Kitchen Scoop Blog

I have a culinary confession to make: I’ve been a little intimidated by quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wa). Oh, I’ve seen it on the grocery store shelves, right there by the other funky grains and even brought it home to sit on my shelf. I’ve seen the rock-star TV chef’s make funny looking little pilafs with it, even tried a bite or two of a stuffing made with it at a fancy restaurant a month or so ago. But I haven’t had the courage to actually cook with it myself.
When the calendar turned to a new year a few weeks ago, I made myself get the stuff out and cook a batch – straight. I figure you can’t know how to use it until you’ve tasted it in its purest form. To my great surprise it wasn’t strange or weird at all. In fact, straight cooked quinoa has a wonderful little nutty flavor and interesting texture akin to a cross between bulgur and al dente Israeli couscous.

A few months ago, White Bean and Fennel Stew with Italian Sausage ran in the Kitchen Scoop (formerly call Desperation Dinners) newspaper column. It received rave reviews form readers around the country. I, too remembered it as a simple and satisfying soup and with fennel bulb in hand went into the kitchen to whip up a batch this afternoon for dinner tonight. Problem is my freezer door was left open and everything in my freezer is defrosted. Since I have no idea when it happened, everything must go. Including the delicious Italian sausage that was to go into my stew.

Today is National Pie Day - January 23 - or 1-2-3 (Because pie is just that easy!) Apple Pie is America's number one pie. But I'm wondering what the Kitchen Scoop Community likes?

What in the ... kitchen is this?

I'm walking past the end of a grocery store aisle and a voice invites me, "to enjoy a Manwich tonight." I turn to the voice and there's a whole shelf of Hunts (R) Manwich sauce(R).

Isn't it a little too much to speak to me in the grocery store aisle? It's one thing to have samples. It's a whole other thing to have a motion sensitive ad that calls out to you as you pass.

It's easy to get old-fashioned slow cooked goodness in stew with a Crock Pot. Mine practically sits on my counter top in the winter months, turning out stews and chilis multiple times a week.

As I was downsizing for the second time in two years, I had to make some hard decisions about what to keep in the “kitchen equipment department” and what I could leave behind. Some items where easy to let go of, especially all the duplicates: the additional 30-cup coffee maker, the extra fondue set, and the spare Crock Pot. Others were easy to say goodbye to because of the dust that had gathered on the top, indicating the lack of use over the years: the heart-shaped waffle maker, the bread maker, and the family-sized George Forman Grill.
But the items that were the most difficult to deal with were those where practicality bumped up against emotional attachment. One piece in particular was my grandmother’s 9-inch cast iron skillet. Although I can honestly say I haven’t used it in at least three years, I decided I’d rather hang it on the wall than sell it at the yard sale.
Black and sturdy, that cast iron skillet has seen almost 100 years of cornbread recipes, salmon cakes, Spanish Tortillas, omelets and more. And hanging there it seemed to beg to be used.

When I was a child, I had a subscription to the kids version of National Geographic Magazine. I think it was called World or something to that effect. But I credit that magazine subscription with beginning my love affair with photography. My favorite part was the last page where they had zoomed in on an animals' eye or hooves or flowers and leaves and you had to identify the object.

When I turned 14, I asked for my first "real" camera and was gifted with a Nikon K1000. I still think that camera takes the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. My mom has several that I took over the years, blown up as "art" on her walls in her home even today. (Moms do that kind of thing, even when the product is far from professional.)

I've moved away from film, and use a Nikon digital camera now. I love the simplicity, the ease and the sense of being able to take as many pictures as I want and ditch them later if I don't like them. I have a computer full of those type photos. Ones I "ditched" into a file. But while I was playing with my editing software, I realized, they make some pretty amazing photos when zoomed in. And I immediately thought of "What in the Kitchen? So I thought we'd give it a try and see how observant you all are.

Several years ago, OK almost 20 now, baked dips were all the rage. And I've never gotten over them. I still love a bubbling dish of ooey-gooey ingredients with lots of cheese pulled from the hot oven and spread over my favorite chip, cracker or bread. Call me retro, call me old fashioned, OK call me old. But I still crave some of the dips I developed back then.

Do you remember when everything was poured over a block of cream cheese?

Or when Brie was first widely available in the States and we went baked Brie crazy?

Or what about when everything was served in a bread bowl? I can't tell you how many pumpernickel loaves I carved into a bowl and I don't even really like pumpernickel bread.

More than one of my friends has the crud. You know, that winter-time ick, not quite the flu, but makes you feel cruddy? My answer is chicken soup. Really, it works. And if you are the cook and the one that is sick, nothing makes you feel better than knowing you can make homemade soup in less than 30 minutes. But if you're not sick, be a friend and make a pot for the pitiful.