Potatoes; Soup or Salad?

There are at least six different types of potatoes you will encounter at the supermarket at any given time. Choosing the right one for each type of dish can be tricky if you don't know what you need the potato to do. Most potatoes in the typical market fall into one of two cateregoires.





Boiling Potatoes
Waxy potatoes, such as Red Rose, White Rose, and Yukon Gold varieties have a thin skin and round shape. They hold up to boiling and do not absorb as much water. These potatoes are recommended for boiling applications because they have less starch and a higher moisture content. Waxy potatoes are ideal for soups, casseroles, potato salad, roasting, and barbecuing because of their tendency to hold their shape.




Baking Potatoes
Starchy potatoes, such as Idaho and Russett, tend to be long and have a thick, cork like skin. They have a higher starch content and lower moisture, resulting in a mealier texture when cooked and tend to fall apart when boiled. They are ideal for traditional mashed potatoes, baked potatoes loaded with toppings, and are the best potatoes for frying.

How to "Handle" Cheese

Often times, I purchase large quantities of cheese at warehouse prices because I have one picky child whose physical existence is largely due to her love of dairy products. Occasionally, I will open one of these enormous blocks of cheese for a snack and then not come back to it several days later.

Hard and semi-hard cheeses, like Cheddar and Romano, left unopened in their original packaging can be kept under refrigeration for many months without concern. However once the seal is broken and the cheese is exposed to air, the process for spoilage can be rapid. One way to stave off bacteria is to avoid directly touching the cheese with your hands. Ever. This presents a dilemma... how to use something without touching it.

When I open a package of cheese, I completely remove it from the original wrapping. I take care not to touch the cheese with my hands or place it directly on the counter as no matter how much washing I have done, there will always be some bacteria on the counter or on my hands which will transfer to the cheese causing spoilage. It hurts to admit that, but it's the truth. Once the package is opened, I transfer the cheese directly onto a large piece of wax paper that completely covers the cheese twice. I loosely wrap the cheese in the wax paper and then place the wrapped cheese in a zip-top bag, which is sealed and placed in the refrigerator along with the original packaging for identification.

To use cheese in smaller quantities and for recipes not requiring the whole block, I use the wax paper to hold the large block of cheese (to avoid direct contact with my hands) and taking a sharp knife, I slice off a piece of cheese roughly the size required. Then I rewrap and refrigerate the unused cheese and shred or slice the smaller piece as needed. This keeps the lesser used (and expensive) hard cheeses such as Romano or Parmesan from spoiling for several months until I can use it all.

Soft and semi-soft cheeses such as Brie, Bleu, and Feta spoil much more quickly and are purchased on an "as needed" basis.

Toasted English Muffin

Today I am wishing for fall but alas, Phoenix doesn't do fall. In September we go strait from "why would anyone choose to live in this heat?" to "why doesn't everyone want to live here?" and we park there until June.

Don't get me wrong, I love living where we can go outside anytime without putting on an additional outfit for warmth. However, being a red-head with fair skin I tend to be drawn to autumn colors. The texture of bare branches and turning leaves cast against a clear blue sky is my idea of what "fall" should look like and since I can't have that experience by looking out my window, I have to fake it with indoor decorations.

And with food.

This morning I am craving a fall-like food for breakfast but it's still too hot to turn on my oven except to broil toast. I scrounged my fridge until I found what would get me by until it cools outside and I can bake something with pumpkin. (I LOVE pumpkin in breads and cakes and cookies... Pumpkin pie? Not so much.)

What makes this particular breakfast "fall-like" are the specific ingredients that taste like fall to me. I used mini Wild Maine Blueberry English Muffins topped with extra tart Orange and Lemon Marmalade and a cup of tea.

Extremely satisfied with my breakfast, am I.


The Perfect Toasted English Muffin
1 fork-split English Muffin
1 t butter, softened at room temperature
1 t orange marmalade

Preheat broiler to high and adjust oven rack to highest position.

Using a fork, pierce sides of muffin all the way round until it splits into equal halves. Butter inside of each half and place on baking sheet, butter side up. Position baking sheet directly under broiler and toast muffins until edges are golden and butter is bubbly. Remove to plate and top with marmalade while still hot. Serve immediately. Serves one.

Chef's Note: Please use a FORK to open "fork split" muffins to allow the air-pockets inside the muffin to be torn open yielding greater surface area for butter distribution. This is why I buy English muffins to begin with, for the crunchy way they toast up.

If you slice them open with a knife, the muffin will come apart looking like regular bread instead of having the nooks and crannies that toast so beautifully when coated with real butter and placed in the broiler. If you use a knife, you might as well put the muffins in the toaster. Or, just buy wonderbread. Please, for the love of breakfast, don't do this.

Vintage Juicer

Ah, the hunt for the obscure kitchen utensil. While rummaging through old, dusty shelves of a thrift store is not for everyone, it happens to be one of the things I find particularly enjoyable. You never know when you might find just the thing you've been looking for... like this beautiful vintage glass juicer.

Based on the design and color, I would place the date the juicer was made circa 1950 making it 60+ years old. Isn't it wonderful! I saw it from across the shelf in a tiny thrift store in Ventura, CA when I was there last month on vacation. I practically started panting in anticipation before I even picked it up, afraid touching it would make me want it and that the price would put it out of my budget.

Imagine my surprise when the little paper tag said "$8 ~ broken, as is". I started looking for where it was broken, surely the bowl was cracked rendering it useless. And then I found the chip in the base (can you see it in the picture?). The break was so long ago that it has worn smooth from decades of use.

"Well, my little mon amie, I'll just take you home avec moi!" And, 12 juiced lemons later, it will forever have a place in my kitchen.

I am a happy bon viveur.

Kitchen Knives

Is it just me, or are there suddenly a million kitchen knives to choose from?

I understand that knives need to be replaced every so often, especially if you drop one in your garbage disposal or in the actual garbage, but I don't recall having the choice of 20+ knives in my supermarket before. Maybe everyone is getting the notion to become the next Iron Chef, but I don't think that's really it. Maybe it's just education as a result of friends like Emeril, Martha, Bobby, Alton, Rachel... I refer to them by their first names, but you know who I mean.

As a result of the plethora of "new" knives on the market, I thought I would educate my readers a bit on what I know about kitchen knives. My knowledge is limited, but these knives are the ones I use day in and day out. They are the work-horses of my kitchen and they make my life easier.


Here you see, from top to bottom, the following knives:
Santoku
Chef's
Bread
Boning
Paring


The top two knives, the Sentoku and Chef's, are general all-purpose knives that do the most work in a kitchen. The curved blade shape allows you to cut and chop using a rocking motion. As the blade rocks, the knife remains stable and the work is done efficiently and quickly.


The serrated blade on my chef's knife has notches that help to cleanly cut through soft foods like eggs, tomatoes, and sandwiches without damaging the food with an edge that looks like a tiny saw.

This type of serration is time consuming to sharpen yourself and expensive to have professionally done. And as you can clearly see, with extensive use the tiny teeth chip off causing the knife to snag and tear when slicing meats. Not a good thing.

For this reason, I do not recommend purchasing expensive serrated knives. Inexpensive ones will do the job as well as more costly knives and you won't feel like you have to keep using a dull knife because it will cause you a fortune to have it professionally sharpened.


Fairly new to the American kitchen is the santoku knife. It's slim design is Japanese (go figure) and is currently my favorite kitchen knife. It is similar to a traditional chef's knife in that is is used for similar tasks. "San" is the Japanese word for three and "toku" is the Japanese word for good things so the knife possesses three good works in that it can slice, dice and chop.

The santoku blade is typically thinner than a chef's knife which allows for a smoother and more precise cut. The little oval-shaped indentations on the sides reduce friction, allowing sliced food to fall to the side instead of sticking to the blade. And that's a good thing.


These are the bottom two knives in the picture, the top one is a boning knife and the bottom one is a paring knife.

While the paring knife is said to be the miniature equivalent of the chef's knife, I find myself turning to the boning knife more often for slicing delicate foods such as soft cheese and tomatoes. Its flexible, long, thin blade works as well as the larger chef's knife and the smaller size is more comfortable to use on smaller foods.

The paring knife works well for peeling fruits and vegetables that are too delicate for a vegetable peeler, so that is its primary use for me.


The knife in the middle is the bread knife. Pretty much only used for slicing bread, the serrated blade is a MUST for slicing through thick outer crusts of fresh baked loaves without crushing the soft inner bread. If a bread knife's sole use is slicing bread, the serrated blade will virtually never dull.


Knives are best stored in a knife block. This makes them easy to find, keeps them from dulling each other while banging around in a drawer, and keeps you from accidentally cutting yourself while reaching in a drawer to find the knife you need.

Empty knife blocks are easy to find at thrift stores and yard sales so pick one up for a buck and add your own knives. It's a great way to achieve an eclectic looking kitchen.