Curry Killz Cancer

Tumeric
Image Source

Studies are showing that chemicals in Turmeric can kill cancer cells. Turmeric also stains things yellow! But yeah for cancer kill agents! Might have to make some curry soon, just to be safe!

Curry spice 'kills cancer cells'

Getting the most from the goods...

image source

If you read something on the interwebz, it must be true right? Sure!

Here's an interesting, short article I saw online about bioavailability...getting the most nutrients out of your food. Your body only absorbs so much of the good stuff on its own. Sometimes with a little extra something something, you get more bang for your buck!!! For example, if you cook your tomatoes, the cooking process makes more lycopene available to your body, you do lose some vitamin C though. If you add black pepper, the chemicals there help more stuff make it into your system.

Some good tips. If nothing else, it's interesting...
Bioavailability: How to Get More Nutrients from Your Food

A quick heart attack recipe

White Cheese & Sausage Pasta
from Culinary in the Desert

I made this for dinner last night. It was good! Gut bomb good! Spicy from the sausage. Ridiculously creamy and gooey from the cheese and bechamel sauce. Stupid Good. I more or less followed the recipe; even though I didn't have it in front of me, so some of the quantities were off and I ad libbed a bit. Added some shredded white cheddar cheese (1/2 cup) as well as the mozzarella and parm.

Instead of using another baking dish, I made sure to boil the pasta in an oven-proof pot. After I drained the pasta, I dumped it back in the pot and poured the sausage/sauce mixture over, stirred and baked. Saved us a little extra clean up. I used a half pound of spicy ground pork sausage, not turkey sausage. I don't think it matters much. But use the spicy if you like some good heat. If not, use regular, but add a little red pepper flake. You want some heat to cut through all the creamy, cheesey goodness.



4 cups dry rigatoni or any other short tube-shaped pasta
8 ounces hot Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
2 TB butter
3 TB all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
3 ounces fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp salt
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400

In a large pot of boiling salted water, add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, add sausage - cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.

Add butter to the same skillet and allow to melt over medium heat - whisk in flour and allow to cook, whisking, for a minute or two. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Cook, stirring, until thick, about 8 minutes - remove from heat.

In a large bowl, toss together the sauce, cooked sausage Parmesan, crushed red pepper and salt. Scoop the mixture into a 7" x 11" baking dish coated with nonstick spray. Scatter the top with mozzarella. Bake until bubbly and the top is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Beef Stew

This recipe for Oven Beef Stew is adapted from one shared with readers in a recent Penzey's catalogue.

The key to this adaptation is to find a very tender cut of beef. The original recipe has this cook for 5 hours...I cooked it for an hour. Long enough to make most beef pretty tough and chewy. But having a tender cut that slow cooks, for only an hour, in a wet environment, is key.

That being said...I didn't read what type of beef this was and was surprised how tender it was after an hour of cooking! Trial and error my friends. Sorry.

Oven Beef Stew
adapted from Penzey's

1 1/2 lb beef, cubed and trimmed.
2-3 large potatoes, peeled, cubed
1 onion, large diced
4-5 carrots, peeled and cubed
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
Salt/Pepper
2 tsp Oregano, dried
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 TB vegetable oil
Broth-chicken or beef or combo

Preheat oven to 350.

Coat the beef with the vegetable oil and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Sear the beef in a large pot, over medium high heat. You are trying to get a browned crust, not cook the meat through. Remove the beef to a bowl.

Add the onions to the pot and stir. Add the oregano. Stir. Add the tomatoes. Cover with broth and add the beef. Stir. Cover and place in the oven for 1/2 hour.

At the 1/2 hour mark, stir and add the potatoes and carrots. Cover and cook for another 1/2 hour, or until the vegetables are tender.

Serve hot!


Notes: If you want the broth to be thicker, you can stir in a cornstarch slurry (equal parts cornstarch and cold liquid) to thicken it, or bring to a simmer over the stove, uncovered to allow the broth to reduce.

Using up apples

I made apple crisp the other night, using up some apples before I buy more at this weekend's market.

I didn't really follow a recipe. I started with 6-7 apples that I peeled, cored and cut into 8ths...give or take. I tossed those with a little sugar and cinnamon and dumped them in a baking dish. I mixed the 'crisp:' oatmeal, chopped almonds, 3/4 stick of melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Toss until well mixed. Dump on top of the apples and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Delicious! The only thing missing was a little flour with the apples to help make them a little saucy instead of juicy, but it really didn't matter. Still good!

Random Flavors

This was a fun adventure the other evening. We've been trying to avoid the store and use up any of our pantry items. I don't really have a name for this, but it's almost a cross between an Alfredo and Carbonnara sauce, with some French, German or Alsatian influences.

I started by browning some bacon pieces until crisp. I set the bacon aside and poured out the fat. To the pan I melted a TB of butter and browned about half an onion, diced small. When the onions were just beginning to brown I added some dried thyme and rosemary. I deglazed the pan with one cup of chicken broth. When that had reduced by half, I added some heavy cream. Bring this to a simmer and allow to reduce further until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Turn off the heat and add about 1/2 a cup of grated Parmigiana Reggiano. Stir until incorporated, melted and smooth. Add half the bacon to the sauce and add whatever cooked pasta your are using. Stir. Garnish with the rest of the bacon.

This was very tasty, but it was an interesting blend of flavors. With the rosemary and thyme, I felt the sauce was more of an Alsatian style cream sauce. With the cheese and bacon I felt it resembled a standard Alfredo or Carbonnara. The bacon also seemed to lend itself to a German influence as well. All in all, it was tasty. But a tad salty, with the bacon and cheese, I didn't need an extra few pinches of salt to the cream. Oh well. Great on a chilly night.

Cold Meets Warm!

I'm not a big follower of the belief that there are certain foods that are appropriate or in appropriate based on the seasons. Sure, I try to use as many seasonal items as I can, but if I am craving a bowl of chili in the summer, I'm going to have it. Or if I want a light tangy salad in the middle of winter, I'll find a way to make it happen.

But there are certain times when you just need to fire up the stove to pull together a pot of chili when it's chilly! The past few days have been damp and cool. Last night were were hovering around 50 degrees and rainy. Perfect for a bowl of Cincinnati Chili full of warm, aromatic spices like cinnamon, all spice and cayenne pepper. Rich and mellow, a perfect chaser on a chilly night**.

Cincinnati Chili

...served with buttered pasta (best with spaghetti, but most any type works. Garnish with shredded cheese, sour cream, diced onions or tomatoes, beans, whatever your favorite chili garnish is, use it!

**And if you are a scrooge like me and are unwilling to turn the heat on; just waiting for the temp to drop just a bit more, you can temporarily avoid the chilly spousal wrath by providing a belly warming meal like this.