Category Archives: Food and Recipes

17 October 2011

Uncle Sam’s Cereal: A Product Review

By Nicki

I have the good fortune to follow Attune Foods on Twitter. There is a weekly chat that they sponsor but better than that, I was approached to try some of their cereal and to share with you what I think about it.

When the box arrived at my doorstep, I could not figure out what I had ordered. I was really excited to find two full boxes of cereal – this strawberry one and the original variety. Lots of times when you get “samples” for review you only get small portions, maybe one serving. While anyone could review on that amount of cereal, I like to be able to eat it on different mornings or mix it in with my yogurt. Anyway, two full boxes so I was very excited.

I have always liked strawberries in cereal. I have tried other cereals that have strawberries in them so I opened the Strawberry box first. I am a bit OCD about cereal. Actually, it has just been so damp lately that I do not like to open more than one box at a time to keep the contents fresh. So I started trying the Strawberry.

 

The first bowl was delicious. One day I had a bowl as an afternoon snack after a mid-length run. I found the whole wheat berry flakes to be delicious. The strawberries added a touch of sweetness to the cereal. Unfortunately, while I understand the benefits of flax seed, I was not likely the little seeds in the cereal. Overall though, I loved the cereal.

I tried the Original. While the sweetness the strawberries added was absent, the Original variety tasted great. I can also see using this variety in yogurt. I also could see trying it instead of oats in a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies so I guess the new ones would be wheat berry raisin cookies.

 

Now onto another other thing I liked. I absolutely love the letter on the inside of the box.

You can find out more information about these two Uncle Sam’s cereals and other products from Attune Foods by visiting their website. They are currently running a contest which can be found under the community tab. You can also follow them on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/attunefoods.

As always, I want you to realize I was sent free product for review. The opinions on the product are mine own, though.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts, Product Reviews

5 September 2011

The Harvest is Plentiful

By Nicki

From an outside window looking in, the big item missing from many food programs is fresh food.  Because of the perishable nature of fresh fruits and vegetables, it is hard to get them in food programs.  Enter an elementary school leadership program and the enterprising teacher who knew a garden could provide many lessons for students.

Molly Goosman approached a local dentist who had some additional property around his office about three or four blocks from the elementary school where she teaches.  She secured some land and then the work and the teaching began.  The plot, now known as Spartan Garden after the school’s mascot, had to be tilled and seeds planted.  Worse, the harvest comes during summer vacation.  Who would be doing the weeding, the watering – and this July was unbelievably dry here locally, and the harvesting?  Enter the school’s leadership club.

Last summer the group painted murals on the walls of the school.  This year the group watered and tended the Spartan Garden.  The beneficiaries of the garden: the district’s food programs M-EALS (M-E Assisting Local Spartans) and the local population in general as the students have held two sale dates so far.

The M-EALS program provides food to local families in need.  An application is available on the school’s web site.  Last year, on average, the program served 60 families a week.  Over the summer, the program was supplemented, once harvest came, by the fruits and vegetables from the Spartan Garden.  On top of that, proceeds from the sales the students held of additional items – zucchini grows plentiful in any garden – helped fund the M-EALS program.

In a world where food production is becoming more big business, students learned to garden and what is provided by such gardening.  The students also learn compassion as they are helping others in the community.  We cannot underestimate the value of education that occurs outside the classroom.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Board of Education, Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

31 August 2011

Good Bye , Summer!

By Nicki

Here in upstate NY we sort of go by those age old adages that summer starts Memorial Day weekend and ends Labor Day weekend.  Kids here do not even start school until the Wednesday after Labor Day. Best we not discuss when they get out of school as I am sure that would astonish some of you out there.

 

Today I am sitting here with tomorrow being the first day of September.  Labor Day is this weekend.  I am thinking that I do not know where the summer has gone.  Thankfully, I am not ending the summer the same way I started it.  We had a horrible storm the end of May and I spent Memorial Day weekend without power.  I am very reminiscent of that and also very grateful that I am not one of the thousands in NYS that are still without power from Irene.

 

I spent a good hour yesterday chatting with the new superintendent of my school district.  He and I had known each other in a parent-principal relationship in his former position as the principal of the high school.  Now, we have a new relationship as I am a school board member and he has been hired as the superintendent.  Today, I saw that September is National Hunger Action Month so I was very happy that our conversation dealt with the overwhelming need to get more families to fill out forms for reduced or free meals in the school district.  As I opened the page for www.hungeractionmonth.org, I was told that 13.5% of the people that live in the same upstate county as I do are food insecure.

 

My discussion with the superintendent centered around how the district in which I live and he works has always, until very recently, been very homogeneous.  This is changing drastically and quickly.  Building administrators talk about transient populations.  Students come to school without the ability to learn because they are hungry.  There are many support systems available.  The major problem is that the waiting lists to access some of the help are enormous.

 

Need causes creativity to create a program to meet the needs of those who have this challenge.  The first creative answer was begun by one of our high school teachers who started a weekend program to support those in our community that need help.  The Food Bank of the Southern Tier has a backpack program where students get food for the weekend but there is a waiting list to get into this program.  Enter the Participation in Government class and what has, over the course of a year, fed between 50 and 70 families and become an incorporated 501(c)3 not for profit organization – the M-EALS program which stands for Maine-Endwell (school district) Assisting Local Spartans (mascot).

 

Another method to help those who may have need is to be sure that families apply for free or reduce priced meals through the food service department at the school district. This involves government paperwork which a lot of people prefer to not fill out.  What it does not involve, any longer, is a huge stigma attached to the student.  Because the school district uses a pin-based system for meal payments, the free or reduced pricing is just figured into the system.  A student enters a pin and no one, including the child behind him or her, knows what that student is paying for lunch.

 

The biggest issue, in my mind, is communicating to parents to fill out this paperwork.  If a student comes into a district and had either free or reduced meals in a previous district, the family has to fill out the paperwork again.  While this is tedious and time-consuming, it is in the best interest of the student that it be done.  Studies have long shown that being hungry affects a student’s ability to learn.  As a school board member, if I filter what we as a district are doing as what is in the best interest of the student, we then MUST find a way to be sure all who qualify take advantage of the free or reduced priced meals as this is what is best for the student.

 

Please look for a second part to this, “The Harvest is Plentiful,” which will highlight an elementary school’s way to address hunger in our community.

 

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Board of Education, Family, Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

16 August 2011

Leftovers

By Nicki

Even in this time of harvest and abundance – summer, it is hard to cook just what is going to be eaten.  Then, try to convince a teenager or even a 20-something adult that leftovers are what dinner is going to be.

I knew there were plenty of leftovers that needed to be eaten when I decided, instead of grilling, I would make a stir-fry for dinner.  I have no set recipe for making stir-fry.  I just use this as a frequent way to not waste food.  Generally, this means that we will have stir-fry on Monday evening as the garbage goes out for the week on Monday nights.

I had some corn, cut fresh off the cob the day or so before.  I also had the ever present zucchini and a summer squash.  I had picked up some snow peas at the farmers’ market.  Also thrown in to go over some brown rice was carrots and sweet peppers – red and green.  Then, there was a ribeye that someone didn’t finish and was suddenly deemed a “leftover” and a chicken breast.  While not something I would normally serve together, they made for good protein in the stir-fry.

3 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

4 May 2011

School Vacation

By Nicki

Back in the second week of April, my youngest – the only one still in school – had his spring break.  This break was at an odd time – not the week before or the week after Easter but two weeks prior.  The timing was inconsequential as we were not traveling but the youngest was.  He left on Wednesday of that week to head to Syracuse for three days, returning home on Friday, to compete in the NYS SkillsUSA competition.  Below is a slideshow from the competition.  I have photos mostly of the culinary arts and baking competitions but there were 69 different skills displayed within the competition.  The BOCES that he attends had three students take first place in their respective areas and will be heading to Nationals in June.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Family, Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

16 December 2010

Spice Cookies

By Nicki

The email said “Spruced-Up Spice Cookies.”  I have to be honest.  I am sort of an instant gratification girl when it comes to baking.  I want to make the dough and plop whatever in the oven and have baked goods shortly there after, maybe an hour or so if I am talking breads.  I am not one for refrigerating dough as it tends to disappear.  Either I eat it or my children do before the dough ever becomes cookies.  I gave up making my mother’s sugar cookies because of this issue.  I went to making gingerbread people and cut out for the holidays.  So the idea of a spice cookie, a slightly healthy one until I frost it, made me happy.  I was set to try.

 

I got a good look at the recipe and was fairly happy.  No eggs – good thing in my mind.  Ooops, calls for pureed banana.  I had no bananas in the house.  Now that I think about this, the lack of bananas may be the reason for my calf cramping problems of late but that is for another post.  I did happen to have some very chunky applesauce and some pumpkin puree.  The applesauce was too chunky and, even as much as I bake and cook, I do not own a food processor so that was out.  I decided to use the pumpkin instead of the banana.

Spruced-Up Pumpkin Spice Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ginger, ground
2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground
2 teaspoons allspice, ground
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick margarine (I used a half cup of Smart Balance margarine as that was what I had on hand.)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 c pumpkin puree
1 t decorating sugar, candy sprinkles or sugar in the raw (optional – my son chose to frost the cookies but no photos of the frosted ones)

DIRECTIONS
Sift all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. If you do not own a sifter, use a whisk to combine dry ingredients. Place the margarine in a mixing bowl, then add the sugar and mix until creamy. Add the pumpkin and continue to beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes. If the mixture looks loose, add one tablespoon of the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Add all the flour mixture in small amounts until combined. Divide the dough into 2 balls, wrap and press each one into a flat disk (I had some freezer paper on hand so wrapped in that). Chill for at least two hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the dough balls between two sheets of wax paper (again used the freezer paper) and roll out as thinly as possible. Stamp with a small (1″-1 1/2″) cookie cutter. Sprinkle with decorating sugar, if using; bake 8 minutes. Immediately after cooking, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store cookies in an air-tight container for up to one week. One serving equals two cookies.

Number of Servings: 36 (less if you use bigger cookie cutters)

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

28 November 2010

Does Anyone Take Pride …

By Nicki

… in what they make anymore?  I know just where did this come from is what you are all thinking.  No, nothing broke here as I was trying to create a memorable Thanksgiving dinner for my kids and extended family.  No, the artificial tree did not not go to together right after almost ten years.  My guess is I may not want to push this for too many more years, though.

What brought this all about was baking.  I did a lot of baking over the last week – breads and cookies being the favs around my house.  I have been through 3 big (28 ounce) cans of pumpkin puree since last Sunday.  While at the community Thanksgiving service last Tuesday night, a friend asked if I would make him some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  He works in retail so was not going to be Thanksgiving morning mass (neither was I as I was at the Turkey Trot).  I told him I would bring him a dozen on Sunday.

Needless to say, my long run this weekend had me exhausted, not quite sure why, Saturday evening so I figured I had plenty of time Sunday morning to make cookies before heading to church at 11 am.  To top that all off, there were some communication misfires between me and my youngest and I was up most of the night awaiting a call from him as to his whereabouts.

So back to pride in workmanship.  About five years ago, I went out on Thanksgiving day and purchased a five speed, handheld mixer.  My previous mixer, a Waring and a wedding gift, was not broken but the beaters themselves were breaking.  Since this five speed was on sale (I felt like I was trading down as my Waring has 12 speeds), I decided the old mixer itself must be getting ready to break if the beaters were breaking.  What I liked about the original’s beaters is there were two sets – one for normal baking and one for bread doughs.  The newer mixer had only one set of beaters.

About two weeks ago, I went to back something with that now five year old, five speed, handheld mixer.  In the middle of mixing the cookie dough (yes, I could do this all by hand but choose not to), the part that holds the beaters in the mixer popped right out of it.  This is not a normal thing.  I had broken the mixer.  Lucky for me, the beaters fit in my Waring mixer and I had never thrown it out.

So, here I was this morning – running on very little sleep – and thinking how amazing it is that the Waring handheld mixer I have is 26.5 years old and still running like a charm.

Do you think today’s products are inferior to those of earlier days?

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

24 November 2010

Cranberry Sauce

By Nicki

While my children are huge fans of that gelatinous mess that comes out of a can and looks nothing like cranberries – other than the color, of course, I prefer my cranberries fresh and cooked by me.  Because I am all about getting the cooking done as far in advance as I can of the holiday – I like to socialize with my guests and watch football and get in a good run, too – I did my cranberry sauce yesterday.

I promise it will go in a nice serving dish once the big day arrives.

Cranberry Sauce

1 bag (12 ounces) whole, fresh cranberries

2 teaspoons lemon zest

Juice of one lemon

1 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

1 packet Stevia

1 teaspoon ground ginger or freshly ground ginger root (half that if fresh)

Bring water and sugar and Stevia to a boil in a medium pot.  Add rinsed cranberries.  Allow to reach a boil again, then turn down to a simmer.  Do not cover.  Add lemon zest and juice.   Simmer for approximately 15 minutes.  Remove to a bowl and allow to cool completely before refrigerating.

As always, I attempted to make this recipe a bit more healthy as I made it.  The original recipe I found called for a cup of sugar.  I used 1/3 cup and Stevia.  I love orange instead of lemon with my cranberry also but I had lemon on hand so that is what I made this year.  To top it all off, I was drinking a Bigelow tea called Ginger Snappish which is ginger tea with lemon so I added a bit of that to the water once the sugar had dissolved.

Enjoy!!

2 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

24 November 2010

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

By Nicki

Make ahead mashed potatoes are a staple on my holiday tables.  My children love potatoes and this recipe means I do not have to be making the potatoes the day of the big event.  I will admit I sometimes have issues getting them in the oven for reheating in time but this year, that will not be a problem.  I did post this recipe about two years ago but have tweaked it a bit so here you all go again.

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

5 pounds good baking potatoes, peeled and chopped to small pieces

1 – 8 ounce package 1/3 fat cream cheese (neufchatel)

8 ounces plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup skim milk

1 stick margarine

1 onion, peeled and quartered

salt to taste

 

 

DIRECTIONS

Place potatoes in a large pot of lightly salted water.  Place quarter onion in water also. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

Drain, and mash.

In a large bowl, mix mashed potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, milk, , and pepper. Transfer to a large casserole dish.   Can refrigerate up to five days in advance.  If refrigerating, let cool before covering and placing in refrigerator.

 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

Cover, and bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven.

 

I, after mashing by hand, use a hand held mixer to blend in all the creamy items.

 

2 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Family, Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

2 November 2010

Salmon

By Nicki

For those of you who do not know, my oldest is 26 this month.  He moved home a little over a year ago and was laid off from his auditing position at a CPA firm in April of this year.  He has a lot of free time on his hands these days, or so it seems.  Consequently, he has been heading up north with my sister’s significant other to fish.  For about a month, they were either on Lake Ontario or the Salmon River twice a week.  The result is I have no room in my freezer at the moment.  It is full of salmon.

 

One thing that my son wanted to try was smoking the salmon.  I have a charcoal grill.  He bought some chips of hickory – first try, he used cherry from a friend – and got to work on smoking some of the fish.  This does not help in the freezer area as it means that there is now smoked salmon in the freezer also.  I did try a smoked salmon dip that my mom sent me and he loved it.  He ate it on toast tips for quite some time.  The recipe is below.

 

Smoked Salmon Dip
8 ounces of cream cheese
6-8 ounces of smoked salmon
4 green onions, chopped with some of the green
2 tablespoons capers (I didn’t have any on hand so added a pinch of salt)
½ cup mayonnaise or sour cream (more or less, to taste) – Always the rebel, I used Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt.
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
Juice of a lemon
Bring Cream Cheese to room temperature. Remove skin from salmon and flake with a fork. Mix all ingredients except lemon juice in a blender, food processor or with a fork if you want it lumpy. If you mix with a fork, chop the onion fine and also chop the capers. After it is well mixed, add lemon juice to taste. The lemon juice will cut the heavy taste of the salmon and cream cheese.
Notes:  From my mom:  I use Neufchatel cheese (I did too) but if you want, I am sure that fat free cream cheese might work as well. I have used regular minced onion but the flavor isn’t as good. I use Miracle Whip Free instead of mayo (as I said, I used Greek yogurt).
I serve with mini toasts or if you have some white bread, toast your own. It is very good with Champagne.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Family, Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

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