sour cream

Have you wondered why it is hard to find sour cream unadulterated with other ingredients? I have shopped at refrigerator sections where the list of extra ingredients in sour cream grosses me out. So I pick up brand after brand of sour cream, read the labels, and put them back. Only one brand at our local grocery has sour cream made from cream (only): Daisy Brand.

Daisy Brand, a fourth-generation, family-owned business, is the largest sour cream manufacturer in the USA. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has a huge distribution facility at Garland, Texas. It uses Alien Technology brand, up-to-date, radio-frequency identification (RFID) inventory control devices in its distribution centers.

chocolate sundae

A summertime classic --

In a cute dish, scoop out some ice cream.

• Cover with Hersheys chocolate syrup.
  

(Click the Hersheys link to learn about the school benefiting needy children which is the biggest shareholder of Hersheys.)

• Sprinkle with granola or graham cracker crumbs or nuts, if you wish.

• Serve the ice cream sundaes to your famished diners immediately!

skinny wheat bread wraps

Here's something different -- a wrap recipe derived from sheer necessity!

(Turned out we had no corn tortillas, no flour tortillas, -- in fact, no flat bread of any sort and a meal to prepare. What to do?)

Here's our solution:

• For each wrap, get out one slice whole wheat sandwich bread.

• Use a rolling pin to carefully roll each slice of bread flat. Make it completely skinny. These are the skinny whole wheat bread wraps.
  

• Spread the skinny bread wraps with cream cheese and mustard.

• Sautee 1/2 yellow onion and 1/2 pound ground beef until the onion is translucent and the beef is cooked and crumbly.
• Sprinkle cooked ground beef and onion mixture on prepared skinny bread wraps.

• (Or omit beef and use sauteed vegetables for vegetarian version.)
  

• Lay a Kosher dill pickle spear on top of each prepared skinny bread wrap as a surprise element.

• Roll it up.

• Secure with a toothpick, if you wish.

Delicious!
***

Review:

5 forks for flavor
4 forks for attention-getting presentation

Garden tomato salad

Today is truly glorious! The first tomato was harvested from our home garden!



Recipe:

• 1 custard cup per serving

• Line each custard cup with:

1 lettuce leaf, torn into bite-size pieces

• Place a scoop of cottage cheese on each bed of lettuce

• Top with slices of:

garden tomatoes


Nothing beats the taste of fresh garden produce.

Macaroni and cheese

Simple. Great. Food everybody loves.

Adjust quantities to match the number of people you are serving.

I cooked about 6 servings with these proportions:

• Pour:

10 ounces macaroni

into rapidly boiling water.

• Cook for the amount of time recommended on the box (about 9 minutes, in my case).

• Drain well.

• Add about 3 ounces grated Cheddar cheese to the warm saucepan with the warm, drained spaghetti. Cover the saucepan.

• Wait about 4 or 5 minutes while the cheese melts.

• When you are tired of waiting, add about 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese to the mac and cheese mixture. Cover again and wait.

• After a few minutes, stir the mac and cheese around with a fork.

• If it seems too dry (because you did such a good job of draining the macaroni), warm up a little bit of milk in the microwave (about 20 seconds for 1/4 cup refrigerated milk) and stir it into the macaroni and cheese mixture.

• Serve with fresh ground black pepper. Delicious!

(Re: food safety and the tomatoes in the photo: Canadian origin, hydroponically grown, purchased with vine still attached.)

Fresh squash and tomato rice medley

Summer squash and zucchini squash are abundant this time of year.

So I made a simple meal (serves 3) of:

White rice (simmer, covered, 1 cup rice + 2 cups water until water is absorbed)

In a separate saucepan I cooked a couple small, sliced summer squashes and a small sliced zucchini squash in a little bit of water.

Also washed, sliced, and added a fresh tomato (from Canada, on the vine, hydroponically grown, to follow the CDC's recommendations on tomatoes this summer) to the cooking vegetables.

When all was cooked, I served the rice in small shallow bowls and put the cooked vegetables on top. As a decoration and a touch of dairy, I put small chunks of cheddar cheese on the hot rice and vegetables. Served with fresh plums and spicy tortilla crisps.

Not a favorite salad

Seems like I am functioning in a low ebb of culinary capability. Tonight I impulsively bought bok choy for the first time and made a fresh vegetable salad for dinner. I truly thought it would be good: boy choy cabbage, mushrooms, broccoli, chopped raisins, and roasted sunflower seeds with a dressing of plain yogurt plus cinnamon.

The first clue I had that my family didn't like it was the slow progress through the food on the plate. The confirming moment came when Guy sprinkled Kelly's salad with soy sauce -- and she still insisted on eating in (very slowly) rather than ditching the contaminated mixture and refilling her plate with the original concoction.

A promise of yellow seedless watermelon was the key to maintaining peace at dinner. Ah, well . . . maybe tomorrow will bring new inspiration.

I chose not to immortalize this failed salad recipe in a photograph.

Quark update

Well, I tried a recipe for quark for a reliable source. As it turns out, I had to begin substituting ingredients (lowfat buttermilk for whole buttermilk) and cooking temps (200 degrees Fahrenheit for 150 degrees Fahrenheit) from the very start -- due to the inventory at my local grocery and the capabilities of my oven. The resultant quark, although edible, was disappointing in color (tan, not white), texture (dry, not moist), and overall appearance (rather yucky, not creamy).

So, I will start a new batch of quark in the near future, using corrected ingredients purchassed from a grocer farther away, temperature controlled by a small appliance, and paying more heed to the recommended cooking times.

I will report further when results are in . . .

quark question

Does anyone know where I can find buttermilk? The real thing? Not the low fat variety . . . which is all our local grocery carries . . .

I want to try to make Quark (a sort of German variation on cream cheese).

Suggestions appreciated!