Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks

In our box from Two Small Farms on Friday, we were inundated with greens – Orach (a purple relative of spinach), Escarole, Arugula, and Lettuce. Guess what we will be eating this week?!

In our box, March 27th:

Orach
Leeks
Escarole
Baby Turnips
Chantenay Carrots
Arugula
Parsley Root (with parsley attached)
Lettuce
Celery

Sunday: Grilled Lamb Chops, grilled leeks, sautéed orach, Israeli couscous, salad (I mixed the lettuce, arugula and a bit of parsley together)

Monday: leftovers (kid’s have swim practice)

Tuesday: Roasted Chicken with Glazed Turnips and Carrots, salad

(I will then make chicken stock with the bones, parsley root, carrots and celery, which I will use the next day in the soup)

Wednesday: Cannellini Bean Soup with Roasted Italian Sausage and Escarole from Kayln’s Kitchen, fresh bread and salad

Thursday: Salmon roasted with leeks, carrots, salad (or leftovers, as we have a lot of food going on the prior two days)

Friday – mini block party

We have lots of carrots this week, so they will definitely go into lunches and maybe something for Cookie Thursday. Maybe I can think of something for our Friday mini-block party. Any suggestions?

I love shopping at Whole Foods, I really do. But, it can be expensive. So here are my five tricks for saving money while grocery shopping at Whole Foods:

1. Stick to the perimeter
2. Buy in season and on sale
3. Look for in-store coupons
4. Avoid processed foods
5. Buy in bulk

When I go into my local Whole Foods store, I do a big circle, starting in produce and working my way around the perimeter of the store. In the produce section, I look for what is on sale, what is seasonal and what is local. We don’t eat blueberries in the middle of January anymore, because they come from South America, don’t taste as good, and are super expensive. This week, Organic Gala Apples from Washington and Organic Avocados from California, are on sale, I will probably buy both. 

In the meats department this week, I see that my son’s favorite Wellshire Turkey Ham is on sale, so I will stock up – he eats that almost every day for lunch. In addition, my husband’s favorite Lamb Shoulder chops are on sale, we will have those sometime this week too. Turns out chicken is also on special, so I will roast that one night and make chicken stock to use another night.

How do I know all this sale information? Well, Whole Foods has a great website and they have their sale fliers available online, so you can check out the specials before you shop. Also, for my third recommendation, pick up the in-store circular, usually available at the information desk in the front of the store. I have found great coupons in there for cereals, dairy products and other middle-of-the-store items.

This brings me to my 4th recommendation – when you go into the middle of the store, you will find that items are more expensive. And processed. So, my 4th recommendation is to stay away from as much of the processed foods as you can, unless you can buy them with coupons. Those boxes of crackers and cookies can really add up. 

And finally, check out the bulk aisle. I can buy organic oatmeal for $1.39 a pound, loads of specialty flours in small amounts for whatever recipe I am making, and more whole grains than I can shake a stick at. My kids love the big Israeli couscous, but in the box, it costs about $3.50. If I buy it in bulk, it is $3.99 a pound. Savings of about $.50. Hey, every penny counts!

And before I start sounding holier-than-thou, let me explain that some weeks my shopping receipt gets up there. I have to restock pantry items, like King Arthur flour and baking sugar. Or we are completely out of cereal or snacks for the kids and no coupons are available for the products we like. Or I stupidly go grocery shopping when I am hungry, tired or depressed about something. That can really kill the bill! But most of the time, if I stick to my 5 rules of shopping at Whole Foods, I can buy healthy, organic, local foods for my family and maintain a decent bank balance.

What are your tricks to shopping at Whole Foods? And suggestions, things I should be looking out for?

Last week I was up to my elbows in honey, as I prepared my hive for its new residents, arriving sometime the second week of April. My first batch of bees arrived last April, and blogging about their installation was one of my first posts on this blog. Unfortunately, my bees up and left sometime in December, for reasons which are still unknown to me. But, they left behind a hive full of honey and other interesting specimens.

In January, I put the hive atop a wheely cart and visited my kids’s classrooms, talking to their classmates about raising bees and where honey comes from and all that. Ever since, when I visit their classes, one or two children always come up to ask when the honey will be ready. I decided that last week was the time to get to it!

The two supers – the bottom one, closest to you, is the main box with the brood chamber and pollen stores. It is where the queen lives. The one in the back is the second super I added, mostly for more brood, but I think my bees ended up using it for honey storage. 

This is a frame with brood comb built up – the brood chamber is where the queen lays her eggs.

Up close on the brood frame. You can see a white larvae, and just down from that, what looks like an emerging bee.

These bees are actually not alive, but they remained on the comb, and I thought they were really photogenic. 

These are frames with capped and uncapped honeycomb. I use a special fork-like tool to scrape the cappings off. I save them, along with the beeswax from the comb and will melt it and see what fun projects come about.

And now onto harvesting the honey:

My bench scraper came in very handy for this process – I scraped the honey, along with comb, off the frame and into a colander set over a bucket. The bucket is from Safeway – I went to the Bakery and asked for an empty food-safe bucket. They were kind enough to provide one for this project.

After a day, most of the honey had drained down into the bucket, leaving the colander full of cappings and beeswax. I soaked the cappings and beeswax in water for two days, changing the water every 24 hours, and then left the wax dry. I have it stored in a container until later when I have time to melt the beeswax down.

The honey still had some small bits of beeswax floating on the top, so when I filled a couple jars, I strained the honey again. When the honey bears arrive, I will have to figure out another way to get the honey in that is less labor intensive and messy. Perhaps I will look into cheesecloth.

Final product – half-pint jars of Northern California honey! Such a sweet treat

With all the honey around my house, I thought a cookie with honey as a main ingredient would be a good choice. Fortunately, I was able to turn to my trusty Pooh Cook Book, by Virginia Ellison (1969), because as everyone knows, Winnie-the-Pooh is the king of honey!

I think this cookbook was my very first cookbook – I remember making Honey Toffee Pennies when I was a young girl. The book is divided up into Breakfasts; Smackerels, Elevenses and Teas; Provisions for Picnics and Expotitions; Lunches and Suppers; Dessert and Party Recipes; Christmas Specialities; and Honey Sauces. And as the author, Virginia Ellison, writes in the introduction, these recipes are meant to be interchanged between meals. She encourages Poohanpiglet pancakes for lunch. My kind of cookbook author.

Honey Oatmeal Cookies were the inspiration for my recipe today, and I adapted the recipe to make a larger quantity and a little crispier over all. This recipe would be great with chocolate chips, raisins or cranberries in place of, or addition to, the chopped walnuts.

Honey Oatmeal Walnut Cookies

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup of packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 capfuls vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Cream butter and brown sugar together. Mix in honey and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

Mix flour, oats, baking soda and salt together. Add to sugar mixture. Mix well. Add in nuts.

Using your 1 1/2″ cookie scoop, drop cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden.

At BlogHer 2008, I met Janice, one of the sisters behind the successful 5Minutes for Mom, a site devoted to connecting mom through an online community. And all this week, they have been hosting the Ultimate Blog Party, the perfect way to meet new bloggers and expand your own community. And they have invited everyone, including me, who is, as usual, somewhat late to the game!

And there are prizes. My three favorite are:

• Mabel’s Labels Big Combo Pack
• $25 gift certificate to Schlosser Designs
• Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer from Moms Who Think

But, I would be happy with any of the prizes (well, except for the baby ones, since I don’t have any little ones anymore!). Check out all the great prizes here, and if you want, you can put up your own blog post and participate in the fun. 

Besides listing the prizes I want, I am also supposed to take a moment to introduce myself. Fortunately for you, I won’t go into all the boring details; instead, I will use a handy quiz I read about in the New York Times today. I took their What’s Your Cooking Personality quiz, and have discovered that my concerns about eating healthy and using local ingredients have manifested themselves into my cooking personality, which is both: 

Healthy: Optimistic, book-loving, nature enthusiasts, healthy cooks experiment with fish, fresh produce and herbs. Health comes first, even if it means sometimes sacrificing taste.

and

Innovative: Creative and trend-setting, innovative cooks seldom use recipes and like to experiment with ingredients, cuisine styles and cooking methods.

I think this might work out well for my family – I want us to eat healthy, but I don’t want to sacrifice taste. I also love to experiment, and as I spend more time in the kitchen, I enjoy finding my creative-side. I own hundreds of cookbooks (and fiction and nonfiction) and love to read them and gather inspiration for my culinary pursuits. I love local, fresh produce. I am working on my garden so I can always have fresh herbs and produce available. I don’t necessarily think that I am a trend-setter in the kitchen, but I do like to experiment and try new things. In fact, my family rarely has the same meal twice, as I am always on the look out for something new.

What is your cooking personality?

Lisa’s slow cooker is too hot. Jane’s slow cooker is too cold. My slow cooker seems to be just right, but it is about 20 years old, so it could conk out at anytime. 

Since Kitchen Gadget Girl operates on a shoe string budget (!), rather than test a bunch of slow cookers, I thought I would walk through the process I would use for finding a new slow cooker, aloud, showing my readers (all three of you now) how I would go about finding a new appliance. And because I do most of my shopping on-line, that is where I will start and finish my search. Any questions or comments? Ok, let’s get started.

1. I do a generic search for “Crock Pot Review” in Google

2. Up comes Consumer Search, Slow Cooker Review: Best Slow Cooker, Crock Pot

Well, this looks interesting. They have compiled reviews from a whole bunch of sites, including Cooks Illustrated (a trusted source in my book), Amazon and Consumer Reports. They also have a nice layout, comparing different brands and price points. And they have a feature to compare prices. Nice.

Looks like the top one is the All-Clad 99009. This slow cooker has an impressive array of features, including programmable settings and three temperature settings. Prices run right about $179, which is a little more than I wanted to spend. I don’t use my slow cooker that often, but I do like the programmable features of the All-Clad…it would be ideal on those days when I am out of the house early for work.

The Hamilton Beach Stay-or-Go 33162H is the Budget Choice from Consumer Search. Right around $50, this slow cooker uses wrap-around technology, which is according to the review, a feature not often seen in a low-end model. It has 3 temperature settings, but no timer, which is a useful feature to have if you are gone from home during most of the day. Amazon reviewers give it pretty high points, and for $39.99 on Amazon, it would not break the bank to try this out. 

At this point, I think I have enough information. Home appliance and kitchen tool purchases under $40 are fairly straight forward and do not require the extensive research for an appliance of $250 or more. Each shopper has their own threshold for purchases, and depending on how much you plan to use this kitchen tool will certainly influence how much you want to spend. Since I do not use mine often, and my key desires for this new appliance are a removable pot and multiple temperature settings, I would purchase the Hamilton Beach Stay-or-Go.

The CrockPot Lady, aka Stephanie, cooked every day in her slow cooker in 2008 and blogged about the experience – her appliance of choice was a Crock-pot brand slow cooker, formerly under the Rival brand name. I think her experience shows that it is not necessarily the appliance that makes the dish, but good quality ingredients cooked with care.

What kind of slow cooker do you have? Do you recommend yours, or would you like to ship it off? Tell us!

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com.

Friday, March 20 was the first day of the new season of our CSA subscription. For those of you who are new to CSA, here is a brief explanation:

A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become “members” (or “shareholders,” or “subscribers”) of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season. Source: Local Harvest

We have been subscribing to the Two Small Farm CSA for two years now, this will be our third. In addition, we are host family, which means 17-20 boxes of vegetables are delivered to our doorstep each Friday, March through November, and neighbors and friends who also subscribe stop by to pick up their shares. Two Small Farms is a partnership between High Ground Organics and Mariquita Farms in Watsonville and Hollister.  

Each week, I eagerly anticipate the Two Small Farms newsletter, which gives me a sneak peek of what will be in our box. In addition, Julia always includes recipes and notes on how to use our box, which is a great help. On Friday, we received:

• Green Garlic
• Red Beets
• Savoy Cabbage
• Parsnips
• Red Chard
• Carrots
• Curly Parsley
• Mushrooms
• Fennel

The beets I used this weekend in the lamb stew. I shaved the fennel and added it to some mixed greens for a salad with the stew. Everything else still needs to be planned for, so here is my Menu Plan for Monday, March 23rd:

Monday – Braised chicken with green garlic (from Weir Cooking in the City, by Joanne Weir), sautéed parsnips

Tuesday – Leftovers

Wednesday – Cabbage risotto (from Microwave Gourmet, by Barbara Kafka), grilled sausages, sautéed chard

Thursday – Leftovers

Friday – Pizza and movie night. Not sure the mushrooms will last that long, I might see what I can do to keep them.

Carrots will go in lunches. And to be frank, I am not sure what to do about the parsley. I will probably go check out some of the Grow Your Own posts or Weekend Herb selections and see what I can find. I am not a huge fan of curly parsley, but I will do my best. Either that, or the worms get it!

And never fear, next week, I will be sure to take a photo of my veggie box…..

Way back, when my daughter was born, my sister Erica brought this meal to us on our first night home from the hospital. She was able to find baby beets and turnips, and the dinner was so delightful, not only because I had been eating hospital food for two days, but because my incredibly busy (and talented sister) had made dinner for us! 

Since our spring has been mixed with warm days, cool evenings and some rain, this dish felt like a nice way to bring in the new season. We served it with a 2005 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Ferrington Vineyard. 

Spring Lamb Stew
based on recipe for A New Navarin of Lamb from The New Basics Cookbook by Rosso & Lukins

• 3 pounds boneless leg of lamb, cut into 1 1/2″ cubes
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup dry red wine 
• 2 1/2 cups beef stock (I used chicken stock with the addition of a teaspoon of beef broth concentrate)
• 1 spring fresh rosemary
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 4 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 pound beets
• 1 pound young turnips (look for the smallest ones you can find)
• 1 bunch green onions, cleaned and cut into 2 inch pieces
• 4 Tablespoons butter

In small batches, in a dutch oven or other heavy enamel pot, brown the cubes of lamb. I browned my lamb in three batches, removing each batch to a bowl and allowing the pan to reheat slightly before adding the next bit. 

Once the meat is brown, add it all back into the dutch oven and sprinkle with flour and sugar. Mix to combine. Add in wine, stock, rosemary, garlic, and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer 1 1/2 hours, or until lamb is tender.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400F. Scrub the beets and place in foiled lined baking pan. Add 1/2 cup of water and cover tightly. Bake in oven 1 hour 15 minutes, until tender. Allow to cool, then rub peel off and quarter or halve beets. Set aside.

Bring large pot of water to boil. Scrub turnips, and when water boils, add turnips to boiling water and cook until tender, 10-20 minutes (depends on the size). Remove from boiling water and allow to cool. Peel and quarter, set aside.

In the same pot of boiling water, add the spring onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, until tender. Remove and drain well. Set aside.

When ready to serve, heat butter in large sauté pan. Add in all vegetables and sauté until heated through. To serve, spoon one cup of the lamb into the bottom of bowl, top with the vegetables.

Way back, last month, eons ago, I went to a blogger meetup sponsored by Uptake and GoHawaii.com. In addition to chowing on tasty Hawaiian food from Hukilau in San Francisco, I was able to meet some of my fellow Uptake bloggers, as well as several special guests. And you know me, I like to ask “What is your favorite Kitchen Gadget?”:

Sharon from EverywhereTravel (and an Uptake Restaurant blogger), loves her OXO tongs, with the soft grip and pull tabs. And Cat, from WishBoneClover, and another Uptake blogger, is happy with her OXO Salad Spinner and a lemon juicer. I cannot recall if the lemon juicer was the squeeze kind or the reamer kind. And Lisa Dion is a fan of her wire mesh colander, in which she likes to wash fruit. 

Julie from ThingsYouShouldDo, came down to the city from Sacramento, just for Hawaiian food. That is dedicated! Her favorite kitchen tool is a Rabbit Wine Opener. David from Frommer’s is a fan of his pressure cooker, as well as his OXO garlic peeler. And Vanessa from AmIDoingOK tried to tell me her favorite is her gravy boat. Really? Ok, if you say so….

BloggerQueen (do you remember her from this blogger roundup?), still loves her Magic Bullet (yes, that does sound like a sexual device), but tells me she is also using her Crock Pot more often. Her friend, whose name escaped me, but Twitters under the handle 1stwinechick, was oohing and aahing over her wooden whisk.

Donna Airoldi and Fiona Ashley from TravelMuse were both in attendance – they write for TravelMusings. Donna loves her OXO garlic press (who doesn’t love OXO?), and Fiona was telling me about her All-Clad Waffle Maker with Thomas Keller Buttermilk Waffle Recipe, which sounds fabulous!

Nathan Kam favors his egg omelette maker, which sounds like a handy tool to have if omelettes are your thing. Michael Ni, also from GoHawaii.com, is a fan of extra long cooking chopsticks for stir frying. And Rebecca Pang, from the O’ahu Visitors Bureau, loves her microwave egg poacher. All three live in Honolulu, Hawaii, and were on hand to promote the Hawaii: A Thousand Reasons to Smile campaign – Mahalo!

Reading the Mercury News on Tuesday, I ran across a an article in the Action Line column in which a reader asked for the recipe for the World’s Best Cookie, apparently first published in the Mercury News in 1986. And naturally, I was curious. I mean, that is a big claim. After last week’s cookie disaster (Lavender Shortbread, so many things to go wrong). And, since the cookies don’t have chocolate anywhere near them, I was skeptical. But you know me, always up for adventure!

After whipping up a batch of the cookies (which made about 7 dozen), I found the key to the recipe – 1 cup of butter plus 1 cup of vegetable oil. And 2 cups of sugar, plus oatmeal, coconut, cornflakes and nuts. What is not to love! The crunchiness of the cornflakes, along with the extra fat, makes these cookies very much like sable cookies. Pretty darn close to the world’s best.

World’s Best Cookies
from the San Jose Mercury News

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup crushed cornflakes
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325F.

Cream butter and sugars until smooth and light. Add in egg and vanilla. Add in oil and mix well. At this point, the batter will look a little strange, but keep going.

Add in the cornflakes, coconut, and walnuts. Mix well. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt and add to mixture. 

Using your OXO cookie scoop, measure 1 tablespoon of dough and drop onto ungreased cookie sheets. Using a fork dipped, flatten the top of each cookie. If the fork begins to stick, dip it into a glass of cold water. 

Bake 15-18 minutes (the recipe in the paper said 12 minutes, but in my oven, that was not enough time, or else, I like my cookies a little crispier!). Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely. Try not to inhale them all at once.