The Thanksgiving CollectionHow you doin’? You’ve got a lot of tan and brown colors on your holiday table. It’s time to give your meal a splash or two of color—orange, yellow, pink or purple to be exact. Make room for my Slow Cooked Honey-Glazed Carrots--easily the best darn cooked carrots that you’ll ever eat. We often forget that carrots are as good cooked as they are shredded or chopped into our favorite salads. This awesome side dish is made in a slow cooker which requires very little hands-on “active” time. They’re glazed at the end of the cooking cycle with a little orange marmalade giving the carrots a tangy sweet flavor and wonderful texture. My Slow Cooked Honey-Glazed Carrots make a perfect side dish for any special holiday meal. If your local market doesn’t carry them, find other locations at Frieda’s Specialty Produce. Prep time: 10 minutes Slow cook time: 4 to 6 hours Yield: 8 servings Ingredients 2 pounds fresh young carrots, peeled and sliced in a quarter-inch bias cut 3/4 cup water 1/4 orange juice 2 teaspoons honey 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 6 tablespoons orange marmalade 3 teaspoons unsalted butter 1/2 teaspoon dried sage 1/2 teaspoon orange zest 1/4 teaspoon freshly crack black pepper Directions
ChefSecret: Carrots originated in modern-day Iran and Afghanistan where cultivated carrots were rooted in the purple carrot in that region. They contain around 32,000 genes (more than humans--this may be signs of vegan intelligent life), of which two recessive ones contribute to a build-up of carotenoids, such as alpha- and beta-carotene. That’s where orange carrots get their bright orange color. Beta-carotene metabolizes in the human gut from bile salts into Vitamin A. Quip of the Day: “If the past many months have taught us anything it’s that stupidity spreads faster than Covid." ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Have a wonderful safe and healthy holiday. #ThanksgivingRecipe #Thanksgiving #Sides #Carrots #SlowCooker #Friedas #HoneyGlazedCarrots #HolidayRecipes #Holidays2021 #Thankful #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021
0 Comments
The Thanksgiving CollectionHow you doin’? For those who are cookin’ and bakin’ up next week’s feast, and for those who are just a little trepidatious at the notion of trying to avoid discussing politics with all of your relatives, it just might be time for a drink. And if those aren’t sufficient reasons, it’s Happy Hour Friday y’all! I was once told gin drinkers were crazy; maybe that’s the reason I stayed away from gin for such a long time. It wasn’t until my trip to Equatorial Guinea when I discovered the taste on Hendrick’s Gin that it became my drink of choice. This was one of those boondoggle trips when I was invited to meet with the president of the country and try to encourage him to reengage with the country’s roots in producing chocolate. I traveled over there with the country’s attorney general and was told to wait for the phone call and always be ready to run to the presidential palace and meet with his excellency, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. But right at this moment we’re talking about cocktails. If you want to hear more on my trip to EG you will have to wait for my next book or, better yet, the movie. The important part for today’s post is that I fell in love with the flavor of Hendrick’s Gin. Later on, I fell in love with a Cranberry Gin Fizz Cocktail. A Cranberry Gin Fizz Cocktail is very festive, loaded with fantastic flavors and colors of the season making this the perfect cocktail for the holidays. It’s not only pretty, but also pretty delicious, too. Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes Yield: 4 cocktails Ingredients 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup water 1 cup fresh cranberries 1 lemon, cut into wedges 1/2 orange, cut into slices 1-1/2 cups Hendrik’s gin (you can use Beefeater, Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray) 1 cup chilled ginger ale Garnish with candied cranberries and 4 mint sprigs (or rosemary) Directions
ChefSecret: Plan ahead and get started early. Make the cranberry syrup a day ahead. Quip of the Day: “These days I get most of my exercise shaking my head in disbelief.” ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Have a wonderful safe and healthy holiday. Thanks for reading. #ThanksgivingRecipe #Thanksgiving #Cocktails #Happy Hour #GinFizz #CranberryGinFizz #HendricksGin #HolidayRecipes #Holidays2021 #Thankful #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021 The Thanksgiving CollectionHow you doin’? When going through my holiday recipes I noticed that I forgot to include a Pumpkin Pie recipe for dessert. Now I know there are thousands of opinions on what a Pumpkin Pie should look and taste like, so I had to come up with a wonderful variation on the old standards. Whipped Pumpkin Pie is made from a lightly whipped pumpkin pie filling. Over the years I have found that many people who don’t like a more traditional pumpkin pie love this recipe. The cream cheese adds texture and flavor to the traditional pumpkin flavor with a lighter twist. The graham cracker crust does require some baking, but the pie filling doesn’t. However, you do need to chill the Whipped Pumpkin Pie overnight. This beats the original Pumpkin Pie recipe for the early 1700s: Peel and cut your pumpkin into small pieces and put into a kettle with very little water; cook from six to eight hours, stirring frequently to prevent burning. When done, rub through a colander. One quart of pumpkin, five pints of rich milk, four eggs, three cups of sugar, one scant teaspoon of ginger and 4 teaspoons of cinnamon. Prep time: 15 minutes Crust time: 10-15minutes Cool time: overnight Yield: 6-8 servings Ingredients For the crust 3 cups graham cracker crumbs 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2/3 cup melted unsalted butter For the filling 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (I prefer Cool Whip) Directions To make the crust
ChefSecret: Do not substitute real homemade whipped cream for the Cool Whip. It will not hold up well overnight and will lose most of the fluffy, wonderful whipped texture. Quip of the Day: “A husband has been confused with his wife’s radical mood swings. He bought her a mood ring for Christmas so he could monitor her moods. He discovered that when she was in a good mood the stone on the ring turned green. When she was in a bad mood it left a big honking red mark on his forehead. Maybe next time he’ll buy a diamond.” ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Have a wonderful safe and healthy holiday. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. #ThanksgivingRecipe #Thanksgiving #Dessert #Pie #PumpkinPie #HolidayRecipes #Holidays2021 #Thankful #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021 The Thanksgiving CollectionHow you doin’? There are so many important parts to a classic Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner—and you don’t want to miss any of them. Just think, what would turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes be without a classic gravy made with the turkey giblets. Giblet gravy, a gravy made with the choicest pieces of the bird, is considered the queen of gravies. Turkeys were plentiful in jolly ole England before 1550. They arrived there having made their way to Europe on Spanish ships transporting them from the new world. The Pilgrims and other British colonists already had recipes for turkey before they landed in North America. Back then, it was like shooting turkeys in a barrel--they would find flocks of up to 5,000 wild turkeys gathered by rivers and streams… a veritable feast for the starving colonists. In addition to boiling, frying, and baking them, roasting was one of the most common means of preparing turkey in colonial times. Amelia Simmons’ recipe in American Cookery calls for stuffing the bird with bread stuffing, roasting, and basting it. In what may have set the precedent for the modern Thanksgiving Day dinner, Amelia instructs her reader to cook and serve the turkey with cranberry-sauce, and mashed potatoes and gravy, of course. This is my recipe for Giblet Gravy. It is very rich and delicious. I love it. I think it’s the best darn turkey gravy, but then that’s what I grew up eating at every Thanksgiving Day feast. Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 1 hour Yield: 12 4-ounce servings Ingredients 4 ounces turkey giblets, uncooked 1 bay leaf 1/2 cup diced yellow onion 1-quart turkey stock from the blanched turkey 1/3 cup turkey fat (or chicken fat or butter) 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1-1/2 cups hot stock (from cooking giblets, plus turkey stock or drippings) 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt Directions
ChefSecret: If planning to make stuffing and gravy using turkey giblets, you may need to ask your meat shop manager to toss in some extra giblets just to make sure you have enough for all you want to cook. Quip of the Day: “What do you get when you cross a turkey with a ghost?" "A poultry-geist.” ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Have a wonderful safe and healthy holiday. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. #ThanksgivingRecipe #Thanksgiving #Gravy #GibletGravy #TurkeyGravy #Sauces #HolidayRecipes #Holidays2021 #Thankful #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021 The Thanksgiving CollectionHow you doin’? The earliest written recipe for mashed potatoes is found in an English cookbook—Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery, in 1747. Before that mashed potato recipes were handed down mouth-to-mouth as an oral tradition. (Insert laugh here.) Hannah’s recipe mashed them in a saucepan with milk, salt, and butter. In the United States, Mary Randolph published a recipe for mashed potatoes in her book, The Virginia Housewife; Mary’s recipe called for a half ounce of butter and a tablespoon of milk for a pound of potatoes—a little too lean for my taste. I’ve goosed our recipe up a bit. Read on for more history—it’s interesting. But let’s look back a little further… potatoes aren’t native to Ireland—or anywhere in Europe. They were most likely farmed in the Andes mountains of Peru, where they were being used for food at least as far back as 8000 BC—that’s a long time ago. These early potatoes were very different from the potatoes we know today. They came in a variety of odd shapes and sizes, had a bitter, earthy taste and were considered poisonous—and some varieties actually were! Many thought that potatoes caused leprosy—they didn’t… unless you ate them in a leper colony! By the time Spanish explorers brought the first potatoes to Europe from South America in the 16th century, they had been selectively bred into a more desirable plant. It took them a while to catch on overseas, though. By some accounts, European farmers were suspicious of plants that weren’t mentioned in the Bible. Others said it was the fact that potatoes grow from tubers, rather than seeds. Modern potato historians debate these points, though. Cabbage’s omission from the Bible didn’t seem to hurt its popularity; and tulip cultivation, using bulbs instead of seeds, was happening at the same time. The South American climates’ potatoes thrived and were unlike those found in Europe, especially in terms of hours of daylight in a day. In Europe, potatoes grew leaves and flowers, which botanists readily studied, but the tubers they produced remained small even after months of growing. This particular problem began to be remedied when the Spanish started growing potatoes on the Canary Islands, which functioned as a sort of middle ground between equatorial South America and more northerly European climes. I hope you’re taking notes; there will be a test the day after Thanksgiving. Okay, let’s go back to Ed’s recipe for Creamy Mashed Potatoes which will garner great praise for the cook this holiday… or any day. Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Mix time: 5 minutes Bake time: 20 to 30 minutes Yield: 8 to 10 servings Ingredients 5 pounds russet potatoes 5 slices bacon, cooked crisp 6-ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 1/2 cup sour cream 2 tablespoons minced chives 2 tablespoons minced roasted garlic 2-1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, divided 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground coarse black pepper Directions
ChefSecret: For the creamiest smashed potatoes ever, add a little milk, half and half or cream to your smashed potatoes. Mellow out the garlic by taking a whole head of garlic, wrapping in aluminum foil and slowly baking (300⁰ f) for an hour or so until the garlic is all squishy and light brown. Quip of the Day: “If you don’t swear while driving, you’re just not paying attention.” ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Have a wonderful safe and healthy holiday. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. #ThanksgivingRecipes #Thanksgiving #SideDishes #MashedPotatoes #CheddarMashedPotatoes #CheddarCheese #RussetPotatoes #HolidayRecipes #Holidays2021 #Thankful #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021 |
For over 4 decades collaboration and vision have been the cornerstones of our approach to developing innovative solutions. We fuel innovation, uncover opportunities, discover trends and embrace sustainability, turning imaginative ideas into profitable realities. Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|