Through a series of events that I had not intended I ended up at the International Association of Culinary Professionals annual meeting in Washington DC. I was invited on a “press pass” to write about, photograph and enjoy this gathering of food writers, food photographers, food stylists, chefs and other foodie folks. Funny thing is I had never even heard of this organization that has been around for thirty seven years. The meeting was to be held in Washington DC this year making it an easy commute from my home. I went online and investigated their website for info on the organization and this year’s meeting.

I was introduced to Robert Shueller at Melissa’s produce before the event to test some of their products. I was sent a box with potatoes, Hatch salsa, shallots, pearl onions and other veggie delights. I also received their “Great Peppers Cookbook” and a cookbook on using Dutch Yellow Potatoes. I had used Melissa’s products for years but had no idea they had such a large product line. They have more fruits and veggies that you can imagine. Well over half of my meals at home and at restaurants are vegetarian so I appreciate companies like Melissa’s bringing us a wide variety of vegetables and fruits.

One of the most memorable moments for me was the keynote address by José Andrés where he spoke of the need to reduce our meat consumption and eat more vegetables. Here’s a professional cook like myself who has transitioned from a diet heavy in meat to a more vegetarian-like diet. He also spoke of his work in Haiti bringing clean efficient gas stoves to the locals who have been suffering from the toxic fumes of cooking with charcoal. José also spoke of the environmental damage inflicted on the island of Haiti from cutting down most of the islands trees to make charcoal for cooking. With a lack of trees to hold back the rains the farmer’s fields were susceptible to damaging erosion which then led to more particulates in the surrounding ocean damaging the coral reefs. This also led to less fish available to the local’s diets compounding the problem of feeding a family even further. Jose is one amazing human being!

3 simple ingredients

On Friday I arrived in Washington, DC and picked up my pass. For the next four days it would be a blur of meeting food photographers, food stylists, chefs and bloggers to discuss our respective food worlds with. Sitting in on numerous sessions I learned a ton of new information to take my blog to the next level and hopefully bring you better quality photographs, as well as better written recipes. The professional food photographers generously shared tips with us mere mortals on how to step up our game. I  will now be using natural light more often to see if I can get a clearer picture thanks to the help from the professional photographers. The last day of the event I sat in on a session aimed at writing better recipes and expect my recipes to be improved thanks to that session.

This week’s post bring a new and appropriate giveaway. Melissa’s has generously agreed to send one lucky winner a box of products similar to what I received. You can’t imagine the variety of their product line, and if you are the lucky winner you will get a glimpse of it in your home. To be entered just submit a comment on this post. For an extra chance in the drawing comment on any of my Facebook posts over the week following the publishing of this post, and you will double your chances to win.

For this week’s recipe I want to share one of my kitchen secrets. I eat steak maybe twice a year, but have in my kitchen two or more steak seasoning spice blends that work wonders in many vegetable recipes. Here is one of my original recipes using McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning on potatoes. Warning, they are addictive!

Roasted Dutch Yellow Potatoes with Steak Seasoning

1 1/2 pound Mellisa’s Dutch yellow potatoes, or other type

2 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil, or plain olive oil

3-4 teaspoons steak seasoning*

Preheat oven to 350°

Scrub and wash potatoes then dry.

Cut lengthwise so you have 4 wedges.

Put wedges on cookie sheet pan and drizzle garlic infused olive oil over them.

Sprinkle half of the steak seasoning then mix well. Add the rest of the steak seasoning and mix well again to coat the wedges.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350°.

Remove from oven, stir potatoes then return to oven increase heat to 400°  and cook for 20 more minutes or until lightly brown and tender.

Serves 4-6

Note:

*I use one of 3 steak seasonings. Either Urban Accents-Chicago Steak and Chop, McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning, or Kent Rathburn’s Steak and Chop Salt. All of them work well but I think McCormick’s is my favorite as it has more black pepper.

I recently bought a copy of the White House Cookbook to replace the one I had back in the 1970’s and 80’s. This one seems the same except instead that Ida Saxon-McKinley is replaced by an inset photo of Edith Boling-Wilson. The recipes crack me up with the less-than-specific directions, but it still proves useful in searching out ideas for farm fresh foods. Back in the 1880’s when it was originally written I suspect all food was either fresh, dried or canned as freezers were not in common use until around 1913, and even then only a few owned such a luxury.

While flipping carefully through the brown and easily cracked pages I found several parsnip recipes. Parsnips are not a vegetable most of us know well, or eat often. They are related to carrots and have the same shape, but are white. Unlike carrots parsnips are not eaten raw often. Parsnips have a wonderful flavor similar to a turnip but milder and sweeter. Parsnips cook fairly quick and are versatile. You can add them to soups, roasts, mash them, sauté them, or stew them like in The White House Cookbook. Here is what the recipe from over a hundred years ago looks like:

Stewed Parsnips

After washing and scraping the parsnips slice them about half of an inch thick. Put them in a saucepan of just enough water to barely cook them; add a tablespoonful of butter, season with salt and pepper, the cover closely. Stew them until the water has cooked away, watching carefully and stirring often to prevent burning, until they are soft. When they are done they will be of a creamy light straw color and deliciously sweet, retaining all the goodness of the vegetable.

Curious about this recipe I proceeded to sort of follow it finding that if I would have cooked it until most of the liquid had evaporated I would have had very overcooked parsnips. It’s tough to cook out that much water with a pot that is covered! I also opted out on scraping my lovely organic parsnips wanting the nutritious skin to be intact. I found that the pound of sliced parsnips took less than 15 minutes from cleaning to serving which is pretty quick. I started them in cool water to cover with a bit of salt, pepper, and half the butter with a pot tightly covered and within eight or nine minutes they were soft. I poured off the water, then added 1 teaspoon butter and one tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley for color. I was pleased with the result and think you will be too. If you want some more color try cooking with sliced carrots(equal in amount to parsnips) in the pot and cut the carrots smaller then the parsnips so they cook in about the same amount of time. Parsnips go very well with just about any chicken, or pork dish as a side.

Give it a try and let me know what you think of parsnips, and this recipe. As always feel free to share and comment.

When I was 19 years old my grand parents in St Louis gifted me a copy of the 1898 White House Cookbook written by the first lady Ida Saxon-McKinley. For those who don’t know about these treasures of Americana, the White House Cookbooks instructed housewives of the day in everything from home remedies, cleaning, etiquette, and of course cooking. This was ages before Julia Childs was on the scene to teach us American cooks  recipes from Europe and beyond.

bi-colored corn, aka Peaches and Cream Corn

As a rookie cook I was amused by the cooking instructions from a time when pretty much all cooking was done on wood stove/oven appliances. The electric stove wouldn’t be in significant production until 1908 and even then it was rarely found in a home. So if you were baking biscuits the recipe would say something like “ bake in a fast oven until desired brownness appears” or something like that. There was no heat measured in Fahrenheit like we see in modern cookbooks, or exact time it took to cook.

I prepared very few of the recipes in this antique cookbook over the twenty plus years I had the White House Cookbook in my possession as they just didn’t fit what I was cooking in restaurants or home. On a few trips to Marble, Colorado we would stay at some cabins from the 1930‘s that had wood burning stoves and I loved baking in the oven using wood for fuel like in my antique cookbook. It was a bit tricky as I had very few reps in this type of cooking but it always turned out well. I would think back to the directions in the White House cookbook and roast a chicken with vegetables and then bake a cobbler for dessert.

The cookbook mostly provided me with an interesting review of cooking history, and I read it often. One of the exceptional recipes was a fried corn dish that became a favorite vegetable of the day at a restaurant I worked at in Frisco. The cooks loved it because it was so easy to make. The management loved it because it was inexpensive, and everyone loved the taste. This tasty dish is accentuated by todays super sweet corn varieties whether you are using Silver Queen, or Peaches and Cream Corn this recipe lets the fresh summer corn taste shine brightly.

adding the half and half

I also have my grand parents to thank for leaving me their entire collection of cast iron cookware that I use to this day. Some pieces are over a hundred years old and still quite functional. For todays post I think it’s appropriate to cook this dish in a pan from that era. I hope you give it a try with your favorite fresh or frozen corn to see how easy and delicious this antique recipe I’ve adapted from the 1898 White House Cookbook is.

1898 Sautéed Corn

3 1/2 to 4 cups fresh corn cut off the cob, about 3 large ears

1 teaspoon olive oil

3 to 4 tablespoons half and half

pinch or two of ground white pepper

salt to taste

Heat sauté pan or cast iron skillet for two minutes on medium low heat.

Add oil and corn and cook for five minutes stirring every 30 seconds or so on medium heat.

Kick up the heat to medium high and add half and half and white pepper cooking for one to two more minutes.

Add salt to taste and serve.

Serves four

Six Little Tomatoes

This week I had a seven hour session of home canning where I made Kurt’s Killer Salsa(http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/kurts-killer-salsa/), Red Habenero Salsa(http://www.fastandfuriouscook.com/some-like-it-hot/), and diced canned tomatoes. It was a lot of work, but well worth it come winter when I open a jar of home cooked goodness from the garden that the grocery store can’t compete with.

When all the tomato blood had cleared it was apparent that six little tomatoes escaped in the confusion. I was contemplating their fate when I thought of a trip to Greece a few years back and how I loved the fava beans cooked with tomatoes we had several times on that trip.

Being short on fava beans I opted for frozen green beans to pair with my six little toms and cooked them up while they were still in their prime.

cook the beans and the tomato mix at the same time

If you are like me and through gardening or over indulging at your local farmer’s market has you experiencing no room in your fridge, or counter space you need lots of ideas for cooking veggies. Well, look no further for a tomato and green bean combo as I have a solution to your problem that takes less than 20 minutes to make, and is delicious too!

This is also a great veggie dish for re-heating so even if you are cooking for just two in your home this will provide you with green beans for two or more meals.

Greek Style Green Beans with Tomatoes

1 pound green beans, fresh or frozen

2-2 1/2 cups diced fresh tomatoes

1/3 cup minced onion

1 clove minced fresh garlic

2 teaspoons oregano

1 tablespoon olive oil

If using fresh green beans, wash and cut into three inch lengths. This will take longer, but will be delicious with fresh beans.

In a pot with water to cover bring  green beans to a boil then cook for two more minutes covered.

Just after starting the green beans sauté onions and garlic in olive oil on medium low heat in a 12 inch sauté pan for five minutes stirring often.

Add tomatoes, and oregano to the sauté pan and continue cooking on medium low heat for eight minutes. If green beans are not done yet turn off heat to the tomato mix.

When green beans are done, drain and add to the tomato mixture and cook on medium heat for 2-5 minutes until desired tenderness is reached.

Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste and serve with a garnish of fresh oregano if you have it available.

Serves 4-6.

Note:

Fresh oregano can be used but don’t add it until the last minute of cooking. Mince the fresh oregano, and increase to four teaspoons.