Two Recipes for the Same Dish Equals Confusion

I recently cut out a recipe from a local newspaper for Ricotta Stuffed Shells.  I’d never cooked giant shells before and thought it would be the perfect dish to serve to some vegetarian friends.  I added the ingredients to my grocery list and headed out to the store, where among other items I bought a box of giant shells.

Back home in my kitchen I noticed a Ricotta Stuffed Shells recipe on the box.

Mom Cooking Tip 171

Do you cry when you're slicing onions?  When I start tearing up, my method used to be walking away from the cutting board until my eyes stopped bothering me.  Now thanks to some good advice from my sister-in-law Sue, I simply drop slices of onion in a bowl of cold water for about 15 minutes.  When I remove them, they no longer have the power to bring tears to my eyes.

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Pearl Onions: What Are They and How Do I Use Them?

Pearl onions are the size of marbles and have a gentle onion taste.  They are excellent additions to soups, salads, pasta and casserole dishes.  Fully cooked, they also make a good side dish on their own.

The big drawback of pearl onions is peeling, which can take quite a while if you don’t cook them in boiling water for about 30 seconds and then soak them briefly in cold water to loosen their skins. Trim off the root end. Then grab the other end and squeeze gently so the skin and top layer of onion pops off.

Mexican Scallions: What Are They and How Do I Use Them?

Mexican Scallions (left)  Regular Scallions (right)

Mexican scallions (aka green onions) look like scallions on steroids.  They are regular scallions but have spent more time growing.  The Mexican scallions I bought were 16 inches long—truly eye-catching.  Normal scallions are about 10 inches long.

I found my Mexican scallions, not surprisingly, in a Mexican supermarket called El Super.

How Big Is Julia Child’s Shadow in My Kitchen?

French Onion Soup

Every once in a while I think about Julie Child and wonder how much she influenced me.  She began her world domination before I started dabbling in the kitchen.  And when I did start, I was so intimidated by her reputation that I avoided her famous 1961 opus, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Boiling Onions: What Are They and How Do I Use Them?

Boiling onions look just like regular onions, but they are only about 1-to 1½ inches in diameter.  They are harvested very early in the growing process.  In their raw state, they are often just as strong in taste as regular onions.  They mellow out when cooked.

Use boiling onions whole in casseroles, soups and in a tray of roasted vegetables.  Or they can simply be a side dish.  Boil them for about 30 minutes, or until they have softened and can be easily pierced with a sharp knife.  Toss with butter, salt, black pepper and a teaspoon of sugar.

Peeling these little onions

Mom Money-Saving Tip 97

My friend Rukhi gave me this tip, which can save both money and time.  When there’s a sale on onions or a glut of tomatoes from your garden, here’s how to make use of them before they spoil:

Cook several large onions (peeled and cut in quarters) with a similar amount of whole tomatoes in 1 cup water over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes, or until the onions have softened.  Pull off and discard the tomato skins.  Drain and discard the cooking liquid.

Make tomato puree by blending the cooked onions and tomatoes in a blender or food processor.  

Freeze the mixture in 1-cup amounts in plastic storage containers or small freezer bags.  When you’re cooking soups, sauces or stews, add a bag.

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A Cheap Emergency Meal

Thank goodness for eggs.  Most people who have refrigerators also have a box of eggs in them.  Eggs are cheap, versatile and full of protein.  They’re one of the basics of my life, whether I’m making a dessert, an omelet or a heavy-duty soup that can serve as a main course.

When I’ve assessed the contents of my freezer and can find nothing I want to eat for dinner, I turn to Oniony Egg Soup.  I don’t know where the recipe came from, but I’ve been making it for years. 

It doesn’t require many ingredients:

Eat Your Greens

These three words – “Eat your greens” – evoke strong memories at our house, especially when our son and daughter are sitting around the dinner table.  While attending elementary school in London, they heard these words constantly at lunchtime.  The dinner ladies, as the female cafeteria staff were called, would not allow children to leave the table until their plates were clean.  Usually that meant choking down some mysterious green sludge.

As parents, we were happy to know our kids were eating balanced meals that we didn’t have to prepare.  Only later did we realize that greens had become the enemy.  These days we often have impromptu skits when cooked spinach, kale, chard, beet greens or mustard greens appear as side dishes.  Luckily leafy salads don’t prompt anyone to chant “Eat your greens,” but our son did buy his sister a dinner lady action figure a few years ago.

How can I overcome this knock on foods that I like to eat?

Secrets of the Radish

Radishes never seemed mysterious.  When I was growing up, they sometimes appeared as a side dish along with some slices of cucumber.  It was like an instant salad, both spicy and colorful.  Once in a while my mother put sliced raw radishes and small chunks of cucumber into a bowl of sour cream.  That would be our lunch when she’d run out of everything else.

When I began cooking, I ignored radishes unless a recipe called for them, which was almost never. 

Mom Money-Saving Tip 82

Do you need a quick and cheap vegetable side dish?  Try making Broiled Onions.  

Broiled Onions - serves 4 

1 large purple onion 

1 large white or yellow onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

Slice the onions into very thin rings.  Put the slices in a large bowl and separate the rings with your fingers.  Add the olive oil, lemon juice, cumin and salt and stir well. 

Preheat the broiler to High.  Transfer the onion mixture to a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or foil for easy clean-up.  Spread the onions into a thin layer and broil for 5 minutes.  Stir the mixture and broil for another 5 minutes.  Transfer the broiled onions to a bowl and serve.  

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Cipolline Onions: What Are and How Do I Cook Them?

Somehow I managed to miss the existence of Cipolline onions until yesterday, when I stumbled across a bag of them at my local grocery store.  These onions are tiny, although not quite as tiny as pearl onions. 

They’re cute the way baby carrots or other miniature vegetables are cute.  They taste stronger than scallions and need about 45 minutes of roasting in the oven to be soft enough to enjoy.

They’re pronounced chih-poh-LEE-nee.  Cipolla is the Italian name for onion, and Cipolline means small onion.