Real Food: What to Eat and Why

You want to eat healthy but how? There are so many books out there that contradict one another. One says that you can eat this food but not that food. Another might say to cook with butter while another says to avoid it at all costs. Who's right and who is wrong? Next you may say, okay, where is all the data and research to support your claims?

One book that presents its ideas on healthy eating and has data to back up its claims is Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. It promotes the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, use of butter in cooking,  and eating eggs, beef and fish.These items are typical to most books that promote healthy eating. However, the author also suggests some pretty radical  notions. Ms. Planck makes a persuasive argument for the consumption of raw milk and fat such as coconut oil.

In the back of the book, a listing of places to find to find real food  and further resources and readings are included. So check out this book, it could change your perceptions on food.

Fabulous Homemade Fries

 

Sometimes the best recipes are those that are associated with memories. This recipe is no exception. These fries make me think of my childhood best friend, Lacey. In high school, we would make these fries and eat them as fast as they would come out of the oven.  I don't make them very often because well, they're not good for you. But when I do, I always think of her and all the fun we had.

I love making these fries because they are so simple and don't require a lot of oil. All you need are a few potatoes, vegetable oil, and some salt. The best part of all....these fries are so delicious! Take a few potatoes and cut them into small strips. Put them in a bowl of water, so they do not turn brown, while the others are being cut.

While your oven is heating up, put enough oil on the bottom of a sheet pan to coat. Then pat your potato strips dry in a towel. Once your oven's hot, put the sheet pan in to warm up the oil. After about five minutes or so, carefully take the pan out, toss the potato strips in the hot oil, and place them back in the oven. I would not advise to skip this step and put the potatoes in cold oil. Trust me on this! If you do, your fries will stick to the pan and which will make it very difficult to flip them over.

Half way through the cooking process, take them out and carefully turn over the fries. Also another tip, don't walk away and forget about them! The next thing you know is your fire alarm is going off or a burning smell will be emanating from your oven.  Again, trust me on this! These fries are so good that you don't want to burn them. They should look like this when you are done.

Drain them on paper towels or a paper bag and sprinkle some salt over top. Enjoy! Okay, at this point there would be a nice plated picture of the fries with some kind of sauce. However, in one gluttonous moment, I ate them all. Yes, you read me right. I ate them all because they are that good.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go work out.


Fabulous Homemade Fries 

3 large baking potatoes
Vegetable oil
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut potatoes into small strips. Place in a bowl of water.
3. Pour enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom your sheet pan.
4. Put the sheet pan for five minutes to heat the oil.
5. Pat desired amount of potatoes dry.
6. Remove pan from oven and carefully toss the potatoes in the oil.
7. Place back in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove pan and turn over the fries.
8. Bake for 10 more minutes or until fries are light brown. Repeat process with remaining potatoes.
9. Remove fries to drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

Macaroni & Cheese - My Way

The other day, I was hungry and sat mulling over what to have for dinner. I thought, what about macaroni and cheese? I had never made it from scratch before but I knew it wasn't a complicated process. Just a basic  cheese sauce and pasta. So why not try it?

Okay, before I go on, I have a confession to make. I like macaroni and cheese but I'm not a big fan of macaroni. You may be thinking to yourself, wait a minute! Then it's not a true macaroni and cheese. Sacrilege! That's okay. Feel free to use your macaroni and I'll use my penne. Fair? Here are the ingredients I used:

I began by cooking the penne pasta until al dente, drained it and set it aside. The sauce was next and started with a roux using butter and flour. Here's an example:

Slowly, whisk in the milk. Whole milk is best but you can use a combination of milks. I used canned milk and whipping cream. Whisk in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, white pepper, dry mustard, and chili powder until smooth. After tasting the sauce, it wasn't to my liking. So I added a pinch more of this and a dash more of that. This resulted in adding more pepper and mustard and the sudden realization what was missing: garlic powder and some salt. Silly me!

I poured the sauce over the pasta, mixed together, and pour it into a baking dish. After crumbling some Ritz crackers on top, baked it in the oven. My macaroni and cheese came out looking like this:

After tasting my macaroni and cheese, I decided I could never go back to a boxed mix again. It was so good!
Here's the recipe. What do you think?

Strawberry Sorbet

It has been said when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? Well, I had a HUGE "lemon" on my hands and not sure what to do about it. It was strawberry freezer jam that did not turn out. I don't know what happened and neither does anyone I asked. Instead of a nice thick jam, there were two distinct layers. The bottom consisted of a bright, red liquid with the top layer being a mushy mass of berries. It tasted great but was not what I wanted, especially not nine jars worth. So what's a girl to do?

While reading a magazine, I became inspired by this recipe. I used a jar of my strawberry "jam", some frozen strawberries, and french vanilla yogurt. No sugar was needed because my "jam" was sweet enough.

 

These ingredients were blended together, poured into a plastic container, and placed it in the freezer. It was a little soupy, so it took longer to freeze. The result was delicious! So in the end, this sorbet was my "lemonade" to my jam fiasco. Thank goodness! For the recipe, go here.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I must admit that I am not a huge fan of spaghetti sauce. Still, there are those rare occasions when I crave it.  I don't go to the pantry and get out a jar. Where's the fun in that? Instead I make my own and reach for the key elements of a spaghetti sauce.....tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, onions, and olive oil.

Start out by dicing half an onion and set aside. Move on to the star of the show.... the tomatoes. With the tomatoes, I made a small x on the bottom of each one and put them into a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes or until the peel of the tomato starts to splits. Each tomato was removed and put into an ice bath. Once cool, each tomato was peeled and chopped. This technique is called concassè. The traditional way is to also to remove the seeds but I chose to leave them in.

I began by adding a couple tablespoons of olive oil into medium-sized pot. Once the oil was hot,  the diced onion was added, sautèed until soft, and then put in the diced garlic . Next, the tomatoes and the tomato paste were included along with one can of water or enough water to thin out the sauce to your desired consistency.

Finally, the seasonings were added. The basic seasonings for a spaghetti sauce are basil, oregano, salt and pepper, and sugar.  Some extras could include chili powder and red pepper flakes. It's all a matter of preference. I usually add fresh basil to my sauce but since I did not have any on hand, dried was used instead.

Of the above mentioned seasonings, I used a teaspoon of each except for the salt, red pepper flakes, and sugar. With the salt and red pepper flakes, only a half a teaspoon was added. Only a pinch of sugar was added to the sauce because I don't like my sauce to be too sweet.

Let it simmer. Upon tasting the sauce, it was still too sweet for my taste. So after much thought, a splash of dry sherry was added. After simmering for about ten more minutes, I tasted it again. It was so yummy! The song "That's Amore" by Dean Martin popped into my head. Finally, I cooked some spaghetti, put the sauce on top, grated some Pecorino Romano cheese, okay alot of cheese, and presto! A yummy dinner!

Click here for the recipe!