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The Pantry, Personal, Costly and Creative - Chef Lia
Home Shopping Club- Chef Brian
The Healthy Pantry - Chef Donna
Thanksgiving Makeover - Chef Glenn
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The Pantry, Personal, Costly and Creative - Chef Lia
The current economic crisis is truly affecting almost every aspect of American living. In the not-too-distant past, an economic downturn might have prevented us from buying a new car every three years, or getting that new fur coat or piece of jewelry. But today, from what I’ve been hearing from clients and friends is stocking the pantry is becoming a financial burden or waste in some cases. More than ever we need to seriously think about just how much food we keep around as we can save a lot of money by paring down our pantries to basic essentials.
Take, for example, my pantry. I’m presently in the process of cleaning out the basement to make room for the plumbers to come in and change my heating system. My pantry happens to be in the basement as well and needs to be moved out of the way. Once I started going through it, I realized that I am guilty of wasting some food. I’m happy to report, though, that there wasn’t that much that was expired. For the most part, there were items that were purchased for long-term, in-case-of-emergency usage if there was ever a crisis. These items will certainly be replenished because you have to have them handy for those unforeseen moments when you can’t use a stove or water. However, the current economic crisis has really made me rethink about just how full my everyday pantry will be in the coming months. With grocery prices rising daily, it’s hard to justify buying items that I know will not be used right away.
My obsession with being a professional personal chef and foodie has truly encouraged my overabundant pantry buying habit. The value of my pantry is unknown, but I’m guessing it’s worth a small fortune. And, now that I have to move it all, I have committed to working through the pantry as I clean so that when I put the basement back together, I can start fresh. This cleaning process has inspired me to be creative and use the ingredients I have on hand to create new meals. It’s amazing the amount of ideas you can get from looking at all those condiments, grains, sauces and pastas sitting on the shelf.
In speaking with my chef friends, they looked inside their pantries as well and were inspired to also see what they could create. We’ve come to some consensus that pantries can be very personal. Although you will find a variety of pantry suggestions from almost every cooking website and cookbook, what to put in your pantry really depends on many factors. Do you cook frequently? What style of food do you like? Do you bake? Are you a packaged food person or rely mainly on fresh or frozen foods? Are you single, do you have a family, or are you just a couple that cooks on weekends? All these factors truly affect the pantry and what should be kept in it. There really are no set pantry rules that can accommodate every cook.
This month’s newsletter is heavily related to our pantry. Since Thanksgiving is approaching we give thanks that we have such wonderful pantries to pull creative culinary ideas from. However, in working on this issue, we realize we need to tighten our belts a little and try to keep things a bit simpler as we wade through these turbulent financial waters. Cooking a simple meal from items you already have on hand, can be rewarding to your palate as well as your wallet. Saving food from going to waste also helps our planet.
We hope you enjoy the ideas we present to help you discover what pantry works best for your style of cooking. We are sure you all have many goodies stored in those cabinets, clean them out and start creating some wonderful dishes for your friends and family. And if ever you don't know what do you with all those goodies in your pantry, just ask us, our chefs can help you learn how to cook using the ingredients you have on hand.
Home Shopping Club - Chef Brian
As the present condition of the economy has most of us worried there are many things we can all do right here at home. For those of us who love being in the kitchen we know the value of a home cooked meal. Visions and thoughts of what grandma, or even mom were cooking up behind the kitchen door. The smell of a roast beef or a pot of sauce laced with meatballs and sausage. We can carry on that tradition as they intended it to be. The question for some just may be "where do I start?" The answer comes easy. Take a look in the pantry or cupboard. Open those doors up and start to explore. I know that a lot of people are avoiding canned goods, usually because of the influences of the organic ones. Fresh is great, but sometimes hard to come by. Fresh at the grocery store isn't always so fresh. Yes it is true that canned or processed foods are higher in sodium, but those can be offset quite easily. I would opt for things like canned kidney beans or whole peeled tomatoes which contain very little other than "it" and some sodium. If this is the case then regulate the amount of extra salt added to the final recipe. Tasting your food through the various stages of cooking can help as well. One cannot cook blindly. Gut instinct cannot help control how much salt you may have added.
I know that the people out there who watch food television are captivated by it, but just because someone tells you to use "EVOO" in everything that you cook doesn't mean that you should listen to them. If you have to have that olive oil taste in everything you cook, then try using a blended oil. This will not only quench the need for it, but will stretch your dollar even more. My rule of thumb for blended oils are three parts neutral oil (like canola) and one part "good" olive oil. It doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg to be good.
Look for the bargains. If canned tomatoes are on sale then stock up. This will help you when you are doing your home shopping club. I know I have fed my friends and family doing just this myself. It also gives us a sense of being, and a better feeling when we do have the opportunity to make reservations. Going out for dinner at a fancy restaurant is more of a celebration than an every day event. So dust off your favorite cook book, dig around the closet and create a meal that is better than a restaurant, because you made it yourself. Enjoy the inner chef in you. Or simply schedule a date with one of our chefs to create the perfect meal for you! Learn more about our special meals services.
The Healthy Pantry - Chef Donna
As we ponder the topic of personalized pantries, my pantry is bit different than others. Although I have the basics that are required of any well-stocked pantry, they are usually organic, where possible. And, in keeping with my lighter, healthier eating style, there are a number of other items on the list that expand an ordinary pantry list into one that can create delicious, nutritious dishes. Many of the items on this list are the perfect healthier substitutes for traditional ingredients. However, it does take some know-how and a few creative recipe ideas to utilize them to their fullest. A private cooking lesson can be designed to help you makeover your pantry. Click here to learn more about cooking lessons.
Walnut Oil
Sesame Oil
Chili Sesame Oil
Black Sesame Oil
Flaxseed Oil
Agave Nectar
Blackstrap Molasses
Brown Rice Syrup
Date Sugar
Honey
Maple Sugar
Maple Syrup
Pomegranate Molasses
Brown Rice Vinegar
Ume Vinegar
Miso
Tamari or Shoyu
Assorted grains such as brown rice, barley, quinoa, teff and farro
Green and red lentils
Assorted nut butters (expensive to buy, but easy to make on your own) such as almond butter, pistachio butter and cashew butter)
Rice cakes
Assorted nuts and seeds such as cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds
Ground flax seeds
Wheat Germ
Dried beans (very easy to cook, takes about 2 hours start to finish and you don’t have to stand over the pot and they also freeze well!)
Canned Salmon
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Thanksgiving Makeover - Chef Glenn
What two things do the holidays have in common? One, everyone thinks about all the rich foods and is afraid they'll gain weight and have to diet in the New Year. Two, everyone feels the need to cram the table with several different stuffings, potatoes at least two ways, sweet potatoes, turkey, maybe a ham as well, and hopefully a few vegetables, when on an everyday basis they're lucky if eat a balanced meal with a protein, starch and vegetable all on the same plate. And for the holidays, one dessert is never enough!
Sure, it may be tradition to indulge in Grandma's Cracker Dressing only on holidays - so then why not pass on the garlic mashed potatoes, which you eat two or three times a month anway. I know you're thinking "I'll just have a little bit of each", but a little bit of six side dishes is way more food than is healthy to consume at one time. There's a reason Grandma's recipes are special to you - because you only ate them at the holidays. So keep up the tradition, but let's slim down as well. There's really no need to have stuffing and potatoes and sweet potatoes at the same meal. If your family has two favorites, make one at Thanksgiving and one at Christmas. Or make one for Thanksgiving day and one for leftovers on Saturday. That should help your waistline. And your hairline as well - you won't be pulling your hair out trying to make eight dishes all arrive at the table nice and hot.
So lets talk about getting that food onto the table. The bird - flip it! Roast your bird "upside down"; that is, breast-down. You won't have gorgeous bronzed skin, but you will have juicier breast meat. Instead of all the juices flowing down and out of the breast, when you flip it upside down gravity makes all the juices flow down into the breast.The legs will be exposed to the heat of the oven and cook faster too (they normally take longer to cook especially when shielded in the bottom of the roasting pan).
Once the bird is done, don't be in a hurry to start carving. Tent the bird with aluminum foil (it will stay piping hot for at least an hour). Now you can use the oven to cook the stuffing, along with any other casseroles you may be serving. By not overloading the oven while roasting the bird, you'll be less likely to overcook it and end up with dry meat. Fifteen minutes before your stuffing will be ready, start carving the bird. Ten minutes before, call the family in to sit down - if they are like my family it'll take them that long to get their fannies into the dining room! This way everything arrives at the table at the same time, nice and hot.
Still insisting on a multitude of side dishes? Or just having the immediate members of the family over - which on my wife's side numbers around 40? Consider the personal chef holiday prep service. Your personal chef does all the shopping and chopping several days before the holiday - all you do is pop it into the oven! Its a great way to take the stress out of large family gatherings (and a lot cheaper than hair replacements...)
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