Dancing Spoon

Planning Thanksgiving Dinner

Planning Holiday

by J. Michael Wheeler
Thanksgiving Tips: Game Plan
There’s no question about it, for me, Thanksgiving is absolutely the best holiday: it’s all about getting together with friends and family and eating a great meal. No Christmas present stresses or New Year’s Eve anxiety. Cook a lot of good food and share it with friends and family. One of my favorite Thanksgivings was when I was in college in San Diego and I organized an “Orphan’s Thanksgiving” for my fellow college friends who wouldn’t be traveling home for the holiday. It was a bit less than traditional, but the spirit certainly was there.

Of course, for the host, Thanksgiving might not be all that stress-free. Still-frozen turkeys, wallpaper-paste gravies, and well, we’ve all got our stories (we’d love to yours). So in the interest of everyone enjoying our favorite holiday, we’re sharing with you some tips for a great Thanksgiving. We’ll start out with an overall game plan that we call, cleverly, T-Day Game Plan.

Break it Down
Sit down with paper and pen well before your first trip to the grocery store (yes, you’ll shop in phases) and starting with the menu, break the T-Day undertakings into steps. This will give you a bird’s eye view (couldn’t resist that one) of what needs to be done and when. As you accomplish each task you can check it off, giving you a measure of your progress, as well as what tasks remain to be done. Learn to love Lists.

Big Helpful Tip: Organize all of the recipes you plan to use ahead of time. Photocopy each recipe from your cookbook, recipe card, or torn out newspaper article and create your own personal T-Day Cookbook for that meal. With all of your recipes together, in one place, you won’t have to flip through several books and different pages.

How Hot Is that Grill?

Basics Grilling

by J. Michael Wheeler
Heat & Fuel
Cooking on an open fire goes all the way back to prehistoric Barbecue-Man. And while he probably wasn't clutching a can of Budweiser in one hand and a can of charcoal starter in the other, the basics of cooking over an open fire remain the same. And it doesn't get more basic than burning stuff and how hot it needs to get.

If you use a gas grill for your outdoor cooking your selection of fuels is, well, gas. But for those of us who prefer to cook on real fire, there are more choices. Here are some of them:

Lump Charcoal Usually made from softwood. It comes in a variety of sizes. Easy to light, but quick burning.

Charcoal Briquettes Slow burning, easy to find. Some claim they give food an unpleasant taste.

Self-igniting Charcoal Briquettes or lump charcoal treated with a flammable substance. Easy to light. Let all of that flammable substance burn away before cooking.

Wood Hardwoods like oak and olive burn slowly and the aromatic smoke imparts a great taste to the food. Wood fires must be tended carefully to keep an even and steady heat.

How Hot is Hot Enough?
"Heat your grill to medium-high and place the . . ." How do you determine the temperature of your grill? While some grills have built-in temperature gauges, and there are even infrared heat seekers to tell you how hot your grill is, you've got a couple of built-in thermometers yourself: your hands.

Place your hand, palm facing down, just above the grill where you'll be cooking. (Please don't wear long, loose-fitting clothing while grilling.) Without being too macho about it, hold your hand over that spot and count how many seconds it takes before you say "ouch" and have to take your hand away from the grill.

Here's a chart to help you determine your grill's temperature. If you can hold your hand above the grill for this long, the grill is that hot:

· Two seconds is high heat
· Three seconds is medium-high heat
· Four seconds is medium heat
· Five seconds is medium-low heat
· Six seconds is low heat
· Seven seconds or more means you have time to open another beer

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Really Simple Quiche

Simplified Cooking

by J. Michael Wheeler
Really Simple Quiche
There are several techniques in cooking that I call foundation cooking. One of those is the quiche. There is nothing complicated or difficult about making a quiche.

But I hear you say, "Yes, but what about the pie crust? That’s not quick or simple!”  Oh, but it is! Here’s my foolproof pie crust recipe: Go to Whole Foods Market and buy their really delicious (made with good ingredients) frozen pie crusts. You just fill the crust (still frozen) and pop it in the oven. The crust’s flaky, tender, and tasty. So we’ve got the crust out of the way, now to the filling.

Ever made a cheese omelet? A quiche is pretty much the same thing.

Keep Veggies Colorful

Tips Tasty

by Anna Tourkakis
How to Keep Color, Texture, and Nutrients in Cooked Vegetables
Fresh vegetables are the foundation of both nutrition and exceptional meals. They provide our bodies with valuable vitamins and minerals and add color and texture to our meals. Bright beautiful greens, reds, oranges, purples, and yellows are a taste-treat for the eyes and their crunchy texture adds interest to every bite. The basic guidelines for cooking vegetables are: quick cooking, minimum water, and use of a lid. These simple guides will help retain color, texture, and nutrients.

The common methods for cooking vegetables, boiling, steaming, stir-frying and sautéing are all suitable for quick cooking. When boiling vegetables the first questions are always, “how much water to use,” and “should I cover the pot?” Vegetables are added to just enough boiling water to cover them. Cook them to fork-tender. The use of a lid depends on the flavor of the vegetables. Mild flavored vegetables such as carrots, corn, winter squash and potatoes should be cooked with the lid on. Stronger flavored vegetables such as green beans, broccoli and zucchini are best cooked without a lid which allows volatile compounds to escape. These last veggies should be cooked in water one-half to one inch above the vegetables. This dilutes the volatile compounds and prevents discoloration. 

In steaming, stir-frying and sautéing methods, vegetables should be cut to a uniform small size for quick, even cooking. Typically, stir-fry vegetables are cut into thin strips. Sautéing is suitable for tender or thinly sliced vegetables. Steaming is best for retaining water soluble vitamins regardless of a longer cooking time. 

These basic procedures ensure bright colored and crunchy textured vegetables with its many nutrients retained.

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Anna Q. Tourkakis, DTR, MPA is a nutritional counselor. She teaches nutrition to food service professionals at North Shore Community College and does cooking demonstrations and healthy eating related presentations. Anna Q. Tourkakis, DTR, MPA is a nutritional counselor. She teaches nutrition to food service professionals at North Shore Community College and does cooking demonstrations and healthy eating related presentations.

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How to Smoke Cheese

Cheese Smokin'

by J. Michael Wheeler
How to Smoke Cheese
Don, a reader of Dancing Spoon, was browsing through Foodie’s Emporium (our online store) in the Grilling category when he came across EZ Smoke, our natural wood chip smoker in a can. He asked:

Can you cold smoke with ez smoker. I want to smoke cheese. Thanks Don

Yes, Don, you can. And it’s a simple process.

Just about any kind of cheese can be smoked. Most commonly known are smoked provolones, mozzarellas, cheddars, and goudas, but goat cheeses and even blue cheeses can be deliciously smoked. Because of it’s low melting temperature, cheese must be smoked using the cold smoked technique. Cold smoking takes place at temperatures of 90 degrees or less. Here's how to smoke cheese:

1. After selecting your cheeses (at least 8 oz each) for smoking, unwrap them and set on aluminum pans. Leave at room temperature for 1-2 hours. The cheese will form a slight skin that will protect it from melting while allowing the smoke to penetrate. 

2. When your cheese has set, prepare a grill with a lid. Place 3-4 pieces of charcoal on one side of the grill and light them. The goal is to produce smoke, but not heat. If you have a small grill you may need to use less charcoal at the onset and add a piece of charcoal if you want to smoke the cheese longer. Leave lid off initially, to prevent heat build up.

3. Select one of our EZ Smoke BBQ wood flavors, Apple, Mesquite, Pecan or Hickory. When the coals are hot, peel off the can’s seal and place on top of the coals. (You don’t need to soak the EZ Smoke chips.)

4. Place the aluminum pans on your grill on the opposite side of the charcoal and close the lid. Open the top and side vents to allow the smoke to circulate.

5. Check the cheeses after about a half hour to make sure they are not melting, and then every 15 to 20 minutes to taste the cheese. Remove the cheese when they have absorbed the smoky flavor you desire.

6. Remove the cheeses, let them cool, and enjoy. Store as you normally would.

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Peel off the seal and put the flavor into your meal with EZ Smoke BBQ! Four varieties of natural wood chips flavors to give your meats, poultry, fish or vegetables a unique smoky taste with no mess or fuss. Re-usable up to 3 times. Quick and easy! No soaking, no mess, no flying ash. Produces natural wood smoke in about 2 minutes. One can of EZ Smoke produces the same amount of smoking time as a 180 cubic inch bag of chips. Easy to use! Simply remove the label, place can on coals or lava rocks, and within minutes it begins to smoke. Grill as you normally would. Use on gas or charcoal grills.

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Stay Sharp: How to Use a Steel

Tips Kitchen

 by J. Michael Wheeler
How to Keep Your Knives Sharp
Did you ever notice that the chefs in their tall white toques at the banquets, brunches, and museum openings you’re always going to, seem to sharpen their knives a lot? They’ve got a knife in one hand and a sharpening steel (pictured here) in the other. But while they may be making their knives sharper using the sharpening steel, they’re not really sharpening their knives!

“Picky, picky, picky,” you say. Well, yes, but let me make a point. (Sorry.) To actually sharpen a knife you need to use a knife sharpening tool, an electric sharpener, or traditionally, a sharpening stone. Whichever tool you use, it reshapes the knife’s cutting edge by grinding away tiny amounts of the blade. If you’ve carefully sharpened the blade at a 20 degree angle, you’ve got a sharp knife.

But while your knife may be sharp, the edge of your knife will be left rough and uneven. A sharpening steel aligns the blade and tiny burrs. And just a few minutes of slicing can knock your knife’s delicate edge out of alignment, and even microscopically bend or fold the edge. Time, again, for the sharpening steel.

Knife designer Adam Simha has these tips on maintaining your knife’s sharpness by using a sharpening steel. And please, be careful.

Five Simple Kitchen Tips

Org Kitchen

by Nancy Black, Professional Organizer
Five Simple Kitchen Organizing Tips
Having an organized kitchen will save you time and money. You’ll save time by having what you need easily accessible; you’ll save money because you won’t buy duplicates of things that you already have!

Here are five simple kitchen organizing tips:
1. Alphabetize your spices so that you will be able to see which spices you already have, avoiding duplicate purchases.
2. Use drawer organizers to arrange items in “junk drawers” and drawers used for cooking utensils. Use appropriate organizers to accommodate different utensil’s sizes and shapes.
3. Use rectangular storage containers to store foods in the refrigerator: they stack well and allow you to store more food in the same space. 
4. Small packages of nonperishable foods can be organized in containers to keep them neat and visible.
5. Know the interior measurements of your refrigerator, kitchen cabinets, and pantry. This let’s you choose the right containers or shelf dividers to make the use of the space you have.

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Still overwhelmed? Don’t know where to start?
Nancy Black is a Professional Organizer
Contact [email protected] for more kitchen organizing tips.  
www.organizationplus.com

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My Life in France
by Julia Child
Julie Child's memoir of her first embrace of France and cooking. Julia Child singlehandedly created a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she was not always a master chef. 

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
by Julie Powell
Julie & Julia, the bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is now a major motion picture. Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto. The film is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.

Hand selected Books for Foodies are at Foodie's Emporium! 

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The Right Potato-Salad-Potato

Tips Cooking

by Anna Tourkakis
Great potato salads start with the right potato.
Salads are a staple of summer menus. Ever present at cookouts, picnics, and just about any party this time of year, is the potato salad. Making a great potato salad starts with the right potato. Choose a potato that remains in distinct pieces after cooking. The right choice is the waxy type potato.

There are two basic types of potatoes, waxy and non-waxy. The difference is due to their relative content of sugar and starch. The waxy potatoes are high in sugar and low in starch. The non-waxy potatoes are just the opposite: high in starch and low in sugar. These qualities influence how well they hold their shape during cooking.

Non-waxy type potatoes, such as the Idaho or russet potato, with their higher starch content, are ideal for mashing, baking and frying. The waxy potato, such as Yukon gold and red potatoes, with their low starch content, are better suited for preparing boiled potatoes. Waxy potatoes retain a distinct outline after cooking is completed and hold their shape well during preparation.  Usually, potatoes that are round in shape, with a thin, smooth, and lighter colored skin tend to be waxy; long flat potatoes with thicker, darker, and coarser skin tend to be non-waxy.  

The potato of choice for a potato salad boasting solid pieces are Yukon gold, red potatoes, and other varieties of waxy potato.

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Anna Q. Tourkakis, DTR, MPA is a nutritional counselor. She teaches nutrition to food service professionals at North Shore Community College and does cooking demonstrations and healthy eating related presentations.

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Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express
Presented here are 404 dishes -- 101 for each season -- that will get you in and out of the kitchen in 20 minutes or less. Mark Bittman's recipe sketches provide exactly the directions a home cook needs to prepare a repertoire of eggs, seafood, poultry, meats, vegetables, sandwiches, and even desserts. Add a salad here, a loaf of bread there, and these dishes become full meals that are better than takeout and far less expensive.

Because good ingredients are the backbone of delicious home cooking, Bittman includes a guide to the foods you'll want on hand to cook the Kitchen Express way, as well as suggestions for seasonal menus and lists of recipes for specific uses, like brown-bag lunches or the best dishes for reheating. With Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express, you can have dinner on the table in not much more time than it takes to read a traditional recipe.

Hand selected books for foodes are at Foodie's Emporium! Click here.

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Two Skewer Kebabs

Tips Grilling

by J. Michael Wheeler
Wrestling Skewers
Grilling shrimp, veggies, and other small tasty kebab items on skewers is a great technique: until you’re ready to flip the skewer. Then, often the skewer will turn but some, or all, of the those kebab-ers won’t budge. They just spin on the skewer or try to escape entirely. Here’s the secret: thread each piece of food with two parallel skewers. Then when it’s time to turn the food, you can use tongs to turn the skewers. The food stays put, cooks more evenly, and the kebabs are easy to handle.

Grilling Recipes
We've got some very tasty summer recipes at Dancing Spoon Magazine. Try Kate Gooding's Grilled Shitake Encrusted Buffalo Rib Steaks & Warm Black Fly Vinaigrette Salad, Smoked Duck in a Raspberry Sauce is from her new Dancing Spoon column Out of the Ordinary. Gloria Bakst brings us Black Cod or Sable Grilled in Miso Marinade and Nori Topped Summer Salad an inventive, refreshing salad using a world of ingredients.
Find more grilling recipes, Click here.

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EZ Smoke BBQ 3-pack (1 each: Hickory, Mesquite, Apple).

EZ Smoke BBQ 3-pack (1 each: Hickory, Mesquite, Apple)
Peel off the seal and put the flavor into your meal with EZ Smoke BBQ! Four varieties of natural wood chips flavors your meats, poultry, fish or vegetables with a unique smoky taste with no mess or fuss. Re-usable up to 3 times. Quick and easy! No soaking, no mess, no flying ash. Produces natural wood smoke in about 2 minutes. Use on gas or charcoal grills. Ready to use in seconds, and can be used throughout the year. Compact and easy to transport, great for boat and RV owners, capers, tailgaters, hunters and fishermen. Easy to use! Simply remove the label, place can on coals or lava rocks, and within minutes it begins to smoke. Grill as you normally would. Easy to store! One can of EZ smoke produces the same amount of smoking time as a 180 cubic inch bag of chips. EZ Smoke BBQ chips adds flavor to foods when gas grilling.

Hand selected grills and grill accessories are at Foodie's Emporium!
Click here.

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Wine: Healthy & Happy

Wine About

by J. Michael Wheeler
Eric Olson sent us some thoughts about wine and health:

How good is a glass or three a night for your health? Many of you have, no doubt, been reading the latest about wine and health and, like me, are quite pleased. Not in a told you so attitude, but you had to wonder why we feared a natural product from the earth that's been around for centuries, if not longer. "Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" just about sums it up (Ben Franklin).

I came across a nice succinct piece from an article in Wine Spectator’s Wine & Health News entitled "Wine and Health Round-table" that had many quotes from doctors and other professionals in the health field. Amid all the claims and counter claims one quote stood out, from Dr. Mitchell Krukoff, Duke Medical Cardiac Center, as making, I thought, the best sense: "Wine is at the core of some of the most balanced human lifestyles. I'm sure you've heard of the Mediterranean diet. I think as much as chemistry is interesting – at the end of the day, the real message is where does (wine) fit in your lifestyle? How does it help balance this very amped-up, stress riddled culture that we all live in, with the ability to feel relaxed, to breath and to actually enjoy what God has given us.” Good job, Ben and Mitchell. Pour yourself a nice glass of wine tonight, swirl it around, breath deeply, relax and smile. It just might be good for you.

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Aerates your wine while you pour it!

Soiree Bottle-top Wine Decanter
The Soiree is a wine accessory that fits into any standard corked wine bottle, and comes with an extra gasket that will work with any screw cap bottle; allowing you to pour, without dripping, directly through the Soiree. Once you place the Soiree in the wine bottle, the Soiree aerates your wine as you pour it. The Soiree allows you to decant just the portion of wine you want - a glass or a carafe. The Soiree can also be used to pour the wine into a decanter, further expediting the "opening" of your wine. Soiree fits securely into any wine bottle allowing you to pour, without dripping directly through the Soiree. In using the Soiree to aerate your wine, you will notice the subtleties and character of the wine emerge immediately upon entering your glass. Soiree delivers a truly open wine just by pouring through it!

Hand selected wine accessories are at Foodie's Emporium! Click here.

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