Self Help | Dinner With Joy

Jun 28

Sweet Liberty

Independence Day! A day to celebrate freedom! Here’s hoping this post will make you freer to enjoy the holiday by helping to liberate you from the kitchen. For guests dessert is, pardon the pun, the topping on the cake, a sweet ending. For the hosts, it’s often the last hurdle to get over. If the meal is outdoors, that hurdle is higher. In addition to presentation and serving, melting and spoiling become considerations. If you plan a recipe that requires garnishing, labor and timing become problems too. The solution is to have a desert ready to be tabled in advance; if it can hold up for awhile and is easily served, even better. Read more

Jun 21

Sauce for the goose is…

Sauce for the Gander”; is an old saying. What should be added is that the sauce is, by doing double duty, saving time and money. A modern twist would be to say that sauce for the chicken is for the turkey; is for the pork; is for the veal. Actually, that may be in reverse order. The concept of substituting other meats in sauce show-cased dishes began during the ‘70s and ‘80s when eating veal became very un-PC. Always more expensive, the resultant lack of demand, drove the price up, and veal off the home and most restaurant menus. However, there are many popular dishes that people still wanted Marsala and piccatta to name two. Chicken, presented skinless and boneless, became a happy stand-in. Read more

Jun 14

Side by side

Fathers’ Day already, and with the warm weather, it’s usually another occasion to cook out. After acting as busboy, dishwasher and sous chef for three generations of men in my family, while they grilled, I’ve concluded that for most men, grilling is less about cooking than it is about enjoying the company and the setting, and they have the right idea. They’re willing to watch over the starring entrée, but don’t want to fret over the sides, especially with guests present. Those are better magically appearing on the table, but there’s no reason they can’t be ready in advance so those who do make them can relax and have fun too. Read more

Jun 7

Still in the soup

The morning after I wrote my last posting on summer soups, I turned on the T.V. to see Chef Mark Bittman recommending chilled soup as a dinner entrée on a hot day, and realized my idea might be in sync with a trend. In case it is, I decided to write the first of a few planned sequels right away, rather than wait until later in the season, as intended. The more you know, the easier it will be to take advantage of fresh produce as it comes to market, and to tap into all the resultant sales on related products that follow a trend. For this, they would be broths, herbs, seasonings, condiments, some dairy products like sour cream, cream, and shredded cheese, as well as salad dressings and breads; anything that goes with, or into soup, and that opens a whole world of possibilities. Read more

May 31

Soups On

My Memorial Day was less crowded than planned because three of the younger guests were suffering from strep throat. Their mother was relieved they all came down with it within 12 hrs. It meant fewer trips to the doctor and a quicker return to normal schedules, but she was concerned about what to feed them that is nourishing, filling and easy to swallow. When I suggested soup, since one size fits all, she reminded me that it’s 90 degrees outside. I suddenly realized that, aside from Vichyssoise, Madrilene, Gazpachio and a brief interest in Tortilla Soup a few years ago, soup isn’t considered a summer food in the United States. In fact, soup, generally, doesn’t figure prominently in our menu choices as an entrée at any season, except as a hearty dinner on a cold winter night. But why, if it’s filling and nourishing served hot in winter, shouldn’t it be just as nutritious and satisfying chilled in summer? Read more

May 28

It’s Memorial Day – Lets go outside

This year is flying by! We’re up to the holiday that starts summer
and prompts chefs in the Frost Belt to dust off their grills. Not a bad time,
either, for those who can cook out all year to give their equipment a check-up.
Truth is backyard grills should be cleaned before and after each use the same
as indoor ones are Read more

May 17

Here’s to the Sub Team

In my last blog, I gave an example of a subject which I explore further under The Ds, in The Plan included in this Blog, showing how using substitute ingredients can simplify a recipe and/or make it economically feasible. In my book, Dinners With Joy, dinnerswithjoy.com, I give alternative solutions for all recipes using pork or shellfish for those on religiously restrictive diets. There’s an industry built around providing people with food allergies and medical problems optional dietary products so they might enjoy an unimpaired lifestyle. Read more

May 10

Happy Mothers’ Day

Boy! This holiday would have snuck up on me, had it not been for my neighbor’s kids, Mark 12, and Mia 14, who asked my help. Traditionally, their Mother never worked in the kitchen on this day. They made breakfast with their Father, went to the Garden Center, got the outside of the house ready for summer and opened the grilling season with a cook out. This year, their Father is deployed with the Air Force and they want to try to keep things normal, which includes making a “really special” breakfast and dinner for their Mother. Of course I would help them, but it wouldn’t be easy with their limited resources ($20.00) ages and lack of kitchen experience. Their condition to me was that they had to pay for the food and make the meals, and no chicken or hamburger. Mine to them was that I had to do the shopping, not a cousin who had offered. My condition to myself was to keep them safe. Read more

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