Savona with Keith Taylor

Like I have said before I'm blessed to get to work with amazing people, and last was night I got to work with Keith Taylor of Savona in Centerville, Ohio. Keith is a smart, creative quick witted chef who blows my mind every time our paths cross. He can take the simplest ingredients, and take them to places they didn't even know they could go. My mouth is watering for more, so I'm taking my husband on a date to the one and only Savona. Here is one of the recipes that he demonstrated last night. He served a perfectly cooked beef tenderloin on top. YUM!

Mushroom Puree

·         2 lbs. of mushrooms finely chopped

·         ¼ cup of oil

·         ¼ cup veal stock

      ·         1 small onion finely chopped

     ·         1 tsp. garlic

     ·         1 Tbsp. fresh or dried thyme

     ·         1 Tbsp. truffle oil

 

Chop onion and mushroom in food processor.
Heat oil in a skillet and add mushroom and onion mixture and garlic.
Add thyme and sauté.  When tender add stock and truffle oil.

Cooks'Wares Chopped Challenge

Learn, Taste, Enjoy ~ It’s All Cooking at Cooks’Wares!

Cooks’Wares “Chopped Challenge”

Co-Sponsored by Wusthof

Sat Jan 26          Prelim #1         1-4pm        $40

Sat Feb 2           Prelim #2         1-4pm        $40

Sat Feb 16         Finals         1-4pm        $40

YOU be the JUDGE!

Each competitor will prepare three dishes: Appetizer, Entrée, and Dessert. That’s where YOU come in! We need adventuresome foodies to judge our Chopped Challenge competitors on the following criteria: Taste, Originality/Use of Mystery Ingredients, and Presentation.

Cooks’Wares

The Marketplace at Settlers Walk

756 North Main Street

Springboro, OH 45066

(937) 748-4540

www.CooksWaresOnline.com

New Years Resolutions

Now that we are a couple weeks into the New Year some are resolutions are slipping away. I tend to stay away from the gym in the month of January, it's crowded, and I can't get on the machines I want. So, I usually do a cleanse in January to flush out all the punishment I have put my body thru since November. My sister Debbie turned me on to this diet/cleanse a couple of years ago, and this was my second time doing it with great success. Now why they call it the Cabbage Soup Diet I have no idea seeing as there is only 1/2 a head of cabbage in the soup. It should be called the Yummy  Vegetable Soup Diet. Its quick, simple, inexpensive, and no you are not running to the bathroom every 15 minutes. All in all I have felt great at the end of this process, so I wanted to share it with you.

Cabbage Soup Recipe

 

§  6 large green onions (also called “spring” onions)
§  2 green peppers
§  1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
§  3 carrots
§  1 container (10 oz. or so) mushrooms
§  1 bunch of celery
§  half a head of cabbage
§  1 package spice only soup mix (In the US, Liptons is a good choice)
§  1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional)
§  1 48oz can Low Sodium V8 juice (optional)
§  Season to taste with pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc. (Little to NO SALT!)

Directions:

Slice green onions, put in a pot on medium heat and start to sauté with cooking spray. Do this until the onions are whiter/clearer in color (about 4-6 minutes).
Cut green pepper stem end off, then cut pepper in half to take out the seeds and membrane. Cut the green pepper into bite size pieces and add to pot.
Take the outer leafs layers off the cabbage, cut into bite size pieces, add to pot.
Clean carrots, mushrooms, and celery, cut into bite size pieces and toss them in. Add tomatoes now, too.
If you would like a spicy soup, add a small amount of curry or cayenne pepper now.

For seasonings, you can use a spice soup packet of your choice (no noodles!) or use beef or chicken bouillon cubes. These cubes are optional, and you can add spices you like instead (make sure not to add much salt, if any at all).

Use about 12 cups of water (or 8 cups and the 48 oz of Low Sodium V8 juice), cover and put heat on low. Let soup simmer for a long time – about 2 hours or until vegetables are tender.

This is what you do everyday on the diet

Remember: This diet should only be followed for 7 days at a time, with at least two weeks in between.

Day One:

Fruit: Eat all of the fruit you want (except bananas). Eat only your soup and the fruit for the first day. For drinks- unsweetened teas, cranberry juice and water.

Day Two:

Vegetables: Eat until you are stuffed will all fresh, raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. Try to eat leafy green vegetables and stay away from dry beans, peas and corn. Eat all the vegetables you want along with your soup. At dinner, reward yourself with a big baked potato with butter. Do not eat fruit today.

Day Three:

Mix Days One and Two: Eat all the soup, fruits and vegetables you want. No Baked Potato.

Day Four:

Bananas and Skim Milk: Eat as many as eight bananas and drink as many glasses of skim milk as you would like on this day, along with your soup. This day is supposed to lessen your desire for sweets.

Day Five:

Beef And Tomatoes: Ten to twenty ounces of beef and up to six fresh tomatoes. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water this day to wash the uric acid from your body. Eat your soup at least once this day. You may eat broiled or baked chicken instead of beef (but absolutely no skin-on chicken). If you prefer, you can substitute broiled fish for beef on one of the beef days (but not both).

Day Six:

Beef and Vegetables: Eat to your heart’s content of beef and vegetables this day. You can even have 2 or 3 steaks if you like, with leafy green vegetables. No Baked Potato. Eat your soup at least once.

Day Seven:

Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables: Again stuff, stuff, stuff yourself. Be sure to eat your soup at least once this day.

 

Gearing up to teach at Cooks'Wares

I'm getting very excited to teach to a sold out class at Cooks'Wares in Springboro, Ohio. http://www.cookswaresonline.com/Classes/01.16.13_Italian_Comfort_Rathweg.html
Here is a link to the menu I will be teaching. I love to share my enthusiasm of cooking with other people. One of my favorite things about teaching is seeing that ah ha moment in a students eyes when they realize "this can be easy, this does not need to be so hard, what have I been so afraid of". When I see that moment, and it happens almost every class, I get chills up my spine. I am sharing will you today the meat ball recipe that I will be demonstrating for the class.

Meatballs

1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs (3 to 4 slices, no crust)
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
¾ cup milk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 extra-large egg, beaten

 Preheat oven to 375°

Mix together all ingredients in a large bowl. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out your desired size meat ball.

 Cover a large cookie sheet with tin foil, arrange meatballs so they are not touching. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the meatballs are golden brown all the way around.

 I always double the recipe, and freeze what I do not use.

This recipe will make approximately 30 mini meat balls and 15 large.

Apple chips

So I'm going to see how far I can take this chip making thing. The girls love anything crunchy, even the vegetable chips at DLM which are very expensive and full of salt. The directions that came with my mastrad chips-maker set where vague at best. The whole tortilla idea wasn't even suggested, so I'm going to see how far I can push the envelope. The one thing I have found is you have to test the timimg with your microwave. For the apple chips I started off with the suggested 3m 30sec, and ended up cooking them for a full 6 minutes.

Go Irish! Tortilla Chips

We are gearing up to watch the BCS National Championship game, and crossing our fingers that our Fighting Irish come out victorious. Along with everyone in the world after stuffing ourselves silly since Thanksgiving we are watching what we eat. But the party must go on. I made these adorable shamrock chips to go with hummus, and I didn't even have to turn on the oven. The supper cool chip maker was purchased at Cooks Wares, and I used spinach tortillas. 2 minutes in the microwave and tada you have chips. I cant wait to use my new toy on apples, carrots, and other fun stuff.
I used a rolling pin over the top of the cutter, my hand was beginning to hurt. I also stacked two tortillas for speedier results.

This is just too cool

 

Hope everyone enjoys these cuties. Looking forward to a Notre Dame victory!