Going on a cooking or baking frenzy is fun, sometimes challenging and tiring. I love trying new recipes (and if you didn’t feel the same, you probably would not be reading my blog), so when I needed to bring goodies for a women’s meeting, I went through the hundreds of to-try recipes I have in my “internet” cookbook arsenal. This is one, and coming up in the next week will be 2 others.

What I wanted were some varied baked things – not just cookies, or bars. Three other women were on my committee and they brought fruit, cold drinks and peanut butter & jelly treats (on bagels). Sometimes the hostess serves coffeecake, since the meeting is in the morning, but I’ve noticed that rarely do people take any of it. I thought finger food would be the best. First up is this easy zucchini bread, a sweet bread that used about 2 zucchini.

The recipe is simple enough, one devised by Peabody, over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Way back in 2008. But who’s counting any of the recipes we set aside to make . . . some day?

You may recall that a few years ago I went through my ancient files – recipes dating from about 1962 to 1995. Within each of those folders were ones I’d made and ones to try (mixing them in the same folder was a bad idea), just divided into categories like salad, beef, veggies, etc. Once I retired in 1995 I started entering all of my favorite recipes into MasterCook and then throwing away the clippings. That took nearly a year, pulling some from those clippings, and many others from cookbooks with flags on the pages. But there were still hundreds – gee, maybe a thousand or more – clippings in the pocket folders. A few years ago I started systematically going through those folders again, tossing some and re-sorting them into sub-categories and returning them to the Pentaflex hangars. As time has gone on, I rarely even refer to those recipes anymore – maybe only every 3 months or so. That tells me I should get rid of them, Period. But gosh, is that ever hard! Don’t know if I can do it. To do so, I’ll have to go through them yet again. Sigh . . . so many recipes, never enough time. I seem to veer toward new recipes, either ones I find on the internet or in the hundreds of cookbooks I own. I could cook for 10 years with nothing but 4-5 of my newer cookbooks. Well, I will think about all that another day . . .

Back to this chocolate zucchini bread. Divine. Oh, I think that’s a no-no word in foodie culture. Bloggers use way too many superlative adverbs – yummy, luscious, delicious, fantastic, greatest, and we’re supposed to nearly forget about using an exclamation point. Oh dear. I’m guilty. Garrett McCord (from Vanilla Garlic) wrote up a post recently about not using the following words: nice, good, bad, great, unctuous (which he says has a totally different meaning than food writers [me included] may use it for) and better than sex. I don’t think I’ve ever used that last phrase, but undoubtedly I’ve used all of the others. But McCord cautions bloggers to clarify – if it’s nice, explain exactly what makes it nice. Or if it’s good, exactly how or why it’s good. I think I do that ever since I added the little blurbs at the bottom of my posts – the what’s good and what’s not. I’ve had a few of my friends tell me that they bypass all the paragraphs I write and simply go to the what’s good and what’s not to decide if they’re going read the recipe and/or print/save it. Or not.

What’s different about this bread is the addition of mascarpone cheese in the mixture. It also is a buttermilk based batter – I always like using buttermilk since it makes cakes and breads so very tender. This one included. My only difficulty was getting the very center cooked through. I used a different sized pan, so I expected the timing to be different than the stated recipe, but after researching all over the ‘net I’ve concluded that moist short (non-yeast) breads like banana bread and I’ll include this bread in the same category since it’s moist from the zucchini, should be baked to an internal temp of about 200°. Some recipes say 190° or even as high as 210° – and I baked mine to 190°, but only after the bread cooled and I cut into the very center, did I discovered that it wasn’t quite cooked, right down the center, inside that crack in the ridge and down about 1/2 inch or so.

The age-old test of whether a cake/bread is done, using the toothpick test, still seems to be a good one, though, if you don’t have an instant read thermometer.

What’s GOOD: loved this stuff. It has the heft of a bread, but it’s very tender (thin slices are not possible with this). It’s not a cake, though – maybe it’s something in between. The chocolate flavor is just right. And if you shred the zucchini finely (mine were a bit on the more-medium sized) you’ll not even see it. It freezes well. A real winner of a recipe, thanks to Peabody.
What’s NOT: nothing, whatsoever. Very worth making.

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A few photos from the Dungeness Barn B&B near Sequim, Washington.

Whenever we plan a trip, I frequent Trip Advisor. It’s my favorite trip planning site, no matter where I’m going. I scour their site for ideas about places to go, things to do, and mostly for places to stay. Then once the plan is in place I research restaurants. After Dave and I more-or-less decided our destinations (British Columbia and specifically Vancouver Island – near Victoria) I started plotting the trip on a physical map, finally deciding we’d go to the Olympic Peninsula area first, since Dave had never been to the Park there. We thought about driving the whole way from So. California to British Columbia (I do 99% of the driving), but with us still in full summer temps, it would have been several days of fairly uncomfortable heat. So, we flew into Seattle, rented a car and drove about 3 hours or so out onto the Olympic Peninsula. My parents actually lived in Port Townsend, WA for a few years before they returned to Southern California their last 10 years (mid-80s to mid-90s).

We stayed at a B&B in Sequim (pronounced skwim), a little town in between Port Townsend and Port Angeles. An adorable place called the Dungeness Barn Bed & Breakfast, a few miles outside of the Sequim village, right on the ocean. We loved our room (on the ground floor), loved the inn itself (used to be a dairy barn back in the day, now converted to a B&B), loved the owner(s), and thought the breakfasts were off the charts.

We spent 2 days and nights there, and on the in between day we drove up to the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. It was a clear day – the sun shone brightly most of the day – and it was well worth the drive. Pictures below are ones I took in the park. The deer (protected, obviously), were quite tame, although once you got within about 10 feet of them, they’d skitter away. Prior to our trip, I visited the webcams up on the mountaintop several times, to get an idea about the weather. In case you’re interested, here’s a website that provides lots of info about the Park – called 10Adventures.

A very small aside piece of trivia – the green plant you see just above – the leaves are shaped the way they are because often the summers are dry, so the leaves provide a trough for any dew or raindrops to nourish the bush so it can stay alive during the short, but hot summer.

We had dinner one night at the Alder Wood Bistro. A great choice. We went early, as it’s one of the most popular restaurants in the region. Had a super dinner including some fried calamari that was as good as any I’ve ever eaten.

After we spent part of the day at the top of Hurricane Ridge, we drove back down to nearly sea level and drove 20-30 miles further west to Lake Crescent. It’s also part of the park, and has one of those old, clapboard wood lodges and cabins that are such nice summertime retreats for families. We didn’t stay there (it’s somewhat pricey, but all the rooms are for a small group, starting at about $200+ per night), but we sat out on the lake edge, in comfy (but hard) Adirondack chairs looking out on the shimmering lake and watching people dive into the lake from the small pier. We had our Kindles with us, so we just sat and enjoyed the tranquility for an hour or so. The place is the Lake Crescent Lodge, if you’re interested. Our dinner in the Lodge was not memorable. In fact I returned my pork loin dinner because it had been brined and it was too salty for me to eat. Ordered salmon instead. It was okay; not great. But the scenery was beautiful.

The next morning we drove to Port Angeles and lined up at the ferry dock to board the car ferry to Victoria. After an uneventful and pleasant ferry ride, we disembarked in downtown Victoria and headed out. I’ll tell you about the next segment of the trip in a couple of days.

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Does this cake look like it’s sitting on a mirror? It isn’t really – it just mounded high in my bundt pan and sits awkwardly on it’s top/bottom and it happens that the chocolate swirl just looks quite reflective. Anyway, this is one of those easy cake-mix concoctions, and a winner it is. Read on . . .

If I’d ever heard of this cake before, I don’t recall it. But I was intrigued after reading Bonny Wolf’s book, Talking with My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Stories. I wrote up a post about it – I loved the book. Loved Bonny Wolf’s creative writing and the fun, witty and interesting stories she writes. Included in the book were a smattering of recipes. As I searched the internet for info about this cake I discovered than the genesis of it was a Pillsbury bake-off for that tunnel of fudge cake. Remember that? This is reminiscent of that cake, but it does not have the lava cake oozing in the middle as the bake-off recipe did. That cake called for a buttercream frosting packaged mix that Pillsbury no longer produces. So bakers have devised other recipes. This definitely isn’t one of those, so don’t be confused here. This cake is just a chocolate pistachio swirl cake.

A couple of days ago I gave you the recipe for the chocolate syrup. Oh, what a revelation that was! Home made chocolate syrup. I used 2/3 cup of it in this cake. The yellow (or white) cake mix batter is mixed with a pkg of instant pistachio pudding (the dry stuff, makes the batter quite green), then you add in orange juice (that was a bit different), oil, eggs, water, etc. Part is poured into the pan, then the remaining is mixed with the chocolate syrup, poured on top, swirled with a knife and baked. The finished cake has virtually no green tint to it – maybe the heat baked out the color, but I’ll tell you, when I started, the batter was definitely green!

Not wanting to over bake it, I researched the internal temp of baked cake – 190°. (Across the internet, recommendations varied between 190° and 214°, but the one suggesting the high temp was for a pound cake – I decided to go for the low temp.) So, with my oven at 350°, the cake took 55 minutes for me. I let it rest for 15 minutes, then inverted it. The recipe indicated to dust with powdered sugar. I didn’t do that part, as I was serving the cake at an outdoor music event (our local symphony performing music from Pixar movies) and we eat dessert at intermission, sitting in our seats along with cups of coffee and Bailey’s. Trying to dust with sugar at that point just would be too difficult. All 6 of us who had the cake raved about it though, with or without the sugar!

What’s GOOD: the cake is incredibly moist. The kind of moist that is hard to get outside of using a cake mix. It was quite easy to make. I did make the chocolate syrup (but you don’t have to) as well. The cake kept very well for several days. The chocolate flavor will depend entirely on the brand and type of cocoa you use. Mine was a higher fat Natural Dutch Process cocoa (24%) from Penzey’s. Or use Hershey’s Special Dark. Everyone liked the chocolaty flavor.
What’s NOT: nothing other than I don’t keep instant pistachio pudding on hand, so a trip to the market was required!

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Can you believe that’s real? This photo (yes, I took it) has not been photo-enhanced – not one single bit. That’s the straight picture right out of my camera. It was taken a few nights ago when we were having dinner on Lummi Island, Washington. The sun is setting over the hills on Orcas Island. Obviously, we’ve been on a trip. You’ll see more about this in coming days. I’ve sorted the photos, re-sized most of them for including in posts here on the blog. Now I just need to write up the stories. This will do for today. The temperature that evening was about 65° F after a mostly cloudy/rainy/misty/foggy day so typical of the Pacific Northwest.

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Oh, chocolate syrup, where have you been all my life? I cannot believe that since I started cooking when I was 20, to now when I’m in my 70s, that I’ve never thought to MAKE chocolate syrup. But of course, home made syrup would be better than the Hershey’s plastic squeeze bottle. Ha. By a long shot!

And it’s so EASY! It’s nothing more than water, sugar, powdered cocoa (unsweetened, Dutch process), salt and vanilla. You do have to cook it – but hey, it takes less than 10 minutes to make, start to finish, including going to get the ingredients. So you’ll have no excuse for not trying it.

I will tell you, however, that I buy a specialty cocoa, Penzey’s, their half pound bag. Their cocoa is really chocolaty, dark and doesn’t lump. I only use it in special things I make – where I’m sure the taste will come through in the finished baked good. I also use Hershey’s Special Dark when I can find it, but I’m all out of it at the moment.

The recipe came from Gourmet, back in 2003, according to epicurious. I looked at several recipes before I tried this one. Why this one? Because one commenter said she’s tried lots and lots of syrup recipes and once she tried this one, she’s never looked back. That was all the convincing I needed. Another commenter said this syrup is addictive – when you realize that it’s nearly fat-free – it’s not like eating chocolate candy, but you get the taste of full chocolate – she’d even sneak in the refrigerator now and then for a spoonful.

In a couple of days I’ll post a recipe for a bundt cake that I made with this chocolate syrup, then you’ll know why I went to the trouble of making the syrup myself. Once you dissolve (boil) the sugar and water, you add the cocoa and use a whisk to mix it in. The cocoa wants to clump, so using a whisk is necessary. I actually used one of those bounce-up-and-down whisks for this, to make sure there weren’t any little pockets of cocoa. It simmers for 3 minutes, while you whisk, and it’s done. It thickens up more when it cools. With my spatula in hand, once I poured all the syrup in the jar you see at top, I carefully scraped every last smidgen into my mouth. <grin>

So far I haven’t tried it ON anything, but if I do so before this post goes up, I’ll come back in and edit this part. What I tasted on the spoon was sensational. That ultra-dark chocolate taste I was looking for.

What’s GOOD: how EASY it is to make. I’ll never go back to Hershey’s squeeze bottle. Taste is fantastic; of course, the quality of the cocoa powder will determine how great the chocolate flavor is. Worth seeking out some good stuff.

What’s NOT: gosh, nothing.

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Well, the pan wasn’t quite dry, but almost. Just a little dab of butter was used to pan roast these delicious little beauties. It can’t get much easier than these.

Catching up on all the blogs I read is a steady, ongoing thing for me – I read so many, and if I let it get away from me, I’ll have over a thousand to read. Definitely over the top, and almost depressing to me – makes me feel like I can’t ever catch up! I can power-read occasionally – because it’s something I don’t like, or don’t think I’ll like, or it’s a subject not-dear to my heart. But when I read the Food52 blog pieces, generally I’m clicking over to the actual story and recipe on nearly every post. And they post several a day.

Perhaps you’ve already done these beans before – I never had, and it boggles my mind that you can actually cook green beans in nearly a dry skillet. Yup! The recipe is Spanish in origin, and a simpler method could hardly be found! Penelope Casas posted it on Food 52 recently. Mine, in the photo up top there, got a tad overdone, but they were still so tasty that my DH ate every single one on his plate before I could blink an eye, just about. And I finished off mine in a jiffy as well, before I even took a bite of the pork chops. And talk about easy.

Melt a little bit of butter, heat the pan to medium-high, toss in a bunch of cleaned, stem-trimmed green beans (dry them off well if you’ve washed them) and stir them around. In a few minutes they’ll begin to brown – you want those toasted brown spots on them. Not black, but several little strips of dark brown is just how you want them to be. Then, put a lid on it and turn down the heat. The instructions are specific – resist the temptation to add water, or anything at all. Just turn down the heat and cover, and cook them for about 15 minutes (depending on the size of the beans – if they’re those tiny haricot verts, less time will be needed). The moisture from the beans themselves will steam them done. Really. Yes. It works. Trust me. Then you toss them with the garlic and salt, and they’re ready to serve. Just like that.

What’s GOOD: How incredibly easy they were to make, and yes, I did want to put a little bit of water in that pan, but could hear the directive in my head – resist the temptation, the voice said. Delicious. I almost dare you not to like them! And yes, I’ll definitely be making them again. Sooner rather than later, if that tells you anything.

What’s NOT: Nothing at all – maybe just being careful about the heat levels – not too hot when you’re browning them (no burning) and then much lower when you’re cooking them (no burning then, either).

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As a food blogger, it’s so fun when a company contacts me – gee, little old me – asking if they can send me some food product to try. No charge. No strings attached. Actually, Freida’s contacted me about Hatch green chiles, but almost as an afterthought, they threw in a box of finger limes.

Prior to this, I’d only read about finger limes. Before our trip to Australia 2 years ago, I thought I’d scour the food markets there (if I could) to find some. I wanted to taste them. (Alas, it was the wrong time of year for finger limes, so no, I didn’t see a one.)  The whole idea of the finger limes is so bizarre, in a way. Let’s backtrack . . . finger limes were developed in Australia. The limes are small, some pink, yellow, green and off white. When you cut them in half and squeeze them, the little balls of encapsulated lime juice roll out, almost like a roll of fluff. But they’re not fluff, they’re these little sacs of lime juice. Here you can see what they’re like.

The average finger lime, uncut, is about an inch long. I cut several in half and gently squeezed. As I was working , I cut several of the limes more lengthwise and tried to extract the little juicy gems. Hard to do, actually, but once I cut them in half crosswise, and did the squeeze technique, they came right out. I have yet to try these on a piece of fish – that will be the ultimate test, I think, with a bunch of these adorable things scattered on top of a sizzling hot swordfish steak. Some marketing type came up with the “caviar” name, but it’s actually very apt as the sacs kind of pop in your mouth.

The origin of the relish came from Southern Living. It is called a Peanut-Basil Relish. The basil is chopped up finely, then you add green onion tops (only), some fish sauce, garlic, sesame oil (a tiny amount) and olive oil. Serrano pepper was in the mixture, but I didn’t have one, so I substituted some chipotle chile. And then I got the idea about using the finger limes. Peanuts have a role in this – I kept them separate until I was ready to serve (because they absorb liquid easily). It took about 5 minutes to make the relish.

Meanwhile, I sprinkled about a teaspoon of light soy sauce on the pork chops, then a bit of olive oil and some Montreal pepper seasoning. Those went on the grill until the meat reached 150° and they were perfectly done. I spread the relish on top and we chowed down. It was delicious. I happen to have a bumper crop of basil at the moment and this made good use of it. The relish recipe suggested if you have left overs, to mix into pasta.

What’s GOOD: the relish is ever-so easy to make, and the chops were simple to season and grill. Loved the Asian flavors – they’re not overwhelming at all (either the soy sauce on the meat or the fish sauce in the relish) but gave it a piquant taste altogether. The relish would be delish on other things – it does need to be used right away, I think. The little bit that was left in the bowl when I got done was turning black, which is what basil does when it’s bruised and wet. I could have whizzed it up in the food processor and made a paste (with more oil, probably) but I liked it as a kind of rough relish.
What’s NOT: really nothing at all. Liked everything about it.

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This came about because I was listening to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” the “Found Recipes” segment. You may THINK this sandwich doesn’t sound or look all that worthy of a blog post, but I’m telling you it absolutely IS good, if not fantastic.

So, the NPR program was all about mid-summer favorite dishes. Listeners were invited to send (or call) in their suggestions and the story that went along with the recipe, and the list was narrowed down to 3. Those 3 contenders’ stories (in their voices) were featured on the program, then listeners were asked to vote for their favorite. This recipe was the winner, and when I listened to the 3 stories, this is the one that stood out in my mind too. It was so unusual, I just had to try it myself.  (The other two stories were about a strawberry trifle and a spicy cole slaw).

We don’t keep sharp cheddar on hand, so we needed that, and a hothouse cucumber. And by the way, the author says it’s really important to have sharp cheddar, not medium or mild. The slice does not need to be all that thick to do its job. We have good grainy bread, but at the last minute I decided to make it with the super-soft white bread I had in the freezer. Usually the bread I use is a thin sandwich bread, but my DH bought the wrong kind. Oh well, no matter.

According to the story from Marti Oleson (an elementary school librarian), she used to work with Diane Dickey of the recipe’s name, but the recipe, if you can call it that – yes, it IS a recipe – was from Diane’s Dad. Hence the full title. According to the story – this sandwich, composed of bread, peanut butter, onion, tomato, cucumber and cheddar cheese – must be made in a specific stacking order. Here’s the exact order, from the bottom up . . .

P – peanut butter, CRUNCHY

O – onion

Cu – cucumber

T – tomato

Ch – cheddar, SHARP

My brain is getting old and remembering that order was going to be a problem, so I needed an acronym – POCU-TouCH. Not quite remember-able. but maybe it will stick in my brain. I’ve added the ou in the middle just because it helps to make a word –  and added the u for cucumber and the h for cheddar. Got it? Okay, good.

The full sandwich (2 regular slices, preferably grainy bread) uses 2 T. of crunchy peanut butter. I made a half a sandwich, so of course, used just 1 T. crunchy peanut butter. I also soaked the regular  onions in some acidulated water (1/2 c water, 1 T white vinegar) because I’m not so crazy about raw onions. Nor did I want to buy a sweet onion (they’re expensive) for just one slice of it. Soaking doesn’t take out the crunch from a regular onion, but it removes the rawness from the onion. I had a beautiful yellow heirloom tomato with just a few tinges of red on it. I sprinkled the tomato with salt and pepper, then added the thinly sliced hothouse cucumber, and finally the 2 thin-thin slices of sharp cheddar.

I took my first bite. Oh my goodness! Was it ever good. I mean it. I really, really mean it. How to describe it – you taste and feel the crunchy cucumbers and onions, but the tomato slightly squishes (in my sandwich, the tomato is thicker than any of the other interior components), and gives some nice moisture to the bite. The cheddar gives it loads of flavor. And the peanut butter – funny thing – I couldn’t even taste it until the last when all the cucumbers and onions were gone, when all that remained were tomato and cheddar.

When I entered the recipe into my MasterCook recipe program, it had a big hissy fit over the “1 slice cheddar cheese” – either the program’s got a bug, or defining calories of a “slice” of cheddar cheese is just not specific enough. It wanted to add about 800 calories for 2 slices of cheese. At any rate, the calories are a little off on the recipe below, but not by much. I ate HALF a sandwich and it satisfied me all afternoon. I’m not including the nutrition because I had to remove a few ingredients and make them text (meaning no calorie count added). Without doing that the calorie count was over 1800 calories. Adding in each ingredient, I finally narrowed it down the problem to the slice of cheese (obviously a variable) that was throwing off the numbers. Anyway, this sandwich is about 550 calories for a whole one. Maybe 600. Next time I’ll make it with the very thin sandwich bread. Or maybe I’ll use the good grainy bread I have. But eat it again, I will!

What’s GOOD: everything about it. The crunch from the cucumbers and onions, first and foremost. The fresh veggies. The squishy tomato. The soft, but tasty bread. Oh, the cheddar too. It’s just fantastic. Will I make it again? You betcha! Sooner rather than later, I’ll tell you for sure!
What’s NOT: nothing at all. It’s fabulous. Note that I made it with a soft white bread – you can decide. I also specify Laura Scudder’s peanut butter, but you can use whatever brand you want.

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This is a post about the technical side of grilling steaks – the photo is from an earlier post – which happens to be our favorite steak preparation. Click this link to go to that recipe.

We do enjoy a steak with some regularity. My DH would probably eat a steak about every 3-4 days if I’d let him, but since I know we should limit how much beef we eat, we have a steak probably once every 2-4 weeks. And I cook beef in one or another form (ground, short ribs) maybe once a month too, although generally we’ll have more than one meal out of it, so technically we eat it more than once, twice or three times a month. If we go to a steakhouse, sometimes Dave will order a steak there as well. I almost never order a steak out because I’m pretty certain the steak we’ll eat at home is better tasting and more tender. I’m not sure about most beef purveyors, either – what do they feed the cattle? Fillers? And solely corn and grains at the end? – which is so awful for their digestive tracts. Lots of cattle are near death when they’re slaughtered because of what the feed lots force them to eat. All of that came from a book we read about steak: Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef. I have yet to write up an essay/post about that book. I’ve been meaning to, because I found the book absolutely fascinating.

In the last couple of years you may have read some of my posts about how and what we’ve done at home to improve the chances of a good, juicy tender steak.

(1) We now buy nearly all of our steaks from an organic grower who raises his stock about 50 miles from where we live, and he sells his beef (and lamb, chicken and pork) at a Saturday farmer’s market. He raises grass-fed beef (very, very chewy meat) and some he raises with just a short time of eating a special diet of legumes and grains (no corn) developed by a university. We buy the latter because it’s got the perfect combination of taste and texture. We can order ahead if we want, or just show up at the farmer’s market and decide on the spot from what he has available. Many people have standing orders. Some buy a whole steer and request part of the order to be delivered every month or so.

(2) We use a very expensive (for a thermometer) Splash-Proof Super-Fast Thermapen to test the temp of the steaks. We like medium rare, and usually remove the steak from the grill at about 125° give or take a degree or two.

(3) We let it rest under a light tent of foil for 7-8 minutes.

(4) As for cooking the steaks – we were using a method developed by Hugh Carpenter to grill – mark the meat (grill marks) then move it over to the indirect heat area of the grill and wait until it reached the desired temp. And we thought those things were working well, although we had one complaint – by the time the steak got to our plate and on the table, it was not hot enough for my DH’s tastes – he wants a hotter, almost sizzling steak. We hadn’t experimented with that method.

We’ll likely be changing some of our grilling from now on after reading an article over at Serious Eats. It details 7 things that are myths about grilling, about meat, etc. I found the article quite fascinating. I’ll give you a quick synopsis here:

Myth #1: “You should let a thick steak rest at room temperature before you cook it.”

Apparently it’s  not necessary. It just means the steak spends less time on the grill if you do let it sit out. Otherwise, the author found no difference to taste or how it cooked.

Myth #2: “Sear your meat over high heat to lock in juices.”

Nope. Definitely a myth. The article says: “When cooking thick steaks, start them on the cooler side of the grill and cook with the lid on until they reach about ten degrees below final serving temperature. Finish them off on the hot side of the grill for a great crust. For thinner steaks (about an inch or less), just cook them over the hot side the entire time—they’ll be cooked to medium rare by the time a good crust has developed.” The analysis is that once the steak has cooked on the slow side for awhile, the flat surface is drier, therefore when you do put it on the hot side, it will give you a better crust and grill marks.

Myth #3: “Bone-in steak has more flavor than boneless.”

This is one that I certainly thought was true, but tests proved it made no difference. But, if you like to gnaw on bones, do cook bone-in.

Myth #4: “Only flip your steak once!”

Isn’t this one of those quintessential mental pictures of a guy at his grill, flipping those burgers or steaks? Here’s what the article says: “. . . multiple flipping will not only get your steak to cook faster—up to 30% faster!—but will actually cause it to cook more evenly, as well. This is because—as food scientist and writer Harold McGee has explained—by flipping frequently, the meat on any given side will neither heat up nor cool down significantly with each turn.”

Myth #5: “Don’t season your steak until after it’s cooked!”

The explanation for this one is kind of long (go to the article to read it in full), but the general theory is that we put steaks on the grill when they’re too wet. Steaks have got to have a dry, dry surface. The article’s “takeaway:” You can get away with salting just before cooking, but for best results, salt at least 45 minutes—and up to a couple of days—in advance, letting your steak rest on a rack in the fridge so that its surface can dry and the salt can be absorbed into the meat. Serve the steak with crunchy sea salt at the table.

Myth #6a: “Don’t use a fork to turn your steak.”

You know you’ve read about it – don’t puncture any piece of grilled meat (steak, pork chop, tenderloin, even chicken) because the juices will escape, resulting in a dry piece of finished meat. The truth:  muscles in steak are little tiny, miniscule water balloons, he explained, and indeed, if you puncture a steak you likely will break a few, but his tests showed it was such a finite amount to hardly matter.

Myth #6b: “If you cut it open to check doneness, it will lose all its juices.”

Certainly I’ve wondered about this, but I still have done it anyway – especially when Dave has brought a piece in from the grill about 20 minutes early and he says it’s done (per the thermometer). I never want to serve an undercooked chicken breast or steak, or pork chop. A few juices may be lost, but it doesn’t seem to affect the final result. He recommended using this method only if you don’t have a meat thermometer, or you don’t trust what it says.

Myth #7: “Use the “poke test” to check if your steak is done.”

You know this one – press your finger on the meat itself – if it’s fleshy like the inside of your palm, it’s really rare, closer to the thumb it’s medium-rare, etc. The writer says that not everyone’s hands are alike – some are more fleshy than others, so that makes this method a crap shoot. His answer: use a Thermapen.

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The phone rang . . .

“Hi Carolyn, this is Cherrie. [we chatted, then] Do you have a good recipe for a broccoli cheese soup that I could make to take on our camping trip?”

At first, I said I didn’t, but then a light bulb went off . . .oh yes, I do. But I haven’t made it in years and years. I went to my computer to look at my MasterCook recipe files, and yes, there it was. Hiding in my soup section, lost and forlorn. It was old enough that I didn’t have a photo of it (I really only started taking food photos about 10-12 years ago).

When I tell you this recipe is EASY, trust me. Someone in my office, back in the early 90’s made this one day for a potluck Thanksgiving lunch we did. She brought it in in her crockpot and just let it sit on warm until lunchtime and we all had some. Everybody loved it, and once I got the recipe, I realized how incredibly easy it is to make. You can use frozen chopped broccoli (the original recipe did), but I use fresh. You can find lots of variations on the theme all over the internet. Some people use garlic powder, some use different kinds of milk or milk powder, others have little or no onion, some use American cheese (which is really a lot like Velveeta, which is what the recipe calls for). This is a first here on my blog – the Velveeta cheese. Not something I ever – EVER – have on my pantry shelf! It contains a little bit of trans-fats. Not so good, but that cheese is just what you want in this soup. I’ve never tried it with any other kind of cheese – Fontina is a good melting – and disbursing – kind of cheese. If you don’t want to use Velveeta, try Fontina. Don’t use cheddar, as it doesn’t melt well. Don’t use mozzarella either. So many cheeses do melt, but then clump. Not what you want. If you want to upscale it, Gruyere probably would work also as a melting cheese, since it’s a frequent cheese used in fondue.

Here’s what you do – melt some butter, add chopped onion and cook 3-4 minutes, adding a clove of garlic at the last. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add the egg noodles (original recipe called for more noodles, I prefer less) and cook 3-4 minutes. Then add the chopped broccoli stems; a couple minutes later the chopped broccoli tops. Cook that a couple minutes, then add milk (original called for 6 cups, I use 4) and cheese. Stir constantly until it’s smooth and all the cheese has melted. (The photo above I took just after adding the cheese which hasn’t melted yet.) Done. Serve. This soup comes together in about 20 minutes tops. If you want, serve with a piece of cheese toast, a roll, an English muffin.

What’s GOOD: how EASY it is. Very tasty and relatively low calorie too, although with the cheese, it does have some fat. Texture is not thick, but it’s not thin, either. Just right. The night I made this, it was a cool summer evening and the soup was perfect. My DH loved it. Obviously I did too. The recipe makes a lot of soup.
What’s NOT: gee whiz, nothing. Easy to make. Tasty. A transfat cheese may not be what you want to eat, so substitute Fontina. I’ve never frozen this soup – it might be just fine. Let me know if you try it.

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MasterCook 5 file and MasterCook 14 file

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