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Memorial Day Food Ideas

motherwouldknow — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:47 +0000

Holiday meals send me scurrying to my cookbooks, favorite websites, and consultations with my valued "kitchen cabinet" for menu combinations and recipes. Memorial Day is traditionally the start of the American summer eating season. Whether it's a picnic, a barbecue, or a pot luck, many folks celebrate Memorial Day with family and friends, eating communally and enjoying each other's company.

I've brainstormed through my list of picnic/barbecue recipes and tips to gather a few for you. If you are planning a get together, or bringing a dish to a pot luck this weekend, I hope these will spark your creative juices (pardon the pun.)

Easy appetizers

These dips, chips and spreads are easy and you can prepare them a day or two ahead of time. You can even freeze the hummus or the goat cheese spread and defrost them on Memorial Day morning.

Sides and Salads

How to Grill Salmon

motherwouldknow — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:01:11 +0000

When I married my husband, he had a few “tried and true” recipes. Linguini and clam sauce, burritos, and scrambled eggs were his mainstays. He has expanded his repertoire a bit in the decades since, thanks mainly to our Weber kettle grill. The imperial “we” use the barbecue year round, even in the rain and occasionally when it is snowing.

Although his burgers are amazing, my absolute favorite husband-prepared dinner is grilled fish and vegetables. When it comes to grilling at our house, I am the sous-chef. Scampering around to find ingredients or to fetch the right size plate, I watch with admiration as he moves the coals, places the food on the grill, and watches over it.

Recently I asked the grill-master to distill his technique with salmon into some useful tips for a beginner. The result is this 5-step guide. Although I can’t promise that your salmon will taste as good as his, you’ll have a good start toward making an incredible and healthy grilled dinner.

5-Steps to Incredible Grilled Salmon

Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

motherwouldknow — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:46:33 +0000

I didn't grow up to be a tea-sandwiches-with-the-crusts-cut-off kind of gal. In fact, in high school, my standard sassy line to my own mother whenever she (frequently) got on my nerves was a question about whether she really wanted me to be just like Tricia Nixon, sitting primly at a ladies tea eating white bread sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Fast forward a few decades and here I am, happily cutting off the crusts for tea sandwiches for a baby shower for the daughter of one of my close friends.

The menu for the shower was tea party foods. I volunteered to make tea sandwiches (of course) and small scones, along with lemon mousse. Although there were several types of sandwiches, I felt as though the menu needed a colorful, vegetable-based dish.

The stuffed tomatoes idea came to me as I strolled down the produce aisle and realized that Campari tomatoes are the perfect size for stuffing – big enough to easily hollow out, but not so big that the stuffing would be an overwhelming amount of food. Campari tomatoes are bigger than cherry tomatoes and smaller than regular ones. They are typically sold on a stem, in a hard shell plastic box. As you can see, they are slightly larger than a large-size egg.

This recipe is gluten and dairy-free, a simple but elegant brunch, lunch, or tea-time dish.

Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

Music to Cook By

motherwouldknow — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:30:15 +0000

I can’t imagine cooking (or baking) in silence. Sometimes I chat with whoever is around or listen to a conversational show on radio, but it’s music that really gets me in the mood to whip, chop, stir, and simmer .

My musical talents are nonexistent; I can’t sing on key and when I gave up clarinet lessons in fourth grade, my father gave my clarinet to an Israeli kibbutz in case I had second thoughts. Although I enjoy listening, I am timid about exploring new genres and artists. I may have the courage to experiment in the kitchen, but music is an entirely different story.

Like much else in life, finding my “music mentor”, Stephanie, was happenstance. Although music is a huge part of her life, she is multi-talented and our initial connections were – as you might guess – food-related.

Besides being an amazing singer, an insightful therapist, and a fun person in general, Stephanie is a great cook and baker. Years ago, she brought a fabulous ginger cake to a party and, when I asked for the recipe, introduced me to its creator, David Lebovitz. (Remember my obsession with all-things ginger, especially David’s candied ginger?) The cake remains one of my favorite desserts, even though it doesn’t include chocolate, and I'm indebted to Stephanie for introducing me to it.

Baked Lemon Tarragon Chicken

motherwouldknow — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:00:39 +0000

When dinner has to be quick-and-easy, I don’t usually think of baked chicken. But this recipe fits the bill. You can make it in less than an hour and most of that time the chicken bakes unattended. The dish requires few ingredients and it is delicious cold if there are leftovers.

If those attributes aren’t enough, baked lemon tarragon chicken is a budget meal too. I made enough for 4 people for about $8, including the price of the seasonings. With rice and a salad, this meal costs less per serving than a Chipotle chicken burrito, a McDonald’s McChicken meal, or a grilled chicken sandwich at Potbelly Sandwich Shop. And it tastes a heck of a lot better too!

As you are making this recipe, remember the chicken basics, especially rules #1-7 and #10. It’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to handling poultry.

Lemon Tarragon Chicken

Matzo for Mother's Day?

motherwouldknow — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:54:18 +0000

My pal MarocMama kidded me that I should do a post entitled "Matzo in May" after I bemoaned having so much matzo (and matzo meal) left over after Passover. Instead I am writing about the Streit’s matzo company this month and this post has nothing to do with my leftover matzos, Passover, or even Jewish cooking.

I’ve never been a brand loyalist when it comes to matzo and other Passover foods. I don’t keep kosher, so I don’t look at the religious certifications displayed by Streit’s and other companies producing kosher foods. Up until this year, I’ve bought matzo to eat and for matzo pudding, matzo meal for my Passover rolls, and other products such as matzo farfel (small broken up pieces of matzo that I use for pseudo-granola during Passover) from whichever company’s products I found at my local grocery.

But this year, after a rather random call to the Streit’s consumer number for help with a question, I made a special effort to reward that company with my business. I blogged about my experience with Streit’s and Rabbi Kirchner, but after Passover, I thought little about Streit’s or matzo, despite the 2 leftover boxes in my cupboard. Until last week.

Then I saw this:

Currant Scones

motherwouldknow — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:22:49 +0000

Even if my husband weren’t Irish-American, I would love scones. Buttery, crumbly, and altogether lovely, they melt in your mouth. During my vanillathon with Kelly last weekend, I started playing around with a favorite scone recipe that features candied ginger. Substituting currants and vanilla for the ginger takes the scones back to their traditional roots, but retains the fantastic crumbly texture of the original recipe. After a few tweaks and another taste test by the resident scone-master, these currant scones are now ready for prime time.

Why use currants and not raisins? Both currants and raisins are dried grapes. The difference is in the type of grape they come from, and consequently the size and taste of the dried fruit. Currants are dried red grapes, typically the zante variety native to Greece. Raisins (including the type known as golden raisins in the U.S. and sultanas in Great Britain) are dried green grapes. In general, currants are smaller and a bit more tart than raisins. Traditionally scones are made with currants and I prefer them in this recipe for their size and taste.

Three Notes About This Recipe:

Vanillathon - Does Homemade Vanilla Make a Difference?

motherwouldknow — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:51:37 +0000

Last fall, Kelly (of KellyBakes) and I made homemade vanilla extract. We went in together on a bulk purchase of 4 different types of vanilla beans and then blogged about our extract-making. Our plan was bottle some of our vanilla bounty for holiday gifts and bake together (using part of the remainder) to see if we could discern a taste difference between the various types of vanilla beans. The vanillathon finally happened this past weekend, and while the results may not make a good New York Post headline, they will fascinate the bakers among us.

I did try a taste test on my own before our joint effort. For a group of expert taste testers, including Domenica Marchetti and Aviva Goldfarb, I made 2 batches (each) of Vanilla Cake and traditional madeleines from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my home to yours. I used different vanilla extracts for each batch and asked the testers if they could differentiate between the batches. None of us could. I would have called that result disappointing, except that the baked goods were quite delicious and even if we could not discern one high quality extract from another, the vanilla flavors were uniformly excellent.

This weekend’s vanillathon began with a jaunt through the National Arboretum; after all, there is no better inspiration than Mother Nature at her azalea and apple blossom best. After a side trip to Spike Mendelsohn’s We the Pizza (for very good, but not superior pizza and excellent freshly made fruit sodas) to fortify ourselves for the hard work ahead, we set to baking.

Fennel Salad Reimagined

motherwouldknow — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:00:25 +0000

Few vegetables are as transformed by cooking as fennel. Raw, fennel has a faintly licorice-like taste. I love it, but not everyone does. Whether you find the raw version intriguing or not, cooked fennel is much milder - interesting to be sure, but not remotely bizarre.

As the weather (finally) got warm this week, I got a hankering for Alice Waters’ shaved fennel salad. But in a moment of mad scientist kitchen-edition whimsy, I wondered what the dish would be if those same ingredients were cooked and made into a composed (arranged) salad. The answer is that the new version is as delicious as its progenitor, in a completely different way. Where the layered salad is crunchy and light, this one is smooth and the flavors are concentrated. Both are worthy of a place at your table.

Composed Fennel Salad With Mushrooms and Parmesan

Finding Peace During a Difficult Week

motherwouldknow — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:25:37 +0000

Before this week, I never thought about how bombs are made. Now that I’ve heard too much about the pressure cooker bombs apparently used in the Boston Marathon attack, I can’t stop thinking about the perversity of using a cooking pot to inflict brutality and violence.

Food brings people together. It is integral to large holiday celebrations, family get-togethers, and intimate conversations. Even when tragedy strikes or there is a death in a family, food is not just sustenance, it is comfort. Is there a culture that doesn't have its equivalent of a host offering an overflowing platter or a small plate, urging guests to "eat, eat"?

For those of us who cook, the process is often as much of a joy as the end result. Stirring a pot of soup can be soothing and kneading dough can be cathartic. We chop away our cares, simmer our troubles into disappearing steam, and turn an awful day into a pleasing batch of muffins. When we are done, we feel better and eagerly await the smiles and satisfied sounds of others sipping, chewing, crunching, and munching.