Imported Tomato Strainer

What do you do when your new neighbor gives you a ton of plum tomatoes that are already nice and ripe? If you are me then you pull out your tomato strainer and put it to use.

Top of Strainer

I’ve had mine for about 15 or more years at this point and I love it, I got it in a little Italian import store way back then. It is still shiny and bright and is made of stainless steel. If you go looking for one of these let me suggest you get the tallest one you can find, the shorter ones make it hard to get a bowl under the places where the pulp or skins come out. This one stands at 12 inches tall and I would like one even taller if there was one. If you can’t find one in a store in your area and would really like one then give EBAY a try, I saw them on there when I did a search a few minutes ago, I always try to at least find a place for readers to get the things I put here as they often ask.

Tomato Strainer

Mine has suction on the bottom that adheres it to the counter or a table, a lot of the others have a clamp that adheres them, for me the suction is better as my counters are too thick for the clamp to hold onto well, plus the fact that if I did adhere it with a clamp to the counter top there is only one place I would be able to work and that would throw off the flow to get into and thru the kitchen area, so I would be getting interupted often.

These strainers are very simple to use. You either take whole or cut plum tomatoes and put them into the hopper at the top and turn the handle, a few turns and you get one bowl of tomato pulp and another bowl filled with the skins and seeds from those tomatoes. When fresh tomatoes are in season and very ripe you get an amazingly fresh tomato sauce with the addition of some fresh herbs and a bit of onion and garlic and a quick cook to thicken it up a little. I make a little sauce as soon as I finish processing the tomatoes and then freeze the rest of the pulp for later use. You just can’t beat a nice fresh tomato sauce, and having the rest in the freezer all ready to go into sauces or soups is really handy and tastes so good in the middle of a cold winter spell.

Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper

See this little smiley faced gadget? I love this thing!  It is made by one of my favorite kitchen gadget makers, Kuhn Rikon, and makes getting that wonderful fresh corn off the cob with no problems or struggle. Really, just pull this along the cob and it removes the corn beautifully. If you get some great corn but aren’t going to use it right away then get yourself one of these and remove the kernels, bag them up in freezer bags and freeze them. Or make yourself some nice corn chowder. Right now sweet corn is plentiful and cheap so I will be putting this little guy thru his paces. As I go thru the gadgets and things in my kitchen I am noticing something, many of my favorite most used and well made gadgets are made by this company, I never paid much attention before but now it seems to just stand out, they make some really useful things and the quality has held up on the ones I have and use a lot. I have good knife skills and can cut the corn off the cob with a sharp knife but this little guy actually makes that job more fun and I am all for a little fun in the kitchen. Seriously if you like fresh corn off the cob get yourself one of these little guys.

Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper

Meat Tenderizers

I thought I would start going through all the gadgets I have collected in my 40 years of playing in the kitchen and listing some of my favorites and tossing those that don’t perform well enough to earn the space they take up. First up are the tenderizers I use with meats and poultry, the three in the picture are my all time favorites, at the top is my Jacquard circa 1996, back then it cost me over $50 but it has repaid that well over the years. Next on the right side is a triangular mallet type, it has one side with fine spikes, one with bigger triangular spikes and one flat side, this one allows you to use the weight of the mallet more than the stregnth of your arm to do its job, it does its job very well indeed, you can flatten steaks into see thru scallops in seconds. The third at the bottom is the flat mallet, it is stainless steel and works well but not as well as the triangular one on the right, it has a large flat area but I think it has more to do with the leverage you have with the other smaller one that does the job better. This larger flat one is good for chicken breasts, you can hit the whole suface area of a breast in one hit. I threw out all the others I ahve had over the years, they more tore up the meats and poultry than flattened it, it I had to only chose one of the above I would keep the white handled triangular one, it is just an all around great gadget and gets the job done quickly with no arm fatique, I have this in a large size too, I remember I paid $12.99 for it at TJMaxx years ago but have seen them there recently too.

                                               BBQ Tonight

Yesterday my new grill pan arrived and I wanted to try it out so planned a little BBQ for today. Of course when I woke up today it was overcast and thundering, I thought I would have to come up with something different for dinner but thankfully it cleared up after a few showers and the BBQ was on again.  It was just supposed to be hubby and I for dinner but Matt said he would stop by if I made some food for him too so I did.

This is really more about the new grill pan than one of my regular blogs. The pan is the square one in the pictures. It is cast iron and heavy, it has holes in the bottom for the smoke and flames to come thru. I love it already, it really contains the foods inside and helps stop the usual burning you might get over an open flame on your grill. The round one in the picture serves the same purpose but it is lightweight and made of a lighter metal, the handle on it is handy but I much prefer the heavier square one, the sides on the round one are lower too, which translates into being able to put less food in it, or risk tossing the food out of it when you toss or shake it.

The potatoes tonight were a very simple preparation consisting of small red potatoes cut in half, whole mushrooms, red peppers, shallots, onions, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and smoked paparika. These were tossed in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of oil, the square grill pan was put over the flames to heat up for about 5 minutes before the potato mixture was tossed in, the pan was then moved over to the cooler side of the grill while I got the rest of the items for the grill ready. The sausages were mixed with some red peppers and onions with crushed garlic, the sausages were put in the pan by themselves first for a few minutes just to brown them a little then the onion/pepper mixture was tossed in. We also had a few burgers and hot dogs to go along with the rest.

So far I am very happy with the new grill pan, it came already pre-seasoned but upon unwrapping it I scrubbed it with plain water and a stiff brush, then I placed it over a medium flame on my kitchen stove to thoroughly dry it, brushed it with a little shortening and let it continue to heat for a while. I brushed on a thin layer of oil right before I put it on the grill tonight to let it heat up before I added the potato mixture. After the cooking was done I turned the grill upside down over the flame and the residue all burned off it, although nothing had in fact stuck to it, when I flipped it back right side up I simply brushed off the interior and it looks like it just came out of the package, I wiped it down with a few paper towels and then gave it a very light brush of oil……..it’s ready for my next experiment with it…….maybe some shrimp! I bought this on QVC, the shopping channel, it is item # K29555- Technique Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron BBQ Fry Pan. If you enjoy grilling and grilling gadgets you might want to get one for yourself, it’s very handy for things that get lost between the grill grates.

Microplane Box Grater

Potato Pancakes

Tonight we are having some leftover brisket so I thought I would pair it with some old fashioned potato pancakes. This meal reminds me of my grandmother so much, it is one that my grandfather loved and as my grandparents aged it became harder and harder for my “Nana” to grate the potatoes that were needed for the pancakes, her eyes would light up when Mick and I would come visit and I would grate the potatoes for her on that old box grater……it was a knuckle busting job and often resulted in scraped hands, but I loved doing it for her and Gramp because of the love they had always shown me. Today brought back so many memories and made me realize how much you can miss someone when they are no longer visible, but as I grated the potatoes today I felt them  right beside me, it’s a comforting feeling. Now on to the pancakes.

                                                      Potato Pancakes

5 medium russet potatoes, washed and peeled

1 large onion peeled

2 large eggs

1/4 cup flour or matzo meal

2 tablespoons bacon fat melted

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

oil for frying

On an old fashioned box grater, grate the potatoes on the fine side. Grate them into a strainer set over a large bowl to catch the water and starch from the potatoes. When finished set the potatoes on a clean lint free towel or some doubled up paper towels and squeeze all the moisture out of the potatoes, you want them very dry. Pour the liquid out of the large bowl they were resting over but try to save the starch on the bottom of it. Add the potatoes back to the large bowl and grate the onions into the potatoes.  Mix them together well and then add the eggs, the flour or matzo and the salt, pepper, parsley and melted bacon fat to make a thick batter.

Heat a large skillet and when it is hot add oil to a depth of about 1/4 inch, let the oil heat. When a drop of water sizzles when added to the pan the oil is ready. Take about a 1/4 cup of batter and place carefully in the pan for each pancake, watch the heat and lower it if needed.  Allow the cake to cook on the first side until the top looks dry and the bottom is browned, flip them over and let them continue cooking until the second side is nicely browned. Remove them to a plate lined with paper towels to remove any extra oil. Serve them right away while they are still crispy and hot, we eat them with applesauce and sour cream

If you have to hold them for a while before you have enough for everyone then put them on a rack over a cookie sheet in a 225 degree oven to keep them warm and crispy. If you do manage to have any leftover you can heat them up the same way when you need to.

While the old fashioned knuckle busting box graters work for this I wish the new Microplane grater was available when Nana was still here.  It is a true pleasure to work with and makes short work of grating the potatoes and onions due to the extra sharp grating surface. You can see a glimpse of it in the photo above. If you love potato pancakes you need this!  While you can make these in a food processer they will never match the texture of a true old fashioned potato pancake.

Mattie

I think I should tell you first that I am not someone who buys stuff from infomercials. I prefer to see and hold my purchases in my hand before I plunk down my money. That being said I saw this item at Sams on a recent shopping trip and said to my husband, I wonder if the boys would like these for themselves and their children. I picked it up off the shelf and the first thing I noticed is that although it is made of plastic (what isn’t these days?) it seemed to be made of a high quality thick sturdy plastic.

I belong to several Yahoo cooking groups and one of the owners of those lists then opened a group for the appliance so I joined the group. I listened for  actual users comments and noticed that they were happy with it’s performance, there wasn’t one complaint but most were just using it for smoothies. I monitored the group for almost a week.

On our next trip to Sams I put one in the cart, hubby just rolled his eyes. I knew what he was thinking…….in a house overcrowded with kitchen gadgets and machines why was I buying this.

On arriving home I unpacked the machine and various containers and washed them up. After they were dry I tried crushing ice, the machine performed flawlessly if a little loudly, but you would expect that level of noise as it is crushing/chopping ice. Next I peeled an onion and cut it in quarters, a few quick pulses and voila, finely chopped onion pieces and no mush or water. Onto celery, again a few quick taps and I had a chunky dice, a few more and I had finely chopped celery and no mush or water. I was beginning to love this machine!

Onto the potato test. We love potato pancakes…….real potato pancakes that is. You know the kind your grandmom made by shredding the potatoes on an old fashioned knuckle busting box grater. I have several other food processors here, and have never been able to turn out a pancake with any kind of distinction from any of them, they all over processed the potatoes, resulting in gluey pancakes no matter how carefully I monitored the machine, one extra pulse and glue was the result, one less pulse and you ened up with hard chunks of potato in the pancakes, I didn’t really expect this little Ninja to be able to do any better to tell the truth. I peeled a few potatoes and cut them into large chunks, dropped them into the blender jar and attached the motor. I was able to get a nice textured batter with a few taps of the hand. Were the pancakes the same as hand grated? Honestly, no. What they were, was a quite acceptable substitute when you have to make them for a crowd or your hands are a little tired from age. I had never been able to achieve a consistancy that close to hand grated before with any machine, and I have tried to for years.

Next I made a smoothie for hubby, he suddenly realized this house had a definite need for this new machine. His smoothie was SMOOTH with no ice chunks, just pure creamy texture from start to finish.

So I would say this has a definite place in the home if you like smoothies or protein shakes, or if you have a need for some quickly chopped celery, carrots, onion and so on. It is simple to operate and simple to clean, and even better, it does what it says it will!

 By the way it also made wonderful vegetable cream cheese in under 15 seconds, I won’t be paying almost $7 a container for it at the deli anymore!

Get one, you will love it

Mattie

I thought it might be fun to list some of my favorite useful things in my kitchen, but the list will evolve over time. Gadgets seem to go through cycles with me….for weeks at a time I will utilize one of them and then suddenly another will become the most used. There is no ryhme or reason to it but I think most people are the same, at least if they love to cook they are. Right now I seem to be obsessed with that new Ninja Master Prep Deluxe. I picked mine up at Sams a week ago and have probably used it at least a dozen times or more already. I’ve made vegetable cream cheese, potato pancakes, herb butter and chopped endless amounts of onions, celery and carrots. Seriously, I love this little gadget, it has become my new best friend in the kitchen and I find myself trying to think of even more things to do with it.

I know if my boys were still home they would have had some unusual uses for it already! They were VERY rambunctious and the middle one had a fear of nothing, whenever something would happen around the house it got so everyone would yell “Matt did it” and 99% of the time he did. My family used to say that if I raised him to adulthood and both he and I made it through I would be gauranteed cannonization by the church…….thinking back I think they might have been right although I don’t see a halo above me. As I said we have three sons, Chris is the oldest, he was always quiet and sort of timid growing up, he always seemed to question things around him but was a little fearful of checking out anything. Matt is in the middle, he was born without fear of any kind, I knew we were in trouble the minute I saw him after he was born. I remember turning to my husband and saying “I think we’re in for it now, look at those eyes on him”.  Our youngest is Mike, I have never seen a 2 year old with a definite idea of what he would wear…..he was born with a sense of style and still has it to this day, his older brothers were happy with a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and being boys they didn’t even care if you washed them…….not Mike, he picked out his own stuff since the time he was two, if he didn’t like something it would soon disappear, and his favorites had to always be ready for him or he wouldn’t go out. He preferred totally co-ordinated outfits, no jeans and T’s for him, heaven forbid. Have you ever seen a two or three year old who insisted that his clothes be ironed? If it had a wrinkle in it, it wasn’t going on his little body. I must admit though, it was nice to have at least one boy who took care with the way he looked…….it took his brothers until their teen years to really care……about the time they discovered girls.

One little escapade stands out in my mind, I had just worked an 18 hour shift, work was super busy and I was exhausted. I got home at 6 am and hubby got up to get ready for work and get the boys ready for school, the school bus picked them up on the corner. I waited until they were outside and collapsed into my bed without even removing my makeup. I felt myself start to go into a deep sleep when I suddenly heard all these sirens, I got up and looked out the window at the bus stop and the kids were already gone, back to bed I fell and just collapsed. A few minutes went by and there was a really loud pounding on the door, I figured it was a salesman or something so I chose to ignore it, the pounding got louder and then was also going on on the back door too. I dragged myself out of bed again and went to the front door. There in all their glory stood a batallion of firemen, axes in hand and really mad looks on their faces. I opened the door with the makeup smeared all over my face and they took one look at me and backed up, I guess I was a pretty sight they were’nt ready for. They asked “Do you have 2 sons named Chris and Matt” I said yes they are my sons but they are in school, I still wasn’t connecting all those firetrucks with my little angels. It seems our corner had an old fire alarm box that had not been disconnected yet and while they waited for the bus Chris had said to Matt, “I wonder what happens if you pull that lever” Matt being Matt and having no fear decided to find out……so he pulled it. Nothing happened so he proceeded to pull it again……..still nothing so he pulled it again….and again…….and again…in all a total of 10 times, with each ring calling for another truck to help fight this enormous fire that must be happening. When the trucks showed up and the boys  saw them and realized what they had done they went and hid under our house. They came out after the firemen had left and they mustered up enough courage to face the rath of Mom. Chris was in tears……..Matt just said “hey mom, did you know that those old boxes on the corner really work” He couldn’t understand why my face was so twisted and when I told him he was grounded until he was 40 his only reply was “Does that mean I get no food?” The firemen came back later that day to talk to them about the dangers of calling out the trucks when there isn’t an actual fire happening and we never had another truck incident. I should mention that in their defense they had never seen a fire alarm before we moved south. Life with my boys was never dull, that’s for sure. I remember hearing one of the firemen as they walked down off the porch saying to one of his guys “Those poor kids, did you see that mother……she must hang out in bars all night….that’s one rough looking woman” Ahhhhh yes, the joys of motherhood with 3 rambunctious boys.

Mattie