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Breakfast musings

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:30:31 +0000

Alright, perhaps I’ve been working too much and sleeping too little. While eating breakfast today, I had a craving for a glass of chocolate milk. While sipping my drink, I glanced around the kitchen and noticed the bag of Rice Krispies sitting on the microwave (memories of marshmallow-y treats past and crisp rice brittle yet to come, all dance in my head), I found myself contemplating this culinary conundrum:

If you pour chocolate milk over your Rice Krispies, is it just the same as eating regular milk and Cocoa Krispies?

Hey, I warned you I might not be getting enough sleep…

Chef Glenn Burgess

Chef Luella Semmes on The Natural Pantry from Canvas Long Island magazine

Chef Luella Semmes — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:01:38 +0000

It’s a New Year—a time for resolutions, setting personal goals, and starting a clean slate. Some people start as early as December to prepare for the New Year by cleaning their homes from top to bottom, getting rid of clutter and all the messy accumulations that invaded the house throughout the year. One likely household candidate that lacks attention throughout the year is the kitchen pantry. Depending on the organization of your pantry and your frequency of cooking, items can be lost for years until they re-surface after a thorough kitchen cleaning. Let’s face it, most of us don’t adhere to a regular schedule of kitchen maintenance on top of our multitude of daily tasks.

If your New Year’s resolution is taking great care to exercise a wholesome approach to eating, now is a great time to clean out those shelves and stock up on healthy ingredients.

Here are some handy tips to keep your resolution in check:

Pancake syrup vs. maple syrup. Only pure maple syrup can be called Maple Syrup on the label. Pancake syrup such as Aunt Jemima and Log Cabin is made from high fructose corn syrup. The evidence is on the label.
Use less disposables. Replace paper napkins with cloth napkins. Buy a stainless steel cup holder to stop hoarding plastic bottles.
Minimize soda intake. Load up on natural juices and hydrate with water. It’s not a secret that sodas are high in sugar and caloric intake, and contribute to weight gain.
Stock up on organic rolled oats. It’s a healthy alternative for breakfast and a wholesome snack as a parfait with yogurt. It is also filling and a good source of fiber, keeping your hunger at a minimum throughout the day.
Substitute meat with quinoa. With the cost of meat on the rise, quinoa is a healthy substitute for protein that can be cooked in stews, salads, and with your favorite vegetables.
Make your own almond butter. Almonds have the property of lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol and increasing HDL (the good cholesterol). Spread some on whole grain toast, spoon into your salad, and add to your baked treats.
Set up a seasonal pantry by refreshing your staples every season from ingredients found at the farmer’s market. Remember to store seasonal sugars, spices, flours, oils, and herbs in air-tight containers that are clearly labeled with a date. Oils for marinades and vinaigrettes should be kept in their original bottles since they have a shorter shelf life.

If random inspections were to take place throughout several households, pantry items would most likely be found alarmingly beyond their expiration date. A quick way to alleviate this dilemma is by creating an open pantry with minimal depth. A pantry should generally have low light and humidity, and a cool temperature. It would be helpful to minimize the depth so ingredients are not difficult to find and there would be less chance of staying on the shelf for years to come. A helpful food list and storage life can be found on the Cornell Cooperative Extension website at www.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk.

Chef Luella Semmes

Your Kitchen Companion, LLC

www.kitchencompanion.org

631-830-7998

Interactive Cooking Classes are a Good Thing

Chef Lia Soscia — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:53:28 +0000

We’ve already told you the many reasons to hire a personal chef and cooking lessons is one of these reasons. Interactive cooking classes have been growing in popularity. Hosting a hands-on cooking class as entertainment in your own home is a “good thing” for a bridal party according to Martha Stewart and her bloggers! See the blog at Martha Stewart Weddings

Interactive cooking classes in your own kitchen conducted by one of our trained chefs is perfect for any occasion and makes a great gift that is unique and very thoughtful!

Happy cooking,

Chef Lia Soscia, CPC

Breaking in a New Kitchen

admin — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:42:22 +0000

My brother-in-law just built his dream house 2,000 feet up the side of a mountain in North Carolina. By extension, my sister-in-law just built her dream kitchen. It’s a lovely open design, oak cabinets, sage green walls, brand new stainless appliances. The view across the kitchen sink is of a valley with the French Broad River snaking between two mountains, the sound of it’s rushing water a pleasant undertone to the call of birds, the buzzing of hummingbird wings and the rustling of the leaves. I’m most envious of all the cabinets & counter space that she has (why is it that most people with families make do living in a fairly small home, then when the kids are about to leave for college they upgrade to a home four times the size?) And we won’t even discuss her pantries (yes folks, not just one but two pantries….)

When we visited, they were still in the process of unpacking. While they waited for their dream home to be built, they rented a house even smaller than their home on Long Island, so much of their “stuff” has been in storage for nearly two years. My sister-in-law said it was like Christmas all over again, going through boxes and rediscovering all her treasures, unseen for so long.

You can’t put a personal chef in a brand new kitchen and not think he won’t want to cook, so they quickly adapted to me making dinner. It’s my way of thanking them for letting us stay in their home. The paint in the house is barely dry, and I’m trying to replace that new carpet smell with the aromas of roasted chicken and frying bacon.

Speaking of bacon, a trip to the grocery store in North Carolina provided some fresh perspective on the culinary differences between the North and the South. I have never before seen “hog jowl bacon” for sale, but you can find it at Ingles grocery store. Should you need it, you can also buy “cracklins” in a convenient 1lb package. It’s definitely different down there.

At least my sister-in-law actually uses her kitchen. She cooks, she even bakes cookies from scratch. Even my brother-in-law can hold his own; he used to do a lot of the cooking at his firehouse before he retired from the NYC Fire Department. So I don’t begrudge her a kitchen three times the size of mine. Ok, so I’m insanely jealous of her double convection ovens. I’ll get over it. At least until the next time we visit.

Bon Appetit!

Chef Glenn Burgess