Z is for ZITI

Ziti is a long, thick tube shaped pasta that is broken into pieces before cooking. Most of the ziti that you buy in the store is already broken into short (2-inch or so) segments. Ziti gets its name from the word zita which means a young woman who is about to become a bride, or "little girl." In parts of Italy, it is traditional to serve baked ziti at weddings.

 

So, if you happen know any Italian girls who are getting married soon, here's a delicious recipe for Baked Ziti.

 

 

Y is for YEAST

Did you know there are over 1,500 species of yeast?  Yes, species.  Because yeast is alive, after all.  Yeast is actually a single-celled fungus used most often in making beer and bread.  I don't know anything about making beer, so I'll discuss yeast more in terms of making bread.  Although I should probably note than in the 19th century, bread bakers obtained their yeast from beer brewers.

I also don't know much about chemistry, but basically,  yeast converts the fermentable sugars in bread dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol, and that's what makes your bread rise.  If you've ever wondered what the difference is between the various forms of yeast used in baking, here's a rundown.

Active dry yeast is probably the most commonly available type of yeast.  It consists of coarse oblong granules, with live yeast cells encapsulated in a thick jacket of dry, dead cells with some growth medium. Typically, active dry yeast must first be proofed or rehydrated. Active dry yeast can be stored at room temperature for up to a year, and frozen for more than a decade.

 

Instant yeast is similar to active dry yeast, but has smaller granules with much higher percentages of live cells. It doesn't keep as well as active dry yeast, but also doesn't require rehydration.  Instant yeast generally has a small amount of ascorbic acid added as a preservative.

Rapid-rise yeast is a variety of dried yeast that is of a smaller granular size, so it dissolves faster in dough.  It also produces more carbon dioxide, which results in faster rising.   Rapid-rise yeast is often marketed specifically for use in bread machines.

These Chewy Pretzel Bites are at the top of my list of favorite yeast bread recipes. 

Just take my advice and make a double batch.

X is for.....

Nothing you've ever heard of.  At least when it comes to food and cooking.  When I googled "foods that start with X" I learned this: "typically, foods that start with the letter X are among the less known foods."

Of course, there is Xantham Gum.  Although I'm not sure that qualifies as a food.  If you read labels, you've probably come across it once or twice.  It's usually somewhere between red dye #7 and partially hydrogenated oil.  Typically it's used as a thickening agent in things like salad dressings.  It's also used in cosmetics.  Ewwww!

This will make you feel even better.  The name comes from Xanthomonas campestris, which is the strain of bacteria used during the fermentation process.  It's the same bacterium that causes black rot to form on broccoli, cauliflower and other leafy vegetables, creating a slimy substance which acts as a natural stabilizer.

These leafy greens do not contain Xantham Gum.

 

And I'm thinking they might be best without salad dressing.

W is for WAFFLES

Considering how much I enjoy waffles, I don't make them very often.  Maybe because I'm just not in the mood when the alarm goes off at 5:15 am.  And goodness knows there's no time to whip them up before the oldest leaves the house at 5:45.

And of course, whenever we stay in a hotel that has a waffle maker at the breakfast bar, it's too busy.  Or I'm too impatient.

Here's a surprising waffle fact: the "Belgian waffle" does not exist in Belgium. They're a North American creation.  I say the Belgians are missing out.

Here are a few other tasty looking waffles.

{Nutella Waffles}

 

{Churro Waffles}

 

Well, okay.....maybe it is time to break out the waffle iron.  We actually have a waffle food truck in town.  It's called the Waffle Lab.  I can't convince anyone in the family to eat there.  My husband is afraid of food trucks.  He thinks they're unsanitary--and now he's scared the children.  Yes, these are the same people who ate snow ice cream just last week.  But they won't eat waffles from a truck.

 

I guess if I want waffles anytime soon, I'll have to make them myself.

V is for VANILLA

Should I start by telling you about the time one of my children dumped an entire bottle of vanilla on the pantry floor?  The expensive kind.  That was the day I got a lock for the pantry.

Remember Hernán Cortés, famed for introducing the taco to Europeans?  He's also credited with introducing vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s.  You may also remember him for causing the fall of the Aztec Empire.  But I prefer to focus on the positive contributions people make to society....tacos, chocolate, vanilla, etc.

If you use real vanilla, you probably won't be surprised to learn that it's one of the most expensive spices you can buy.  That's because growing those vanilla seed pods is very labor-intensive. 

If you spend much time on Pinterest, you've probably seen recipes for making your own vanilla extract.  Like this beautiful jar of vanilla from Sugar & Snapshots.

All you need is some alcohol, like vodka or rum, and some vanilla beans.  And some patience.  You have to let the vanilla beans sit around in the alcohol for 4-6 weeks.  I've haven't tried this myself. Mainly because I'm not that patient.  And one of the neighbors is sure to see me coming out of the liquor store and start a rumor about how that Mormon lady up the street has started drinking.

But I'm thinking that homemade vanilla looks pretty amazing!  However, I'd urge you not to get too snooty about your vanilla, particularly when it comes to baking.  The folks over at Cook's Illustrated did a taste test to determine whether people preferred real or imitation vanilla and, at least in the case of baked goods, nobody could really tell the difference.

So buy yourself a bottle of the cheap stuff for cakes and cookies and save the expensive vanilla for a custard or crème brulee--something where the flavor will really stand out.

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

U is for UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

In all my years of cooking and baking, I've never actually made an upside-down cake.  Unless you count bundt cake, which is technically baked upside down. 

The most well-known type of upside-down cake is the pineapple upside down cake.  And if I ever do make one, I think I'll try this recipe from Paula Deen.  It contains 2 total cups of butter, in case you were wondering.

Upside-down cakes originated in the era when cakes where made in skillets on a stove top.  Placing the fruit on the bottom of the skillet helped to caramelize it.  Of course, before the pineapple upside-down cake came along, someone had to invent pineapple rings.  Enter Jim Dole, who begin manufacturing canned pineapple in 1901.

In 1925, Jim Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple Company sponsored a pineapple recipe contest.  They received over 2,500 entries for pineapple upside-down cake.  The company ran an ad about all those pineapple upside-down cakes and the pineapple upside-down cake became a 1920's food trend.  Jim Dole also sold a lot of pineapple.

Just this week I spotted an upside-down cake by David Lebovitz on Pinterest.  You can put any kind of fruit you want in there.  I'm thinking peaches would be heavenly.  And it's even baked in a cast iron skillet.  I can't wait to try it!

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

T is for TACOS

Honestly, I'm so sick of talking about food at this point, tacos don't even sound appetizing.  But still, I must ask the age-old taco question.  Hard shell or soft shell?

I say soft shell.  My husband says hard shell.  Which means when I make tacos, we have both kinds.  Actually, we disagree about tacos on many levels.  He likes a traditional ground beef filling, while I prefer chicken, pork or fish.  Come to think of it, I don't bother making tacos very often, because by the time I provide the variety of shells, meats and toppings to make everybody happy, I might as well open a taco truck.

If I did open a taco truck, I would serve these Walking Tacos, courtesy of Picky Palate. 

You just put all your taco stuff right in the bag with the Fritos.  Genius!  And no dishes to wash afterwards. 

These Taco Salad Dippers are also a fun twist on a regular taco.  Even though I'm normally a soft taco gal, something about scooping up my taco filling with tiny little tortilla chip bowls makes it all taste so much better.

The taco has been around for a long time. Anthropologists have discovered evidence that the indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico ate tacos filled with small fish. During the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented the first taco feast enjoyed by Europeans, a meal that was arranged by the infamous Hernán Cortés.

Seriously? He hosted the first European taco feast and all people talk about is how he destroyed the Aztec Empire.

How come that never gets mentioned in the textbooks?

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

S is for SLOW COOKER

I love my slow cooker.  I love how it just sits there on my counter, slowly cooking away while I go about the day's business.  I love how it has dinner ready for me when I get home from church on Sunday afternoon.  I love how it doesn't heat the house up too much during hot weather. 

If only someone would invent a slow cooker with arms.  One that could do the grocery shopping and put the ingredients for dinner into it's own non-stick, removable dish, it would be my very best friend in the world.  Kind of like that robot vacuum, only it would fix beef stew.  And be self-cleaning, of course.

But until then, I'll have to continue adding the ingredients to the slow cooker myself.  And making my husband clean it. 

Here are some of my favorite slow cooker recipes.

{Pineapple Green Chile Pork Tacos}

 

{Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup}

 

{Brown Sugar Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin}

 

{Slow Cooker Pork Chili Verde}

 

 

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

R is for RASPBERRY

It's my favorite berry.  Hands down.  No other berry even comes close in my opinion.  Even the beloved strawberry is a distant second as far as I'm concerned. 

Have you ever wondered what each of those individual parts of the raspberry were called?  Me neither.  But FYI, they're called drupelets.  A single raspberry is made up of about 100 drupelets, each of which consists of a juicy pulp and a single central seed.  Who knows?  Perhaps that seemingly useless information will come in handy in some sort of trivia contest one day.

Anywhoo.....it's this drupelet-style structure that contributes to the raspberry's nutritional value.  All of those little drupelets make the raspberry more fibrous.  In fact, raspberries contain up to 20% fiber  per total weight--one of the highest known ratios in whole foods.  Raspberries are also a fabulous source of vitamin C, containing 30 mg per 1 cup serving, or about 50% of your daily value.

Unfortunately, most of my favorite raspberry recipes don't really enhance their nutritional value.  But I prefer to think about how the raspberry can enhance the nutritional value of things like chocolate and cake.  It's a glass half-full kind of thing.

Take these Raspberry Mousse Pie Bars, for example.  Without the raspberries, they would have no nutritional value whatsoever.

So next time you sit down to eat a carton of your favorite ice cream or an entire bag of Chili Cheese Fritos, just throw a big old handful of raspberries in there to cancel out some of the fat and calories.....keeping in mind that the FDA has not evaluated the accuracy of these claims.

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

Q is for QUINOA

If you haven't heard of quinoa yet, let me introduce you.

Quinoa was first domesticated by the Incas around 3000 years ago. It is a species of goosefoot, and not a true grain, although it is most often treated as a grain in cooking and baking.  Biologically, it's more closely related to beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds.  Which, if you ask me, are not the tastiest foods known to mankind.  Although I am being kind of judgmental about tumbleweeds, as I have never eaten those.

Quinoa, on the other hand, is delicious.  Unless you ask my husband, who ranks it right up there with beets and tumbleweeds on the list of foods he would rather not consume.  And by "not consume" I mean he would rather eat dirt.  But since quinoa is super healthy, I don't feel the least bit guilty about eating every last Cheesy Quinoa Cake myself.

Quinoa is very high in protein and fiber, and is often referred to as a "superfood."  It is also a gluten-free and a good source of calcium.  The most commonly available types of quinoa are white, red, and black.

Quinoa has become so popular in the United States and other countries where it is not typically grown that between 2006 and early 2013 quinoa crop prices have tripled.  And this has raised some concerns about food security in countries like Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, where the inflated price of quinoa disrupts local access to food supplies. 

Okay, that does make me feel a little guilty about the quinoa cakes.  So as popular and healthy as quinoa is, maybe we should consider consuming it in moderation.

You could always add tumbleweeds to your diet in place of quinoa every once in awhile.  I presume they're also high in fiber.

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

P is for PIE

I thought about choosing pork for the letter P.  I hope no one is disappointed that I went with pie.  Because it means we'll have to discuss bacon some other time. 

I love pie, but I don't make it very often.  I think it has a reputation for being difficult.  And sometimes, it is.  Really, I think it's the crust that intimidates people.  Which is why I usually by a frozen pie crust.  Or make a graham cracker crust.  Those aren't quite as scary.

If you do want to make a pie crust from scratch, I highly recommend Grandma's Secret Pie Crust.

No, it wasn't my grandma's recipe.  But thankfully someone let the cat out of the bag, because this pie crust has never failed me.  It just so happens that I googled "tips for a good pie crust" and found 10 suggestions by Land O' Lakes that agree completely with what grandma had to say.  Their tips include the following:

• Use the least amount of water possible, just enough to make the pie crust hold together. The recipe usually gives a range for the amount of water – start with the least amount.
• If the recipe does not call for it, add an egg yolk. This adds more fat, as well as natural lecithin, which makes the dough pliable and easier to handle.
• If the recipe does not call for it, add some acid, about 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar. Acid interferes with the elasticity of the gluten and makes the crust more tender.

Time magazine has published a fascinating story about pie.  It's the kind of hard-hitting journalism that I highly recommend reading.  A few things that may surprise you.....

• Historians trace pie's initial origins to the Greeks, who are thought to be the originators of the pastry shell.
• There was no pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving.
• Apple pie actually originated in England.

I'm not terribly partial when it comes to pie--fruit, chicken-pot or otherwise.  Although the very best pies, in my opinion, tend to be cream pies.  Here are three of my favorites:

{German Sweet Chocolate Pie}

 

{Peanut Butter Pie}

 

{White Chocolate Mousse Cherry Pie}

 

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

O is for OLIVE OIL

Olive oil, and the olive tree itself, have a fascinating and sometimes uncertain history.  Many people believe that cultivation of olive trees for oil first occurred about 6000 years ago near modern day Syria and Palestine.

From there the olive tree moved west to Cyprus, Crete, and Egypt.  By the 6th century B.C. olive trees could be found in Tunis, Tripoli, Sicily, and southern Italy.  Today olive trees can even be found in Australia, China, the Unites States and Argentina.  These trees are probably derived from a cross between different species and bear little resemblance to their ancestors.

The best olive oil you can buy is extra virgin olive oil.  To qualify as “extra virgin," olive oil must pass both an official chemical test in a laboratory and a sensory evaluation by a trained tasting panel recognized by the International Olive Council.  The oil must be found free from defects while exhibiting some fruitiness.

I do almost 100% of my cooking with olive oil.  And let me tell you, my good cholesterol is off the charts!  Olive oil is an excellent source of monounsaturated fats (those are the good kind), including Omega 3 fatty acids.  High quality extra virgin olive oil has a very high smoke point (410 degrees Fahrenheit) which makes it great for cooking and frying just about anything.

When storing olive oil, limit its exposure to heat, light, and air.  Otherwise the valuable nutrients in the oil may begin to oxidize, which may also effect the flavor of the oil. Look for olive oil packaged in opaque or tinted glass bottles.  Do not store olive oil in plastic containers, because the oil can leach harmful substances from the plastic.  Store olive oil in a cool, dark place, but keep a small container on the kitchen counter so it's easily accessible during cooking.  Don't store olive oil next to the stove--it gets a little too warm there.

Olive oil is also useful for skin care.  I've even used it to shine my stainless steel appliances.  If you're looking for a more traditional application, my favorite recipe using olive oil is this homemade pizza dough.

To learn more about olive oil, visit The Olive Oil Times.

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

N is for NUTELLA

I admit it.  I'm nuts for Nutella!  I have been known to eat it with a spoon, but I prefer to put it into cookies and cakes and such.  Do you have any idea what kinds of baked goodness you can create with that little jar of chocolate hazelnut spread?

Nutella is manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero  (you know, the folks who make Ferrero Rocher chocolates) and was introduced on world way back in 1963.

My kids like to put it on toast or in their sandwiches.  Peanut butter and Nutella.  Banana and Nutella.  Peanut butter, banana and Nutella.  Marshmallow fluff and Nutella.  They're all good!  Our youngest takes a Nutella and jelly sandwich to school in his lunch quite often. That way he can sit by his friend with a peanut allergy. 

A two-tablespoon serving of Nutella contains 200 calories and 11 grams of fat (3.5 of which are saturated).  It also contains 21 grams of sugar.  A typical chocolate and nut candy bar has 250 to 300 calories and 12 to 16 grams of fat.  Which might be why Ferrero was sued last year for claiming that Nutella was part of a healthy breakfast.  Whatever!  They only said it was "part" of a healthy breakfast.  Not the main part.

But I will make no attempts to deceive you about the health benefits of these Nutella recipes.  They are very, very unhealthy.  And very, very delicious! 

 

{Nutella Gooey Butter Cake}

 

{Nutella Magic Bars}

from Roxana's Home Baking

 

{Nutella Cupcakes}

from Chef in Training

 

{Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies}

 

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.



M is for MAIN DISH & MEAL TIME

Before we begin....I know it's tax day for everyone in the U.S. today, but would you believe we're also having a snow day!  Seriously!  The elementary and middle school kids already had the day off for staff collaboration, but my husband is on his way at this very moment to pick up the high schooler, who is being released at 10:45 am.  And if this snow keeps up, I think we might have another snow day in store tomorrow.  Crazy!

I realize that main dish is kind of a broad topic. I don't know about you, but when I hear "main dish" I immediately think of dinner time.  So let's talk for a minute about dinner time, and then I'll share some of my favorite quick and easy main dish recipes. 

 

You've probably seen the research about how family dinner time benefits children.  And that's all well and good.  But sometimes sitting down to dinner together is easier said than done.  Here are a few tips for making it easier.

 

• Find a time that works best for your family and put it on the calendar so everyone knows when dinner will be served and when they should be home. 
• Schedule after-school and extra-curricular activities carefully in order to protect the dinner routine for most days of the week. Make family dinner time a priority.
• Researchers have found benefits to family meal time, even when it only happens 3 times a week.  Do the best you can, but don't beat yourself up if you can't manage to get everyone together for dinner every single night.

 

Of course, having some quick and easy dinner recipes available is one of the best ways to ensure that family mealtime becomes a habit.  Here are some of my favorite quick and easy main dish recipes:

 

{Balsamic Chicken}

 

{Easy Sesame Noodles}

 

{Chicken Chilaquiles}

 

{Pizza Quesadillas}

 

{Easy Garlic Chicken}

 

{Rotel Chicken Spaghetti}

 

{Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce}

 

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.



L is for LEMON

I love lemons!  And I almost always have fresh lemons handy.  Mainly because every time I go to the store I say to myself, "I better grab some lemons."  Then I come home and notice that I already had lemons. 

I do the same thing with butter.  I actually panic a little bit if I have less than 8 sticks of butter in the refrigerator, and I'm only completely comfortable if there are at least 16 sticks of butter available to me at any given moment. 

I mean, what if I decide to go on some kind of baking spree?  Which is exactly what you'll want to do when you see all of these luscious, lemony recipes.  But you probably don't have 16 sticks of butter in the fridge, so you're going to have to pick and choose which lemon recipes to try.

I'd probably start with this one.....

Lemonade Bundt Cake

 

And then continue with one of these.....or all of them.

 

Frozen Lemon Dessert

 

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Meyer Lemon Bars

 

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

K is for KITCHEN TWINE

Let's just get something straight right off the bat.  There aren't a lot of culinary terms that start with the letter K.  And kitchen seemed like a pretty broad topic to cover in one blog post.  So I thought we'd discuss kitchen twine, which never gets enough credit, if you ask me.  But when it's Thanksgiving morning and the in-laws are on their way and you need to keep the stuffing in the turkey, you'll regret taking kitchen twine for granted.

The kitchen twine that's sitting somewhere in the nethermost regions of my cupboard looks a lot like this......

Kitchen Twine from World Market

Nothing fancy.  In fact, most kitchen twine is just cotton string, so don't pay an arm and a leg to purchase it in pretty colors.  Remember--speaking of nether regions--what that twine is going to be tying shut, and you'll realize that trying to "pretty it up" isn't worth the trouble.

In a pinch, you can use regular cotton string from the hardware store. Just don't use anything synthetic, like polyester or nylon.  It could get melt in the oven, or leach chemicals into your food.  Not that food companies don't put chemicals into our food on purpose, but why take your chances?  After all, you don't want the turkey to be sautered shut with melted nylon string.

Also, if you happen to google "kitchen twine" and come across a question about using mint dental floss as a substitute.....well, let me save you the trouble of even reading about that.  Just don't do it.

Your mother-in-law would not be impressed.

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

J is for JALAPENO

Is it weird to have a favorite pepper?  Because mine is the jalapeno.  It's spicy, but not too spicy.  So me and the jalapeno have a lot in common.

 

How hot are jalapenos?  Well, they have 3,500-8000 Scoville heat units.  The Scoville scale, which was invented by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, scale measures the level of capsaicin in peppers.  And capsaicin is what makes peppers hot.

In comparison, habaneros have 100,000–350,000 Scoville heat units.  The Naga Viper pepper comes in at 855,000–1,463,700.  And most law enforcement grade pepper spray has 1,500,000–2,000,000 Scoville heat units.

Still, the jalapeno is spicy enough.  Just the other day I was chopping up a jalapeno for dinner, bare-handed, and made the mistake of rubbing my nose.  Yes, it burns.

If you ever end up with an abundance of jalapenos, I suggest whipping up a batch of Jalapeno Pepper Jelly.

It's the only thing I've ever canned in my life.  If I can do it, so can you.  Trust me, your neighbors will love getting it as a Christmas gift.

If you only have one or two jalapenos available--which coincidentally is the number of jalapenos my garden produces each year--I suggest trying this recipe instead.

Cornbread Crusted Chicken with Jalapeno Popper Sauce

If you skip the chicken part and just eat the sauce with a spoon, I will totally understand.

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

I is for INDIAN CUISINE

I love Indian food.  LOVE.  My husband, not so much. 

Staple foods of Indian cuisine include pearl millet, rice, whole-wheat flour, and a variety of lentils.  Popular Indian spices include chili pepper, cardamom, cumin, turmeric, ginger, coriander and garlic.  If you've ever seen garam masala in the grocery store, it's probably a combination of several Indian spices and usually contains cardamom, cinnamon and clove.  However, each culinary region of India has it's own distinctive garam masala blend.

Curry powder is what you might call a "Westernized" version of garam masala.  And technically, garam masala could be considered a type of curry powder.  It's all very confusing.  If you're really interested in Indian cooking, I'd pay a visit to eCurry.  There's an entire section about curry and a recipe for making your own garam masala.  Another great blog about Indian cooking is Indian Simmer.  It's worth a visit for the food photography alone.

Our family's all-time favorite dishes is this Butter Chicken.  My husband even eats it.  It's that good. 

I know it doesn't look like much, but I'm telling you, this is the dish all my friends rave to me about.  I usually serve it over rice, but honestly, I'd just as soon pour it into a mug and drink it. 

If I'm feeling super motivated, I'll make some of this Indian Naan Bread to go along with our butter chicken.  Because the only thing better than drinking that butter chicken sauce right out of the bowl is sopping it up with a piece of warm naan bread.

Admittedly, Indian cooking can be a little intimidating. It's not so much that it's difficult, but sometimes the ingredients are unfamiliar.

I'll let you in on a little secret.  I grew up in a small town in Wyoming.  There was no such thing as culinary diversity, unless you count choosing between the chalupa and the gordita at Taco Bell.  We didn't even have a McDonald's until I was in high school.  I assure you, I didn't try Indian food until well into adulthood.  And now there's a bottle of garam masala sitting in my spice cupboard.

Now if that inspiring tale of one small-town girl's culinary journey doesn't motivate you to make a batch of Naan bread, I don't know what will.

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.

H is for HONEY

Did you know there are over 300 varieties of honey?  And that approximately 60,000 bees travel roughly 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make one pound of honey.  Mind-boggling!

It will probably come as no surprise, however, that all of the worker bees in a hive are female. 

It's best to keep your honey at room temperature.  Putting it in the refrigerator will cause it to crystalize more quickly.  But if that happens, don't worry.  Just put the honey in a microwave-safe container with the lid off and microwave it, stirring every 30 seconds, until the crystals dissolve. 

My kids love getting these flavored honey sticks when we visit the farmers market.  Although I'm pretty sure these aren't colors that occur in nature.

If you spend a lot of time on Pinterest hunting down recipes, you may have notice that a popular flavor combination in the food world right now is honey and lime. 

 A friend from church shared this recipe for Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas with me.  So easy thanks to my favorite dinner-time helper, the supermarket rotisserie chicken.  Also, there's cream in there.  And cheese.  And honey, of course!

One last interesting fact about honey.  It's a humectant (it attracts and retains moisture), which means it's good for your skin and hair.  Not straight up honey, mind you.  That would be a sticky mess!  But if anyone happens to try these recipes for honey-based hair and skin care products, I'd love to hear about it!

*This month I'm participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge--working my way through the alphabet in a culinary fashion.  All this month I'll be sharing A-Z posts featuring recipes, cooking and baking tips and thoughts on food in general.  From apples to ziti, I'll be covering it all during the month of April.