Where is My Milk From

Ever wonder where your cows live? Where is My Milk From? is a cool new site for tracking where your dairy originates.

I checked my Trader Joe's %1 Milk and my Brown Cow yogurt. I couldn't find a code on either that was valid. Still, a cool idea (and worthy, perhaps of an iPhone app.)

There Is Advertising on My Banana

I really don't know what to say...

Cooking Frenzy!

My daughter and I had a cooking frenzy this weekend!

It all started because we agreed to cook and deliver dinner on Saturday for a family that needs a little extra help at the moment. We picked a simple menu: steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, gravy, and meatballs. Mashed potatoes and meatballs are already in my daughter's cooking repetoire, so she was easily able to shoulder some of the work.

While I was prepping everything, I started thinking about her request for a cheesecake. I happened to have the ingredients for a ricotta cheesecake, so I got that started too. As a result, at one point I had all four burners AND the oven going. When we came back home later that day after running errands, I could scarcely believe it was time now to start cooking again, this time for our dinner.

My daughter so liked our cooking on Saturday, that she decided she wanted to make something herself on Sunday, from start to finish. She decided on soup, I suspect because there is a lot of good stirring and chopping involved.

So Sunday I taught her how to make a basic mirepoix, dice an onion (she made me take a close-up), peel garlic, sweat the vegetables, make some broth, and use the submersion blender. She ended the morning with a white bean and garlic soup!

Beets!

This week we had a nice beet salad with goat cheese and capers.

During beet season, I try to have a bunch of cooked, sliced beets on hand. Beets are very easy to prepare ahead of time, and I think they taste even better after a few days in some vinegar. Once you have a container of them in your fridge, you can even get out just one or two to add a pretty garnish to your plate.

Limp Asparagus

A few months back I bought a HUGE container of aspargus at CostCo. I lightly steamed it and made myself about 5 freezer bags worth. I thought I was being clever and thrifty. I imagined tossing it in the steamer for a few more minutes whenever I failed to have a green vegetable handy.

As it turns out, you can't freeze asparagus. Unlike peas or green beans, asparagus basically turns into mush. Like this:







I was so disappointed, I didn't touch the remaining asparagus until today, when I defrosted it to make asparagus soup. I also happened to have some frozen turkey stock, so I chopped all the asparagus, threw in some lemon juice and zest, and tossed the whole lot into the stock. I let it simmer for a half an hour. After it cooled, I puréed it all.


Here it is served with some sour cream. It was pretty good (and definitely the only use for limp asparagus that I can think of.)