Kitchen Tip Tuesday! - Stainless Steel Kitchen Odor Eater

I looooooove garlic.  Really. Love. It.  I cook with it nearly every day.  Luckily, my family loves garlic too.  I have found, however, that I do not love the smell of garlic on my fingers, hours after scrubbing them.  Enter: Stainless Steel Soap! 

Kitchen Tip Tuesday! Onions

Today's kitchen tip takes a kitchen staple - the humble yellow onion - and unlocks both flavor and utility. 

When roasting meat, take the metal rack out of the roasting pan and replace it with thickly sliced onions.  The "onion rack" will keep the meat from touching the bottom of the pan, and will add great flavor to the pan drippings.  In addition, you can serve the onions over top of the sliced meat for a delicious flavor boost! 

Kitchen Tip Tuesday! Double up

Convenience foods for food allergy families are expensive!  You name it - breakfast foods, snacks, main meals, desserts?  All pretty pricey.  One of my secrets to staying on a budget is to double up! Double the recipe you are making, and freeze the extra!  I have a kitchen cabinet dedicated to freezer containers.  I double everything I can (that freezes well), and it saves me time and money when time is short, and the budget is tight.  With seven kids, we are always on the go, and some nights I don't have the time to make a healthy, safe, dinner from scratch.  With a well stocked freezer, I know that I can get food on the table without a huge amount of time, or breaking the budget.

Here's what you need in order to become a "Freezer Diva!"

- Reusable freezer containers in ALL sizes

- Zip-top freezer bags

- Sharpie marker

- Roll of masking tape

- Advanced planning to double at least one recipe each week (two is better) 

I use these "Pen Pal" pencil holders to keep my Sharpie and a pencil always on hand in the kitchen.  The holders just peel and stick right to the door.  I love not having to rummage around a junk drawer to get what I need.  The masking tape is always tucked right in there too! 

On a "Double Up" night, after your family enjoys the sumptuous meal you've prepared, portion out the leftovers into containers.  Use masking tape as a label, and write in permanent marker, not only the contents of the container, but a "Use by" date, and anything you'll need the day you bust out the frozen leftovers.  For example, if I freeze the veggie and meat mixture from a stir fry, I write "Stir-fry: needs rice" on the label. 

Be strategic about your portions.  Is it something that might be nice as a hot lunch?  Save in 2-cup containers for individual sized meals. Is it something that you'll want to heat up for the whole family? Make sure that the freezer container isn't bigger than the vessel you'll be reheating in! 

I can't tell you how many times using the "Double Up" method has allowed me to get a healthy safe dinner on the table on a super busy day.  Here are 10 of our favorite "Double Up" foods:

Pancakes (recipe in "Love Letters from My Kitchen")
Waffles (recipe in "Love Letters from My Kitchen")
Zucchini Bread (recipe in "Love Letters from My Kitchen")
Apple Bread
Kicked Up Sloppy Joes
Chicken Soup (freeze without noodles)
Potato Leek Soup
Turkey Slop (yep, it says slop...turkey in gravy, and then we serve it over a scoop of mashed                                     potatoes) *freeze just the turkey in gravy
Meat sauce 
Cookies (recipe in "Love Letters from My Kitchen")


Get started and "Double Up" a meal this week!  For additional freezable baked goods, get my cookbook, "Love Letters from My Kitchen!" Available here, or on Amazon!  

 As always, from The Allergy Safe Kitchen, I wish you "Good Cooking, and Safe Eating"!

Can I make you a meal?

Food is a language.  We speak it in our family, our community, our culture.  We speak a language of celebration through food at birthday parties, holidays, awards banquets, date nights, graduation dinners, and any number of accomplishments that deserve a "special meal".  We speak a language of community through food in church potluck suppers, fundraiser pancake breakfasts and spaghetti dinners, neighborhood barbeques.  Every culture is loaded with food that speaks a distinctive language of spices, textures, techniques, and flavor profiles.   The tradition of breaking bread together is universal.  It strengthens the bonds of a family, or of a community, of a culture. 

So what happens when food allergies change the way we participate in that food conversation?  Well, a lot happens.  People may feel left out, put out, worn out, and decide to just sit it out.  I'm sure we could share countless stories of family members and friends who just don't understand, church or school functions that become a stressful maze of dangers to be navigated, and traditions that seem impossible to carry on and pass down in a safe way.  The honest truth is that the weight of food allergies is sometimes heavy and burdensome. Sometimes the weight of life events are heavy and burdensome too, or in other cases, happily unwieldy. When that happens, my instinct is to cook.  To nourish and feed the soul through food. 

I don't know about you moms out there, but nearly every "moms group" I have ever belonged to has a well oiled automatic "food brigade" that rolls into action with every birth, death, and major life event in the families of the member moms. "Judy had her baby?  I'll make her a meal!", "Norma's father died?  I'll make a meal for her.", "Susie's husband will be out of town for a month?  I'll bring her a meal while he's gone!"... does any of this feel familiar?  

When we had our twins, so many people  asked if they could cook for us, and truthfully, most of the time I turned them down. It's too hard to know if someone REALLY understands that "just a little", or even just cross-contamination could send us to the ER. Nearly all the women whose offerings I accepted and fed to my family have food allergic children of their own.  Unfortunately, the people who offer and get turned down get their feelings a little hurt, and that's not good either. So what's the answer?  Well, there are a few ways to handle this without hurt feelings, and without isolating yourself and your family in times of "big life stuff". 

First, get prepared for the people who want to help, but don't understand how to safely cook for your family.  Make a list.  Make a list of things that would be helpful that don't include cooking. The list might include things like:
- taking your kids to the park, to give you a break,
- coming over in the evening and folding laundry with you and
  keeping you company,
- ask if they would be willing to go to the grocery store for you,
- in the case of a death in the family - ask a few close friends to
  make phone calls for you,
- in the case of a birth, ask someone to come and hold the baby so
  you can take a shower!
- anything that would ease your burden or make life a little easier.

Then, get prepared for the people who want to help, and that you trust to cook for your family.  Have a file saved on your computer that lists your family's food allergies.  When someone you trust to cook, calls and says "Can I make you a meal?" say YES!, and send them the file as a reminder of the foods that need to be avoided.

Last, but not least, cook for others!  We all build up that network of food allergy families in our lives, so be sure to cook for them when the going gets tough! They are probably saying "no" to countless, well-meaning friends, so be the friend they can say "yes" to!

Here are my tips for making a meal for a food allergy family:

- Ask for a list of foods to avoid.
- Use new containers of ingredients if possible, to avoid the risk of 
  cross-contact.
- Double check the labels on all ingredients you will use.
- Make something freezer-friendly.
- Freeze in a family sized portion, and also in a few individual sized
  portions so a family member can grab a quick hot lunch.  (This is
  especially helpful for new moms, and nursing moms!)
- Use disposable freezer containers so no one has to get a dish back
  to you!
- Write out the list of ingredients (including brands), or the recipe,      and attach it to themeal, so the family knows exactly what's in the    meal.  During times of stress, what you say on the phone or at the    door about the ingredients might not be remembered when it's          time to make dinner.

 As always, from The Allergy Safe Kitchen, I wish you "Good Cooking, and Safe Eating"!

Leek tops - another valuable freebie!

One of my family's favorite winter dinners is Potato Leek Soup with homemade artisan bread.  The recipe calls for a lot of leeks, which leaves me with a counter full of beautiful bright green leek tops. I try to make the most out of each food item I purchase, so I always save my leek tops for making stock.  Here's how I do it!

 

 

 

Rise them just as you would the white tender part that gets cooked.  Fill a deep bowl with cold water.  Roughly chop the leeks and add them to the water.  Agitate them a bit with your fingers and then let them sit for 10-20 minutes while you give yourself a manicure. (Just making sure you were paying attention there...) The leeks will float and the dirt will sink to the bottom.

 

 

Lift the leeks gently from the water, place them on paper towels, and pat dry.

 

 

Look at all the dirt left in the bowl!  That definitely doesn't belong in my soup!

 

Portion the leeks out into several quart sized freezer bags.  I always label my bags with a "Use By" date so I don't end up with a freezer full of freezer burned foods.  (I have a full sized, stand alone freezer, so I'm pretty comfortable with 1-3 months for most of my frozen foods.)

 

Next time you are making stock, add a bag of frozen leeks instead of an onion! Leek tops are another valuable "freebie" in my kitchen!

 

 

 

 

 As always, from The Allergy Safe Kitchen, I wish you "Good Cooking, and Safe Eating"!

The Most Valuable Freebie in my Kitchen...

There is one food "freebie" that I use religiously in my kitchen.  It is...bacon fat!  I'm going old school right now, and suggesting that all of you, my dear readers, maintain a jar of bacon fat.  Once you start cooking with it, you'll be seeing that beautiful white deliciousness as culinary gold. 

To collect it, simply drain the fat out of the pan, or out of one of those nifty microwave bacon racks, into a heat safe container, I usually use a bowl.  Allow the fat to cool a bit before moving it to a mason jar.   Then, cover and store. I prefer to store mine in the fridge, but you could store it in the freezer if you have a copious amount that you won't use within a month or so.



There are two camps on whether or not to strain out the little brown bits from your bacon fat. Some cooks always strain it, and some never do.  If you are going to use it fairly quickly, I vote to leave those golden brown bits in for the extra flavor they bring to the party.  However, if you'll be storing the fat for a while, strain them out, as they contribute to turning the fat rancid more quickly. 




Apple Maple Chicken Sausage browned with bacon fat. 
Breakfast doesn't get much better than this.

 *I also suggest using organic bacon.  Yep, I used the "o" word.  Calm down, I know, I can hear you now..."It's so expensive!"  Yes, it is a bit more pricey than "regular" bacon, BUT, you are getting a quality product that does not contain synthetic chemicals, additional nitrites and nitrates, or GMO laden ingredients. AND if you save the rendered fat, you'll have beautiful organic cooking fat for other dishes. This is one instance where I recommend consistently buying organic.

 As always, from The Allergy Safe Kitchen, I wish you "Good Cooking, and Safe Eating"!