Big demand for organic eggs!

Publix at Windsor Commons has a sign up in the dairy aisle today, apologizing to customers for its short supply of organic eggs.

Overseas, Germany is also experiencing high demand for organic eggs, though for different reasons than here in the States.

I had no idea that organic eggs are so popular. Apparently, the demand for organic eggs is so high that it is creating a supply problem!

Photo by Kelly Estes

Now, I don’t go to Fresh Market very often–maybe once every three months. But since they’re supposed to be the more premium grocery store, I was shocked that their produce bags were of such poor quality.

Ripped produce bag containing pears.

Even their checkout clerk seemed embarrassed when I mentioned the bag problem, and said they do seem to be very cheaply made. This, after the sweet potatoes escaped the produce bag at checkout and rolled onto the floor!

To date, I have not had produce bags rip on me at Publix or Winn Dixie. Bags that rip that easily can’t be impressing customers.

Holey bags aside, the fruit and vegetables at Fresh Market were most impressive.

My daughter and I marveled at the huge Honeycrisp apples. And we sighed over the pears. Thoughts of pear apple crisp inspired me.  Then I saw the big display of Pistachios, and I recalled the strange sales pitch Ron Blagojevich does, hawking pistachios in a new TV ad. No, I didn’t buy any pistachios.

I did go for the brussel sprouts. They are absolutely delicious simply steamed, with a little kosher salt tossed on them in the end.

The eggplant, squash, and organic apples looked beautiful. Touring the produce, I was inspired to try some new recipes this Thanksgiving.

It’s always a treat to visit the Fresh Market. Maybe next time, their produce bags won’t rip on me. Here’s hoping!

Photos by Kelly Estes

This calls for a strategy, which is where you come in.

I need your two cents. With only one oven, what should be my game plan? For those of you with double ovens, I’m jealous. Since I don’t have that luxury, I have to plan. And plan. And plan.

Part of my strategy is asking a couple women in the family to bring a dish or two. So, what should I ask people to bring to the feast?

Of course, I’ll be cooking the turkey, whipping some potatoes, and making the gravy. In case you didn’t know, my husband loves gravy. “The gravy must flow,” he says.

But really, with 11 adults and 4 kids, I’m wondering what the spread should look like. I mean, I want to throw a good party and serve delicious food, but at the same time, I don’t want to sit down to the Thanksgiving feast bone tired.

For those of you wondering why I’m planning so far in advance, the time just seems to fly this time of year. And I don’t want to be planning this huge dinner last minute. I know what Martha recommends.

What do you recommend? And do you have any tips for me?

Photo courtesy of Ms. Jones via Wikimedia

My recipe for Chicken Salad (no potato filler)

Over a month ago, I purchased the Roasted Chicken Salad with Tarragon sandwich at Starbucks. It was delicious, surprisingly so, for a boxed, pre-made sandwich.

Then, about two weeks ago, I bought it again, only to discover they had changed the ingredients and made it a terrible sandwich. The culprit: potato starch. It was not in the original sandwich, but it was in the ‘terrible’ chicken salad sandwich I bought more recently.

To Each His Own

Everyone has their own taste in food, and what I find disgusting in a sandwich could appeal to others. But I was determined to make a better chicken salad sandwich than the one I had originally bought at Starbucks. I knew anything I made would be better than the more recently purchased sandwich I had gotten at Starbucks, which had potato starch in it (read….filler). I have to tell you that the potato starch made it so disgusting that I couldn’t finish the sandwich.

Toasted bread shows off the chicken salad better!

But on to my chicken salad recipe. I used about 9 ounces of Swanson Chicken Breast, some vegetables, and fruit.

It was quite good, the fresh celery and onion adding some crunch, and the vinegar and craisins adding some tang and a little sweetness. Absolute heaven in every bite.

Try it, and let me know what you think!

Chicken Salad with Craisins

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Serves 3-4, depending on sandwich size

Ingredients

• 9 ounces canned chicken breast
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 3-4 T. Light Mayonnaise (I used Hellmann’s)
• 1/2 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Grey Poupon
• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon group pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup Craisins

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Serve immediately on toasted honey wheat or whole wheat sandwich bread. Delicious!

What is your favorite lunch sandwich?

Photos by Kelly Estes

Instead of coddling our kids and shooing them out of the kitchen, try including them in a simple egg on toast breakfast, and take it from there. Supervision and patience is key when teaching kids in the kitchen!

My 7-year-old daughter can crack eggs into a bowl and whisk them. She occasionally still gets a shell in the egg, but don’t we all at one time or another? This morning she cracked an egg into a skillet, but the yolk broke. Quickly, her dad gave her a whisk and told her to just whisk the egg in the pan to make scrambled eggs.

Type A Life Lessons

This is a great way to teach a Type A, perfectionist young child that you can make lemonade out of lemons. In this case, she learned that when you break an egg in the pan, you can scramble it, and it still tastes good!

It’s funny how much more she appreciates her food, now that she’s starting to cook a little.

Younger Siblings Demand In On the Fun

Now that my 4-year-old son is seeing his sister cook in the kitchen, he also wants in on the action. He’s starting out practicing pouring water into a bowl. Next up, he’ll be part of the fun on whisking eggs in a bowl. He won’t be making scrambled eggs this year, but he’s already enjoyed using his fingers to make homemade focaccia, and delighted in spreading sauce and sprinkling cheese on pizza dough.

Make Your Life Easier, and Teach an Important Art

Teaching your kids how to cook food from scratch will make your life easier as the years roll along. When your kids are teens, hopefully they will have the ability to make dinner for the family occasionally. Let’s make sure delicious, made from scratch food doesn’t become a lost art.

I’m sure Jamie Oliver is teaching his own young kids how to cook. That’s how we can help the next generation…by teaching them how to cook foods from scratch, and eat nutritiously.

Are you starting your own Food Revolution?

Photo by Kelly Estes

I’ve already bemoaned the lack of good kid’s meals at restaurants. We don’t eat out a lot, but when we do, I’m always surprised at the bland, mostly high in fat food on the children’s menu. While some eateries are wising up, others are still stuck on chicken tenders or hamburgers for children.

The Solution

Sometimes, you just have to brazenly ask if the chef can give your child a smaller portion of a (healthy) adult meal. For instance, one local restaurant we dined at recently offers a more varied children’s menu than most, but the offerings did not appeal to our 7-year-old. Though the waitress didn’t think it was possible, she asked the chef at my request if he could do a child’s size portion of the Boeuf Bourgignon (a delicious French stew). The answer: yes!

Healthy Eating

Just ask–the chef will either say no or yes to such a request. I’m  hoping as more parents embrace the idea of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, they’ll ask for a child’s portion of a healthy adult entree when they eat out. Maybe then restaurants will catch on…there’s no need to baby our children’s tastebuds forever.

How many chicken tenders and hamburgers can kids eat without getting tired of them?

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Do you recall the first time you heard of someone dying from e-coli? I do. I remember reading an article about a young child dying from eating a hamburger (contaminated with e-coli) at a fast food restaurant. Obviously, e-coli can make you ill (or worse).

Speaking of feeling ill, a couple days ago, I shopped for groceries at our supermarket  nearby (a grocery store that is generally known for having good quality produce). I was shocked at the amount of rotting produce, from onions to zucchini (I actually did feel ill seeing the flies surrounding some produce, and seeing some rotting onions). The romaine looked quite wimpy and rusty.

Triple Washed Lettuce– Buy it?

There was some already ‘triple washed’ and cleaned romaine and other lettuce in a bag. However, I don’t care for the taste of triple washed lettuce in a bag. There’s a chemical taste to it. I ended up leaving the grocery store sans onions, lettuce, and zucchini.

Vigilance Needed

The FDA’s recall of that romaine lettuce served to remind me that we, as food shoppers, need to be vigilant. Inspect the food you’re buying and satisfy yourself that it is fresh (not rotting), assure yourself, for instance, that the lettuce is crisp and new. If the produce at the store doesn’t look good, speak to the manager about it.

Picking Produce

It will be another 2 weeks before I can harvest zucchini from my victory garden, and several beyond that before I can pick my own tomatoes, jalapenos, and cucumbers. Until then, I hope to avoid rotting produce in my neighborhood grocery store.

I’m wondering if people are buying less fresh produce than they used to because of economic concerns. The U.S. government reports 2.2% inflation for the year thus far, and add to that the fact that the government calculates inflation by not counting ‘volatile’ food and energy prices. How quaint.

Have you had any trouble with fresh produce at your supermarket?

Photo by 4028mdk09 courtesy of Wikimedia

Pictured: fast food stand on Blackpool promenade. Question: Will it be harder to eat fast food when confronted with the caloric amount of it?

After a busy morning at a home improvement store, my husband and I dashed into Panera Bread for lunch. Looking up at their menu, I decided on the Napa Chicken Salad sandwich.

“You want a half (sandwich)?” my husband asked. He was staring up at the board. There were calories listed for each sandwich and salad, and thankfully there were half sandwiches available.

The calorie total for my half chicken salad sandwich was in the upper 400s. I also got a green salad with chicken tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. The green salad without chicken was 80 calories.

Confronted with the stark reality of how many calories are in each sandwich or salad, I wonder what the impact will be on the customers.

Panera Bread is complying with the new regulations which are part of the newly signed Health Care Reform bill, now law. Though the regulations affecting restaurant chains apparently don’t kick in until 2011, some restaurants like Panera are already complying with the rule that dictates restaurants with a certain number of chains must post calorie count on their menu items.

I’d say that most people will go for a lower calorie item than they originally intended when they see the high number of calories associated with some of the menu offerings. What do you think?

Photo by Christian Cable from Lancaster, courtesy Wikimedia

I’m glad we live in a time where spices are easy to procure. In the ‘olden days,’ spices were so rare that not many cooks had them. If you read Little House on the Prairie, or remember some history from high school, you’ll recall how prized salt was, and the spices from the Indies.

I love spices. I have a lot of spices in my spice cabinet. Last year, one of the local French restaurants had a clearance sale on a gigantic jar of Herbes de Provence. Luckily for me, my mom bought it and split it with me. That blend of Herbes de Provence is simply amazing. I’ve made my pot roast taste better with it, and too many other entrees to count. That’s the beauty of a good spice: amazing taste. Without it, our taste buds would be bored.

Of course, other than making food taste better, spices can help reduce the need for salt, which is great, especially if you are cooking for someone on a low-salt diet. Lately I’ve been going through a lot of chili and cumin powder. Spices that I like to keep on hand (other than salt and pepper) are:

1. Ground chile powder
2. Ground cumin
3. Ground nutmeg
4. Ground cinnamon
5. Ground ginger
6. Dried Herbes de Provence
7. Dried oregano
8. Dried basil
9. Dried thyme

What’s in your spice cabinet?

Photo by Kelly Estes