Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients

Back in the day, when I was still watching television, Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa was one of my favorite shows on The Food Network. Most of the time, her recipes were easy enough that even I could follow along with her. Her easy manner as she visited the various markets to pickup food supplies, her time in her gardens and setting up places to dine outdoors, and welcoming her guests to her home for delicious meals was all part of the ambiance of her show.

The title of the cookbook highlighted today just reinforces what I like about The Barefoot Contessa - that she is a back to the basics kind of cook. That is my kind of cooking. Using simple ingredients to produce meals with a fabulous flavor sounds like a great plan to me.

In this particular cookbook, she focuses on the techniques she uses to create her great food and her easy entertaining style. There are close to a hundred new recipes to check out ranging from French classics easy enough for any of us to make, to her simple home cooking tips we all have grown to love.

As she covers the essential basics of how to gather the necessary ingredients together to how to host a successful party, she allows us to follow along so that we know exactly how to be a success at cooking, baking, and entertaining.


Reading and using a cookbook created by the Barefoot Contessa is like taking a master class at a well-regarded cooking school. She provides a question and answer section with answers to questions real people often ask. The beautiful full-color photographs and valuable cooking tips makes this a must-have addition to your library of treasured cookbooks.

Do you watch the Barefoot Contessa? What is your favorite TV cooking show?

Paula Deen 3 Quart Stack & Steamer, Stainless Steel

Anyone desiring to live a healthy lifestyle understands how important nutrients are for good health. When we cook our food, we need to save the nutrients for our body while we maintain the color and taste of the food to satisfy our soul. If the food doesn’t look or smell good, we probably won’t eat what we should.

That is one of the things I like best about the Paula Deen 3 Quart Stack and Steamer. Using the steamer does everything we want to make our meal delicious as well as looking palatable.

I have found that anything Paula Deen indorses is quality. This stainless steel covered saucepot with steamer insert is perfect for steaming vegetables quickly and safely so that we can enjoy the delicious tasting meal.

One of the best things I like about this steamer is that I can watch the food cook without opening the lid. Having wonderful cooking equipment in my kitchen makes it much more fun for me to spend time providing good home cooked meals. I love this steamer and I hope you give it a try as well. You'll be glad you did!

This item and more wonderful Paula Deen products as well as other kitchen pots and pans can be found on my Squidoo lens that pays homage to Paula and her products. You can reach this lens by clicking on the link just above this paragraph. If you would like to see more Squidoo lenses, you can click this link.

Are you a Paula Deen fan? Do you watch her TV shows? Have you ever visited her restaurant (if you have I'm going to be very jealous :))?

Thanksgiving Day 2008

As I haven't posted on this blog lately, one would think that I haven't spent any time in the kitchen. Not the case! Cooking and baking is a not-so-guilty pleasure several times a week.

This year I asked Dad what he wanted for Thanksgiving dinner and he said, "Ham." Because I usually get a free turkey in early December from the hospital I used to work at, I knew ham would work well for this Thanksgiving. We included yams, a toss salad, and pumpkin pie with CoolWhip, of course.

I used the slow cooker for a bone-in ham, added whole baby carrots and onions, for a delicious meal. I took the easy way out and heated the canned yams on the stove. Could have added raw yams to the rest of the meal in the cooker, but really didn't even think that far ahead. All in all, it was a delicious meal.

We used the left over ham and vegetables as a soup the next day. Still had some left, so we added noodles for a more filling ham and vegetable noodle soup.

I have also recently baked two loaves of banana bread (yum!) and a batch or two of peanut butter cookies. Now, it's time to check out the diet. Oh that's right! Didn't I say I was going to try vegetarian?

How was your Thanksgiving? What did you prepare or did you go out to dinner?

Vegetarian Baby Steps

Well, I am moving forward in the move towards becoming a vegetarian. Mostly staying away from meat, and also I have lost the taste for milk. Still eating eggs, but for now that's okay.

Where I really am doing well is eating more vegetables and fruit. I've noticed in the last week that I am losing weight without "dieting". Guess that is the best news right now in my journey. Later, I hope that better overall health will top the goals list.

If you have any tips for a meat-lover changing to vegetarianism, please leave suggestions in the comment section. I definitely need the help!

Photo by Joel Mabel

10 Food Safety Tips

Here are a few food safety tips from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.

1. Keep cold foods cold, at 40 degrees or below, and hot foods hot at 140 degrees or above.

2. Use an instant-read food thermometer so meats are cooked to safe temperatures.

3. Wash your hands and frequently clean cooking surfaces. Always wash your hands after handling raw meat or poultry.

4. Keep raw meat, poultry and egg products separate from already cooked items to avoid contamination.

5. Refrigerate items properly.

6. Store food as soon as you arrive home from the store.

7. Don't leave perishable foods out for more than two hours.

8. Don't thaw meats on the counter. Defrost them in the refrigerator.

9. Don't taste food to see whether it has gone bad. If there's a doubt, throw it out.

10. Don't allow juices from raw meats or other items to mix.

If you have other tips to add, please jot them down in the comment section.

Veggies To Go on Squidoo

Squidoo.com is a wonderful, fun website where anyone can create little mini-sites for free. All you have to do is decide on what topic you want to write about, click on Create a Lens, and follow the easy steps.

I currently have a growing number of lenses about all kinds of topics. My favorite, and most popular, is my Bucket List. I also have a couple of lenses that have to do with cooking - White Chicken Chili and Veggies To Go (which now has morphed into another title).

If you are interested in creating a Squidoo lens, you can follow this link and read all about how to create a lens. Then just jump in there. The more you create, the more income you can earn if you would like, and the better you get at developing a lens you will be proud of.

Please click on http://www.squidoo.com/veggiestogo
to see one of my food-related lenses.

Hope you join us on Squidoo.

Homemade Pancakes

Usually I make pancakes using Bisquick or some other brand of mix, but yesterday when I went to the cupboard - it was bare. Therefore, back to the basics.

I reached for my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook and made pancakes from scratch. The only variation in the recipe below was due to lack of buttermilk. I used 2% instead.

The pancakes turned out much softer and fluffier than the mixes. They didn't take much longer to make and were well worth the time. I just may go back to homemade every time.

For the sake of space, I will put the alternate changes when using "sweet milk" in parenthesis.

1 egg
1 cup buttermilk (sweet milk)
2 tbsp. vegetable oil or melted shortening
1 cup flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder (add 2 tsp.)
1/2 tsp. soda (omit)
1/2 tsp salt

Blend egg, milk and oil. Blend dry ingredients together. Add to liquids; beat with rotary beater until all flour is moistened. Batter will be slightly lumpy.

Grease heated griddle until a sprinkle of water sizzles. Pour batter from pitcher or tip of large spoon in pools slightly apart. Turn pancakes as soon as they are puffed and full of bubbles, but before bubbles break. Turn and brown on other side. Serve immediately with butter and syrup, or your favorite topping.

For extra fluffy pancakes, beat egg yolk, add milk, etc. Fold in stiffly beaten egg white.