I recently bought a small sample of Organic Trail Mix at the local shop. I almost fainted at the cost of $9.35/pound (here’s my point of reference..this week lobster is going for $3.99/pound..) but bought a small sample just to check it out. .. Well, as expected, it was interesting and had a nice mix of flavors going on. However, I don’t think I’ll be buying it again anytime soon. And the reason is not so much the cost as the fact that it’s only various ingredients mixed together .. simple. And so this is something that could be customize to one’s own palate to be an even better match for you personal preferences.

For instance, almonds and walnuts would be increased, and the raisins .. these would be changed to organic jumbo raisins (which I’m pretty fond of).. And having a sweet-tooth there would probably be some broken up Newman’s O’s cookies in there. All made fresh and exactly how you like it.

Need a quick, delicious and cooling ice cream sandwich? Need it Organic? Need it with virtually NO WORK. Then read on:

One of the things I personally don’t like about traditional ice cream sandwiches are they’re not organic, the “cookie” is mushy and they have too much ice cream and not enough cookie going on (for me anyway).  Oh, and they are work if you want to make your own. So here’s a solution that uses all store bought materials and can be put together in no time. Here’s what you do:

1. Go Shopping: Buy a package of Newman’s O’s Organic Cookies and buy some organic ice cream or frozen yogurt.
2. Remove the Icing: Twist the Newman’s O’s Cookies into two halves and scrape out the icing with a butter knife.
3. Add Ice Cream: Take some ice cream out using the butter knife and spread on the Newman’s O Cookie half. Replace the other half to make the sandwich.
4. Refrigerate: Chances are the cookie halves softened the ice cream. Freeze until hard again or it will just squeeze out when you bite in (but eating the ice cream coming out the sides is a good thing.. I’ve tried it). If the ice cream never gets hard enough then break the Newman’s Cookies into bite size chunks prior to assembling.

Now this may be a little too much chocolate cookie flavor for some but I really love it. Enjoy!

Now Della did not specify Organic “This” or Organic “That” in her recipe simply because everything was organically grown back then. But unfortunately, now we must, since we really have two classes of foods to choose from. One could say ”old-school vs. chem lab” but I won’t … so everything organic and please hold the pesticides.

Anyway, here’s what we did. Since Della’s recipe like many in the day does not call out for specific measurements of ingredients we ran an experimental baking with a mini Apple Dowdy. This was put together and baked in a 5″x5″ x 1.5″ deep Le Creuset (a very fine baking dish by the way).

• Preheat your oven to 325F 
• Peel and cut into pieces 2 medium apples. One Macintosh and one Granny Smith (following the same path for taste, texture and tartness that we do for our Apple Pie).
• Place the cut apples in the baking dish, this just filled ours.
• Sprinkle the top with some freshly ground Nutmeg (allll-right pre ground if that’s all you have.
• Top this with a sprinkle of Cinnamon (Della tells us to use a little less than the Nutmeg so we did).
• Add a dash of Sea Salt.
• Take some unsalted butter and cut thin slices and place on top. She says to use about one teaspoon of butter per serving. We did our best but I think we put in some extra … mmm butter.
• Add a 1/4 Cup of Warm, but not Hot, Spring Water. Della called out 1/2 Cup for what we assume is a pie-sized dowdy. So we just cut it in half and added it to our little half-pint size version.

Make the Baking Powder Crust

• Take a Medium Bowl and add 1 Cup of All-Purpose Flour
• Add Two Teaspoons of Aluminum Free Baking Powder (you can of course use regular “Aluminumized” stuff, it’s your health, knock yourself out).
• Add Two Tablespoons of Unsalted Butter.
• Add 1/4 Teaspoon of Sea Salt
• Add 1/2 Cup of Whole Milk.

The Build

• Stir and spread the Baking Powder Crust over the Apple Filled Baking Dish. Try to get about 3/4″ thickness.
• Try to cut a Big “S” in the center and little slots/breathing holes several places around it.
• Place in the center rack of the Preheated Oven.
• Let bake for 3 hours. Yes, THREE Hours.

After baking remove and let set before digging in (but make sure it’s still warm). Della recommends serving on a dish and pouring on some heavy cream that has been dressed up with a little sugar and nutmeg.

Well, what did we think? As far as being easy this recipe kicks butt. It was insanely simple and quick to put together. Then while it was baking the entire house filled with this warm apple/nutmeg/cinnamony smell. Very strong and like heaven. You could almost say that you’re going to make this just to make your house smell great for company or potential home buyers. Seriously, your house will smell that good … Taste. .. There was this starchy, buttery, appley thing going on and with the fat from the heavy cream it was some really good comfort food. The only thing we wished we had done differently was to warm up the cream to further enhance the warmness of the whole treat. Just wonderful.

Now like Della says, this dessert is definitely different from a tart or pie. It’s a dowdy and nothing but a dowdy. And she was also right about this being one homely thing (this is definitely an “Ugly Betty” when compared to an apple pie with an egg wash & sugar topping). But it’s something different and a great opportunity to shake up your repertoire. As far as variations we could envision serving with a good vanilla ice cream and possibly sprinkling the top with a cinnamon sugar to bring up the sweetness. Add walnuts? That might work. And also a rum/espresso topping could be very nice as well. In short there are endless possibilities to make this a unique dish that you could call your own.

Anyway, there you have it. Hope you enjoy your apple dowdy. And we’ll look into more forgotten recipes as time goes on. Enjoy!

First, get yourself some FRESH, Organic, Free-Range Chicken. … Expensive yes, but great food simply starts with great ingredients. Now if money’s really tight go ahead and buy your manufactured chicken (eye roll). Next, just trim off the fat and prep your fry pan. .. I like to go with a heavy bottom copper clad stainless, works well for me.

Place a small amount of cooking oil in the center of the pan and spread/wipe/coat the pan with this using a paper towel. What you want here is a thin coating of oil. The paper towel will help you coat and soak up the excess. You don’t want your chicken sopping in oil. Crank up the stove to a high heat, turn on the stove fan/vent and add your chicken breast. … Keep and eye on things and keep it safe. … Now’s the time when I do what I do best, nothing. Hold yourself back and resist your temptation to check or move the chicken until the side is done. 

With my particular stove and pan I have learned that seven minutes of undisturbed frying will give me the perfect sear. And this is repeatable. One of the things I do is to buy chicken breast of approximately the same weight every time. This helps in providing a repeatable cooking cycle. .. So while the chicken is cooking with NO help from me I can work on my side dishes or whatever. But it’s aways a good idea to set a timer so you don’t loose track of time and forget about it. .. So bottom line, you’ll have to cook this a few times to determine how long it takes to cook each side. Just use a 1/2 pound breast and cook the first side for seven minutes as a start and refine your times from there.  But remember one of the keys to doing this right is to not disturb the chicken. Just let it cook and don’t be checking it. If left undisturbed a nice sear will occur. If you flip too early it will be “not-good”. So again, it may take you a few times cooking this to really get it down.

OK, once my seven minutes is over I flip the chicken breast with a spatula and set the timer for 5 1/2 minutes. …. After this times out I remove the pan from the heat and place the chicken breast on a cutting board. Now what I generally do is to slice it and then place each slice back in the pan (which being heavy bottomed is still hot) slice side down. Put the pan back on to a medium heat. I give this a minute or two to cook and flip the pieces and give it a minute or two more. The reason for doing this is that often the center of the chicken is not fully cooked. This completes the cooking.

Take your thickest piece out and cut to check that it’s cooked. Then out of the pan and serve. Try to get to the point where you can time things to be ready together. From pan to plate is the best. … Anyway what you now have an a terrific low calorie, protein dense, clean (not all oily) and great tasting chicken. Of course you can in the process of cooking spice things up as you like (careful of the spice smoking…had someone put cayenne on the chicken while cooking once and it started smoking really bad, eyes watering like being pepper sprayed or something..) or you can store the chicken in the frig so that you’re good to go for a grilled chicken salad when the time is right.

Anyway hope you enjoy, eat well, be healthy, have fun!

Shopping list:

• 1 Medium Organic Rutabaga
• 2 Medium Organic Yellow Onions 
• 1 Bulb (not clove!) of Organic Garlic
• 3 Medium Organic Carrots
• 1/2 Bunch of Organic Swiss Chard
• 1 Pound of Organic Spinach
• 1/2 Bunch of Organic Collard Greens

 Recipe

• Fill a Large Saucepan 1/3 Full of Spring Water
• Set on a high heat and cover
• Start Washing, Peeling and Chopping the Veggies. Remove all tough stems
• Take the greens and put in a pile on the cutting board
• Using your chef’s knife, cut re-bunch and cut until you have a small-ish pieces
• Chop your other veggies into fairly small pieces as well
• Add your tough to cook veggies first to the now boiling water. This would be the Rutabaga and carrots. Note: BE CAREFUL when adding veggies to boiling water. The water could splash and you could get badly burned!
• Add the other non-greens
• Finally add your greens
• Once the boil has been reachieved cover and cook for about 13 minutes. Cook to your liking. I like the veggies done but not mushy.
• While this is cooking peel and chop your bulb of Garlic. Set aside.
• When the veggies are done pour through a strainer. BE CRAREFUL. No small children underfoot and use some sort of safe hand protection.
• After you poured the veggies through a large strainer
• Add the garlic on top of the veggies
• Using a large metal spoon mix the veggies together. Be Careful not to get a steam burn. When you encounter the greens use some sideways action to try to tear them apart (they tend to get tangled)
• When cool enough to eat put in a serving bowl, sprinkle the top with Feta Cheese, add some Olive Oil and Sea Salt and toss together… Wonderful! Enjoy!
• After goofing-off from eating what you made transfer the rest to a large storage bowl
• Let cool and then place in the frig (covered of course).
• Then when you want a fast veggie fix take out what you need and prep. It’s cool and good in the Summer and come the cold weather just heat up a serving on the stove with a little water before adding the Cheese, Olive Oil and Sea Salt.

 Let’s face it, you’re probably more likely to have your veggies if you cook a bunch ahead of time and dress them up with some Feta, Olive Oil and Sea Salt. And this is less expensive and infinitely better than all those pre-packaged disasters known as convenience dishes “found in your grocer’s frozen food isle”. Give this recipe to your favorite microwave dinner junkie and if they’re trying to loose weight advise them not to use a pound of cheese and a gallon of oil. Worse case is that when you visit you’d have something decent to eat.

 But before we actually get into prep time we need to take a step back and review some of the experimentation we’ve done so far ..

 The first thing we tried was just taking fresh blueberries and plopping them into a cup of yogurt (we like using mugs instead of bowls because you get enough for a serving and you also have the cup handle to hold the concoction without heating it up with your hands, cold of course is best tasting for yogurt. By the way if you haven’t gotten into the habit of keeping a few mugs and thick-walled glasses in the frig for treats and smoothies you should start.. this is one of those no-effort things that really makes a difference). Anyway, the results were pretty good. You could taste the tanginess of the yogurt as well as the texture and burst of flavor you’d get when you’d bite into one of the blueberries. OK, but we thought we could do better.

 Next, we thought that we should toss the blueberries and yogurt into a blender and pulse it a few times. Well, even with a judicious few pulses the yogurt took on a blue color and was pretty much smoothed out with only a few blueberry skins. As far as taste it had a fairly uniform blueberry thing going on. The separate tanginess of the yogurt really dropped out and that’s something we missed.

 Finally, we tried placing the whole blueberries into a mug and smooshing them with a fork. Just enough to break the berries. Then we stirred in the yogurt. .. What we got was a concoction that still maintained the tanginess of the yogurt but there was also a second note of blueberry. And, this subtle blueberry flavor would kick up big time every time we took a bite of the smooshed berries. In short, this was the best of the three in our opinion. However, we recommend that you play with all three methods and find the one that’s your personal fav.

 Anyway, no need for a step by step recipe on this one since everything is explained above. However, we did find that adding just a little honey gave you some sweetness and that honey flavor which played nicely with the other two ingredients (..but be careful not to go overboard with this addition).

 By the way if you ever looked at that gelled up mess they call blueberries in the pre-mixed you have to wonder what they were thinking. Just consider how could you take a fresh berry and toss it in liquid yogurt for quite a while and still expect it to taste fresh. .. I guess that’s why they tend to doll it up with who knows what. Anyway in a taste comparison there’s no contest. Fresh berries and fresh yogurt trounces the pre-made stuff. .. Now in terms of convenience, we timed how mush longer it took to take out the fresh berries, pull a stray stem or two off, wash in water, smoosh and add to the yogurt. Well, this took a gran total of one minute. .. and it was soo inconvenient.

 Time to go natural and get off of the factory food.

 Why not send this post to any cooking challenged foodie you may know. This “recipe” may be enough to build their cooking confidence and expose them to what quality really taste like. Sort of your good deed for the day.

Related Post:

• Review of Horizon Fat-Free Plain Yogurt

 So basically for all those who’ll never admit they’ve never prep’d one, here you go short and simple:

• Using a long blade knife cut the end off
• Cut a slice (outer rind and all)
• Using a paring knife go round the slice and remove the rind
• Lay the slice on a cutting surface and with simple straight cuts remove the outer part from the core (so four cuts will leave you with a square core that you throw away).
• Cut the remaining into whatever size you want. Also, if you see some brownish areas, these are the eyes and you can remove them too at this time.
• I generally place some plastic wrap over the cut and and put the whole deal into the frig until I want another serving.

 That’s it..Simple..Now most cooks use the chop the whole thing now method..There are cookie cutters for coring out the center…Seems like a big deal about nothing if you ask me. But anyway, if I’m making a smoothie with pineapple for instance I only want to cut what I need and leave the rest in Mother Nature’s Package. Now pineapples are supposed to be chill sensitive like bananas (which get trashed if you put them into the frig)..I don’t know, never had a problem. But then again, once I cut into a pineapple the entire thing usually manages to disappear within a few days.

So in all fairness here’s a link to Rachael Ray’s site with a video on cutting pineapples the traditional way and a link to the smoothie recipe that started all of this commotion (by the way, Rachael, if you’re reading this, I’m free this Thursday). 

Enjoy!

• Rachael Ray’s Site with Pineapple Cutting Video
• Smoothie Recipe

Shopping List:

• 1 Cup of No-Fat or Low Fat Vanilla Flavored Yogurt
• 1 1/2 Cups of Mixed Fresh Strawberries, Blueberries and Pineapple (make sure you get a real pineapple and not open a can of something that was grown over 2 years ago)
• 1 Cup of Soy Milk
• Note that all ingredients as well as the glass jar of your blender should be refrigerated prior to making your smoothie. You want it cold but you don’t want to be adding ice and watering it down (a “not-good” kind of move).

Recipe:

• Add 1 Cup of Non-Fat or Low-Fat Vanilla Flavored Yogurt to a prechilled blender jar.
• Add 1 Cup of Soy Milk.
• Add 1 1/2 Cups (doesn’t have to be exact, this isn’t rocket science) of a mixture of whole blueberries, quartered strawberries and big chunks of pineapple (don’t skip the pineapple, it’s critical)
• Put the lid on the blender and hit the pulse button a few times waiting a second between pulses so the chunks can settle down to the blades (now I don’t like things over blended, there’s a tendency to force too much air into the smoothie and that will reduce it’s flavor impact. And, like the food processor it will seem that you should have more mix time (because if we’re honest it’s fun to click on this powerful machine and watch it do it’s thing)… but trust me, less is best. A few pulses is all you really want or need..)
• Pour a glass and then put the blender jar back into the fridge until you are ready for seconds .. fyi: finish this off in a single setting since you don’t want things hanging around.. remember fresh is best. This recipe will make about 32 fluid ounces (about 2 1/2 glasses). This is just right for me and is terrific after coming home from the gym. If you want less, of course just cut back on the recipe but be even more careful not to over-blend.

Enjoy!

 Well I just had a large cereal bowl of veggies and I’m telling the truth that it was absolutely delicious. Seriously. .. Anyway here’s what I did and you should seriously consider trying this at least once. They just taste so much better than the ugly stepchild of a side dish with a little butter rubbed on top that you usually experience.

 Here’s the deal. Start out with this combo and modify as your taste buds dictate.

Recipe:

• Take out a large saucepan with cover
• Peel & Cut into Pieces the following veggies
• 1/2 Organic Turnip
• 3 Organic Carrots
• 4 Medium Organic Potatoes
• 3 Medium Onions
• Some Cabbage (after you slice from the head and chop a bit separate into the individual leaves before adding to the sauce pan
• Add water, cover and bring to a boil
• After a boil has been achieved cook for about 14 minutes. You want the veggies cooked but not mushy. Use the carrots and turnips as your gauge. They are the hardest to cook and should be at the bottom of the pan directly in the boiling water. If you use a really big sauce pan they will take longer to cook
• Transfer the Veggies into a large metal mixing bowl. Remove the Veggies but leave as much of the water behind as possible. I like using a Slotted Metal Spoon for this.
• Take out a large cereal bowl and almost full with the veggies
• Add Extra Virgin Organic Olive Oil to the top
• Carefully toss so all the Veggies have Oil
• Sprinkle on some Sea Salt
• Toss
• Sprinkle with some more Sea Salt if you want.
• Toss again & Enjoy.

 Now I just came in from the Supermarket (Haddock on Sale). Put the bags aside took out a sauce pan, a large cereal bowl and my slotted metal spoon. Pulled a large mixing bowl with previously cooked veggies out of the frig. Filled the bowl to measure what I needed. Tossed these Veggies into the sauce pan. Added a little water, covered and turned the heat on high. Then the food was put away, boots taken off and slippers put on. By then the veggies were heated up. So I put them in the bowl, tossed in some Olive Oil & Sea Salt and here I sit writing, happy as a clam.

 Maybe you remember Mikey from the old Life Cereals.. “Try it, you’ll like it”. Hey, try it, you’ll like it. Trust me on this one.

 If you like this post why not share with a friend? But even if you don’t like the post I hope you give this a try. It’s cold up here in New England (it will be a balmy 20F tonight). But some Veggies and a heavy quilt will keep me happy. Anyway, some related posts are as follows. Have a good week.

Related Posts:

• Are Your Veggies Firm?
• Organic Potato Primer
• Home Cooked Veggies As A Convenience Food