Community Kitchen

Hi Everyone.

I hope you enjoyed our great summer!

It’s been 10 years since my inaugural Community Kitchen Column and I hope I have brought you some recipes that you have enjoyed. I have asked for your submissions of your favourite family recipes but have received very little response. To those who have shared their recipes, I am eternally grateful.

If you can e-mail me what category of recipes you like to see in my column, I would really appreciate it.

FUKUJINZUKE
Recently I have made some fukujinzuke (I make it every year at this time of the year when vegetables are in season) and it’s so nice to have a jar in the fridge, even if it’s a little bit of work.

Cut 12 cups of vegetables in small pieces: daikon, carrot, beans, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, gobo (some people use celery, cabbage cauliflower and renkon as well). Put in a large container and add 1/4 coarse salt and mix it up.  Put weight on and leave it overnight.

Following morning, drain the liquid on a strainer and leave it for a day.
In the evening, make a syrup of 1-1/2 cup soya sauce, 1-1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup vinegar, grated ginger and red pepper seeds and konbu cut up  and sesame seeds. Bring to boil and add the vegetables  and heat for 2 minutes. let it stand in the syrup overnight and in the AM  drain again reserving the syrup. Let it drain for the day and repeat with syrup, bringing it to boil and adding the vegetables.and cook 2 minutes.. Repeat this process for two more days. On the fourth day bring it to a full boil and pack into steilized jars.  Seal. (I seal it in a 350 oven for 20 minutes. Makes 6 – 1/2 pint jars.

I ran out of jars so I froze them in a ziplock bags after it cooled and it’s the same result.

Enjoy!

I recently received some great interesting advice on my E-mail and I am passing it on to you.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
I didn’t know that!

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!!  Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm.
This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg.
Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size.
You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2 inch with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants  
Put a small pile of cornmeal where you see the ants.  They eat it, take it ‘home,’ can’t digest it, so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have to worry about pets or small children being harmed. (It worked in our church’s basement kitchen.)