A Few Words About Paula Deen

As a baker who writes about it, I have a little bit to say about a current story in the news.

The revelation this week by Paula Deen that she has Type 2 Diabetes, and has known about it for three years, has the world buzzing.  Paula is being vilified by medical doctors and others who say that by continuing to promote her fat-and-sugar-laden recipes while negotiating a deal to be the spokeswoman for a Diabetes drug company is hypocritical if not downright unethical.  To paraphrase, Chef Anthony Bourdain calls Deen "...the most dangerous woman in America."  Doctors on morning talk shows are speaking out about Deen's irresponsibility in face of the dangers of obesity and its impact on Americans.  Perhaps negotiating with a drug company is what is really leaving a bad taste in peoples' mouths more than Deen's style of cooking.  Or, maybe some people are envious of a self-made woman who continues to fight to keep what she's earned.  Maybe Deen is looking out for herself, as she's always had to.  Look at her humble origins and the force she has become.   In business, she has always fought and won.  And now she's fighting a personal battle for her health while publicly advocating moderation when discussing the recipes that have made her famous.  I can't see her doing anything differently.

I don't know...

The Food Network, and cable television in general, I believe, have to diffuse some of the heat on this one.  They hired Deen to do what she does: to charm us as she delivers Southern goods, a smiling, cheerful, grandmotherly woman in a beautiful kitchen.  Her show is TV's version of comfort food as she lovingly combines the richest of ingredients and practically serves her fixings right to the camera's lens.  A good portion of her followers watch her as entertainment, but don't go out and make her recipes (true of many "foodie" fans).  For many who do use her recipes, it's likely not an everyday, or even an every week, thing.  Maybe you'll make her banana walnut cake for a special birthday, but you probably won't make it more than once a year.  And that hamburger with bacon and egg served up on a glazed donut?  I don't know anyone who'd ever actually do that, though the Food Network sure thought it would garner an audience, more as a Ripley-like "believe it or not" amusement than anything else, I'm guessing...  If we tune in to watch it, we're contributing to its promotion.

I don't have cable TV and haven't had it for almost three years, about the same time that Deen was diagnosed.  For me, now, food TV is what's offered up on PBS.  Cooks Country is one of my favorite shows, and to be sure, butter and cream abound there, as it does in reruns of Julia Child's cooking shows.  Lidia Bastianich is no stranger to butter, olive oil, fatty meats, and cheese.  And what about Rachael Ray?  She uses a lot of meat and dairy products, and cheese seems to dominate many of her recipes.  Popular baking shows like Cupcake Wars promote, what else, cupcakes.  And what are cupcakes but white flour, sugar, butter, cream cheese, and cream? Should all these shows be called on the kitchen mat for promoting unhealthy ingredients?  No.  They should not.  People watch these shows for entertainment.  Maybe more cupcake shops have opened up because of it, but how often does one go out specifically for a $4-plus cupcake? 

Cooking shows are more popular than ever, yet in researching the final paper for my masters thesis on the history and relationship of women in the kitchen, I discovered that more families are eating out, more often, than ever before. So, we're watching these indulgent food shows on TV, but most of us are not recreating that food in our kitchens. 

Maybe we should put the microscope to those massive meals and deals offered up by the national chain restaurants lining our highways.  Better yet, maybe we should take personal responsibility for what we order out, or put in our shopping carts, on our table, or in our children's mouths, and make healthy choices most of the time, and an indulgent one now and then.

That's my two-cents.

Shortcuts to an Easier and Very Delicious Thanksgiving

I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year.  It hasn't been "my" holiday to host in many years.  I think the last one was  Thanksgiving 2001, the year before we lost our mom.  After that, I let different people take over.  Most recently, either my daughter Katie or my ex-husband Gene and his wife Kathryn have hosted, and it's been very nice.  Still, I can't help wanting to read recipes for this special day.  I think about what I would serve, or what I can contribute.

This year, Gene and Kathryn are hosting and my contribution is stuffing.  I'd always been a "Pepperidge Farm" devotee when it comes to stuffing.  We grew up enjoying it.  I'm going to make it my own this year by adding a few traditional ingredients, including chicken stock, sauteed onions and celery, and also some plumped-up dried cranberries.  I thought about adding walnuts, but there are a lot of people coming to dinner, and nuts are an "iffy" thing when you're serving a crowd.  So, yep, I cheat a little bit - no stale, cubed bread, no giblets, no Bell's seasoning -- and the results will be as good or better than any totally from-scratch recipe.  Pepperidge Farm makes a great stuffing, seasoned perfectly,  a success every time.  I can't wait for left-overs to make my Thanksgiving sandwich:  layers of sliced turkey breast, stuffing, lettuce, and cranberry mayo between two slices of whole wheat bread.  YUM!

One of the very best short-cuts is a recipe given to me by Jody Shepson, two Thanksgivings ago.  It's a recipe for make-ahead gravy and I wrote about it in 2009.  If you really want one thing that's going to cut down on stress and make your Thanksgiving day, this one is it:  Click here for the link to fool-proof Make Ahead Gravy...

If you want to get your mashed potatoes out of the way ahead of time (or if you're bringing them to someone else's house), try making Mashed Potato Casserole (link here) - it's from Cook's Country and Katie and I made it last year.  It's great, and easily portable!

Another short-cut I allow myself at holiday time is using Pillsbury Pie Crusts - an incredible time and mess saver.  They're great, too.  So if the thought of mixing pie crust dough, chilling it, rolling it out, and getting it to fit the pie plate and stay in one piece is freaking you out, then buy a couple boxes of Pillsbury's pie crust.  It's great and you won't be sorry.  I usually make a couple of easy pies for Thanksgiving, too.  One is pumpkin, the other chocolate cream.  My pumpkin pie recipe is a short-cut as well.  I buy Libby's Pumpkin Pie Mix, a can of pumpkin already spiced with the perfect amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  All you add is evaporated milk and eggs, mix gently, and pour into a pie crust, and bake.  Simple as can be, and when served with real whipped cream -- heavenly!

For my chocolate cream pie, (my family's traditional favorite) I use cooked chocolate pudding - 2 boxes makes one nice pie.  I pre-bake a Pillsbury pie crust or you can buy an Oreo crust ready to go.  Pour the hot pudding in, cover it in Saran Wrap, chill, and top with whipped cream prior to serving.  Classic.

Try one or a few of these time-and-stress savers, and enjoy your Thanksgiving along with everyone else!

Photo credit:  http://www.womansday.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/wd2/recipes/make-ahead-turkey-gravy-recipe2/279879-1-eng-US/Make-Ahead-Turkey-Gravy-Recipe_slideshow_image.jpg

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread (cake?!)

I had this big zucchini sitting on my kitchen island, staring me in the face.  For a few days, I looked at it and said, "I know, I'll get around to you."  It intimidated me a little bit, actually.  Then the call came -- yesterday, my friend Joanne asked me if I could bake something for an impromptu going-away/baby shower for her friend Erica.  I said "sure" and she said "no, you don't have enough time" and I said "of course I do."  After all it was for Erica, a lovely soon-to-be Mom who's been great to work with.  I promised scones and zucchini bread.  I searched the internet for zucchini bread recipes, and there are a gazillion, so I decided to go home and open up my baking textbook, the bible of the best (or wanna-be-the-best) bakers, Cooks Illustrated's beautiful book, Baking Illustrated.  It was a gift to myself a few years ago, and as much as I love the internet for instant recipe gratification, it's good to hold a good, heavy book in my hands, to set it on my island opened to a recipe, and even to brush crumbs off a page.  It's like Baking 101, where I can study a paragraph three or four times and really get it without having to scroll up or scroll down. 

Anyway, my point is that old-school is sometimes better, and you can learn an awful lot from a real book, and with this baking book you get lessons based on research in Cooks Illustrated's kitchens, as well as the history and tradition surrounding the recipe (right up my academic alley).  They take one recipe and refine it to perfection before they publish it.  If you ever get a chance to catch their show Cooks Country on PBS (often on Sunday afternoons) it's worth watching.  Christopher Kimball and his staff explain why recipes do and don't work, and they tape their show in a real Vermont country farm house.  There's just so much that is real and authentic with CI and all they do -- it's a refreshing change-of-pace from the glitzy cooking shows populating cable TV.

I found BI's recipe for zucchini bread, and I altered it a bit.  I added chocolate in the form of Hershey's cocoa powder, and even more with mini chocolate chips.  I also added a tiny bit (a teaspoon) of dried Valencia orange peel, just because, but it doesn't have to go in there.  I personally love a little hint of orange in my chocolate.  Once the zucchini was grated and drained, it didn't seem to be that large a component in the bread/cake.  But, it's in there and you can feel good about it!

Here's my recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread, adapted from Baking Illustrated:

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD
makes two loaves

Grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans 

12 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs (OR for low-fat version, 3 egg whites and one egg, or equivalent in egg substitute - 1 c.)
3/4 c. sour milk (2 tbsp. vinegar and milk to make 3/4 c.) or buttermilk or plain yogurt
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups zucchini, grated, mixed w/ 2 tbsp. sugar, drained in colander for 30 minutes, excess moisture squeezed out (use large holes of a box grater, or shred in food processor)

3.5 cups flour
3/4 c. baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
(optional:  1 tablespoon fresh orange rind, grated, or 1 teaspoon dried)

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted for 5 minutes, dry, over lowest heat setting until fragrant. 
1 cup mini chocolate chips (Regular chocolate chips are heavier and my drop to the bottom.  If you're using them, coat in flour first and then they'll suspend in the batter better.)

Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Add oil.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Add sour milk, vanilla, and zucchini.  Mix well.

In separate bowl, combine flour with cocoa, baking powder, soda, and salt. 

Mix flour mixture into butter mixture until everything is moistened and there are no dry parts visible.  Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.

Oven 375 degrees

Spray, or grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans.  Line bottom of pans with parchment or waxed paper (makes it easier to remove later).

Divide batter among loaf pans and bake at 375 until cake tests done - check at 40 minutes.  Cake is done when it springs back when lightly pressed in the middle, or when toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes.  Turn out onto cooling rack to cool completely, and then wrap in saran wrap to keep cake moist.

Like all zucchini breads, this is made to be shared!

Enjoy!

Photo:  by me

Roasted Green Beans with Onions and Walnuts

There's a lot of good cooking on TV the week before Thanksgiving, and I found some on PBS. This weekend, Christopher Kimball and Cooks Country offered this take on green beans, roasted rather than boiled with a balsamic vinegar honey coating and tossed with crunchy, toasted walnuts. I happily discovered the recipe on a favorite foodie Web site, SimplyRecipes.com.

Roasted Green Beans with Onions and Walnuts

Ingredients

* 1 lb green beans, stem ends snapped off
* 1/2 medium yellow or red onion, cut into 1/2 inch thick wedges
* 1 Tbsp olive oil
* Salt and pepper
* 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
* 1 teaspoon honey
* 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
* 2 medium thin-sliced garlic cloves
* 1/3 cup toasted chopped walnuts

Place rack in middle position, preheat oven to 450°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or Silpat. Spread the beans and onions on the baking sheet. Drizzle the beans with olive oil and use your hands to coat the beans evenly. Sprinkle the beans with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, toss to coat, and distribute in an even layer. Roast for 10 minutes.

While roasting the beans, combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, thyme, and garlic slices in a small bowl.

After the beans and onions have roasted for 10 minutes, remove from oven. Drizzle the vinegar honey mixture over the beans and onions; use tongs to coat evenly. Put back in the oven and continue to roast until onions and beans are dark golden brown in spots and beans have started to shrivel, about 12-15 minutes longer.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with toasted chopped walnuts, and serve.

Serves 4.

Photo credit: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_green_beans_with_onions_and_walnuts/

Mashed Potato Casserole

This recipe comes from "Cook's Country by America's Test Kitchen," episode 102, "Sunday Dinner." PBS has a channel, "Create," which is a blessing for us in geographically cable-free zones. It hosts cooking, travel, and build-it shows so my detox from the Food Network, The Travel Channel, and HGTV is buffered (well, maybe a little). "Cooks Country" is a BEAUTIFUL show, set in a gorgeous farmhouse in Vermont, with Christopher Kimball hosting. Each week they take a classic recipe and test and test to come up with the very best version of the dish. Katie and I were watching one day last year as they concocted their best rendition of Mashed Potato Casserole. We couldn't wait to try it, and when we did, we agreed. It is worthy of a primary place on your Thanksgiving (and every holiday!) table.

Mashed Potato Casserole from Cooks Country

SERVES 12

Ingredients

* 4 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch chunks
* 12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks)
* 1/2 cup half-and-half
* 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 4 eggs
* 1/4 cup chopped chives

Directions

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a bare simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Potatoes are done when a fork or paring knife can be inserted into a large chunk without much resistance.

Place butter, half-and-half, chicken broth, salt, mustard and garlic into a small saucepan. Heat until butter melts, about 5 minutes.

Drain potatoes well. Put potatoes in work bowl of stand mixer. Using paddle attachment, slowly add butter mixture with mixer on low. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Stir in chives by hand. Pour into a buttered casserole dish. Scrape top with tines of a fork to allow browning and texture. Place in upper middle 1/3 of a preheated 375°F oven for 35 minutes until golden-brown.

Photo credit: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document%5Crecipe%5C4704_SFS_DJ08_MashedPotatoCasserole_1_article.jpg