More Fresh Scents and Garlic Bread
December 10, 2009
If you’ve ever stored very garlicky leftovers in a plastic container, you know that plastic can pick up the scent of garlic and hold onto it for a long time. Not too bad if most of your food is garlicky or compatible with the smell of it. But what if you need the container to store banana pudding or cranberry salad–yuck! You don’t want to mix those foods with a garlic smell. Barbarock has a trick for you, passed down from her Aunt Mattie May Swift: just take a piece or two of newspaper, crumple it up and store it overnight in the container. In the morning, the smell will be gone.
And the reason Barbara thought of this tip today was because she just made some garlic bread for her husband and needed to deodorize a plastic container that had held the garlic she’d minced ahead of time . As a bonus tip, here is Barbara’s recipe for easy low-fat garlic bread that meets many dietary restrictions: take a loaf of French bread and slice it in 1.5 inch slices. Lay them out on a foil-covered cookie sheet and spread each piece with a spread made from 1/3 cup low-fat butter (Barbarock uses I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter, but use whichever one you like) mixed with 1 tbsp of fresh minced garlic (substitute garlic powder if you’re short on time) and 1 tsp of dried parsley. Just spread on the bread and heat the bread enough to melt the mixture through.
Turkey Encore: Soup’s On!
December 2, 2009
When the last slice of Thanksgiving turkey has come off the carcass, Barbara uses all that is left in her usual thrifty manner. She takes the turkey bones and boils them for about 20 minutes with chunks of onion, celery, and a few carrots. Then she strains the solids out and adds chopped potatoes, carrots, onions, and whatever other vegetables are on hand. She adds salt and pepper, and sometimes a couple of chicken bouillon cubes. She adds a can of stewed tomatoes and some pasta and simmers it for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Sometimes she adds leftover green beans or vegetables from the holiday meal at the last minute, since they are already cooked. She serves this to her family with cornbread, so they can extend the holiday meal out for another day or two.
Barbarock Holiday Tip – Prepare Food Ahead
November 30, 2009
When Barbara was a young mother, she often had to work many hours a day, so a day off at the holidays with her family was a rare treat. She learned early on to prepare as much of the holiday meal ahead as possible so she could enjoy the day without spending it all in the kitchen. If you’ll be cooking over the holidays, take a page from Barbara’s book and prepare as much of the food in advace as possible.
Here are a few of Barbara’s ideas for foods to prepare ahead: (1) chop up celery, bell pepper, and onions and freeze them in bags a week ahead of time, (2) hard boil eggs several days in advance and keep them in the refrigerator until they’re needed, (3) make and refrigerate sweet potato pie filling a few days ahead of time and then put it in the crust and bake it when you’re ready, (4) get greens and beans ready to cook–wash them and put them in plastic bags so they’ll be ready to cook immediately.
By doing more ahead, you’ll have more time at your holiday celebration to put up your feet and enjoy the day with your family and friends.
Pickle Juice
November 16, 2009
Barbara has discovered a use for leftover pickle juice. Since meat-tenderizer isn’t allowed on her husband’s diet, and since much of the meat she cooks needs some tenderizing, she has had to get creative in how she prepares the meat for cooking. Like many of us, she buys pickles and has a lot of juice left over in the jar after they are eaten. Since much of the juice is made up of vinegar, a natural meat tenderizer, she saves the juice in the jar. When it is time to prepare the meat, she puts it in a plastic bag, adds a quarter-cup of the pickle juice (for a roast or large piece of meat, use about a half-cup) and leaves it to marinate for about two hours. And then she cooks the meat as usual. This tenderizes the meat without adding as much sodium as is found in other meat tenderizers.
Meet Barbara Harris--wise woman, friend, caretaker. Discover her secrets for keeping a tidy, lovely, well-run home here at the Barbarock Blog.