A Heritage of Humor – Stories from my Kitchens

Post #794 Got A New Kitchen Toy – An Air Fryer!

April 22, 2021 at 2:14 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Well, no surprise to anyone who just read the title of the post, we got a new Air Fryer in our kitchen. Our backyard neighbors and good friends gave it to us. In New England, very little is ever tossed out, even if it’s broken. Someone somewhere can use it, reuse it, repurpose it, fix it, sell it, or whatever else. Thrift stores, second hand stores, and the like abound here. Even antique stores carry far more than just antiques. There’s even the fun habit of leaving stuff on the sidewalk in front of your house with a sign that says free, although that’s optional. Stuff seldom stays longer than a couple of days. Even old mattresses don’t last long. One of our favorite used book store has a section before you walk in with all the free books they’re just trying to get rid of. Last time we were there, they had a section with the sign “We Have Too Many Cookbooks. These are all $1 each.”

So on Sunday, we were sitting in the backyards letting the two dogs wear each other out for the day. Our Bear is not quite one year old, but their Sophie is a little over two years. Both are hyperactive, and look a lot alike. We let them run and play for a half hour or so, until they start to sit more than run while we sit and talk and have a drink. It’s a very neighborly thing to do. Out of the blue, she asks, “Do you guys have a bread machine?”

“Nope,” I said. “We like making bread by hand. We use a stand mixer most of the time, but I’ve been known to get my arms elbow deep into the dough.”

“Yeah, that’s how I like to do it, too,” she said. “We’ve got a bread machine someone gave us, and we’ve never once used it. I’m trying to get rid of it, and an air fryer, too. We have two of those.”

“Now, I’ll take the air fryer,” I said. “I’ve been wanting to try one out before I bought the Ninja air fryer and grill. It’s just hard to believe it works the way it’s advertised.”

They both started talking at once. “We love our big one. It’s got three drawers in it, and we end up cooking the entire dinner in one shot. The food tastes like it’s been grilled outdoors.” And on and on they went. So I went home with an air fryer. It’s a lower end model, but it’s exactly what I wanted to learn on.

We had been on a long drive that day doing a large circle from our house down to the south-eastern part of the state, then going west, then north until we got to the highway that goes by our house. It was fun seeing what the unseasonal snow storm left in various areas. We were also tempted to stop at King Arthur Baking since we’d be going near it, but managed to resist that temptation since we’d already made the first of our two yearly visits. Dinner was planned to be grilling inch thick pork chops and making a salad. But we were tired, there was still bread to make, and I wanted to try the new machine.

I’ve always followed Alton Brown’s philosophy of never having a single use item in the kitchen. There are some things that are single use that can’t be avoided, but everything else, he says, must have at least two purposes, or more. The air fryer fits that bill. And it does it all in a very healthy way. My air fryer is rather small, but as I said, this one is only the practice model. And it was free.

So what does the air fryer do, exactly? I read the manual. It roasts vegetables. It frys french fries and onion rings. It bakes a meatloaf. It cooks a hot dog. It cooks chicken tenders. It bakes apple turnovers. It fries donuts. It bakes hand pies. It bakes cakes. But I also went to the internet. It can steam foods. It can dehydrate foods. It can make beef jerky!! It can poach an egg. It can make sauces. It can bake custards. It can make cookies. It can make potato chips, and other veggie chips. It can pop popcorn! It can make casseroles. It can make soups, and stew, and slow braised meats.

Basically, it can anything an oven/stove top can do, plus a few things more. Since it’s a counter top style machine, it doesn’t heat up the whole house, much less the kitchen. It uses hot air convection in a cyclonic format to the hot air spins around the food so the food cooks evenly, and quickly. You can make things in half the time so you end up using less energy and reduce your carbon foot print. I’m going to have fun exploring all the fun things to do. I’ve already ordered a cookbook for it, and put my Ninja fryer/grill on the our wish list.

So, what did I end up doing for dinner? Wait till you see.

I left the pork chops wrapped up but outside of the fridge so they’d be at room temp. This was the first time I was using the device so I didn’t know what to expect. I read two or three different “recipes” which are basically just instrucitons for air fryer use, not recipes for the food you’re making. I determined that I wanted to cook the pork chops at 380 degrees for a total of fifteen minutes on one side, and ten minutes on the other. Our fryer has only one basket, and I wanted to make french fries since I’d heard so much about how well they would turn out. So I heated my regular oven to 350, then turned it off. The residual heat would keep the chops warm without cooking them and drying them out. The french fries would be quicker. Total cook time would be around fifteen minutes for the entire basket with one shake event to move the fries around to ensure even cooking in the middle of the process.

To prep the food, the books recommend a light spray of oil, mostly to keep it from sticking to the fry basket. But it also helps any spices and herbs to adhere to the food cooking. For foods like french fries, or onion rings, you can put the frozen things in a bowl and add a tablespoon of oil to the bowl. Move the food around until even and lightly coated with the oil then into the fry basket. You can season the food while tossing in oil.

So what I did was lightly spray the chops with Pam Olive Oil spray. Then I sprinkled them with fresh ground black pepper and fresh ground sea salt on both sides. It was a tight fit, but I squeezed both the chops into the fry basket. Then it did it’s thing for fifteen minutes. While it was having fun, I emptied half a bag of frozen french fries into a bowl and added a tablespoon of canola oil. I used my hands to toss everything around to make sure they were coated well. After the chops were done, I put cleaned out the basket and set the fries to cooking. I followed the directions, and, well, you be the judge:

You can see the juiciness of the chops underneath them, and while it’s more difficult to tell from the picture, the fries were perfect. The chops were done throughout, still juicy, tender, and the fat band was crispy. The fries were hot, evenly crispy, done to perfection. The best part of the whole meal was the incredibly low amount of oil that we used for it. Next time, I’m going to omit the oil altogether and see what happens. I can’t wait to try some of the other things it says we can make.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I spent most of a Sunday morning putting together our outdoor furniture. It’s a set made of teak (to weather well). There’s two chairs, a love seat, and a coffee table. It wasn’t difficult, just time consuming. Of course, the Vermont Spring turned on us and we haven’t been able to enjoy a single moment since then. Here’s why:

We’ve had nothing but cool weather (it was 70 when I put it all together), rain and/or snow. The dog is loving his Frozen Water Treats From The Sky, but the rest of us aren’t so enamored of it. I used to call February the “bitch month” because you never knew what the bitch was going to throw at you. But that was when I was in Virginia. Up here, the bitch month is Spring. All of it. What fun.

So, how are your days going? Holler and let us all know. Feel free to share the post far and wide.

And as always,

Post #793 Who Put the Chocolate in the Chocolate Chip Cookie?

April 14, 2021 at 5:46 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I recently started reading a book called “Who Put the Devil in Deviled Eggs?” by Ann Triestman. It’s a fun book with short chapters that gives the history behind common foods without bogging down in too much history. She includes recipes where needed, but leaves them out if it’s so common that everyone knows it. So far, I’ve learned about deviled eggs, Cesar Salad, mac and cheese, cupcakes, Cobb salad, french fries, ice cream sundaes, and, my favorite, chocolate chip cookies. I’ve still got dozens of chapters to go running the gamut from pizza to hamburgers and tons of stuff in between. It’s been fun, and it’s one of those books that I can open and spend five minutes or five hours with.

Most of the information I’ve been reading is stuff I’m already familiar with from my own curiosity and research, but there are nuggets of gold tucked away in there. For instance, mac and cheese didn’t start out with the ubiquitous and slightly slimy cheese sauce we know today. It was boiled pasta, butter, grated cheese, and a hot oven. Everything after those four ingredients is new fangled stuff. I’m so interested in trying this basic recipe that I put a set of 8oz ramekins on my Amazon wish list. (My mom’s take on baked mac and cheese featured a jar of air dried beef strips which I’m not sure you can get anymore diced superfine and stirred into the sauce. It was very salty.)

The chapter I read with the most interest was the one about chocolate chip cookies. No surprise there. Love those things. When I discovered I could make them, I’ve never been too long without them. I knew that the original recipe was called Toll House cookies. I also knew that Toll House was an inn. But I learned some fun stuff from this book.

Fun Fact #1: Chocolate, which came from the Aztec nation, was considered a drink that was a contemporary with coffee and tea for over 300 years after Europeans “discovered” it. It was until the 1800s that they figured a way to make it solid and edible.

For the most part, chocolate was used to flavor other foods. Cocoa powder was mixed with flour and sugar to create chocolate cake and cookies. Solid chocolate was melted and added to cream and eggs to make pudding or mousse. But it was an accident that created the chocolate chip. But here’s the story of how it happened.

Ruth Wakefield and her husband bought a house in Massachussetts in 1930 with the intent to turn it into an inn. Since the house was old and historic, they wanted to honor its history as a coach stop along the main road. Once the renovations were complete, they called it the Toll House Inn. Ruth was in charge of feeding the guests, and she wanted to make a reputation for good food and memorable desserts. Many of her desserts featured a favorite ingredient. Guess what it was? One evening, she was making butter drop cookies (amazing cookies, by the way) and ran out of baker’s chocolate to flavor the cookies. So she grabbed a handy bar of semisweet and chopped it roughly and added it to the dough. To her surprise, the chocolate didn’t melt during the baking. It remained whole and softened to add a slightly gooey texture to the cookie. And the guest raved about it. It was an instant hit, and demand for the cookie spread like wildfire. Nestle worked with Ruth to create the chocolate chip, eventually buying the recipe and building the company around it. It was tweaked and remade a few times until it became the institution it is today.

Fun Fact #2: Ruth Wakefield published a Toll House Recipe Book that has the original recipe in it. I did a quick search on the internet. If you want to pay around $1000 (yes that’s the right amount of zeroes), you can get a hardback copy. For about $300 less than that, you can get a paperback copy. You can also find used copies for around $20, and I found one bedraggled copy for $5. I’m going to keep looking.

When I started making these cookies as a teenager 50 years ago (yes, that long ago), I followed the recipe verbatim. At one point, the package of chocolate chips didn’t print the recipe on it (that didn’t last long) and I had to go by memory. That’s when I accidentally created my first modification to the recipe. I used half the amount of butter. Lo and behold, the cookies didn’t spread as much, and they remained softer for a much longer time. Even today, I never use as much butter as the recipe calls for. Over the years, I’ve changed things up a lot. They’re still recognizably Toll House cookies, but I add cinnamon sometimes. Instead of nuts, I add sunflower seeds (roasted and salted, the small kick of salt enhances the chocolate flavor.) A few times, I’ve added granola, but I soften it first. Sometimes, I’ll make the recipe and add a cup of oats so it turns into oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. I’ve used the cookie dough as a base for bar cookies. I routinely use 3 cups of flour instead of the 2 1/4 cups it calls for. Sometimes, I’ll cut back the amount of the sugars to a half cup instead of the 3/4 cup. Once, I tried used honey instead of sugar, but that didn’t turn out well. And a few times, in a vain attempt to make it taste like a Reese’s Cup, I’ve added a half cup of peanut butter to replace a half cup of butter, but the peanut butter flavor isn’t strong enough. I’m considering the PB powder, but I haven’t done it yet.

Fun Fact #3: It turns out the dryer the dough is the better the cookie behaves. Once in high school, a friend of mine asked me to help her make giant chocolate chip cookies to sell for her club. We set up an evening and another friend came along. Turns out, the other friend was a self-appointed “expert” and kept trying to assign duties. I was there to help my friend so I ignored the other girl. Once the dough was ready, the other girl pronounced it “too dry” and tried to throw it away, chocolate chips and all. Trust me, as long as the dough holds together and isn’t dust, it’ll make wonderful cookies.

In Ruth Wakefield’s cookbook, there’s a step that’s been omitted for decades that I never heard about. As I was reading along, the author wrote about a rest period being beneficial to the dough. She cited Wakefield’s book, then explained the science behind it. Resting the dough overnight, or up to 72 hours allows all the moisture from the butter and eggs to absorb into the flour. It makes a stiffer dough, but one that is more manageable and better baking. She said the outer crust will be crispy while the interior stays doughy. I knew that was true for other baked goods. When I make pasta, it’s necessary to rest the dough for a minimum of a half hour for the same reason. So I decided to try this.

Last night after dinner and clean up, I set things up and used my KAB bowls to make it up. I followed the standard recipe, but I used 3/4 cup of butter rather than a full cup, and I sprinkled the salt and baking soda into the wet mixture rather than the dry to ensure even distribution, and I added a tsp of cinnamon. The wet mixture was light and fluffy due to a longer mixing process than usual. The flour (3 cups) went in just fine, and the chocolate chips mixed in by hand. I covered it with plastic wrap and into the fridge it went.

Today, there were lots of errands to do, mostly stuff for the FiL. We got home around noon, and I fixed him a chicken pot pie for lunch. He loves those things. I do not. Partner/Spouse and I did our lunch, and then I cleaned up all the dishes. After that, leaving the oven on, I set the bowl out on the counter to reach room temperature. It’s still Spring in Vermont, so room temperature is still pretty cold. The dough was stiff. I use a cookie scoop rather than spoons for putting the dough onto the pans.

The butter in the dough had stiffened up and it wasn’t relaxing at all. But I got three dozen cookies out of the batch, and a nice pump on my biceps and forearms. The real test was in baking them. The whole set up reminded me of the packages of pre-made Toll House cookies you get at the store and break apart. I wondered how it was going to work, and how successful it was going to be. Based on looks, you be the judge.

Based on taste, the neighbor liked them; I liked them; the FiL liked them; Partner/Spouse liked them. I don’t think I’ll be throwing any away.

So, it looks like making chocolate chip cookies is now a planned event. I used to be able to go from start to finish with Toll House cookies in about 40 minutes, cooling time included. Now, I have to start the day before, unless we all decide we can’t wait.

So that’s the new revelation on chocolate chip cookies, something I didn’t think would ever change that much. What do you make of it? Holler and let us know. Feel free to share the post as you wish.

And as always,

Post #792 Hi Karen, Here’s Another One!

April 4, 2021 at 1:30 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Post #792 Hi Karen, Here’s Another One!

Hi Karen, There’s a couple of things I wanted to tell you about this week, but first let me give an update on the FiL. Just this past week since the last post we have driven the 4.5 hour round trip to the hospital three times for pre-op appointments. It’s exhausting, but at the same time it’s fun. You’re out of the house during the pandemic; you’re seeing some amazing scenery; you’re eating out at safe and nice places; and you’re not home doing chores. Of course, once you get home you’re exhausted because you’ve had zero time to relax you got up at 5am and the overriding tension of the situation goes unrelieved. But, he’s cleared for the operation, and the op is scheduled for later this month with a priority if a slot opens sooner. So, overall, lemonade instead of lemons, and for now, it’s just a waiting game, as is most of life.

We’re in the weird season in between Winter and Spring called “I thought winter was over”. We’ve had some very chilly weather and unseasonal snow storms. It helps with the mud season by keeping the mud frozen, but it always thaws, but it’s not as bad as it could be. Right now, all the farmers in the area are waiting for the ground to thaw out and dry out so they can plant their crops and get the first harvest underway.

We’re in the same boat as the farmers. We want to plant some roses and some bulbs, and some flowers, etc. but we have to wait for the ground to allow a spade to turn it. However, our two trees in the back yard have buds on them, and the bark has turned red to allow new growth. The lilac bush is budding, too, and the whole neighborhood is waiting for that one. It’s huge and when it blooms, it’s spectacular. It sends out a wonderful aroma and everyone wanders by to look at it. We met our yard guy when he asked if he could take some blossoms to his wife. We’ve been doing to furniture upgrades etc, and soon our front porch and our back yard are going to be extensions of the house for us to live in.

Our yard guy is our back yard neighbor and we’ve all become good friends. Our dogs play together a couple of times a week to wear themselves out. He’s volunteered to complete a fence for us so we can let Bear outside to romp around on his own. And he’s volunteered to make a raised bed garden for us. The FiL wants to plant things, and I love having fresh tomatoes and herbs to cook with. We’ve got a gas grill to put together, and a wood fired pizza oven, as well as a charcoal grill and wood fire pit to complete our fun space in the back.

We haven’t made plans for the raised bed garden yet since we don’t know exactly what the space is going to be. However, nature sometimes takes a hand in these things. I was looking for something in our lazy susan pantry under the counter a week ago and found something that made me sit back and laugh:

The first photo is a bag of yellow onions I totally forgot about. I think I had planned a beef and onion roast with them but then changed my mind. Once I was passed the menu item, the ingredients went out of my head and now we have onion sprouts that might taste pretty good, but we can use them to plant and get fresh onions. Not sure if they’ll last that long, but now I now how to get new sprouts and about how long it’ll take. You can do the same thing with garlic. Don’t ask how I know that. The potatoes I knew were there, but didn’t get to them in time. Those can still be used as sprouts, but I doubt that I will.

Karen, another friend of mine made some delicious looking chicken wings and posted a picture on FB recently. We got into a discussion and I told her about some wonderful and crispy wing Partner/Spouse made a few weeks ago. I promised I’d post about it. They’re so simple, I thought you might want to know how to make them. It’s not super healthy since they’re fried, but they taste so good, it’s worth it.

First, you have to get the chicken wings. If you get whole wings, you’ll have to separate them into three pieces: the drumette, the mock thigh, and the dingbat. These are just my terms for them.

There are joints in between each section that you can place your knife blade in. Once it’s settled, give the back of the blade a sharp whack with the flat of your hand and the blade with go right through. Toss the dingbat, and set the dumette and mock thigh in a bowl. Keep count of how many you’re making because you’ll make too much if you’re not careful. You can toss the dingbats, or save them in the freezer for the next time you make chicken soup. We usually toss them.

Once those are done, make the marinade. You’re going to make a fairly large amount, then divide into one third and two thirds. The larger amount with go over the chicken for them to soak in for at least an hour, but the longer the better. Use a half cup of lite soy sauce, a half cup of ponzu lime sauce (or just lime juice if you can’t find the other), a tablespoon of fresh ginger run through a microplane (or chopped very fine if you don’t have a microplane (or buy a jar of ginger paste)), and a teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, and fresh ground black pepper. Mix these well until blended. Set aside one third for a drizzling sauce, and put the rest in a gallon sized zip locking bag. Put the chicken pieces in the bag and squeeze the air out and zip shut. Mix the sauce and chicken together to coat completely and place in the fridge. Agitate the bag every half hour. About two hours before cooking remove the chicken from the bag and shake the excess off. Do not pat dry.

Dredge the chicken in plain, unseasoned flour and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the baking sheet back in the fridge uncovered for two hours. When ready to continue, the flour will look gummy on the chicken. This is supposed to happen.

After two hours, fill a skillet with oil to a level that will cover the chicken to the halfway mark and heat on medium high until it reaches 375. While the skillet is heating, carefully dredge the chicken in the plain flour again and carefully shake it off and set aside. When the oil has reached the correct temperature, place a single layer of chicken in the hot oil being careful of splatters. Cook in batches if necessary. Cook the chicken until brown and crispy, about 7-10 minutes, and turn them over. Cook for the same amount of time then use tongs to remove the chicken to a cooling rack placed on top of a rimmed baking sheet. Check the internal temperature of the chicken to be certain it reads 140 or higher. If it doesn’t, place the baking sheet and chicken in a hot oven until it does. Once all the chicken is cooked, drizzle the reserved marinade over the chicken and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve hot with whatever sides you like. We generally have french fries with this.

The gummy flour dusted with dry flour creates a wonderful crust when it hits the hot oil. The marinade still on the chicken flavors the flour lightly. The crunch of this chicken is amazing and we both get that close-your-eyes moment when we first bite into it.

So, Karen, there’s two fun things for the weekend. Hope you enjoyed this post. Holler if there’s anything else you want to know about it. Take care, share widely if you like, and as always,