Thursday, August 7, 2008

Leftovers - Ideas for Leftover Cooked Chicken and Cooked Ham

With the price of food these days, I am finding myself being further encouraged in creating newways and revisited ideas in stretching the food and food dollars I do buy for my family.

Recently while visiting a food site I belong to, we have been discussing in a new 'sub group' I created allowing us to share recipes and ideas for leftover food, and thought I would share here with what I have learned there.

So some of you cannot stand them, leftovers that is, and if you should have leftovers from a restaurant or take out, you simply might end up throwing them out, but you might be surprised the variety of new dishes you can create from leftover food, saving you money. And isn't that the pint I am making? Exactly....

So if you are those who are interested in learning some ideas on what to do with leftover cooked chicken or cooked ham, you have come to the right place. Feel free to click on any link which are simply recipes I have shared already here at my Dinner and Jam blog...

So here I go and list them for you:

Ideas for Leftover Cooked Chicken:
Ideas for Leftover Cooked Ham:
Please share how you use your leftovers and create new dishes... Me and my readers would love to hear from you! Leah

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Summer is Winding Down - Slow Food is Gearing Up

Today I went to my local farmer's market here in Peekskill and one particular farmer did a superb favor for me and provided me with large beefsteak green tomatoes. I had asked last week if he had any at his farm available and promised me he would pick some. Not only had he picked them this very morning - which had to be when the sun first rose, but they still smelled of the wonders of fresh tomato plants.

Now some of you who may have never gardened before, the smell of super fresh vegetables and fruits just picked off the vine is simply truly amazing. And let's not even go there as to how these fruits and vegetables taste when they are that fresh. If you knew, you would soon become a food snob insisting on nothing but farm fresh veggies and fruits! Fortunately for those in large enough cities, the idea of a local Farmers Markets have grown allowing city folk to enjoy the wonders of fresh unprocessed foods.

I mentioned to the farmer that he or his wife must have a fantastic fried green tomato recipe, and his answer was that his mother used to make a green tomato pie. When I heard this, I knew I had to look up at some of my own grandmother's recipes for green tomato pie and even tomato butter. Since it sounded like he hadn't had a green tomato pie since his mother was alive, not only will I share that recipe with him, but with the farmers market cooking that my city Of Peekskill is putting together. And of course, once it is written out, I will share it with you here.

All of this bring me to the point I wanted to make about canning. Though it may sound a little too early to think about canning, actually now is the perfect time to start canning those extra vegetables you may have that you cannot pawn off on your neighbors. Canning allows you to easily have food through out the winter seasons with the taste of long hot summers.

So many of my recipes at my dinner and jam blog list recipe after recipe which includes making things from scratch and as the summer starts to wind down, I have started to really think about canning.

But here are several quick links for recipes using fresh tomatoes, green beans and zucchini you may have in abundance or find more affordable at the grocery store now they are well into their season.



My grandmother used to can tomatoes, make apple butter and apple sauce from our few apple trees we had along with a few other things. An ex mother-in-law also would can tomatoes, rows and rows of jars would line the shelves in the cold garage, and let me tell you, to be able to simply get a jar and use that versus a canned jar of tomatoes when making your own sauce is seriously, as Alton Brown would say, "Good Eats!".

As I was helping a friend prepare for her wedding, I found a great affordable source for canning supplies and here is that link to Goodman's which are based in Florida: http://www.goodmans.net/

Here you will find so many shapes and sizes of mason-type jars, lids and seals along with some interesting other supplies you may find useful. Remember you can easily use sterilized old jam and pickle jars for canning. This does not have to be an expensive journey nor a mass production.

You can also find affordable sources for canning supplies at grocery stores and at larger 'discount' stores. If you are new to canning or at the very least want to learn more about it, I will certainly prepare an article on canning in the coming days. There are a variety of ways to can fruit and vegetables and I will provide several recipes to boot. So stay tuned!

Eat Fresh And Eat Slow Food, from Our Kitchen to Yours,

Leah

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

What we are about - Slow Food

So what is this so-called new thing named Slow Food. When I first heard the term, I was a bit wearing. Was this just another attempt for rich hippies in telling us to once again go 'green' and organic? Actually, and happily I found it is a lot more involved and has nothing to do with hippies, but more importantly how the food we eat comes to arrive at our doorstops, to understanding the energy costs involved in getting said food to your table.

So I created this blog and our new website QuinnsKitchen.com (which is still in development), to support not only the slow food lifestyle that I had learned I had been doing a lot of already, but to help be a resource for people wishing to learn more about the slow food mission.

Slow food is not solely about eating green, it's actually being more aware from where your food comes from. If you are buying and eating food items from your local farmer's market, well, then that food that you bought is then aptly named, 'slow food'.

I do wish there was a different name to call this trend - but it is about thinking where your food comes from, what actual energy and earth's resources were used to create said product, it is about unprocessed foods, and it is about biodiversity in our food system, encouraging all too survive. It is about taking time once again to enjoy the process of eating good wholesome food.

I will show you where you can buy 'slow food', how you can make your own slow food from scratch (one of the basis ideas for making your own slow food), helpful hints on how to grow your own food when you can and all sorts of ideas for creating a more green environment in your kitchen to eating better, tasty and delectable 'slow food'. So as I like to say, stay tuned!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

The start of our business

Providing you great meals, desserts and dishes for your parties and events!