| THIS WEEK'S FEATURES AND RECIPES:
> Article: Hamming
It Up For Easter
> Wine Appreciation:
Maipe Malbec 2008
> Food Funnies: The
Top 10 Food "Foolies"
S
E L E C T E D R E C I P E S :
* TGI
Friday's Pot Stickers
* Monterey
Chicken Rolls
* Slow-Cooker
Beef Short Ribs
* Brown
Sugar Baked Bologna
* Salisbury
Steak with Mushroom Gravy
* Fusilli
alla Caprese
* Buttered
Peas and Pearl Onions
* Sticky
Buns
Healthy Eating:
Low Carb: Green
Eggs and Ham
Diabetic: Berry
Ginger Shortcakes
Low Fat: Penne
with Artichoke Hearts
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This Week's Cooking Tips
========================
* When you buy a container of cake
frosting from the store, whip it
with your mixer for a few
minutes. You can double it in size. You
get to frost more cake/cupcakes
with the same amount. You also eat
less sugar and calories per
serving.
* To warm biscuits, pancakes, or
muffins that were refrigerated,
place them in a microwave
with a cup of water. The increased
moisture will keep the food
moist and help it reheat faster.
* Before you pour sticky substances
into a measuring cup, fill with
hot water. Dump out the hot
water, but don't dry cup. Next, add
your ingredient, such as
peanut butter, and watch how easily it
comes right out.
* To get rid of pesky fruit flies,
take a small glass fill it 1/2"
with Apple Cider Vinegar
and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix
well. You will find those
flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
More
Cooking Tips
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This Week's Culinary Quiz (Answer
at the bottom of page)
"Beschuiten", also known as
"Dutch rusks" are a popular type
of what?
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Personalized
Chef Coats!
Kick it up a notch with
a touch of class! Create a
personalized and professional
look in your kitchen.
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Quote of the Week:
"The keynote to happiness
within the four walls that make any
home is plain, wholesome,
well cooked food, attractively served."
- Louis P. De Gouy,
The Soup Book (1949)
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Subscribe
to the VJJE Recipe Weekly - It's fun and it's free!
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UPCOMING FOOD HOLIDAYS:
April is: National Food Month
Fresh Florida Tomato Month
National Pecan Month
April 4 - National Cordon Bleu Day
April 5 - National Raisin and Spice Bar Day
April 6 - National Caramel Popcorn Day
April 7 - National Coffee Cake Day
April 8 - National Empanada Day
April 9 - National Chinese Almond Cookie Day
April 10 - National Cinnamon Crescent Day
April 11 - National Cheese Fondue Day
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Make Great Gift Ideas!
We offer hundreds of designs
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Hamming It Up For Easter
By John Havel
In the United States, ham is a traditional
Easter food. In the early
days, meat was slaughtered in the
fall. There was no refrigeration,
and the fresh pork that wasn't consumed
during the winter months
before Lent was cured for spring.
The curing process took a long time,
and the first hams were ready around
the time Easter rolled around.
Thus, ham was a natural choice for
the celebratory Easter dinner.
Hams come in many types. They're
fully cooked or uncooked, wet-cured
or dry cured, bone-in, semi-boneless
or boneless. Should you buy a
whole ham, a shank half, a butt
half, or a canned ham? How do you
choose a ham?
The three most common types of ham
in the United States are fresh
ham, city ham and country ham. Fresh
ham is not cured and can be
cooked like any other cut of fresh
pork. Wet curing is the most
popular method for curing ham. Traditionally,
a fresh ham was soaked
in a liquid curing solution for
a couple of weeks so that the cure
could penetrate the meat. Today,
fresh hams are injected with a curing
solution and cure in just a day
or two. After the ham is cured, it is
usually smoked. The result is a
"city ham", a moist, juicy ham like
the ones you find in the supermarket.
Dry curing is the process used to
make "country ham" like the famous
Smithfield ham from Virginia. A
country ham starts out as a fresh ham
that is rubbed with a dry cure mixture,
smoked in a smokehouse, then
aged at 75-80F or higher in rooms
or barn-like structures for a period
of a few months to more than a year.
My favorite ham is one that is sold
in the refrigerated case at your
grocery store and labelled "ready
to cook" - preferably with the
bone in (more flavor). Yes, you
will need to cook it for several hours,
but this is where the flavor will
kick in. Simply warming up a
pre-cooked (or canned) ham and decorating
it with pineapple and
cherries doesn't take much work,
and the taste proves it. I wouldn't
serve pre-cooked turkey for Thanksgiving,
and an Easter dinner deserves
the same respect.
Easter Baked Ham
================
1 city style (brined)
ham, bone in
1/4 cup brown mustard
1 ounce bourbon
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups crushed ginger
snap cookies
Heat oven to 250F. Remove ham from
bag, rinse and drain thoroughly.
Place ham, cut side down, in a roasting
pan. Using a small paring
knife, score the ham from bottom
to top, spiraling clockwise as you
cut being careful to only cut through
the skin and first few layers
of fat. Rotate the ham after each
cut so that the scores are no more
than 2-inches across. Once you've
made it all the way around, move
the knife to the other hand and
repeat, spiraling counter clockwise.
The aim is to create a diamond pattern
all over the ham.
Tent the ham with heavy duty foil,
insert a thermometer, and cook
for 3 to 4 hours or until the internal
temperature at the deepest
part of the meat registers 130F.
Remove and use tongs to pull away
the diamonds of skin and any sheets
of fat that come off with them.
Heat oven to 350F. Dab the ham dry
with paper towels. Combine mustard
and bourbon and then brush on a
liberal coating using a basting brush.
Sprinkle on brown sugar, packing
loosely as you go until the ham is
coated. Then loosely pack on as
much of the crushed cookies as you
can. Insert the thermometer and
return to the oven (uncovered). Cook
until interior temperature reaches
140F, approximately 1 hour. Let the
roast rest for 1/2 hour before carving.
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This Week's Wine Selection
==========================
Maipe Malbec 2008
Price: $9
The 2008 Malbec is a glass-coating
purple color with a striking
perfume of violets, black cherry,
and black raspberry. Exhibiting
surprising complexity for its price
category, the wine has gobs of
fruit, savory flavors, and excellent
depth and length. It is an
outstanding value for drinking over
the next 3-4 years.
Serve With:
Leg of Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary
====================================
1 (7-pound) semi-boneless
leg of lamb, aitchbone removed, fat
trimmed
to 1/4 inch thick, and lamb tied
4 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon fine sea
salt
2 tablespoons chopped
fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon black
pepper
1/4 cup dry red wine
or beef broth
Pat lamb dry and score fat by making
shallow cuts all over with tip
of a sharp small knife. Pound garlic
to a paste with sea salt using
a mortar and pestle (or mince and
mash with a heavy knife) and stir
together with rosemary and pepper.
Put lamb in a lightly oiled
roasting pan, then rub paste all
over lamb. Let stand at room
temperature 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F. Roast lamb
in middle of oven until an instant-
read thermometer inserted 2 inches
into thickest part of meat (do not
touch bone) registers 130F, 1 1/2
to 1 3/4 hours. Transfer to a
cutting board and let stand 15 to
25 minutes (internal temperature
will rise to about 140F for medium-rare).
Add wine to pan and deglaze by boiling
over moderately high heat,
stirring and scraping up brown bits,
1 minute. Season pan juices with
salt and pepper and serve with lamb.
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http://www.littlefivers.com =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
FOOD FUNNIES: The Top 10 Food "Foolies"
=======================================
10. Most pound cakes are actually
only 14 oz.
9. Misspelling a word on the label
absolves the manufacturer of
any liability
resulting from the public consuming substandard
ingredients.
Example: Cheez Whiz
8. The USDA food pyramid has the
same foundation as the Great
Pyramids of Egypt:
Dirt.
7. Think about it: If you eat a
healthy enough diet, even crack
cocaine can be
"part of a balanced breakfast".
6. Eating fried pork fat because
it’s low in carbs is like trying
to knock out
a headache with a baseball bat.
5. Of course Jared lost a few hundred
pounds. What they neglect
to mention is
that his neighborhood Subway outlet is at the top
of a mountain.
4. Sometime in the past, some crazy
pastry chef replaced the
Bavarian cream
with vanilla pudding to see if anyone could tell
the difference.
Next time it’s going to be Elmer’s glue.
3. The French don’t actually like
eating snails; they just started
doing that to
see if they could get us to do it.
2. If brussels sprouts are supposed
to be *so good*, how come
nobody puts them
on a pizza?
... and the #1
Food "Foolie" ...
1. Girl Scout Cookies don’t actually
contain any amount of Girl
Scout, or any
girl at all, for that matter.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
TGI Friday's Pot Stickers
=========================
Dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot water
1 tablespoon shortening
or oil
Filling:
1 lb. ground pork
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame
oil
1 teaspoon grated ginger
Pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper to
taste
3 green onions, chopped
1 egg
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 can water chestnuts,
finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon chili oil
1 green onion, chopped
Combine the flour, salt, hot water
and shortening in a bowl and
incorporate into a smooth dough.
Allow the dough to rest for 20
minutes, covered.
Combine the filling ingredients.
Combine the dipping sauce
ingredients. Roll the dough out
about 1/8 thick. Use a biscuit cutter
or a glass to cut out 3 inch circles.
Brush a little water over the
circles and place about 2 teaspoons
of filling in center. Fold the
circles in half and press to seal,
making sure to squeeze out any
air. Stand the dumplings up on the
folded side and press slightly so
that they stand up nicely. To cook,
bring a pot of salted water to
boil, and boil the dumplings until
cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Drain well. The dumplings may be
frozen at this point for future use;
this recipe makes about 8 dozen.
Heat a skillet with about 2
tablespoons oil and fry the dumplings
on one side only, until nicely
browned. Drain on paper towels.
Serve with the dipping sauce.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Monterey Chicken Rolls
======================
8 boneless skinless
chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1 (8 oz.) package monterey
jack cheese
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup parmesan cheese,
grated
Pound chicken breasts flat. Season
with salt and pepper. Slice
Monterey Jack cheese about 1/4"
thick and roll chicken around
cheese. Add garlic to the butter
and combine breadcrumbs with
parmesan cheese. Dip chicken in
butter, then in breadcrumb
combination. Place seam side down
in 9x13 baking dish. Bake
covered for 30 minutes at 350F in
preheated oven. Uncover and
bake for 15 minutes more or until
browned.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Slow-Cooker Beef Short Ribs
===========================
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 lbs boneless
beef short ribs
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup beef broth
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons catsup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
sauce
2 tablespoons minced
garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
Combine flour, salt and pepper in
a bag. Add ribs and shake to
coat. Brown ribs in butter in a
large skillet. Place in slow
cooker. In the same skillet, combine
remaining ingredients. Bring
to a boil while stirring. Pour over
ribs. Cover and cook on low
for 9 hours.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Brown Sugar Baked Bologna
=========================
1 (6 1/2-pound) all-beef
bologna
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 1/2 cups golden brown
sugar
1 loaf sliced white
bread
1 jar yellow mustard
Preheat the oven to 250F. Line a
large roasting pan with foil to
cover well. Using a small sharp
knife score the top of the bologna,
cutting about 1/4-inch deep, to
create a diamond design.
Place the bologna, cut side down,
in the foil lined pan and spread
a thin layer of mustard on the exposed
areas. Using your hands, press
the brown sugar onto the Dijon mustard
to create a coating. Carefully
turn the bologna over, so that the
cut side is facing up, and spread
the top and sides with the remaining
Dijon mustard. Press the
remaining brown sugar onto the mustard
to coat the entire bologna
well.
Place the bologna in the top third
of the oven. Bake for 5 hours,
rotating the bologna slightly during
cooking to keep the bottom from
burning. Remove the bologna from
the pan and place it on a large
platter. Slice the bologna 1/4 to
1/2-inch thick and make sandwiches
on fresh white bread with yellow
mustard.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy
===================================
1 pound lean ground
beef
1 (10 oz.) can condensed
cream of mushroom soup, divided
1/2 cup Italian bread
crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1 teaspoon steak seasoning
1 tablespoon canola
oil
2 tablespoons butter,
divided
1/4 cup cognac
1/2 lb. sliced fresh
mushrooms
2 cups beef broth
1 (1.2 oz.) packet
brown gravy mix
In a large bowl, combine beef, 1/4
can mushroom soup, bread crumbs,
egg, onions, and steak seasoning.
Mix thoroughly and shape into 4
oval patties. Heat oil and 1 tablespoon
butter in large skillet over
medium-high heat. Brown patties
on both sides and transfer to a
plate.
Add remaining butter and cognac
(remove pan from heat when adding
cognac.) Saute mushrooms for 7 to
8 minutes. Add beef stock and
whisk in gravy mix until smooth.
Stir in remaining mushroom soup.
Return patties to skillet and spoon
gravy over top. Cover pan and
simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve
with mashed potatoes or rice.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Fusilli alla Caprese
====================
1 pound fusilli pasta
3 tablespoons olive
oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups cherry tomatoes,
quartered (about 1 1/2 pints)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly
ground black pepper
1/2 cup packed fresh
basil leaves, torn
8 ounces fresh mozzarella,
diced (about 1 1/4 cups)
Bring a large pot of salted water
to a boil over high heat. Add the
pasta and cook until tender but
still firm to the bite, stirring
occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Drain pasta into a large bowl
and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking
liquid.
In a medium skillet heat the olive
oil over medium heat. Add the
garlic and saute until fragrant,
about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes,
salt, and pepper. As the tomatoes
cook and soften, smash them with
a fork. Continue to cook until the
tomatoes make a chunky style
sauce, about 4 minutes. Transfer
the tomato sauce to the bowl with
the pasta. Toss to combine. Add
the basil leaves and mozzarella.
Stir to combine. Add the reserved
pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time,
until the pasta is moist. Serve.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Buttered Peas and Pearl Onions
==============================
1 1/2 pounds pearl
onions
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup (1/2 stick)
unsalted butter
3 teaspoons chopped
fresh dill
2 cups fresh sweet
peas, shelled
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 small bunch watercress,
washed and trimmed
Kosher salt and freshly
ground black pepper
Bring a large pot of salted water
to a boil. Toss in the pearl
onions and blanch for 3 minutes.
Drain them out and then shock them
in ice water to stop from over cooking.
Drain again. Pinch the pearl
onions out of their little skins
and set aside.
In a 3-quart saucepan over medium
heat, combine the chicken broth,
2 tablespoons of the butter, and
2 teaspoons of the dill. Once the
liquid gets hot, add the pearl onions
and peas. Cook and stir for
5 minutes until well coated and
thickened slightly. Add the lemon
juice, watercress, remaining butter,
and dill; season with salt
and pepper.
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Free Recipes and Cookbooks =+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=
Sticky Buns
===========
Dough:
1 cup warm water (105F
to 115F)
4 teaspoons dry yeast
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted
butter, room temperature
1/2 cup dry nonfat
milk powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
4 1/4 cups (or more)
all purpose flour
Glaze:
1 1/4 cups (packed)
golden brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks)
unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 cup water
2 cups pecan halves
4 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons ground
cinnamon
Make Dough: Mix 1/4 cup warm water,
yeast, and pinch of sugar in
small bowl. Let stand until foamy,
about 8 minutes. Using electric
mixer, beat remaining sugar, butter,
milk powder, and salt in large
bowl until well blended. Beat in
eggs 1 at a time. Mix in remaining
3/4 cup warm water and yeast mixture,
then 3 cups flour, 1 cup at a
time. Using rubber spatula, mix
in 1 cup flour, scraping down sides
of bowl frequently (dough will be
soft and sticky). Sprinkle 1/4 cup
flour onto work surface and knead
until smooth and elastic, adding
more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes.
Butter another large bowl. Add dough;
turn to coat. Cover bowl with
plastic wrap and let dough rise
in warm area until doubled, about
2 1/2 hours.
Make Glaze: Butter two 10-inch round
cake pans with 2-inch high
sides. Beat brown sugar, 1/2 cup
butter, honey, corn syrup, and
1/4 cup water in medium bowl to
blend. Spread half of glaze in bottom
of each prepared pan. Sprinkle 1
cup pecans over each.
Punch down dough. Divide dough in
half. Roll each dough piece out
on floured work surface to 12x9-inch
rectangle. Brush any excess
flour off dough. Spread remaining
butter over dough rectangles,
dividing equally. Mix 4 teaspoons
sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over rectangles.
Starting at 1 long side,
tightly roll up each rectangle into
log. Cut each log into 12 rounds.
Place 12 rounds, cut side down,
in each prepared pan, spacing evenly.
Cover with plastic wrap. Let buns
rise in warm area until almost
doubled, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375F. Bake buns
until deep golden brown, about
30 minutes. Run small knife around
pan sides to loosen sticky buns.
Turn hot buns out onto platter.
Cool about 30 minutes and serve.
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This Week's Culinary Quiz
Answer: Bread
"Beschuiten" are a hard biscuit,
ideal for dunking in your favorite
hot drink or milk. They are also
put in yogurt for breakfast or into
minced meat to make light and fluffy
meatballs. They are a wholesome,
nutrious breakfast or snack anytime
of the day or night. Rusks were
originally prepared in South Africa
by the Dutch explorers traveling
long distances in a hot climate.
Rusks were a bread that would not
spoil as they are a round loaf,
cut into rounds, and each piece is
twice baked for its sweet crispness.
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