The Circle of Life Heats Up with Pickled Peppers

 

Remember Peter Piper and the famous tongue twister that’s been around since 1813?

I think I like tongue twisters as much as I love peppers!

Say red peppers-yellow peppers, five times fast!

As far as peppers go, I prefer jalapenos. They are readily available around here, and they add flavor to almost everything. I have a friend who makes jalapeno jam, and it’s delicious. Really.

I’m not sure if there’s a difference between Hatch and Anaheim peppers, but they are both as mild as bell peppers.

If you like a kick, there are poblanos, habaneros, serranoes, Hungarian peppers, ghost peppers and Scotch bonnets, just to name a few. The heat of these varieties is measured on something called a Scoville scale and measured in heat units that go from 2000 to over 2 million. Ever hear of a Carolina Reaper? (I’d turn back if I were you.)

Anyway, here are the tame little peppers from our garden. 

They have no heat whatsoever. 

I think they are banana or shishito, but it doesn’t matter, because they are delicious in this pickled salad recipe.

 

 

Do you have a favorite pepper?

Summer in Your Mouth-A Recipe

 

When life gives you lemons, either you make lemonade, or search everywhere for a unique and delicious recipe. Here’s a simple one that is sure to make you smile, or at least pucker up.

(Please maintain social distancing when puckering up.)

Painted by my husband, Steven Michelangelo Gaal
He also grew the lemons. 

 

Old Fashioned Citrus Bundt Cake

(I prefer: Summer in Your Mouth Cake)

 

One cup milk

Three eggs

½ cup canola oil

½ cup melted butter--that’s cooled off

Zest of three lemons (3 or 4 tsp) or oranges and lemons

½ cup lemon, orange or tangerine juice.

 (Optional: You can add a tablespoon of Cointreau Triple Sec or Grand Marnier 

I went with Cointreau.)

_________________

Three cups flour

Two cups sugar

1 teasp. salt,

1 and ½ teasp. Baking powder.

(Lemon Glaze- 1 cup powdered sugar mixed with two or three teaspoons of juice for drizzling consistency.)

 

Spray your Bundt pan with non-stick spray and flour lightly. Then, preheat the oven to 325F.

Next, combine the first six ingredients with a whisk or on the low setting of the mixer.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend it together with a whisk or on the low speed of your mixer until it’s smooth. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Place it on a wire rack to cool for ten minutes and then turn the pan over and marvel at your lovely creation. Finally, once it’s completely cool, drizzle with the glaze! Voila!

 

This is seriously super easy. Are you going to try it?

Bakery Rebellion

Are you on the Ketogenic diet?

The gluten free diet?

Going Vegan?

Vegetarian not Vegan. (Learn the difference or you will be embarrassed.)

Low Carb?

Mediterranean?

Low fat?

High Protein?

Atkins?

Raw Food?

South Beach?

Paleo?

Grapefruit diet?

Cabbage Soup?

Sirtfood?

Carnivore diet?

Eggs and wine diet?

Apple Cider Vinegar diet?

Cake cleanse?

Smoothie detox?

No.

No, and no.

Eating is harder to figure out then gender identity. But my new trans-

ition lenses help me see things clearer.

With over one hundred newly recognized genders this year, there will be people celebrating.

Hooray! They will probably have cake!

 

I made this delicious walnut cake last week.
Walnuts are very good for you. 😋
 Maybe I'll post a recipe soon.

Anyway, dieting is something I’m supposed to be doing. (Seriously, I replaced white bread with croissants.)😍

The more I read about the dangerous, long term consequences of dieting, the more I rebel.  

"Let me eat cake," is up there with Russian Roulette and cliff diving in Mazatlan. These are perilous times folks. I'm saying folks to be inclusive to everyone.

Husband can cut out one soda and lose twenty pounds! Just like that! Poof! He misses one meal and looks like a haggard, homeless man. 

Men. Yeah, it’s a gender thing and I’m not too keen on the way they can brag about having great metabolisms.  

Meanwhile, I’m swimming my heart out and walking our lazy pooches all over the place. Apparently, I'd have to walk to the moon and back to burn all my calories.

They should have the Exhausted but I Can't Give Up Cake Diet. It could consist of three hundred calories of anything delicious three times a day. Maybe three generous slices of chocolate cake and a few carrot sticks to equal things out? Hmm.

I didn't think so. 

Tasty Recycling

This week, my blog is highlighting two seafood dishes

created from recipes found in this old cookbook,

 I picked up at a used book sale, for a pittance. 

To my delight, everything I’ve made from this book is super easy and tastes great. One of the things I like about this cookbook is that the ingredients used in most of the recipes are items I would normally have in my pantry or in my freezer. All I have to do is supplement what I have with a trip for some fresh produce and Voila--dinner is served.  If you're looking for healthy dishes that don't require tons of work and strange ingredients, then you'll like these recipes.  

First, I made the Tuna Bean Salad and I have to say with a modicum of hubris, that I think my version turned out better than the one they pictured in the book.

Bean Salad With Tuna--Professional Picture

Bean Salad With Tuna--photo by me.
Don't you think this one looks better?

A week later, I tried the Shrimp Creole and again, I think my version was tastier than the one pictured in the cookbook. Rather than retype the recipes, I took some photos and hope you’ll try them and enjoy them as much as we did. 

Proof, that gourmet cooking might be possible by taking a gamble on old books at a library or even a thrift store.

(In my humble opinion: between fast food, Big Pharma and those celebrity chefs, there's a conspiracy to make us eat unhealthy foods or we have to pay through the nose for the good stuff at fancy restaurants. Trust me, I love trying new things at restaurants, but cooking our own delicious meals some of the time, might help keep all of us off expensive and dangerous medications.) 

Bon Appetit. 

The Lady Behind Gourmet Jail Food

Yesterday, as fortune would have it, I attended a meeting of The Friends of the Murrieta Library, where author Louise Mathews spoke about her career and promoted her book titled: Jailhouse Cuisine(From the Right Side of the Bars). I’ve listened to many presentations by interesting authors but this one seemed to be truly unique. First of all, the writer held the attention of everyone for over an hour of speaking, with amazing stories of her career as Chief of Food and Nutrition Services for the

Sheriff's Department in charge of food service management for enormous Prison systems. Feeding over 8000 souls a day had to be a tough job and thankfully, Louise Mathews wrote a book about it.




When interviewing for the top spot, she told them not to hire her if they wanted good food. Challenge accepted, she went to work changing things from old and outdated ways to new and improved ways such as the cook/chill system and no strip searches outside of the kitchen. Inmates benefited from her “laws,” her humor and her family recipes. Her 42 years of experience earning her a Doctorate of Food Service and many awards.

   "I would not recommend going to jail in many of our states 

as some places are better than others if you find yourself incarcerated."

--From Jailhouse Cuisine by Louise Mathews

 The audience at the library was doubling over in laughter when she talked about her lunch that scurried away in the South or the cake that moved. In her book, she even explains why pie seemed to have "magical wings." Overall, I learned so many interesting things that I had to share this information with anyone interested in the truth behind prison food. I found out what Pruno is, and even the unsavory methods male prisoners use to make it. Her broccoli soup recipe, in the book, points out that it's best to use white pepper instead of black pepper because inmates don't trust black flakes in a white soup, something that sounds helpful for anyone raising teenagers. I even picked up a tip about how to use leftover potato chips but I don’t want to give her secrets away. Find out more by clicking here. Her book is chock full of hearty, well-tested recipes and fascinating stories assembled by a hard working and phenomenally brave woman that I had the special honor to meet.

Butter Biscuits & Fairy-Tales

The best part about a fairy-tale is typically the happy-ending. I remember asking so many questions about the prince and his stallion. Where did he sleep when he wasn’t near a castle? What did he eat? Where did the witch buy her supplies? Did she make them from scratch? What do you cook for gnomes? Where do Fairy Godmothers buy glass slippers? When a story mentions red lips, does that mean she wore lipstick? Do the stepsisters grow out of being ugly like the Ugly duckling? What was inside Little Red Riding Hood’s basket? And so on and so on....

 I probably drove my parents bonkers with tons of inquisitive questions but they had to enjoy the fact that they could hold my attention for a short amount of time. Sadly, they couldn’t always answer all my inquiries so I ran to the library to read as much as I could about Dorothy and her friends from Oz, by Frank L. Baum. Inhaling books by E.B. White, Antoine de Saint Exupery or books by Jules Verne and any imaginative author who mingled reality and fantasy. I also often wondered whether Huck Finn really existed and if he did--how he managed to walk barefoot all summer?

But this post is about my mother’s butter biscuits. In Hungarian folklore, there’s usually a boy like Huck Finn or a girl, going on an adventure with their knapsack. It’s the magical way our parents pulled our imaginations into the story, ala The Princess Bride. Parents know that you can't go on a quest without tasty snacks. Most likely, he/she is running away to see the world and that’s where the story begins, because inside of the knapsack are the butter biscuits, which might best be described as a form of hard tack or scones, depending on the talent of the grandmother who made them. These are not soft biscuits, but crumbly ones that can survive a journey. In some tales, they have a coating of protective ash due to the old-fashioned method of dropping dough directly into the fire. 

My mother’s tiny tea biscuits are etched into my fading memories and I couldn’t replicate them if I tried. The following recipe is a satisfactory but easy version, nowhere near perfection. Mom used yeast and sour cream, creating a light, airy dough that once baked, melted upon contact with your tongue. Truly, her Pogacsas were--in my mind anyway--legendary. Of course, Red Riding Hood’s basket contained this type of mouthwatering biscuit, because after all, a buttery, biscuit has to be memorable for it to be in a fairy tale.

Hungarian Biscuits or Pogacsa

11 ounces of Ricotta Cheese-(the small tub is usually 15oz at the store.)

2-1/2 cups flour (plus a bit more for the cutting board)

A small pinch of salt

1-1/4 cup of softened, unsalted butter

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg yolk, slightly beaten

(Coarse salt or caraway seeds if desired.)

Mix the flour and the baking powder

Knead in the butter, salt and the cheese until you have smooth dough.

Cover it and put it into the fridge for at least two hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Roll the dough to ¼ inch thick and then fold it four times.

Repeat the above step of rolling and folding five or six times.

Using a small one-inch cutter, cut each biscuit and score with a fork.

Brush each one with the egg yolk and place onto a pan sprayed with Pam spray or lined with parchment.

Bake 30 minutes and place each warm biscuit onto a tray filled with either salt, caraway seeds or both.  

Now put on a pot of tea and tell a story! Enjoy. 

Did you like fairy tales too? Do you think you'll ever make these biscuits?