Posts Tagged ‘ cooking ’

Recipe: Kale Salad

Inspired by Frugal Kiwi’s quest for health* I’m working to include more vegetables in my diet. A couple of years ago a lovely woman named Pua introduced me to a kale salad that I fell in love with – and I don’t love kale. She shared the recipe with me in a “little of this, little of that” kind of way. I made a big batch of it today and noted the measurements so that I could share, but I totally recommend that you just eyeball it. The finished salad has a lovely earthy flavor and I find that I crave it. If I have it made in the fridge I keep going back for “just a bit more.” But there’s nothing wrong with snacking on kale all day, right? Kale Salad a dozen curly kale leaves 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons Bragg’s Liquid Aminos 1/2 very ripe avocado 1/4 cup each: sunflower seeds, pepitos, dried cranberries 1-2 tablespoons feta cheese Remove the stem from the kale leaves. Thoroughly wash and dry the leaves, then tear them into bite sized pieces. Place leaves in a big bowl along with the olive oil. Lomi – or...

Recipe: Homemade BBQ Chips

By Kris Bordessa

Even though we are diligently trying to eat a healthier diet in this household, I couldn’t help myself. I ordered a copy of Casey Barber’s Classic Snacks Made from Scratch. My husband picked up the book and said, ” Why did you get this? We don’t eat this stuff. Ooooh, Funyuns.” That’s why I got the book. Also: Hostess Cupcakes (chocolate and orange), Nacho Cheese Doritos, Tater Tots, and Cinnamon Pop-Tarts. Cinnamon Pop-Tarts! This book is chock full of recipes to replicate your favorite junk food. It may not be health food, but the homemade versions certainly have fewer ingredients than the store bought versions (and none that I can’t pronounce) and making them at home eliminates the packaging. I decided to try out the BBQ Potato Chips recipe from Barber’s book when my eldest son, home from college, requested hamburgers for dinner. My youngest sliced the potatoes (using the food processor) and mixed up the spices. I did the frying. I don’t do much deep frying; I was surprised at how little splattering and popping there was – unlike frying bacon. The resulting chips were slightly saltier than I liked, but they had the classic BBQ chip flavor...

Homemade Granola

By Kris Bordessa

Packaged cereal has become a breakfast staple in America, but we gave it up long ago. In fact, we stopped buying cereal regularly long before I before I began this whole sustainable quest of mine, mostly because even after two (expensive) bowls full of cereal, my boys were hungry again by mid-morning. It just didn’t stick with them. Instead, I make homemade granola and I do it without a recipe. That means no measuring. Which means I can throw together a batch really quickly. Here’s how I do it: Oil the bottom of a large roasting pan to prevent sticking. Fill the pan to the halfway point with rolled oats. Add “extra” ingredients like puffed millet, chopped nuts, flaked coconut, or sesame seeds (whatever you have in the cupboard) so that the pan is about 3/4 full. Pour one-half to one cup of honey or maple syrup over the dry ingredients, stirring it in as you pour. Bake in an oven set between 300-350 (F) degrees. (The variable oven temperature allows you to cook the granola while you’ve got something else in the oven, making the most of your heat.) Stir every 10-15 minutes* for about an hour or...

Trick: Brown Bananas

By Kris Bordessa

If you’ve got overripe bananas but no time to whip up a batch of banana bread, stick them directly in the freezer. No need to peel them and put them in a plastic bag. When you’re ready to bake, put the frozen bananas – which will have turned an ugly dark brown – on a plate to thaw. Once thawed, simply cut off one end of the banana and squeeze the fruit out of the skin. The texture will be a bit runny but it’s perfect for blending into a batch of bread. No waste, no plastic. This post inspired by a conversation on the Attainable Sustainable Facebook page about the ridiculous concept of pre-peeled bananas. Yes, really.

Guest Post: Take Control of Your Kitchen

By Kris Bordessa

Who couldn’t use a little more organization in their life? Today I have an expert on organization here to share some tips. Brette Sember is the author of The Organized Kitchen published by Adams Media. She writes the popular food blogs No Pot Cooking and Martha And Me. She is also the author of The Parchment Paper Cookbook and the upcoming The Muffin Tin Cook Book from Adams Media. Sember is a former attorney and author of more than 35 other books, as well as a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She lives in Buffalo, NY with her husband, two children, and two golden retrievers. You can follow her on Twitter @brettesember. The kitchen is one of the rooms in the home that produces the highest amount of waste. An organized kitchen allows you to use less and use what you have more responsibly. Learning to improve kitchen efficiency will not only save time and money, but will make you more likely to want to spend time cooking at home and making the most of this important space. Multiple Uses Creates Multiple Confusion Your kitchen is probably the most used room in your home, even if...

Win a Copy of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

By Kris Bordessa

I told you a couple of weeks ago about The Kitchen Counter Cooking School and how much I liked it. I’ve taken notes and copied a couple of recipes out of the book and now I’m ready to pass it on. If you’d like to win a copy for yourself or to use as a gift (Shh! I’ll never tell!) simply leave a comment below telling me about the one kitchen skill you’d like to improve upon. This contest runs until 6pm Wednesday, October 20, 2011, Hawaii time. Winner will be chosen via Random.org and will be announced on or before Wednesday, October 27, 2011. Due to shipping expense, prize can be shipped only to United States addresses. If I am unable to make contact with the winner within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.

Learn to be Fearless in the Kitchen

By Kris Bordessa

I have to admit, when I received a review copy of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn and flipped through it, I was a little disappointed. It was not the book I expected it to be. And yet, when I sat down and started reading I was hooked. Possibly because the author starts out by admitting that she stalked one woman in the grocery store. You know the one: cart full of Lunchables, boxed pasta mixes, jars of gravy, frozen waffles. I have stalked a similar woman out of sheer curiosity. What I didn’t do, though, is what the author did. Kathleen Flinn managed to strike up a conversation with this woman and ultimately discovered that she shopped the way she did because she didn’t know how to cook. As someone who cooks from scratch pretty much daily, the idea of not knowing how to cook blows my mind, though I know there are plenty of people out there who just never learned thanks to generations of packaged foods and the demise of Home Ec classes in the schools. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, the author definitely knows how to cook – and cook well. Her...

Patchwork Living Blogging Bee #3

By Kris Bordessa

Welcome to the Patchwork Living Blogging Bee, our Internet version of a quilting bee. Each of our lives is a patchwork of what was passed down to us, what we find around us, and what people share with us. Hosted by myself and Frugal Kiwi, we hope that you’ll join us by adding a virtual “patch.” Each week we feature our favorite submissions from the previous blog hop. Mine are listed below; you can see Melanie’s favorites at Frugal Kiwi. 1. Amy at Backyard Bounty writes about cover crops, something I have very little experience with, making me curious about whether or not a cover crop would be valuable in a region like mine with no cold winter. Something else to look into! 2. Remember old-fashioned handkerchiefs? NZ Ecochick writes about switching over to cloth for tissues and other household duties. Smart! 3. I enjoyed reading The Backyard Pioneer’s thoughts on a simple potato masher. Whatever did happen to items that last? Authors of featured posts are invited to display our special “Featured on Patchwork Living Blogging Bee” Badge. If you choose to display it, please link back to the post in which you were featured. Time to add...

Guest Post – Beet Caviar: The Irresistible Purple Salad

By Kris Bordessa

I “met” Joan Bailey during the blogathon I did several months ago. We had a discussion (a short one; it was on Twitter!) about beets and she was kind enough to share a guest post here at Attainable Sustainable. Welcome, Joan! Photo courtesy of Dragonwood Farm, a little farm in Michigan’s southeast corner organically growing heaps of good stuff and surrounded by chickens. My attraction to purple vegetables surely began with the beet. My mother served them pickled as well as plain throughout my childhood, and the thought of that sweet-sour flavor tingles my taste buds even now. Since then I’ve graduated to purple daikon, carrots (as well as the greens), and the occasional cauliflower, but the beet remains my first love. My favorite recipe, though, came to me while living in Kazakhstan as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Root crops such as potatoes, carrots, and beets were popular as much as for the Russian influence as the inherent ability of those crops to store well through long winters. Beets there first came to us in the form of my host mother’s borscht, and then in the shape of this unforgettable salad. While I’ve never quite been able to replicate...

Homemade Refried Beans to Rival Rosarita

By Kris Bordessa

Over the years I’ve tried repeatedly to make refried beans from scratch, but my family has been only lukewarm about my attempts, preferring their old standby Rosarita brand refried beans. Rosarita beans are sold in cans that have bpa in the lining. Not cool. But my kids love refried beans, so I found myself torn every time I shopped. Buy the beans they love and subject them to endocrine disruption or suffer the consequences of grumbling, hungry teens at home? Poison them or starve them do death? (Okay, I jest.) My friend Jane and I had discussed our inability to replicate Rosarita beans at home, so when she told me she’d found a great recipe that her family liked, I had to try it. I changed it up a tiny bit, and increased the recipe so that I’d have plenty left over. I prefer pinto beans, but Jane uses black beans, kidney beans, and small red beans, too. Mix or match, as you like. Ingredients 6 cups dry pinto beans 3 small onions, quartered 4 cloves garlic 6 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (or lemon juice) 1 Tablespoon salt 1 Tablespoon ground cumin 1 Tablespoon chili powder Put dry beans...

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Posts Tagged ‘ cooking ’

Recipe: Kale Salad

Recipe: Homemade BBQ Chips

Homemade Granola

Trick: Brown Bananas

Guest Post: Take Control of Your Kitchen

Win a Copy of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

Learn to be Fearless in the Kitchen

Patchwork Living Blogging Bee #3

Guest Post – Beet Caviar: The Irresistible Purple Salad

Homemade Refried Beans to Rival Rosarita

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