A Few General Baking Tips

“Baking isn’t as forgiving as cooking with meats and vegetables. Where flour, sugar, and butter are involved, you get an exact science. Here are some guidelines when following baking recipes.”

Recipe for success – The Boston Globe

“Hundreds of cookies and a few dozen biscuits later, we were surprised to find that our trusty professional half-sheet pan (it’s like a sturdy jelly roll pan) may well have some competition when it comes to turning out pristine pecan sandies.”

But I still prefer the half-sheet pans for being so versatile — I don’t need extra sheet pans lying around.

Getting beneath the surface of cookie sheets – The Boston Globe

The way the cookie (sheets) crumbled – The Boston Globe

Last-Minute Cooking Magazine Gifts

Have you ever visited Wal-Mart this close to Christmas? Surely few Americans are still untouched by that yearly nightmare. The mall and other standalone stores are just about as bad this time of the year.

Unfortunately, if you haven’t found something for everyone on your shopping list yet, you’ll probably have to face the hordes as online shopping’s pre-Christmas shipping window is nearly closed.

But you could also see the time crunch and punishing prospect of crowds as a challenge to think creatively. While checking out Cooking with Amy’s gift guide today, I discovered her link to a site specializing in finding low-priced magazine subscriptions. She recommends Saveur (a beautiful, beautiful publication), but I thought I’d point out all the food-featuring magazines available for purchase so you could hit every sort of cook on your list.

Every Day with Rachael Ray $3.94 for 10 issues: It’s not all 30-minute meals, though Rachael Ray does publish a selection of them each month. Good for anyone interested in what celebrities eat or cook.

Family Fun $2.98 for 10 issues: Features kid-friendly recipes, both for meals and creative cook-with-me projects.

Saveur $4.95 for 9 issues: The photography and writing are both delicious. Many of the recipes are complicated, but this magazine is more a culinary adventure that is intended to stretch your mind and skills.

Vegetarian Times $3.55 for 9 issues: An obvious choice for any non-meat eaters you are shopping for, true, but also consider this one for any person you know who is interested in healthy recipes in general (and doesn’t mind any rhetoric that might creep in).

Weight Watchers $3.94 for 6 issues: For anyone you know will be making that annual weight-loss resolution.

Check the web site for more magazines in other subject areas and for some $5-plus deals on other food publications. Wish I’d found this kind of site last year when I was in the United States — I’m so tempted to subscribe even now.

To turn a subscription into a holiday gift, pick up a copy of the magazine you’ve ordered when you next stop at the grocery store. Attach a pretty holiday card or a certificate created on your computer telling the recipient what they’ll be receiving in the new year. You could also tuck this certificate in a grocery-store created gift basket that features items built around the magazine’s theme (for example, give bottles of “EVOO” and Montreal Steak Seasoning along with your card promising a subscription to Every Day with Rachael Ray).

Watching Those Calories

We’ve been using CalorieKing’s software for months now to track our food and calorie intake. In case you missed those review entries, we’re talking about a food diary program that uses a nutritional database to quantify what your eat and that helps you track progress toward your diet goals. Also, as it happens, it’s useful for drawing conclusions about what actions help you to stick to the weight-loss plan.

For us, it really seems to all be about the quality of our breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. Keeping those meals healthy and low-cal gives us a lot more freedom for our main meal of the day, dinner.

For example, on a typical day, we eat a breakfast of cold cereal or oatmeal. Since we stick to low-sugar varieties and use skim milk, these are also low-calorie meals. We start the day with a meal that clocks in under 200 calories, but the fiber in the cereal keeps us feeling full until lunch.

The takeaway? Invest in high-fiber breakfast foods such as oatmeal, Cheerios, bran-based cereals, Fiber One (Hungry Girl always recommends that one), etc., to start the day full.

Alternatively, if you prefer protein-based breakfasts, stretch a 74-calorie large egg by scrambling in low-cal veggies and egg whites (a large one is only 17 calories!).

Lunch for us usually means sandwiches or soups (for Scott, sometimes both). We naturally tend to eat a smaller portion of soup at lunch than at dinner, usually just one or two one-cup bowlfuls. For sandwiches, we keep the calorie counts low by sticking to low-fat lunchmeats (chicken, turkey, and lean ham rather than salami or loads of bacon) and low-calorie spreads such as spicy brown mustard, light mayo, and light tartar sauce.

We skip the accompaniment of chips that I at least grew up with and is often seen at delis. If we have a side, it’s fruit or leftover veggies from dinner.

It is a long wait from lunch until dinner having only eaten two light meals, true. That’s why we try to stock healthy snacks to eat mid-afternoon. Right now, we have apples, almonds, low-fat cottage cheese, light cheese wedges, and pretzel twists. Bananas are especially filling, too.

On the other hand, those pretzel twists really don’t satisfy your hunger for a 100-calorie handful — I buy them to satisfy salt cravings. I find that it’s important to satisfy a craving as soon as possible because if I wait too long, my willpower crashes and I overindulge. Makes sense in a way, as it appears that using willpower saps your body of energy.

We don’t miss scads of extras at breakfast or lunch because in American culture, the main meal is dinner. Thus, we expect a big meal at suppertime, and it’s then that we feel deprived if we have to cut back. Of course, in countries like Slovakia where lunch is the main meal, you could follow the same basic plan, just changing around which meals are the extra-light ones.

At dinner, I tend to cook just about anything that I can make into a relatively healthy dish (moderation, moderation), and we feel free to eat larger portions knowing that we’ve been good so far. We are able to indulge in some homemade hamburgers, thus keeping us from going deprivation-crazy, without derailing our diet.

Of course, I do accompany the hamburgers or whatever the main dish may be with lots of seasoned vegetables and salads rather than French fries to keep things healthy, but still — it’s a triumph to know that we can feel OK eating the macaroni and cheese in the first place.

Tip File: Salads as Nutritional Spackle

I read so much about wonderful, highly nutritious foods we should all be eating every day. A half cup of beans, a bowl of oatmeal, a handful of nuts — in fact, it often seems nuts how much food we’re expected to consume daily and yet still keep the calorie count low.

 

With so many obligation foods out there, where do I fit in my pizza and grilled cheese?

 

Aside from wanting to satisfy my cravings for what’s bad for me, there is the problem of just where to fit in all those magical foods that will make us so much healthier. I can’t serve dark, leafy greens as the main course every night.

 

That’s where some sneakiness needs to come in, I think. I know parents have a tendency to disguise good-for-us vegetables under blankets of cheese or grated to oblivion in sauce, but that’s a topic for another time.

 

What I’m thinking of is tricking our adult selves into consuming more of the nutritious foods that are often missing in our diets without shunting aside our favorite main courses.

 

My top method for accomplishing this is incorporating the foods into side salads.

 

Maybe you didn’t grow up with a salad as a side dish every day, but my mom started providing salad at nearly every evening meal about the time those bagged mixes started showing up in the produce department in our hometown. It took me a while to overcome my aversion to lettuce as a child, but my tastebuds have most definitely grown out of it. I’ve now become accustomed to having a salad to accompany my dinner most nights, and I consider it a sign of a good-value restaurant if they throw me one before my entrée arrives.

 

Here in Slovakia, I continued the tradition, generally tossing some lettuce with tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, maybe some radishes if I felt ambitious. I got a bagged salad mix with iceberg lettuce, grated carrots, and shredded cabbage.

 

But lately, I’ve been taking advantage of that daily salad to sneak in some extra nutrition in something I’m going to be eating anyway.

 

Now, due to nutritional issues, cost, and the fact that my bagged mixes here were going bad within a day or two, I make all our salads with that dark green, romaine lettuce. If you’re in the United States, you can up the dark-greens content of your salad by tossing in some baby spinach as well.

 

Also, I started adding drained and rinsed canned beans to our salads every night. This adds protein and fiber to our diets, two things I noticed we were generally lacking in. Plus, the fiber in beans can help reduce cholesterol levels over time.

 

Another trick I’ve read about is to add a small portion of nuts to your salad each night. This strategy could replace the crunch I’ve missed since giving up croutons (sniff!), along with providing nuts’ vitamins, minerals, and good fats in doses smaller than you’d be tempted to consume when snacking.

 

Or at least what I’d be tempted to consume should someone place a bowl of roasted, salted almonds in front of me.

 

Salads can also accommodate fruit, but if you go this route, stick to fresh fruits such as diced apples, orange wedges, and strawberries (tasty with balsamic vinegar!). Dried fruits often have added sugar and, if nothing else, provide more calories than fresh fruit per given volume since all the bulk-adding water’s been sucked out.

 

Of course, it’s important to mix in your garden-variety salad vegetables as well. Tomatoes and carrots (I now keep a bag of the pre-shredded sort on hand) are nutritional powerhouses themselves. Cucumbers help make you feel full because of their high water content, leading you to consume less of a perhaps naughtier main dish.

 

Salads aren’t the only solution. At some point, I’ve got to add an entry here about using desserts to fill nutritional holes in your diet. Pizzas, sandwiches, and other less than healthy foods as well. But salads, if you generally eat them with your dinner, are an easy start.

 

Now that you’ve packed your salad bowl with all this good stuff, there’s no need to ruin it by drowning it in ranch dressing (I know what you like, America). Stick to the light versions of bottled dressing, switch to Salad Spritzers, drizzle on straight balsamic vinegar, or try some homemade dressing. Below is a recipe for a delicious sweet and spicy dressing Scott and I came up with while trying to duplicate Catalina for his mom’s taco salad.

 

Fat-Free Taco Salad Dressing
Source: Colleen Fischer (with inspiration from a number of Catalina dressing recipes online)
Yield: 13 two-tablespoon servings

 

• ½ cup vinegar
• ½ cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 onion, grated

 

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl or mix in a blender. Serve or store in a dressing cruet.

 

NUTRITION FACTS
Servings: 13
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 18
Total Fat: 0.11g
Cholesterol: –
Sodium: 198mg
Total Carbs: 4.22g
Dietary Fiber: –
Protein: 0.29g

Download Fat-Free Taco Salad Dressing into MacGourmet.

Bring Home the Bacon

Note: Originally published on June 10, 2005. You can also bake the bacon at 350 degrees, if you’re willing to wait a bit longer. Also, I highly recommend grinding some black pepper on the bacon before it goes in the oven. For a breakfast treat, sprinkle brown sugar as well as black pepper on the raw bacon.

 

I’ve tacked on a recipe for a wrap sandwich I enjoy. You can have it as a straight BLT, but it’s better with the egg and cheese — sort of like a breakfast wrap.

 

The typical image of cooking bacon involves a spitting skillet on a hot cooktop. The bacon curls into little pinwheels as it contracts on itself. Some parts burn while the rest still looks raw. You splash hot fat on yourself when you try to turn it.

 

Oh, but you cook your bacon in the microwave? Sure, that’s quick, neat and easy, but I’ve always found the flavor leaves something to be desired. The bacon often turns brittle and dry, a shadow of its former greasy, meaty glory.

 

The trick to great bacon is to get your oven in on the act. How does that make this an easy upgrade, then?

 

Bacon prepared this way not only requires little effort (in both baby-sitting and clean-up), it tastes ridiculously good. You get the neatness of the microwave combined with the browning of the skillet.

 

To get even more mileage out of this upgrade, make as much bacon as you can fit on your sheet. Store the leftovers in a zip-top bag in the refrigerator for use in sandwiches and salads. It sure beats the anemic, expensive precooked bacon from the grocery store — now that’s a nice little upgrade.

 

 

1. Cover a baking sheet in foil. It’s best to use a small one you can cover entirely with one sheet so that the grease doesn’t leak onto the pan.
2. Lay out your bacon flat on the foil.
3. Shove the sheet in the oven.
   
4. Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. That’s right, no preheating required.
5. Let the bacon roast for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. I usually take it out when each slice has turned a nice overall brown. While it’s in the oven, you can check on it, but don’t touch it. You don’t need to! And if you leave it alone, it will keep its nice, flat shape.
6. Remove the bacon from the baking sheet. Lift off the foil, allowing the grease to pool in the middle, and crumple it up. Throw the mess away and put your clean sheet back into storage.

 

 

BLT Wrap Sandwich
Source: Colleen Fischer
Yield: 1 sandwich

 

• 1 tortilla
• Mayonnaise (or ranch dressing)
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Crispy pepper bacon
• Optional: hard-boiled egg, cheese

 

Spread the mayonnaise on the tortilla. Place the bacon on the mayonnaise, then pile other fillings on top. Wrap like a burrito and serve.

 

 

Download BLT Wrap Sandwich into MacGourmet.

 

Building a Pantry

I’ve now had several experiences with creating a pantry from scratch in a new kitchen, and I think I finally understand the unspoken rules.

First, a pantry should be built around what you know for sure you will cook; i.e., don’t stock up on inexpensive canned soup if you don’t particularly enjoy eating soup for a meal.

Meal planning plays a part in this as well. I’m a big advocate of mapping out in advance what you will serve for dinner each week. When you plan, you don’t end up with a freezer full of sausages and veggie burgers slowly turning into ice crystals over the course of a year.

For my third pantry, I started out with the usual blind buying of food items during my first grocery store visit, but through careful dinner planning I thinned the stock down to the always-on-had basics.

 

Take this list as guide to the most basic American pantry. Use it for your first shopping trip in a new kitchen, along with a list of ingredients you might need for your first week’s meals. If you’d like an expanded pantry that takes into account particular cooking predilections you might have, I’ll provide a few lists of extras.

 

Cooking Fats

Olive oil: The healthiest fat you can buy. Use it for vinaigrettes or sautés. Pure is usually cheaper, but some prefer extra-virgin for the added flavor.

Canola oil: Probably the second-healthiest cooking oil. Keep this around for any cooking that requires a higher temperature, such as deep-frying or stir-fries. Also good for salad dressings that you don’t want to be overwhelmed by olive oil’s flavor.

Non-stick spray: It’s great for reducing the amount of fat you use in cooking on the stovetop, and it’s necessary for almost any pan you pop in the oven. Sure, you could use butter to lube some baking pans, but it’s messy and time-consuming.

Butter or butter-flavored spray: Unless you’re a baker (see the Baking Pantry), you can get away with using oil for most recipes calling for butter and save yourself from saturated fat, but butter is good for flavoring bread and steamed veggies. A refrigerated butter-flavored spray can do the flavoring without the fat.

Filling the Canisters

All-purpose flour: Unless you bake, you’ll probably only need the small bag to use for thickening gravies and sauces, for making pancakes or waffles, and for breading meat.

White granulated sugar: For any sweetening needs. You only need a small bag or box (again, unless you bake), and it doesn’t matter whether it’s “cane sugar” or just “sugar.”

Baking powder: For any small baking tasks. It’s not expensive and will keep for months.

Baking soda: Get at least two boxes (very cheap stuff!). Put one in the pantry for recipes and one, open, in the fridge to deodorize.

Iodized table salt: It’s the cheapest and easiest-to-find salt around, it provides two necessary minerals in your diet, it dissolves easily and so won’t leave salt pockets in baked goods, and no, kosher salt does not taste any different. Unless you’re talking pricey fleur de sel or other designer salts, salt is salt, so don’t waste your money. Use about half the salt called for in recipes written for kosher salt.

Spice Rack

Black pepper: If you have a grinder, get whole peppercorns (check the ethnic aisles for inexpensive bags). If you don’t, get a small can so you can replace this about every six months.

Spice blend: Having a bunch of herbs and spices all together in one jar is a good shortcut for adding flavor to your cooking. Sprinkle it on potatoes, meats, veggies, whatever. If you cook Rachael Ray recipes a lot, you’ll probably want that salty, spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning from McCormick; if you love barbecue potato chips, try Lawry’s Seasoned Salt; if you’re watching your sodium, Mrs. Dash Table Blend is great; my mother-in-law recommends slightly lemony Greek Seasoning. Chili powder is also a good, easy-to-find blend of spices; just make sure it’s CHILI powder, as in what you would add to chili, and not powdered version of some kind of dried chile pepper, like Ancho chile powder.

Garlic powder: It’s good to have on hand to add mild garlic flavor to dressings and dips. You can also use it in a pinch if you’re out of garlic.

Paprika: Hot, sweet, smoked — your choice. Paprika adds nice color to meats and mayo-based salads. You eat with your eyes, of course.

Cinnamon: A sweet spice for desserts. Great on apple dishes. Plus, it’s the secret ingredient in many chili recipes.

Cayenne: For adding heat. Alternatively, go for crushed red pepper flakes.

Bouillon cubes: To make broth for cooking rice or soup.

Italian seasoning or herbes de provence: A shortcut for getting some dried herbs on your shelf. Use it until you have a real (recipe) reason to buy other dried herbs.

*Another possibility – a spice rack: My husband is a big proponent of this route. For about $20-30, you can pick up a spinning rack pre-filled with a variety of seasonings, probably including most of the above. It’s usually cheaper than buying individual jars of each spice. If you think at all that you’ll be using a lot of spices in your cooking, go this route and save some money long term.

Produce

Onions: You can add them to just about any dish to fill it out and add flavor. They keep well in a cool, dark, dry place — NOT under the sink and NOT near the potatoes.

Garlic: Me, I’m a sucker for the jars of peeled cloves in the refrigerator case, but whole bulbs keep longer and don’t need refrigeration.

All-purpose potatoes: If you’re not a low-carb person, potatoes are cheap and filling. Smashed, mashed, fried, roasted, baked, whatever — they make a great side dish. Look for the white or light-colored all-purpose ones that are decent in any application. Keep them in a cool, dark, dry place, far away from those moisture-releasing onions.

Salad greens: Adding a salad with dinner most nights will help you eat less of the richer foods on your plate. Buy them buy the bag or head.

Tomatoes: Along with the onions and salad greens, they make a great side salad. Sliced on their own they make a good side dish. Chopped, you can throw them in a variety of dishes.

Bananas: Or apples, or oranges, or whatever. Some fruit to have available for snacks or desserts. Eat healthy.

Dry Goods

Bread: For sandwiches or a dinner side dish. I like whole-wheat loaves.

Popcorn: For snacking — cheaper and healthier than any sort of chips or pretzels. It’s a whole grain! If you go the microwave route, avoid any brands with diacetyl butter flavoring. Apparently it kills your lungs.

Apple cider vinegar: It’s slightly sweet, making it vastly more palatable than white vinegar (which is great as a cleaner). It’s also the cheapest vinegar after the white stuff.

Tea bags: Iced tea is easy to make at home (if you like it sweet, add simple syrup made by boiling equal portions of tap water and your sugar, or invest in artificial sweetener) and inexpensive. Also, grab coffee if you’re a coffee drinker.

Cereal: Whatever kind you like, though I prefer one that’s not too sweet and features whole grains. Oatmeal is a good cereal, too.

Condiments

Mustard: Essential for sandwiches and homemade salad dressings. It can also supplement your spice rack (no need for powdered mustard).

Mayonnaise: I prefer light mayo for sandwiches and dressings.

Ketchup: Great for those potatoes and eggs.

Worcestershire sauce: Adds meaty flavor to recipes.

Refrigerator Staples

Eggs: So versatile! Eat them on their own, bind other ingredients, make other dishes richer-tasting for the fat . . .

Cheese: I like a sliced cheese for sandwiches and grated cheese (parmesan or pecorino romano) for seasoning.

Lunch meat: Go with what you like. The idea is to have something you can eat for lunch when you don’t have leftovers.

Bacon: It makes everything yummy.

Milk: For drinking and cereal.

Keep in mind, this is just to get you started. Your pantry will grow as you start buying more things to meet your recipe needs through weekly grocery shopping.

Of course, there might be a few things on my list that you wouldn’t use. If you’re vegetarian, you’ll likely want to leave out those meats and replace them, maybe roasted red peppers for the lunch meat and kalamata olives for the bacon.

The point is, don’t go stocking up on stuff because you think you might use it or because it’s on sale. That can of beans is no good if it’s just taking up space in the pantry until the day comes when you need it and discover it’s past the expiration date. Why keep around the sack of arborio rice only to throw it away when you move, having never touched it? It’s a waste of money and space. Plan and keep the stored staples to a minimum.