Just in time for the Super Bowl, we have a major food emergency!  There appears to be a chicken wing shortage (pregnant pause).  NBC Washington says, “If chicken wings are on the menu for your Super Bowl party, you may want to call an audible.”  You can read the whole article by clicking here.  Although you may already be thumbing through your Rolodex for the number of your local black market chicken wing hawker, we have an easier solution for you!  Check out our list of Super Bowl recipes.  Your group of football fans won’t even miss the wings!

By that we mean to say “Happy New Year” in Chinese!!  Today is the start of the Year of the Ox in Chinese culture.  If these first 26 days of your Western New Year have proven not as lucky as you would have hoped, you might not have eaten quite enough cabbage, black-eyed peas, grapes or ham.  Lucky for you (no pun there), you have a second shot.  Some lucky Chinese foods to start this lunar year are…..

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Watch out for the new article on ancient grains!

Most bakers will tell you that exacting measures are the key to a perfectly cooked result. In culinary school baking class, we used scales that measured to the hundredth of an ounce. We have a little secret that will save you some time in weighing out three ingredients: milk, water and eggs. Each of these ingredients weigh equal to the amount of their volume. In other words, a fluid ounce of water weighs one ounce on a scale.

A PINT, A POUND THE WORLD AROUND…MILK, WATER, EGGS!

With VERY little effort, you can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. We like to keep flavored salts for making spice rubs and finishing dishes with. Here are a few ideas; but, get creative with your own ideas.

You can grind 1/4 cup of coarse sea salt and a teaspoon of these ingredients together in a coffee grinder:

*Spanish smoked paprika (Pimenton).
*Dried orange, lemon, grapefruit or lime zest
*Food grade dried lavender or rose petals
*Matcha - a green tea powder
*Finely ground dried mushrooms
*Saffron
*Vanilla bean
*Chile flakes
*Szechuan peppercorns

Once you are done with your grinder, you can clean it for use on coffee beans by grinding dry white rice. The rice will grab the loose particles and you’ll just have to wipe out the grinder bowl with a clean, dry towel.

It’s all ground corn - grits, polenta, cornmeal - but what makes it so different that each is not a substitution for the other?
Corn Grits - Southerners would tell you that this is an oxymoron like “Great Depression” or “Jumbo Shrimp”. 

Corn grits are made from dried, ground whole kernels of corn.
Hominy Grits - Most believe that true grits can only be made with hominy.  Whole kernel corn is soaked in a lye solution for several days until the skins and germ loosen and the corn is about double in size.  The hominy is then coarsely ground to produce hominy grits.

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You can fulfill most of your New Year’s resolutions with one simple act and now is the time to do it!  If you go to the site localharvest.org/csa, you can browse for Community Supported Agriculture.  CSA links local farmers with supporters in order to cover their farm’s operating costs for the year.  Supporters buy shares in exchange for goods through a predetermined growing season.  The products can include honey, vegetables, flowers, eggs, dairy, fruit and meat.  Now, how does this fulfill your resolutions?

I’m going to eat healthier:  One share usually provides enough vegetables per week for a family of four.  Also, most farmers interested in this type of arrangement believe keeping their crops as organic as possible!

I’m going to save money:  By cutting out the middle man (the wholesaler), you and the farmer meet in the middle of wholesale and retail price.  The farmer makes more and you spend less.

I’m going to give back to my community:  By eating local, you are stimulating the economy in your area.

I’m going to make more friends this year:  Well, you’ll already have a friend in the farmer that you are supporting.  Plus, most of the other farm supporters will probably be members of the local Slow Food USA convivium.  Slow Food socials are great gatherings to make friends with similar interests.

There are over 2,200 CSA’s in the U.S.  Support your local farmer!  It will make you pretty….

A great way to inject additional flavor into a stock is to caramelize the onions before you start.  You can use the caramelized onions as the base of a vegetarian stock; the caramel flavor will make vegetable stock much more dynamic.  We like to go the extra mile and use the onions as a secret weapon in our chicken or beef stock.

You can see the whole process for caramelizing onions here.

*Cut the ends off of your onion.  Cut the onion in half from end to end.
*Cut half moon-shaped slivers from your onions.
*Get your pan very hot on the stove.
*Add Oil
*Add onions to the pan and saute about a minute just to coat the onions with oil.
*Turn your pan heat down to Medium-Low.
*Patience is a virtue!!  You just want to stir your onions a few times, but let them do the work.  Unless you want “Burnt Onion Stock”, just let the sugar in the onions slowly caramelize.
*Once your onions are brown and sweet to the taste, add some sliced carrots and celery (maybe some garlic and a bay leaf if you’ve got it) and a little water.
*Simmer your stock about an hour, strain and cool!

One of our favorite ways to boost the flavor of a protein is to prepare it “Saltimbocca” style.  The term saltimbocca is Italian for “jumps in the mouth”.  You’ll see that this is an understatement when you taste how much better a piece of chicken, fish, pork or veal can be when it is wrapped in prosciutto.

Click here to view our recipe for Chicken Saltimbocca.