… from the Perspectives’ Holiday KitchenHow you doin’? What’s not to like with this recipe. It’s a yummy one-biter! It can easily be brought to a potluck dinner. Whenever I asked “what can I bring?” Crispy Apple Crumb Cups top the list. I use a good all-purpose McIntosh apple which, by the way, is the Canadian national apple. McIntosh apples are good for eating as well. They are well known as dessert apples that break down quickly and require a shorter cooking time than most other apples. When first picked, McIntosh apples are sweet, juicy and tart with a bit of a spicy flavor thrill. What will this recipe deliver? Sweet cinnamon-scented apples held in a buttery crispy oatmeal cup with a crunchy sweet topping. I like to make sweet treats to share with friends. I do this a lot with chocolate, but I came up with this inexpensive recipe so that I could bake and take apple crisp to share with family and friends. Prep time: 45 minutes Bake time: 20 minutes Yield: 48 mini apple cups Ingredients 3 large McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and chopped 1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups rolled oats 1-1/2 cups brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1-1/2 cups butter, diced Directions
ChefSecret: This is a Budget Recipe. Why? You probably have most of these ingredients in your pantry already. Don’t let them get one day older, make this inexpensive recipe and save a couple of bucks. Quip of the Day: “Good moms let you lick the beaters. Great moms turn them off first.” ------------------------------------------- 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. 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. #ThanksgivingRecipes #Thanksgiving #Apples #Snack #CrumbCups #McIntoshApples #CrispyAppleCrumbCups #HolidayRecipes #Holidays2022 #BeThankful #QuarantineKitchen #RedCross #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022
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…from the Perspectives’ Kitchen How you doin’? A couple of weeks ago, Good Humor-Breyers Company, home of Klondike (frozen treats), announced they would discontinue Choco Taco. My goodness, that news created a panic and caused a run on the product in supermarkets across the country. I guess customers never know how much that want something until they are told it will no longer be available. Where did this all come from? In the early 1980s, Mexican fast-casual dining was booming. Americans started to eat tacos like there was no tomorrow. In 1983, Alan Drazen in Philadelphia, decided to follow the trend and invented the Choco Taco for the Jack & Jill Ice Cream Company which was later sold to Good Humor-Breyers. The Choco Taco became the favorite ice cream novelty at Mexican restaurants, and consumers were eager to eat them in frozen dessert form at home so supermarkets across the US. Americans began to carry them, too! So, now that they seem to be on their way out, I just had to do a DIY recipe for Choco Tacos. It all starts with homemade waffle cone shells made with sugar, vanilla and almond, they come off the waffle iron with a sweet, nutty caramel flavor — plus a thin, lacy, Florentine-like texture. They’re scrumptious all by themselves so why not double the recipe and enjoy some on their own? But of course, Choco Tacos are nothing without the vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and chocolate sauce layered inside the shell. Nor would they be complete without the chocolate coating! I use bittersweet chocolate coating (no need to temper chocolate), so it’s a little different from the original, but equally great and don’t forget the sprinkle of toasted pecan bits over the top. My homemade Choco Tacos are rich, indulgent and super fun to eat. You can also cut them in half easily, so they’re great for sharing. Prep time: 30 minutes Griddle time: 20 minutes Assembly time: 20 minutes Yield: 10 Choco Tacos Ingredients For the Waffle Cones 2 large egg whites 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 teaspoon almond extract 5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, slightly cooled 2/3 cup all-purpose flour Cooking spray (I prefer Pam) For the Choco Tacos 1-quart vanilla ice cream 7 tablespoons Smucker’s caramel sauce, divided 7 tablespoon Smucker’s chocolate sauce, divided 10 oz bittersweet chocolate coating, melted 1 cup toasted, chopped pecans You can buy a waffle cone iron for $30 to $35+ on Amazon and at Walmart. Directions To make the Waffle Cones
ChefSecret: After the Choco Tacos are fully frozen, wrap them in food film to prevent freezer burn. Quip of the Day: “When I’m an old man I am going to leave small bags of candy scattered on the floor all over the house just in case I fall down.” ------------------------------------------- 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. We have added a new search feature to make it easier to navigate through our blogs. ------------------------------------------- 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. #Dessert #Snack #IceCreamTreat #Klondike #ChocoTaco #GoodHumor #IceCream #WaffleCone #Caramel #Chocolate #2022 #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup © Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022 …from the Perspectives’ KitchenHow you doin’? All the way back in the late 1940s a couple of entrepreneurs started making a unique grilled and sealed sandwich called a Toas-Tite. The Toas-Tite sandwich press was originally designed for campfire cooking and was ubiquitous in the 1950s. It was (and still is) quite simple. Just lay a sandwich (with cheese in the middle and buttered bread on the outside) on one side of the circular metal mold, clamp down with the other side, using a sharp knife, trim the off the crust and heat for a minute or two on each side over a campfire or on a gas stove top. As a kid my brother and I loved them as it gave us the freedom to make hot sandwiches to our own taste without messing up our mother’s kitchen. There wasn’t anything we couldn’t make—salami and cheese, ham and cheese, bacon and cheese and then we got into making Toas-Tites with eggs and then even cherry and apple hand pies with a tablespoon of sweetened cream cheese. Joan and I created a sandwich program for am/pm convenience stores for ARCO gas stations and produced Mighty-Melts—a square-shaped spinoff of Toas-Tites. We even got a waffle iron company to run the production molds of these “machines.” By the way, in Sidney, Australia they called Jaffles. When we were disposing of some of our seldom used equipment in the test kitchen, we reluctantly sold several of the originals Toast-Tite irons and even two of the long-handled campfire versions. We even sold off the original proto-type Mighty-Melt press. I bring this up because my brother recently sent me a replica of the 1949 original that he found on Amazon. I was thrilled and a made a bunch of Toas-Tites over the BBQ grill over the weekend. Our guests loved them, and they were still as great as I remembered. So why are these coming back on the market 80 years later? It seemed that two sisters, Sue and Jan, had one crazy idea. Growing up in the Northwest Chicago suburbs during the sixties, their Mom’s Toas-Tite grilled cheese pudgy pie, along with hot tomato soup, was as much a part of the winter experience as skating on the pond in their backyard. Fast forward 30 years at a road side table, during an outing to the Covered Bridge Festival, Sue finds a Toas-Tite Pie Iron, just like the one she remembered. It was an instant flashback with smiles and OMGs followed by “I have to have it.” But one just wouldn’t do. Jan wanted one for herself, and what about getting one for each of the kids? Upon searching the internet, Jan saw that they are not the only ones wondering what happened to the Toas-Tite? Why isn’t anyone making these anymore? Now the crazy part… Sue and Jan, along with their spouses, dipped into their retirement funds and spent most of 2010 and 2011 going through all the necessary steps to bring the Toas-Tites pie irons back to the market. September 2011, the sisters relaunched the Toas-Tite Pie Iron at a street fair on Broadway, in New York City. So, for those who remember the original… they’re baaaack! Now you can make these great mighty melt Toas-Tites for your kids and grandkids just like you used to enjoy them when you were a kid. Prep time: 2 minutes Grill time: 2 minutes Yield: 1 Toas-Tite sandwich Ingredients 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 slices of bread (large size loaf) 2 slices of American cheese (I prefer Kraft singles) 2 slices of crisp bacon, cut in half Directions
ChefSecret: Like candy bars, loaves of bread have gotten smaller and may not be big enough to cover the Toas-Tite grill. Try rolling out the bread with a rolling pin or simply cut of a third piece of bread in half and fit it in—close the grill and start cooking. Quip of the Day: “I love Toas-Tites. Let’s face it, life is better between two pieces of bread.” ------------------------------------------- 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. We have added a new search feature to make it easier to navigate through our blogs. ------------------------------------------- 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. #Entree #Lunch #Sandwiches #ToasTite #Bacon #Cheese #Egg #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2022 …from the California Kitchen How you doin’? This is a delicious, fun crispy-cookie-style bar with the taste and texture of a Butterfinger bar. Butterfinger was invented by Otto Schnering in 1923 after he founded the Curtiss Candy Company in Chicago the year before. The company held a public contest to choose the name of this candy. In an early marketing campaign, the company dropped Butterfinger and Baby Ruth candy bars from airplanes in cities across the United States as a publicity stunt that helped increase their popularity—it was raining chocolate and peanuts. The first bite of a Butterfinger bar is a unique experience. There’s no candy that quite captures the same flaky crunch of this peanut-y pleasure. After several different shifts in ownership, the taste and texture has remained pretty much the same. The whole thing starts off with real, freshly roasted runner peanuts. These peanuts are then ground into a creamy peanut butter—the base for the Butterfinger filling, with additional ingredients to deliver that crispy, crunchy texture. To get that rich flakiness, the recipe calls for the addition of hybrid corn flakes to create the light, airy and perfect texture that compliments the smooth peanut butter. They’re stirred into the churning vat of peanut butter, making up the Butterfinger center! While the peanut butter is being readied, another mixture is boiling away. It is a mixture of molasses, corn syrup, sugar and water which is heated 300⁰ F degrees, and then poured onto a cooling table to rapidly bring down the temperature. The sudden temperature changes cause the candy to crystallize, adding even more of a bite to the consistency of the filling. Then the whole thing is covered with chocolate. Nestlé sold over twenty of their candy brands, including Butterfinger, to Italian chocolatier Ferrero, for $2.8 billion. The newly acquired brands were folded into the operations of the Ferraro Candy Company. Butterfinger has since been reformulated to improve the flavor and texture with a cleaner label. Here is my version of a clean label Butterfinger-style confection. Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Cool time: 20 to 25 minutes Yield: 2 dozen servings Ingredients Food release spray (I prefer Pam) 4 cups crispy cereal (corn flakes or crispy rice) 2/3 cup granulated sugar 2/3 cup white corn syrup (I prefer Karo) 1/3 cup molasses 1 (16 ounce) jar crunchy peanut butter 2 cups milk chocolate chips Directions
ChefSecrets: If you ever wondered, it’s the molasses that gives the Butterfinger the unique orange color. Quip of the Day: “I tried juggling some candy bars but kept dropping them. I guess I have Butterfingers.” ------------------------------------------- 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. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America. #Desserts #Snacks #ButterfingerBars #CrispyCereal #PeanutButter #NationalPeanutBoard #NPB #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2022 …from the California KitchenHow you doin’? Peanuts just might be the magical ingredient for a happy life. The peanut's origins have been traced to Peru. It was brought to Europe by the Spanish and then spread to Africa and Asia. It arrived in North America in the mid-18th century with African slaves. Before the salted caramel craze, there was the peanut pie. Some say it's simply a poor man's version of pecan pie—I don’t, I think it stands on its own and I love it. Others say its salty-sweet punch was inspired by the flavor thrills of a now-vanishing gas station treat created by pouring a five-cent packet of salted peanuts into a bottle of ice-cold Coke. Either way, we say it's a crackerjack pie. It's at its finest when made with roasted, Virginia peanuts, the super-sized Cadillac of peanuts grown in the sandy soils of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina. The near century-old Virginia Diner, located a stone's throw from the country's first commercial peanut farm in Wakefield, serves up a swoon-worthy peanut pie topped with a tender peanut-brittle-like veneer. It's totally addictive. One of the first variations on the original recipe peanut pie that I tasted was Peanut Butter Cream Pie served at Williamsburg's Shields Tavern. There's something about this pie that gives it a nostalgic quality, whether through childhood memories jogged by the peanut butter flavor, or via the old-time creamy filling I remember as a kid. This pie recipe makes, what I would call, an upscale ice cream pie with a delightful crispy rice crust. This is one of those heritage recipes that you can easily add to your family’s must have list. Total Prep time: 15 minutes Chill time: 10 minutes (for the crust) Freeze time: 5 hours or overnight Yield: 8 servings (1 9-inch pie) Ingredients For the pie crust Food release spray (I prefer Pam) 1/3 cup unsalted butter 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 2-1/2 cups crispy rice cereal For the pie filling 1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 10 ounces sweetened condensed milk 3/4 cup peanut butter 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup warm chocolate fudge sauce (more if you desire) 1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts Directions To make the pie crust
ChefSecrets: I use creamy peanut butter, but it is okay to use crunchy. You can substitute a store-bought chocolate wafer crust for the crispy rice crust if you prefer. The lemon juice brightens the flavor of the pie filling without added salt. Quip of the Day: “Why did Charles Schultz call his comic strip Peanuts? The name Peanuts was chosen because it was a well-known term for children at the time, popularized by the television program “The Howdy Doody Show,” which debuted in 1947 and featured an audience section for children called the “Peanut Gallery.” ------------------------------------------- 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. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America. #Desserts #FrozenPeanutButterPie #PeanutButter #Chocolate #CrispyCereal #NationalPeanutBoard #NPB # #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2022 |
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