My own mom is part of a dying breed of cooks. Growing up, she lived with her grandmother every summer. Nana was an exceptional gourmet herself and taught my mom everything she knew. She taught my mom how to skim cream off the milk and turn it into ice cream, how to can fruit and turn the canned fruit into great winter time salads, how to make angel food cake from scratch with a wire whip, and how to improve anything at all with a great sauce.
Great Skill
Every time I get the wild idea to make something "different," I consult my mom and she always seems to have answers. When I got married, for instance, we had just been on a research trip in Europe and I suggested that I wanted a wedding cake "like the cakes in European coffee houses." You can find those cakes in bakeries now (though they still may not use all butter for their butter cream), but at the time, they were no where to be found.
In this video she describes how she makes a base for any salad -- how to prepare the greens and how to flavor them so that they are ready for any topping.
In the video, she demonstrates how she has bagged lettuce to save for later in the week. This technique works best for romaine. For leaf lettuces, store the whole leaf and tear it up when you are preparing the salad. Leaf lettuce tends to wilt pretty quickly and not store well.
Included here are tips and tricks from my mom, Jeanie Rose, on handling and mincing garlic. I thought I knew all of her garlic tricks until I watched the video and learned even more.
Click on the play button in the image below to watch the video or visit the video directly at YouTube (Minced Garlic)
This is a favorite salad around this house. It is a single entree meal with a large base of fresh raw vegetables, topped with an official depression buster food -- beef. This particular beef comes from a steer featured on this site back in February in "I Met My Meat."
I apologize for the over-exposed video, but I guarantee that the salad itself was anything but washed out. Here's what mom has to say about enchilada salads:
Do you have a favorite liver recipe? Post it here or post it on your blog and include a trackback to this site so we can all read it.
We are experimenting all the time with liver. Mom's latest creation is captured on video. This is one of our longer videos because she cooks the liver entirely on camera and makes gravy. In under ten minutes, she puts together the liver and gravy.
She learned this flash frying technique from a raw foodist who will be surprised by her quote on the video "no one really likes liver raw." Some people do, but mom is not one of them.
This is a staple food around here all year round -- the composed salad. It always looks different depending on what we have around. Some use less lettuce and more of whatever other vegetable we have around. Each usually contains some sort of protein food. In this case, mom uses an egg salad to top the greens. In the video, she refers to previous videos on this website on handling greens and minced garlic.
To view the video, click the "play" button in the image below or go directly to YouTube to view composed salads.
When we are short on time and long on vegetables, this is a pretty darned good way to do it.
This is a pretty long video but comes in three parts:
(1) Mom describes how she marinades vegetables in olive oil and crushed garlic for a few hours or so, turning a couple of times in the soaking process to move the oil around. The vegetables will absorb the flavor from the oil and garlic as they soak.
(2) Mom grills the vegetables on the stove top but she also suggests baking in the oven. After grilling, mom adds some Romano cheese to the top and shows how it looks as a composed dinner plate.
(3) Mom uses the vegetables in a composed salad.
To watch the video, click on the "play button" in the image below or visit YouTube directly here: grilled vegetables.
A summer staple, mom describes in the video what she adds and why, down to why she cuts basil into ribbons. Enjoy the detail of the video or go straight to the recipe below.
I grew up in Delano, California, home of the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez but also of one of the largest original Philippine immigrant populations in the country. In the 1920s, men traveled from the Philippines to work in agriculture and many settled in the Delano area. They could not bring women in those early days so many of these men waited decades to marry, once the rules changed. I went to high school with the daughter of one of these men -- her father was eighty years old when I was in high school. He just recently passed away at over the century mark.
One of the perks of growing up in Delano is that I got to sample real food regularly. The fresh-Mex and Asian restaurants across the country are no substitute for the real thing. One of my favorite restaurant memories in Delano was of a little Philippine restaurant that operated for few years in the old A & W Rootbeer building. They made a great balamiki chicken -- a kind of sweet chicken shishkabob. When the place closed down my mom was determined to recreate the dish at home. This is her recipe for all of the flavors of the Bamboo Hut's balamiki chicken without cutting the chicken into strips. She uses the whole breast.
Oregano plants do very well in our landscape. They are drought resistant once they are established, they reseed fairly well, they are fragrant, and they put on nice flowers. The fragrances, flowers, and flavors vary with the plant variety.
We recently harvested a lot of oregano from our yard to dry for use in cooking and in dry flower arrangements. We were so inspired by their beauty that my mom made a video about oregano.
Oregano will add great flavor to your dishes (most notably Italian sauces) and, as a member of the mint family, this herb is also an antioxidant. As it cooks with meat, it will help reduce the carcinogens in that dish. You can't ask for more than flavor and a health benefit.
Roasted Sweet Italian Peppers: Using the Summer's Bounty
We've had a pepper bonanza of late and this is one of our favorite ways to cook them. It's easy to do and there are rarely any leftovers.
Read on for the recipe, view the video by clicking on the "play button" in the image below, or go directly to YouTube to watch Roasted Peppers.
Mom writes:
For years I've grown sweet Italians for the rich flavor they add to sauces and salsas. Only in the last few years have we been roasting them. I had never heard of them! In reading an autobiography I came across the concept and came up with this preparation. (The autobiography was not a cookbook, unfortunately.) Roasted peppers now stand as a hallmark of great summer eating in this house.
Using and Preserving Overgrown Zucchini (Plus Zucchini Cornbread)
In honor of the Eat Local Challenge this month and its focus on food preparation, here is a video by mom on what to do with the giant squash that got away from you in your garden. She has recipe ideas but also describes how to process it and freeze it. Below you'll find a zucchini cornbread recipe, a long-time family favorite.
To view the video, click on the "play button" in the image below or go directly to YouTube to watch Zucchini.
Deviled Eggs: Always a Winner and Nutritious to Boot (Boiling Tips Included)
This time of year is our peak egg consumption. Much of our egg eating is in the form of egg salad or deviled eggs, probably largely because those are both cold egg dishes and are appetizing on hot afternoons. As the weather begins to change, we will likely replace those dishes with quiche and frittata. But as the season changes, the egg production of our hens will slow to a trickle and we will consume fewer eggs.
As we continue in our egg bounty, mom has been going to town on egg dishes. Here she decribes her deviled egg secrets. Watch the video and read the recipe below. Below the recipe you'll find her tips on boiling and peeling eggs. To view the video, click on the "play" button in the image below or go directly to YouTube: Deviled Eggs.
Eggs are a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids. The egg from a hen freely eating weeds and bugs is most certainly a depression buster food because of the Omega 3 content. Boil them up, peel them, mash them, add some dressing and you'll have the beginning of a great meal. The previous entry on deviled eggs discusses how to peel eggs.
In this video, mom talks about using egg salad to stuff a wonderful end-of-summer pepper. To view the video, click on the play button in the image below or go directly to YouTube to watch (Bell Pepper Stuffed with Egg Salad).
Freezing: An Easy Process to Preserve Food and Nutrients
Summer gardens are slowing down but many of us are still bombarded with summer peppers, squash, and tomatoes. The only reasonable thing to do with the bounty is to preserve them in some way.
For the sake of nostalgia or simply to be able to say you've done it, you may be tempted to can your bounty. Tomatoes lend themselves to canning because of their acid content. But as I watched my mother can a few jars of tomatoes a few weeks ago, I thought "That is the perfect example of nutrient loss in our own kitchen."
She could not get the cans to seal and cooked those jars for hours before they were done. Cooking is a known adversary to nutrients. Cooking a jar of tomatoes for hours may make a tasty winter sauce, but it is not your nutrient solution.
At long last, the second generation of “mom cooking videos” are here. We got great encouragement after the string of videos last summer and fall that we bought a decent camera and then proceeded to act like we knew what we were doing with it (much like we pretended with the first). Of course, mom is great in all of them, but apparently not everyone can hear her in the first generation of videos. The second generation may have some sound problems as well, but with a mondo kitchen and sound bouncing all over the place, the sound issue is a work-in-progress that our friend Keith is helping us tackle. Keith is editing the videos as well.
In the video below, mom shares tips on staying organized on kitchen tasks in busy times. You can click the "play button" below or watch Cooking Tips for Busy People at YouTube.
Our friend Jennifer prepared this incredible (and simple) grilled salmon for us when she was part of the family a few years back. I can still remember that meal: it was bursting with scent and flavor. We have repeated it many times since. If you have a barbeque grill, this way of cooking salmon is a must. Salmon is a notable for its high Omega 3 content. Watch mom's video below. Written instructions follow.
Homemade tartar sauce (to go with that grilled salmon)
It's easy and tasty. Mom says:
My exposure to tartar sauce had always been in a restaurant. Ugh! I'm picky about mayonnaise and restaurant mayo is obnoxious. So when Jennifer made tartar sauce to go with her grilled salmon, I only took a bit to be polite. Wow! What a difference a good mayonnaise can make. Make your own or try a good bottled one. When you make up this recipe, don't be afraid to double or triple it. This sauce is super for tuna, crab, or salmon salad. Thin it a bit with kefir and use it on a crab Louie.
In our resolve to consume more liver I have been on the hunt for varying ways to prepare it. The traditional liver and onions is fine now and then (check out Mom's flash cooked liver). But if you will eat liver regularly, the old standby gets old pretty quickly. We like liver around here because it is packed with vitamins and minerals. It even has a good amount of Omega 3 fatty acids if that animal dined on grass.
Here is a liver rendition for the adventuring heart: it is tender and bursting with exotic flavor. You will find written instructions below the jump.
While I was pregnant and not paying any attention at all to our videos on YouTube, Mom became a celebrity. I have yet to find the traffic sources, but someone out there likes mom too. Check this out:
Over 25,000 people have watched Mom describe how to make deviled eggs and, more importantly, how to peel the egg in the first place.
All of these were filmed with a very old camera. I apologize. The new ones are a lot better in picture and sound quality. They are all filmed right here in our kitchen.
In the year of pregnancy while my mom was becoming appreciated for her culinary arts, I got a number of emails asking me to put the videos on various other video sites. I paid no attention because I was busy being pregnant. Sorry Mom for not appreciating your celebrity status better than I did. You probably need a different agent.
When she's not cooking or gardening, Mom is working on her scripture prayer CDs on her website.
Armenian salad of roasted vegetables, a perfect summer garden meal
One of our favorite meals packed with produce from our own garden was inspired by a visit to an Armenian restaurant in Fresno, California. Mom writes:
Amanda and I stopped for lunch at a small family-run Armenian restaurant. The meal was fine. But, what we vividly remember is salad. This was served first. And, I tell you, we would have been happy with a big plate of just this salad. I wanted to lick the dressing off the plate when the veggies were gone. We came home and I closely duplicated what was served that day. I share it now with you. Enjoy!
Find the ingredients and instructions below the jump.
Bone broth powerhouse drink, filled with nutrients
A couple of years ago my mother put together two nutrient-packed foods into one exceptional package. She mixed bone broth from a leftover leg of lamb with vegetable juice from vegetables that were wilting too much for other uses. I drank it like a drink; my husband ate it like a soup. It is good stuff. I particularly like that it used foods that many people throw out. In this economy, people are looking for ways to use what they have. This broth and juice concept fits our current economic needs well. In fact, I will post this idea on this week's Pennywise Platter at Nourishing Gourmet where there will be other great ideas for saving money.
However, on the bone broth and juice concoction, mom made a video and wrote down a bit of wisdom as well. She uses lamb broth, but you could use any bone at all (or a combination). Enjoy!
~~From Mom:
If you love lamb, you will love lamb broth. Simply collect the bones from your lamb roast, leg of lamb, etc and prepare them in your slow cooker following our directions for bone broth. If you don't have many bones from one meal, save them in a container in the freezer until the stash builds.
This broth in itself is a great drink, but you can way increase it's nutritional value by adding some fresh vegetable juice. There is no need to by anything special for this juice. Use whatever veggies you have on hand, in the frig, or in the garden. Did you overbuy on some special at the supermarket? Juice it before it goes bad!
Add the juice to the already heated lamb broth. Do not reheat lest you lose those heat-sensitive nutrients. Test for salt and pepper. Make adjustments and enjoy.
Ideas to use and preserve your summer produce bounty
Our garden produce is only now rolling in well but I know many lucky people are probably up to their eyeballs already in produce from their own garden or from a friend's. I have a few "Mom videos" in the pipeline on using and preserving summer produce but thought I would first direct you to some of the Rebuild classics. Some are so classic they were made with a now-7-year-old camera.
Mom describes our method for freezing vegetables by cutting them into wedges, laying them out on cookie sheets, freezing them, and then bagging them once they are frozen. She explains why and how in freezing produce. I like freezing to store food. It does require energy to run the freezer but the nutrient loss does not tend to be as great as it is in home canning. Of course, not all foods lend themselves to freezing.
You probably all end up with some of those monster zucchini squash at some point in the summer. Mom has ideas on what to do with overgrown zucchini.
If you are lucky enough to run into a mountain of sweet Italian peppers, you must read about mom's technique for roasting peppers. It makes me hungry to think about it.
If you have an assortment of various vegetables and not a lot of time, consider this grilled vegetable technique or the Armenian grilled vegetable salad. Personally, we have been enjoying a lot of marinated tomato salad. But if you have crates of tomato, I have a video on drying tomatoes coming down the pike. I think there may even be a video on fruit leather! (Mom is such a gem.)
Preserving the taste of summer with homemade fruit leather
Here in California we end up with mountains of produce this time of year. Mom is a whiz at preserving it. I posted last week about some of the resources on this site for preserving the summer bounty. Fruit leather is a great option if you have abundant fruit. It is a bit like those "fruit roll up" products. It is a frugal choice as well when you can use your abundance now and benefit all year long. (For other money-saving food ideas, read this week's Pennywise Platter at Nourishing Gourmet.)
In these two short videos, Mom describes the process to make fruit leather. The first video focuses on cleaning and liquifying the fruit. The second shows her process for dying it, including key tips like lining your pans with plastic wrap. Written instructions and videos are below the jump. Enjoy!
My mom put together a little video describing many different peppers and why you should try all of them. Watch the video below or go directly to YouTube to view sweet Italian peppers. A written description is below the jump.
Last summer we had such a pepper bounty Mom created a new system for freezing them. In a previous video, she describes her method for freezing vegetables in pieces, but here we have an inspiration: "pepper plops." Check out how she makes them, freezes them, and uses them later. Written instructions are below the jump, the video is below and is also on YouTube (freezing peppers).
Mom writes:
Last summer I had access to a bumper crop of some heirloom sweet peppers. We ate to our hearts content. I froze several bags in my usual fashion and still there were peppers. I needed some way to freeze these lovely gems, a way that would take less space in the freezer.
Necessity was the mother of this invention. I happily share it with you. This is the first year we will not run out of peppers before we run out of winter. Yea!
The idea is to roast and season the peppers, puree and freeze in patties for later use.
In our video series on preserving the taste of summer, Mom describes in the videos below how to dry tomatoes and how to preserve them in olive oil. If you end up with a tomato bounty, this really is an easy way to preserve them, though you do need temperatures of at least 85 degrees.
As an aside, I love Mom's references to "Just Tomatoes." She has a ratty, old, very well used copy of an early how-to book by the company. I said, "Mom, that's a pretty big company now. Those guys actually made it." Mom (and Just Tomatoes) were "real food" people back before this current wave of "real foodies." For other real food tidbits, check out this week's Real Food Wednesday at Cheeseslave.
And if you struggle at all with depression, get the book Rebuild from Depression on depression and food nutrients. It is the best twenty bucks you'll ever spend.
Abundant and prolific herbs is a sure sign of summer. Back in graduate school my husband and I grew herbs on the porch of our apartment and always focused on basil. By this time of year we harvested our prolific basil and turned it into pesto that we dined on all year long. The only difference these days is that we grow the basil in a large garden among a sea of summer produce. The basil is still one of my summer garden favorites. Among mom's many videos here on this blog preserving the taste of summer, making pesto may be one of the most simple and rewarding.
Preserving the taste of summer is a great way to save money and enjoy good food all year long. It is a subtle but important way to take charge of your food and live differently. For other ideas on living differently, check out other posts on this "Fight Back Friday."
View the pesto video directly from YouTube (making pesto) or watch it below.
Endorsements The best book on depression and food I've seen is Rebuild from Depression, by Amanda Rose, who understands the condition from bitter experience. Nina Planck, Author of Real Food
Rebuild from Depression is going to be a very important book. Its dissection of the role of diet and nutrition is well-researched and an eye-opener. Robert Kotler, MD, FACS
Clinical Instructor, UCLA
Rebuild from Depression provides real answers for reversing depression caused by common nutritional deficiencies. Jan DeCourtney, CMT
Co-author, Recapture Your Health
Amanda Rose, Ph.D., is a political scientist and author of "Rebuild from Depression," on the link between nutrient deficiencies and depression. She has been depression-free for over four years, even during the recent pregnancy of her second child. Read her postpartum depression success story.
Depression buster foods
From an analysis of over 5,000 foods in the USDA nutrient database, "depression buster foods" are the foods highest in combination of the seven nutrients most commonly associated with depression. Brains need nutrients to be healthy, particularly those nutrients in these foods for depression. The depression buster food list is published in the book "Rebuild from Depression." A subset are displayed here in the depression buster photo album.
Omega 3 foods
Omega 3 fatty acids are critical for brain health and they are disappearing in the Western diet. You need to consume more Omega 3s and fewer Omega 6s. These photos and descriptions of Omega 3 foods will offer you some guidance. Omega 3 fatty acids are one nutrient that helps fight depression. Read more about the Rebuild philosophy on
depression-fighting foods.
Food science graphs
For food science junkies, here is a graph archive based on peer review studies presented on this blog. Each graph has a general explanation and provides a quick link to more detailed discussion.
There really is life after depression. I am so excited by that point, in fact, that I neglect this blog and find fun/quirky projects to do with my family. We live in the Sequoia National Forest in a house (and former brothel) designed by Irving Gill. My 7-year-old son Frederick and I chronicle our adventures at Gill on the Hill when we're not exploring. Frederick posts some of his homeschool projects at "Frankly Frederick."
@ Amazon.
