The Perfect Substitute: Potato Chips

 

I was making tacos for lunch when I suddenly realized we had eaten all the hummus. What could I use as a replacement alongside the beans and cheese? Then I spotted an open bag of potato chips. Why not crumble some of them and sprinkle on top of the tacos before serving? 

They worked perfectly, adding some crunch. Who needs hummus!

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My Secret Ingredients When Making a Fish Sandwich

I fell in love with cod a few decades ago when I ordered fish & chips at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in London.  We were not a fish-eating family, except for pickled herring, a refrigerator staple with a very pronounced taste.

Dinner from the Deli Counter

 

Ham BBQ sandwiches have long been a family favorite, but I seldom make them.  I’m not sure why.  They are a direct link to my own childhood, when my mother would occasionally take my brother and me out to lunch at Isaly’s, an East Coast family restaurant/delicatessen chain that served Chipped Ham Sandwiches.  At the end of the meal she would buy a pound of paper-thin slices of ham to take home.

Easiest Lunch Ever!

Starting in 7th grade I ate the same lunch almost every day for six years—a homemade tuna salad sandwich.  Strangely I never tired of it.  Recently I have returned to this lunch, although I may substitute a tortilla or whole wheat toast for the white bread.

Why Not Try an Antipasto Lunch Plate?

Whenever my brother decides it’s time to lose weight, he does two things.  He eats less, and he makes himself an Antipasto Lunch Plate.  When he first told me about his routine, I asked for the Lunch Plate recipe.  I wasn’t looking to lose weight, but I liked the idea of having something new to eat in the middle of the day.

Here is what’s on the plate in the above picture: lettuce, a sliced hard-boiled egg, slices of salami, several large olives, anchovies, cut-up cheese, a cucumber, cherry tomatoes, broccoli and Italian dressing.

For those not dieting, some French bread would be a handy addition.

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Appreciating the Corn Tortilla

If you want to get my attention at the grocery store, you have three options:

1) Put up a big sign that says SALE.

2) Place the item prominently near the check-out.

3) Put it next to something I am likely to buy.

The Biggest Vegetarian Sandwich Ever

The Joeyburger

Just how big is your mouth, Joey?  He laughed and said, “Big enough.”  And that’s how the Joeyburger came into existence.

Joey is the only young family member who has stayed vegetarian (except for pepperoni on his pizza) since he was a toddler.  He may be the only one at our table willing to eat any vegetable put in front of him.

A Favorite Lunch from the Past

Chicken Melt

When my children were young, they usually ate whatever I put in front of them.  Sometimes they would resist.  For instance, they refused to eat buckwheat, which they said tasted like wet carpet.  I thought they were making it up until I ate some myself.  They were right.

I Can Make That Too: Panini with Prosciutto in Mom’s Kitchen vs. the Restaurant Version

Eatalian Café's Version of Panini with Prosciutto 

What could taste better on a summer day than a panini stuffed with prosciutto, mozzarella and tomatoes?  It barely needs cooking.  In fact, you can skip the panini press altogether and just use a loaf of French bread or ciabatta cut into 5-inch sections.

Loving Tandoori Chicken

Photo courtesy Tuttle Publishing

One of the best meals I had in London some years ago was Tandoori Chicken.  I’d never heard of it, but restaurant critics were raving about this spicy Indian chicken baked in a tandoor oven.  I assumed it was mostly exaggeration—until I tasted it myself. 

Thus was born a new family dining-out experience.  At the time our two children were under 8, and they weren’t interested in spicy food.  On the other hand Bart and I couldn’t get enough of this newly discovered way to cook chicken—a way I could not duplicate since my oven didn’t heat to 800 degrees.

I Can Make That Too: Mom’s Eggs Benedict vs. Fischer’s Viennese Café’s Version

Fischer's Viennese Cafe Version of Eggs Benedict

I credit James Bond with my introduction to Eggs Benedict, a wonderful, slightly decadent egg dish that, if made right, you’ll never forget.

Eggs Benedict is usually served for breakfast or brunch, but 007 had his with Jack Daniel’s as a late-night snack in “You Only Live Twice.”  I prefer mine for brunch because it gives me the rest of the day to digest all the butter the dish calls for.

Eggs Benedict are more complicated than an omelet and can go wrong in several ways.  But if you get them even partly right, the effort is worth it.

Quiche Lorraine Sounds So Sophisticated

Back when I was a new cook, I didn’t know much of anything.  Every recipe I looked at impressed me.  When one of my sophisticated friends invited me to dinner and made Spaghetti with Garlic Sauce, I was enthralled.  Only when I dared make it myself did I realize how easy it was.

My first taste of Quiche Lorraine came at a cocktail party.  By then I was slightly more ambitious in the kitchen.  I liked the bacon-y flavor of the quiche but had no idea what was in it.  There was no Internet then, so I went to a bookstore and searched through cookbooks.  That may be when I bought my first copy of “Joy of Cooking,” which included a Quiche Lorraine recipe. 

Leftovers and Tortillas: A Marriage Made in Heaven

No matter how carefully I plan a meal, I almost always wind up with leftovers.  I used to hate the little parcels of wrapped-up food in the fridge, thinking, ‘If I’d liked it so much when I made it, why didn’t I eat it all?’

I can’t bear to throw food away unless it’s moldy.  That does happen when food parcels get pushed to the back of the shelf, but NOT ANY LONGER if I can help it.

Rescuing a Mistake

When I’m making a chicken dish, I always worry that I won’t cook it long enough and we’ll get salmonella poisoning.  I’m sure that sounds a bit neurotic, but it’s happened to several of my friends.  That’s why chicken should never be served rare. 

That’s also why I over-grilled some boneless chicken thighs the other night.  We each managed to choke down one thigh.  Unfortunately there were 8 left. 

For dinner the next night I decided to slice the thighs thinly, add a little water and lots of barbecue sauce and cook them for about 10 minutes more.  The chicken pieces softened right up, and I served them in heated buns.  Problem solved!

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Too Many Cherry Tomatoes

I love summer and the abundance of cherry tomatoes that flood farmer's markets and grocery stores. However, there is a limit to how many cherry tomatoes the family is willing to eat. What to do with the excess?

What Every Freezer Needs

Most cooks probably have a favorite food they stash in the freezer.  For some it would be cookies, which you can actually eat frozen but do thaw very quickly if you can wait that long.  My freezer is seldom without croissants, which defrost and crisp up in the oven in about 7 minutes.

But the frozen food I value most these days is home-cooked shredded chicken.  It doesn’t take up much space and is enormously useful.  Toss a frozen handful into soup or thaw a handful and add it to a salad.  Viola!  A meal.

Better yet, heat up a cupful or two of frozen shredded chicken in some water and barbecue sauce and then stuff it into a few heated buns.  It makes a quick snack, lunch or dinner with virtually no fuss.

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The Healthy Reuben Bagel

There’s nothing like biting into a Reuben Sandwich and having corned beef juice dribbling down your face and sauerkraut falling into your lap.  The Reuben Sandwich of my dreams is so stuffed with these ingredients, plus melted Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye bread, that I can barely get it into my mouth.

I happily dealt with that problem for years until I decided that too much fatty meat was not good for me.  So I gave up eating Reuben Sandwiches. But I never forgot the taste.

Then I bought a dozen mixed bagels and discovered a rye bagel in the bag.  “Aha!” I thought.  “Time for a Reuben Sandwich.”

Mom Money-Saving Tip 88

Be creative with leftovers.  Six uneaten French fries from last night’s dinner became the basis of today’s lunch.  First I warmed up the fries in the microwave.  Then I heated up a flour tortilla in a frying pan, flipped it over, placed the fries in a rough line down the middle and added some cheddar cheese.  I covered the pan with a lid and continued cooking for about 30 seconds, or until the cheese melted.  Voila!  Cheapest lunch ever.

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Mom Cooking Tip 116

Uncooked Turkey Burger

I’ve offered this tip before, but it bears repeating on the 4^th of July.  If you are grilling turkey burgers and want to make sure they are fully cooked without burning them, do this:

Grill them for a few minutes per side, making sure they are beginning to brown and have grill marks.  Then transfer them to a roasting pan or sheet pan and bake them at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until the juice they exude is no longer pink.  Turkey burgers should never be served rare.

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Question for Mom

What are chicken tenders? Alexis R.

Chicken tenders are skinny pieces of white meat that are part of a chicken breast but not fully attached.  You used to see them in packages of boneless chicken breasts.   About 15-20 years ago stores starting selling them as separate cuts of white meat, and they were cheaper than regular boneless breasts.  Now they’re priced higher. 

If you’re squeamish about cutting boneless chicken breasts into skinny pieces, by all means buy chicken tenders.  But you can easily cut boneless chicken into pieces yourself.  If you use a fork to hold them steady, you don’t have to touch the raw chicken.

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