28, 2009 by 1 Delicious Comment

Fresh onions make a great addition to many foods, but they can be a pain to cut up, and there are often leftovers. Freezing them is an excellent solution for when you need fresh onions on the go, or you have left-over onions when preparing a meal. Frozen onions are excellent in cooked meals such as meatloaf, stews, soups, ground-meat mixtures, casseroles, and crock-pot meals. Here’s how to do it:

(Note that freezing onions works best when they’re fully mature. This works for most types of onions.)

  • Step 1
    Wash, peel, and chop the raw onion into whatever size you need. Typically, you don’t want to chop them any smaller than 1/2” or they turn into an ice chunk in the freezer. Blanching them is not necessary.
  • Step 2
    Place the onions in a freezer bag. (Freezer bags provide the best results. They’re thicker and help prevent freezer burn and odor leakage.)  If you’re using a thinner bag, be sure to double-bag the onions or you’ll find your other freezer food tasting and smelling like onions.
  • Step 3
    If you’re brave, suck the air out of the bag and quickly zip it closed. Otherwise, just do the best you can to expel the air. Spread the onions flat in the bag, layering them no higher than 1/2″. This makes it easier to break off frozen sections as needed.
  • Step 4
    Place the bag of cut-up onions flat in the freezer, so that when they’re frozen, you can easily stack them. When it’s time to use the onions, simply break a portion off and thaw it out. Frozen onions thaw easily with or without a microwave. When cooking soups and stews, you can add the onion still frozen.

Frozen stored onions last up to 6 months.

Filed Under: Kitchen Sink, Tips & How To...