Sunday Randomness #410 : Bay Leaves as Bookmarks?!?

I've seen all kinds of bookmarks but this is my first time seeing an herb.  Specifically, bay leaves.  

The individual marked the shrimp bisque...

...and the vegetable summer rolls.  Both of those selections appeal to me too!
 

Author #187: Elizabeth Acevedo cooks up a beautiful tale of finding your strength

 An engagingly written book that brought back some memories of my own days in high school.  The main character, Emoni, loves to cook-it's were she comes alive. Emoni lives with her grandmother (abuela) and her young daughter-she makes hard decisions every day-but she knows she wants to follow her passion and cook while still being there for her daughter.  One of the sections that stood out for me was when she was describing making a crucial decision: "And the only question I kept asking myself was, 'Can I do this?'  And I realized there wasn't going to be a perfect answer, only the right answer for me."   Emoni learns to trust herself and to trust others as she goes through a culinary course newly offered at her school. Her experiences increase her confidence and she ultimately has to decide which future path she wants to take.  Learn more about Elizabeth Acevedo at: http://www.acevedowrites.com/about

Sunday Randomness #71 : Some library displays and a question from doormats...

We've started some new displays at the library and we have a revolving sign-up every two weeks.  I've gotten to do two displays so far and I made up the interim signage.  See if you can guess which display we put up in between displays for a day or two.  My first display I just looked for any items that had "devil" in the title somewhere.  I just thought it would be funny with the summer we've been experiencing.  The second display was just an excuse to try to find cookbooks with men on the cover.  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I would have guessed that there were more women cookbook authors but women also grace the cover of cookbooks more often than men.  Men generally have fewer self-portraits and more food on the cover of their books than women.

 And the last picture was when we were out and about.  I just want to know if the neighbors fur babies have ever met each other and how civil was the interaction...

Monday Silliness about soup

 There is disagreement across the country about what makes the best cornbread (sugar/no sugar, corn in the batter or not?) or the best chocolate chip cookie (crisp/chewy? more chips/less chips)  But here's a story about what makes soup soup by BBC Scotland.  Thank you for making my Monday a little less mundane.

French Onion Soup and Quiche

Recent cooking adventures...

Spinach and Mushroom Quiche. (It was delicious-best warm but good cold.)

The start of the onion soup-browning the onions in butter. (Not looking very brown yet.)

Homemade croutons. (Here's a chance to use the broil feature on your oven!)

Golden onion soup. (Color aided by the addition of beef stock.)



Finished French Onion Soup topped with Swiss cheese and croutons. (It was wonderful!)

The recipe is really similar to a lot of French Onion Soup recipes that you can find on the web. Pioneer Woman has a wonderful version that's almost identical to the recipe we used except we used Swiss and not Guyere and left out the wine, garlic and Worcestershire sauce. As you can see from the pictures we're still fiddling with the camera. These were the best shots out of dozen of tries. Thank goodness we don't have to buy film!

Bargain Buy #3: A hefty new skillet

I was a tad worried that maybe I'd over estimated the nice weight of this skillet when I first picked it up at the local thrift store but decided I'd better hang on to it since large pans go quickly. It was still in my cart when I reached the check-out so I paid the $3 purchase price, figuring I could just donate it to the thrift store if it didn't meet our needs.

By the time I brought it home I'd resolved that it was a good buy since our lone large skillet has lost much of its Teflon coating over its many years of usage and we really did need new pan. After doing a bit of research on the internet, I'd not only confirmed it was a good buy, but that it's one of the best made skillets on the market for the price (usually in the $30 range).

This particular Tramontina skillet was made in Brazil. The pans feature triple-layer construction and were rated very high in a Cooks Illustrated magazine review, coming in just under All-Clad at a fraction of the price. We've already used our "new" used saute pan to fry up chicken, hamburger and fish and we've been pleased with all the results.

(Disclaimer: We have no connection with Tramontina or Cooks Illustrated or All-Clad. We just like finding things that can be reused and recycled for bargain prices and enjoy sharing a few of these finds with others.)

Author 62: Kurlansky and a very edible rock

From the back cover of the book: "What rock shaped the fortune of cultures from China to Europe to America? What rock fueled exploration and inspired revolutions? It's salt-the only rock we eat-and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of our history."

King James version of the Bible: Matthew Chapter 5 verse 13: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."

The scriptural verse makes much more sense with some historical knowledge of salt. For thousands of years salt has been used as a commodity across many lands and countries, playing a vital role in the lives of both humans and animals. From its nutritional value (including trace minerals) to the development of products such as bleach and baking soda, salt has long held an important role in civilizations both young and old. But most of all, salt makes many things taste better!

Read more about other children's books by Mark Kurlansky at: http://www.markkurlansky.com/books/childrensbooks.aspx

Country Fried Steak

This was delicious! The recipe can be found at www.food.com and the recipe number is 36023 by Sue Lau.

In the first picture to the top left is the three pie tins with milk, then the flour mixture, then beaten eggs.

First you dip the cube steak in milk, then the flour mixture, then the egg mixture, and then back into the flour mixture. I found it forms a better crust if you let the excess liquid drip off a little before the flour and then press in the flour mixture on the final dip before frying.

Next picture shows the breaded cube steak in the flour mixture after being dipped in milk, then flour mixture, then egg and now it's back in the flour mixture.

Following is the steak frying in oil in a heavy aluminum pan.

A fried steak-all alone.

A fried steak with friends-mashed potatoes and gravy!

The gravy was made in the same pan after I finished frying the steaks. I kept them warm in the oven on a cookie sheet. Put them on the cookie sheet, place in oven and start preheating to 400 degrees F. Our oven only reached 372 degrees F by the time the gravy was done and we could take out the cooked steaks to complete dinner. These steaks turned out as good as some country fried steaks that I've had in restaurants! (We did have some green veggies like cucumber and salad-they're just not showing in the picture.)