Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

When we were married, one of our wedding gifts was a beautiful, copper ‘beehive’ Oster blender. (I was collecting 'everything copper' back then, and my copper Oster toaster is still going strong, and will probably last my lifetime.)

The blender has also been a great tool and lasted a long time, but has been on its last legs recently; and my husband decided a while back that he wanted a Breville as soon as we were ready to budget it. (I think he had seen it highly rated by America’s Test Kitchen.)

We happened to be in an ‘off-price’ department store last week which had the Breville for about $75 dollars less than we had expected to pay; and with that, the Breville Hemisphere Blender traveled to the top of the ‘wish list’, and all the way home.

I will miss the very ‘retro’ look of my old blender; but the Breville is pretty ‘whiz-bang’, with pre-programmed settings for blending/crushing/liquefying; and it’s very easy to clean and maintain. We’re having a lot of fun with it.

The manual came with recipes, and this soup caught my eye; I’ll be saving it for the cold-creeping-in Autumn days:

CHICKEN, CORN AND GINGER SOUP

Serves 4

1-½ tablespoon Peanut Oil

4 Green Onions, thinly sliced

2 inch piece fresh Ginger, finely chopped

3 cups fresh or frozen Corn Kernels

4 cups Chicken Stock

1-½ tablespoon Soy Sauce

1-½ tablespoon Rice Wine

½ teaspoon Sesame Oil

2 small Chicken Breast fillets, thinly sliced

¼ Cup roughly chopped fresh Cilantro leaves (optional)

White Pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan, add onions and ginger and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add corn and cook, stirring occasionally, for a further 3-4 minutes.

2. Add stock and water and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

3. Transfer half of the mixture to blender jug, place lid on blender jug and blend on speed 2/MIX for 30 seconds. Return pureed soup to remaining soup in saucepan with soy, wine, sesame and chicken. Cook on a medium high heat until soup starts to simmer and chicken is just cooked through.

4. Serve with fresh chopped coriander (cilantro)and white pepper to taste

__________________________________________________________

I went looking for a new smoothie recipe to try, and found this one:

1 Cup Pineapple Juice

1 large Banana, cut into chunks (I usually use a frozen banana)

1 Cup frozen Strawberries

1 Cup frozen Blueberries

Pulse to get it started, and then blend until slushy.

_________________________________________________________

The Breville Manual also had a recipe for a version of my husband’s favorite mixed drink:

Margarita Cocktail

(Serves Two)

¼ Cup Tequila

¼ Cup Cointreau

1/3 Cup Lime Juice

1/8 Cup fresh Orange Juice

¼ Cup Simple Syrup

12 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender jug.

Use the Ice Crush function or the Liquefy function (adapt for your blender) and blend until well combined and ice is crushed.

Serve in salt-rimmed glasses.

-JT

[Trillian]

That does sound like heaven! They have these huge, hand sizes peaches and nectarines at the grocery I’m going to buy soon.

[Jamestown1630]

This is true! and mixing up gougere batter is a lot easier in a blender, too.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

That sounds great. I once made a watermelon salsa that was really surprising flavor-wise; but it just doesn’t hold up very well, and blending it into a gazpacho makes more sense.

-JT

[greeneyes]

I use a small food processer to grind up eggshells to use in the garden. Mix equal parts of bone meal, Epsom salts, and egg shell powder. Put a Tablespoon or two of the mixture in the pot with your tomatoes or other veggie.

[greeneyes]

I bought a really top of line osterizer blender back in 1968. It didn’t last a year - not the blender’s fault. Hubby had a disaster while using it and pancake glob got into the motor somehow or other.

Never bought another expensive item. Get it cheap. Couldn’t keep a decent glass, so I just started saving jelly jars to use for glasses. I find them everywhere - outside, in the truck, on the patio, in the trash, etc. etc.

I had a really nice set of silver plated silverware. Hubby decided to do the dishes, and disinfect them using bleach. Yep stripped all that silver plate right off. Then he bought me a really nice set of stainless - the forks have all disappeared. Found some in the burn pile.

Well, anyway, like I said, some stuff it’s just better to buy cheap, and not get attached.

[leaning conservative]

I have broken so much! I finally went to a second hand store & bought a rocks glass that is perfect for wine & vodka. $1.00. No worries. Things break, it’s life. I laughed at you finding forks in your burn pile. Maybe our hubs were separated at birth ; )

[greeneyes]

Kindred spirits maybe, even if not related by blood. LOL

[ANKE69]

I have a ‘good cook’ manual can opener and absolutely love it. Bought 2 extra ones but the original one is still working just fine after about 5 years. The cutting wheel never touches the food, so no cross contamination. No sharp edges and easy to use. You can look it up on Amazon.

[Jamestown1630]

LOL! That is a funny story!

But the thing about this new blender is that the ‘stuff’ can’t get down into the motor. I used to have to take the whole thing apart to clean it, and ours finally died because stuff leaked down - not to mention that the pretty copper housing got pitted unless you were VERY careful about cleaning.

But with this new one, all you do to clean it is to put in a little water and a drop of dishwash liquid, and ‘whizz’ it a little bit, rinse it out and dry it. Or, you can put it in the dishwasher without taking it apart.

We’ve only had it a week, so I can’t say yet if it’s actually worth the money. But so far, if it lasts as long as the Oster did, I’m really pleased with the new ‘features’.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

I remember reading that soaking eggshells in water, and then watering houseplants with the water, would help the plants thrive. Is that true? Will the water really leach-out the nutrients in the shell, and transfer them to the plant?

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

In our household, the solution to breakable, everyday glasses is using the ones from fast-food places.

When the first Tolkien movie came out, one of the fast-food places was offering glasses that had a little battery-operated gizmo that clipped onto the end of the glass, and lighted-up the contents. We've never used that part, but my hubby has drunk his wine in those glasses ever since - they're very heavy glass, and sort of 'goblet-like'.

Around the same time, another fast-food place was offering Disney-themed glasses that were short and stout - and I drink beer and soda from them. They are also very thick, heavy glass.

We got four of each, for free; and these things have gone through the dishwasher zillions of times, have never broken, and they're fun.

(I've got to find those little light-up bits that we never used; they'd be fun for kids, and I think they actually had replaceable batteries.)



-JT

[greeneyes]

eggshells have a lot of nutrients and one of the biggies for tomatoes is calcium. If you crumble the egg shells with your hand, they will release the nutrients slowly.

If you grind them into a powder, they will release faster. There are various formulas for using eggshells. If you combine equal parts eggshells, Epsom salts, bone meal, dried banana peels, you will get a really great booster for your plants.

These can be used by addition to water, or simply put into the hole at transplant time and watered in. Sometimes I put stuff in the blender with water and whirl it then dilute it further and water the plants.

Sometimes I just put a few spoonfuls on the dirt and water it in. Short answer is yes eggshells will help plants especially those that might be prone to blossom end rot.

[greeneyes]

Yes, the first of many funny stories. LOL

[Yaelle]

I loooooooove, especially for hot items like soups, a hand blender. I believe it is essential. It can be so unwieldy to pour hot soups into a blender. The hand blender is fast to use and fast to clean, and the soup can stay in the pot.

I actually used my blender today to make a smoothie to help a little one with constipation, but it was tasty even if you’re not only seeking fiber. One banana, a big handful of frozen blueberries, a tablespoon of coconut oil, a tablespoon of ground flax seed, 1 tbsp raw honey, and enough of your favorite liquid to make the blender work, but not much more. We used delicious raw milk, but kefir, yogurt, any kind of “milk” will do and add a bit of protein. Add less milk than you think. You can always add more.

Serves 2.

[Yaelle]

I meant to clarify, the smoothie was in the regular blender.

[Yaelle]

I need to know what measurement a doodad has, because how yummy would your recipe be if you made lemonade by hand? Even grated some lemon peel in? I wanna make this.

And use Trader joe’s gluten free ginger snaps.

[Yaelle]

We have one. I personally love it. My favorite was making mint chocolate chip (straciatella?) from the mint growing wild in the yard. HOWEVER. The kids don’t like the real ice cream with the freshest, simplest ingredients as much as they like the crappy supermarket ice cream with thickeners and crap in it. Picture a whiny emoticon here. I am so sad I haven’t gotten them to realize how true and yummy homemade ice cream is.

I got David Whatshisname (the American who lives in Paris)’s recipe book and he is correct: homemade ice cream tastes best licking it right off the beater when it is done. It’s so good.

I believe we do have a cuisinart. We have the kind where you don’t need to freeze the bowl first, because we never had much freezer space. It takes up a lot of counter space and if I make a quart and the kids don’t eat it.... So I wish they loved it more. The ice cream is fantastic but softer and creamier, and freezes a bit harder and solider than your 2016 children appreciate. Anyone older adores it.

[Yaelle]

I have the ice cream maker, a rice cooker (such a cool thing and keeps rice warm for HOURS), a slow cooker, a food processor, a blender, and... Am I the only one??? A deep fryer. Which I fill with healthy palm oil. No other sinners here? French fries? Homemade chicken tenders? Quick donuts? Fried squash blossoms or plantains?

[Yaelle]

I bet this is out of this world. Wanna make it.

[Yaelle]

You can blend the eggshells with some liquid to make them pourable and scrapable into the garden.