Kitchen Scoop Blog

Our friend Julie R. asks: I am thinking about replacing our range in the near future. Right now we have a very old coil burner electric range.  I need to decide if I want to stay electric or switch over to gas.  Do any of you have strong feelings about this and/or can you recommend a brand you have or like?

Alicia's  response: I definitely prefer gas. I have moved into my new interim abode and it has electric. Even though it is a rental, I keep trying to figure out a way to get my gas back! I have two GE Profile gas ranges and like them both.

Beverly's response: I'm with Alicia. Gas is much more responsive, fast, to either heat up or cool off. Plus you have a greater range of temperatures you can achieve. However, gas is not nearly as good for baking (it doesn't hold a constant temperature). So the best thing in my opinion is a gas cook top and electric wall oven.

What say you, Kitchen Scoop readers?

Since I am hoping to sell my house before the summer is out (I have a contract pending, so keep your fingers crossed for me!), I decided to plant my small veggie garden to go.

My patio tomato is doing great, since is designed to be planted in a pot on your patio. My peppers are still small, so they are hangin' in there. My basil is awesome and I have already been pinching off leaves as the days go by. Oregano, OK, but going to need more room soon. Rosemary, happy as a clam. But my cherry tomatoes are completely freaking out. These beauties are used to being planted with plenty of room to stretch out and they are desperate for a wire support.

Today is National Sugar Cookie Day. Who says? Who knows!
And why? Who cares! I’m a sucker for anything that promotes eating more cookies, and besides, it gives me an excuse to rave one more time about a fabulous recipe Alicia unearthed called Nanny Edith’s Sugar Cookies.

If you’re a person who happens to write about food, not a day goes by that you don’t get an electronic press release proclaiming some day or another to be a national food holiday. Tomorrow is National Pina Colada Day. Who knew? And Monday is National Pecan Pie Day, a travesty in my opinion because every Southerner knows that while pecan pie is good any day, pecan pie is most appropriately celebrated in the crisp days of fall. (Click here for my favorite way to make pecan pie.)

And while there are a couple of websites listing all of these erstwhile food holidays (click here), nobody seems to know anything at all about their origins or who issued the official proclamation. National Creme Brulee Day? July 21, oh yeah!

Everyone we know who's tried Topsail White Shrimp Spaghetti loves it. This is a twist on one of my favorite recipes from our Desperation Dinners cookbook. My mother's Topsail Shrimp Spaghetti has a red sauce and we wondered what would happen if we used an Alfredo sauce and fresh tomatoes. The result? Delish!

Pizza dough is fun to play with! Sure you can top, bake and serve, but every now and then you might like some variety. We know we do! Enter our recipe for Stuffed Olive Bread. It’s either a light dinner for four, or you can serve it to accompany soup or salad for a filling meal for six.

All you have to do is buy prepared pizza dough, add some cheese and olives and roll into a tube, bake and slice.

We find unbaked, prepared whole-wheat pizza dough at Trader Joe’s and white pizza dough at the local Publix Supermarket in Miami. (You might also try asking to buy unbaked pizza "dough balls" from your neighborhood pizzaria.) But if you can’t find either one, use a one-pound package of frozen yeast bread dough instead.

There's just something about Snickerdoodles that make you smile. And there’s nothing like a classic cookie recipe to round out a picnic, potluck or any July Fourth celebration. They sound fun and festive, and kids -- and kids at heart -- are sure to love them.

Snickerdoodles are sometimes called Snipdoodles or Cinnamon Sugar Cookies, and have been around since the late 1800s. They probably originated in New England and are either of German or Dutch descent.

Unfortunately we couldn't find any clues as to how they got such a peculiar name, and it doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than fun.

Fun for the Fourth? We're there!

Here's an all-American side dish for July 4th! Potato salad isn’t cheap to buy from the deli, and after you taste this version, you’ll never even think of purchasing it again – at any price! When I tasted this potato salad for the first time nearly two decades ago, I thought it was perhaps the best on the planet.

When my husband first took a bite, this is what he said: “Usually when you eat potato salad, well, you’re just eating potato salad. This elevates potato salad to a whole new dimension.”

The recipe comes from a seriously fine Southern cook, Janice McDaniel of Fayetteville, N.C. (That's me with Mrs. McDaniel in her kitchen a couple of summers ago.) She uses watermelon rind pickles when she has them, so feel free to chop some up if you have them!

Pat Hoffmeister of Coppell, Texas, had a problem with her manicotti. “Do you know an easy way to stuff manicotti?” she asked. “I’m always splitting them when I try.”

To try and help Pat we posted her question here on The Scoop and also in our newspaper column, Desperation Dinners. Lots of readers responded with some wonderful ideas, and here they are!

Elise Legaspi of Oxnard, Calif., came swooping in with a terrific answer.

“I put the filling in a gallon-size, zip-top plastic bag,” Elise said. “I snip off one of the corners and squeeze away.”

We love these funky posters made from vegetable collages by our friend and colleague Lee Svitak Dean. When Lee isn’t busy designing her posters, which are targeted primarily to preteens and teens to promote healthy eating, she’s Editor of the Taste section of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

“These are part of my Eat Smart series of posters,” Lee says. “Each has the phrase "Eat Smart" at the bottom, along with a kind of game -- "Find the Produce," with a listing of all the items in the picture. I try to reflect in the posters that food can -- and should be -- fun.”

All eight posters in the series will be featured through July 30 at Corazon Gallery, 1026 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis.  If you can’t make it to Minneapolis, you can view the posters on Lee’s website (click here).

Making such intricate designs from fresh food is challenging to say the least.

Here’s what I do whenever I have too many ripe tomatoes and I don’t want to waste a single one: I make the easiest tomato sauce in the world.

This is more like a tomato fresca, in that the flavors are bright and fresh -- perfect for coating pasta or a pizza crust on a muggy summer day. It’s a thin sauce due to the moisture in the very ripe tomatoes. If you want a thicker sauce, either simmer it forever or use only Roma tomatoes.

For getting in and out of the kitchen fast, the very best part of this recipe is that you don’t have to peel the tomatoes. Everything just gets tossed into a food processor and it’s ready for a nice long simmer.

The inspiration for this recipe came from Janet Grennes of Raleigh, N.C., a friend, food stylist and former cooking teacher. Here’s what you do: