koko's corner

Candle Carver

How cool is this! Now I'm able to make fruits and vegetables into tea light holders. 

 

Now I can have my candles and eat them too ;-)

Kitchen goodies

After lunch with the girls yesterday, Squeaks and I went to Sur la Table in Carlsbad.

I was on a mission, I had to get the Breville 15 speed immersion blender. 

 

It can even crush ice. I love the variable speed capabilities of it and the large pitcher. 

And when I'm not using it in the kitchen, I can use it as an outboard motor when I go boating. ;-)

Want to see what else I got? 

Oy vey

Living in 420 sq ft can be exasperating at times.

 

Who would have thought that buying two new stainless steel mixing bowls would have meant that I'd have to re-arrange 3 cupboards in order to accommodate them.

Which then would lead to...

Foodie Finds addendum

How could I possibly have forgotten this when I posted Foodie Weekend, Foodie Finds. It's one of the greatest inventions since sliced bread. 

Ta daaaaa!!!!

A veggie scrub, how cool is this. 

 

Just load that baby with your veggies and

scrub under running water. It's a really quick way to get the veggies scrubbed and rinsed. 

And that's that

Foodie weekend, Foodie Finds

Before I show my great foodie finds from the Foodie Weekend, I have to apologize to Squeaks for being remiss in getting a picture of her sausage biscuits, I could have sworn I did, but I didn't. I will be making them soon but for now, the recipe will be added at the end of this post. 

I'm going to share some of the foodie things I bought over the Foodie Weekend. 

 

Dang, look at these, all you do is soak the cedar sheets and the string in water, then roll and tie up the food in the wrap and bake in the oven or place on the grill. 

How great is that!

Come see what else I got. 

Tomato Concentrate and Recipe Inspirations, how cool are these

One thing I ran across lately that I thought was so cool, were the little packages of concentrated tomato paste. There are 4 individual packages stuck together, sold as one unit.

 

I thought they were new and pretty cool, only to find out, they aren't so new to some people. 

I found mine locally, but if you are interested Sadaf has an online store.

Dang, I'll never be cutting edge. 

Today I saw recipe cards with the spices for the recipe on the card. McCormick Recipe Inspirations.

 

Or are these spice cards with the recipe on the card. 

Anyway, they are wayyy cool. They are available in about 5 different recipes.

 

I think these are great. I hope they will encourage budding new cooks to use fresh ingredients instead of using prepackaged foods with who knows what for ingredients.

They are inexpensive. I got this card at Albertson's for a buck fifty. An inexpensive way to go while you are building up your spice rack. 

Doesn't take much to make me happy does it. ;-)

The Silver Palate Cookbook, my favorite cookbook

The Silver Palate Cookbook was my first fine food cookbook. Compared to the cookbooks I was accustomed to using at the time, it was downright gourmet. It fueled my love of food and cooking. It sent me on an adventure of exploring new and different ingredients, spices and cooking techniques. 

If I remember right I got my copy of the cookbook in 1984. It's well used, soiled and the binding is broken but I wouldn't give up my tattered copy for anything. 

 

One of the few things I wanted to do when I started this little food blog 2 years ago was to cook my way through the book and blog about it, but I never got around to doing it. The passing of Sheila Lukins got me to ask myself; when was I going to start, what's taking so long, if not now, when?

I felt like I had to make a commitment to myself to post a certain number of recipes in a certain time span but my life just doesn't run that way. I'll cook and post from the book as often as I can.

I'm going to target my favorites and post them first, then continue my adventure in the book. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

I was gifted a great cookbook

One of the participants in one of the food newsgroups I frequent gifted me this great cookbook.
He was my Secret Santa in that group. At Christmas I was the recipient of some spice rubs, among other things. By the way Shawn, I carry the tote bag everyday.
I asked him if he'd care to share the recipes for the spice rubs he sent me and any others he wanted to share. This is what I got.
I am so into making spice blends and rubs that this cookbook is a special treat to me.

One more thing that makes this book special is that it is a previously loved book. All you need to do is look at it's side to see which pages it was opened to the most.
I'm not surprised to see the first page it automatically opens to is Wild Willy's Number One-derful Rub.
We'll do that one of these days. That's one of the rubs I got in my Christmas package.

The next page it automatically opens to is the one that has the recipe, Braggin'-Rights Brisket. Since I don't have a smoker maybe Shawn would give us a step by step with photos on this one. I'm not very subtle with hints am I ;-) Just whack ya over the head I do.

Next is Ain't Momma's Meat Loaf. Maybe if I make this one I'll finally make a decent meat loaf, I'd have to do it in the oven of course. Couldn't turn out any worse that what I'm doing now.

Oh dang this does it, I'm going to have to get a smoker now. Listen to this.
Better-Than-French-Onion Soup. The onions are smoked "until the skins are well browned and the onions feel soft, about 1 1/2 hours." Oh glory, then you make the soup with these. Does this sound fabulous or what.

Next pages that open up are the sauces like, Vaunted Vinegar Sauce, Golden Mustard BBQ Sauce, Old-Fashioned High-Cholesterol Great-Tasting Southern Sauce, dang, this one is true to it's name listen, it has bacon drippings_and_butter in it. Also some sauces that call for different "spirits" mmm my kind of sauce.

This isn't even mentioning the sides like San Antonio Cactus and Corn Salad, and the beans and greens.

I think I'll be cooking my way through this book this summer.

Thanks again Shawn for your generosity.

Spicing things up

As you know I'm in Lake Havasu AZ visiting with daughter and family. One of the places we went today was to the Spice Merchants, oh what a wonderful place to be. To the best of my recollection I've never been in a spice shop. I've been in places that sell spices and lots of them, I just don't remember being in a shop dedicated exclusively to spices.  This one is on the river right off the London Bridge.

See the reflection of the London bridge in the window and the beautiful patio.

I wish you could smell the following pictures.

Aero Garden Harvest

I did a little herb trimming the other day, other than a few snips of the basil I haven't cut any herbs. I think I need to start another garden because I sure don't want to run out of fresh herbs. Maybe I'll throw in a vegetable or two also.

I thought the mint would be something great to shoot with my new macro lens. Hmmmm don't know if I really want to see my food that close up.