Materials contained in Kitchen Encounters protected by Copyright.
Original recipes, commentary, and photos published in Kitchen Encounters are from the personal collections of Melanie/Melanie's Kitchen.
Copyright 2010/2011/2012/2013.
Next to the tomato, meet my favorite fruit: the Hass avocado!
The most popular avocado is the California Hass, which rhymes with "pass" (which is frequently mispronounced and mispelled "Haas"). This pear-shaped fruit weighs in at about half a pound and has bumpy, rough, dark greenish-black skin (it was known early on as an alligator pear). It is known for its silky, rich, buttery texture and mild, nutlike flavor. It is the only avocado variety to be grown year-round, represents about 80% of all avocados sold in the world and generates more than $1 billion in revenues in the US each year. Trust me when I tell you, after a taste test between the Hass and any other smooth-skinned variety (like Florida's leafy-green Fuerte, pictured above), you will agree there is no comparison in either flavor or texture: Hass wins... and this tree, a member of the laurel family, has a bitter-sweet history to go with it too:
All Hass avocado trees descended from one single "mother tree" that was raised by a mail carrier named Rudolf Hass, of LaHabra Heights, CA. Hass purchased the seedling tree from a grower named A.R. Rideout, who grew and experimented growing and developing many varieties of avocados. Hass tried unsuccessfully to graft another variety onto it and planned on cutting the tree down, until his children talked him out of it. Since his kids loved the tree's fruit, and the tree gave a good yield, he named it after himself and patented it in 1935. That same year, Hass entered into a business with a Whittier, CA, nurseryman to grow and promote his avocados. Rudolf Hass died in 1952, never realizing the global impact his avocados would have on all of us.
Sadly, Hass's original tree died after a long struggle with root fungus and was cut down in 2002.
Avocados ripen best after picking. A perfectly-ripe Hass avocado will be darkish green (it will have lost its bright green color) and firm to the touch with an ever-so-slight give when gentle pressure is applied. If an avocado seems even the slightest bit soft, it is over-ripe. When a knife is run through and around the perimeter of a perfectly ripe avocado, it will literally cut like butter and the two halves will separate cleanly with a gently twist.
Note: If you have no alternative but to purchase under-ripe (hard) avocados: to speed up the ripening process, place them in a paper bag and set aside, at room temperature, for 1-2 days. Most times, overnight on the countertop will do just fine. To increase the shelf life of ripe avocados, store in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
But, and this is an important but: Once an avocado is opened and the edible flesh is exposed to air, it discolors rapidly. To minimize discolorization, I advise adding diced, cubed or sliced avocado to the dish being served at the very last moment. Tossing cubed, sliced, mashed or smashed avocado flesh with citric acid, like lime or lemon juice (and zest too), helps delay discoloring, but not much more than an hour or two (trust me).
The pit (which in reality is a seed that can be planted to grow an avocado tree and is another blog post) is cleanly and easily removed by holding the pitted half of the avocado securely in the palm of your hand. Using a chef's knife, give the pit a somewhat forceful tap with the center of the knife blade. Then, one gentle twist of the knife and voila: the pit is out. Proceed to:
Peel away the skin and slice or dice in any manner you want!
To quickly cube or slice the pitted/seeded avocado, for applications like adding to salads:
Simply score the soft flesh into desired-sized cubes or slices, then scoop them out with an ordinary tablespoon.
When planning to mash or smash the edible flesh (for dishes like guacamole), skip cubing the avocado and simply scoop the flesh out in very large pieces. If not using immediately, remember to toss with lime juice!
Avocado Fiction:
Burying the avocado pit in your guacamole will keep the dip from discoloring. Nothing could be farther from the truth. BYI: Some information should be banned from the internet!
In order to keep color in my guacamole for an extra 24 hours, I add a few tablespoons of bottled green chile sauce (salsa verde). It adds a bit of heat too! You can find my recipe for ~ Holy Guacamole! It's the Second Day of Summer ~ in Categories 1, 4, 8, 10, 13 & 14!
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, commentary and photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2013)
I rarely write a retrospective blog post. In fact in almost three years of blogging, this is only my third one. If you've been following along this week, I shared three simple, straightforward and special-to-me recipes for "drop cookies": snickerdoodles, ginger snaps and peanut butter. All three of the recipes can be found in Category 7 or by clicking on the Related Article links below!
A bit about drop cookies: They are one of the simplest types of cookies to make, and the term refers to cookies made from a relatively soft dough that gets dropped, in uniformly-sized spoonfuls, directly onto a baking pan. Occasionally (as pictured here), they get coated in some sugar before going on the pan to bake. As the mounds of dough bake, they spread and flatten out. In addition to the three fun recipes I posted this week, chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies are two more popular examples. They're not fancy or gourmet. They're the kind of cookies your mom and grandmother made and had waiting for you on the kitchen table with a glass of milk when you arrived home from school!
With the Memorial Day weekend right around the corner, if you are inclined to pack a pic-a-nic basket and head to Jellystone Park, any or all of these cookies would be a great choice to take. They can be made up to a week ahead of time, and, if stored in an airtight container in a cool dry place, they'll stay fresh for a week after that!
Here's a quick recap of three favorite cookies of my youth:
Monday, May 13th: ~ My Favorite Sugar Cookie is: The Snickerdoodle ~. This flat, golden on the outside, slightly-chewy on the inside sugar cookie is made with butter and shortening and gets dusted with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar prior to baking. They are German in origin, and I grew up eating them in Eastern PA (aka PA Deutsch country). These are very addictive and I recommend making a double batch!
Wednesday, May 15th: ~ My Favorite Spice-y Cookie is: The Ginger Snap ~. Our colonists brought these to America. They arrived with the spices in powdered form: cinnamon, cloves and ginger, along with molasses, which was much less expensive than sugar. Real gingersnaps are NOT hard as rocks (like you buy in the store). They snap with each bite, but, they've got a slightly-chewy center!
Friday, May 17th: ~ My Favorite Salty Cookie is: Chunky Peanut Butter ~. This cookie is all-American and it was around quite a while before Mrs. Wakefield accidentally invented the chocolate chip cookie. In 1936, Pillsbury published their peanut butter cookie recipe and introduced us to the famous criss-cross fork pattern on top. There's a rich history behind this crunch-a-licious cookie and I recommend you read my post!
The weather has finally taken a turn for the better here in Pennsylvania and it is time for me to swich gears and start posting about picnics, barbecues and grills. Over the years I've amassed a large collection of truly lovely picnic baskets. This small lunch-box sized one is one of my favorites. It is perfect for me to pack a picnic lunch for just Joe and I. These small, relatively inexpensive picnic baskets also make for a unique way to serve cookies, bar cookies or brownies to a crowd at a picnic:
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipes, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2013)
"Three cookies of my youth week" here on KE is coming to a close! Sigh.
On Monday we made ~ My Favorite Sugar Cookie: The Snickerdoodle ~, then, on Wednesday we made ~ My Favorite Spice-y Cookie is: The Ginger Snap ~. Both recipes can be found in Category 7, and they
are from my very 1st cookbook: a bridal shower gift to me 'way back when' in 1974!
Snickerdoodles (pictured above) and gingersnaps (pictured here) are referred to as "drop cookies". They are made by dropping uniform sized pieces of dough onto a baking pan. They are not fancy or gourmet (and I don't care for versions of recipes that try to make them so). They are the kind your mom and grandmom had waiting on the kitchen table with a glass of milk for you and your friends afterschool. The kind you grab on your way in the door or out the door. The kind you love to dunk in your coffee at breakfast or a glass of milk at the end of a long, hard day!
Today, T.G.I.F., I'm making peanut butter cookies. The ones with the signature criss-cross fork marks on top. Why bake cookies in mid-May? We've had a cold-snap here in Central Pennsylvania: 40-degree temperatures (which I dislike), with lots of rain (which I admit we need). Cold and damp gave me the perfect excuse to preheat my oven. The thermometer is predicted to go into the 70's tomorrow, so, look for me to head outside to the garden and the grill this weekend!
Why did I choose the peanut butter cookie as my third "cookie of my youth" this week instead of the chocolate chip cookie?
That is what my husband Joe wanted to know. My answer is simple: The peanut butter cookie came first in American history. Peanuts are native to the Americas (chocolate chips are not), and, hundreds of years ago, the Aztecs were pulverizing them into a pasty, edible substance. The transition from peanut paste to peanut butter was the gradual result of modern processing, which added oil to the paste to achieve a smoother, spreadable product which traveled well.
In a nutshell, here's a brief, historical timeline which explains it all (or most of it):
1895: Dr. John Kellogg patented a process for preparing nut meal (which included peanuts) and served it as a health food to his wealthy patients at his Battle Creek, MI, sanitarium.
1897: Popular Science News, under "Recent Inventions", proclaims that peanut butter could be used in recipes as shortening, in place of butter and/or lard.
1890's: (Similar to Dr. Kellogg) Dr. Ambrose Strab, in St. Louis, MO, provides peanut butter to his poor, toothless, elderly patients, as a souce of protien that didn't require them to chew...
1903: ... after years of work, Dr. Ambrose Strab patents his peanut-butter-making machine.
1904: Peanut butter was featured at the St. Louis World's Fair and soon afterword Beech-Nut and Heinz introduced it nationally, but, because it did not travel well, it needed to be produced regionally.
1910's-1920's: The hydrogenation process was developed. Hydrogenation raised the melting point of peanut butter, so that it remained solid at room temperature (it stopped the separation of the oil from the solids), which gave it a long shelf life. Peanut butter began being mass-manufactured and sold, in both smooth and crunchy form, in glass jars, by companies like Peter Pan and Jif. It quickly became a staple in American kitchens and lunch boxes.
1916: An issue of The Reading Eagle (Pennsylvania), published an article entitled, "Some of Mrs. Wilson's Favorite Recipes: The President's Wife Gives Hints on Cooking", which included a list of cookie recipes, one of which was a recipe for for Peanut Cookies that included peanut butter (and no chopped peanuts).
1917-1920's: Recipes for peanut butter cookies began appearing (and are well-documented) in newspapers, journals, magazines, cookbooks and other publications.
1930: Mrs. Wakefield accidentally invented the chocolate-chip cookie by substituting a chopped up Nestle chocolate bar for nuts in her cookies (because she ran out of nuts in her pantry). She expected the chocolate to melt (to form a chocolate cookie), but it did not, it stayed in chunks. She published her recipe in 1936. Nestle bought it from her in 1939 (for a lifetime supply of chocolate) and printed it on the back of their package.
1936: The Pillsbury Cookbook published their recipe for peanut butter cookies and introduced the famous and beloved criss-cross fork pattern on top of the cookies. The rest is history.
Did you know: Peanut butter contains neither nuts nor butter. Peanuts are legumes (seed pod plants that split up along both sides when ripe), just like beans, lentils, peas and soybeans!
Let's move on and bake some American cookie history:
1/4 cup salted butter, at room temperature (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup butter-flavored shortening, at room temperature
3/4 cup chunky-style peanut butter, your favorite brand
1/2 cup firmly-packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped (chop after measuring)
1/4 cup additional granulated sugar
~ Step 1. Chop the peanuts as directed. You can use a cutting board and a chef's knife, or, if you have one of these "nifty chopper thingies", now is the time to use it. I chopped all of the peanuts in less than a minute. Note: I do not recommend using a food processor, as it tends to chop them too small, which defeats the purpose of chunky peanut butter cookies!
~ Step 2. In a large mixing bowl, place the butter, shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, sugar and egg.
~ Step 3. On medium-high speed of hand-held electric mixer, thoroughly combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a large rubber spatula as you work, until smooth.
~ Step 4. Lower the mixer speed and blend in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Using the rubber spatula, fold in the chopped peanuts.
~ Step 5. Place the granulated sugar in a small, shallow bowl and set aside.
~ Step 6. Line 3, 17 1/2" x 12 1/2" baking pans with parchment paper.
Note: Don't have 3 large baking pans? Your option is to coat, put the criss-cross fork marks on top, and bake the cookies in batches, but pans must be completely cool before placing unbaked cookie dough balls on them.
~ Step 7: Using a 1 3/4" ice-cream scoop as a measure, scoop out some dough, gently drop it into and coat it with the granulated sugar, while at the same time forming it into a 1 1/2" ball.
Place balls, well apart, 9 on each pan.
Note: These cookies are going to spread out quite a bit as they bake, so don't be tempted to try to crowd any more on the pan.
Time for the criss-cross fork marks!
~ Step 8. Using an ordinary table fork, press down on the center of each cookie, until it reaches a thickness of about 1/2". Reverse the direction of the fork and repeat. It's sort of like making a tic-tac-toe board on top of each cookie.
Note: If you're inclined to skip this step, don't. Because this dough is so dense, cookies will not flatten on their own and what you'll end up with are cookies that are burnt on the outside and raw in the inside.
~ Step 9. Bake, one pan at a time, on center rack of preheated 350 degree oven until lightly golden, about 10-12 minutes, or until light-golden and set, but not yet firm. Remove from oven and allow to cool, in pan, 5 minutes. Using a thin spatula, transfer cookies to cooling racks to cool completely, about 30-45 minutes:
Note: While the criss-cross pattern is more visible on peanut butter cookies made with smooth peanut butter, I wouldn't trade the look for the taste and texture of these any day of the week!
My Favorite Salty Cookie is: Chunky Peanut Butter: Recipe yields 2 dozen, 3"-round cookies.
Special Equipment List: cutting board and chef's knife, or, "nifty chopper thingy"; hand-held electric mixer; large rubber spatula; 3, 17 1/2" x 12 1/2" baking pans; parchment paper; 1 3/4" ice-cream scoop; fork; 2 large cooling racks; thin spatula
Cook's Note: I can't write about peanut butter without mentioning this one. If you're looking for another way to get a real-deal peanut butter fix, you can find my recipe for ~ Agnes Starosta's Creamy, Dreamy "Killer" Peanut Butter Fudge ~ in Category 7. This recipe is legendary in our family!
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2013)
Today is part two of "three cookies of my youth" week here on KE. Here in Central PA we're experiencing some unseasonably cold weather, 30-40-degrees (which I dislike), with lots of rain (which I admit we need). I've decided to take advantage of the uncooperative weather, preheat my oven and bake some cookies. Not fancy gourmet cookies either. The kind your mom and grandmom had waiting on the kitchen table with a glass of milk for you and your friends after school. By next week at this time I'll probably be complaining about how hot it is -- there will be plenty of time to switch gears and head outside to the garden and grill when it happens!
On Monday I posted ~ My Favorite Sugar Cookie: The Snickerdoodle ~. You can find the recipe in Category 7, or just click on the Related Article link below. These flat, golden, crispy on the outside, slightly-chewy on the the inside cookies are made with butter and shortening, then rolled in cinnamon and sugar prior to baking. Where I grew up, these "super-yummy cookies with the quirky name" were a very popular and quite common. Never eaten one? I suggest you give this recipe a try ASAP!
If you love spice cakes and cookies as much as I do, you no doubt love gingersnaps. I grew up eating the real-deal ones and it kind of makes me sad that so may of todays youth have not. It's high time they did.
Meet Mel's First Cookbook!
I was 19 and this was one of the gifts given to me for my bridal shower in 1974, by my fiance's grandmother. It's the 1972 edition and 16th printing of Betty Crocker's Cookbook. Pages 144 and 145 were marked and three recipes were underlined: Gingersnaps, Snickerdoodles & Peanut Butter Cookies. These three recipes worked so well, I've changed them very little over almost 40 years.
A bit about the ginger snap, gingersnap, ginger biscuit: These are basically small, unadorned, round versions of those well-known fancy-shaped and often-decorated gingerbread cookies: the traditional German Christmas cookie called "Lebkuchen". "Gingersnap" comes from the fact that they are quite crispy and make a snapping sound with each bite.
All recipes pretty much contain cinnamon, cloves, ginger and sometimes cardamom. At one time allspice was used but was eventually replaced by cloves. Gingersnaps have long been favored in England and Germany and were brought to America by our colonists, who brought the ingredients, in powdered form, along with molasses, which was much less expensive than sugar!
Real-deal gingersnaps are NOT hard as rocks (like you buy in the store). They're full-flavored, they are crispy on the outside, and, they've got slightly-chewy centers!
Nobody can eat just one. Got milk?
3/4 cup butter-flavored shortening, at room temperature
1 cup firmly-packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup full-flavor molasses
2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
~ Step 1. In a large mixing bowl, place the shortening, brown sugar, egg and molasses.
Tip: Molasses is a sticky liquid. If you 'grease' the measuring cup with some shortening, butter or no-stick cooking spray, it will glide right out. This works well for honey, maple syrup, ketchup and mustard too!
~ Step 2. On medium-speed of hand-held electric mixer, thoroughly combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a large rubber spatula as you work, until smooth, about 2 minutes.
~ Step 3. Lower the mixer speed and blend in the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Continue to blend until mixture forms a mass, about 3 minutes.
~ Step 4. Transfer the cookie dough to a food storage container, cover and refrigerate until well-chilled, about 1-1/2-2 hours.
~ Step 5. Line, 3, 17 1/2" x 12 1/2" baking pans with parchment paper. Place the granulated sugar in a small bowl.
Note: Don't have 3 pans? Coat and bake in batches, but pans must be completely cool before placing unbaked dough balls on them.
~ Step 6. Using a 1 1/2" ice-cream scoop as a measure, scoop out some dough, gently drop it into and coat it with the granulated sugar, while at the same time forming it into a 1 1/4" ball. Place balls, well-apart, 12 on each pan.
Note: While one pan is in the oven, do not roll more cookies and place on the next pan. Put dough back in the refrigerator to keep cold, meaning: if dough is kept at a constant temperature, all pans of cookies will bake the same.
~ Step 7. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 10 minutes or until cookies are set and look "crackly" on top. Watch carefully after 8 minutes.
~ Step 8. Remove from oven and allow to cool, in pan, about 3-4 minutes. Using a thin spatula, transfer cookies to cooling racks to cool completely:
My Favorite Spice-y Cookie is: The Ginger Snap: Recipe yields 3 dozen, 2"-round cookies.
Special Equipment List: hand-held electric mixer; large rubber spatula; food storage container w/tight fitting lid; 3, 17 1/2" x 12 1/2" baking pans; parchment paper; 1 1/2" ice-cream scoop; 2-4 large cooking racks; thin spatula
Cook's Note: "Nana" gave me another bridal shower gift too: this baking pan, spatula, measuring cups, spoons and a handwritten copy of ~ Nana's Applesauce-Oatmeal-Raisin-Walnut Cake ~, taped to the bottom of the pan. You can find the recipe in Category 6!
I truly do come from a foodie family!
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 3013)
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