Category: Food and Recipes

I was making our dinner this afternoon, so it will be ready when I get home from bellydance later tonight. I made chicken marsala, mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots. Sounds yummy right?

I realized when making the carrots how I don’t cook like a home cook anymore. When I was a home cook, I would cut the carrots, put them in a pot of salted boiling water, and cook them until they were crisp-tender.

Next, I would get out a colander and drain the carrots. Then, I would take a sauté pan and melt some butter, then add the carrots, brown sugar, and salt. I would sauté until the brown sugar and butter got thick and bubbling.

What’s wrong with that? It seems correct, but it produces more dishes and takes more time to get to the same finished product, which in this case is glazed carrots.

Now, I throw carrots into one of my banged up, tried and true, restaurant-style steel frying pans and add about half a cup of water, a couple of tablespoons of butter, and brown sugar. I add a big pinch of kosher salt.

I crank the frying pan on high and cover it with another steel frying pan; I am always grateful Marty got me two of these pans instead of only one.

I let the carrots cook undisturbed for ten minutes and poked a paring knife in one of the carrots. They were crisp, tender! I took off the lid and cooked the carrots on medium for less than five minutes, and the glaze was shiny, bubbling, and thick.

What would have taken at least 25 minutes took less than 15 minutes. I don’t know about you, but ten minutes is a big deal in my world. Not having to wash another pot, lid and colander is priceless.

This is how they would do it on “the line” in a restaurant; quickly, efficiently, and most of all, delicious. I have never worked on the line in a busy restaurant, but I am training as I will someday. That is something on a to-do list of mine.

I am still struggling with fatigue and headaches from my new medicine, which could take more than two weeks to go away. I am still going to dance class tonight because I want to and won’t let a stupid headache get in the way of my joy.

Have a good night, everyone! I can’t wait to come home and eat the dinner I just made; it smells so damn good in here.🙂

It’s that time of the year when everyone’s gardens will burst with beautiful, ripe tomatoes. When we had a garden when the boys were little, we would watch the green tomatoes slowly turn red, then rejoice when we could pick the first ripe tomato. Every year we treated it like a miracle that occurred.

A couple of weeks later, we had tomatoes coming out of our asses. In the beginning, picking red tomatoes was a celebration. Having a lot of tomatoes isn’t bad, but the ideas start to run out after making umpteen Caprese platters, quick marinara sauces, BLT and tomato sandwiches, and salsas.

At the end of the summer, I used to can jars of fresh basil and Roma tomatoes that I would pull out in the middle of winter for a taste of summer. One year I got lazy and just threw tomatoes, peel and all, into freezer bags and frozen them. I wouldn’t say I liked the texture when I defrosted them and vowed not to pull that trick again.

When I was younger, I used to watch Ciao Italia on PBS with my dad. My father and I both loved Italian food and liked watching the host, Maryann Esposito, cook. We learned about dishes we had never heard of and tried making some.

One of her recipes was a gorgeous tomato tart. I followed her recipe when my dad bought her cookbook; after I moved to Vermont, I wrote my recipe on what I remembered.

I wrote that tomato tart recipe about 28 years ago and shared it with many friends. It became everyone’s go-to recipe to make for guests. I made it almost every time we had company for the weekend since it can be eaten cold, hot, or at room temperature.

I used to make this recipe long before my gluten-free days. Sometimes I made homemade pie crust, and other times I used a store-bought refrigerated one from Pillsbury. Both came out great. Shit, I miss those Pillsbury pie crusts. While I am nit it I should also admit how much I loved their cinnamon buns, biscuits and crescent roll. I am not a food snob and think everything has to be made from scratch.

After I had to go gluten-free, I didn’t make the tomato tart for years since I hated making GF pie crust. A few years ago, I found an easy, no-fail GF pie crust recipe and put this dish back into circulation.

Here is the link to my gluten-free pie crust recipe for my gluten-free readers. I use this recipe for savory and sweet tarts and pies all year long and trust the outcome every time I make it.

So, when you get to the point of “Oy vey, I have so many tomatoes, what should I do with them?” Well, you can make this tomato tart, which maybe becomes one of your favorite go-to recipes. Ripe Roma tomatoes work best for a perfect-looking tart; however, I sacrificed my last Jersey tomato when I made the tart last week.

After thinly slicing the tomatoes for the tart, the most crucial part of the recipe is to layer them on a plate between paper towels to absorb the excess liquid. Failure to do so results in a soggy tart. No one wants a soggy tart.

Tomato Tart

Ingredients

5-6 ripe plum tomatoes sliced into thin rounds
4 cloves of fresh garlic
1 small onion
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 9″ pie crust of your choice
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 lb provolone cheese

Directions

Slice the tomatoes and place them on a paper towel-lined plate covering each layer with more paper towels. This removes the water from the tomatoes so the tart will not become soggy.

Line a tart pan with a removable bottom with the pie crust. Prick the dough with a fork uniformly, so the crust doesn’t shrink when pre-baked. You may also line the pie crust with dried beans if you wish.

Bake in a preheated 425-degree oven for 10 minutes, ensuring the tart shell doesn’t get too brown.

Brush the tart shell immediately with the dijon mustard after you remove it from the oven, which seals the tart shell and prevents it from getting soggy.

While the tart shell is pre-baking, mince the garlic and onion. Combine in a small bowl with the herbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Dice the cheese into 1/4″ cubes.

To assemble the tart, place the cheese cubes in the pre-baked tart shell spreading them out evenly. Next, spread the garlic and herb mixture over the cheese cubes evenly. Place the tomatoes in a circular fashion covering the whole tart.

Bake in a 425-degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until the cheese looks bubbling and the tomatoes look cooked.

Cool for 30 minutes and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese to taste.

Remove the ring from the tart pan and place it on a serving plate.

Serve either warm, cool, or at room temperature. Delicious with a freshly tossed garden salad or antipasto salad.

It’s Jersey tomato season bitches! Oops, sorry, I get a little carried away when it’s that time of year—kind of like when people are excited for pumpkin-flavored everything in the fall.

This is my blog’s second summer; I wrote about Jersey tomatoes last year. I won’t rewrite what I wrote last year, but here’s the blog link to my Jersey Tomatoes post. 

My friend Ann, from my hometown of Iselin, NJ, comes to Vermont camping the third week of July every year. She is kind never to forget to bring up a few Jersey tomatoes for us. 🍅

Real deal Jersey tomatoes are vine-ripened, not picked green, and then gassed to ripen like supermarket varieties. 

I read this article this morning claiming that you will be disappointed with their taste unless you buy Jersey tomatoes from a farmer, produce stand, or gardener. I believe it 💯.

When my parents still lived in NJ, I used to bring Jersey tomato starter plants back to Vermont with the hopes of growing some myself but was sadly disappointed with the taste when I tried. 

The air, temperature, and acidic, sandy soil make these Rutgers-developed tomatoes so sweet, tender, and remarkable. 

I know the farmers that grow Jersey tomatoes must know how much people love and cherish their tomatoes. 

The look on someone’s face when they take a deep whiff of a Jersey tomato and then take a bite says it all. There isn’t another tomato like it.

As a cook, I can say that when chefs and cooks see the look of pleasure on someone’s face when they taste your food is the reason why we do what we do. 

This morning I made Sam peanut butter stuffed french toast slathered in local chocolate honey and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. 

Watching him eat it, I had a happy heart because I knew he savored every bite. He told me when he was done, it was “really, really good.” Yay! 

If the farmer who grew the tomatoes we had for breakfast would have seen that same look on my face as Sam’s. 

A juicy, ripe Jersey tomato sandwich with Hellman’s mayo on both sides of the bread, sprinkled with kosher salt and pepper. True perfection on a plate. 

Funny that when I went back to copy the link to last year’s blog post about Jersey tomatoes, I did it on July 24, just like today! I didn’t plan it; maybe 7/24 should be Jersey tomato day along with my brother-in-law Peter’s birthday. Happy Birthday Peter! 🥳

I learned a new cooking trick this week that I wanted to share with you. In my cooking classes, I’ve taught my students that if they don’t like spicy food, then don’t add the spice or just a smidgen.

I like food with a little heat, but I wouldn’t call myself a true spicy food lover. Sometimes I want to add hot peppers to a recipe that benefits from it or a dish that is supposed to be spicy, but I don’t want the dish to be an ass-burner the next morning. Sorry, but it’s true. Lol!

We have been watching the show Iron Chef, which is now on Netflix and not the Food Network. I used to love the food network but now prefer cooking programs on other channels like the BBC, Bravo, or Netflix.

One of the Iron Chefs competing in a battle was Mexican Chef Gabriela Cámara. Cámara has a restaurant in Mexico City called Contramar, specializing in seafood. She also has a cookbook, My Mexican City Kitchen, published in 2019. You learn to cook Mexican food from Chef Cámara on Masterclass.

The Iron Chef battle used chilis right up her Mexican cuisine’s alley. Some of the dishes she made were spicy, using as many as five different chilis and other dishes weren’t spicy at all. In one of the dishes, she used citrus juice to control the heat of some habanero peppers.

Ah! This was something I had never heard of before. I like adding fresh jalapeños to food, but you can never tell or be sure what jalapeño is very hot and one that is not as hot.

I am making pork carnitas tacos for dinner tonight with fresh local corn. I wanted to make another side dish that wasn’t heavy, like rice or beans, since it is blistering hot outside. I wanted something light and flavorful.

I found a dish called Calabacitas. Calabacitas is a dish using zucchini and yellow summer squash, which I had one of each in the fridge.

I looked up different recipes for calabacitas and saw the similarities in some and others that were copied and pasted from one website. This infuriates me if you don’t know that by now!

I combined a few recipes with what I had on hand and needed to use up before they went bad and came up with my own to try.

The basis of the recipe is using zucchini and summer squash along with corn; sometimes, tomatoes, garlic, and green chilis are used, and sometimes not. Queso frescos, oregano, onions, and cilantro are in most recipes. Some call for fresh lime juice; others do not.

I decided in my recipe I would use zucchini and summer squash. I would also use onions, garlic, fresh jalapeño, lime juice, cherry and grape tomatoes, oregano, cilantro, and feta cheese as a substitute for the queso fresco.

I took a nibble of the lone jalapeño I had in the veggie crisper and knew it was a hot one. Shit, I wanted to use the jalapeño but didn’t want the dish to be too spicy. I remember chef Cámara used citrus to control the heat of habanero peppers, so why couldn’t I use fresh lime juice to tame the heat of my spicy jalapeño?

I removed the seeds and pith, the spiciest part of the pepper. I cut the jalapeño into small dice and put it into a small mise en place bowl. Next, I squeezed fresh lime juice over the jalapeño. Later, when I make the dish for dinner, I will taste diced jalapeños to see where the heat is.

Ok, it’s after dinner, and I am reporting back that, yes, citrus does tame the heat of chilis which is what the blog post was about. To be honest, and we know I am, as much as I try to be a zucchini and squash person, I’m not.

Millions of people love zucchini and squash, but I can’t get past the watery texture. I’ve tried making it several times and am still not a fan. I think the only way I like zucchini is in chocolate cake, which makes sense since it makes a moist cake from all that water.

I am sorry, zucchini and summer squash lovers, but I am not a fan even after grilling, sautéing, zoodles, roasting, and casserole. In my head, I want to love some foods that everyone raves about, but at the end of the day, I still don’t like them.

The rest of the dinner was delicious; pork carnitas tacos with homemade corn tortillas and fresh, local bi-color corn that was tender and sweet. A true taste of summer.

I made a lot of different dishes this weekend and had some leftovers; not enough to be served on their own, but perfect as the base for something new.

It’s raining today, which we need desperately, so I felt like having soup for lunch. I looked in the fridge and found two small grilled Italian chicken breasts and one grilled Thai chicken breast.

I also found a couple of lonely jalapeños, some chopped onions, and the last of the cilantro from the shrimp tacos the other night. Eureka! I had a plan!

I went into the pantry and knew I would find the rest of the ingredients to make a pot of Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup. I looked up my original recipe for the soup to remind me how I made it in the past. Looking up my own recipes is always comical to me.

I grabbed a can of corn, black beans, chicken stock, and Rotel diced tomatoes with chilis. I rinsed off the Thai chicken breast, getting rid of the Thai glaze, and shredded it along with the two Italian ones. I chopped up three cloves of garlic and cilantro. Next, I got some chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic & onion powder, and masa.

My original recipe has a longer cooking time, but since the chicken breasts were already very flavorful, the soup came together faster. I finished the soup from start to finish in under 30 minutes.

I didn’t have two compondents on hand to finish off the soup, so I improvised. The recipe calls for fresh lime juice and corn tortillas which are cut into strips and fried. I had tortilla chips with a touch of lime and decided to use those as a substitution.

Ironically, this quick version of Chicken Tortilla Soup was my best one yet. The key was the grilled, flavorful chicken breasts that gave the soup more flavor than starting with raw chicken.

I finished the soup bowls with crushed lime tortilla chips, chopped cilantro, and a dollop of sour cream. It hit the spot perfectly on a rainy day. Yum!

Here is my original Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe for those who want to try it someday.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 teaspoons Cumin
2 teaspoons Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/2 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 cup Diced Onion
1/4 cup Diced Green Bell Pepper
1/4 cup Red Bell Pepper
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 can (10 Oz. Can) Rotel Tomatoes And Green Chilies
32 ounces Chicken Stock
3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
4 cups Hot Water
2 cans (15 Oz. Can) Black Beans, Drained
1 can Corn Kernals, Drained
3 Tablespoons Cornmeal Or Masa
Kosher Salt To Taste
5 whole Corn Tortillas, Cut Into 1/2 Inch Uniform Strips
Canola or vegetable oil to cover the bottom of a small frying pan about 1/4 – 1/2 cup

Garnishes

Sour Cream
Diced Avocado
Diced Red Onion
Salsa Or Pico De Gallo
Chopped Fresh Cilantro
Sliced Green Onions
Grated Monterey Jack Cheese Cilantro
Fresh lime wedges

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika. Drizzle one tablespoon olive oil on chicken breasts, then sprinkle a small spice mix on both sides. Set aside the rest of the spice mix.

Place chicken breasts on a baking sheet—Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until chicken is at 165 degrees. Use two forks to shred the chicken. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, red pepper, green pepper, and minced garlic. Stir and begin cooking, then add the rest of the spice mix. Stir to combine, then add shredded chicken and stir.

Pour in Rotel, chicken stock, tomato paste, water, and black beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered.

Mix cornmeal with a small amount of water. Pour into the soup, then simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Taste and check seasonings, add more if needed, and ensure not to undersalt. Turn off heat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

In a small frying pan, heat the oil on medium heat. When the oil is hot, add a few tortilla strips, turning them with tongs and frying them until crispy. They will cook quickly, be careful not to burn them. Adjust heat as necessary. Drain crispy tortilla strips on a paper towel and set aside. Finish frying the rest of the strips adding more oil if necessary. Let the oil get hot each time you make an addition before adding the tortilla strips.

Ladle into bowls and top with tortilla strips. Serve with sour cream, red onion, avocado, pico de gallo, lime wedges, chopped cilantro, sliced green onions, and grated cheese. Let each diner choose how they wish to top their soup. The garnishes make the soup delicious and add a ton of texture and flavor.

Enjoy!

Last Saturday, at the Troy Farmers Market, a vendor had the most glorious, large spinach & feta scones. Of course, they weren’t gluten-free, but I still appreciated how incredible they looked and probably tasted. 

Keeping a strict gluten-free diet has improved in the twelve years we’ve needed to be GF, but we still have a long way to go. 

Gluten-free bakeries are popping up everywhere, which is very nice and exciting for us GF folks; the only disappointing thing for me is they focus on too much sweet stuff. 

I am a savory eater, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like chocolate chip cookies or any kind of pie; it means when it comes to a substantial snack, I want and need savory items. 

Sweet items on an empty stomach make me feel sick and nauseous. I am good to go for dessert or as a bedtime snack with a glass of milk. 

Back to those spinach & feta scones, I wanted one; I mean, I really wanted one. I’ve been craving one ever since. I looked in our fridge this morning and discovered a half bag of fresh spinach and feta cheese; see where this is going?

I searched the other day for gluten-free spinach & feta scone recipes. They were all meh. I am a cook by nature and bake out of necessity. I enjoyed baking before going GF but lost the wind in my sails after many fails or so-so results.

I found a recipe for spanakopita scones from Food52. It wasn’t a GF recipe, but it seemed like Bob’s 1:1 GF flour could handle it. It says on the 1:1 packaging that it can be used in recipes replacing regular flour. I know it doesn’t work well for items like bread or pizza dough, but this seemed promising.

Here is the link to the Food52 recipe I used for the spanakopita scones. I’ve tried plenty of Food52’s recipes and they are all fabulous.

I followed the recipe exactly since I wanted to see if the 1:1 flour kept its word. The only change besides the flour was making my own buttermilk with whole milk and lemon juice. I am a cheapskate when buying buttermilk for only a recipe or two.

When I say I followed the recipe exactly, I used the same preparation method and not my time-saving hacks. Guess what? The scones came out better than I imagined. Brilliant! 

Instead of making eight scones like the recipe, I made six mimicking the ones I saw on Saturday at the market. I made a mini one for tasting purposes and was very pleased with the results! 

The scones smell very much like spanakopita; that was a good start. When I tasted the scone, it had a bright lemony start, then a tiny sweetness, then a savoriness from the feta, and it finished with a hint of spice in the back of your throat from the pinch of red pepper flakes added. 

Wowzers! I am so pleased to report that you can use Bob’s 1:1 GF flour as well as regular flour like this fantastic recipe calls for. Woot-woot!

Would I make them again? Heck, yeah! This recipe was true to its name 💯%.

Can you guess what we will be having at the Troy Farmers Market this Saturday? You got it; spanakopita scones! ☺️

Whenever I make baked goods for us to take to the market, I wrap each one tightly with plastic wrap and then place them into a freezer bag. I pop them into the freezer and take out individual ones as needed. 

When working at the farmers market, the only chance we get to eat is before the market, so whatever we eat needs to fill us up for the next 5-6 hours. 

If you are on a diet or watching your carbs, these scones probably aren’t for you. They are rich and filling with loads of flavor and taste. 

For the record, I have no affiliation with Bob’s Red Mill or Food 52. They happen to be what I used this morning. My blog is not a professional food blog with sponsors, ads, or annoying pop-ups. My blog is about me and my life; what I cook, drink and do. 

It’s Wednesday which means belly dance day; along with the success of those scones, it’s proving to be a spectacular day! I hope you have a great day, too, you guys! ❤️

We eat dinner at home 90% of the time. I do 90% of the cooking, but lately, Marty has started grilling, making pizzas in the pizza oven, and smoking meats; this is beautiful.

I know some people eat out because they are too busy, traveling for work, or don’t like or want to be bothered to shop and cook. I know some do for special cuisines or styles of cooking. Some, like my mother did, just like to eat out—a lot. 

Marty made us bacon cheeseburgers a few weeks ago that were, first of all, a surprise and, secondly, delicious. I was exhausted and extremely grateful he did this for us. The photo reminds me of how good that burger was.

The burgers were so good because it wasn’t only the good ingredients he used but the time and care he put into those burgers. 

There was also the fact that since I didn’t cook them, they tasted even better, another reason why people eat out finally registered with me.

This year Marty has taken the reins of using the smoker for meats which is fine with me; I failed at it last summer. Again, the time, effort, and care make everything taste better.

I’ve made some great food lately, but nothing to write home or blog about, but I thought I would share them as a group with you.

There are so many ethnic and other foods that aren’t available here or good ones. Following a strict gluten-free diet puts the kibosh on many food choices and destinations as well. 

So, what else can we do but make it ourselves? There is a lot of good food an hour in any direction from where we live, but with gas prices the way they are, this is even more important for us to eat at home.

Last night’s dinner was a collaboration of both of us making dinner. I made a batch of my gluten-free pizza dough on Thursday for Friday night, but we were too tired and had frozen french fries and chicken tenders instead. I did make a buffalo bleu dipping sauce that was tasty. 

We experimented and made three different kinds of individual mini pizzas; cheese, pepperoni, and margarita. We only use hand-crushed canned San Marzano tomatoes as the sauce. The flavor of the tomatoes is pure and simple, unlike any jazzed-up pizza sauces. 

I stretched the dough and topped the pies while Marty slid the pizzas into the pizza oven for just a couple of minutes and pulled them out. The little pizza oven we have gets really hot like an authentic Neapolitan pizza oven. 

In case you didn’t know, to be called authentic Neapolitan pizza you must top the dough with only hand-crushed San Marzano tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella. It has to be cooked in 90 seconds or less.

We have been working on perfecting our gluten-free pizzas for a few years and are getting closer and closer to perfection. 

Last night’s pizzas had the same pull and chew as traditional pizza dough and produced actual pizza dough bubbles; my favorite part of pizza slices! We haven’t achieved that yet, so woot-woot!

I think the long, slow, and cold rise in the refrigerator for over 48 hours produced the chew, pull, proper texture, and bubbles. The pizza was delicious but still not perfect.

Can you see why it took me seven years to develop our spätzle recipe? When I have something exact in my mind, I’ll keep going until it’s right and what I want. 

That’s it from here. It’s Sunday, and I am relaxing on my day off. I made a batch of meatloaf meatballs on Thursday when I had a ton of energy. Holy shit, I am so happy I did. 

I was expecting a gloomy, rainy day (not that I am complaining), so I planned on mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus to go with the meatloaf meatballs. 

I already told Sam what was on the menu, so there is no changing it to something lighter now. He looks forward to food as much as I do, so I won’t disappoint him since he is working a 12-hour overnight shift in the ER tonight. 

Have a great rest of your Sunday, guys! The weather looks like it’s going to be warmer again next week in the mid-80s, which we don’t mind. Cannonball! 🙂

What makes a perfect bite? Everyone has their ideas of what a perfect bite of food is. Some people prefer sweet bites, and others like me choose savory ones.

A perfect bite is when the taste is in perfect balance. Sweet, salty, soft, crunchy, sour, bitter, acidy, and umami are all in perfect harmony.

I’ve written about umami before and how it is considered the fifth sense of taste. It is what brings a dish over the finish line of deliciousness.

My perfect bite was a simple taco. A homemade corn tortilla with smoked brisket, creamy coleslaw, crunchy quick-pickled red onions, cilantro, and thinly sliced jalapeño peppers. 

The brisket was the soft, unctuous umami, and the creamy coleslaw was crunchy, which also cooled down the jalapeño pepper. The quick-pickled red onion was another crunch element, along with the acid needed to cut through the fatty richness of the brisket. 

The cilantro? It is put on a dish for a purpose and not a garnish. I use cilantro in all my Thai, Indian and Mexican cooking. Some people say it tastes like soap; ok, I get it; but it enhances a dish with brightness and a unique flavor for the rest of us.

I make, taste, and eat a lot of food, so it should be applauded when a perfect bite stands out! Bravo!

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend! Cheers!

Yesterday, Marty and I were delivering in Saratoga & Albany, NY. We stopped at Restaurant Depot to pick up a few things for us and a few cleaning items for the production kitchen.

As we walked around, we noticed many things out of stock again. Things were out of stock during the pandemic, but then things got better. Things have slid backward. On the drive home, I started to think about other food shortages in history and how people dealt with them.

During WW2 the people who were affected most by food rations and shortages were the women of the households who did the shopping and cooking for their families. Forgotten heroes of wartime were the women who had to make do.

They were encouraged to keep a positive attitude. Publications wrote suggestions for using war rations. Their patriotic duty was to fight the war at home by changing their families’ diets and being careful not to overbuy or have any food waste.

“We must all help win the war and one way is to save sugar for the solider boys.”

I say it was their patriotic duty because the rationed food was being saved for the soldiers fighting in WW2; their job was to figure out how to cook and bake without many staple items they were used to.

The first item rationed was sugar, then coffee. Next came meat, butter, cheeses, and fats. As women started figuring out how to cook differently, they shared their recipes by sending the recipes to the newspapers to print.

Women were united by the recipes and food they shared. Clever substitutions and ideas sparked more ideas and recipes. Women were still cooking delicious, healthy food, even with food rations.

One of the most popular recipes was for victory or war cakes. Food manufacturers began to print recipes for war cakes using their products. One example is The Crisco Victory White Cake recipe called on women to bake for their families. The recipe started with, “Lady, your family will say you’re a magician when you serve this new mouth-watering sugar-saving Victory Cake!”

Some substitutions for sugar were the liquid from soaked raisins and other dried fruits, corn syrup, and honey. Nestle encouraged women in an ad in the Saturday evening post to stop buying chocolate, announcing, “Chocolate is fighting food!”

Shortening and margarine were used to replace the hard to come by butter. Spice cakes replaced chocolate cakes and so on and so forth.

Vegetarian diets began during WW2 out of necessity. Women were encouraged to serve dinners such as Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays. Home cooks learned how to use macaroni, rice, crackers, processed cheese, and spam as part of their daily cooking.

They used every part of the vegetable and meat. They saved the fat from meats since cooking oil was rationed.

Casseroles used small amounts of meat but were delicious and satisfying. Soups and stews used every scrap of vegetable, throwing nothing away. Now, do you know why your grandmothers washed their tin foil?

One of my favorite savory pie creations used the entire potato. The potato skins were boiled until they were soft and became the bottom crust of the pie. This is fucking genius! Kudos to whoever came up with that one.

I remember both of my grandmothers talking about making mock apple pie. The “apples” were soaked Ritz crackers. Welch Rarebit was another classic, and American Chop Suey became popular using only a small amount of meat, elbow macaroni, and tomato sauce.

Can you even imagine if people today had to cook, let alone be creative, using only what they could find? Could Americans do without prepared and frozen foods if necessary? Could people cook only what they could afford due to the high food prices? Could they go without many staple items? Would cooks come together and help one another?

I cook dinner almost every night and have always been creative and frugal, but the shortages I saw yesterday were disturbing. While we were driving, Marty talked about how bad things were getting, and I tried to be positive and said, “But they will get better.” He told me, “Good for you to think like that; I like that.”

Like during the war, I thought of how scary it must have been to know that there won’t be items available. The rations changed often keeping everyone on their toes.

The women who helped “win the war” are amazing heroes to me, stepping up to the plate and doing simply what they needed to do. There were no other options, but they did it, and did it well! Many recipes are still used today, especially in vegetarian cooking.

I have a few 1940s and wartime ration cookbooks that are prized possessions of mine. Some I found at garage or book sales. I have my grandmother Nana’s handwritten cookbook, which has the recipe for Poor Man Cake.

I also was gifted my biological grandmother’s Victory Cookbook, the Wartime Edition. Having something that belonged to my grandmother, whom I never knew, is a strong connection to her. Looking at the pages of recipes that looked like favorites makes me smile.

When I go to bed at night, I give away all my worries to God. I know I don’t have to list them because He knows everything, but listing them helps me watch them float away. Last night, I added ample food supply for our country to my list. Amen.

When I was picking out my flowers and herbs, I smelled the intoxicating smell of an Indian restaurant. I’ve said this many times before, but we live in a food desert; there is no Indian food for miles.

I started sniffing around the herb plant rack, and on the other side, my nose zeroed in. I put my nose into the plant and took a big sniff and looked at the name of the plant; a curry plant? This is something new to me. Not to be confused with curry leaves from the curry tree native to India. Curry leaves are used largely in South Indian cuisine.

I waited until I purchased my plants, then took a tiny nibble of the curry plant. It didn’t taste like curry; it tasted like bitter parsley. Weird, usually the nose and taste buds are on the same page. Not in this case.

I read that the bright yellow flowers that blossom on the curry plant taste like bleu cheese! You know I’ll be tasting those suckers to see for myself. I’ll report back.

I planted the two varieties of curry plants I purchased, one tall and one dwarf in a terracotta herb box with rosemary in between. Curry plants like sandy soil, so I added sandy soil to the bottom of the planter box. They like it hot and need drainage.

When I walk by the plants, I can smell that intoxicating smell. When I water the plants, the scent comes out even more. Today, after a heavy downpour, the smell of curry was strong, a smell I love. Shit, it made me hungry. Lol.

I had nothing planned for dinner but suddenly craved Indian food big time. The only protein I knew I could defrost quickly was shrimp. I decided to make Curried Shrimp with Basmati Rice.

I didn’t become familiar with Indian cuisine until adulthood and I love it. Unlike Chinese cuisine, Indian food is easy to make at home with a few different spices. 

The curry powder you buy from a store is a combination of different spices. There is no such thing as a curry spice like cinnamon or nutmeg. Another Indian spice called garam masala is another combination of different spices. 

Every Indian family has its versions of both curry powder and garam masala. I have made my own following a recipe, but I do keep store-bought curry powder on hand for quick use on a weeknight or in curried chicken salad or curried deviled eggs.

I looked up a few different recipes to remind myself how to make curried shrimp. I made an Indian version of curried shrimp, but there are also Jamaican, Thai, and other nationalities’ versions.

I threw some basmati rice into my rice cooker and started putting together the rest of the meal. The recipe goes super quick, perfect for a weeknight dinner. You can buy raw shrimp already peeled to save time. I always have shrimp in the freezer for quick dinners.

Here is the link to the Curried Shrimp recipe I used the first time I made curried shrimp; now, I improvise by adding a few more spices and tweaks to the dish.

This is a very home-cook-friendly recipe without any crazy or hard-to-find ingredients. It is simple and straightforward. Remember, Indian curried dishes are only as spicy as you make them.

Anyone new to cooking Indian cuisine may consider purchasing a curry powder from McCormick or a store brand. These are made for mainstream America and aren’t too spicy.

If you like Indian food and want to try something more authentic, you can get curry powder in an ethnic store. These have a bit more spice and flavor than the supermarket brands. If you like to cook, you can mix up a batch of curry powder yourself. Spices at the ethnic stores are very inexpensive; I buy all my spices there.

If you aren’t familiar with or afraid of Indian cuisine, taste a small amount of the curry powder on your finger or spoon. Is it spicy? If not, start by adding half of what the recipe calls for. If it’s still not spicy, add the other half. It is totally up to you if this is something new or you aren’t sure about.

I’ve written about one of my cooking students, MJ, who was afraid of Indian and Thai foods. She was worried they would be too spicy. It turns out that after learning in class that she controlled the spice, Butter Chicken became one of her favorite dishes. It’s one of her go-to recipes now.

The house smelled so good while I was making the curried shrimp. Marty could smell it when he was sitting on the front porch. It came out delicious, if I do say so myself. It was incredibly flavorful and satisfied that craving I’ve had since I brought my curry plants home two weeks ago.

I guess it’s a good thing I do live in a food desert since it forces me to learn to cook ethnic foods that aren’t available. Whenever I perfect any new dish, I consider it another notch in my cooking belt or apron, I should say.

For local people, curry plants are available at The Market Wagon and the flower market on Benmont Avenue in Bennington if you want to check them out for yourselves. It’s more of a novelty thing since you can’t eat it, but looks great in flower beds or containers mixed with other plants.