How you doin’? Without a doubt, potatoes are one of the most versatile vegetables on the face of earth. Different varieties are grown by farmers all over the world. The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. In 1536 Spanish Conquistadors vanquished Peru, discovered the flavors of the potato, and carried them to Europe. Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland in 1589 on the 40,000 acres of land near Cork.
 
The English brought potatoes to North America in the 1620s when the British governor in the Bahamas made a special gift of them to the governor of Virginia. They spread slowly through the northern colonies but had much of the same initial reception in North America as they did in Europe—everybody loved them.
 
In the Covid-19 Survival Guide: Cooking Lesson #61, we provided a recipe and procedure to make English Roasted Potatoes. They were (and are) yummy. Now find out how to make American Potatoes Great Again with my All-American perfectly roasted potatoes recipe.
 
Roasted potatoes are a particular joy to eat. It’s all about the pleasure of a crispy exterior with a fluffy, creamy interior. But there is a difference between a potato that has a slight crisp on the outside and one that is truly crunchy. That additional texture can mean the difference between a good potato experience and a great one. So, it is good to know the secrets to making perfect spuds!
 
For starters, use the right potato. When in America use American russet potatoes. Russets with their higher starch content will always roast up crispier than waxy style potatoes like red or white skinned.
 
Cook ‘em up HOT! Cook potatoes at a minimum of 400⁰ F, but even as high as 475⁰ F. Don’t be afraid… high heat will cook them faster, which means the natural steam will get out quicker and the exteriors will dry enough to begin crisping earlier in cooking process. Cooking hot and fast will always get you a better exterior, if they start to over-brown before they are finished inside, you can lower the heat to 350 to finish roasting.
 
Lube ‘em up. French fries crisp up because of their exposure to hot oil. These little beauties aren’t too different. So, be sure to slick ‘em up. Your roasties need plenty of oil on all sides to create that crisp oven-fried texture.
 
Rough around the edges. A smooth surface on a cut potato will be resistant to crisping. The way to ensure that great exterior is to pre-cook your potatoes by boiling the cubes in water for about 10 minutes, so that they are still firm in the middle, but just starting to be tender on the exterior. Drain well, put a lid on the colander, and give a good shake. This will rough up the exterior of the potatoes and make them look a bit fuzzy. Then toss in oil and roast on high heat. The rougher exterior will crisp up extra crunch! Bet you can’t eat just one!
 
Dress ‘em up with a nice coat.
If you are a fan of seasoned fries, you can get the same results by tossing your roasted potato cubes in seasoned corn starch or rice, chestnut or all-purpose flour before roasting. The starch will get your potatoes crisp.

​ChefSecret:  Roasting, by its nature, is a cooking environment that gets things crispy, but if you want it extra crispy and you want that roasted flavor but with the added texture, give your finished potatoes a fast flash by tossing them in a nonstick skillet over high heat to finish that last little bit of cooking with direct heat to get them super crispy. This is the secret used in better restaurants.

Quip of the Day: “It feels like the richer that people get, the harder it is for them to remember that food actually costs money.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Do you want to share a favorite recipe or pictures with our readers? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. 

#AmericanRoastedPotatoes #Potatoes #OvenRoastedPotatoes #Covid19SurvivalBlog #2022 #RedCross #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 

                                                          ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022

How you doin’? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of a sweet freak. I like to start the morning with a treat—healthy if possible—and end the night with just a touch of sugar. These Honey-Molasses Bran Muffins are a great head start on the day. This recipe bakes up deliciously tender muffins that feature wheat bran and whole wheat flour for flavor and fiber, and raisins, honey, molasses and applesauce for sweetness and texture.
 
In the area where I live, Vons Markets hot bakery sometimes has pretty darn good bran muffins, but they usually run out before I get there. So now I just put on my best baker’s apron and get the big bowl and wooden spoon out and in less than a half an hour I’ve got fresh, healthy morning muffins.
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Bake time:  15-20 minutes
Yield:  12 to 15 medium-size muffins
 
Ingredients 
1 cup wheat or oat bran (I prefer Bob’s Red Mill brand)
1-1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (for this recipe I used King Arthur brand)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup roasted and chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup applesauce (I used No Sugar Added)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1-1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 large beaten eggs
2 tablespoons demerara sugar (raw sugar)
 
Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 400° F and center a rack in the oven.
2. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin (Pam) or line with paper or foil baking cups (or both).
3. In a large bowl, combine wheat bran, flour, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder.
4.  Stir in nuts and raisins.
5. Add in the applesauce, milk, molasses, honey, vanilla extract, oil and eggs and stir just until moistened.
6. Scoop into prepared muffin tin.
7. Sprinkle a little demerara sugar on top of the batter and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

ChefSecret: This is a basic bran muffin recipe to which you can easily add other ingredients—substitute dried cherries, cranberries or chopped prunes for the raisins. You can use straight honey or molasses instead of the mix. If you really have a sweet tooth add dark brown sugar in place of the other sweeteners. You can use almond extract in place of the vanilla. You can make it your own and change it up every time you make them.

Quip of the Day: “Why is a baseball team like a bran muffin? They both depend on the batter."
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Do you have a question or comment?  Send your thoughts to [email protected].  All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. 

#Baking #Muffins #HoneyMolassesBranMuffins #BobsRedMill #KingArthur #Vons #2022 #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                                   ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022

How you doin’? On board the old Pacific Princess our Mexican housekeeping staff used to relax after work with a Chavela Cocktail—a popular Mexican cerveza prepared with Modelo lager.
 
Chavelas originated in Mexico in the 1940s, one of many variations on a method of beer drinking known as cerveza preparada. Literally meaning "prepared beer," cerveza preparada refers to beer mixed with juices and spices, often savory, for a flavorful reimagining. Bar owners may bank on cerveza preparada to make a limited beer supply stretch a bit further, while bartenders count on it to make beer drinking more reasonable by diluting the alcohol content and changing up the flavors.
 
Chavela, like a bloody Mary, is also known as a hair-of-the-dog hangover helper—a smaller measure of alcohol that's sipped to ease the pain of overindulgence. For these reasons, you'll often see Chavelas with happy hour pricing at Sunday brunch, but they're refreshing any time and any day.
 
There's a long tradition of similar beer cocktails in the U.S. The Shandy, for instance, is a type of cerveza preparada that mixes two parts beer with one part carbonated lemonade. Swap the lemonade for a citrusy soda like 7-UP, and you'll have a fizzy, German-style Radler. Then there's the Boilermaker, in which a shot of whiskey is dropped into a pint of beer and downed in a few heroic belts. The Red Eye lobs a jigger of tomato juice into a glass of beer for a hangover cure many in Europe swear by.
 
At the heart of every Chavela is lager, light-colored and light-bodied. While draft is preferred, cheap beer in a simple style is the goal. Like with a mimosa: Why pay for top-shelf bubbly when bottom-shelf will suffice? With everything else going on in your Chavela, delicate flavors and nuanced styles will be overpowered anyway.
 
The combo of carbonation from the beer and tart lime juice lifts and brightens every Chavela. Some bartenders prefer lemon juice to lime—in Spanish, "limón" is often used interchangeably to refer to both fruits, leading to some differing tastes—but there's no wrong choice. A good bartender won't lead you astray.
 
The best Chavela is served on the rocks. That battle between the icy-cool liquid and the warmth of the spices creates an invigorating mouthfeel. If your bartender were to stop here—with just beer, lime juice and ice—you'd have what's called a Chelada but let them keep at it for a real Chavela.
 
Garlicky Tapatío and smoky Cholula (my favorite) are great hot sauces for making Chavela, though any brand will ably stand in. Worcestershire sauce is another power player in the cocktail, packing the bracing umami of anchovies and the bite of tamarind and vinegar, mellowed by the sweetness of molasses. The hot sauce and Worcestershire each build on the complexity of the Clamato and are what impart so much of a Chavela's tanginess.
 
Clamato is a polarizing juice that tastes much like tomato juice, only amped up with a salty sweetness of the sea. Onion, celery seed, garlic and vinegar add a savory depth of flavor that tomato juice alone would lack. The clam broth adds a briny bite and a splash of deep-sea funk that plays so well with the tomato base. Sure, Chavela would be serviceable with simple tomato juice, but most bartenders will agree Clamato truly makes for the best version.
 
Chavela is served in a glass rimmed with lime juice, salt and Tajin Clásico—a Latin American kitchen shaker staple that blends mild chiles, lime and sea salt. Lime, salt and Tajin are traditional.
 
So, sub in a Chavela instead of a Margarita (sorry, Jimmy Buffett) for your next NFL tailgate or Taco Tuesday and swap out your Sunday brunch bloody Mary for a smoother, spicier spin for a Chavela.
 
Prep time:  2 minutes
Yield:  1 cocktail
 
Ingredients 
1 lime wedge
1 teaspoon Tajin spice (to rim glass)
ice cubes
3 ounces Clamato Juice
10 to 12 ounces+ Mexican lager (brewed in the style of pilsner—I prefer Modelo)
5-6 shakes hot sauce (I prefer Cholula Hot Sauce)
 
Directions

1. Run a wedge of lime around the rim of a pint glass, reserve it for garnish.
2. Pour coarse Tajin spice onto a small plate and dip the wet rim of the glass to coat (like salt on the glass for a margarita).
3. Place a few ice cubes into the glass.
4. Add the Clamato juice and the hot sauce.
5. Stir to mix while adding the lager.
6. Squeeze and garnish with the lime wedge.

ChefSecret:  Take it up a notch by adding an optional 1-1/2 ounces tequila blanco or reposado. You can also serve the optional tequila separately in a shot glass.

Quip of the Day: “24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected].  All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide .
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America.

#Cocktail #HappyHour #Chavela #Modelo #Tajin #Clamato #Cholulu #Tequila #Cheers #Covid19SurvivalBlog #2022 #RedCross #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 
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                                                       ​©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022

How you doin’? These grilled Buffalo wings are a little bit of NFL (or MLB)  heaven. They’re saucy, savory, salty, spicy—everything required of a good chicken wing. Better yet, they’re a little smoky ‘cause we cook ‘em on the grill.  You’ll get that satisfying, finger-licking goodness of eating wings without any of the messy (or smelly) deep-fried stuff. And they’re coated in the perfect amount of jazzed-up Buffalo sauce.
 
The sauce is a piquant combination of margarine, garlic, cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar and Frank’s RedHot Sauce. It’s spicy, but not too spicy and you’ll love the punch of the vinegar and garlic. To balance out all that bold flavor, we toss the sauced-up wings in nutty Parmesan—which melts into creamy little crumbles on the hot wings—as well as fresh parsley for a pop of green, herbaceous flavor.
 
These Buffalo wings are a great appetizer for everything from backyard ‘cues to game day spreads. Our favorite way to eat them is with a cold, frothy golden ale in one hand and a home-team foam finger on the other… though it does make holding the wings a bit tricky! Also, more than acceptable: serving them for dinner any night with a side of creamy coleslaw, green salad or corn on the cob.
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Cook time:  20 to 24 minutes
Yield:  2 to 4 servings
 
Ingredients 
2 pounds fresh chicken wings
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 stick margarine (not butter—see ChefSecret below)
2-1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup Frank’s RedHot Original Sauce (not wing sauce)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon minced parsley
 
Directions

1. Bring an outdoor grill or grill pan to medium-high heat.
2. While the grill is heating, pat the chicken wings dry, transfer them to a bowl, and season with kosher salt and black pepper. Add the olive oil and toss to coat.
3. Grill the wings for 10 to 12 minutes per side, or until they are evenly charred and have reached an internal temperature of 165° F on an instant-read thermometer.
4. While the wings are grilling, prepare the sauce.  In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the margarine.
5. Add the garlic and cook until tender and fragrant, about 3 minutes.
6. Stir in the cayenne pepper, vinegar and Frank’s RedHot Sauce and cook for 3 minutes more. Set aside to cool a bit.
7. Once the chicken wings are cooked, transfer them to a clean bowl and toss with the hot garlic Buffalo sauce.
8. Add in the Parmesan cheese and parsley and toss to coat.
9. Serve immediately.

ChefSecret:  When grilling the wings, I like to add an extra step by brushing them with a little bit of sauce to add some color and depth of flavor. I prefer the taste of margarine when paired with Frank’s Hot Sauce. You can use butter if that’s all you have available.

Quip of the Day:  Only in math problems can you buy 60 cantaloupes, and no one asks, "What the hell is wrong with you?"
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Do you have a question or comment?  Send your thoughts to [email protected].  All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross.
 
#Entree #Chicken #GrilledBuffaloChickenWings #ChickenWings #NFL #MLB #BuffaloChickenWings #2022 #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross  #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                                     ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022

How you doin’? Baked potatoes are great; twice baked are even better. When we first started this blog, it was all about creative cooking during the Covid-19 lockdown. It still is all about fun and flavor, but now we want to be sure we include some recipes that are sensitive to the impact of the current state of inflation on grocery budgets.
 
Though the price of potatoes are up about 16% over last year at this time, they’re still much more affordable than many other items in the produce section. I used bacon for this cooking but you can use leftover chopped ham (or other protein) or even chopped SPAM if you are really pinching pennies. Or consider leaving out the meat altogether.
 
Prep time:  30 minutes
Bake time:  1 hour 30 minutes
Yield:   8 servings
 
Ingredients 
1/2 pound thinly sliced bacon
8 russet potatoes
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 sticks (1/2 pound) salted butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish
1 cup sour cream
1 cup grated Cheddar or Jack (or a mix of both), plus more for topping
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I prefer Lawry’s Seasoned Salt)
3 green onions, sliced in rounds
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
 
Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 400° F.
2. Cook the bacon in a sauté pan until crispy; let cool and then crumble; set aside.
3. Scrub the potatoes, then place them on baking sheets. Rub the potatoes with the oil and bake until tender; 45 minutes to 1 hour.
4. Remove the potatoes from the oven and set aside.
5. Remove the hot potatoes and lower the oven temperature to 350⁰ F.
6. Slice the butter into pats and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the bacon and sour cream.
7. With a sharp knife, cut each potato in half lengthwise and scrape out the insides into the mixing bowl. Save the skins for potato skin appetizers.
8. Smash the potatoes with a potato masher.
9. Add the cheese, milk, seasoned salt, green onions and some salt and pepper and mix well.
10. Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
11. Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish.
12. Top with more grated cheese and bake until warmed through and the cheese is melted; about 25 to 30 minutes.

ChefSecret:  Save the skins for potato skins appetizer. It’s a two-fer! Make it colorful with chopped bell pepper pieces.

Quip of the Day:  “Who is the most powerful potato? Darth Tater.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. We have added a new search feature to make it easier to navigate through our blogs.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. 

#Entree #SideDish #BakedPotato #TwicedBakedPotato #RussetPotatoes #LawrysSeasonsedSalt #Covid19SurvivalBlog #2022 #RedCross #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 

©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022