When I cook jasmine or basmati rice, I use one cup long grain rice (it makes 4 cups cooked) and rinse it twice in a strainer and place it in a 4 cup bowl that fits inside the top steamer pot (mine is an old stainless bowl), then fill the bowl about 3/4 to an inch** above the rice with boiling water. Fill the bottom pot with hot water. Put the lid on and cook about medium high for 25-30 minutes until the water is absorbed into the rice. To check and see if all the water has been absorbed, use a fork. Turn the rice out onto the screen and let sit for a few minutes. Turn with the paddles a couple of times and let sit for a few more minutes to break up the rice into individual grains. (If the grains don’t break up, use less water next time. If your rice is a new crop you need to use less water anyway cause the new crop has more moisture in it. It’s always better to add more water! ) These paddles are really cute, bamboo and easy to use. Cheap at my neighborhood Asian store, too! The rice keeps for about a week in a container in the fridge and the grains stay separate. You can use the rice for so many dishes!
For short grained rice like white sticky or black glutenous or some types of brown rice, rinse a few times then soak in water for about four hours. One cup dry makes about 3 1/2 cups cooked. Drain and place in the stainless bowl and pour boiling water 1″ over. Cook for 35-40 minutes on medium high until water is absorbed. Turn on the screen and let cool. Don’t toss with the paddles. You want this rice to remain sticky!
In either long grain or short grain, you can use some broth (chicken, vegetable, beef) or add herbs and/or spices, dried fruits, nuts, etc., etc. Be creative!
On a whim, I made some basmati with chicken broth, turmeric and saffron. Added cilantro at the last minute. I’ll talk about my fruited rice later. Yum!
This little baby also can hard boil a dozen eggs in the bottom water compartment, steam veggies on the lovely corningware salad plates I got at Goodwill for 49 cents a piece that fit exactly inside the steamer stacks or steam a piece of fish or chicken to perfection. I can also use the lid on my medium size fry pan, if needed.
Get one, you won’t regret it.

*Sleepless in Seattle
**The usual teaching is “pour boiling water a first knuckle above the rice”. No matter if that knuckle was a 6-year-old or a 56-year-old it works the same way. Cute saying….but….

Sweetie and I started eating vegetarian on Mondays a few months ago and it is really amazing all the recipes we already had and all the new recipes we have come up with. Now it seems that we are eating less and less meat during the rest of the week too! Fish on Fridays, Bean or Soup Day, Stir-Fry and Rice Day, Left-Over Day, it all adds up to less carbon and a smaller footprint. Oh, the picture is of a “fire chimney”. This one is about 50 years old. You just put some charcoal or charcoal briquettes in the top and stuff some paper in the bottom and light the paper without lighter fluid. The briquettes will light and burn down, and then you can pour them into the grill and cook your stuff! No smell, no icky toxins!

This meal was so simple. On Sunday we grilled a huge portabello mushroom, then grilled 5 chicken legs that both had been marinated or brushed with a homemade asian teriyaki sauce.

ASIAN MARINADE

1/4 C Chay Seasoning Sauce or mild soy sauce
1/8 C rice wine vinegar
1 tsp minced fresh garlic
1/2 – 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 tsp brown sugar

Blend and let sit for a few hours or overnight to blend flavors.

After the fire went waaayyy down, I put on whole red potatoes and just let them grill on very low heat overnight. On Monday we had portabello burgers on the new Oroweat sandwich thins, whole grain buns (toasted) with sliced tomatoes, sliced walla-wallas and some fresh spinach leaves, mustard and mayo. The red potatoes were quartered and tossed with olive oil, salt/pepper and minced fresh rosemary and broiled and tossed and broiled and tossed in the oven for about 20 minutes.
I did not miss meat.

Since there are two of us in this household, I really like to can a few quarts, some pints, more half pints and 1/2 cups are perfect to give away. It just makes sense that I can use a little and give a little and the rest is used throughout the season.
Things I have canned this year: bread & butter pickles, garlic/dill pickles, cucumber relish, strawberry freezer jam, peach/blueberry/basil/rosemary freezer jam, apricot/basil freezer jam, peaches, apple chutney, drchelo’s Mother’s mango-apple chutney, poached apples and pears in gingered syrup.

Looking at this list tells me I want to can more food along with the condiments. I think soups and stews, maybe carrots and green beans could fill up the pantry with goodies to just pull out on a cold winter night or a harried day for a good lunch or dinner. (My take on tomato sauces: I like buying the 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes in bulk and using them fresh for sauces, tomato paste and using the tomatoes in various dishes. The canned whole tomatoes from Trader Joe’s and Muir Glenn are exceptional. I usually have at least five to ten cans in the pantry at one time.) Here’s my tomato paste: Just take a 28oz can of plum tomatos with juice and put it in a sauce pan over very low heat for awhile and smush the tomatoes with a potato masher and cooked low until it looked like tomato paste. Freeze in an ice cube tray and pop into a freezer bag and you will have 1 tablespoon of goodness at a time to drop in a dish!

Here are two really neat links to canning how to’s. The first one http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Canning/index.html is a couple that has been canning forever and travels all over the world. The second one http://portlandpreserve.com/ is a modern guide to preserving and backyard economy. Here’s a link to the Ball Blue Book http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/home/1.php .

If you really want to can, start with a water bath canner and kit. You can figure out how to improvise a quart water bath canner to accept pints and half pints. Getting into low acidic foods means a pressure canner. I got one at an antique/junk store and just had to replace the rubber seal. I see them going on ebay for $225 now. Look on craigslist also for canners and jars. They do sometimes come up.

I hope this helps someone out there to have food all year round. We all have to stick together, you know!

Dear Mister Free Range Turkey,

Thank you for giving your life for the bounty of Thanksgiving. I have used all your parts in Thanksgiving dinner, leftover turkey hash, turkey broth, turkey soup, harira, turkey bean soup, turkey sandwiches, snacks, late night refrigerator raids, gifts to the next door dog. You are beautiful and I thank you.

New Orleans Pralines

A modified Fannie Farmer recipe that makes about 22 pralines. You must have a candy thermometer to make these. Prepare all ingredients beforehand, including wax paper that has been slightly oiled with something like canola oil sitting on a cookie rack.

Add together in a saucepan:
1 1/2 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C plus 2 T half and half
1/4 lb. butter
Boil together and turn down heat to a low boil until the candy thermometer reads exactly 239 degrees! EXACTLY. Remove pan from heat and add:
1 1/2 C lightly toasted pecans, some broken up and some halved
1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla (I love Mexican vanilla)
Stir mixture vigorously until it gets creamy and cloudy. Immediately drop by tablespoon on wax paper. Either add a little warm water to the last of the mixture if it starts to harden up, or more fun is that two people drop the pralines at the same time!

  These warm-and-creamies all tend to be higher-carb, higher-fat foods that can make you sleepy, so I suppose that’s a comfort – eat a big serving, curl up under a quilt, and instant comfort!  All of a sudden, winter isn’t so cold and dark, and you’ve got some extra insulation to get you through the cold months!

  Nostalgia also seems to be a part of my comfort foods.  A pile of warm, fresh, corn tortillas will take me back, and I will happily eat ‘em up.  My grandmother always seemed to serve lamb chops with mint jelly on the side, with mashed potatoes (with the skins on!) loaded with butter – so medium rare lamb chops/mint jelly and buttery mashed potatoes takes me back to being a spoiled six-year-old allowed to sit at the grown-up table, eating grown-up food!

  But I have summertime comfort foods, too.  Dead-ripe tomatoes, eaten right off the vine!  Fresh black-eyed peas!  Fresh dewberries, complete with thorns and peaches picked that afternoon!  Okra, dipped in cornmeal and eggs, fried and served too hot to pick up – and finish up with home-made peach ice cream.  Can’t think of anything better.

  Our choices of foods, how they make us feel – I know that there is a lot of biochemistry there, neurotransmitters, insulin, serotonin – but those polysyllables don’t come close to defining comfort food.  Part of comfort food is the friends and family we share it with.

As long as we use these mental frames of industries and companies as sentient entities we will make these mistakes. When we hear that a company has an opinion or an interest, we are not hearing from Bob in Sales or Alice in Accounts Receivable, they are told from the top. A company is only a piece of paper. The people in the companies are told what to do by a few people at the top. Those people act in their OWN interests, period. When we understand this we can start to write laws and regulations that deal with reality.

And, if you haven’t already, watch this.

“But for life the universe were nothing: and all that life has requires nourishment.”

With the progress of knowledge the needs of the human body have not been forgotten. During the last decade much time has been given by scientists to the study of foods and their dietetic value, and it is a subject which rightfully should demand much consideration from all. I certainly feel that the time is not far distant when a knowledge of the principles of diet will be an essential part of one’s education. Then mankind will eat to live, will be able to do better mental and physical work, and disease will be less frequent.
At the earnest solicitation of educators, pupils, and friends, I have been urged to prepare this book, and I trust it may be a help to many who need its aid. It is my wish that it may not only be looked upon as a compilation of tried and tested recipes, but that it may awaken an interest through its condensed scientific knowledge which will lead to deeper thought and broader study of what to eat.

– The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1896

I have two Fannie cookbooks, “The Boston Cooking School, 1924 and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1965. I refer to them often. I take modern canning recipes and track back and find less sugar, I find mayonnaise that has a smidge of sugar instead of tablespoons, I find dressings with less salt and sugar. I found my favorite pastry. I found deerfoot potatoes (winter dish, yum), I found bread and butter pickles that you could eat the whole jar in one sitting, I found a lemon ice that is refreshing in 110 degree heat…well, you get the idea.

Fannie had a great philosophy. She is our own “Water for Chocolate” woman!

*Fannie always asked that after each recipe!

Texas Governor Fights U.S. Ethanol Rule That Raises Food Costs

By Alan Bjerga and Jim Efstathiou Jr.

July 21 (Bloomberg) — Rising U.S. gasoline prices and the growing world food crisis will clash this week when the Bush administration decides whether to relax rules requiring greater use of ethanol in auto fuels.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, backed by at least 26 senators and 51 representatives, is seeking to halve a requirement that the U.S. produce 9 billion gallons of ethanol this year. The Environmental Protection Agency must rule by July 24 on their request for a waiver of the rule [which is] favored by oil and food retailers and opposed by farm groups and environmentalists.

But wait… Governor Goodhair isn’t being entirely a friend to environmentalists here.

Texas, the largest beef-producing state, and its supporters in Congress, including the Republican party’s presidential candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona, say the mandate strains corn supplies and raises costs for human and animal food. A 1-cent change in the price of a bushel of corn would cost the state’s livestock industry $6.04 million, Perry said in an April 25 letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

“It is vitally important that the federal government address skyrocketing fuel prices, but the solution should be through increased production and more non-grain alternative fuel sources,” Perry said. “Not through policies that artificially drive up food prices and negatively impact Texas’s otherwise strong economy.”

Forget about the starving children. We must protect our friends in the factory farming industry!

One more reason to eat grass-fed beef or biscuit’s favorite, buffalo.

July 21, 2008 5:58 PM

ABC News’ Charles Herman reports: Don’t expect lower prices in the grocery aisles any time soon.

Food prices are expected to rise 4.5 percent to 5 percent this year and then another 4 percent to 5 percent in 2009, according to a government forecast to be released this week from the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

Egg prices will crack double-digit price increases of at least 13 percent this year. Baked goods and cereals will rise more than 9 percent. And food items, like peanut butter, salad dressing, butter and cooking oils will go up by as much as 12.5 percent, largely due to higher soy prices.

Higher prices for corn and soy and other crops, along with higher energy prices, are to blame.

Time to get the canner and dehydrator going. If you don’t have a garden, patronize your local farmer’s market.