Holi

With more snow, wind, and rain hitting the Northeast, it's difficult to feel like spring is just around the corner.  This weekend, though, marks the Hindu festival called Holi or the Festival of Colors.

Thousands of Indians will gather - at home and abroad - to celebrate the coming of spring.  Revelers will gather and celebrate by throwing paint and colored water at each other. This festival officially ushers in spring - the season of love.

The origin of the celebration is unclear to me but you can find at least two possible explanations here.

In keeping with the fun of this spring festival, below you will find one of my favorite recipes for Chicken Curry - in a crock pot, no less.  You will note two versions of this recipe: the first is made exactly as written; the second includes my modifications.

Coconut Chicken Curry

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 small onion, chopped

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz. each)

1 cup light coconut milk

4 tsp. curry powder

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp. reduced-sodium chicken bouillon granules

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 cups hot cooked rice

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

Raisins, flaked coconut, and chopped unsalted peanuts optional

Place potatoes and onion in a 3- or 4-quart slow cooker. In a large skillet coated with cooking spray, brown chicken on both sides. Transfer to slow cooker.

In a small bowl, combine the coconut milk, curry, garlic, bouillon, salt, and pepper; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours or until chicken is tender.

Serve chicken and sauce with rice; sprinkle with green onions. Garnish with raisins, coconut, and peanuts if desired.

My own modifications:

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

2-3 cups cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces

1 small onion, chopped

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 oz. each) cut into bite sized cubes

2 cups light coconut milk

8 tsp. curry powder

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. reduced-sodium chicken bouillon granules

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 cups hot cooked basmati rice

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

Raisins or currants and flaked coconut

You'll notice above that I doubled all of the spices but the salt. I think the bouillon adds enough sodium without including any more.

I prepare the dish as directed but I double the sauce, as adding the cauliflower can make this kind of dry and I like a lot of sauce. I also use a non-stick pan and just the tiniest dab of vegetable oil to cook the chicken.

I like to mix the coconut (unsweetened and not toasted) and the currants in with my basmati rice after it is cooked because I think this allows it to combine more evenly. Also, I don't measure the currants or the coconut, so this is definitely a how much you like it scenario. The same goes for the cauliflower.

If you're a vegetarian (or if you're cooking for one) I suggest just leaving out the chicken altogether but definitely add the cauliflower. I'd still double the sauce, though.

I'd love to know what you think. If you make this, let me know how you've modified it to your own taste. E-mail me at rn6productions@gmail.com. 

Happy eating!

Organic on a Budget

After learning the difference between "Organic" and "Natural," you may be inspired to go Organic. If you choose to do this - because you want to be environmentally conscious or because you simply don't want to injest pesticides - then you will quickly learn that is can be very costly!

The purpose of this post, as you've no doubt gathered based on the title, is to teach you how to buy organic produce and still stay within your grocery budget.

The first thing you should know is why you have chosen to buy organic products in the first place. This is a very personal decision - dare I say, a philosophical one.  If you're making an effort to eat healthier and, therefore, believe that consuming pesticides is a bad idea, then you will may want to stick to the 12 foods that are generally believed to be the most important to buy organic.

If, however, you are concerend for the environment or the planet or ecosystems (or whatever your lingo), then you may adopt the philosophy that "every grape counts" and you'll want to buy as many organic or sustainable products as you can. This is done, in part, by buying organic produce, but it is also done by lowering your consumption of meat and buying locally grown/raised food, among other ways...but those are all future posts.

Perhaps you fall into even a third category that is somewhere in the middle.  In this case, you will want to strike a balance between buying every last organic product you can find and buying only the top 12 recommended organic foods. I suspect most of us fall into this category.

The top 12 foods on the list are ranked so because they are the foods that have the highest levels of pesticide contamination, based on studies conducted by the USDA, Consumer Reports, and the Environmental Working Group and are:

1.Nectarines – 97.3% of nectarines sampled were found to contain pesticides.

2.Celery – 94.5% of celery sampled were found to contain pesticides.
3.Pears – 94.4% of pears sampled were found to contain pesticides.
4.Peaches – 93.7% of peaches sampled were found to contain pesticides.
5.Apples – 91% of apples sampled were found to contain pesticides.
6.Cherries – 91% of cherries sampled were found to contain pesticides.
7.Strawberries – 90% of strawberries sampled were found to contain pesticides.
8.Imported Grapes – 86% of imported grapes (i.e. Chile) sampled were found to contain pesticides.
9.Spinach – 83.4% of spinach sampled were found to contain pesticides.*
10.Potatoes – 79.3% of potatoes sampled were found to contain pesticides.
11.Bell Peppers – 68% of bell peppers sampled were found to contain pesticides.
12.Red Raspberries – 59% of red raspberries sampled were found to contain pesticides.
 

Whether or not you choose to print out that list and bring it along to the grocery store is entirely up to you.  If you don't or if you forget it at home, remember try to remember it this way:

 

If the produce has a thick skin that you would normally peel off - bananas, oranges, limes, etc. - then it's not on the list.

 

Also, you should know that all grapes grown in the state of California are safe to eat, as they are grown under organic conditions - regardless of whether or not they have a sticker noting they are organic.

 

Last, you see that little asterisk (*) next to number 9? There is recent research that has taken spinach off of the list, though most sources still include it.

 

Here is the list of foods that were found to have the lowest amounts of pesticides. Notice that most of them have thick, inedible skins that you peel or cut off.

 

•Asparagus
•Avocados

•Bananas

•Broccoli

•Cauliflower

•Corn*

•Kiwi

•Mangoes

•Onions

•Papaya

•Pineapples

•Sweet Peas

 

*Almost all corn is genetically modified.

 

So, now that you've decided what you'll buy organic and what you won't, you want to be sure to look for these stickers/logos when shopping, as they denote your produce is organic:

 

Happy eating!

Questions? Comments? Have an idea for a future blog post? E-mail me at rn6productions@gmail.com.

Have it your way!

On the recommendation of a very good friend, I have set up a special e-mail address just for you readers!

Questions? Comments? Was I unclear or do you simply want more information? Is there a recipe you're dying to try but just can't get it right? Want to share your own recipe modifications?

E-mail me your questions, comments, and recipes at:

rn6productions@gmail.com

I'll try to be snappy in getting back to you AND you may just see your question as a future blog post!

Happy eating!

Natural vs. Organic

With so much talk about eating healthier, you are bound to run into the terms "organic" and "natural" when perusing the grocery aisles.  Do you know what they mean? Is there a difference?

If you Google the terms, you are sure to find the answers but it may take you a handful of Web sites before you get a straight answer.

Here, in the most basic way I can think to write it, are the meanings of the two terms and their differences:

"Organic" means that the food was produced using little or no pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hormones or antibiotics. This is all regulated by the USDA, which has incredibly tight restrictions and regulations.

"Natural" is a little less clear. This term is regulated by the FDA and, to date, there is no standard definition in the United States. According to the FDA, any food production company can label a product "Natural" so long as, "it is truthful and not misleading."

Ok, so what does that really mean?

A couple of things. 

First, all "Organic" foods are "Natural" but not all "Natural" foods are "Organic."

In the same way that all Catholics are Christians but not all Christians are Catholics.

I try to think of the difference like this:

"Organic" means that when the food was being grown or raised, it could not have any (or very few) fake substances - hormones, pesticides, fertilizers, or antibiotics. Furthermore, it means that once the food left the farm, nothing could be added to it to compromise the work that had been done in growing or raising it. It can't be sprayed or injected with anything to keep it from the natural process of breakdown and decay that inevitably happens to food.

That's not necessarily the case with "natural" foods. "Natural" typically means that, once the food was grown or raised, nothing is added to it. That means it could have been chock full of hormones, antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides as it was farmed.  Once it left that process, though, it was pretty much left alone.

Things you should know:

• 
  
  "100% Organic" Products are exactly that - nothing fake in there.
• 
  
  "Organic" Products must contain at least 95% organically produced ingredients.The other 5% are foods that cannot be found in organic form or are found on the USDA's approved ingredient list.
• 
  
  "Made with Organic Ingredients" means that the item must contain at least 70% organically produced ingredients.

The last thing I will say is this: there is not enough research at this point to say definitively whether or not "Natural" or "Organic" foods are actually better for you than conventional foods. If you do decide to "go Organic" it should be because of personal preference - whether to make a positive impact on the environment or to make a statement.


My next blog post will include tips on how to eat Organic on a budget and what labels to look for when shopping. I hope you will find it useful!

Happy eating!

Food Philosophy

As the title of this post suggests, I have a lot of my own theories about food. 

Here are the truths of cooking and baking, as I see them*:

Food is sensual.

I have to admit, I have a love affair with food. As I was explaining to my best friend and her mother last night over dinner, I value a brownie and a tomato as equals. The brownie is moist and chocolaty, it is fluffy and soft, its a beautiful deep, rich brown color, it smells divine while baking, and when you bite into its decadence, the crusty exterior gives way to a warm, soft bittersweet interior. In the same way, the tomato is shiny and vibrantly red, it is ready to burst open, it is so ripe - the skin stretching over the juicy flesh within. Cooking plays with all of your senses.

Food, more than anything else I can think of, takes us back to specific times - it is so very wrapped up in our memories. Just the mention of cinnamon or fresh baked bread and I bet you can place not only those smells but a place in your past where they were involved in some very specific memory.

 If you cook, you don't clean up.

I think that this should really be a team effort. If you put the energy into cooking the meal, I think it is only fair that someone else in your household should do their part and clean up. 

Admittedly, this is impossible if you cook for one, as I often do.

Food should be pretty.

You've heard it before: we eat with our eyes. What that means is that if something looks questionable, we are far less likely to eat it. Make an effort to make food that is visually appealing and you're more likely to entice others to try it. 

This explains my aversion to pea soup as a child.

Eat real food.

With so many processed foods in the grocery store, it is easy to eat a lot without actually eating real food. When you go shopping, make an effort to shop the perimeter of the store: produce, poultry, meats and fish, dairy. That should be the majority of your cart. Once you've done that, hit the bread, rice, and pasta but stick to whole grains and multi-grains.
If your great-grandmother would not have recognized it as food, don't eat it. 

"Low fat" does not mean "healthy."
Next time you go to the grocery store, pick up two tubs of yogurt by the same manufacturer. Choose one with full fat and another marked "low fat." Check out the difference in calories and in sugar. What you will notice is this: the container marked as "low fat" is undoubtedly higher in sugar and calories overall. It's probably also pumped full of ingredients that you can't pronounce. In many cases, the whole milk variety is actually better for you than its "low fat" cousin. Why is this? Well, fat doesn't necessarily make you fat. But carbs, those are another story altogether. Carbohydrates turn into glucose - sugar - and too much sugar turns into fat on your body. When you remove the fat from dairy you have to replace it with something. Typically, that is sugar but it can also be those chemicals you can't pronounce. 
Didn't you really just want to eat yogurt?

If you want to eat "junk food," make it yourself!

We all love to pig out on junk food occasionally. Part of healthy eating is indulging from time to time. My favorite junk food is chocolate chip cookies and, while I could run out to the store and pick up a bag of the store-bought variety, it takes a lot more time and effort to make them myself. If you operate by the rule above, you will still indulge but you'll have to put the work in first. It's pretty satisfying when you do this and it also means that you will avoid overindulging because of the time it takes to make your treat.

Invest in good tools.

When you cook, your ingredients all combine to become the star of the show. Your tools, then, are the supporting actors. You can't possibly create a beautiful piece of art if the supporting actors are not performing as well as your star. So spend the money and buy a good chef's knife. Do the research to know what baking dish you will need. Buy good pots and pans. Items like these should be thought of as lifetime purchases. When you spend the money on a really great tool, you will likely only have to buy it once.

For example, my mother has a baking dish she bought before I was born.

Buy tools that do double duty.

Let's be frank: cooking tools can be expensive. When you go to shop for anything cooking-related, buy items that serve more than one purpose. My favorite example of this is a french press. You can make the best cup of coffee you'll ever have, loose leaf tea, and even use it to emulsify salad dressing. 

I promise to demonstrate all of these in a future blog post.

Be adventurous.

Do yourself a favor and get outside of your food bubble. I'm not saying you need to throw away all the things you like.  What I am saying is that if you add one thing to each meal that you've never tried before, you may surprise yourself.  This is particularly easy when it comes to soup and salad. They're both great catch-alls and you can throw pretty much anything into them. Examples may include: adding seeds or nuts to your salads, or adding spinach or beans to your soups. You will likely not even notice the changes and you may even learn to like peas! 

(I did!)

Make every recipe exactly as written - once.

I am all for modifying recipes to your own preferences. I do this all the time, to nearly every recipe. The first time I make anything I follow the directions exactly. Once I've done this, I know if it needs more or less of something. I also know if I want to add completely different ingredients or leave others out entirely. By doing this I also build my own recipes. I may take the chicken from one recipe but the vegetables from another, and the sauce from still another.

Don't be afraid to fail.

I cook and bake all the time. Whenever I cook for others or make something to bring somewhere, I only bring dishes that I've made a hundred times and perfected. There are so many times I make something and determine it is not "a make again." In my house, those are the only labels I give to dishes: "a make again" or "not a make again." So often, people ask how it is that everything I make is always so good. The answer: I don't let the "not a make again" dishes leave the house!

I am sure that I have scads of other rules and truths that I've learned or developed over the years, but these are the major ones. Look for others as we get going with actual recipes.

Happy eating!

*These are listed in no particular order.

Valerie's Vernacular

Before we do anything, let me first clarify one term in particular that I will undoubtedly use as I blog:

how much you like it.

This is something that my great-grandmother used to say and it is a term that has stuck in our family generations after she coined it. I suppose it is similar to what some people mean by a "pinch" or a "dash." But in my family it is always how much you like it.

Family legend holds that my great-grandmother left Poland on the last boat out in 1914 before WWI. The only thing that kept her alive on the boat over were bananas, which she ate peel-on. In the poor village she came from, she had never seen a banana and didn't know that she was supposed to peel it. I can't imagine she much enjoyed them...but I digress.

For my great-grandmother, English was something like her third or fourth language, so it left a little to be desired.  Her cooking though - that was something else.

Like many home cooks, my great-grandmother cooked by sight, smell, and taste, not by recipe. This method of cooking led her to coin the term how much you like it.

Whenever she was asked how much of any ingredient to use, her answer was always the same: 

how much you like it. 

Cooking in this manner means that you can cook without a recipe. You can use whatever you have on hand or you can modify a recipe based on your own preferences.

I make this point so that you understand that I will post a lot of recipes and I fully intend two things:

I will use this term whenever I plan to modify a recipe or when I simply do not follow a recipe at all;

I expect that you will further modify my recipes by varying the amounts of each ingredient.

I hope you'll feel as comfortable using the term as you do modifying recipes.

Happy eating!

BLOG UPDATE

After careful contemplation, 

I have decided to take the blog in a new direction.

Up until now, I have posted sporadically and about any random topic that hits me. 

The new plan is this: this blog will now be devoted to my helpful little cooking and baking tips. 

I love to bake and cook for friends and family. More than anything, though, I love to teach people how to bake and cook.  What saddens me is that, for some reason, people don't know how to cook any more!  We have this epidemic in the United States where it seems we all "heat" but no one actually "cooks!"

I grew up in the most wonderful environment, with a mother and grandmother under the same roof who both loved to cook and bake. In my house, cooking and baking were ways that my mother and grandmother showed their love.  It is because of this, I think, that I grew to understand that preparing and eating food are loving and sensual acts. You may hear me refer to food as my "other lover." I hope that by showing you how to prepare a meal, you will understand the incredible love that is involved.

My father is no slouch, either. He is a wonderful off-the-cuff chef, from whom I learned to throw out the recipe and cook with whatever ingredients I have on hand. My dad taught me better than any cook book or cooking show what flavors work together, what substitutions can be made if you forget to pick something up at the store (I am forever leaving something off of my shopping list), and how to modify recipes for time and picky palates.

I do not believe that cooking or baking have to be overly complicated. I also don't believe that you have to invest a lot of money in cookbooks in order to be a "good" cook. 

(I say that, but this has not stopped me from investing in a wall full of cookbooks!)

The future of this blog will include recipes, photos, how-to tips, fun new tools and products, how to save money by cooking and baking for yourself, ingredient substitutions and how to turn old favorites into healthier meals, and whatever else I feel is applicable.

More than anything, I want to convey to you that cooking and baking are enjoyable! I hear so often that people hate to cook and bake because "it's too hard." Not so, friends. 

I can't promise that by reading this blog I can turn you into the next Bobby Flay but I am sure you will learn how fun it can be to cook for yourself and for others.

So, how does this work? As I cook and bake I will blog and I'll take as many photos as I can. I will try to include as many instructions and tips as I can think of. If you find yourself reading through a recipe and my instructions aren't clear or I forget to tell you something, please please please ASK! I will tell you anything.

Happy eating!