Alright, so it's time for some new direction

I can't seem to find time for this blog because I've started my own business. So I'm going to make it a part of my business. If all 2 of my readers don't already know this, I'm am your Friendly Watkins Associate now. It's network marketing, like Pampered Chef or Mary Kay, only with gourmet food products, and some other stuff. So for the following reasons:

-to highlight my business
-so I don't spam the people over at my other blog
-to make it more sensible, time-effective, and frequent to update this blog

....I'm going to give you highlights of my favorite products. First up:

Watkins Good Tasting Bread Mix

Every good soup deserves a great bread, and there are few things as satisfying as warm bread fresh out of the oven ... but who has time for homemade?You do!This handy mix is easy to prepare; just mix with beer or any other carbonated beverage and customize with Watkins herbs and spices, if desired.It produces a dense, rustic loaf that will accompany a wide variety of soups and main dishes with style.Dip it in Watkins flavored Grapeseed Oils as a delicious appetizer!

• Convenient: No rising time or kneading! Just
stir in a can of beer (or sparkling water, soda or
any other carbonated liquid) and bake.
• Versatile: Easily adaptable to a wide variety of
flavors. Add Watkins herbs, spices, seasoning
blends or other products; top it with nearly anything—
use your imagination!

Fire Pepper Bread
Good Tastings Bread Mix
2 tsp/10 mL Watkins Fire Pepper
1 tsp/5 mL Watkins Garlic Granules
1 can (12 oz/355 mL) lemon-flavored
sparkling water
1 cup/250 mL chopped green or red peppers
2 cups/500 mL grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp/15 mL melted butter or margarine
(optional)
Watkins Cooking Spray
Heat oven to 350°F/180°C. Spray loaf pan with
Watkins Cooking Spray. Combine bread mix,
pepper and garlic granules together in a large
bowl. Add sparkling water. Mix until well blended,
but do not overmix. Stir in peppers and cheese.
Spoon batter into pan. Drizzle with the melted
butter. Bake for 50- 60 minutes. Remove from
oven. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes. Remove from
pan and serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition Facts:
1/4 c dry mix (380 g) contains: Calories 140; Total Fat 0 g; Trans Fat 0 g; Sodium 250 mg/10% DV; Total Carbohydrate 29 g/10% DV; Dietary Fiber 1 g/4% DV; Sugars 6 g; Protein 3 g; Calcium (6% DV); Iron (8% DV).

Ingredients:
Bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour,niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, sugar, baking soda, cornstarch, sodium aluminum sulfate, calcium sulfate, calcium phosphate, salt.

If you are interested in ordering this item, or for more information, contact me at mrs_kaminsky@yahoo.com. Or, you may go to www.watkinsonline.com, and be sure to enter associate # 374162 when you create your account, so I get credit for what I do.

For more information on my business opportunity, go to www.tsginfo.com and enter code MK4227, or send me an email and I'll be glad to meet with you.

Corn Fritters

I never even knew what a corn fritter was, living in my home town of Columbus, Ohio. Then I moved south and was introduced to more Southern Style cookin'. But, I do love corn. Even having grown up in a city of about 800,000 people, I still remember driving to southern Ohio to the farmer's markets. Now, you all who live close to me have no clue what a real farmer's market is. This one in Ohio was INCREDIBLE, and I only wish that I could remember precisely where it was. We'd drive for an hour or more to get there. There were feild of strawberries, and we'd go picking our own. There was an entire market outside with any produce you could imagine. Inside, they had, most importantly, air conditioning, as well as home baked pie of all sort, and candy for the kids. I especially loved these flavored sugar-stick candies that I can only find now in Cracker Barrell. Best of all, there was a flatbed trailer pile several feet high with various kinds of corn. Peaches and Cream Corn was a local favorite. This was how I learned to pick out the best corn, shuck it, clean it, and cook it. Occasionally things got a little tense as all the housewives competed for the best corn on that trailer, but it was oh, so worth it.

Enough reminiscing! Yesterday was Nation Corn Fritter Day! Oh, Happy Belated Day!
So I did a trail batch of corn fritters, as an experiment to see if my husband, who, for my purposes here, I will call the Philosopher, would eat them. This was such a simple recipe, and it left him asking for more. My toddler loved them too.

Next time I'll be adding some sugar and maybe chili powder. I've heard of corn fritters being served with maple syrup, but the Philosopher wasn't into that idea. But here's the basic recipe:

Corn Fritters
1 cup bisquick
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 can sweet corn (it would of course, be better to cut it right off the cob, but oh well. we work with what we've got)

Combine the first 3 ingredients, and then add the corn. Drop by small spoonfuls into about an inch of oil. I actually used bacon grease, since my entree called for bacon, and it added a great flavor. Let brown on one side, (this is over medium heat, by the way) about 1-2 minutes. Flip and brown on the other side. They should be a nice golden brown all over. Drain on paper towels.

Ratatouille

Maybe it's because I frequent so many cooking blogs. Maybe it's just because I'm easily annoyed. But I am getting incredibly sick of seeing the word ratatouille. I googled the word and it was all about the movie. So here's how I vent my frustration.

How do you say that stinkin word?
rat-at-TOO-ee

What is ratatouille?
A traditional French dish of stewed veggies

How is ratatouille traditionally eaten?
On it's own, it's just fine. Or serve with bread, rice, pasta, or potatoes

How is ratatouille made?
Tomatoes are essential. Saute them in olive oil with garlic, zucchini, onions, eggplant, bell pepper, various herbs (try herbs de provence) and maybe some basil.

From epicurious.com:
2 1/2 lb tomatoes (4 large)
8 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
20 fresh basil leaves, torn in half
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 lb eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 large onions (1 1/2 lb total), quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
3 assorted bell peppers (green, red, and/or yellow; 1 1/2 lb total), cut into 1-inch pieces
4 medium zucchini (2 lb), quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into 3/4-inch-thick pieces
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Garnish: Parmigiano-Reggiano shavings and fresh basil

Cut an X in bottom of each tomato with a sharp paring knife and blanch together in a 4-quart pot of boiling water 1 minute. Transfer tomatoes with a slotted spoon to a cutting board and, when cool enough to handle, peel off skin, beginning from scored end, with paring knife.

Coarsely chop tomatoes and transfer to a 5-quart heavy pot with garlic, parsley, basil, and 1/3 cup oil. Simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes break down and sauce is slightly thickened, about 30 minutes.

While sauce is simmering, toss eggplant with 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large colander and let stand in sink 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook onions in 3 tablespoons oil with 1/4 teaspoon salt in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer onions with a slotted spoon to a large bowl, then add 3 tablespoons oil to skillet and cook bell peppers with 1/4 teaspoon salt over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Transfer peppers with slotted spoon to bowl with onions. Add 3 tablespoons oil to skillet and cook zucchini with 1/4 teaspoon salt over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer zucchini with slotted spoon to bowl with other vegetables.

While zucchini are cooking, pat eggplant dry with paper towels. Add remaining oil (about 1/4 cup) to skillet and cook eggplant over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10 to12 minutes.

Add vegetables, remaining teaspoon salt, and black pepper to tomato sauce and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender, about 1 hour. Cool, uncovered, and serve warm or at room temperature

In the meantime

Here are two of my favorite things, one consuming the other.

I know, I know

I'm working on new recipes. Trust me, I think the delay will be worth it. I'm working on perfecting my version of Harry Potter and JK Rowling's butterbeer. So be patient.

I know I've been lax

I'll be back posting this weekend. Sorry for the huge delay. The holiday and the Great American Bake sale that I'm hosting have kept me very busy, plus I'm trying to read though all the released Harry Potter books before the final one is released.

I guess I should say something about food, since this is a food blog, right? Ok so here it is. For your next patriotic holiday, like Labor Day for instance, you can make the following simple dessert that will look fabulous. Incidentally, this is one of the dishes I made for Independence Day.

Find a rectangular pound cake at yor local market, or make your own.

Slice it into 4 long pieces. You'll basically be making a layer cake out of it.

Start with your bottom layer and top with whipped cream. I made my own whipped cream. Cool Whip is ok, but homemade is far better and take 5 minutes or less.

Tope with sliced strawberries and then more whipped cream. Add the next layer of cake, and keep going in the same fashion.

When you've added your last layer of cake, top with whipped cream, and then make a pretty design, like a flag, out of blueberries and strawberries.

So easy and it looks impressive. Have fun!

These are so neat: Solar ovens

I love anything environentally friendly. Hybid cars, solar electricity, houses made from hay and clay. But unfortuanately this sometimes is more expensive. Don't get me wrong, I would spend the money, if I had it. But this is something affordable.

I'm about to buy a new grill, in preparation for Independence Day. My budget is $100 or less. But I'm thinking about how much wood, charcoal, and gas are used in the process. So here is a useful alternative that is acually portable, just as useful as an over, and you can even use it in the winter.

The concept of the solar oven is pretty neat. There's nothing that compares to the taste of grilled food, but this is definitely a good alternative.