Jennifer Perillo guests on a podcast
Oct 13, 2011 Blog & Social Media Stuff, What's Going On
So occasionally I post my Blogging Angels podcasts here. I don’t do it all the time, because often they’re geared more toward bloggers and pr pros. But our latest one is one of those that everyone will appreciate, thanks to our awesome guest, Jennifer Perillo. She’s a food writer, blogger, and all-around great person.
You may have read here or elsewhere that Jennifer lost her husband very suddenly a couple months ago. In the podcast she talks about grieving online, as well as writing and photographing food, and other topics. It’s not a maudlin podcast by any means, although there are a couple of spots that still bring tears to my eyes.
You can listen to the podcast below, or subscribe on iTunes. If you want to have access to the links we talk about, you can find them here.
To download this episode to your computer directly: right click here, then click “save link as”
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: baking, cooking, Jennifer Perillo, podcast
How to make perfect pancakes
Oct 11, 2011 Cooking & Baking
I make pancakes every weekend, and on an occasional weekday if the kids beg hard. Sometimes I make my own batter, but most of the time I use Aunt Jemima Complete mix – just add water!
I’ve learned a few useful things over the years:
- Whether you’re using an electric griddle or a pan, let it preheat for a long time. You want the heat evenly distributed across the whole surface, and you don’t want the temperature to change while you’re in the middle of cooking.
- Don’t mix your batter too much, just enough to get everything incorporated and most of the lumps gone.
- After mixing, let the batter sit for at least ten minutes. Bubbles should form on the top.
- Use vegetable oil to grease the pan. Butter will burn, and olive oil will taste funny.
- Serve the pancakes immediately. You can keep them warm for a short period of time in a 200 degree oven, but they’re best if eaten right away.
- Take the syrup out as soon as possible so that it can come to room temperature. Don’t warm it up – it gets too runny.
And now, how to make perfect pancakes!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Today’s Agenda: soup edition
Oct 7, 2011 Today's Agenda
So I’ve been trying to make squash soup for several days now. But something keeps getting in the way. Thank goodness squash doesn’t go bad quickly. But today’s the day. It’s a little chilly (despite that fact that it will be in the 80s over the weekend) and just feels like a soup day. I’m making bread to go with it. The Ass is even coming home in time for dinner with the fam. Yay for family dinners!
I’m feeling like today will be a productive day, what with the ten hours of sleep I got last night. I was so exhausted that I begged my husband to stay up and pick Jake up at school when he got back from his one day DC trip, and I went to bed at 9:30, right after Fiona.
Today, aside from the soup making, I’ll be editing the fabulous video I got yesterday of Hugh Jackman talking to a small room of bloggers and press about his new movie, Real Steel, as well as parenting and other fun topics. I cannot stress to you just how relaxed and charming he was. He even gave Jake a little personal message on video along with a Real Steel toy. When I showed both to Jake this morning he was over the moon!
So, this will be exactly the kind of day that I love: lots of cooking and baking and couch-based work. :-)
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: baking, cooking, Hugh Jackman
Today’s Agenda: bloody pillow edition
Oct 5, 2011 Today's Agenda
So this morning Jake came into my room to say hello and ask me where his pants were (in the washing machine, natch). He got about three words out and then got a look of horror on his face and asked me if I was OK. Turns out there was blood all over my pillow and my face!
After washing all of the blood off of I finally found the source: my lip had been bleeding. A lot. A tiny tiny boo boo somehow managed to bleed all over my pillow. Ewww.
That may be the theme for today, because I’m also getting the first period I’ve had since starting Seasonique three months ago. I guess logically I should be grateful for skipping two, but instead I’m simply going to be three times as much of a baby about it as usual. Should be a fun day.
I have some interesting stuff coming up today though. A little later I’ll be writing about a website I think a lot of moms could use right now: it posts legitimate, non-spammy non-scammy work-at-home opportunities.
I’m also going to be making this squash soup recipe (it’s the fourth one down), sent to me by my friend Julia Beck of Forty Weeks, and testing out something really goofy I bought at the As Seen On TV store in the process. I’ll let you know how both turn out.
And last, I’ll be trying to get Jake (and myself) to bed early, since he has to be at school tomorrow morning at the insane time of 5:30 for a one day trip to Washington, DC. Yes, they are crazy. But the fifth graders are really looking forward to it. They’ll be visiting a bunch of landmarks and tourist attractions, as well as two colleges: Howard and Georgetown Universities.
I really admire the school for planting the college seed in these kids early. For a lot of them, going to college is not a foregone conclusion, and their teachers and guidance counselors want to change that. Hell, I’m not even sure Jake knows that I didn’t graduate from college, and I’m not going to point it out to him either. I want him to assume that it’s the key to success. After he’s grown I’ll clue him in that the key to my success was most definitely not chasing a BFA in musical theater.
Enjoy your Wednesday!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: birth control, college, cooking, Kids
How to peel an avocado
Sep 16, 2011 Food
So who else knew that today was National Guacamole Day? I didn’t! Avocados from Mexico sent me some avocados as part of their avocados for breakfast campaign, so I was poking around a bit online and discovered that today is, indeed, set aside for lovers of guacamole.
I’ve been a huge fan of avocados every since I first tried guacamole. I didn’t try it, though, until I was 25! Think of all the years of guacamole I missed out on, just because I thought it looked gross. I’m having the same problem with Jake.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to try to coax him into trying a little before Tae Kwon Do. I do not expect to be successful. But I’ll keep trying. In the meantime, Fiona has promised to eat some guacamole with me.
So, in honor of making guacamole, here’s the method I use to peel avocados.
Oh, and yes, that is my cat meowing and sneezing in the background. Worse than a kid, I tell you.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Toss and Chop review: chopped salads at home
Aug 29, 2011 Product Review
Last month I went out for lunch with my fellow Blogging Angels and got a delicious salad. It was one of those great places where you can add whatever you want and then they toss it in a big bowl with dressing and charge you an insane amount of money. But I don’t care, those salads are always so much better than the ones I make at home (and I make awesome salads).
But this time, they asked me if I wanted it chopped, and of course I said yes, because chopped salads taste even better than regular salads. You get every single flavor in your salad in each bite. I watched in amazement as they fed my salad into a big machine that spit it out chopped!
Since that lunch I’ve been obsessed with making chopped salads at home. I researched all the different gadgets you can get for chopping salad and decided to try the Silvermark Toss and Chop. It’s like two pairs of scissors glued together with a little scoop on the bottom. It also has a little clip that holds everything closed for storage – very good design. The blades are very sharp and you wouldn’t want to come across them while rummaging through a drawer.
I gathered my ingredients. I tore the lettuce leaves, used a peeler to slice the carrots, cut the onion into big chunks, and left the grape tomatoes and chick peas whole.
I set a timer for two minutes and got to work. This instructions said to hold the Toss and Chop in one hand and steady the bowl in with the other, scooping up salad and then moving on to another area, so that’s what I did. After two minutes, my arm was killing me and the salad looked like this:
I had chopped a lot of it, but not very small, and not uniformly – there were plenty of pieces still almost untouched.
I went to work again, but this time I held the Toss and Chop perpendicular to the bottom of the bowl, and squeezed with both hands. I was able to get a lot more control this way, work faster, and not tire my arms out so quickly. I stopped every 30 seconds or so to toss the salad around and see which parts still needed work. After about two minutes more I had a very nicely chopped salad! There were a few pieces of onion that were bigger than the rest, and a couple of chickpeas had remained whole, but that was it. Everything else was done beautifully. The blades were even sharp enough to actually cut the tomatoes instead of smooshing them.
I tossed it with some croutons and dressing and was done. But – and trust me on this part – before I sat down to eat my salad I rinsed the Toss and Chop off and left it on a towel to dry. If you leave it until later, even a little later, you’ll be digging bits of lettuce out of the grooves with a toothpick. But rinse it off right away and it takes about ten seconds to get completely clean.
My salad was absolutely delicious. I’m not sure I’d make the effort every time I make a salad to chop it, but it’s nice to know that doing so only adds a few minutes to the prep. Now I just have to invite Rebecca over for salad – not sure that’s enough to get her to Brooklyn though.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
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Tags: cooking, Food, kitchen gadgets, Shopping
Bobby Flay’s egg salad, AKA The Best Egg Salad EVER!
Aug 28, 2011 Cooking & Baking
I like to think my normal egg salad recipe is really good. Mayonnaise, onion, dill, mustard, salt, and pepper are all mixed with hard boiled egg for creamy eggy goodness. And it is. But Bobby Flay’s egg salad recipe is another thing altogether: spicy and tangy with some crunch, it’s a hearty, tasty egg salad that will make you the hero of any bake sale or brunch.
My favorite thing about this egg salad? Bobby Flay made it for me personally. I was at an event last year for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise that was presented to me as a lunch event. So, I didn’t eat lunch before I went. I was hungry when I got there, and by the time the cooking demonstration started I was downright starving.
Bobby Flay (assisted by Lori Laughlin – that’s right, Uncle Jesse’s girl) started by saying he was going to make us three different dishes. The first one, a chicken gyro, looked fantastic, but had meat in it. I salivated a little as it was offered to me, but I had to turn it down because I’m a vegetarian. The second dish – a mini-taco – had some kind of fish in it, and my stomach was starting to hurt.
When he announced the third dish, egg salad, I got excited. I LOVE egg salad! Finally, I’d get a little bit to eat.
I watched in horror as he crumbled turkey bacon into the bowl.
This was too much. Honestly, I was a little pissed (probably hunger-induced – I wasn’t quite thinking clearly). It’s not like I wandered into this event off the street. I was invited. My about page states clearly that I’m a vegetarian. I don’t usually check to see what’s being served at these events because there’s always something without meat in it.
So, I raised my hand, and in front of a whole bunch of bloggers I know, I confessed that I hadn’t been able to eat any of the three yummy-looking dishes he’d made, and could I please have something, anything? I honestly wasn’t asking him to make me anything special. I just thought that since my stomach was audibly growling at this point and I was feeling light-headed, he could toss me an English muffin or a slice of cheese.
There was still one hard-boiled egg sitting there, so Bobby and Lori (yeah, I’m first-naming them – they cooked for me!) whipped up some bacon-less egg salad, just for me! And Bobby himself served it to me. And I’m pretty sure I turned a shade of red I’d never turned before. But it was worth it: it was delicious. I’ve made it about a dozen times since.
I’ve made a few small changes to the recipe. For one thing, I use Morningstar Farms Breakfast Strips instead of turkey bacon. I only have green onions if I’m planning on making this egg salad ahead of time, so I often use regular white onion (but it’s better with green). And I don’t tend to like cheese with my egg salad, so I make this on a variety of breads, usually with lettuce and tomato. But trust me, this is a killer egg salad recipe, no matter how you serve it. You can find Bobby Flay’s Egg Salad recipe here.
Why am I just getting around to posting this now? Because I made it today, and wanted to share.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Bobby Flay, cooking
Zucchini pancakes: quick & easy heaven on a plate
Aug 25, 2011 Food
I’m a huge fan of vegetables, but often lazy about making them. Vegetable preparation can be tedious and sometimes I’ll bypass perfectly good fresh vegetables in favor of some frozen ones, just to be lazy. So I’m always on the lookout for vegetable recipes that don’t involve a lot of chopping and care.
This recipe is great because the proportions don’t have to be exact and nothing has to look good. Plus, since you’re peeling the zucchini, it’s a great way to use up zucchini that’s a little past its prime. I quickly hand grate the zucchini, onion and cheese, but if you have a food processor that shreds this will be even quicker for you.
I developed this zucchini pancake recipe after trying about half a dozen online recipes, and taking what I wanted from each one. I was looking for something with the consistency of a regular pancake, that didn’t involve much oil and didn’t taste at all greasy. And if you use these awesome pans from GreenPan you can even skip the oil altogether.
As a bonus, I can keep the batter in the fridge for about a day and dip into it whenever I feel like a snack. Or, sometimes I cook the whole batch up at once and microwave the leftovers.
I happen to like my food oniony and cheesy. You can always lower the onion and Parmesan content if you like – just not if you’re making them for me. :-)
Zucchini Pancakes
Ingredients
2 c. peeled and grated zucchini (about 2 large)
1 c. Bisquick or Jiffy mix
2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg substitute
1/4 c. grated onion
1/4 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat griddle or pan to 350 degrees (med-hi heat). Carefully spread just enough oil to keep pancakes from sticking.
Mix all ingredients well. Batter should be on the thin side.
Spoon onto griddle and spread out to make very thin pancakes.
Cook on both sides until medium brown.
Keep warm on plate in 200 degree oven.
Serve with applesauce, sour cream, or tzatziki sauce.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: cooking
