Checking In

Hi,

I need to check in and let all of you know that I am recovering from surgery, but I will be posting again soon!  I hope you are excited about the holidays.  I will be sharing recipes as soon as I can.

Some say Tomato...

I'm blessed this year with a bountiful tomato harvest.














First the Early Girl and Sweet 100's were ripening.














Now the Celebrity plants are loaded, too.  The smaller three here are Early Girls.

Some of the Celebrities are huge; check out the size of the biggest one on this plate!

 

Nothing beats fresh sliced tomatoes.  These were garnished with fresh garden basil, shredded Parmesan cheese, and olive oil.

The easiest preserving I've done (hat tip to Lavelle) is to fill the large or medium round mold with sliced tomatoes seasoned with

• DAH Sel Gris Sea Salt
• Garlic
• DAH Rosemary, Basil, and Thyme Herb Blend
• Drizzle of olive oil 

and bake at 375° for about an hour and a half, until the desired consistency is reached.  I have learned to crush the salt and herbs in the mortar and pestle and add them when the mold is about half full, but drizzle the olive oil over the top.

The cooked down tomatoes are cooled and frozen in the round tray and then stored in plastic bags for one-cup additions to chili, soups, or pasta sauces and dishes. I generally get 4+ cups from the medium round mold and 6 cups from the large round mold.

Alternatively, I have baked home-grown peppers, tomatoes, and basil with just salt and oil.

My treat is to take one portion or the less-than-a-cup left over while it is still hot, put it in a Bullet serving glass, and puree it to a smooth soup.  YUM!!

No matter how you say "tomato," nothing tops the taste of a vine-ripened tomato from the garden!

Quick and Easy Fajitas

I didn't want to cook the other night, so I decided to see if I could make fajitas in the microwave. This was so simple!

1. I had some rare roast beef, so I cut it in strips and layered it in the bottom of the oval mold.
2. Than I ut up:
   1/2 red pepper
   1/2 yellow pepper
   1/2 Walla Walla sweet onion
3. Layered the veggies on top of the meat
4. Seasoned with DAH Green Onion and Roasted Pepper Savory Herb Blend
5. Covered the mold with the Octagonal Silpat®
6. Microwaved on high for 3 minutes
   

Preserving Garden Goodness: Freezing Zucchini and Squash

If your garden is like mine, you are not keeping up with the yield of zucchini and squash and your friends and neighbors are starting to lock their doors. Here is a simple way to extend the goodness of fresh veggies past the season for use in winter recipes.





Clean and dry the squash and cut it up into pieces that will easily chop in your food processor. Pulse just until large pieces are all chopped.

Press chopped zucchini into round tray (1 cup) wells and freeze.  The muffin trays work for 1/2 cup portions.



Then just pop the "hockey pucks" out and put them into a freezer bag.

Wallah... you've got premeasured chopped zucchini for winter soups and breads. So simple and nutritious!

Summer Salad Sensations

Summertime brings an abundance of produce whether you visit your neighborhood market, frequent your local farmer's market, or step outside to your own garden. An amazingly simple way to make an elegant salad is to make individual Parmesan crisp salad bowls.

The size of the bowl is determined by the size tray you use to form them.  The illustration is of one made over the Flexipan® round tray (8 oz). You can also use any Flexipan® muffin tray (4 oz or larger). 

Place tray of choice upside down on counter.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place Silpat® on PBS.

Use 1/3 C to shape 4 oz bowls, 1/2 C for 8 oz, 

Make mounds of Parmesan shredded cheese and spread them out in a circle on the Silpat®.  You can use the pastry cutters as a guide to insure a perfect circle.

Bake at 350° for about 10-15 min. (13 minutes in my oven) until they just begin to brown.

Remove from oven.

Immediately take rounds off the Silpat® with the polyamide spatula and shape them over the back of the muffin tray wells to form bowls.

When you are ready to serve salad, place bowls on salad plates and fill with salad greens and grape tomatoes or other fresh garden veggies. I added fresh cucumbers from my garden.

Drizzle with your favorite salad dressing and serve. Here's a fresh vinaigrette made from our DAH products:

Vinaigrette

3 T DAH Balsamic Vinegar

1 T DAH Hot and Sweet Mustard

1 garlic clove crushed in mortar and pestle

1/2 C olive oil

DAH Sea Salt to taste

You can also use this method to make Parmesan crisps, a tasty alternative to crackers. Just use 1/2 T portions and cook for the same length of time. Add chopped walnuts to these for added flavor.

Preserving Garden Goodness: Basilcicles

My garden adventure this year is turning out so well that I can't keep up with the bounty. One of the things I heard at our Demarle at Home Convention last week was the idea of freezing fresh basil. Freezing even small portions is a breeze with Demarle's nonstick trays, so I was eager to try this.

How do you know when it's time to harvest your basil and freeze it? When the plant starts going to seed, cut the entire plant off at the roots (or uproot) it, spritz it well with 1:1 vinegar/water, trim all the leaves off into a colander, eliminating the stems, and soak wash them to remove all debris, just as you would wash berries. I use a cold water-bath in a stainless bowl that fits the colander. Submerge the colander, and the debis will float to the top where it can be washed over the sides. Basil leaves are very light, so this is a bit tricky, but not unmanageable.

The steps of the process:

Wash basil leaves and trim away stems and any bad parts of the leaves.

Dry basil leaves in a salad spinner and/or pat dry. The Silpat® works well as a base for this.

Fill a food processor with fresh leaves, and add just enough good-quality olive oil to coat leaves. This keeps the basil from turning black.

Pulse until all leaves are uniformly chopped. Add oil as needed to make a very coarse paste.

Put the flexi-tray of choice on the medium PBS. I used the mini tartlet tray (1/2 oz). The petit four tray (3/8 oz) makes more, but smaller, portions at one time. You could also use the mini muffin tray and not fill wells completely.

Scrape the basil mixture out out of the food processor with a spatula; fill the wells with the paste, and press down to compact the paste.

Put in the freezer until solid.

Remove tray from freezer, unmold individual "basilcicles," and store in a freezer bag. Mine fit nicely into a quart bag. This will stack easily on my produce freezer shelf.

Look forward to taking out a "basilcicle" to season pasta dishes, soups, and more with fresh-frozen basil this winter!

Delicious Appetizers from the Garden

You may have noticed that restaurants are offering fried zucchini in season as an appetizer. Demarle products offer a healthier way to achieve the same taste with an added bonus of easy cleanup.

With fresh zucchini and yellow squash from the garden on the kitchen counter and company on the way, I decided to bake appetizers. I adapted the recipe for Zucchini Frippe from the DAH A Fresh Approach to Beginnings & Endings Cookbook to make it gluten free and less allergenic for me (egg whites only). And, since I was planning to serve them with dips, I did not add any seasoning.

3 yellow squash and 1 zucchini were cut on the diagonal in 1/4" slices. The slices were dipped in a whisked mixture of 2 egg whites and 1 T oil and then coated with a 1:1 mixture of shredded Parmesan cheese and GF bread crumbs. These were laid out on the large Silpat®/PBS and baked for 15 minutes at 375°.

I served them piping hot out of the oven with ranch dressing and sweet chili sauce for dipping. They were such a hit I did not get a picture of them before they disappeared! This tray of appetizers was devoured in no time by 5 adults, You may be thinking that anything coated with Parmesan cheese and dipped in sauce would taste good, but the yellow squash got even more compliments than the zucchini.  

This is a recipe worth passing on to you. So tasty and healthy! Thanks, Lavelle, for adapting a seasonal treat to the Demarle style of cooking!

Zucchini Fritte

Serves 6-8

By Lavelle Wallace

From the DAH A Fresh Approach to Beginnings & Endings Cookbook

Ingredients

1 8-10”Zucchini sliced on the oval ¼” thick

1-2 t chopped fresh herbs of choice (basil, oregano) optional

1 C Panko breadcrumbs

1C shredded Parmesan cheese

1 t sea salt

1 egg

1 t olive oil

Fritte is Italian for fried, but these have the same great taste without frying. My mother used to make the pan-fried version of these (without the Parmesan cheese) every summer when the squash was ripe. It was a family favorite. These are a great healthy beginning to any meal or an additional vegetable. They’re so easy to make because they are all cooked at the same time.

Directions

Place oven rack in enter position and preheat oven to 375°.

Place the Silpat® on the PBS and set aside. 

Prepare zucchini and herbs as listed above. 

In a mixing bowl, combine bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, sea salt and herbs. 

In a small bowl, whisk egg and olive oil. 

Dip zucchini slices into egg mixture and then into bread crumb mixture.

Place zucchini slices on the Silpat®. 

Bake for 12-16 minutes until golden brown. 

Remove from Silpat® and place on a serving plate. 

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Berry Good

Luscious berries are one of the perks of this time of year. While enjoying fresh fruit in season is amazing, nothing brings back the taste of summer as much as freezer-fresh berry desserts in the middle of winter. Berries frozen within hours of picking capture peek flavor for later enjoyment.

Freezing berries is as easy as pie with the non-stick Demarle Silpat®.  

5/6 of the half flat of raspberries easily fit stem-side down on the large Silpat®/PBS (which was perfect because I wanted to eat the rest!) 

Two trays of strawberries, in turn, and my project was almost complete. 

Once frozen, the berries easily roll up in the Silpat® and can then be funneled into freezer bags.

Filling the freezer bags is easier than it looks in the picture.  Doing it with one hand while holding a camera in the other guarantees spills, at least for me!


I also hand-picked berries of similar size off the Silpat® to package for strawberry pies.



This is the easiest process for freezing berries I've ever done. Try it; you'll like it!

Meals for One

Among my favorite skillet meals is a combo of fresh vegetables sauteed with precooked meat. Today I sauteed fresh yellow squash and zucchini from my garden along with Walla Walla sweet onion and a bit of garlic in grape seed oil.  Then I added some precooked ham for protein. Season with salt and pepper to taste for an easy, healthy meal.

 

Heat 1 T oil (I used grape seed) on med heat in DD 8" Sauté pan.

Add 1 clove crushed or minced garlic.

Slice 1 small yellow squash and 1 small zucchini.

Cut up about 1/4 Walla Walla sweet onion (to taste).

Add to saute pan and reduce heat a bit.

Cut up 4-6 oz precooked meat (I used ham); add when onions begin to clear.

Cook until veggies are just tender.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot.

Bon Appétit!!

 

Special Offer

Special Offer for Free Flexipat®
July 1 - July 15

Host a Cooking Workshop with sales of $500 or more
on my premium dates
OR

Refer someone who becomes
a qualified member of my team

RECEIVE A FREE FLEXIPAT®
$58.27 value
in addition to the July Hostess specials!!

If you'd like to invite some friends over for a fun too-hot-to-cook workshop or know someone who'd like to explore the option earning income on their own schedule,

email me at kristiwathome@gmail.com 

or call me at 360-254-2952

New Recipes

I love to eat out on the patio when the weather allows. Summer arrived yesterday, so I grilled wild salmon with the Demarle lemon/dill seasoning as a rub. Add to that corn on the cob steamed in the microwave with a bit of coconut oil (using the oval Flexipan® and the Octagonal Silpat® as a cover), and all I needed was a salad.

Fresh spinach from the garden with a few slices of tomatoes and vidalia onion dressing worked nicely.

Today I made a GF chocolate cake in the flower mold and topped it with a caramel glaze and roasted almonds.  My last-minute idea for decoration is a bit off-center (either me or the sloping dish), but it looks tasty.

I substituted a frozen banana for the water called for in the recipe and roasted raw almonds (170° for 20 minutes on the flexipat/med PBS) for the topping. The bullet ground them finer than I had in mind, so next time I'll use the food processor. 

The caramel sauce was made with 3/4 C brown sugar and 3T each milk (I used heavy whipping cream) and butter heated in the small DD saucepan on low until the sugar melted. 

Best to cool the sauce a bit before pouring on the cake. Poke holes in the cake with a toothpick before pouring for an even richer taste. 

Fun With Pastry Cutters

I prepared tiny treats for my Bunco group last tonight. I created a Mexican-themed canape and made the strawberry chocolate tartlets from our Desserts cookbook. Both are best served within half an hour of preparation, but are good cold.

First, I thought it would be fun to make canapes with corn tortillas (gluten-free) using the scalloped pastry cutter.  I started with standard unbaked corn tortillas.

I was able to get 4 cutouts from each tortilla. Yes, there was waste, but at a little over $2 for the entire package of tortillas, using 7-8 for this purpose wasn't expensive. And, my dogs were thrilled with the leftover treats. 

I laid them over the back of the mini-tartlet tray and baked them for 10 minutes at 350°. I thought they might  mold around the shape of the tray as they got warm. They did not, so next time I will just do them on the Silpat®.

I chopped about a third of an onion in the food processor, added a can of partially drained black beans, and pulsed until it was creamy (You could use any bean dip). After arranging the mini-tortillas on a Silpat®, I put about a teaspoon full of bean dip on each mini-tortilla and topped it with shredded cheddar and cojack cheese (Any prepackaged Mexican mix would work). I popped them back into the oven until the cheese melted. In the interim, I finely chopped a tomato by hand for the garnish. 

Best served popping hot out of the oven.

The trick to preparing the Strawberry Chocolate Tartlets is to make them uniform. The recipe calls for mid-size berries. If you've noticed, mid-sized strawberries are hard to find unless you pick your own or have a huge number from which to select. Long into the process, I discovered that if you cut off enough of the large berry, it will work just fine. It also leaves you with leftover sliced berries for your cereal in the morning :)  Since many in my Bunco group avoid caffeine late in the day, I made some without the chocolate chips. 

The process is straightforward. After cutting the pastry shapes and putting them into the mini-tartlet tray, cut the stem end of the strawberries, dip the end in sugar, and put them into the shells sugar-side down. Add 3 (or more!) chocolate chips to each. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.  

Allow to cool a bit before serving.

© 2011 Kristi B. Weber, Independent Representative, Demarle at Home. All Rights Reserved

What if?

What if...

you woke up in the morning and didn't fight traffic to get to work?

What if...

you didn't have to bundle the kids off to daycare?

What if...

you could fit your work schedule around your kids' activities?

What if...

you could always prepare a healthy evening meal for your family?

Would life be easier for you?

What if...

you never had to undercut anyone else to get ahead?

What if...

your boss never, ever did anything but encourage you to be your best?

What if...

  your coworkers went out of their way to help you?

What if...

your job helped other people achieve good things for their families?

What if...

work meant meeting new people and having fun with their friends?

Would you look forward to working?

What if...

your company never cut your pay or laid you off?

What if...

you could choose which promotion you wanted?

What if...

your company trained you for the position you sought?

What if...

your coworkers applauded when you got a promotion and a pay raise?

Would you be more motivated to do a great job?

What if...

this were not a dream and all of this were possible?

Would you love your life?

.

We need to talk.

You can reach me at 360-254-2952 or kristiathome@gmail.com

© 2011 Kristi B. Weber, Independent Representative, Demarle at Home. All Rights Reserved