A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Just How Long Can a Sweet Pepper Plant Last?

Until mid-February by my experience. I brought my favorite sweet pepper plant in last fall to see how long it would stay alive and keep producing indoors.  Not as prolific as outdoors, but still consistently peppering through the late fall and early winter, but by New Year it slacked off.  Its stem has become weakened and a few leaves have fallen, but still it managed to produce two last peppers for me that I allowed to ripen naturally before I pulled them and gave the plant it's final rest. They're my favorite two peppers from all year.  I like looking at them but will use them in the next couple of days out of respect for my poor beleaguered pepper plant.
 

Restaurant Review: HuHot

 Located on the East Side of the Battlefield Mall, HuHot was completely new to me. Our friends, Corbin and Jenn, took us there last night for my birthday (thanks y'all!) to introduce us to the Mongolian BBQ fun. 

It is fun!

The basic premise is a two-line buffet, one line of meats, veggies, and noodles followed by a line of over a dozen sauces and oils, then you step around from that and hand your bowl to one of the BBQ chefs who stir fry your meal on a huge wheel-shaped grill right in front of you.  It's all you can eat so you can fix one meal for yourself or you can have couple of smaller combinations, if that works better for you.

At the tables, you're also offered the choice between soup or salad and an a la carte menu for appetizers and desserts.

The thing that impressed me the most was that this is one restaurant where you have aboslute diet control over your portions and your sauces. They have copies for the taking of their nutritional counts at the beginning of the first buffet line, and when I got home and looked, all but one or two of the sauces are 20-35 calories and 0-1 gram of fat per ladle (1 oz).  The oils, of course, are the big exception, and the black thai peanut and yellow curry are are higher counts than the rest of the sauces but much lower than the oils.

I think I coul eat there every night. One of the problems with trying to stir fry or have a huge variety of fresh vegetables available at home for us is simply that there are only two of us so unless I really stay on top of it, we tend to waste some fresh produce every week and I hate that.  It was nice to have my fill of vegetables last night and be able to have such a variety without the guilt of "okay, now what I am I going to do with the rest of this huge bag of bean sprouts?"

When you go, ask for our favorite server, Chris.  He's adorable and a nice blend of personality and good waiter. So many times you either get personable waiters who never refill a glass or great waiters with the personalities of cardboard but Chris is a good kid and a nice combination. He was excited about the food and presentation, gave us good personal recommendations, kept us laughing, and was on top of the service at the same time which we really appreciated.

Thanks Chris!

Here's a peak at some of our choices:

 

The included Asian salad, to the left above, was absolutely wonderfulw ith lots of crunch and a nice sesame dressing and crisp "good" lettuces.

 

  
  
Rice was also available.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Gene's gorgeous fried rice that he had them make with extra eggs, just the way he likes it. That's the key right there. It's fun to be able to totally customize your meal without having to cook. Convenient plus you get exactly and only what you want.

The one thing that surprised me was how much I enjoyed the to fu in this setting. Now if I could just learn to prepare it at home in a way that doesn't make me gag, I'd be making some progress.

Along with posted "recipes" and suggestions, HuHot also has a blog where they give more recipes and information about using the restaurant as not only a night out but a tool for healthy eating.

CookBook Review: The Nordic Diet by Trina Hahnemann

Guest Blogger Terry Jones reviews The Nordic Diet by Trina Hahnemann:  

LET THEM EAT QUARK: FUNDAMENTALS OF THE NORDIC DIET

by Terry Jones

I borrowed this cookbook from my dear friend Glenna with the idea of finding a few new recipes to add to my shortlist. Unfortunately for Glenna, I liked the cookbook so much that I have flatly refused to return it and have agreed to write this review for two reasons. First, to salvage our friendship and secondly to allow me to keep aforementioned cookbook (Editorial note:  Dream on, Pal. The cookbook comes home to Momma!), Both of which are of great meaning to me but are not necessarily listed in order of importance.

The Nordic Diet cookbook is centered around the basic principles of cooking delicious and wholesome food with simple, local ingredients and eating them with family and friends. Good idea, right? Personally I'm getting tired of cooking shows that feature some pompous chef creating a magnificently difficult dish in a $75,000 kitchen using whole vanilla bean pods steeped in cognac that was warmed between the thighs of Swedish virgins. My kitchen probably looks more like yours and whole vanilla bean pods are devilishly hard to find, not to mention Swedish virgins in my immediate surroundings.

The Nordic diet cookbook uses foods that are local to the area and relies heavily on root crops and fresh fish. These ingredient are fairly easy to find in most climates, or better yet, easy to grow and overwinter in a cold frame. The foods are not only simple and fantastically fresh and delicious but very healthy and low in calories as well. This cookbook celebrates the satisfaction that our ancestors must have found in the delayed gratification that comes of only eating the foods currently in season and thereby enjoying each food to its fullest extent during the few weeks that the food was naturally available.

Not only does this cookbook provide recipes in which to use the Jerusalem artichokes which are quietly nesting underground beneath the dried and fallen leaves in my back yard, but it also validates my long love affair with the physically unappealing but inexplicably delicious celeraic roots that reside still in their snow-covered planter boxes. Kale will grow outdoors in almost any climate and shitake mushrooms can be had fresh all winter long by simply bringing a log indoors and watering. Beets and collards and chard flourish in a window box or greenhouse. I know, this is supposed to be a cookbook review and not a gardening manifesto but if you truly want to cook with fresh ingredients then you should break out some potting soil this winter and give it a try. Growing beautiful green things through the winter is nearly as cathartic as eating them.

There are a few ingredients in this book that are unavailable in some climates. Quark is used in a few recipes and is so delicate that I'm not sure that a substitute is available. An included recipe for quark would have been nice but it is easy to make and my wife's efforts were rewarded with a delicious chard tart. Most of the measurements are given in grams and that did get annoying after awhile to me using stand American cups and Tbsps but if you are one of those cooks that prepares food like you are in a chemistry lab then you better get a good gram scale...although if you fall into this category then you probably already have one.

If you are an intrepid cook and you are in the mood for a few recipes that are completely different and terrific then pick up a copy of this book and you won't be disappointed. Or just find a friend who has a copy and refuse to return it. I did.

Fat Tuesday Snuck Up on Me This Year: King Cake

Sadly, since I have to work tonight, I won't be making King Cake this year but if I were, this would be the recipe I would use.  From last year, it's a recipe I will use again and again.

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone!

CLICK TO BE LINKED TO KING RECIPE/POST

Shredded Chicken Soft Tacos

Needed something quick and easy (and good for us) for dinner the other night and hit upon this great solution:  shredded chicken soft tacos. It's so easy you almost don't need a recipe (but I'll give you one anyway!)

Pavia's Poached Egg Soup

Another recipe from Ciao Italia:  Five Ingredient Favorites--can you tell I REALLY like this cookbook?  Gene and I both loved this soup.  It's sooooooooo simple but so comforting and rich without being terrible for you.

I made two different versions. The recipe calls for chicken or beef broth.  I used chicken broth left over from a roasted chicken (so much better than canned!) and beef broth leftover from a Sunday roast where I'd taken the leftover drippings, onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes and whizzed them in the blender before freezing. This made for a thick gravy type broth. I'd not been sure what I was going to do with it but it's a perfect liquid for this soup.

I think of this as a "Sunday night, OMG, I don't want to cook" kind of soup. Hearty enough to be satisfying without being junky food or labor intensive.

And that, my friends, is the last recipe I'm going to post. Go buy this book. You'll be glad you did (like I'm glad someone gave it to me as a birthday gift!)

Fennel, Carrot, and Apple Salad

 

Another recipe I made from the Ciao Italia: Five Ingredient Favorites from the other night that was somewhat a hit at our house.  The salad is great. The dressing was simple and fantastic. The only problem was me. Fennel is one of those vegetables I try really hard to like but I just don't care for the taste of licorice so it's not the recipe's fault.  I will make the salad again except I'll probably substitute jicama or chopped celery or maybe even cabbage but still use the carrots, apple, and the dressing.

New Cookbook: Ciao Italia, Five Ingredient Favorites

 
Ciao Italia: Five Ingredient Favorites by Mary Ann Esposito, Host of PBS show "Ciao Italia"

I received a copy of this cookbook around my birthday and have been wanting to try a couple of things since it hit my hands. Although I enjoy cooking, and love cooking the long way around with multi-step, long prep recipes, there are times when I like to throw dinner together in an easier manner and with fewer ingredients, like on my sleep days after working all night.   Sometimes less really can be more.

The basic premise of the book, as a matter of fact, is that less can be more with a rule of five. Five basic pantry items like olive oil, dried pasta, canned tomatoes, onions, and red wine, or five refrigerator basics that include high quality cheese.  From basic items you can create simple but satisfying meals.

Yesterday was my test run. I'd worked the night before in Pediatrics and was worn out even after sleeping seven hours. (You think one cranky sick six month old is harrowing, try multiplying that by a half dozen at one time. grin. ) But even with a draggy butt, I was determined to continue my quest this year for wholesome food and not give in to the convenience of the drive thru.  Did making pasta scare me considering I'm trying to eat healthier and lose weight?  No, because my goal this year is to teach myself to eat good wholesome NORMAL food but to do it in a smart way. With pasta, it's about the ingredients and the portion size.  So many formal diets make pasta and fruit out to be evil.  NO, carbs are not evil. If anything can be pointed a finger at it's the ginormous restaurant portions that we've come to think of as normal. 

Already having the five ingredients in my pantry and fridge, in under 30 minutes last night I was able to prepare:  Coal Miner's Spaghetti (Carbonara) and the Fennel, Apple, and Carrot Salad, then I added a side of steamed squash that needed to be used and we ate divinely while hopping from other shows back over to the Super Bowl trying to espy the new commercials.  Was it just us or were they sadly lacking this year?

A note about the Carbonara.  I don't know if this is true everywhere but here in the Ozarks, Pasta Carbonara is on every Italian restaurant's menu but I've never seen a true carbonara. It's usually just fettuccine or spaghetti alfredo with some bacon thrown in.  True carbonara, like this recipe, has no cream or butter, eggs make the "sauce", and for that reason it's almost much healthier so I've included nutrition counts (and comparison alfredo counts) following the recipe.

How to describe our enjoyment of this dish. Let me see...How about like this?  I measured out my one cup of pasta and wanted more but made myself simply savor every bite.  Gene ate the rest.  I think I need to teach him how to make this!