Due to time and space, I could not include the side dish featured in the July issue of Renaissance Magazine.  I offer readers and opportunity to find it here on the website in case they want to prepare it for themselves.

Ingredients:

5 TB butter

1 and a half lbs. of carrots, thickly sliced

1 tsp honey

2 fresh bay leaves

5 TB water

1 and a half lbs. leeks, cut into 2 inch lengths

1/2 cup white wine

2 TB chopped parsley

salt and ground black pepper

Melt 2 TB butter in a wide, heavy pan and cook the carrots without allowing them to brown, for about 5 minutes. Add the bay leaves, seasoning, honey, and the water and cook for 10 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Uncover the pan and boil until the juices have evaporated, leaving the carrots moist and glazed. Remove the carrots from the pan and set aside.

Melt 2 TB of remaining butter in the pan. Add the leeks and fry them over low heat for 4 -5 minutes without allowing them to brown. Add seasoning, a couple of drops of honey, the wine, and half of the chopped herbs. Heat until simmering, then cover and cook gently for 5 – 8 minutes, until the leeks are tender, but not collapsed.

Uncover the leeks and turn them in the buttery juices, increase the heat and then boil the liquid rapidly until reduced to a few tablespoons. Add the carrots to the leeks and reheat them gently, stirring occasionally, then add the remaining butter. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Transfer to a warmed serving dish and serve sprinkled with the remaining chopped herbs.

Braised Leeks and Carrots

Tags: Brandon, cooking, Food, recipe

Summer time offers individuals opportunities for individuals to socialize with friends and family.  With these events, potlucks are often scheduled and offer participants a variety of dining choices.  Potlucks can also make other sick, unless you follow some food safety guidelines that will halp keep you and your loved ones from becoming ill. 

Easy Tips

• Handle food safely
• Always wash hands before and after handling food.
• Keep the kitchen, dishes and utensils clean.
• Always serve food on clean plates.  This also includes storage bins and coolers for transporting the food.
• Trust your nose before preparing.  Do any of the ingredients smell a little “off?”  If so, avoid using.
• Covering the food prior to serving will also keep the flies and other pests out of it.  Target, ACE Hardware, Lowes, Walmart, etc. all carry mesh covers for food.
• Be aware of how your food is being handled.  Bring you own clean utensils to avoid cross contamination.
• When prepping the food, don’t mix your sources.  Raw vegetables should never mix with raw meat in the preparation stages.  This also can lead to cross contamination.

Cook thoroughly:
Heating to the proper temperature kills the bacteria, parasites and viruses that may be on meat and fish. Using a meat thermometer, be sure that: whole poultry reaches 180 degrees; chicken breasts 170 degrees; ground turkey and poultry 165 degrees; ground beef hamburgers 160 degrees; all cuts of pork 160 degrees; beef, veal, lamb steaks, roasts and chops 160 degrees; all other meat and fish 160 degrees.

Keep it hot or cold

• Divide cooked foods among shallow containers to store in the refrigerator or freezer until serving. This encourages rapid, even cooling. Reheat hot foods to 165 degrees.
• Hot foods should be held at 140 degrees or warmer. Use a chafing dish, slow cooker or warming trays.
• Cold foods should be kept at 40 degrees or colder by nesting dishes in bowls of ice. Otherwise, use small serving trays and replace them, as needed, with cold foods.

Mind the time

• Food should not sit at room temperature for more than two hours
• Replace empty plates rather than reuse them for a fresh serving.

I hope these suggestions help.  In the meantime, enjoy your summer!

Tags: community service, Food

Some friends/fans recently posted photos of them enjoying the Curry Egg Salad recipe and posted them on Facebook.  You can friend me there at Alice the Cook.  I was so excited when I received these images as they really brightened my day.

I love to hear from my fans.  Thank you.  Without you, Alice the Cook wouldn’t exist.

Thank you all again!

Tags: Food, giving back, kids, Website

During shows, my assistant and I encounter leftover items that we do not want to throw out.  During the Siouxland Renaissance Festival in 2006, we encountered post-breakfast issue of having leftover hard boiled eggs and rice porridge.  By combining them with chickpeas (garbanzo beans), spices, and other vegetables, we came up with this tasty dish that tastes great served with some pita bread.

This dish is especially good made in bulk and used for lunches at work.  It’s cost effective, healthy, and tasty.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced into disks
1 cup of chickpeas/garbanzo beans
4 cups of pre-cooked rice, cooled to room tempature
3 green onions or 1 large leek, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 – 1/2 TB yellow curry powder
1 TB cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp of sesame or olive oil
2 TB cilantro
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
* A dried pepper powder may be added if you need more spiciness.

Blend all together in a single bowl wooden or ceramic. Let sit for an hour and stir again. Serve in some pita bread. DO NOT PREPARE THIS RECIPE IN A METAL BOWL!! The metal bowl will affect the flavor of the salad.

It should be a very mild curried egg salad. If you require more spice, feel free to add peppers or chili oil at will. I encourage experimentation.

Tags: cookbook, cooking, Food, recipe