All the Ingredients

What's New: Yumnuts

Everyone is talking about nuts these days. Nuts help reduce your chances of having a heart attack. They help with fat loss, and help you build muscle. They boost brain power with their dose of omega-3 fatty acids, and are a great source of protein. I grew up in a house where we ate nuts a lot. My father loved cracking pecans and hazelnuts for us to eat out of hand. My mother served walnuts inside sliced dates. And there was always a bowl of mixed nuts on the table at cocktail parties, not to mention pecan pie at Thanksgiving--although maybe those last two aren't the most nutritious way to snack on nuts.

I have come to eat nuts--almonds--every day as my mid-morning snack with fruit. Right now I am enjoying clementines because they are plentiful and go well with almonds, as do apples. My husband snacks on walnuts and cashews every day. But the big thing right now is flavored nuts. Why eat plain almonds when you can eat flavored ones? I understand this--I love butter toffee peanuts and peanut brittle, but again those work against the "nuts are healthy" ideal. Enter Yumnuts.

Yumnuts is a company that flavor-roasts almonds and cashews in a variety of flavors. Most processed nuts are roasted at high temperatures that degrade the valuable oils in the nuts, making them less healthy. Yumnuts roasts nuts at a much lower temperature, making them flavorful AND healthy. 

Yumnuts sells 5.75 ounce bags in a four-pack. I ordered the version that let's you chose the flavors you want to try. I got: Touch of Honey Cashews, and three almond flavors--Dark Chocolate, Cinnamon, and Ginger Orange. I am not a big fan of cashews, but the Touch of Honey were fabulous. The additional honey really brought out the nuts inherent sweetness during the roasting process. My husband motored right through them.

I parcelled out the almonds into snack-size bags, and enjoyed them over the next several weeks. The Dark Chocolate had the flavor of a perfectly roasted almond with a chocolate finish--great with coffee. The Cinnamon were roasted with cinnamon and allspice to give them a wonderfully spicy flavor--these were my favorite of the three. I loved the Ginger Orange. These almonds were my favorite snack with clementines, but I have become a little bit obsessed with ginger lately, and I thought the nuts had great orange flavor, but needed more ginger.

The four-pack sells for $19.96 which is $4.99 a pouch for six servings. That is more than you pay for the flavored nuts you can find at your local grocery, but the flavor is so much better, Yumnuts are worth it. You can also return the pouches the nuts come in, and Yumnuts will recycle them and give you reward points to use toward Yumnuts gear. I love my reusable shopping bag!

So take a look at Yumnuts: http://yumnutsnaturals.com/products.html for Nature's perfect snack. I think I will have to try the Roasted Coconut Cashews next--don't tell my husband!

Duncan Hines Cake Mix & Wilderness Fruit Filling: Part 2: Angel Food Cake Cupcakes

I think that Angel Food Cake is the white bread of the cake world. It has a nice flavor and texture, but I never crave it by itself. Angel Food Cake needs dressing up. 

Some where, some time in the last few years someone gave me a great, and fantastically easy, Pineapple Angel Food Cake recipe. You take a box of Angel Food Cake mix, pour it in a bowl, and add a large, 20-oz. can of crushed pineapple, stir them together and bake until golden--about half an hour--in a 9 by 13 pan. This is one of my favorite cakes to treat my co-workers with. It takes me two minutes to get it in the oven, and by the time I am dressed, the cake is out of the oven and ready to go. Angels could not make a cake faster that tastes as wonderful. And it's inexpensive--less than $5.

After the first batch of Duncan Hines cupcakes that I made, I still had half a can of the Wilderness More Fruit Blueberry Pie Filling. I also had one free Duncan Hines Cake Mix coupon left from the batch I received as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program. So I got a box of Duncan Hines Angel Food Cake mix with it.

Last Saturday morning, we had to open our store an hour earlier than usual--and an hour earlier than the schedule had originally been written for. I had to ask several employees to come in an hour earlier. When one of them balked, I coaxed, "I'll make the Pineapple Angel Food Cake." 

"Deal!" he agreed.

This time I had to get up a little earlier because I wanted to make the Pineapple Angel Food Cake as cupcakes. I dumped the box of Duncan Hines Angel Food cake in the bowl, added the large can of crushed pineapple, and stirred. This always produces a slightly fizzy cake batter. I am sure Alton Brown could tell me why, but I just like stirring as the batter fizzes. This time, just as I was about to dish the cake batter into the cupcake papers, I added the half can of Wilderness More Fruit Blueberry Pie Filling. It was very heavy compared to my light, fizzy batter, so I just let it sink in the middle of the bowl, and gave it a little swirl with a spoon. Then as I scooped out the cupcake batter, I made sure to dip into the middle of the bowl each time and nab some of the blueberry pie filling. The usual Pineapple Angel Food Cake recipe makes 24 cupcakes; this batch made 40.

The resulting cupcakes were swirled with the blue of the pie filling and very moist. They very quite popular at work, and the employee who agreed to come in early enjoyed four! I think even my mother, the cake purist, would have enjoyed them. 

So, is you are looking for a way to treat your co-workers this holiday season, start with a box of Duncan Hines Cake Mix!

What's New: Duncan Hines Cake Mix & Wilderness Fruit Filling

My mother raised me to be a cake purist. A snooty cake purist. If it wasn't whipped up by loving hands at home, from scratch, it wasn't good cake. All it took was my son remembering at 9 p.m. at night that he needed cupcakes for the school bake sale/class party/birthday treat at school the next day for me to become an instant fan of cake mixes. I began keeping boxes of chocolate and yellow cake mixes hidden in the back of my cupboard for just such emergencies. Once I had baked the cake or cupcakes needed, I could easily whip up my mother's favorite frosting for cakes for children--creamy peanut butter mixed with confectioner's sugar. Life was much easier. 

And although I still prefer to make cake from scratch, nothing cheers up stressed out retail co-workers this time of year, as showing up to work with cake. Cake says. "Although I can't give you a raise, and the customers might not always be cheerful and happy this time of year, I appreciate all your hard work, and make you cake." As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received coupons for Duncan Hines Cake Mixes and Wilderness Fruit Filling. I bought a Classic White Cake Mix, and a can of Wilderness More Fruit Blueberry Pie Filling. Following closely after the many indulgences of Thanksgiving, I wanted to try the low fat version of the cake mix featured right on the Duncan Hines box.

First, I lined two pans with cupcake papers, and spritzed them lightly with Pam for Baking. If you have ever baked fat-free cupcakes, you know that they become very attached to the cupcake papers. But you only want to give the papers the lightest misting--too much and the cupcakes don't attach to them at all, and they look like ladies shucking frilly skirts. not an appealing look.

Then I mixed the Duncan Hines Classic White Cake Mix according to the lower fat version, adding 1& 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, and 3 egg whites. I spooned batter into each cupcake paper so that they were half full. Next I placed about a teaspoon of Wilderness More Fruit Blueberry Pie filling into the center of each cupcake more or less neatly. Then I topped them off with rest of the cake batter--roughly a tablespoon each. I sprinkled a little blue decorating sugar on top, and baked the cupcakes for about twenty minutes. 

Then I cooled the blueberry cupcakes briefly on a rack, put them on a platter, and went out the door to work. Because of the ease of using a Duncan Hines cake mix, I was able to make these cupcakes before I left in the morning, showing up with a cheerful plate of fabulous cupcakes to treat my co-workers. A success all around--and everyone said they were delicious! Because I used the low fat option on the box, and didn't use frosting, they were light enough that some people ate two. (Like me!) And I got to hand out the extra Duncan Hines coupons that I had received as well.

I have half a can of the Wilderness Blueberry Filling left, so today I bought a Duncan Hines Angel Food cake mix and a small can of crushed pineapple. That way I can make Retail Relief Blueberry Pineapple cupcakes to take to work on Saturday. Try taking Duncan Hines cake to work, and see how happy you can make your co-workers!

What's New: Godiva Caramel Pecan Bark Coffee

There are coffee purists out there (you know who you are) who think that coffees should not have flavoring added to the beans. I used to be one of them. In a past life, I worked as a barista for a company that sold only different "roasts" of coffees--nothing flavored. But then when I was no making coffee for anyone other than myself, I began to shop around other coffee houses, and try brews that were flavored. Usually what I drink at home is a combination of one part plain roast to three parts flavored roast. I tend not to like quite as much flavoring in my coffee as other folks.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received two bags of Godiva's Coffee latest seasonal flavors--Pumpkin Spice, and Caramel Pecan Bark. Every coffee house is featuring a pumpkin coffee drink right now, so I decided to experiment with the Caramel Pecan Bark. 

Brewed by itself at full strength, this medium roast coffee is a delight. The packaging describes it as "Rich, smooth caramel and toasted pecans with a creamy Godiva milk chocolate finish." Mixed with steamed milk, it is a perfect way to start the day. The caramel aroma floated out of my cup, and as I sipped the coffee, I noticed the slight hint of chocolate. I decided to enhance the caramel and the chocolate notes of this coffee.

Besides Godiva coffee, I am seriously addicted right now to Godiva tablet chocolate bars. My favorite is the Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel. I have a secret stash of them at home. Every day in my lunch, I pack one square. I can't have two squares or the whole bar lying around because I will sit down and eat it all. This tablet is a thin piece of Godiva milk chocolate with flecks of crisp caramel throughout and a dash of salt along the way. Salted caramel is a very trendy flavor right now in everything from cupcakes to hot drinks. I think the Godiva Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel tablet is the best of them all. So I decided that this tablet and this coffee needed to be blended.

First, I brewed the Godiva Pecan Bark Coffee. Then for a single cup of decadence, I chopped up a square of the Godiva Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel Bar. I put half of it in the bottom of the cup, and added the hot coffee. Then I quickly swirled on whipped cream and Smucker's Caramel Sauce, topping it all off with the rest of the square of chopped caramel bar. This drink was fabulous! And the best part of the gooey bits of caramel from the chocolate tablet at the bottom of the cup.

This is an easy drink to make. The Godiva Pecan Bark Coffee will make your kitchen smell wonderful, and will be a great start to your day. Mix it with the Salted Caramel Bar for a match made, well, in Godiva Heaven. Try it!

What's New: Planter's Peanut Butter

I can never remember NOT eating peanut butter. Peanut butter and jelly toast for breakfast. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Peanut butter on Saltines for snack. My mother allowed us to put peanut butter on whatever bread we had at dinner, but we were not allowed to actually put the jar on the dining room table. That would have been tacky. My brother Michael kept it on the floor by his chair, in easy reach for sharing. Even when I was forced to eat cafeteria food in college, I kept peanut butter, grape jelly, and Club Crackers in my cupboard as my favorite snack while studying. When I used to travel for the company I work for, I often kept a jar of peanut butter and a spoon on the passenger seat next to me, company for the long stretches of road where there was nowhere to stop, and nothing to eat. I eat peanut butter almost every day, at least once.

Mr. Peanut has been a member of my household for as long as I can remember. My parents always had a big can of Planters Mixed Salted Nuts on hand for cocktails parties--it was my job to refill the nut dish when it got low. Personally, I have always preferred Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts to any other nuts out there, although lately I have come to prefer the lightly salted version. And my husband always has to have Planters Cashews in the house as his go-to snack.

So I was happy to hear that at long last, Planters is making its own peanut butter! I had often wished Planters made peanut butter. Whirring up Planter Dry Roasted Peanuts in the blender provided an unsatisfactory option. As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program, I received two jars of Planter's Peanut butter to try.

Although I refer to my son by the moniker of Bacon Boy, it would be much more accurate to call him Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly Sandwich Boy. He turned twenty this summer, and for at least eighteen of those years, peanut butter and grape jelly on white bread sandwiches have been a mainstay of his diet. Though grade school and junior high, every day for lunch (unless it was pizza day in the cafeteria), he took a pb&j sandwich, Pringles, and apple slices for lunch. EVERY day. The lunch room ladies probably thought I was the most boring mother, making her son the exact same lunch every day, but it was what he wanted. Now when people see Bacon Boy, over six feet tall and over 200 pounds of pure muscle, they say to me, "How did he get so big?" And I always answer, "Peanut butter!"

So when the jars of Planter's Peanut Butter arrived from the National Peanut Board, the first taste test went to my son who happened to be home visiting from college. I have to explain. For eighteen years the only peanut butter he has eaten has been Skippy. Yes, I know all about the wonders of natural, organic, free-range peanut butter, but when you are buying it in gallon drums because your growing boy eats up to five or six sandwiches a day of the stuff (during high school it was not only lunch but pre-dinner snack), natural peanut butter is just too expensive. And the one time I tried to feed my son generic peanut butter, he acted like I had tried to give him a pb&j made from grape jelly and sawdust--he knew it wasn't Skippy. I had to feed the rest of that generic jar it to the birds.

So he happily let me make him a post-lunch snack of half a sandwich made with his friend Skippy, and half a sandwich made with the new Planter's Peanut Butter. He devoured the Skippy half, and then thoughtfully ate his way through the Planter's half. "It's different," he said, "but I like it." High praise!

Since I am the only one in the house who eats peanut butter straight off a spoon, I sampled the creamy Skippy and the creamy Planter's that way. I liked the Planters better. It had more of a roasted peanut flavor. Also in comparison, the Planter's had one less gram fat, one more gram protein, and the same amount of sodium and sugar as Skippy. The Planter's also packed more of powerful peanut aroma when I opened the jar--even after the jar had been open and in use for a week.

For my final test of flavor, I made peanut butter cookies using a recipe out of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook--the same recipe I have been using for decades:

• 1 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup flour

First, cream the butter and the peanut butter together. Then beat in both the sugars, until smooth, and add the egg and vanilla. Mix together the salt, baking soda, and the flour, and stir it into the first mixture until thoroughly combined. Scoop the dough out in balls (I use my smallest cookie scoop that holds a teaspoon), and roll the balls in sugar. Flatten the balls on a cookie sheet with the bottom of a glass, and bake 10-12 minutes in a 350 degree oven. To decorate this batch, I pressed a piece of candy corn into the top of each cookie as soon as they came out of the oven.

My husband and I though the cookies were great--very peanuty--and even my daughter, Picky Girl, ate one and wanted more. Planter's Peanut Butter has become our new family peanut butter! 

What's New: Bauducco Panettone

In the late 1960s, my mother had a subscription to the Time-Life Foods of the World cookbooks. Every couple of months, another volume would arrive, and we would spend the next few weeks cooking our way through the chosen country or region. One of the first volumes to arrive to arrive was The Cooking of Italy. We learned to make our own egg noodles, using my mother's newly purchased pasta machine, and made our own cannelloni. One of our favorites was Gnocchi Verdi--wonderful spinach dumplings that my mother served searingly hot with flank steak. We made Cenci--strips of sweet pastry tied into loose knots and fried--and we made Panettone, an egg-yellow cake studded with raisins and dried fruit.

I hadn't thought about panettone in years. It's not something one finds in an Iowa grocery store, so when I received two Bauducco Panettone as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker's program, I was thrilled. Panettone is a cake usually eaten in Italy at Christmastime, but the two cakes I received were made in Brazil by the Bauducco Company, founded almost 50 years ago by an Italian immigrant, and now one of the leading exporters of these fabulous cakes. I received the traditional panettone made with candied fruits and raisins, and one made with chocolate chips.

When I unpacked the panettone, my husband commented that they looked like giant cupcakes. Indeed they had been baked and shipped in tall, round cooking papers, and the cake crested above each in a golden dome. (The chocolate one had gotten a little squashed in its box and was more of a loaf than a round.) My mother and I had baked our panettone in a coffee can to achieve the desired shape. Included with the panettone were several recipes. I was intrigued by the idea of using the panettone to make French toast, a dish that is popular in our house.

Usually when I make French toast, I use a stiff bread like a French or Italian loaf that is leftover from another meal. The panettone was a moist, rich cake, with a soft texture. It had not occurred to me to preslice the loaves, and let the cakes firm up by drying out so the slices would be easier to handle. I was afraid that as soon as put the French toast into my egg batter, they would disassemble. So I decided to make stuffed French toast.

With the slices of the traditional panettone made with candied fruit I raisins, I spread one side of the bread with apricot jam. This glued the first slice to the second slice, making a more stable bread to handle. I glued together the chocolate chip bread slices with raspberry jam and a few more chocolate chips. Then I made a batter of half-and-half and eggs, with a little cinnamon sprinkled in, to coat the slices. Once I had cooked the French toast on a griddle, I dusted the slices with powdered sugar.

The Bauducco Panettone made fabulous French toast! The cake had absorbed the eggy batter and puffed up nicely. Because of the jams used as filling, the slices needed no syrup. My husband declared it the best "upscale French toast" he had ever eaten--worthy to be on the room service menu of a fancy hotel. I thought it would be perfect to serve as Christmas breakfast.

For my second use of the panettones, I made a simple, whats-in-my-cupboards trifle. First, I made up a 4-serving box of vanilla instant pudding mixed with equal parts milk and half-and-half. Then I cut cubes out of the panettones. I layered cake cubes, a drizzle of chocolate sauce, and pudding into small dessert glasses--two layers of each--and put them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Then I served them with a swirl of whipped cream on the top--yummy!

One of the other recipes on the sheet enclosed with the Bauducco Panettones was for stuffing. This is the time of year I start collecting bits of loaves of specialty breads that I buy to become part of the Thanksgiving bread stuffing for my turkey. I will make sure that part of the panettone with dried fruit and raisins goes into that bag in the freezer. It will be a welcome addition to the stuffing. The chocolate chip panettone is already starting to disappear all on its own. Be sure and find a retailer near you that carries these wonderful cakes, and enjoy some yourself: http://www.bauducco.com/en/where-to-find-us/.

 

What's New: KC Masterpiece Southern-Style Barbecue Sauce

Like most people, I collect things. As a foodie, I tend to collect food things. Like tins of tea. Jars of marmalade. And bottles of barbecue sauce. I LOVE barbecue sauce, as do most of the rest of my immediate family. There are certain brands of sauce that have become staples, used in our house for specific recipes. Making my famous wings? Gotta have Famous Dave's Sweet & Zesty Sauce. Grilling the first chicken of the season outside? Gotta have Bone Suckin' Sauce. At any one time, there are at least six open bottles and jars of different sauces in my refrigerator.

Which is why I was excited when,as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a bottle of the new KC Masterpiece Southern Style Barbecue Sauce. I had Labor Day off, and the bottle arrived just in time to become part of that day's menu.

KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce was originally created in 1978 by Dr. Rich Davis in Kansas City. The KC line has increased in number over the years, and with the addition of  the Southern-Style, there are now eight flavors. The Southern Style Sauce is a thin, vinegar-based sauce, with a slight pepper kick to it's sweet tang. First, I wanted to try it in burgers. On the Labor Day menu: Mushroom and Cheese Stuffed BLT Burgers. 

With a thinner sauce like this one, I find that they don't stick well to burger patties on the grill. So I decided to mix the KC Masterpiece directly into the meat before I shaped the patties. Each burger was constructed of two thin patties with sauce in the meat, sandwiched together around a heaping spoonful  of diced, cooked mushrooms and cheese--shredded mozzarella for my husband, blue cheese crumbles for me. I left about half an inch of meat clear around the filling to seal the patties together. The sauce in the meat made them easier to seal. Then I carefully placed the patties on the grill, directly over the hot coals. To keep stuffed burgers made form two patties like this from separating, you need to sear both sides quickly so the meat seals and keeps the filling inside. As the burgers cooked, I painted each side with  little more ot the Southern Style Sauce.

Once the burgers were cooked, I constructed the finished sandwich. The bottom of the fluffy onion bun was coated with a layer of mayonnaise to try and seal the bread from the burger juice (It didn't work,  but was a nice effort!). Next was a layer of lettuce and sliced tomato. Then the burgers were topped with some crispy bacon I had saved from breakfast the day before, and some diced, cooked onions and peppers. I drizzled a little more sauce on top, and finished with the top of the bun. The burgers were thick, juicy, and a total mess to eat. I like the fact that because the sauce was in the meat before the burgers were grilled--the flavor went through and through. My husband said that they were the best burgers I have made in a long time.  

The bottle of the KC Masterpiece Southern Style Barbecue Sauce said that the sauce is good on chicken or  pork, on the grill or in the slow-cooker. So for my second recipe, I made my slow-cooker pulled pork. I had made four enormous crock pots full of this meat for Bacon Boy's high school graduation two years ago. We had so much left over, and ate it from the freezer for so long, I think I have only made it twice since then. Definitely time to give the pork another go.

I bought two pork loins, and layered them in my medium-sized crock pot on top of sliced onions. Then I poured the barbecue sauce on top, added a little broth, and went out the door to work. When I came back nine hours later, the house smelled wonderfully of roasted pork and saucy goodness. The pork fell  into tender shreds as I went to heap it up on the buns. The KC sauce made the meat slightly pink, and it tasted fabulous. The onions had almost completely disintegrated into the meat, and on the fluffy onion buns, the sandwiches were fabulous--especially with a tart dill pickle on the side.

If you need a new barbecue sauce for the last cookouts of the season, the KC Masterpiece webpage has a store locator--type in your zipcode and go get some sauce!

What's New: Birds Eye Steamfresh Chef's Favorites Helps Make Spinach Artichoke Dip

If you have walked through the frozen foods section of your grocery store lately, you have noticed a change in what's on the shelves in the veggie section. Besides the growth of single-serving frozen vegetable packets that I have mentioned before, there has been a rapid growth in packages of quick and easy, meal-ready blends of items. Gone are the days of potatoes displayed only as pucks, fries, and tots. Now you can buy bags of roasted potatoes mixed with carrots and herbs, ready to microwave and serve as a side-dish to pork chops or beef tenderloins. Or if you are of a veggie mindset, you can eat the bagged blend as your main dish.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program, I was lucky enough to receive a sample of the new Birds Eye Steamfresh Chef's Favorites. The first one out of the box was the Lightly Sauced Creamed Spinach. As a child, I hated spinach--especially straight out of the can, Popeye-style. But as an adult, I have learned the joys of spinach. I love it fresh in salads or on sandwiches, and I love fresh spinach cooked. But what to do with an entire bag of Creamed Spinach? Then it hit me--I would reinvent my Thanksgiving Day artichoke dip to include spinach.

My Thanksgiving Day menu doesn't vary. It did for the first few years we were married as my husband and I decided what dishes we like best. But then the menu became set in stone: roast turkey stuffed with cornbread dressing (yes, I know I am not supposed to stuff the turkey with the dressing anymore, but in twenty-six years no one has died, or even gotten sick as a result of my cornbread stuffing and it just tastes better that way), cranberry orange relish, sweet potato rolls, mashed potatoes with sour cream, Brussels sprouts with walnuts and orange, pickled beets, balsamic carrot salad with currants, and pecan and pumpkin pies with real whipped cream. And the appetizers are almost always bacon-wrapped dates and breadsticks, and artichoke dip. What if I added the creamed spinach to the artichoke dip?

I dug around in the cupboard and found the 9-inch casserole that I always make the Thanksgiving artichoke dip in, and got started:

• 1 can artichokes, in brine, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, diced small
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss (or 2 tablespoons cream cheese)
• 1 package Birds Eye Steamfresh Chef's Favorite Creamed Spinach, partially defrosted
• 2/3 oz grated parmesan cheese

I chopped the artichokes, diced the garlic, and stirred in the Laughing Cow Cheese. I like Laughing Cow in recipes like this because it is creamy already, and mixes into other ingredients much easier than cream cheese. I added half the grated parmesan cheese, and layered it into my casserole.

Next I put the Creamed Spinach in its pouch in the microwave. The package was supposed to cook completely in 5 minutes, so I cooked it for 2 1/2 minutes. That partially defrosted the creamed spinach, but didn't cook it all the way. Then I opened the package and topped the artichoke mixture with the spinach and cream mixture. I stirred it together with the artichoke layer, and topped the dip with the rest of the grated parmesan cheese. I baked it for about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. It smelled wonderfully cheesy and garlicky.

For dinner that night, I had bought and cooked lovely pork chops, and had baked two large potatoes. I served the Spinach Artichoke Dip on top of the baked potatoes. It was wonderful! I also sampled some on crackers just to make sure it will be  perfect for Thanksgiving. It was so good, it was hard to stop eating the dip on the crackers. 

I also got a sample of the Birds Eye Steamfresh Chef's Favorites Roasted Red Potatoes & Green Beans which were delicious with my grilled pork back ribs, and a sample of the Mushroom and Green Bean Risotto which I steamed in the microwave, and then added to a skillet of chorizo suasages that I had  cooked and sliced. My husband, who is not a big fan of rice, thought this was delicious. All of these veggies and sauces are on the light side--the creamed spinach had the most fat with 5 grams a serving. These aren't available in your grocery until September, but from what I could guess, based on the other packages of like-minded items in the freezer section, they should be less than $3 a package.

So next month, when you are trolling through the frozen foods aisle dreaming up dinners, make sure you grab a couple of the happy blue Birds Eye Stemfresh Chef's Favorites to try!

Brewing Drinks with Godiva Coffee: Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Smoothie

Recently I received two bags of new coffees from Godiva as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program. In a past life, I used to be a barista--server of wondrous coffee drinks hot and cold. I came late to the coffee game. When I started as a barista, I didn't drink it. Five years later when I left my cafe, I was addicted. I now have to have coffee every morning or the day doesn't start right. I have gradually toned down the amount of caffeine consumed, but I still crave the flavor and the aroma.

Enter the Godiva coffees. The first one I tried was the Hazelnut Creme. The bag described it as: "Enticing toasted hazelnut flavor with a sweet creamy finish. Medium roast." Now if you open one of the gorgeous gold Godiva chocolate boxes and offer me a piece, I will skip the pieces filled with their signature hazelnut praline. It's not that I don't like hazelnut. I do. But there are several different flavors that I like only in or close to their original state. I do not like bananas any way except as bananas whole or sliced directly in to something--like banana cream pie. Banana bread? Not so much. Hazelnuts have to be whole or toasted as an ingredient still close to their original form in a dish--like a hazelnut cookie.

I like the Hazelnut Creme coffee, but don't think it satisfies my craving for a pure hazelnut flavor. However, if you are a person who opens a gold box of Godiva delight and goes straight for the little chocolate oyster shell filled with the creamy hazelnut praline, then this is the coffee for you. I know hazelnut is a popular coffee flavor, and this is certainly the best one I've had. The aroma from the cup is lovely--hazelnut with a chaser of milk chocolate.

The second bag I got was the Chocolate Truffle: "Melt-in-your-mouth Godiva chocolate flavor with a sweet creamy finish. Medium roast." I opened this bag of coffee and was whapped in the face by a strong coffee-chocolate one-two punch. I love chocolate and coffee together! I envision angels at staff meeting every morning drinking coffee and eating chocolate cake--my idea of a heavenly breakfast. I love chocolate truffles, and this coffee tastes like one melted in my cup.

When I get the chance to go to a Godiva store (the closest one is and hour and a half away), I love the chocolate-covered fresh strawberries they have this time of year. The bite of the fresh, sweet strawberry with the snap of the chocolate covering is bliss in my mouth. Although I love this coffee hot, I wanted to try and recreate that chocolate berry blast in an icier, middle-of-the-summer form.

First, I brewed the Chocolate Truffle coffee at one and a half strength, and chilled it. I wanted all the ingredients as cold as possible so that the end result wouldn't be diluted. Then I went to the blender to create my Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Smoothie:

• 2 cups chilled Godiva Chocolate truffle coffee, brewed at 1 1/2 times strength
• 1 1/2 cups frozen, unsweetened strawberries
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1/4 chocolate syrup

Blend and serve in a tall glass with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle, and a strawberry on top. Perfect for a hot August day--and it makes enough for two servings!

 

Cooking from the Books: Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood

The first time I saw the word "quinoa," pronounced "keen-wa," I had to look it up. I had no clue what it was: a high-protein, whole grain grown mostly in South America. Okay. It sounded funky, and NOT like something I could serve at my dinner table.

Then I cam across the book Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming. It explains the history and nutritive value of this "superfood." Quinoa is a South American grain, that I found in the health food section of my local grocery store. It's expensive at $3-$4 a pound, but a little goes a long way when cooked up, and it provides more protein and nutritive value than the same amount of pasta or meat. It's also a complex carbohydrate that digests slowly and has staying power, and is gluten-free.

You can buy quinoa in red, black, or golden colored "seeds." In my recipe trials, I found that the golden cooks the quickest, and that there is no noticeable taste difference among the colors. It is also available as quinoa flower and flakes, useful for baking. It cooks like rice--you put the quinoa in water, boil, and simmer until the quinoa puffs up slightly and has absorbed the water. Buy quinoa that has been rinsed during processing--this removes a bitter flavor from its natural coating. Cooked plain with a a little salt in the water, I think quinoa has a slightly nutty taste, milder than wild rice. It works well as a base for either sweet or savory recipes.

The first recipe I tried out of Quinoa 365 was "Apple Strudel Breakfast Cereal." I followed the recipe exactly as written the first two times, and then streamlined it slightly. My version calls for:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup dried apple slices, cut into 1/2-inch wide bits
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 6-oz carton vanilla greek yogurt
• 6 tablespoons sliced almonds

Combine the quinoa, water, apples, raisins, and cinnamon in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to  simmer for 30 minutes. This is almost twice the cooking time recommended by the original recipe, but I found that I prefer the quinoa a little softer after it absorbs more water. I stir it occasinally since the dried apples tend to float, and the raisins tend to sink. Once the quinoa has finished cooking, take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

 

I then divide it among six small round Gladware containers and freeze it. To reheat it, I pop the lid and microwave the quinoa and fruit from 2-3 minutes, depending on the microwave. Then I top it with a tablespoon of the vanilla Greek yogurt and a tablespoon of the sliced almonds. The original recipe added a tablespoon of brown sugar when the vanilla is put in, but because I use vanilla Greek yogurt, that sweetens the quinoa enough for me.

If you don't freeze the quinoa after it is cooked, the book says that it will keep for a week in the refrigerator. I am all about make-ahead and freeze meals, and love to be able to have a power-packed breakfast ready to go that just needs a few minutes in the microwave. I can eat the "Apple Strudel Breakfast Cereal," and then go to my hour-long spin class and have energy to burn!

In taste tests that I did with family and friends, my husband didn't care for the breakfast cereal version of quinoa, but he is not really a grains person unless it's oatmeal in a cookie. My more adventurous friends liked it, and thought it was a nice change from steel-cut oats cooked with dried fruit. I also tried the "Pumpkin Pancakes" where cooked quinoa is added to a pumpkin and spice pancake batter, cooked, and served with pecans and maple syrup. This was NOT a low-calorie breakfast option, but the pancakes were moist and yummy--the perfect breakfast for a snowy morning. And they also froze and reheated well. This book has other recipes for main dishes, cold salads, and soups. Now that I have found quinoa flour at the grocery store, I plan to jump from the breakfasts in the front of Quinoa 365 to the cookie and dessert recipes at the back!