Kitchen Gadget Girl

Last night, I was invited by Brittany Gilbert from Eye on Blogs (favorite gadget: George Foreman Grill, although she recommends the one with removable plates, which sadly she does not have) to a blogger meet-up in San Francisco, at the KPIX studios. Ooh, the fun! The food! The adult beverages!

Alas, I find these events difficult, as I am by nature an introvert.

No really. I am. Honest.

So, to avoid cowering in the corner like a loser, I walk around and meet people and ask them about their favorite kitchen gadget. Here is my roundup from last evening:

Laura from The Smart Moms Network pulled her favorite gadget out of her purse (folks, that is dedication!) - a Double Hinged Wine Opener (looks just like a parrot when it is closed). And Analise, who I met towards the end of the evening, is a big fan of her Crockpot (me too! I am drooling over this slow cooker from Cuisinart).

Andy from Jook Warrior, who I met while talking with Biggie of Lunch In A Box (favorite gadget: Rubberized Shelf Liners) is a fan of Henckels Take Apart Kitchen Shears. Andy uses them for everything from cutting apart chicken to snipping herbs. Samantha, who was also talking with Andy, but has no blog (the horror!) loves her Cuisinart food processor.

Do you need a color consultant who cooks? Rachel of Hue Consulting, is a big fan of her Double Sided Melon Baller with the grippy handle. I have one of those too, my kids love all kinds of round foods. While talking with Rachel, I met Patrick of Housing Crash News, and he likes his Zyliss Salad Spinner. Rachel and I both agreed spinning lettuce in the Zyliss is a lot like starting a lawnmower!

Alison, representing her sister’s Texas Word Tangle blog, loves her Onion Goggles. And Mario, from Bay Area Investment Real Estate (who worked at Taco Bell in high school, cutting tomatoes) recommends his Serrated Tomato Slicer. Perfect timing, given that tomatoes are everywhere in the farmer’s markets now.

Jessica from It’s My Life, wanted me to know that her most used kitchen gadget is a KitchenAid Stand Mixer, but her new favorite is really her Panini Press. And Danielle from Apartment Therapy is wild about her Silpat (note: these come in many different sizes). She also gave me a crazy recipe for a spread to put atop peanut butter that I am eager to try out!

Sharon, the Blogger Queen, gushed about the Magic Bullet, an infomercial-based kitchen gadget (Really? Sounds suspiciously like something else altogether!), a device that claims to do “Any job in 10 seconds or less”. Wow, does that come in a husband model? Seriously though, Sharon said it is her favorite as she can whip up personalized smoothies on the fly for her family.

I met the two founders of Lookiloos, a super-popular website and blog devoted to sneak peaks inside local homes. Sheila loves her Apple Corer (a secret favorite of several other bloggers) and Desiree counts on her Electric Food Slicer to feed her 4 boys.

And last but not least, I went all the way to the City just to chat with a couple of moms from my neighborhood, Charlene of Shine and Crazed Parent, who is a big fan of her Mini Cuisinart Chopper, and Beth of TechMamas who claims that she is loves her very low-tech, old-time Rice Cooker, and is afraid of pots and pans. And stupid me, I totally forgot to ask Stefania from CityMama her favorite kitchen gadget. Ah well, there is always next time!

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Photo courtesy of Egan Snow

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Two reasons for today’s quick and healthy bar cookie - we are short on time this afternoon, as my daughter has an after school program that runs late. And, tonight I am going to a blogger meet up in San Francisco. Well, I guess there is a third. Did you know that eating yummy cookies week after week is a great way to add inches to your waistline! With my high school reunion right around the corner, I have decided to be a little more circumspect with my cookie baking. But, that does not mean I am willing to sacrifice taste!

This recipe is adapted from a recipe from the New American Heart Association Cookbook, a long time occupant of my cookbook shelf.  I originally made them in May of 2002, and made a note that they were “tasty!”. The second time around is no different. Here is the recipe:

Apricot Raisin Bars

• 6 ounces of dried apricots, chopped
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 3/4 cups unsweetened apple juice, divided (this means you will use some in one place and some in another)
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 cups quick cook oatmeal
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup butter, cut into chunks

In a medium saucepan, combine apricots, raisins and 1 1/2 cups apple juice. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, until fruit is soft.

In a small bowl, mix together remaining 1/4 cup of apple juice with cornstarch and lemon zest. Add to fruit mixture and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. The fruit mixture will become very thick. Set aside to cool

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray 13″x9″ pan with cooking spray, set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, baking powder and both sugars. Add the butter, and using the pulse button, pulse until flour mixture looks like sand, with small bits of butter everywhere. Stir in the oatmeal.

Press 2/3 of the flour-oatmeal mixture into the pan. Spread fruit over crust, then top with remaining mix.

Bake for 30 minutes, until crust is light golden.

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Last week’s CSA box had a dozen lovely tomatillos, and my immediate reaction was to pull out the cast iron pan and whip up a fresh salsa. In the hot skillet, I roasted the tomatillos until lightly charred. Then I added them to the  food processor along with 1/4 a peeled red onion, 1/4 cup cilantro, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1/2 a seeded jalapeno. I processed until well blended, and chilled until I was ready to serve. That night, we had a great appetizer of tomatillo salsa, fresh guacamole and chips.

Lelo in Nopo also made a Salsa Verde last week, enough to can and save for later this winter. Sadly, my recipe only makes enough for one, maybe two, overindulgent nights of chips and salsa.

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Strawberries, hulled by my daughter, ready to eat

September 2008

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For a while now, I have been wanting to extol the virtues of my new Oxo Serrated Peeler, which Santa left me in my stocking and I subsequently used to peel lemons for Limoncello. In fact, my love of this peeler was the original inspiration for my blog. Imagine, I could share my experiences with different kitchen gadgets!

But then, I tried my serrated peeler on a cucumber, and it didn’t work that well. In fact, it did not work at all, it mangled the peel. I went back to my trusty Kuhn Rikon Peeler, which did the job with no problem. I am generally quick on the uptake, but it never dawned on me that there might be different peelers for different jobs.

According to Cooks Illustrated, there are loads of different peelers for different situations. My Kuhn Rikon Peeler is perfect for cucumbers and potatoes (an old-fashioned straight peeler is also good in this instance). The new Oxo Serrated Peeler is good for tender things, like peaches, tomatoes, and lemons, when you just want the peel and no pith. And a julienne peeler makes beautiful matchsticks for garnish or salads or stir fry. Of course, both Oxo and Kuhn offer professional versions with swivel and high-end blade features.

Now that I have cleared up that giant mystery, I would like to heartily recommend both my Oxo Serrated Peeler and my Kuhn Rikon Peeler. And now that I finally understand how both are used, peeling should not be such a confusing experience any longer.

Photo courtesy of jugglerpm

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Our new friends (and neighbors) invited us over for a spur-of-the-moment Paella party this weekend. A chance to socialize and drink wine with our friends was more than we could resist, even on a school night! And, the lure of Paella cooked on the grill was too enticing, almost makes me want to go out and get a paella pan for my grill. Here are some photos:

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My friend Suzy came over for lunch yesterday, and I served a lovely (if I do say so myself!) ladies’ lunch, including a Farro, Avocado, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad, along with open-faced Proscuitto, Manchego and Fig Tartines. I was rushing home from an appointment, so did not have time to prepare the butter and fig preserves ahead of time.

When it came time for lunch, I laid out all the Tartine ingredients, with the idea that we would make our own. Unfortunately, the butter was very cold (straight from the fridge) and the baguette was lovely and soft. You can see my problem. So, my big question is:

Do you leave your butter out (if so, how) or do you refrigerate?

I used Photo Dropper to find this Creative Commons licensed photo on Flickr, courtesy of josh-n.

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Little A and I attempted to make Spritz cookies this week - the pictures in my ancient Betty Crocker Cooky Book, circa 1963, made it look so easy, and being the Kitchen Gadget Girl, of course I had a Spritz Maker handy. We thought we could whip out some of the cute shapes they had in the book, maybe even some with food coloring! And the recipe itself was easy enough:

Spritz Cookies

•  1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour

Mix butter, sugar, egg, salt and flavoring thouroughly. Add flour and mix well. Using 1/4 of the dough at a time, force through cookie press onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 6 - 9 minutes until set, but not brown. Cool.

Easy, right? Well, actually, Spritz making requires quite a bit of technique and timing. Apparently, there is an optimal temperature for the dough, and a little twisting technique with the Spritz Maker. I have a bunch of Spritz tips, and Little A and I started with a flower shaped one. Unfortunately, they mostly ended up looking like blobs. Then we tried a funnel shaped tip, but that ended up making larger blobs, that I seemed to intrinsically know would not cook all the way through.

Finally, we ended up with a small star and the flat disc, and were able to squish out long, shaped cookies that we cut into smaller pieces. I also chilled the dough, which made things a little easier, thanks to recommendations from this site. And after reading a couple other blogs about Spritz Cookies, I realize that my Spritz Maker might be a little outdated. I am not sure what the best Cookie Press is, do you know?

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Of course I canned tomatoes this weekend, now is the time. So did other bloggers, such as Lelo in Nopo (met her at BlogHer, and have really been enjoying her blog), Hedonia (another from BlogHer) and Andrea’s Recipes (yet another BlogHer contact). All have great instructions and loads of pictures if you want to follow along. If you are interested, there are loads of other blogger recommendations about tomato canning, just use the Food Blog Search.

On Sunday, I made an Heirloom Tomato Ketchup from Cooking Light that turned out pretty well, although it took much longer to reduce down, probably because I tripled the recipe. I used 9 pounds of tomatoes and came away with 5 half-pints of ketchup.

Monday morning, I canned the San Marzano Roma Tomatoes from our CSA, into pint and quart jars. After peeling and quartering, I brought the tomatoes to a boil, then poured them into jars and proceessed for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. The tricky part happened when my daughter’s play date forgot to get off the bus, so I had to call the school, at the same time I was filling jars. Got the jars filled, lids and bands on, then sprinted back to the bus stop to pick up our friend. Phew!

My garage storage shelf is now full of 11 quarts and 11 pints of quartered tomatoes. Oh, I love that feeling of accomplishment. Now, I need to see if I can get my hands on some more tomatoes, so I can try Alanna’s Slow-Roasted Tomatoes.

Are you canning any of summer’s bounty this year? I would love to hear about it (and get inspired!)

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I picked up several boxes of tomatoes this weekend, and am planning to can them for the winter. However, I cannot resist eating some right now! This tart was a great way to enjoy the freshness of heirloom tomatoes. Since it was a soccer practice night, I sliced the tomatoes and onions ahead of time, and grated the mozarella cheese. All I needed to do when I returned home was to assemble the tart and bake. The recipe originally appeared in the June 2007 issue of Sunset. Wow, I cannot believe I held onto the recipe that long!

Heirloom tomato tart

• 7 sheets of filo dough, thawed [kgg: I used Whole Wheat Fillo Dough from the Fillo Factory]
• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 7 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 cup very thinly sliced onion
• 1 cup shredded mozarella cheese
• 8 tomatoes, cut into 1/8 inch thick slices [kgg: I used heirloom, Romas would be good too]
• 1 tbsp. dried oregano [kgg: I used oregano from our CSA, delivered earlier this summer]
• Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Lay 1 sheet of filo on the cookie sheet and brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. Parmesan cheese. Repeat layering 6 more times (with filo, butter and Parmesan), pressing each sheet firmly to the one below.

Scatter onion across the filo, topping with mozarella cheese. Arrange tomatoes in a single layer, overlapping the edges slightly. Sprinkle with oregano and salt & pepper.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until filo is golden brown. Cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Note: Slice the tomatoes as thin as you can, so that the juice evaporates when baking, which will prevent soggy dough.

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