Kitchen Scoop Blog

At first I thought my dishwasher was dying -- there were lipstick marks on my wineglasses and the plates were streaked and sketchy. Then I ran across a newspaper story saying dishwasher detergent companies have quietly changed their formulas to eliminate environmentally unfriendly phosphates. (Some states now have laws banning phosphates.)

Well, turns out it’s phosphates -- not just soap alone -- that makes dishwasher detergents get the job done. “Phosphorus in the form of phosphates suspends particles so they do not stick to dishes and softens water to allow suds to form,” said the article in The New York Times.

Are you having trouble with your dishes too? We’d love to hear your comments on any problems or solutions you might be experiencing! The Cascade brand seems to be taking the biggest hit as dirty dishes across the country are alarming and angering consumers. Some folks are saying their dishes -- and their dishwashers -- are all but ruined. All you have to do is Google “Cascade” and “phosphates” and you’ll find online discussions with bewildered folks who just want to get their utensils clean. When it comes to a choice between phosphate-free (and thus algae-free) rivers and streams and eating tonight’s dinner on top of last night’s leftovers -- it’s a conundrum.

On a Website called DishwasherDetergentPhosphate.com, folks aren’t just ranting, they’re also experimenting with solutions. These include:

Eating out with friends with different expectations can be a bit tricky. I was a bit dismayed to discover this recently in New York with three friends, two new ones from London and one from Seattle. I suggested we lunch at Mario Batali’s Casa Mono in the stylish Union Square neighborhood of New York.

Batali’s restaurant website says:

Casa Mono: New York City, New York

Mario’s Spanish taverna with a New York sensibility. Choose from over 500 wines and another dozen Sherries. Small plates, tapas-style, are all the rage, but traditional appetizers and entrees, spun beautifully by Mario and Chef Andy Nusser, will make you long for Barcelona. Marion Burros of The New York Times says Mario has, "another hit on his hands.” 

So I’m thinking: amazing Spanish wines, creative small plates we can share … oh, yeah! What a way to spend a relaxing afternoon in NYC with friends? Right?

Call them empanadas in Latin cultures or in British-influenced countries they’re pastys or pasties. In Eastern Europe they’re bieroks, and here in the U.S. most kids know them as hot pockets.

Regardless of their name, meat pies have been around in various forms and in various cultures for centuries. The basic requirement is some sort of dough wrapped around a filling of meat. However, sometimes you’ll find empanadas with cheese only or with fruit fillings. (Guava is the No. 1 fruit flavor with Cubans in Miami!)

Here’s a “desperate” version of empanadas that we came up with in our test kitchen. Do you make meat pies? What do you call them and how do you make them?

What did you resolve for the New Year? Right this minute, while all of our New Year’s resolutions are fresh in our minds, we want to provide a bit of incentive for actually keeping them. This incentive comes in the form of a cookbook giveaway contest, and since at least some of our resolutions always veer toward more healthy eating and living, we’re giving away the new “Cooking Light Complete Meals in Minutes.”

Here’s how the contest will work: The publisher Oxmoor House sent us a copy of the book to preview -- it has over 700 recipes and looks really great BTW -- and we’re so excited to be able to give it away to one of our lucky readers here on Kitchen Scoop! This will be a random drawing, and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment about your New Year’s resolutions in the “comments” section following this blog post, and you’ll automatically be entered to win.

You can enter once each day for the next two weeks until the contest is over. Then we’ll use the site www.random.org to pick the winner. We’ll contact the winner via email, and once the winner provides a mailing address, we’ll ship out the book.

So, we hope you’ll share your resolutions and any ideas/tips/tricks you have planned to help you keep them. If you missed our resolutions, check our New Year’s Day blog post. Good luck!

Making New Year’s Resolutions might sound naïve or even silly in this day and age, but we still enjoy this holiday tradition. It’s a pretty good way to think back over the past year and evaluate which bad habits crept back into the lineup and which ones you kept at bay. Here are a couple of our New Year’s Resolutions. What are yours?! We can touch bases in July and see how we’re all doing at sticking to them! (When it comes to Resolutions, accountability is actually very helpful.)

From Beverly: This year I am going to tackle clutter and try to live without so many “things.” I might have a pretty good chance at this one because the kids are off at college, and my husband and I are downsizing from a rambling house in Miami to an apartment in downtown Washington, D.C. Gone are the oversized armoire, the lawn mower and a giant punch bowl I purchased on a whim and have never, ever used!

From Alicia: This year I hope to spend more time being present in today, whatever that holds. The last couple years have held a bunch of ups, downs and major changes, and some days I find myself wasting the day thinking about what once was. So I’m vowing to let go of the past, stop worrying about the future, and live in today. Should have done this years ago…oops, there I go, today is a new day!

You say peas, I think black-eyed. Is there any other kind? Not for this Southern gal. That’s especially true when eating peas makes all the difference for good luck in the New Year. Trouble is, I have a heck of a time convincing everybody else of the importance of these little spotted jewels.

For years I cooked a caldron of dried peas, just like my mother did and my grandmother did before her. Then I, alone, spend the whole first week of the New Year eating peas every day to get rid of them.

It was Beverly who suggested I simply camouflage the peas, so I came up with a Black-eyed Pea Salad. This salad is hearty enough to make an entree for New Year’s lunch or serves as a suitable side dish. Everybody likes it, so, problem solved!

Do you eat any good-luck foods on New Year's Day? Which ones and how do you fix them?

Did you know that using frozen vegetables is one less thing you need to feel guilty about?

When it comes to the Mom Guilt Radar, we’re pretty much out there on the cutting edge. So when we heard the reports that frozen veggies tend to be more consistently nutritious than fresh, we were thrilled. And what do we have to thank for this wonderful revelation? Well, turns out because of the time involved between the field, the supermarket and the table, fresh isn’t always best. If your fresh vegetables are picked in California on a Monday and don’t make it off the truck in Georgia until the following Tuesday, well those veggie nutrients have deteriorated quite a bit.

Most frozen vegetables sold today are flash-frozen almost immediately after harvesting, and the frozen state preserves all the vitamins and other good-for-you stuff.

Wishing you love, joy and peace today and every day!

Alicia & Beverly

At its heart, bread pudding is comfort food, plain and simple. But just because something is comforting doesn’t mean it can’t put on some fancy new clothes for the holidays! Take Deep-Dish Bread Pudding with Dried Cherries and Chocolate Sauce. It’s sassy, to say the least, but still just as satisfying as ever.

We like to get a bit fancy for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but at the same time, we don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen fussing over food that’s way too complicated. Often just the littlest thing – say a simple dried cherry – is all it takes to elevate an entire dish. When we find just such an ingredient for the right recipe, we like to call them our “secret ingredients.”

As cooks and recipe developers we try to be humble. But this Hot Fudge Sauce makes it hard! Here's why:

• It's made in the microwave.
• Ready in 5 minutes flat.
• It uses ordinary ingredients that are easy to keep on hand.
• Has an old-fashioned secret ingredient that's become trendy in the past year -- a dash of salt.

You just have to try it to believe it! It's good over just about any dessert -- from vanilla ice cream to bread pudding. This sauce is especially good over our recipe for Dried Cherry Bread Pudding, which will be featured here on Friday. Stay tuned!