Year: 2011

Best Pancakes Ever…Healthy, Delicious and Incredibly Nutritious

Tom

These are not only the best pancakes I’ve ever tasted, but also the healthiest, and I’ve tasted way more than my fair share of pancakes. Our good friend Klaus surprised us with these at breakfast when we visited him in California (where else would you find something this healthy) and the flavor just blew us away. They’re made with Bob’s Red Mill High Fiber Hot Cereal instead of flour, and have walnuts, raisins and dates mixed in. I know it sounds a little busy for a pancake, but give this recipe a try, then top the pancakes with a dollop of yogurt and some fresh fruit and real maple syrup and I guarantee you’ll never go the Eggo or Aunt Jemima route again. And, as an added bonus, they freeze really well, so you can make up a big batch, freeze the leftovers, and just pop them in the toaster oven anytime for a quick, delicious, nutritious breakfast.

Please click here for the printable recipe.

Easy Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

Tom

Chicken and Vegetable Stir FryThis great one skillet recipe for Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry is an easy, incredibly delicious and healthy stir fry. It does have a lot of ingredients, but as with most recipes like this, feel free to substitute your favorite vegetables for the ones you may not care for…just make sure to cut the pieces about the same size so they cook evenly…that’s all there is to it. Also, if you don’t have hoisin sauce on hand (and Kikkoman is the store brand I recommend, with Lee Kum Kee a close second) ), here is a simple Hoisin Sauce recipe that produces a pretty good substitute that works really well with this recipe. Serve over rice or rice noodles, and make a big batch, because it tastes just as good the second (or even third) day.

And if you like this Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry, you’ll also love this amazing One-Pan Chicken, Sausage and Brussel Sprouts recipe. It’s a simple prep, incredibly delicious meal with easy clean-up (one pan!)

Please click here for the printable Stir Fry recipe.

Click here for the printable Homemade Hoisin Sauce recipe.

Simply Delicious Healthy Turkey Chili

Tom

Isn’t it great when you find a recipe that’s easy to make, healthy, inexpensive and, on top of all that, also tastes incredibly good…the kind of good where you want to keep eating more even though you’re really full? Well, this is one of those dishes.  I know that some chili aficionados think that turkey chili is for wimps, but I’m telling you, this is the real deal. While it’s incredibly good the day you make it, I find that, like most chili, this actually tastes better after sitting in the in the refrigerator overnight. It also freezes really well…then, all you have to do is just stick it in the microwave, and when it’s hot, top it with some grated cheddar cheese and maybe a dollop of sour cream (low fat, if you’re still thinking healthy), and you’re good to go. It also goes great with a thick slice of buttered toasted Sourdough Bread.

Please click here for the printable recipe.

Thermapen Instant Read Thermometer…Best in Class

Tom

The Super-Fast Thermapen Instant Read Thermometer is, without a doubt, the best food thermometer available and an essential really cool kitchen tool.  Sure, it’s way expensive, but sometimes it makes sense to just buy the best.  The thing that sets this apart from all other kitchen thermometers (and there are some pretty good ones out there) is its speed, accuracy and ease of use…it takes just 3 seconds to register an amazingly accurate reading. Another great feature is that the Thermapen is splash-proof, with molded-in seals that protect the thermometer from wet hands and kitchen splashes. I also love the way it operates…just open it and it turns on and close it and it turns off…no buttons, cables, slides or switches (and it comes in some really great colors!). When buying things for the kitchen, I always take pricing into account, but I believe that in this case, because a great thermometer invariably leads to great results when cooking, if you can afford it, it pays to go with the best. This also is absolutely one of the coolest gifts you can buy for someone who cooks…they’ll use it and love you forever!

Cheesecake Lollipops – A Dessert to Impress Your Friends!

Tom

I was invited to a dinner the other night and had to bring something, so I decided to make these again and they were such a huge hit, I have decided to repost the recipe. These lollipops are delicious, impressive and, best of all, deceptively easy to make. You can make your own cheesecake (here is a great recipe from Cook’s Illustrated magazine), but even a good store-bought cheesecake works well for this enticing dessert. First, put the cheesecake in the freezer until it gets nice and firm. Then remove it and scoop golf ball size hunks out of the cheesecake and quickly roll them into balls before they start to melt. Insert a lollipop stick (I opted for long wooden skewers for an impressive display) into each ball and pop them in the freezer for around 2-3 hours until frozen.

While the lollipops are freezing, prepare your toppings by crushing oreos, peanuts, pistachios, almonds, malted milk balls, coconut or toffee. Almost anything can be used, and it’s great to mix and match the flavors.

The next step is whip up a simple chocolate ganache, which is just a mixture of equal parts chocolate and heavy cream, where you bring the cream to a boil, remove it from the heat and pour it over the bowl of chopped chocolate and whisk it together.

When the lollipops are frozen solid, take them out of the freezer, dip them in the ganache, roll Cheesecake Lollipops SHARPthem in your favorite toppings and then immediately stick them back in the freezer to set (you should lay them on parchment paper so they don’t stick)…that’s it.

Just take them out of the freezer about 30 minutes before your ready to serve them (make sure they’re served very cold or they will start to drop off the sticks!) and arrange them like a bouquet of flowers…I guarantee your friends will be impressed!

OXO Good Grips Scale – An Essential Kitchen Tool

Tom

OXO food scaleThis is one of the kitchen tools that I really can’t live without…the OXO Good Grips Food Scale. It has large, backlit, easy to read numbers and, with one click, switches from metric to U.S. (avoirdupois) weight. When adding each ingredient to a recipe, just press the zero button (tare weight) to set the scale back to zero, add your next each ingredient, repeat for each additional ingredient, and all your mixing and measuring is done in one bowl, making for much easier cleanup. One of the best features is that the display can be separated from the base (it’s attached by a long, sturdy wire) so even if you’re weighing your ingredients in huge bowl that would normally hide the readout on a lesser scale, on this one, just slide it out and you can easily see the weight. If you bake, you know how important weights and proportions are to achieve a great result. I never bake without it, and I guarantee once you try it, you won’t either…this is the real deal!

Sourdough Starter – Drying and Reviving It (and how to get it for FREE!)

Tom

Dried Sourdough StarterIt’s always a good idea to have some dried starter on hand as backup if, for some reason,  your “live” starter suffers an untimely death…it’s sad, but it happens. It’s also a great way to share your starter with someone. The drying process is very simple. Thinly spread some of your live starter on a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap…a pastry brush or spatula works well here…then just let it dry. When completely dry (it can take from a few hours to a full day, depending on temperature), just peel it off the paper and crush it up…a coffee or spice grinder works well or you can just put it in a zip lock bag and whack it a few times with a rolling pin (that’s the post-whacked state in the picture on the left). Store it in an air-tight zip lock bag at room temperature or in the refrigerator or freezer…it’s all good.

Now, if your ready to get started, you’re going to need some dried starter to start your starter, so check out my Sourdough Whole Wheat Pumpkin Seed No Knead Bread post where you’ll find the link to send for some Carl Griffith’s Sourdough Starter…it’s been around since 1847! I’ve been using it for 20+ years, it’s excellent, and you can’t beat the price…literally…’cause you can get it here for FREE!

Reviving your dried starter is a relatively simple process also. This great video clip is from Breadtopia, one of my favorite sites, and it shows you exactly how to do it. If you’re into bread and baking, you should definitely check out Breadtopia for amazing recipes and videos.

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The Best Bread and Bagel Knife is a Great Gift

Tom

Bread Bow KnifeWhen you bake your own bread and love to eat it straight out of the oven, you know how hard it is to get a good, even slice from fresh-out-of-the-oven, warm bread. This Oregon Bread and Bagel Knife (another non-essential but really cool kitchen tool), made of Red Alder, a sustainable hardwood, has a beveled, scalloped edge (it never needs sharpening) that works like a super-sharp saw to cut a neat, uniform width slice of that crusty, aromatic freshly baked no-knead sourdough whole wheat pumpkin seed encrusted loaf that you can then slather in butter and watch as it melts into the nooks and crannies…ok, I’m getting a little carried away here, but there really is nothing better then homemade bread.

This knife is also perfect for cutting bagels, ripe tomatoes and just about anything else that you may have trouble slicing with a conventional knife…and, with the beautiful Red Alder handle, a hardwood that flourishes in the Pacific Northwest, it looks really great just sitting there on the kitchen counter or even hanging on your kitchen wall. It has an American-Made stainless steel blade that is double-ground, serrated & ultra-thin, the same blade that is used in industrial bread slicers that make thousands of slices a day.

 

This also makes a great gift for the cook who has everything…that’s how I got it (thanks Ned and Debi)!

Sausage, Mushroom and Caramelized Onion Pizza with a Sourdough Whole Wheat Crust

Tom

SMO PizzaI’ve been getting a lot of pizza questions recently, so I just wanted to re-post a pizza story I did a while back. This was, of course, made from scratch (here’s the recipe) and it really tasted just as good as it looks. One of the most important tricks to making a great pizza is using a pizza stone…you just can’t bake a great crust without it. A pizza stone has a greater thermal mass then either a glass or metal pan and therefore holds and distributes heat better. It’s also porous, so it absorbs moisture from the dough as it cooks, all of which contributes to an amazing, crisp, uniformly browned crust. Also, definitely get yourself a pizza peel…they’re inexpensive and make putting the pizza into the oven a breeze.

Pizza stones are available just about everywhere, and come in a variety of sizes and shapes (and prices). They should be put in a cold oven, then preheated for at least 30 minutes before using. Because they are porous and absorb liquid, the stone should never be washed with soap…just a dry brush or some plain, warm water if needed. They are also ideal for baking bread.

t stone or piece of ceramic or earthenware used to evenly distribute oven heat to pizzas or other baked goods, more or less mimicking the effects of cooking a pizza in a masonry oven. Such bakeware has more thermal mass than metal or glass pans. The porous nature of the stone used also helps absorb moisture, resulting in a crisp crust.
Suasage, Mushroom, Caramelized Onion Pizza ready for oven
Ready for the Oven

Nothing better then homemade pizza and this crust is simple and delicious. If you need sourdough starter, check out my bread post from last week. I prefer thin crust pizzas (being from the New York area…where we make REAL pizza), but if you prefer a thicker crust, it’s all here in the printable recipe. This is one of those recipes that appears to be a little vague at first, but once you try it and get the feel for how the dough should come together, it’s simple and quick to replicate whenever you get the urge…which for me, seems to happen about 3-4 times a week lately. And since the recipe makes 3 crusts which freeze incredibly well, you actually don’t have it make it that often. Just take one out of the freezer, and in about 3 hours, it’s ready to roll. The crust is also vary versatile and can be used in dozens of different ways. Just the other day, I topped one with just caramelized onions, crumbled goat cheese and drizzled some olive oil on it and it was amazing. It also makes a great calzone!

Please click here for the printable recipe.

Papaya Banana Blueberry Orange Hawaiian Smoothie

Tom

Blueberry Papaya Banana Orange SmoothieWell, we’re back in Hawaii, so it’s Fresh Fruit Smoothie time…they’re simple to make, they taste great and have the consistency of creamy soft serve ice cream. For this one, I took fresh picked papayas and bananas, cut them into 1/2 inch chunks and froze them overnight. To make the smoothie, put about a cup of frozen papaya chunks, a cup of frozen banana chunks,  6 oz. of  your favorite blueberry yogurt (I use Dannon) into a blender and add about 3/4 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice  (if you don’t have orange juice, V8 Splash is a great alternative…it’s available everywhere. I use their Tropical Blend, but any flavor will do). Pulse the blender for about 30 seconds, give it a quick stir (make sure the blades have stopped!), and repeat a few times. It should be very thick at this point, so to get the perfect consistency, take the top off the blender while it’s running (make sure all the fruit has been pureed before you do this or you may end up wearing some smoothie) and slowly pour in a little more juice until you see a vortex form in the center-you’ll know what I mean when you see it happen-and the Smoothie will be perfect. If you love peanut butter like I do, you can add a heaping tablespoon (I prefer chunky) and blend for a couple of seconds more…it’s incredible!